Stuff... and more stuff.

So, somehow, I have completely ignored this blog for the entire year.

Whoops.

I can take the easy way out and say, "Oh, I've been swamped with work" and leave it at that... and since I have been swamped with work this year, I'm going to that. It has been a very busy year, after all.

The Spring saw our largest Emerald City Comicon ever, leading it to grow into a full 3 days for next year. Several books from Micro Brew Comics and Rorschach Entertainment were debuted at the show; Steve Lawlis: Zombieville USA #3, Doctor Zombie #3, and Dallas McCoy #00.

Spring beget Summer, and that brought on the preparations for the newest Seattle convention, the Jet City Comic Show. This new show is a companion piece to ECCC, focusing more on the local scene.

Still, a lot of work goes into putting these shows together, and putting these shows together at the same time running a small chain of retail shops... well, needless to say, it puts a damper on one's free time.

Oh, and on top of that, there's the family... Mackenzie and Trent have had birthdays, Mac has had another Kung Fu tournament (3rd Place is Sparring!), Anniversaries, Family Outings, and a whole lot more!

With all of this going on, it's been near impossible to be on top of this blog along with all of the other sites and social networking that needs to be done.

So, with that in mind, I'm going to try and refocus this blog... a separation of Church and State, so to speak. Updates for the cons and books will be on their respective sites, while I will use this blog just for the family updates.

I was just contemplating deleting this blog all together, but I like having the family stuff up here, available for friends and family that like to keep apprised. So, for the time being, we're going to try this out and see if it works...

-Brian

Yikes!

I know... It's been way too long since I last made a post here...

In my defense, I have been swamped with work for Emerald City ComiCon, The Comic Stop, Micro Brew Comics, the newly formed Jet City Comic Show, and more. Still, excuses are excuses. So, let's catch us up, shall we?

Over at The Comic Stop, we are currently working towards our general growth as a company. We now have 3 successful locations, and we are considering opening a 4th shop in the next year or so. On top of this, we now have a "full staff". It is no longer just us owners/managers at the shops, but two full-time employees and two part-time employees.

The 8th Annual Emerald City ComiCon is nearly here, just a couple of months away. We've sold out of space again, our lineup of guests borders on the amazing, and we are well under way to have our best year ever. Expect this show to blow up, Big Time, in the near future.

Speaking of shows... Since I don't have enough work to do, I have created a companion show for ECCC called Jet City Comic Show. This new show is a local 1-day show coming up in the fall, a full 6 months after ECCC. This new show will focus on the creative local talents and publishers and organizations of the Pacific Northwest, and well as spotlighting several out of town Special Guests.

Following that, the comics biz has been busy. From Micro Brew Comics, I am looking to have Steve Lawlis: Zombieville #2 and Adventures of Doctor Zombie #3 ready for ECCC, as well as a couple of prints. From my old stomping grounds of Rorschach Entertainment and Modern Pulp Comics, I have the final issue of Sprecken: Kalabus Rex (issue #4) coming out, and it looks like we might even have Dallas McCoy #0 (a prologue issue) done, too. I'll have more on all of this in the next few weeks...

Over at the homestead, the only big event was the shared birthday (on December 11th) between Jack "Lucky" Meredith and myself. My little man is now 3 years old, and cleaned up with a fat pile of Ben 10 action figures and clothes, and a couple of Batman Brave and the Bold action figures. He's become quite the little super-geek.

Well, that's enough catching up... next time, I'll talk about beer...

-Brian M.

Quattro = One

I know it's been a bit quiet on the MBS front these past couple of months. We've been slowly working on getting stuff together, but nothing have progressed to the point that a "post" was warranted.

However, two things on the Home Front have taken place that are definitely worth mentioning:

1) Dana's Birthday!
The Littlest Man of the Clan, Dana (AKA Quattro, Moose) just turned the Big 1 Year Old last week... He's growing up fast, in size and skills. Walking, running, eating by himself, fighting in underground Baby Fight Clubs, etc., he's got it all covered!

2) Mackenzie's Kung Fu Tournament!
A couple of weeks ago, Mac entered her second Martial Arts Tournament, competing in Kata (style and technique) and Sparring (hitting other little girls). Last year, she pulled in 3rd place in Sparring, but this year, she brought home the Gold! Mac snagged 1st place, and against a larger group of competitors than last year.

Blue Shift Pages

One of the projects that I've been working on for a while now is Blue Shift, the sci-fi project I am co-writing with Gigi Edgley.Well, as with many projects, so many things can affect the progress of it being made. For this book, we've had a couple of "roadblocks" that have impeded said progress.

Well, hopefully, we should have a "convention" edition of the first issue by November. Sidney Lima is currently working on the first issue, and he is doing a great job of it. As proof of his awesomeness, here are the first 4 pages of the first issue...

-Brian

Doctor Zombie - The Song!

