Well, here’s another piece of misc art. We’re submitting this to be in the souvenir book for the 2009 San Diego International Comic Con. Keep your fingers crossed (we’ll let you know if we get in). Architect did a killer job with the colors and effects. What do you think?
Green Lantern Submission for Comic Con
Okay, so here we stand at T-minus less than One. We launch our site tomorrow – so, in about 10 hours, Heartless Dark: The Prologue will go live and people will finally be able to see what we’ve been working on for three months now.
And, to be honest, I’m a little nervous. I don’t doubt the quality – the initial samplings we’ve shown people have been met with enthusiastic positivity. I’m nervous cause I’m trying to figure out if we balanced the Chicken/Egg dilemma of webcomics.
You create a comic (or a movie, or a book, or Japanese Porn) in order for people to see it (and hopefully like it). So, in our efforts to get people to see Heartless Dark, we’ve been creating facebook groups, myspace pages, blogs – we’ve been e-mailing hundreds of retailers across the nation – ad naseum. We want people to know about this and tell all their friends.
But how many people can you get really excited about something when they haven’t seen it in the first place? We have a trailer, yes, but comics aren’t like movies in that respect. It’s really hard to come from nowhere and build a fan base before you have the product released.
But (here’s the other part of the egg), if you launch with no fans – then no one will see it. So, how do you show a comic to people that know nothing about it – and, conversely, how do you get people to become fans of a comic they can’t see (yet)?
See the conundrum? So, we’ve tried to do our best – starting a small following, bugging people everywhere to check it out – and we hope that things’ll click. That the few who are anxious to see it (thanks mom!) will spread the word once they do – and that those whom we’ve contacted who’ve yet to get back to us, will, now that we’ve got things running (and, of course, they’ll love it).
So, loyal blog readers (of which there are none, really, but hopefully more soon) – what have you found/think works in this scenario?
To be continued… (I’ll write a follow up after a few weeks to let you know how it worked)
–the creator
Straight off the pole, through the welfare line, out of the trailer park, and into our hearts – it’s the Octo-Mom. Here’s footage from the birth of her kids – the moment she charmed herself into our homes.
My favorite part is when the doctor uses the medical tray as a deflector shield/baseball bat.
Okay, so before we get into all sorts of random talkback, I figured that I’d start out with a few comic-related posts -cause new traffic will be coming from the comic – and we don’t want to throw them off too much with random stuff.
I’m going to compile a list of comics you must read before you die – but I thought I’d start out with just talking about my favorite comic of all time:Midnight Nation by J. Michael Straczynski and Gary Frank.
Midnight Nation is a morality play – above all else. Yes, it is a comic book - but, no, it doesn’t have costumes, super powers, or big breasts. This is an evolution in comics. This is a story about people. Flawed, hurt, tragic, funny, and human people.
Note: you should stop here and just read the darn thing. I’m going to give a spoiler-free synopsis and then rave about it – but you’re better off to just pick it up and start reading.
Midnight Nation follows David Grey – an LAPD detective – who is lost (metaphorically) in life. After investigating a horrific string of murders, he loses his soul (quite literally) and becomes on of those “in-between.” Stuck between living and dead, David must embark on a journey across the barren underbelly (and I’m not talking the “hookers and drug dealers” underbelly that Hollywood sells – I’m talking the reality of people who’ve been brushed aside and forgotten) of the country in a last-ditch effort to reclaim his soul. Accompanied by his guide, Laurel, they set out on foot.
The journey is the destination in this story. I won’t spoil anything – cause I’d rather you come across it like I did years back.
Everyone says “Watchmen” is the best Graphic Novel of all time, and while I admit that it may be – it isn’t my favorite. Where Midnight Nation succeeds is its human portrayal of every single character in the story. The story moves you emotionally in a way that no comic before or since has ever moved me. I still am touched and get chills every time I read the epilogue.
I had a chance to speak to the writer about the story a few years ago (some of my most prized posessions are the individual issues of the series, signed by Mr. Straczynski himself), and he told me that it was his personal favorite of anything he’s ever written – and it even moved him while reading it. Before you judge that statement – read the book, and you’ll understand.
You’ll most likely get the trade paperback (which I own, as well) which has an afterword written by the author which lets you know how personal and real the story was to him. A story that took him 20 years to write. The afterword makes it all the more powerful.
