Every month since late 2007, Zuda Comics hosts a competition between webcomics, with the winner becoming a regular strip on the site. In Zudist Colony, I interview the contestants via email, asking each of them the same five questions, which hopefully gives you a little more insight into the strips and the creators themselves.

So here we go ...

*****

In Maps & Legends

Niki Smith and Michael Jasper, In Maps & Legends

JK: Please introduce yourself ... who are you, where are you from and have you done any other comics work? What do you do when you aren't making comics?

Niki: My name is Niki Smith, and I’m the artist for In Maps & Legends. I’m a freelance artist right now, just graduated last spring. I’ve had comics published in anthologies both in the US/UK and in Germany, and am currently working on developing some graphic novels of my own. One is out with editors and the other is still in script form, waiting to hear back from my agent. I also just had a coloring book published with Faber Castell.

Mike: And I'm Michael Jasper, the writer for the comic. I've published a couple novels and a pile of short stories in places like Asimov's, Strange Horizons, Writers of the Future and Paper Cities. This is my first comic script, and Niki handled my non-standard scriptwriting skills quite nicely. I'm finishing up a historical baseball novel set during World War I and plotting out a series of young-adult novels, the first of which is currently out on submission to various editors (this series would make a GREAT comic, too, I think). For the day job, I'm a technical writer for a software company.

JK: What's your strip about?

Niki: An artist who finds her map-making skills in surprisingly high demand…

Mike: What she said.

JK: Why did you decide to enter your comic into the Zuda competition, rather than trying to publish it somewhere else or setting up your own site for it?

Niki: Zuda has a great sense of community that can be hard to build when webcomics are otherwise scattered across individual websites. The support behind the imprint is something I’ve admired since the launch.

Mike: I also liked the democratic feel of the site, with readers choosing the comic that gets to continue on. While the competition is a bit stress-inducing right now, it's been fun getting in touch with readers and following the reader feedback in the comments section.

JK: If you don't end up winning, do you plan to continue doing the strip?

Niki: We have a few places we plan on looking into, but if things don’t work out, we both have other projects that we can happily move on to. In Maps & Legends was originally one of Mike’s trunked novels and now it’s a full color comic! So you never know when there’s the potential for a drastic rebirth.

Mike: Agreed. I'm really itching to show people where we take Kait and her crew next, so the sooner the better!

JK: If you weren't in this month's competition, who do you think you'd vote for?

Niki: That’s tough. I’m an art girl at heart, so that definitely sways me. I love the line work in Brother of the Bronze Hammer and the painterly quality of the art in Little Earth People … I’d probably go with Bronze Hammer in the end.

Mike: I'm actually surprised Little Earth People isn't higher in the ratings, because the story's pretty original and unique, and the art knocked me out. And I do have a lot of love for Slam McCracken's hard-boiled style.

*****

Peabody & D'Gorath

Mark Penman, Peabody & D'Gorath

JK: Please introduce yourself ... who are you, where are you from and have you done any other comics work? What do you do when you aren't making comics?

Mark: Hi my name is Mark Penman, I'm a freelance illustrator and comic artist based in Manchester, England.
I've done bits and pieces of comic work, some self published stuff as well as some anthology stuff such as Pulpo done by the fine folks at entervoid.com.

When I'm not making comics, I like to go out and solve mysteries.

JK: What's your strip about?

Mark: My strip is about two antique hunters, Remington Peabody ( a reanimated skeleton) and Clancy D'Gorath (deamon bound by obligation to the British monarchy). They go around trying to proclaim esoteric artifacts to determine whether they are a threat to the nation or if they can be used as weapons.

JK: Why did you decide to enter your comic into the Zuda competition, rather than trying to publish it somewhere else or setting up your own site for it?

Mark: It's 8/10ths liking and respecting what Zuda do ( I like that there's a nice mixed bag of comics and lots of fresh ideas they're willing to have on board) and 2/10ths being pretty computer illiterate so doubtless any webcomic site I did make would be atrocious.

JK: If you don't end up winning, do you plan to continue doing the strip?

Mark: I've been asked this by a few people and to be honest, I'm not totally sure. I have other ideas for comics that I'd like to try out, but I can't see me abandoning the characters, I always grow attached to the comics I create so Peabody & D'Gorath would still be kicking around in some form.

JK: If you weren't in this month's competition, who do you think you'd vote for?

Mark: Hmm, probably In Maps and Legends. The arts solid and the story seems like it could go places

*****

Children of the Sewer

Benito Gallego, Children of the Sewer

JK: Please introduce yourself ... who are you, where are you from and have you done any other comics work? What do you do when you aren't making comics?

Benito: My name is Benito Gallego. I was born and live in Spain. Among other things I have been a long time collaborator artist for Sword, a Spanish fanzine turned into pro-magazine that includes articles, comics and pin-ups based upon Conan, the Hyborean age, and REH's characters and concepts. I have made pencils, inks and a cover illustration for Anthem and Captain Thunder & Blue Bolt, both series created by writer Roy Thomas and published by Heroic Publishing. I have also made a collaboration with new independant publisher A First Salvo and have contributed with a story (pencils and colors) to be published in Danger's Dozen #6. I have also made a collaboration with writer Brian Azzarello in order to produce the cover and a eight-page comic (pencils+inks+color) called "The Cowl" to serve as promotion for best-seller author Joseph Finder's new book: Vanished.

And when I don't do comics I'm a graphic designer at an advertisement company.

JK: What's your strip about?

Benito: Children of the Sewer is an epic odyssey through the mind of a serial killer in search of the light. Paradoxically, the way he will achieve this is by entering the dark closed sewers of the city and meeting an unknown race of human beings who are born, live, love, kill and die in the sewer. Among those weird people Edmond Ratt will find his place in a human society but truly not without finding his way awash with blood.

JK: Why did you decide to enter your comic into the Zuda competition, rather than trying to publish it somewhere else or setting up your own site for it?

Benito: Mainly because Zuda is exposed to many people and I wanted to test the reaction and know what people think about my comic.

JK: If you don't end up winning, do you plan to continue doing the strip?

Benito: I have already written more than 50 pages of the strip, and I would love to continue developing it.

JK: If you weren't in this month's competition, who do you think you'd vote for?

Benito: Probably Little Earth People is the story that I like the most next to mine.

*****

Slam McCracken

Greg Woronchak, Slam McCracken

JK: Please introduce yourself ... who are you, where are you from and have you done any other comics work? What do you do when you aren't making comics?

Greg: I'm Greg Woronchak from a small 'burb in Quebec, Canada. I started off in traditional animation (I've worked on Sagwa The Chinese Siamese Cat for PBS, and Tripping the Rift for SyFy, amoung others), eventually deciding to focus on freelance storyboarding. Animation work in town abruptly dried up, so I'm currently a freelance illustrator (www.comicspace.com/gwor) and independent comic artist (I've done work for Argo Comics, Modern Myth Press and 11 issues of Negafighters). I have a drawer filled with scraps of paper, sketches of ideas that just pop into my head; I finally decided recently to develop some of the stronger ones into webcomics (I'm a big fan of the format) and submitted Slam to Zuda. When not at my drawing board, I try to keep my two daughters amused and help out my lovely wife around the house.

JK: What's your strip about?

Greg: Slam is a hard boiled detective, literally . He's an egg who takes cases in a film noir inspired city, populated by common household items (his client in my Zuda submission is a toothbrush searching for her missing tube of paste husband). This weird idea came to me years ago when I doodled a quick cartoon of a detective egg standing over a chalk outlined popsicle stick on the ground (I was into The Far Side back then ). I figured the idea of a noir private eye could be a lot of fun, with potential for cute sight gags; I decided to use heavy cross-hatching to replace color, which creates a visually interesting look and mood. My goal was to create something quirky that all-ages could enjoy.

JK: Why did you decide to enter your comic into the Zuda competition, rather than trying to publish it somewhere else or setting up your own site for it?

Greg: I would've needed al ot of help setting up my own site; I'm alot more comfortable with the creative side than technical or promotion. I felt that if Zuda would choose my strip to compete, it would provide nice exposure for my work, and I could network with folk who might like my particular style. As I've already said, I think the webcomic format has alot of potential for creativity and unique ideas, and Zuda is an extremely high-profile place to showcase one's work. I'm quite proud to have been chosen to compete this month.

JK: If you don't end up winning, do you plan to continue doing the strip?

Greg: I have a long story plotted out, so I'd love to continue it. The response has been great so far, and I think I could develop a fan base that may support a self-published version.

JK: If you weren't in this month's competition, who do you think you'd vote for?

Greg: I find Brother of Bronze Hammer visually electrifying. The artwork compliments the story well, and I enjoy the overall look.

*****

Model Student

Joe Bowen, Model Student

JK: Please introduce yourself ... who are you, where are you from and have you done any other comics work? What do you do when you aren't making comics?

Joe: My name is Joe Bowen, and I'm currently a third year student at the Joe Kubert School of Cartooning and Graphic Art in beautiful Dover, New Jersey. I totally love comics, and when I'm not drawing them, I'm reading them or reading about them or listening to podcasts about them or trying to get my girlfriend to listen to me talk about them. I also watch a lot of TV. If there's a show about teenagers, I'm probably into it. And finally, I like watching funny videos of pugs on YouTube.

JK: What's your strip about?

Joe: Model Student is about Kevin Burke, a tough-as-nails high school student at the prestigious Vendrell Academy, who is recruited by the headmaster to infiltrate the school's seedy underbelly. I tell people that Model Student is The OC meets The Shield. Essentially, Kevin is living the high school life I always wanted to live, with tons of drama and fighting.

JK: Why did you decide to enter your comic into the Zuda competition, rather than trying to publish it somewhere else or setting up your own site for it?

Joe: I entered Model Student in the Zuda competition because I think the concept works well serialized in single pages. The high school drama combined with the undercover student aspect provides a lot of room for regular twists and surprises.

JK: If you don't end up winning, do you plan to continue doing the strip?

Joe: If Model Student doesn't make it through Zuda alive, I'll most likely adjust the format and submit it elsewhere, perhaps as a graphic novel. I have too many ideas for Kevin Burke to let them all go to waste.

JK: If you weren't in this month's competition, who do you think you'd vote for?

Joe: The entry I keep going back to is Brother of Bronze Hammer. That artwork is just damn sexy.

*****

Molly and the Amazing Door Tree

Mark Murphy, Molly and the Amazing Door Tree

JK: Please introduce yourself ... who are you, where are you from and have you done any other comics work? What do you do when you aren't making comics?

Mark: I am a Dallas, Texas-based graphic designer. Over the last 15 years i have done comic book work for Caliber Press, NBM (the house of java series) and Slave Labor Graphics (last year's Tiki Joe Mysteries). When I'm not drawing comics I'm maintaining a full-time job as a in-house graphic designer for a medical company as well has spending time with my family. There's a lot of reading and guitar playing going on when i can fit it in as well.

JK: What's your strip about?

Mark: Molly and the Amazing Door Tree is about a seven year-old girl that finds a magical door into another world. Molly quickly finds that her destiny and the destiny of this magical realm are interwoven. Before she realizes it, Molly is embroiled in a quest to both save world of the door tree and make her way back home. This story is a departure for me stylistically. My previous work has dealt more with adult oriented issues such as coming-of-age stories and crime fiction. With Molly I made a deliberate effort to create a kids story that my two daughters would relate to.

JK: Why did you decide to enter your comic into the Zuda competition, rather than trying to publish it somewhere else or setting up your own site for it?

Mark: I've been wanting to enter a story into Zuda ever since the competitions started. After working for years on Tiki Joe, the challenge of presenting a story within Zuda's 8 page format really appealed to me. I also new that Molly had to be in color and the best chance of making that happen was to take it on line. From the get-go, Molly was planned as a Zuda entry.

JK: If you don't end up winning, do you plan to continue doing the strip?

Mark: Not sure yet, but i would like to. It depends on the level of interest (from the voters as well as my own kids) and the time constraints i have to work with.

JK: If you weren't in this month's competition, who do you think you'd vote for?

Mark: There is so much good art competing this month. I think my vote would have to go for either Children of The Sewer or Little Earth People.

*****

Big Ups

Christina Boyce and Justin King, Big Ups: A Space Adventure

JK: Please introduce yourself ... who are you, where are you from and have you done any other comics work? What do you do when you aren't making comics?

Christina: Hello, my name is Christina Boyce. Right now I live in Southern California, where I have been most of my life. I'm a media arts/animation student at the Art Institute of California, but I originally started school in Arizona. My list of comics isn't terribly big, mostly short ones that can be found here and there online. I do have a short one printed in an anthology, and hoping to have another one in the second installment! I would like to finish something a little bigger, and perhaps have my own little book printed in the near future, and perhaps a webcomic of my own.

Justin: I self-published a comic in 2008 called Physicist Roundtable. I also had my first real pro job earlier this year when I made a comic for a software company. They seem to have dropped off the face of the earth after they paid me, though, so I think I caused them to go bankrupt.

When I am not making comics, I am trying to publish other peoples comics. I started a small web and print publishing company called DAPshow, for which I have published one anthology (The Eternal Sad, which had comics from 30 artists around the world, including me and Christina), and I'm currently putting together the second volume of it which should be published in early 2010 along with a few other comics.

JK: What's your strip about?

Christina: The strip focuses on the continuing adventures of an alien explorer, and his companion/sidekick. Upsie, the main character, is an official explorer in the name of his home planet. His job is to find new things in space, and report back with his findings. He is very proud of his job, but he is rather new at it. Along the way he runs into another alien, a Nematoid named Neemu. They become pals, and Neemu joins Upsie on his travels. There may be some reoccurring things throughout, but for the most part it is a more episodic sort of thing. Different stories for different adventures they go on.

JK: Why did you decide to enter your comic into the Zuda competition, rather than trying to publish it somewhere else or setting up your own site for it?

