Hey everybody!

After all this talk about the Steak Snacking Snake, I’m glad you finally got a chance to see him! Wait, you don’t know what I’m talking about? Well stop reading this and head over to the Web Comic page to read up!

Chris and I are hard at work on the second exciting issue. Chris has just finished up the pencils, I put some finishing polish on the dialogue, and we’re off to the races! Chris will start inking the pages soon, then we’ll be slapping my words into those funny word balloons you see all over the pages. When we have some inked pages, we’ll be sure to post them here as soon as we can!

Until then, enjoy this awesome pin up Chris drew at the recent Heroes Con!

Happy San Diego Comic-Con Everyone!

Most comic fans are currently making their annual trek out to the West Coast for the always amazing San Diego Comic-Con!  Reed Gunther is not currently represented at that large of a con yet, but keep a look out.  Chris’ Mez-It will be on display this weekend, so if you wander over to the Mez-It exhibit, be sure to look out for our goofy bear-riding cowboy!

This year, Chris is stuck in ‘ol Detroit and can’t make it out, but to show his love for comics, he recently completed a couple of awesome pin-ups!  The first for the most amazing, and nicest fella in the biz, Guy Davis, and his neat-o book, The Marquis.  Guy was nice enough to provide a phenomenal pin-up for Reed Gunther and the Steak Snacking Snake!  Thanks again, Guy!

Next, is a goofy take on Eric Powell’s The Goon, whom both Chris and I are big fans!

Reed Gunther issue #2  is well on it’s way, so keep checking back for the latest updates!

- Shane

Hey Buckaroos!

I was lucky enough to spend a day down at the San Diego Comic Con and saw all sorts of fantastic and wild stuff!

Here’s Chris’ Reed Gunther Mez-It on display, looking suave and ready for action:

And here’s the rest of those crazy Mez-Its.

I finally had the chance to meet the incredibly talented and all-around super nice guy, Pascal Campion, who provided a fantastic Reed Gunther pin-up for the Steak Snacking Snake.  Pascal’s artwork is full of hilarious characters, bursting with beautiful colors and light, and packed with a truckload of emotion.  Pascal has a fantastic blog where he posts a drawing a day that you have got to check out!

Here’s Pascal’s rendition of Chris and his lovely girlfriend Kassandra (who also contributed a pin-up for the first issue!)

I didn’t take too many pictures while I was there, but here’s a brief recap of what I saw.  Of course, none of the pictures have me in it cause I was too busy going “Oooh! Whoaa! Check that out!”  Anyway, enjoy the more goofy parts of the con that I felt necessary to take photo evidence of:

The Con Floor!  Watch out or you’ll get sucked away by it’s nerdy undertow (which totally happened to me)!

I love it when Star Wars and Real Life mix.

And this Joker tried to sell me used Suckers! (Get it?! Joker? Sucker?)

Finally, I love these guys.  Gambit really committed as well with red eye contacts.

Comic-Con was a blast!  Maybe next year both Chris and I can make it with Reed Gunther in tow!

Many thanks to Scott and Paul from Red 5 Comics for bringing me down for a great day!  Thanks guys!

- Shane

Continuing the coverage of my day at Comic-Con, this will be the FSU Film School Friends post.

I attended the Florida State University Film School along with some terrific folks, some of which have gotten into the comic related world (but who am I kidding?  Comics and movies are so intertwined these days…)

First up, here’s a picture of me and my buddy Matt Hartwell loitering in front of the Goon booth:

This blurry glimpse of rareness was taken by the always friendly, Kevin Johnson, the producer of the FSU short film, My Four Inch Precious which was screening as a part of the Con’s film festival.

The other funny-looking fella in this picture is the incomprable Matt Hartwell, a fellow BFA ‘07 Film Schooler, and a fine writer!  Matt is a frequent writer for the short fiction website, elephantwords.co.uk, as well as writing screenplays and comic scripts.  On the way down to San Diego, I read Matt’s latest script for a 1920’s Philadelphia gangster comic and it is fantastic!  If you’re an artist who’s looking to be a part of a sweet book, you should definitely shoot Hartwell an email.  This guy’s great!

While perusing the Con floor and familiar face stopped me in my tracks.  That mug belonged to the FSU MFA grad, Kevin McShane (I would kill for his last name), whose face I had seen literally everyday on a poster in the film school hallway.  Kevin and I chatted it up about FSU and comics and Kevin showed me his hilariously fun self-published book, TOUPYDOOPS!  Just lookit how goofy that monkey is!

That’s all for now!  One more Comic-Con post to come (and it’s all BEAR related!)

Adios!

- Shane (McShane) Houghton

The other half of Reed Gunther Duo is that lovable ‘ol grizzly bear Reed’s always riding around and while at the San Diego Comic-Con, I bumped into a few folks who put Sterling on my mind.

