a few notes about Landis and Direct Market

Hey folks.

I just figured I'd give some bulleted news about Landis.

*- It is a miniseries. At 22 pages per issue and five issues coming out, that means the story will span a year online, roughly, because 110 pages @ 3 times a week comes out to 11 months.

*- There is ALWAYS a possibility Owen and I could re-team for a sequel if pre-orders for the Trade do well.

*- Though the plan is set to definitely do a full-color trade, no date or timeframe is set for it.

*- The story is influenced by Highlander, Kevin Smith and Vampire novels. I will admit that the story takes a huge turn from the #0 issue which is being placed online right now. This story is all flashbacks and introductions, like a #0 issue is supposed to be. We get into the meat and bones of the book by the #1 issue (so sometime by August).

*- Landis was created in 1997 and first appeared in Scorn: Heatwave from Crosby Comics.

*- Ardy was created in 1986, and his first appearance was in CITY OF ILLUSION #1 from 5th Panel Comics. His appearance in Landis is an Homage to Silent Bob, because Smith said that when he spent all his money to make a movie he wanted people to say, "There's the guy that spent all his money to make this crap" and I felt that with as much love and all that I have for BOTH my characters, his showing up here was a natural fit.

Direct Market

*- Right now, the idea is to have AT LEAST 30 strips complete before sending it to Crosby to try to get it on Keenspot.

*- At my present pace, 30 strips is likely to be completed within a month.

*- Right now I consider this a fun and better WRITTEN project than ART project. I really look at the strips to be well written and hope people will forgive the use of the same scenes over and over. I've already taken this into consideration and plan to do different expressions, arm movements and just activities. I've played with backgrounds and all, and FINALLY got a REAL comic font on the comp for them. I've been satisfied with ALL the strips that have been completed, but want to expand my use of Photoshop and MS Publisher to really ease the process while still looking good quality.

*- The characters are loosely based on my current local comic shop and me. I wish I worked at the comic shop. Overall, I'd expect this to have elements mainly of being a PG title, but I'm contemplating doing more mature strips.

A Landis sketch from Brandon Peterson. He did this on the inside cover of his 2004 sketchbook for me, and man, like with Cully's piece, I'm just awestruck. I'll probably put these on the landis site in a fan-sketch area. I'm still just in awe.... 

Cully Hamner's rendition of LANDIS as done at Heroes Con this weekend. If it were to ever get made into a cartoon, I'd love to have him do storyboards and character designs. All that, and him and I look like brothers, hehe. Hopefully he'll check out the site and see all the praise I give him for appeasing my inner-fanboy =). 

ELISALANDIS.COM

Ladies and Gentlemen! The moment we've been waiting for...for a long...long time. ElisaLandis.com is up and has the first page of art online and ready for viewing pleasure! I'm extremely excited, as this is something I've been wanting for a while and now, it's finally up. I actually like the color of the project on the screen rather than newsprint, as its a lot more vibrant.

Yes, you will get a distinct Highlander feel, but couple that with the humor elements, the sci-fi elements, the horror, the superheroics and such, and this project is so much more than a simple clone. Hopefully you'll all enjoy it.

As a nice side note for this, Brandon Peterson and Cully Hamner actually did Landis head sketches for me at the Heroes Convention this past weekend, which is a total geek out moment for me.

Also, Ethan Van Sciver and I finally met face to face, and again, I totally geeked out on him, as he had never seen the Landis cover actually printed before. Super nice guy, and he said that if he weren't under an exclusive contract from DC right now, he'd definitely consider doing another Landis piece, which was cool.

Overall, I talked with John (Astonishing X-Men) Cassaday for about 2 hours, just listening to what he had to say about all the projects, colorists and what he'd want to do if he wasn't on X-Men. The guys from Jolly Roger studios were also extremely cool, and I shot the shit with them for a good long while Saturday night.