Christina: I personally know some dudes who have entered the competition, and have either done well, or have won. I thought it would be a cool thing to try, and I wanted to see if I could produce something that would get in. I'm pretty happy that I got in, as I was doubting myself for while.

Justin: I have thought about entering the Zuda competition a lot, but always had a hard time thinking of a story that would work in only eight pages and show the potential that it could go on for a lot more. So, when Christina approached me about coloring her comic, I thought it would be a great opportunity to be a part of Zuda and get some much needed experience in it's format. It has turned out to be all of that and more.

JK: If you don't end up winning, do you plan to continue doing the strip?

Christina: I think I may, actually! I've grown attached to my silly aliens, I have to say. I already have some adventures for them sitting around in my head.

Justin: If Christina ever wanted to continue working on it, I would be down for coloring it if she wanted.

JK: If you weren't in this month's competition, who do you think you'd vote for?

Christina: Prolly Peabody & D'Gorath. Mark is a cool guy, and I've talked to him a couple times prior to the competition. I was actually pretty intimidated when I heard that he was gonna be competing against me, and I was right- his comic is pretty great!

Justin: I would vote for Mark's Peabody & D'Gorath. I might be a little biased because he is my friend and the cover artist of an anthology I am publishing soon, but his comic is very entertaining and has a lot of potential. I also really enjoy its atmosphere.

*****

Little Earth People character concepts

Joe Pekar and Chris Lewis, Little Earth People

JK: Please introduce yourself ... who are you, where are you from and have you done any other comics work? What do you do when you aren't making comics?

Joe: I'm Joe Pekar, from Orlando, Florida. I've done a few covers here and there, a couple Grimm Fairy Tales for Zenescope and some for BOOM! Studios Hexed. I also have my own book 'Brandi Bare' that may be coming out in some form one of these days (there are some preview pages of that book on my website: www.joepekar.com ). When I'm not making comics I'm usually drawing other stuff or dealing with my kids, trying to figure out who started the fighting or who broke what. you know, usual parenting stuff

Chris: I'm Chris Lewis, an Oregonian in Germany (the title of my next work?) working as a translator in an advertising agency. Little Earth People is actually the first story I ever wrote, but I'm hoping to get my next projects to the masses soon. Other interests include baby-raising, book-reading, wife-loving, and love, um...spreading.

JK: What's your strip about?

Joe: Well Chris will probably answer that better than me, in fact he's the writer, so he should do it anyway . To me, it was the story of trying to draw a boy that always needed to be looking at a tv screen on his wrist, and the trials and tribulations of laying out panels that way. but that's probably not what you were asking about...

Chris: It's about people watching people and the effects that this has on watcher and watched alike. For research I was watching as much reality TV as I could stomach and just wondering what could possibly possess these people (or their parents in the case of certain 16 year old birthday divas) to subject themselves to such public embarrassment. Then I got to wondering what effect it had on me, while at the same time asking myself if I really wanted to be a writer, reading a lot of Philip K. Dick and Oliver Sacks, and realizing my passion for meerkats.

JK: Why did you decide to enter your comic into the Zuda competition, rather than trying to publish it somewhere else or setting up your own site for it?

Joe: Actually, I saw a posting on a web forum about someone looking for an artist for a Zuda submission. At the time I was really looking for something to work on that was different than my usual drawing work ... pinup girls and stuff like that .  So I just decided to give it a shot. I sent Chris an email with some of my Brandi Bare pages, showing some sequential stuff. He seemed to like it enough and we were off. After hearing about his story, it seemed the total opposite end of the spectrum of what I usually draw so that got me hooked.

Chris: Because it's Zuda, man (insert a$$ kissing noises here)! Actually, I had a couple years between finishing Little Earth People and doing anything with it, and after completing two more stories, I realized that nothing is going to happen unless I get some great artists to draw these things. Apparently, dusty scripts in drawers don't attract big publishers...who knew? I thought online might be the way to go for a first attempt like this, and Zuda just seemed to be the place to be. There's an active community, intriguing talents, and a big pile of money for the winner. Zuda is my "'enry 'iggins, the somewhat-stern-taskmaster-but-he-really-likes-her-anyway-kind-of-thing guy," who has taught me how to write better.

JK: If you don't end up winning, do you plan to continue doing the strip?

Joe: Probably not. I mean it was fun to do, but it was a lot of work to get the pages done. I just wouldn't have the time to do it for fun.

Chris: Joe said it. I was going to ask him to finish the entire 4 issue story for fun (ie. free), but that doesn't look like it's going to happen. Like I said, the story is all there and ready to go, but I'll have to think about what to do with it if my dramatic "please vote so we can all see Joe draw more of Marsha's fabulous 'rackatoni' (user comment)" prayer isn't heard in time.

JK: If you weren't in this month's competition, who do you think you'd vote for?

Joe: Wait, we're allowed to vote for ourselves?! Actually, I really enjoyed the art style on Brother of the Bronze Hammer the most this month. so if i had to vote for someone else, it would be that one.

Chris: Joe stole my joke with this one. But I'm torn about how to use my vote. Should I vote for our story, loving the art and knowing where the craziness leads? Should I vote for the amazing art style on BOTBH? Or should I go vigilante and specifically use my pea-sized vote against one of the two dark-reigning titans? I'm conflicted.

LaMorte Sisters

This month Johnny Zito and Tony Trov, creators of the Black Cherry Bombshells, added a second Zuda strip to their writing duties -- LaMorte Sisters, drawn by Christine Larsen. The story follows Maddie, a new student at the LaMorte Home for Lost Girls. The orphanage is run by a strict order of Catholic nuns who offer sanctuary and salvation to young women afflicted with vampirism.

Zito and Trov stopped by earlier this week and shared a list of vampires they'd like to have drinks with, and with today being the second anniversary of when Zuda officially launched, plus it being the day before Halloween, it kind of made sense to see what they had to say about their new vampire tale.

JK: One of the things that really struck me about the first pages of your new strip is how different it looks than Black Cherry Bombshells. How did you guys meet Christine Larsen?

Johnny: Christine is a fellow Philadelphian. She lives on the other end of the city in Fishtown.

Tony: We have many, many mutual friends in the art and film community. Johnny and I were both fans of her work on Teddy Scares.

LaMorte Sisters

JK: What's the new strip about?

Tony: The story follows Maddie, a new student at LaMorte Home for Lost Girls. The orphanage is run by a strict order of Catholic Nuns. They offer sanctuary and salvation to young women afflicted with vampirism.

Johnny: La Morte Sisters is a much more personal story for us. It's about South Philly, frienemies and growing up fast.

Tony: This is especially true for me, being Zito's public frienemy No. 1.

LaMorte Sisters

JK: I like the "twist," that these vampires are living in a Catholic School. Where did that idea come from? And did either of you attend Catholic School?

Tony: We both did some hard time in Catholic school. Although we attended different schools, I did eight years and JZ did 12.

Johnny: There were always creepy urban legends about statues coming to life, dead janitors and saints that walk the halls at night.

LaMorte Sisters

JK: I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that since you guys teamed up with Zuda again on this one that you probably like it there. What's the appeal of having your second strip there, versus going somewhere else or out on your own?

Johnny: Aside from the creative support Zuda provides, I champion any product or business that starts with a "Z." Say ... pass the Zima.

Tony: The staff is great. Ron Perazza (@perazza) would let me use his toothbrush if I asked. All of our fellow creators are full of fantastic advice, too.

Johnny: Yeah, follow the hash tag #makingcomics. Lots of great advice from Zuda staff, creators and even readers.

JK: What was the process like to become an instant winner?

Johnny: Start with a clove of garlic, a statue of Saint Joseph and eight screens of amazing art. Wait for the summer solstice, or it won't work.

Tony: Then head over to ZudaComics.com and submit your brilliant ideas. Every comic on Zuda goes through the same submission process, but it doesn't hurt to say your prayers.

JK: What are you guys doing for Halloween? Any plans to dress up?

Johnny: Raphael. Cool but crude.

Tony: Shredder. Tonight I dine on turtle soup.

Johnny: Frienemy indeed.

Zuda

Every month since late 2007, Zuda Comics hosts a competition between webcomics, with the winner becoming a regular strip on the site. In Zudist Colony, I interview the contestants via email, asking each of them the same five questions, which hopefully gives you a little more insight into the strips and the creators themselves.

This time around I asked them to share which page was the most challenging to create of the eight pages they submitted to Zuda, which is the artwork you'll see with their answers. Also, I only received answers back from eight of the 10 contestants this time around.

So here we go ...

*****

ShockPopTerror!

JM Ringuet, ShockPopTerror!

JK: Tell me a little bit about yourself -- is this your first comic-creating experience, or have you done other work in the field? What do you do when you aren't creating comics?

JM: I'm a full-time freelance artist doing comic work, illustration, concept art and video game art, as well as some storyboarding here and there. I have been doing comics seriously for about three years, first as a colorist for a variety of indie publishers (first job was Death Comes To Dillinger for Silent Devil, and the latest to date Lords of Misrule for Radical), then as a full artist (pencils, inks, colors) on Transhuman written by Jonathan Hickman for Image Comics and on Sparks for William Katz Catastrophic Comics. I'm also self publishing a comic on the iPhone called Stolen Suns (that was featured on CBR), that I am also writing. Chapter 1 is now available on iTunes, Chapter 2 coming early November. I'm currently working on a graphic novel project.

ShockPopTerror! is my first try at Zuda.

When I'm not doing comics I'm either reading them, or creating art in a different field, writing. I work most of the time. I like to work.

JK: What's your comic about, and where did the idea come from?

JM: ShockPopTerror! is inspired by the exploitation and grindhouse horror movies of the 70s and 80s, the era that gave rise to the modern 'slasher' movies. I am very interested in 70s cinema in general because of its raw power, its sociological elements and its honesty. I watched a lot of those movies, and I like a lot of them. I sprinkled quite a few references actually for movie fans. It's a classic horror comic.

I thought a story set in that era, 1972, using the tropes of the horror genre, would be a good starting point for a thrilling comic and then to twist it a bit and sprinkle it with more modern concerns. Basically I wanted to do fun, action, thrills and add some more serious elements in there like religion, gender role, economic problems and the role of violence. And some dark humor of course!

I think the first eight pages only show bits of this, and maybe I should have make my themes stronger at the beginning. I wanted to ease out the reader in the atmosphere of the story, create a mood, present the crazy characters. It could have been a bit more forceful and have more density, but eight pages is not a lot. Hopefully readers get a fun and exciting romp in Hooper County and vote for the comic because they want to know what happens next (that would include swamp mutants, cannibal bikers, Mayan cursed treasure, masked maniacs, and a strange altar).

JK: Of the eight pages you submitted, which was the most difficult to create, and why?

JM: That would probably be page two, because it was actually the first one I created. I had to come up with the look for the two main characters, the look of the place and also find a graphic style that worked for me.

I tried something that I think is original with painted backgrounds and more traditional inked characters colored with only two values (one light, one dark). I think it gives it a kind of weird animated look, although my original inspiration was the 70s illustrations and movie posters that were rendered in gouache.

I added a lot of distressing over everything to give a patina, to a feel of something pulpy, wet, sweaty, damaged. Then I toyed a lot with the added text, to create something that is half caption boxes and half movie slogans. It took some time to get the right feel.

JK: What are you doing to market your comic this month?

JM: Mostly message boards, Facebook, Twitter and friends. I'm not the best at marketing, I'm just trying to get as many as possible to just read ShockPopTerror!, especially horror fans.

I also want to reward the best supporters of the comic with original signed sketches. There has been a lot of support already, and some tremendously good reactions to it. I'm beyond happy to see that this little comic has some real fans.

JK: If you do win the competition, what happens next in your story?

JM: The girls go to town (literally) and discover that the man they are looking for (their old partner in crime) is the son of the local pastor, a man who has a lot of power over this little backward community of strangely deformed people and a weird idea about religion. They also learn that a precious ancient Mayan treasure has been hidden in the worst part of a gator infested swamp, playground of the mysterious Berryman family, and that the legitimate owners of the treasure, a biker gang with cannibalistic tendencies, are not far away. To get at they want they must face the horrors of Hooper County, and discover the real secret that lays in an antediluvian altar. But who are the real monsters: the mutants, maniacs and cannibals, or... the two girls?

It's a good pulpy fun thrill ride with a dark side, equal part EC Comics and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I promise 52 more pages of relentless heart-pounding horror action!

Now readers, it's your turn, please vote for ShockPopTerror!

*****

Doc Monster

Davd Flora, Doc Monster

JK: Tell me a little bit about yourself -- is this your first comic-creating experience, or have you done other work in the field? What do you do when you aren't creating comics?

David: Thanks for doing this, first of all. This is actually my second comic endeavor, though it’s my first attempt at coloring the pages. I’ve been writing and drawing my first comic, Ghost Zero, since January of 2007. The whole thing has been a very positive experience for me, and the reader response has been fantastic.

When I’m not creating comics, I occupy my time providing technology training at a university, being a church deacon, a freemason, and plotting to become a farmer!

JK: What's your comic about, and where did the idea come from?

David: Doc Monster is really a salute to 1950’s sci-fi and horror films. It starts out with Doc and his CIA-assigned “handler” Carson Clay investigating strange lights in the sky over a rural, Kentucky town. The CIA is concerned that the lights might indicate some sort of communist activity, but it soon becomes apparent that there’s another, more shocking power behind the disturbance. It turns into an alien slugfest, with Doc doing some things that hint that he’s more than he seems.

The idea of the comic really has its genesis in my love of films from the 50’s ... X the Unknown, The Thing from Another World, The Blob and so on … plus my love of the classic movie monsters such as Dracula, Frankenstein’s Monster and the Wolfman.

Doc Monster is also a tribute to my big brother, Mike. Mike is one of those larger-than-life kind of guys who got me interested in pulp action tales and weird stories from an early age. Mike has always had a fascination with UFOs, thus Doc is a larger-than-life character whose first adventure involves aliens. The first scene actually happens in a drive-in theater that was in my own hometown!

