Ultraist Studios Blog Journal

Fan Expo 2010 has come and gone.
It was a strange show this year.
The whole thing seemed extremely disorganized.

Friday we arrived at 4:00 pm and were continually misdirected by security and volunteer staff on how to actually get into the convention floor.  Turned out that in order to pick up our exhibitor badge we had to enter an area that you could not get into unless you had an exhibitor badge.  Yeah, that’s right.  You could not pick up your badge unless you had your badge.  What a mess.

It was an hour later when one of the volunteers who was on the ball came to our aid and offered to escort us past security.  There were a lot of horror stories like this with nearly everyone I talked to.  Very unfortunate.  Oh well.  Hopfully Fan Expo cleans up their act for next year, because it really is a GREAT comic con.

Photo by Jules Faulkner

The space in the north hall was smaller, and the floor seemed more crowded.  The largest booths seemed bigger than usual (yet like dwarfed versions of their San Diego counterparts).  The windows and daylight I did enjoy.
We do have video footage this year that will be edited together into a mini documentary and posted as soon as we have time to do it (har, har, har… the story of my life).  That said, here are some pics:

Here’s a great drawing from Brenda Hickey.

And a Spy Lad by Greg Hyland.

And here’s a sketch I did that I thought turned out pretty cool…

And here’s a first; a custom Spy Guy appearing on the cover of Possum Mini Comics #1!

I also heard from numerous sources that there was another “Spy Guy” comic created by some other folks in artist alley. Very interesting. I’ll have to keep a pulse on that as things develop.

In closing, to everyone that took a moment to stop by our table to chat and support the work that we are doing:  Thank You!  That more than anything else makes doing these shows worth while!  See you again next year.

Tomorrow Fan Expo 2010 begins, and we will be there!
Look for us in the Artist Alley at table A74.

No new comics (darn it) but hopefully the t-shirts, prints, and other miscellany will hold you over.

I’ll even bring some original pages to show from SPY GUY #2.

As you can see, this new main page section is currently under construction.
Soon there will be a new SPY GUY: Minis webcomic series (displayed above).

Late Friday night we arrived at the cottage I’ve spoken about in prior interviews. The older children and grandparents were off to bed as my wife was helping the little one fall asleep, leaving me all alone on the couch in the main room. Making use of the quiet time, I wandered over to the nearby shelf and leafed through the stacks of paper pamplets looking for something interesting to read, just as I have done for decades before. These are the same shelves where I discovered Peanuts, and Andy Capp, and Archie, and Neal Adam’s Batman. What did I find on the shelf this time? Spy Guy #1 and The Possum #4! This made me smile. I brought them back to the couch and read through them. It brought back those oldest memories of reading comic books, and something about this experience brought things full circle in my mind, making me satisfied with what my brother and I had accomplished in making our own.

It also confirmed for me the idea of comics as paper artifacts. As physical art objects that can be found, and experienced, and enjoyed from a shelf in a cottage.

Over the years I’ve made an active effort to find interesting comic books to leave around our home for my children to read. I’ve also made an active effort to leave some of my own comics laying around the outside world for people to find. Both of which I suddenly feel the urge to do more of.

At the beginning of last week David Branstetter of Strawman Comics sent me this video by Stefan Molyneux from over at Freedomain Radio, which then started a discussion over at Cyper.com

Throughout the week, a recurring message has been coming at me in a steady stream of synchronicities. It started with this clip form the Ricky Gervais Show.

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The idea of programming a virtual reality world for your perfect life gave me the realization that THIS life we are living is the one we should be programming. Especially if the talk of a holographic universe has anything to it (David Icke has been talking about this for some time now). We live this life once. Why not make it the life you want to live?

Next were two segments from Truth Frequency. The first was this one where Chris Geo talked of how he raised his own consciousness simply by starting his own radio show.

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It confirms to me a suspicion I had in regards to becoming successful making comics full time. It really is a “cart before the horse” scenario that sounds completely backwards, but in reality seems to be the only way forward. The internal mind chatter says that first there must be success, and then it can become a livelyhood. But the only way to make it a successful livelyhood is by first living it.

The next segment from the show reinforced the idea that when you do what you are supposed to be doing, the universe (or God) provides.

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Finally Jack Spirko summed it up with an answer to a question at the end of his Friday episode of The Survival Podcast. The twelve year old kid in me was always creating worlds and drawing comics.

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As I mentioned over at Cyper, the “master / slave” relationship is something that has taken me nearly thirty six years to understand. We are born into this “master / slave” relationship, born into bondage. But what happens when you are finally able to break free of the Matrix? Then what? That is when the adventure really begins…

The journey is detailed in Plato’s Allegory of the Cave.
Here are two versions to watch.
One a literal animation.
The other an allegorical slide show.

Adding to the synchronicity of it all, this is what the core story of SPY GUY: First Strike is really about.

