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See, he's not such a bad guy. He adopted her kids! Of course, he didn't know that at the time or that he was even serving their mother until a few pages ago, but perhaps his tone and attitude has changed a bit.

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I've gotten a table at Mid-Ohio Comic Con (October 3-4 in Columbus, OH) with Rival Angels creator Alan Evans. We'll be hanging out with The Dreamer creator Lora Innes, and several other comic creators. Not sure on any speaking schedule while there, but I'm working on it. More to follow.

So I posted on twitter the other day about having completed my outline and beat sheet for the latest Temple story, and had a few questions pop up about what a beat sheet was and how to use it. A perfectly rational question, since I hadn't used a beat sheet before last year, and really didn't even know what it was called until early this year. I figured that this could be a good opportunity to talk a little about my writing process. It'll be surface level at this point, and if people find it helpful / useful I may turn it into a series of posts.

Please note that this is just the process that I use and have found that it works well for me. It's not reflective of what the pros do (no two writers follow the same process), although I've found that many of my professional writing friends sometimes use similar tools. This isn't gospel - I just hope that it helps some people out.

STEP 1:
Come up with an idea or story. I'm sure I don't have to tell you writers how to do this. ;)

I'll come up with themes, characters and motivations. Basically, everything in the "pitch package." I can go on for days on just this step alone, so perhaps in a later post....

STEP 2:
Typically after I have an idea for a story in my head or some scenes that I want to use, I create a "beat sheet" of the events of the story. I use it to help edit the order of events in my story, to help create the 3-act structure, etc. This is usually a very short document that consists of notes of events, maybe locations or some brief dialogue that I think is relevant. I've read a few online resources that have more detailed beat sheets, but they all seem to agree that it is a very short snap-shot of the events in a story. It helps me maintain the beats in the story, since I tend to write very rhythmically.

However, the "beat" in "beat sheet" refers to the beats within your acts. I'm sure I don't have to go into three-act structure here (every story has three acts: beginning, middle, and end), so I won't go into it. But the purpose of the beat sheet is just to get a snap-shot of your story, see where and how it flows, where it's weak, and adjust accordingly. Unlike a script, this is a document for me, the writer. I can write it any way that I chose, and sometimes it'll vary from story to story. It's just a great quick reference for me to use - and it can be very fluid and evolve as I continue my writing process.

Here's an example of a working beat sheet from the upcoming Temple prequel, Assassin.



STEP 3:
After the story is prepped in a beat sheet, I write down my cast of characters and make a few notes about their motivations in this story. What do they want? What are their goals and objectives? What drives them to push the narrative forward? Sometimes this step precedes the beat sheet, if I don't know my characters very well or are introducing new characters into a story. But when it follows, I'll typically go back to the beat sheet and make some tweaks and changes based on those motivations. This can go back and forth a few times until I feel very confident about the story.

Here's an example of an outline for a short story that will be appearing soon in an anthology:


STEP 4:
At this point I take my beat sheet and make an outline, typically a page-by-page breakout of the events to overlay the story. The outline helps me further figure out pacing and how fast my story is going to evolve, and it can also help me figure out how many panels I'm going to be using per page, where some of the more dramatic moments are in the story, etc. This document tends to be a little longer and more detailed for me - an evolution from the beat sheet, if you will.

Sometimes I skip this step entirely, if I want a story to evolve more organically. But for a lot of the more complex plots that I've been using lately (like weaving together all of the events of Temple), I like to use this method.

STEP 5:
With the beat sheet and outline in hand, I'm able to start my script. Again, sometimes things change and evolve along the way and changes are made, but for the most part by the time I make it to the scripting stage I'm pretty comfortable with my characters, story, pacing, and plot elements.

I won't go into details about how to write a script here, but if you'd be interested to learn more feel free to drop me a line and let me know. Maybe I'll turn this into a series of blog entries.

Labels: comic books, comics, web comics, writing

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DUH DUH DUN!

If you recall from the original Temple story, Seymour said that he "was more of a lover than a fighter," and here's why. The guy was forced to kill innocents, and then he went to the one place that he thought he could receive penance for his actions - and it turns out that we know that the very place is where the ones responsible have been all along!

Seymour is very confused at this point in his life, and we'll find out more about that in his prequel story (which Olivia and I have already started working on). The next story is called "Assassin," and it's going to take place during and after this very story here. It'll follow Seymour and Marielle, and fill in some more of the gaps that abound from the original story.

If you think Sophia is bad ass, just wait until you see some of the stuff that Olivia's working on for this story!

