Hey everyone!

So go right now to www.hbcomics.com and let us know what you think! Look around, and don't forget to check out the new "Vinidication page", complete with Character bios!

Expect more constant updates, and more content (like free comics!) in the near future!

www.hbcomics.com

See you nextblog!
Chris


Ps: Starting next week at the Lazerblog, we'll be making some announvcements about our 2010 convention season. Expect next year to be a BANNER YEAR for HBComics!

Hey guys...big news from the comic world...check out this from Wizardworld.com:


NEW ENGLAND COMICCON ANNOUNCED


Gareb Shamus, CEO of ....New York.... based Wizard Entertainment, announces today that he has purchased New England Comic Con, in a move to further expand the Wizard World Comic Con tour.

"We've known Larry for many years, and his exceptional 35-year old New England Comic Con gets us into ....Boston.... in a big way. ..New England.. has a long legacy of cartoons and comics embedded in their history, making the fans there very appreciative of comics' impact on society and pop culture," said Shamus. "I'm excited to bring these discerning fans an even better Con experience and everything they expect from a Wizard run show."

Larry Harrison, owner of ..Harrison..'s Comics & Collectibles, and Jimmy Tournas, the former owners of New England Comic Con, will be intimately involved in the new show production to ensure fan favorite traditions are maintained.

"Working with Gareb is an awesome experience. The folks at Wizard World have a great sense of how to grow the show in a way that I've always wanted to see it flourish. This should be the best comic con the city of ....Boston.... has ever seen," said ..Harrison...

The New England Comic Con acquisition is the first of several Comic Con tour expansion announcements expected in the weeks ahead.

“We bring together more fans, in more cities than anyone, to celebrate their passion for pop-culture. We've had such a strong positive fan and industry reaction to our new show launches that expanding the tour just made sense," said Shamus.

New England Comic Con venue and dates will be announced soon.



SO one of our hometown conventions...the very con we attended as fans before we got HBComics off the ground...in fact, the con we made our FIRST convention apearence as a company at...is now joining the WIZARD family?

With more announcements to come??


There are a few questions though: Is this going to morph into a WIZARD WORLD CHICAGO sized event? Or is Wizard now dabbling in small and mid sized cons? What immediate impact will this have? Is this a change in name alone?

Interestingly enough, the New England Comiccon website has a new banner, that identifies it as the NORTH EAST comiccon! So does this mean ..Harrison.. will continue to run a small convention with a new name, while Wizard takes ofver the ..New England.. con? Or was this change BEFORE Wizard came into the picture?

It's also interesting to note this is NOT the BOSTON COMICCON we're talking about...THAT convention is presumabley untouched...and featuring Jim Lee in April, by the way.

We'll keep you posted, since as you can imagine this effects us pretty dramatically. 

I can't even begin to say how big this could be for us. If this DOES turn into a large scale Wizard convention in our backyard... it's almost too much to ask for. Rest assured we'll make sure we have a huge presense.


Well that aside, we are hard at work on not only our books, but our new website as well. And I wanted to pose a question to you all...what are YOU looking for in an indy comic website?

More "behind the scenes" content?

More previews of comics we are working on?

More in depth info like character bios, villian dossiers, ect?

More exclusive web content like webcomics?

As we are going through the design process, we want YOUR feedback...tell us below what kind of things YOU'D like to see in an HBComics website.

And of course, feel free to discuss the whole Wizard/Boston thing too.



See you nextblog!



Chris


PS We'll keep everyone posted as soon

Hey all.

Last week, I mentioned that we are rocketing towards completion of Vindication #2. Well, with pages flying into our "completed" folder, I thought now would be as good a time as any to give you a peek at the finished product:


 

As I'm sure you can see, our Vindication artist Danny White has really hit a great stride developing a look for the series going forward. Also, as a bonus, he has just COMPLETED his work on Vindication #3 (which looks AMAZING, by the way) and has already started character designs for Vindication #4.

Plus, of course, I'm still churing away at Lazerman #5. Our current plan is to have all THREE books, Vindication 2 and 3, PLUS Lazerman #5 done in time for our next major con appearence early in the new year.



See you next blog!