JK: Of the eight pages you submitted, which was the most difficult to create, and why?

David: Well, the toughest page involves a scene where Doc has figured out that the strange UFO is generating its own gravity field … cars from the drive-in are stuck to the surface of the craft … so he leaps up into the field and lands on the bottom of the UFO. It presented an interesting question; from whose perspective should I orient the page, Doc’s or the viewer? Doc’s view would show the page in a traditional manner, where he would appear to be standing upright on the saucer’s bottom, but I was concerned that the sudden flip in viewer orientation would confuse viewers. So, I instead chose to draw the page from the viewer’s perspective, one in which Doc is upside-down in the page! It did confuse a few viewers, but it also made for a page presentation that you don’t see often in comics. I was pretty pleased with the end result, but I’ll think long and hard before attempting it again!

JK: What are you doing to market your comic this month?

David: The same sorts of things that I’m sure have been mentioned before. I’ve been talking about developments on Facebook and Twitter, along with several of my favorite forums, and I have a development blog at www.docmonstercomic.com. I’ve also have an article posted in my hometown newspaper.

The most amazing thing to me is how many readers have published reviews, created support pages, and posted on their blogs about the comic. There’s a tremendous grass-roots kind of support that’s been surprising. I mean, when you create a story like Doc Monster, you hope that some people will enjoy it, but the response from readers has been really remarkable.

JK: If you do win the competition, what happens next in your story?

David: Well, we of course get to find out what happened to Doc! Also, there’s some interesting information gained from the corpses of the centipede-creatures, more alien attacks as the entire country comes under siege, and secrets about Doc’s history are revealed. Stay tuned!

*****

Fly Me from the Moon

Gabriel Bautista, Fly Me From the Moon

JK: Tell me a little bit about yourself -- is this your first comic-creating experience, or have you done other work in the field? What do you do when you aren't creating comics?

Gabriel: I'm a 29 year old animation student, living in the burbs of Chicago. I've actually been doing comics for many years, and it all really started when I created EnterVOID.com, an epic comic battle website that has been home to several professional comic artists, and many artists you see on Zuda these days, including Sheldon Vella (Supertron), Aluísio C. Santos (Rockstar). Professionally, I've had work published by Image Comics (Elephantmen, Tori Amos' Comicbook Tattoo, Popgun Vol 2), SLG (Fat Chunk Vol 1 & 2), as well DC (JLA 80-Page Giant) and Heavy Metal.

When I'm not working on comics, I'm typically animating, or sketching ... I don't really watch TV or play games, so it leaves me with a lot of time to create.

JK: What's your comic about, and where did the idea come from?

Gabriel: Fly Me From the Moon is a sci-fi adventure piece that takes place in the mid 22nd century. It revolves around a middle-aged acquisitions office manager, Titus Simirica and his quest to rescue his wife from a lunar civil war.

The idea came from a random lyric from a song by Cafe Tacvba (epic Spanish rock band!), where the singer says, "I met a man, and I sold him my piece of lunar property." That whole line got my mind spinning as i walked home from work one afternoon, and I started thinking about space realty, and how people actually buy stars. So, from that spawned this 'lil nugget of story that is Fly Me From the Moon.

JK: Of the eight pages you submitted, which was the most difficult to create, and why?

Gabriel: I'll be honest, cause I know a lot of people have called me out on it, but the drawings themselves weren't so hard to put down on paper. I was almost pushing the limit on how crappy my artwork can get, so really the only difficult part of my story was the panel layouts. The thing I love about Zuda is their page template. I know a lot of other people complain about it, but for me it boils my creativity juice. Also the actual dialogue is always a tough, as I try to make something that people actually want to read, and feel connected to. I think page five was the toughest for me to write ... I wanted to come up with something really awesome and quotable.

JK: What are you doing to market your comic this month?

Gabriel: I could probably lie and say that I've been doing a lot, but really as of now (10.13.09) I haven't done much. One of the problems with having a full time job, being a full time student and having freelance work in my lap means you don't get much time to surf around on forums and drop your link to people. So honestly the best thing I'm trying to do now is get as many popular people as possible to pimp my comic. I hope this following week I can get some free time to run around in forums, chat rooms and what not ... maybe even do some fan art for some dudes who have big followings. It's almost a shame that people have to try to win by being the most popular, but that's life, right?

JK: If you do win the competition, what happens next in your story?

Gabriel: Honestly I haven't thought too far into that. I know for a fact that the protagonist's wife gets kidnapped, and Titus lands safely on the moon. From there I'd really like there to be some real action, some fights, some gunfire, chases scenes... everything that makes a good sci-fi adventure flick great. I really want to show off what the moon people look like, I want them to be a bit uglier than earth humans, and definitely stronger. The addition of a new hot girl would be very likely as well, as we all know hot babes sell. A bit chauvinistic i know, but it works.

*****

A Polar Nightmare

Amancay Nahuelpan, A Polar Nightmare

JK: Tell me a little bit about yourself -- is this your first comic-creating experience, or have you done other work in the field? What do you do when you aren't creating comics?

Amancay: This is actually my third comic submitted to Zuda. I started in November 2008 with Hijos de P, followed by Clandestino in May 2009, and now this one.

Also in the comic field I published an ongoing series titled Hijos de P (what I published in Zuda was a parallel story to the printed arc). And right now I’m working with the guys at Com.x on Duppy'78, a graphic novel written by Casey Seijas, due in 2010. You can check out my blog at http://annbonline.blogspot.com/ for more info.

JK: What's your comic about, and where did the idea come from?

Amancay: It’s basically the story of two kids that go to the North Pole looking for Santa, and, well, as it’s seen in the comic, they don’t find exactly what they were expecting.

And the idea came years ago, from a crazy conversation with some friends.

JK: Of the eight pages you submitted, which was the most difficult to create, and why?

Amancay: Page five was definitely the most difficult page to create, because originally there was a longer story happening when the kids got into the house, they were going to go through different labyrinths and secret tunnels, like to make them know who they were going to end up meeting with. But it was impossible to go with all that in just eight pages, so I condensed everything in just one single page.

JK: What are you doing to market your comic this month?

Amancay: Basically going through the internet possibilities, trying to get interest from local newspapers, and leaving some flyers at local comic shops.

JK: If you do win the competition, what happens next in your story?

Amancay: Well, the main idea is trying to show up bizarre versions of well-known holiday characters, the Easter Bunny, the Thanksgiving turkey, etc… and there will appear more “normal” characters, humans who also went to the North Pole years ago looking for Santa.

*****

Impure Blood

Nathan Lueth and Nadja Baer, Impure Blood

JK: Tell me a little bit about yourself -- is this your first comic-creating experience, or have you done other work in the field? What do you do when you aren't creating comics?

NL: My name is Nathan Lueth and I'm responsible for the art of Impure Blood. I've been drawing since birth, a lover of comics since eight, and a freelance illustrator since 2000. I've drawn a few comics professionally, a few for competitions (I was a finalist in Tokyopop's 2008 Rising Stars of Manga) and a lot of comics for personal projects, but I've never had the opportunity to draw them regularly. I hope to change that in the near future (one way or another... XD). When I'm not drawing I enjoy reading, martial arts, gaming (tabletop and console), movies, long walks on the beach, and sharing my feelings.

NB: Nadja Baer, author of Impure Blood, which was originally scripted as an epic fantasy novel. It's my first foray into the world of comic creation, but I've got several more story lines that might translate well into the visual medium. When I'm not creating comics, I'm at my desk, 9-5'ing in a corporate cube farm, working on one of my other novels, reading, doing other equally exciting things, or trying to figure out ways to get Nathan to stop sharing his feelings. XD

JK: What's your comic about, and where did the idea come from?

NB: That's a tough one...it's about a lot of things. As stated above, the idea came from an epic fantasy series I've been working on (off and on) for the last seven years, so there are a lot of themes and plot lines. At the very heart of the story is the question of identity--in one way or another, all the main characters have to decide who they are and what they stand for, and to see how their choices affect the people around them.

JK: Of the eight pages you submitted, which was the most difficult to create, and why?

NL: Page eight has a lot of perspective on it. Not just the buildings, but the figures in the last panel were rather tricky to draw from that angle. But, it all turned out, and now you all have a great view of our character's butts.

JK: What are you doing to market your comic this month?

NL: Emailing everyone I know and their dogs. We have some fliers that we're passing out and whatnot. Pretty mundane compared to the tremendous marketing war last month.

NB: Emails, posting throughout the writing forums I frequently haunt--I've brought quite a few comic newbies to the site--writing to friends across seas in hopes of going international, getting the corporate drones I work with the vote for me over lunch breaks ... y'know, the usual.

JK: If you do win the competition, what happens next in your story?

NL: Well, as it turns out, Roan is actually an alien from beyond the moon. Sent to Earth as an infant to conquer mankind, he hits his head, loses his memory, and is raised by a kindly old martial arts master. He will soon discover his origins and his ability to power up to Super Roan... wait... I may be thinking of something else. You really think we're going to give it away?

NB: Ninjas. Zombie ninjas. Seriously. With kites. I wouldn't give away trade secrets. Nathan doesn't even know yet.

NL: It's true...I don't. But I'm holding out for Roan-Ball Z.

*****

Evil Ain't Easy

Seth Wolfshorndl, Evil Ain't Easy

JK: Tell me a little bit about yourself -- is this your first comic-creating experience, or have you done other work in the field? What do you do when you aren't creating comics?

Seth: My partners and I have been self-publishing comics as Three Trees Studios since 2005. We publish four series (Random Ink, Rook City, and others) both in print and online at threetreesstudios.com. Random Ink is our anthology of stories that features everything from humor to science-fiction to biography. Rook City is a comic about a town full of oddball characters, including aging vigilantes, delusional vampires, and superficial superheroes. When I'm not creating comics, I stay busy teaching art to high schoolers, running an after-school cartoon studio, organizing our area sketch nights, and picking up some freelance illustration work.

JK: What's your comic about, and where did the idea come from?

Seth: Evil Ain't Easy tells the story of Dr. Nimbus, a maniacal and diminutive scientist who just wants to conquer the world. Unfortunately, the annoyances of everyday life keep getting in his way. Joining Nimbus is his loyal henchman, Lothar, who may be more hindrance than help. Together they will launch their master plan... right after they figure out how to pay rent!

I've always enjoyed humor that pokes fun at the stereotypical, over-dramatic evil genius, and so I created a strip where I could do that. I also enjoy having two very different characters play off each other, and Dr. Nimbus and the very mellow Lothar are definitely polar opposites in personality. The combination of these elements leads to a lot of fun situations, and the strip practically writes itself.

JK: Of the eight pages you submitted, which was the most difficult to create, and why?

Seth: The first page was probably the most challenging because it had to do several things. It had to catch the reader's eye, give the basic setup for the strip, and make the reader want to read more. I'm proud of how it turned out, but it definitely took a bit of tinkering to get it there.

JK: What are you doing to market your comic this month?

Seth: I have started a production blog at evilainteasy.com that serves as the hub for all of the promotion for the comic, complete with sketches, fan art, and downloads. I'm also relying heavily on social networking sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, and deviantArt, to help get the word out there. I am running various contests on each of these that are stirring up a lot of interest in Evil Ain't Easy. Our Facebook group, in particular, has really taken off with a few hundred members already signed up. In addition, the local media is helping to spread the word about the comic, and I'm advertising online.

JK: If you do win the competition, what happens next in your story?

Seth: Dr. Nimbus comes to realize that world-conquering just ain't paying the bills yet. So to make ends meet he will start to take a series of part-time jobs. But we'll see how long he can tolerate working at positions that are so obviously beneath someone of his intelligence!

*****

Old Cthulhu's On The Rise

Daniel Tollin, Old Cthulhu's On The Rise

JK: Tell me a little bit about yourself -- is this your first comic-creating experience, or have you done other work in the field? What do you do when you aren't creating comics?

Daniel: Hey! I'm a crazy northlander from Sweden who tries to make a living in comics, when I'm not working a mental asylum as a licensed nurse! This is not my first comic-experience. Exactly a year ago I was in a Zuda contest with a comic called Skullgoyle. But I think I'm mostly related to as the artist on Stephen Lindsay's crazy thrill-ride that is the comic Jesus Hates Zombies. I've so far illustrated two volumes on the Jesus Hates Zombies story called "Yea, though I walk..." and I'm working on the final volume as I write this. Prior to Jesus Hates Zombies I did a really fucked up comic with Stephen called Happy Panda Funtime Show. Oh, I've also got a newly started web comic, yet again with Lindsay, called Vaempir Testament, it's about this slacker who's into metal and comics, and one day he finds that his band has been slaughtered by some kind of monster. The story involves vaempirs, heavy metal, Norse mythology and the legendary sack of Thor. Check it out at www.captionsandballoons.com/vaempir. Shameless self promotion, I know.

JK: What's your comic about, and where did the idea come from?

Daniel: The idea for Old Cthulhu's on the Rise came to me one night, while watching An American Werewolf in London ( I don't think anyone has failed to notice my tribute to said movie in my comic). I just really love the whole movie and especially the beginning with the two guys just aimlessly roaming the English hillside. So I thought what could make this even creepier and right away Lovecraft's slimey creatures filled my mind.

JK: Of the eight pages you submitted, which was the most difficult to create, and why?

Daniel: Hard question, I think I'll have to say page four. Trying to build visual tension while the guys are running away from something that I don't show at all was really hard.

JK: What are you doing to market your comic this month?

Daniel: Not much actually, a bit of Twittering and Facebooking. I've put some links on different comic related forums also. But I believe that a comic, if it should win, should be so good that you don't really need to promote your ass off. People who randomly check it out, while going through the other contestants, should just think that this is good enough to win without me having to nag them. So, no, not much promotion at all.

JK: If you do win the competition, what happens next in your story?

