Holiday greetings from The Switch

Hey everybody, how we all doing this week? Things are as hectic here as I'm sure they are for all of you this close to the holiday. In fact, as soon as I finish this blog entry, I'm going to go start my shopping for Christmas. 

I've spent the past week finishing a job for Marvel that, for some reason, I was only allowed to refer to as Codename: Duckling. I'm not sure what all the secrecy is about, it certainly wasn't a big deal and there were no ducks involved at all. Not even Howard The Duck. I think the comic book industry is just weird most of the time, that's the only explanation I've got.

There's not much new in the land of The Switch. I know from his Instagram posts that Tom has been working on the book from his Vietnamese love nest (fun fact: Tom is a minor celebrity in Vietnam because of his success as an artist in America. They've got NO standards over there.) Aside from that, there's been some chatter about the release date with our publisher, Dynamite. There's a chance it might be pushed back to June because the printer in China apparently needs more time to set up the files for a hardcover of these dimensions. I'll keep you all posted as to how that develops. Tom and I have a convention and three in-store signings scheduled in May to promote the release of the book. Changing the ship date would be a major headache at this point. 

What's not a headache is the page of art I'm going to show this week. your first look at a fully lettered, fully colored piece of beauty from the graphic novel. In the spirit of giving during the holidays, this is what I give you. If you don't like it, well...it's the thought that counts.

Thanks as always for everyone's support. We're wishing you all an amazing holiday season. See you next week.

Hello From Vietnam (Tom)

Shout out to Keith for last week's update as I was in the middle of settling into Vietnam having just landed at the time.  Other than a couple picture posts on my Facebook, I didn't make too big of a deal on my trip to Vietnam. But here I am, writing to you from Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) where I'll be for the next couple of months.

This is a big deal because Vietnam is where The Switch is going to be finished.  Who woulda thunk?  Certainly not me.  But we are where we are, and I guess Electricia and co. are now going to have a Vietnamese home base.

So for this post I'm going to give you a quick look at my "studio" work space in Saigon.  I've got a rented little hotel room/studio apartment thing with a balcony so I can have as little distractions as possible while working.  In fact, this clip will be a part of the 1-hour behind-the-scenes movie about the making of The Switch for all of the Kickstarter backers.  Take a looksee:

Ok, fine, I'll show you another sneak peek at some art....this time an unconventional character:

 

Until next week--!

An early Christmas present

Hey, happy Friday everybody! Hope no one is getting too overwhelmed with the hustle and bustle of the holiday season. Christmas is in 15 days so that means in typical fashion, I'll start my shopping 13 days from now.

But don't worry, I've got an early Christmas present for all of you. An entire page of Switch art, previously unseen (although you may have caught a glimpse of a panel last week). Hope everyone digs it. Let me know if you don't and I'll kindly ask Tom to draw it again.

Speaking of Tom, this week finds him relocated to Vietnam where he'll be gorging on Soft Boiled Duck Fetus and spending the winter in 80 degree humidity which, in my opinion, beats the bejeezus out of the -80 degree winters in his home state of Minnesota. 

While he's there, Tom will also finish the art on our little graphic novel. 

From my side of things, I need to figure out how I want this book to end. So far, I've written three different endings but am having trouble deciding which one feels the most 'true' to Electricia and her attempted road to redemption in this story. It's a tricky balancing act trying to find an ending that  a) I hope all of you will be satisfied with and b) that isn't a cheap cop out for Electricia's arc. Maybe when the book comes out, I'll drop the script for the two unused endings on the blog so everyone can have a better idea of what I'm talking about. If anyone even cares, that is.

Tom should be back on the blog next week, he was having trouble getting wifi up and running in his Vietnamese Love Shack today. So we can all look forward to his triumphant return to the Internet together.

Take care, thanks for your support.

Keith

Welcome back to the blog! I'd like to claim that we skipped last week because of the Thanksgiving holiday but the truth it, it was my turn to update and I totally flaked on it. So apologies, hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving holiday, and allow me to take you on a guided tour of some new art this week.

So this little snipped below is actually the back of the head of Jody Levy, who was a reward winner and has a speaking role in the graphic novel. What is that mysterious electrical hand doing to her? You'll have to wait and see on that one!

And here we have The Truth (and Happy Birthday to The Truth's mom, Donna, today!) taking a bite out of...something. It's not an apple. Let's just say she's taking a bite out of crime and leave it at that for now, shall we?

And here we have Electricia in the middle of a violent disagreement with fellow villain Omerta. Could they be disagreeing over Lover Boy? Ladies do love his mullet, after all. Or could they be fighting over something more personal? I wish I could tell you but then Tom would have to shoot me.

Tom made me laugh out loud with this one. One of my favorite supporting characters in this book is the ghost of Ronald Reagan, who fights alongside the team of heroes keeping the world safe in the pages of The Switch. I gave Tom the option of drawing young movie star Reagan or older President Reagan and wasn't sure which way he'd go until I saw this. I think we can all agree our plucky little friend Tom made the right call.

And here we have a full body shot of The Truth in her final costume. She's a lot of fun to write and hopefully you guys will enjoy the character and her role in the graphic novel as much as I do.

I've gotten a few messages from backers over the last week wondering if the graphic novel has come out yet. I guess this coming week I'll send out another, official kickstarter update to all the backers in case some of you missed the one announcing the revised schedule. I'm toying with the idea of including a preview of the first ten pages, all completely colored and lettered. Maybe it's too much to give away at this point, Tom and I will debate the pros and cons. But if you see the update in your email, I'll include something you haven't seen before either way.

