Atomic Robo #3 & Punisher War Journal #14

I don’t really know where to go with this week’s blog. Its nearly lunchtime, but it doesn’t feel that way because the Widget had a delayed school opening due to the snow. I’m not popping acid reflux meds like candy and worrying if I’ll get my Punisher page done today, and I’m not trying to cram the rest of my life into 5 minutes a day .

I hate snow. (Just want to throw that out there.)

I just wrestled myself out of the sumo where I was enjoying an hour or so of Team Fortress 2. And I’m thinking off all the little things that I need to get done today. Brownies, pediatric dentist, see if my eye doctor is still alive after 5 years, print Team Robo Holiday cards, etc.

The Punisher was done as of Wednesday night. MAN was that an intense experience! Are you guys familiar with the 24hr Comic Challenge? It was just like that, only for nine weeks.

As always with these things I learned a lot and had some fun. Matt Fraction writes a very enjoyable story and is great to work with. Our editor, Aubrey Sitterson, was fantastic, and I had a really good time grabbing lunch with him while I was in NYC for the Big Apple National a few weeks ago. I hope I get to work with these guys again. It was a real treat.

Although Cory Walker is still credited as the artist, you can see a few of my sample pages here. Keep in mind that I had zero time to learn any of the characters and these were the very first pages to get done. So I’m not in love with them. It wasn’t until I got about halfway through Issue 15 that I started to feel comfortable. On a cool note, I got to redesign Silver Sable and an old AIM robot. That was great.

The Little Robot What Could . . .

And now I’m back to Atomic Robo. Perhaps you wonder where we go from here? Well for started, Red5 is putting together a kick-ass anthology for Free Comic Book Day 2008. They want Atomic Robo to be the spotlight feature for this and so I’m working on the cover for the anthology. This will also be the cover for the Vol. 1 TPB (out in May or April of 2008).

From there we move into Atomic Robo Vol. 2. The mini-series is plotted out and the script for the first issue is finished, (until I draw stuff that Brian never wrote and he has to redo it all).

At this point we are thinking that all subsequent Robo mini-series will be period based. For example, Vol2 is all based around the events of WWII. From there we are looking at a Roaring Twenties volume, a 1950’s jet-era air pirates thing, and a bunch of other stuff.

Between the end of Vol1 and the release of Vol2 we are hoping to have the Atomic Robo website up and running. Brian and I are both RPG nerds, and we want this to function as an on-line source book to the wider Robo world. We hope to offer free comics, in depth looks at the characters and environments, and provide background details that just would not make it into the comics.

We really want to integrate the digital and print media. I’d also like for it to be a place where robot lovers of all shade and breed can come together and be dorks together.

Speaking of Atomic Robo, Issue #3 is getting some nice feedback. With the great lack of reviews for Issue #2 we were sort of worried. But we shouldn’t have been. Here’s a butt-load of links to places talking about Robo #3.

Silver Bullet Comics: “The best by far was one of the nerds stating he did his doctoral thesis on solar death ray design. “The technology had potential for non-apocalyptic applications. In theory.” The fact that Robo gave him crap about it made things even better. And who doesn’t love robotic mummies making their way onto the scene.”

We made the Staff Pick in Diamond Previews (though they are talking about Issue #5, but who cares).

Giant Killer Mantis says: “Very entertaining. . .the ride is a doosey. The action is brisk, the dialog is enjoyably snarky, and the wildly imaginative ideas are incessant. I really like this. We’ll definitely need more after this initial six-issue run concludes. Recommended!”

Gutter Bleed says : “I’m in love with Atomic Robo”

Pop Syndicate kindly adds, “Scott Wegener is a superior talent, and captures just the right expressive cartooniness for material like this.”

Comics & Other Imaginary Things: “Atomic Robo brings me great happiness. Amidst the piles of dreary Spiderman stories and monotonous ‘everything that happens in the comic book will change the world as you know it’ tales, Atomic Robo makes me laugh. It is so rare that comic books make me laugh anymore, and usually it’s an occasional joke amongst a bleaker background. This comic keeps me smiling the entire time I read it.”

The Rise of Nicoli: “This is my favorite book right now. . .There is tons of fun action, drama, and comedy wrapped up in each issue.”

Also check out Poptown!, and Geek of Doom.

Phew.

The signifigence of making the Top 300 didn’t really sink in last week until Scott Chitwood from Red5 sent us this in the mail:

“Coming in with only 0.05% of the overall unit sales for the top 300 comics was Red 5 Comics. This new publisher released its first comic in October with “Atomic Robo” #1 which came in at rank #284 with an estimated 3,689 units sold to retailers. For a new and unknown publisher this is a remarkably strong start and is roughly on par with the estimates sales of established titles like “PvP,” “30 Days of Night” and “Wasteland.”

I still don’t totally get it, but the people I know working in this industry generally look like their eyes are going to pop out of their heads when they hear about this. I guess that’s good, right? Hopefully Atomic Robo and Red5 Comics will continue to “wow” and “amaze” people so I can keep doing this for a living.

On the life front, my first few days off were not so awesome. I spent several hours at the mall looking for a replacement winter coat, and on Day 2 I spent 4 hours on the phone with tech support rooting around inside my router so I could play X-box Live with Clevinger -only to find out that the game we wanted to play was broken (my copy I mean). I got the big ‘ol fake tree put up on Day 3. It’s the kind that opens like an umbrella and already has the lights on it. I love it. If I could buy one with the ornaments already hung too, I would. I like Christmas (sort of), but I’ve never liked the decorating and the tree shenanigans. Mrs. McCheezburga Head likes the tree a little too much I’m afraid . . .

Being on “vacation” for a freelancer is not the same as for you normal folk. It means I’ll only be working 6-9hrs a day, 7 days a week, until Christmas. I’ve got a back-log of overdue commissions, commitments to Red5, and a really cool Zombie webcomic that I’m really getting worried about, to deal with.

Wish me luck.

OH!! PS: Robo swag is online! I’m working on getting the link added to my webpage that will take you to me totally awesome shirt guys . . .they guys are awesome not the shirts. . .well . . wait . .

. . .and other stuff, like Robo sketchbooks, etc.

I’ll probably have it all worked out by next Monday’s blog.

RANDOM SPLENDOR

Imagineer Helps Design Cute, Killer Robot

How Superman Should Have Ended. Its still funny after all this time.

In my search for reference for PWJ I found this. And the nightmares just won’t stop.

Umm. . . .

370-some-odd days left, right?