First up, I had a chance to chat with the amazingly cool and hilarious writer/artist of The Muppet Show Comic Book, Robert Langridge!  Now if you know me at all, you know that I am a HUGE fan of the Muppets and I was hesitant when I heard BOOM Studios was going to make a Muppet Comic.  But after reading Robert Langridge’s first issue, I was hooked!  This book is packed with hilarious jokes, goofy and fun art, and has fantastic emotional stories for a new Muppet each issue.

I couldn’t say enough to Mr. Langridge about how well he nailed the Muppet tone in his book, and he offered to sketch me something if I traded him an issue of Reed Gunther.  I was much obliged and challenged him with the task of seating me on the back of everyone’s favorite bear.

No, not Fozzy!  Sterling!  (sorry for the crappy quality, I took a picture ’cause I don’t have a scanner)

Amazing sketch!  I love it!

A co-worker of mine suggested that I meet up with buddy of his who writes comics.  I asked who this fella was, and it turned out to be Supergirl writer, Sterling Gates!  I met with Sterling at the DC booth and chatted it up, mostly about how I had never met a human being named Sterling, but I do know this crazy bear!  Sterling was very friendly and a great guy to chat with.

Finally, while walking around on the Con floor, an image grabbed my attention so hard, I was pulled by a force of awesomeness through the crowd of people to get a closer look.  And here it is:

This amazing piece of art was crafted by the fantastic Ben Walker.  Ben’s whole shtick (for the most part) is grizzly bears with revolvers.  And I LOVE it!  You should check out his website to see all of his gun-toting bears, cowboys who wish they could fly, and other fantastic western-themed art!  Thanks Ben!

That’s it for posts about Comic-Con.  Until next year!

- Shane

I know what you’re thinking.  “If this crack-pot Shane guy can write comic books, why can’t I?”

Well here’s your chance to lay down your jibber-jabber over Chris’ illustrations and potentially win some stuff!

Contest:

Write some hilariously awesome dialogue for this scene straight outta the new issue of Reed Gunther!  It doesn’t matter what my original intentions for writing this scene were, you can make this scene into something about Bowling, Sea-Monkeys, or a Pile of Rocks!  Be creative and do something silly!

Click on the image above (to get the bigger version to work with) then right click on that image and select “Save Image As…” to save it to your computer.  Then open it up in Photoshop or some other program that will let you lay down some text, fill in the word balloons with your hilarious creations, save it as a jpeg (be sure to change the name of the file so it starts with your name) and then email it to us at mail(at)reedgunther(dot)com!

Last day to submit: Monday,  August 31st, the same day Reed Gunther Issue #2 is released!

Prizes:

Chris and I will choose the submission that makes us giggle the most and declare it the Ultimate Super-Cool Grand Prize Winner, as well as one 2nd place Runner Up, and we’ll post the winning submissions on the blog.

The grand prize winner will receive an autographed issue of Reed Gunther in a Stalac-TIGHT Spot (issue # 2), Reed Gunther Pins, and an original drawing of your choice by Reed Gunther artist, Chris Houghton!

One runner up winner will receive an autographed issue of Reed Gunther in a Stalac-TIGHT Spot (issue # 2)!

Now get writing!

- Shane

Check out this amazing cover for the 2nd issue of Reed Gunther! (Available August 31st)

Chris really knocked it out of the park with this amazing cover.  I’m loving the new redesigned look and the fantastic colors!  Great work Chris!

This issue is going to blow you guys away! We’ve got a super exciting story, creepy new monsters, gorgeous artwork, and tons of great pin ups from a very talented group of artists!

I can’t wait for you to read it!

Shane

Hey folks!

In preparation for the second issue, Reed Gunther in a Stalac-TIGHT Spot! (available August 31st), we thought we’d give you a sneak peek of  some of the new faces you’ll be seeing!

This curious citizen is a crucial member of the gold searching team and provides the much needed “brains”.  However, his lack of braun may slow him down in certain situations…

New character from the upcoming Reed Gunther in a Stalac-TIGHT Spot! (available Aug. 31st)

This gold-loving townsfolk fills his days with primping his beard and chewin’ on a stogie!

ONLY ONE WEEK UNTIL REED GUNTHER IN A STALAC-TIGHT SPOT!

I’m getting excited, how about you?

Also, one more week to submit for the Fill In the Word Balloon Contest (check out the contest here)

As Reed Gunther gets a little bigger with more and more people reading, he’s bound to get a couple of (what are commonly called in the sports industry as) FANS!

And with fans comes FAN ART!  So here it is, the first official, unsolicited fan art from the amazingly hilarious and talented, Andrew Adams!

Thanks so much for sending this in Andrew!  If you would like to send in your very own  fan art, shoot it over to us at mail(at)reedgunther(dot)com!

Also, if you want to become an official fan of Reed Gunther, you can do so thanks to the magic of his brand new Facebook Page!

So to all of Reed’s fans, thanks for reading up, sending in fan art, and submitting entries to the Word Balloon Contest! You guys rock!

- Shane