This weekend I’m a keynote speaker at Gamercamp here in Toronto! I’m really excited about this local gaming festival and if you’re in town and love video games you should definitely check it out.

My chat is on Day 1 (Saturday) at 2:15.

UDON 10—A Decade of Art, Games and Comics
UDON co-owner and project manager Jim Zubkavich reflects on the last decade for the local studio and its unique position creating anime-style art for the Japanese market with companies like Capcom, Konami, and Hasbro.

If you’re also a comic fan you’ll definitely want to also be in attendance for Chris Butcher’s Comics & Gaming talk:

Developing Narrative in Comics & Gaming
Sunday, November 14th, 12:30pm-1:30pm
Comic books and video games—these two relatively young media have grown out of their infancy and are taking on complex issues, emotions, and ideas. Join us as we discuss the intersection of these media and what they can learn from each other. We’ll also be showcasing a range of interesting mutations that cross the barrier between media.
With Miguel Sternberd, Benjamin Rivers, and Christopher Butcher

Over at the my art-centric blogspot site I’ve been posting some of the in-class artwork I’ve been doing as tutorial material for the Photoshop classes I’m teaching this semester.

Click through each to see more:

Rodent-ish creature

Head construction and expressions

Creature design

Vehicle design/Metal Rendering

Last week, after the wedding stuff wrapped up and visiting friends had left, Stacy and I took a little trip to Quebec city for some one-on-one relaxation. Stacy got us a great deal at the famous Chateau Frontenac hotel, which was made even better when they upgraded us to a kick ass suite when we told them we had just gotten married.

Good food, good times.

We arrived back just before Halloween and are still feeling the post-wedding glow, even while we get back to a semi-regular work schedule.

Click here for Quebec trip photos

I know a lot of fans have told us how much they enjoyed the Hulk homage cover we did for our first issue, so I’ve had a few ideas percolating with different salutes to the stuff that Skullkickers draws influence from.

Dungeons & Dragons, with all the manic kookiness it has in trying to create epic fantasy stories with your friends that turn into gut busting laughter instead, is a big part of the Skullkickers equation. I want to riff on some of the famous (or even not-so famous) imagery from the game when appropriate.

With the issue #5 cover I knew we were going to show a giant demonic monstrosity smashing things and it reminded me of the old school D&D module called “Castle Amber”.

I asked Edwin to use the Castle Amber cover painting by Erol Otus as a starting point, keeping in mind that our cover illo has a completely different shape. I think he did a fantastic job subtly using that imagery without just copying it outright. I wasn’t sure if RPG fans would pick up on the reference, but now that you can see it side-by-side I hope you get a kick out of it.

Stacy and I are back from a few days away in Quebec City and I finally had a bit of time to sort through the wedding day photos we’ve received so far from family and friends. Send more if you’ve got ’em!

Professional ones still to come.

—

Click here for wedding photos

October 23rd, 2010. Stacy and I were married. Our ceremony was at Rumball Manor in North York and our Reception took place downtown at a hall called Europa.

SKULLKICKERS #5
story JIM ZUBKAVICH
art EDWIN HUANG & MISTY COATS
cover EDWIN HUANG & JOY ANG
JANUARY 26
32 PAGES / FC
$2.99

“ONE THOUSAND OPAS AND A DEAD BODY,” Part Five

Rampaging army of the demonic dead? Check.
Witty banter amidst a wild chase scene? Check.
Brain-busting action climax? Check.

See how the first story arc of Image’s hit new action-comedy series wraps up in this head-smashing comic maelstrom.

Fantasy just got its head kicked in.

Diamond Order Code: NOV100470

Facebook and Twitter have been abuzz with it since Friday night, but I figured that I wouldn’t leave my blog empty about such a special day.

Stacy and I were married on October 23rd, 2010 at 2pm.

The weather held out just as we hoped so we could have an outdoor ceremony. Coloured leaves in the trees framed us beautifully and unseasonably warm weather came in just long enough to pull it off.

All of it was wonderful. Seriously, two days later and I’m still awe struck at how well it all went after Stacy and I (though much of it Stacy, I must admit) spent months planning the event in-depth. There were many days when it looked like juggling the wedding with our already crazy schedule would finally topple us, but we pushed through and it was the best – even better than we imagined it.

