From Above Dog Tag by Ramon Berlouis

I'm just gonna throw it out there...Ramon Berlouis is a genius!!! This is the man who designed Alana and my custom steampunk wedding rings (Items that we will cherish forever!).

Today I open up a surprise package in the mail and this awaits me!!! Stunning stuff! This man never ceases to blow me away...check out this beautiful From Above dog tag! Thank you so much Ramon!

Oz Comic Con Melbourne

Just got home but wanted to write this whilst the vibe was still lingering :)

What an amazing convention. It was our first experience at a con as guests and I just wanted to throw out a  massive thank you to to the organisers at OCC for having us. It really was a fantastic couple of days.

The crowd and flow was phenomenal, with just a really awesome upbeat vibe all weekend. Also, books sales were so good we literally came home with just a handful of our new trade paperbacks. Expectations truly blown!

Thanks to all that came out and said hi, picked up a book, or just wanted to chat all things comics (and maybe coffee). This is the sort of event that makes me wish we did this every weekend.

Supanova Expo Sydney

Had an amazing time at Supanova Sydney with the new Trade Paperback selling gangbusters. Alana and I both had such an amazing time and loved talking to all the folks who came by out table. Big thanks as well to the event organizers for putting on such a great event and our fellow creators who made it such great fun as well! 

From Above #7 on Comixology

Issue 7 of From Above is now available on ComiXology. Its the first issue in the origins story arc. Be sure to check it out!

https://www.comixology.com/From-Above-7/digital-comic/228831?ref=c2VyaWVzL3ZpZXcvZGVza3RvcC9ncmlkTGlzdC9SZWNlbnRBZGRpdGlvbnM

Guest at Melbourne OCC

Pretty damn excited to have been invited along by the lovely folks at Oz Comic Con to be a guest at the Melbourne show. It'll also be the Melbourne launch of the trade paperback so I hope a few of you can come along and say hi to Alana and myself! Should be a blast!

Trade Paperback - It's here!

First review hot of the press...

" Sniff, sniff, sniff. Smells promising...can't wait to devour it"- Oreo

( Also a huge thanks to Ryan K Lindsay for writing one seriously kick ass foreword! )

Oreo

Oreo can sure be a hard lil fella to say no to :)

Coffee..... ahhhhh, coffee

I'm just gonna leave this here... #coffeejunkie

Trade Paperback .... coming VERY soon!

I got sent a little sneak peek from the printer today, something that will be heading this way real soon!

140 pages to date

While I was compiling the trade paperback (first six issues) I was viewing the print proofs on a table in front of me and had to say I was pretty happy with what we've achieved so far with the book. 140 pages in seven issues of sequential art. We've gone to second edition print runs on the 1st 3 issues, and issue 1 is now getting a third edition run.

Certainly pleased that something that set out as a hobby project just less than 2 years ago has travelled so far to date. Still a long way to go of course but it has certainly helped open a few doors, and seeing the finished books is certainly a reward in itself.

Going forward we now face a new set of challenges as new projects come up and  available time is divided amongst these. It's a great problem to have - I just sometimes wish I'd be able to clone myself for some cheap labor :)

One thing going forward though that is becoming evident is we may have to start stretching out the time between releases. Up until now its been a book every 3 months. That has enabled us to build some good presence, but as we discover at conventions the growing trend is "I'll wait for the trade" or readers will be 3-4 issues behind in their reading. All this sort of stuff is fine, but obviously makes it difficult to bring out an aggressively regular indie comic.

So with a lot of projects now coming up it has become a necessary evil to dial the release schedule of From Above back. We have the trade coming out this month and Issue 8 is looking to sit around an October release at this stage. Stay tuned though as we'll keep you up with the From Above schedule and also have news soon on a one shot book I have been doing with writer, Ryan K Lindsay. Its gonna blow your socks off!

Cover ideas for Issue 1 (3rd Edition)

Crazy that this has even come around but am about to do a 3rd edition print run of Issue 1. Just craziness.

Anyway, toying around with an idea for the cover and have thrown it out to get public opinion on the facebook page.

Books List

With print files out the door for the Trade Paperback, we will be looking at launching the book at Supanova Sydney in a couple of weeks. This means that now we are in the process of doing the ComiXology​ conversion which should mean the digital version should follow in a few months.