This is the comic I place in the hands of people who say comics are lame or for kids – and I’ve yet to have anyone say it wasn’t amazing. Everyone I’ve known has been surprised, if not blown away, by how good the comic is.
If you read it and love it like I do – pick up the individual issues. As far as story goes, there’s nothing more they add – but in most issues, at the end, there were letters from the readers. At first, they started out as merely “Wow this is really good, I can’t wait to see what happens next” letters – but very quickly got to personal stories of how people’s lives had been affected by the story. People talked of lives of abuse, tragic deaths, and many more personal stories – and how the story was helping them come to terms with those events – or how the story mirrored their lives. Very quickly, the personal letters elevated the status of the comic from a good story to a powerful message of hope and love.
I’ll stop now – because if you’re reading this and haven’t read the story – you’re wasting time you could be spending reading it.
One more note – the art: Gary Frank is incredible. I’ve followed his work for years – and this is the pinnacle of his career. Amazingly detailed and powerful art. Frank chose to forgo typical “muscles and boobs” style comic drawing, and really drew people – with real expressions and emotions. Real-looking people that helped convey the reality of the story. This comic could not and would not achieved what it did without his amazing art. It’s no surprise that the writer and artist have worked together several times since Midnight Nation.
Short and sweet – buy it.
And let me know what you think.
Oh, and when you buy it – don’t peek ahead – let it unfold as you go along.
– the creator
Check out our promotional trailer here – complete with sweet music, I might add.
We’re also launching our facebook group and myspace page today – so stop by and become friends.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=52362040837
So, here at HD Blog, we want to throw up random art whenever we have it – cause, let’s face it, art kicks ass. So, here’s a pic the I drew and colored today (mind the poor coloring, I’m learning photoshop, and luckily, the Architect colors the comic).
Miracle Man
This is Miracleman. And if you haven’t read Miracleman, you’re missing out. I just recently finished Alan Moore’s run on the title, and it was phenomenal. I’m not an Alan Moore freak – I love his stuff (when it’s good), but I don’t mess myself everytime he puts a pen to a page (I’m not a zombie for anyone – they have to earn it every time) – but Miracleman was incredible. One of the best, if not the best comic run ever.
Wow.
Find it (psst: bit torrent) where you can and read it.
We’ll post more pics as they come.
Late.
the creator
Okay, so, let’s be honest – I love comics. I wouldn’t be spending all my spare time drawing page upon page of story for no money – with characters and a story that no one has even seen yet – if I didn’t love comics.
But they’re not easy to get into.
I was giving suggestions to The Suit when we got going – which comics were the best in the market today (Suit loves comics, but hadn’t been following a title regularly in a while). The first one I told him to pick up (and if you’re not reading it – bless yourself and go buy all the trades) was Peter David’s X-Factor.
I could spend the rest of this post reviewing and raving about it – but that’s for another time.
Okay, so issue 41 just came out. So, 40 issues is a bit to catch up on. Approx 6 trades at about $15-20 a piece. That’ll run you $90-120. Ouch.
But it doesn’t stop there. In order to understand why X-Factor started, you’ll need the Madrox trade and the House of M trade. To understand House of M, you need to read Avengers Disassembled. So that’s three more trades (at about $20 a piece).
But, there’s more. X-Factor crosses over into some other stories – and they have their own trades to understand the plot. Now we’re talking Civil War and Messiah Complex. Add another $50 between the two of them.
So, in order to jump into a story that is only 40 issues old (maybe 3 1/2 years), you need to spend $200-230 (ish).
And comic companies wonder why it’s so hard to get new readers into comics.
Hmmm… solution?
(shameless plug)
Heartless Dark.
Well, okay, that’s not a solution at all – but an alternative. A new, contained story, that we hope you’ll like.
Heartless Dark is an ongoing, long-form graphic novel updated with five pages of new story every week. Heartless Dark follows both Matthew and Ailis, two people at opposite ends of an apocalyptic prophecy, as they struggle to link global occurrences, personal events, and historical writings in a race to save the world.
The Blog, however, is just a fun place to come and hang out. We’ll update it regularly with random rants, reviews, questions, upcoming projects/events, and maybe some behind the scenes things.
If you’re lucky.
Welcome!