A few months ago, I got in touch with this incredibly talented "Band of The Future" called We Wrote The Book On Connectors, the creators of Mustache Rock! This local band offered a very interesting service; a song writing service. So, after a few emails with the guitarist/singer/heart-breaker Mike Votava, they got to work on what is the coolest comic book promo ever -- A Theme Song!

Yes, you heard me right, folks! WE came up with a theme song... for Doctor Zombie! No longer will you have to read your Doctor Zombie comics in silence!

This awesome song can be downloaded for free at their website, and while you are there, you can check out a TON of other free songs that they have to offer.

To listen to it, just press play on the embedded Quicktime player below...

-Brian M.

Another ECCC passes...

The 7th Annual Emerald City ComiCon had come and gone, leaving me a tattered wreck of a man, a veritable shell of humanity that has been tossed aside by the teeming masses...

...ahem...

Sorry about that. I tend to get a little "dramatic" when it comes to ECCC. It's a huge deal for me, being of the of the top guys that puts it on. It's a large part of my life, and has become so large that it is literally like having a second job for 6-9 months out of the year, just to put it on for a single weekend. The stress from just putting on the show is enough to turn hair gray.

Anyway, besides striving to have a successful show (in terms of attendance, services, etc.), one of the most important things for me to accomplish is to put together as many personal projects as I possibly can. I usually do 1-3 projects/books for Rorschach Entertainment, but this is the first year that I also set up under my personal label of Micro Brew Comics. Of course, the subtle irony of this is that I am usually far too busy to be behind a table and promote any of these works.

That's where the family comes in. This year, the wife was put in charge of running the Rorschach Entertainment booth, which allowed her watch over our 9-year-old daughter Mackenzie as she promoted our latest issue of The Adventures of Doctor Zombie. Together, they pulled off an awesome weekend for all of us, selling over half of the stock that we had for the show.

So, what did we have, you say? I'm glad you asked. We introduced two new MBC books, plus buttons and a limited edition print.

First, we had The Adventures of Doctor Zombie #2, which continues the stories of the Doctor Archibald Zombie and his assistant Marigold Murray, as penned by my talented daughter Mackenzie. In fact, this issue has a double dose of awesome, with two stories drawn by two different artists. In the first story, our regular artist Erik Thompson illustrates what happens when Doctor Zombie and Marigold try to spend the night at the movies, especially with a vengeful magician named Chuck lurking in the shadows. In the second story, we have guest artist Ryan Cody (Villains, Popgun, Hurricane Kids) showing what happens when an irate Dinosaur tries taking his anger out on the city Doctor Zombie is sworn to protect.

We also had copies of The Adventures of Doctor Zombie #1, for those that missed out on the book back in the Fall...

Second, we have a brand new Steve Lawlis book! Steve Lawlis: Zombieville USA #1 continues the tales of Steve Lawlis and his pal Pete Redshirt, agents for the Department of Horror Intervention. In this first of three issues, Steve and Pete are called to a little town in the middle of nowhere to deal with a strange zombie infestation. Expecting a town out of Resident Evil, imagine their surprise when they find a peaceful little burg straight out of Leave It To Beaver. This series is not only drawn by Erik, but he is making his debut as writer. It's good stuff, kids.

Third, we had a limited edition print (only 20 made!) called DOCTOR ZOMBIE & STEVE LAWLIS FIGHT A GIANT APE WITH CYBERNETIC PARTS AT THE SPACE NEEDLE! Drawn by regular Doctor Zombie / Steve Lawlis artist Erik Thompson, this bad boy of a print sold for just $10, and we only have a couple of them left.

Finally, we introduced our first button set, featuring Doctor Zombie and Marigold Murray. We did 60 sets of these, and have less than 20 left.

Oh, and over on the Rorschach Entertainment side of things, we released the third issue of Sprecken: Kalabus Rex. Only one more to go!

As you can see, I had my hands full over the last couple of months, getting all of this ready... of course, this is only the beginning. Wait until next year! We'll be hitting hte convention on an official capaciy, with a full library of books and goodies. Now, I just need to figure out a way to be in two places at once...

-Brian

The Fam!

So... it's been a while since my last update, thanks to a very busy life pre-ECCC,which has consumed my time. With that in mind, here's a quick re-cap of what's been going on.

Mackenzie hit the big "9" mark two weeks ago. She's now quickly working her way up from Child to Tween, but not in a bad way, so far. She had a another mellow birthday this year; some fine gifts (including the much-in-demand Easy Bake Oven), dinner out with the family, and cupcakes and cookies for her friends at school and Kempo.

Dana (AKA "The Moose" AKA "Quattro) just hit hit 6 month mark. Needless to say, he's a big boy. He's pushing 20 lbs and is around 2 feet in length. At the rate he's going, he's going to be bigger than his brother Jack in no time.

