Comics

Photo blatantly stolen from Fox5Vegas.com. Thanks Jaaaay!

I was going to start the title of this post with the usual “Where I’ll Be” prefix, but next weekend is another of those where I’m sort of all over the place, so there you go. Here’s the deal: I’ll be signing comics and shaking hands at two very worthy events in Las Vegas next week, and I’m hoping you can come to one or both.

First up, next Friday, Jan. 21, from 5 to 8 p.m., I’m going to be selling comics at a benefit for Spread the Word Nevada, a non-profit organization that provides books to schools to promote literacy among children. It’ll be at Sunrise Coffee (3130 E. Sunset Road, Suite A, just east of Sunset Park) and organized by my pals from the Avant Arts Collective. Other creative-types on hand include a couple authors behind The Perpetual Engine of Hope, live poetry by Harry Fagel and Kari O’Connor, and a wine-and-cheese bar benefiting the charity. Make sure you bring gently used or new children’s books to donate as well!  I’m also going to be donating 25 percent of comic sales from that night to Spread the Word.

The next day, Saturday, Jan. 22, from noon to 3 p.m., however, is the official release party for The Utopian trade paperback at Alternate Reality Comics (4110 S. Maryland Parkway, #8). My homeboy and cover artist Hernan Valencia is going to join me to sign comics, kiss babies and if you’re nice and get in line, do sketches. I’ve partnered with The Shade Tree shelter for women, children and pets for this event, so please bring one (or as many) of the shelter’s most-needed items from this list. Donors (and customers) will receive raffle tickets to win comics and merchandise from Alternate Reality, as well as signed copies of The Utopian courtesy of me. There will be snacks and stuff, so come down and geek out with us!

If you live out of Las Vegas and haven’t bought your copy of the awesome 120-page Utopian trade paperback, I’ve got a solution for you. Also, if you live in either Portland or Phoenix and want to see my pretty face, well, check it out, I’m coming for you, too.

Well, I believe it was actually still Jan. 7 when I grabbed this screen cap, but apparently we have moved to a new day. Hello Jan. 8!

I’m still hard at work finishing the pencils on these pages from “Omega” for Vic Moya to ink. Interestingly, I’ve spent more time painstakingly rendering these pencils than I ever did doing finished inks for any of the previous chapters. Go figure. Maybe it’s because I want to provide Vic the best pages possible for him to embellish. Maybe it’s because, unlike usual, I’m not doing layouts knowing I’ll be finishing them, so I’m actually putting more effort into the initial rendering. Either way, I still have five more pages to do, and Vic still has to make them pretty, so back to the drawing board/Wacom tablet I go …

I’m back at the art thing, feverishly (OK, fine, I’m not burning up or sweating or anything, but you get it) working to get done my portion of the next issue of Omega Comics Presents before I look like a jackass for holding up the issue’s release, while all my other creative teams actually made their deadlines. To speed things up — and make it look a lot better than I could do — I’m turning inking chores over to my man Victor Moya, who illustrated the post-apocalyptic story Jarret Keene wrote for Tales from the Boneyard (you have bought your copy, right?). Of course, that means I need to actually send him penciled pages (in my case, digitally), so no more slacking from me.

Aside from one other project that may or may not happen in the next year, I’m swearing off illustrating my own stories in 2011. I’m focusing heavily on writing this year, and I predict much better visual results if I hire out an artist as opposed to try to do the one-man show. Either the art or the writing suffers when I do it all, and I’d prefer not to choose.

That’s one sexy-looking book, isn’t it? Yes, kids, it’s here: All 109 pages of The Utopian webcomic, plus eight pages of detailed annotations, are now available in one, full-color, 120-page volume.

As the story goes, I only started The Utopian to get pro credentials for a comic book convention. But almost two years later, here I am with a small publishing company, a number of other comics under my belt, and now a full-on graphic novel that will look lovely on any coffee table, bookshelf or nightstand. Also, more importantly, in your hands and read by your eyes.

