Day 9.5: The Fungus is Among Us (ZF/CC)

The post I put up last night apparently didn't save (it could have happened why I fell asleep on my keyboard) so I'm gonna try and put it up now, although an abridged version. What I'm doing here is setting the ground work for my 'bible'.  By 'Bible' I mean a reference work that I can refer back too when writing that sets the tone and way the world I'm creating works.  It's a technique that television uses, and people that create monthly comics really should adopt as well.  Generally it has notes on themes, story arcs, characters and their backgrounds, etc. It helps to have these to avoid plot holes, characters working against their motivation, etc.  Now doing a whole bible for a one-shot comic about Zombie Dinosaurs. . . a little redundant.  So my focus before writing the outline is as follows:

• Virus-in this case based on the real life 'zombie' fungus. Need to know how it infects, spreads, etc.
• 4 survivors-basic personality notes. I mentioned in a previous post in zombie fiction characters are more oft defined by their actions not their backstory
• Tone and Mood; typically bleak and oppressive in a zombie film, especially as I'm playing this 'straight' but I need to break it up with humor that comes from the absurdity of talking, tie wearing dinosaurs.

This post is going to deal with the fungus.  I want to keep some of this based on the real life fungus, but still keep the zombie standard of infection through biting.  So now it's getting nasty: The infection can spread by fluids (saliva, blood = biting) or airborne spores.  The quick sketch I have below show some of the more fungal dinosaur zombies:

I know it's not how it looks in real life, but I want the fungus to kinda look like the stuff when you discover that leftover meatloaf that's in the back of the fridge for two years.  This way the read already has a natural aversion to it due to instinct.  It should promote a greater reaction.

Having it be capable of being transmitted in two different ways explains the quick spread of the infection better.  In real life the fungus tries to get the host eaten or to move to a location where it can better spread.  In this case we're going to say that the natural instincts of the dinosaurs interferes with 'programing' of the fungus and they tried to devore their kin. They stop attacking once the fungus reaches the nervous center, because it'd be like the fungus attacking it's young.

Again these are prelim notes. I'll go more into depth later.

Day 9: Raptor with a Shotgun (ZF)

Still low on time (this week is a bit nuts at work) but I promised, so here it is.  'Mikey' (name tentative) one of the survivors in our little story. Thats right it's a Velociraptor holding a shotgun (and a machete on his back).  It's a quick inked sketch, but it gives you and idea of what the finals will look like.

Additionally tried to write to one of the Wizard World marketing staff that their site had listed to see if they have a table to leave the bookmark marketing material at, but the email bounced back. . .will try again later. Still need to get a hold of printers that haven't given me a marketing quote back.  I'm thinking I will not be using the printers in question if they can't even respond to a simple quote request.

I'll write up a bit more later on the the virus/fungus and how it works in the world . . .of ZOMBIE DINOSUARS (bum bum bummmmmmmmmm. . .what, too dramatic?) and try to post tonight.

Later Zombie Gators,

Trevor

Day 8: Those are a lot of words (CC)

Tomorrow I'll post some story concepts and some art, but for now just a quick update.  Just finished reading some 100 pages of text from both google and facebook and (Btw we now have a facebook site: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Zombie-Dinosaurs/116038565146168
once I get 25 fans on facebook I can change the url which is quite nice, and I'm considering paying their ad fees as well).  I'll have to re-read a lot of this because I got home late (9:30ish) from work, and the 12 hour shift has fried my brain. Reading techno jibba-jabba for almost two hours has not helped, but it's important for this Blog to prosper, and therefore the comic.

Which brings me to something very important, not just too those of us crazy enough to be interested in self publishing in comic, but pretty much everyone thinking about doing something more significant with their life. . .if you're going to do something, DO IT.

At face value seems basic enough, but the above statement really is about focus and dedication.  I have a lot of friends that read, draw, etc that love comics.  Many of them talk about how they are working on their comic, but if I show up at their house/apartment/cardboard box what are they doing? Usually playing Xbox.

Don't get me wrong, I have an Xbox, and boy do I love me some first person shooters, (especially Left 4 Dead 1 & 2 go figure) but do I play them when I have a project going on. . .rarely, if at all.

Look I'm not saying that you need to give up all free time; if you're working a day job and trying to do or produce something outside of that time-frame it's rough, but if you do HONESTLY want to achieve something, the thing you need to do is carve out the time and do it. If you feel you have a dream, you have to love it.  And love requires sacrifice.  It's a truth that a lot of people don't want to recognize, but it IS true. Ask any married couple. They may not like the way I phrased it, but if they think for a minute or two they'll most likely recognize the point.

