Comics Experience Community News 7/12/2011

It's been a great month for Comics Experience alumni and Workshop members -- from a Harvey Award nomination to free online comics, our community of creators has been on the move!

Congratulations to Nick Spencer (Comics Experience Writing alum) who received a 2011 Harvey Award nomination in the category of "Most Promising New Talent," for his work on his hit title from Image, Morning Glories. The Harvey Awards recognize outstanding work in comics and sequential art, and are the only industry awards both nominated and selected by fellow comic book professionals.

Brandon Seifert (Comics Experience Creators Workshop member) had his new book from Image, Witch Doctor, appear as a flipbook in the back of Walking Dead #85, and followed that up with the release of the #1 issue on June 29th. Described as House M.D. meets Fringe, the book looks to be a runaway hit! Witch Doctor is the first original title from Robert Kirkman’s new Image imprint, Skybound, which will also be launching a new title, Thief of Thieves, written by Nick Spencer!

A new anthology comic book, The December Project, was just released recently, and it was created by a group of Comics Experience Writing alums! The book features stories written by Marta Tanrikulu, Chris Lewis, Monika Smyczek, and Elizabeth Amber Love, plus three of the stories were lettered by Comics Experience Workshop member, E.T. Dollman. The book contains a wide variety of stories, from science fiction to magic, and from trippy to heart-wrenching. Pick up your copy of The December Project via IndyPlanet right here.

Comics Experience Writing alum Rich Douek, is offering a free, online preview story from his forthcoming book, Gutter Magic. Rich collaborated on the preview with Jason Baroody, Paul Little and E.T. Dollman, and the zero issue, coming this Fall, will feature art by Renae De Liz (Womanthology, Servant of the Bones), Craig S. Yeung (Runaways, X-Factor) and JC Grande (Johnny Monster, Necessary Evil). Download a PDF of the preview story at SixGunComics.com right here.

Congrats to all the members of the Comics Experience community, and keep making comics!

If you have Comics Experience-related alumni news, drop me a note!

Posted by Rob Anderson
rob@ComicsExperience.com
Twitter / Facebook

Comics Experience Panels at San Diego Comic-Con 2011

San Diego Comic-Con 2011 (July 21-24) is less than two weeks away, and if you're interested in making comics or breaking into the industry, then mark your calendar for three Comics Experience panels focused on building your art portfolio, pitching, and breaking (and staying) "in!"

Comics Experience founder, Andy Schmidt will be moderating all three panels, featuring some fantastic special guests including: artist Reilly Brown (Incredible Hercules), artist Zander Cannon (Top 10), writer Mike Costa (G.I. Joe: Cobra), and writer John Layman (Chew).

Check out the schedule and full description of each panel below.

We hope to see you there!

Breaking and Staying In

Thursday, July 21

4:00pm-5:00pm

Room 30CDE

It's well known that breaking into comics as a creator -- be it writer or artist or colorist -- is not easy. Learn how it's done from Andy Schmidt (X-Men, Five Days to Die, Comics Experience founder), who's broken in as an editor, a writer, and a teacher. Not enough? He's also going to talk about how to stay in comics once you catch that first break -- and you'll hear from writer Mike Costa (G.I. Joe: Cobra) and artist Zander Cannon (Top 10) for their tips, too!

Building Your Art Portfolio

Friday, July 22

5:00pm-6:00pm

Room 30CDE

You're at Comic-Con and you're surrounded by editors, artists, writers, and producers -- any of whom could represent a job for you as an artist. Former Marvel and IDW Editor Andy Schmidt (X-Men, Five Days to Die, Comics Experience founder), artist Reilly Brown (Incredible Hercules), and artist Zander Cannon (Top 10) discuss what to include in a portfolio, what to leave out, and how to conduct yourself to make sure your portfolio and your presentation shine.

Pitch Perfect

Saturday, July 23

5:00pm-6:00pm

Room 30CDE

Andy Schmidt (Comics Experience founder, former Marvel and IDW Editor) and panelists John Layman (Chew) and Mike Costa (G.I. Joe: Cobra) reveal the keys to creating the perfect pitch for a comics publisher: what must you have, what to leave out, and how to conduct yourself with interviews and correspondence. This might be the most valuable panel you ever attend!

-- Posted by Rob Anderson (rob@ComicsExperience.com)

Additions to the Creators Workshop and Andy Starts a New Job!

As many of you know, I'm in the midst of a move across the country--back to the east coast for my family and me. This is part of the reason for the silence on the blog lately. Sorry about that, folks.