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The waiter isn't supposed to be coming off as entirely creepy here, which is what I fear he may be doing. There's a purpose here to the way that every character is acting, and hopefully I'm able to pull it all off at the end.

I'm off this weekend to Pokagon, which is a state park in Angola, IN. My family goes here every year with friends of the family to enjoy what I call "camping with cable TV." Sure we BBQ, sing songs by firelight, go on nature hikes and have a blast...but we stay in cabins with running water, electricity, and yes - cable TV. It's not quite camping, but it's not quite staying in a hotel either.

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In case you didn't know, I've gotten a table at Mid-Ohio Comic Con (October 3-4 in Columbus, OH) with Rival Angels creator Alan Evans. We'll be hanging out with The Dreamer creator Lora Innes, and several other comic creators. Not sure on any speaking schedule while there, but I'm working on it. More to follow.

Thursday night I headed out to Rosemont to attend Reactor 2009, a smaller convention that has been very anime-related in the past but this year had a little more diversity. I had been encouraged to attend by my good friend Russell Lissau (Batman Strikes!, Hope: New Orleans), and our friends Josh Elder (Batman Strikes!, Mail Order Ninja) and Steve Horton (StrongArm, WebComics2.0) were also in attendance as guests. This convention was also the premiere of the first @$$hole! collection, which sold pretty well considering the size of the con and the location that guests were placed.



Friday was the official start of the con, and usually it's the slowest day for sales. I was sharing a table with Russell and Josh in the dealer's room, and while traffic was pretty light the sales were pretty high. The crowd tended to be a bit younger, so budgeting may not have been on the mind - instead, they were buying up what caught their eye the first day. Many people bought the book based on the title alone, which saved me the effort of putting together a pitch for it the first day. Russell was giving me some excellent advice throughout the entire weekend, not only on table running and pitches, but also writing in general and con etiquette on the "other side of the table."

After a fairly strong first day, we had dinner in the Green Room and then went to a panel and performed Mail Order Ninja for the attendees. Panel attendance seemed a little light at this convention overall, but there are several reasons why this may have been the case:

1) The convention rooms were in the basement, past the viewing rooms and dealer room
2) Many attendees were participating in cosplaying, and there may have been competing cosplay programs going on at the same time
3) Many attendees were hanging out in the lobby of the hotel, playing games or enjoying their new merch acquired from the day of shopping
4) Or the attendees just were not as interested in panels at this show as they are at other shows.

Whatever the reason, people still showed up to all of the panels and I greatly appreciate that.

Friday night a friend that I met at NYCC stopped into the convention. Melissa was planning to come into town to visit people anyway, and stopped in before hand to have a drink at the bar and catch up. It was great to see her again, since we had had so much fun hanging out at NYCC and while waiting for the plane after the show. Josh and Russell both knew her too, and we all had a great night chatting and catching up.

Saturday was the longest day of the con, and also had the lowest sales of the weekend. There are a few reasons this may be, such as the fact that I was on 3 panels that day, but I also think that many of the attendees were hanging out in Artist Alley that day. I had a few friends with tables in AA and they experienced the opposite of me in terms of sales: Friday was slow, but Saturday was strong.

My panels that day started at 1pm with a State of the Industry panel. Russell, Steve, Keith, and myself all talked about many of the changes happening within the comic and manga industry - many of the questions we fielded were related to distribution and the future of where comics and anime are going. It was a 2 hour panel with some excellent attendance.

After that, we had a quick bite of lunch before I attended my Writing for Comics panel with Steve. Since Steve literally wrote the book on writing web comics, we decided to make it more about the web. Which was great, since many of the attendees were interested in starting their own web comics or making their current comics better. Immediately after that panel, I attended my Sci-Fi / Fantasy: The Art of Crafting Your World panel. I had some great in-depth questions during this panel based on the stories that people were crafting, and I walked them through my process and success stories from having worked on The Temple of a Thousand Tears for so many years. Steve Yun (Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles) even walked in at the end of the panel (since I ran over and he was waiting for a projector for his next panel), and asked a few questions.

After the panels were done, I went to the table to try to sell for the last little bit that was left of the day, and then we packed up. We had a quick bite for dinner and went to the pool with Russell to relax before the night's activities. Russell and Steve lead a heated game of poker with some of the other guests, while I was invited to GameWorks with many of the ACEN people in attendance at this show.

We had a few drinks at the bar, and then filtered out to play whatever video game caught our eye. Steve Yun and I played several shooting games together, one of which was constantly glitching (so bad that I'm impressed that we were even able to play the thing). Eventually the night ended and I got a ride back to the hotel where I promptly passed out.



