Anti-Stepbrother Chapter 8

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I didn’t forget about you all! I missed last week because of ECCC (which was an absolute blast, my ego and my voice may never recover) but we are back on this comic recap train, baby! We’re up to Chapter 8!

One of the things I really loved about getting to adapt this book into a comic and delve into Tijan’s writing was how she doesn’t let her characters evolve quickly. Feelings are murky and complicated and she really lets them sit in the discomfort as they bang about in the world. It was a refreshing thing to read and experience with this story. It’s so tempting to scream at characters “REALLY you’re still doing A, B, and C?? Get over it, moron!” but that’s realistic, baby. I know I have to fail an average 30 times before I learn something. That’s right, I’m batting 30 anytime I want to evolve! Is that how that baseball analogy works?

Anyhoo, on with the shirtless! I mean the preview! (Remember to read it on the KiSS App!)

SPX this weekend!

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I'll be at the super amazing Small Press Expo this weekend with a zillion super talented indie comics creators!

You can find me at table W-29 against the far wall:

And here are some of the things I'll have with me!

I'll also be doing commissions at the show, so feel free to come on by and request a little sumpin' sumpin'! Hope to see you all there!

We Did It!

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WE DID IT!! The book has been funded, thank you all SO MUCH for your support! It was a crazy ride, but a lot of fun to see so much support and excitement from so many of you readers out there. For the next few months, I'll be posting progress reports about the books on my Kickstarter page - so you can check in there to see how things are going. And if you didn't get a chance to be part of the campaign, it'll let you know when you can get a copy too!

Bonnie Kickstarter begins ... NOW!

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I almost posted "Bonnie Kickstarter BEINGS now" because that's how caffeinated/psyched I am for it! And really, I am 100% a Bonnie Kickstarter Being. ANYWAY. I've created my FIRST EVER Kickstarter in order to get a collected Bonnie Volume 1 printed up, so check it and all the rewards and the video with my (awkward) voice and everything over on the Kickstarter page!

Love you guys and all the support over all these years I've been doing Bonnie! Wait, that sounds like I'm ending it - I'm NOT ENDING BONNIE, SHE WILL BE MY FRIEND FOREVER!

May Autobio Comic

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It's that time again!

It's May and because I've now reached TWO Milestone Goals on my Patreon page, you all now get one autobio comic per month AAAAAND one colorized Bonnie strip per month!

Here's this month's autobio comic:

Lovin' all the support! And if you want to get MORE STUFF from me per month, become a patron today, weeeee!

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April Autobio Comic

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HEY WOO PARTY YAY TIME TWO GOALS REACHED!

For those of you who don't know, I have a Patreon page where lovely fans/friends/supporters can chip in $1, $3, or $10 a month to get extra goodies and support the creation of my comics. As part of Patreon, you set some milestone goals and if that monthly amount reaches those levels, you provide extra fun things.

On mine, at $50 I promised a monthly autobio comic. That goal was reached a couple months ago (for the first one I just added two new Bonnie comics that month) and NOW my second milestone goal has been reached TOO! The second one is to color one Bonnie strip per month, hooray!

So now you all have a monthly autobio comic AND a colored Bonnie strip each month, thanks to the kind folks who are supporting me. This is why I love sites like Patreon - they allow us creators to do more each month and enable you all to be directly involved.

SO ANYWAY thank you all so much. To check out April's autobio comic and to become a patron, click here!

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Part-Time Princesses Party Preview Party YAY

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AHOY-HOY!!

I'm using Mr. Burns's phone answering technique to excitedly share with you guys that my NEW book Part-Time Princesses (penned/drawn/stressed over by me, published by the amazing Oni Press) is now in Previews for pre-ordering!

(Yes, when this comes out it WILL have a title and my name on it)

I've illustrated a comic for Oni before (Glitter Kiss by amaze-tastic Adrianne Ambrose) but THIS one will be completely my fault! My wonderful, princessy fault, all powdery because it's stuffed full of funnel cake (spoiler - it takes place in an amusement park).

If you're a comic shop, please go forth and pre-order and support! If you're not, looky - the thing I've been mysteriously alluding to (who are we kidding, complaining about the work of) is finally going to be released!

MARCH 2015. Mark it, dude!

