Creepsville Trading Cards!? You Bet!

If you happen to have any of the first 4 printed issues of Creepsville V1, then you have seen these. For the first 4 issues, we did something that was unusual and loads of fun. The Creepsville trading cards were a dream come true for yours truly, who not only read comic books and monster movie magazines since the dawn of time but also collected non-sport trading comics.

Upon deciding to publish Creepsville, Steve Smith, owner and publisher of GoGo Comics was hard at work getting things together to make the comic a desirable item for comic book readers. His was not a simple job. Among his duties, Steve dealt directly with the talented artists who created the cover art for the first four issues as well as making sure everything got to that printer... and then getting me to look over the blueline printed pages and make necessary corrections.

Before the first issue was out, Steve threw in the idea of doing Creepsville trading cards and binding them in with the comics. My immediate response was, "YES!"

It would have been too much for our budget to actually cut the card sheets we printed into 6 individual cards and put them in a wrapper. BInding a small packet in would have been cost prohibitive. Very early on, it was determined that the cards in each issue would be presented as 6 cards printed on a single large sheet. You could leave the cards in the comic or carefully pull them out and cut them into normal sized cards.

With this new task, I gladly got to work. I decided the first 6 would introduce the 5 members of the Malone family as well as Rat's buddy, Percy. After that issue, I added a few new character cards, but the remaining cards had a very brief story on each of them. Meanwhile, Steve did the art for the backgrounds on the cards around the texts.

The cards actually helped me kill two birds with one stone. I could use them to introduce new characters that I planned on bringing into the stories in future issues. At least one of them was inspired by a strange dream I had. I'll get to explaining those cards as I bring them up here in the Blog, between the issues I post. In addition, I have been coloring the cards, which I intend to put up on the coming Creepsville Collected book.

As usual, this week's Monster Patrol is up, too! Have a great week, kiddies.

The Mysterious Return of the Amazing Mystery Me...

Sorry for disappearing, but the last couple of weeks were somewhat overwhelming. Last weekend, we went on a road trip to Ohio to take part in the wedding of the son of one of my wife's cousins. A lot of family was there and we had a great but exhausting time. When we got back, I realized how tired I was and took this one week break.


Months ago, I had told you all that I was at work on the Creepsville Collected book. I am still hard at work on that. It's a lot more work than I expected... though it's also a lot of fun. One facet of it I can be more open about is that I'm not as fast as I used to be. I've been coloring a lot of art, which gives me lots of time to think. I've decided to make the effort to show some Sneak Peeks from the project here and there. Still, I must admit that I tend to be a bit secretive of things I am working on. It's sort of like a superstition I have where I don't want to say too much about what's coming while I'm working on it, with a fear of my giving specifics will result in my pulling a project to do some additional tinkering. I have done that before.

Still, even though Creepsville continues to move forward, I will also continue to post original comics strips/stories here. I mentioned a few weeks back, that Agents of Peril will soon return and will continue until that first story is wrapped up.

Last Halloween, I had a great time finding material that resonated with that unofficial holiday and put them up here. A lot of you really seemed to like that crazy stuff. Believe me, I have lots more that I will be showing here.

Creepsville #1 ends today, by the way. Before #2 starts, next week I'll talk about the trading cards that were bound into the first four issues. Can you dig it?

Oh, and go Blackhawks!

12/27/2014 -- Christmas Is Over For Another Year -- Creepsville Marches On

Yep, the big holiday of the year is over... and you really know it is when all those decorations start coming down. The plus side of that is how it makes our house feel larger when all those lights, ornaments, and other decor are down and put away.

Once again, I'm up way too early, but I really seem to have my brain rewired to do so, getting each week's installment of Creepsville posted.

Meanwhile, Colette gave me a spanking new, nifty-rrific scanner... something I have needed for quite awhile. This is going to make working on the Creepsville Collected book so much easier to get done, not to mention fun (yes, I did say "fun" while referring to scanning).

Oh, and though the holidays will officially close on New Years Day, the Wednesday updates will continue.

So, here's this week's page. Click on the image to see a larger, easy to read version. Have a great and safe New Years celebration, too!

12/1/2014 -- Start the month with a Christmas Creepsville teaser.

Here's a teaser image from my upcoming Creepsville Collected book. The story is titled "Another Thing From Another World." I knew you'd get it.

Click on the image to see a larger version.

