The Maoist concept behind the Zeros 2 Heroes Comic Creation Nation is awesome.  Hopefully we’ll start to see some Lotus pages coming up as samples.  When it does, I’ll send out a big message and let everyone who worked on it know.

Later

Hey all,

I realize that I set some pretty lofty goals for Lotus with the intention of releasing at this year’s Comicon, but fear not, Lotus will reach out sooner than later at this point.  I went down to San Diego to get a good lay of the land and really see how far away the book is and found that it is a ton closer than expected.  Like I said yesterday, its not far off and with the news of the possibly releasing online within the next few months, my energy towards writing has been recharged… with a vengeance.  The coolest thing about going down to  Comicon was opening up the standard swagbag and finding the Zeros 2 Heroes comic.  A few months ago the company asked if they could use me as a character within the book (like they needed to ask, psshhhh) and now over 150 thousand people can read about how Z2H is helping me achieve more than I ever thought was possible.

Here’s my comic book self, the physical resemblance isn’t 100 percent ( I don’t wear a ton of orange turtleneck sweaters) but its still one of the coolest things I’ve ever experienced.

If thats not interesting, here’s an image of me tagging a gigantic Kid Robot Munny vynal toy!

Enjoy

Hey guys,

Just got back from 5 days down in sunny San Diego for this year’s Comicon celebration. Saw some amazing things, but the best part about the entire experience is that I truly believe that Lotus (the artwork, editing job, and hey why not even the story) is at least on par with everything out there. There is something strange going on in the world of comics and the art of storytelling and I think the Zeros 2 Heroes initiative is coming in at a great time. I got to yuck it up with the most die-hard of die-hard fans and what I’ve found is that people are a LOT smarter than companies like Marvel and DC give credit for. Yes there is something to be said about the latest Spiderman and the fact that Ed Norton has written the next installment of the Incredible Hulk film, but it’s always about the story and how creators are able to keep people interested in short story-visual form. Nobody is trying to re-write the bible (thank goodness), but everyone has a vision that is worth sharing. If a creator, or group of creators has a strong vision and is passionate about getting the word out, the fans won’t forget it. Comicon was a huge hit and it’s always nice to see a comic-book version of myself in the swagbag.

Later

BTW - Here’s a picture of JJ Abrams who came in like a bolt of lightning and told everyone that his mysterious new film is going to be about America’s latest classic monster.

Period. I waited, lined up for tickets, lined up for movie priced Jr. Mints, lined up for a seat, and it was worth it. Transformers is probably the best “looking” movie I have ever seen. Not an overstatement, but from a CG perspective, this film is incomparable. Criticize Bay, laugh at Prime’s moving lips, and even mock some of the cheezy moments, but all in all, this is worth it.

Later

Comicon is in about a month (okay a month and a week to be exact) and the latest news is making the anticipation worse. As a degenerate Heroes fan, I can’t wait to see the Tim Kring panel. It’ll probably be filled with one of the largest gatherings of fanboys and girls in recent history but really, what more could you want?

How about an advanced screening of Superman Doomsday!

Later

Don’t shoot!

Hear me out for a second. I went to see F4 this weekend and seriously, I think it’s better than the third installment of our web slinging friend. The story was a bit hokey (what isn’t these days) but if you count the “cringe” moments, F4 does significantly better. With Rise of the Surfer you don’t have to worry about an emo-style Peter Parker. Instead you get T-1000 on a surfboard who sounds like Morpheus. You don’t have to look away from Peter Parker embarrassingly dancing up a storm in a jazz club. Instead you get a juiced up Johnny Storm who absorbs everyone else’s powers. And finally, the best trade-off and in my opinion one of the main reasons why people should take the Spidey series with a grain of salt, Jessica Alba for Kirsten Dunst. This one is a no brainer.

