We have a ton of stuff to go over this week. First, Halloween is fast approaching, like tomorrow. This is the last of the Halloween themed column, and we have a lot to talk about. Free comic book giveaways, a classic comic of the Halloween variety about to go into a wildly new direction, and possibly the best comic you haven’t heard of yet and an interview with its creator. So start sneaking some candy from the bowl for the trick or treat-ers (unless you are brilliant and giving out comics) and get ready for a monster-sized column. SABRINA THE TEENAGE WITCH #89 "Shattered Lives": It's a bold new direction for Sabrina, just as her life is shattered into a million pieces! Her long time love has had his memories wiped due to her mistake. Tensions are on the rise with her friends and family. The "Four Blades" organization's plan to overthrow the corrupt magic Queen is progressing quicker than anyone expects. Sabrina is devastated by infighting and sabotaged by a traitor. But her seemingly never-ending magical abilities keep improving, making her possibly one of the most powerful magicians ever... and a target of some of the nastiest beings in the Magic Realm! As if that weren't enough, her cat Salem is going out on more dates than Sabrina! How long before real magic is back in Sabrina's life? SCRIPT: Tania Del Rio. ART: Tania Del Rio & Jim Amash. Life's an illusion cover by Tania del Rio (pencils) & Jim Amash (inks)! Ships October 24th, 2007 On Sale DDC October 31st, 2007 On Sale Newsstand November 13th, 2007 32-page, full color comic $2.25 US Next up also in comic shops this week – The annual comic book Halloween giveaway. This is set up more for a way to give away comics instead of comics at homes everywhere. The material is well done and the idea is fantastic. The only negative is this is an entirely under-promoted event! This should be part of a yearly one –two punch doubled with the |yearly Free comic book day. This Halloween event could not only help create new readers but also help promote comics as gifts for the winter holidays’, which are just around the corner. This is a wonderful annual event, just woefully ignored in its potential importance. Anyway, 3 free comic books in your local comic book shop, and all three are great to read! Find your local comic book shop: http://csls.diamondcomics.com/ or You can also access the Comic Shop Locator Service by calling toll free:1-888-COMIC BOOK (1-888-266-4226) CLICK HERE  Uncle Scrooge: The Hound of the Whiskervilles:readers can celebrate an important milestone in a tale by Disney comic book legend Carl Barks. The 16-page, full-color book presents "The Hound of the Whiskervilles!" which finds Scrooge returning to his ancestral home, Castle McDuck, to battle the evil menace that drove his family from its walls generations ago. A haunting Gyro Gearloose classic rounds out the Halloween special! From Gemstone Publishing By Carl Barks  Marvel Adventures: Iron Manboasts an all-new tale featuring The Armored Avenger from Fred Van Lente & James Cordeiro. The 16-page, full-color comic also boasts a cover by comic legend Michael Golden, and is sure to spice up trick-or-treat bags this Halloween From Marvel Comics B Fred Van Lente and Michael Golden  Little Archie Halloweenan all new story in which the Little Archie gang decides to take one last stroll through Riverdale's spooky haunted house before the mayor has it torn down. Will they discover the key to saving the house or experience the fright of their lives? Fans can find out in this 16-page, full-color comic. From Archie Comics By Dexter Taylor and Bob Bolling Archie Comics has a great prize for the coolest Halloween costume for you and or your pet. The Blogs on Archie are really cool, so check it out and maybe you can come out of this with a great prize! FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE MAMARONECK, NY – October 22, 2007 The Archie Comics Halloween Costume Contest Halloween is fun for both the young and young at heart. We would really like to see how creative our fans are so; we’ve decided to hold a Halloween Costume Contest. All you need to do to join in the fun: Get your costume together (for you and/or your pet) Take a picture. Yes, you can enter more than once! Email it as an attachment to BlogPhotos@archiecomics.com Be sure to put the words “Costume Contest” in the subject line! You can begin submitting your photos today. All photos will be put up on the website on Halloween Day. The voting will begin on Thursday, November 1. There will be no first round eliminations all entries will be placed on the Archie Comics web site for voting, as long as there are suitable for the entire family. The Winner will receive an original drawing of the Winner with Archie Comics Characters. The winner will be drawn in costume based on the photo submitted. This one-of-a-kind collectible will be drawn by artists here at Archie Comics. We’ve never offered a prize like this before, so get your friends and neighbors together and tell them to vote for YOU! Voting will end at midnight, Saturday, November 17th. The next bit of info is with good friend and amazing visual storyteller, Andre Szymanowicz and his new comic, GROOVE JUNCTION. Andre is about the nicest person I know and his work is just great. He took a few minutes to come by and talk. What is the story of Groove Junction about? The main story is that of these two teenagers, Gabe and Sam (a girl) who are in very different situations growing up, but they both feel this inner desire to help do