a²alien

Misery Loves Sherman is a web comic by Chris Eliopoulos about a boy, his family, and a couple of aliens. Even better, Mort (Death) makes a cameo here and there. I have an affinity for aliens (natch!) and the attitudes of Zort and Benny in Misery Loves Sherman always make me laugh. They remind me a tad of Pinky and the Brain with a twist and a side of vinegar. The strip has a bit of a newspaper feel to it and appears every weekday.

The a²alien will appear at SPX 2009! This year’s SPX is being held on Saturday, September 26 from 11AM to 7PM and Sunday, Sunday September 27 from 12PM-6PM at The North Bethesda Marriott Convention Center in Bethesda, Maryland.

Not only will there be three new comics for sale, but also antennae and alien figurines. I’m happy to be sharing a table with Robert Harvey again this year. He’ll have diary comics detailing his time in Australia as well as some new material. (He’s playing that close to the chest so I can’t spill the beans. ;) I’m also told we’ll be close to Curls Studio so make sure to check them out! And last but not least, I hear the Bamn folks will be debuting Crystal Clear and that Sam Koi creator Mal Jones will be back this year.

Hope to see you there! :)

:: additional events ::
This is your early warning; the a²alien will be in Myrtle Beach October 2, 3, & 4 for Xcon [warning: site has sound]!

Hooray! a new comic to love! I actually found Martin: Angry Owl via twitter of all things. You think it doesn’t work? Well, how’s this .. someone followed me (and it didn’t look like one of those naughty chicks) so I looked at their twitter profile to see who they were. They had a URL listed; I checked out their comic. In their ‘following’ list was a cute little avatar so I clicked on it, then clicked on that person’s web site and Voila! Martin: Angry Owl.

The creator behind Martin is Amy Crosthwaite; at least that’s the name behind the little copyright © on the latest comic. My favourite so far is Spiders! and I’m joining the chorus of commenters asking for prints or t-shirts or something! Martin is updated twice a week and features (you guessed it!) an angry owl named Martin. Hopefully, you will enjoy it as much as I do. So, go! Go now and enjoy the anger!

Note for those who know me all too well: The fact that the owl’s name is Martin has nothing to do with my liking this comic. Well, almost nothing. ;)

And, finally, for Kristina: Herzilchen Glückwunsch zum Geburtstag! Ich liebe dich! :)

Antennae modeling .. and check out her great taste in comics (Owly!)

Day one of SPX has come and gone. If you haven’t been already, it’s not too late! Today is the final day though .. so hurry up!

I’ve had a great time at SPX so far. Sharing a booth with Robert has been great and we’re happily near lots of people we met last year, including Bamn, Mal Jones, and Curls Studio! And, we’ve seen many friends–Roberto, Holly, Dan, Ulysses, Cal, Scott, and other comic fans who may prefer to remain nameless ;) and, AND met Hel, who looked familiar, perhaps from the MD Renn Fest (Can’t believe I missed Pirate Weekend!) Tomorrow, I’ll have to write about all the new people we’ve met. Please stop by and say hello. We’re near the first entrance on the left, booth E-14.

Rakish antennae .. worn at a jaunty angle! And, check out the awesome hat!

The antennae have gone over well .. just look at these photos! (Note: the googly-eyed hat is from My Monster Hat [edit: link unavailable as of July 2010], based out of my fav town in MA!)

More photos and updates tomorrow. Sleep is calling me and I can hear the alien snoring already.

The a2alien will be at X Con World in Myrtle Beach, SC October 2-4, 2009. If you missed us at SPX in Maryland, come see us at the beach! In addition to having comics and antennae, the a2alien will be participating in a panel discussion about comics.  Between this and CREATE South I’m getting plenty of public speaking practice. It would be great to see some friendly faces in the audience, so please come out and support this up and coming con!