Daniel: Next up is introducing the town of Old Insmouth and its inhabitants, who are gonna be a big part of the story. In my mind the whole town is one of the main characters along with the two guys. I want to build up a creepy atmosphere where everyone has a nasty secret and no one is safe. And there will of course be lots of monsters, it is after all a Lovecraftian story!

*****

Pluck

Gabe White & John Amor, Pluck

JK: Tell me a little bit about yourself -- is this your first comic-creating experience, or have you done other work in the field? What do you do when you aren't creating comics?

John Amor: My name's John Amor, and I'm an artist from the Philippines. I've done a handful of other projects, including an appearance in C.B. Cebulski's Wonderlost from Image and The Mask of Manolo from Patchwork Comics. I also dabble in concept art and graphic design, but when I'm not at the drawing board I co-host a comic review podcast called Tres Komikeros.

Gabe White: I've worked on a few webcomics in the past, and I have a comic called Gulch currently running on Zuda. When not writing comics I like to watch obscure movies.

JK: What's your comic about, and where did the idea come from?

John Amor: I'm just the draw-art guy, so I'll let Gabe go into detail about it. What I personally take away from it is it's Lord of the Rings meets Huckleberry Finn... and that's about as sophisticated as my references go.

Gabe White: Pluck is about a young man trying desperately to rise above his station, find an angle, make something of himself...and the many misfortunes which follow when he finally does. In some ways it's a critique of class, the privilege of high birth, and the Great Man theory. But it's mainly just a good old fashioned fantasy epic, full of adventure and monsters and fun.

JK: Of the eight pages you submitted, which was the most difficult to create, and why?

John Amor: Each of the pages had its own little challenge, I should say... but I guess the one thing I spent the most time on was the last panel of the last page. In it, the king (offpanel) is speaking to Pluck in a rather commanding manner, and we don't exactly know what sort of person/thing/sandwich he is... but Gabe's script called for an intimidated, shocked, and sheepish expression on Pluck's face, and I had no dialogue from Pluck to help me out. I like to think it worked on the most part, but there are still areas that I now see could have used a bit more love.

Gabe White: I would agree that the last page was the most difficult. It's always tricky deciding how to wrap things up in eight pages, how much of a cliffhanger you want to leave things on. Like John said, the script originally called for the king to be speaking off panel at the end, and there was a bit more narration, but I decided the look on Pluck's face was perfect as is. The other elements just seemed to distract from the moment.

JK: What are you doing to market your comic this month?

John Amor: I'm plugging it on Twitter and Facebook of course, where a group seems to be gaining fellowship. I've mentioned it on my website a couple of times before, but I definitely plan to show a bit more of how the pages were put together soon enough --- a sort of DVD commentary for all three people who visit the site. (www.johnamorartist.com plug plug)

Gabe White: I'm also marketing on social networks, as well as a few other odds and ends.

JK: If you do win the competition, what happens next in your story?

John Amor: I don't know if I can divulge anything too revealing but I WILL say that Wolverine shows up. Twice. And then Bruce Wayne comes back and is super pissed that he's in a webcomic. Yeah but no, Gabe drew me into the project when he said that it's going to have a healthy amount of creatures and races in it. Anyone who's seen some of my art knows that I'm a huge creature buff, so I can honestly say that I'm looking forward to designing me some beasts and such.

Gabe White: Damn. Now everybody knows about Wolverine.

Zuda

Webcomics | Scott Kurtz, who hosted the Harvey Awards this past weekend, shares his thoughts on what he saw at the Zuda table over the weekend. Kurtz, the creator of the long-running and highly successful PvP webcomic, has been an outspoken critic of Zuda since they launched, but had a different take on DC's monthly webcomics contest after this weekend.

"If companies like DC can enter the Webcomics world, and find a way to work with creators fairly and bring credibility and positive attention to this medium…that’s good," Kurtz writes. "If Zuda can light a fire under the asses of talent that normally wouldn’t make progress, that’s awesome. We want that, don’t we? Doesn’t a rising tide lift all ships? I know I’m skeptical. I like being skeptical. But maybe I’ve witnessed so many Platinums in the past that I’m a little gun-shy. Maybe…maybe…Zuda isn’t going to fuck people over."

Also worth reading on his blog, Kurtz talks about what it was like to host the Harveys.

Webcomics | In anticipation of the release of the ACT-I-VATE Primer from IDW, Graphic NYC has dubbed this ACT-I-VATE week and will run features all week about the webcomics collective and its contributors.

Blogs | Kevin mentioned this earlier today, but I just wanted to draw your attention to our own Brigid Alverson's new blog, Paperless Comics. "My goal is to cover the world of webcomics and do it objectively," she says in her first post.

Digital comics | Evan Young has released his complete graphic novel The Carrier for the iPhone.

Webcomics | Dustin Harbin turns his favorite passage from the Charles Bukowski novel Women into a webcomic.

Webcomics | SLG reminds us that Matthew Shepherd and Roy Boney Jr. are serializing their mini-series Dead Eyes Open on the web.

Webcomics | Scott O. Brown is continuing his Zuda entry Red Ice on his own web site, where he's also posting several horror strips just in time for Halloween.

Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe

Well bust my buttons, if it isn't time for another round of What Are You Reading, where we talk about all the comics, books and other reading matter we're currently engrossed in. Our guest this week is High Moon co-creator and writer David Gallaher, who's been blogging with us at Robot 6 all this past week.

David has quite a list of titles to pour over, so let's get to it. Click on the link below to get started.

Spider-Man 2099

Tom Bondurant: I've been re-reading Spider-Man 2099, but now I have a strange compulsion to pick up "Hush"....

So far I've gotten through the first twelve issues of Spider-Man 2099, all of which which were written by Peter David, pencilled by Rick Leonardi, and inked by Al Williamson. For a book designed to launch an entire imprint, build a new Marvel future, and piggyback on the considerable goodwill of Marvel's best-known character, it stands on its own quite well. That doesn't mean it doesn't feel like Spider-Man, because there's enough humor and swashbuckling to make Miguel O'Hara a credible Spider-successor. It's a handsome package too, with Williamson's inks complementing Leonardi's pencils nicely. David also juggles a growing cast efficiently, for example using villains like Venture and the 2099 Vulture for world-building. He's just introduced the Net Prophet on the last issue of #12, and I know the NP is supposed to be a familiar Marvel character, but I can't remember who -- and don't tell me, I want to see if I can figure it out!

Man, I'm writing about Donna Troy a lot these days! I even watched bits of "Cougar Town" (during "Glee's" commercial breaks) to test my theory about her and Courteney Cox. Anyway, Blackest Night: Titans #2 is probably the most tasteless superhero comic I've read in a while, as well as one of the more ridiculous. Written by J.T. Krul and drawn by Ed Benes (with some inks from Scott Williams), its centerpiece is Donna's confrontation with the Black Lantern versions of her late husband and infant son (who were killed off-panel over ten years ago). What's tasteless is having baby Robbie half-decomposed. What's ridiculously over-the-top is having baby Robbie fly around attacking Donna. Sure it's horrific, and sure that's the point, but baby Robbie didn't have to look so ... dead. (In fact, Black Lantern Jade looked pretty healthy.) Blackest Night can get along fine without a dead baby, so it could have either made Robbie look more presentable, or hidden him in the shadows with his condition implied. It's too bad, because as it happens, Benes' work here is some of his best. It's moody and scary when it needs to be, and dynamic where appropriate. Terra's hinder still gets some undue attention, but at this point that's to be expected.

Finally, I did like this week's Justice League of America 80-Page Giant, a clever riff on the venerable JLA format which finds our heroes paired up and cast randomly through time. It's by a veritable horde of writers and artists, so some chapters come off better than others. Basically, each pair of Leaguers teams up with a classic DC character from the particular time period. I liked Green Arrow and Firestorm teaming up with the Bride to fight Ra's Al Ghul in World War II, as well as Steel and Wonder Woman as pirates fighting Starro. Sadly, I get the feeling that these kinds of stories only get done in these special-format issues because they're too "retro" and throwbacky for the cool kids who read the regular JLA book. That's a
shame, because (as I get tired of saying) the regular JLA book could use a little structure, retro though it may be.

Batman and the Outsiders

Tim O'Shea: I bought/read/own the original Batman and the Outsiders when they were published back in the early 1980s. But I still could not resist the urge to snag a used Showcase edition that collects the first 19 issues of the series (plus a few crossovers here and there). Why? Because it's nice to see Jim Aparo's art in pure black and white. For me, I think Aparo will always be my favorite Batman artist. Also, this was an era in Batman comics where the tragic bastard actually smiled once and a rare while.

Chris Mautner: WW Norton was kind enough to send me a copy of Crumb's Genesis adaptation. I only got it in the mail yesterday, so I haven't had much of a chance to delve into it yet. It looks beautiful though. I hope to have a proper review of the book up soon.

I spent most of the past week or so reading an advance copy of I Will Not Write an Uncensored, Unauthorized History of the Simpsons by John Ortved. As the title so coyly suggests, it's a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the popular animated show, and apparently there was a lot more bad blood amongst the creators and writers than one would initially imagine. The book is especially harsh towards producer James L. Brooks, who comes off as selfish and cruel at times, and Matt Groening, whose contribution to the show seems to have started and stopped with those initial Tracy Ullman shorts. It's one of those "oral history" type books, and Groening and a few significant others don't really contribute directly to Ortved's history (apart from the occasional old magazine interview). Still, for Simpsons fans, those of us that still have fond memories of the show anyway, it's probably a must read. It should be out in stores in a week or so.

Matt Maxwell: FANTASTIC FOUR VISIONARIES: JOHN BYRNE v.1
Someone reminded me of these in a twitter conversation recently and I was inspired to revisit these.  While they're not written in a fashion that we're used to today, they're as good as I remembered them.  And it's pretty amazing to know that John Byrne not only pencilled these stories, but wrote them and inked them, all on a monthly schedule like clockwork.  The stories themselves don't show it, either.  They're all engaging, and remarkably solid and dense.  Most of them are actually one-shots, where everything is wrapped up in 22 pages, which makes for a satisfying read.  Sure, by our standards, they're overwritten, but they're filled with imagination as well.  It may not be the Lee/Kirby FF, but it is an entertaining read nonetheless.

BLOOM COUNTY ARCHIVES v.1
I couldn't resist, as this was one of three comics I was able to follow from beginning to end.  And as Berkeley Breathed was right there signing them at the IDW booth, I took the opportunity and ran with it.  Though i suppose this is cheating, as it's "What I'm About to Read", not really what I'm reading.  Just yet anyways.

Domo

Brigid Alverson: I had pretty low expectations for Domo: The Manga. I never found the character very appealing — he’s one-dimensional and lacks the quirkiness of a lot of Japanese cartoon mascots. But Tokyopop played this one pretty well. Domo is the mascot for Japan’s NHK network and stars in a series of 30-second animated shorts there. Writer Clint Bickham chose a similar format for the book, with a series of very short stories, every one of which could be summed up as: Domo finds something cool and gets carried away, to the annoyance of his friends. The storytelling is almost wordless, which means the art has to be very good, and it is; Tokyopop picked some veteran global manga artists to illustrate the book. There’s not much depth to it, but it’s simple, bright, and funny, very good for what it is—a kids’ book.

I wish I could find Meg Cabot and Jinky Coronado’s Avalon High manga trilogy as likable. The problem with this set, the latest volume of which just came out, is that the manga are based on a set of prose novels with a fairly complicated back story (American teenagers are reincarnations of King Arthur and his court), so the whole first volume is recap. Coronado’s drawing style is a bit heavy-handed — her figures all seem very solid and fleshy—which also weighs the books down a bit.

Red Plains, on the other hand, is a comic for grownups. It’s a western, something I don't see a lot of, and the first story arc is about ranchers vs. settlers, a classic theme. I really enjoy Noel Tuazon’s loose, brushy inking style in the first arc, Range War, and I like Larry Watts’s tighter work in the later arcs as well. I’m still getting a feel for the story, and Tuazon’s art is so loose that it’s hard to tell the characters apart, but Caryn Tate’s solid, spare writing is keeping me hooked.

New Warriors Classic, Vol. 1

David Gallaher: On the print side of things, I've spent most of the last three weeks reading all of the back issues from The Official Handbook of The Marvel Universe: Deluxe Edition. I've always been a Marvel handbook junkie and I love having the opportunity to go back and re-visit all of these characters. Among my favorites, of course, are the old BOOK OF THE DEAD volumes. As much as I like reading the newer Marvel handbooks, for my money, these are still the best

Besides refreshing my old Marvel Lore, I've been really enjoying the trade of NEW WARRIORS CLASSIC Vol 1 - and I can't wait for VOL 2! Almost twenty years later, Fabian Nicieza's writing is still crisp as ever and Mark Bagley's pencils are dynamic, interesting, and engaging.

Speaking of the New Warriors, NOVA always tops my reading list. Several folks have often cited that Nova is a rip-off of GREEN LANTERN, but that's not a connection I tend to make [as I see far more of Doc Smith's LENSMAN in NOVA]. Richard Rider is simply one guy trying to do his best with the situation life has handed him. Over the course of the last ten years, Nova has gone from being a a bit of a joke - to being one of Marvel's stellar heroes. Abnett and Lanning are doing amazing things with this book. Pick up a copy of the series - and I think you'll agree. [Also, as a totally geeky aside, if my calculations are correct, NOVA will be approaching his 100th cumulative issue in about 17 more issues - which is around the time of his 35th anniversary as a character!]

Webcomics-wise, I've found myself really enjoying Cameron Stewart's award-winning series Sin Titulo. It's a moody, semi-autobiographical thriller -- and Cameron's storytelling is really at its peak here. And if you aren't familiar with any of the other comics on Transmission X, you are really missing out on some extremely well-crafted comics!

Also, I following the work of my peers on Zuda. This week, in particular, I've found myself reading or re-reading Ilias Kyriazis' MELODY, Andy Belanger's BOTTLE OF AWESOME, and Kevin Colden's I RULE THE NIGHT.

