Read this, it's important to live (original) (raw)
SPX reports that they're damn near sold out of exhibitor area, and the time to apply is NOW. So I need a roll call....who's coming? The convention is Sept. 23-25th, and our costs are....
1/2 table (3'): $150, comes with one badge
Full table (6'): $300, comes with two badges
Each add'l badge: $10
Let me know soon, guys, I want to get this sent out this week. I'll write the check, y'all can pay me back later.
Up to page six in the previews of my book (Magicals: The Door to
Nowhere). My personal life has made things kind of slow going, but
it'll get there. I also had a "miss" with an experiment in drawing one
of the pages "for real"-- the paper bled like crazy in the inking. I've
found my good paper, so after all this layout stuff is done, I'll be
moving right along. Slowly as hell.
Anyway, the pages:
[ 1 ][ 2 ][ 3 ][ 4 ][ 5 ][ 6 ]
Take care and I'll do the same;
--Greg
Website stuff: We need to get things together on this front. Brad and I were talking things over and here's some ideas we hammered out....
COMICS section: We need one good, solid color image for every book. "Trio" and "El Rey" have covers, and there's the "HH" ad that Paul cobbled together, but what about "Everyman"? The way I see this page is to have a small color jpg for each series and their logo, then when you click on that you bring up a solo page for the book with an enlarged version of the image, the credits for the book, and a one-paragraph description of the book to get people interested in picking it up. Once we get more art, we can then link to more from this page, but for a start, this'll work.
PREVIEWS section: I don't know what we want to do with this.
EVENTS section: A new section to add, here we can put the LKC Launch Party photos, plus we can put info on what conventions we'll be at, and stuff about any big events we have like if we, say, take part in a bunch of 24-hour Comics Day events when that day rolls around next April.
CONTACT section: So far, only Kyle, Joe A, and I have signed up for an @LKC.com e-mail address. The rest of you need to send drumbrad1@yahoo.com what you want your e-mail to be, or just throw up a post on the LKC bbs board (there's a thread under general discussion). Our e-mail addresses so far are JoeA@lowkeycomics.com, elrey@lowkeycomics.com, and JasonG@lowkeycomics.com. We should probably follow this pattern of either using our names or our book names as opposed to net nicks. Then we can put all our individual e-mails up on the CONTACT page.
STORE section: The only one done, but yeah....have any of you guys that have gotten books more recently (Greg A, Sean, Paul) gotten any new stores for us? We need to get on this.
Any comments would be welcome. The main things that Brad needs from people are:
1. At least one good solid color image that you want, for the time being, to be the image for your book on the website.
2. Color art to put at various places around the site. Joe C complained that all the art on the site is HH stuff, but Paul's the only one who had anything Brad could use. Send PHOTOSHOP FILES to Brad at drumbrad1@yahoo.com. Also, Paul, if there's any way you can take your full-color LKC poster and extract the colored Trio and El Rey images and send them his way, that'd kick ass. You might also want to add a shadow to each one like the ModGirl drawering has.
3. A short description of your book to put on the site. I can write them if you want, but bear in mind that I don't know enough about anybody's book to know where it's headed in the future, so I can only allude to stuff I've read already.
Oh, and one last thing....are you guys ready to swtich from posting here to posting on our LKC.com BBS board? If so, start posting there instead!
Alright boys, let's get on it!
I need things from you.
Joe: I need a huge-ass Hopeless Heroes logo (unitalicized, since I can tinker with the slant in PS) and, if it isn't asking too much, also just the "HH" part of the logo, outlined, REAL big. I'm talking 5xwhatever-is-proportional big. I have all kinds of uses for this thing, but I mainly need it for our inside front cover.
Sean: Send me what you've finished of the second issue script! I needs it. Also, I wants it.
Other stuff:
Here's my rough layout for the inside front cover credits page of Hopeless Heroes. Sean: Yes? I'm thinking of doing away with the strip of drawings, since it's a little too close to Invincible's credits for my comfort, but I like the rest.
http://www.deviantart.com/view/19451652/
Here's the italicized version of the HH logo with the H's interconnected:
http://www.deviantart.com/view/19451881/
Here's an ad, sort of. I was just playing around:
http://www.deviantart.com/view/19233151/
http://www.deviantart.com/view/19452207/
Or anybody considering doing a graphic novel in the future...
