Andy Schmidt, director of Comics Experience, Senior Editor at IDW Publishing and author of The Insider’s Guide to Creating Comics and Graphic Novels has announced the beginning of his 2010 lineup with industry pros such as Chris Sotomayer and Mark Guggenheim.

Check it out!

–Mona

by editor, writer, teacher, Andy Schmidt

Andy Schmidt, Senior Editor at IDW, founder of www.comicsexperience.com and author The Insider’s Guide to Creating Comics and Graphic Novels was interviewed by iFanboy.com in a special edition of Talksplode. You can listen to Andy’s interview here.

Learn more about Andy’s book, The Insider’s Guide to Creating Comics and Graphic Novels.

Jim Pavelec and Chris Seaman’s upcoming IMPACT book Ink Bloom is featured in the current issue of Imagine FX. Check out the article and don’t forget to follow Jim and Chris’s progress on their blog. Ink Bloom will be available in April 2010.

Have a great weekend!

mary

Celebrate the amazing feminal strengths of Princess Diana of Themyscira this weekend to benefit Domestic Violence Awareness month. This Sunday, October 25th, two comics shops in Portland, Oregon and Fleminton, New Jersey are raising money for the cause through awesome festivities and Wonder Woman silent art auctions. Don’t worry, you don’t have to live on either coast to participate, you can bid online by proxy up until tomorrow at midnight EST.

IMPACT authors Scott Tipton and Chris Ryall write at length about the Amazon princess on their website, www.comics101.com, and in their introductory guide to comics, Comic Books 101. Check ‘em out!

We’re just days from sending Master Digital Color: Styles, Tools, Techniques, by Brian & Kristy Miller (of Hi-Fi Colour Design) off to the printer. Master Digital Color is the follow up to Hi-Fi Color for Comics: Digital Techniques for Professional Results, the Millers’ first book with IMPACT. 

It’s a fortuitous time for the completion of book 2, since we’re all celebrating the success of the new Echo series by Terry Moore, winner of this year’s Best New Series Harvey Award. Brian Miller colored the covers for the series, and some of Terry’s work appears in Master Digital Color.

Hmm…maybe we should change the subtitle of Hi-Fi Color to Digital Techniques for Award-Winning Results?

Master Digital Color hits shelves in February 2010. Stay tuned.

–Mona

Learn More about digital coloring: 

• Pick up your copy of Hi-Fi Color the book here.
• Click here for a downloadable video lesson with Brian Miller.
• Check out Special Effects for Digital Coloring with Brian Miller DVD.

IMPACT author Steve Ellis and his High Moon collaborators David Gallaher and Scott O. Brown have won a 2009 Harvey Award for best online comics work. The prestigious award ceremony, named after comic great Harvey Kurtzman, was held Saturday at the Baltimore Comic-Con.

Steve won’t have time to rest on his laurels anytime soon. He has a new intrigue-style comic called Box 13 coming out for the iPhone this week, and he’s working on a Marvel Winter Guard project, due out this December. If you’re in the Brooklyn area this Saturday, stop by Bergen Street Comics for a High Moon and Scream book signing.

Happy Friday everyone! We’re wrapping up the week with a fourth installment of super-awesome designer Wendy Dunning’s exploits at Mid-Ohio-Con:

With a Little Help from Your Friends
Comic Art Collaboratives and Groups
I found that Columbus has a couple of groups of folks that get together to share their art with each other. One of these is Sunday Comix, founded by Max Ink. Sunday Comix meets once a month (on a Sunday) so that members can share works in progress and get feedback. It’s open to artists, writers and readers. Their website is www.sundaycomix.blogspot.com. They are sponsoring Comix from the Crypt, a haunting art show of member’s works, now through the end of the month of October. A couple of members are pictured here.

Also in Columbus is a group called PANEL. This is a writers and artists collaborative that publishes anthologies with Ferret Press. The anthologies come out twice a year, with the current one being number 14, PANEL of Horror. I stopped to talk to Brent Bowman, who did the cover art for PANEL of Horror.

Q: How long have you been doing this?
A: So long, I can’t remember. But more in the last 4 years since I’ve been with PANEL.