Sunday I only had a single panel, and sales started to pick up a little. Especially for Russell, who out-sold both myself and Steve. Russell's been doing this a lot longer than we have, and had some great tips to ways to improve our salesmanship. My panel was called "The World of an @$$hole!," and it was all on the new book that I had just published. As for the other panels, attendance was light and some of the questions were really engaging. I very much appreciated everyone who showed up. After my panel, Steve had a panel and since attendance was also light for him, we all had a round-table discussion on comics and projects we were working on.

After the panels, we went back to the tables for the last few hours of the con, and then packed up and went to have lunch at a local diner. Russell was kind enough to drop Josh and myself off at the train, and then we all parted ways.

Reactor was a fun convention experience and a great place to premiere the book, especially with the help and advice of Russell. It was also a great chance to catch up with old friends that I don't get to see a lot, and meet some new friends as well.

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Working on getting the buffer back for this comic, I came up with a good sequence that leads into the ending. My only fear is that I've painted some characters in a light that it will be near impossible to redeem them from. We shall see....

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Reactor was a blast! I've posted a blog about it on my website (see link above). Next up is Mid-Ohio Comic Con (October 3-4 in Columbus, OH) where I'll be sharing a table with Rival Angels creator Alan Evans. We'll be hanging out with The Dreamer creator Lora Innes, and several other comic creators. Not sure on any speaking schedule while there, but I'm working on it. More to follow.

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Anyone else seeing some parallels here? Will history repeat itself...?

###

The first self-published book for @$$hole! premiered this weekend at Reactor (September 18-20) in Rosemont, Il. It collects the 41 page black and white story of Laura's 21st Birthday. The book is going to be 52 pages and has an original cover, some new artwork, guest strips, an afterword by the creator (that's me), and a forward by Josh Elder (Josh from TokyoPOP).

On top of that and all the tasks associated with printing the book, I've also gotten a table at Mid-Ohio Comic Con (October 3-4 in Columbus, OH) with Rival Angels creator Alan Evans. We'll be hanging out with The Dreamer creator Lora Innes, and several other comic creators. Not sure on any speaking schedule while there, but I'm working on it. More to follow.

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And the waiter appears with the food faster than he appeared with the drinks. We're getting near the end of this story (my goal is to cap it at 30 pages, if not sooner). I really want to start telling another story - preferably the nude beach story, but possibly also gearing up for the next birthday story arc. But then again, maybe I need a break from story arcs for a little bit...avoid the burn out. We shall see!

###

The first self-published book for @$$hole! is coming out today, premiering at Reactor (September 18-20) in Rosemont, Il. It collects the 41 page black and white story of Laura's 21st Birthday. The book is going to be 52 pages and has an original cover, some new artwork, guest strips, an afterword by the creator (that's me), and a forward by Josh Elder (Josh from TokyoPOP).

"Why premiere your book at Reactor, and not something larger like Windy-City?" you ask. Well, through my many con appearances I've met several of the people who put Reactor together, and they have offered me the opportunity to speak at their convention. In fact, they've given me several panels to speak during throughout the weekend. Here's my panel schedule, for all those interested:

FRIDAY:
8 pm - MAIL ORDER NINJA (A reading with Russell Lissau and Josh Elder)

SATURDAY:
1 pm - A special all-guest artist panel
4 pm - Writing for comics (Collaboration with Steve Horton)
5 pm - Sci-fi fantasy: the art of crafting your world

SUNDAY:
11:00 am - @$$hole! webcomic panel

On top of that and all the tasks associated with printing the book, I've also gotten a table at Mid-Ohio Comic Con (October 3-4 in Columbus, OH) with Rival Angels creator Alan Evans. We'll be hanging out with The Dreamer creator Lora Innes, and several other comic creators. Not sure on any speaking schedule while there, but I'm working on it. More to follow.

Video Games Review: Dead Space (2008)
Platforms: PS3, Xbox360, PC
Developer: EA
Plot: A planet-mining spaceship has lost contact with Earth and disappeared. You play an astronaut on a rescue mission to fix the ship and find out what happened - but something's gone horribly wrong. When your ship is on approach, the gravity wells kick in and your ship crashes into theirs and is heavily damaged. Your few crew members board the derelict ship, and are attacked by strange creatures that can only be killed by dismembering their body parts. In an attempt to fix the ship and finish your mission, you are separated from your other crew members and forced to fight your way through this survival horror in space.