Tomorrow morning, I start my job as a Creative Director with Hasbro in Rhode Island. I'm excited and ready to dig into the work. But it will mean some changes for the Comics Experience website. My esteemed colleague John Barber will be making some of those changes in the weeks to come.

The most readily apparent will be the lack of my voice on the blog. I'd effectively be acting as a representative of Hasbro with whatever I say even if it has nothing to do with my work there, so I'm going to have to stop blogging directly. That said, I'm hoping to put together some guest bloggers that will blow your mind. Consider the Comics Experience Blarg under construction for the time being.

You'll notice some other changes to the site and services soon, but since this is a blog and you're reading it, I thought I'd just address the blog itself.

Courses and the Creators Workshop will continue uninterrupted and continue to spectacular places of learning for creative people who want to learn about comics and how to create them. No change there. We're the best now and we're going to continue on being the best.

Speaking of changes: Now on the Creators Workshop there are four "Ask an Expert" threads. One that goes directly to me, another for writer/editor/digital comics creator John Barber, a third for Robert Atkins--penciler on Amazing Spider-Man, Ultimate Fantastic Four, and G.I. Joe--and the last one is with Chris Sotomayor--colorist of... well... everything. The four of us check our threads regularly and answer questions with depth and honesty. There's no greater resource than that one, and it's a pretty inexpensive buy-in. Consider that along with the Workshop meetings, the critiques, the monthly challenges, and the guest critiques and you've got yourself a veritable amusement park for comics creators.

The lettering course will being soon. Don't miss that. It's a great way to save yourself tremendous cost on your project if you can do it yourself.

The Introduction to Writing course starts again in August. Learn to write comics with me. It's an intense course that has served many well--including the soon-to-be-legendary comics writer Nick Spencer. Come on in!

In the meantime, wish me luck at my new place of residence in Rhode Island and at my new home in Hasbro.

Thanks so much for reading. Comics Experience would be nothing without all of your support--and it's definitely something awesome.

Thanks again.

Andy

WE ARE EVERYWHERE!!!

I was putting a bunch of comics away this weekend--you know you have to do it too--and I was shocked at how many comics have been produced by Comics Experience alumni. I didn't stop to do a full count, but the variety of content as well as the variety of creators is staggering.

Comics Experience became very real to me as I filed away copies of MORNING GLORIES, WITCH DOCTOR, IRON MAN 2.0, GREAT ZOMBIES THROUGH HISTORY, TALES FROM THE COMICS EXPERIENCE, ANIMAL CONTROL: SPECIAL CREATURES UNIT, TRAIN ME, GAMBLE, SKY GIRL (novel), EXISTENCE 2.0 (and 3.0), and on and on...

These are real projects by real creators who love comics. And they've been published at (in alphabetical order) DC Comics, IDW Publishing, Image Comics, one creators is even LAUNCHING the Sky Bound imprint at Image, Shadowline (Imprint), Marvel Comics, and more! And that's just the writers.

The Comics Experience artists and colorists are working everywhere. I've seen them at Boom!, IDW Publishing, and Marvel Comics.

When I see a solicitation that has a member of the Comics Experience Creators Workshop or a course alum, I make sure I snag a copy--but colorists are almost never listed, and I'm sure I don't catch every name. I do try to stay in touch with as many alumni as I can, but the group is growing so large, I'll need to spend some real time (and money--which I'm proud to do in this case) to make sure I get a copy of everything that Comics Experience has helped produce!

And let's not talk about editors and staffers--because there are Comics Experience alumni ON STAFF at both Marvel Comics and IDW Publishing (and I don't just mean me, at IDW). And that's awesome, too, as many students are interested in becoming an editor.

I can honestly say that this weekend, filing comic books, actually filled me with a sense of pride--first time for everything! Ha ha. Watch out, folks, we're everywhere now...

If you've thought about creating a comic--writing, illustrating, coloring...whatever. And if you're reading this--then I think you've come to the right place. Join us for the Creators Workshop or an online course now!

In the coming weeks, I hope to get some of these talented and resilient creators here to talk with you directly about their comic adventures--both the books they're creating and how they worked their butts off to get on them and publish them!

Andy

On the Road and Spreading the Good Word!

I've been woefully neglectful of my own blog lately and I apologize. I've been doing some good press stuff around Comics Experience and meeting lots of young and new comics creators. Part of an interview with me went live today on the popular DOLLAR BIN PODCAST. You can listen to it here. A great podcast in general, so be sure to bookmark it! I show up at about 12 minutes in, and there are other segments with me to come.

And just two weeks ago, I attended the COMIC GEEK SPEAK SUPER SHOW. The Comic Geek Speak podcasts are also an excellent free resource for comics fans and creators. Be sure to check them out too!

