I'll be at Winston-Salem Comic Con Saturday!

On Saturday April 23, I'll be at the Winston-Salem Comic Con at the Winston-Salem Fairgrounds Annex, 421 W. 27th Street, Gate 9. It runs from 11 a.m.- 5 p.m. and admission is $2.  I haven't worked on the comic in awhile. I'll see if I can get a page (or two) going that I can work on at the con. Psychoboy sends his best!

Eye of the Tiger! Eye of the Tiger! Inking Issue Five, Page One!

Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen! I'm currently inking the elements for the first couple pages of issue five and it feels great! I've got most of the elements on page one done. Here's a look at those. It's for the opening jogging scene in the National Mall. I went through a lot of different music while inking before landing on a glorious two hour loop of Eye Of Tiger! The inspiring song was perfect. I can't help but laugh every time I hear it because it reminds me of  Apollo Creed chanting "Eye of the Tiger" to a battered Rocky in Rocky III, which is a bit of ongoing gag for me (I often repeat it when I'm in a difficult part of video game). 

I'm hoping to have the first two pages inked so I can color them at the Winston-Salem Comic-Con next Saturday since I'll have my set up with laptop there. Come see why won't you?

And remember children, when things get rough: Eye of the Tiger! Eye of the Tiger! 

2015 Convention Announcements!

Alright, so there's been a huge delay in production on issue five, due to complications in my personal life. I'll say more about that in my next post, but regardless of what I'm able to produce, I will definitely, 100% be attending two cons in the next two months. I'll be selling print copies of the regular and variant editions of the first four issues and some other goodies at both.

So first of all, I'll be at Jay and Eddie's Comic Show on Saturday, March 28 at the Winston-Salem Hotel and Spa (formally Ramada Inn North), 3050 University Parkway in Winston-Salem, NC. The show runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is $3. It's been a smaller show in the past, but a really good one with a lot of good comics, collectibles and creators there.

Then on Saturday April 25, I'll be at the Winston-Salem Comic Con at the Winston-Salem Fairgrounds Annex, 421 W. 27th Street, Gate 9 in Winston-Salem (duh!). It runs from 11 a.m.- 5 p.m. and admission is $2. This is a sizable one day con that keeps getting bigger. They'll be tons of creators and comics-- they even added panels last time!

Both are great cons, I hope to see you guys there! And I'm going to slowly get back into making issue five soon, Psychoboy's starting to feel neglected. More updates on that soon.

Return of the Con!

So Winston-Salem Comic-Con went a lot better this time time.

I sold a few more than I did at past cons and had several other attendees express sincere interest in getting at least one issue of the series. I had a lot of good conversations and even did a brief interview with a reporter so I may be getting some press for the series soon. Attendees picked up a fair amount of fliers for both the series and Psychoboy's campaign site, electpsychoboy.com. I had some campaign signs on my display for Psycho (they looked great on photo paper) and he'll be launching his campaign tomorrow. And I also got page six for issue four penciled.

Not sure what the difference was this time, It just seemed like a better crowd with good volume. I was facing away from the entrance, but at an end table on a row that was fairly close to the door, so that probably helped.

I had wonderfully talented neighbors who shared a table: talented artist Rodney Bennett, who is working on his own graphic novel  Legend of the Black Starr, and Dan Johnson who is one of the writers of Dennis the Menace and an assistant editor at Charlton Neo. It's amazing the guys you get to meet at cons.

Not sure if I learned anything particularly useful for creators this time. The city of Winston-Salem provides some hella hard seats at that venue, so if you plan to work and use them the whole time, you might want to bring a cushion.

I grabbed breakfast from McDonald's including coffee, which I never drink. I learned to ask for sugar instead of cream and that their coffee takes close to an hour before it'll stop scolding your insides when you drink it.

And when you're sticking stuff to your table cloth, do it around around the top with the table to push against when securing it. Just sticking stuff on the loose, hanging cloth didn't work. Some weird rule of physics applies there, I assume.

Anyway it was a good time, I'm tired as hell. Hopefully, I can still stay on schedule for issue four. Tomorrow I'll blog on Psycho's campaign site. Prepare yourself for the best candidate who never existed!

College Follies at Winston-Salem Comic Con and NC Comicon this fall!

So here's my next two conventions. Winston-Salem Comic Con is happening again on September 13 from 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Admission is $1.  It's once again at the Bolton Home and Garden Building, 421 West 27th Street, at Gate 9 of the Dixie Classic Fair Ground in Winston-Salem, NC. I'll have print copies of the variant and regular edition of the first two issues there along with prints...and the print copies of issue three, which will get it's digital release on Amusedom and DriveThruComics the first week of September! I'm hoping to have the variant cover for issue three done as well, but that's tentative at this point. I will definitely be working on issue four, so stop by Psychoboy's campaign headquarters and say "Hi!"

Then on November 15 and 16, I'll be at the NC Comicon at the Durham Convention Center, 301 West Morgan St. in downtown Durham. This is a massive convention with big name creators so admission is $35 for two days or $20 for one. The show goes from 10 a.m.-7 p.m. on Saturday the 15th and then from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. on Sunday the 16th. I'll have regular and variant editions of the first four issues of the series! It's my biggest con yet and I'll have a big set up to match. I'll have a screen set up so you can watch me color a page and I'll even be doing sketches that I'll ink and color on the computer. This is the big one, guys! 

Tales from the Con!

So just got back from Winston-Salem Comic-Con a couple hours ago. I sold a few copies, traded a couple copies with some of the other creators there and had a few people take my fliers. Chatted with a few folks. Everyone was very nice.