Scouring a few other comic creator web communities led me to this site: http://www.lulu.com/about/whatislulu.php
I remembered you were working on a graphic novel, and from the looks of it this would be a pretty decent printer to work with. They offer the same benefits of online ordering/distribution as Comixpress, and a 200 page b & w GN would run roughly $6 per copy to print. Cheaper with bulk order. FYI and all that.
Ladies and gents, the website is now up and fully functioning! I've posted an update on the main page, the store page is up with a list of all of our current retailers, and there's even a very sexalicious under construction page for the other sections. Check it out, kiddies!
Okay, so I'm back (not that I was ever absent from here, but anyway). And I got that package of twenty LKC #1. Thanks, Jason! Holy shit, it's great to see this thing. The first thing I did was flip to HH, which looks amazing. It comes across even better than it did online, so I absolutely can't wait to see the first issue of the actual series when it's done. Those last pages will probably make me cry...
Everyone else's work looks extremely cool, too. I'm very happy with the whole package. We rule, kids.
Also--Jason, your handwriting is eerily similar to mine. Neater, certainly, but I was almost convinced that I'd written my own address on that box.
Okay, okay-- it's just three pages of quick, 24-hour-comic-looking stuff. But still, it's something. I'll keep posting these as I get time. I put up a DeviantArt site, so these won't display.
Good news, all. Brad got a ton of coding done last night, so in the next day or two we'll have a functioning site with an update-able front page and a "store" page. But this begs a good question...
The BBS board that I had everyone sign up on can be used to update the site, but in addition, it can also be used as our main board for the site. Since the site is in PHP, it is possible, with very little effort I might add, to set up the board so that it can be our message board for the site. We could then use that board as our means of communication, but unlike this place, it would be private. Brad can enable certain boards so that only us, as moderators, can see them, while other discussion boards would remain public. That way, we can post preview pages for each other, and each full issue as it comes out, without worrying about people stumbling across it here and reading for free.
If I could please have a yea/nay vote from everyone on this, that'd be great. If we decide to use it, Brad will then get going on the coding of the board to make it match the rest of the site design.
I came to a rather frightening realization last night, as I lay in bed, unable to sleep. Today is Wednesday, June 8th...exactly EIGHT WEEKS until I have to have comics in my hand to take to Wizard World.
Um....crap?
Comixpress had updated their site stating that print times are taking around 6 weeks, and that orders sent less than 4 weeks before the date needed will most likely NOT be finished. This begs the question: are we going to have anything, other than LKC #1, to sell up there? And if not, is there any point in reserving a table?
As far as I can tell, the only book that's even close to being finished realistically in 2 weeks is "Hopeless Heroes", now that Paul is down to a final bit of inking and his grey tones. Nobody else has posted any new pages in ages, so I don't know what state anyone else's books are in. I know Joe C has sworn up and down that we'll have a book ready for Wizard World, but I haven't seen any pages; Justin hit a point of frustration and took some time off before inking his book....I still have some amount of faith in these books getting done but we're getting down to the wire here, and I really don't want these books being crapped out at the last minute just so we can have them done.
I guess basically I'm just reminding you artist guys that, holy CRAP, is that deadline close. And realistically, can you meet it? The deadline not only to submit our comics, but also to reserve an Artist's Alley table, is looming.
It seems that ComiXpress is updating their website once a day with new titles, but they're only doing 2 at a time. Yesterday was the third day in a row they did that. Who knows when that means that LKC #1 will be added, but I guess we'll see.
Anyway, the newest book that they added, "Nightmare World", has some pretty great art, from what little I've seen so far. Check it out here and here.
My care package from Jason arrived today. The books look pretty good, I've got to say.
That's all.
- Website idea! We should probably dedicate a portion of our "Store" section to encouraging potential readers to get their local shops to carry Low Key books. Just a blurb or something, dig? We're not quite in a position as yet to start filling individual orders - have we begun to look into applying PayPal to our site in a practical way? - so this could potentially be a great boon. If five kids from five towns come across our site and bug their local retailers to order some Low Key comics, and the average conservative first order is, say, five copies, that's 25 units moved. Something to think about!