Right now I'm sacrificing time I would normally have a) spent exercising and more importantly b) spending time with my wife.  Why? Because I'd like to think that some little bit of this blog is helping another artist with their process of creating their piece of art which will be better than mine. And then they will take what they've learning and help another artist, and so on.

You want to create your comic book, or write your novel, or paint that masterpiece, or even start that accounting company?  Then shut up and do it.

I love comics. They are a great medium with a lot to offer everyone. I had to sit at work during lunch and listen to two people state that comics had no future, after they talked about the Thor movie for 15 minutes, not knowing it was based on a comic movie. These people were in essence excited about a comic and didn't know it (they were also jerks, but whatever). It's one of the reasons it's such a great medium.

Sorry I got preachy. Must be the combination of Whiskey and Optimism.  And the migraine from reading Google's S.E.O packet didn't help either.

Tomorrow more zombie dinosaurs including a sketch with a zombie killin' Raptor.

"Never give up. Never surrender"
-Trevor

Day 7: Catching up with Catching up.(ZF/CC)

Guys, today is nuts.  I'll try to toss a post up, when, or more likely IF I get home. Till then here's the bookmark:

I also changed it to the banner, so why I'm posting it here I have no idea.

It's not my favorite design but it prints clean, and has all the information I needed to get on there, although I may go back and change the blue on the dinosaurs to black or a more readable color, because the printouts come out darker, which is a problem with home printing (also good to know if you plan on doing a home proof-we'll get into what a proof is later when we've got the artwork done. For those of you that know what a proof is, I like to proof ever step of the way, even with pencils, as I've found it can show problems when the art is reduced, and if you can catch errors or composition problems at the pencil stage you can go a long way to making a good looking product. 

Here's a quick view of how the page of bookmarks looks if I decide to go with a bumped up size which I'm playing with.  The 1.5" X 6" may be a bit to small. These are almost 2"X7".  

Normally I'd recommend printing these up with Printer's Marks.  Printer's Marks look like little cross hairs and are designed so you can make sure printing's match up for double sided prints, where to cut, etc.  They become important.  Why they aren't above. . .quite frankly I forgot and ran out of time. So I'm going to not do double sided prints like I planned, and put out one sided bookmarks (unless it looks like I'll get more time between Today and Saturday when I go to Con to hand these puppies out.

Still waiting to here back from the printers, so I can get an ideas on cost and then start planning funding. 

Talk your zombie-lovin' ears of later.

-T

"That which gives light, must endure burning" -Victor Frankel

Day 6: Catch up day (CC)

Had to work yesterday, and a lot of my day was eaten up with friends and family today, so I'll put up the form letter I'm used to contact a number of comic news websites. Normally I don't know if I would recommend using such a whimsical tone, but for crying out loud, I'm writing a comic about Zombie Dinosaurs, I kinda have to convey the humor of the situation a little more than normal. I should have the final bookmark done tonight so I'll post that tomorrow morning. For now here's the basic letter I'm sending to (comic) news outlets.

****

Dear (Contact Name),

Re: Zany blog documents the process of creating a self published comic. . .about Zombie Dinosaurs.

As a  newcomer to the self publishing comic arena I've started to manage a blog that shows the trials that an independent comic self-publisher will have to contend with, while striving to keep the information tempered with a whimsical balance of humor and a dash of sarcasm.  After all this is a comic is  about Zombie Dinosaurs.

A firm believer that every piece of information helps, I'm really hoping that potential comic self-publishers, from a young kid making Xeroxed copies to a talented up-and-comer wanting to put out a great bit of sequential art, can benefit from at least some part of my experiences.  And hey, if it bumps up interest for the comic, I certainly will not complain.  A lot of readers will probably come for the weirdness inherent with undead dinos storming about, but any hook is a good hook in my opinion.

This all leads to why I'm writing you right now; as a premier source of comics news and all things awesome, I wanted to see if you could find time to put something, anything, on your amazing source of pop-culture bonanza.  I've started doing some grass roots marketing, but obviously anyone with a love of comics, which is going to include those writers/artists/crazy people thinking about throwing their hat in the comics making ring, will be visiting your site as much as I do. The website is listed below, with contact information if you need it.

I fully understand if you choose not to post anything, especially with as much superior content  you manage to provide for your site. My sincerest thanks for your valuable time.


