Precocious at the Small Press Expo!

For second, and final, time this year, I'm leaving my isolation chamber to table at a convention! The Small Press Expo is a great show for comics lovers, because it has EVERYTHING one could want. I'll be there with my fellow SpiderForesters, at tables E12-13a. DC area, people, it's definitely worth the trip - and TICKETS TO IT ARE CHEAP!

You'll have to watch my twitter feed for last-minute details. As the Spiderlings behind the table will shift, the only time I'm only guaranteed to be there (well, give me some bathroom break wiggle room) is Saturday afternoon, from 3-7pm! I'll be wandering around the con the rest of Saturday. I *probably* won't be around Sunday. (Sorry in advance to those only available then - my books will still be there, and I'll try to sketch in them ahead of time, so you have a special bonus even if I'm not there.)

I'll have the three Precocious books with me, and might do some small commissions. Any other goodies, like charms, will probably be there. Along with my stuff, the table will feature lots of awesome SpiderForest comics to buy!

And here's a general reminder that I'm still REALLY broken and sick (I have a special med I can only take once a week that lets me be "normal" for these shows) and that means all sorts of stuff is on hold until I can improve. I'm months behind on emails (and might never manage to reply to some, because writing anything longer than a tweet, like this post, takes a LOT out of me), and any work beyond comic updates is currently beyond my ability. I know the site is broken or outdated in various places, and my store remains disabled until I feel like I'm able to do regular post office visits again. All I can do is ask you to wait and keep the faith. I haven't forgotten or deliberately ignored anyone - I'm just stuck in survival/treatment mode until I can get moving again. You all are my motivation to keep fighting!

Copper Road + Lots of News!

Quick rundown, for those with low attention spans:

-Vote here to see the new Copper Road comic!
-The epic Precocious/Curtailed crossover reached an amazing end! Go read it!
-I'll be at SPX in DC, Sept 13-14, at the SpiderForest tables, E10 and E11!
-Oh yeah, I reached 2000 comics. And I updated comic 1000 into a cast poster!

EXPANDED NEWSING: It's the first of the month, so a new Copper Road is here for your enjoyment! Vote here to see it! Also, since it's the first, that means the Copper Road archive was updated with last month's comics, starting here. (The bonus Precocious comics from last month can be found here and here.)

The new comic is another one taken right from my life. Read it, then imagine me answering the door and finding the woman brought her young daughter with her.

I hope you've been reading along with Curtailed! Every week, Mandy and Fox have surprised me with a new epic Precocious crossover! I cannot thank her enough for this incredibly experience. If you want to re-live the glory, start here. (And if you click the "previous" link on that page, you see the guest strip I made for Curtailed!)

So, I hit my 2000th comic a couple days back, and that's kinda a HUGE DEAL - but I had to spend the day in bed after re-aggravating the injury that took my August away. (You know, it turns out you need your hip to do JUST ABOUT EVERYTHING IN LIFE. This has really sucked!) So here I am celebrating it now! Wanna rock strip 2000? How about celebrating it with strip.... 1000?  I reworked that fancy comic with the post-1000 characters for an 11x17" poster! Don't like that? Look around the store for art cards, charms and the Precocious books!  (Yes, I know there's already a banner on the front page for this, but I have a LOT of doctor bills piling up, since I'm super broken at the moment.)

Charms!

Lots to cover in this post, so please read it all!

Look! The charms for the book 2 artist editions are here! That means sketching begins this week, and those books begin shipping next week! I remind you again that the books go out an armful at a time, so it still might take a few weeks to get to shipping your book. Still, things are moving at a good pace! All non-sketched books have been packed. The US books are in the mail, and international books shall go out this week! Reward season is here!

There are a few folks who haven't sent back their surveys yet. Even if you've bought from me before, I need you to fill out your survey so I know the address I have on file is current. If you send your Kickstarter messages to a secondary email, I suggest you go check it!

Guest art everywhere!

It's a SpiderForest collective lovefest today, featuring two pieces of guest art by me and the one above, by Nick Perkins of Cooties. This one was part of a Secret Santa art exchange, so apologies for just sharing this amazing piece now. Cooties is the story of a bunch of kids dealing with an alien invasion. Check it out!

As for the stuff I drew, head on over to Spare Keys for Strange Doors to see my guest art contribution. Stick around and read the comic too! It's a brilliant collection of cute and fun supernatural short stories, making for easy reading and great entertainment! Oh, and congratulate her on her babytimes, and maybe draw her something cool too!

Finally, here's *my* contribution for the SpiderForest Secret Santa, a guest comic for Silent Pirate! When I entered that draw, I admit that I was totally hoping to get Silent Pirate, as it's so cute and unique! I got what I wanted, and rewarded Ahmed with a comic that RUINS EVERYTHING. That's how I show love.

Lots of news!

