Th3rd World Studios Blog

Blip bleep blorp blorp boodle oot.

That’s R2D2 talk for “peddle yo’ butt down to you LCS and pick up the latest issue of Space Doubles.” In case you missed it before, here’s a preview:

http://www.th3rdworld.com/previews/space_doubles/issue03/

Lots to say about this page, so let’s dive into the pool:

The first thing you might notice about this page are the credits, and the 10,000 colorists we used for this issue. Alright, 10,000 is hyperbole, but at the time it sure felt like we were using that many colorists. Here’s what happened: at the time coloring on this issue needed to get under way, Julio and I were under a tight deadline. Back then, we were attached to a different publisher, and this publisher told us he needed issues #1 & #2 completed by a specific date. By the time Julio finished inking issue #2, it was obvious to both of us that we needed to find several colorists to finish this issue on time. [For various reasons, the issue #1 colorists weren’t available to tackle issue #2.] So Julio placed a “Help Wanted” ad on Digitalwebbing and we received A LOT of interest. We ended up chosing the four colorists you see listed in the credits. We tried as much as possible to get these colorists to produce a uniform style, but we also realized that was a fool’s errand since all four colorists were working on different parts of this 2nd issue simultaneously. Inevitably, there are going to be noticeable stylistic differences. In the end, coloring on issue #2 was finished ahead of schedule, but I’m interested to see if readers can recognize when the issue shifts to a different colorist. Again, each colorist worked on a specific section of the issue, and the credits list them in the order of the pages they worked on. So like Julio already wrote, Massimo Capizzi colored page 1. Do you think he also colored page 2? Or has John Hunt taken over? What do you think?

If you look at panel 3, you’ll see it’s shaped like a heart, emphasizing the affection Mack and Beth secretly have for each other. That heart panel wasn’t in the script. It’s yet another example of the creativity Julio brought to Omega Chase’s panel layout and design.

Mack asks for a hand grenade in panel 4. Of course, he’s in 1881 Texas, and his deputy has no idea what the hell a hand grenade is. In actuality, hand grenades had been in use since the 15th century… but not extensively and not in the United States. It really wasn’t until World War I that hand grenades became common warfare ordnance. So someone living in the American frontier in the late 19th century would not comprehend the term “hand grenade” (especially not someone as intellectually dense as Ted).

Finally, a few readers elsewhere have commented that in the final panel of the page there is NO WAY that Mack should be able to break that chain link in that manner. No matter how strong the man, he can’t break a chain link in half just by yanking it. All I have to say is what one person may perceive as a physical impossibility, I perceive as a clue.

I’ll say no more.

Hey all,

Been busy, busy, busy lately. Well, pretty much always now. You know how it is.

The newest SuperFogeys book, “Collected Works #2 - The Techno Shuffle” is done and at the printers. Those who have ordered a copy will get it soon!

In the print version, I have an exclusive 6-page story entitled “Captain Spectacular and Star Maiden in the Inevitable Dimension” that fills in some blanks on some story points in book 2. You can check out a one-page preview of the story here.

***

FREE BOOK!

Now then, there is another version of book 2 out there, but this one is a digital version you can get for FREE.

And while you can’t get the Captain Spectacular/Star Maiden story in the free book, you CAN get an exclusive-to-digital short story entitled “The Secret Origin of the Space Pig.” And I’ll just go ahead and preview that one right here:

So, where can you get the rest of the story, along with the rest of “The Techno Shuffle” collected?

Go on over to The SuperFogeys Collected Works #2 on Wowio to download your copy right now.

And hey, go ahead and grab The SuperFogeys Collected Works #1 on Wowio while you’re at it! Doesn’t hurt to have the whole story! It’s all free!

If you’re don’t already have a Wowio account, don’t worry. It only takes a minute or so. Wowio is a free ebook site, so it’s not going to ask for any credit card info and you won’t be paying a dime.

What WILL happen though is that for every person who downloads a copy of the book, I’ll get 50 cents. It’s a great, small way to support the SuperFogeys.

(Unfortunately, at this time, Wowio is not available to anyone outside of the U.S. I hear they’re working on it though.)

Thanks again for everyone’s terrific support! Much more to come!

Brock

At number 300 for February 08 sales, but 300 is still top 300. Details can be found in this excellent break down by John Jackson Miller

There is nice bit where he mentions us specifically in the analysis.

“One new publisher made the list for the first time: the numerically named Th3rdworld, whose Space Doubles #1 came in 300th place.

While Th3rdworld’s offering was at the $2.99 level, historically, smaller publishers have generally had higher price points — and one partial result of the leaner major-publisher offerings last month may have been seen in the average cost of comics in the Top 300.”

This is only our second offering as a publisher, so our hope is that we can improve upon these numbers in the coming months with the new books we are working on. We of course realize that it was a down month for the big two(Marvel and DC), but there is a lot of good stuff we are excited about that we should be able to start talking about in the next few months.

Here’s the page that makes everyone do a double-take. The issue’s first 20 pages involve Mack on the Texas frontier in 1881… and then on Page 21 the scene turns to…

Two 21st century paper pushers in Gaithersburg, Maryland?

What the—!?

Some readers of the hardcopy of the first issue told me they almost skipped this page because they weren’t expecting it.

Ron Marz (who very generously spent two hours with me last summer detailing his thoughts about this first issue) felt this page should have been moved to the very end of the issue. He argued that this page was a more appropriate cliffhanger than what we used as the final page of the issue. I felt this page needed to be here in order to break up the Texas scenes. On page 22 Mack returns to Providence Fields, and I felt this Gaithersburg page helped create a better sense of “time passing” than if I followed Page 20 with the next Texas page. In other words, I felt it would have been a rough transition going from Page 20 directly to a page presenting the next day at Providence Fields.