11/27/2014 - Eddie Einstein Daily Strips All Done

As I mentiond recently, my Eddie Einstein comic strip proposal has run its short course. This week I have posted the last of the daily strips, with a common theme of Eddie in the dating scene. Next week, will be the actual last of Eddie with the two Sunday comics.

After that, there will be loads of things that I have pulled screaming out of the vault here at the Reindeer Ranch.

For example: I'm bringing back my Agents of Peril strip. While it took a break, I still continued working on it. When it comes back, I'm hoping to also have it presented in a way that it will be easier to read the whole story so far. This Blog site's design cabilities are good looking but fairly limited for comics work. It's a real pain in the patootie having to push the links on each page which will take you back, but you have to wait as you go backwards from the most recent strip to the beginning.

Also coming will be a new Creepsville strip, of which I have quite a bit of material.

There's a lot more, but I hesitate to say much about those yet, preferring to reveal names and premises when they are just about to appear.

And, of course, there is the Creepsville Collected book, which continues to move forward slowly. I can hardly wait until I get it truly done. Besides offering it to comic stores through direct market distributors, I'm planning on going to the Chicago Alternative Comics Expo this coming June. This will be the first comic oriented show I plan on going to since my days at HERO Illustrated magazine. I'll have more details as we get closer to that time (after the dreaded Chicago winter).

That's all for now, except... have a great and safe Thanksgiving. I expect you all be back here this Saturday for more Creepsville. Meanwhile, take a few minutes and read those Eddie Einstein strips, true believers. Click on the iamges to see the larger legible versions.

11/17/2014 -- This Week's Creepsville... A Day Late

Sorry for the one day delay, but I had computer bugaboo issues to fix (which are no more). Besides that, we had to get the last of the leafs cleaned up in the backyard, before it snowed. The snow came, and fortunately not much of it.. and those pesky tree dandruff are all on our burn pile. Whew!

I also went though two storage containers from my attic, pulling out loads of art for the Creepsville Collected project (space permitting).

As usual, click on the image below to see the legible version of this week's Creepsville comic page from the first issue.

Wednesday will also see more Eddie Einstein daily strips.

10/12/2014: This Week's Creepsville Page

Welcome back for another page from the first story of the first issue of Creepsville. If you're a newbie here, each week I will be posting pages from my Creepsville comic book series, while I continue working on my major goal right now: The Creepsville Collected book.

At this point, I'm still inking a couple of stories that were only partially inked years ago, including the 6th issue, a Christmas story. A s for the status of this project, all I can say is that I'm working on all that and will definitely let you know when the book is available.

Also, I seem to be doing something right here... What I mean by that is that the stats for this blog's readership are growing quickly. I truly appreciate your time, looking in on what I'm up to. Even after the book is published, I have a lot of plans for this page, with all-new comic stories, including new Creepsville adventures.

I should also note that I will continue posting more material than usual due to this being October, with Halloween looming on the horizon. Check in during the weekdays and you may find some additional surprises posted.

Having said all that, click on the image below to see the larger legible picture. While you do that, I'm finally going up to the attic and bring down Halloween decorations... if that full-size Dracula figure we got this year lets me. Ulp!

10/05/2014: This Week's Creepsville Page Plus King-Cat Comics John Porcellino the DVD

October... and Halloween is upon us. I'm sure it won't surprise you to hear that Halloween is my favorite holiday. As it came into view, I started getting grandiose ideas for an all-new big Halloween story for this blog. Honestly, though I would dearly like to do that, the timing is too late. Add to that the Herculean task of the Creepsville Collected book. That must be my main focus now (reminded Frank to himself, pounding his fragile skull).  So, I'll hold onto those story ideas until the summer (possibly earlier) and have it ready to go next year, after the book is done.

Whew! That was close. Anyways... here's this week's Creepsville page. Click on the image to see a larger version. Meanwhile, I'm still going to get the decorations out and get some scary Halloween stuff up at the Laughing Reindeer ranch. I will still have some stuff up here, too.

 

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE DEPT: This is a rarity for me, posting an updated Laughing Reindeer blog, but I just have to alert all of you that Dan Stafford's documentary, Root Hog Or Die, about John Porcellino and King-Cat Comics is out on DVD. It's an eye opening look at John's life, creatively, philosophically and surviving illnesses, among other things and how they all came together in King-Cat Comics. There's so much I didn't know about John, who turned up at my comic book store in St Charles, IL, back in the late 80s with his photocopied comic (he still photocopies it, but collections are in trade paperback or even hardcover). I liked it from the giddyup and encouraged my customers to try it out. I'm actually in the documentary for a short time, too. In making this movie, filmmaker Dan Stafford joined John on a coast to coast self-propelled tour, wherein Stafford had a chance to talk to a good number of folks who know John. The DVD (which includes the 104 minute documentary, 40 minutes of bonus features, and a new 8-page comic about John and Dan on the road) is available now from Kilgore Books (http://KilgoreBooks.com) for only $15.00. I still can happily encourage everyone to read King-Cat... and get this DVD.