In all seriousness, I really think this is a massive improvement from both Fantastic 4 part 1 and Spidey 3. Besides, you can never go wrong with movie about a planet eating cloud and his matter bending friend…

So I was recently in Atlanta Georgia for the HOW Design Conference. I know I’m not a graphic designer, but through some jedi-mind trick I managed to get the company I work for to send me (Shhhhhh). Anyways, I thought I was going to just learn a bunch of stuff about type and style with design, and then I went into a great presentation put on by book cover designer Chipp Kidd.

For those of you (myself included) who have no idea who this man is and why we should care about him, Chipp Kidd is the mastermind behind the title design for DC’s All-Star Superman and All-Star Batman.

During his presentation, Kidd proceeded to tell all 1200 attendees that he was a huge comic fan growing up. The only problem was that for Halloween, his older brother would always be Batman and Chipp would be Robin. A few years ago he was contacted by DC to work on the title design for their newest line of All-Star comics. He told us how he channeled his inner child and realized how awesome it was to actually be a part of comic book history.
Keep in mind, Chipp was only contracted to create the title design and not the cover art. In fact, they were actually created separately and when brought together, Chipp had these comments.

“I wanted to make sure that the title design had some motion in it. Superheroes are always in flight, in fight, or at the very least, doing something that a normal human being would be injured from. So when I was finished with the design I sent it away to DC and got great feedback. They loved it and were excited to put the title on the cover design. So with all of the motion and superhero-esque decisions that I made, they sent me this cover of Superman…”

He proceeded to make comments like, “I didn’t know Superman was gay,” and “If Superman can fly, why would he sit on a cloud?” and “that doesn’t look like Metropolis.”

On the flip-side, he loved the way DC decided to have the focus on Robin instead of Batman for this one.

Just thought I’d share how insightful the decision making process is with huge comic companies.

Later

Okay, rant time

I’ve just been sent an exclusive sneak peak at Comicflix.net’s brand new site. The email was great and hypes up some of the online opportunities happening with full motion FLASH web comics. The site won’t be going live for a few more weeks so it was cool to check it out before every one else.

Here’s my analysis: Their concept is pretty cool. They take ideas for comics and put them all into motion with voice over. It takes away the age old concept of reading, but I think they are correct to assume that comics are going mobile and no matter what the medium, people still love a good story.

Here’s what sucks!: Comicflix.net is going to run an online contest for filmmakers beginning July 20th. All you have to do is upload a flash file of your idea and the public gets to vote on what they would like to see be produced. Kind of taking the youtube approach, but it seems to work. Here’s the terrible catch, YOU MUST BE A US CITIZEN!!!!!

JUNK!

I have a new concept I think would work great in Flash as well, but to no avail….

Hey Comicflix, Flick You!

My bad,

I’ve been neglecting blog-land of late, but for good reason! (ok maybe not a “good” reason, but a reason nonetheless) I’m feverishly putting together the finishing touches on the fourth and possible final installment of Lotus. The story itself was always meant to be completed at some point and in an attempt to avoid becoming yet another project that sits in a shelf for the rest of eternity, I’ve been locked away (kind of literally actually). Now that it is almost complete, I’m putting the final touches on some of the dialogue, I can start to piece it all together. I just thought I’d let you know where I’ve been. Oh yeah, I also stopped by for the grand opening of the Z2H office (I’m the estranged Asian kid clutching a backpack for some reason in one of the photos).

Congrats to everyone involved, it’s amazing!!!

Later

Hey Everyone,

Here’s a snippet from the cover of the first issue of Lotus. The style is much different than the artwork that has been done for the contents of the book, but I think you’ll agree when I say *Gasp! It took a while to get here, but I think the final product is awesome. Okay, I’m a little bias here, but the way the artist has strung together some of the elements is mind-blowing. As I stated a few posts back, the cover design document was really difficult for me to grasp, then the twist of having the artist know limited English threw another possible roadblock. But this is what came out of it. For those of you who worked on the book, you can put together the reflection metaphor. The art is much different, but I think it stands alone as its own piece.

Later