Mick Gray is a longtime inker for DC Comics. He's a Bay Area resident and I've seen him often since a signing at
Treasure Island Comics in my hometown Fremont, CA in 2003. I bought a Batman drawing from Mick in San Diego one year. Since learning we are both fans, I've had Mick do some Hayao Miyazaki tributes for me. Lately, I've asked Mick for some inking commissions. With Steve Wyatt's
South City Comic Con coming up, I asked him to create a scene from a scan of an animation drawing showing Andrea Beaumont and Bruce Wayne. He's proposing to her, but the drawing only shows the characters and looks bare. I thought he might add chairs and a background, but I was pleasantly surprised to see he created an image of the Phantasm behind them.
Steve Wyatt moderated an inking panel with Danny Bulanadi, Steve Leialoha, Mick Gray, and Walden Wong. All these artists are Bay Area residents and they told great stories. Steve Leialoha spoke of joining some friends who were working at Neal Adam's Continuity Studio in New York City. Walden spoke of being young and shopping at Arthur Adam's comic shop in San Francisco. He saw Arthur draw a Wolverine on a FedEx box and hand it off to the driver. Arthur told Walden he was sending his pages to the company and it was a revelation to the youngster. Arthur provided copies of his pencils for Walden to ink and learn.
