ECCC 2012 Recap!

by Jason Brubaker on April 12, 2012 at 11:13 am
Posted In: Blog

This last weekend I was in Seattle for the Emerald City Comic-Con and I wanted to share some of the amazing highlights of the trip. This convention was by far, the best and most surreal convention experience I have had. Let me explain.

It all started with a crazy road trip for 20+ hours to pick up my brother in Oregon and make it just in time to set up in a city I’ve never been before with just a few hours to check into my hotel and take a shower before the show started. That in itself was crazy. But we made it and set up the booth. Mike Yamada and his wife Victoria Ying shared a corner booth with us too. If you haven’t seen their work you really should check it out. They are both amazingly talented.

The show opened and the self doubt hit me like a ton of bricks. Especially when the first 30 minutes we had no interested candidates to purchase anything at my booth. I started to really sweat because I dragged my brother all the way here and paid lots of money to be in an unfamiliar audience who didn’t seem to be interested. You could probably see it on my face but then suddenly a fan ran up to the booth in excitement and we talked for about 15 minutes. In that time two other fans approached and complimented me on my book. This really helped calm my nerves but I still wasn’t selling anythi– oh wait, a random attendee just came up out of the blue while I was talking to fans and throw down some cold hard cash. I’m in.

What was once crickets became a continuous stream of interest for my book and prints. About 2 hours in I turned to my brother realizing that this was probably the easiest crowd that I have ever sold to. By the end of the day we had it down and were averaging a book sold every 15 minutes mixed with lots of other little sales and conversation.

The first day was finished and as we walked out into the lobby I was greeted by Royden Lepp the talented writer and artist behind the Archaia book titled Rust. (order from this link and I get a small cut) We ended up going out to dinner with him and his wife and we had a blast. I’m so glad I got a chance to get to know them because they are such great people. Check out his book if you have a chance. It’s one of the few graphic novels that I’ve purchased in the last few years and I love it.

Saturday morning we rolled into the con and I picked up some amazing crepes from a little crepe shop on the street. Talk about the most yummy crepes I’ve ever eaten. That’s a whole post in itself. :)

The convention opened to shouts as attendees ran past to get into autograph lines. We sat back and waited for the first 30 minutes this time instead of worrying about selling books. Soon the customers started wondering by and my brother and I ended up selling 45 copies of reMIND that day alone. It was the most books I ever sold in one day at a con.

In the middle of the day Mleiv stopped by to say hi and gave me some delicious muffins! She does an amazing webcomic called The Locked Maze that you really should see. I think I was in a daze when she came by and I didn’t quite realize it was her until towards the end of our conversation. So, thanks Mleiv for the yummy muffins! Now everyone go and check out her amazing looking comic!

Travis Hanson of The Bean had set up a panel to talk about Kickstarter and he invited me to be part of it. I had no idea what to expect but I wanted to do a panel eventually so I jumped on the opportunity. I was crazy nervous. I was even more nervous when I saw the massive line stretching the length of the convention to get into the panel. The doors opened and we went into a huge room that quickly filled with over 140 people. It reached the room limit and they turned away everyone else. Gulp.

Travis lead the show and we had a fun time discussing what makes a good Kickstarter for about an hour. Thanks Trav, for letting me be a part of your amazing panel! I didn’t get any pictures so if anyone has one that they want to share then I’d love to post it here.

Go check out Trav’s webcomic, The Bean now!

After the panel was finished, I went back to my booth and my brother had sold out of all my signed copies of reMIND that I left for him. He also had two people waiting there for me. And that’s when Ed showed up…

Who’s Ed?

This is Ed.

On Friday, he came by my booth wearing an “I’ve seen the Lizard Man” shirt, which was cool enough to make me snap a picture. But then he showed me his new tattoo.

Look closer.

Yep, that is a brand new tattoo of Victuals on his arm. I might have to mark Ed down as my biggest fan now. We talked for quite a bit and he’s a super nice guy with a big laugh. Thanks Ed, for making this show unforgettable!

The day finished great and we ended up eating dinner with Jeremy Barlow (who edited reMIND) and his friends (who I don’t know their websites or their full names) (and now I feel like a total looser because of) (Help Jeremy!) (awkward pause)

…

Sunday started and I was delivered some home made pie! Yes, home made pie! Yes! Serious! Thank you so much Kelsie! Now everyone go follow her on twitter @bicyclefish.

One of the other highlights of the show was meeting Shari Chankhamma who helped me color several pages of Volume 2. I love her art and now I know that she is also a very nice person as well. :) She brought me a bunch of cool gifts and stopped by several times just to hang out. Go check out here work here and follow her on twitter here @sharihes. Here is one of her drawings.

