The GR8TS + webcomic contest

I recently submitted my latest project, The GR8TS, into a webcomic contest. You can check out the first 8 pages and vote here. Voting ends 1/3/16. In the meantime, I will continue working on the rest of the story. Lots of cool things to come. Thanks for checking it out!

Getting back

It's been a long time since my last post and there are several reasons for that. Between work being crazy, spending time writing/roughing out my next project, and helping friends with personal projects, it's been a busy time. Here are a couple of things I've been doing between all the madness.

I'm trying to nail down the look of my next project, so I've been experimenting with brushes to get the right textures down. This is by no means a finished piece, just a fun way to experiment with different techniques to carry forward.

Here are some sketches that got me to this point. After doing some research, I decided to make him more turtle-like, so I changed the shell a bit, moved away from the traditional fingers/toes to more of a claw, and gave him a beak (sort of like in the early Mirage comics, but more stylized and cartoony here). I also wanted the elbow/knee pads to have the texture/style of a samurai outfit but it doesn't quite come across here. Overall, it works for me. I might have to revisit this sometime.

Here's a logo I designed for a cancer walk. The bull was modeled after a plush toy that served as inspiration for a cancer survivor. A simplified version of this logo was printed on T-shirts for the whole team.

And lastly, I'm still toying with the logo for my next project, The GR8TS. The story takes place in the 60s, so I'm experimenting with different color palettes from that era while also trying to maintain some modern elements. It'll make sense once the story gets off the ground (hopefully in the next couple of months).

Dear Husband original art on display

My original art from Chris Wichtendahl's short story Dear Husband is currently on display (and for sale) at Biagio's Tattoo Gallery in Denville, NJ. Biagio, Leilani and the staff are great, so stop by and say hello, check out the art and grab a copy of the printed book. The show will run through September 15th. Gallery hours and info at the link below.

biagiostattoogallery.com

BookCon update and more

BookCon is now over and the turnout was amazing. An estimated 8-10k visitors attended the show and it was great to meet so many parents and kids who were interested in our books and future projects. Funny enough, one of the biggest draws to our booth was a "guess-how-many" game where guests were asked to estimate how many candies were inside a ketchup bottle, used to promote BMS Kids newest book Catch Up to the Ketchup. Congrats to our 2 winners, one of whom nailed the number and the other was only off by one! While it was fun to exhibit in NY, we were also busy making connections with other publishers and vendors. We're looking to book more shows, so check back here for more info in the coming months.


As I mentioned, we are early on in the process of starting a sequel to Melvin the Mediocre Meaty Ogre (on sale now). Here's a logo for that story, slated to be completed by next year.

And finally, Al Mauriello, the author of Thrall, dug up this 140-character review by Panels on Pages, a website devoted to comics. Thanks for the tweet!

Free Comic Book Day

Burning Mercury Studios will be participating in Free Comic Book Day, courtesy of our friends at Zapp! Comics. Stop by this Saturday, May 3rd, at their Wayne, NJ, location to pick up your free 4-page sampler. Thanks, Zapp!

BookCon

BookCon in NYC is coming up soon (on Saturday, May 31st to be exact) and I will be exhibiting
and bringing along copies of Melvin the Mediocre Meaty Ogre. I'll be joined by my 2 colleagues
Al Mauriello and Jose Gomez at the Burning Mercury Studios booth, where they will have copies of their new book Catch Up to the Ketchup on hand. Stop by if you attend! Melvin will be heading to press soon and will be available online in a few weeks. Check back here for the final release date.

Fairy

Here's the last character design from the upcoming Melvin the Mediocre Meaty Ogre story. I'll have the book cover to share soon. Still on track to have everything finalized and available for purchase in the coming weeks.