August 2006 - Issue 2 is out! Debuted at Wizard World Chicago (which I will get to in a minute). For those that can't get it at a show you can buy it at our distrbutor Dimestore Press. Just check out the Gallery page.

Randy and I made our way to Chicago for Wizard flagship show. As reported all over the comic news site, Wizard said over 58,000 people attended. Record breaking! I, like many others, agree those numbers seem to be inflated. We did not go last year but I can tell you that when we attended in 2004, it was MUCH busier then. To be up front, we were VERY dissapointed. People were just not buying. After talking with a few friends and other Artist Alley creators, that seemed to be the buzz all over. Back in 2004 AG did AWESOME! Then we only had the one book, now we have 3 others so you would bank on doing well. But goes to show you that this in not an exact science.

It seems to be that Wizard is going the way of San Diego of late. More of a media type of con and not so much comics. Much of the exhibit space was devoted to IWF (a UFC type of wrestling/fighting) which to me is the wrong way to go. Will we return? Who knows, that's a year out and alot can happen in a year. Oh and I got pics but not many came out and the ones that did were of nothing interesting so sorry to say we don't have any. Par for course for that weekend.

I just got back from the first ever OrlandoCon. I have to say it was pretty decent. First year shows are always tough. The convention center was nice and in a very nice hotel here in Orlando. I sat with Brian Pate of Comicbookconventions.com and who is also our NEW letterer for AG. This was his first ever show signing for KSE. I did get pics of that! You can see here! I have to say if you do % wise (attendence to sales) we did better at this show then WW Chicago, so we made up a little ground.

I got to hang with my pals Jesse Hansen, Chris Lesley and Chuck Zsolnai from Cadre Corner. They are great guys, you'll see them in the pics. I also got to meet Billy Tan who is the artisy on Uncanny X-men. Kid is talented. Brian did a Tampa show on Sunday so Shannon Chenoweth sat at the table and sold her book The Line. Ethan Van Scriver stopped by on Sunday to talk to Shannon and she introduced me. Great to meet Ethan formally as I have seen him at a ton of shows we do.

I also got to talk to and meet alot of the promotors fro upcoming shows like Mike from the FX Show, Petey from Screamfest, Mike from the SuperCon and Glynn of ran this con. All super guys and all work very hard to put on great shows. Looking forward to all of them.

So all in all it was a great show and had some great fun. glynn said it was a success for them so next year is a lock! We'll be there!

Well they next scheduled show is the SuperCon in Fort Lauderdale. Randy, Brian and I are going to be there. We have a few panels to do and of course sell some books. the plan is for Issue 3 to debut there which shouldn't be an issue cause it is in the very capable hands of Brian Pate as I type this. so look for it. Issue 4 and the finale of this arc is soon after!

Later - Joe

July 2006 - We have had an interesting month to say the least. We have secured a table at Wizard World Chicago, August 3-6. We debuted AG back in 2004 there and had a great time. We will have issue 2 ready and look forward to a busy weekend. Both Randy and myself will be on hand. Plus you never know who else is going to decide to go.

We also would like to officially welcome Brian Pate, webmaster from Comicbookconventions.com, as our new letterer. Brian is working on issue #2 as I type this, on top of maintaining his site. We hope to have a bio up soon from Brian.

Randy has also secured an artist for the 2nd arc of AG, Mr. Jim Kyle. Jim is hugely talented and I look forward to working with him. We expect more top notch stuff.

As you might notice, we have taken down the Paypal option to buy the book through this site, that's because we decided to go exclusive with Dimestore Productions. Ian Shires, who runs DS, is a great guy and we are impressed with his company and think this is the best option for fans (till we get into Diamond of course). Ian has told us that AG is their best seller (as you can see on his site). He said that he has done 2 shows as of late and has sold out of AG. More is on the way and he is also going to list issue Zero. Thanks a ton Ian.

I will also be attending 2 new cons here in Florida, the Orlando Comic-Con, It's a 2 day show 2 weeks after Chicago, and the Florida Super Con in November. There is even more shows we are talking about doing.

On the Dustin Weaver front... Dustin is currently working on 2 issues of Star Wars: Knight of the Old Republic for Dark Horse. Issue #7 is going to be the first one. I am highly jealous of Dustin as I'm a huge fan of Star Wars. Can't wait to see what he has done. No doubt it is going to be great. Also Dustin has a novel out, well, one he has worked on with the writer, Jodi Picoult. It's called the Tenth Circle and it is amazing stuff. Check it out.

Of course join the forum and give us some feedback.

Later -

Joe

March 2006 - Well it's here! Assassins' Guild #1 is officially on sale! It debuted this past weekend at the 2006 MegaCon and it was a HUGE success! Also my own book, CRY, debuted and that also was a big success.

Randy flew in on Thursday and as we got to my house, the books were waiting there for us (talk about cutting it close). We went through a new distributor and printer and they did an awesome job, top notch work. Take a look at Dimestore Productions!

