NEW CONTENT!

With mid-year quickly approaching, we're getting closer to MAM's second issue. We're aiming for a quartely release scheduel, so as long as we keep hooking up with the same kind of insanely talented and punctual guys, that we have so far, then we'll be sittin' pretty.

We've got one story all finished (we're just waiting on me to make up my mind about the lettering) and few others possibly on deck to go into issue two as well.

I wanted to give a good solid tease of some upcoming content.


So these are some layouts by me, pencils by Michael Kasinger, and inks by Michael Babinski. I'll jump in after Michael & Michael and letter it up. This is a little noir heavy love story (of sorts) that follows our character Denver Dockry through a bad break-up. The story's called "Saying Goodbye with Bullets."

-matt

ComicsMonkey

I thought this was worth mentioning as long as we're talking about IndyPlanet. I don't know how many of you currently publish or are thinking of publishing your own comics, or even use Ka-Blam to do it, but if so, you may want to get in on this. Ka-Blam, an on-demand printer, also runs a site called IndyPlanet which will print and sell your on-demand comic orders online, issuing you the difference in printing price and cover price. And now, in light of Diamond's new solicitation requirements which make it tougher for the little guys (i.e. us) to penetrate the direct market, Ka-Blam is developing a direct market distribution operation called ComicsMonkey. So you now submit your order to Ka-Blam and request that it be added to their ComicMonkey listing, and now retailers can search their catalog for your title to put on their shelves. It's print on demand, so retailers don't have to order a set amount of books. It is an opportunity to get your stuff seen by everyone, at any comic shop in the country. So bug your local retailers and let them know about this.

And let them know they need to carry Mysterious Adventure.

-Scott

Indyplanet upping MAM exposure

This may be of little interest to the lot of you, but I found it pretty cool. Indyplanet http://www.indyplanet.com/catalog/ the folks who list our comic online (where it's available for purchase- if I haven't mentioned that) will put books up into their ad field at random. I've personally been drawn to multiple titles due to this ad tool, so it's really exciting to see that we've been added to the mix.

I hope that this extra exposure gets the book into the hands of folks who might not have really been looking for it.

-matt

Original Back Cover Lines

Here are the lines for the Cloak piece Matt posted earlier. As you can see, Matt's colors made this piece.

-Scott

EarlyBirdExclusive backcover

When were putting together the Spring issue of MAM, we (like all first time publishers) ran into our fair share of hiccups. A hiccup being a non-inflamitory way of saying a complete and utter disaster.

We rolled with the punches though.

One of those rolls was to give deals and little perks to our followers/fans and hopefully a little incentive to pick up our funny book. We had a low low introductory price and an exclusive backcover by the Savage Scott Godlewski. The backcover (that was swapped into a pinup once we added our intended backcover) was of theCLOAK. Who gets one of his adventures chronicled in the next issue of Mysterious Adventure Magazine.

For those of who didn't get that early version, here's a peak at it.

"Ambush" Character Designs

Just some quick character sketches for the main players in "Ambush at the End of the World". I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted for the Dead Baron and Katya. The Flying Phantom took a couple of passes, as did Metzger. Thank goodness I gave that one another shot. That first Metzger is ridiculous.

-Scott

From Layout-to-Page: Just Another Regular Guy

So I did up this crappy little flash slideshow thing for our "Just Another Regular Guy" story and the blog wouldn't take it. Scotty fixed the stuff that I screwed up and we started fresh. The blog still won't take it. You can check out the slideshow here http://mattcrap.deviantart.com/art/Just-Another-Regular-Guy-FULL-115093872 for now.

Thanks for lookin'
-mattcrap

"Ambush" Page Process

I think it's cool to see how other artists approach page design and breakdowns, so I threw together a little piece on my page process.

From the script I start beating my head against the wall, sketching out a bunch of panels and multiple angles for scenes and try to work out panel sizes and placement to ensure everything fits naturally and the storytelling is smooth. It's something that kind of just happens, but I almost always work in some variation of the three-tier layout.

Once I've gotten something that works, I draw up a final thumbnail at 50% of the art board size so that I can enlarge it by 200% and lightbox it on to my bristol board.

Once it's lightboxed, I pencil it (the tightness depends on time and detail) and ink. I use a 4H pencil, and sometimes an HB for important details, and a #1 red sable brush with the occasional Micron tech pen.

Then the peerless Mr. Bennett slaps some tones on it and it's ready for printing.

I think this is my favorite page from "Ambush at the End of the World". As usually happens, the script changes from typed page to finished page. Case in point, I decided to end the scene with a staredown between Dr. Metzger and his White Whale, the Corsair.

-Scott

Welcome Fellow Adventurers!

Hey, all! Welcome to the official Mysterious Adventure Magazine blog!

Our first issue premiered at the Phoenix Comicon in January 2009 and is now available at IndyPlanet.com. The Spring 2009 issue features 4 stories by Scott Godlewski, Matt Bennett, Joe Dellagatta, and Ben Perkins, with a covers by Scott Godlewski, Matt Kaufenberg, and Dan McDaid.

The Summer 2009 issue is under construction and will also be available at IndyPlanet.com. Stay tuned!

-Scott