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Nominate TrevorAMueller.com in the 2009 Web Comic List Reader's Choice Awards (no need to sign up, but it helps if you put in some info so they know you're not a spambot). I'd take any nominations, but I'm specifically looking for:

- Best Writing
- The Innovation Award
- Best Supporting Character - Susie (or the crazy cat lady...or the waiter)

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Just a reminder that the next story arc needs a few weeks to get going, so in the meantime I'm posting some supplemental materials. To tease a bit about the up coming Assassin story arc from Olivia, here are some of her sketches for Seymour. Another set of sketches will post on Thursday. Next week will be some additional bonus content. Comic should start in late December.

Labels: seymour, temple, the temple of a thousand tears

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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

My Site

VOTE!

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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It may have been difficult to see in the artwork, but the script said to show that the car was full of explosives. Hence the boom.

Sophia's assault has begun, and she's managed to effectively make it inside the courtyard of the Holy Order Temple. Armed to the teeth, it looks like her plan is a one-woman suicide mission to get in and kill Cardinal Milikin.

This sequence went through the most revisions of any in this story, mostly because I wanted to introduce a few new elements into the story - but I figure it would raise too many questions about how the swordsman and company got into the Order Temple in the original story (which also underwent a lot of revisions, and was eventually omitted completely). Perhaps a flashback will occur in the Holy Order sequel....

Olivia and I have started talking about the next story, which takes place during and directly after this story. So it should help in the chronology a bit. After that will be the remaining Sophia stories all rolled into one (including the Bushido prequel that I had been talking about a while ago, which has now been baked into the Sophia story), and then we'll finish this bad boy off with the sequel.

Don't fret, though. At the rate we're going currently, this comic is going to be around for at least another year or so.... ;)

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

My Site and Drunk Duck

"That's not my name." I love that line from Xen. It's hilarious to me, because it could be that he's dodging whomever's looking for him, or it could just be that no one's pronouncing his name correctly. Or both!

Xen's a fun character, and he'll no doubt be making a return appearance somewhere down the road.

This story is quickly wrapping up. Only about 10-12 more pages left to go, and then we move onto the next story. "What is that story," you ask? Well, I'm not entirely sure just yet. Trying to figure out if I want to tell another prequel, or move on to the final chapter: Holy War.

Temple has a finite ending, and I'm looking forward to telling that story. But I don't know if we're quite there yet. There're a lot of holes to fill between now and then. So I'll pose the question to you: would you prefer to see another prequel or two, or just jump into the ending?

Also, out of curiosity, who's everyone's favorite Temple character?

Labels: comic books, comics, samurai, sci-fi, temple, the temple of a thousand tears, web comics

My Site and Drunk Duck

In case it wasn't obvious enough in the previous page, Selphi has passed on from her wound. Here we see Xen ("That's not my name"), the arm's dealer from earlier in the story. Looks like he somehow escaped Malukai's attack, but it doesn't sound like his business fared as well.

I think it's funny that he always "knows a guy." Who are these "guys" that he keeps referring to? Well, perhaps some day we'll find out. No matter what, he's a fun character to write.

Sophia sounds like she has a plan forming. I wonder what I could be....?

This week I'll be attending Wizard World Chicago. I don't have a booth this year, but I'll be wondering around and shaking hands. And no doubt will be in the Hyatt bar at night, so if you stop by for a drink look for a tall bald guy with poor posture who's laughing his ass off...or lecturing on some such nonsense. ;)

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The voting for the 2009 Drunk Duck Awards ended on July 31, so thank you to everyone who voted for Temple. Nominations should be announced soon, and then comes the stressful part...waiting to find out if Temple won anything. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Labels: comics, drunk duck, drunk duck awards, temple, the temple of a thousand tears, web comics, writing

My Site and Drunk Duck

The very emotional final scene in this sequence, and even when I was doing touch-ups on Olivia's artwork and lettering it I was crying.

Do yourself a favor, go back and re-read the sequence from the moment that Selphi gets stabbed and tell me if it flows well. Again, this is where I thought the series really found its voice.

And it's certainly when the story changed.

And Selphi's last words, "Why do they hate us?" is the question that I constantly ask whenever I hear about religious wars or tribal conflicts going on in the world. Sure, we all have different ideas and beliefs, but why do we have to kill for them? Why do we have to make it personal? Why do we have to hate each other?

I'm sure it's asking a lot to say, "Can't we all just get along?" but is it too much to ask, "Can't there be another way other than killing?" Forgiveness has to start somewhere.

But I digress. This story is hardly ever going to turn any heads or open any eyes to the error or futility of old ways and bad blood. But if it could generate a little tolerance in the world - if even one person read this and decided to use their words instead of their fists - then it would have exceeded my wildest expectations.

We can only hope.

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The 2009 Drunk Duck Awards
The DD Awards are upon us once again, and the categories are up. Last year, without trying, you the reader graciously nominated The Temple of a Thousand Tears as the Most Profound Comic - an honor which I'm told that if popular demand had determined the winner, Temple would hold that title.

This year, I'm asking for some nominations - so please be sure to vote for Temple:

Best Action Scenes
Best Adventure Comic
Best Dialogue
Best Fantasy Comic
Best Overall Story Comic
Best Philosophical / Spiritual Comic
Best Protagonist: Sophia
Best Sci-Fi Comic
Best Dramatic Comic
Best Overall Writing

If you think that Temple deserves any of these awards, then I implore you to vote for The Temple of a Thousand Tears in the 2009 Drunk Duck Awards. Voting goes until July 31.

Labels: comics, drunk duck, drunk duck awards, samurai, temple, the temple of a thousand tears, web comics, writing

My Site and Drunk Duck

Perhaps this is the changing point for Sophia that turns her from the badass that we've seen in this story into the sweet wife and mother that we saw in flashbacks in the original story? Perhaps not. There's another Sophia story that I want to tell sometime after this about her meeting with the swordsman.

I'll be honest, I was crying when I wrote this sequence. It was a very emotional thing to write. Sophia is so helpless right now, doing the most that she can - but the car can only move so fast, and her sister is clearly coughing up blood. A lot of blood.

In the script I envisioned Sophia with her eyes closed and her mouth open wide screaming the last line, but unfortunately we weren't able to make those changes in time. Perhaps in a collected edition?

I'm in pre-production right now for the first two @$$hole! collections, which should be available later this year. My goal is to have them done before my speaking engagements in the late summer at a few conventions, and then get more of them printed next year for con season. However, let's take a poll: anyone here who might be interested in a Temple collected edition?

Labels: comics, samurai, sci-fi, temple, the temple of a thousand tears, web comics