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That First Webcomic Love

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Hey all you loyal, lovely Gods & Undergrads readers. I unfortunately have something really tough to tell you -- I've decided to put G&U on a sort of permanent hiatus for the time being. This is a really difficult thing for ME to do, but I'm sure for all of you out there who've managed to stick with it all this time, it's way more obnoxious! G&U has always been the book I've been MOST passionate about and the majority of people have been the LEAST interested in, and it was only recently after interventions from some friends and colleagues that I realized it was time to throw in this G&U towel for the moment. Not because I don't think it's worth it to put time and work into a story no one reads - hello, I'm in comics - but because the story itself is now REALLY suffering from my lack of attention. So I need to grow up and realize it and do something hard . . . like ending my first comic.

I started Gods & Undergrads wayyyy back in the year 2000 when first discovering an early love for (and awareness of) webcomics. While working at my college's art office and photo lab, I alternated between reading Scott McCloud's Zot, Derek Kirk Kim's Same Difference, and Jason Little's Bee Comix. I especially loved Dylan Meconis's Bite Me and Faith Erin Hicks's Demonology 101, too.

But what all of these people DID with their web sagas I failed to do -- they eventually finished them. They moved on to other things. While I, also, moved on to other things, other stories I wanted to tell . . . and yet I still dragged Gods & Undergrads along behind me, bumping it onto every pothole and street sign along the way. Leaving months, even years between updates sometimes. The audience I'd managed to build up until that point put up with a lot of unknowns, changes in style, even going from its initial full color format to all black and white, . . . but eventually most people have stopped reading. That's just one of the troubles with continuing a story after 14 years (and intermittent shoe-horning between other comics projects). It gets lost among the shuffle and doesn't get the attention and care it deserves.

HOWEVER, one of the reasons for me to tie it off now and put an (abrupt) ending on this 14-year-long saga is not just to stop me from dragging it through the mud, but also to give myself a chance further down the line of resurrecting it in a newer, more planned out storyline (rather than its current Frankenstein one). Oh, did I not mention that I would totally reboot this? I WOULD TOTALLY REBOOT IT.

So anyway - sorry for the lame news, everyone. I'm going to be posting the final, abruptly-cut-short 10 pages of Gods & Undergrads over the next few weeks. Sure, if I'd pulled the trigger earlier I could've ended it at the end of Book 3, with Lelaina gone and seemingly dead but WHO WANTS THAT ENDING??

I'll still have the books for sale (tons and tons of books) and will do sketches and things for anyone who wants them. And the archives will all remain online indefinitely. A BIG, HUGE, HEARTFELT THANK YOU to all of you who've kept up with the story all this time! Again, this definitely isn't the END end of Gods & Undergrads . . . just the end for now. *sniff*

And, of course, I'll still be doing Bonnie twice a week. And other comics. And I love you guys!

***UPDATE: I've decided this last chapter will be a FULL chapter, hooray! 48 pages of fun coming your way, so stay tuned! You'll have more G&U for a while yet. :)

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Gods & Undergrads SALE up in here

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In celebration of my webcomic Gods & Undergrads returning this month, I'm throwing a SALE PARTY and you're all invited!

Just use the coupon code CHEAPGODS to get 15% off Gods & Undergrads merch (or, really, any merch in my store) AND when you get a G&U book, I'll draw in it the Greek God of your choice!

Like this here Poseidon (who hasn't shown up in the comic ... YET) I did for a fellow reader:

So come on down to my shop and get some 15% off things! It'll help the comic and me and we'll all celebrate Greek Mythology Nerdiness together!

(psst - and if you haven't seen them, I also have a whole slew of Greek Gods inspired prints!)

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Last of the Colorful Gods & Undergrads Books

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EEK! My 2nd volume of Gods & Undergrads (i.e. the book where SHIT REALLY GETS REAL) is almost sold out! Now, I'll be reprinting this volume, so too much panicking isn't really necessary, BUT not in color. Not again, not for a little while. Until, y'know, the massive omnibus of all things Gods & Undergrads happens and I finally do a KickStarter about it or somethin' somethin' (which will probably totally happen at some point).

So if you want Book 2 in color ... act now! It's $8, and I've got four left. Tick ... tick ...

Here are some fuzzy pictures I took with my phone of this endangered beast in the wild ...

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Pieces in Progress

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Just in case you guys don't already know this, since I'm working on a book for Oni in the background and I can't give you guys comics EVERY day (just Tue-Thu for Bonnie and Wed for my travel journal comic, which ain't too shabby!), I post a lot of my work in progress on my Instagrammers and Tumblrrrs pages. I'm always down for comments and questions on my process, tools, plans, whatevs! So feel free to chat.

Like this kinda stuff:

Come join the party!