What makes this game unique, however, is the lack of any HUD (Head's Up Display). Your life bar is a light on the back of your character's suit. Your energy is a half-circle on your back. And your ammo is displayed whenever you raise your gun to fire. Even checking your inventory doesn't pause the game, it just shows a hologram in front of you.

The game is immersive, and other than the few loads between levels / missions, there's really no time that you're not playing this game. This heightened the fear and threat levels in the game for me, as in a game like Resident Evil I can pause the game by accessing my inventory to switch out a gun when my current weapon is running low on ammo, or to give myself a breather. Not in this game.

There was one time where I was searching bodies, some of which I had just slain myself, and when listening to an audio log I was attacked by half a body on the floor! It was intense!

The level of customization in the game is also a fantastic part of it. You're able to upgrade just about everything: your weapons, your suit, your abilities, etc.

Everything in this game is badass, and it's frightening as hell. The best way I can describe the game is to call it an "experience." You're less of a casual observer of the events, but fully integrated into this world with frightening things happening all around you.

The game also has a high level of gore, with the only way to defeat the bad guys being dismembering their limbs. Once your Plasma Cutter weapon is upgraded enough, this becomes rather easy for some of the earlier villains, but they keep throwing more and more challenging baddies your way throughout the entire game. I won't spoil it for you, but you'll be hungry for ammo towards the end, and you'll have to make tough decisions about what items you keep or sell to try to get more money for more ammo.

I'd call this one of the best survival horror games to date, and I seriously hope they make another one or something similar to it. Sure the plot is riddled with holes and is somewhat cliche, but the game is fun to play. But I don't recommend playing it alone in the dark....

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Seriously did a little research about the musical CATS, which I've only seen once. I figured it was a good place to reference it. Who would be your choices for her character?

Also, love the waiter's head spying on the date....

###

The first self-published book for @$$hole! is coming out at the end of September, premiering at Reactor (September 18-20) in Rosemont, Il. It collects the 41 page black and white story of Laura's 21st Birthday. The book is going to be 52 pages and has an original cover, some new artwork, guest strips, an afterword by the creator (that's me), and a forward by Josh Elder (Josh from TokyoPOP).

"Why premiere your book at Reactor, and not something larger like Windy-City?" you ask. Well, through my many con appearances I've met several of the people who put Reactor together, and they have offered me the opportunity to speak at their convention. In fact, they've given me several panels to speak during throughout the weekend. Here's my panel schedule, for all those interested:

FRIDAY:
8 pm - MAIL ORDER NINJA (A reading with Russell Lissau and Josh Elder)

SATURDAY:
1 pm - A special all-guest artist panel
4 pm - Writing for comics (Collaboration with Steve Horton)
5 pm - Sci-fi fantasy: the art of crafting your world

SUNDAY:
11:00 am - @$$hole! webcomic panel

On top of that and all the tasks associated with printing the book, I've also gotten a table at Mid-Ohio Comic Con (October 3-4 in Columbus, OH) with Rival Angels creator Alan Evans. We'll be hanging out with The Dreamer creator Lora Innes, and several other comic creators. Not sure on any speaking schedule while there, but I'm working on it. More to follow.

Game Review: Turtles in Time Re-Shelled (2009)
Platforms: PS3, Xbox360
Developer: Konami
Plot: The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are on a quest to stop the evil Shredder after his latest heist, which sees Lord Krang stealing the Statue of Liberty. However, when they go to confront the Shredder, he sends them back in time to literally make them history. Fighting your way through the various times (stoneage, wild west, and even the far future), you take control of your favorite Turtle (Leonard, Michelangelo, Donatello, and Raphael), each with their own strengths and limitations.

This remake is of the classic arcade game, and not the much more played (for me, anyway) SNES game of the same name, which contains more levels and a lot more time playing. My brother and I would spend hours on this title, trying to beat our best times and scores (18 minutes with Leo and Raph). My brother prefers Raph because of his speed, but Leo's always been my favorite character. The new game certainly has some new and awesome graphics (see the screen shot of the original arcade game, below), but it also has a smaller screen which means that Raph's speed is no longer an advantage (much to my brother's disappointment). The big disappointment for me was that it wasn't based on the SNES version, and therefore was lacking a lot of the very fun levels (like the Technodrome). My hope is that they will add in some additional downloadable levels in the future, perhaps as a free add-on, where you can chose between the arcade and SNES versions. Wishful thinking, I know, but one can always hope.

