Showing posts with label One Man Gang. Show all posts
Showing posts with label One Man Gang. Show all posts
Saturday, February 25, 2017
Sunday, September 20, 2009
My Magnificent Failure Pt.I
So, I'm knee deep in my current cartooning project (see previous post) and I can't help but keep thinking about my last venture as a cartoonist. Hysteria: One Man Gang.
OMG came out of two things. The desire to build on the Hysteria series I had started my career with and to give myself a huge artistic challenge. Namely, to make a one hundred page action scene that still built upon the characters. It actually proved to be a lot easier then I had expected, and at one point I even considered bumping it up to two hundred pages. I also found I could tell readers more about a characer by showing their decisions while in action then I could have with talking heads.
OMG was originally to be published as a graphic novel by Oni Press, where it wasn't a great fit. If I'm not mistaken this was before Scott Pilgrim, and Oni wasn't known for this kind of fight comic type of material. I later jumped to Image, where it worked less. I won't go into details now, but I'm mentioning it now because I want to set the stage for some of these images I'm sharing. You'll see some of them have publishing information, and knowing the history will make it easy to follow the article.
I'm going to talk first about how we tried to promote this book. I know it's an odd place to begin an article about a creative work, but I feel it's fitting because SO much art and thought went into trying to get this book off the ground. I felt, and still feel, that this book had huge potential if I could build an audience for it. Hysteria had failed as a self published series, and the first volume at Oni had done OK, but not Good. For this to work, we needed support. To gain that, I needed to give fans something special. Something that DESERVED their support.
When we started to do some grass roots marketing for this book I had already started the book it's self. I had been working on the book when it was at Oni, and when I switched to Image I already had a good bit of the book done and was ready to switch over to doing some promo work. I went all out with this stuff. You have to understand, I loved this book and wanted to show it to the world. Doing these promo pieces was like taking kid's photos. I wanted to make comic fans fall for this book.
My partner Erik Swanson ( who lettered, and toned the book) and I tried like hell to sell this book. I designed a series of mailers that I sent to retailers, as well as free promotional posters. Erik even went from store to store in LA and dropped off promo material with store owners, as well as discussing the book with them. I did the same here in Pennsylvania and New York. We showed these folks advanced previews of the books too. Anything to get them excited about the new series.
I also made the rounds at conventions and handed out promo cards and free mini posters. I handed out a thousand posters, and a couple of thousand promo cards. Everyone that saw this thing loved it, but in the end the orders were very low. In the areas of the country we reached out to the orders were stronger then the areas we couldn't. I still believe if we could have reached farther, we could have made this work.
I was also lucky enough to have friends willing to run ads in their books for Hysteria. Here's one that ran in a few Image books.
I'm going to end Pt.I here. Stay tuned for more on my Magnificent Failure in a week.
Best,
Mike
Friday, March 27, 2009
OMG mess up
If you're one of the three and a half people reading Hysteria online, you may have noticed there were no new pages this week. I got so wrapped up in two different deadlines that I clean forgot to update the site.
Sorry bout that.
Look for new pages starting Monday.
Mike
Tuesday, March 03, 2009
Monday, February 23, 2009
Hysteria for 2/23/09
Have you been reading my webcomic, Hyseria? If not, you should be!
New pages every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at www.thinktankcomics.com/
Mike
Friday, February 13, 2009
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Monday, February 09, 2009
Thursday, February 05, 2009
One Man Gang 2/6
Back when One Man Gang was coming out through Oni I made four of these small mailers which I sent to retailers. Unfortunately, I had a change of heart with the publisher, so all the effort was for nothing. So, figured I'd share them now as a reminder to GO READ THE WEBCOMIC! ;)
Best,
mike
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Saturday, January 03, 2009
Friday, September 05, 2008
Thursday, September 04, 2008
The book that makes my heart ache
Hysteria - One Man Gang. The one and only book I never finished, never turned in. The book was plagued with tons of things I don't even want to discuss here, because some stuff is still in dispute. I'd just be airing dirty laundry about people in the business that I shouldn't be airing, even though I know I'm in the right.
I also had an accident while working on it, some dumb drunk chick hit me with her boyfriend's mother's SUV she was joy riding in. Fucked up my hand and neck, and my schedule.
I created more art for this book, worked so hard, went out pocked to pay for promo cards, posters, even hiring help to try and get it done. All for nothing...so far.
My hope is to finish it very soon, and just publish it online till I get the publishing plans settled for the trade/comics.
Ahh, I'm going to stop belly aching now and just post some art from it. Some you may have seen already, some you may not have...
This was the original cover to vol. 2, back when was going to do it at Oni. I eventually decided against it for something more graphic.
Mike
I also had an accident while working on it, some dumb drunk chick hit me with her boyfriend's mother's SUV she was joy riding in. Fucked up my hand and neck, and my schedule.
I created more art for this book, worked so hard, went out pocked to pay for promo cards, posters, even hiring help to try and get it done. All for nothing...so far.
My hope is to finish it very soon, and just publish it online till I get the publishing plans settled for the trade/comics.
Ahh, I'm going to stop belly aching now and just post some art from it. Some you may have seen already, some you may not have...
This was the original cover to vol. 2, back when was going to do it at Oni. I eventually decided against it for something more graphic.
Mike
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
Ape-law sketchbook PT.4
Just wanted to wrap up the last of the Ape-law sketchbook, so it's all on here now.
This last batch is pretty good. There's a How-to page for the Hysteria FCBD cover below as well as a pencil to ink breakdown of an Exterminator page and even some designs for Un-men and The TMNT.
Portait of my daughter at age 2
Hysteria FCBD How -to
Turtles designs
Extermiantors pencils and inks
Un-men designs
Best,
mike
Friday, August 31, 2007
Ape-law sketchbook PT.3
Hey all. More from the old Ape-law sketchbook.
Just a few more to post and I should have from 2005 to 2007 covered.
Hope you enjoy this stuff.
best,
mike
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
The chase
In keeping with the "works in progress" title, here are more roughs from Hysteria: One Man Gang. I'm keeping it as fluid as possible, to try and avoid the trap of a very rigid/slick car chase.
Unfortunately, I can not give an answer as to when this will be done. I have to do it on the side, when not working on Un-men. I also refuse to just rush it at this point. To date, after six+ years of working in Hysteria stories, both self published and for various publishers, I've NEVER seen a DIME of profits from the book. So if it aint for money then it's for love. And you don't rush love ;)
mike
Unfortunately, I can not give an answer as to when this will be done. I have to do it on the side, when not working on Un-men. I also refuse to just rush it at this point. To date, after six+ years of working in Hysteria stories, both self published and for various publishers, I've NEVER seen a DIME of profits from the book. So if it aint for money then it's for love. And you don't rush love ;)
mike
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Hysteria: One Man Gang #3
Yes, I'm STILL working on Hysteria. It'll be out soon, sorry for the hold up.
Best,
Mike
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