Speaking of Jack... Lucky is getting so much better with his words and sentences. Of course, most of the words that come out of his mouth theses days are "Batman", "Justice League", "Flash", "Superman", "Doctor Who", etc. The boy is definitely showing his true geek colors.

With Emerald City ComiCon coming up, I'll be making another post soon to fill everyone in on what is going on with Micro Brew Comics, Mackenzie's Doctor Zombie series, and more...

Pepper Jones by Shane White

Another sweet pinup for Blue Shift just appeared in my email the other day! This fantastic piece is by the super-talented Shane White, who was the artist on the recent Image book, The Overman.

Head over to his website and check out the awesomeness that is Shane's art!

Blue Beetle!

Oh. My. God. This is going to be so awesome!

Pepper Jones by Edward Pun

Here's the latest piece of artwork to come in for the Blue Shift project that I working on with Gigi Edgley. It's by the incredibly talented Edward Pun, who recently did a cover for Dallas McCoy (check it out here).

Is it a cover? Is it a pin-up? I'm not sure yet, but what I do know... it's awesome.

Lucky's Second Time Around

Yikes! This post came a week later than I hoped... that's what I get for being so damn busy...

So, Last Thursday (December 11th) was Jack's 2nd birthday and my 700th birthday, as we share the same date of birth, for those unaware. This is a good thing, as this will mean that I am now GUARANTEED cake for my birthday for the next 10-15 years. This is what we refer to as "wicked awesome".

Jack (AKA Lucky) made out nicely with a few solid gifts, such as a toy laptop (hopefully, he'll leave the home computer alone now...) and a box full of DUPLO Legos (as seen in the picture above), which he loves to play with. The boy is a natural builder.

Oh, and for the record, Jack is nearly naked due to the fact that just had his cake, which got everywhere... besides, he actually likes running around like a jungle boy.

A few days later, we got hit with a ton of snow here in the Seattle area, actually stranding the family and I at our house. As anyone who lives in a quiet residential area knows, these are the worse roads to try and traverse after a snowfall. They are just one giant slab of ice. Still, the kids managed to enjoy some time outside, as Mac took her little brother Jack out for some Winterland Action.

Speaking of little brothers, the littlest addition to the clan has hit the 3 month mark. Dana (AKA Quattro) has earned himself a new nickname -- The Moose. That boy can eat! He has been packing on the weight and size. He is already wearing 6 month clothes... but I'll save that for another post...

Pepper Jones by Brian Churilla

Although the book itself is in still pre-production, we still have the occasional pin-up rolling in for Blue Shift. This exciting piece was done by the uber-talented Brian Churilla, whose work can recently be seen in Rex Mundi, The Engineer, and pin-ups for such books as Fear Agent!

For more of Brian's work, check out www.brianchurilla.com!

Sir Mix-A-Lot, Knight of the Realm

I have my pal Jim to thank for little piece of Awesomeness (and the guys at Robot Chicken, of course), who knows my love of Sir Mix-A-Lot knows no bounds...

Dallas McCoy Cover Art

I've been threatening to put out a Dallas McCoy miniseries for ages, but it looks as if we are finally getting to the point of starting production on it. Before the miniseries kicks in, though, we are going to put together a Zero Issue, containing 2-3 short stories plus some other goodies. For this issue, we contracted the services of the very talented Edward Pun to do the cover.

Here is the evolution of said cover, starting with the initial sketches.

Once Edward turned these in, I briefly went over the various designs and picked out the one I thought was best for Dallas (which turned out was Edward's first choice, as well).

Later, I received these awesome pencils for the cover.

Seeing nothing wrong with it, I gave Edward the Green Light to finish up the piece. Shortly, he sent me the colored version. After a quick inspection and a minor color change, the final edition was delivered.

And there you have it. The finished artwork for Dallas McCoy #0, which will hopefully be done in time for next year's Emerald City ComiCon.

Doctor Zombie Update!

It's been almost a week since we debuted The Adventures of Doctor Zombie #1 at the Comic Stop and Bell-Con and we are just about sold out of copies!

The response to the book at the shop was amazing. We blew through 20 copies before my shift ended, so I brought more later that evening when Mac and I showed up for her Kung Fu class. As of yesterday afternoon, there are only 2 copies of the book left at the shop.

At the convention, Mackenzie showed the world that she was made for this business. Sitting with the Rorschach Entertainment tables, Mackenzie (along with the artist for the book, Erik Thompson) rocked the show by selling every copy of the book (the majority of what was left of the print run) that we brought for the show. She worked the crowd like a born salesmen, yet was completely upfront and honest about everything she said; no conning anyone. When the show slowed down, she actually grabbed copies of the book and went out onto the show floor and sold them to the other exhibitors, creators, and attendees. It was pretty amazing to see her at work.

