Hi Folks! It’s been waaaaay too long! I just wanted to post some recent art to whet your appetite for some new work!
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Hi Gang!
It’s been too long since we last talked and for that I’m sorry. 2015 had some horrendous events for me and my family that kept derailing my work on the comic. I won’t get into the sordid details but it was real rough. 2016 with it’s renewed hope threw me yet another curveball – getting laid off from the day job. Ugh. But we’ve all had ups and downs but we’ve got to pick ourselves up, brush ourselves off, and carry on. Which brings me to The Graveyard Gang.
With 4 issues under my belt, I’ve been working on Issue 5 (when I could) but this past year has given me pause to the path of comic. Selling my comic at Cons has gone very well overall but watching my primary audience, kids, I noticed they don’t tend to buy lots of comic books. They love the comic format for reading stories but they tend to like them in paperback/hardcover graphic novel book form. And parents seem much more willing to plunk done money for a paperback/hardcover for their kids over comic books. Maybe it’s a durability thing? Persived value?
From a financial viewpoint, selling my single issue comics at $5 a pop meant I had to sell a huge amount to make Con table costs and a small profit. The comics, which look great, thanks to printing help from my wife Monica, cost about $2.50 per comic. So unless I can manage to sell thousands, making any kind of serous money is next to impossible. So what to do, what to do?
After much deliberating I came up with a new plan.
1. Issues 1-4 will be collected, with some new material, into a trade paperback. I hope to launch a Kickstarter to accomplish this.
2. Shifting the Gang’s adventures to graphic novels. My original plan for Issues 5 and 6 of the comic book will be combined and expanded into an original graphic novel. I’m going to try and get an agent and a publisher. (Wish me luck!) I have so many stories to tell, hopefully someday I can afford an artist assist to bring them all to life!
3. So what about the website? I will still be putting up new content online but it’ll be more comic strip style along with some shorter adventures. This is where I’ll introduce the new characters you see in the teaser image I created. Stay ‘tooned’ as I bring their antics to life, I hope you’ll like them!
So again, thanks you so much for your patience, I hope you’ll find it rewarded by what’s to come!
I wanted to save this last post on the 2015 Baltimore Comic Con to say thanks to the people who made this weekend happen for me.
To my girl Angelica, for giving up her weekend and braving the journey with me. You worked hard all weekend at the show and I couldn’t have done it without you! Love you!
To the crew of the Baltimore Comic Con, especially Brad Tree, for being very helpful to a first-timer, putting on such a great show, and for having the ‘Kids Love Comics’ pavilion.
To all my fellow artists, it was so great to meet so many of you (finally) in person!
To all the Con-goers that stopped by, especially those who bought some Graveyard Gang comics!
And a very huge, heartfelt thank you to the ‘Kids Love Comics’ crew Mark Mariano, Chris Mariano, and John Gallagher! The weekend long event was filled with all kinds of activities geared to involve kids in not only reading comics but drawing and creating them as well!
Mark Mariano was first to reach out to me and invite me to this year’s Con. When we met in person at the Con he was so kind and generous with his time, offering some great advice, and even hosting the Doodle Scribble Draw championship I participated in (me and artist partner Jacob Chabot took home the belts!). Not only is Mark an organizer of the Kids Love Comics pavilion (which is held at several other Comic Conventions as well) he’s an amazing artist with a great variety of all-ages work and books which you can find HERE
Stopping by to say hi to the amazing Mark Mariano!
Chris Mariano (yes, they’re related!) is another amazing fellow who worked tirelessly all weekend making the Kids Love Comics pavilion a big hit. He was so glad we made the trip and he made us feel very welcome. And despite being out straight making sure the planned events for the kids went well, he took the time to stop by often to check in and make sure Gel and I were doing well.
Me catching Chris Mariano between his busy ‘Kids Love Comics’ events!
John Gallagher is another amazing artist and makes his comic business a family affair, creating comics with his daughter Katie and sons Jack and Will. It was great to meet John and share our love for kids’ comics which is brought to life through Kids Love Comics. His enthusiasm for what we do got me reenergized to make comics! You can find his (and his kids) work HERE
Sneaking a quick photo with John Gallagher at his table. He makes comic creating a family affair!
