New Work Published: Pocketwatch Pixie and Safyre V2: Unfinished Business

 I've been working with author David Brzezinski for several years now, ever since I did the cover for his book "Battle for Berridor".  Since then, I've done at least one cover a year for him, as well as some interior and design work.

One of the things I like about David is that he makes publishing a family affair, getting his kids to co-author books with him turning out some good stories in the process.  Children Caleb and Faith Brzezinski have co-written such books as "Safyre" and "Angelina and the Egg", all of which are worth checking out.

This year, David and family have published two books at the same time, one with Caleb and one with Faith.  I have had the honor of doing covers for both, as well as interiors for one of them.

"Pocketwatch Pixie" by David and Faith Brzezinski is a young adult tale of a girl who finds a magical pixie trapped in a pocketwatch.  A good story for readers who like a little magic with their heroism, with a strong female presence in both the authorship and the story.  The cover for this one was a bit of a stretch for me, with some inspiration by the DC "Superhero Girls" series of novels.  I also did a few black and white interiors that were fun and I hope will be charming.

"Safyre 2: Unfinished Business" by Caleb and David Brzezinski is a followup to 2013's "Explosive Origins: Safyre Book 1".  It's the ongoing story of two super-powered teens and their fight to save their home, Titanium Falls from nefarious villains.  Somehow a peanut-shaped car and a portable black hole get involved.  Look, you're just going to have to read it.

For the cover for this one, I tried to tap into some Kirby vibes to get that "comin' at ya!" feeling, with some of Kirby's trippy sense of color.  No cinematic movie grading here, darnit!

These are fun books authored by people who are just enjoying the process of writing and publishing, and aside from the fact that I worked on both of them, I can't recommend them enough...this is the kind of stuff that young people...or just the young at heart...should be reading when they're reading just for the fun of it.

Now Available - The Brutal Blade of Bruno the Bandit Vol. 4 AND Bruno the Bandit: A Card Game!

Looks like Xmas came early! As of today, not only do I bring you the latest volume of The Brutal Blade of Bruno the Bandit, available now in print and digital download formats, but I am proud to announce Ian McDonald's latest creation, "Bruno the Bandit: A Card Game"!

"The Brutal Blade of Bruno the Bandit" Vol. 4 features seven more stories from the webcomics archives of www.brunothebandit.com, featuring some of the finest stories and characters from the comic's history, including Elysia the fame vampire, Eunyce, Warrior Hottie,and Shub-Megawrath, the single mother she-goat with a thousand young!  

This issue features a brand new cover by "Thieves & Kings" and "StarDrop" artist extraordinaire, Mark Oakley, as well as a pinup by Weird Tales and Lovecraft Ezine alumnus Steve Santiago.  It's a package I'm proud to present, and one I know you readers (and Brunatics!) will love.

"The Brutal Blade of Bruno the Bandit Vol. 4" is available right now in print from Amazon and digitally from DriveThruComics.  Check it out today! 

But that, as they say, is not all!  Launching today only at DriveThruCards.com, we have "Bruno the Bandit:  A Card Game".  It's a fantastic new game, quick to learn and easy to play. Now you can take Bruno beyond the printed page and try your skill against your fellow bandits in this game of loot or be looted.

One night at the Belching Hydra (the seediest and most dangerous watering hole in the kingdom of Rothland) an argument breaks out:  who is the best thief in the land?  You and your fellow crooks make a deal: whoever steals the most valuable loot in one night shall be  declared the greatest thief in Rothland!  But beware:  the Rothland Imperial Guard are on the lookout for criminal activity this night.  Not only that, other Rothland citizens are out and about this eve, and can cause you no end of trouble. Finally, your fellow thieves are not above stealing your ill-gotten gains from you, should you let your guard down.  You will need nerves of steel, dogged determination, and a ruthless streak a mile wide to be crowned Rothland's King (or Queen) of Thieves!

The game includes 85 cards, a downloadable rule book, and even has a code for a free digital copy of the first volume of "Brutal Blade of Bruno the Bandit". All in all, it's a fantastic deal, and a game so good, it's criminal!

"Bruno the Bandit: A Card Game" is only available at DriveThruCards, so get over there and loot your copy right now!

UPDATE: Here's a photo of a hand from the first copy of the game printed, now proudly owned by Ian McDonald.

