Just wanted to post a photo of a recent gallery exhibit that I am currently a part of. I’m proud to be a member of the Western Massachusetts Illustrators’ Guild, a local group of extremely talented picture book artists. For the month of April, a selection of original art (including 2 of my Runners pages) is on display at the MAP Gallery in Eastworks (Easthampton, MA). Looking forward to exhibiting more with the WMIG group in the future!
It’s been a long while since I’ve posted anything new here. Sorry about that. The past couple years, my freelance work load has really snowballed, which is great, income-wise. The only down side is that it hasn’t left me any time for new RUNNERS material. I still hope to get back to new stories sometime soon, but I can’t say when “soon” will actually be. In the meantime, I post slightly more frequently on my RUNNERS – The Comic Facebook page, so please use the link on the right to Like that page in order to stay in the loop.
Now on to the news!
The DAVE School (Digital Animation and Visual Effects) is planning to do another RUNNERS animated short for a class project!! Some of you may remember that waaay back in 2006, they did another short based on the Hamron shootout scene from Bad Goods. Here’s the link (the video quality isn’t great though, unfortunately). Now, another class is planning to animate a different sequence from the first book, and I am very excited as it’s one of my favorite sequences from the story. I will certainly have more details to share as the project goes along, and I believe the entire short is scheduled to be done in June.
In the meantime, the DAVE School has asked me to think about voices for the characters. It may come as a surprise, but I actually don’t have set character voices in my head, so I’m curious to hear from some of you. Who do you think would make great voices for the main cast? Feel free to suggest anything, as that will hopefully help to get the ball rolling for us. The school may actually have the budget to get voice work from some non-A-list actors, so realistically, as far as actually getting an actor, it probably wouldn’t be someone at the top of the Hollywood pyramid. But don’t let that dissuade you. I’d love to hear any and all suggestions. Even if it’s someone we can’t get, associating a character with a voice sound would still be very helpful.
So feel free to comment with your voice picks for Roka, Ril, Cember, Bennesaud, Bocce, and Sky!
With the new Runners graphic novel in hand, I’ll be hitting the convention circuit this year! It’s been a while, so I’m super excited to hit the road. In addition to both Runners graphic novels (Vol 1: Bad Goods and Vol 2: The Big Snow Job), I will also have some of the Kickstarter items, like prints, character card sets, and the expanded Sketchbook, in case you missed them during the project campaign.
So far, I am scheduled to set up at the following shows:
C2E2 (Chicago, IL): April 25-27
Hartford Comic Con (Hartford, CT): May 31 – June 1
ConnectiCon (Hartford, CT): July 10-13
Boston Comic Con (Boston, MA): August 8-10
Dragon Con (Atlanta, GA): August 29 – Sept 1
Baltimore Comic-Con (Baltimore, MD): September 5-7
I’m still looking into (and waiting to hear back from ) a couple other shows, so hopefully more will be announced later in the season. Hope to see some of you at the shows!
As I mentioned in my last post, the Store here has been updated with the new graphic novel, the expanded sketchbook, prints, character cards, and digital PDF versions of the books. You can also get many of those items signed.
Additionally, Runners Volume 1: Bad Goods and Runners Volume 2: The Big Snow Job (hardcover and paperback) are now available on Amazon! Please help spread the word. And if anyone is willing to post a positive review of either of the books, I would be extremely appreciative. I just listed the new graphic novel yesterday, so as of now, it looks a bit lonely without any reviews. 🙁
Here are the direct links:
Runners Volume 2: The Big Snow Job (paperback)
Runners Volume 2: The Big Snow Job (hardcover)
Thanks everyone!!
As of a couple week ago, I officially finished sending out all the Kickstarter rewards that I was able to. There were a few people who never got their addresses to me and some who didn’t reply to emails asking for additional info or international shipping, but other than that, everything has gone out at this point! I hope it was worth the wait. It ended up taking a bit longer than I originally planned, but I had decided to tackle everything myself, and that ended up taking quite a bit of time as a one-man operation. By my tally, between copies of Bad Goods and The Big Snow Job, I ended up doing over 755 head sketches!!
Along the way, I apparently forgot to send out the digital version of the Battle Royale Print. While backers over $35 received a free physical print as a Stretch Goal reward, I had also announced that EVERYONE would get the digital version. Oops. I will be correcting that very shortly, so Kickstarter backers, be on the lookout for an update with a link to a higher-res version of the image below.
Finally, I have now updated the Store with both the hardcover and paperback versions of the new graphic novel, as well as some leftover sketchbooks, prints, and character card sets from the Kickstarter project. If you missed anything during the campaign, you can get most of the items now at the Store. You can also now get digital PDF versions of both graphic novels and the sketchbook! Woot!
Thanks everyone for making the Kickstarter campaign such a success. And thanks for all the amazing support, encouragement, and patience during the process!!
