Creature from the Blog Lagoon

My monkey sat on my weasel.

thebrister — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 08:32:21 +0000

Phew!!! That was my sigh of relief. Why am I sighing with relief, you ask? Well, I’ll tell you…as of now FH2T #2 and The Layfield Incident are FINALLY finished. Phew!!! They are at the printers, and we will have them in our grubby little hands in time for The SuperShow!

These two books (especially Layfield) took a lot longer to finish than we ever thought possible. I am now understanding why you sometimes have to wait months and months for the next issue of a comic to come out, especially with independent comics. It’s so easy to say “this book will come out in March.” Then March comes and goes, then NEXT March comes and goes, and the damn book still isn’t finished.

But I digress. The point of this post is to inform all of you that we have not been sitting idly on our hands (okay, we do that sometimes, but just for fun), but have been bustin’ our buns trying to get these books finished. And that time is now upon us!!!

Those of you going to The SuperShow will get first crack at these books. And as a special, super secret SuperShow discount for those of you that follow this blog, I will give both books for the price of one to anyone who tells us “My monkey sat on my weasel.” This is a SuperShow exclusive. Void where prohibited.

Brian

New Layfield updates

thebrister — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 05:23:27 +0000

Okay, so you all know by now that “The Layfield Incident” is gonna be our first color book. You also know that the coloring chores have fallen onto the shoulders of our overworked publisher [Scott Bradley]. Well, in an attempt to ease Scott’s suffering, we’ve hired someone else to do the coloring for Layfield. He’s a “drink you under the table,” hot headed kid named Ryan Joaquin Mederos. And trust me, he will drink you under the table. This Mexican/Irish kid came from out of the blue to save our butts. This frees up time for Scott to get the other million and one things he’s gotta work on finished. And Ryan’s doing a super awesome job. I’ve seen his flats, and they look crazy good! This book has taken so much longer to put out than originally expected, but I think it’s gonna be worth the wait. But, hey, I’m biased. Take a look for yourself and see what you think.

Brian

My top 10 (and then some)

thebrister — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 10:41:33 +0000

Here’s a list of some of my all time favorite comic series. I was going for a top 10 list, but I just couldn’t narrow it down enough. I managed to cut it off at 15 – 16 if you count both X-MEN titles. So here we go.

15 – GREEN LANTERN

14 – JOHN CONSTANTINE, HELLBLAZER

13 – SWAMP THING

12 – JONAH HEX

11 – X-MEN (Uncanny and Astonishing)

10 – THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN

9 – THE NEW TEEN TITANS

8 – ASTRO CITY

7 – THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN

6 – Y: THE LAST MAN

5 – THE SANDMAN

4 – PREACHER

3 – FABLES

2 – LUCIFER

1 – Drum roll, please. THE WALKING DEAD

Honorable mentions for limited series include -

5 – SECRET WARS

4 – 52

3- CRISES ON INFINITE EARTHS

2 – WATCHMEN

1 – BATMAN: THE LONG HALLOWEEN

There are so many awesome comics out there that it’s really hard to put all my favorites into a short(ish) list. And I’m sure I’m forgetting a few titles that I will kick myself for not including in this list of faves. But for now at least, This is my list and I stand behind it.

Brian

All work and no play…blah, blah,blah

thebrister — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 11:22:34 +0000

I came home tonight with every intention of doing some lettering on one of our upcoming comics, only to find that that lettering was not what I really wanted to do tonight. I realized, after staring blankly at the screen for half an hour or so, that what I really wanted to do was drink a beer or two (or three…) and relax. So that’s what I’m doing.

Now before you go off thinking how irresponsible I am, just remember, “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”. And I refuse to be a dull boy. A party boy? Occasionally. A sassy boy? I guess it depends on your definition of sassy, but yes, sometimes. A nancy boy? No. A very handsome and seductive boy? Always. But never, I repeat, NEVER a dull boy.

I hope that clears things up for you.

Brian

Still plugging away

thebrister — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 07:39:15 +0000

There’s not too much new going on at the moment. We’re trying to wrap up some of our ongoing projects. Scott is busy drawing the pages for one of the stories in the upcoming FH2T, as well as getting The Layfield Incident colored. He’s also still in the process of editing our six issue mini-series; Sorrow in Stillwater.

I, on the other hand, have been sitting around twiddling my thumbs. I’m waiting for scripts and rough art to come my way so I can work my editorial magic. I’m also waiting on some finished artwork so I can do the lettering. Somehow Scott and I have gotten on a schedule where one of us is crazy busy while the other one is doing next to nothing. Soon it will be my turn to be crazy busy again.

I don’t want you to think I’ve been sitting around doing nothing, though. I’ve been using this down time to go back and re-letter some of the stories in the first FH2T. This was the first comic I ever lettered, and I’ve learned a lot about lettering since then. We plan to collect the FH2T books into one volume, so I plan to polish up the lettering on the earlier stories before we do that. I’ve also been working on the Pigeon Toe & Clubfoot script. If you haven’t seen it yet, there’s a new page of the webcomic on our website (page 03). We haven’t finished refining the new website yet, so there is no “next” button to click on to go through the pages, but if you just click on the page itself, it will go to the following page. And…drum roll please…I’ve finally gotten around to plotting out what’s going to happen in future Layfield stories. The Layfield Incident was originally planned as a one shot, but as soon as I finished it I knew that wasn’t where the story ended. Think of the first Layfield book as The Hobbit and the following books as Lord of the Rings. Not that I’m comparing myself to Tolkien, mind you. But the structure of the, more or less, stand alone story followed by the bigger story applies.

