HERE
Words escape me.

Our friend Dan Horn has written a kick-ass article covering 50 Foot Robot and our partner site Carpet Bomb Comics!
In a new “Publisher Spotlight” feature, Dan gives the lowdown on our current work and our up-coming projects for 2010!

Excerpt:“Michael and Jason Danzeisen …have been industriously toiling over their labors of love, web-based, digital, and printed comics. Jason’s writing has been first-rate. His book Skip Tracers is an unassuming, over the top, unabashed romp that would be suitably slated as a prime-time television series. It’s a charmingly fresh tale about super-powered bounty hunters that is sure to win any comic reader over immediately. Michael, who lends his Paul Pope-esque artistic talents to Skip Tracers, pulls double duty as writer and artist for Vent, a remarkably original take on the whodunit that revolves around a fully immersive MMORPG.”

You can read the full article here: Creator Owned Comics

Thanks to Dan!
M!

UPDATE - Fixed Link to THE SOURCE. I stopped by the shop last night to see our comics on display - very cool! Lots of people were in attendance for the Indy Week Mini Con! I’ll have a few pictures to post soon.

No books are shipping this week from the “Big Publishers”, so many retailers across the country are making a special occasion out of it. They will be featuring independent and small-press comics on the shelves for purchase! If you’d like to support the comic community, independent creators, and the future of comics, I’d advise you go out to your local comic shop and check out what is being offered!

One of our local retailers has turned this week into an event with The Source Comic & Games Indy-Fest Mini Con! Our comics will be for sale on the racks and there will be food, drinks, and creators on hand for a fun evening of Indie comics! Check them out: THE SOURCE - Indy Week Mini Con

Indie comics are like Indie Rock to me: they might not fit at one of the very structured offerings of the “big labels”, but that doesn’t mean they are not viable, and interesting artistic expressions. Indie comics offer a wider range of subject matter and story telling than Marvel or DC could ever hope to. If you think you don’t like comics because you don’t like superheroes, then you should explore the multitude of comics in the Indie Scene.

Thanks
M!

Our VENT, SKIP TRACERS, and FACTION comics will be for sale in a real life Comic Store next week! If you’re in the Minneapolis area, you may want to head over to The Source Comics and Games in Falcon Heights, MN next Wednesday. There will be no new comics distributed from the big publishers next week, and The Source are being super awesome and helping support Indie Comics by having an Indy-Fest! Independent and small press comics will be exclusively featured on sale beginning December 30th. So head over there, get yourself a copy of our books, and check out the other Indie offerings!

Thanks!
M!

This month sees the debut of SP! NEXUS magazine.
Nexus is about small-press comic, self-publishing, Indie comics and pop culture. I did most of the design and layout, and even wrote an article. Most importantly, it’s FREE! This was a huge undertaking along with Erik Hendrix, co-founder of our sister site, Carpet Bomb Comics, and it paid off pretty nicely.
Check it out here for yourself: http://www.selfpubmag.com/site/downloads/entry/nexus/sp_nexus_1b_-_uniques.htm
It’s a big download but a fun read - reviews, how-tos, and industry news. We’ll be doing a monthly PDF version for free and collecting it for printed Best Of issues in the future. Ad space is available, email me for info or contribution ideas.

Thanks!
M!

We’ve got some good stuff cooking in the back room here - stuff we’ll be announcing shortly. Anyway, being busy getting stuff ready is our excuse for not updating the site lately. We’re sorry and stuff. Just tell us what you want to hear so we can lie to you properly.

First bit of new: Hulk vs Bizarro - henceforth to be known as it’s street lingo name, HvB…
Season 3.
Coming.
Soon.

M!

Hot off the print-on-demand presses, it’s VENT #1!
Now available for sale from IndyPlanet.com, you can order your copy of the sensational, Sci-Fi Noir Thriller, VENT!

“Welcome to the world of VENT - Virtually Enhanced Neruologistic Technologies! Players of a live action role playing game - using VENTS enhance their experience and make their fantasy seem real - are given a shock when one of their friends drops dead for no apparent reason. Was it the game that killed them? An online Serial Killer Kult? Or something far more sinister? Detectives Moster and Meuller have to find out before more deaths occur. This is the first chapter of a 5 part virtuapunk story.”

Preview and order today!

During this month’s Minnesota FallCon, Jason and myself were interviewed by the fine people over at WebComicBeacon.com - a WebComic Podcast chock full of goodness. You can check out there site HERE.

To listen to our interview you can download the MP3 HERE. Our manly voices appear about 3/4 of the way through.