Sincerely,
Trevor Mersch


Zombie Dinosaurs
Trevor Mersch
dinozombiecomics.blogspot.com
email address
C: 555 555 5555

 ###

******
Also normally I wouldn' say the 'anything' bit, but this is all 'pre' marketing. I can take a few more chances here, than I can down the road when I have to start marketing in ernest.

So there you have it. An attempt at a quick susicint little letter to get some notice to this site, and therefore the comic down the line.






A side note: try to make letters short and to the point.  Editors do not have a lot of time, and they are being kind enough to give you some when they read these things.  Always be polite.

Have a happy whatever-holiday-it-is-you're-celebrating.
-T

Day 5: Saurian Story Structure to Strive for . . .Seriously.(CC/ZF)

Before we get into the (zombie) meat of today’s post: Story structure, I need to relate a couple of things relating to yesterday’s post:

One, I got home very late, so I didn’t get to work on the letter, or bookmarks. (Apparently I feel asleep on the living room floor according to my wife).

Two I have awesome friends. My friend Isaac put this bad boy up 

with the advice to make the bookmark “big and bold and crusty”.  I like the punk rock feel of it, so I’ll be splashing some more color on here, a better sketch, and it’ll be pretty close to the end product.  

Three. Today will also be a crazy day (gee Television is a swell industry) so more than likely the letter, bookmarks, and such will have to wait for tomorrow when I’ll have a little more time . . .and sleep.

Now that that’s out of the way let’s hit today rolling. I want to start setting up the outline of the script.  An important factor of this is going to be that this particular comic is going to be a ‘one-shot’. [For those of you unfamiliar with the term, ‘one-shot’ means it is a completely self-contained story.  Comics, I’m sure you are aware, typically continue on and on (much like a soap opera-with superpowers) so there’s often a strong B story which becomes the A story for the next issue(s).  If you don’t know what I mean by A or B story post a comment and I’ll explain later.] so I have a total of 24 pages to set up an entire world and it’s ‘rules’, tell a clear and concise story, make the reader care about the characters, and move the plot along to it’s natural conclusion. . .not that there’s anything  about zombie dinosaurs one would consider natural.

It’s tempting to set this up using a 3 act-structure, because of the organization it provides. 

“Huh?” you ask. . .well you must have fallen asleep in Ms. Shannahan’s English 101 class.  Sigh. Fine. Without belaboring the point a three Act play/movie/comic follows this structure:

• Act 1: Establish: Here we establish the world, characters, etc.  We meet the protagonists and find out what the problem/conflict will be.
• Act 2: Action.  We see the protagonists struggle. This is often the darkest time, where we don’t know if the protagonist will succeed. The protagonists often learns something here, that allows them to overcome the situration.
• Act 3: Resolution.  This act has the climax (snicker). We see if the protagonists succeeds.

Now if I were to use this structure it’d would already be organizing the story for me.  I have 24 pages so 8 pages Act 1, 8 pages Act 2, 8 pages act three.  Slap an ad for the comic on the back of the cover and done. . .but nothing in life worth doing is typically easy. 

Without getting into it, a large number of writers dislike the three act method. They feel it forces the story into clunky block instead of letting them progress naturally.  In other words life doesn’t fit into predefined spaces.

I personally feel that the 3 Act structure does have some use but not all the time. I’m not using it mainly because Zombie films don’t typically utilize the 3 act structure. Many horror films do, but not the majority of ‘Z’ Flicks.

A zombie film is typically all ACT 2, with a quick 10-15 minute ACT 3.  Think of the first modern horror film ‘Night of the Living Dead’. Do we know why the dead are rising? No. Also, the only initial development of Barbra and Johnny (the first two human characters we see) we know is they are brother and sister, they had a relative pass away. That’s it.   Pick out almost any other Zombie film and you’ll find the same ‘lack’ of development. The closest we get to Act 1 is seeing that the dead are rising, and maybe the reason for it.

Zombie stories define protagonists by what their ACTIONS ARE not by what their backstory is, or even their statements (although it does sometimes show insight into a character).  It’s a very ‘Deeds not Words’ perspective.

Originally I was gonna type this out, but I’m really low on time today so here’s a scan of my Rough Notes:

Note: A SPLASH PAGE is a page that is all one illustration, to the typical multiple panels you see in a comic book.  The reason for the first page as a Splash Page is simple.  A potential customer, picks up the book, looks at the cover, then opens to the first page.  You want it to be big, exciting, and dramatic.  Now keep in mind I’m doing this because this is a one shot.  This is the only chance I have to grab my potential customer’s attention.  If you’re doing a monthly I don’t recommend a splash page in every comic. Gets old fast.  Use it sparingly.