I meet tons of other cool people and publishers and friends. I talked with printers, publishers and producers interested in reMIND. I was part of another cool panel on Small Press with a bunch of other cool people. Here’s a picture that Drew Pocza took of the panel. He was on the panel too.

The panel was hosted by Corrosive Comics:  Shawn Cruz, AnnMore Grove and Micah Baker

Also on the panel were:

Devour Comics: Akumyo (Rochelle Bea)
Pokeweed Comics Pokeweed:  Drew Pocza

The rest of the show went great and I sold 99 copies of reMIND, all the plushes that I brought, all my prints and lots of other random things.  We packed up and drove back to my brothers house that night. Then the next day I drove back home to Los Angeles. Exhausted.

I already paid for a booth for next year because this was such a great experience. Thank you to everyone who came out to see me and the fun conversations! See you there next year!

- Jason

8 Comments

Come See me in Seattle this Weekend!

by Jason Brubaker on March 28, 2012 at 9:02 pm
Posted In: Blog

I am packing my bags and leaving tonight for Seattle Washington! What’s in Seattle? Emerald City Comic Con! (ECCC) I’m super excited about this show because it’s all new to me.

Plus I’ll be on two panels during the show which are:

Guide to Creating Your Own Kickstarter Project – Room 201 @ 4:00 – 5:00PM Saturday

Small Press Comics Panel – Room 201 @ 3:00 – 4:00PM on Sunday

Once again, here is my handy map of how to find me. Booth 1008 Coffee Table Comics! Hopefully I’ll see you there!

 

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I’m all Business!

by Jason Brubaker on March 21, 2012 at 11:24 am
Posted In: Blog

Remember last month when I said that I only had 280 books left to sell on Amazon? Well, I am down to the last 80 books now. Serious! This is what my trunk looks like every Monday morning on my way to work. The last two weeks have been record orders for me coming in at 43 copies sold one week and 44 sold the next. In a way I am kinda glad that I won’t have to pack and ship books for a little while, at least until I get the second printing in hand. I am going to be talking to a new distributor soon about taking over my order fulfillment for the second printing because I think I have officially burned myself out. I’ll let you know how that goes. If it goes. I’m learning so much stuff these days. The hurtle I need to jump is convincing a distributor to take me on as a publisher even though I only have one book out. They usually don’t entertain the thought until you prove you are in it for the long haul.

All I know is my last month has been full of nothing but business. When I get home from work, I’m either packing books, writing invoices, updating sales records, doing tax stuff, or preparing for conventions. I seriously haven’t been able to touch reMIND the whole time and it’s a little frustrating.  But I can’t complain, this is a dream come true to be able to sell this many books. Now I just need to learn how to take it to the next level.

_______________________________

In other news, reMIND was featured on the Paperkeg Podcast last week. They talked about reMIND for nearly 30 minutes and it was really fun to hear their take on it. Plus, I think these guys were about as spot on with the details of the book and story as anyone has been. Plus, they just gave me a lot of compliments too so obviously I’m going to like it. :)

But serious, they have a really good show and I highly recommend listening to it for entertainment and good comic discussion.

You can hear the reMIND episode here: http://paperkeg.com/post/19177589589/paperkeg50

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Also, reMIND was review at the Unshelved Book Club. You can read their great review here: http://www.unshelved.com/bookclub/2012-3-16#Remind

________________________________

And finally,

WonderCon was great!

This was a picture my wife snapped on the first day before the doors opened. I ended up with a corner type booth even though I was against the wall. So that night I went to Home Depot and bought a 6 foot table to make myself a corner booth on Saturday and Sunday.

I was able to spread out a bit more and it really helped. This is my booth Saturday morning before the show opened. Like my makeshift tablecloth? I ended up giving away all my “I’ve seen the Lizard Man” t-shirts with a purchase and it went over really well. All I have left is 3x. So if you want a 3x shirt, email me and I’ll send it to you for free if you pay for shipping. :) I only have 5 left.

From this point on, I think I want to get a corner booth from now on. I have lots of ideas for how to make the booth look better too but I wont be able to work on that much until next time. Thank you to everyone who came out to say hi or pick up a copy of reMIND, Phobos and some prints. You made this weekend a blessing for me!

I wish I could write loads more about WonderCon but I gotta finally get some work started. Hopefully I’ll see some of you at Emerald City Comic Con!

