INDIA INK: I usually get asked to draw The Thing, but someone commissioned me to draw a small self-portrait sans reference at Baltimore Comicon 2019. Sketching at shows is not my favorite way to draw, but this one turned out kinda funny and I might have to commission Whitney Matheson to write me a country song to compliment my smokey eyes.

When I got up on stage at the Ringo's to present four awards with Webtoons comrade, Arely 'Arechan' Mancini, I declared Baltimore Comicon the "Thanksgiving of Comics." Something I strongly alluded to in my keynote speech a few years ago, BCC has become a family reunion where I get to mix it up with the likes of Ron Wilson, Jim Steranko, Howard Chaykin, Walter Simonson, John Workman, Marv Wolfman, Brian K. Vaughan, Garth Ennis, Brian Azzarello, Lee Weeks, Mark Waid, Tom King, Mitch Gerads, Vito Delsante, Christy Blanch, Mike Cavallaro, Laura Lee Gulledge, Shawn Martinbrough, Cully Hamner, Bob Wiacek, Heidi MacDonald, and John K. Snyder III, among many others. BIG UPS to show organizers Marc & Shelly Nathan, Brad Tree, Randy Tischler and the BCC staff for always making me and my posse feel at home.

DIGITAL INK: When I was signing WAR CRY (The Red Hook vol.2) at the Image Comics booth during New York Comicon 2019, journalist Jenna Gyimesi interviewed me for The Brooklyn Ink. Here's an excerpt: 

The Red Hook resulted from Haspiel “anthropomorphizing my problem,” he said.  “Do you not care about your artists. Do you just want to be a bunch of CVS’s and banks? Just rich people buying up lots, and apartments and never using them? Who’s supposed to live here?” he asked.

WHEN TV SHOWS GET MOVIE LEGS: I recently watched El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie, and Deadwood: The Movie. Both great reminders how paramount and game-changing those TV shows were. The attention to details. The plausibility. The emotional gravitas. Where characters were encouraged to challenge what you believed in and what we thought we knew about the human condition. Makes me yearn for Jonathan Ames and HBO to get off their butts and produce a Bored To Death movie. Revisit those three, lovable misfits.

--Dino

Listen to SCENE BY SCENE WITH JOSH & DEAN, the podcast that breaks down American Splendor the movie, Josh Neufeld & Dean Haspiel's relationship with the late/great Harvey Pekar, and growing up in NYC learning to make comix.

Read THE RED HOOK saga for free at Webtoon:
Season 1:  THE RED HOOK
Season 2:  WAR CRY
Season 3: STARCROSS

THE RED HOOK vol.1 New Brooklyn is also available at ComiXology
THE RED HOOK series published by Image Comics

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