On the quick notes I scribbled, see how it basically has a flow, but nothing’s set in stone yet?  It means when I’m writing, I will not feel nailed down to anything. The descriptions are really basic, not a lot of the skeleton for the scripts there, but I can go back to it, look at it, think about it, and  it’ll generally help when I start puttin’ pen to paper.

Just ran out of time. Gotta go.Tomorrows update will be better, I promise. Hope this helps.

I’ll see you next time (yes that was a ‘Reading Rainbow’ reference).

Day Four: 'Pre' Marketing Blues (CC)

Everyone's swarming around at work like I just threw a bottle of hot sauce into a bee nest (they really hate that. . .the bees not . . .never mind) so I'll probably have to come back to this post, because it deals with something that most self-publishers give hardly any thought to and should: marketing.

Now seeing as I haven't even got a chance to start pencils on a single page, let alone had time to start working on the script  many people would say this is ludicrous. I have two things to say to this: Crazy works, and it's never to soon for marketing.

Crazy works is self-explanatory in my opinion; you have to be at least mildly insane to want to be doing this. It's drive, determination and the ability to realize what your doing is going to be eating up all your free time, money, and most likely health, and do it anyway. So we're going to go into what's important for this post - marketing.

It's never to late to start 'branding' in the public mind.  If you can already have a following before the comic is at the presses, all the better.  The more people know your comic, or even you for that matter, the better your chances.

Again this is my opinion. I can not stress that enough. However, at 18, I was a marketing director for a small chain of stores in the Midwest, not an easy job.  So let's take it as read that I know a little bit about this particular field.

In the case of Zombie Dinosaurs the blog you're reading is gonna help with this. The more people that are following, the more public awareness, the more a brand is established. If I can have people chompin' at the bit, before I even have an ad in Previews, a large part of the battle's already won. God bless the internet, it's the greatest free tool available for artists.  

What I'm doing first, is I'm writing up a simple press release and sending it to popular comic book and pop-culture sites.  I've been compiling a list both at work and at home of sites that I think might run the story/have a great media presence.  I'm writing up a fairly generic form letter, that I can put the contact's name into, when I send it. THIS IS IMPORTANT. NOBODY likes or even looks at forms that are generically addressed.  Come to think of it, it's good advise for job resumes; if you're putting 'Dear Human Resources' you chances are far less than the guy that takes the time, does some research, and writes, 'Dear Ms. Janet Smith'.  KNOW YOUR CONTACTS. 

Step 2 for me is a unique situation, in that the Anaheim Wizard Con, Comic Con, . . .whatever the hell they're calling it, is going on April 30-May 2nd. I have a color printer and card stock at work. Don't see the correlation?  Then you need to learn to USE EVERY AVAILABLE TOOL TO YOUR ADVANTAGE.  Here's the plan: Go home, using GIMP (GIMP is a free program like Photoshop. Very like Photoshop, and users put up tutorials for beginners) and on a normal size paper sheet (8.5x11) format set up an image that has 4 to 5strips of bookmarks that advertise this very blog (I recommend 1.5 " X 6"). That's right bookmarks. Why bookmarks? >Sigh< do I have to explain everything? Okay, fine. It relates to the first rule of marketing of which there is none higher: Know your frickin' audience. (Okay technically its 'target demographic' but whatever). You're at a comic-con that means the people here are READERS. That means they will have BOOKS.  And what do you put in books? You got it. So I provide a marketing 'tool' that the audience will see constantly.  Repetition builds remembrance, remembrance builds branding.  So I come to work like I'm going to, work late (like I was going to have to anyway), And I print out a crud load of sheets of doublesided bookmarks. Cut 'em. Stick em in my backpack when I go to con, and I either stick them on the freebie table that most cons have (next to all the other flyers and whatnot), or if I can't do that, I stand in front of the con for an hour or so, saying 'Free bookmarks; Zombie Dinosaurs'.  That combination of words should work on most comic nerds. Best of all the cost for me to do this; zero.zip. ziltch. nada.  

I did a really quick rough at work. Scanned a doodle, type fonts, basic info so tonight when I get home exhausted, I'll have an idea of what I wanted.

I'll put up a post in the next few days of the sites I contacted (as a list) and the form letter I used.