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Inking the New Hotness: Part 1

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I've been doing a LOT of inking lately and I think I'm in love with it. A couple of months ago, I  switched over from only using my beloved Pentel Brush Pen to using a tiny brush and a pot of India Ink.

Inking used to be one part of the Comics Process Trinity that I liked okay (because at least the pencilling was over with), but I was always disappointed with the lack of control I felt. Lines that looked so cool in pencil were suddenly ruined by the shaky, fat line that completely surprised me when I drew it on the page.

The smaller brush seems to have made a huge difference in giving me more control in line weight and distribution of ink. It took some adjustment at first to get used to holding a thinner drawing instrument (welcome back, carpal tunnel!), but now I wouldn't have it any other way. I even tried to get slightly larger brushes of the same style - #8 and #10 - but #6 remains my jam.

I'm a total inking novice, so I wanted to do a couple posts on my newfound love of it and how I'm (hopefully) learning to improve upon my process. New exciting tools that make me excited to do it - CHECK!

Inspiration is also a huge kick in the pants of making we want to improve, too. Here are a few of the folks whose inking stylings I'm super crushing on:

Other posts about inking: Inking the New Hotness Part 3 Inking the New Hotness Part 2

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Small Boob Awards: Katina Choovanski

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Like a lot of the ladies I give out the Small Boobs Award to, this one also doubles as a Kick-Ass Woman. Katina Marie Choovanski, aka Katchoo, is one of the main characters of Terry Moore's Strangers in Paradise - an epic, amazing series about ladies in love, assassins, intrigue, and best friends.

I first fell in love with Katchoo because she was petite, gorgeous, had HUGE bags under her eyes, chain smoked, and was always pissed off. It was the first time I'd seen a female character in a comic book allowed to be real - in all her good, bad, and awkward moments. Strangers In Paradise (and Terry Moore) is given a lot of credit for its depiction of real bodies, mainly because of the tall, realistically busty Francine. But since I am on the flat-chested side, I tended to relate more to Katchoo.

Plus you don't get too far along in the series before you find out she can hold her own in a fight, and used to work alongside a slew of assassins. That's pretty much everything I want in a story - realistic, relatable characters and secret organizations full of female assassins. With some scenes of junk food eating and TV watching thrown in, to boot.

Here's a blurry picture of a sketch I did of Katchoo back in 2009, when I finally got to meet Terry Moore in person:

There are very few characters who've influenced my comicking as much as Katchoo. I'm so lucky I got introduced to her when I did.

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4 States 2 Months

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Whew!

2 weekends of 2 back-to-back local comic conventions are over! They were SUCH a blast. Attending SPX this past weekend was a total whirlwind of emotions. SPX was the first show I ever attended (in 2001) and exhibited at (in 2002, back when I was just giving out free stickers and telling people to look at my website - webcomic marketing at its finest!). Since SPX was a regular trek for me every year and held conveniently close to my home, it's always held a squishy, warm place in my heart. Many of the connections and friends I've made over the years have been due to those close quarters in the old hotel conference rooms, the hotel bar, the hunt for restaurants that would take 20 people, the chocolate fountain.

However, the last couple of years I've missed out on tabling for various reasons, so I was starting to feel disconnected from this show that had really kicked off my involvement in comics. So THIS year, with table-aggedon (i.e. the enthusiasm with which all of us exhibitors broke the SPX online registration system) I was convinced I would yet again be relegated to showing up an hour before the end of the show and trying to worm my way into some friends' dinner plans. Luckily the wizards at SPX Headquarters managed to get me a table, and I had the joy of participating in a MUCH bigger, happier, and more packed SPX than I've seen . . . well, ever. I've read a bunch of other recap posts about how the enthusiasm and the attendees were the biggest attractions of the show and I agree - you guys all made me love and appreciate and get excited about comics all over again! I mean, I'm already obsessed with comics and stuff, but injections of inspiration are never ignored!

So anyway. Just a brief love letter to SPX 2013 and now I'm on to other THINGS! For one, you may have noticed that since Book 3 wrapped up, Gods & Undergrads hasn't been having many (any) updates. It'll be on a hiatus for a little bit, so's I can make actual progress on this Oni book and catch up on other things. But since I AM obsessed with comics, while I was on several road trips this summer I thought it might be fun to take down some notes and compile a little travel journal comic about my experiences (Lucy Knisley-style). So while Gods & Undergrads is taking a snoozer, I present to you 4 States, 2 Months, a webcomic updated Wednesdays starting October 2nd! Weee! Happy Fall, everyone. :)

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