The beautiful cover is by my man Hernan Valencia, who drew that for the first issue of the four-issue series, but it ended up getting printed inside as a pin-up because his alternate design for the cover worked better. I made posters from the pin-up, and they sold very well as art pieces at conventions, so I thought so strong an image would make a perfect cover for the collection. And swell guy that he is, Hernan gave blessings to do so.

I opted for a minimalist approach to placing copy on the cover, downplaying the “comic book” aspect of it, almost more like an album cover or fine art book. The back cover design carries the font from the cover in the sub-headers, but features prominently the original “Utopian” logo, and a not-terrible photo of me from former Rebel Yell photographer Josh Navarro.

All in all, I’m very happy with the way it turned out. If you’d like to get a copy, you can order it on Amazon.com for $19.95, but you can pre-order it directly from me NOW at a discounted price of only $14.95. And if you order it directly from me, I’ll even scribble my autograph on it. Just let me know if you want it customized in the special instructions.

Need added incentive?

(more…)

Are you guys sick of me yet? I feel like I’m starting to get sick of myself. Well, actually, I’m just sick period. But hopefully I’ll be better by Saturday, because I’m supposed to be at MaximuM Comics‘ new location in Henderson (520 S. Marks St. at Sunset Road) to celebrate the release of the final (for now?) issue of The Utopian.

This is my first in-store signing, and I think it might be MaximuM’s second or something like that. Either way, I’ll be there from noon until about 3 p.m. with the brand-new, fourth issue of The Utopian, as well as whatever I have left in stock from the first few issues (I can tell you I have only one or two copies of #1 left). I’ll be doing sketches as well, and MaximuM will be giving away other cool stuff in a raffle of sorts.

I just found out today (or yesterday, I don’t remember) that the awesome, new geek culture website/podcast/video channel, Nerdlocker, will be coming out during the signing to shoot some video and do a little interview, so it would be really really really especially nice to have you lovely people there, if just to hang out and drink punch. If it looks like a ghost town on camera, that won’t be good.

After that, I’m gonna head to Alternate Reality Comics (4110 S. Maryland Pkwy. at Flamingo Road), where my man Ralph is celebrating the grand re-opening of his store all day with sales, specials and guests of his own, including the elusive Jae Lee from noon to 1 p.m. If you’re a big Jae Lee fan, maybe go there first and then come see me at MaximuM? That would be cool. Or vice versa. Either way, a great day for comic fans in the Vegas Valley this Saturday!

Discussing the art and business of self-publishing with Keith Knight and Ryan Claytor. (Photo by Katrina Miller)

Well, I did it. I broke myself. I kind of knew it would happen, but I was hoping it wouldn’t: I managed to pull through the last few weeks of whirlwind activity and then my body finally gave out upon waking Sunday morning. It’s my usual change-of-season cold (because, of course, the temperature dropped drastically on Sunday as well), but I’m sure it also had something to do with the self-abuse of this past weekend’s shenanigans. But everything went spectacularly well, and despite the stress, it was about as fun as it comes.

Friday — after running around all day with last-minute prep for the weekend’s festivities — we opened the “Inside the Boneyard” original art exhibit at Blackbird Studios during First Friday. It was also the first chance anyone had to get their hands on a physical copy of Tales from the Boneyard. The turnout was great, both for our show, and for the Day of the Dead exhibit in the front of the gallery (in which I also have a terrible piece of art). We sold a bunch of comics, and I sold at least a few pieces of original art. Very exciting! Both shows will be on display through the end of November, so I suggest you waste no time and head to 1551 S. Commerce St. to check them out!

I cut out of the reception early to run over to the Double Down Saloon (OK, so I drove, whatever) to talk comics, music and other shenanigans on Double Down Radio. It’s a pretty impressive set-up they have over there. I expected one dude with a laptop and Radio Shack microphone. But there are actually producers, hosts, call-in lines and all sorts of other fancy broadcasting things going on. Of course, it’s all done while downing shots and beer, but still, impressive. Self-described Star Wars fanatic Dave Prophet hosts the Friday night live shows, and I had a great time just hanging out and talking smack. If you want to hear the program, you can get the full, two-hour episode here, though I don’t come on until about 1:21 (that’s an hour twenty-one).