 

Brutal Blade Vol. 2 Now Available for Kindle! plus Hal-Con Update

At long last, "The Brutal Blade of Bruno the Bandit" Vol. 2 is now available for Kindle.  For just $3.99, you can get this great collection of strips and art to read on your Kindle, desktop or any mobile device running the Kindle app (I'm partial to having it on my Android phone myself, but to each their own).  Click here to go to the book's Amazon US page, or search "Brutal Blade" on Amazon to find this and all our other editions of Brutal Blade, volumes 1 and 2. 
As with the Kindle edition of the first book, I'm offering a special discount to one reader.  The first person to purchase the Kindle edition and email me a receipt will receive a refund of 125% of the purchase price - that's $5.00 for you non-mathematicians - via Paypal.  The only condition is that in your email you have to give me your opinion of how the book looks on your device.  Not owning a Kindle myself, I'd like to know how the formatting appears on other devices.  So drop me a line and earn some cash back.

In other news, it's less than two weeks to Hal-Con.  Between one thing and another, I'm busy trying to get everything ready.  That includes preparing banners, books (see below), posters and other items that will be available at our table.
If you're in the Halifax area, drop by Artist Alley and say hello to Ian and myself.  We'll both be showing off our work, and doing sketches, and there will be copies of both volumes of Brutal Blade available for your enjoyment.  Also, don't forget that cover artist for volume 2, Geof Isherwood, will be in attendance at his own table, and I'm sure you'll be able to hit him up to sign your copy as well.  We're looking forward to meeting any Bruno fans out there, and maybe making a few new ones while we're at it.  See you there!

Looking for Kindle-ing

I'm in the process of trying to port "Brutal Blade of Bruno the Bandit" to a Kindle version.  Anyone who's ever tried to publish a comic through Kindle will likely be chuckling wryly by now, and well you may.
My first attempt was....well, in a word, awful.  But that's what I get for thinking I could just upload the existing pdf and Amazon's back end would take care of the rest for me.  Little did I know there's a lot of work involved if you don't want your product to look like a dog's breakfast.
However, I've been fortunate enough to locate a great resource that will save me a lot of time and frustration with the whole process.  Over at Smashwords, there's a nifty little ebook called, appropriately, "Formatting Comics for the Kindle and Nook: A Step-By-Step Guide to Images and Ebooks" by Niki Smith and Michael Jasper that explain in words simple enough for even me to understand how to go about reformatting your comics for an ebook reader.  Not only that, but the book also provides some basic advice on ebook marketing and links to an html template that will, I expect, save a ton of time.  Even though there's still going to be a lot of work involved to get the book Kindle-ready, I think this handy resource make it a lot less frustrating than it might otherwise have been.
If you're a self-publisher interested in putting your own comics on the Kindle, I highly recommend heading over to Smashwords and throwing down a couple of bucks for this book; you'll be glad you did.

Why Comics? - Free Download from AIM Comics

While "The Brutal Blade of Bruno the Bandit" will be AIM Comics first official release, our first unoffically official book is already out...and it's free!
"Why Comics?" is a 30 page book compiled from a couple of older pieces of mine.  The first is the titular "Why Comics?", which is a 24 hour comic I produced a couple of years ago.  It explores my own perspective of the whys and wherefores of creating comics based on my own limited experience and long-time drive.  It's pretty rough, but I think it's a good piece.
The second piece in the book is titled "Comics on the Cheap" and is a reprinting of an article I sold to Blueline Pro's Sketch Magazine in 2002.  It was an exploration of how a beginning creator can create comics without breaking the bank on expensive software and computer hardware.  It's badly in need of updating, but still makes some valid points, and a lot of the software mentioned is still available in newer veersions.
"Why Comics?"  is being released under a Creative Commons, non-commercial, no derivatives licence, meaning that it can be freely shared, but not changed or sold or claimed to be owned by anyone else.  It can be downloaded here.
The only thing I ask is that if you like the book, and if you're a blogger or any other kind of internet writer, that you consider writing a post, review or any other kind of article to help spread the word.  Feel free to link directly to the book for download, or to email me with any questions or comments about the book, the site, or AIM Comics in general.

Thanks, and enjoy!

Why Comics? by Mike Dominic is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at www.aimcomics.com.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at www.aimcomics.com.

Update:  I should have mentioned that the book is in .cbr format.  You can either download a specialized reader for this format (I recommend CDisplay for its ease of use and portability), or you can treat the file as a glorified zip file (which is all it really is) and unzip the contents to read the .jpg files contained in it.  A pdf formatted version is coming soon.