Brent is working on a comic called Allied Powers (www.alliedpowerscomic.com). The writer is Craig Bogart, who has his own comic called The Ineffables (www.theineffables.com). I picked up a couple of issues of both. The Ineffables is kooky fun from the two issues I’ve read so far, and I have not yet broken into Allied Powers.

PANEL website: www.ferretpress.com/weblog
Ferret Press: www.ferretpress.com

The moral of the story: hook up with some of your comic buds to keep the comics dream alive.

Here’s a book by some comic artists that work together: Wreaking Havoc. Written by Jim Pavalec, Chris Seaman, Chuck Lukacs and Thomas Manning, this book shows you how to draw the characters and creatures that wreak havoc and their weapons of destruction. And if October has you in the mood for some horror, check out Jim Pavalec’s Hell Beasts or Steve Ellis’s Scream.

Fellow IMPACTians, wait no more. Today we bring you badass designer Wendy Dunning’s third installment about her adventures at Mid-Ohio-Con last weekend in Columbus, Ohio:

Lots of folks think small press publications when they think indie comics, but nothing is more independent than putting the entire thing together yourself. That’s what Ryan Claytor does with his autobiographical series And Then One Day. This is no straight-up autobiography; rather than Ryan telling the story of his life, he asked his friends to do the work and then translated that into comic form. Check the series out on Ryan’s website www.elephanteater.com. It’s a great site, and you can preview samples from his books as well as order them and other assorted goodies.

I first saw Ryan in San Diego at the 2008 Comic-Con, and with this con being a little less crazy, I stopped to ask him a few questions:

Q: When did you know you wanted to do these comics?
A: It was shortly after college. I’d collected comics as a kid, but just kind of forgot about them. Then a friend asked for a ride to a comic store, and I just got inspired again, especially by the work of Sergio Aragonés. Then I did an internship with Marvel, and I’ve been doing my own stuff for about 5 years.

Q: What’s your favorite comic?
A: Groo the Wanderer

Q: What’s your favorite TV show?
A: I like to watch HGTV. I’m hoping to own a house someday.

For more on creating your own comics check out Insider’s Guide to Creating Comics and Graphic Novels or Manga Pro Superstar Workshop.

Yesterday you read about how IMPACT’s super fabulous designer, Wendy Dunning, ran into CBG editor Maggie Thompson and met Tony Isabella. The saga continues today—find out who Wendy ran next!

Next on my list was visiting P. Craig Russell to ask him to sign my copies of the Magic Flute. Russell has done a number of comic art adaptations of operas, including Strauss’ Salome and Wagner’s The Ring Of The Nibelung. Maggie introduced us and I got to talk to him for a short bit, where I discovered that we were both alumni from the University of Cincinnati. It’s a small world. If you haven’t seen any of Russell’s work, please check it out! His current work includes the graphic novel adaptation of Coreline, which won an Eisner award, and work on Hellboy and Sandman. Visit P. Craig Russell’s website: www.pcraigrussell.net

Russell’s lyrical line work reminds me of Stephanie Law’s work, check out her book Dreamscapes.

My favorite thing to do at the cons is to visit the artists in Artist’s Alley, so check back for a variety of posts on those conversations.

IMPACT designer extraordinaire Wendy Dunning, just back from Mid-Ohio-Con (10/3-10/4/2009, Columbus, Ohio), brings us the inside scoop here at IMPACT-books.com!

Mid-Ohio-Con Con Report

I haven’t been to Mid-Ohio-Con for a few years. Traditionally, this show has been held on the weekend after Thanksgiving, but since it is under new management, the date has been floating around a bit. Next year’s 30^th anniversary show will be November 6-7, 2010.

I heard Maggie Thompson from Comics Buyer’s Guide was going to be walking the floor at the show, so I set out to look for her first. As luck would have it, I happened to run into her right off the bat.

She took me over to meet Tony Isabella, who was promoting his current book 1000 Comic Books You Must Read. Tony has pulled together the 1000 comics that no self-proclaimed, card-carrying comics fan can be caught not having read. ($29.99, ISBN 978-0-89689-921-6)

Check out 1000 Comic Books You Must Read here in a CBG podcast Q&A with the author himself–put in your earbuds and enjoy!

Check back at IMPACT-books.com soon for Wendy’s tour of Artist’s Alley, Indie Comics and more!