Emerald City Comic Con 2013

It's still a long way off (March 1-3, 2013 to be exact), but I'm really excited to say that we're confirmed to exhibit at Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle. For years I've only heard great things about this show and have tried hard to attend, even going so far as to apply for press passes twice before (my day job is in television). The timing of the show hasn't worked out for me in the past, but that's all going to change next year. We'll be set up in Artist Alley, mixed in with what is already looking to be a great line-up of creators. Hopefully we'll also be able to squeeze in some time to explore the city while we're there. We'll post more info as the show nears, but in the meantime we'll be busy making comics for our Emerald City debut!

Pluto Moon Base: Colored Pages

Things are moving along nicely with Pluto Moon Base, though there's still a lot to do before it's completed. Just thought I'd give a quick update with some freshly colored pages by the talented Michael Garland. If you haven't seen it yet, Michael's doing amazing work on the Jonathan Hickman written series "Secret," published by Image Comics. Do yourself a favor and check out that great series.

Next up for Pluto Moon Base, time to find a letterer.

Noir - That's What I'm Reading

I'm currently writing a gritty short comic using a lot of noir conventions and characteristics. I like noir movies (Maltese Falcon, Third Man, Seven, Brick...) but to write something original and modern with these certain details is a challenge for me. So I decided to draw inspiration from NOIR, A Collection of Short Crime Comics. 13 short stories from notables like Brubaker, Grist, & Lemire, just to name a few, all offered a different take on the genre. The stories that stood out for me are: Open the Goddamn Box, The Old Silo, The Albanian, Kane the Card Player and The New Me.

In each of these stories, the characters have a dark past (or future), almost contrary to their everyday facade. Although one of the key elements of noir crime stories is to solve a mystery, its also the introspection of the characters still reeling from their experience. 

Last night I finished another noir comic, Parker: The Hunter from Darwyn Cooke. It was an excellent read with very stylish art. Definitely recommend it.

And in case anyone's wondering, yes I have read Blacksad. And I absolutely loved it. Why? Cause it stays true to form but the only difference is that animals take the place of humans. One of my favorite stories was a political crime narrative, reminiscent of Animal Farm. Originally published in French, followed by Spanish, and lastly English, I'm really looking forward to the next Blacksad hardcover which should be coming out soon. 

Convention Schedule 2012 (Part 2)

The year is almost half over and while wedding planning took up much of our time over the past six months, we're now cranking along on new comics and prepping for the rest of the shows we've scheduled for 2012. We're trying our hardest to have new material (and some surprises!) ready for the upcoming shows so if you can make it out to any of these fun events, it'll definitely be worth the journey.

September 15-16, 2012

Stan Lee's Comikaze Expo

Los Angeles Convention Center

Downtown Los Angeles. CA

twitter: @StanLeeComikaze

October 13-14, 2012

A.P.E (Alternative Press Expo)

Concourse Exhibition Center

San Francisco, CA

twitter: @APExpo

November 3-4, 2012

Long Beach Comic Con

Long Beach Convention Center

Long Beach, CA

twitter: @LongBeach_CC

What I've Been Reading: Rob's List

Gonna try something a little different for this post, from time to time I want to start mentioning some of the great comics I've recently been reading. Not necessarily new, not necessarily collected editions, not necessarily for everyone, just comics I've found to be interesting, fresh, exciting, intense, dramatic, LOL, horrifying, life-altering, or just plain fun. So here we go:

Tiger Lawyer #1
The title of the comic alone captured my attention the first time I saw it. Where as my comic, Clown Fight, is about clowns fighting, Tiger Lawyer is about a tiger.... um, lawyer'ing. And don't even tell me that's not something you're at least slightly interested in checking out, because if you do, you're a filthy liar. You want to read this book, I know you do. This first issue contains two stories: a cartoon style court room comedy, and a grittier, noirish tale, that are both equally entertaining. The wonderful thing about the book is that the basic premise is so deceptively simple that the stories could very easily go in any direction using any genre. That makes me really excited to see what the series has in store. If you're interested (which again I know you are), head over to the Indiegogo campaign to grab the first couple issues.

Thought Bubble #1
A single issue anthology released in December 2011, celebrating the annual comics festival in Leeds, UK. The contributors include Andy Diggle, D’Israeli, Mike Carey, Duncan Fegredo, and Antony Johnston. First off, the issue is presented in a double-sized newsprint style similar to Wednesday Comics, so they had me right there. But it also contained some really nice short stories. With any anthology, the stories are usually hit or miss which can be equal parts frustrating as well as rewarding. You really just never know what you're going to get. In this anthology, I enjoyed pretty much all the stories and I think the large page format was a big part of that. I always get a kick out of shorts that have a well done (and complete) story and with the help of being oversized this issue had a couple stories that managed to do it in only 1 or 2 pages. Really cool. And to be honest, the fact that it's only 22 pages was a plus. It can be discouraging when you start reading an anthology and the first couple stories do nothing for you. Not here, good stories make this one a fun read.