- Jason

 

9 Comments

Come see me at the WonderCon!!!

by Jason Brubaker on March 15, 2012 at 11:21 am
Posted In: Blog

Everything is packed and I’m as nervous as a first date. I have all kinds of goodies and special offers for this weekend. Here are a few:

  • FREE “I’ve seen the Lizard Man”  T-shirt with any purchase over $20 (while supplies last)
  • Prints! Yes, I will actually have nice prints this year. I made several spreads into prints as well as the cover image of reMIND. Also, I made a few other prints unrelated to reMIND.
  • New Plushies! I have full body Victuals plushies, Big pillow head plushies, and a new keychain plushie this year that I really love!
  • Phobos Trade! This is issues 1 to 4 of my first comic that I have never gotten around to collecting. It’s softcover and 94 pages of black and white epic. Only 25 copies made and they will be for $10.
  • One of a kind Buttons! I made a bunch of buttons from reMIND and they are almost all unique this time. There are about 90 to choose from. Yes, I made these myself. :)
  • And of course, I still have reMIND Volume 1 (first printing). These are going fast though and I am down to my last boxes now. I reserved enough copies for my convention appearances this year but that’s it.

Here are some pictures of the plushie key chain and the Phobos trade cover.

(Disclaimer: This cover is new art but the interior art is as old as the hills. Most of it was drawn in 1993-1995 while I was in high school.)

And for the last time, here is my location so you can easily find me! Hopefully I’ll see you there!

9 Comments

Anaheim WonderCon!

by Jason Brubaker on March 6, 2012 at 6:04 pm
Posted In: Blog

If anyone is going to the Anaheim WonderCon next weekend then please stop by and say hi! It’s approaching fast and I’m starting to sweat because I am trying to make lots of new things for the show like unique buttons, plushies, cards and this time I will be offering a bunch of prints of my work. I’m trying to make a big banner of Victuals in his super suit in the rain to hang across the back of my booth but I keep running into problems and it is consuming too much of my free time.  None the less, I think I found a good printer finally so look for this banner at the top of my booth.

I think I have a sweet location too. I’m right at the front of the convention pretty close to Marvel comics. Perhaps being next to the side wall is a bad thing. I don’t know. But I am right across from ComiXology and really close to the front right entrance. In fact, here’s a map. Click it to see full size:

As the map says, I’ll be in booth 106 listed under my publishing name “Coffee Table Comics“. Hopefully I’ll see you there.

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Get a First Printing While You Still Can!

by Jason Brubaker on February 16, 2012 at 11:55 pm
Posted In: Blog

I’m not saying this to sell books but… well, actually yeah, I AM trying to sell books but this might be something important if you really want to get a first printing of reMIND before they are gone. To give you an idea, I have reserved a few hundred copies of reMIND for my convention rounds this year. Based on last years cons I can guestimate that I sell about 25 books a day at conventions. SOOOOoooo, I counted up all the days I will be attending conventions this year (that I have already booked) and I have set aside enough books to barely cover all the conventions.

SoooOOOOoOOoOOOoooo, after setting aside books for cons, I noticed that I was getting down to the last few boxes. 14 boxes to be exact. Each box holds 20 books which brings to total left to 280 books before the first printing is sold out.

I know what your thinking! “So what? It will take you FOREVER to sell 280 books.”

Here are the facts. I have been selling 20 to 36 books EACH WEEK through Amazon, comic shops and Libraries. I don’t know how it’s been happening but those have been the consistent numbers for the last 4 months. So to use the average rate of 28 books a week, that leaves 10 weeks left before I tell Amazon that I am OUT OF STOCK!

If you plan on finding me at a convention this year then you probably don’t have to worry about it because I will still have my little stash for cons but you won’t be able to find it online anymore unless you buy it second hand. Keep in mind, that this is the first printing of the first book that I have ever done and they are all numbered. Only 2500 were printed. ALSO, when I finally do a second printing, they will NOT be numbered and they probably WON’T have the cloth binding.

SOooOoOOOOoooOOoOoOooooo, if you want one of these first printings with a cloth binding and numbered then I highly recommend ordering a copy now.

And to drive the stupid point all the way home, last week Amazon ran out of copies for a few days while they were waiting for my next shipment and this is what happened. I was so blown away that I took this screen grab:

Don’t ask me who would spend hundreds of dollars on a copy of reMIND but that was what happened as soon as they ran out of copies for a week. I can only imagine what will happen when they are notified that the first printing is out of print. Who knows.

Wow! I sure did toot my own horn there didn’t I? Honestly, I am just excited about the idea of not packing up boxes of books anymore. haha! Buy Buy Buy!

