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.

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...

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...

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.

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...

Kyle and TJ @ Hotwire

Last night, Mackenzie and I headed over to the Hotwire Cafe to catch Kyle Stevens and his equally-talented buddy TJ Sherrill play a rare acoustic set. As always, they both rocked and brought in a lot of new people for this little (but very cool) cafe. TJ played a couple of my favorite songs from his latest album (buy it now!) and Kyle rocked it with his Geek out by playing a couple of his pop-culture songs, The Mario Cart Song and Tony Stark. He also pulled out his cover of Billie Jean, which I think he does better than the original artist.

Kyle and TJ finished off the night with a duet of a new song they both wrote last year called Mexican Jail. This song rocked all sorts of socks off. I must have a copy of that in the iPod. (That's a subtle hint, right there, Kyle... get to it.)

A pleasant surprise, my buddy Todd Downing (writer, director, musician) made the trek from West Seattle to catch Kyle play, as well. Kyle and Todd are in talks about the use of Kyle's music in an upcoming movie called Duo, in which one of the characters is based off of me. I didn't talk to him a whole lot. I was a bit tired and just needed to chill, but he was also with his new girl and daughter, so I didn't want to intrude on the family time.

Also at the show was Mike Miller, representing for the Comic Stop by sporting one of our brand new store t-shirts (INSERT SHAMELESS PLUG -- They are available at all of our locations! Boys and Girls versions for only $15 each! -- END SHAMELESS PLUG). Kudos to you, Mike, and shame on everyone else from the Comic Stop Social Club for not appearing. You will be punished.

Doctor Zombie, Mac Style!

About 6-8 weeks ago, before ECCC, I was taking Mac to her Kung Fu lesson, as I am prone to do 2-3 times a week. As we were driving there, she expressed interest in writing a story. I simply told her to go ahead a make one up, as she is quite talented in the Off-The-Cuff-Story-Telling Department.

Picking one of her favorite subjects (Doctor Zombie, see other posts or the Steve Lawlis site for more info...), she immediately weaved a tale called "Marigold's Birthday Surprise". It was a fun little romp as Doctor Zombie and Marigold Murray try to celebrate her birthday, but their plans are ruined when a devil appears and takes away Marigold for refusing to go out on a date with him. It falls to Doctor Zombie to use his genius to create potions in order to save her.

Although the story was short, it was good, really cute and funny. I told a few of my fellow writers, such as Brian Joines (the talented mastermind behind the Indy hit 7 Guys Of Justice), who just loved it. So, with the help of my regular Steve Lawlis artist Erik Thompson, we proceeded to put it down on paper. I turned the story into a 16-page script, and Erik is already halfway done with the artwork. Once we are done with the artwork, we will put this out as a limited Doctor Zombie Special through Rorschach Entertainment.

Mackenzie CANNOT wait to see this book done. Not a day goes by that she does not ask about it. She's only 8 years old, and she's already looking forward to having a comic book of her very own. I think she is plotting to take me out of the picture so she can write more Doctor Zombie stories...

A Night At The Q!

Only a couple of weeks since his last show, my friend Kyle Stevens played last night as a place called the Q Cafe. Not a club or bar, the Q is a... community center, of sorts. Because of this, the show was All Ages, and I do mean "All Ages", allowing for Kyle's No #1 Fan to attend: Mackenzie Meredith. Being only 7 years old, she's never had a chance to see Kyle play live, but she does love his music and she listens to him all of the time. (NOTE -- Sorry for the crappy pictures... cell phone camera...)

Kyle went on stage around 9:15pm (A little late for Mac, as it was fast approaching her bedtime, but she was so excited that she ended up staying awake until almost midnight). The first half of his show was his usual solo stuff, just him and a guitar kicking ass. The best part for Mac was when he unexpectedly dedicated a song -- "PIGS!", a fun little song that he doesn't play a whole lot anymore -- to her. She was ecstatic (and still is, as she is still talking about it as the Best Day Ever!).

Kyle then turned it up a notch and brought up his new backing band to play out the second half of the show. It had been a while since I had seen Kyle play with a band (back in his Layman's Terms days) and what a difference it made. Kyle has always been amazing as a solo act, but was even better at fronting a band. I was also amazed at the spike in the energy level in the room. The crowd was very attentive and pleasant, but once the full band got started, they were really getting into the show. All in all, a rousing good show for Kyle and for everyone in attendance, including a little girl who got to see her first music show.

Oh, and as a bonus, The buttons that I designed (using a simple logo I worked up) for Kyle arrived from the "printer" just in time for the show. They turned out to be a big hit with the crowd, and especially with Mac, who immediately put both versions on her shirt.