I stress about this project every day. Luckily, we're having a ton of fun producing it and it all balances out.

See you guys next week!

Keith

Electricia Unmasked (Tom)

A lot of our art updates on "The Switch" have shown a lot of Electricia, naturally.  Even more recently, we've also shown her in her alter ego costume as the Switch.  She's our main character, after all, and what average comic fan doesn't like to see a pretty female protagonist in her skimpy outfit here and there?

Surely you guys remember this teaser from our campaign back in Spring where we teased Electricia out of costume

 Well I'm happy to give you guys some more sneak preview art of civilian-Electricia, otherwise known as Jenn:

Jenn eating with friend Jody

Yikes!  Some action

Praying? Eating a sandwich?  Who knows.  Actually, I do ;)

A chance meeting....

I've really been enjoying some of the "quieter" scenes with interaction that I've been drawing lately.  I have to buckle down for 3 weeks to draw as much as humanly possible before I leave for Vietnam, where I'll be finishing The Switch.  Don't worry, it's a labor of love!  Until next week....

Post ComicCard Show Wrap-Up (Tom)

Last week Keith came into Minneapolis as guest creator at the local Comic Card show in Bloomington, MN.  This would mark our second appearance together to promote our book The Switch (the first being back in June for the awesome St. Louis Comic Con/Mighty Con).  And it looks like it won't be our last as we have booked at least one show this coming May, and several stores are also eager to have us make an appearance around that time as The Switch will released to the public by then.

As soon as Keith came in last Friday, we were off to do a podcast interview with Adam Vermillion's Panels & Pizza show in St. Paul, MN (Keith's 1st time and he's the main guest; I'm just baggage this time).  We had a terrific show over pizza for dinner, and even filmed some of it for the upcoming 1-hour behind-the-scenes Switch movie that every backer will receive!  If you haven't listened to it yet, you can here....lots of fun details and anecdotes about The Switch and our careers. ;)

Adam (left), Keith, and I have a chuckle over Supreme and Cheese pizza.

As for the Comic Card show itself, it took place the next day on Saturday from 10am till 5pm.  Other guests included Kenneth Rocafort, Frank Fosco, Otis Frampton, and Dave Wheeler among others.  The show went well for us, we were pretty steady with meeting people, signing, and hawking our wares all day.  Show promoter Kevin Denesen did a great job once again, and his young son Tommy was our personal assistant all day.

Of course these exclusive Switch prints (free and signed) helped bring some of the crowd in that day.

Doing a 1970s Supergirl sketch commission at the show

Later that night, we all decompressed and had dinner at Cadillac Ranch at the Mall of America for some Juicy Lucys and more. There's a mechanical bull that you can ride there, and of course broken-leg-Keith just couldn't help himself as he was drunk with sparkling water/club soda or whatever the hell he likes to drink...

Yes, there is video of this if you're privileged enough to be on Keith's Facebook

Stolen picture from Brian. From the bottom left: Kevin (show promoter), his son Tommy, Kenneth Rocafort, me, Dave (Frank's brother), Amanda & Brian VanNierop, Adam Vermillion, and Frank Fosco.  Keith is not pictured here, probably looking for trouble near the mechanical bull.

Speaking of Brian and his daughter Amanda (who you don't really know): they actually came all the way from St. Louis to see all of us at the show.  He's a true fan and amazing supporter of The Switch.  He owns several pieces of artwork from all of us, and doesn't hesitate to travel here and there to see his favorite creators (I first met him 3 yrs ago at Alamo City Comic Con in St. Antonio, TX; he even drove to Metropolis, IL to Metro Comic Con back in January just to say hi).  So shout out to him.  He hung around all weekend with us, and we all had a great time.

Amanda, Brian, and Keith at the Mall of America

To end this week's blog, I thought I'd show one of the sketch commissions for a fan named Marty who came to the show.  He has a hilariously themed sketchbook full of original art by others:  Cthulhu as a pimp.  I present our girl Electricia getting, well, more than just bitch-slapped:

travel day

Friday the 4th is a travel day for me as I make my way to Minnesota to appear with Tom at the COMIC CARD show in Bloomington. We'll be giving away a free print to the first 100 people through the door or maybe at our table? I don't really know who we're giving them to, exactly. I just know there's no hoops to jump through. As long as you're one of the first 100 people, you're getting one somehow.

Anyway, here's what the print looks like, all finished up from the post a couple of weeks ago, for those who are wondering and can't be at the show. Tom and I had a lot of fun cranking it out and don't forget, this is actually a story page from the graphic novel so you're getting an out-of-context spoiler here.

As far as traveling goes, I'm not going to lie. If the show hadn't already paid for my airfare and hotel, I would cancel this appearance. I'm not fully recovered from my broken leg and surgery and the idea of navigating an airport and traveling to Minnesota when I can't walk yet (without crutches) makes me a bit apprehensive. By the end of each day, I still have quite a bit of swelling and discomfort. I've also developed my routines around the house that I rely on to function. My shower is set up specifically for me to use. My work area is arranged in a way where everything I need is easily accessible. And so on and so on. I guess it's a bit intimidating to leave this cocoon I've developed but dammit, nobody puts baby in a corner! So wish me luck as I tackle this journey and believe me, if I can drag my gimpy ass 1047 miles to Minnesota, I expect you all to bring some books for me to sign.

And maybe carry me around piggyback-style.

Thanks as always for your attention. See you next week!
Keith