some good in their city any way they can. I try to keep a safe distance from the whole "superhero" thing so they are more like urban vigilantes. You see in the first issue that they both have very different reasons for going out and doing the things they do as well. They have some problems in their lives that are both internal and external, and the way they deal with them is really the linchpin for the heart of the story. I really want to focus on the character of why people like this would feel so compelled to be something so outrageous like a hero that goes out at any time of the day and tries to help people. I know its something that has been addressed a lot in comics, like its a constant riddle that has to be solved. I just hope the way I told it has its own special spin. And then the city of Groove Junction itself has this thing called an "ambient energy system", which is basically like wireless energy. That means everyday household items from TVs to electric toothbrushes grab currents out of the air for power. It even works for cars and all kinds of stuff. If this little idea is starting to sound familiar, look up a guy named Nikola Tesla who tried doing this in the turn of the 20th century! I had no idea who he even was until after I made the first issue of Groove Junction and my first customer at Chicago Wizard World told me all about him. Its really interesting stuff, and after looking Tesla up on wikipedia, I got a ton more ideas. I’m definitely working him and a lot of his theories into issue two. What made you start doing comics? Comics have always been on and off throughout my whole life. When I was real young, like 10 or so, my Mom threw all my comics out. I had all these great Spiderman comics and I guess they were on my floor for too long or something so that was a parental incentive to clean my room! Fast forward to right after high school, I decided to try to draw comics for the first time, for a college newspaper. That’s where I really got hit hard with how cool it was to see a whole story unfold in the narrative format. I still remember the days, drawing comics on my bed with a Micron pen and a piece of Bristol, just so in love with what I was doing. I still get that feeling, right when I erase the pencil lines and see the nice black ink lines of the story. Its just a really special feeling. Who would you say are some artistic influences? Really early on, I guess it all started with Todd McFarlane and his cool way he drew Spiderman. Then it was the huge surge of anime and manga in high school that had every kid drawing stuff like DBZ and whatever else was out there. In college though, I think I discovered an artist who was to be a major influence for the rest of my life - Mike Allred. When I read his stories I just felt a connection, like this guy was saying what all of us were feeling on the inside about life. I don’t think I’ve ever read any other creator's work and felt quite the same way. He still makes some of the best comics out there too. After that I would say Hiroaki Samura, Hayoa Miyazaki and a lot of European comics. What is the hardest part about self-publishing your own comic? Wow, that would have to be just about everything. You have to understand I can get very passionate about comics and the whole process of creating them. When I talk to people about them who don’t know about them, I might start to sound like a preacher trying to save your soul through comics. This makes it sound like some kind of wonderful playground of creative nirvana, but really, in the end, its a lot of hard work! There is one thing about comics though that really just sticks out in my mind as being tough. Its just simply getting energy to get started and stay with the comic. If you get a schedule and stick to it every night, you can get a surprising amount done. Take that time you would have spent playing Halo 3 on your Xbox and apply it to making comics. Just look at how much time that is! So from there you just have to stick with it and when a problem comes up that is going to slow you down - just plow through it! Things like having a bad drawing day and over thinking things can really mess you up sometimes. You gotta learn to have faith in yourself to plow through things and just do it so you can keep moving. Stalling out on your comic page is death. You can get into funks that last weeks that way. It’s something that still happens to me a lot and my philosophy for dealing with it is just "plow through it!" What does it take to make your own comic? Its really something that requires a lot of devotion. I wish all it took was a little bit of time here and there so you could do other things with your day. It really takes a good deal of stick-to-it-tive-ness. You can’t spend a month on and a month off. You just kinda have to say to yourself you are in it for the long-run, for better or worse and you are in it till you finish or you're dead. You pretty much have to marry your comic. What kind of art materials do you like working with? I do my pencils with the standard .5mm mechanical pencil with an H lead, which seems to be treating me pretty well. I’m having a lot of fun doing my inking with a crow quill nib and an ink well. The lines I get with that are so fun. I like that you can make the ink lines nice and thin and light or kinda thick and messy. Also, I try not to use a ruler so the look maintains a sort of organic feel to it. It’s what I’m trying to do at least! For the tones, I just use Photoshop and for the lettering, I’m going with Quark