Yes, Gentle Reader, THC #5 has arrived! The world can now exhale its collectively-held breath. Although not all at once, because that's apt to cause some kind of weather disturbance and a spike in CO2 levels. Seriously people, stop exhaling. Think of the polar bears.
Anywho, it's currently available at Everybody Reads Bookstore in Lansing. After I get the next run printed, I'll be putting it in Hollow Mountain (East Lansing), Red Fox (Lansing West Side), and Vault of Midnight (Ann Arbor), along with gorgeous reprints of THC 1-4 from Greko Printing.
Anywho, it's currently available at Everybody Reads Bookstore in Lansing. After I get the next run printed, I'll be putting it in Hollow Mountain (East Lansing), Red Fox (Lansing West Side), and Vault of Midnight (Ann Arbor), along with gorgeous reprints of THC 1-4 from Greko Printing.
Behold the Majesty; quail, fool mortals;
prostrate thyselves, peons; etc, etc.
I've also just printed Joe Haines' second installment in the Bone Boy series. Yes, you've probably seen this before; we here at Blind Alley Comics operate on the "Disney Home Video" principle - if something doesn't sell well the first time, just wait a year, then re-issue it like it's the first time anyone's seen it:
Pictured: "Peter Pan - now for the first time on video
(except for the eight hundred other times)!"
Welp, those are printed. Good job, everybody! What's next...?
Blind Alley Comics is entering some exciting new territory in the last grinding months of Winter 2014-15. Currently, Joe Haines and I are hard at work on our new collaborative effort, Die Katze, a gothic horror comic featuring cats, turn-of-the-century occultism, and Lovecraftian overtones. I'm doing the story and penciling, Joe's doing the inking. He keeps saying he's "just tracing", but his obsessive, crosshatchy style is what's going to lend this comic the feel of German Expressionism, that gradation from lurid highlight to impenetrable gloom facilitated by his fuzzy static of pen strokes. We're experimenting with the medium, attempting new ways of stacking images, trying to break out of the assembly-line panel building [I've] trapped myself in. I'm about to go off on a tangent about comic book panels and the fascinating problems one can run into - I'll leave that for another blog post.
Secondly: a website! An actual website! Well, eventually. You see, we've been trying to build a website for Bone Boy for a couple of years now, hoping to eventually expand to a Human Cannonball website and eventually a master Blind Alley Comics website. A Bone Boy website was in the works for a while, but the effort petered out due to miscommunication with our website builder and lack of initiative. Thankfully, we happened to stumble across a local web developer, Pablo Contreras, who offered to help us with our website. We're still dealing with a couple of [money] issues before we can re-focus on designing the website, so it won't be for a couple of months, but we'll be ready when we get there.
I'm also looking to find more conventions - cheap to free conventions, that is. I recently attended the MSU Comics Forum Artist Alley, and it re-ignited my interest in exhibiting again. I know comics shops are always looking for attractions to bring in the customers, and having local artists over for signing gigs is not a bad way to go. Hopefully I can find some interested parties, and build up my rep and exposure in the area.
What else...oh yeah, I'm gathering work for a local pulp magazine I plan to put out in the next couple of years. The idea is to produce a magazine-size publication of comics and written stories, mostly sci-fi or adventure, although other interesting stories will be considered. I'm not sure if it'll be under the Blind Alley Comics label; Joe seems noncommital about the idea so far. I've got a bite from at least two writers. Whatever gaps remain, I'll fill in myself. I've got plenty of comics ideas that won't really fit anywhere else, and this will be a great way to showcase them. Here's some covers I've mocked up, that will give you the general idea:
These represent both sides of Tales to Befuddle: the humor inherent in the old sci-fi stories, whether intended or not, mixed with the sense of wonder and terror at the unknowns of technology and the universe. Science fiction needs to go back to where it began - not as stupid "tough guys fight monsters" stories, but as actual speculation into the future of mankind, and the sort of high-mindedness where even bugeyed aliens with lasers illustrate a larger point. To give you an idea, I am still a huge fan of old Michael Crichton books: Jurassic Park, Congo, and Sphere all take real, hard science - nearly incomprehensible to laymen - and use it to create a fantastical situation, where hubris is the fatal flaw. That's sci-fi to me. Of course, TBF Magazine will devote plenty of space to action, horror, and just plain weird stories, too. Be aware that this is still a long time in the future, but I'm gathering the forces slowly but surely.
Beyond that the plans of Blind Alley Comics are pretty vague. Now that we've found a printing company and a potential builder for our website, we're picking up steam again. Hopefully we can keep that momentum. In the meantime, look forward to the new Human Cannonball and Bone Boy stories & merchandise, soon to be available in a comic book retailer near you. Mozel Tov!
Rick Out.
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