Well, once we get to page 25, I’ll let you all be the judge.

Speaking of Gaithersburg, here’s a “WEIRD COINCIDENCE” Story…

Unbeknowst to me at the time I scripted the first page, Julio actually lived in Gaithersburg, Maryland several years ago before moving back to his native Argentina. Much earlier (in 1991-2) I lived in Germantown, Maryland, a town adjacent to Gaithersburg. There is a specific reason why this page takes place in Gaithersburg that will become clear by the end of issue #4; I’d rather not reveal the reason now.

But imagine Julio and my surprise when we learned that we lived in close proximity to each other, several years apart.

On a more pathetic note, a friend of mine who currently lives in Gaithersburg told me that when he attempted to purchase Omega Chase #1 back in November from his Gaithersburg retailer, he learned that the retailer didn’t carry the issue.

*roll eyes*

I can’t even tell you how huge of a relief it was for issue 1 of Space Doubles to hit stands. Some of the stories for that book have been done since early 2005, while others literally just got finished at the end of last year. We definitely learned a lot about the process of creating a book with so many creators involved on this one. I definitely won’t rule out doing it again, because by and large it was a pretty awesome experience. Scott did an amazing job amassing the talent and I can’t thank Justin enough for the great job he did editing this series. And to all the creators, you know who you are, thank you. On top of this I gotta say thank you to the fans and retailers who stuck with this book, same goes for those of you who didn’t know it would be arriving at your stores via the Diamond over shipping process. Hopefully you sell both copies and order some more!

Issue 2 is currently at the printers and should come out by the end of the month so long as there are no snags.

I am up late tonight doing something that I absolutely dread, which is the bookkeeping. Sending invoices paying bills and taxes and all that fun stuff. Fortunately or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, I got to make a pretty excel doc with lots of cool little functions, set to do math automatically. It’s kind of nice to see raw numbers on the book sales even if they are sort of premature at the moment. I am not and never have been a numbers guy, me and math parted ways a looong ago. I was doing ok, that is until the tax part and schedule FHZ franchise backing report syndrome stuff came up. Then I went back to frantically going through my list of websites I frequent, digging through the Orioleshangout.com to gleam more knowledge about pending trades and all that good stuff. Anything to prolong the inevitable.

Hot diggity dog. If you haven’t pre-ordered this sucka, no problemo. If you LCS doesn’t have it on the shelf, you can still check out a preview here, then after asking yourself “damn” why didn’t order this, check with your friendly LCS proprietor to get you one ASAP!

This page introduces Riverhill’s landlord, Roger Highsmith. For this character design, I instructed Julio to find an image of novelist Tom Wolfe in his characteristic white suit, white hat and cane. THAT is Roger Highsmith, I told Julio. The distinguished Southern gentlemen who stands out from the riff-raff around him.

And here’s the intial Roger Highsmith sketch that Julio submitted to me way back when (3 years, mi amigo! Woof!):

Just wanted to let you all know that SuperFogeys Book 2 just became available for pre-order at the Th3rd World store!

PRE-ORDER THE SECOND SUPERFOGEYS COLLECTION

Now, what sorts of goodies can you expect in the print collection? Well, I’m sure there will be some surprises, but the one thing I can confirm is an all-new story entitled “Captain Spectacular and Star Maiden in the Inevitable Dimension” written by me and drawn by Julio Molina-Muscara of Omega Chase fame.

What’s that story all about, you ask? Check tomorrow’s SuperFogeys strip (Thursday, Jan. 17) and all will be made clear. Sucker’s gonna be awesome.

Also, you’ll note that you can buy Book 1 again along with Book 2 and you’ll receive a discount. Just in case you missed out the last time.

And one more thing…

Ever been on a different computer and wanted to check out the latest SuperFogeys but couldn’t remember the web address? Wonder no longer. Simply go to…

www.superfogeys.com

…and you’re there. Much easier, no?

Hope this finds you all well. 2007 was an interesting year and I’m hoping 2008 is a little less interesting, but just as fun. I turn 31 on Sunday. Can you believe that? Why am I drawing old people in their underwear at my age? I mean, just what is wrong with me?

Ah, well.

Feel free to address any concerns on the books or ask any questions in the comments below. I realize we had our fair share of hiccups with the last pre-orders, but we learned a lot from that and we won’t be seeing those kinds of problems again.

-Brock

P.S. - I’ll get back to those commentaries soon! (I hope)

My script for Page 13 begins with this description of Riverhill:

Page 13 contains very little words, but it is an important page because it emphasizes what a dirty, unruly, immoral town Riverhill is. The streets are littered with garbage no one wants to clean up. Some of the stores are empty and have been vandalized (broken windows, store signs falling off, gaping holes). Not all of the stores are like this, but enough for the reader to notice. Whereas Providence Fields is a clean, respectable town, Riverhill is the exact opposite, and the artwork needs to convey that.

Julio very keenly understood how I wanted him to convey Riverhill. I think that first panel says it all. Everything you need to know about Riverhill is presented in that first panel. I actually scripted the man in the 2nd panel who’s hunched over and vomiting.

Now when it came time to letter the issue, Thomas [Mauer, our very capable letterer] wanted the first 2nd panel caption to be moved into the 1st panel, and I just put my foot down and told him to leave all the captions in that 2nd panel. Thomas was concerned that those three captions were “crowding” the 2nd panel. It’s a concern I appreciate, but I REALLY wanted that 1st panel to have no dialogue or captions in it. I wanted a “silent” panel so the reader can see what kind of town Riverhill is without being distracted by words.

By the way, Mack’s horse is named Charlie, and the 3rd issue introduces a different Charlie who is my favorite supporting character in Omega Chase.