Small Press Table M12!

It’s so close I can smell it! (or maybe that’s just my lunch).

Chris and I will soon be in sunny San Diego for Comic Con International. Now I know what you’re thinking: Man there’s so much stuff going on, how am I going to stay up to date with you guys?

Have no fear! We’ll be hanging out at our shared table with Kevin McShane of Toopydoups at Small Press Table M12! We’ll have our big ‘ol Reed Gunther banner up so you can spot us from a distance.

M12 is not that had to remember. Just think about something that you like that starts with the letter “M” and something equally important that has the number 12 in it. Like that Bruce Willis movie 12 Monkeys. Or 12 (angry) Men! Or something else that isn’t a movie reference… Maybe you could leave a comment below to help folks remember?

Chris and I won’t be able to update this blog until after the show, but you can follow us at Twitter to know exactly what we’re up to!

Shane – http://twitter.com/shanehoughton

Chris – http://twitter.com/choughtonart

Hope to see you soon!

- Shane

P.S.

For a full map of the entire San Diego Comic Convention, click here.

Holy smokes! What a WILD weekend we had at the 2010 San Diego Comic Con!

Chris and I had a completely fantastic time bumping elbows with the comic industry’s coolest folks and we’ll be updating through the weekend about our non-stop time at the biggest convention around.

Above is a shot of our booth we shared with nicest guy around, Kevin McShane, creator of the hilarious book Toupydoops! Toupydoops is about the inside-outs of the Hollywood industry, if Hollywood made comics instead of movies. Fun stuff that Kevin will soon be serializing on his new site!

At our booth, Chris and I had a nice little set up with our issues, free mini-comics, and the brand new, hand-made STERLING PLUSHIES! Made by Alisha Murray at kawaiicrochet.com, these custom Sterling stuffed-animals are way too cute.

Also on hand, Chris was selling Draw Sucka Draw’s Messed Up Fairy Tales and the first printed issue of Heeby Jeeby Comix (not pictured)! You may also notice our short horror comic Chris and I made as an experiment to try a different tone entitled, Blood Brothers!

Chris and I would not have been able to do all the wonderful things we did this weekend if it were not for our lovely ladies that accompanied us, Katie and Kassandra! Thanks a million for being our “booth-babes” and helping us let people know about our small bear-riding cowboy book!

More to come later!

- Shane

By far, the coolest thing about having a booth at San Diego this year was all the wonderful folks who stopped by. Whether they were picking up the latest issues or discovering Reed for the first time, we had people of all-ages stop by to give Reed Gunther a chance.

The free mini-comics and Chris’ free sketches probably helped slow people down and give us a minute of their time, but we know there are THOUSANDS of things to spend your time and money on in San Diego, and we are extremely grateful to all the folks who chose to spend it with us!

One truly awesome fan was cool enough to haul the copies he bought at Meltdown Comics in Los Angeles all the way to the convention for us to sign! What an honor!

Chris and I recorded a quick video yesterday to express our gratitude to all you wonderful people out there:

Thanks so much everyone!

More on San Diego tomorrow!

-Shane

While in San Diego, Chris and I had the chance to meet some of our favorite comic creators; some well-known and others who will one day be well-known!

We were really terrible this trip and did not take many pictures. I’m kind of bummed out by it, but just try to imagine our dorky smiles and wide-eyed stares while standing next to these awesome folks…

First up, we were sharing a table with Kevin McShane, who writes and draws Toupydoops. If you like comics and happen to live in LA, you’ll adore Toupydoops. Kevin also does a hilarious impression of Stan Lee and walked around the con impersonating the comic legend. Fake Stan Lee even had a chance to meet the real Stan Lee this year. The universe did NOT implode!

We also met up with webcomic wunderkind, Mike Maihack! Mike is the creator of Cleopatra in Spaaace! and Cow and Buffalo. Mike was also kind enough to draw a pin up for us in the third issue of Reed Gunther!

At the insistence of Guy Davis, we went over and met the most impressive (and kinda intimidating) Mike Mignola. We gave him a couple copies of Reed Gunther and he seemed impressed!

Chris introduced me to the hilarious and incredibly creative Ray Friesen! Ray is a prolific creator of all sorts of goofiness. Ray was a pleasure to hang out with and we even went on a QUADRUPLE DATE with him and his girlfriend, Michelle, Chris and his wife Kassandra, me and my girlfriend (an PR extraordinaire) Katie, and our good friend Scott and his date. We had great fun talking about the con, comics, and beers.

Of course, we had to swing by the table of the nicest fella in comics, Stan Sakai! Stan schooled us on how he started lettering and gave us some helpful tips and tricks on hand lettering. I have really been enjoying lettering my own writing, but I do love it when Chris is able to hand-letter right there on the page. It adds a wonderful sense of personality to the characters, something Stan has completely mastered.

The moment that made the con for me was when we had a chance to talk with John Layman, writer of CHEW. I have been loving CHEW and while I was rambling on and on to John about why I love CHEW, something slipped about our book and he asked what Chris and I do. I said I’d show him and started to pull out a copy or Reed Gunther. Before I could say anything, John saw the cover and exclaimed, “REED GUNTHER! You guys do Reed Gunther?!” He saw Reed somewhere online and said it was exactly the kind of thing he liked. Hearing John Layman get excited about our book was the coolest thing I could have imagined for this trip. Then then next day, John took home the Eisner for Best New Series. Totally well deserved! Congrats to John and artist Rob Guillory!

