Comikaaaaaaaazzeee!!!

Ira is at booth 4105 at this weekend's Comikaze Expo! Come catch the finished book and I will even do a little doodle for you. It's today and tomorrow at the LA convention center.

Don't miss it!

Or if you can't come out this weekend you can always get my book on lulu.com

You can also follow me on Facebook and I will be putting updates up there!

<3 Emily McGuiness

The Press Comes to Town

This fine morning I was interviewed by the gracious gentlemen over at The Comic Book Pitt. See my long winded answers here:

The Comic Book Pitt

I have enjoyed the marketing process just as much as making the book. I can see why people get addicted to fame. It's nice to hear people ask your opinion and care about the answer.

The Convention of Doom!

I am in the throws of preparing for the biggest event of the year! San Diego always brings joy and fear into the heart of every comics lover. I am no exception.

Though I will not be going with my art collective this year, I will be at San Diego Comic Con with Flesk Publications at booth 5019. I get to hang out with my old professor Mark Schultz, a true pleasure. I will be signing books on Saturday and Sunday so come get a copy and tell me how awesome Ira looks in person!

I'll be walking the floor and greeting all the fellow starving artists and strugglers out there so pop me an email if you want to meet up!

It's Up now!

By a miracle of friendship my trusty editor, Megan made sure to lend me her awesome new computer and finish up my book. Now it's up on Lulu.com, you can follow the link up there. It's available for sale with all of the bells and whistles. How I love seeing it for sale!  Go and enjoy it now!

Crawling Forward Inch by Inch

I got my computer working again for a decent period of time and got almost all of it done before it exploded again. I was so close to finishing it! I had numbered all the pages and got in all my extras. My cover is finished and I even have a new cover, complete with ISBN number. I am so proud!

So stay tuned. I am inching toward the finish line.

In the mean time I am taking over The Comics Industry Dinner. We will be meeting June 30th this month at Swingers Diner. If you're a comics professional email me for details!

Pitfalls.

This economy has hit everyone hard, not least of all me. I lost my job back in January and have been struggling since then to make ends meet. While I have been pressing ahead with my art collective, and could not stop the momentum of trying to finish my book, I find myself struggling to at last see ink to page!

I will not be deterred at this last stage, as you can see I met my Kickstarter goal, but I have been plagued by set backs. After meeting Stan Lee and heeding his advice for a new cover, I have been struggling for weeks to come up with a concept. Now that I have it realized, my computer is intent on exploding and I am racing to find a job to be able to afford to replace it.

My letterer has finished all the pages! No mean feat! Now it's up to me to work out the details and get my vision on paper. If I must crawl over broken glass I will see this accomplished. It's only one stumbling block on the path to personal greatness. No matter how many times I must literally beat my computer into working I will get this book DONE!

I am literally at the point where I am praying for a little karmatic mercy so I thought I would post to my blog in order to put it out there into the Universe.

The Aftermath of Raising Money

As you can see on my side bar there I have successfully funded my book! Now I have to get the most for my money. I have already pre-sold 50 copies and so I have to make sure I cover that and can get them out at the most effective price. I know my model is a bit backward. I'm supposed to build myself up online before I ever attempt a physical book, but I can't help wanting it in my hands!

I want to feel my accomplishment and be able to physically hand it to someone when they ask about it. Trust me if I wasn't unemployed I would be revving up my marketing engine to go full blast with this thing. The sad truth is that my star has not reached the epic level needed to live off my art. Shocking I know. So I must husband my resources carefully so I can reach the people that really matter.


I'm working on a new cover, and I have a sticker design in place, if I can get the scanner working I will have a sneak peek for you. I am also working on all of the commissions for the Kickstarter campaign! They gave me a bunch of fun requests for their art.

More later!

The Hottest Show on the West Coast

So tonight is the gallery opening at Qusqo. Hopefully we will not be blown away by the wind. It's in West LA and we will be setting up shop at 5:30pm but the real party starts at 7:30pm where there will be wine tastings. We will be promoting Ties and having a donation drive for Japan.

