Five Day Art Challenge, Day 4: Enter Amazing Arizona Comics!

Fellow mini-comic artist Eric Mengel (interviewed in the latest episode of KaraokeFanboy Podcast!) challenged me to the Five Day Art Challenge on Facebook, which, from what I can gather, is a call to post five pieces of art every day for five days.  Since I'm working tirelessly to finish Amazing Arizona Comics #10 by Amazing Arizona Comic Con this weekend, I thought to use the challenge as a look back at my comics-making career, from childhood to this very week!

When I moved back to Arizona in 2010, I continued my self-publishing efforts as KaraokeFanboy Press (obviously), but I sought a project that explored my love of superheroes and the intrigue of the politics, pop culture, and history of my home state.  Enter Amazing Arizona Comics!  With almost ten issues complete, not to mention countless one-shots, exclusive on-line comics, and strips in other zines, I have a lot of preliminary sketches and unused pages.  This post represents a small fraction from that stash, including a peek at some characters appearing in Amazing Arizona Comics #10!

Snowbird has made several "first appearances in strips that have never seen the light of day, including here, where Sam Brero and Dust Devil spot her cooling off a hot cup of coffee.  An alternate version of Snowy appeared in issue #8, but her first Arizona Prime appearance will be in Amazing Arizona Comics #10!

McGruff appeared in a strip all his own on this very date last year, and in this rejected panel from the 2014 Free Comic Book Day special, he gets the better of Archiewawa.  Look out for McGruff as a member of America's Super Secret Service in Amazing Arizona Comics #10.

Damion Mailer is a cyberwizard-in-training.  Here he faces Hash Tag, from Speed Cameron's California Adventure, but watch out for his first real appearance in (you guessed it) Amazing Arizona Comics #10!

Preliminary sketches of Ana Sazi.

Cover rough for Amazing Arizona Comics #11!

Five Day Art Challenge, Day 2: R.J. Cartoons

Fellow mini-comic artist Eric Mengel (interviewed in the latest episode of KaraokeFanboy Podcast!) challenged me to the Five Day Art Challenge on Facebook, which, from what I can gather, is a call to post five pieces of art every day for five days.  Since I'm working tirelessly to finish Amazing Arizona Comics #10 by Amazing Arizona Comic Con this weekend, I thought to use the challenge as a look back at my comics-making career, from childhood to this very week!

In my early adolescence, heavily inspired by Image Comics, I began creating my own comics under the banner "R.J. Cartoons."  The first page is a typical escapist fantasy of me, fighting crime in Peoria, Arizona as Robin, and the images following are original character designs.  You can see the breadth of my imagination.  Spike had a spike on his head.  Flagg was a patriot that fought with flags.  When Rash touched people, they got a paralyzing rash.  Other characters included Disc, Grenade, and Lens, who threw discs, lobbed grenades, and shot light blasts with powerful lenses, respectively.  The last sketch is the most interesting, though.  Undated but undoubtedly from this era, I found "Sombrero Boy," complete with burritorang and Sombrero Mobile.  I never knew, twenty years later, I would create Sam Brero, a hero prominently featured in my current comic series, Amazing Arizona Comics #10.  Just goes to show that the better ideas have more sticking power -- just like a burritorang.

What are you reading?

Are you reading Amazing Arizona Comics: The Webcomic?  The first appearance of Family Fun Bot is currently running, in color, and it's a great pre-holiday season treat!

For more Amazing Arizona Comics, look for my table at next weekend's iCon in downtown Glendale, or again at the Phoenix Comicon Fan Fest December 12-14, or even once again at the Amazing Arizona Comic Con February 13-15, 2015.  Free superhero sketches for all!

Who Needs San Diego Comic Con?! It's All About Amazing Arizona Comics!

It's San Diego Comic Con weekend, so I couldn't let it pass without offering some Amazing Arizona Comics hype!  Check out this latest preview of not one but two upcoming stories -- and you decide which will be completed and published first!  The last of these pages gives explains it all, including how to vote via email, but if you're reading this blog, you need only post "Sam" or "Cam" in the comments, and your voice will be heard!  This year, vote for something that actually matters!