Brian

Pick up the pace, why don’t you?

thebrister — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 02:27:59 +0000

Yeah, yeah. I know, I know. We are so far behind on everything right now it isn’t even funny. But believe me, we’ve been working our butt’s off.

“The Layfield Incident” seems to be in a never ending limbo at the moment. Marc’s awesome artwork has been done for a while now, and the lettering only needs sfx…The big hold up is getting it colored. As you know, this is our first color comic, and it’s taking a lot longer than anticipated to make that happen. Hey, we are only a two man operation here. Plus, we also have “real” jobs. One of the reasons “Layfield” is taking so long is because we always put our contracted work ahead of our own projects. Scott has taken over the coloring reigns for “Layfield” (with a little/lot of help from our “Color Director” – Marc Jameson) but he’s also been tied up working on the art for one of the next FH2T issues, as well as taking on the enormous responsibility of editing a six issue mini-series. He’s also been drawing monkeys. But never fear…It will be worth the wait.

FH2T#2 is also taking longer than expected to finish. But I gotta say, I really think we found our groove with this issue. Your gonna get some of the best stories and art this series has to offer out of this issue. It’s got a great mix of FH2T veterans and new comers to the title. And they all pulled out all the stops to give you, the reader, the best reading experience you can get for a paltry $3.50.

I know we’ve been letting Pigeon Toe & Clubfoot (our webcomic) slide lately…BUT THAT ENDS NOW! Page 03 is just about ready to post, and I’ve been trying to get ahead on the script so I can get pages to Scott faster for him to draw and color.

I’ll admit, we bit off more than we could chew at the moment. Our social life is nonexistent, our bank accounts are drained, and we have more work piled up on us than two people can possibly do… But none of that matters. Because we believe in every comic we’re putting out, and we believe in the people that are writing/drawing them.

That being said, we are gonna keep busting our butt’s until each and every one of these upcoming comics are finished. And then we’re gonna do some more comics.

How do you like that?

Brian

Yikes! Where has the time gone?

scott — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 03:51:26 +0000

I swear, you turn your attention away from something and the next thing you know it’s totally old and has cobwebs all over it! Sorry that we have once again neglected the blog from the blog lagoon.

Brian and I have been working on the next issue of From Here to There, among other things…Oops dinner is ready. We’ll talk tomorrow.

Back on the interweb

thebrister — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 05:50:34 +0000

I know our website was out of action for a while there, but we’re back, baby! And we’re bigger, better and badder than before. Kudos to Scott for all the time and effort he put into rebuilding this website.

I’ve got a lot of cool things to tell you all, but unfortunately, I’m too tired to give you all the details right now. Just hang tight for a bit longer and we’ll get you all up to speed.

Brian

Almost There!

admin — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 06:01:20 +0000

So, I’ve been working on this verdammt new site for quite a while now. let me know what you think by leaving a comment to this post. If you don’t mind that is.

Okay, I’m way too brain-dead to be witty or anything here. I’m taking the day off tomorrow and will blog you again on Monday.
Take it easy!

Home again, home again, jiggidy jig.

thebrister — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 01:15:56 +0000

Well, we’re back from the Stumptown Comics Fest in Portland, Oregon. What can I say…? One of the best things about doing a comic publishing company is traveling around to all the conventions. We stayed at an awesome hotel that I decided I want to live in. The only bad part of the hotel was an oddly locked closet door that I was sure was where they kept the Golem.

Now we’re back, and don’t have any conventions scheduled for the next two months. You know what that means… It’s time for us to get serious about finishing some of these “upcoming” comics that we’re always talking about. Our next convention is the Heroes con in North Carolina. It’s June 18th – the 20th, and we plan on debuting a couple of new comics there. We’re finishing up the lettering for PIECES now, and it will most definitely be there. We also hope (and pray) that we will have THE LAYFIELD INCIDENT done by then. “LAYFIELD” will be our first color book, so we’re super excited about that.

And for you PIGEON TOE and CLUBFOOT fans out there… I (finally) got around to working on the script for page 03. I should be finished with it sometime next week, then it’s off to Scott for his magical touch. For those of you that haven’t checked out P.T and CF, it’s our ongoing web comic about two tough as nails detectives in San Francisco. Think Magnum p.i., The Rockford Files, The Spirit, and Dashiell Hammett all rolled into one. You can also through a little Simon and Simon in there. By the way, Did I mention that they’re pigeons? This is something that Scott and I worked up while doing the APE convention. People seem to love pigeons, so we said to ourselves – “who are we to deny these people pigeons?” I’ve been writing the scripts and Scott has been doing the pencils, inks, coloring and lettering. Wow, now I feel really lazy. You go, Scott, you multi talented bastard.

If you want to check P.T. and CF out, just go to the comics link on our home page, then go to web comics.

Brian