Staple - Independent Media Expo

Today was the annual Staple Expo. I decided to stop by for a few hours and was really impressed with the turn out. I even ran into a friend who had booth. Check out the logo they posted this year. (None of the artwork on today's post is mine)

Staple

http://www.staple-austin.org

 I was really impressed with the turnout. It seems to get better every year. What I like best is the variety you can find there. it's not just indie comics, but various shirts, buttons and prints too.

Here's a few things I picked up today. I didn't grab any typical comics. I decided to go a little alternative this year.

** It goes without saying that these images are owned by the artists. I'm just posting them here to show off their stuff **

Here are some amazing prints from Jessica Grundy. I usually mosey past the tables, but I stopped at hers and had to buy something. These have an Alice in Wonderland feel, so I grabbed them for Misty's office. Everything in there is Alice themed.

Jessica Grundy

solocosmo.blogspot.com

solocosmo.etsy.com 

Here's one from the wife of friend who had a booth. She does a lot of really neat intricate pencil work.

Kim Scoulios

theksgallery.com

And of course there's this guy. Not only does Kenon have really good illustrations, but who can pass up a shirt with Cthulu riding a bike?.....no one... NO ONE I TELL YOU!

Kennon James

http://kennonjames.com

I plan on getting a table next year. I would have this year, but I missed the cut off working on my second issue. By next year I should have all four issues of the first story arc done, and plan to combine them into a single trade.

See you then!

Published! or I'm a real boy now!

Well it's official. I'm published. I was a little drunk last night when I realized my books had been posted online. I rolled over to my fiance' and said (in slurry drunkinese) "Look babe, I'm a REAL comic book artist now!" She just rolled over and said something supportive like, "That's nice dear, now you just have to market it, and add tags, and blah blah..."

I stopped listening as the terror set in. I have no idea how to sell myself. I guess I'm going to have to learn fast. The best part about the internet is that you don't need a publisher. The worst part about not having a publisher is you have to promote yourself. Any artist out there will tell you that we aren't interested in pimping ourselves to anyone, we just want to draw. Let someone else keep their pimp hand strong. However, that's part of the package of being independent. Maybe I can trick my fiance' into doing it for me. We'll see (rubs hands together and twirls mustache)

I'm going to set aside some time to learn how to promote myself. I'll start with contacting websites like Comics Alliance and go from there. I'll post about my inevitable failures in the future, and let you know what I learned and how I overcame adversity... or something motivational like that. 

Anyway, issues 1 and 2 are up on Amazon, Graphicly, iBooks, and probably a few other places. I still need to work out some issues with pricing though. I wanted the first issue to be free, but it's showing as $1.99 on iBooks. I'll just give Graphicly a ringy ding ding and see if they can fix that for me.

(Shameless plug for Graphicly) I have to say, Graphicly has been EXCELLENT. I'm lucky enough to be able to afford the $150 it costs to put a book up. However, it is completely worth it. They take care of formatting your book, publishing it to all of the online distribution channels, and even have this neat widget that allows you to direct the reading experience before posting. 

Also, Graphicly's customer service is excellent. I had an issue uploading one of my files. I emailed on a Sunday, and they responded almost immediately. Yeah, you heard me! SUNDAY. I had the issue resolved by the end of the day and they were so nice. 

I'm definitely feeling the love. It's February, my books are online, and every thing seems to be coming up roses (or whatever flower you like). So, just to be on the safe side I submit to you a sketch I did a few years ago. I was having a difficult time before I met my soon to be wife. I couldn't understand why relationships are so hard. It couldn't be me that's for sure. (insert sarcasm sign here). So I came up with someone to blame. LOVE GREMLINS. Yes, that's it! It's all their fault. They messed up planes and trucks in WWII, why not relationships too.

So now if you ever have a problem with your significant other, don't blame yourself like a sane rational person, just blame the gremlins! Happy belated Valentine's day.

Comic Covers

Hello all!

I just digitally published the first two issues of Black Hole Cafe with Graphicly. I expect them to available to all digital comic outlets, except Comixology, within the next two weeks. Comixology will be accepting independent submissions soon.

It's hard to believe that it's been almost two years since I started this comic. I plan to order printed copies of the book as soon as possible. However, I don't have a plan to distribute in paper just yet. More to come on that.

Initially, my idea was to create a graphic novel broken into four parts. However, I as go along I realize that more stories keep coming up in my head. So far, I have enough story to finish the first four parter, and then another four after that. We'll see how it goes from there.

I won't post a lot of the finished artwork here, at least not at first. The idea of this blog is to document the process of creating the comic. I've always loved hearing an artist or musician's thoughts about their personal process. So, you'll see a lot of sketches and unfinished pages here.

And since I like to constantly contradict myself, here are the finished covers for issue #1 and #2. :)

As you can see from the pics I've stuck with a theme. I liked how the picture of Kole (the rabbit) on book 1 was centered, so I went with it for issue 2. I plan to do this with the first four books and then move to a different design for the next story arc.

As a small child hunched over the comic rack at the local gas station, I always hated how the cover sometimes did not have much to do with the story. I realize now that I'm older, the cover is more for marketing than conveying a story. It's used to grab attention. I get that now, even though I still feel like it's one of those trailers that shows a scene you never get to see in the movie. Still, I wanted to have a strong graphic element to my covers. It's  a theme that gets used throughout my books that I hope to expand upon.

Let me know what you think

- TF