And, finally, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention how Brad Guigar's EVIL INC. series always manages to keep me entertained.

High Moon

I'm pleased to welcome comics writer David Gallaher to Robot 6. David will be blogging about his various projects, webcomics and other fun stuff with us for the next week.

David's the writer of High Moon, the first winner of Zuda's monthly webcomics competition. A print collection of the strip comes out this Wednesday. He and his High Moon collaborator, artist and new father Steve Ellis, are also doing a Winter Guard one-shot for Marvel in December. They're also doing a straight-to-the-iPhone comic called Box 13 for comiXology.

Watch for David's first post tomorrow.

Tony and Johnny

Last month I spoke with Johnny Zito and Tony Trov, writers of the Zuda strip Black Cherry Bombshells, before they embarked on a road trip from Philadelphia to the San Diego Comic-Con. They made it to the con, and back home, safely, so I spoke with them again to see what they saw and what they learned on America's highways. I've also included some of their video travel journals they made along the way.

JK: Let's start with the first leg of the road trip. What were some of the highlights, in terms of places you stop and stuff you saw along the way?

Tony Trov: We took a leisurely 15 day trip and tried to take in as many cities we could.

Johnny Zito: Somewhere around Ohio our GPS went dead, and we were navigating into Chicago via stars and magnets.

Tony Trov: Things went pretty smoothly after that. We bed down in Colorado the next night. Boulder’s great because the altitude makes every beer count twice.

Johnny Zito: Ended up in Vegas after that. Killed a buffet, doubled our money and checked out some Black Cherry Bombshells’ landmarks.

Tony Trov: It was a mad dash to LA where we couch surfed and bbq-ed.

Johnny Zito: We overestimated the distance to San Diego, bolted from LA super early and got to Comic Con on Thursday with time to spare.

Tony Trov: It was a pretty smooth journey. Kept waiting for that disaster to strike but it never did. Instead we were treated to an endless string of highway diners and open roads.

JK: Did you learn anything about Vegas you plan to use in the strip?

Tony Trov: Season III of Black Cherry Bombshells features Fremont Street and the secrets of Old Vegas. So we spent some time down there looking for cool landmarks.

Johnny Zito: It's interesting how far removed Fremont Street is from The Strip. It is a classy, little fortress protecting the way things used to be.

JK: How did you guys fill the time on the road?

Johnny Zito: 80 gigs worth of music and podcasts... and it wasn’t enough to cover 3000 miles let alone the trip back.

Tony Trov: Shooting and editing the road blogs kept the cabin fever at bay.

Johnny Zito: To break it up along the way we stopped to investigate no less than 3 haunted amusement parks and an abandoned resort owned by Phyllis Diller.

Tony Trov: It was really cool to meet The Harlem Globetrotters.

JK: How were you guys feeling once you hit San Diego? Did it re-energize you, or were you already worn out from your trip?

Tony Trov: The road trip was the vacation. San Diego was supposed to be work.

Johnny Zito: Work is fun.

Tony Trov: The sight of strangers in spandex always reinvigorates me.

Johnny Zito: Call me old-fashioned but a little cosplay dance party is my idea of a good time.

JK: What was the highlight of the con for you guys?

Tony Trov: I bought some original Sergio Aragones art. He drew a new cartoon in the margins when he signed it.

Johnny Zito: Meeting Andy B. Everyone should be reading Bottle of Awesome. It’s mind blowing.

JK: And finally, how was the trip back?

Johnny Zito: Nashville was amazing!

Tony Trov: And Graceland is eternal.

Johnny Zito: But the South is scary.

Tony Trov: Not as scary as the Creation Museum.

JK: I've been wondering about this since the first interview. What's the Creationist Museum like?

Tony Trov: Lots of money went into the place. The animatronics, dioramas and multimedia presentations are on the level of Disney.

Johnny Zito: We were there on a Wednesday afternoon, and the place was packed with children. They put dinosaurs on everything because it makes it look like science.

Tony Trov: Spoiler Alert - At the end of the tour it's revealed that dinosaurs and dragons are the same thing. The museum opens up into a medieval-themed gift shop.

Johnny Zito: I don't want to attack anyone or their beliefs, but that place was full of gross inaccuracies based on causality and supported with fallacious arguments.

Re-Evolution

Creators | Re-Evolution creator Gus Higuera dropped us a note and some artwork about being at the con and the warp-up of season one of Re-Evolution at Zuda:

"It's hard to believe a year has already passed since we competed in last year's Zuda Invitational. We would like to thank Zuda and all our supporters for giving us this once-in-a-lifetime chance to be a part of DC Comics and letting us tell our story. For those of you visiting San Diego Comic Con, stop by and say hello to me and Re-Evolution's artist Juan Felipe Salcedo at the Zuda section of the DC Comics booth Thurs. - Sat. from 11:00AM-11:30AM and all weekend in booth #5335 in the Indy Press section. We have tons of free stuff for our fans in celebration of the end of our first Season. We would also like to invite all our supporters to send Zuda feedback to bring us back for a Season 2. http://www.zudacomics.com/feedback. Don't forgot to also follow us via Twitter during Zuda's virtual con under the #zudacon tag. Thanks once again and see you in San Diego. Viva La Re-Evolution!" --Gus Higuera

Fandom | If you can't go to the con this year, you can live vicariously through Mighty Mugg Spidey. (Via)

Creators | Steve Epting, Michael Ryan and Christina Strain will be at The Palm Restaurant at 615 J Street in San Diego tomorrow at noon to add some artwork to an ongoing Marvel character mural at the restaurant.

Manga | What's Tokyopop up to at the show? Glad you asked.

Manga | Viz is there, too.

Creators | Stan Sakai has "under construction" pictures from the showroom floor on Tuesday.

All the Fun

A few more updates on con activities, including the CBLDF, Tripwire Magazine, creator plans and more. I have more coming as well ...

Creators | Artist Ryan Kelly shares his schedule and the cover to All the Fun, his art book he'll be selling at the show.

Organizations | The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund has updated their website with a lot of info on their activities at the con this year, including some offsite events with Amanda Palmer, an art auction and their "Master Sessions" panels. They'll also host a welcome party on Thursday night, which is co-sponsored by Comic Book Resources, so be sure to stop by if you get a chance.

Free T-shirts | Capcom will be giving away this reversible zombie T-shirt at their booth this year, if you try out a co-op level of the new Resident Evil game.

Games | The SDCC folks have posted information on their games schedule, which includes Magic:The Gathering, Pokemon and a Tekken tournament.

Magazines | Tripwire Magazine will debut its third Tripwire Annual at the show. Here are the details:

A stunning Jeff Carlisle full colour original Nick Fury cover sets the tone for the amazing content inside: We have exclusive interviews with Stan Lee, Joe Kubert, Bill Morrison of Bongo Comics, painter Phil Hale, storyboard artist Trevor Goring and many more. There are features on Tintin, the 70th anniversaries of both Marvel Comics and Batman, the 30th anniversary of Alien, Wednesday Comics from DC, Solomon Kane from Dark Horse and a dozen others. Company profiles include Euro-comics publisher Cinebook, art book impresario Flesk Publications and Book Palace. And of course there are over 20 pages of original strips from Roger Langridge, Kev Mullins, Declan Shalvey, Josh Fialkov & Kody Chamberlain and others. In all, it is by far the biggest and best issue Tripwire has published to date.

Inside Comic-Con's Exhibitor Hall Tripwire is in the Small Press area at table S07. We'll have the 2009 Annual available at a special show price. Also, we'll have the 2008 Annual with the Doctor Who cover ready for David Tennant to sign (wherever he's set up) and copies of the 2009 Superhero Special with its Kick-Ass cover in case you want to scare up a JR, JR sig. Plus of course we'll have some Stripwire artists on hand: Roman Muradov and Kody Chamberlain will be at the table sketching and signing their work in the mag. There's even going to be free swag!

They'll also have a panel on Thursday at 10:30 a.m. in room 3

Creators | Kevin Colden of Fishtown and I Rule the Night fame, sent over his schedule:

1:30-2:30 PM Thurs.-Sun.
Zuda Comics
(DC Booth 1915)
I RULE THE NIGHT

12-1PM Thurs.
Comic Relief
(Booth 1514)
FISHTOWN
(2009 Eisner Nominee)

3PM Sunday
"Making Webcomics" Panel hosted by Zuda
Room 4
(w/ Ron Perazza, Kwanza Johnson, Cameron Stewart, and Molly Crabapple)

Creators | The High Moon creative team of David Gallaher and Steve Ellis sent over their schedule:

Going to ComicCon? This is where you can find the our posse.

At the DC Booth, we will be available for free signings and free sketches. In addition, the Zuda Crew have giveaways like the world renown Zuda Sampler and everyone's favorite collectible the Zuda POSTCARD.

Thursday, July 23
12:30 PM to 1:30 PM David Gallaher, Steve Ellis (DC Booth)

Friday, July 24
12:30 PM to 1:30 PM David Gallaher, Steve Ellis (DC Booth)

Saturday, July 25
12:30 PM to 1:30 PM David Gallaher, Steve Ellis (DC Booth)

Sunday, July 26
12:30 PM to 1:30 PM David Gallaher & Steve Ellis (DC Booth)

In addition to all of that, The High Moon creators will also be in Artist's Alley Table, where we will be selling original artwork and sketches!

Creators | Mark Texeira will have two new books debut at the show ... from the press release:

A massive 128 pages, the color art book from Vanguard Productions showcases all this and more, with a study of Texeira's classical painting techniques applied to his old world portraiture work, as well as showing how his talent is coupled with modern sequential art to great effect.

In fact, "Tex: The Art of Mark Texeira--The Artist's Great Escape," is a lush retrospective of Mark's whole career--from his beginnings in the hard streets of NYC to his rise in the competitive world of commercial illustration. Written by Renee Witterstaetter, with additional research by Patricia Snodgrass, the new book is available in softcover, hardcover and deluxe slipcased hardcover--the later with an additional 16 page portfolio section.

"Tex: The Art of Mark Texeira" will be available at the Vanguard Productions booth. Check with Vanguard for special signing and sketching times with Texeira as well.

In addition, "Babes & Brawn," a new softcover sketchbook will also be available at SDCC. Measuring 5.5 x 8.5, the new book features 32 pages of art, not duplicated in any other publication, and highlighting sketches produced by Mark on his recent European tour to Brussels, France and The Netherlands. The sketchbook serves as a companion to a hardcover sketchbook due out next year.

"Babes & Brawn--Sketches by Mark Texeira," will be available at Mark's table at the SDCC while supplies last.

Creators | And let's wrap it up with a few more creator posts: Peter David, Jill Thompson and Charles Yoakum.

Zuda

Today we kick off a bit of an experiment that hopefully will end up becoming a regular monthly feature. It's called Zudist Colony (thanks to Jeff Mccomsey for the name), and the idea is to interview all the contestants in Zuda's monthly competition.

Zuda, of course, is DC's webcomics site, where every month ten comic strips go head-to-head, and the one that gets the most votes goes on to be a regular strip on the site. The site started hosting these competitions in late 2007. Every so often we'll receive a request from one of the competitors, asking us to interview them, run some artwork, etc. to help them promote their entry -- which I certainly don't begrudge anyone for doing, as getting the word out about your strip is a big piece of the puzzle when it comes to the competition. And it may sound cheesy, but I've always felt that it wasn't fair to showcase one strip over another, that if I interviewed one of the competitors, I really needed to interview all of them. So I turned down the requests.

But I started thinking about it -- why can't I interview all of them? So I dropped a couple of emails, and soon had the email addresses for all the competitors. I should note that I sent the same five questions to all the contestants, and told them that their entire team -- writer, artist, etc. -- could answer them.

Anyway, that might be a little too "insider baseball" for everyone, so if you'd like to get on with reading their responses, just click on the "Continue Reading" link and have at it ...

*****

John Bivens, The Adventures of Mr. Simian

JK: Tell me a little bit about yourself -- is this your first comic-creating experience, or have you done other work in the field? What do you do when you aren't creating comics?

John: Okay, I graduated from Northern Illinois University about two years ago with a degree in illustration. Since graduating I've worked with Sam Costello for his Split Lip anthology, wrote and illustrated the story "Leather" in the Comic Book Tattoo anthology, competed at Zuda once before with writer and current competitor Justin Jordan. Currently, aside from the competition, I'm working on a graphic novel with writer Elizabeth Genco, and a couple of other comics with writers Josh Hechinger and Brandon Seifert. Then there's personal projects... that I will get to eventually.

When not doing the comic work, full-time day job and trying to spend time with my girlfriend.

JK: What's your comic about, and where did the idea for it come from?

John: Wanted to make a sci-fi, humor, buddy comic. Also, I remember reading an interview (when I was little) with a cartoonist who said, "Everything is better with monkeys." The idea gestated for a while, then I had to draw it.

JK: How much of your story do you have mapped out at this point, beyond the eight pages that you submitted to Zuda? And how did you decide what to put into those eight pages?

John: Probably have enough rough stories in my head to last at least three years (if I rushed it). The first eight pages are a simple introduction; I didn't want anything too convoluted.

JK: What are you doing to market your comic this month?

John: My marketing approach has been advertising on various forums, and using MySpace, Facebook and Twitter as much as possible. I've created a series of advertising illustrations that will pop up at these forums and sites as the month moves along.

JK: So no matter how great all the submissions are in a given month, there can be only one. Even if you don't win, do you plan to continue with your strip in another venue?

John: There's enough stories that I'm hoping to. I have a few places in mind, and will approach if the Zuda thing doesn't pan out.

*****

Tyler James, Interrogation Control Element

JK: Tell me a little bit about yourself -- is this your first comic-creating experience, or have you done other work in the field? What do you do when you aren't creating comics?

