Nittany Con interview

Really quickly, I was interviewed at Nittany Con by Gearbox Union, here is the video. I'm at the 4 minute mark, but the whole thing is worth checking out.

Nittanycon and PIX, plus other nonsense

Been a busy couple of weeks, but I'm finally taking a moment to mention the last two cons I did, NittanyCon this past Sunday, and PIX the Saturday before that. I had a great time at both. They're two very different conventions, with totally different vibes, but both very cool.

PIX was cool because it was all about indie comics. Everyone there was a cartoonist, or a writer, or in some other way involved in the actual creation of the comics. I met a few people, artists and writers, and had some really interesting conversations.

Nittanycon was a pretty standard convention crowd, dealers, artists, writers, cosplayers, there was a roller-derby team. Just on a  much smaller scale, which I really liked. Obviously the standard comic-con crowd is a great crowd, and I always have tons of fun at these things, and this was no exception. Again, got to meet some cool artists and writers, and plenty of other people along with them.

As it stands I have one more convention booked in May, though it looks like I may have to cancel due to an unforseen conflict. If so, I'll be a bit bummed, but hopefully I can get a table at Sci-Fi Valley Con in Altoona in June. There's a few later in the year that I'd like to attend as well. I'll be sure t post updates here as I have them.

Some bad news regarding Lunatic Fringe. Unfortunately Sloane Leong had to drop off as artist. I had hoped to put together a six-issue mini with her, but while I was pitching the book to publishers, her schedule filled up. This is actually a pretty common occurrence, it can take a while to get a book approved with a publisher, and artists can't wait around for that to happen. Sloane is an incredibly talented artist and I'm glad I got to do the book with  her, even if it was just one issue.

So for now I'm shelving the project, and sometime in the near future I'm going to start looking for a new artist and rework the series from scratch. That said, I'm also going to be attempting to make the comic available on comiXology, and if anyone is interested in picking up a pdf from me directly you can e-mail me (brendanhykes@gmail.com) and I'll try to work something out.

Also, 365 stories is going well. I've really liked a lot of the stories I've written. Of course they're all very rough, including the ones I've liked, and could certainly use some rewriting. I'm thinking when I get to 100 I'm going to try to block off some time to go back and reread all of them, maybe pick some of my favorites, rewrite and post them. There's a few that I'd like to adapt into other media, short film or one-act play or short comic. I'd like to do something big and impressive with my 100th story, but I probably won't.

I'll be extra busy with my day job the week of the 14th and the week of the 21st, so I'm thinking I might do 2 weeks of 100 word stories. I really like doing those, and while they are generally faster to write, they're also a really useful exercise in brevity.

As always, I'll remind you that Anonymous Nancy #1 is available on comiXology, here. And we are trucking along on issue 2, hopefully by the next convention I attend, we'll have copies available, and if you don't believe me, check this out:

Boo ya! I have more completed pages, but I don't want to spoil it! (Maybe next post.)

I have another project that I'm pretty close to being ready to start moving on, and I'm about to start looking for artists for a horror anthology project I've been working on.

And speaking of horror  anthologies, and just so I'm not only talking about myself here, I recommend you head over to your local comic shop and tell them to pre-order you a copy of In the Dark, the massive horror anthology coming out from IDW. I backed the kickstarter for this, so I already have the pdf, and it is gorgeous. So many great horror stories, from so many great creators! (Scott Snyder, Justin Jordan, Steve Seeley, Cullen Bunn, Rachel Deering, Steve Niles, and that's just off the top of my head.)  I can't wait to get the physical copy! And I'm telling you, if you don't pre-order it, you may not get a chance to see it at all.

Okay, that's all I've got for you right now. Laterz!

PIX!

Hey, I know I've been mentioning it in my last few posts, but I wanted to remind everyone that I'll be at PIX this Saturday, if you're in the neighborhood you should definitely check it out, looks like it'll be a lot of fun. I'll have copies of Anonymous Nancy #1 and Lunatic Fringe, as well as Lunatic Fringe posters. Stop by and see me!

That's all!

100 words week and other stuff

I was just notified by tumblr that I've posted my 100th tumbl. Hooray! *waves little flag*

Anyway, I finished up an entire week of 100 word stories. It was a pretty fun experience. On the one hand, 100 words is really short, which can seem a lot easier than a 300 or 600 or 1000 word story. On the other hand, I kept finding myself ending a story, very abruptly, and still being a good 10 or so words over. It's really hard to get an entire story into 100 words. But I think the exercise has helped to tighten up my writing, and provided some interesting (if incredibly short) stories, and I'll probably do it again sometime soon.

As I mentioned previously, I'll be at PIX in just under 2 weeks, March 22nd. This one really creeped up on me, and I'm not sure I'm entirely prepared for it. I will have copies of Anonymous Nancy #1, as well as Lunatic Fringe, and the Lunatic Fringe poster. I'm hoping to have a Nancy poster as well, to promote issue 2, which I should have copies of at whatever convention I end up doing after PIX and Nittany Con. (I have a couple I'm looking at but haven't booked tables at yet, I'll be sure to let you know when I have.)