As it stands, the game is a fun beat-'em-up, but it's hardly worth the $10 price tag. Sure the graphics are nice, but you'll beat the game in about 10 minutes and you'll often wonder why it went by so quickly. And, if you're like me and have played the SNES version of the game more often or more recently, you'll wonder where a bunch of your favorite levels went. And why it's so damn difficult to throw Footsoldiers at the screen (which is how you defeat Shredder the first time in the SNES version).

The 3-D graphics are a nice touch, and it's nice to be able to attack in 360 degrees, instead of being stuck on a 2-D playing field. The advantage here in the new Re-Shelled game is that the bad guys ARE limited by a 2-D playing field, especially the bosses. This makes the game easier once you figure out the bosses patterns and when to best take advantage of the fact that they can't touch you if you're above or below them. Especially if you're Leo or Don, who have the longest reaching weapons.

Don't get me wrong here, the game's tons of fun - but extremely brief. By the time it's over, you'll feel like you just hit your groove. Sure you can replay it and try to get some trophies or achievements (most of which involve player 1 getting squished or frozen...or not frozen...but any other player doesn't count towards these awards), but after years of playing the SNES version it just feels so...short.

I recommend the game if they drop the price down to $5, or if they add in the functionality to play both versions of the game, but until that time there's just not enough content there to justify the $10 price tag. Maybe I value the almighty dollar differently than others, but my money's better spent somewhere else. I am holding out for that SNES remake version, however....

Labels: comic review, turtles, turtles in time, turtles in time re-shelled, video game review, video games

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Holy crap, my life has been rather busy lately (and not in a bad way). I'll just give you a run-down of the last few weeks and a preview of the upcoming month, and then you'll hopefully get the idea.

So I had a bunch of work projects to get out a few weeks back in anticipation of planning season starting. For those of you unfamiliar with the advertising world, planning season is for the clients that budget based on a fiscal year, and begin allocating next year's budgets in fourth quarter (Q4). This means that my job goes into overtime and overdrive, trying to plan for several clients at the same time. Meetings, sending out requests for proposals (RFPs), putting together a strategy and a plan, presenting the recommendation to the client, revising the plan based on feedback, and then negotiating and executing the plan are all involved. It can take as little as a month per client - or as much time as several months. Then you spend the rest of the year updating and changing things in the plan, among other common media activities.

On top of this, I've been producing a book! The first self-published book for @$$hole! is coming out at the end of September, premiering at Reactor (September 18-20) in Rosemont, Il. It collects the 41 page black and white story of Laura's 21st Birthday. The book is going to be 52 pages and has an original cover, some new artwork, guest strips, an afterword by the creator (that's me), and a forward by Josh Elder (Josh from TokyoPOP).

"Why premiere your book at Reactor, and not something larger like Windy-City?" you ask. Well, through my many con appearances I've met several of the people who put Reactor together, and they have offered me the opportunity to speak at their convention. In fact, they've given me several panels to speak during throughout the weekend. Here's my panel schedule, for all those interested:

FRIDAY:
8 pm - MAIL ORDER NINJA (A reading with Russell Lissau and Josh Elder)

SATURDAY:
1 pm - A special all-guest artist panel
4 pm - Writing for comics (Collaboration with Steve Horton)
5 pm - Sci-fi fantasy: the art of crafting your world

SUNDAY:
11:00 am - @$$hole! webcomic panel

On top of that and all the tasks associated with printing the book, I've also gotten a table at Mid-Ohio Comic Con (October 3-4 in Columbus, OH) with Rival Angels creator Alan Evans. We'll be hanging out with The Dreamer creator Lora Innes, and several other comic creators. Not sure on any speaking schedule while there, but I'm working on it. More to follow.

In between those two conventions, my family typically takes a trip with other families to a state park in Angola, IN, called Pokagon. It's like camping, but with showers and cable TV. We barbecue and sing goofy songs during a bon fire, take nature hikes and play cards (or Scrabble). It's a fun and relaxing weekend. But of course, it means that I need to get a buffer up to make up for the fact that I won't have three weekends in a row to work on comics.

Then there's the 2010 con schedule that I'm starting to put together, to get speaking engagements and table space for the new merch that I need to produce. Depending on the reaction to the @$$hole! book, I plan to make some t-shirts and a poster for 2010, and start pre-production on the official @$$hole! collection.

So as you can imagine, I've been EXTREMELY busy lately. This should hopefully help explain why I haven't been posting every week day, like I normally do (I have a lot of reviews in the pipeline, including a bunch of movies [Up, District 9], comics [Rival Angels, Mice Templar], and video games [Dead Space] and more!).