Tyler: The Interrogation Control Element (ICE) creative team is four strong. It was conceived and written by me, Tyler James, who Zudaheads may remember from April 2008's competition, where my comic Super Seed finished 4th (behind two eventual Zuda contract winners.) I've been writing and drawing comics for most of the last fifteen years, and am currently the writer/artist of Over, a romantic comedy online graphic novel that debuted last month, and Tears of the Dragon, a fantasy epic, which began its weekly run the 14th of July. When not making funny books, I work as a video game designer and content produce for a small software company, and teach making comics to kids and adults.

I've been joined on ICE by the kick ass art team of penciller/ inker Damian Couceiro and colorist Paul Little. Damian is an award winning artist from Argentina, who is most known for his work on Joe Casey's Full Moon Fever, for AIT Planet Lar. Paul is a workhorse colorist who has made pretty such titles as Bomb Queen (Shadowline/ Image Comics), Dynamo 5 (Image Comics) and The Matriarch (Arcana Studios). (I've also grabbed him for work on Tears of the Dragon. He's too good!) And rounding out the team is editor Steven Forbes, who is copy-editor of Warmageddon Quarterly, co-writer of indy hit Fallen Justice, and writer of two must-read columns for any aspiring comics writers, Bolts & Nuts and The Proving Ground.

JK: What's your comic about, and where did the idea for it come from?

Tyler: ICE is a story that was inspired by a New York Times article about Deuce Martinez, the CIA interrogator who broke Al Qaeda mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. Unlike his colleagues, who were using "enhanced interrogation techniques" to try to break prisoners, Deuce took a different, more cerebral approach. And he was incredibly effective and got the guy talking.

I thought such a character could make for a compelling protagonist. And as I started doing my research on interrogators in the war on terror, it was clear there was a very powerful story to be told here, and one that we haven't seen much of in film or comics.

As for the story, ICE takes place in a post-Guantanamo Bay world and tells the story of Trip Higgins, a brilliant senior interrogator for the U.S. military. Trip was one of the most effective interrogators in Iraq and Afghanistan earlier in the decade, a by the book kind of guy who used his wits, psychological ruses, and other legal means to consistently break prisoners and provide valuable, accurate intel to his superiors. However, as other interrogators seemed to rely more on those so called "enhanced interrogation techniques" and his superiors turned a blind eye, Trip became disillusioned with his work and left the military.

Jump forward several years and a new administration, and Trip is chosen to become the senior echo (chief of interrogators) of a new Interrogation Control Element on American soil. Here, Trip will be training a young group of 'gators how to break the nation's most valuable (and in some cases deadliest) prisoners, within the bounds of the Geneva Conventions. Some of the young interrogators will be extremely wet behind the ears, while others have done this job in the past and may have a different view on the effectiveness and legality of enhanced interrogation, creating conflict with Trip.

Trip's counterpoint is Fazul Shallah, a brutal extremist who, after an eight month stint in an Afghan prison, decides to eliminate the leadership of his multi-national terrorist organization and assume control himself. Once he's solidified his control, Shallah coordinates a series of terrible terrorist attacks and soon becomes Trip's team's number one priority. When faced with such a ruthless enemy, Trip's by-the-book tactics and respect for the rule of law will be tested, and the two men with diametrically opposed views are set on a collision course.

JK: How much of your story do you have mapped out at this point, beyond the eight pages that you submitted to Zuda? And how did you decide what to put into those eight pages?

Tyler: Well, there are another couple of pages already drawn by Damian and ready to go, but that was more because I decided I wanted to swap in a different short scene within my crucial eight submission pages. The story is mapped out. I've written it as if it were a limited graphic novel series or a feature film. So, all of the major beats, highs and lows, beginning middle and end, etc. are mapped out and a few choice sequences are detailed. Damian's also been working on some character designs for the rest of our cast who didn't make the initial 8 pages. But, should we win, I'll definitely have some full-scripting to do. (But hey, that's what they're paying us for, right?)

As for what to include, I think I was able to squeeze as much story into the initial eight pages as I could without going overboard. I felt I needed to set up the world, firmly establish the protagonist, introduce the main antagonist, and set the table for what's to come. It was important I also gave Damian the chance to show off his chops artwise, and I think he delivered.

JK: What are you doing to market your comic this month?

Tyler: What aren't I doing to market this thing? I pretty much feel that's all I've been doing for the past week. There's Twitter posts and updates (you're following me at @tylerjamescomic, right?) I've been doing some on the fly contests through Twitter and hooking people up with some gorgeous ICE prints. I've been running some Project Wonderful ads, but I'm determined not to blow my whole DC Comics check on marketing this time around. (That's the sneakiest thing about the Zuda business plan. Their outlays paying contestants for their work double as advertising. Pretty brilliant.)

Additionally, I whipped up a super cool trailer that has gotten a ton of hits over on YouTube. Watch it. It'll tingle those patriotic goosebumps Americans get when we here The Star Spangled Banner. I've banner ads on all my comic sites, and I'm currently running new content on FOUR different comic sites concurrently with the Zuda contest. So, check out Over, Super Seed, Tears of the Dragon, and CounterTerror if you need more comic goodness from me.

You know, despite the international nature of Zuda competitions, this is not American Idol. It doesn't take a million votes to win. In fact, it's more like a high school student body election. But you gotta work for those votes. The "best" comic has no guarantee to win. In fact, you can guarantee the "best" comic won't win if they don't match the intensity and hard work they put into the submission with beating the bushes to get the word out.

JK: So no matter how great all the submissions are in a given month, there can be only one. Even if you don't win, do you plan to continue with your strip in another venue?

Tyler: That's a great question. You know, the sad part of Zuda, is that there are a whole host of comics that were well-regarded, found an audience, clearly of quality, and yet came up short. The graveyard of Zuda runner-ups is full of a lot of good comics.

From a creator's standpoint, something bugs me about creators putting a ton of work into their comic, promoting the holy hell out of it, getting positive, constructive feedback on it, and then abandoning it completely because they aren't going to get the Zuda contract. As if Zuda is the be all and end all of webcomics.

Don't get me wrong, I love Zuda and I think it would be a tremendous opportunity. But there are SO many other things you can do with your comic properties! For example, I launched Over, a webcomic I'm self-publishing on its own site, overcomic.com, last month and it ended up getting about three times as many page views in a month as Super Seed did when it competed on Zuda. And that's without heavy advertising, the draw of the competition and the marketing might of DC/Warner Bros. Yes, Zuda is good exposure, but it's still just a small portion of the vast ocean that is webcomics.

All that being said, we may not choose to go full steam ahead with ICE should we not win the Zuda contract. This is for two reasons. First, ICE is a hard book to write. Writing realistic fiction, dealing with highly controversial, straight from the headlines topics, without any supernatural, suspension of disbelief stuff, is very very difficult. Because, the more realistic the world setting you're writing, the quicker people are to call bullshit on something that seems far fetched or inaccurate. With a jovial ribbing, this isn't a problem with entries where you have a talking lab rat and a car-driving monkey. Pretty much anything goes at that point. (I am a fan, though, Mr. Bivens.) Second, ICE is an expensive story to produce. Regardless of whether or not ICE is your favorite submission, from the comments thread on Zuda, there is pretty much universal agreement that this is a professional, quality submission. Professional work costs money. Damian and Paul both cut me a deal on page rates for the Zuda submission and were awesome to do so. Guys, Damian is a star in the making and the sky is the limit for this guy. And Paul is coloring God knows how many books every month. These guys more than earn their paychecks. Unfortunately, at the moment it would be awful tough for me to pay them what they're worth and foot the bill for a run of the full mini-series/graphic novel, without a publishing deal lined up. (Hint, hint, publishers.)

Regardless though, the story will get told. This will probably be the next feature length screenplay I write. (Everyone says you need at least two spec scripts...I only have one at present.) But I would absolutely LOVE to continue it on Zuda, and for the rest of the month, I'll be doing everything in my power to make that happen.

*****

Jeff Mccomsey and Jorge Vega, Bloody Pulp

JK: Tell me a little bit about yourself -- is this your first comic-creating experience, or have you done other work in the field? What do you do when you aren't creating comics?

Jeff: My name is Jeff McComsey. I live in Lancaster, Pennsylvania with my girlfriend Samantha. I‘ve got an ongoing, creator-owned series called American Terror: Confession of a Human Smart Bomb published by the fine folks at Alterna Comics, as well as a series I’m working on with Jorge called 9 Months. I also try and do as many short stories as my schedules allow, recently I’ve done a few for fellow Alterna creator and all around swell guy, Stephen Lindsay’s Jesus Hates Zombies. When I’m not working on projects, I try an make up for the time I’ve spent neglecting friends and family because of being glued to the drawing board.

Jorge: I'm the writer/creator/co-creator of several titles. I published an original graphic novel, Gunplay, last year with artist Dominic Vivona and Platinum Studios. Shortly after that, I started two indie press labels, Kidkong Entertainment and Two Fisted Press. Kidkong is a family friendly label. I publish a book call Kaeru-Boy there with artist/co-founder, Darrin Stephens. Two Fisted Press is a place for grittier, more mature stories. I publish another title called 9 Months there with Jeff McComsey. 2FP is also the birthplace of our Zuda entry, Bloody Pulp. Outside of comics, I'm a full time educator at a K-9 school in Massachusetts. I'm also a geeky family man, with three kids and a wife who is supportive enough to let me sink a good bit of our money into self-publishing.

JK: What's your comic about, and where did the idea for it come from?

Jorge: Bloody Pulp is the story of John "Pulp" Polpowski, the kind of guy you only see if you owe the wrong people a lot of money. He's a 1930's leg breaker who carries a dangerous secret; he's been quietly relocating some of the people he's been paid to kill. He's been moving them to an undisclosed farm house in the middle of nowhere. A place where they can get a fresh start. A place where the sins of the past dissolve in the present. This is the house that Pulp built and the rules are simple: No one leaves... EVER. But there's nothing simple about the arrival of Eustace Parks, a Negro band leader who has drawn the attention of the Kansas City syndicate-- the wrong kind of attention. When Eustace arrives, his presence causes lines to be drawn, passions to ignite and horrible acts to be carried out, leading to an epic standoff that will measure just how far Pulp is willing to go to bring order to his house.

Jeff and I had our first discussion about Bloody Pulp on the last day of NYCC 2008, over a sandwich. We were both interested in what Zuda had to offer and Jeff already had the beginnings of the Pulp character in his head-- "a guy who's supposed to be a killer but isn't... except for when he is". Jeff also had the title picked out. For the record, I actually tried to get him to change it. Terribleterribleterrible idea, I know. My bad. Fortunately, Jeff is a lot smarter than I am and we kept it. A week later, I sent Jeff an 8 page script which would eventually become the submission now being showcased at Zuda.

Jeff: I’ve always been fascinated by the character that we see in films, novels and comics whose sole purpose is to make the main bad guys look badder. The guy next to the guy, if you will. Pulp is that guy who makes a good antagonist even nastier. I’ve always felt those guys and girls had great stories in them, Bloody Pulp has allowed me to finally tell the story of one of these characters. The other thing is I love a good period piece story.

JK: How much of your story do you have mapped out at this point, beyond the eight pages that you submitted to Zuda? And how did you decide what to put into those eight pages?

Jorge: We have all the story revolving Pulp and Eustace completely mapped and plotted out, as well as several of the subplots involving the other "guests" at Pulp's house. When it came time to actually decide on what we'd submit to Zuda, Jeff gave me a fair bit of elbow room.

Jeff: I’ve worked with Jorge before and know what he’s capable of as a writer and this Bloody Pulp script just far exceeded what I expected. He had taken my vague concept and given it depth, character and most importantly made it work in eight pages. He had come up with this band leader character named Eustace Parks as Pulp’s first “job” we see. The introduction of Eustace in my opinion insured that the story wouldn’t just become a bad re hash of other more successful gangster stories.

Jorge: I've put together quite a few pitches in the last three years and it's my opinion that, if you only have a few pages to grab someone's attention, you should ALWAYS START IN THE MIDDLE OF YOUR STORY or, in the case of BLOODY PULP, the middle of the beginning. If you've crafted your plot correctly, the MIDDLE should be an intense and exciting part to drop readers blindly into. Furthermore, if you tweak it for pitch purposes, you can very easily introduce all of your pivotal players, infuse some key character development and get to the heart of your story without all the boring exposition. That's exactly what we've tried to do in our Bloody Pulp pitch.

JK: What are you doing to market your comic this month?

Jeff: We've came up with a whole campaign from original promotional art, down to a weekly contests to win a “pulped up” avatar. The promotional art ranges from a poster for Eustace Parks and the Kansas City High Hats performance at the Half Moon Lounge, to a riff on the old Uncle Sam “I want you” poster with Pulp in the Uncle Sam role asking viewers to register and vote at Zudacomics.com. The plan is to release a piece of promotional art a week, so far so good! The Pulped up Avatar contest sprang from the matching Pulped up portraits I did for myself and Jorge to promote the submission. Basically I just drew portraits of the two of us after an ass whooping from Pulp. The contest goes like this: you get as many folks to sign up, vote and favorite Bloody Pulp as you can, you ask those you referred to leave your name in a comment in the talk back section on Bloody Pulp’s Zuda page. At the end of the week whoever has the most mentions gets an original piece of art featuring their mug all busted up.

Then there's the Facebook group for fans, our regularly updating Twitter feeds and TwoFistedFress.com-- the de-facto Bloody Pulp blog.

Jorge: In addition to all that, we've reached out to our network of family, friends, fans and fellow creators and asked them to help us. More specifically, we sent an email out to all of them. The email relayed the good news about our being accepted into July's Zuda competition and then said "we're contacting you because we'd like your support. We have a PLAN for each one of you. Please reply to this email if you're interested in hearing how you can help us." And then we waited to hear back. There was no follow up email, no SPAM, and within 24 hours we heard back from every person we contacted and more than 97 percent of them replied with "What do you need me to do?" Your biggest supporters are the people right around you (relatively speaking for the web). START WITH THE PEOPLE YOU KNOW. Invite them to be a part of what you're doing. Don't waste their time. Don't expect THEM to figure out a way to help you. HELP THEM HELP YOU and TELL them exactly what you need from them. Delegate jobs based on their skills and/or spheres influence. And when they've completed that first set of tasks, thank them for it and then give them two or three new things to do. People WANT to help you. But they want direction too.

