Comics Experience alum and staff member Paul Allor recently announced his first creator-owned mini-series, with artist Juan Romera.
Strange Nation, a four-issue mini-series, will launch later this year through Action Lab Entertainment.
But before that, an advance copy of issue #1 will be available from Paul at Emerald City Comic Con and Fabletown and Beyond.
According to Action Lab, Strange Nation is a madcap tale of tabloid myths. The story stars Norma Park, a reporter who discovers a bizarre conspiracy, tying together aliens, Sasquatch and mad scientists.
The book is already receiving great advance reviews, including this one from Multiversity Comics! You can also read an interview with Paul and see more pages over on CBR's Robot 6.
Paul is a graduate of the Comics Experience writing, lettering and editing classes, and is a longtime member of the Creators Workshop.
His previous works include Clockwork, Vol. 1, a collection of five-page comics, many of them workshopped through Comics Experience; Orc Girl, a one-shot with artist Thomas Boatwright; and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fugitoid, a one-shot for IDW Publishing.
Congrats to Paul and Juan on this upcoming mini-series!
If you want to make comics, write or draw comics, or improve as a comics creator, you'll find like-minded friends and colleagues in our online workshops and courses. We hope to see you there!
For the holiday season, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF) released a special treat, and it was produced by Comics Experience alums and Creators Workshop members!
"A Comics Carol" is written by Joe Sergi (alum & Workshop member), with art by DaFu Yu (art alum), and lettering/design by E.T. Dollman (Workshop member).
In the minicomic -- available for free on the CBLDF site, Messr. Fredric Wertham is visited by the Ghosts of Comics Past, Comics Present, and Comics Yet to Come!
Congrats to Joe, DaFu, and E.T. -- and Happy Holidays to all!
If you want to make comics, write or draw comics, or improve as a comics creator, you'll find like-minded friends and colleagues in our online workshops and courses. We hope to see you there!
Comics Experience alum and Creators Workshop member Tim Shields has launched an Indiegogo campaign supporting the launch of a free iPad/iPhone version of his popular webcomics reader Comic Rocket.
Comic Rocket aims to be the ultimate list of comics and serial material on the Web. The site creates a seamless reading experience with webcomic navigation tools, and helps you find new comics with their recommendation system. Comic Rocket lists over 10,000 comics, and new comics are added daily.
They are now looking to create a free mobile application, and the crowd-funding will allow Comic Rocket to hire a mobile developer.
The Comic Rocket iOS app will provide a comics reading experience optimized for iPads and iPhones. It will include all the great features of the current website, like a personal comics reading list and the ability to follow your friends' comic discoveries.
The iOS app will also provide new features like comic update notifications and a user interface streamlined for tablets and phones with swipe and more!
As incentives for your pledge, Comic Rocket is offering digipacks of wallpapers, pin-ups, and other digital art.
For creative types, there are even downloads of popular software from Smith Micro like Anime Studio, Manga Studio, and Poser!
Plus, you can also pledge to receive a one-month membership in our own Comics Experience Creators Workshop.
The Indiegogo campaign has already garnered more than 50 backers toward its overall $5,000 goal.
Best of luck to Tim and Comic Rocket with the campaign!
If you want to make comics, write, draw, letter, and color comics, or improve as a comics creator, you'll find like-minded friends and colleagues in our online workshops and courses. We hope to see you there!
Several of the scripts contained in the book were workshopped on the Creators Workshop, and Amy is offering a three-month membership in the Creators Workshop as an incentive!
Girls' Night Out: Tales of New York is a collection of short comics in honor of New York City, with a little something for everyone - action, adventure, drama, humor.
The book will be a 36 page full color, digest size (5" x 8") comic book with five stories written by Amy, and featuring art by CE Art Moderator Gannon Beck, Craig Yeung, Louie Chin, Brian Shearer, and Cabbral.
The Kickstarter has already garnered more than 100 backers toward its overall $4,800 goal.
In addition to the book itself in print and digital form, those pledging can receive other incentives including home-baked cookies, signed, limited edition Painkiller Jane color prints by Jimmy Palmiotti, lettering services from Amy, original art commissions, a script critique by CE staffer and former Marvel Editor Nicole Boose, and much more!
