Robotika

Robotika is being published again!! April Previews!!

Archaia Studios Press is back...and so is Robotika.

I had the second Robotika mini-series, Robotika: For A Few Rubles More, finished for almost a year, but regretfully the publisher, Archaia, went into restructuring after releasing the very first issue. However, they are back and Robotika is being published again! I just hope that everyone who has enjoyed the series is still interested and will be curious enough to pick-up the new comics.

To relaunch the series, Archaia is printing a double size issue of 64 pages containing the first issue of "For A Few Rubles More", published back in 2008, and 32 new pages of story and art.

Diamond issue of April Previews (out on April 1st) contains the listing for "Robotika: For A Few Rubles More" double size issue (64 pages). Code: APR09 0652 Price: $4.99

There is also a listing for the hardcover collection of the original Robotika mini-series from 2007. The collection is 128 pages (120 story pages and an 8 page sketchbook section). Code: APR09 0651 Price: $19.95

For those who are interested in ordering a copy, I (with a lot of help from Dan Foskett) created a "coupon" with the order codes. Just click on the picture above, print the coupon, circle which book you want, take it to your local comic book store and ask them to order a copy for you. That simple :)

For those of you who don't get out to the local comics store, you can order on line from Heavyink.com. Just click on this link:

Robotika Double Sized Issue #1 at Heavyink.com

First Robotika Collection at Heavyink.com

You get 20% and shipping is a flat fee of 99 cents...so while you're at it get some more comics including this awesome release from Archaia:

Awakening Hardcover Collection
This hardcover collects issues 1-5 of the award nominated Awakening series from Nick Tapalansky and Alex Eckman-Lawn. Wonderful series that Nick has once described as: "a zombie series...that might or might not have zombies in it." Nick originally introduced to me the whole idea of an order "coupon", so go and get Awakening coupon here!

1, 2, 3...

Sketch...Pencils...Inks...

Something Wicked This Way Comes

WonderCon 2009

WonderCon 2009 came and went last weekend. This was my 3rd consecutive year of attending the convention and trying to promote "Robotika" and "Robotika: For A Few Rubles More". One of the things that was stuck in my mind, as I was driving to San Francisco, was the recent book by/about Dave Stevens. He did such a great job describing the conventions and the whole fandom of the 70's, I just could not help wondering how this convention will compare to his wonderful experiences...I did not have to worry, this was my best convention so far, and it was not because I bought something extraordinary, it was because I got to spend time with some very nice creative people who have inspired me to be a better person and a better artist :)

I started the convention by walking around and trying to find dealers who were selling comics in inexpensive sets because I was looking for a couple of limited series drawn by Steve Rude (Captain America: What Price Glory, Spider-man: Lifeline, Thor: Godstorm, and X-Men: Children of the Atom). I only found the Captain America series, but also along the way I found some $1 bins. I picked up a couple of issues of Frank Robbins "Shadow" and almost complete run of Somerset Holmes by Bruce Jones and Brent Anderson.

You ask: "Somerset Holmes?". Recently I "discovered" the art of Neal Adams, which in turn lead me to read Stan Drake's strips, which in turn made me realize that there is a whole tradition of photo-referenced-realistic comics out there from Alex Raymond through Al Williamson to Tim Bradstreet. "Somerset Holmes" fit in there somewhere and is a great little adventure story.

I also spent some time introducing/re-introducing myself to some folks whose work I have always admired (like Tom Yeates and Alex Nino ) and just catching-up with friends. It was great to see new (awesome) artwork by David Williams (cover artist on Wolverine), Mick Gray (inker on the new Joker graphic novel), and Jeremy Bastian (Cursed Pirate Girl).

I was also simply blown away (and humbled) by the sketchbook that Ryan Sook put together as his first self-published effort...I thought I knew just about all of his work, but I kept finding pieces that I have never seen. All presented in sharp black and white...just gorgeous.

This was the first year that Archaia, publisher of "Robotika", had a booth at WonderCon. Nick Tapalansky (who is a very talented writer of the zombie noir series "Awakenings"...that might or might not have zombies in it) flew out to set up the booth and brought books with him. David Petersen ("Mouse Guard"), Josh Finney and Kat Rocha ("Titanium Rain"), Marvin Mann ("The Lone and Level Sands", "Some New Kind of Slaughter"), Patrick McEvoy ("Starkweather") and I all spent time at the booth talking to fans and promoting the whole Archaia line. The cool result: we just about sold all the books that Nick had shipped to the convention; he only had enough books for 1 box. And we sold out of all the remaining copies of the first "Robotika" collection...so the first printing is now officially out of print!

