Hey everyone! Chapter 7 of Other Sleep is finally completed and online! 20 pages of Ninel swearing and punching things and getting bloody! It was a lot of fun to draw and color, so go check it out!

My goal is still to get the two final chapters online by the end of the year, which means I have 50 pages to draw, color, and letter in the next 5 months. No pressure.

On top of that, I've added some stuff to my Gumroad profile. Burst Reach 1 and 2 are now available together as a bundle, along with collections of chapters 1-3 and 4-6 of Other Sleep. And they're only a dollar a pop! How can you pass up a deal like that? Go get'em!

Finally, in case you've forgotten, Rob-Con is this Saturday! I found a hidden batch of my Distinguished Gentlemen/Exciting Tales! collection, so I folded and stapled those and will be giving them out for free. As always, I'll have my posters and buttons, the first chapter of Other Sleep, I'll be doing sketches, and I'll have copies of Burst Reach 3 as well! It's going to be a blast, and you're an idiot if you pass it up!

Aaaaannnnnndddd that's about it for now.

[Brett]

If January is any indication of how the rest of the year is going to go for me, then 2013 is going to be a crazy busy year.

First off, here are the four watercolor paintings, a series called the Same Mistake, that I did for the art show that is currently on display at the Bristol Grind House:

Secondly, I drew a 10-page, silent sci-fi western snowstorm comic over the course of a few days, completely on a whim after a massive snowstorm hit us. You can "read" the first five pages of that HERE and the rest of it HERE. You can also check it out on deviantART HERE and HERE. Maybe I'll post it all on here. I guess I should do that.
 

Also? I’m kind of an amateur stand-up comedian now. After watching my friends do it for quite a few months now, I decided to give it a try myself. I’ve done it three times now. I'm not so sure how good or funny I am, it's really impossible to tell when you're up on stage, but it's a new and fun and terrifying and beautiful creative outlet for me to play around in.

Oh, and I drew this for my friend Sterlin:
FURTHERMORE, I’m doing freelance design work for the local newspaper now, which brings in a little extra cash and lets me use a different part of my brain. I just wrapped up a logo for a thing recently. Not as steady work as I'd like, but still, hopefully this will open up to more opportunities, right?

And finally, I am in this art show at Floating World Comics in Portland. Zines are available to order and stuff too, so check it out! There are a LOT of talented folks in there, all of us paying tribute to the Incal by Alejandro Jodorowsky and Moebius. Really, I feel like I don’t deserve to be in there next to artists like Dave Taylor and Sloane Leong. It's like I pulled off some sort of heist. Here's the panel I did, which I somehow failed to post when I did it back in November:
Yeah, it’s February and I’m in two art shows at roughly the same time? I don’t know how that happened. I’m savoring it, because it will probably never happen again.

Um, obviously, chapter 6 of Other Sleep isn’t done yet, but it will be soon, I swear. Look, here’s the cover for it!
And I think that covers everything, right? Now I must get back to work! THERE'S MORE TO COME.

[Brett]

I feel like I open every one of these posts by saying the same thing, but: I've been busy lately. Not just with work, but with other things. Like the sudden development of a social life, which is kind of awesome and terrifying at once. 

So chapter 4 of Other Sleep is finally online! I put it up last week! You should go read it! It's um, a bit different from the others, a little weird, but still alright.

And I made this:
Yep, my good buddy, Pizza Flag editor, and stand-up comedian Sterlin has convinced another punk band to come play in Bristol, and once again I put a flyer together for them! This one was all digital, starting with a photograph I took of my teeth. I'm pretty damn happy with it, it's quite a bit different from other stuff I do.

And here's the cover I designed for Eye Alive 2, also from Pizza Flag:
I'm really proud of this dude, completely tokusatsu. I had bought a recent issue of Famous Monsters of Filmland that was ALL ABOUT giant monster movies and TV shows from Japan, so that was my big inspiration.

...If you haven't noticed, I LOVE giant monsters...

Saturday was a big day for Bristol, with a band I have never heard of called Mumford and Sons playing that night and a bunch of other bands and things going on downtown. I got invited to hang out at Mountain Empire Comics and sell my comics. Once more, I was teamed up with my partner in crime, Dionysus Metalcult. In his words, we're like a Spider-man/Dr. Strange team-up from the 80's, and that's quite appropriate. There were a LOT of people out and about all day, but unfortunately not many of them were big on our weird self-published comics. Nevertheless, a good time was had, despite a total lack of funnel cake.

Seriously man, it's not a festival if there isn't funnel cake. What the hell?

That's all for now. I did a weird illustration for Eye Alive 2, but I won't be posting it just yet. Now I must dive back into Other Sleep and get to work on chapter 5, yeah?