I got put on the very last row facing away from the entrance, with no other creators selling their comics near me, so I'm not how that effected my foot traffic. I did have fantastically talented artists on either side of me who were also pleasant folks.

And congrats to Juan Gray who won the rare original black and white version of College Follies #1!

Things I learned:

Be prepared to adapt your display. The table, provided by the venue, was much, much narrower than I thought it would be. I had every inch of it taken up by merchandise or signs. So I didn't have room to work on the cover for issue four, which was honestly a big disappointment to me.

Be prepared to cover your table. The tables where old wooden tables that had seen their better days to put it politely. I planned to use just a table skirt, but seeing how the tables looked, I had to literally run out and get a table cloth at Family Dollar to cover it up. I'll have time to order a real proper table cloth for next time, thankfully.

Allow a crazy amount of time to set up. I got there a little over an hour before they opened and thanks to my table covering emergency, it wasn't enough. It's better to get there uber early, just in case.

Don't count on anyone staying after close. I was hoping to do some networking, shopping and seeing if any vendors or creators might want to buy the comic. That didn't happen. I had a few minute window right at 5 I was able to talk to a few creators real quick (kinda the comic creator versions of speed dating) and do a couple trade, but that was it. Within half an hour, 95% of anyone who had a table was gone. So if you want to do something outside your booth, do it before the show, just in case everyone evacuates quickly.

I also had some sign and display malfunctions, which I'll be fining tuning for next time. And I got some experience talking to some folks.

So with experience under my belt, I'll be fine tuning things for a bigger, better, more stream lined College Follies experience at the next con.

College Follies Convention Booth Preview

Not much to say about this video, I just wanted to make sure it was on all my social media sites.

So I'm done with everything I have to make, print out or create for the convention. Just need to get money from the bank so I can make change, make some adjustments on my Square settings and...that's about it. Looking forward to finally going to this thing. See you tomorrow!

Super Rangers, Font Replacement Is Ours!

Since I now know Comixology will not except pages with comic sans as the font, I'm using a new font from here on out on new pages. 

But that also means redoing the ones I'd already finished on issue three. Being an action oriented Power Ranger parody, the dialog is more sparse so this was quick and merciful to do. It also gave me the chance to go back and correct something that was bothering me on the early pages. 

When I originally was trying to do the "show text" for the title and credits for the "episode" of Super Rangers in the issue, I couldn't find how to do drop shadows on the text. The outlines I used instead on the white text didn't look that great and were hard to read. So after some researched I discovered how to do drop shadows. Not only is the text more legible, but it's also a dead ringer for the text used on the show, which makes me all kinds of happy. 

For those who've been keeping track, I am supposed to be working on convention stuff for this Saturday and that's exactly what this is, since I plan to have the cover, title page and first three pages of issue three for people to browse through. 

And now...on to page three!

Still working on con stuff...

Still working on stuff for my booth at the Winston-Salem Comic Con on Saturday. It's a bit of a production. I literally ran our of printer ink and double sided tape last night. I still got a lot of work to do so this is going to take up most of the week.

  

Ideally I'd like to have all the pages I've done so far on issue three (the Power Ranger parody issue) including page three in my little art book on my  table. So I'm going to try to finish page three and quickly re-letter the existing pages of issue three. This shouldn't take long, but it's just hard to squeeze everything in. Hopefully I won't get slammed at work again and will have time to do all this.

Anyway here's some bits I've gotten done of my set up...

Getting ready for Winston-Salem Comic-Con!

So work on issue three is delayed a few days since I'm trying to get all my materials ready for my booth at the Winston-Salem Comic-Con next weekend. I'm making signs, a booklet of finished pages and hopefully a display of my covers and such. I'll make a video of my set up before the convention hopefully.

The con is April 26 from 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Admission is $1.  It's at the Bolton Home and Garden Building, 421 West 27th Street, at Gate 9 of the Dixie Classic Fair Ground in Winston-Salem, NC. I'll be selling print versions of issue one (both regular or variant covers) for $3 and prints will be $5.

One I thing I want to clarify on the giveaway for the original College Follies #1 from 2000, I'll be doing the drawing when the con finishes, but I'll be informing the winner via e-mail and then mailing out the prize. So you don't have to be at my booth right at 5 to get it, I'm pretty much counting on having to mail it to the winner anyway. Each item you buy gives you a chance to win! If you can't make this con, I'll be doing this at other conventions too.

My plan, since I'll be sans electricity and can't do anything on issue three, is to work on pencils for issue four, like the cover, variant cover, etc. So if you do get to go, you might get an advance glance at what I'll doing for issue four! Hope to see you there!

College Follies at Winston-Salem Comic-Con on April 26

You got to excuse the spartan back drop in the video. I woke up with some inexplicable upper back pain yesterday and wasn't up to setting up a shot so I just laid the camera down on my kitchen table and shot. I think someone was stabbing the heck out of a voo doo doll of me somewhere. The video is all me talking off the top of my head, but I eventually I get the job done.

So like the video says,  I'll be one of the creators at the Winston-Salem Comic-Con on April 26. It's at the Bolton Home and Garden Building, 421 West 27th Street, at Gate 9 of the Dixie Classic Fair Ground in Winston-Salem, NC. I'll be selling print copies of the first issue (and the variant edition) for $3, prints for $5.

Buy something and you'll be entered for a chance to win one of only 50 copies of the black and white first edition of College Follies #1, printed in  2000! Each purchase gets you one ticket in the drawing. The more you buy, the more chances you have to win. At the end of the convention I'll draw to see who wins. I'll  only be giving these out in special occasions, like this so it's a rare opportunity to get a little bit of history.

So come by, talk, buy and see what I'm working on. I look forward to meeting whoever can make it out there.