#spookydate

NEW BOOKS COMING TO TCAF AND BEYOND!

Hey guys! If y’all don’t already know, I’m going to be tabling at the Toronto Comics Art Festival on May 14 & 15 with SECRET SHOP! If you live in Toronto or you’re just making the trip up to Canada to see all the comic insanity (and try one of those new donut cones) stop by our table to grab my three new books plus a bunch of other rad new stuff from my other friends.

My three books will be debuting exclusively at the show and will be available for purchase when I return at both my online store and Velocity Comics in Richmond, VA.

The books available will be as follows--

CLOAK & DAGGER: A FANTASY ADVENTURE 86 PAGES, FULL COLOR $20 USD / $25 CAD

Wren is a young novice adventurer, ready to make a name for herself in the history books of fantasy legend! The only problem is... she has no idea where to even get started! Cloak & Dagger tells the tale of Wren’s first misadventure as she journeys deep into a mystical forest to find a mysterious fabled weapon. Along the way she encounters delinquent monsters, pompous rival adventurers, and turnips worth a solid investment. Along the way, Wren learns what it takes to make a true hero, and it might not be what all the stories always tell you it is.

SPOOKYDATE SUPERBOOK 14 PAGES, FULL COLOR $12 USD / $15 CAD

The first two chapters of the webcomic Spookydate have been collected in one convenient full color book! In the first story, a group of young friends make the discovery of a lifetime one fateful summer afternoon-- Mo, a real live ghost girl! And the good news is, she wants to be friends... much to the chagrin of Stacy who fears that everything they do this summer will now be just about Mo. In the second chapter, the gang goes on a journey to learn more about Mo’s origins, only to be caught in the middle of fast food development. The race is now on to see if a loophole can be found to circumvent the plans of a rich country chicken mogul.

SANPOZEIT 24 PAGES, B&W $10 USD / $12 CAD

The collected pages from my year long comic diary, Sanpozeit, originally published on an online blog. Explored in the comics are the many facets of my day to day life as well as my many thoughts, joys, fears, celebrations, and day to day observations through the lens of a cartoon avatar.

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Halloween might be over, but its never too late to get a little spooky-- chapter two of Spookydate has just wrapped up and I’m starting progress on chapter three. Hang on tight guys, this is where things are gonna start getting crazy in the story.

If you missed the first two chapters of Spookydate, you can catch it on the main site or on Tapastic. Also keep an eye out for print versions of chapter one and two this holiday (or get the first one now at Velocity Comics in Richmond, VA).

Official Site

Spookydate is a Staff Pick comic on Tapastic this week!  You can read the full color version as it updates there, with Tapastic being compatible on mobile devices there too-- nice!

DID YOU KNOW that my webcomic Spookydate has moved from its kinda crappy Tumblr page to a brand-new-super-useful-actually-functionally Real Website? Yes, its true!  You can check it out over at www.spookydate.net!

I made these cards for the character profiles page of my new webcomic, Spookydate.  I love tarot cards and this seemed like good opportunity to make some to fit with the spooky motif.

A brief story--

About two years ago, before I went to Japan, I had an idea for a comic that I wanted to make with a friend. He eventually told me that he wouldn't be able to work on it with me, but gave me his blessings and let me hold on to the concept as my own. On and off, I toyed with the idea and always doodled down characters for it in my sketchbook.

I loved these characters and the idea a lot.  I never wanted to let go of this story.

The next summer, I cleaned up the idea, made a short pitch board, and pitched the idea to a major indie animation studio when they had an open call for pitches. Obviously, the idea didn't make it through, but I got good feedback back; I was told politely that my characters were not interesting enough and didn't really do something but carry a one-note story forward... they were right.

When people give you criticisms like this, always take them to heart.  You teachers, peers, and professionals all know a lot of stuff that they aren't gonna tell you until you try, fail, and asked why you failed.  The best advise I got from that studio?  They told me that my characters as they appeared in my pitch were not characters that anyone would want to wear on a shirt.  That I'd know I had a great character(s) when people could admire them and when they would, in fact, want to wear them on a shirt.

I then spent the rest of the summer and the fall writing and rewriting the idea, especially once I realized the original story I had had roots in kiiiinda sexist tropes. I knew I could do better than a lazy flat story; I liked the idea and characters a lot, I didn't want to let it go.  At the same time, I also didn't want to cling so tightly that I put out a shitty story.

Rewrite after rewrite, redesign after redesign, I eventually stumbled upon a version of the story for the comic I was really happy with. I added more characters, gave them more defined personalities, more tangible motivations and conflicts, and along the way I honed my own drawing skills and comic making skills and finally reached a point where I was ready to put my comic out in the world.

I'm starting up my comic this Friday with three strips a week (staying away from "pages" so I can tell my story in a different way and help to cut down on production work) and I already have enough of a backlog to have consistent posts up through the end of the year.

Hopefully it goes well (and hopefully you guys like it enough once it starts to check it out and even give some feedback if you'd like) but as always, I'd just like to remind you guys, that if you wanna make something, you gotta be willing to put in the time and most importantly the effort to do it. Take your criticisms to heart and don't be afraid to scrap everything and start from scratch once in a while... you'd be surprised how much better your work will be if you keep throwing out your ideas until you feel 100% right about them.

As I always say, the difference between people who do stuff and don't do stuff, is that the folks doing stuff actually just DO it. All you guys are more than capable of it too.