I leave you now with a photo of me with a bow in my hair, for no reason:
 

[Brett]

Hey! You! What are you doing Saturday? Seeing the Dark Knight Rises? That's cool I guess, but what you SHOULD do is go to Rob-Con at Viking Hall!

Yes my friends, go to the Tri-Cities biggest comic convention and feast upon the thousands of comics and toys and stuff that will be there! Meet some zombies, check out the Batmobile! And then come by my table and BUY MY STUFF.

I'm debuting Burst Reach 2 there, packed with comix greatness:
As well as the collected Distinguished Gentlemen and Exciting Tales! strips, the first Burst Reach, AND chapter 1 of Other Sleep!

I'll be doing sketches for stupidly cheap, too! Here's the flyer I made for my table:

You see that? For under 10 bucks you can buy ALL FOUR of my books! There's no reason NOT to! Unless you just don't like comics in which case, why are you even here?

Seriously guys, I'm stoked for this. That show I did in Gray, back in April? That was weak. Free Comic Book Day was fun, but it's nothing compared to Rob-Con. This is gonna be BIG.

Also I'll be dressed really nice, which doesn't happen often. You don't wanna miss that!

Besides, you don't HAVE to see the new Batman on opening weekend you know. That's when all the crazy crowds are out, who wants to deal with that crap? COME TO ROB-CON.

[Brett]

It feels so good to be back in action, doing comic stuff. I mentioned that stupid slump I was in, right? I went into detail about it over on the Other Sleep blog shortly before I got chapter 3 online and...oh crap, I never announced that over here, did I?

That's right! A week or two before I went to HeroesCon I put chapter 3 online! GO READ IT NOW. Or um, wait until you're done reading this post, at least?

Ahem. Anyways. Yes, I was in a slump, and the trip to HeroesCon really helped to pull me out of it, inspire me, and get me back on my feet and making comics for YOUR enjoyment. I confess that chapter 4 of Other Sleep is going to be late, BUT I've got other things coming down the pipeline! For instance, I am PRINTING chapter 1 of Other Sleep for Rob-Con! I'm polishing things off and figuring out what to do for the back 4 pages, inside cover, and back cover, but I'll be putting the order out for it soon. And oh hey, what's this?

GASP! Is that what I think it is? YES. It's the logo for Burst Reach 2, which I've been slaving away at all this week! I'll be getting it finished up and printed this weekend, then I'll be bringing them with me to Rob-Con next month on the 21st! I'll be doing it the same way I did the first one last year, printing it myself, getting copies made, and folding and stapling them myself. Had I mentioned that I purchased a long reach stapler one night earlier this year on a night that I couldn't sleep? Well, I did.

Yes, I'm taking two different approaches in getting two different books printed and put together. Other Sleep is a full-color comic, and it's my real professional effort, so going through a professional printer to get it right is easily the best option. On the other hand, Burst Reach is a lo-fi minicomic anthology that's MEANT to be cheap and handmade like a punk zine or those pamphlets that crazy street preachers occasionally hand out.

(quick aside: I was once handed a Bible on campus at ETSU, and in exchange I gave the guy a copy of Burst Reach. Fair trade?)

Another reason I'm making Burst Reach 2 in that fashion is influence from my friend Sterlin, whose Pizza Flag Books you should be familiar with if you've been on this site for a while. Last week before I left for Heroes, a Nashville all-girl punk band called Heavy Cream put on a free show downtown, which was put together by Sterlin. It made me happy to see when I got there that he had a table set up selling copies not only of his own Museum For Dead Clowns zine, but Eye Alive vol. 1 (I FINALLY GOT A COPY), a NEW zine of his own called Irony & Whine, and a zine by another friend called Tune Out. I greedily snatched these up. He's also been selling copies of Burst Reach for me. It's just...man, zines are just the coolest things ever, you know?

OH. And I did this poster for that very show:
 It makes me happy knowing that they sold out there. Sterlin did a pretty sweet poster too, which also sold out.

Um...now I forgot what I was talking about? Yeah, Burst Reach is my punk comix zine thing, while Other Sleep is a little more high-quality. But I still love both and I'm putting all I've got into them.

And have no fears, that Distinguished Gentlemen/Exciting Tales! collection is progressing as well! And I'll be doing a cover for Eye Alive vol. 2 for Sterlin and contributing to the guts of the book too. I don't think I'll be doing a new comic this go around, but I still want to do something cool...You'll see.

Aaaaannnnnd I think that's it for now. BACK TO MAKING COMICS.