Recipients of  my new Amazing Arizona Comics newsletter received this preview first, as a PDF, and if you'd like to be on that list for exclusive comics, previews, and announcements, simply email me and say so!

Happy Independence Day from Amazing Arizona Comics!

Happy Independence Day from Amazing Arizona Comics!  Here's an exclusive pin-up of Sam Brero, alongside Uncle Sam and, for the first time, Mother Road and her sidekick Wigwam, protectors of Historic Route 66!  Sam Brero will star in the next issue of Amazing Arizona Comics, and Mother Road promises a chance to extend the Arizonauts' reach beyond the Grand Canyon State in stories to come.  Stay tuned!

Happy Free Comic Book Day!

Happy Free Comic Book Day!  Here's this year's Amazing Arizona Comics FCBD story, in glorious color!  (Special thanks to Kyle Kazmierczak!)

You read that last blurb correctly!  This post is the home of the "Name June Monsoon's Chihuahua Contest!"  Simply post your suggestion for June in the comments section below.  Entries that combine dog and monsoon puns will have a better chance of winning!  The winner will be posted next Wednesday and will receive a complimentary copy of the brand new Amazing Arizona Comics Quarterly #1!

Please know that by posting your dog name suggestion, you are releasing your rights to the name to me, which means: when June's dog appears in future adventures, I'll happily give you credit for his name, but you are not entitled to any profits garnered from the sales of that or any comic book or strip featuring June's dog. 

What About the Twinkie?

All of our lives, we're taught to think in fours.  Four corners in a room.  Four directions on a compass.  Four quarters make a dollar.  The Fantastic Four.  The Fab Four.

Think of some of the most timeless teams in film and television.  Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion.  The Beverly Hillbillies.  The A-Team.  The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  The Golden Girls.  Foursomes, all, and when we lose one, we lose the whole.  That's how I feel about the recent passing of Harold Ramis.

As Egon Spengler, Ramis portrayed an eccentric genius that could only exist in a world where the dead rise from the grave.  He grounded the first wildly successful science fiction comedy with the best sensibilities of both genres, making the Ghostbusters franchise believable to kids of the '80s like me.  When my family moved to Phoenix in 1988, and I experienced my first red-skied summer monsoon, I donned my plastic proton pack, looked up at the storm, and proclaimed, "This is it!  This is definitely it!"

Twenty-six years later, I'm proclaiming that again at the headlines of Ramis' passing.  Sure, three quarters are better than nothing, but in the end they just don't fit the bill, and moving on without the whole just doesn't make sense.  You will be missed, Mr. Ramis.  Thankfully, your great work has left you a rich afterlife.

#SB1062

Once again, Arizona has made national news for a controversial state bill.  Amazing Arizona Comics #1 explores how SB1070 affected superheroic law enforcement (still available for sale in the right column!), so here's a standalone page that may become a bigger story based on how 1062 would affect an Arizona with superheroes.  Click here for easier reading.

Amazing Arizona Research

While living in Phoenix is research enough for my superhero-driven political satire Amazing Arizona Comics, I often take pictures or collect memorabilia in, about, or outside of the city to keep the inspiration coming.  Here's a picture of "Mr. Arizona," from an event in downtown Mesa a few years ago.  I don't know if that's his real name, but in a shirt like that, what else can you call him?  

Cool Cosplay

I get to see a lot of cool cosplay at the cons I attend, and rather than post endless slideshows of fat Batmen, I like to feature one great costume at a time, ideally revealing the wearer's creativity, originality, and most importantly to me practicality.  So, since Thor: The Dark World is coming out on DVD this week, here's a pic of the Avenger and me at a sneak preview of his first film a few years ago, at the Tempe Marketplace.

This Week's Intake

I have a lot of reading to do.  Dig my haul from the Los Angeles Zine Fest last week!

In the meantime, I'm still nose deep in the old funnybooks.  Savage Dragon #193 was at the top of the heap this week.  Like my fellow Fin-addicts, I've been anxious for this issue, which officially passes the reigns from Dragon proper to his son, Malcolm Dragon.  As "the 1st issue in a bold new direction," I didn't find the issue open enough for new readers.  Too many details about Malcolm's life, like even a mention of his half-sister Angel, were excluded in favor of old school adolescent angst and superhero slugfests.  In the end, that combo still makes for a great time in the hands of creator Erik Larsen.  He had me with two words this issue: the Worm Ring.