The ULTRAIST STUDIOS web presence is going through changes…
New ComicPress main page…
New SPY GUY: Minis…
All new Blog Journal…
Stay tuned.

Here is the loot brought home from San Diego Comic Con 2010:

Whaleboy toy – Patrick Morgan
Superman vs. Spider-Man Treasury – DC | Marvel
Skull toy – Scott Kurtz
Maile toy – Chris Sanders
Reed Gunther #4 – Shane and Chris Houghton
Angora Napkin t-shirt – Troy Little
Jack and Lucky #1 – Anthony Hon
The Balvenie Doublewood Single Malt Scotch Whisky – Duty Free Shop
Days Missing – Roddenberry Presents
BP – Benaroya Publishing
Dark Horse Convention Signing Book 2010 – Dark Horse
Zambo Dende – 7G Comics
Wayward Sons Legends Preview Special – Benny R. Powell & Weilin Yang
Rod & Barry Flip Book – Roddenberry Presents
Berona’s War stack of prints – Anthony Coffey & Jesse Labbé
And Then One Day Vol. 1 (with paper bag) – Ryan Claytor
Wayfarer’s Moon #3-6 – Jason D. Janicki & Leigh Kellogg
Stick n Puck the Rink Rat Chronicles – Jorden Oliwa
Chris Sanders Sketchbook 4 – Chris Sanders
Curio & Co. print – Clarence ‘Otis’ Dooley
World War Monkey – Chet Phillips
Rob The Bot and The Toils of Tomorrow print – Ali Showkati
The Onion Non-Holographic Edition – The Onion
Another Comic Book Paaarty! – Phil Rynda
Anna Arky – James Heffron
Interloper – Michael Heffron & Federico Zumel
Rudy McBacon #8 – Frank A. & Derek O.
Scarlet Huntress #1 – Stephanie & Sean Forney
Little Red Riding Hood Origin of a Huntress – Stephanie Forney
Scarlet Huntress Preview – Stephanie & Sean Forney
Phil Hester print – Phil Hester
Andy Kuhn print – Andy Kuhn
Cursed Pirate Girl #1 – Jeremy Bastian
Berona’s War mini-prints and lanyards – Anthony Coffey & Jesse Labbé
Berona’s War t-shirts – Anthony Coffey & Jesse Labbé
Berona’s War I Field Guide – Anthony Coffey & Jesse Labbé
Thoughts, Scribbles + Madness Volume 3 – Dave Guertin & Greg Baldwin
Slayboy – Adam Hughes
Zatanna postcard – Adam Hughes
From The Vault 3 – Mike Mignola
From The Vault 2 – Mike Mignola
The Possum postcard – Blair Kitchen
Spy Guy postcard – Mike Kitchen
Toupydoops #5-6 – Kevin McShane
The Prometheus Project Book 1: Trapped – Douglas E. Richards
Aipom Comic Con card – Pokemon
Jock – James Baker
Rocket Rabbit buttons – James Baker
The Sundry Seven #00 – Bruno Steppuhn & Jay Korim
Will Eisner Reader – Will Eisner
The Building – Will Eisner

Out of the hundreds of thousands of items, that’s what I came home with.
What did you get?

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Home again, home again, jiggety-jig.

Well San Diego Comic Con 2010 is a wrap.  A good time was had by all (except the poor chap who got stabbed in the eye with a pen).  Now, though it’s time to snap back to reality, the energy gained from this con is going to keep me comic-charged for some time to come.  Keep your eyes peeled for upcoming photos and videos as the week progresses.

The photo above is from the last hour of the last day.  Clockwise from top:  Jesse Labbé of Amity Ink, Blair Kitchen of Possum Press, Anthony Coffey of Amity Ink, and Mike Kitchen of Ultraist Studios.

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The week we embark on a historic mission. Ultraist Studios and Possum Press are sending the Kitchen Brothers for the first time ever to San Diego Comic Con, the largest comic book and popular arts convention in the world!

We’ll be bringing along all of our comics to date, along with some postcards:

glow-in-the-dark t-shirts:

weather-proof vinyl stickers:

and buttons (you’ll have to see those in person).

Swing by our booth to say “hi” at table K05 in the Small Press section.

Hope to see you there!

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Seth Godin quote:

“Self marketing might be the most important kind

What story do you tell yourself about yourself?

I know that marketers tell stories. We tell them to clients, prospects, bosses, suppliers, partners and voters. If the stories resonate and spread and seduce, then we succeed.

But what about the story you tell yourself?

Do you have an elevator pitch that reminds you that you’re a struggling fraud, certain to be caught and destined to fail? Are you marketing a perspective and an attitude of generosity? When you talk to yourself, what do you say? Is anyone listening?

You’ve learned through experience that frequency works. That minds can be changed. That powerful stories have impact.

I guess, then, the challenge is to use those very same tools on yourself.” *

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The Spy Guy Intelligence Network is now live.

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