September is for Comics
A weekend full of mini comics and zines
One of my biggest takeaways from Rose City Comic Con last weekend was that I didn’t have anything new to offer this year since I started attending the convention. It isn’t that I haven’t been working on comics, I just didn’t have anything of my own that I could hand my friends like I usually do. My focus has been on larger projects and chasing bigger goals, which hasn’t produced any small comics or zines.
Of course I have plenty of other work to show off between my editing work and Gold Key’s Boris Karloff Presents and my most recently released book, Neptune (which is free to read with your Amazon Prime account so go read it here and leave a 5-star review). It is great to tell people that I edited a well received book with a star like Michael W. Conrad and an amazing artist like Nathan Ooten, with lettering and design by Kyle Arends. I can show them the screen grab of our book sitting at the top of the New Releases list and celebrate, which we did. But there is something different about handing someone a small comic to read and enjoy that I missed out on this year.
This coming weekend will be the Portland Zine Symposium, which I will be talking about in more detail later in this newsletter, which is another event I attend every year with my newest mini comics and zines. In the past, I always had at least one new book because I would do the 24 Hour Comics Day Challenge every year. For five years in a row I produced a 24 page comic within the span of 24 hours. They weren’t great, but they were fun to read. If I could make a silly comic in the span of 24 hours, why can’t I make a mini comic in the week leading up to the Zine Symposium? It wouldn’t have to be an award winning narrative epic, in fact, it wouldn’t even need to make sense as long as I made it and I made it fun. I thought of a really bad idea that would get me started, picked up my pencil, and started drawing.
Here’s an exclusive sneak peek of my new comic
Making this nonsensical comic has been a lot of fun, so I thought I’d share my progress so far. I haven’t quite finished penciling but I’m going to show you what I have so far. The images might change and there are no words, in fact, I’m not entirely sure what the words will be yet, but it won’t make much more sense when I add them anyway. I’m not trying to put together a story so much as string together scenes and events at random. I’ll have the finished comic on my table at the Portland Zine Symposium on Saturday for anyone in the area, and I’ll put some copies up for grabs in my online store in the following weeks. Give it a look and tell me what you think in the comments below.
As you can see, it is a complete drivel. Where does it go from here? How does it end? I’m not even sure, but I can tell you that I have some thoughts for volume 2 already if this one stirs up enough interest. Hell, even if it doesn’t I might just keep making nonsense for a while just to entertain myself. I could fill this week’s newsletter talking about the other reasons I decided on making this comic and my secret plans and motivations that go along with it, but I’ll keep those secrets a secret so I can tell you about something much more important…
A Special Guest Appearance
My dear friend, Laura Jones is coming to Portland for the Zine Symposium! If you are in the Portland area, come to the event on Saturday and stock up on her zines. I met Laura last year at Emerald City Comic Con and she instantly became one of my favorite people in comics. She has an incredible ability to find the emotional core to a story that resonates with the reader. Although her work is largely autobiographical, reading her comics feel more like she has found a way to speak for you rather than to you. Even when her stories are about something you have never experienced, you find yourself relating to them. This is because Laura possesses something that very few writers do, the ability to put aside her ego and become truly vulnerable to the reader.
I’m always impressed by her ability to show and express her truth even when it hurts, or is embarrassing, or ugly, which makes her comics all the more beautiful. Being fortunate enough to call myself a friend of Laura’s, I get occasional behind the scenes looks at her work and I can tell you honestly that she is only getting better. If you want mini comics with a big heart, you won’t find anything more heartfelt than Laura’s comics.
You can read most of them for free on her Instagram, but she usually leaves it set to private, so hurry and click follow before you lose your chance. You can find her table next to mine at the Portland Zine Symposium this weekend. If you want physical copies of her work, I will try to stock some copies in my online store following the event with whatever she has left. I’m personally looking forward to adding her new zines my Laura Jones collection this weekend and I think you should too.
That’s enough of my nonsense for this week.
I’ll leave you with a random sketch that I made. To echo the little imp, thank you for subscribing and sharing my newsletter. If you haven’t subscribed to this free newsletter yet, you can do so through the link below.