So, if you are planning on finding me at a convention to pick up a copy then here are the first two Cons that I’ve booked for 2012. If you are going to be at any of these then please come by and say hi! And just so you know, I will be listed under my publishing name Coffee Table Comics.

Wonder Con!

This will be my first year ever at the WonderCon. I’ve never ever been there even as an innocent bystander. But, I took the plunge this time and bought a full booth! Now I just need to figure out how to decorate an entire booth space. This year, it will be held in Anaheim, CA on March 16th – 18th. From what I hear, it’s going to be completely bananas this year with the move to Anaheim. Apparently they sold out of booth space at record speed. I plan on having some new shirts, plushies and I’m even going to try to make some prints this year for conventions. Oh yeah, I’ll have a 94 page trade of an old comic I did back in the day!

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Emerald City Comic Con!

Just like WonderCon, I have never ever been to this convention but hear only good things about it. So, again I bought a full booth. A corner booth actually but I’ll be sharing it with some friends. I’m already listed on their Exhibitors page under Coffee Table Comics and my booth number is 1008. I’ll be sure to give you a map to my location before the convention starts so don’t bother memorizing all this… because I know people like memorizing random information just for the joy of it.

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The only other cons I’ll be at this year are:

That’s it! Sorry. :(

SOOOooOooOOOoOOoOOOOoooooooOOOOOOO! Once again, here’s a link to buy reMIND on Amazon! Oh, the joy of almost being sold out!!! :)

3 Comments

7 More Cheap Copies of reMIND for Sale!

by Jason Brubaker on February 14, 2012 at 11:05 am
Posted In: Blog

$10 Defects!

[UPDATE: The defects are now sold out!]

THESE ARE FACTORY DEFECTS OR SLIGHTLY DAMAGED COPIES ONLY. I have several copies of reMIND that have factory defects on the cover or smudges on some pages. Some have a small cut or rip and some have a crooked cloth binding and some are just smashed slightly but they are perfect if you are just looking for a copy to read. These are EXACTLY the same as the full priced book but I just didn’t feel comfortable sending these out at full price.

Because of the blemishes I am selling them at the discount of $10 + $3.50 for shipping and handling.

Here is the link where you can buy one:

http://www.storenvy.com/products/86356-remind-vol-1-factory-defects

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More Missing Pages

by Jason Brubaker on February 13, 2012 at 5:00 am
Posted In: Blog

Here are the last missing pages from reMIND volume 1. Click to enlarge and see it within the story. Next Monday I’ll try to update all the pages in Chapter 3 as well as post a new little intro for Volume 2. Then after that it’s all new pages!

Oh yeah, I’m going to be hitting some conventions pretty soon. I’ll give you a rundown later this week when I put all the info together.

Have a great Valentine’s Day tomorrow! See you soon!

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NEW PAGES!?

by Jason Brubaker on February 6, 2012 at 5:00 am
Posted In: Blog

Yes, you heard me right! Today I put up a NEW page. Well, it’s new on this site. When I printed the book I added 4 pages to Chapter 2 where Sonja and Victuals were working on the suit to get it fitting Victuals’ body. Now that Chapter 4 is about ready to begin, I figured I should update all the pages from Volume 1 to reflect the book. So in addition to updating all the pages in Chapters 1 and 2 I have added the first two missing pages online. Click the image to see in within the story.

So, Next Monday, I’ll post the next spread so make sure to come back. In fact, I’ll be posting new pages each Monday from now on leading up to the start of Chapter 4 on the 27th. Yay, my page posting has officially begun!

Free Advertising this month! Right there ——->

Along with posting new pages each Monday, I am now offering advertising again on this site. To jump start things a little, I want to give you a chance to advertise here for free for the month of February leading up to the start of Chapter 4. To get your banner rotating for free this month, all you gotta do is buy some ad impressions for NEXT month (March). The sooner you lock in your banner ad impressions the sooner your banner will be rotating through the cycle with all the others leading up to the start of Chapter 4. Does that make sense or am I just completely confusing here?

In other words, reserve your ad impressions for NEXT month now and get free impressions for THIS month. Yes, I will cycle your banner with everyone else’s banner (who has reserved impressions) all February until I start posting Chapter 4. If you are interested in reserving impressions for when I start posting new pages then head on over to my advertising page and buy some impressions now. I will start cycling paid banners on a first come first served basis when Chapter 4 begins.

http://www.remindblog.com/advertise/

New Shirt designs

I tried to make this shirt over a year ago and failed. Now I am forcing myself to finish it and eventually print it for conventions and stuff. I’m still not sure of the colors yet so let me know what you like. Even if you want to grab this image, change the color to what you think it should be and send it back to me then I’ll consider it. I might have a vote for it at some point later too.