John and Mark also have a Kids Love Comics website which promotes all ages comics and graphic novels. A great resource for kids, adults, families, teachers, and librarians. You should should check it out HERE
So as you can tell, this was such a wonderful experience which opened my eyes to lots of new possibilities. I hope this is just the beginning of my association with Kids Love Comics and I hope Mark, Chris, John and I can keep in touch and work together in the future.
Me proudly displaying my victory belt!
Not only did I meet many Con goers that came to the ‘Kids Love Comics!’ Pavilion at the Baltimore Comic Con but I met some great comic artists in person as well. I’ve talked with many of these talented folks for years online, so it was wonderful to meet them in person. Check out a few photos of me and my fellow artist pals.
Me and the amazing Dawn Griffin! She just wrapped up her long-running webcomic Zorphbert and Fred! Check out her work at http://dawngriffinstudios.com/
Me and the daunting Charlie Dowd. He’s the creator of the all-ages comic Lilith Dark and Kidthulu. Check out his work at http://cdowd.com/
This a was fun Friday Night get-together with a bunch of talented comic creators! I’m in there somewhere!
There were so many I didn’t get a photo with but it was great to meet them nonetheless – Dani Jones , Joe Mulvey , Otis Frampton , Andy Runton , Mike Maihack , Jimmy Gownley , Frank Cammuso , Dan Parent , Martin Brandt, and I even caught up with fellow Boston area artist Jennie Wood . They are all great, talented artists and I recommend you check out their comics.
Next time: Final thoughts and a big thank you!
Here I am autographing an issue for a lucky customer!
Over the span of 3 days at the ‘Kids Love Comics!’ Pavilion at the Baltimore Comic Con, I got a chance to introduce many attendees, kids and adults, to my comic The Graveyard Gang. A rather new, unknown comic book series is a tough sell to many Con goers used to the well known characters of Marvel and DC Comics, but I found lots of folks excited to learn about my comic.
Thanks to all that stopped by, checked out my comic and those that took some home with them! There was even a Pennsylvania comic shop owner Bill Wieder who stopped by, loved my book, and bought some copies to stock in his store, Comic Books 101.
So check out photos of some of the folks who bought some Graveyard Gang Comics, maybe one of them is you!
Xavier picked up Issue #3!
Robin liked the GG so much she bought all 4 issues!
Logan got a ‘wolfpack’ to hold his comics!
Kayla decided to buy Issue #1, a good place to start!
Joshua with his autographed copy of Issue #1!
Comic creators John and Will Gallagher bought an Issue #1!
Even some Cosplayers bought a set of comics!
Brett bought himself all 4 issues!
Athos checked out Issue #4!
Next time: Meeting some fellow comic creators!
Here I am in Baltimore all ready for a fun weekend!
On September 25th -27th I had a wonderful weekend attending my first out of state comic convention in Baltimore. Earlier this year, comic creator Mark Mariano graciously asked me if I’d like to be part of the this year’s ‘Kids Love Comics!’ Pavilion at the Baltimore Comic Con. Mark, along with his brother Chris Mariano and comic creator John Gallagher, organize an area of the Con designated to getting kids excited about the world of comics. There is a full schedule of activities and dozens of kid comic creators waiting to introduce younger readers to a wide variety of comics that’s geared for them!
So on Thursday the 24th my daughter Angelica and I packed up my car and ventured from our home in Massachusetts to the city of Baltimore. It was a full day of driving (approximately 8 hours with 3 stops) but thankfully it was an uneventful trip. Once we checked into our hotel we walked our stuff to the Convention Center and set up our table for the weekend. There we met up with fellow ‘Kids Love Comics!’ artist (and fellow Werewolf creator) Chris Flick of Capes & Babes and Webcomics Alliance fame. He joined us for some dinner after setting up. It was great to meet in person and get a chance to spend some time together.
So nice to meet my fellow Werewolf creator Chris Flick!
The next 3 days were a whirlwind of activity – meeting so many fellow artists, many whom I’ve only conversed with online and introducing a whole new audience of Con attendees to The Graveyard Gang. Since I’ve lots of ground to cover, I decided to break up my Con recap into 4 parts so …
More words and photos (taken by Angelica, thanks Gel!) on the Con tomorrow!
The table is all set for the Con to begin!