'Till later kids.

-Trevor

Day Three: Concept (ZF)

Before I begin, today's pretty crazy so this post will probably be shorter than my typical centuries long ramble. Also be prepared for some horrible grammar/spelling.

Contacted a number of printers, trying to contact mainly ones that I knew shipped directly to Diamond distribution 'hubs'.  Didn't get a chance to call some of the ones I wanted to and probably will not get a chance to today, so hopefully Thursday.

Now for the fun stuff; building the structure of the Zombie Dinosaur world. I'm still going with the fungus idea, and the idea that zombie dinosaurs are what caused the extinction.  To me this means I can do the comic a number of ways:

• 1) (My Favorite so far) Dinosaurs had an existing society much like ours, and their civilization falls when the zombie outbreak occurs. 4 intrepid dino-surviors must figure a way out of the dino-city.  I'd play this one straight, pretending to ignore the ludicrousness of the story, and go for a realistic style. This style will take longer to draw which is a down side.
• 2) Comedy: using a cartoon style, I'd play up the wackiness on this one. Dinos still talk, and possibly have a society like the one above (the old 'sitcom' "Dinosaurs" comes to mind). The cartoon style means I can pencil the pages faster, but the down side is its more of an obvious joke. Not necessarily a bad thing.
• 3) (2nd favorite) would be a very 'realistic' depiction of the scenario, done as a 'silent' comic (A silent comic is one with no dialog) There would probably be one 'protagonist' and it would be a dino trying to escape the jungle/forest/what have you, where the 'fungal' outbreak has occurred (Thinking an Velicoraptor or Allosaurus due to their speed, and ability to fight, and there natural 'cool' factor).
• 4) Set in modern day, a group of archeologists on a fossil 'hunt' discover what they think is whole remains of a large group of dinosaurs, preserved in a volcanic creator. The archeologists quickly package and ship them to 'the city' for 'scientific research'. Soon the zombie dinosaurs rise from the dead and create havoc (Meaning you could have zombies and zombie dinosaurs in one comic)! Plus how scary is something you have to kill with a headshot, when it's head is 6 feet wide and the brain is the size of a walnut.

Already getting suggestions for characters which is great, and most work with option 1 or 2 (not so much with 3 or 4-although the Bear Sniper is great).  As always I want readers to have input in this creation process, so let me know what you guys think of the above concepts, and after some thought I'll really get this ball rolling!

Porro ago silenti etc dinosaurs!

Day Two: The Wiley and Wonderful World of Finance! (CC)

(Note: From here on out I’ll label each post either CC, ZF, or CC/ZF –it denotes what audience the post will most likely be suited for CC=Comic Creators, ZF = Zombie Fans  and obviously CC/ZF is both.)

So here’s day two of the blog, and it may confuse a lot of people, as most indy comic creators think of it last, but in reality it should be thought of first: The comic’s budget!

The reason for this is simple; by having an idea of what the cost potentially will be I have a better idea of what my final product will look like, and knowing that can drastically effect a lot of the choices I’ll need to make during the process of creating the comic.

1^st thing to consider is that in the past Diamond Distribution required a Sales Minimum of $2,500 retail, and they used to give comics three to five issues to reach that mark.  And yes you read that right (what, you thought you were going to get rich of comics. . .there’s a way but it’s not usually of the monthly sales. . .more on that way later).  The current information on their site doesn’t have sales minimums (that I could find) but still has a wealth of information.  I’ll need to keep this in mind because it will affect how I price the comic, in relation to how many copies I’ll be producing.

Before I go any further, I think it’s important that anyone seriously thinking about comics go to vendor.diamondcomics.com and read EVERYTHING they can.  The people at Diamond are kind enough to have quickstart packages, references, etc. so you know what you’ll be getting into. And brother (or sister) you should KNOW WHAT YOUR GETTING INTO.

Which brings me to the 2^nd part: How much is this going to cost me? I’ll be contacting a number of printers by the end of the day (if I get their permission I’ll be posting the company names) and getting price quotes.  I’ll only be contacting printers that I know A) produce comic books and b) more importantly have a distribution chain established with Diamond. (ie they ship the comics after they are done to the Diamond distribution centers).

Now, I worked for a printer for a few years so I have a halfway decent idea of what I want. If you have no idea about things like paper quality, etc. you’ll want to make yourself knowledgeable on the subject, there are enough books on digital press that I will not go into here, you’ll need to do some research (sorry).  So the following is what I’ll be making my inquiry about:

Run size: I need prices for 1,000, 3,000, 5,000 and very unlikely 7,000 print runs.

