Our Trip to Comic Con Dallas

As I've been mentioning. We went to Comic Con in Dallas last Sunday. I now finally have some time to write about it and share some pictures.

When we woke up Sunday morning, I quickly remembered that I don't have any comic book related T-shirts. Even my husband has a Captain America shirt and a Spiderman shirt. So on our way to Irving, we stopped in a Kohl's and bought the only graphic tee I could find in the junior's department.

And then we went to Comic Con:

There was a Back to the Future DeLorean outside:

I admit that we didn't do much while there. At least things that I took pictures of. There was a local comic publisher called Ape Entertainment on one of the floors. They were looking at other people's comics as well as showing what they sold in their store. They had a white board in their room for people to show off their art work. I had Ice Pick on my tablet and replicated one the panels (from a page that isn't up yet).

We went to the Exhibit hall and my husband bought some of the first issues of the New 52. We also saw some the comic book artists working on commissions in the back of the room. We didn't have any money to order them but I saw one of them (I can't remember the name) working on a water color of the Green Goblin. I didn't know that you could do that level of detail and precision with that medium. I kinda hope I didn't stare too much. But he did turn his paper around as he worked so I could see better.

Ryan and I hope that within a couple of years if we can keep up with Ice Pick we can have a stronger presence at the convention. Just having the first 13 pages of Ice Pick on my tablet turned some heads. I of course gave Jaime his full credit for doing the art for our comic. It took both Ryan and I to make the drawing on the white board.

After loitering around for two and a half hours, we left...after getting a good picture of a man dressed as the Joker.

After some lunch and shopping we picked up my younger brother, and went to see The Avengers (first time for him, second time for us).

THE END

A Well Deserved Rest

I have just finished inking 4 pages in less than a week. Every page is better than the last, I feel. The last page I worked in had some wonderful texture work that Jaime did with his pencil. I tried very hard to replicate it when I inked it. When that page comes out, I believe I will at least release Jamie's original panel, because, although my ink is good, it just doesn't have the same life. I now have 9 pages of the comic completely done and pages 10 -13 inked and ready for coloring. As it is, page 9 won't even premiere until the first of June. So, I'm going to take a week off working on the comic to rest. I'll still work on the Fiverr commissions I may get, but I'm going to take time to tend to my home and my reading list.

Last week I checked in on the FLYlady website. It breaks down the cleaning of an entire house into different rooms doing one room a week and spending time cleaning the room in 15 minute intervals a day. It is not just a plan, it is a lifestyle. In the past week, I've gotten more done in 15 minutes a day than trying to devote the entire day to cleaning. I can now brag that my kitchen, once a major point of contention between me and my mom, is now cleaner than hers. I'm going to take a week to really get deeper into the system to make our apartment very welcoming to guests.

The other thing I intend to be doing is catching up on my reading. I tend to check out 6 books from the public library at a time. In the past week I have only gotten one book read whereas, normally, I have 3 books read by now. Admittedly, the 1st book was read within a day and I just haven't had time to read the second book I grabbed.

Moving Right Along

We have finally released the last page that will take place in the bar. Don't worry. We will return to the bar in a couple of months. I'm both happy and sad by this. The bar is easy to light so I didn't have to worry about the extra effects and could just color. The next few pages have been a challenge as I am learning to add the proper lighting effects. However, the comic is finally moving scenes and getting into a more meaty bit. Looking at it, these past 5 pages must have been boring for people who just get to see one page a week. I hope as we build an archive, the story will continue to flow in a way that will immerse newcomers into the story.

Lastly, I've been mentioning this on my comic, but I would thought I would say it here too. Ryan and I will be lurking around Comic Con Dallas this weekend. Hopefully I will have lots of nice pictures during my next update.

Divided Attention

Well it is now time have severely divided attention. Right now it isn't too bad. I'm working on Ice Pick as well as this year's Drunk Duck Awards.

At the end of May, Ryan and I will be hitting Comic Con Dallas, and soon after my job will start. June and July will see me completing 3 more classes for my MBA degree.

My job and riding the judges for the Drunk Duck Awards will carry on through August. And then a new semester begins in September (and I have to be in a new job by then).

That being said, I got a good 3 and half page buffer for Ice Pick right now (soon to be 2 and a half). I am starting in on the chapter 1 fight scene now. When we finally have chapter 1 done, there will be a brief break in the comic (about two weeks) and it will resume normal schedule.

Enjoy.

A Little Bit of Lameness

I took a week off because I really couldn't say much about the last page. With page 5, I now have something to say...

This page features Jimmy and Danny and shows the entrance of a new character that will be fully introduced in upcoming pages. I believe that I have mentioned before that Danny's look is based of of Ryan. The only difference is that Danny's hair is a little more blonde. Well, this new character that we are just seeing now is longer haired version of myself. (And a little skinner). I really don't know why we put our looks into these two characters. I think, initially, it was to help with conceptualization. Also, Danny's apartment, which was only seen for one page, was based on the first apartment that we had together about 3 years ago. Not that our new apartment really looks that much different (It just has more space and a nicer kitchen. The main reason for that is that the first page was first conceptualized three years ago as well.

My main point to this whole post is that though the characters bear some strong resemblances to ourselves, the two of them are not the same as my husband and I. They have different careers and personality traits. So, don't worry about it.

In other news, I'm still working on getting the Drunk Duck Awards up and running for this year. I hope to have the categories finalized soon, so I can get on to the next step. The next step is opening up the floor for people to nominate their comics or other people's comics...Actually nominate is not really the right word. It is more that they are raising awareness of their comics so people will nominate them in July. I'm making sure I'm leaving plenty of time of everything to do with the awards to get done. I really like doing this project and I hope to be able to continue running it as long as there is an interest.