Here is the address:

Qusqo

11633 Santa Monica Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90025
(Near the 405 Fwy,   Between Federal and Barrington Avenue)

T:  310-312-3800       F:  310-312-3807

Hope to see you there!

Dateline: Lettering

I feel lettering is one of the most important parts of a book, which is why I don't do it myself. HA! My letterer Terry Blas is hard at work making my book look beautiful. It's the last and most important stage of the process. Paraphrasing a film quote I heard today, You will make three graphic novels before you're done: there is the book you write, the book you draw and the book you letter.

I know Terry is doing an awesome job. I will post more images when my computer is back up and running.

Ties Prepares for Peru

With the upcoming art gallery show at the restaurant Qusqo I am preparing another image in a similar style to my book. The Catwoman print was the first one:

 Phoenix will be the next one. The prints will be available to buy over at the Latchkey Studios Store. I think they came out rather well. If you have any suggestions for more characters in this style let me know.

As always if you want to help support the cause go over to Kickstarter and get things started!

Update: Japan

With everything happening in Japan and my canceled trip to Dubai I was a bit dispirited about ever reaching my Kickstarter goal. I know that sounds completely selfish. We should of course help out people who are facing a much larger crisis than getting a book published.

I shouldn't despair yet. I still have lots of time and I am just glad that our group members over at Latchkey Studios are okay. They are irreplaceable.

Malcolm is keeping up with what's happening. He's in Tokyo and reporting on his site : Dog Eaters.

Give Me a Kick On Kickstarter

As you can see by the widget next door I have started a Kickstarter campaign to help fund the printing of Ira's story. You get to watch a hilarious message from me pleading for your help.

The great part about Kickstarter is you get great rewards for donating!  So check it out today and help Ira's dream come true.


You can also now friend Ira on Facebook and get all his witticisms for free.

Rock out Seattle. I hope it will be another great day tomorrow at the emerald city con.

A Sweeter Flavor of Sample Pages

I wanted to share some sample pages with you. With the book almost done I wanted to get you a taste of what the final pages look like. Very Exciting!

Backmatter

I feel it's always important to have a little bit of process in the back of a full graphic novel. People get a peek into the process and it's good to share what you do, help others learn and entertain.  Below are 2 of the back matter pages showing some old character designs. It's interesting to see how the characters have evolved.

Enjoy!

The Basement

Ties is showing up at The Basement gallery show this weekend. Ira has new bookmarks out and the preview books will be showing up for, hopefully, the last event. I am coming to the end of the book! All pages have been scripted and I am inking my heart out to get the rest done.


In completely different news, I go to the farmer's market every week (now that I'm unemployed it's my one indulgence) and I always find something new. This week it was a salt vendor. Yes you read that correctly. He had many varieties of salts, including smoked salt and even offered to host a salt tasting party. He was also selling these planks of hickory for home smoking. Hopefully I won't lite the house on fire.

I also found these unusual fruit. They are white inside and have big black seeds. They taste a bit like a pear. Can anyone name them? Just curious.


So now you have a little glimpse into where I find inspiration for the things Ira does. You meet the strangest people out there!

Emily Makes it on Ellen

And the world doesn't come to a halt.




So they cut out most of the good stuff where I was making jokes and generally being witty. Looks like they mostly wanted to see Scott sitting there looking dumb. Not that you could really hear us or anything. We were more ciphers for J-Lo to be funny with Ellen talking in her ear. I have to admit I was a little upset that there wasn't really a job. After getting laid off I was hoping to be able to just jump into something even better and more fabulous.

So much for the Hollywood Stars in my eyes. Back to Ira and his misdeeds!

Happy New Year

With the New Year comes more news for Ties. 2010 has seen great things for Ira and the gang. This is all just preparation for a break out 2011. The book will be finished and coming to stores and digital publishers near you. There will be gallery showings, comic conventions, interviews, contests and more. Stay tuned for more Ira and let me know how you get your comics with this month's poll.

Happy New Year!