Every convention has moments that make that convention special, and this was no exception. A huge thank you to: Julia Petersen for being cool, Michelle Sook for being cool and knowing where cool places to eat at are in San Francisco, and to Timothy Green for letting me drag him all around the convention in search of cheap comics!

I also want to thank everyone who stopped by (or thought about stopping by :)) to talk about Robotika. It was great and very inspirational for me. Thank you!

Timothy Green and Alex Nino


David Williams...or is it Wolverine?


Timothy Green and Mick Gray


David Petersen and Jeremy Bastian in artist alley


The Archaia Booth: Nick Tapalansky, Kat Rocha, and Josh Finney


Timothy, Nick, Ryan, and Michelle at Amber


Kat Rocha, Alex "Highlander" Sheikman, and Josh Finney

Ryan Sook's First Sketchbook at WonderCon!

I am very excited to tell everyone that Ryan will have his very first sketchbook available for sale at WonderCon!


I am planning to attend WonderCon, so I will buy one in person. For those of you who can't make it to the convention, you can order a copy here:

Ryan Sook Sketchbook on E-bay

Happy New Year!

To everyone!

Batman...take 2

Science Fiction Book Club

It appears that the release date for the second Robotika mini series is getting closer as Archaia is finalizing it's arrangements with their new publishing partner.

In the meantime I just got the news that the first Robotika collection has been selected by the Science Fiction Book Club to be featured in one of it's catalogues.

Sketching

Start of something new :)

Frankie and Lela get married!

My friends, Frank and Lela, have "tied the knot" and are now officially husband and wife. This is a wonderful thing and I was glad to be able to celebrate this joyful occasion with them. The day showed their mutual love and respect for each other and their appreciation of all of their friends...to say the least I was deeply touched.

One thing that I realized in the last few days is that since I have gotten to know Frank, I see him as a great friend...but sometimes I forget that he is also the man who has inspired me as an artist. His work on "Alien Legion" for Marvel is without equal and at the time of it's publication was an artistic event that opened up all sorts of creative doors for me. He continues to create great art and I am fortunate to be influeneced by it.

The lawn set-up.

All aboard.

It's a done deal.

The boys.

Frankie and Bobby.

THE dance.

The Cocktail Monkeys doing what they do best!

I see the light...at the end of the tunnel

"Robotika: For a Few Rubles More" is finished and I believe the printing schedule has been worked out. I hope to be able to post it in the next few weeks :)

Robotika Sketch Challenge!

Brett Barkley was kind enough to let me know that there was a Robotika sketch challenge going on over at the Ten Ton Studios Forum. You can see all the entries here: TenTonForum.

Brett entered a beautiful Niko action sketch that had just the right touch of color in it and had wonderful ambiance...I am totally blown away and humbled by all the great artwork.

Zorro

I recently had the pleasure of seeing original art for Ryan Sook's Zorro covers, being published by Dynamite Entertainment. The work is awesome and I wanted to share some links to the black and white line art featured on Ryan's website:

Zorro5

Zorro6

Zorro7

The website, RyanSook.com, also displays colored versions of the covers and it is very interesting to see how the color is handled to compliment the line drawings.

This is me drooling over the covers:

San Diego 2008

Even though ASP is going through restructuring, they still a "booth presence" at the convention. Lots of creators showed up to talk to fans and sign the books. Nick Tapalansky (writer "Awakenings") was our "booth guru" and rotated artists and writers for signings.

I got to sit and chat with David and Julia Petersen for a bit, which was very nice. I also got have some time talking to Brian Churilla and Leif Jones. Both are super nice folks and it is a shame that I don't get to hangout with them more often.

For me the big news was that I got to talk to Mark Smylie and he filled me in (as much as he could) on the situation with ASP. It sounds like he is actively talking to investors and is hoping to have someone step-up into Aki's role in the next few weeks. Things should be much clearer in about a month and hopefully Robotika will resume it's printing at that time.

Some of the highlights:

Met Michael Golden for the first time. I came over to buy a copy of his new sketchbook and chatted him up about some of his work. He looked at my badge while I was talking and said, "Oh, I know of your work. You do that ninja robot thing, right?" Close enough! I was blown away and just sort of melted at that point.

Met Rick Bryant who back in the 80's produced some awesome portfolios ("Delicate Embrace" and "Oracle") and also did a cool inking job over Mike Mignola on the "World of Krypton" mini-series.

Got to chat with JH Williams and he showed me the originals for the first 2 issues of "Batwoman" series that he is working on. Very, very cool work. I also got to see his pages for the upcoming Jonah Hex issue...I can't wait to buy it.