- I've finally whipped up an HH logo that I think comes close to doing the trick. I sat down to sketch up a cover and decided that I'd need at least a logo shape first, and the interlocking H's spilled right outta me. The stacked block caps quickly followed, and the outline was a no-brainer, since I'm big on separating design elements. Obviously, this sketch has a ways to go before it's finalized, but I think I'm on the right track. So, uh, does anybody know Illustrator? Nudge, nudge? Seriously, if somebody could do this up for me all professional-like, I'd, I dunno, marry their ugly sister or something. Think about it!
http://www.deviantart.com/view/18924066/
- I've done a bunch of cover sketches. The first one involved the Condor, our nemesis, but the concept was a little crowded and I couldn't nail down a layout that I thought worked well. The next involved an evening scene featuring our three stars sitting on a roof and looking out at the stars. I thought this relaxed, leisurely image was a lot more appropriate for HH than the first one, but I also felt it lacked excitement. So... Finally I came up with this sketch. It's still pretty laid-back, but obviously there's a little more excitement involved than the previous one. I've since done a bunch of revisions and have finally green-lighted one that I really feel is catchy enough to entice people into picking up the book. Basically, it's Rocket flying roughly towards the reader, with Arbor on his back; both are enjoying the "joy of flight," but Black Buddha, who is being held by Rocket, is visibly uncomfortable with the idea. (Not pants-shittingly scared, but obviously a little freaked.) The characters are smaller than in this image, mainly to allow for more backgroundage, but also to convey a sense of grandeur and amazement: wow! look at that magnificent sky! etc.!
http://www.deviantart.com/view/18924439/
First, I've given full plots to Joe C and FFK for "Trio" and "Monkey Bars", respectively.
Second, the website is near-ready to have a big update, but first what you guys need to do is....
1. Go to http://www.lowkeycomics.com/updates/ You'll see a BBS-style message board. Register for it.
2. Go to http://www.lowkeycomics.com/links.php See that kick-ass page? That's how our posts on the message board will look. Or, in other words, all we have to do is make message board posts and those will pop up as updates on the main page. Now, since we'd be updating using basic html, we wouldn't be able to do fancy-shmancy stuff like Brad did when he put Arbor next to the Store list, but text and simple html would be a breeze. Theoretically, he could set up every section of the site like this so that we could do most of the stuff ourselves, and we'd only have to bring Brad in for more complicated stuff.
Look good? I think so.
I sent the following to Brad as what to put up in our "Comics" section for now. He also created the template he'll use for the pages, so updates should hopefully be coming fast and furious.
Available now: LOW KEY COMICS #1!
(small image of issue #1 cover)
Our debut issue is a special 36-page anthology offering side stories and previews of some of the great upcoming series hitting store shelves this summer from Low Key!
In our cover story, "The Legend of El Rey" (by Kyle and Nick Morton), we meet our hero, John McBride, and hear the tale of how Juan Lorca Ochoa became the villainous overlord of the Mexican outlaw town of El Rey.
In the hilarious first appearance of "Everyman" (by Justin B. Crouse), a little girl's cat in a tree brings out Brightmoor's newest hero, Everyman! But what's a hero for hire to do when his customer is a small child?
In the thrilling first episode of the sci-fi epic "Ghrey" (by Joe Angelillo, with Jason Green), a dogfight in outer space brings two alien space pilots, Cole and Payne, crashing to the surface of the mysterious planet below...a planet that seems awfully familiar.
In our preview of "Trio" (by Jason Green and Joe Costello), Peter Matthews is attempting to enjoy an ordinary lunch with his idiotic but well-meaning friend Steven. But when the latest in a series of mysterious notes gets involved, this afternoon out becomes anything but ordinary.
And in our final story (by Sean Smith and Paul John Little), we meet Rocket and Arbor, two of the hapless band of "Hopeless Heroes," as they try to enjoy a day off of superheroing.
Stay tuned for later this summer, when we see the debut of the ongoing series of "The Last Days of El Rey," "Everyman," and "Hopeless Heroes," as well as the first installment of the "Trio" 4-issue mini-series. Also, keep an eye out for a special project from Jason Green and Joe Angelillo, and, dare I say it, the next issue of our anthology, LOW KEY COMICS #2!
Want to pick up your own copy? Check out our store (link) page for a local retailer near you!
...I'm off to the post office to mail off the remaining packages (20 a piece to Paul, Sean, and Greg, 3 to Lee). This leaves us with, by my quick count, 53 remaining copies of the comic. Now, of course, we can't expect to sell all of the copies we've put in stores so far, but this is a pretty phenomenal clearing out of 300 comics so far, wouldn't you say? I wouldn't be surprised if we had to order more for Wizard World, but we have some time before we need to do that.
Anyway, guys, be on the look out for a care package from me coming soon!
--jg