Moving and Shaking!
Give me a few days, and I’ll turn the whole thing on its ear! For those at ground zero, the original plan was to configure this site, make some changes, and incorporate the Dynagirl webcomic right into the parent site. After struggling, fighting, wrangling, and no small amount of cursing, I changed my tack and started from scratch. Sometimes, you have to completely change directions to move forward, and this was one of those times.
So having said that, I give you…
Dynagirl!
It’s a whole new domain name. It’s a whole new look. It’s where everything Dynagirl is about to break out. So check it out. We’re beginning the Dynagirl book on 4/27/2010, so hang onto your hats!
Spring Cleaning!
What a difference just a few weeks makes, eh?
Well if you’ve been paying attention you’ve noticed some moving and shaking going on around here! So lets go down the list and get you updated!
First off, Fallen Justice #7 is at the printer as we speak. We’re looking at a late March or early April release on that at this point, depending on how things go with the printer folks. Anyone who has ever printed this time of year knows, it gets a little hectic! But we’ll roll with it and get the book out asap.
Next, Fallen Justice #6 is SOLD OUT! Thanks to everyone who subscribed and bought the issue! Seeing a sell out like this really gives us a great outlook going forward and we fully understand it’s the fans making it happen! So thanks! For those of you who missed out, don’t even sweat it because you can still get the book printed and shipped right to your door via the Indyplanet system! This makes it far less stressful on us and keeps us from having to hold mega back stock, and still gets you a copy of the book just like you’d get directly from us! So if you’re looking to get Fallen Justice #6, get it here!
Convention season this year may be a little spotty for the RHS crew. With a pending addition to the family we’ve pretty much got to be planning around the projected birthdate, and since that’s currently looking like July…we’re going to be a bit busy this summer! RIght now the tentative plan is for RHS to be hitting the NYCC and Wizard World Texas, with the Texas date far more firm. We’ll make with dates, times, and table locations as we get em.
Also, don’t forget you can still get Fallen Justice 1-3 on the iPhone! Kyle and the guys over at Graphics Lab 2 are hard at work converting the rest of the issues and we’ll keep you apriased as those release this year! The new reader looks wonderful and they’ve done a great job bringing this out. In addition, you might hear mumblings about the iPad. Just saying…
And if that wasn’t enough…Fallen Justice is coming to ComicsXP! This is an online comic service specialising in digital content distribution and they’ll be handling the whole lineup of RHS books as they become available. This is a great system for both creators and for fans and makes getting and reading your digital comics a snap! So check it out! Fallen Justice will be live on the ComicsXP system in the coming week, with issues 1-6 going straight up and issue 7 releasing as it prints.
Whew. That about does it huh? Not likely. Now lets talk Dynagirl! Some of you may have heard we’re shifting the Dynagirl title to a webcomic model. That’s not a rumor, it’s a fact. After printing each issue of Fallen Justice and handling all the shipping that went with it, we’ve decided to streamline things as much as possible. In keeping with that strategy, we’re eliminating the traditional single printed issue model completely. What’s this mean? Once the single issues of Fallen Justice sell out, we won’t be stocking them or even printing them anymore. They’ll remain available through Indyplanet of course, but beyond that we won’t be doing anymore printing of that series in the singles format. We will be printing and maintaining a stock of the tradepaperback, and sellingt hat at conventions, via Haven, and right here in the RHS store. What this move does is free up storage space here at Red Handed central as well as gives us far less to carry around to the various conventions we’ll be hitting.
So, how’s it gonna work? Well first of all we’ll be setting up a dedicated Dynagirl page that you can bookmark, RSS, or whatever so that when we update you know! We’re planning to update twice a week or so, with a projected output of 3 pages a week. Once we get enough pages to print a trade, we’ll do that and offer that for sale in the RHS store. This way, the fans can read the story as it’s produced rather than waiting for months while we collect enough material to begin another printing run. After looking at it from all angles, we feel this is a win for everyone. So keep it tuned here for the official release date and watch out because Dynagirl will knock your socks off!
Fallen Justice #6 is on the street!
That’s right folks, you read it right! Fallen Justice #6 is printing and should be delivered shortly, meaning there’s just one issue left of this limited series before we wrap it up!
