Hey guys and gals!

The Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo (SPACE) just released the “SPACE 2010 Anthology” free for download!

Shane and I have a 4-page Reed Gunther story called “Animal Intimidation” included in the line-up; the first Reed Gunther story in full-color! Sadly, you’ll have to go through the whole song and dance of creating an account in order to “place an order” for the free download over on the ComicsXP site but hey, it’s free!

Here’s a sneak peak panel from our short story:

And if you’re in the Columbus area the last weekend in April, swing by SPACE and say hi to both Shane and I! We’ll be signing and selling issues as well as original pages, buttons, posters, and as always, free mini-comics!

- Chris

Hey Reed Readers!

Have you ever wanted to ask the creators of Reed Gunther a question? Have you ever wanted to tell them they’re doing a great (or terrible) job? Have you ever wanted to do this anonymously on the internet?

NOW YOU CAN!

Join Shane and Chris Houghton over at ComicChatCast.com on Wednesday (March 31st) at 6PM PST (for all you California friends) or 9PM EST (for all you Michiganders). Please note which time zone you’re in because cause that stuff can get confusing! If you’re in the Mountain Time Zone, well, who the heck knows what time we’ll be chatting! But for the rest of you, set an alarm for 6 or 9 and come chat us up!

You can ask us whatever you like, from how long does it take for Chris to draw a page, to what did Shane eat for lunch!

It’ll be fun, we promise.

Thanks everyone and we’ll chat with you on Wednesday!

- Shane and Chris

http://comicchatcast.com/

6 PM Pacific and 9 PM Eastern

Hey Spectral Frighteners!

Chris and I hope you enjoyed the latest Reed Gunther short, Animal Intimidation! If you haven’t had a chance yet, be sure to swing by comicsxp.com to download the new story found in the SPACE 2010 Anthology. You are required to sign up, but once you make an account, the download is FREE!

For our first full color story, Chris and I wanted to have a goofy and fun story that would also introduce new readers to the world of Reed Gunther. Probably the most definitive characteristic that sets Reed apart from other cowboys is his furry mode of transportation, Sterling the grizzly bear! I thought it would be fun to see what animals other dopey cowboys would think up to ride in a time of crisis, and Animal Intimidation was born!

Chris designed some fantastic new characters for this story, some of which we posted earlier here and here, but you can’t have Animal Intimidation with out the animals or what needs to be intimidated!  Check out these great designs of the ghosts and some various animals:

I thought it was really cool to see what dogs look like when done in Chris’ unique Reed Gunther Universe style! Awesome stuff!

Next time, and for the first time, coloring!

- Shane

Hey Chatty Chatters!

Tonight’s the night to chat with Chris and I over at ComicChatCast.com (6PM Pacific or 9PM Eastern)! Dave and the other wonderful folks over at Comic Chat Cast invited us to be their guests tonight, and we were so thrilled we thought we give away some free stuff!

Chat with us tonight for a chance to win some free Reed Gunther Comics, or this original inked drawing from Chris! Wowzers!

Chris and I are pretty stoked to chat tonight. Hope to see you all there!

- Shane

Hey everyone, Chris here. First off, just wanted to give a big thanks to everyone who stopped by and chatted with Shane and me on Comics ChatCast last night! Thanks also to Dave from CCC as well for having us on. What a blast! Eisner award-winners Guy Davis and David Peterson even chatted with us for a bit as did our parents. ;D

Okay, back to business! With Reed Gunther’s first full-color story now available here, we thought it might be neat to show the process I go through whenever I color illustrations or comic pages in Photoshop:

1.) Scanning! I scan in my inked page on my scanner’s black and white setting or “text” setting. This will knock out any of my blue pencils lines and allow me to instantly start working on a clean file with absolutely no gray fuzzy lines.

2.) Flats! I start to add my “flats” (local colors of objects without any rendering) with the pencil tool in PS. This allows me to separate each colored area and makes for selecting those shapes in the near future, much easier. In choosing my flats, I try to keep in mind what the story is calling for. In this example, the scene’s set at night and we needed to make sure those ghosts looked “glowey” and creepy. All the other colors simply supported those choices so I stuck with a very subtle red and green complimentary scheme.

3.) Light and Shadow! Now the fun part! I start a new layer, “rendering” and go back and forth between my “flats” layer and this new layer. I select an area on my “flats” layer with the magic wand tool, hit “Command-H” to hide the marching ants, go back to my “rendering” layer and start painting the lights and shadows. I keep in mind where the light source is as well as the balance of how warm and cool that lighting is.