Freedom No.1
The first chapter (of what will hopefully be a nice, long story) is about a young boy in 1779 who heads into a British controlled city of Boston seeking an apprenticeship and the older brother who accompanies him. The comic first caught my eye when I was flipping through the Previews catalogue. After finding and enjoying a preview PDF of the book online, it instantly became a must order for me. One of the my favorite things about the comic is the historical setting. I'm a little biased being a native New Englander, but even that aside, the story has a very authentic feel to it. I'm not the biggest history buff, I just don't have the capacity to retain any of that knowledge, but from reading this book you can easily tell that Seamus Heffernan (writer/artist) has a real love for this time period and sprinkles his knowledge throughout. Everything from the dialogue to the colonial style printing on the title page feels very much of that time. Add to that the wonderful art and an intriguing story it has me excited for future chapters. The book is $7, but with 64 story pages and an over-sized format it's absolutely worth it!

Old City Blues
Amazing art. That's what first attracted me to the book when I picked it up at this year's WonderCon. The story focuses on the police officers of a futuristic metropolis who work cases involving drug dealers, smugglers, political corruption and high tech criminals. The art style of writer/artist Giannis Milonogiannis seems to be influenced by the scifi manga/anime of the '80s, but with plenty of European flavor to make it uniquely his own. The style is very loose and it brings a lot of energy to all the action sequences. I can't really say I've read anything like it before, and that to me is a great thing. The story itself is very tightly paced; we get some nice scenes of character development but it never lingers too long. Just like with some of the other titles I mentioned, I'm excited to see what's in store for future volumes because if this one is any indictation, we're in for a great ride! Pick up the book and enjoy.

Our First Comic Book Signing - Wrap Up

Last Saturday we had our very first in-store signing at Collector's Paradise in Winnetka, CA. As part of the Free Comic Book May events, we represented the local Indie side. The store was pretty busy since they had a lot of great deals going on. We were setup in the middle of the store so it was easy for people to approach us. Some had questions on how we got started and wanted to know what cons we're hitting up next. We also talked about our up-coming projects which hopefully be done by the end of the year. People were genuinely interested in our stuff. And, our friends and family came out to support as well. It was a wicked awesome day!

Thanks to Ed and his fine staff at Collector's Paradise for the opportunity.

Jared, Giulie & Rob

Talking to fans.

Friends & family dropped by to support us.

Name Plate for Legitimacy

Jared signing a copy of Jingles are for Losers.

Long Beach Expo: 2012

Two Saturdays ago was the Long Beach Expo, a smaller, single day version of the Long Beach Comic Con. We missed checking out the show last year, when Giulie and I were busy scoping out wedding venues, but this time we were excited to make it our first post-wedding convention!

The expo was a lot of fun! This being our third time tabling at a show we've started to get the hang of it. We were able to easily set up and quickly pack at the end of the day. Everything went smoothly, making it by far our least taxing show. We didn't set the world on fire with sales, but Jared and Giulie were fortunate enough to be interviewed a couple times (one of which can be found: HERE) and I was able to talk to people from a couple of different comic stores who were interested in stocking Clown Fight (Metropolis Comics & Collector's Paradise). We've even gotten familiar with other creators during our last couple shows and it was great seeing a lot of them again. Some of the creators we talked to were:

Sheika Lugtu - OMGcow
Clint Wolf - Zombie Ranch
Kirk Kushin - Ozopolis
Gavin Andazola - The Stone Legacy
Chris Kawagiwa - The Sunless Circus

We had a blast and though it's not until November we're looking forward to the bigger, multi-day Long Beach Comic Con!

On our way to the show we saw spotted a DeLorean!

Long Beach Convention Center

A-Team van

Ninja Turtles van

Entering Artist Alley

Rob & Jared

Giulie & Rob

Clown Fight ready to fly out the door

Ultimate Spider-man cosplayer

Iron Man cosplayer

Jared looked surprised all day

The view from our table

Tables spilled outside of the main ballroom

One of a handful of modern comics dealers

Jared likes his Dustin Nguyen print

Post show dinner at Islands

May 19th, 2012: Collector's Paradise Signing

We're currently working on a Long Beach Expo wrap-up post, but something really cool also came about last weekend. After the show, we headed up to the Collector's Paradise in Winnetka, CA to join in the festivities at the Dames in the Atomic Age party. We were introduced to Ed, the owner of the store, and he offered us a table at their Indie Comics celebration the following weekend! So, priding ourselves on not being complete morons, we gratefully accepted. It'll be our first in-store signing and we couldn't be more excited! So stop on by and spend some time at a cool comic book store.

May 19th (Saturday), 12pm - 3pm

Collector's Paradise

7131 Winnetka Ave.

Winnetka, CA 91306

Check the flyer below for their upcoming events.