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! 

Son of the Raiders of the Lost Con

So I did Jay and Eddie's Comic Show again and had similar results to last time, but a bit worse. Small crowd again. Having talked with other comic creators there, it seemed like we all had a bad day sales-wise and in the amount of people we saw come by our tables. 

Kev Lyerly and Rodney Traynham

I sold nothing. No hard feelings or regrets. I came in with no expectations, didn't pay a lot for the table and was simply too tired to care. I haven't had a lot of sleep...for a very long time, but the last week has been especially bad with no time to recoup. So I was just kind of content to sit there trading quips with my neighboring artist and getting the pencils done on page two of issue five (which I hadn't worked on since my last con!). We had music from a live DJ and overall, it was an enjoyable way to spend five hours (should have been six, but everyone packed up an hour early).

Not sure why the crowd was so low. It was ungodly hot today, and even indoors it got warm at times. Come for the comics, stay for the humidity! There was a big anime con elsewhere in the state happening at the same time, so I'm not sure if that drew off some of the crowd.

My comic creator neighbors on my right were writer Rodney Traynham and artist Kev Lyerly who do a slice of life drama/comedy comic called The Adventures of Teague, Retail Specialist.  Kev is also head of the Scatter Pencil Society and does the  Behind the Pencils Podcast.

Nathan Long and  Robert Guetrin

On my other side once again was artist Nathan Long and his co-writer Robert Guetrin of Salem Rock Comics who do the horror/suspense anthology Terrable Tales (don't let the name fool you, the tales are actually pretty good). Along with their comic and prints, they had some old comics and figures and they were selling, so I decided to buy a Gamera figure and give him a loving home (you can never have too many figures of a giant, flame-breathing turtle.) 

Bringing old stuff you want to get rid of seemed to get a few sales for my neighbors, so I may be trying that at a future con. 

After the con I had dinner with several Scattered Society members at Golden Corral, where they discussed the con and various ideas on things for the group to do.

Next up is Winston-Salem Comic Con on Sept 5. I'll probably post about why my comic production has been on hold before then and (hopefully) be posting some actual freaking progress on issue five too. But right now it's pouring rain and I'm very tired, so I'm going to try and get some sleep. 

Aww, Psychoboy has a pet!

Jay and Eddies Comic Show THIS Saturday and other con announcements!

First off, I'll be set up at Jay and Eddie's Comic Book Show on  Saturday, July 18th, from 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. at the Winston-Salem Hotel and Spa, 3050 University Parkway! Come see me and get print copies of the first four issues of College Follies! Admission is $3 and kids 10 and under get in free.

I'll also be at Winston-Salem Comic-Con on September 5th, at the Winston-Salem Fairgrounds Annex, 421 W. 27th Street, Gate 9 from 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Admission is $2.

Issue five is still super delayed. I'll probably post about that soon, but it's definitely be seeing it before 2016 but I do plan on finishing it. 

Winston-Salem Comicon Strikes Again

So I had my booth at Winston-Salem Comicon again. Definitely a bigger crowd with more new faces than the con from a month ago. It was pretty decent.

Lots of great talent there. I was beside several artists sharing a table. One was wOlly (William Wacllace), a talented artist from Charlotte who does a comic called Legend of the Black Pandas and does a lot of freelance work. The other was artist Nathan Long and his co-writer Robert Guetrin of Salem Rock Comics who have their owm comic horror/suspense Terrable Tales. Though only in high school, Nathan  already has a published comic, inks like a pro (by hand with a brush while at a convention!) and will be appearing at Burke Street Comics for Free Comic Book Day next Saturday!

I forgot to take pictures of everyone, but Nathan is a big College Follies fan  and sent me this amazing piece of fan art on Facebook recently with his character meeting Psychoboy, so here you go...

That's totally going in the letter column for issue five (which will be coming out at some point before you die). I don't have a next con planned yet. There should be a Winston-Salem Comic Con in the Fall, but I'll post about that when it gets closer to the time. 

