Crush County

San Diego Comic-Con is upon us again, and this year I’ll have a new print available. I’m taking a break from the TMNT stuff to do something a bit different, but which is (almost) equally as near and dear to my childhood heart… The Legend Of Zelda. These prints (and the original, if you’re interested) will be available at BOOTH 1802 from Preview Night through closing on Saturday (I won’t be there on Sunday this year, because I’m a daddy now and I’ll be missing my new daughter like crazy by then). This is an edition of 75 prints, signed and numbered, and any remainders will be available on my site after Comic-Con. If you’re attending the show, swing by 1802 and say hey.

Update: Back from Comic-Con. Prints and the original artwork are both now available in the County Store.

“Ahoy hoy.”  Those were the first words on my blog, Stay Tooned, on October 3, 2005.  Back then, I wondered why I’d ever need a blog when I already had a portfolio website. And the thought of having more than one website to promote my work seemed crazy to me. A simple greeting for a simple time, eh?

Well, six years, several sites, and literally hundreds (okay, dozens) of blog posts later, I’ve decided to close up shop on Stay Tooned, and bring my bloggings here, to what my brother and I have always considered our main site, crushcounty.com.

I’ve debated this switch many times over the years. Part of me always resisted – heavily – giving up my own name-branded domain space. The other part of me has long wanted to have everything under one address, and would have done it sooner, if I knew how. And then, Twitter happened, and I forgot all about it for a while. Serendipidously enough, it was Twitter that led me to one Tommy Day, a fellow child of the 80′s and web designer extraordinaire, who offered to help me make Crush County the hub I’ve long wanted it to be. One URL to rule them all.

So here we are.

I spent some time this past week reading through every post, and every comment, on my old blog. Six years of my life have been chronicled in those pages. There are kind words from friends, strangers, and pros who have inspired me for years (some of which, sadly, I only read for the first time this week).  During the run of Stay Tooned, I created and published my first comic book work, was asked to autograph that comic book work for Matt Groening (one of my most surreal moments ever), and made the transition from studio PA to studio artist. In those pages, my girlfriend became my fiancée, my fiancée became my wife, and – just two months ago – my wife became the mother of my beautiful baby girl.

I considered importing all those posts into this blog, but I’m opting to start fresh. There’s a lot of history for me on Stay Tooned, however, so it will live on as an archive, at alexdeligiannis.blogspot.com (and alexdeligiannis.com will redirect here).

So ahoy hoy, and welcome to the new blog.