So thanks for your patience and understanding, and I'm very excited about these projects coming out - as well as a few others that it's a little too early to mention just yet. Stay tuned for more news, reviews, and comics!

Labels: asshole comic, hikari, samurai, sci-fi, temple, the temple of a thousand tears

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Here's where a slightly buzzing Trevor starts to give life advice, only because his life is somewhat less strange than this crazy cat loving lady.

###

The first self-published book for @$$hole! is coming out at the end of September, premiering at Reactor (September 18-20) in Rosemont, Il. It collects the 41 page black and white story of Laura's 21st Birthday. The book is going to be 52 pages and has an original cover, some new artwork, guest strips, an afterword by the creator (that's me), and a forward by Josh Elder (Josh from TokyoPOP).

"Why premiere your book at Reactor, and not something larger like Windy-City?" you ask. Well, through my many con appearances I've met several of the people who put Reactor together, and they have offered me the opportunity to speak at their convention. In fact, they've given me several panels to speak during throughout the weekend. Here's my panel schedule, for all those interested:

FRIDAY:
8 pm - MAIL ORDER NINJA (A reading with Russell Lissau and Josh Elder)

SATURDAY:
1 pm - A special all-guest artist panel
4 pm - Writing for comics (Collaboration with Steve Horton)
5 pm - Sci-fi fantasy: the art of crafting your world

SUNDAY:
11:00 am - @$$hole! webcomic panel

On top of that and all the tasks associated with printing the book, I've also gotten a table at Mid-Ohio Comic Con (October 3-4 in Columbus, OH) with Rival Angels creator Alan Evans. We'll be hanging out with The Dreamer creator Lora Innes, and several other comic creators. Not sure on any speaking schedule while there, but I'm working on it. More to follow.

Labels: blind date, blind dating, dating, online dating, reactor, reactor con, web comics, writing

Comic Review: Rival Angels vol. 1
Writer / Artist: Alan Evans
Website: www.rivalangels.com
Plot: Sabrina "Ultragirl" Mancini is a professional female wrestler who gets bumped up from the developmental league to the professional division and is forced to live with three other female wrestlers, nick-named the "Upstarts." Her roommates are "The Definition of Technician" Krysten Moline, Aussie babe Brooke Lennox, and Sun "Lil Dragon" Wong. Sabrina finds that playing in the major league is a new game for her, and that her opponent in the ring isn't the only hurdle she has to overcome. Filled with nail-biting edge of your seat action, intense drama and some hilarious moments, this comic has everything you'd want from a story and more!

Even though it's a webcomic, the first graphic novel collection is available here. Whatever he's charging for it, it's worth the price of admission.

Ignore the fact that Alan and I are now friends and are both attending Mid-Ohio Comic Con in October - I was a big fan of this comic long before I even knew who Alan was, and I don't like wrestling. What I like is the kind of action and pacing that his stories provide, and the interesting and dynamic character relationships that he provides. It's interesting to see these girls interaction outside the ring one way, but when they're all thrown into a free-for-all ring match to see who will participate in a TV tournament, there's no holding back.

Each of the girls has a very distinct personality. Sabrina is overconfident and a little bit of a showboat to the fans. Krystin is a powerhouse with a fan following due to her technical moves. Sun is a firecracker that is quick and likes to get the drop on her opponents (or as she likes to call it, "ninja'd!"). And Brooke is a little talent bombshell that has seduced her way to the top, and will stop at nothing to get what she wants...no matter who stands in her way!

It's no secret to people who follow the comic on Drunk Duck that I'm a huge fan of Brooke's, and in fact I have stated many times over that her and I will date her! Alan, being the cheerful sport that he is, was kind enough to give me a cameo appearance in the comic poking fun at my fictional online relationship with another web comic artist, BetaJess (see the 2008 and 2009 Drunk Duck Awards presentation for Best Romance Comic). He tells me that another cameo may be in the works down the road....

If you love action, strong women kicking ass, and some fun plot twists and turns, be sure to check out Rival Angels on the web and purchase the graphic novel for your bookshelf! And I'm not just saying that as a fellow creator, but as a huge fan!

Labels: alan evans, comic review, comics, rival angels, web comics

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At least we know that they have normal food....

###

Holy crap, my life has been rather busy lately (and not in a bad way). I'll just give you a run-down of the last few weeks and a preview of the upcoming month, and then you'll hopefully get the idea.