Surrounded by our dearest family and friends, all of them so happy for us.

Indescribable.

I’ll post up photos as soon as I get them organized. There’s quite the avalanche of them.

Thank you, everyone, for your love and support.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Betsy Gomez
510-644-4980 x 26
betsygomez@imagecomics.com

THE SALES KICK CONTINUES!
SKULLKICKERS #2 sells out at distribution level almost immediately after release

Berkeley, CA – 22 October 2010 – After issue 1 rampaged off shelves and into the hearts and minds of comic fans, SKULLKICKERS #2 follows suit with a distribution-level sell out!

Demand for SKULLKICKERS is soaring, so Image Comics has ordered a second printing of the pulse-pounding second issue. It will be in stores November 10, 2011.

SKULLKICKERS scribe Jim Zubkavich (POPGUN, Street Fighter Legends: Ibuki) says, “When the gang at Image contacted me to let me know that issue #2 had blown through its overprint right after release, I couldn’t believe it. My friend Joe Vriens sent a pin-up we intended to put in the back of our next issue, but we quickly drafted that sweet piece as our second print #2 cover.”

“Thank you to everyone who has given our fun little fantasy book a chance. We’ll keep working hard to earn that support!” Zubkavich adds.

SKULLKICKERS is fantasy action-comedy written by Zubkavich with art by the gifted team of Edwin Huang, Chris Stevens (POPGUN) and Misty Coats.

In SKULLKICKERS, two mercenaries are entangled in a high-class assassination plot, and nothing — not werewolves, skeletons or black magic — will stop them from getting paid. If you love fantasy, action-comedy, a touch of black-hearted violence and movies like ARMY OF DARKNESS then SKULLKICKERS is the book for you!

SKULLKICKERS #2 Second Printing (AUG108190), a 32-page full-color comic book for $2.99, will be in stores November 10, 2010. SKULLKICKERS #3 (SEP100497) will be in stores November 24, 2010. Follow the Skullkickers blog at www.skullkickers.com for sneak peeks and more. You can download a free preview of SKULLKICKERS using the Image Comics app from comiXology.

Image Comics is a comic book and graphic novel publisher founded in 1992 by a collective of best-selling artists. Image has since gone on to become one of the largest comics publishers in the United States. Image currently has five partners: Robert Kirkman, Erik Larsen, Todd McFarlane, Marc Silvestri and Jim Valentino. It consists of five major houses: Todd McFarlane Productions, Top Cow Productions, Shadowline, Skybound and Image Central. Image publishes comics and graphic novels in nearly every genre, sub-genre, and style imaginable. It offers science fiction, romance, horror, crime fiction, historical fiction, humor and more by the finest artists and writers working in the medium today. For more information, visit www.imagecomics.com.

When you put a creative project out in to the world, all you can hope for is that people respond well to it, that they understand the intent and connect with it the way you want them to.

Part of the hype and added interest for Skullkickers #1 came from speculation on its value as a collectible since it had a low first printing. Now that ICV2’s sales numbers are out for September, you can see that they estimate SK #1’s print run at 5448 copies, which is actually pretty close to the real number. Since we had two different covers that means there’s approximately 2700 of each type out in the wild. Needless to say, that’s not a heck of a lot of copies. The reviews were strong, some hype kicked in to gear and some people speculated that since the print run was low they could buy up copies and make money on them later. Currently on ebay there are over 60 different listings for “skullkickers” or “skull kickers” related to the comic. That feels kind of weird.

It’s been exciting announcing a 2nd printing of the first issue and then a 3rd. After shortages on that first printing, the book is finally getting out in to the hands of readers and they’re enjoying it. That’s all we’ve ever wanted.

Two recent reviews of the comic really meant a lot to me. Two complete strangers reading the issues and getting exactly what we’re going for with the book: Paul Montgomery at iFanboy and Jason Wilkins at Broken Frontier. I read those reviews and I’m so excited about how things are going and the potential for us to find a solid readership that enjoys what we put together.

Things are good.