Xpress. Why do you think this book would be considered an all-ages comic? When I started this comic, I was always thinking in the back of my mind that I would want to make something that my kids could read someday. At the same time, I definitely wanted to have all the things in there that appealed to me as an adult. I’m still pretty much a big 30 year old kid, so it was surprisingly easy to do. The comic ends up being basically just a mixed up recipe of things and themes that I think I would have enjoyed reading about when I was 10 years old, but that I definitely enjoy enough to write and draw about now. Now that I think about it, just keeping everything all-ages was one of the most fun things to do when making Groove Junction. What makes this an independent or "Indie" comic? An Indie comic to me is just simply a creator owned and created comic book that is not owned by a major comic book company. I think there are different levels to it though. You have Indie comics that are published by bigger companies like Oni or Dark Horse, but the Indie comics put out by guys who self-publish I would say are more in the spirit of independent comics because those people are taking care of every aspect of their business themselves. To me, being truly "Independent" means being independent of almost any influence of an outside company. Its totally respectable. Where can someone get a copy of Groove Junction? The best way is to go to my website at: www.astrobraincomics.com There is a button you can click and you can use Paypal or even a credit card to purchase it. I really wish it was in more comic stores, but at the moment you could get one at Funnybooks in Lake Hiawatha, NJ. I like selling my stuff at Comic Conventions. That is something I am slowly trying to build a presence at. I was recently at the Chicago Wizard World, which was cool, and I am trying to get into the New York Comic Convention next April. Coming up soon though, I will be at the Montclair Art Museum in Montclair, NJ, November 4th. Just in closing, Thanks so much to everyone who has bought the book so far. It’s been such a great experience so far and it’s due to all the supportive people that have been so nice to me. See, told you he is nice. He also supplied us with a nice look at the first issue:
Just stumbled across this on line. Squashua, a reviewer for Ain’t it cool news has started: ComicSpace.com/Comics 4 Halloween The sole purpose of which is to collect and distribute information on giving comic books to kids for Halloween. There are links to tips for obtaining books and giving them out (bargain with your retailer for buying in bulk from the quarter bin, offer to name-drop the store to parents, print out and get the Top Ten Reasons flyer into stores, etc.) Give it a look. Lastly, long time Archie writer/artist, a personal favorite, is working on a new project. Here is what is going on in his words: Hi Everyone, I'm in a competition and I really could use everyone's vote! The competition is being held by Zudacomics. This is DC Comic's webcomics division. Zuda has sifted through all the submissions they've received for new, original webcomic series and they've narrowed them down to TEN...one of those ten was LEPRENOMICON, a series by writer GREGG DELCURLA and artist, FERNANDO RUIZ!!!! We were asked to put together an eight page teaser for our proposed series and that teaser, along with nine others, are going to be posted at Zudacomics.com on October 30th. People are going to get a chance to vote for their favorite of the ten. The one that receives the most votes gets picked up by Zuda as a regular series for at least one year.
Check out more details here: Leprenomicon Writer/Artist: Greg DelCurla/Fernando Ruiz Summary: In old Ireland, when the banshee sings for you it means that your time on this Earth is coming to an end. But American Michael O’Connor refuses to take this news lying down. With the (forced) help of a kidnapped Leprechaun, he intends to solve the mystery of his own death even if it turns the world of faeries, gods, and plain old normal folk upside down. CLICK HERE Scroll down to read a brief pitch for LEPRENOMICON. I hope you'll enjoy it. The voting begins next Tuesday, October 30th! Please check it out vote for us. If possible, please e-mail our teaser to as many people as you can. Not just because that might bring in more votes, but also DC is really interested in what gets e-mailed around! I really appreciate any help we can get on this. Thanks! Your friend, Fernando That’s it for now. Next Tuesday, who knows? Right now it is time to setup some last minute Halloween decorations to scare the candy or comics right out of those kids bags. As always if you have a great All Ages project let us know. Get in touch: MikeP(at)SilverBulletComicbooks(dot)com Check out some new All Ages and Younger Reader comic reads on sale this week: AUG073394 SABRINA VOL 2 #89 $2.25 AUG073387 BETTY & VERONICA DIGEST #179 $2.49 AUG073388 BETTY & VERONICA SPECTACULAR #80 $2.25 AUG073392 JUGHEADS DOUBLE DIGEST #135 $3.69 AUG070287 CARTOON NETWORK BLOCK PARTY #38 $2.25 SEP070225 SHOWCASE PRESENTS TEEN TITANS VOL 2 TP $16.99 AUG070292 TEEN TITANS GO #48 $2.25 JUN073584 DISNEYS DUCKTALES: MARV WOLFMAN SCROOGES QUEST TP $15.99 8 Also, check out some great All Ages comic reviews here at Silver Bullet Comic Books. Thanks to reviewers Ray Tate! Scooby Doo #125 CLICK HERE Marvel Adventures Iron Man #6 CLICK HERE Legion Of Super Heroes In The 31st Century #7 CLICK HERE Bart Simpson Comics #38 CLICK HERE |