Here’s a version on a black shirt:

Here is a version on a blue shirt:

And here are some other color ideas:

I really have the worst time deciding on something like this. When it comes to simple color design I lock up like a Commodore 64. Speaking of which, I loved that computer!

8 Comments

Good News all Around!

by Jason Brubaker on January 30, 2012 at 4:21 pm
Posted In: Blog

So the biggest news this week is that reMIND got on the Great Graphic Novels for Teens list for 2012! (GGNT) This is a pretty big deal I hear and I am honored to have my first book listed with so many other talented storytellers. Perhaps this is why I had to send out so many copies of reMIND yesterday.

Usually I get orders for about 20 books a week from Libraries, Comic shops and Amazon combined but last week was a record with 36 copies sold! Before I forget, here are a few more comic shops that started carrying reMIND this last week! Once again, Please go bother them for a copy of reMIND so they reorder more :)

Traders of Babylon
66 A Willow Ave
Hoboken, NJ 07030
tel: 201-659-0802

Chicago Comics
3244 N Clark St
Chicago IL 60657
773.528.1983

Showcase Comics
874 W Lancaster Ave.
Bryn Mawr PA 19010
610-527-6236

To see the full list of shops carrying reMIND, click here!

Now, onto even crazier things! I have finally decided when I’m going to start posting new pages of reMIND! I still don’t think I’ll be finished with everything I wanted to have complete but I’m going to pull the trigger anyway! The madness will officially begin on…

Monday FEBRUARY 27th 2012!

This probably means that I will be staying up late at night for the entire month of February to get as much finished as I can before this start date arrives. And just like before, there will be spelling problems and typos and little things to fix as I go but I trust that,  once again, you will all help me refine Volume 2 as we go to be the best book it can be.

But honestly, I’m pretty nervous about what everyone is expecting with Volume 2 because it seems like I have only had positive feedback from this first Volume. I keep worrying that I can’t live up to the hype but I’m sticking true to the original story however simple or complex it may seem. I can tell you that it will probably go in directions that are unexpected. That’s what I like about it.

But, I’ll just shut my mouth and see how things play out as I post pages. :)

13 Comments

Things are Still Happening!

by Jason Brubaker on January 23, 2012 at 5:00 am
Posted In: Blog

Even though I’ve been a bit quiet online these days, it’s not to say nothing is happening. On the contrary I worked on a secret project until 1 AM each night for the last 8 days. I don’t want to let the cat out of the bag yet but I will say that… It’s probably the script for my next graphic novel after I finish reMIND Vol. 2! hehe. But don’t worry, I’m still planning on posting new pages soon but a small distraction was well needed for me to recharge my reMIND batteries. In some ways, I need to just pull the trigger and start posting pages again to put the fire back under my seat. I am still planning on starting to post in February sometime. Probably the end of February.

And just so you know here are a few more comic shops that started carrying reMIND. If you live close to one of these then please go bother them for a copy so they will order more! :)

More Cool Comic Shops to find reMIND!

Wow Cool (Note: Grand Opening is Early March!)
21607B Steven Creek Blvd.
Cupertino, CA 95014

Titan Comics
3128 Forest Lane
Suite 212
Dallas, TX 75234

For a list of other cool shops carrying reMIND click here!

Also, I have to give a shout out to Patrick Bower of:

CHALLENGERS Comics
1845 N Western Ave 2R
Chicago, IL 60647
773.278.0155

who was actually the first comic shop to carry my book. Patrick has been super helpful in every aspect of selling reMIND and at the end of last year he send me an email saying:

“reMIND ranked #98 on our 2011 Sold Graphic Novels List. 
To give you a little perspective on this list, it’s for ALL Graphic Novels sold in 2011, not just books released this year. And there are a total of 3453 places on this list. reMIND was #98.”

All I gotta say is that it takes a good comic shop to move that many copies of reMIND and from what I hear, Patrick has one of the best comic shops around. I can’t wait to take a road trip to Chicago someday and check it out for myself. Thanks again Patrick!

reMIND Chapter 1 – 3 on Graphicly.com

Also, Chapters 1, 2 and 3 are all available now on Graphicly.com. You can download them all here: http://graphicly.com/coffee-table-comics. Remember that you can switch each page to sketch mode to see what the rough page layout looked like. Here is a sample of one of the pages finished vs. rough layouts.

