It’s been awhile since I received a piece of fan art, so I was please to receive this gem last night. Thomas Ogden, the 14-year old son of our esteemed Steve Ogden, is a budding comic artist in his own right, doing his webcomic Fetch the Bee. He’s also a reader of Marooned and was nice enough to send this great piece. Thanks Thomas! It’s really great. Go check out Fetch the Bee, Thomas is doing a good job of learning the comic craft and he’s got some fun strips over there.

I mentioned it previously, but this is your OFFICIAL announcement. Steve Ogden and I will be appearing together at the 11th Annual Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo (SPACE)! Hey, how appropriate is it for Steve and I that we’re doing a show called SPACE?

The show happens April 24-25, so it’s actually coming up fairly soon. We’re hard at work preparing all sorts of goodies for the show, getting signage made, buttons, stickers, you name it. We’ll both be bringing original art and I imagine we’ll be doing some sketching, too. It’s going to be our first con for the both of us, so it should be fun and a learning experience, too.

Moon Town: Episode One: Breaking Lane

Steve has been hard at work finishing his first book, Episode One: Breaking Lane. He’s nearly finished and it will be available soon on his site. You know his work is beautiful, and this book will be something you’ll want to have. It’s one thing to read these comics online, but it’s just so nice to have the book and read it how it’s intended. If you’ve got the Marooned book, you know what I mean. Here’s the details on his book:

Episode One: Breaking Lane, chronicling the first three chapters in the Moon Town saga:

• Chapter 1: New Sherrif in Town (Cassandra Quinn arrives at Luna Seven)
• Chapter 2: Moon Men (Introducing Simon Tripline and the spaders)
• Chapter 3: Digging in the Dark (Simon begins trying to solve the mystery of Vin Sinclair)
• Letters page
• Sci-fi short story
• Total length: 40 pages
• Price: $4.75 USD (plus shipping)

And you know Steve is an amazing artist. So check out this eye-popping cover!

As you can see, we’ve got a little format that hearkens back to the old Silver Age Marvel days of yore. In the upper left is a character box, below is our Wishtales logo and the date and issue number. And to the right, we have our All Ages Stamp – approved for general consumption!

Announcing: I, ASIMOV!

I’m also happy to announce another Marooned book. This one is not the full book collection like the larger Out of Orbit, but rather a floppy instead. If you missed out on the big book, or it was too expensive, this is a nice alternative. And if you’re a completest, well – you’ll want this one too!

I, ASIMOV is a 24-page book featuring strips of – you guessed it – Asimov. It starts at the beginning with a selection of his strips, then runs the whole Saga of Bob story. Following that are a few Asimov strips from the post-Bob story.

There are 3 small bonuses to the book. First, there are 2 gag strips featuring Asimov written by Steve. Second, there’s a full page comic featuring Asimov and John in the ship on their way to Mars. It’s in the format of the new Croaker’s Gorge that Steve is doing, big and square like that. Probably 12 panels.

Once I finish that comic, it will be off to the printer. I expect it will be available in a couple weeks or thereabouts. I’ll keep you updated. And here’s the cover:

I’m not sure on the price yet until I make the order – again I’ll let you know.

Lastly, the first book I did was the little “ashcan” version which contained the first 15 strips in black and white with creator commentary (like Out of Orbit) and a couple of vault pages with some development artwork. I’m reprinting that one (called Arrival) with a brand new cover and inside cover to match our branding. This is the lowest price point Marooned book you can get. It will be available at IndyPlanet for $3.25.

First, here’s a really cool teaser for a short film by Hot Head Films, a UK animation company. It feels a lot like a Studio AKA piece.

Deus (teaser) from Olly Reid – Hot Head Films on Vimeo.

Here’s a first look at our upcoming short – Deus.
An unusual look at creativity…
Featuring sounds by Alan Boorman – www.wevie.tv

Secondly, Steve and I are getting prepared to do our first show, of which I’ll post more info next week. But I figured I’d give you a heads up on some things that I am preparing for the show. I’m not sure if they will be available before the show, but whatever I have left over after will certainly be made available.

You already know I’m working on the Rag the Viking minicomic. That is about 75% done. I’ll be putting together a floppy comic book called “I, ASIMOV.” This 24-page full color comic will contain strips featuring our pal, Asimov. I haven’t selected the strips quite yet. I’d like to do a couple special strips for it, but I may not have time. We’ll see. If you didn’t get the book for whatever reason, and what something at a lower price point, this one might be good for you.

I’ll have a couple of prints available from Out of Orbit. One is the “campfire” scene by HAI, and the other is the “communications” scene by Eldon Cowgur. This will be letter-sized, landscape prints.

I’ll have the Asimov and Ril buttons as well as John and Ugo buttons (probably as 4-packs). And I’ll probably be carrying some original art with me and doing some sketches. Whew! It’s a lot of work getting all of this together, but I’m really looking forward to it.

More info as events warrant!

I’ve not actually read the Deadpool comics, although they are supposed to be the best thing out there. (I don’t read superhero comics much at all.) Anyway, I saw this somewhere and it’s one of the funniest things I’ve seen in awhile – and true too!

Click the thumbnail for the full version (too wide for the blog).

Got a couple things for you today. First, as I mentioned in the comments, Thursday’s strip has a guest colorist. That colorist is none other than Honoel A. Ibardolaza (otherwise known as HAI) of By Moon Alone! If you purchased Out of Orbit, you’ll recall HAI’s beautiful “campfire” illustration in the Artist’s Gallery – the one with John at the campfire playing guitar. How sweet was that eh?!

HAI did a wonderful job, keeping things in line with what I have been doing, but it’s just so much more refined, and he did a wonderful job on the rocks – one of my real weak points. HAI instructed me in some of his techniques, and I hope it will make for a better strip going forward. So look for that on Thursday. In the meantime, if you have not already, you must go and check out HAI’s comic By Moon Alone – the visuals are stunning – stunning – and the story is wonderful. Now’s a good time to catch up there!

Lastly, hey – who’s this babe?!

David Reddick has been having fun dressing Gina up as all kinds of different women of webcomics in his last two updates. Pretty fun stuff, go check out the full strip.