Ok, folks, I'm going to cover a lot in today's news post. I figure it's better to put it all together than spread a bunch of things out over separate posts. (I can only have four current items on the home page, and it's rare that anyone is even reading this, much less scrolling down to see more.) So let's go!

GUEST STRIPS! - I am still looking for contributions from those who are artistically inclined! If you think you can pull one off, shoot me an email and let me know! The reason I'm looking for these is because I have a big move coming up in a couple weeks, and it'll take me a while to settle in. I'd like a week to catch my breath.

Commissions! - Since I haven't had many bites this time, I'm going to shut down the studio early. I could use the space for packing. You can still commission me, but there's no longer a promise of a week turnaround. You might have to wait until September for delivery now. In related news, my attempts to figure out livestreaming has been pushed back to September due to the pressures with moving.

CONVENTIONS! - I'll be at FA: United in Whippany, NJ the weekend of August 17-19. Come see me! I'll also be wandering around Intervention in DC in September 21-23, and I'd love to do a reader meet up there!

SpiderForest Comic of the Week!

Hey, you! Scroll down and read all the news posts! I'm looking for guest strips, taking commissions, moving and hitting up some conventions. You need to know this stuff!

And now, the main event...

This week's comic is the beautiful Between Places! The first thing that attracted me to the comic was the wonderful painterly approach she took in crafting each page. It's unique and it's very effective in telling the story, which is a complex, surreal musing on worlds created by dreamers.

You can start with the story I linked to above, or set about tackling the archive from the beginning! Cheat sheets are also available for keeping track of the twists and turns the story takes, if you want to catch up quick and start with more recent chapters.

SpiderForest Comic of the Week

First off, a reminder that I post front page items for Precocious at least twice a week. If you're not checking often, be sure to scroll down and catch up.

This week's featured comic is LaSalle's Legacy, a story about a ship that is stocked by a bunch of youths! (I object that the guy in his mid-30's is the token old codger.) It's got lots of sailing flair and style. Aside from making me feel really, REALLY old, it's got a neat story too.

I'll let the creator sum if up for you: "In the world of the Twelve Seas, the secrets of necromancy have been lost to the Old World for decades. When a young man discovers that his father's old nemesis, who is now a zombie, is out to kill him, he sets out to learn more about this forbidden art. Along the way, he discovers he isn't the only one curious about the secrets and becomes engulfed in a battle for power."

Finally, a reminder that it's application season for SpiderForest! Do you have a webcomic you think would fit well in the collective? Go fill out an application! Only a week left to get your name in the mix!

SpiderForest Comic of the Week!

Updating this a bit early, because it's a special one and I have other SpiderForest news too!

First off, it's admissions season at SpiderForest.  If you have a webcomic and you'd like to be part of a great collective, take some time and fill out an application.  SpiderForest offers many good things to accepted entries. Members have the option of free hosting and tech help in upgrading their content management system. (Good for young comics just learning the ropes.)  It also has a helpful community that's there with help and advice!

And now the main event! This week's featured comic is The Cyantian Chronicles! Actually, it's more of a collection of comics, which are set in the same vast universe. The above link takes you to just one branch of the story, Darius. If you look around the site, you will find archive after archive that peek into the lives of different characters at different points of one big timeline. Cool, huh?

I've been following this series for a decade now. When I first stumbled upon it, I was amazed to see the entire universe at work. Many creators build worlds in their heads, but Tiff Ross actually managed to get hers out there so others could enjoy her grand creation. She's one of the hardest working cartoonists too, as she juggles multiple active comics at once, rotating between the stories now and then. Seeing someone who was able to pull off so much was inspiring to someone who was still only dreaming of one day launching his own comic, with it's own insane universe. Precocious' world isn't nearly as vast as the Cyantian one, but this was a huge inspiration for me to develop and follow the lives of so many characters.

Because there is so much, it can be a little intimidating for one who wants to start reading. Complicating that, the network is being overhauled at the moment, so navigation can be somewhat tricky. You can start with the recent Darius arc, or go back further and read Akaelae, which is a good introduction for the central group. If you want to go back to the earliest comics, check out Campus Safari.

(If you want to show Tiff some love, she's currently running a Kickstarter project featuring charms from Alien Dice.)

SpiderForest Comic of the Week!

This week's comic is SPINE! It's a gritty, stylistic action comic that's pretty cool. Click the link, look at the first few pages and you'll know right away if this comic's for you. It gets a bit slaughtery and languagy, so kiddos stay out!

SpiderForest Comic of the Week!

I'll do the write-up about my awesome Anthrocon experiences later tonight. Great to see all who made it there! For now, on to the main event!