Greetings all, its time for the FallCon ‘09 wrap up.
For those of you who didn’t know Michael and I had our first creator table at this year’s FallCon in St Paul. For two whole days we sold stuff, did some networking, crammed our faces with junk food, and tried to keep warm. It was very exciting for Michael and I to finally be on the other side of the table, and while day two was very slow sales-wise, we feel we did pretty well for two guys no one has ever heard of…ok, on with the highlights!

The doors opened at about 10am, by 10:20 or so we’d made our first sales. Posed with all three of our comics for sale at the Con (Skip Tracers #0, Vent #1, and Erik Hendrix’s Faction) is our first customer, Andy.

Mike and I are hard at work to make sure you purchased some collector’s items. Thanks again, Andy!

Here is a look at our table…

and backdrops.

For those who care about this kind of thing, Mike and I fabricated the backdrop frames out of 2″ PVC pipe with wooden bases and Mike’s wife Kelly stitched the cloth out of…uh…some kind of black polyester material.

Just visible to the left of our backdrop is a standee for Jeff Butler. Jeff is a talented artist out of Madison WI whose table we were lucky enough to be seated next to. He was a very nice guy and we enjoyed looking through his portfolios and chatting with him. Mike and I were so impressed with Mr Butler we commissioned him to do this kick ass sketch of our favorite web comic characters, Hulk and Bizarro.

Check out Jeff’s work by visiting his site here.

In an effort to pass the time and come away with some great pictures we were going to try to get people to pose with this handmade Sombrero Panda doll

that Kelly knit for us. Well, a combination of camera ineptitude and plain cowardice left us with only a few usable pics. Fortunately for us the best one of the lot was this one that we took of Top Ten artist Gene Ha

Thanks again Kelly for all your hard work on the backdrop and the Sombrero Panda. You rock!

Well, that’s all for now. One last thing I’d like to do is announce that we will soon be selling our comics and tees (the same tee seen on our con back drop) in our online store. All you’ll need is a paypal account!

Greetings, true believers! Con-time is almost upon us!
Michael and myself will be sitting behind our very first table at the MCBA Fallcon this weekend, Oct 10th & 11th 10am-5pm both days. Hopefully some day we too will sit behind a microphone at our own Q&A as we field questions about ruptured continuity and who would win in a fight between … and …? Until that day arrives we will be very happy to sit at our gloriously appointed booth and try to woo potential readers…ah, the glamorous life of a self published comic book creator.

Ok, enough of that and onto the comics!
So, I’ve done the “Covers I dig” thing twice on this blog, and while I’ve written about comics that “inspired” me i’ve yet to talk about what I’m reading currently. Well, the time has arrived! So here, in no particular order, are some of my favorite current comics. Enjoy!

Scalped

I have been reading this comic since it’s first issue and I fell in love instantly. I’ve heard Scalped described as “The Sopranos on an Indian Rez.” I think I’d describe it as a gritty, unblinking series worthy of it’s own category. The world of Scalped is inhabited by a collection of rich characters and is, IMHO, one of the best series around regardless of media.

The Walking Dead

I’ve only begun to read this comic this year, but it has quickly risen to the top of my read stack. Well paced story telling combined with an “anyone could die at any time” tension combine for one hell of a great comic.

Hellblazer

I’ve been reading this comic in single issue and/or collection for years now, (hard to believe it’s run began waaay back in ‘88!) While the series has had more than it’s share of ups and downs over the years, I’ve always dug the adventures of the “laughing magician”. The past year or two have seen the series find it’s stride in story and art once more, despite the somewhat unsightly cover redesign.

The Sword

At first this was the series that defined the term “written for the trades” for me. Individual issues really did little to impress me and the story seemed to plod along at a snail’s pace. It wasn’t until I re-read the opening run that I decided to save this title from the chopping block. The current arc has seen the story move along briskly finding a nice balance between revealing the history of the Sword, furthering the story, and developing the characters.

Locke and Key

I dig the art. I dig the story. I can’t wait for the third arc to begin!

Criminal

I haven’t had time to read the first issue in the new arc yet, but I’ve included it here based on the strength of the previous installments. I’m not always too impressed by Brubaker’s “mainstream” work, but this title combined with “Sleeper” and “Incognitio” combine to make for some of the best comics I’ve read this decade.

Finally here are two comics I am looking forward to:

Daytripper

This title is by Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba and will be coming out at the end of the year from Vertigo

Bloom County Complete Library Volume 1

This hardcover collection will be the first in a series that will reprint every strip in chronological order. Bloom county is my all time favorite newspaper comicstrip, just edging out The Far Side and Calvin and Hobbes. This volume has come out since I first learned of it and I’ll be ordering it as soon as I can afford to!

I’ll be posting a few more “fav” lists as I have time.
Coming up in our next post: we’ll be sharing pics and stories from Fallcon.