Chris

PS: We have our server problem squared away for www.hbcomics.com, so look for the new site to be up and rtunning soon! Of course, we will be making an official announcement here when that goes live.

Hey all, another "better late than never" lazerblog, coming at ya!

As me and Alan dig into the trenches for a serious assault on getting our comics done, I'd like to draw your attention to some new, and a few not-so-new, instances of HBComics around the net.

First up, a Video from PANELS ON PAGES. They were out in force at the Chicago Comiccon last August, and have been posting video wrapups on thier web site, including a vid called "Artist's Alley"..check it out, and look for a brief interview with me around the 2 minute mark...

Click here for the video...

Also on the "new" front, Alan got his interview on with the gent who runs the Comics Vault, and you can find the interview...HERE!

For those looking to see what others thought of our books, check out a "Lazerman #2" review from SECRET IDENTITY PODCAST...croll down near the bottom of THIS PAGE for the review...


...by the way, the also inteviewed us HERE (1/4 down the page)


Finally, there's our first inteview for WIZARD MAGAZINE's Kate Napolitano, then editor of TOYFARE, one her Wizard blog, Chewing on poison Ivy

Well guys, we'll have some more coming soon, but until then...See you nextblog!

Chris

PS: We already have a HUGE con lined up for our 2010 con season, details comng soon...and don't forget we're at the Boston Comicon October 24 and 25th!

Hello folks.

A quick correction from last week: Alan mentioned we had 7 completed pages from our Vindication artist, Mr. Danny White. I'm the one who usually receives the finished work and coordinates the artists, but due to my somewhat busy week getting ready to go to Disney, I neglected to keep Alan updated as the pages came in. In fact, we have more than twice as many pages in when Alan wrote that blog..meaning we are well ahead of schedule for Vindication #3s November release. Sorry for the confusion folks, my bad.

Anyways, One to the blog....

THE ART OF CHEATING PART II: THE CHEATING OF ART

The previous blog I wrote was a reprint from over a year ago...in it, I analyzed some of the more common "shortcuts" artists have occasionally been known to take for the sake of completing their work. Some might be considered acceptable, while others notably less so...I theorized that it all depends on your approach to comics...is your final objective focusing on the craft (the "artist method") or solely the finished product (the "filmmaker" method")

Oddly a bit has changed since I wrote that blog. Controversy in the industry centering around big time, mainstream artists have brought this argument into the limelight...the point of this blog is NOT to debate those artist's motives (I've never met any of the folks involved and wouldn't be comfortable guessing their intentions)...but to examine what is, and what isn't, acceptable.

For instance...Is digital manipulation of hand drawn art cheating? Computers have been playing an increasingly larger part in comics creation in the past few years. Not just for colors and lettering, mind you, but more and more effects, and even finished art...even entire comics are being put together digitally. I've come to feel that the computer is tool, no different that a pencil or t-square. Most arguments against computer manipulation I've heard tends to center around one belief:

"It's lazy"

That argument makes the assumption that it is either quicker, or easier, to use computer imagery. Let's examine a technique I use frequently, and apply these two assumptions.

I have gotten fairly familiar with a freeware 3D program, and since experimenting with it in issue 2 and 3 of Lazerman. Since liking the results, I starting implementing it's use heavily starting in issue 4. Essentially, I create digital "sets," exactly like movie sets, in this 3d program. Once I've crafted a set, I can import the image into photoshop and marry it to my line art seemlessly, creating detailed consistant backgrounds that I can use from virtually any angle. I've completed 3D sets for major locations that we use over and over in the course of a typical story..places like Alex's dorm room, the computer university campus, and even a generic city block.

The first assumption is "it's quicker." This assumes all you need do is press a button, and the computer somehow draws for you. Fact is, it took me about 10 times as long to create Alex's dormroom in 3D as it would take to simply draw it on paper. Granted, once t is done, I don't have to draw it again, regardless of the angle I use in a given shot...but the intital rendering still is far more time consuming then simply drawing it.