So I had a bunch of work projects to get out a few weeks back in anticipation of planning season starting. For those of you unfamiliar with the advertising world, planning season is for the clients that budget based on a fiscal year, and begin allocating next year's budgets in fourth quarter (Q4). This means that my job goes into overtime and overdrive, trying to plan for several clients at the same time. Meetings, sending out requests for proposals (RFPs), putting together a strategy and a plan, presenting the recommendation to the client, revising the plan based on feedback, and then negotiating and executing the plan are all involved. It can take as little as a month per client - or as much time as several months. Then you spend the rest of the year updating and changing things in the plan, among other common media activities.

On top of this, I've been producing a book! The first self-published book for @$$hole! is coming out at the end of September, premiering at Reactor (September 18-20) in Rosemont, Il. It collects the 41 page black and white story of Laura's 21st Birthday. The book is going to be 52 pages and has an original cover, some new artwork, guest strips, an afterword by the creator (that's me), and a forward by Josh Elder (Josh from TokyoPOP).

"Why premiere your book at Reactor, and not something larger like Windy-City?" you ask. Well, through my many con appearances I've met several of the people who put Reactor together, and they have offered me the opportunity to speak at their convention. In fact, they've given me several panels to speak during throughout the weekend. Here's my panel schedule, for all those interested:

FRIDAY:
8 pm - MAIL ORDER NINJA (A reading with Russell Lissau and Josh Elder)

SATURDAY:
1 pm - A special all-guest artist panel
4 pm - Writing for comics (Collaboration with Steve Horton)
5 pm - Sci-fi fantasy: the art of crafting your world

SUNDAY:
11:00 am - @$$hole! webcomic panel

On top of that and all the tasks associated with printing the book, I've also gotten a table at Mid-Ohio Comic Con (October 3-4 in Columbus, OH) with Rival Angels creator Alan Evans. We'll be hanging out with The Dreamer creator Lora Innes, and several other comic creators. Not sure on any speaking schedule while there, but I'm working on it. More to follow.

In between those two conventions, my family typically takes a trip with other families to a state park in Angola, IN, called Pokagon. It's like camping, but with showers and cable TV. We barbecue and sing goofy songs during a bon fire, take nature hikes and play cards (or Scrabble). It's a fun and relaxing weekend. But of course, it means that I need to get a buffer up to make up for the fact that I won't have three weekends in a row to work on comics.

Then there's the 2010 con schedule that I'm starting to put together, to get speaking engagements and table space for the new merch that I need to produce. Depending on the reaction to the @$$hole! book, I plan to make some t-shirts and a poster for 2010, and start pre-production on the official @$$hole! collection.

So as you can imagine, I've been EXTREMELY busy lately. This should hopefully help explain why I haven't been posting every week day, like I normally do (I have a lot of reviews in the pipeline, including a bunch of movies [Up, District 9], comics [Rival Angels, Mice Templar], and video games [Dead Space] and more!).

So thanks for your patience and understanding, and I'm very excited about these projects coming out - as well as a few others that it's a little too early to mention just yet. Stay tuned for more news, reviews, and comics!

Labels: asshole comic, blind date, blind dating, dating, drunk duck, mid-ohio, mid-ohio comic con, online dating, photo comic, photography, reactor, reactor con

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Holy crap, my life has been rather busy lately (and not in a bad way). I'll just give you a run-down of the last few weeks and a preview of the upcoming month, and then you'll hopefully get the idea.

So I had a bunch of work projects to get out a few weeks back in anticipation of planning season starting. For those of you unfamiliar with the advertising world, planning season is for the clients that budget based on a fiscal year, and begin allocating next year's budgets in fourth quarter (Q4). This means that my job goes into overtime and overdrive, trying to plan for several clients at the same time. Meetings, sending out requests for proposals (RFPs), putting together a strategy and a plan, presenting the recommendation to the client, revising the plan based on feedback, and then negotiating and executing the plan are all involved. It can take as little as a month per client - or as much time as several months. Then you spend the rest of the year updating and changing things in the plan, among other common media activities.

On top of this, I've been producing a book! The first self-published book for @$$hole! is coming out at the end of September, premiering at Reactor (September 18-20) in Rosemont, Il. It collects the 41 page black and white story of Laura's 21st Birthday. The book is going to be 52 pages and has an original cover, some new artwork, guest strips, an afterword by the creator (that's me), and a forward by Josh Elder (Josh from TokyoPOP).