In addition, we’re also very happy to announce the release of Fallen Justice #3 on the iPhone! The guys at Graphics Lab 2 worked their tails off to get the brand new reader 2.0 in place for this release, and we’re so pleased with it we can’t wait for folks to try it out!
Keep it locked in to Red Handed as we bring Fallen Justice to a close next month with the release of the final, double sized blow out issue!
Check out the Red Handed Forums!
That’s right folks we’ve landed at a brand new forum home over on the Comic Related Forums! Chuck Moore and the gang were gracious enough to give us space to set up shop and show off all kinds of wonderful stuff to the awesome community over there! It’s a great place to be, so come check it out!
How about some more!
That’s right! Since I posted the iPhone love yesterday I’ve received some more graphics related to that so I figured I’d share those as well.
First up we’ve got the actual displays showing the covers of the first two issues as they will appear to users who download them! Kinda WAY cool there! And again, they’ll be free for download during the SDCC and then 99cents per download thereafter. I’d like to think that our comics are at LEAST worth the same as several million songs out there, so get over there and bring those puppies down and check em out! I’ll be adding a direct link to the download in the iTunes store as soon as they go live, so keep checking back and I’ll do my very best to make it easy on ya.
That’s just…hot.
Next up is the T shirt GraphicsLab 2 guru Kyle Hurlbut commissioned for the San Diego Comic Con so that his minions can go forth and spread the news about Fallen Justice with impunity! They’ll be out and about distributing stickers and generally getting the word out there on the downloads and the story, so if you see one say “Hey I know that comic!”
Cool!
In other fun news, we’ve got us a new addition! That’s right coming right on the heels of Lisa Moore joining the studio, we’d like to welcome Michael Kellar to the fold! Michael and I go back a couple of years to Small Press Idol days, where we were both on the Sky Pirates of Valendor team together. Michael’s an accomplished inker who is growing an already impressive resume by leaps and bounds. To start with he’ll be doing some fill in work as needed on various things that come across the board, and then he’ll be taking over inks on at least one title we have planned for the very near future.
Speaking of that, at least a little bit, Red Handed Studios is looking at producing original content for the iPhone, meaning rather than undertaking the time consuming effort of converting regular comics into iPhone format, we’ve decided to turn out a comic made originally FOR the iPhone, and as such we’re in pre-production on that project. What does that mean for the fans? Double the fun baby! You’ll get the chance to see us shine on the iPhone first, and then we’ll make that available in print format as well for those without iPhone or who prefer the print version. It’s going to be a bold experiment, wtih ups and downs I’m sure, but at the end of the day I think on that’s well worth the effort.
Oh! And before I forget, remember yesterday when I mentioned that mad cool cover to Dynagirl #1? Well I got the pencilled version up and ready for you folks to check out over on the newly added Dynagirl page. I dare you to tell me that cover doesn’t kick all kinds of ass! And we’re just getting started.
If you have the time, look around the site a bit. I’ve added pages for Totem and Seppuku Blues, Caveguys, and Dynagirl, as well as updating graphics on the gallery page and a couple of other minor tweaks. Wearing the website guy hat can sometimes be rough, but I generally try to stay on top of things when given half a chance!
So that’s what’s shaking today! More to come as I get it people! Till then, enjoy!
Leaps and bounds!
So lets see…what’s up in RHS lately? How about this:
See that? That’s what an iPhone looks like with some Fallen Justice all over it. And that’s exactly what’s about to happen! We’ve partnered with a company called Graphics Lab 2 to facilitate the iPhone version of Fallen Justice! The first two issues are complete and undergoing the submission process to Apple right now and we anticipate an on time release during the San Diego Comic Con.
For a limited time both issues 1 AND 2 will be downloadable for free, so if you’re into excellent iPhone apps get you some Fallen Justice while you can! Once the special promotion is over they’re gonna be 99 cents per download. Still very reasonable! Hats off to Kyle, Erik, and all the rest of the great guys over at GL2 for making this a virtually painless experience in getting the files transferred over and being such fans of the series. I think this is going to be a most excellent venture!
What else? Well if that’s not enough for you, i can tell you that Harold Edge is hard at work on the Dynagirl series! That’s right, he’s got over half the first issue pencilled and the pages are coming out fantastic! Having had the script ready for a long time and getting to see it come to life like this…I never get tired of that feeling! The cover is being wrapped right now, but rest assured it’s awesome and I know everyone looking forward to this series will flip when they see it.
