What a week! I went to the doctor to check a simple pain in my stomach and he sent me straight to the emergency room! Needless to say, I’m fine. I had a CT scan and nothing showed up so they sent me home. What’s worse, I kept wondering if I was going to be able to update this blog in time if I had to have some sort of surgery. What a lame thing to worry about while in the ER.
And now for the biggest news in a long time…
reMIND Won $5000 From the Xeric Foundation!
Many of you are new to this blog so I need to recap a bit. I submitted reMIND to the Xeric Foundation a few months back. It’s a non-profit organization that grants money to self-publishers like myself. It was a massive amount of paperwork to put together explaining why I deserve the money as well as financial statements, resume, cover letter, and 6 copies of everything I have so far. I asked for $5000 to help cover part of the printing cost which is going to be around $7500 to $10,000.
Well, I just got a letter of congratulations Friday! It’s pretty exciting and motivating to be granted money after all the years of hard work I’ve put into this project. Better yet, now I have a solid deadline. You see, they need to have 6 copies of my book in one year or they take back the money. That’s not going to be a problem though, assuming I steer clear of the emergency room.
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Last week my wife felt sorry for me and started proofreading my posts and pages before they went live. The idea that thousands of people might be making fun of her husband’s 4th grade spelling might have been a motivator. I don’t like bothering her with it but she firmly insists. She may not be a professional editor but she sure is smarter than I when it comes to this stuff. Of course this doesn’t mean my last minute changes at midnight will be blessed with her critiques after a long day chasing the kid around the house, unless pulling her out of bed is an option.
The Meek
Last week, Der-shing Helmer, the creator of the popular online comic, The Meek, wrote a little blurb about reMIND on her website releasing another throng of comic lovers to shower me with so much attention it would make a rock star blush. This is one of the few webcomics out there in which the art is really amazing and professional looking in every way. Check it out when you get a second. It has some nudity, just so you’re warned. Here’s a link:
I really enjoy hearing from all the new followers! Thanks again Der-shing! I owe you big time.
T-Shirt Update
I have 1 medium shirt and 1 large left in stock. Read last Mondays post if you want one.
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Last week I bought one of the coolest sketchbooks I’ve seen in a long time. It’s hard to find AND out of print already. A third printing is in the works really soon so if you like sketchbooks then keep your eyes open for this one. Nicolas Marlet, the character designer behind Kung Fu Panda, How to Train Your Dragon and a plethora of other things decided to scan his personal sketchbook just in case he looses it so he could have a back up copy. A friend told him he should print a book from his scans so he gave it a shot. Two weeks later it was sold out. So he printed a second printing and… two weeks later it was sold out again.
He signed my copy with an awesome doodle from How to Train Your Dragon. For the record, I forced him to sign my Art of Kung Fu Panda book too.
See more images from the book at GalleryNucleus.
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Coloring reMIND Tutorials
My biggest request via email is to explain my coloring process. I’m happy to announce that I’ve been working on a big fat series all about how I achieve the look of reMIND. I’ve already added the titles to my Making Graphic Novels section so you can see what’s in the works. The series will be accompanied by videos and screenshots so hopefully all questions can be answered and visually explained.
I’ve been told that I shouldn’t give away all the tools in my tool bag, that people need to pay for this stuff. Here’s the deal, I never went to school for this. I learned by imitation of my favorite artists and now I get to learn from some of the most talented artists in the world that I work with. I was broke most of my life, so paying lots of money to learn artistic tricks was never an option for me. I was forced to work with free or really cheap information and I know how frustrating it is to live in the middle of nowhere trying to find a mentor to learn from when you’re just starting out. The idea that knowledge or talent comes from money is really annoying to me and I plan on slapping it in the face every time it rears it’s ugly head. What I really hate is when someone has a Masters Degree in art and has a bitter chip on their shoulder as if the world owes them something when they can’t find a job.
Wow… Sorry about venting like that. As you can see, I have a lot of pent up opinions that are finally able to surface now that I’m writing a blog. Anyway, the first (and very basic) tutorial will start this Wednesday. Thursday is an interview with Trent Kaniuga.
Thanks for Your Votes!
Finally, thanks for all the new votes at TopWebComics. Because of all of you, reMIND moved from around 120 last week to around 52 on the list. Let’s see if we can get into the 40′s now.
The vote incentive for this week is another frame from next weeks pages. Vote here to see it:
Congratulations on the Xeric Foundation grant! It is really well deserved given all the energy you put into reMIND and all the stuff that’s surrounding it. I’m looking forward to the printed book!
Thanks Daniel! Your graphic novel is looking amazing! I can’t wait for you to start posting the story.
**applause** for not needing the ER, for winning the Xeric Foundation and for the upcoming color tutorials. :)
Congrats!! I will be patiently waiting :-) Keep making beautiful graphics.