With about two weeks left, there's still plenty of time to jump on this Kickstarter for Girls' Night Out: Tales of New York!
Or check out the video right here:
Best of luck to Amy with the Kickstarter!
If you want to make comics, write, draw, letter, and color comics, or improve as a comics creator, you'll find like-minded friends and colleagues in our online workshops and courses. We hope to see you there!
Baltimore Comic Con 2012 was another big success for Comics Experience alums and Workshop members, and a great time as well.
Our second annual Baltimore "Comics Experience Meet-Up" happened Saturday night at Tír Na nóg.
More than twenty people showed up to talk comics (and more) including alums/Workshop members Chris Lewis, Elizabeth-Amber Love, Gannon Beck, George O'Connor, James Babbo, Janine & Ken Frederick, Joe Sergi, Joey Groah, Neil Fisher, Nick Dedual, Rich Douek, Rob Anderson, Ryan Murray, and Scott Dubin.
After the meet-up, some folks headed to other locations, including the Hyatt Bar. CE alum Amy Chu was there, post-Harvey Awards ceremony, and even filed her own "Convention Bar Report" after the fact on The Beat. You can read her report right here: On the Scene: Baltimore Comic-Con Night -- Part I.
Another highlight of the convention for many members was Tom Brevoort's Marvel Boot Camp panel.
For two hours, Tom shared the presentation he gives to new Marvel Editors each year. This was the first time the session had ever been given outside of Marvel, and attendees were asked to purchase tickets to benefit the Hero Initiative.
It was a very informative session and more than ten pages of comprehensive notes on the session are now available to our Creators Workshop members in our "Convention Panel Notes" thread. (You can see a screen capture from our forums of that topic and a few others below.)
Finally, the convention was a success for our members exhibiting at the show, with heavy crowds through most of the weekend. Some members were exhibiting at a con for the first time, while others are old pros at the convention circuit. One member, Chris Lewis, travelled all the way from Germany to debut his new comic, Drones!
Other Comics Experience-related exhibitors included Comics Experience coloring instructor Chris Sotomayor, Joe Sergi (Aliens Among Us), George O'Connor (Healed), Joey Groah and Gannon Beck (both of Space Corps), Amy Chu (Girls' Night Out), and James Babbo (The Moses Militia).
To check out more information on all these projects, including trailers and cover art, check out our pre-convention blog right here!
Thanks to all our members who attended the meet-up. It was great seeing everyone!
Hope to see you at our next Meet-Up at NYCC 2012...
If you want to make comics, write or draw comics, or improve as a comics creator, you'll find like-minded friends and colleagues in our online workshops and courses. We hope to see you there!
Baltimore Comic Con 2012 is this weekend, September 8-9, 2012, and a bunch of Comics Experience alums and Creators Workshop members will be attending and exhibiting!
In addition, we'll be holding a Comics Experience Meet-Up on Saturday night. If you're an alum and don't have the details, drop an email to rob@ComicsExperience.com.
Here's a run-down of some of the CE folks exhibiting at Baltimore!
Comics Experience Coloring Instructor, Chris "Soto" Sotomayor will be exhibiting at Artists Alley table A231.
CE alum and Workshop member, Chris Lewis, will be flying in all the way from Germany for the convention to premiere his new comic book Drones.
Drones is described as "The War on Terror - Now Playing in Las Vegas!"
Chris was recently interviewed on Liberation Frequency, where he discussed Drones and the impact of Comics Experience on his work.
Check out the comic book trailer below or visit www.epigamics.com for more info.
Chris will be exhibiting at the Epigamics table -- A5 -- in Artists Alley.
CE alum and Workshop member Joe Sergi will be exhibiting, showing off the latest Elevator Pitch Press anthology, Aliens Among Us.
Joe was a writing contributor as well as editor of the book, along with numerous other Comics Experience writing, art, and lettering alums and Workshop members -- including the cover shown by CE art alum, DaFu Yu.
Joe will be exhibiting in Artists Alley at table A105.
CE alum and Workshop member George O'Connor will be exhibiting, showing off his now-completed 5-issue miniseries Healed. In Healed, when all life-threatening diseases and illnesses are suddenly cured, it leaves confusion and chaos in its wake.