The second assumption is... "it's easier." For me this is partially true...I've always found working on backgrounds, fumbling with t-squares and making sure my horizon line and perspective lines are all straight..well, it's just a bit cumbersome for me. It IS easier for me to do this on a computer, where I can zoom and rotate and replace a line with a click..it's neater, and far more comfortable. However, learning the ins and out of an entirely new artform, not to mention the programs used to create it, has NOT been a walk in the park. It's literally a whole new artform to master.

Any individual set may take far longer to create... but it does offer two distinct advantages: It's more consistant, and it eliminates REPETITIVE work. For example, for issue 5 of Lazerman, I've had to create 3 new distinct sets for that the strory takes place in...one, for example, is the NYCCU campus. The work has taken me more time than it ever would for me to simply draw it in the panels I need...however, I essentially never need to draw the campus ever again.  There will ALWAYS be new locations in every issue..so I'm constantly able to devote my attention to something new, rather than drawing the same local, 8-12 times, from 6 different angles.

I've alse heard the argument that it "stunts your growth as an artist." I can honestly tell you from my experience, I have LEARNED so much about background and architectual drawing from this method it's kind of alarming. Diversifying your techniques (in this instance, learning a new medium altogether) almost always HELPS you grow in your own medium. As long as you don't fall into the trap of letting one completely REPLACE the other.

Now of course, there is a major drawback...the original art does suffer. Just like watching a movie without a CG background in place, where you see only actors standing in front of a green screen...so does my original art lack the finished feel I see in so many other's original art. Alas, many of my finished pencils have only rough, or completely absent backgrounds. In some special cases I've even only drawn bits and pieces of a panel..raw elements to be re arranged and merged with digital art later in the production. Of course this leaves my pages look like a work in progress, and is why we don't sell our original penciled pages.

So in that way, my method does in fact "cheat the art." It's also why I consider myself less an "artist" and more a "comic creator"..because my goal is always focused solely on the finished product...which I feel is better off for the methods I use.

On a final note..I'd like to point out that is a personal choice, and not a company one. None of our other artists we work with use any of these methods I mentioned. It's simply what works well for me.

See you nextblog....

Chris

PS: A big thank you to those who came out to the New England Comiccon last Sunday...we're happy that each convention always brings so many new readers! Thanks to all of you!

Hello all.

I've decided with all the furvor of getting ready for my family vacation (me, wifey and daughter are headed to Disneyworld) it would be better if I waited another week before presenting part two of my "Art of Cheating" essay. So for this week...Comic convention news!

We here at HBComics are preparing for our HBComics Comes Home II tour! Last year we finished up the convention season with a series of Boston/New Englan area conventions...and this year will be no different. Any local fanswho missed out on our big runs at Chicago Comiccon and Wizard World Philly will get the chance over the next couple of month to see us right here in Boston....

First up is the NEW ENGLAND COMICCON! You may remember previously we did a show called the "Boston Comic Book and Pop Culture Spectacular"..in fact it's the first show we ever made an appearence at, and has been our hometown show for years. Well, The folks over at Harrison's Comics and Collectables, well known as the most influential comic chains in the state, bought the "Spectacular" from it's previos longtime owners. It has now been re-dubbed the  NEW ENGLAND COMICCON, which is incidently alot easier to type out than the previous name. I had a long talk with the owner of Harrison's the other day, and I'm really excited about the direction he's taking the show... In fact I think over the next year or two we'll be seeing this show transform into a much bigger contender in the con circuit.

The New England Comiccon will be held on September 20th at the Boston Raddison, click HERE to find out more about the show....

This show has some great local artists, and with Harrison's in charge is only going to get better. Come see us on September 20th, were we will have the entire run of Lazerman for sale (1-4) AND Vindication #1, plus art prints and more!

Next up, the weekend of October 24-25th, the BOSTON COMICCON is back, and HBComics will be there in full force. Click HERE for more on the show...highlights include BILL SIENKIWICZ, KHOI PHAM,  HERB TRIMPE and TIM SALE!! Boston Comiccon in the past year has become one of New England's BEST and BIGGEST comic shows. Not only will will we be there with Lazerman 1-4, and Vindication #1...but the show will feature the premiere of VINDICATION #2!!!

Hopefully we will be able to add even more local shows before the end of the year...but in the meantime, we'll be at the New England Comiccon a week from Sunday!

See you there, and see you nextblog!

Chris