At the show, I conducted two panels for them that they have turned into podcasts for all the world to hear. You can listen to the one on Writing Comics here.

You'll see in the pictures here, that I wasn't alone. Also in attendance were CE alums who have been publishing their own books! Pictured here are Rob Anderson and Joe Sergi. Janine Naimoli who is producing her own book as well. You can see her manning the CE table there while I was away. Thanks, Janine!

With them were artist Dafu Yu and Josh Osborn. And Joey Groah, also a CE Alum and Workshop member was nice enough to record one of our panels.

Along with alumni, we also had CE Colorist instructor Chris Sotomayor (pictured in the Breaking Into Comics Panel photo) and CE Comics Art instructor Robert Atkins. Both of these gentlemen joined me for panel discussions and both teach courses for Comics Experience and you can ask them questions as part of the Creators Workshop!

The show itself was an absolute blast. The last few years I've only been going to the huge conventions like San Diego Comic Con and the one in New York City. And those have gotten further away from comics. The CGSSS is 100% comics. Comics creators, comics fans, comics talk, comics merchandise--and run by the nicest group of people you'll ever meet. My thanks to the CGS folks for such a great time.

And it allowed me a chance to talk more one-on-one with fans and creators than I usually get to do at shows when I'm working for IDW or running large panels for Comics Experience. This was a real treat.

And I think it was great for the Comics Experience Creators Workshop. A lot of creators saw the value of what we offer in the workshop. Even if they don't all join the CE Workshop, finding a community, be it in person or online, who shares your interest in comics creation and helps encourage your art and your creativity and your passion, is just an immensely helpful and inspiring opportunity, I can't overstate the value of it.

We've recently added some new features to the Comics Experience Workshop, and I'll be talking about them in my next blog.

Stay tuned!

Andy

Comics Editing and Parenting

Man, I wish I thought of this topic! But I didn't have to because my friend and former co-worker Nicole Boose did! Nicole worked with me at Marvel and we were in the same office for a good portion of our time together. I loved working with her and she is one of the most chill people I know. We're still in touch often even though we haven't worked together in years.

This was her guest spot on GEEK MOM which looks like a fantastic site! Read her blog on how comics editing prepared her for parenthood. It's excellent!

Click here!

Andy

WonderCon

This past weekend was WONDERCON in San Francisco. I was there for part of the day on Saturday and part of the day on Sunday. I mostly worked the IDW booth except for when I had to leave to take a handful of meetings. All of which went remarkably well. Usually, they're kind of hit or miss, but some really interesting things to follow up on from business perspectives and a few potentially cool projects.

The booth was rocking. A lot of interest in IDW's big announcements and the books we were already doing. I personally most have sold 20 copies of our new JERICHO comics that continue right where the TV show left off and are written by the show's creator himself. GODZILLA was moving fast, too. No surprise there after it's incredible debut this past week.

Special props go to IDW's Chris Mowry who had the idea about the amazing retailer exclusive covers for GODZILLA #1 that rocketed that book to one of the industry's top slots for the month, for sure. Chris is one of those guys behind the scenes at IDW most of the time--but his enthusiasm is darn near unmatchable.

IDW announced that it will be publishing the next TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES comics, and I can't say much more, but boy, are there a lot of people eager to see that--and work on it. IDW also announced its next ARTIST EDITION BOOK featuring Walter Simonson's THOR. I know, that's odd, but it's true. Editor Scott Dunbier personally scanned all the original artwork from Walt himself to make for what is sure to be one of the most sought-after and talked about books coming out in 2011.

I held the TRANSFORMERS and G.I. JOE panel on Sunday afternoon. The panel went very well and I had the pleasure of showing off some of the art for G.I. JOE: COBRA CIVIL WAR for the first time. This is an event running through three new G.I. JOE titles--G.I. JOE, SNAKE EYES, and COBRA. All of these launch with #1 issues in May. The core concept is that with the Cobra Commander dead, Cobra has created a contest--he (or she) who kills the most Joes, wins the reflective face-plate thingy and leads the organization. It all kicks off in just one week with G.I. JOE: COBRA CIVIL WAR #0--seen here.

I then got to announce the new TRANSFORMERS event. Starting in July, the TRANSFORMERS ongoing series is going to go bi-weekly with issue #21 as we kick off into CHAOS--an event so big, it needs two writers! Both Mike Costa and James Roberts are pulling duty here. The final fate of the planet Cybertron will be decided, as will the relationship between man and the Transformers. A lot is going to go down as kick this series into high-gear.

Okay, enough hype from me. I'll have more tomorrow!

Andy