PAUL SIZER COMIC E-NEWSLETTER
June 8, 2009
Hello friends, fans and retailers.
OK, It's officially summer time now, so break out the flip flops and frisbees and let's talk about summer comic stuff!
B.P.M. "BEAT THE SUMMER" CONVENTION TOUR CONTINUES...
The summer convention schedule continues, so mark your calendars and stop by is you have the chance
Here's the schedule:
KIDS READ COMICS CONVENTION, THIS WEEKEND, June 12-13, Chelsea, MI
LINK
This is going to be a fun one as well, and I'm really glad to see all the advance hype on this small but really well planned kids-oriented comic convention! The guest list is amazing, and there is tons of great stuff here for young and young at heart. Jane and I will be there on Saturday only, but if you're able, check out all the cool programming on Friday as well as Saturday! Well worth the trip, and well worth showing the next generation of artists and writers what's so cool about the comics medium!
WIZARD WORLD/CHICAGO COMICON, August 7-9, Donald E. Stephens Convention Center, Rosemont, IL
LINK
One of my favorite "big cons", as it reverts back to the Chicago Comicon and still promises to be 3 days of fan driven geekery.
B.P.M. GETS GREAT REVIEWS FROM BOOKLIST, FANS
Holy Cow! Just wanted to share this new review from BOOKLIST for B.P.M.:
From Booklist
"In his note to the reader, Sizer says his dual love for music and comics left little time for anything else. So it goes with his heroine DJ Roxy, slave to the rhythm, who gives up a girlfriend, sleep, and a social life in pursuit of her dream throughout this gorgeous graphic novel. Sizer infuses digital images into his drawings, amping up the hyper energy of New York's nightclub underworld. Roxy's renaissance opens with a caffeine jolt of light and sound coursing readers into Plush, a gay nightclub under the spell of DJ Atsuko, where Roxy merely observes in awe. She quickly comes off the sidelines, though, and we are introduced to her other DJ friend, Dom, and her Yoda-like mentor, Robie. Dubbed the "Café Digital Extended House mix," this edition comes complete with liner notes and suggested tracks to play softly in the background or to supplement the sets Roxy plays during her gigs. This one's a keeper. Grades 10-12. --Courtney Jones"
LINK TO REVIEW"
This is great, because as a small self publisher, library sales are essential, because (1), libraries get hold of books they like and do not let go, and (2) Library sales are one way, non-returnable, which means no returns for me, and when they wear them out, they buy another one!
Here's a description of what BOOKLIST is:
"Booklist the magazine the New York Times calls "an acquisitions bible for public and school librarians nationwide," is the review journal of the American Library Association. It recommends works of fiction, nonfiction, children's books, reference books, and media to its 30,000 institutional and personal subscribers. In-house editors and contributing reviewers from around the country review more than 7,500 books each year, most before publication."
Check out THIS review also, from Amazon:
"5 STARS Beautiful and uplifting"
(May 11, 2009)
By Paul (London, UK)
"Beautifully illustrated, this is a truly uplifting story about Roxy, a DJ who makes sacrifices to break into the big-time. It's an inspirational comic book, based in the NYC club scene and presented as a high quality blend of drawing, photos and computer graphics. The author is a fan of both comics and music and this combination of his two loves is a real gift from Paul Sizer's heart. The accompanying playlist of music tracks is a real treat too.
Any day you feel you could use some motivation is a great day to read B.P.M. (again). [...]"
LINK TO REVIEW"
In my "pride" moment of the day, check out what Warren Ellis said about me in his blog:
REMAKE/REMODEL: The Spider Queen
May 22nd, 2009 | brainjuice
This week's Remake/Remodel thread at Whitechapel was chugging along happily, trying to make sense out of a tiny description of an obscure 1940s character:
Sharon Kane is the sworn enemy of all criminals. Her specially designed bracelets eject spider webbing. Her boyfriend is a detective named Mike O'Bell.
And then Ryan Kelly, Pia Guerra and Paul Sizer came in overnight and just owned pretty much everybody.
WARREN ELLIS' BLOG
I believe a "squee" is in order. Although I do somewhat feel like the "One of these things is not like the others" guy in this listing, but eh...
Here's my picture of the Spider Queen, in all her cross-dressing glory:
(Sharp-eyed viewers will notice I ripped off my own poster designs and people from posters I designed for B.P.M.)
Catching up, but here's a few new REMAKE/REMODEL images, from the last few weeks. Sniff around on the Warren Ellis WHITECHAPEL forums for other art from these popular threads HERE
...because dammit, I need someone like Warren Ellis to kick my ass into making new artwork. Seriously, the forum has made me learn to bring my "A" game into play faster than ever before, and it feels great. So, here's a bunch of new art! Enjoy!
Remember going to comic conventions and being filled with awe and wonder and excitement about discovering new work, things you didn't know about and new artists and talent that blew you away? Wondering where all that excitement went?
It lives and thrives at anime conventions.