DIRECT MARKET #1. This is the original script, just revisioned with the new Design. I think it looks and feels a lot more professional. Don't worry, as I move forward with it, I'll be adding more art and not just doing the same panels over and over again...but as a start with Photoshop, it's a good idea to get enough of them under the belt this way and then go from there. It cuts production time down, and as JK told me...it allows me to continue with the strong point of my work, the writing. but the art is all 100% Rob Potchak. Hope you enjoy it. 

So, I redid my comic strip #2, and this is how it looks now. Thanks to JK Radtke for taking th etime to help me with Photoshop to be able to make the word balloons as well as get everything started. I hope you enjoy this one, as this is probably A LOT closer to the look of the strip when I finish it. 

elisalandis.com

Well,

The time is almost upon us. It's kind of exciting. The reason I say is almost, is because I was snooping around over at Keenspot.com (home to Chris Crosby's superosity.com and Owen Gieni's sorethumbsonline.com) and pulled up elisalandis.com. Currently, the site just goes to a copy of SORE THUMBS, but hopefully, by next week or so, we'll be seeing Elisalandis.com up and running.

Not a moment too soon, either, because with Heroes Con this weekend, I think I'm going to do up cheap business cards to hand out at the show.

Gotta run, I'm at work today...lata!

Update of Sorts.

So let me start by saying the ECW PPV F'n rocked. I loved it, it was great and it was almost surreal how it went over.

On the comic front, I know the elisalandis.com site hasn't launched, and I'm still waiting to see how that goes over. In the meantime, I've completed four strips for DIRECT MARKET, already and will continue to write and draw them. I think its coming along well, and due to my speed with drawing them, I could probably get a good amount of time into it, and a good amount of the strips done before it launches. I personally am thinking to try to get at least thirty strips done before even attempting to launch it, because that would be most fair and keep me ahead. It's hard to transition from the type of writing I'm used to, into this, but I'm still attempting to do so.

The difficulty comes in trying to deliver a standard amount of panels, while still trying to give a punchline, something I am definitely not used to. Of course, with a comic book, you are trying to give a payoff every 22 pages, not every four panels. So you've got to dumb it down while you smarten it up, and then shrink it to an eighth of what you really want. Uggh. It's cool though, because the payoff when you actually get that one strip to just come off right, you feel vindicated.

I'll be tackling more of the script of THIEF in the next week or so. Eric has already told me that if I thought #0 was good that #1 is going to blow me away. I can't wait.

I'm going to upload some art from #0 soon, too.

I did a digital inking over the original DIRECT MARKET STRIP #1, so hopefully it can be seen and read a little better. If and when I feel comfortable doing digital lettering, I'll probably start doing that as well, but for now, you'll have to like this. I think it looks great. 

This is a drawing that I did exactly one year and one day ago, which also happened to be the day I asked Christy to marry me. As the wedding draws ever closer (Sept. 10) we realize there is still so much to do for it, but that hasn't stopped me from trying my hardest to continue writing, drawing and doing whatever I can. The funny thing about this drawing is my favorite part of it is the hand holding the webbing. I actually feel I captured the wrist and everything else in it correctly, something I struggle with to this day. 

This right here is the 13th page of LANDIS #0, one of my favorite pages from the illustration side, as Owen TOTALLY went out of his way creating this masterpiece. Not only that, but also, Studio Makma, based in France, did a terriffic job bringing it to full color. 

ECW One Night Stand

So tonight, for one night only (so far at least), Vince McMahon goes against what he normally does, and puts on a Pay Per View of epic proportions, when ECW returns for an Extreme reunion.

I for one am psyched. Having been able to witness an ECW show in 1998 in Wildwood NJ, this is going to be great. It's at Hammerstein's Ballroom in NY, and if done correctly will bring back that nostalgia feel that is missing from Today's wrestling.