More information about X Con can be found on the X Con web site. Also, from the X Con World press release:

X Con World is a convention on the beach, featuring local and national talent, businesses, artists, and entertainment. October 2^nd – 4^th Springmaid Beach Resort will be hosting this years’ event, which is located at 3200 S Ocean Blvd, Myrtle Beach, SC 29577. Rooms are available at the location, call the resort to inquire  – (843) 315-7100 or visit their website at  – http://springmaidbeach.com

Featured at this years event – Nationally renowned talent such as Jonathan Hickman, Bob Camp, Tim Seeley, Joe Staton, Paty Cockrum, Rick Ketcham, Vinnie Tartamella, as well as local artists including Matt “Six” Bahr, Kaneesha Bryant, Jeff Bracey, and many more.

X Con World boasts a massively multiplayer console gaming tournament, panels, contests, and demonstrations throughout the weekend, as well as viewing rooms showing movies and anime, a vendor hall, and an after dark zombie walk on the beach! There is so much to do at X Con World, come enjoy your weekend with some of the industry’s best up-and-coming names as well as veteran talent as they hang out in Myrtle Beach.

Corsair Comics in downtown Myrtle Beach and Apocalypse Comics in Longs has paired to bring this annual convention to the Grand Strand and X Con World has recently partnered with Zombie Con, held in Greensboro, NC.

You don’t want to miss this and future events!

For more information or tickets, please call Corsair Comics at (843) 839 – 4820, or visit our website at http://xconworld.com [Ed. Note: site has sound]

Day two of SPX was quite a blast. I finally got to wander around a bit and met some wonderful artists. One of the things I really love most about going to cons is meeting other artists and discovering their work. Robert and I were lucky enough to be neighbors with Kurt (One Year in Indiana) and across the way from our neighbors last year (Bamn). The people around us were fabulous and I meet another local artist (Chris Malone) as well as artists from NYC and MA who I’m hoping to see at King Con Brooklyn and perhaps the New England Webcomics Weekend (still upset I missed that last year and hoping there is a reprisal, but I digress).

So,  what came out of meeting so many great people? I obtained quite a few mini-comics. Details below (in no particular order) …

Minicomics and a few extras from SPX 2009.

Blue and Blonde. I stopped y Chris Malone’s table on day two and we ended up trading comics. He’s got over 500 comics on his web site–woah, I can’t imagine finally creating that many! His mini-comics are great. I’m pretty impressed with the simple, yet detailed style ofhis characters and I really enjoy the jokes; they remind me of my days at the beach and my surfer dude friends. Stay Casual Barlowe.

One Year in Indiana. Kurt was our awesome neighbor and this comic kicks ace. It is the story of the “worlds smartest death metal vocalist and his adventures in the Hoosier state.” His art style is very different from what I’m normally attracted to, but it really compliments and fills out his stories. The stippling for shading looks great and gives the art a gritty look that is consistent with the story. The facial expressions are priceless. I loooooooove the mouth of horrors storyline.

Spinks! is an adorable little monster with tiny eyes and a big mouth. It’s a picture comic and I’ve very impressed with the cute little stories that are told without words. The spinks crew had knitted spinks characters for sale and they were adorable!

Fashion Parade and Surprised Monsters. These mini-comics by Anne are pictorial and don’t have stories to them, but are still quite amusing. The art is very fun; my favourite is the “death of higher education” costume in Fashion Parade. Brilliant! Who says robes are good for nothing but graduations? And, the scared octopus-like monster is fabulous.

Hey Pais. I love kitties and Hey Pais is a journal comic by Paisley the cat. I ended up with “The Best Thing in the World.” This mini-comic pits various things from Paisley’s life such as ice cream vs. soft treats. It’s a bracketed series and the winner is… ok, I won’t spoil it, but there is a complete bracket in the comic as well as one you can play yourself. How neat!! Since Paisley was unavailable at SPX, The Girl was kind enough to sign the comic for me and even drew antennae on Paisley.