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I just spent three days in Artist's Alley at Anime Central 2009 (ACEN) and I was literally blown away! For as jaded as I've gotten about standard comic conventions, this show kicked serious ass, and raised the question; why aren't ALL comic conventions like this?
Sure, there was plenty of cosplay, teen hijinks and geek idiocy, but it was different. Good different. This is the first specifically "anime/manga" festival/convention that I've attended as an exhibitor, and I was amazed at how genuinely excited all the attendees were to be there, and how willing they were to try new stuff that they had never seen before. For God's sake, I met WhiteChapel posters there!
I was next to Spike Trotman (TEMPLAR, AZ) and both of us came to this con with low expectations of how people would react to our stuff; neither of us have a "house manga" style, we don't write what most people assume manga readers go for, and we're off the radar of most manga online communities. Both of us walked away from this con making more money than we have for the last three cons we've done. I damn near sold out of everything I brought, paid for my table with ONE customer's purchases, and sold out of my $25 LITTLE WHITE MOUSE OMNIBUS edition in a day and a half. I've NEVER done this well at a regular comic convention. Ever.
The question that occurred to me was this; where did everyone who isn't a white male, age 18-35 who reads superhero books go in this industry?
Answer: they went here.
Yes, this was a manga/anime con in title, but seriously, every other kind of fan and lover of the comic medium was here, in large, happy groups, dressed to the nines and loaded with cash to spend. And there was diversity, both ethnic and gender-wise, and overall a desire to find new stuff and take chances, to buy books they knew nothing about apart from it looked cool and had a story they were interested in. I do not (for the most part) see any kind of this adventurous spirit at the comic conventions I've been going to lately.
Granted this is not a new revelation, but it was spelled out in front of me all weekend that, for the most part, the superhero comic industry has not trained the next generation of readers to come to them, so the manga industry was more than happy to step up to that empty plate and deliver what a huge, wide and diverse set of comic fans wanted. I had comic book versions of my old LITTLE WHITE MOUSE series out for free on my table; 14 year old kids couldn't give a crap about those, and on two occasions, a kid was handed a free comic, put it back down and bought one of my trades instead. There's a whole new generation out there who do not see a comic book as an end product; a graphic novel/trade is real, comic books are a relic to them.
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Here's my FLICKR set of photos from ACEN 2009
Hello friends, fans and retailers.
Good weather means good news, I guess. Here's a few nice tidbits of info from the Cafe Digital Studios News Service:
B.P.M. ON SOLIPSISTIC NATION PODCAST THIS WEEK
A cool interview about B.P.M. with Bazooka Joe of SOLIPSISTIC NATION this week.
LINK
The podcast also features a great talk with Gary Bredow, the director of "High Tech Soul", a great documentary about Detroit techno. "High Tech Soul" is the first documentary to tackle the deep roots of techno music alongside the cultural history of it's Detroit birthplace. "High Tech Soul" features interview with legends such as Juan Atkins, Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson. Well worth checking out!
PAUL SIZER ANNOUNCES B.P.M. "BEAT THE SUMMER" CONVENTION TOUR
Which is just a dorky way of announcing the summer conventions I will be attending this spring and summer to promote B.P.M.
Please feel free to stop by and say hello (or throw fruit or garbge at me, whatever works!)
Here's the schedule:
ANIME CENTRAL (ACEN), May 8-10, Donald E. Stephens Convention Center, Rosemont, IL
LINK
MOTOR CITY COMICON, May 15-17, Rock Financial Show Place, Novi, MI (I will only be attending on Saturday and Sunday of this convention)
LINK
KIDS READ COMICS CONVENTION, June 12-13, Chelsea, MI
LINK
WIZARD WORLD/CHICAGO COMICON, August 7-9, Donald E. Stephens Convention Center, Rosemont, IL
LINK
It's me, sporting my brand spanking new custom made AMBER GUARD polar fleece hoodie, made for me by the nice people at LAST WEAR.
We did an exchange; my Soviet propaganda style poster of their AMBER GUARD for this hand made custom fit hoodie. Thom Becker saw my "KICK THEIR AXIS" poster done for the Black Angel REMAKE thread on WHITECHAPEL, and asked me to design a Soviet poster depicting his AMBER GUARD.
Check out Thom's very cool costuming and custom wear HERE
A couple more drawings done for the Warren Ellis WHITECHAPEL boards.
For the last week solid, I've been really digging a thread on the Warren Ellis WHITECHAPEL forum called "The Draw Each Other Art Challenge Thread", where people have been posting cool photos of themselves, and artists have been doing drawings based on those photos.
You can check it out here (Warning: may be NSFW): WHITECHAPEL
It started out slow, but now it's going gangbusters, and it has become a really good art exercise for me; to produce a lot of art, quickly, with good quality, and to heavily use photo-reference and try out lots of new techniques. Good ass-kicker for getting the pixels out and done.
Here's the most recent group of images, more as they accumulate:
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