Raiders of the Lost Con

With that title, I really wish I'd gotten a shot of the guy dressed as Indiana Jones. Anyway. so I did Jay and Eddie's Comicshow again. A well put together show like usual.  We actually had a bigger space this time at a new location. There was great mix of local talent with many comic and collectible vendors. Heck, we even had Ecto 1 parked outside from the Carolina Ghostbusters and an actress from this season of Walking Dead who had a table.

All we seemed to be lacking were attendees. I was working on a page (while struggling to stay awake, I was pretty beat), but almost every attendee I saw I'd seen at numerous conventions before. A wider audience with new faces just didn't seem to pop up and regulars didn't seem to appear in numbers as large as I expected. The creators I talked to seemed to have a slow day. Vendors probably had a better time of it, since attendees tended to head towards them.

I had a banner across the front of my table and my tall banner to the ceiling and I still felt invisible. I'm not why more people didn't come out. It did suddenly turn bitter cold again, so maybe the weather deterred people, and...I don't know maybe people have something against going to conventions in March. Maybe they're giving up pop culture for Lent or something, I don't know.

Anyway, hope they get a bigger response next time because it certainly deserves it. I'm thankful for the few interactions I had (I had some fun showing my Power Ranger parody issue to some kids) and sales I got. And I did get pencils done on the first page of issue five. I'll try to ink it today. I hope I'm feeling a bit more chipper at the next convention, which is only a month away!

How Not to Greet a President! Issue Five's Cover is Done!

The regular cover for issue five is done! I actually started the House of Cards parody variant cover back in November at NC Comicon and finished it in January after taking a holiday break. Unfortunately, my day job has been so bad since then, it's kept me from working on the comic, so this is the first thing I've created in months. The long hiatus didn't make it any easier, but the results are still solid.

No story where Psychoboy becomes a congressman would be complete without him meeting Obama. So obviously that had to be on the cover, joining the long line of Obama covers in comics. I created the whole cover in one weekend.

I went around and around on how to make Obama look right in the art style of the series and eventually landed on a version that influenced by how artists at Archie drew him in several issues of their comics. Actually their style fits College Follies pretty well (Hm, Jughead meets Psychoboy would be epic!). 

I wanted this to be a throwback cover to old 60s comics with tons of narration on the cover, back when Stan Lee would have entire sales pitches on the cover begging you to buy the damn thing. I decided to go with a patriotic theme behind the narration, similar to Psychoboy's campaign materials on electpsychoboy.com and on social media. 

Oh, and by the way, the cover is actually really tame compared to the "Psycho meets Obama" gag in the story. 

Anyway, next weekend I'll be penciling the first page while I'm at Jay and Eddies Comic Convention! 

Issue Five Cover Inked...Epic Fist Bump Attempt!

Did pencils and inks for the regular cover on College Follies #5 ,which has Psychoboy meeting President Obama. I'm going to wrap it up today, so I'll have it done for the convention next week. 

Issue Five Script is Done!

So the script for issue five is done. It was a lot of fun to finally type up the conclusion of Psychoboy's congressional odyssey. I've had the story in my head since I did issue four last year. It feels good to finally have all that dialog on paper. 

One thing I can never judge until I write is how long the story is. This one ended up being 16 pages. The good news is it keeps printing costs in the range where I can still charge $3 for the print edition, The bad news is a story of this length works against me getting it out this year. It'll be pretty tight but we'll see how long it takes, even with work eating up most of my time and energy. 

I'll be easing back into, figuring out how to get back into it and work comic production into my life now. So be patient and I'll keep you posted on how things go.  I'll probably try to get the cover and inside cover done in the next week or so before Jay and Eddie's Comic Convention on March 28.

Working on the script for Issue Five

Currently working on the script to issue five. It's going slowly, a few pages at a time. 

I planned to start back on the comic in January after a holiday break, but things have gotten crazy at my day job in ways I never thought possible. I simply haven't had the time to work on it during the weekdays, and I just haven't had much left in me to give on the weekends. I really wanted several evenings a week to work on it, but that's not happening anymore. I'm just going to have to adjust, and start working on it slowly, painfully, a little at a time in those few stolen hours I get. 

It's going to take awhile, but it's going to get done at some point in the year. Writing the first six pages of the script was the first time I've truly smiled this year.  

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.