It started off with a bang on Friday. Was a good sized crowd and we got to meet a lot of fans and sell a good amount of books. But our big day was Saturday of course. We had old and new fans alike looking and buying! We got a lot of compliments from other indie creators on our booth and display as well as the production of the book. By the end of the show we had a good buzz going (even as far as other indie publishers sending artists to us).

We had a sign for an artist needed and we got to look at some great portfolios. Randy found an artist for the second story arc and is working on that right now with him. We will annouce something soon when it is official. We also got a letterer lined up for Issue #2 which we have scehduled to come out in the next 2 months. This issue is compeletly penciled and inked. We will also drop that person when it is official.

Got plenty of pictures that you can see here!

We have to thank Brian Pate of ComicBookConventions.com. He allowed us to have a part of his table and also the pleasure of sitting with him and talking with him and his crew (which does included myself as a News Editor) all weekend long. Check out his site, there is no other like it. He has some great things in store for the future.

Also thanks to ALL the fans that stopped by the table and bought AG and CRY. Your the ones that make it possible to do what we do. We really appreciate it and plan on doing this for more years to come, as long as you keep digging what we are doing.

Plans are in the works to hit some more cons. Check out the con page for more info on that.

As ever, we like to hear your comments so vist the forum and post some thoughts!

For those of you that missed the con and would like to check out AG and/or CRY. You can get AG here and CRY here. Both have options for a Special 3 pack where you can save on shipping.

We also have something else in the works we will be revealing soon, another book. So check back often.

Later

-Joe

January 2006 - This past weekend was the FX Show here in Orlando (check out the pics here). This year was a lot different then years in the past. It was at a new place, the Central Florida Fairgrounds. This was not the best move to make. The entire show was housed in 3 seperate buildings. It's lucky that it didn't rain or people would have gotten soaked. The fairgrounds is a pit! It's dirty and trashy, a step down from years past. I'm hoping they move it to a better place next time. Maybe back to the Convention Center where it is all under one roof and a lot cleaner.

That being said, it was a hell of a lot more crowded then past shows. The guest list was great as far as celebs go, Robert Englund, George Romero, Summer Gulu and a host of others. People came out for them. This did not translate into good sale for KSE though. I had slow sales and a lot of people asking me if I was going to be a MegaCon. FX isn't typically a comic show anyway as MegaCon is. So I expect more there.

Speaking of MegaCon, Randy and myself will be there in indy alley along with Comic Book Conventions.com. I'm also happy to say that we WILL have at least one new book there. My book CRY. It is at the printers as I type this and will be ready for MegaCon and to buy online. Speaking of which, I have a site for CRY now. Go check it out at www.crycomic.com. Soon you will be able to get the debut issue via Paypal.

The real exciting news is after a lot of delays and changes, Assassins' Guild is ready to go. The first issue is completed and be sent to the printers soon, with a target also for MegaCon. So we could have TWO new KSE issues ready. Watch the forum for more info.

Hope to see you at the cons as we are planning more soon.

Later on - Joe

October 2005 - Wizard World Boston, it was decent. Being that it is my home state, I was very excited for the this show. I was a little nervous because it seemed to me that Wizard was being conservative on guests attending and Exhibitors (Image, Marvel and Dark Horse were not present), but I could also understand, an unproven market. I had no idea what the response would be like. I lived in Boston for the first 27 years of my life and there has never been a multi-day comic show in that time. Time to see what would happen...

I was a little UNDERwhelmed when I first got to the show. It was about a 1/3 of the size of Chicago and maybe a little over half of MegaCon. Artist Alley was not all that large. We had a decent spot for the booth. We were across from the gaming in a WIDE aisle. So I knew we would get alot of traffic. The booth looks great. People really love the banner.

Coming up at the end of the month we will be selling AG at Wizard World: Boston, my hometown. It's going to be cool to be there. Knightshift has a table in artist alley. Come up and meet myself. We'll talk about the book, chicks and whatever else you fancy. Meeting people at cons is my favorite thing to do on the business side of things with comics. I'll have plenty of pics coming back also.

After some hiccups, we got word that AG will be back on track. We are very close to getting done, but Dustin is so good that he is getting gigs from Dark Horse. I'm sure he will announce them soon and I'll post them on here. But that has caused him to jump off AG for a bit. He assures us that it will get done and soon. Hopefully we can have the graphic novel for the MegaCon or the new NY con (not sure which we will go to yet).

I'll be at the FX Show here in Orlando at the end of January. Basically a warm up to the MegaCon.

Randy and I have talked about an idea we want to try and work on. Hopefully it will come to fruitation and it should be fun. We'll explain more soon.

I have been working on my own idea for a bit now. It's called CRY and I'm over 10 pages into it. I plan on having the cover done soon to post. I plan on this being a 30 page one shot to see how it is received and then go forth from there. I have a ton of ideas for it so I hope it is liked, just a bit.

I'll try to get Randy on here to talk about stuff.... in the meantime please cheack out our forum and also a great site, Comic Book Conventions.com, it has a great list of all the cons coming up and con news.

Later on - Joe

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