"Why premiere your book at Reactor, and not something larger like Windy-City?" you ask. Well, through my many con appearances I've met several of the people who put Reactor together, and they have offered me the opportunity to speak at their convention. In fact, they've given me several panels to speak during throughout the weekend. Here's my panel schedule, for all those interested:

FRIDAY:
8 pm - MAIL ORDER NINJA (A reading with Russell Lissau and Josh Elder)

SATURDAY:
1 pm - A special all-guest artist panel
4 pm - Writing for comics (Collaboration with Steve Horton)
5 pm - Sci-fi fantasy: the art of crafting your world

SUNDAY:
11:00 am - @$$hole! webcomic panel

On top of that and all the tasks associated with printing the book, I've also gotten a table at Mid-Ohio Comic Con (October 3-4 in Columbus, OH) with Rival Angels creator Alan Evans. We'll be hanging out with The Dreamer creator Lora Innes, and several other comic creators. Not sure on any speaking schedule while there, but I'm working on it. More to follow.

In between those two conventions, my family typically takes a trip with other families to a state park in Angola, IN, called Pokagon. It's like camping, but with showers and cable TV. We barbecue and sing goofy songs during a bon fire, take nature hikes and play cards (or Scrabble). It's a fun and relaxing weekend. But of course, it means that I need to get a buffer up to make up for the fact that I won't have three weekends in a row to work on comics.

Then there's the 2010 con schedule that I'm starting to put together, to get speaking engagements and table space for the new merch that I need to produce. Depending on the reaction to the @$$hole! book, I plan to make some t-shirts and a poster for 2010, and start pre-production on the official @$$hole! collection.

So as you can imagine, I've been EXTREMELY busy lately. This should hopefully help explain why I haven't been posting every week day, like I normally do (I have a lot of reviews in the pipeline, including a bunch of movies [Up, District 9], comics [Rival Angels, Mice Templar], and video games [Dead Space] and more!).

So thanks for your patience and understanding, and I'm very excited about these projects coming out - as well as a few others that it's a little too early to mention just yet. Stay tuned for more news, reviews, and comics!

Labels: drunk duck, drunk duck awards, reactor, reactor con, samurai, sci-fi, temple, the temple of a thousand tears

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The DD Awards are coming out this week (started Tuesday, in fact), and this comic was graciously nominated for Best Photo Comic, and Best Socio-Political Comic. Looking forward to the results, as there's some stiff competition.

Also, be on the lookout for my contribution to the awards presentations: an epic 3 pager (combined into a single page) that falls into the current storyline, and also teases about possible things to come! It's for the Best Romance Comic category, and should be a hoot!

Also, if you live in the Chicago area, I'll be attending Reactor Con the weekend of September 18. I have 5 panels at the convention, and I'll be talking about various topics including writing comics, the artistic approach, crafting a fantasy world, and even a panel about this very comic here: @$$hole! I'll be premiering the first book there, which collects the Laura's 21st Birthday storyline - with new original artwork, an afterword by the creator, a brand-spanking new cover, and a forward by Josh from TokyoPOP, Josh Elder! 50+ pages for just $6.

Alan Evans and I will also be attending Mid-Ohio Comic Con in October, and will be hanging out with the very talented Lora Innes (The Dreamer), as well as several other awesome people both from DD and abroad!

More cool announcements next week, and as always there are reviews and comics on the main website.

Labels: blind date, blind dating, dating, drunk duck, drunk duck awards, online dating, reactor, reactor con

My Site

Vote!

The DD Awards are coming out this week (started yesterday, in fact), and this comic was graciously nominated for Best Photo Comic, and Best Socio-Political Comic. Unfortunately, the comic did not bring home the bacon, but just being nominated is reward enough. Especially for 2 years in a row for Best Photo Comic!

Also, be on the lookout for my contribution to the awards presentations: an epic 3 pager (combined into a single page) that falls into the current storyline, and also teases about possible things to come! It's for the Best Romance Comic category, and should be a hoot!

Also, if you live in the Chicago area, I'll be attending Reactor Con the weekend of September 18. I have 5 panels at the convention, and I'll be talking about various topics including writing comics, the artistic approach, crafting a fantasy world, and even a panel about this very comic here: @$$hole! I'll be premiering the first book there, which collects the Laura's 21st Birthday storyline - with new original artwork, an afterword by the creator, a brand-spanking new cover, and a forward by Josh from TokyoPOP, Josh Elder! 50+ pages for just $6.

Alan Evans and I will also be attending Mid-Ohio Comic Con in October, and will be hanging out with the very talented Lora Innes (The Dreamer), as well as several other awesome people both from DD and abroad!

More cool announcements as the week progresses, and as always there are reviews and comics on the main website.

Labels: comic books, comics, photo comic, photography, web comics, writing