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Some New Places to Buy reMIND!

by Jason Brubaker on January 17, 2012 at 11:07 am
Posted In: Blog

For this new year I signed on with a sales rep to try to see if I can get reMIND into a few more stores. Tony Shenton is his name and so far he is working his magic because I keep getting orders. If you own or manage a store and are interested in reMIND, please contact Tony at Shenton4Sales(at)AOL(dot)com. You can also contact him if you have a good book that needs to find an audience.

If you are in New York, NY and want to pick up a copy of reMIND then here are a few new stores that started carrying it this week. Please go bother them and pick up a copy while you’re at it! :)

Forbidden Planet
840 Broadway
NYC NY 10003
(212) 473-1576

Jim Hanley’s Universe
4 W 33rd St
NYC NY 10001

Also, another store in California started carrying copies! Thanks ya’ll!

Fantastic Comics
2026 Shattuck Ave.
Berkeley CA 94704

You can see my growing list of shops carrying reMIND here!

4 Comments

reMIND Chapter 4!!!

by Jason Brubaker on January 9, 2012 at 5:00 am
Posted In: Blog

I am getting really close now! Yes, you guessed it. I’m almost ready to start posting Volume 2 of reMIND!!! Here is my new progress chart.

If you missed my last update, I explained that once I finish Chapters 4 -6 I’ll start posting pages again because I will have about a years worth of pages ready to go! I decided that my progress has been so good that once I finish coloring Chapter 5 I will start posting pages which means I will probably be about to start in February now! I’m so excited! Chapter 5 is pretty simple to color too and so I am expecting it to go pretty fast. I can’t wait to start showing you some of these new spreads because I think I have really upped my game on the coloring.

And just so you believe me, here is a little cropped in version of the intro:

If you happen to have a webcomic that has been around for over a year then I’d love to talk to you about helping me launch reMIND Volume 2. I plan on giving a copy of reMIND to anyone who is willing to blog about it on their own webcomic. You see, it has been about a year since I posted my last few pages and so many of my regular visitors have wandered off into other corners of the interwebs and I’m trying to figure out ways to let people know that I am starting to post comic pages again. So if you are interested in helping me get the word out, I’d love to give you a free copy of reMIND to give away to your audience or you can even keep it for yourself if you want. :) Just email me at Jason@reMINDblog.com and let me know your comic/blog URL and if you are interested.

Yay!

Also, a new podcast is up at MakingComics.com with Daniel Lieske. We discuss how things have been going with the release of Chapter 2 of The Wormworld Saga! Hear is here: MakingComics.com.

Double Yay!

11 Comments

Happy New Year!!!

by Jason Brubaker on January 2, 2012 at 12:14 am
Posted In: Blog

Well, I’ve been living it up on my Holiday break an I still have a week before I have to get back to work so I’ll be working on reMIND Volume 2 as much as I can! I’m so excited about this new year that I can hardly contain myself. 2011 has proven to be a super fun and successful year for me and I can only imagine what this new year will bring.

Before I forget to post it again, please check out Daniel Lieske’s Wormworld Saga!

It’s an online graphic novel that he’s been working on for a few years now and he just released the second chapter over Christmas! It just gets better and better each time I look at it. Not to mention the little hidden reMIND posters in Jonas’s room! hehe.

Thanks for the amazing plug Daniel! In the next week Daniel and I will record a new podcast for MakingComics.com to discuss how everything has been going since the release of Chapter 2. I can’t wait to talk about it all!

In other news, Maritza Campos, of CRFH and Powernap, sent me a picture that her 6 year old daughter drew of Victuals! She said, she studied my book several times and then drew it from memory. How cool is that!

Speaking of kids drawing stuff. My oldest son has been drawing like crazy since he was 2 and the other week we sat down at the kitchen table and drew for about an hour. In fact we did it again tonight! It’s so much fun to be able to finally draw with my son. He drew a bunch of cars, trucks and trains and I was able to get some more work finished on my Kickstarter paintings that I am desperately behind on. Here we are drawing together:

And here is my newest Kickstarter painting that I was working on:

Sorry it’s kinda blurry. I took it with my phone.

2 Comments

Have a Great Christmas!

by Jason Brubaker on December 19, 2011 at 1:00 am
Posted In: Blog

So, I don’t know anything about TheStar.com but they seem to be big and they listed reMIND as one of the top 10 Graphic Novels of 2011! I feel pretty special seeing Coffee Table Comics listed right next to Image, DC, Drawn & Quarterly, First Second, Vertigo (DC), Villard (Random House imprint) and Marvel Comics! That’s just crazy!