Already announced is Tommy Dreamer and the Sandman vs. the Dudley Boys, which promises a lot of run ins. The return of Mikey Whipwreck and more. Rey Mysterio vs. Psicosis and Chris Benoit vs. Eddie Guerrero. Wow. How about Chris Jericho vs. Lance Storm and a 7 minute viewpoint from Rob Van Dam.

Not for the weak at heart, but still ought to be one great night.

So this is the first strip I did of my new Comic Store based Comic. If anyone else wants to draw it, let me know, hehe. I like it and it has a fun feel and appeal to it if you ask me. And yes, the TITLE of it is DIRECT MARKET. 

This is Steven. He's modeled after me, if I'd allow myself to grow hair, hehe. He's the guy who owns the comic store, and is content with everything going on in his life. As long as the store turns a profit, he knows he can keep doing what he loves to do and no one can tell him otherwise. 

For my new comic strip, this here is Mitch. You'll have to forgive the quick sketches, but I think to be able to make this as good as possible, I'll probably have to do it in an art style like this. Mitch is a comic reader with friends on "both sides" of the spectrum. He's got friends in the community of readers and outside. He's a tweener. Hehe. He likes his logo shirts and he's doing what he can to get dates and move up out of just the comic book store. 

June 10th update

Figured I'd run some stuff down pretty quick.

LANDIS

To my knowledge, LANDIS v.1 will begin online on Monday...take that as tentative, it can easily be shifted, but hopefully it will have started by the time Heroes Con (in Charlotte, 24th-26th) comes around. I'll try to keep the LANDIS material flowing, and even put up some stuff here that will probably make the overall book when that's finally got a date for arrival.

ONLINE COMIC STRIP

Well, I've been sworn to secrecy on the one project that Crosby had me looking into, but I've come up with one that as far as I can tell, with my rejuvenated interest in drawing recently, I may actually try to write and draw a strip, and hopefully get picked up by Keenspot, as I like the sound of their work for hire agreements, and as long as I hold the rights to the project, I'd be more than happy to take it there.

The project has a name, which I will not put here for right now, but it bases three longtime friends two of whom work at a comic store and discuss the industry, day to day life and promotes fun in not only the workplace. So it should be fun.

I'll be back later, maybe even today, to show some sketches of the characters.

A quick head and neck sketch I did on a piece of credit card tape at work. Figured I'd let everyone see what a four minute hold time does to me at my job. This one is Cipher again, although I don't like his hair in this one. 

Monday June 6th

Today was a thirteen hour day at "the day job," but it felt like an eternity. This merger and acquisition stuff sucks ass. It's too time consuming and there's too much bs floating around.

I figured because I don't get on here nearly as much as I do when I'm in a good mood, I'll give an update on the stuff that's going on.

LANDIS:

The release date seems to have been pushed back, which is fine, since I haven't heard what type of involvement they want from me on this. I want it to be the best it can, and though I'm still a little unsure about how it will be perceived by online comic strip readers, I still think it will do well enough to where it finally comes out in the format that I was and still am expecting, print.

THIEF:

You've seen at least one of the swipe pieces I've drawn, and I sent it to Eric to hear what he thought of it, but I liked it and felt it really blasted out into the eye of the public. I'll probably really tear into the script for #3 this week if I find a hole in my schedule large enough to jump in.

UNTITLED STUFF:

Crosby asked me recently to submit a proposal for an established online comic strip that would be work for hire. He never gave me any other info on it, but said that it was a good gig, so I told him to give me what he had on it, and I'll send in a submission if I feel like its something I can get behind.

CONVENTION SEASON:

It's that time of year again. The great thing about it this year is that I'll probably go to Charlotte for one day for Heroes Con, and miss the others, but at least I'll have some material out there that I can give everyone the website. Two years ago, I gave a lot of pros my comic LANDIS, so hopefully I can see what's up with everyone and how things are running. I'd love to buy some original art this year, but only if it's available at a reasonable price.

Speaking of art...BROKENFRONTIER.COM has an auction with the benefits going to Unicef, with some really great pieces. Check it out.

Rob