To hold you over till then, I’ll show you a little sample by Harold Edge and brand new series colorist Lisa Moore! This is the first in a three piece set called “Dynagirl Graffiti”. Harold has always enjoyed graffiti and takes a lot of his early influence from graffiti elements, so we felt like this would be a fun way to express that.
Now some of you may be saying “Wait! No Ross Hughes?” And yep, that’s true. Ross only committed to do through the end of Fallen Justice and he’s got other things on tap. So while you won’t be seeing his work in Dynagirl, I don’t think Ross will be too far from things in terms of getting his work out there. He’s an amazing talent that’s grown SO much since we started this series, and he’ll have nothing but success no matter where he lands.
So who’s this new colorist? Her name is Lisa Moore, and she’s an incredibly talented colorist who has professional credits over a host of mainstream comic book work. So Lisa’s got some chops! She’s getting warmed up with some promo stuff right now, and from what I heard this weekend she’s going to help us out in the pinch with some color work on some Totem pages as well. We’ll preview that and show you more as we get it in, but rest assured things are getting exciting around Red Handed these days!
In some more exciting news we got the first bulk order in from Haven last week! Talk about cool! What that means is someone’s carrying Fallen Justice in their store! Can’t wait to see what next month holds!
The rumors of my demise…
are less false than I’d like to admit! Well, not demise really, but I have been working my ass off and that’s kept me from updating here, writing on my blog, or doing anything but the absolute necessary work on my comics. Which sucks, because I really enjoy posting fairly regularly. I’ll try my very best to do better!
So, news wise we’ve had issue #3 hit the streets! That’s right, Fallen Justice #3 is out and available through all the normal outlets, either Indyplanet, Haven, or right here in our very own Red Handed Store! And in keeping with the new release, we’ve also had our newest issue reviewed by Comic Related! Check out Bill Gladman’s review as he continues to show us an incredible amount of love. I will say that he got one thing wrong. We are NOT putting out a book monthly. Fallen Justice is and has always been a bi-monthly book. We couple probably do a monthly…but there would be a lot of give for not a lot of receive. My take on this is, we have a good thing going, so why mess with it? Could I hire an outside inker and speed things up by half? Sure. Could I hire a flatter, and another colorist to speed things even further? Certainly. But it’s not all about speed. To me, it’s about putting the book out on the schedule we promised we’d hit, which we have. And it’s about making this book the highest quality product we possibly can. I think we’ve done that too. So all in all, I’m stoked about this series. We hope you guys are digging it too!
Honestly, there’s a lot more to tell. We’ve got superheroes, supervillains, IPhone apps, new graphic novels, Samurai and all manner of other things to show you in the coming weeks and months so rest assured, there’s going to be some great things coming down the line! Hang in there and we’ll get you up to speed.
Issue #2 in the house!
That’s right folks! Issue #2 of Fallen Justice has arrived! We got pushed back a little bit by the fine folks at UPS, but they came through and got the books here looking awesome! For all subscribers, your books have been mailed so you should get them here very soon!
Also in the news, we’ve held our very first drawing for subscribers! That’s right as you well know if you’ve looked at the subscription page, subscribers get cool stuff! Since we’re on the second issue we held not one but TWO drawings this time around, and selected our winners at random from the subscriber pool! The lucky winners this time around are Lawrence Roach and Richard Case! Lawrence gets a beautiful looking print of the cover to issue #1 of Fallen Justice, and Rich gets the print from the cover of issue #4. So congrats to you guys, those are in the mail as well and you’ll be enjoying them shortly!
We attended a convention last weekend called Comicpalooza at the West Oaks Mall in Houston and had a WONDERFUL time! A huge thanks to all the folks who came out and talked with us, bought the book, and made the show so much fun! We met lots of cool folks and had a great time. And I will say right now that while the Houston area isn’t the most vocal crowd of comic creators, there sure is a TON of talent around here! I think you’re going to see some things really begin to explode out of this area in the next few years, so keep an eye out!
Normally I’m a big fan of the work my friends do, and tend to shout that to the rafters, so get used to it. First off, since I get inside scoops on this stuff it’s easy for me to get excited! Second, it’s really good stuff! Jason Berek-Lewis is doing a follow up to his Tikki’s Phayrie series called Tikki’s Giant, and the stuff looks amazing! Hit those links and check this stuff out, you won’t be sorry.