In other news I’ve been recording some great conversations with amazing comic artists over on my other site. If you are interested in hearing some then I’ll list them here so you don’t have to go digging. Here are the cool people I was able to talk to in 2011:

Daniel Lieske – The Worm World Saga

Nate Simpson – Nonplayer (Part 1, Part 2)

Skottie Young – The Oz books and a million other things

Maritza Campos & Bachan – Powernap

David Pettersen – Mouse Guard

Trent Kaniuga – Creed & Twilight Monk

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I’ll give you another update on my progress on reMIND next week! I’m not sure if I’ll get a chance to make a new Christmas picture this year for this blog so here is a link to the one I did last year.

Merry Christmas! 

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas this year!

 

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reMIND on Graphicly.com

by Jason Brubaker on December 12, 2011 at 1:00 am
Posted In: Blog

So the big announcement today is… reMIND is now on Graphicly.com! See, I told you it wouldn’t be what you expected. But before you make your judgments on if it’s worth buying even though you can see it mostly for free on my site I want to let you in on a few bonuses:

  • Each chapter comes with the ability to see all the pages in sketch form.
  • Chapter 2 has 4 pages not seen in the online version. (Chapter 2 will come out in a few weeks though)
  • This is the real version that went to print. (The online version have never been updated. It’s still full of mistakes.)
  • You can read it panel to panel or full page.

I’m very excited to announce our partnership with Graphicly to deliver a new way to experience reMIND. We’ve broken the story up into single chapters and added exclusive bonus content and cool digital features. Guided view takes you through the story panel by panel if you want, or read it normally, a page at a time. You’ll be able to check out sketch layers for almost every page of the story! You literally use their built in eraser tool to “wipe away” to the sketch layers! Its really a lot of fun…you have to check it out to fully appreciate the coolness.

Chapter one comes out Monday, December 12th and will be available for the super cheap price of $1.99. We’ll be releasing bi-weekly after that.

About Graphicly

Graphicly is a cutting-edge entertainment digital content delivery system and community platform, providing an immersive solution to tell, share and collaborate around story. With more than 300 publishers and over 4,000 creators from major publishers such as Marvel Comics, Image Comics, BOOM! Studios, Top Cow and IDW Publishing to indie creators from around the globe, Graphicly is the leading story-telling and sharing platform online. The Graphicly Network includes dozens of leading websites and blogs, mobile applications including the iPhone, iPad and Android; A desktop AIR application, and an industry leading HTML5 web app. For more information, please visit www.graphicly.com


http://graphicly.com/coffee-table-comics/

In addition to that awesomeness, I want to also direct your attention to the upper right hand of the site where you can see I have a new mailing list. The old one was starting to give me problems and so I decided to upgrade to a paid service that will finally be able to handle anything I throw at it. If you have subscribed to the reMINDblog mailing list in the past, could I kindly ask you to sign up again so you can stay on my mailing list? Please. I’m trying to transfer everyone still interested in reMIND stuff over before I cancel my old service. Thanks for understanding!

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New mailing list for MakingComics.com

by Jason Brubaker on December 8, 2011 at 1:53 pm
Posted In: Blog, Making Graphic Novels

Hey all. Many of you know I have discontinued writing how-to articles on this blog and instead I’m posting them on my new site MakingComics.com. I have some BIG plans in the near future with this new site. BIG! So if you are on the reMINDer mailing list in hopes of getting “Making Graphic Novel” type information then you need to jump on over to MakingComics.com and sign up there instead.

Once again, if you are on the reMINDblog.com mailing list please take a second to join my new list DEDICATED to people making comics.

I have finally switched to Aweber.com which is the most popular and powerful email marketing system out there. It costs money but I’m really enjoying the features.

Exclusively for the new mailing list, I am writing 20 tips for making your comic. These will be sent out ONLY through email so jump on the list if you want to get ‘em!

Thanks again for sharing my articles on reMINDblog.com and making them so popular. Hopefully MakingComics.com can take over from now on for any of your making comics needs.

- Jason

1 Comment

Holiday Schedule

by Jason Brubaker on December 5, 2011 at 11:56 am
Posted In: Blog

This post was long overdue.

I have a super cool announcement next Monday so come back to see what it is. It’s probably not what you think though. :) Oh yeah, and there is another thing that I’m working on that has been 2 years in the making that about half of you will appreciate. Haha. I know that probably wont make much sense until you see what it is.