Congratulations, I had no doubt in my mind that you would win!
Another misspell. Actually you’re post and comics are really good when it comes to proofreading.
Of “corse” this doesn’t mean my last minute changes at midnight will be blessed with her critiques after a long day chasing the kid around the house, unless pulling her out of bed is an option.
course
Oh, I have a gift for you when I get around to doing it… I’m a tad lazy… For now I’ll just let you wonder.
Hahah, Looks like my wife and I together still need some help. At least it’s less than before. And for the record, she wasn’t able to proofread the new pages today.
A gift? Now I am wondering. Thanks in advance!
misspellings are so common in comics i wouldn’t worry about it. I found one the other day in a major DC graphic novel.
My brother found at least 50 in the novel Shogun. Has them all dog eared. At one point they misspelled the main character’s name. Blackstone, Blackthorn.
Haha That’s funny. Well, I certainly don’t want reMIND to fall into the massive misspelling category when it’s published. But it’s a small relief to hear things like that. Although it doesn’t mean I should get to comfortable, only that I should strive to have none so I can be all the more professional in print.
yeah well in my crossroads book i had a grammar mistake in a giant pull quote. Used the wrong tense. I had like 3 people spell check it before it went to press. My mother in law found it in the final printed book in 2 seconds. felt like a n00b.
Haha, maybe I should send my book to my mom after my editor goes over it. She seems to always see my typos in 2 seconds too.
Congrats on the grant!!!!!! Thats so awesome and well deserved!
I heard about the grant on FB I think – congratulations! I’m sure that should relieve some stress and provide some motivation to push forward and tighten everything up.
You’ve been making some serious progress in the right direction. Take a few moments and soak it in, but get right back to work!
I’m really looking forward to your next steps. It’s great motivation for guys like me looking to do the same thing in the future.
Thanks Drezz. I have a few things I’m planning on doing now that the grant is final. One of the next ones is to announce a kickstarter.com pledge campaign to try to fund the rest. My goal can be smaller now so there are more chances it could get enough money from pledges to actually fund. We will see.
Way to go on the Xeric grant. It was well deserved. Keep it up.
That’s absolutely awesome, congratulations! And on not having anything wrong with you after all! This must be super-motivating :)
I see I’m going to have to go around and ask some webcomickers if they could send some attention my way as well, sounds like the best kind of marketing!
Yeah I think it is. I have a few others that I want to introduce myself to. People get tired of wading through the junk out there so they may never know about you unless you initiate the conversation.
Hello! I’m a new reader who was sent over by Der-Shing Helmer (who is a woman, by the way). Anyway, I have been completely sucked into your comic, so I’ll be back for the updates.
And in case someone hasn’t caught them already, there are two mistakes on the new page:
“Consciousness” should be “consciousnesses” unless Victuals and his mommy have the same consciousness.
In “than what’s your name?” “than” should be “then.” (“Than” is a comparison word, like “my hat is bigger than yours” while “then” is a time word, like “and then we went to the store.”)
Sorry, I’m a bit of a grammar nerd; I proofread for fun.
Thanks for pointing out my mistake about Der-shing. It’s cool just how many women are dominating the webcomic world.
Great to hear about the grant! Can’t wait to see the finished book.
Congrats! It makes me very happy to hear that you won it. You’re blog is by far the best source of info on making web comics I’ve found. It’s been so much help. Thank you.
Well earned and deserved award, congratulations. I was really pleased to be back on familiar turf this weeks panel. I know you have creative impulses, so I won’t complain….. but it was good to see the primary characters back on the scene. Stay healthy, keep work/play in balance, spend time with your family, we all want you to be able to finish, and move on to future projects. Again, best to you and congrats on the Award….
Paul
congrats man. The force is with you.
“She may not be a professional editor but she sure is smarter than I when it comes to this stuff. ”
*********to be grammatically correct it should be “smarter than ME.” Simplistically because me is a direct object while I is a subject. (Eg you would say “Even my dog is smarter than HIM” not HE)
Also congratulations!! This phenomenal comic really deserves it. The reason why I made that grammatical corrections is because I thought it was rather ironic.
YEah that is kinda funny that the paragraph where I talk about my wife fixing all my mistakes has more mistakes than the rest. I already fixed a few other parts of that sentence. haha I might have to stop bringing it up so often so less comments are about grammar. Oh well, it’s all good for me to keep it all in my face to I can finally learn how to write better.
I’m glad you enjoy the comic too! Thanks for the comments!
Just wanted to add my congrats on winning the Xeric grant Jason. I’ve been pretty busy working on my own graphic novel, so I’m responding pretty late in the game. But I think it’s amazing how much thought and strategy you’ve put into getting this book off the ground. It’s definitely a major source of inspiration for us like-minded guys working away on our own books…as cheesy as that sounds ;)