Saw Ron Marz who was simply thrilled with the 11-page story that Ryan Sook did from his script. He just thought it was excellent and he could not wait to work with Ryan again. Stuff like that is always very cool to hear.

I attended Eisner awards for the first time and got to see Frank Miller give a speech and David Petersen WINNING 2 (!!) Eisners (presented by Samuel Jackson).

Looked at some new work by Joe Suitor, Brian Churilla and Jeremy Bastian...sweet.

Spent $98 buying French comics and sketchbooks at Stuart Ng books. Och.

Bought Travest Charest, Adam Hughes, Frank Cho and Mike Mignola sketchbooks.

Traded original artwork with David Petersen...I am now a proud owner of a Mouse Guard original page (supposedly there is a faint smudge of blood on the border of the page...my plan is to extract Petersen's DNA and clone him (three or four times)).

Archaia Studios Press (ASP) Restructuring

No blog of a struggling new comic book artist can avoid having at least one entry devoted to the publishing aspect of comics. I have been very fortunate that Robotika was picked-up by Archaia from the first go around. Mark Smylie and Aki Lao, who selected Robotika to be part of ASP's initial line-up, are two of the most up standing guys I ever done business with, and after dealing with them for a few months, I started trusting them completely.

When the first mini series was published, ASP published 3 books: Artesia, Mouse Guard and Robotika. Now, three years later, ASP has more than 25 titles in their catalogue...that is not counting all the special collections and reprints. It was pretty awesome to see how Mark and Aki have built the company up.

From what I understand, Aki has decided to move on from ASP to pursue other endeavors. Change is part of life, and I am sure the fact that Aki works full time and has a wonderful family that he wants to spend as much time as possible, all contributed to his decision.

While Aki and Mark are trying to figure out how to fairly restructure the company, the publication of Robotika is suspended. This of course is a bummer, because I am very eager to share the last 100 or so pages of new material, but I am very hopeful that everything will work out just fine. ASP is continuing to do pre-press on issues 2 and 3, and I am almost done with issue #4 (the cover of which has already been colored by Joel Chua). In fact, the silver lining of this news is that I will be totally done with all the art and writing on the whole series before it will be published and I will be able to focus on trying to promote it.

Someone asked me if it is possible that Robotika will never be published...I guess so. Lots of weird unexpected things happen all the time and I am sure there are lots of comics that have been completed that never saw the light of day. I do trust ASP to come through this "restructuring" healthy and able to put out the rest of the books under their banner. I guess I'll just have to wait and see :)

Inspiration

San Jose now has a comic book convention. I believe it was the same show that started in Oakland a few years back, but has now been held at the San Jose Convention Center for the second time. I hope it continues here and I am planning on getting a table next time around.

I did not go this time, but I got to have lunch with Ryan who drove down to attend. We had lunch and ended-up talking comics for a few hours. Ryan also showed me an antique book illustrated by Franklin Booth called "Flying Islands of the Night". Michelle found it for Ryan and was able to buy it with out having to take out a huge loan. It is one of the few books that showcases Booth's color illustrations...and he was as good with color as he was with a line. Simply beautiful work and it sparked a talk about some old school illustrators that was real fun.

Ryan was also kind enough to show me some of his latest work. I was blown away by the story that he has done for the Top Cow's "First Born" storyline, featuring Magdelena. Ryan's covers are awesome, but I originally fell in love with his story pages (from Arkham Asylum) so it is a real pleasure for me to see his new panel-to-panel work. This is going to be a great story and I am waiting to see it piblished.

After talking to Ryan about sorytelling and rendering I walked away being totally excited about drawing...I was also reminded about how hard it is to be a professional artist. Even though Ryan is always positive and very upbeat about everything, I imagine it must be hard (at least it would be hard for me) to wake-up every day and be "on". By "on", I mean being able to draw, draw well, and draw whatever someone put infront of you. Something like that could be a real challenge.

Some new pages:

Backgrounds

My approach to the new pages has been to draw the foreground figures in ink and then draw the backgrounds in gray tones, either with ink wash or markers. This did not work out as well as I hoped, because I ruined some of the panels. I am now drawing the backgrounds on separate paper and combining the foreground and background digitally.

Artist's Alley

Together with Marvin Mann and David Moran, I participated in an interview that covered all aspects of creating independent comic book making. I got to talk about my influences and inspirations, as well as what my thought process is for writing and laying out storytelling.

The first part is here:

Artist's Alley at Broken Frontier

http://www.brokenfrontier.com/lowdown/details.php?id=1271

and from there you can follow the links to the subsequent chapters.

Below is the inside front cover for issue #4 of "Robotika: For A Few Rubles More":