Saturday morning was a bit of a rough start, as the Double Down was not my last stop the night before, and it got rougher when I failed to find an envelope holding about $125 in petty cash I needed for the Vegas Valley Comic Book Festival, where I needed to be set-up by about 10 a.m. Thankfully, because of sales the previous night at the gallery reception, there was enough cash in that box to get through the day, but misplacing that much cash wasn’t happy news either way (it eventually turned up, two days later).

The festival itself was awesome. We sold copies of Tales from the Boneyard like gangbusters — a feat I owe a lot of credit to the supportive local press, who have been promoting the anthology for almost two months — and my other Pop! Goes the Icon titles didn’t sell too shabbily either. I also sat on my first convention-style panel, a self-publishing discussion with the great Keith Knight and Ryan Claytor. The room was packed, and we must have talked for well over an hour, mostly answering dozens of questions from the crowd.

This year’s festival was packed with people, and felt way too short. I mean, it’s only five hours anyway, but those five hours went by insanely fast. Last year’s event was good, too, but I recall having a few more periods of downtime. Of course, I didn’t have two tables to run or panels on which to sit. It was great to connect with so many people, and I predict next year’s event will just be even more fun.

There was little time to breathe in between the end of the festival (from which I departed at 5 p.m.) and band rehearsal at 6 p.m. It was the first time we were able to practice with our singer Tim in almost a month, and also the first time he’d performed with our former/temporary guitarist Rick in more than a year. But Rick, Mark and I had been practicing nearly every other day, and Tim jumped right into the mix. We blazed through our set relatively error-free, and packed up to head for Brass Lounge downtown, where we were playing the release party for both the Boneyard comic and Dead Neon: Tales from Near-Future Las Vegas.

Despite fears that we’d clear out the room of Saturday night revelers whom Kirby Krackle (which was just a solo, acoustic Kyle Stevens) warmed up, getting them dancing, our performance actually went really well — maybe the best in years. I don’t know if it was Rick’s (temporary) return, the energy of the crowd, the free drinks, or what, but people were actually dancing to our rock-metal-punk attack, and inexplicably cheering. Of course, that was nothing compared to our follow-up act, Jarret Keene’s Dead Neon, which was the obvious main draw of the night. The trio’s post-apocalyptic sludge metal was strangely hypnotic, infectious and grooving, and some hardcore fans were actually hanging on every growling word from Jarret’s mouth.

The final band of the night, 11K, featured a few members from Dead Neon, but its sound was more indie-dream-rock than death metal. Still, it’s a shame so many people left after Dead Neon finished, because 11K put on a great set, and I was kind of sad to learn the band only reunited for that night’s performance (most of the same line-up appears in Minor Suns, who was supposed to play originally).

All in all, it was a good night. We sold a few more copies of Boneyard, and hopefully impressed the booking agent at Brass to invite As Yet Unbroken to perform in the future. Of course, we’re at another crux, as our full-time guitarist parted ways with the band a few weeks ago (hence Rick’s pinch-hitting appearance). Much as we did about this time last year, we’ll probably focus on recording before diving back into the search for a new guitar player. Or, you know, just build a guitar-playing robot. Hmm …

I’m taking it relatively easy this week, though this mild cold I have is also kind of forcing me to do so. I’ve been trying to plug away at my NaNoWriMo entry, but apparently, I’m a slow writer. Also: Brain borked the last few days. I do have one event to attend this week, but I’ll talk about that more tomorrow. Back to my headache and work …

I’m starting to fiddle with video production again, and I’ve been meaning to assemble a trailer for Omega Comics Presents‘ next issue for a while, so I finally did:

Omega Comics Presents #3 Trailer

Pop! Goes The Icon | Myspace Video

Not too bad, I think. It’s always kind of a challenge to present literature — even the graphic kind — in a motion medium, but I think this is effective enough. It really helped that by coincidence all the stories in this next issue center around a theme of paying back the bad guys, something that’s made promoting this collection a lot easier than earlier issues.

Of course, my serial “Omega” continues in this issue, so if you’ve read the first two chapters and want to continue doing so, please consider ordering a copy.

Thank you.