Next up, is something I rarely do, and that’s pimp a competitor’s work. But I have to say, after reading both the trades of Atomic Robo plus the FCBD issue for 2009…you have to read this book. It’s funny, irreverent, and really quite topical when you boil it all down. Robo is a must read, so go get that book! It’s done by a company called Red 5 comics, and you can find it in the Haven catalog. So go! Get this book! It rocks!
Ah, even more news! Virginia Mills-Barfield, who previously graciously agreed to take on the Kansas Hit project is also working on something a little different these days! Don’t worry, the Kansas Hit is still rocking, we’re just tweaking up some of the story to give it more punch and deliver some extra pages to you guys, so trust me when I say we’re making it better all the time! Currently, Ginny is rocking something called Ignition! which puts her character Bandit in a team up with our very own Dynagirl and tosses both of them into the deep end of the pool without floaties! So what’s better than a strong female lead character kicking major ass in her own book? How about TWO of them fighting side by side to battle tyranny! Woo! You can’t beat it. The Ignition Graphic Novel will most likely be out later this year and looks to be followed by a sequel if all goes well. These girls are a blast to write and Ginny makes my job crazy easy, so you may well be seeing even more of these team ups!
If you haven’t been checking out the Zone 4 podcasts we’re doing every week over at Comic Related…you should be! We’re having a blast doing them and even though we have to work through the occasional technical issue and random otter, we seem to be getting a good reaction. You can subscribe to the cast through itunes or go over to the Zone 4 page on Comic Related and catch it there. Also, feel free to leave feedback if you want, we’d love to hear from you!
And that’ll do it for the moment folks. More scripts to write, pages to letter, and monsters to slay!
Mixed feelings
Harold has been such a rock in this whole comic making process. Not only has he completely spoiled me, but he does things out of the blue that really show his commitment and desire to see this project succeed in ways far beyond what most anyone else would put forth. I got some art in the mail today, most of which was the second third of issue #7, the final issue of Fallen Justice. He’s got 12 more pages to ink in this extra sized blow out issue, but he took the time to ink this piece up for me and send it along because he figured I’d like it, and because she’s such a bittersweet character. This promo kinda sums up everything I’ve been feeling about this series lately, coming to the end of it…looking forward to the future and our plans for the Dynagirl series. It’s just…pretty damn cool. So here you go. Ms. Anarchy in the clouds. This one i’m having painted.
See how cool that is? I’m still freaking out! And I got a mail from Ross today, as we discussed back and forth with the colors for issue 6, and he said something that just kept that whole feeling going. I mentioned to him that I’d scanned the second third of the issue 7 inks, and he said: “It’s hard to believe we’re almost done…”. Truer words I’ve never heard.
When you step back and you look at this thing, we’ve been working on this project for a while! I posted the ad for an artist in late 2005. So we’re into our 4th year on this baby! That alone represents a huge chunk of time and life’s blood. I still get a “wow” every time I think about it.
And now it’s almost over. Unreal. But, that’s the point of a limited series. It’s LIMITED! And the whole Dynagirl project pretty much takes the sting out of any empty nest feeling we might start getting trust me! That thing is going to be a serious monster when we get it rolling, you have no idea.
In other news, an interview I did for Jazma Online went live today, and you can check that out here.
And that, as we say, is a wrap.
Short skirts and utility belts!
You know, I’ve pretty much always been a comic book fan. I have memories prior to turning 2 years old, but they’re fuzzy things, incoherent and clipped. So pretty much ever since I can remember with any clarity, meaning the age of 4, I’ve loved comics. And it wasn’t long after I fell in love with comics that I wanted to make my own. Started out with little doodles, school projects and the like, and that’s taken me through a twisted path of starts stops and restarts to the point where I’m now making my own comics. But it always goes back to the beginnings. Always. Any good story does, really.
I have a point, trust me. I’ll get there. Let the writer write would ya? Sheesh.