Color: to keep costs low and save me time during the creation process I’m going to chose to do Black and White interior pages, which saves a substantial bit of money (and now you know why so may indy comics are in B&W-it’s cost not aesthetics). The cover I will want in color, with color interiors = I want to put an add at the end of the comic for my Crime-Noir comic. If I’m paying to produce this I should put in some free advertising after all.

Page size: 24 pages is the standard. Many companies will only print comics in pages divisible by 8 because of the way set-up is.

Paper Quality: #50 is typical standard, produces a decent quality, and while not the best, is a far better quality that 30 or 40 which is essentially newsprint, and I HATE newsprint (for comics at least-bleeds way to much, ink doesn’t stay. . .let’s just say it’s a mess. For the cover most books I read recommend #70 to #80. 

As soon at the pricing quotes come in I’ll start putting up what I’m looking at, hopefully with the company names and pricing information.

Tomorrow’s blog will more more fun (I promise) as we start getting into the zombie-dino-meat of what our story is going to be. . .and how hard it is to kill a 30 foot creature that can only be killed with a head shot when it’s brain is the size of a walnut. . .>shudders violently<.

Day One: Introduction

This insanity all started because one of my dear NE (that’s Nebraska btw) friends, Ashley J____ posted a link on ‘popular social network site’ about ‘zombie ants’, a topic I’m familiar with due to my incessant love of all things zombie. Basically it’s a fungus that affects the neurological ‘path’ of the ants that, while essentially killing them from inside, makes them go to the tops of plants where the fungus then hatches out, gets eaten by birds, pooped out by aforementioned birds, poop gets touched by ants, and the process continues.  But what I didn’t know what the fungus has been around for about 48 million years as far as anyone can figure out.  (The full article is here: http://www.livescience.com/8496-mind-controlling-parasites-date-millions-years.html).  I made a joke about how that’s what actually killed the Dinosaurs; i.e. Dinosaur Zombies. The joke was suddenly being discussed, on ‘popular social network site’ and well received.

Now to take a step back, I need to explain I’ve been working on my own comic for about a year now: trying to get EVERYTHING done so I could launch a mini-series (6 issues) with everything completed, so when I pitched to Diamond (the largest comic book distributor) I could show them everything was done, thus helping my chances of getting picked up. The independent comic market can be rough to say the least, and as I wouldn’t say my art or writing is of the highest caliber, I wanted to hedge my bets.  The problem with all of this is paying my bills, i.e. ‘The Day job’. I’ve worked in television for the last few years, which is not a career easy on one’s personal free time.  My average day is 9am to 9pm as I write this, including weekends sometimes, so getting the time and motivation to sit down and finish penciling, inking, coloring and lettering pages, on quite frankly ancient computers, is a feat of willpower.  In addition the comic in question is a dark, brooding, ‘Crime –Noir’ story, so being in that mindset can wear you down.  As a result of trying to get this published, I’ve read a number of books, most importantly in my mind, Larry Young’s ‘True Facts’, on the subject of self-publishing, and it’s a topic that is often on my mind.

All of the above blah-blah-blah culminated into what you see before you, when looking at one of my favorite blogs  Hyberbole and a Half (http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/) and noticed the ‘blogspot’ address. I checked the site, realized it was a pretty solid, and most importantly FREE blogsite, and got to thinking.  Why not actually have FUN with comics again?  And more importantly wouldn’t it be ‘snazy’  to write down my experiences in publishing a one shot comic, so other artists and writers, seeking to learn more about self-publishing would have a ‘real time’ look at what goes on, what it takes to get a comic out there.  And wouldn’t it be cool to be able to be transparent, in other-words, everyone can see what you’re working on so their comments and ideas, could actually be put into the comic?

So in a nutshell ZOMBIE DINOSAURS is going to strive to be the following:

-First and foremost: a blog about the process, trials, and tribbles, er, tribulations about a first time self publisher, getting out there and getting a tangible piece of art on the shelves.

-A venue where YOU there reader, can input your ideas into the product.  Keep in mind I probably can’t use every idea, in some cases I probably will not want to use them, but I will make the effort to look at all comments and see if I can utilize them in the end product.

-Finally, a source to check out an insane comic about Zombie Dinosaurs!

More to come. . .

Trevor out.

P.S. The banner will change soon. At work and only had a few seconds to bang one out.