Speaking of, Nittany Con is about a week after PIX, March 30th. So I'll be there too. Should be a good time.

In other news, I have all these short scripts, and I've been thinking for a while about putting together some anthologies so I might start looking for artists for those soon.

Nancy #1 is still up on comiXology. So check that out if you haven't had a chance yet.

That's all for now

365 Stories update, conventions, etc.

So I've made it through my first full month of 365 stories (a short month, but it still counts). Still pretty happy with the output, and it's keeping me thinking about writing, which is the whole point, so I'm calling it a success. I still haven't figured out how I'm going to archive my stories. If anyone has any suggestions, or knows about formatting on here, let me know.

This week I'll be trying something a little different. All my stories will be 100 words or less. Today's was a very lazy version of that. I'm going to try to have a complete plot with characters and all of that in 100 words for the rest of the stories. We'll see how well that goes. They might all just end abruptly like today's. (I got to 99 words and saw how little room I had, and just kind of decided the story was over. I mean, it was even called Lazy, so I think I had some allowance there to be lazy with it.) So, if nothing else, this week's stories will be extra short.

In other news, I'll be at two conventions this month. PIX, the Pittsburgh Indy Comics Expo, will be on Saturday, March 22nd, in the South Side (of Pittsburgh). You can find all the details here. I've never been to it before, but it sounds like fun. I'll also be at Nittany Con at State College, PA, on Sunday, March 30th. You can find them on facebook here and on twitter here. Both are one-day cons. I'm hoping to have copies of Anonymous Nancy issue 2 there, but I'm not yet certain.

Speaking of, Nancy issue 1 is still up on comiXology. Check it out, only a buck!

I'm still looking out for artists for my big project (see my last post for details on that). I'm also always just interested in working with artists on stuff, so hit me up if you feel like doing something.

I think that's all I have for now, still writing, still working.

365 stories, artist search, etc

Well as might have been noticed, I have not managed to archive any stories here. I've been trying to figure out the best formatting to do what I want to do, but it may turn out that this is not the best place to archive the stories. (I used to be really good with computers, then I just kind of stopped playing around with them, and now I can't figure stuff out like I used to. I must be getting old.) We'll see. That said, I will try to figure something out, or ask someone smarter than I am. You may just have to look them up on tumblr (which is a perfectly acceptable format for something like that anyway).

Today's story came from a dream I had last night. Kind of a nightmare. I remember feeling pretty panicked a few times during the dream, at least, and it left me kind of freaked out when I woke up. I decided to use it for my story, and was actually writing the story in my head when I fell back to sleep, and I ended up losing a lot of the actual events as well as the general mood. That said, it's at least a weird story, if not as scary as it seemed in my dream.

In other news, I've posted on a couple forums, and I'll mention it here, I want to get moving on a project I've had in mind for a while, and I need an artist for it. It's a sort of political satire/dystopia-but-with-a-sense-of-humour story set around the presidential elections in 2076. Keeping that in mind, I'd like to have it ready and being sold during the 2016 convention season. The plan is to drum up interest at conventions and online throughout the year, and set up a Kickstarter campaign sometime next year, during convention season. This would be a straight collaboration, meaning that while we would be working off the outline I already have, the final story would be developed together, as well as promotional items (flyers, bookmarks, buttons, things like that).

So if there are any artists interested, let me know, I can be reached through comments here, or via e-mail at brendan.hykes@gmail.com. I'll be happy to provide more details on what I had in mind, and we could discuss terms, and so on.

Not much else beyond that. As always, Anonymous Nancy #1 is still up on comiXology, here. Plugging away on issue #2, as well as other projects. I'm booked at Nittany Con in March, as well as Cleveland Pop Expo in May. I have a few more that I haven't reserved yet, but plan to very soon.

That is all!

365 stories Week One Recap, plus a new project

So, it's been a week, and I thought it was a good time to reflect on the stories so far.

First off, I didn't miss a day, and I haven't had to use any of my prompts yet, which I'm pretty proud of. I think the stories themselves are about what I was expecting. So far nothing that I would consider brilliant, and I think there are at least one or two in there that I would actually call bad (or at least not very interesting) but I am also likely to be my worst critic. Still, I'm having fun, and I think it'll get better over time. I do have to admit, one of those stories may well end up as a book, if I ever have the patience to write one of those.

Anyway, so far, so good. Or, so far, some good, at least.

I will be, throughout this week, figuring out how I want to set up the archive here on my blog. Figure out the best way to do it. We'll see how that works. I also need to make my tumblr look less plain. It's pretty boring right now.

In unrelated news, I have an idea that I've been working on that I'd really like to get together with an artist on. I'd be looking to start building some hype over this year's convention season for a Kickstarter that would run over next year's con season, for a release during the 2016 convention season. There is a logic to this timeframe, so if any artists are interested in hearing more, hit me up and I can give you some details.

As always, check out Anonymous Nancy #1 here. Also, my tumblr is brendanhykes.tumblr.com, and I'm @BrendanHykes on twitter. Also, I'll have a table @nittanycon in State College, PA, first con of the year. So you can check them out on twitter, too.

I think that's all for now, hope you're enjoying the stories!