Anyway, in my making comics adventure, I’ve made it a point to surround myself with some of the most talented people out there. At the same time, mostly by pure luck, I’ve also found that those same people are lifelong comic book fans just like me! Some of them not dating back to the stone age of comics necessarily, but still. They dig comics and pay homage to what’s come before without a doubt. You can see it in so many places in Fallen Justice. From the characters, to some of the scenes, even in the colors and the Easter eggs Ross leaves you…we’re comic lovers making comics. And I think that’s important. First off, if I didn’t love comics, I wouldn’t bother. Second, the people who read the book get it in so many subtle ways. It resonates with comic book fans almost unconsciously. To me, that’s the ultimate reward, to know we connect like that. Brings huge smiles to my face! But I’m also cognizant of the huge responsibility we have as creators to stay true to the work, honor the story, and tell the truth. That might sound funny when you consider we’re telling fictional comic book stories, but there’s a truth there regardless and if you aren’t telling it, it shows.
So this week marks a lot of changes or advancements rather at RHS. First off, if you haven’t read the previous post get down there and read it silly! We’re announcing all manner of convention appearances this summer so that should kick off some fantastic fun for the whole team! Now in addition to the Seppuku Blues news (honestly, not rhyme intending here!) we’ve got some exciting Dynagirl news! Harold Edge, who you know already from the Fallen Justice series, and I have begun principle production work on the Dynagirl series. The scripts are written through issue #8, and now we’re working up character designs for some of the new characters you’re going to be spending time with!
Now I’ll tell you a couple of things about this new series while I have the chance. It’s going to feature Dyangirl of course, but it’s also going to have a lot more in way of supporting cast than a single hero book might normally show you. Why? Well because I dig team dynamics first off, and so does Dynagirl. That doesn’t mean she’ll get lost in the shuffle by any means, it just means she’ll have plenty of backup when it comes time to kick some ass!
Also, Harold will be flexing his artistic muscles a little with this book. Like he hasn’t already, right? But see while you’ve been out there reading the books, Harold has been in school working his hindparts off getting better every day. And I can tell you without a doubt, it shows. For someone who was terrified when he mentioned changing his style…I have to say you’ll be blown away when you see the results. He’s taking things to a whole new dimension.
Ready to tie it all together yet? I told you before the whole team is made up of long time comic book fans, right? So Harold sends me some sketches the other day of two of the new heroes that will be teamed up with Dynagirl in the new book. Mindfire and the Knight. Those paying close attention will see them cameo in issue #7 of Fallen Justice, but we’ve refined them for the new series, grown them up a little bit, which makes sense as the series starts five years later. I could give you a breakdown on powers and such, but I won’t. I’ll let you see for yourself. But what I will do is show them to you, because in doing that I can show you what I mean by long time comic book fans. Check out Mindfire. (click the thumbnail to see it full sized)
Hot. Yes. WAY hot. She as that innocent look going on, but she’s also mentally hard. There’s nothing of the soft naïve kid in there. Plus I dig the short skirt. Makes me think back to the 70s Neal Adams stuff where Marvel Girl barely covered herself up in that green costume. (That’s still one of my all time favorite looks by the way, goofy yellow mask and all.) There’s just something about this design that immediately screamed ‘hell yeah!’ to me. You’ll also see a couple of Ms. Anarchy elements in there as well, which makes good sense as Mindfire is her oldest daughter.
On the Knight, we’ve got something else entirely. He’s got even more edge than his wife (yep, another husband and wife team. Think that will end badly?) and he’s just dynamic as hell. We wrestled back and forth with the whole cape/no cape thing, but in the end it was the cool jumping off the building thing that sold me. I’m a sucker for capes, Incredibles be damned. But the cape was so far down the list of things to mention when I saw the pouches. Now anyone who knows me knows I’m a lifelong Batman fan, and I make no apologies for that. In fact, I’ve got a Batman script in the drawer waiting for the day when those DC guys call and ask me to pitch something! But one of the things I always wondered was how he got all that cool stuff in that little bitty utility belt! The Knight won’t be having that problem. Way I see it he could be carrying the kitchen sink in that thing! So stay tuned because if you think you’ve seen cool gadgets…you ain’t seen nothing yet.
So there you go. Some cool as hell sketches, an update of sorts, and a little behind the scenes peek into the mind of madness.
Oh and I’m making a movie. But more on that later.
And to wrap it up, check out the AWESOME review/coverage we got over at Comic Related today! Huge shout out to Bill Gladman, Brant Fowler and Chuck Moore for treating us not only with a huge amount of respect but making us feel like part of the family. Can’t say enough good things about this group of folks. Comics needs more places like Comic Related.
Till next time folks!