 



Creepsville Progress Report (Plus Tidbits)

Things are moving along nicely on the Creepsville book. Very soon now... wait, I've got to stop saying that. It won't be very soon and it's not the artwork that's holding it up. It's the writing, scanning and putting together the whole book. Still, even the original comics must be scanned again, followed by lots of new stuff. When I talk about very soon, just pretend I'm Video Watchdog honcho Tim Lucas talking about his Mario Bava book. That took a long time, but it was worth it.

When the time is right, I will start posting material from Creepsville #6, the Christmas issue that was never published, right here in this blog. Soon afterwards, I will be offering the collected book for sale. I'm also hoping that it will be carried in local comic and book stores, of course.

Right now I'm debating on showing the whole story or just a good sized chunk of it. I'm leaning towards the latter. I change my mind on this point all the time. Initially though, I was strongly leaning on giving it away. If I choose to do that, odds are I will also serialize a page each week.

It may be a bit early saying this, but after I do whatever I'm going to do with the 6th issue contents online, I'll also post some material from what I've been calling the 7th issue... though it isn't really that. I'll explain when it goes up.

Besides those original stories, there are loads more materials (artwork, notes, etc.) created for or had inspired Creepsville all along the way. This will mean lots more scanning on my part. I'm also hoping that the finished book will also provide at least a glimpse on the creative process of making comic books (at least my creative technique). Maybe I sound a bit pretentious, but I'm honestly trying to make this more than just a collection of back issues.

To say the least, I have my work cut out for me.

That gets me to the "Tidbits" of this Blog posting. While I've been digging through art, I have found what I consider interesting bits and pieces of artwork, some of which will make it to the book while others won't.

For the moment, I thought I would put a few pieces up that you might find interesting. The first two items are covers for a modest publication I was going to call Ruckus, a name I've been wanting to use for a long time.

Besides Creepsville, I also created a fun concept that I called Monster Patrol. I have a full length first issue done and pencils for the second. While I was thinking about what I would do with it back when I got that issue done, my good friend Chris Ecker contacted me, asking me if I'd like to do an 8 page back up story for Big Bang Comics, which was published by Image. I've told the origin story of this team before on this blog. Read it if you haven't by looking through the subject list on the right side of the screen and click on "Monster Patrol."  

So, I still had a full length first issue and didn't know what to do with it. For a short period, I was toying with breaking that story down in to a 4 or 5 part adventure in Ruckus, in a 8 1/2" by 5.5" mini-comics size. Perhaps I was influenced at that time by a visit to my house by my friend John Porcellino, creator of King-Cat Comics. John had stopped by one night while he was going on a cross country tour.  [Check out John's blog; MAYBE BLOGGING WILL HELP at http://johnporcellino.blogspot.com]. He has links to his online store, too.

Doing mini-comics is not alien to me. In fact, years ago I had done mini-comics featuring several characters who ended up in supporting roles in Creepsville.

I also wanted to try something that I had seen on other mini-comics... my plan was to present covers with interesting images that might not suggest anything in particular specific until you actually read the comic. I wanted it to be unusual, a little mysterious, and deliberately vague thus the cover doesn't say Monster Patrol. Eventually, I held off doing it because I had determined that Monster Patrol is a comic about giant monsters. I wanted to see those creatures presented big.

Monster Patrol will be back... Sounds very James Bond.

The third piece here is artwork I forgot about which looks like it was intended for a set of buttons. There were 3 buttons each for Creepsville and Agents of Peril. I'm only showing Rat and Percy right now. I'll get the others scanned and up on this Blog soon. Oh, and the Agents of Peril story will be back and will actually come to an end... though I have plans for at least two more stories after that. I will be working on these forever...

As usual, click on the images to see larger versions.

Also, please let me know if you enjoy this sort of stuff. I have quite a bit more I can show you all.

I've spent a lot of time writing the blog this week but have plenty more work to do right now on the Creepsville Collected book. Until next time, back to work... and "Toodles!"

-- F Kurtz