...I hope I come up with a better title for this thing by the time I'm finished writing.

Yesterday was ETSUcon! Tomorrow is my 25th birthday! COINCIDENCE? Well yeah, actually it is.

It was quite an experience, being only the second real con I've ever done, but I surprisingly did pretty freaking well. Better than I'd expected to. Turns out people LOVE posters of giant skull robots and kaiju! And I managed to do quite a few mutant portraits for people, too!

Cosplayers roamed the ETSU Culp Center in droves, more than anyone could possibly try to count, but this Splicer lady was my favorite:
There was also a dude dressed as Ryan Gosling's nameless character from Drive? He was awesome and hung around my table quite a bit, but I forgot to photograph him because we kept talking about how cool the new Gosling/Nicolas Winding Refn flick Only God Forgives looks. Seriously, watch that trailer! Doesn't that just look AMAZING?!

It was also a weird experience to have groups of cosplayers get their pictures taken right in front of my table...when there were two empty tables right next to me. I didn't know how to react to that, just a bunch of costumed butts in front of me.

Nor did I know how to react to people who asked me if my work was based on or referencing anything, who would then just lose interest and walk away when I told them that it wasn't. It's like...there are a number of artists on the internet who complain about how someone else's My Little Pony/Deadpool mashup gets more attention than their own, original work? Which is a lame truth, but not something I've ever paid much attention to. This was the real world equivalent to that "if I don't recognize it, I don't care" mentality. Someone asked if my Distinguished Gentlemen collection (which was being given out for free) had any "meta references" in it, and when I told him no, he immediately put it down, and when I tried telling him about Other Sleep he just remarked that the only webcomics he likes are badly drawn MS Paint ones...which...I mean, if that's what you dig, then cool, more power to you, but that was just weird.

Still, though. I saw some friends I hadn't seen in a long time, met some cool new folks (it seems appropriate that, as much time as he spent at my table, I never learned Drive dude's name), and I got video interviewed by stand-up comedian friend Hunter Roberts for a site he writes for called Gonzo Geek! Then I went and got Mexican food with a couple friends I don't get to see too often, so yeah, good times all around!

And hey, this next Saturday, May 4th is Free Comic Book Day! I'll be on 6th Street outside of Mountain Empire Comics doing it all over again. I don't think there will be as many Homestuck cosplayers this time around, though. Or Old Gregg.

Aw crap, I never came up with a better title for this entry. OH WELL.

[Brett]

So last week was Beat About's one year anniversary show. I got asked to do a poster for it by Sir Jesse Mutter of Ungodly Hour Aftermath. I'd been itching to revisit the Metal Zombies of Mars, so I busted this out for them:
In case you haven't seen it or had forgotten, here's the original appearance of the Metal Zombies, for an illustration assignment where we had to do a fake pulp magazine cover:
Ahhhhh, memories.

Next Saturday is the final punk show at the Bristol Grind House, and I did a poster for it as well, using an old photobooth pic I found on the side of the road at work:
I've been listening to the Shirks A LOT this week. I'm so excited. I hate that the Grind House is closing, but the good news is that Sterlin is still bringing punk bands to our sleepy little town of Bristol, with Colleen Green coming to Machiavelli's on the 17th.

I plan on writing a longer, more thoughtful thing about these shows, the Grind House, and Sterlin's efforts. Probably next week or something?

In other local news, Burst Reach, Burst Reach 2, and the Distinguished Gentlemen comics are all available now at the Purple Loon downtown! Once I get the first chapter of Other Sleep reprinted, I believe it will be sold there as well! Exciting, yes? If you haven't gotten a copy of either of the Burst Reaches or the Distinguished Gents, better hurry and head over there or talk to me, because I don't have too many left, and I have no plans on reprinting them again. I MIGHT do a pay-what-you-want pdf kind of thing, if only so that I can read them myself on my new Kindle Fire. We'll see.

Other stuff I've been into:
I've been sketching pictures of some friends of mine as Embrace Infection style mutants. Zombie portraits are kind of popular at conventions and things these days, so this my alternative take on that. I'm hoping it's neat enough that people will want to give me money to turn them into something out of a David Cronenberg movie.

If all goes well, I'm doing THREE conventions this year: ETSUcon (which is a new anime convention), Heroes Con, and of course, Bristol's own Rob-Con. On top of that, Rob is putting together something big for Free Comic Book Day. The street that his shop is on is going to be closed off to traffic, with dealers and artists outside selling our wares. 

Oh, ALSO!
I HAVE BUTTONS!! And they're awesome! All the credit goes to Haley and Steve at Self Destruct Buttons, they did an amazing job. I look forward to selling these babies...
Finally, I just finished up a 4-page silent comic for an upcoming Pizza Flag zine. No clue when it's coming out, but I'll of course let you know when it drops. I also did a...poem/narrative/comic/photodistortion thing for a Pizza Flag/William Birdcock zine that I think is dropping some time in April. Can't wait to post that. The owl comic will also be in Burst Reach 3, which I'll be releasing...um...sometime this summer. I'm still working on it, but trust me, it's gonna be great. I feel like Burst Reach 2 was a little bit of a misfire, not quite as frantic and entertaining as the first one, so I'm trying to make up for that.

That's all for now. Lots of stuff going on, considering we're only now just a quarter of the way through the year. It's just going to get better, hopefully. Stick around!

[Brett]