Chuck Jones and Bill Peet aren’t necessarily common household names, but their work begs to differ. Jones was the animator of Looney Tunes and Peet was an artist for many an early Disney project.
To “geeks” like Brett Nance, those guys are more than household names. They’re legends.
Nance grew up drawing, and by the time he was in middle school, he dreamed of having an artistic career.
“Pretty much anything that I tend to do on my own somehow revolves around being a geek,” Nance told the Sun about his artwork.
His drawings will be on full display at the Santa Maria Comic Con and Card Show on May 2 and 3, an event that outgrew its old location and moved to the Fairpark this year. Besides the RocketTown Comic Con in Lompoc there wasn’t much action in North County.
“This area I kind of feel had previously been starved for that type of thing,” Nance said.
The illustrator first discovered the world of comic cons after college. At a 2006 convention in San Diego, Nance brought his self-published comic, S.P.a.Z.—The Legend of the Super Dorks, about a group of kids who believe they’re superheroes but have no actual powers.
No shortage of sketches
See more of Brett Nance’s work at panblancoart.com or on Instagram @panblancoart. Buy tickets for Santa Maria Comic Con by visiting santamariafairpark.com/events.
Rapper Chuck D sat at a nearby booth. He’d made a comic book called Public Enemy, also the name of his hip-hop group with Flavor Flav.
“Throughout the day, he was right behind me, and everybody’s lining up to take pictures with him,” Nance said. “I joked with him that my butt’s in every picture, so that was cool. That was kind of one of my first celebrity type things. And Stan Lee walked right past with his whole entourage.”
Nance even met Craig McCracken, creator of Powerpuff Girls, and gave him a copy of S.P.a.Z.
“That type of stuff sticks with me because it was my first exposure to that,” the cartoonist said.
Aside from getting to meet famous people in the comic world, artists go to conventions to try to sell their work. Nance will bring his wallet-sized sketch cards and his fan art prints to the Santa Maria Comic Con. He expects his prints of Freddie Mercury to sell out, like they almost always do.
Though Nance sold his last copy of S.P.a.Z. a few years ago, he’ll bring other books he’s illustrated, like Miserable Mom: The Dos and Don’ts of Sending Your Kid to College and The Adventures of Captain Candy.
There are plenty of young fans who attend comic cons, too. Nance likes to offer complimentary swag and always does free sketches for kids. He’ll draw their favorite character in his signature style.
At the end of the day, participating in comic cons is all about building community. It can be a “beast” of a weekend, he said, with lots of preparations before hundreds of visitors flow through the vendor booths. For Nance, it’s worth the effort to connect with others who appreciate the same things.
Communities of fans are called fandoms, which show up in swaths at conventions and represent different types of nerds, Nance explained. Sports, pop culture, science fiction, fantasy.
For instance, some people dive into the world building of a series, and others fixate on characters, dressing up like them in “costume play,” aka cosplay.
“Outside of doing the art itself, I actually really enjoy tabling, talking to people about the art that I do, or even just geeking out with them,” Nance said.
He likes to nerd out on Star Wars, Doctor Who, the Muppets, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, to name a few.
When it’s not comic con season, the artist takes illustration and design gigs. As a stay-at-home dad, Nance prefers smaller contracts that work with his family’s schedule.
One of the last big projects he worked on was for Awakening Giantz, a Santa Maria organization that supports adults impacted by the foster care system. He and a handful of other local artists helped bring their stories to life.
“We treated it as a way to empower them to own their story,” Nance said. “We were telling some tough stories but in a lighter, more readable way with comics.”
Nance’s own introduction to drawing was a result of childhood trauma. At 7 years old he was hospitalized for six weeks, bedridden for most of that time. He got his hands on some art supplies and has been drawing ever since.
The Orcutt native studied animation at Allan Hancock College and then went to the Art Institute of California in LA. Nance describes his illustration style as “cartoony but with elements of semi-realism.” He likes to build worlds based on real settings and create characters with a goofy edge.
“I always thought it was cool, whether people thought it was or not.”
Reach Staff Writer Madison White at mwhite@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in April 2 – April 9, 2026.