Currently, this print run of the book is pretty much done. There are only a couple of copies at the shop and less than 10 copies that will be available online at Rorschach Entertainment later this week.

Mac, Erik and I would like to thank everyone at the shop and the con that took a chance on the book. We would really love to hear any feedback any of you may have, so please leave a comment or email us at microbrewstudios@gmail.com.

We are currently working on issue #2, which we hope to out before Christmas, and we are planning on at least 2 more issues after that. If they do well, we will be looking to re-release them in color on a national scale by submitting them to other publishers or through Diamond ourselves.

Doctor Zombie debuts!

The Adventures of Doctor Zombie #1 is finally back from the printers!

As some of you may already know (but let's recap for those that don't), this new book was written my daughter Mackenzie. After expressing interest in writing her own story, I encouraged her to put one together using one of her favorite characters, Doctor Zombie. Well, the story was a fun little romp filled with action, romance, and what I like to call "3rd grade Science".

I took her story and scripted it, handed it off to my artist Erik Thompson, and several months later, we have an all-ages comic about a dead scientist and his loyal assistant fighting demons and poor dating choices!

The Adventures of Doctor Zombie #1 will officially debut this weekend at Bell-Con, Bellingham's newest comic convention, but we will have copies at the Lynnwood Comic Stop this Wednesday for anyone that wants one. Anyone that wants to reserve a copy (many of you already have, thanks!) just needs to let me know, via email to the shop, a call, or even a comment.

The Adventures of Doctor Zombie #1 costs only a measly $2.50 and there are two covers to choose from (Good Guy Cover and Bad Guy Cover). Oh, and if anyone would like to have their copy signed by Mackenzie, let me know. She has been practicing her signature for the last couple of days just for this.

Quattro is in the house!

On September 13th at 4:10pm, Dana Benjamin Alan Meredith was born, punching in at a full 8 pounds, 8 ounces and 21 inches in length. He beats out his older brother Lucky by a pound and a couple of inches. Of course, Lucky has almost 2 years on him, so it evens out.

As with Lucky, we gave a nickname to the baby before he was born, due mostly to the fact that we had no idea as to the sex of the baby this time around. So, the baby was dubbed Quattro, as in the number four. I'm actually having a hard time calling him anything else.

Our time in the hospital was record setting; in on Saturday morning, out by Sunday afternoon. Once the actual labor kicked in, it was over in 20 minutes (just like with Lucky) and everything went perfectly. Quattro passed all tests with flying colors, and Amy bounced back like a trooper, so we cruised on out of there in no time.

The last couple of days has been spent trying to get the household into a new working rhythm. We finally got used to there being three kids; now the new baby gums up the works (but in a good way). It's going to take a little time to find a new flow to taking care of Quattro while there is still Lucky, just barely out of babyhood. Still, all in all, it should be a lot of fun!

Dave Lister 1992-2008

Dave Lister was my cat of 16 years. Only a few people, aside from family, even knew I had a cat, but he was an important part of my life. I received him the day before I moved to Seattle for college, when he was only 6 weeks old. He's been with me through 2 colleges, 7 homes, 6 jobs, 3 kids and 1 marriage.

He died today.

Dave was always a big cat, strong and meaty, with a strange meow and a loud purr. We often referred to him as an "urban cow", due to his big size and funny spots. He loved to run around the neighborhood, and loved to sleep on the porch. He even loved sneaking into the neighbor's house to eat their cat food, that is, until they got wise and closed up their cat door.

This summer, he started losing a lot of weight. At first, I paid no mind to it, as he was an old cat and not as active as he once was. Last week, though, his left paw started swelling. He seemed okay, otherwise, as it was not hurting him. However, it did not go away after a few days, eliminating the thought that maybe he was bit by a spider and was having an allergic reaction, so Amy and I took him into the vet this afternoon.

After a few tests, they told us that his weight loss was easily fixed (just a thyroid problem), but the real issue was his labored breathing, something I had not noticed before. It seems that Dave was hiding the fact that he was really sick, that fluids were filling up his lungs and his abdomen. So sick, the vet told us even with critical care and tons of money to spend, he was not likely going to get better.

I won't go into the details of what was wrong exactly, but it was very serious and he would not have lasted much longer. As much as it pained me to do it, I had to opt for the choice of putting him down. At the rate he was going, he would have literally drowned within the week.

It was one of the hardest choices I've ever made.

Dave was always more than a pet to me; in fact, I never really thought of him that way. He was my pal. He will be missed.

Doctor Zombie is off to the printers!

Issue #1 of The Adventures of Doctor Zombie is finally all done and off to the printers! He should see copies of the book in about a month. Mackenzie and I will officially "debut" the book at Bell Con 0n September 27th. Here are the two covers for the book...

GOOD GUY COVER

BAD GUY COVER

Liquid Science!

Behold the might of science gone mad, via the 3rd grade...