Sam Koi. Oh happy day! Mal Jones dropped by and traded comics with me too. I love love love Sam Koi, as anyone whose been reading the blog already knows. Even happier for me, I was chatting to a really nice young woman who turned out to be Rhiannon Thumma who writes the stories for the Sam Koi comic. Issue Two is a printed edition of the Sam Koi comics “The Chase” and “Pals”, which are sad but sweet tales told by beautiful illustrations. I could stare at the blue of the cover for hours it is so relaxing.

My Boyfriend is a Space Robot. This mini-comic by Abby Denson is a short story about a girl with muscular dystrophy who meets a robot. It’s a color comic with a limited palette, but the colors really work for this story. It is a short but sweet tale of a girl who meets a robot and what happens next.

Erik Siand. Robert and I talked to Erik for a while about his artwork and  how he got into doing SPX.  I ended up with one of his prints which I like to think of as a British Police woman. It’s blue stippling on an orange background. Generally, I can’t stand orange, but this just works so well; it really is quite beautiful.

That’s all for the mini-comics .. more on the books another day!

An old coworker and friend of mine dropped by the a2alien table at SPX. He introduced me to a friend of his who was helping him publish a book. We all chatted for a while and even talked about how easy it is for anyone who has a little bit of persistence to put together a web comic. The next thing I knew, I received a suggestion to fan the Ted Dead comic on facebook. You guessed it, they left SPX and created a new comic!. I have to admit, I was pretty darn impressed! People with that kind of go get ‘em, just do it attitude always amaze me.

So, I present to you Ted Dead, just your everyday zombie by Cal Miller and Greg Bogle. Ted Dead takes place in an office where Ted (just your everyday zombie) battles his need for brains while his coworkers fend him off with head cheese and obnoxious customers. In just a few months, they have already created a comic that gets better and better. Of course, since Cal and Greg just started Zilyon publishing and their first book, Het Madden, A Zombie Perspective is now available via both Create Space and Amazon it really shouldn’t be much of surprise that the writing is sharp and the jokes are funny.

So, if you’re looking for a Zombie comic, then look no further .. go check out Ted Dead!

Check it out! There’s an a2 guest comic over at Amy Crosthwaite’s Martin: Angry Owl!

I’m super excited with the way this one turned out. This is the second time I’ve tried (publicly) to depict someone else’s character and I was pretty happy with the results. Let’s just say there is a reason these normally don’t make it to the public eye. ;)

In addition, it was really nice to write a little bit of descriptive dialogue. I always envision dialogue for the a2alien, but it is usually more emotive than eloquent. Working on this guest comic really inspired me; the alien may decide to say a few things here or there.

Thanks Amy! :D

I have had the pleasure of attending CREATE South the past two years; this year will be no exception. There are so many wonderful people who will be there to share their knowledge and expertise in the fields of art, technology, social media, video production, photography, writing, and more. I’d like to personally invite you to join us for the 3rd annual CREATE South: to learn, to share your knowledge, and to eat some darn good food!

Message from the CREATE South team:

Today is the day we have set aside as our “Social Media and Donation Day” for the 2010 CREATE South conference.

All day long we are encouraging people to come to the site and donate if they can. While registration is free and there is never a compulsory charge to attend, it does help our ability to run the conference if those who can donate will. This is what helps to provide the delicious BBQ lunch (and the vegetarian equivalent.) More details are at:

http://2010.createsouth.org/donation_day

If you have a few moments today to donate, to tweet about CREATE South, to mention it on Facebook or even just email or tell a friend, please do. Every year we hear from people who would liked to have attended but didn’t hear about it in time. Please do us a favor and let your friends and neighbors or anyone you think could benefit know about us.

As the conference approaches we continually update the website with better information. A few of these pages include:

The list of sessions for 2010:

http://2010.createsouth.org/sessions

Forums where you can ask questions and get more information before the
conference:

http://2010.createsouth.org/forum

Thank you for registering and attending CREATE South. We are excited to bring it to Myrtle Beach once again. If you have any feedback or input, feel free to email or to post it to the forums on the website.

Let’s make 2010 the best ever!
The CREATE South team

Antennae are popping up at CREATE South! :)