JK: So no matter how great all the submissions are in a given month, there can be only one. Even if you don't win, do you plan to continue with your strip in another venue?

Jeff: Yeah, the story Jorge and I have cooked up has got into my guts. If we don’t get the much coveted #1 spot this story will continue. Stay tuned!

Jorge: Absolutely. Even if we don't win, Zuda has already proven to be invaluable as its given us the opportunity to see how this story would/will resonate with readers. The response has been overwhelmingly positive with folks like blogger Rob Berry praising Bloody Pulp as "something rare in handling, a pitch that presents readers with a quick overview of when and where to establish context, but pulls off a flip on the preconceptions we might hold that limit period to genre. In television that was Deadwood. This month at Zuda it’s the eight clean and straight-forward pages of Bloody Pulp." If this story can trigger THAT kind of response, well, yeah... we plan on continuing this comic win, lose or draw.

*****

Alberto Lanzillotti and Manuel Bracchi, 9th Year

JK: Tell me a little bit about yourself -- is this your first comic-creating experience, or have you done other work in the field? What do you do when you aren't creating comics?

Alberto: We have an online-comics website called Abelard Studio since 2001. 9th Year is one of several projects we set up in those years.

Manuel: I'm a professional comic artist here in Italy, and I’m a member of the Abelard Studio too. I’m also the co-writer of 9th Year.

JK: What's your comic about, and where did the idea for it come from?

Alberto: We like sci-fi and fantasy, so we tried to imagine what could happen after a classic fantasy war in our world. All the incipit part of “9th year” may sounds like a déjà-vu: the battle between good and evil, the chosen one’s sacrifice...and so on, but what will happen next? In “9th Year”, governments and military forces have forgotten the people living in isolated places who have now to fight the monsters hiding in the woods.

JK: How much of your story do you have mapped out at this point, beyond the eight pages that you submitted to Zuda? And how did you decide what to put into those eight pages?

Alberto: The story mapped out at this point…is just the beginning! We decided to show all the main characters and some typical scenes, but it’s nothing but a small part of the project.

Manuel: Yes, we tried to show just the atmosphere of the whole story by now.

JK: What are you doing to market your comic this month?

Alberto: All our friends are mobilized by social networks, forums and blogs ... manual printed flyers, too!

JK: So no matter how great all the submissions are in a given month, there can be only one. Even if you don't win, do you plan to continue with your strip in another venue?

Alberto: We'd like to continue 9th Year. We have the whole story, it’s a very big deal... and a big effort too!

Manuel: I think that 9th Year is a great story, and it would be a real pity if people wouldn't know it. If we don’t win it's going to be hard to go on with it…but who know what the future holds.

*****

Assignment

Justin Jordan and Anthony Peruzzo, Assignment

JK: Tell me a little bit about yourself -- is this your first comic-creating experience, or have you done other work in the field? What do you do when you aren't creating comics?

Justin: Anthony and I are both repeat offenders when it comes to Zuda. This my third go around, after Junk and Rumors of War, and this is Anthony’s second, after Unconscious Life. This is actually the second project Anthony and I have worked on together.

Er, I think. He’s given me a much appreciated hand on a few other comic things.

As for other comic, stuff, I’ve been a bunch of anthologies and self published a bit, and I’ve got a couple of projects floating around in the pitch stage. In the real world, I’m a freelance writer and I run a library program.

Anthony: I'll just add, we've both been making comics for a while. I started seriously about five years ago with a couple of self-published OGN's. I'll have work in a few anthologies from Image within the next year or so. Outside of comics, I really don't do much besides my day job at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and hanging out with my wife and dog.

JK: What's your comic about, and where did the idea for it come from?

Justin: Assignment is about a surprisingly cheerful assassin who becomes stuck in the middle of a supernatural conflict that could end the world. Which he’s generally against, on account of being in the world.

I’m not a hundred percent sure where the idea came from, to be honest. I know the genesis was Hatch, the hitman. I wanted to do something with a killer who wasn’t, aside from the fact that he was a killer, too bad of a dude. And dude is probably the right word, because Hatch is not too far removed, personality wise, from the Dude from The Big Lebowski.

After that, there were some interesting stuff from mythology that I thought might be cool in a modern day setting, and so it all kind of grew up from there, Kudzu like.

Anthony: A lot of people have mentioned the influence of the movie 'The Thing' directed by John Carpenter. While it's really only on the first page, this will be brought up much more later on. I believe there is a whole chapter in Antarctica. There's a bunch of cool stuff that happens.

JK: How much of your story do you have mapped out at this point, beyond the eight pages that you submitted to Zuda? And how did you decide what to put into those eight pages?

Justin: The whole thing. I have around a hundred pages of 120 or so already written, and the story is fully plotted to the end. I actually have three four concrete plots of other Assignments, should we make it that far.

Choosing what eight pages to submit to Zuda is always the trickiest part for me. I’ve written a lot of less than eight page stories, but the trick is writing something that is satisfying, intriguing and does justice to the story beyond the eight pages.

The eight pages for my first Zuda entry, Junk, were a mostly self contained prologue. They gave a feel for the story and the mood, but wasn’t part of the larger plot. With Rumors of War, I started right at the beginning of the story and ended on what was hopefully a pretty big ‘Holy Crap!’ moment.

For Assignment, I could think of a better entry point than the first eight pages. There’s a lot of stuff that has gone on before, but if we started there, it wouldn’t reflect the kind of comic you were going to get. If we picked up later, then it wouldn’t make any sense. As it was, we started at the earliest point that would make sense in the larger story and give people an idea of what the comic is like.

Anthony: I think it's really important to give a taste of the story and characters/personalities, while making sure you show there is a larger story behind it all. Hopefully you'll have people interested enough to come back. For Zuda, I like the cliffhanger ending. I used it in Unconscious Life, and we used it to a degree here in Assignment.

JK: What are you doing to market your comic this month?

Justin: Let’s see: Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, email, selling my body in exchange for votes, a production blog, you know, the usual. We are lucky enough to have some kind of recognition from our previous Zuda stuff, so that helps. Of course, so do half the other competitors. Heck, John Bivens, who has The Adventures of Mr. Simian in this month, did Rumors of War together.

Anthony: Ditto

JK: So no matter how great all the submissions are in a given month, there can be only one. Even if you don't win, do you plan to continue with your strip in another venue?

Justin: Absolutely. Like I said earlier, I have a hundred pages written, and we got pencils done up through page sixteen or so. We’d love to win, we WANT to win, but if we don’t, we have plans in place to continue elsewhere. Anthony and I are both committed to Assignment. It’s one of my favorite things to write, and Anthony seems to like drawing the horrible, horrible things I put in it.

Anthony: Like exploding heads, walking decapitations, and exploding guitars. It's all fun.

*****

Metropolitan Siege

Eric Z, Metropolitan Siege

JK: Tell me a little bit about yourself -- is this your first comic-creating experience, or have you done other work in the field? What do you do when you aren't creating comics?

Eric: This was my first experience coloring my own work. I learned quite a bit throughout the project and I think the development shows a little from beginning to end. Other then this, though, I have various projects at different stages of development. I'm collaborating with Tim Simmons on a couple of projects at the moment (there should be an announcement pretty soon on one of them) and I did a WW2 project called "The Killers: Wars End" several years ago with Frank Tra that may be getting published early next year. There are preview samples of sequentials for a couple of these projects at my website.

JK: What's your comic about, and where did the idea for it come from?

Eric: The pretentious answer is that the comic is about the breakdown of a city. The genesis of the idea stems from the images I saw of city riots, but more specifically the LA riots in the early 90's. There's also a lot I took from the current police tazer debate going on. The lead character, Nikki, is a cop behind a scandal that started a lot of unrest in the city. The idea I'm working with here is that this demonic force feeds off of the unrest of a city (they were there during Sodom and Gomorrah and the LA riots). I like the idea that, in essence, they didn't cause the conflict, but they're stoking the fire and getting stronger for it. Their ultimate goal is the complete destruction of the city. And while an opposing higher power grants Nikki the ability to stop this force, the fact that her life and relationships are in a state of chaos means that these enemies are all the more powerful around her. This naturally leads to a lot of character development. And explosions. Lots of explosions.

JK: How much of your story do you have mapped out at this point, beyond the eight pages that you submitted to Zuda? And how did you decide what to put into those eight pages?

Eric: I have the middle and the ending all planned out. I introduced a ticking clock in the eight pages, which means that the whole story takes place over three days. All I wanted in the first eight pages was a decent introduction to Nikki's chaotic life, a setup for the mystery of what she did to get put under investigation, a scene where she's given a mission and an explosive climax.

JK: What are you doing to market your comic this month?

Eric: Honestly, I'm terrible at this marketing game and this isn't the most convenient month for me. Right now I've barely got anything to share, but I'm hoping to get some things set up in the next couple of weeks. There are a couple of images at my website.

JK: So no matter how great all the submissions are in a given month, there can be only one. Even if you don't win, do you plan to continue with your strip in another venue?

Eric: Most definitely. I'm very happy with the idea behind this comic, and I feel that I have something unique to say with it.

*****

Aluísio Cervelle Santos, RockStar

JK: Tell me a little bit about yourself -- is this your first comic-creating experience, or have you done other work in the field? What do you do when you aren't creating comics?

Aluísio: First off, I'd like to thank you for making this interview, and a second thanks for letting me have the opportunity to be in it!

I have been a comic lover since very early in life.. .probably just like everyone else in the interview, but until a few years ago, let's say ... three years, I never had the opportunity to make a comic that could be shown to anyone, primarily because most of Brazilian comics being sold are DC or Marvel stuff, so pretty much barely anything is made here! Besides I used to live in a very small town, so there wasn't any art or comic teachers that I could rely or ask opinions on.

Then, when I was about the second year in the university, I found entervoid.com, which is a really, really cool comic community, which gave me that possibility to make comics that people could see and give feedback!

So, yeah, properly answering your first question, I have been creating comics not for long, around three years or so, in a webcomic format!

When I'm not creating comics, I'm either drawing - I do several freelance illustration jobs for a Brazilian magazine Mundo Estranho, published by Editora Abril - or then I might be playing video games. Of course, in case you didn't notice by the tone of my comic, I LOVE to play the guitar.. though drawing recently has taken a lot more space than the music love .

JK: What's your comic about, and where did the idea for it come from?

Aluísio: My comic, named RockStar, is about a rich boy, born for some reason with six fingers, that loves to play guitar. In the Zuda comic, it shows some kind of alien force trying to force his alliance, which he doesn't accept. It doesn't explain why in the comic, because I didn't want to damage the reading experience cramming a lot of story AND action - which is a must in a super hero type of story - into eight pages, but the boy and the dragon dude are supposed to be allies! You can kind of tell by their dialogues, but yeah, I've been told that part of my comic is terrible haha.

The basic idea for the comic is based on my very cultural foundations that contributed to the path I've been taking with art - Tokusatsu shows (you know, those Kamen Rider, Power Rangers, etc., that were incredible successive in Brazil when I was a child), video games (as someone mentioned in the Zuda comments, ¨Megaman with a guitar!¨), mangas and my own guitar playing -- I love rock and blues from the 70s especially, and ¨soft metal,¨ like I prefer referring to blues based metal such as Black Sabbath.

JK: How much of your story do you have mapped out at this point, beyond the eight pages that you submitted to Zuda? And how did you decide what to put into those eight pages?

Aluísio: I have not properly written a script, but I have tons of ideas as to where to go to next, and I've gotten a notebook just to take notes whenever I have an idea, so that I don't forget it and what not.

Besides, since my entry is pretty much action focused, there's a LOT of room to work in the background. We all know the rich boy is a super hero.. but does he want to be a super hero? Does he like it? How is his ¨normal life¨? Does his parents approve of his rock passion (they clearly have no clue he's the superhero who saved them!)? What if he secretly plays music with his school pals and at home he tells his parents he wants to be an engineer?

What's the origin of RockChild's powers? And more importantly, why would aliens want him for ally?

As for what goes in the eight pager, in my opinion, aside from the tremendous online competition, the biggest challenge is to fit eight pages and make the readers curious to what comes next. So if this is a super hero story, I can't go throwing storylines into them if they haven't even seen if they like the hero, or what he does.. so for that reason I started off with an action scene, with a few hints of story, and then hope it's a good way to hook readers up! I'll let you decide, haha.

JK: What are you doing to market your comic this month?

Aluísio: Most of what I've been doing is online stuff really, I've been promoting it mostly over deviantart, and other sites I go too, such as Entervoid.com, gingerbox, and satellite soda, but also going to a few Mugen communities, which I used to participate strongly with games before I turned into making comics.

You can follow me on Facebook (name's Aluísio Cervelle Santos)!

You can also check any of those sites and take part in the contest I've started yesterday, already with a few entrants! (a pic of the promo poster for the contest).

And lastly, this is the piece I've made to promote the first week of competition.

JK: So no matter how great all the submissions are in a given month, there can be only one. Even if you don't win, do you plan to continue with your strip in another venue?

Aluísio: I don't know about that. I might, but I have no plans for RockStar if he doesn't make it in. I have a few book projects with entirely different focuses and themes, for example, I also LOVE drawing horror comics, though I suck at it, but I'm writing a script for a comic book anthology on that theme, and also an adventure story for another anthology with the EnterVoid.com folks! So while I can share time to work in Zuda comics while I make them, if I don't win this month's competition I have no previews for a RockStar comic so far.. unless a proposition happens, you never know haha.

To close this, I'd like to thank you again for the interview, and thanks everyone for reading it!

I know this month's competition is really tough, but I hope readers opt to stay with RockStar in the end! I won't disappoint you!

