Not Much to Report...

...but I just wanted to check in since it's been a bit since my last post.

The Wannabez podcast interview should be up on the site this Wednesday, so be on the look out for that at the ALL NEW ComicRelated.com!

Also upcoming on Comic Related will be my new column, Journey of a Wannabe, which chronicles my journey from a fan to my current status in bi-weekly fashion.

I'll update you on both of those when they go live.

Next year, Scott and I will begin the Wannabez webcomic featuring side stories of main, secondary and tertiary characters even. Should be a lot of fun.

As far as progress on issue 1 goes, well, there has been none, at least not to my knowledge. I've not sent Ross anymore pages to grayscale yet, and Scott has been working hard on other projects. But we'll get it out there soon enough, no worries about that.

I can tell you that we will be doing a calendar next year and we've already started putting together a list of potential artists to contribute. The calendar will be either a 16 or 18 month calendar for 2009-2010 featuring pinups of Wannabez characters for every month. It'll be a fun project and a fun and functional piece of artwork for your homes, studios or offices! Hint Hint.

Please check out the Wannabez store and buy some Christmas gifts!

While you're at it, click the button on the sidebar to buy a copy of Wannabez #0 for yourself or a loved one this holiday season!

~B

The Day, the Plan and the Deal

Yesterday Scott and I traveled to Comics 2 Games in Florence, KY to record a podcast interview for ComicRelated.com. Many announcements came about, which you'll soon learn about, and a lot of fun was had. To read the full report of the day, head over to my main blog and read the Long, Wonderful Day post.

In the next post on that blog I talked about how the day and the people we met truly inspired my creativity. So the plan now is to hook up with Scott in person soon and hash out the next couple of arcs of Wannabez.

See, I had originally planned it as a 12-issue maxi-series broken up into two arcs of six issues each. When we started laying it out for publishers we decided to scale it back an issue, as much content as could be spared, and keep the first arc at 5 issues. However, I had never fully laid out the second part of that 12 issue arc, so there's a lot of work to be done.

Whether the comic will remain a series of mini-series or evolve into an on-going I'm not sure, we'll just have to let that play out (and it really depends on a lot of factors). But I'm hoping we can come up with some really cool things in the months ahead, including spin-offs in the form of webcomics!

Now, I mention a "deal" in the title of this post as well. See, for some strange and peculiar reason way back when, I wrote issues one and three, and then laid out 2 and 4-6. Over the years I've only managed to write 7 pages of issue 2 to date, and Scott never ceases in bugging me about it. Of course, in my defense, when you're knee-deep in lettering work it's hard to find time to do anything else, even when you really want to.

So, yesterday I made a deal with Scott. The first convention of 2009 we're planning on doing is MegaCon in Florida. So I told Scott that I would finish issue 2 by the end of the year, and if I didn't I would pay for his hotel room in Florida. So now I have something to motivate me to finish as I'm not that wealthy. :) I've got about 7 weeks, give or take. Surely I can sit down and write 15 pages of script! Hopefully...

I'll keep you apprised of how that all plays out.

~B

Comic Related Recap

In one week, Scott and I will record our in depth podcast interview with Chuck Moore of Comic Related at Comics2Games in Florence, KY.

Those familiar with Sketch Magazine or Blue Line Pro will know that location well.

While we will be recording the episode on November 8th, it won't actually air until November 26th (it was the 19th, but it's been moved), the day before Thanksgiving! It will be (tentatively) Related Recap #54, so be on the lookout for it.

You can keep apprised of all upcoming Related Recap podcasts here. And keep watching that site, because in two short weeks it will all change...

Scott and I will be talking about a great many things collectively and individually, but of course, our main focus is Wannabez. We hope to have some news on conventions next year and the state of issue #1 of the book, the website, and much more, so don't miss it!

We'll keep you updated right here with more information as we know it.

B

Grayscales Floating In!

Ross sent over page 2 of issue 1 grayscaled last night and it rocks, naturally. We are so thrilled to have Ross on the team. He adds that missing flavor that neither Scott nor I could fill.

I'm not going to show the whole page (hey, you've seen the inks if you have issue #0 - and if you haven't, buy it!), but I will show a panel from it:


See? I told you, it's awesome.

Be sure to check out Ross' DeviantArt gallery, linked in the sidebar. And he's got a killer thread over at CBR with a bunch of sweet samples.

B

On the Move

Since it's been a little while since our last update, I just wanted to pop in and let you know we are diligently working on issue 1. Ross already has pages in hand and the grayscaling process has begun!

I am going to try to set aside a space of time this week or weekend to write the rest of issue #2, so we can have that in the can as well.

And just a reminder, #0 is still available! I'm sitting on a box full here at the house that I will gladly sell to you! You can just click "Add to Cart" in the sidebar to order your copies directly from me! Even if you've seen the Dimestore version, you'll want this version. The paper quality is much better, and there's a lot more content in this issue solely dedicated to Wannabez!

I'll give another update as soon as we have something to update you on. Just stay tuned, big things are in the works!

B

Dinner for Three

Myself, Scott and his wife, Shannon, all met up for dinner last night as they were in town for a Star Wars collectors event, where Scott did pretty well drawing sketch cards (congrats, Scott!). He even gained a pretty cool young fan in the process.

At dinner at Olive Garden (only the second time I'd ever been - I'll be going back! Very good food and atmosphere), we talked about many things, among them of course was Wannabez. Chiefly, we discussed going to color instead of grayscales and started talking about the feasibility of it.

Thus far, the conclusion we've come to is it's just too expensive to go full color at the rates we've found so far, and nearly impossible to make a profit on the book without shooting the price up to a level I wouldn't be comfortable charging you all.

So, unless we find much more reasonable rates, we'll be doing grayscale on the singles. But Ross is going to try to color them in full color and convert them to grayscale, changing values here and there, so that WHEN we go to trade we can produce it in full color! That's the compromise, as self-publishers, we sometimes have to make I suppose.

That said, as I've declared here before, and as anyone who's seen issue #0, Ross' grayscales are phenomenal, and though Scott's inks are equally impressive, the grays really do make the pages pop more than simple black and white ever could, especially for the style of art that Wannabez is done in. So it's an easy compromise considering the monumental talent producing these beautiful pages.

The rest of the dinner discussion was great, and it was very cool seeing Scott and Shannon again so soon after the last time. Hopefully we'll be able to meet up more regularly than we have the past few years, which was not at all! With all the conventions Scott and I are hoping to do next year, I think that's a very good possibility.

More from the land of Wannabez to come soon!

B-Out

Wannabez Now Available!!!

If you look to your left in the sidebar below the names of the creators you will now find the cover image and and "Add to Cart" button to purchase Wannabez #0! This is via paypal. If you don't have paypal, email us for a copy via another method.

Also, I've updated the Cafepress store (linked in the nav bar up top as "Shop") with some new items. It's still a work in progress, but please check it out!

B-Out