Meanwhile in other news we are very near the end of the second edition print run of Issue 1 and will soon be developing a new cover for the 3rd edition version. To say we are surprised to have got to this stage is a massive understatement. So thank you to all who have supported the individual issue installments of the book - you are what keeps this series going.

Prep for SDCC

With the SDCC trip coming up it was time to get some new business cards done to take over with me. Going to pop a few copies of the trade paperback into the luggage to show around too, but generally looking to just meet and greet a few people without trying too hard to sell myself.

Hopefully should be fun and be a bit of an eye opener for this aussie with my first ever experience at a US con (and it just has to be the biggest one - so much for baby steps)

- Craig

New Phone cases

Let it be said that I am struggling to adjust to my new phone. After 5 years with the same phone, last week I was forced to upgrade and embrace something new. I figure I'm at that age where I struggle to embrace relearning things. To soften the blow though at least we got the chance to get some new phone cases, and basically didn't miss an opportunity to self promote art all over them. Guess what arrived in the mail today? :)

Tango with the Orangos - comic for a goood cause!

If there is one thing better than comics, it's comics for a good cause.

Headed up by Neville Howard (Gaining Velocity, Melbourne Comics) and my wife Alana Bruyn (Melbourne Comics, From Above) Tango with the Orangos comprises 2 anthology books showcasing work from over 50 creators from across the globe.

The books (a 32 page and 64 page version) feature short sequential art stories and pin ups collated together with the purpose of raising money for The Orangutan Project.
It's a fantastic cause with some amazing creators lending their time and talents to help put this together.

There's an indiegogo campaign up and running now, essentially operating as an order system for the books so don't miss out on this one (some of those perks are amazing and there's some really well thought out tiers)

Keep in mind as well this content is exclusive to the books. My short story, 'The Investment', will only appear in this anthology, much like the other amazing content.

There's just under 2 weeks remaining on this campaign so don't miss out on this awesome opportunity to be part of something special.

-Craig

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/project-orangutan-tango-with-orangos#/story

Scene setting and establishing shots

Recently going back and reworking pages for both the print and Comixology releases of the first trade paperback of From Above, allowed me to check out some of my pages from the series to date.

I’ve always been a fan of scene setting and establishing shots. Whether that be an intimate room scene or an action scene. I like to know where characters are in relation to their environments before the scene starts to play out.

I think that’s why I really like these two pages. One I did for Issue 5 and the other I did for Issue 6. Maybe its the games background in me but I really dig the downward 3/4 angle shot to really show character in-situ. There are obviously more dynamic camera shots but I prefer to leave these for once things have started heating up.

I remember times when you’d read a book and it’d just be a whole lot of heads floating against blank backdrops or even just cross hatched background pattern. Hey we’ve all been guilty of that sort of thing but in essence it really makes life hard for the reader. In fact I think once I read a 22 page story that had one background in it - not the most immersive visual story telling.

I thinks that’s why as I keep learning in this visual story telling medium (and I have a long way to go), I try to challenge myself with new camera angles and including as much background as possible without over cluttering the panel (even if its just a subtle insinuation in a talking head panel).

I think that’s why I like sequential art so much. You feel like you are constantly learning and pushing yourself. Sure it feels frustrating that I’m not where  want to be yet, but it is invigorating to know that there is a touch of improvement with each new panel and that is all the incentive we need, right?

Trade Paperback vs Floppy Issues

With the trade paperback coming out we've been asked a few times now if there is much difference between the quarterly floppies and the compiled trade.

Ideally for the hardcore reader, the individual issues contain more exclusive content such as:
- Artist pinups
- Melbourne City Voice (world expanding mini article pages)
- Occasional feature mini comics (We Below, FA: The Backyard)
- Editorials

The Trade paperback however represents a compiled collection of issues 1-6. It contains all 120 pages of sequential art from the first 6 issues of the series but due to size restrictions doesn't have the pinups, editorials, Melbourne City Voice and mini stories. What it does have though is:
- 120 pages of sequential art story all in one hit
- silk gloss page stock
- overhauled and touched up page art
- a kick A$$ foreword by Ryan K Lindsay.

Hopefully this helps people make an informed decision on deciding on their preferred method of reading.

Print Proofs for Trade Paperback

Print proofs arrived today for the trade paperback. Not long now!