Summer Projects Update

Wow!  90 degrees out and I’m sweating but good.  Now’s as good a time as any to get you all caught up with the status of my many projects!

Convention Season In Full Swing

• 2010 has already been my most successful convention season to date.  With big days at the Boston Comic Con, ComiCONN and a Free Comic Book Day event at Larry’s Wonderful World of Comics, along with a few other smaller shows, I’m really pleased with how this year is shaping up con wise.
• That said, this month I’ve had a number of minor set-backs.  Unfortunately, I did not get artist alley table space at this year’s New York Comic Con, so it looks like I’ll be skipping that show.  And I just found out that the organizer of July’s New England Small Press Assembly is canceling the show due to personal reasons.  Major bummer, as I was really looking forward to doing a small-press centered show.
• Despite those setbacks, I’m focused on making this year’s Baltimore Comic Con my biggest and best show ever!  Once again, I’m doing FREE Sketches for attendees who contact me ahead of time.  (Click to get on my list.)  This year, I’ll be moving out of artist’s alley and into a booth on the main floor, tabling with Matt Zolman and Ty Tyner, aka the EPIC creative team.  We’ve got some killer product we’ll be selling at the booth, including the debut of EPIC.  More on what I have in store for B’more in a later post.
• I’m looking at adding a few more cons to my 2010 schedule, and will hopefully have news to that effect soon.  I’m really hoping to get an invite to Meredith Gran’s New England Webcomics Weekend.  I’m also considering the Wizard World New England Comic Con as a replacement show for NYCC, and even inquiring about doing a show in my home town of Albany, NY later this year.  So stay tuned for that!

OVER

• Hard to believe, but it’s been more than a year and a half that I’ve been working on OVER.  It’s been quite the process, and I’m planning on doing a thorough post-mortem analysis on lessons learned, successes, failures and challenges with putting out my first online graphic novel.
• In the meantime though, my head is down as I plow through to the finish line.  The fifth and final chapter begins next week, and three times a week updates continue there on out.
• As announced yesterday, PRE-ORDER has now opened for the OVER graphic novel.   $20 will get you the GN before anyone else, and that includes shipping and an Artist’s Edition upgrade to boot!

EPIC

• Three versions of EPIC #0 are currently at the printers, with an early August delivery date.  These books will be making their debut at the Baltimore Comic Con, and given the strong reaction to the digital ashcan, we’re very optimistic it will be one of the “hit” books at the show.
• Matt Zolman contributed an EPIC pin-up to the Master Digital Color/ Hi-Fi Color Annual contest hosted at the HueDoo forums.  (One of the better entries posted so far is shared here.)  To see all the entries, head on over to HueDoo.com.
• Eric White, HueDoo moderator and contributor to the Master Digital Color site did a comprehensive interview with the entire EPIC creative team.  If you didn’t get a chance to read it, definitely check it out.
• More EPIC action is being worked on as we speak.  Before we launch into the EPIC ongoing saga, we’re first doing a short 8 page EPIC crossover with the flagship character of another indy creator.  Announcement coming soon, but it’s going to be more fun than a comic book has any right to be.  Stay tuned for that!
• The EPIC Facebook page is the best place to keep tabs on the latest with our book.  If you haven’t gone over there and given us a “LIKE” yet, please do!  You won’t regret it!

Tears of the Dragon

• The TOTD Webcomic is currently a little more than halfway through Chapter 2.  Right now, we’re on a bit of a hiatus, as artist Koko Amboro gets caught on pages.
• I’m pleased to report, TOTD has been quite the hit at conventions so far.  I’ve been busy cranking out a ton of Artist’s Edition dragon sketch covers. There are plenty still available, so snag ‘em up before they’re gone.

Podcasts

I’ve had a number of performances on some great podcasts over the past couple months.  Give them a listen and let me know what you think.  My three most recent include:

• Zone 4 with Brant Fowler.  This is one of the more interesting discussions I’ve been a part of.  In this special Zone 4, I joined Victor Dandridge, Mason Easley and Chad Strohl in a discussion about paying creators, conventions, webcomics, indies and mainstream, and much more!
• Why I Love Comics Podcast with Eric Ratcliffe.  Eric relaunched his popular podcast with a new creator-interview focused format, and I was his first guest.  (Considering his more recent guests include Mike Carey, Joe Eisma, and Christos Gage, it’s definitely an honor to be included in that company.)  In this interview, we chatted about my work, and also covered my reaction to the news of changes at Zuda.
• The Lightbox Podcast with Matt Stout and Chris Flick.  This episode has received a lot of praise from creators, as we get into a discussion about “the dip” creators go through, and ways to get through the tough part of creating to eventually get to the rewards.

Columns

I’ve continued to pluck away with columns over at Comic Related. If you haven’t been keeping up, here are the latest:

32: Going All In
33: The Dip and Being the Best in the World
34: Patience Pep Talk
35: Tools You Should Be Using: Viddler
36: Zuda Says No More Competitions
37: Business Mailbag
38: 30 Characters Challenge Post-Script

Zombie Bomb

• I’m working on a short ~6 page story for the Zombie Bomb! comic anthology project. I’ve run into Zombie Bomber Adam Miller a number of times over the past several months, and have been extremely impressed with the book he’s editing.  So I figured what the hell, I’ll submit something.  For this, I’m teaming up with illustrator Greg Marathas, a guy I’ve met a few times at Boston conventions.  Greg’s got some chops and is looking to break into the industry.  I saw this as a good opportunity to work together on a small projects that could be a lot of fun.
• The story I’m working on is called Side Splitters. Check out some of Greg’s concept art for it here!

Other Stuff

• I have some commissions in the queue that I’m excited to get started working on.  I need to keep the pedal to the metal to get OVER complete on time, but will be working on some cool original art pieces around the edges.
• I’m very close to inking a deal to get my comics on the iPhone (and eventually iPad) with at least one distributor.  I’m cautiously optimistic about the game changing power for mobile digital distribution.  I think the current “app culture” may greatly benefit creators who are smart about the technology.  And as a bonus, I promised myself I could purchase an iPhone only after I had comics being sold on one…so iPhone 4, I’m coming for you!

That’s about it for now!  You’re caught up, and so am I!

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