As some of you know I exhibited at Comikaze Expo last month and it was amazing in my opinion and I’m definitely going to sign up for next year. I sold about 50 books total for the show and Saturday was just crazy! Thank you for coming out to say hi and pick up a copy of reMIND! There were also many of you who already bought a book at another show or on Kickstarter who stopped by to see if I had anything new. I had to sadly hang my head in shame. All I could say was, “I hope to get the second Volume finished within a year from now.” :(

On that same subject, remember when I said I would start posting new pages in November? Well, baby #2 changed all that. I can’t really say a specific time frame at this point because life is now full of diapers. I had hoped to figure out a new schedule for working on reMIND but so far when I get a chance to sit at my drawing board or computer I only think of sleeping. BUT I am still making progress, about 2 pages a week. Which is pretty good I think.

On a good note, Dreamworks just offered me another 3 year contract as a Visual Development Artist. This is the best job I’ve ever had and I’ve learned more in the last three years about art than I have my entire life. Hopefully within the next three years I’ll be able to start making enough money from my graphic novels to make it my full time job when this contract is up. It really is a crazy dream but I think it’s possible and I’m going to push for it as hard as I can. But honestly, I can’t do this without you. So if you have a second to share my book with anyone you know who might be interested in it, that would be super helpful. Remember that article I wrote way back in the day about 1,000 TRUE FANS? Yeah, I’m still working on building it. haha! But I am miles ahead of where I was when I wrote that article.

So once again, please subscribe in some way to this blog because I will be in holiday and baby mode for the rest of the year. I might not be able to post anything but you never know. And now… let the holiday begin!

11 Comments

reMIND Vol 2 progress & CTN Expo

by Jason Brubaker on November 15, 2011 at 2:08 pm
Posted In: Blog

Hey all! Because I am asked so often how far along I am with Volume 2 of reMIND, I decided to make a little progress chart that I can update whenever I get another chunk finished.

So here we go. As you can see below, I am finished with the thumbnails of Chapters 4, 5 and 6. I have also finished sketching and I’m about half way finished with the inking of these same chapters.  I have the coloring nearly finished for Chapter 4 plus some and a little bit of the lettering finished as well. The only part that I haven’t touched is the final chapter. If I don’t keep changing things then I’ll try to have it well underway before too long.

I’ll keep updating this chart as I proceed. And the plan is to start posting new pages online when I get Chapters 4,5 and 6 finished. That way I can work on the final chapter while pages go live on the site. This will make sure that there are no interruptions with my update schedule.

CTN EXPO this weekend!

I will be selling copies of reMIND this weekend at CTN Expo. Actually, I’ll be selling them at a Mike Yamada’s table. So come by and buy a copy of Mike’s amazing new Alphabet cards and look at reMIND. You can buy reMIND too if you want. I’ll be there for a short time signing books too but I’m not sure what time that will happen. Sorry. :)

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Making Comics Podcast & Comikaze Expo!

by Jason Brubaker on October 31, 2011 at 5:00 am
Posted In: Blog

Last week was pretty crazy with the launch of MakingComics.com. I can’t really say that my plan of freeing up my schedule has been successful. I’m sure you are all saying, “I told you so.”  But, at least it’s a change of pace for me and I think that’s important to keep things interesting. I’ve gotta say that the amount of quality articles contributed to the new site is nothing sort of amazing! I’m trying to space them out in case nobody submits anything else. Eventually I’ll update all my articles and post them on the new site to give it some content if submissions starts running low.

But the big fun news today is that the first podcast is now live. This took some work as you will hear about in the intro. We wasted a lot of time trying to record this one but hopefully we can tune our production to be efficient from this point on. The next episode will be really fun too and you’ll have to listen to find out why. Head on over to MakingComics.com to give it a listen. Or you can find it in iTunes.

Please help me spread the word about this new podcast and website. I think the only way it will really work is if it’s popular enough to sustain itself with contributing authors and editors. So, if you want to contribute then let me know. I’m even looking for help with SEO, and possibly someone who can edit the podcast to make it sound like the most amazing NPR radio show ever! You know, cool music, sound effects, catchy editing and all that. As it stands, I am doing all the editing myself and so I don’t have the time or knowledge to fine tune it. If you or someone you know is an audio editor looking for something to really blow minds with, then send me an email. You’ll get full editing credit and links to your site as well. If not, then I’ll just keep doing it myself and you’ll get what you get. haha

Well, back to work on reMIND for me! I’m actually starting to make some progress again! That’s good right?

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In other news, I’ll be exhibiting this weekend (5th and 6th) at the Comikaze Expo in the Los Angeles Convention Center! My table number is 65! I believe I am located towards the back in a Small Press type area. This is my first year attending and exhibiting here so I’m not sure what to expect. It looks like it’s gonna be fun and the tickets are super cheap so there is no reason you shouldn’t come and see me… unless you are not in LA. :(

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