SDCC...Round 3/Preview night...It begins

SO, I woke up this morning at 7:30 or so and looked out my window, to behold....a line. Really? The doors wouldn't open for another 10 hours. I hope it was worth it guys.

I went to meet a buddy for coffee in the AM befoe checking in with the GGbooth to see if the crew from LA had arrived yet, which they had not and so I fiddled around getting some things organized and such. Once they arrived we were on automatic.

They had brought the display signage and we put it all up and had all the cases sealed back up in about an hour. All we had left to do was stock the booth with the 7 pallets of exclusives and wait for 5pm to roll around.

So at approximately 12:30pm...we had finished the booth setup and were allowed to wander off and do our own thing for the rest of the afternoon. I went looking for a few friends I knew were gonna be here and said hello to a bunch of others. Nice to see so many friendly faces in one place having a good time at a great show.

I thought I'd show a couple more pieces from GG as well.

And finally, at long last...Lando!

SDCC...Round 2

OK, this is the second time I am writing this entry as I had it finished and accidentally closed the tab and lost the whole fucking thing. Technology can be swell sometimes, and sometimes, well, it can be downright annoying.


SO anyhoo, we had an excellent day today, got the booth setup finished to within a few hours. We have the display info to setup tomorrow, but the prototypes are all placed and all that's left to do in the morning is some cleanup and get the displays finalized and locked up.


To anyone who has worked at one of these shows before, you know how remarkable and amazing this feat is. We will actually be finished, I believe, hours before we need to be. Well in time to wander around a bit before the show opens in the evening tomorrow night.

This due, in large part to the colossal pre-show prep work done by GG at their HQ well before sending all the stuff down here to SD.

And well, since this fine fellow wants be to bid you all adieu, I think I will listen and head off to bed.

BTW, this little buy is NOT GG product, but it is from the niftiest vinyl toy company out there. Rocket World. Check them out, they do excellent stuff.

Welcome to sunny San Diego!

Well hello all you readers of the Square 1 Press blog. Today is the first day of something a little different. I thought I'd keep those of you who don't attend the SDCC or can't attend, up to speed a bit on what's happening with me out here. Nothing too boring I hope, just a few pics and tidbits, maybe an update of the status of a new project as I get things finalized. Who knows.

Thought I'd start out with a shot out of my hotel window when I got in this afternoon. I left Newark's Liberty airport @ 7am and arrived here just after noon local time, after a quick stop and plane change in Salt Lake City, a "Starbuck's"-free airport, apparently. Yeah, never going there again if I can help it.

This is a nice shot looking up at the 6'tall "Voldemort" maxi-bust, I guess you'd call it, that Gentle Giant has created for the show booth display.










There is also a 6' tall Boba Fett.



















A nice shot of the (currently) empty hall, Monday is early setup day, most of the larger exhibitors can get in a day early to make sure they have enough time to get all their displays setup.

Also, in this picture, Brian Jouan, aka StaticJoe, creator of the "Valkkadia" logo and which I found out tonite, winner of not 1, but 2 Emmy's. That's right, THOSE Emmy's. He doesn't like to brag, and because they are for production...HE HAS EMMY awards in his house with HIS name on them. How cool is that??



















So we wrapped for the day, met up with our good friend John McGonigle for a nice dinner and then we all kinda parted ways. John and I were beat after having been up since the early morning dark to make our flights out here.


I just took this one out of my hotel room window, of approximately the same shot as when I got here. How awesome is this.

One beautiful place.

I'm leavin' on a jet plane...

Well, it's that time again. SDCC, (San Diego Comic-Con) as it is mis-labeled is upon us again (it's actually Comic-Con International). I have been busy getting some things ready for the show, mostly promotional stuff, as S1P will not be exhibiting at the show. I will be present, but I will be working for Gentle Giant Ltd. at the convention. Come on by and say hello, if you're gonna be there. I'll be the one in the "Square 1 Press" hat. I'll be happy to show you one of these little honeys:


Complete Valkkadia #1 ashcans. I have printed up 10 copies of it for promotional usage, showing friends, and hoping to push the project to other media. They are all B&W printed, same format as the artist sketchbooks, cardstock covers and all

They also have this delightful sticker on the back:



There are currently no plans to make these available to the public. However, if I get any interest in them, I'll reconsider. Since the issue is due out in a couple months, I'm sure folks can wait until the Long Beach Comic-Con in October to grab up their copies, especially when the book will have a full color cover and be in standard comic size format.

So, other things on the clipboard for SDCC, begin gathering artists and writers for a new anthology project. It is themed, and I will be making an announcement concerning it shortly, I hope. Also, will be pitching a couple new project ideas to companies while I'm out there. I think Long Beach will really be our coming-out party, but why waste a good opportunity?

Well, I have one more day to get things together as my flight leaves 7am from Newark airport on Monday morning. I will try to update this at least once while I am out there this coming week. If you're in attendance, and looking for the Walter Simonson or Howard Chaykin sketchbooks, some will be available at "Stuart Ng Books" booth, you'll have to look up the number, or else just get them at the website here.

Safe travels, everyone.

Cover inked!

I picked this up the other day and have been dying to post it but just have been too busy. Well, here ya go, the cover I showed several weeks ago now finished with inks by the legendary Walter Simonson.

Just a note, the black background and the logo have been added via Photoshop just for fun. I hope to have some info about a colorist soon. Stay tuned!

Busy, busy, busy...

Alright, so, I've been busy getting the ballons made and getting the pages lettered. I am doing this the only way I have figured out on my own. Of course, since then, I have discovered other easier ways to do this and will be experimenting with these processes on future issues. Onward and upward, Here's a preview of the first 2 pages of issue#1 of Valkkadia, lettered and all. Just click on them for a larger version.

I hope you like them and if all goes right in the universe, I might even have a sneak preview of the finished cover, with inks by Walter Simonson tomorrow. I plan to approach a couple of professional colorists I know to color the cover for us. Keep your fingers-crossed as I will be doing this at Comic-Con Intl. in 2 weeks and I hope that one of them has the time for it.

Well, I have the cover setup to finish, an ad to create, and the setup of the inside covers of the book and the book will be all done. This has been quite the journey. We, Hassan and myself, started working in this project (in this form; Hassan's been working on this story in one form or another for almost 10 years!) over a year ago, and we've seen many deadlines we created for ourselves come and go. This isn't anyone's fault, things just took longer than we planned. Now, we have a better, more solid plan and have been picking up a more consistent pace on page production and we hope to maintain some competent form of release schedule.

While we our printing this book ourselves and will continue to do so as long as humanly possible, we will be shopping the book around to established comic companies in the hopes that someone may actually pay us to create it. Geez, wouldn't that be nice, huh?