This week's featured comic is Riven Sol! I'll let the author describe it, since her pitch is pretty darn compelling:

"Science fiction romance meets Lovecraftian horror! Something is wrong on Danforth Research Station. Orphaned children disappear from the slum-like “lowers,” while fearsome masked guards prowl the corridors. Death lurks around every corner, waiting to swallow the unwary. When a mysterious girl named Carter comes to Danforth, it’s up to a boy known only as “Silence” to teach her to survive. But Carter has secrets of her own, and the horror within may be far greater than the horror without."

Riven Sol has a nice-sized archive, with lots of content, but not so much it's daunting. It reads fast, has a cool story and the style is very unique! You can do this, people!

SpiderForest Comic of the Week

This week's featured comic is Willow's Grove! This is a silly, fun sci-fi tale about two friends who went and got themselves abducted and their journey to get themselves back home. (A journey which involves the typical stuff like ship-stealing, shape-shifting hamsters and destroying the political structure of outer space.) It's a big archive, but you might be able to jump aboard starting here. Still, starting from the beginning is never a bad move.

SpiderForest Comic of the Week

This week's featured comic is Sunset Grill! Kat, the creator, provided a summary of the comic, and who am I to do it better? In her words, "It's 2426. Earth is a patchwork quilt of squabbling Domains, loosely joined under the mantle of the Empire, which fights to present a united front to technologically advanced, land-hungry alien races. None of which matters particularly to the Sunset Grill, a bar on the shady side of town in the corrupt city of Kieselburg. The comic follows the bar's staff and patrons as they meet the challenges of their imperfect world with humor, determination, and the occasional moment of grace."

You can start by checking out the current story arc, or poke around the archive page for a tale to enjoy.

Also, much love to the Sunset Grillers who came over here during my feature week. You guys liked me the most, so you rule!

SpiderForest Comic of the Week

This week's featured comic is Ley Lines. This is another one of SpiderForest's flock of epic fantasy adventures. Siblings are trying to unravel the mystery of their mother's death - and conspiracies, magic and a cast of intriguing characters await them. Give it a look!

SpiderForest Comic of the Week!

But first... some self-promotion! Aside from the obligatory begging to pre-order the Precocious book and snag one of the last commission spots, I did a guest comic for Ginger's Bread, so go over and witness the Precocious kids assaulting that comic's universe. (They can do that now. No comic is safe.)

And now on to the fun stuff! This week's comic is Footloose, a silly and sweet romp about fighting, faeries and whatever they feel like it being about! There's lots in the archives to chew on, plus some more comics on the site to enjoy. There's a lot to choose from!

SpiderForest Comic of the Week!

Before the real post begins, I'm hijacking it to remind you about my May commissionathon promotion. (This update will push the other announcement off the front page. Man, too much his happening in the Precociousverse right now. One news page can't hold it all!) Now, on with our special feature...

This week's comic is one of my favorites: Spare Keys for Strange Doors! This is the new project from the mighty creator of Kaspall, and it's a lovely collection of supernatural short stories. Spare Keys is very clever, a lot of fun and the interconnected short story format is highly readable. This is a perfect time to come on board, with four stories to read in the archive and new one beginning this week! Check it out!

SpiderForest Comic of the Week!

This week I am showing off the grand comic Twilight Lady. This is a story about an ancient force who ends up reborn in the form of a human girl. Now, inside one body, is The Lady and the personality of the human Jen. Jen is in control most of the time, but when she sleeps The Lady emerges.

The recent story, The Inkdwellers, is a great place to start. It's a standalone tale you can enjoy without prior knowledge of the comic. Still, don't miss out on all the good stuff in the archives!

SpiderForest Comic of the Week

It's back! Let's get to promoting some more awesome comics! This week, I'm showing off the beautifully-drawn comic, Chirault. This long-form fantasy comic has all the wonderful things you want: Rogues, demons, roguish demons, mages, someone cute that can fit in the palm of your hand and enough adorable pointy ears to make you happy forever. It's a lot of fun!

SpiderForest Comic of the Week!

It's a new week, so it's time to profile another SpiderForest comic! This time, it's the gorgeous Dream*Scar! This long-form comic is about a world in which things like vampires, werewolves, demons, angels and other things of lore exist, and they've gone public. They are "unhuman." So is Vix, our empathic protagonist. She tried to hide it, but these things have a habit of getting out...

SpiderForest Comic of the Week!

This week the focus turns the dark cyberpunk world of Cetiya! In the future, the USA is a burnt-out shell of its former self, having succumbed to corruption and the always-horrific nano-virus plague. People can exist in a mesh of physical and virtual worlds, downloading powers to help them on their quest to right some major wrongs. As you might expect, this dark tale can get heavy at times, so kiddies watch out! The rest of you, get immersed!

SpiderForest Comic of the Week!

This week's Comic of the Week installment is another family-friendly strip comic: School Spirit. The comic is about capturing the wonder of being a child. The plot involves some Australian schoolkids discovering and interacting with the spirits of a nearby cemetery - in a cute way! Check it out!