[Brett]

I'm going to do a bit of a braindump today. Things I've been looking at, listening to, thinking about, et cetera.

I keep listening to this song, because it's so good. It brings to mind imagery from Stalker, and makes me think of a What If? sequel to that film where, after another decade or two, Stalker returns to the Zone and finds that it's...changed, in a sinister, austere fashion. Give it a listen, it's remarkable.
 

I read Sharknife ZZ by Corey Lewis this week and HOLY CRAP IT IS AWESOME. I could only read it in quick bursts, a handful of pages at a time, because it's so dense with style and it's so overwhelmingly fun to flip through. Corey is at the top of his game with it, and it was so worth the 6-year wait it took him to make it. I did some fanart, I loved it so much:

This blog post by David Brothers about the Before Watchmen crap is absolutely venomous and on the nose.  I was initially thinking of buying the Minutemen series because I love Darwyn Cooke, but now, ugh, I'm just not going to bother at all.

I wrote a blog post over on Other Sleep about the bad 1980 movie Altered States and how it's kind of the backbone for the comic. I'm planning on doing posts every week over there about what's influenced it. I think next time I'm gonna write about Guy Davis and his work on BPRD.

I'm trying to figure out how I can really promote the hell out of Other Sleep and get people to check it out. I don't think it's something I can do myself. Right now I'm hopping on messageboards and stuff, and I made a list of comics professionals and critics and bloggers that I want to send it to, but I just haven't worked up the guts yet to email any of them...

Saturday the 21st, I'm going to be at the Tri-Cities Toy and Hobby Show. Basically I'll just be doing sketches, giving away Other Sleep postcards, and selling copies of the new third printing of Burst Reach for a buck apiece. The guy who manages the show is a really nice guy and is letting me have a table for free to do my thing. This is, I guess, my first "appearance," so to speak, since I don't think walking around Rob Con last year thrusting Burst Reach into people's hands necessarily counts, yeah?

(by the way, there I also dropped some copies of Burst Reach off at Atomik Comiks in Johnson City, so you can grab them there too. Tell Shawn I sent you)

Also? The third printing of Burst Reach is STAPLED BY ME, rather than saddle-stitched at Kinkos. This justifies the long-arm stapler I ordered in the middle of the night back in February with a copy of Redline when I couldn't sleep.
 

I'm also going to be at Mountain Empire Comics in Bristol for Free Comic Book Day, drawing and stuff.

AND I bought a 3-day pass today for Heroes Con. I'm really excited about that, since it'll be my first REAL con.

And finally, I just watched a really good documentary on digital sampling in hip hop that's called Copyright Criminals. It's great, you should check it out on Netflix.

Okay, back to work.

[Brett]

You read that right folks, the first chapter of Other Sleep is now online! Click the image below to go read the first chapter!

This image also doubles as a postcard I'm getting printed in order to hand out at local comic book stores and such. Woo!

I'm excited. I've been working my ass off on this and it makes me so happy to see it now up for public consumption.

Things have been set in motion. Gotta keep the momentum going. I've already got almost half of chapter 2 drawn now, I'm still writing the later chapters, and putting together other ideas and stuff. 

I also made a page specifically for it on this site, so you should check that out.

That's it for now. There's yet more work to do. SO MUCH WORK.

[Brett]

Maybe I should start titling all of my blog posts after Wu-Tang Clan songs.

SO! After an 8-day drawing binge, I have FINISHED drawing the first chapter of my graphic novel!

This is one heck of an accomplishment for me. It's a huge step forward. Massive progress.

I'm also excited to announce that I have a website set up for it and everything already!
 YES. The comic is titled OTHER SLEEP, and the website is up and running! All you gotta do is click that picture. CLICK IT.

I'll be posting OS-related things on the blog there, and I've got a 3-page preview for the first chapter set up for you to ogle too. AND YOU CAN COMMENT ON IT. Go go go!

The complete first chapter will be up sometime in mid-to-late April. My self-set deadline is end of the month, so I can print some copies of it for Free Comic Book Day. Rob, the man who runs Mountain Empire Comics and Bristol's own Rob-Con comic convention, talked me into making a FCBD appearance at the store, and I don't want to show up empty-handed now do I?

I've also got a table for this year's Rob-Con, of course. I plan on having quite a few things there for people, including Burst Reach 2!

Exciting times, these are.

Also, in between all the drawing and planning and website tomfoolery, I did another photography thing:
The copy machine at work is old and does those wicked looking, lo-fi punk prints like you see in older textbooks, and I'd been dying to do something with it for a while now, and thus this was born!

And that's it. I got more work to do tonight. I'm just about finished lettering those pages up there, yeah...

[Brett]