*****

Erik Valdez, Children's Games

JK: Tell me a little bit about yourself -- is this your first comic-creating experience, or have you done other work in the field? What do you do when you aren't creating comics?

Erik: I was born and have lived all my life in Mexico City. I began drawing at the age of two (according to official family lore) and it has been my passion ever since. A little bit later I started reading and therein was planted the seed for joining images and words. I have several published comics – as an artist only so far. The Sleepy Truth Vol. 1 and 2 for Viper comics and two books for Stone Arch Books fairy tale line: Snow White and Rumpelstiltskin. I am currently working on a graphic novel project with Outlaw Entertainment, which I am both writing and drawing. It is called Freak School, and I’m very excited about it.

When I’m not creating comics I enjoy painting (it’s very different from drawing or writing, engages a totally different sensation) reading, hanging out with friends, checking out a movie and especially traveling to places I’ve never been to.

JK: What's your comic about, and where did the idea for it come from?

Erik: My comic is called Children’s Games, it’s about a six year old girl named Paola and her cat Machiavello who find a piece of God that had been forgotten in an old tin box a long time ago. They take this piece of God into themselves, each in their own way, and thereby achieve the powers of God. So they begin to play around with their new abilities, which are literally endless. They create entire worlds and play around with the rules of reality. And then things get serious, because a piece of God is a powerful commodity, and it is something that draws interest. The first to make an attempt is the Devil, and from there on Paola and Machiavello will play increasingly more complex and serious games with beings of enormous determination and guile with only their childlike imagination, skill and friendship to rely on in order to survive.

On a broader scale, it’s about the value and power of innocence clashing against the malicious world of adults. How things are not what they might seem to be at first, and how even the most powerful and terrible beings have this soft, human childlike part, even if they don’t accept or show it.

The idea came from the text on the first panel of the second page:” One day, while in the spare room, Paola opened an old tin can and found a piece of God that had been forgotten there a long time ago” And I found the idea so compelling and so full of possibility that I had to go ahead and see where it would lead. That led to a short, 8 page story in 2006 which was very much liked – but as pleased as I was with that, I felt there was much more to explore, and so decided to rework the story for Zuda, and hopefully just take it as far as imagination will go. Beyond that inspiration comes from all places, Paola is based on my sister, I had a cat named Machiavello, and there are ideas all over the place that contribute to make this an interesting read. Ideas on religion and the nature of God, on creation and the responsibility it entails, on what comics can do – and one of the things I love about this idea is that literally, it can go anywhere, and I can do anything. There is humor and there is darkness, there are huge action scenes and lovely quiet scenes. There are jumps in style and genre and it all works together.

JK: How much of your story do you have mapped out at this point, beyond the eight pages that you submitted to Zuda? And how did you decide what to put into those eight pages?

Erik: In a broad sense, I have major plot points mapped out. I know where I start, the reasons behind the beginning, the road that the characters are going to travel, and where they end up. However, I leave space for new ideas, for meandering down side paths before rejoining the main road. Especially since the competition has started, I’ve been having many new ideas of what can be done with this story. Since the idea is that the characters have the power of God; anything is possible. I can change tone and style and genres as much as I want (As long as it serves the story, of course, nothing is gratuitous – even the Devil with her Bad Girl look has a reason) I’m looking forward to a big, Anime style action sequence, and some pretty horrific parts later on.

The selection of the eight pages was complex. It is mostly based on my first 2006 play on this story. I knew I had to introduce the characters and give them heart, give readers a taste of what could be done (and mostly they have said that they want more of that) However it was a challenge to say enough without cramming the pages full of information or having the sequences suffer because of it. The point is to create a good story that flows well and in which the pages work with each other. And once again, everything has a point; nothing is there just because I thought it would be cool at the moment. Saying that, having a cliffhanger at the end, given the character of the competition, seemed like a good idea.

JK: What are you doing to market your comic this month?

Erik: Obviously there is e-mail to every single person I have ever known, as well as Twitter and Facebook. I have an interview in The Villains Corner as well as my webpage, which contains samples of all of my work. And then there’s getting the information out on blogs and forums, both here in Mexico and on a more international scale. Obviously I believe the comic is good enough to win on it’s own merits, but it has become increasingly clear how much marketing counts.

JK: So no matter how great all the submissions are in a given month, there can be only one. Even if you don't win, do you plan to continue with your strip in another venue?

Erik: Definitely, even if Children’s Games does not win, this month has shown it to a wide variety of people, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive. So beyond the fact that this is a story that I would love to continue telling, I now know beyond a doubt that there is an audience for it out there. It’s been interesting to see the preconceptions people have of this story based just on the eight pages on display right now, and it would be so much fun to just blow those ideas out of the water with everything I have planned. It’s going to be an awesome ride. Trust me.

*****

Don Kunkel, Charles P. Wilson III and Rian Miller II,Vigilante Granny

JK: Tell me a little bit about yourself -- is this your first comic-creating experience, or have you done other work in the field? What do you do when you aren't creating comics?

Don Kunkel: My first art job was drawing caricatures at Six Flags. My dream however was to work in comics. I ventured on to attend the Joe Kubert School in New Jersey where I met my comic book dream team: Rian (co-creator and writer), Charles (inks, letters, and covers), and Jhanie (colors). I have books published with all of them and they're not limited to the talents mentioned above. Some of my other creations that have gone to press include Zombie of the Month and Swimming with Razors. I have also found myself doing small pieces for movies such as Zombie Prom and Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated. You can check out more of my stuff on: www.Zombieofthemonth.wordpress.com and www.don-kunkel.deviantart.com

Charles P. Wilson III: Don, Ryan and myself attended The Joe Kubert School of Art around the same time a few years ago, where I think he and Ryan cooked up the idea behind Vigilante Granny. I think I remember seeing Vigilante Granny school assignments of theirs up in display cases at the time. Since graduation I've kept in contact with Don and contributed artwork to his Zombie of the Month project. I'm currently working on a book called The Stuff of Legend for Th3rd World Studios, due out sometime this month. That project is rendered entirely in tonal pencils, and when Don contacted a little while back regarding inking his project I remember thinking I was pretty hungry to work in a different medium for a little bit, and the subject matter seemed like it would be fun to work with.

Rian Miller II: My name is Rian Miller, and I graduated from the Joe Kubert School alongside Don in 2006. I've been reading comics since I was about 12 (my first comic was Aliens: Berserk #1 from Dark Horse) and have wanted to work in the the field ever since. As far as work I've had published, there isn't much, but if you own a copy of Invincible #30 from Image Comics, flip to the back and you'll find a pin-up I painted while I was still attending the Kubert school. I've got a lot more art on my deviantArt page, which you can find via my website: www.rianmiller.com

JK: What's your comic about, and where did the idea for it come from?

Rian Miller II: Vigilante Granny began as a funny title that Don came up with sometime around 2003 or 2004 if I'm not mistaken. He had this idea for an old woman who could kick your ass and asked me to help him flesh out the idea. Basically what it has transformed into over time is a story about a former super hero who got too old to wear spandex and decided to give up the life of a masked vigilante. Unfortunately for her (and fortunately for the reader) no younger heroes have shown up to take her place, so somewhat begrudgingly, Faye Justis still finds herself with the job of protecting the city where she and her family reside from all manner of wacky enemies. The only difference now is that she can't be bothered to don a costume anymore.

JK: How much of your story do you have mapped out at this point, beyond the eight pages that you submitted to Zuda? And how did you decide what to put into those eight pages?

Rian Miller II: The way we've worked out the story is similar to a lot of books these days like Hellboy or Atomic Robo, which have clearly defined arcs usually told in a mini-series format. Right now I've got a rough outline for the first "arc" and detailed outlines for the first ten or so eight page chunks of the story. Finding ways to work in a cliffhanger every eight pages has been tough, but fun. As far as the first installment of the story is concerned, an bombastic action scene seemed to be the best way to introduce Granny to the reader. The events of those eight pages (specifically Faye's apartment being destroyed) leads directly into chapter two, which begins with her temporarily moving into her son's house in the suburbs. From there things only get more awkward and exciting for our elderly hero.

JK: What are you doing to market your comic this month?

Rian Miller II: Basically we're just getting the word out via Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, deviantArt, and any other sites we're currently signed up for. There are a few art-related forums out there like Penciljack that I'm pushing Vigilante Granny on as well.

JK: So no matter how great all the submissions are in a given month, there can be only one. Even if you don't win, do you plan to continue with your strip in another venue?

Rian Miller II: It seems that Vigilante Granny has been around in some form or another at all times over the past few years through the web, anthology books, and mini-comics. So even if we don't make the cut on Zuda she'll still be around. Don and I are happy with the story we've crafted for Faye and co. and plan to continue work on the book past the competition whether we win or lose. If nothing else, the great support and reactions we've been getting in the comments section of our Zuda page has strengthened our resolve and proven to us that there is indeed an audience out there for a comic book about a septuagenarian superhero.

*****

Steve Ekstrom, Mikael Bergkvist and Jesse Turnbull, The Ares Imperative

JK: Tell me a little bit about yourself -- is this your first comic-creating experience, or have you done other work in the field? What do you do when you aren't creating comics?

Steve Ekstrom: I write for Newsarama.com as a journalist and I've had a couple of stories published in smaller anthologies like 803 Studios and Tin Star Studios—and I've also been published in Negative Burn. Currently, I've got projects slated for Popgun 4 and a few other large anthologies—and I'm working on a creator-owned project with Mikael Bergkvist and Jesse Turnbull alongside our work on The Ares Imperative.

When I'm not creating comics? I'm trying to find a way to create more comics. (laugh)

Seriously, I have a day job—waiting tables; it's not the most fun work but it's a decent living in my neck of the woods and the schedule is very flexible so I can work on my projects.

Mikael Bergkvist: I work in web development—which is boring, so comics are a lot more fun!

Jesse Turnbull: I live in Philadelphia with my wife. I went to art school in Baltimore at the Maryland Institute, College of Art. I've worked on a couple comics in the past, but nothing too major yet. I work at the University of Pennsylvania doing design work and helping students with most of my time.

JK: What's your comic about, and where did the idea for it come from?

Steve Ekstrom: The Ares Imperative is a 21st Century take on the pulp action-adventure and science fiction comics from the mid-20th Century; you know—old school EC stuff. It's a cross between Johnny Quest, 24, the Bourne novels/ films, and The Manchurian Candidate from outer space.

Our lead, Adam Geist, is the first Human Weapon of Mass Destruction--and he has to keep it a secret. Our submission to Zuda is a dense prologue that sets up a widescreen, fast-paced action-adventure story that has a little something for everyone--from rogue spies to Crocodiles in the jungles of Colombia to strange meteors from outer space to quasi-religious science cults from the past. We're trying to create something that's multi-tiered--we want to inundate the reader with as much information as possible on every page.

Mikael Bergkvist: With great power comes great responsibility, right? But how do you execute that in the real world, with real political issues, when you think you know better than everybody else?

We've seen that and it wasn't pretty.

Our hero is one powerful dude with a 4 digit IQ that's like Braniac 5 in a lot of ways and even though he's really trying to be a good guy, whether or not he's successful is another question; the other problem resides in his methods—which a lot of people aren’t going to like.

There's this pesky thing called “free will” that’s going to be turning up; humans have this capability to do stupid or bad things but that's an alien concept for someone as intelligent as Agent Geist, who never does anything stupid and who can't see the point of it. Or so he thinks…

JK: How much of your story do you have mapped out at this point, beyond the eight pages that you submitted to Zuda? And how did you decide what to put into those eight pages?

Mikael Bergkvist: We have a complete story already—and we’re ready to tell it.

Steve Ekstrom: Let me expand on that—we have approximately 180 slides ready to be lettered and colored. The project was originally destined for print—but Mikael (the creator of the concept) changed gears when he brought Jesse and I on board. I script and letter the project—and Jesse is the colorist. So we have the entire first 3 seasons/ chapters of our story completed.

Choosing "what" to put in--wasn't very challenging--because we're just moving in a straight line. Some of the more vocal readers at Zuda have expressed some dismay at the fact that our story doesn't jump straight to light speed with explosions and stuff. We selected a dialog heavy prologue--because once the story starts THEN you get non-stop action and a really cinematic approach to an action adventure serial. I just think that people need to trust us and give us a shot--we're not going to disappoint.

JK: What are you doing to market your comic this month?

First off, we sent out a press release with some quotes from guys like Liam Sharp and Mike Carey supporting the project. I did an interview on the project and my involvement with a newspaper local to my area. I’ve also done three radio spots including a lengthy interview on a talk radio show. I’ve also coordinated my efforts with two local retailers in the area—they’ll be passing out flyers and offering incentives to customers who take the time to vote. We’ll also be showing up on a couple of blogs like Forces of Geek and we’ve recently done an interview with Newsarama.

Mikael Bergkvist: I’ve also said that I'll do a commission, black and white, no backgrounds, single character, for anyone who can show they gotten two others to vote for us.

Steve Ekstrom: And he’s not kidding, folks! We also have a Facebook Fan group and we’re on Twitter!

Currently, I’m in San Diego—getting ready for Comic-Con; I’ll be making an effort to talk to local retailers in the area here as well. I’ll also be passing out flyers and talking to folks at Comic-Con. Also, keep an eye out for ads for the comic on the internet in places that comic fans frequent.

JK: So no matter how great all the submissions are in a given month, there can be only one. Even if you don't win, do you plan to continue with your strip in another venue?

Mikael Bergkvist: It’s not decided at this point in time—in the end, we’re going to win on some level whether it’s the actual Zuda contest or by preparing a comic that a publisher is going to really get into somewhere else.

Steve Ekstrom: Well, I don’t want to jinx it—but we’ve already had offers to run it elsewhere. I’m also going to be showing it off to publishers at Comic-Con with the hopes that maybe we’ll get it printed instead. Working in the comic book industry is our ultimate goal—so getting out there and being exposed via Zuda is great. We’re in a solid third place with the competitors and it’s still anyone’s game!