Coming Soon . . .

Amazing Arizona Comics Quarterly #1 will drop next month.  In the meantime, here's an excerpt from an enclosed essay, titled, "The Initial Spark: The History of Arizona's First Superhero."

When Arizona became a state, President Taft and his administration quickly sought to tap its rich supernatural potential to develop their own mythological superhero.  From northern Arizona’s vortexes to border legends of lights in the sky, the military had no shortage of possible power sources within the Grand Canyon State, but their attempts yielded little results.  During World War II, the government became desperate, and, among other fringe efforts, they hired several unemployed cartoonists to interpret Native American and Mexican iconography for new ideas.  One of those cartoonists had a hidden agenda . . .

Pow!

Sam Brero in action!  Catch the whole fight in Amazing Arizona Comics #9, available at the Tucson Comic Con and on-line (in color!) on November 2!

Enter: Sam Brero & Dust Devil!

Continuing our countdown to Tucson Comic Con, here's a panel from Amazing Arizona Comics #9 -- Sam Brero and Dust Devil smash into Governor Brewer's office!  But why?  Find out when Amazing Arizona Comics #9 drops on November 2!   

The Exclusive That Almost Was

I almost offered a Phoenix Comicon exclusive, which would've been a preview of upcoming issues Amazing Arizona Comics #7 and Speed Cameron's California Adventure #1.  Instead, I opted for making sure I had enough free sample comics to distribute to new fans, namely the Sam Brero origin special and my Tucson/Flagstaff/Phoenix Free Comic Book Day issues.  I think I made the right move.  Here's the cover that preview exclusive would've boasted, featuring Speed Cameron and June Monsoon in a confrontation that really hasn't happened . . . yet . . .

Arizonauts Profile: Family Fun Bot

Before Family Fun Bot was activated, it was just another strange, roadside Arizona attraction, occasionally photographed for tourists' amusement, abandoned on Interstate 10 between Phoenix and Tucson with other pastel relics from a defunct theme park.  When a couple of curious kids accidentally kicked on its power, Family Fun Bot rose from the dusty desert and headed to Tucson, determined to fulfill his programming and provide family fun for all.  Thankfully, Sam Brero was there to redirect the aimless robot before it caused any real damage.  Now, as an honorary member of the Arizonauts, Family Fun Bot is ready to heed the call when the safety and fun of families is threatened in Arizona!

Arizonauts Profile: Sam Brero

Artist's rendition of Samuel's discovery.

For centuries, Earth has been the subject of intergalactic debate. Will humans ever set aside their petty differences and achieve their full potential? If they do, will they explore the ever-expanding universe . . . or become its greatest enemy?

Over one hundred years ago, a race of alien observers decided to push humanity one step closer toward those questions. Of course, they were documenting Arizona's Old West at the time, when proud cowboys were first claiming the desert as American territory and bullying Mexican landowners to head south. Despite the differences amongst these men, the aliens observed one blatant commonality: they all had head wear.

Detail of unused "Arizona Republic"
front page, documenting a Sam Brero
sighting.

So, there came a day when an alien sombrero was sent to Earth in a meteor, which shattered into seven sacred meteorites in the Arizona desert. When one who is worthy discovers and dons the head wear, he is transformed into a champion to combat social injustice. He -- or she -- is Sam Brero!

The most recent wearer of the sacred sombrero is Samuel, an orphan that discovered his destiny while fleeing coyotes in the desert. When Sam ventured to Phoenix, his legend followed him, and June Monsoon asked him to join the Arizonauts.

And, lo, if young Samuel ever perishes in battle, or becomes unworthy to don the sacred head wear, the alien sombrero will return to the seven meteorites and await its next champion -- the one who will be -- Sam Brero!

Countdown Day 33: FCBD Tucson

Introducing: Family Fun Bot!

BONUS: "Food Coma at the County Fair!"

Click here to see the latest Nerdvana-exclusive strip, starring June Monsoon and Sam Brero!