We also hung out with the most energetic folks in comics, David Server and Jackson Lanzing! These guys are always bouncing off the walls with excitement and enthusiasm. They never fail to get me PUMPED UP. Be sure to check out their super-cool book, FREAKSHOW when it comes out early next year (January I think).

Showing us around and dispensing priceless advice was writer Sam Humphries. Sam writes for Fraggle Rock and the new CBGB comic from BOOM! Sam and I bump into each other at various parties in LA and sometimes eat mustard-covered french toast at our favorite brunch cafe.

Jason Howard, the artist for Robert Kirkman’s The Astounding Wolf-Man, was incredibly nice to us and wasted a bunch of time with us just so he could introduce us to a publisher. What a guy! Jason is also a Michigan artist and has given amazing advice to Chris on coloring (black and white Reed may soon be a thing of the past…)!

In addition to all these fine folks, we met TONS and TONS of other creators, fans, and people in bizarre costumes!

Here’s a pic I snapped of a bunch of the cool stuff we snagged:

Thanks everyone for making San Diego so memorable!

- Shane

While at the San Diego Comic Con this year, Chris and I had the chance to talk to people who record conversations. That’s right, our first real INTERVIEW!

We were interviewed by a few different people for various projects (feature documentary, web videos, podcasts, ect…) who knows how many of those projects will actually see the light of day. My favorite interview was the one we did with a puppet cat. Hey puppet cat, put that on the internet!

Luckily, the fine folks at the Meltcast podcast were kind enough to let Chris and I crash their recording session in the Marriot lobby and regale them with all our fine knowledge of comic books (and apparently butt jokes).

Thanks so much to Caleb, Aaron, and Chris for letting us chat with them!

Give it a listen here! (Chris and I come in around the 7:20 mark)

- Shane

This is not the Meltcast. That’s just audio. This is VIDEO!

We’re a little late on this one, but Chris’ pin up for Stan Sakai’s marvelous Usagi Yojimbo was printed in issue #130. The issue hit the stands last week, but if you’re headed in for new comics today, be sure to take a peek at Usagi!

Check out Chris’ 5 minute Reed Gunther sketch he did for 5MinuteMarvels.com!

7 year-old Grace and her dad spend five minutes every day drawing and chatting about their favorite characters. They’ve done superheroes, movie characters, web comics, and now bear-riding cowboys!

Sometimes they have artists contribute an original 5 minute sketch and then Grace and her dad take it from there with their awesome interpretations!

Chris’ is below, but be sure to click here to see Grace and her dad’s fantastic drawings!

Sterling?

So we’ve got some news. News that could be categorized in the “bad” section of news for people who enjoy instant gratification, but could also be categorized in the “good” section for people who are patient and enjoy really old wine (’cause they’re patient).

The Good:

Chris is moving from Michigan to sunny Los Angeles, California! Since I am currently set up in LA writing Reed stories, Chris and I have mainly relied on emails and phone calls to collaborate. The benefit of having both of us in the same city is that we’ll be able to create WAY more Reed content together and do it faster!

The Bad:

Chris is moving from Michigan to sunny Los Angeles, California. Which means he’s got to spend some time actually MOVING. Unfortunately, we’ve had to cancel Reed’s appearance at SPX this year. We’re both very bummed about that because we were looking forward to doing another small press expo after our wonderful time at SPACE. Issue 5 may also be out a little bit later than we planned, but it’s still coming! After the move, Chris and I are pumped to get rolling with lots of Reed adventures and we’re going to start cranking them out! You’re going to have so much awesome Reed Gunther you’re going to wall paper your house with Reed Gunther pages!

The Ugly:

Chris’ face. Ba-Ba-BAM!

We are extremely excited to get rolling with Reed and take our comics to the next step. How cool would it be to get on a monthly schedule?!

Plus, what better place for Chris and I to be working from than the state whose designated animal is the grizzly bear?

Until the next one!

- Shane

Howdy Folks!

Amazing comic writer/artist Jay Fosgitt recently drew Reed Gunther on Chris’ Blog as a little going away present for Chris:

Here’s a semi-amusing story about Jay– My first year of college was at Central Michigan University; the same place where Jay first started his comic career. His comics were printed in the campus newspaper and I ate them up. (Not literally. Newspaper doesn’t sit well with my digestion.) After reading Jay’s strips, my love for comics was rejuvenated. I even tried writing and drawing my own strip after seeing Jay’s work, but nothing ever came to fruition.

It would take a few more years before the comic bug finally bit hard enough for me to write a full script and hand it over to Chris, but Jay helped inspire me during the early years when I was still trying to figure out what I wanted to do.

And NOW, although I’ve never met Jay, Chris has met up with him through various cons in Michigan and they’re now friends. Strange! Jay, we’ll have to meet so I can thank you properly.

Jay’s hilarious book, Dead Duck.

I pick up Chris from the airport on Wednesday. I usually do something strange for Chris when I pick him up at the airport. When he came in for Comic Con, I stood next to all the drivers with signs with people’s names and held up my own sign that read “STUPID FACE”.

Any suggestions on what to do for his big move out West?

- Shane

Holy Smokes Folks!

We received a fantastic Reed Gunther pin up from the wonderfully talented comic creator and film director, Chris Brandt!

I first met Chris Brandt at the East Lansing Film Festival when we were both touring around with our latest films. Chris directed a amazing documentary about independent comic book creators called Independents. If anyone is interested in creating comics or interested in the history of indie comics, or if you just like learning how people create art, then I would highly recommend this doc!

Thanks so much for the super fun pin up, Chris!

- Shane