Reviewer Blair Butler of Fresh Ink Online and G4TV wrote it's "Fun, West Wing-type dialogue and I love the stories at play here."
An 8-page preview is available at www.homelesscomics.com and here's a brand new video preview:
You can find George at the Homeless Comics table -- A92 in Artists Alley.
CE alums and Workshop members Joey Groah and Gannon Beck (also on our staff as our new Art Moderator!) will be premiering the zero issue of the book Space Corps.
Gannon publishes and provides all interior art (as well as some stories), while Joey has also written a story inside. Space Corps is an ongoing comic series which gives the account of a platoon of Space Marines fighting in a planet-hopping campaign in an intergalactic war.
You can find Gannon and Joey at table A253 in Artists Alley.
CE alum and Workshop member Amy Chu will be offering her short story collection Girls' Night Out as well as CE alum Georgia Lee's scifi thriller Meridien.
Girls' Night Out is a collection of short stories written by Amy, each with different artistic teams. Georgia’s Meridien City follows a space detective in a world where the upper class dominates the only habitable living space on the planet.
You can find Amy at table A253 in Artists Alley with Gannon and Joey!
CE alum and Workshop member James Babbo will be debuting his new comic, The Moses Militia.
The Moses Militia is set during World War II, where four Jewish soldiers are determined to stop a Nazi alchemist’s plan to kill Winston Churchill with the undead. And it's set in Nazi occupied Casablanca!
The cover features work by Bill Wylie, Mark McKenna and our coloring instructor Chris Sotomayor. You can read more about the project right here!
You can find James at table A-56 in Artists Alley!
Best of luck to all our alums attending and/or exhibiting at Baltimore Comic Con!
If you want to make comics, write, draw, letter, and color comics, or improve as a comics creator, you'll find like-minded friends and colleagues in our online workshops and courses. We hope to see you there!
Comics Experience alum and Creators Workshop member Janine Frederick has launched a Kickstarter campaign for her comic book project, Quandary.
And one of the key artists on the project, Ken Frederick, is not only Janine's husband, but a CE alum and Workshop member as well!
Quandary is a digital comic of a story that takes place twenty years in the future.
In this future, everyone lives in a "police state" and the U.S. has been at war in the Middle East for thirty years. Protesters in the "We the People" movement are regarded as terrorists, hunted down and executed for challenging the system. Then, one event -- an accidental death -- inadvertently sets in motion the wheels of a revolution, and tyranny begins eroding from within.
As Janine puts it herself, "If Quandary were a mixed drink, the recipe would be: 2 parts George Orwell's 1984, 2 parts Life as We Know It, and 1 part Occupy movement."
With 31 days to go (as of this writing), the project has reached nearly 70% of its funding goal.
As incentives, supporters can choose PDFs of the comic, special edition prints and t-shirts, sketches -- or even receive a special price on a 3-month membership in the Creators Workshop!
For comic book writers, there's also a script critique available from Paul Allor, the CE Book Club Manager and writer of the upcoming IDW TMNT Micro-Series featuring Fugitoid!
More rewards are being unlocked when certain support levels are reached. For example, just today it was announced that every person who contributes will also receive a PDF of the independently produced one-shot zombie apocalypse-themed comic called The Forgotten Dead, penciled and inked by Ken Frederick and written by CE alum Chris Murphy!
If you'd like to hear more about the Kickstarter, you can also listen in on Janine's recent appearances on Kevin Smith's SmodCo's Smorning Show podcast with Ming Chen and Mike Zapcic (of AMC's Comic Book Men)! Or her appearance the same day on Mike and Ming's I Sell Comics podcast. Just click the links or download them on iTunes to check out the June 21, 2012 episodes for more info!
Good luck to Janine on her exciting project!
If you'd like to support her Kickstarter campaign, check out more info here: www.readquandary.com.
If you want to make comics, write, draw, letter, and color comics, or improve as a comics creator, you'll find like-minded friends and colleagues in our online workshops and courses. We hope to see you there!
Comics Experience alum Jody LeHeup was recently named to the position of Associate Editor at Valiant Entertainment.