4.) Lettering! Usually, because of time restraints, Shane and I both (Shane mostly!) tackle lettering duties. We layout everything in Illustrator, then copy it over to Photoshop, and wa-la! A finished, colored page!

5.) Rejoicing! This is a very important step that I sometimes forget myself. Whenever I’m done with a project, large or small, I cross it off my to-do list and congratulate myself- as everyone should! I try to set up little rewards for myself as well like finally watching that new episode of The Office or taking a walk outside (when it’s not 40 below, here in Detroit!).

Hope this gives a little insight into my coloring process. It’s pretty standard, but feel free to leave any questions in the comments section or as always, email me at mail(at)reedgunther(dot)com

Have a good one!

-Chris

Howdy folks!

You may have noticed some pretty awesome changes here at ReedGunther.com, which is the direct product of all the hard work Chris has been putting in by tweaking the site and adding new features!

We’ve got an amazing collection of Pin Ups from the three current issues of Reed Gunther with contributions by some fantastic folks like Matt Whitlock, Mike Maihack, and Guy Davis!

We are flattered to have a page for our wonderful Fan Art from amazing folks of all-ages!

And if you’re looking for Reed Gunther Wallpaper, Coloring Pages, cool behind the scene stuff or videos, we’ve got all that cool stuff collected over on the Extras page!

WOWEE!

This summer, Chris and I are planning on hitting up quite a few different comic conventions all across the country and we’re hoping some folks will give Reed Gunther a look!

But in order to grab some people’s attention, we’d like to get a big ‘ol banner like our buddy Richard Starking’s did for his amazing book, Elephantmen!

See how that just leaps up and snags your attention? Can you imagine a big ‘ol banner with Reed and Sterling jumping out at you?!

So to close this out, I’d like to bring your attention to the last little addition we’ve made to the site. The DONATE button.

Don’t run! Come back!

I’d like to first say that Chris has agreed to draw an original Reed Gunther character sketch if you donate $5 or more.  That’s a pretty dang good deal for some original art!

We’d like to drum up some funds to purchase some promotional materials to help new people find out about our book. We’re not exactly rolling in the dough as college students/recent grads making a self-published comic book, so we would be eternally grateful for your financial support, in addition to all of the other kinds of gracious support we’ve received, from snagging yourself an issue to tweeting about Reed.

Thank you if you’ve bought an issue, read it online, or even mentioned Reed Gunther to someone. Your support really means a lot!

Be sure to check out the new features on the site, and hopefully Chris and I will see you this summer at the conventions!

Stay dusty, trail-blazers!

- Shane

Hey folks,

If you’ve been reading Reed Gunther, then you’ve probably seen some of the fantastic pinups done by Kassandra Heller (she’s got one in every issue)!

Kass is Chris’ lovely fiancee and also an amazing illustrator. Lucky for us, she really likes Reed Gunther and is willing to draw our characters even when we’re not pleading with her to do so!

Check out this amazing illustration Kass did of Starla as a part of her 100 Girls in 100 Days project!

Check out Kass’ Reed Gunther pinups after the jump:

(more…)

Hey Balloon Fillers!

You may remember the Fill In the Word Balloon Contest we had a little while back when Trains, Reigns, and Pains came out, and you may also remember that Andrew Adams won the grand prize after submitting a hilarious page where he went above and beyond by COLORING it! Wow!

Andrew asked to see Reed Gunther in a very unique scenario and Chris happily obliged…

Awesome stuff!

Andrew, being the awesome and kind guy that he is, opted to use this opportunity to give a gift to someone close to him. He’s giving this custom drawing away to the fella you see swinging in holding the wrench, who has asked to remain anonymous which accounts for the blur in the corner.

Did you folks enjoy the Fill In the Word Balloon contest? Should we hold the contest again for issue 4, Reed Gunther in Fish Out of Slaughter (coming in May!)? Comment below if you’d like to see another contest where you could win an awesome drawing just like this one! (well, you can choose if you want robotic dinosaurs chasing Reed and Sterling or not)

Thanks!

- Shane

Issue #4 is coming out in May!

Here’s a sneak peek at what the new cover will look like!

Reed in New York City?!  … This is gonna be a good one!

Reed Gunther in Fish Out of Slaughter (issue #4, available in May) is going to have some terrific pin ups!

One of them comes to us from an amazing 3D artist, Jarad Vincent! Since our book is printed in black and white, we wanted to make sure you guys get to see all the amazing color work Jarad put in!

WOW! Thanks for the fantastic pin up Jarad!

For more Reed Gunther pin ups from past issues, check out the Pin Ups section! Duh!

- Shane