A shiny new comic is up on my website! To Play the Hero by R. Adrian Yarbrough and illustrated by mee~!
When their imaginary world is threatened, two friends challenge an overbearing parent’s notion of ‘normal’.
To Play the Hero
comics
Aspen's Halloween ComicFest 2016
I did some work in Aspen's Halloween ComicFest this year! Halloween ComicFest is a comics "holiday" created by Diamond Distributers. It's a lot like Free Comic Book Day, but with a Halloween theme! Aspen always puts out a b&w comic/activity book hybrid, and this year I did the illustrations for the activity pages.
Aspen's HWCF 2016 Front Cover by Siya Oum
Here are the pages I did in raw format-- some are missing puzzles or panels that are filled in in the final format. Click on the image to enlarge:
Working for Aspen was a ton of fun, and I hope to work on next year's too! This book was available for free on October 29th, but there might still be copies floating around that you can get your hands on!
Check out the official Diamond Announcement of all the HWCF books available this year!
LA Comic Con!
in Comics
This Halloween weekend, I tabled at Stan Lee’s LA Comic Con, otherwise known as “The Con Formerly Known as Comikaze.”
I was part of the wicked cool Comic Bug Pavilion alongside a bunch of my Southbay comic buddies! Walking into a show and exclaiming “Ooh! I know them, I know them, and yay them!” all the way down a row really changes the experience. I felt like I was nestled inside of a little family!
I was directly next to the Ladybugs and across from the Sketchy Bugs which was great because we had early copies of our new Secret Anthology. It turned into a little signing tornado.
Photo credit Amy Wagner
I was also on my very first panel ever! “The Business of Art Presents: Build Your Audience Even If You Don’t Have a Product” (longest name ever) hosted by Russell Nohelty. We discussed branding, business infrastructure building, and networking, which are all Really Important Things ™ that they don’t teach you in art school. So if you want to “Do Art as a Career,” best learn ‘em! Get on it! Russell’s podcast is a great place to start.
Russell ran a tight ship, and kept the information coming. As someone who has been frustrated with attending panels that ramble off topic, I particularly appreciated him keeping it on task.
I spoke alongside MOM Comics who founded the Ladybugs, Lynly Forrest of Hex Comix, Neo Edmund who has a new novel out, and Bryant Dillon of Fanbase Press. All of these people have achieved so much and are fantastically inspirational to me!
My favorite part of the panel was talking to the audience members individually when they came to my booth afterward for more advice. All of you are awesome, and you go ON with your bad selves and amazing dreams! Kill it!
Photo credit Amy Wagner
I got to catch up with a few Press friends of mine too, including The Grand Geek Gathering, and NerdSoul! Also a post featuring my booth has popped up, written by the delightful Amy Wagner, who I had the pleasure of meeting. Check it out here!
I had a complete blast at the show, and sold out of Heavenly Kibble Guardian Corgi for the third time! The people asking for #3 finally inspired me to get off my duff and work on it. I mean, I haven’t been busy with a messed up ankle, moving, and getting married (with two parties on opposite coasts) or anything. Not busy at all! Nope!
And work on it I did: I wrote the entire thing during downtime right there at the table!
Boom! Done!
Since Clucked is still on hold for pitch development, I’m going to roll Corgi 3 into my workload this month, alongside my new 8 page piece for the upcoming Manthology.
Basically, it’ll be like a NaNoWriMo for me, but NaCoMaMo– National Comics Making Month. Which is a thing I just invented! I like inventing things.
That’s all for now, keep an eye on my Twitter and Instagram for snapshots of my comics in progress during this month!
Coming to an LA Comic Con Near You!
I’m super duper excited about attending Stan Lee’s Comikaze Convention next weekend! I’ll be in the Comic Bug Pavillion at table E-35, close to the Ladybugs and The Sketchy Bugs! Check out all the wicked cool comics we all make!!
Indie Comics Day
I did a video interview about Clucked and Heavenly Kibble Guardian Corgi at The Comic Bug’s inaugural Buy Indie Comics Day. Thank you so much for the interview, NerdSoul!
It’s really odd seeing myself onscreen– even moreso than hearing my own voice when I do podcast interviews. “Buy Indie Comics Day is an international, annual event to celebrate the indie, local, and small press creators pushing comics into the next millennium!”
It was an amazing event– I got to catch up with a lot of my SoCal indie comics maker buddies, and meet new ones as well.
Special thanks to Russell Nohelty of Wannabe Press for organizing the event, and thanks to Mike Wellman of The Comic Bug for hosting it!
Rose City Comic Con
I will see YOU at Rose City Comic Con in just a few weeks! Come by table P-14– Clucked #1 will FINALLY be available in print form, and the first 100 copies will be numbered and signed by both Joel and I!
Joel and I signing all the copies!
New Comics Work: Clarence and Lumberjanes
Super excited– two new BOOM! titles I worked on are out this month:
- Lumberjanes “Makin’ the Ghost of It.” I did the colors on the second story, “Sphinxes, and Riddles, and Wishes, Oh My!” It comes out May 18 (my birthday, HOORAY!)
- Clarence: Chicken Phantom original graphic novel. I did colors for the entire book! It came out on May 11.
If you end up getting them from your local comic stores, please let me know what you think!
Animated Chickens!
Animated Chickens!
For this week’s page of Clucked, I made a super cool animated gif of the entire process. If you’re one of my $2+ Patrons on Patreon, you get access to a cool behind-the-scenes blog that explains How I Did the Things, and if you’re a $5+ Patron, you can download the PSD and poke around in the file!
See the finished page live on the Clucked website!
WonderCon 2016
I’ll be at WonderCon this weekend at the Los Angeles Convention Center! I’m very excited to debut a new poster for Clucked, and in addition to Corgi 1 and 2, I’ll have two ashcans: Guilty Horse and the 2016 Ladybugs Slambook. Come say hi at table F-12!
Ladybugs Anthology #1
I’m really excited to finally announce the first anthology I’ve ever been a part of, presented by The Comic Bug! This anthology features work created by the members of the Los Angeles Women’s Comic Creators League.
The Ladybugs Anthology – Coming SOON!
The Los Angeles Women’s Comic Creators League (aka The Lady Bugs) is an open group of women comic book enthusiasts and creators. Their primary mission is to create a safe space for women to share projects, make friends, and most importantly, HAVE FUN! Stay up-to-date on the Lady Bugs on Facebook!
I am a proud member of the group, and am really excited to have a 7 page story named Test Day in the anthology! The book will be a 138 page trade paperback– black and white with color covers. It’ll feature art, stories, and illustrations by over 17 lady creators with themes ranging from sci-fi to slice of life.
The anthology will be going on sale in about a month’s time (sometime between late March and mid April), but I am currently accepting pre-orders for it! The cost will be $15.00 USD, plus shipping if you need me to mail it to you.
If you’d like to pre-purchase a copy, click here to place your order using my Paypal.me account! It’s pre-loaded to be $20 ($15 + Shipping) but if you see me in person regularly you can change the amount to $15 to skip the shipping costs. Be sure to put in the Notes that it’s for the Ladybugs Anthology.
I am only accepting pre-orders until Thursday, February 25, so act fast!! I will have some copies I’m ordering to sell, but there’s no guarantee I’ll have enough if you wait!