We’re back with our report on our experience at Wizard World Chicago. The short version of the verdict: had a great time socializing, but didn’t exactly recoup our costs via sales. We try to get to the bottom of what went right, what went wrong, and whether or not we’re ready for the mainstream conventions yet.

Folks mentioned in this episode:
Anne Drozd of Boum Art
Shawn and Carrie Robare of Branded in the 80s
Chet Lucero of Storm Corps and Dreamform Defenders
Diana Nock of Jinxville and Imaginary Friends Forever
Barry Gregory and Thomas Florimonte of Ka-Blam Digital Printing
Matt Munn of Zed Reckoning
Rob Worley
Paul Storrie
Art Baltazar

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 Art & Story 045 - The Big Chicago: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This week we have a discussion on cop-outs, short cuts, and cheats that we cartoonists use to help expedite the process of making comics. Ideas shared run from Photoshop productivity tips to creating word balloons on the page to reduce background illustration needs. We’re joined in the audio by Krishna Sadasivam.

We’re joined in the chat by Kevin Cross, Largopredator, Tony Piro, The Blog Comics, Matt Munn, and Diana Nock. If I forgot anyone, please email me, and I’ll add it to the show notes.

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 Art & Story Alive! Episode 20: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

For those who are interested in an audio report of how our experience at Wizard World Chicago is going, Mark and I just recorded an impromptu episode of Art & Story Alive, available on our talkshoe page. We’ll be posting some more later on tonight.

Mark and I have officially made it to Chicago, and we’ve started chronicling our trip to Wizard World Chicago. You can check out our Flickr set here. We’ll be doing some podcasting starting tomorrow, featuring friends Shawn Robare and Diana Nock.

We’ll add more photos to the Flickr feed as we take them.

This week Mark and I discuss some of the possibilities for long-form comics in new media, inspired by the latest episode of Michael A. Stackpole’s The Secrets podcast. His thoughts on prose dovetail very nicely into what we’ve been doing with projects like Sugary Serials, so we take the opportunity to discuss the subject from our side of the fence. We talk a bit about what our concerns are when making episodic, serialized stories for the internet.

It’s a shorter one, but there’s more to come later this week from Wizard World Chicago, so stay tuned!

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 Art & Story 044 - The Big Serial: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Just wanted to remind everyone that Mark and I will be appearing at Wizard World Chicago this weekend. We’ll be at table 4916 (you can get a map of the floor here), flying the Sugary Serials banner. Mark will be debuting his new mini-comic Echoes From Asteroid X, and we’ll be sporting all sorts of books we talk about on the podcast. We’d also just like to meet and talk with other comics enthusiasts, so don’t hesitate to just stop by and say hi.

We’ll be podcasting throughout the entire weekend. We’re going to try to do some live shows from the show floor, but at the very least we’ll be doing some after hours recordings with some friends. So watch your podcast feed for some new episodes this weekend. Probably nothing in the way of formal discussion–more like a cross section of a convention experience.

This week we revisit the idea of self-promotion and marketing for the independent cartoonist. We’re joined in the Audio by Matt Munn for a discussion on what we fear most in our efforts to get the word out about our comics. We also do some brainstorming on possible ways to promote ourselves in a way that doesn’t leave a bad taste in our mouths.

We’re joined in the chat by Kevin Cross, Largopredator, Tony Piro, Scott & Audra, Krishna Sadasivam, Jarmo, David Faenza, Dungeon Warden, and Dave Rigley.

Don’t forget, we’ll be at Wizard World Chicago this weekend! Hope to see you there.

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 Art & Story Alive! Episode 19: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This episode Jerzy and I do a bit of complaining. After going through a box of modern superhero comics, we started to wonder… “Why is everything so serious?” What happened to the fantastical, wonderful aspects that made us fall in love with the medium in the first place? Are these creators cocking an eyebrow at the readers or is this an honest take on the characters? So we thought… how do you discover your voice as a comics creator; being true to what excites you and try to reflect that in your work.

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 Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This week we talk a bit about what is required to make a long-form comic on the internet. We discuss update schedules and extra “behind the scenes” materials, as well as the overall preparation and concerns that one has when designing and writing something that is meant to be read in one solid read as well as in serialized form. We tributary off into a discussion on tracing and using reference materials.

We’re joined in the audio by Krishna Sadasivam of The Sequential Artists’ Pub and Shawn Robare of Branded in the 80s.

We’re joined in the chat by Matt Munn, The Blog Comics, Kevin Cross, Largopredator, Tony Piro, Scott & Audra, Garrett Williams, and Glenn Meyer.

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 Art & Story Alive! Episode 18: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Mark and I step a little outside of our comfort zones to try and tackle a question put forth by our friend Shawn Robare of Branded in the 80s, specifically the respective responsibilities of an author and an audience in the meaning-decoding or meaning-making in media. We tried asking ourselves just how much we hope to communicate explicitly through our work and how much we hope the audience will interpret on their own. We also talk a bit about our own experiences as media consumers and what how far we’re willing to go in decoding the implied meaning, citing specific examples ranging from Disney’s Hercules to noir films like Alphaville.

I also spend some time going gaga over Cyril Pedrosa’s Three Shadows.

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 Art & Story 042 - The Big Responsibility: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download