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.

It’s almost here! Only a few days away until FallCon here in Minnesota! It will be this weekend, October 10th & 11th, at the Grandstands in the State Fairgrounds in St. Paul

Jason and myself will be there at the 50 Foot Robot table, come on by and see our wares!
We’ll even have some free stickers and possibly some candies (if we don’t eat them all ourselves).

We have fresh comics and t-shirts for your appraisal. Or just stop by and say hello. It’s okay to tell us how much you love us!

See you there!
-Michael

LINKS:

FallCon website and info: http://midwestcomicbook.com/

Location: http://midwestcomicbook.com/

Times & Admission: http://midwestcomicbook.com/?page_id=9

I really enjoyed sharing some of my favorite covers in a post from a while back, so here is a fresh batch of covers I really dig!

I love, love, LOVE pulp style art!

Here is another cover from my youth by Bill Sienkiewicz.

There are literally hundreds of great Brian Bolland covers to choose from but, I think no one drew Dredd better.

Gabriel Ba’s art is so deceptively simple, and goddamned cool.

I’ve long been a Mike Zeck fan. I chose this cover because this particular issue was one of the first I bought with an eye towards it’s future value. BTW, comicspriceguide.com rates a NM copy at $25.00…meh.

Tim Bradstreet draws (or “traces” as Mike calls it) some of the most striking covers I’ve ever seen.

A very unique cover from Frank Miller

I’ve included this cover not really because it is all that great (although Man-Bat, The Creeper, The Demon, and Phantom Stranger on one cover is pretty cool!) but because I always liked Blue Devil, and this is probably my favorite issue.

I never bought this issue. I remember seeing it in the rack and totally falling in love with it’s cover, but I didn’t have enough money to buy it. Hoping to hide it and buy it later, I crammed it all the way behind some issues of Archie (true story). Sadly, by the time I got back it was gone.

Awesome!

Why aren’t there more Iron Man vs Doom stories?

Finally, there were many memorable covers during The Preacher’s run, this is one that really stuck out for me.

Ok, more soon including a FallCon update!

Where have I been?! Where have YOU been??!!

We’ve been busy around 50 Foot Robot Studios doing…. um.. various things and important… stuff. And…uh… talking to our girlfriends… they’re from Canada. You wouldn’t know them.

Well, we’ve got some big announcements coming up.

Don’t forget to come visit us at the Minnesota FALLCON at the MN State Fairgrounds in St. Paul in October!

More soon,
Michael

Project news: Mike has been at work with fellow Small Press Idol contestant, Erik Hendrix. Here is more info from Mike hizzelf.

“The run for the crown may be over for THE ASSOCIATE (for now), but in an eleventh hour plot twist, Michael Nelsen of Team Associate has joined forces with Team FACTION!!

Faction was a book we watched closely through out our time with the competition. It was consistently of highest quality and always the project to beat in Small Press Idol. Over the course of the contest we became creative partners and friends with its creator, Erik Hendrix, and he asked Michael hop on board assisting in color and grayscale work for Faction’s Zero issue, which is on sale NOW in Small Press Idol Round 4!

FANS - There are two ways for fans to get Faction Zero.
1. Order direct - http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.dimestoredistro.com. Look up Faction, or item DSP-I09-F0. You can download for $2.00 or purchase the printed version for $3.50 plus postage BEFORE AUGUST 31st!
a. PRINT COPY - http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.dimestoredistro.com/faction-0-2274.html
b. PDF DOWNLOAD - http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.dimestoredistro.com/faction-0-dl-2275.html
2. Go to your local comic book store and give them the below retailer information, (info to come soon!) explaining that you want them to carry the book and, well, hopefully they will! Make sure they place their orders ON OR BEFORE AUGUST 31st!

RETAILERS - There are two ways to get copies to your store.
1. Order from Haven directly by going to http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.havendistro.com, sign up, send a mail to Haven requesting to be set up as a retailer account, gather pre-orders from your store and then search for Faction to order. All orders must be turned in for Faction on or before AUGUST 31st! Issues will deliver in September.
2. Order from DimeStore directly by going to http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.dimestoredistro.com, sign up, send an email to DimeStore requesting to be set up as a retailer account, gather pre-orders from your store and then search for Faction DSP-I09-F0. Issues will deliver in September.
a. PRINT COPY - http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.dimestoredistro.com/faction-0-2274.html

Please note, the order code DSP-I09-F0 is Case Sensitive DSP-I(letter)0(zero)9-F0(zero).

Thanks!
Team Associate/Faction

Alright, more info soon!

So, all of a sudden its almost July. Wow.
Well, we have a few news items from the decidedly un-arctic base. First, we were going to go to the San Diego Comic Con (or SDCC in nerd speak) but those plans fell through. We now have our sights set on the Chicago Con this summer and the…er…I forget the proper name but the Mpls Con this fall, more on that as plans develop.
On a project tip, Mike has finished the Hostile Make-over story line in Hulk vs Bizarro. He is hard at work on finishing a few other projects, and may be close to figuring out how to get us in print!
Things may slow down for a bit as summer trips and the like steal time away from us, but, as always watch this spot for news and updates.

So, I was trolling the internets when I happened upon this site. It has a few cool galleries of golden age comic covers. If you go there just click on one of the three circles at the top of the page to see the galleries.
Inspired by viewing the galleries I’ve decided to share some of my personal favorite comic covers, enjoy!

There are tons of great Spiderman covers, but I absolutely love Mysterio

Dave Mckean rules.

The second appearance of GI Joe #21 in this blog. It is safe to say this is one of my all around favorite comics.

One of my favorite Arthur Adams covers, and arguably the best Wolverine.

One of the covers that sent Gaines to court. I think the drool is a nice touch.

Hard to pick just one George Perez cover, but I just love his work on Crisis.

Dead heat between this issue and #3. I went with #4 because i like how Logan still suits up after Kitty skewered him on a sword.

I love this series! I just started reading it (I acquired all the comics legally, you can be sure of that) and it kicks ass. I recommend doing an image search for more of the covers from this comic.

Not much to say here, I just think this cover is cool!

The issue that launched a thousand emo girl outfits. One could pick any of Mckean’s covers for The Sandman, but this is my favorite.

Not much to say about this that hasn’t been said by everyone else, but I love how it acts as the first panel, continues the circle motif, etc etc.

Neal Adams could draw covers like no one else. How cool is Havok here?

And finally, one of the most iconic covers ever.

So, there we have it. I’d like to wrap things up with an image just for fun…Simpsonized Watchmen

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For more cool fan-art Simpsonized characters check out this site here. Make sure to check out the archives!