In his new role, Jody will contribute to Valiant's relaunched line, which includes X-O Manowar, Harbinger, Bloodshot, and Archer & Armstrong.
LeHeup joins Assistant Editor Josh Johns and Executive Editor Warren Simons on the Valiant editorial staff.
"Valiant is already off to a roaring start and I'm thrilled to be joining such a talented team," said LeHeup.
Jody previously spent four years as a Marvel editor where he managed many bestselling and critically lauded titles during his tenure, including Uncanny X-Force, Age of Apocalypse, Deadpool, and X-Factor. His work on the acclaimed anthology Strange Tales garnered him a Harvey Award nomination in 2011.
"When we began our search for a new Associate Editor, Jody's name was at the top of my list," said Simons. "I had the opportunity to share an office with Jody at Marvel, and I saw firsthand how dedicated he was to creating amazing, innovative stories. He has a tremendous love for our medium, and I know he'll be an exceptional addition to our hardworking team at Valiant."
In 2007, prior to his time at Marvel, Jody took the Comics Experience writing class, when it was still being taught in person in New York City. (Courses are now taught live, online.)
“The Comics Experience writing class is a fantastic environment in which to hone your
storytelling skills and I recommend it to anyone looking to learn more about the craft of comic book writing. Whether you’re looking to begin or improve your work, Comics Experience has something to offer you. Not to mention the fact that the networking I did there played a part in getting me my first interview for work in the industry.”
Valiant Entertainment is a character-based publishing and licensing company that owns
and controls some of the most cherished comic characters ever created across all media worldwide. Since their creation in 1989, Valiant characters have sold 80 million comic books and have been the basis of a number of successful video game franchises.
Writer Bobby Curnow has a new book on the stands today: Godzilla Legends #5!
Bobby is both a Comics Experience alum and a member of the Creators Workshop, where he offers members pro critiques on their work.
Godzilla Legends #5 has a story written by Bobby with art by comics great Dean Haspiel. In the story, an old adventurer comes out of retirement to climb Godzilla!
The issue is on stands right now with covers by both Art Adams and Bob Eggleton.
Bobby's new creator-owned miniseries, Night of 1,000 Wolves, is solicited for pre-orders in the current March Diamond PREVIEWS catalog and will be in stores in May. That title features artwork by Eisner-nominated artist Dave Wachter.
Bobby is also an editor at IDW where he began by editing titles like Robert Bloch's That Hellbound Train and John Layman and Alberto Ponticelli's Godzilla: Gangsters and Goliaths before moving on to his current position working on both the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Godzilla franchises.
Congrats on your Godzilla tale hitting the stands, Bobby!
Artist George Zapata was one of Comics Experience's early art students, from back in the days when Andy Schmidt was teaching the courses in New York City.
George recently let us know that he's been busy making comics, including the third issue of the series The 36, written by Kristopher White with colors by Micki Zurcher. As George described the project:
The story is based on Jewish mythology about the world having 36 chosen people. The main character is Noam and he holds the staff of Moses and is the protector of the 36. When a mythical mud monster, known as a golem, goes on a murder spree across the country, it’s up to Noam and his brother to stop it.
The 36 was successfully funded in a $10,000+ Kickstarter campaign back in August of 2011, and the first three issues are currently available on Graphicly right here, with two more issues on the way!
Prior to that, George worked on a comic book called Rockstar Scientists written by Kenny Jeffery. That story follows El, the world's most famous star, on an Earth where scientists rather than musicians command the adoration of millions with wealth to match. Rockstar Scientists is available on Graphicly as well right here.
George has also done design work for King Features on their DailyINK digital applications, and even collaborated with Comics Experience writing alum Monika Smyczek on the story Soiled Doves which appeared in The December Project Comics Experience anthology!
Like many Comics Experience graduates, George has stayed busy making comics! And we look forward to seeing much more from him. Congratulations, George!
If you want to make comics, write or draw comics, or improve as a comics creator, you'll find like-minded friends and colleagues in our online workshops and courses. We hope to see you there!
Comics Experience alum and staff member Paul Allor recently announced his first creator-owned mini-series, with artist Juan Romera.
Paul is a graduate of the Comics Experience writing, lettering and editing classes, and is a longtime member of the Creators Workshop. 
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