Upcoming Appearances for Oct and Nov.

Appearances!  I've got three events coming up in the next few weeks, here's a quick rundown.

October 23, 2011 (Sat)
Book signing at Acadiana Comics
From 1 to 3 pm
2506 Johnston Street
Lafayette, LA 70503-3238
(337) 234-9639

October 29, 2011 (Sat)
Panel Discussion and Book Signing

Pens and Pistols: A Roundtable featuring today’s Crime Comic All-Stars Panel discussion focusing on Crime Comics with special guests Howard Chaykin (Black Kiss), Kody Chamberlain (Sweets: A New Orleans Crime Story), and Victor Gischler (Punisher Max). 

Panel discussion at 2pm followed by a book signing at 3:15pm
State Museum, Auditorium - Baton Rouge, Louisiana
660 North 4th Street, Baton Rouge, LA, US
http://www.louisianabookfestival.org

November 11, 12, & 13 (Fri, Sat, Sun)
Austin Comic Con
Austin Convention Center
500 East Cesar Chavez Street
Austin, TX 78701
http://www.wizardworldcomiccon.com/home-tx.html
http://www.austinconventioncenter.com

We're close to locking down a book signing in Dallas for December. Details soon.

News, and more news.

Lots of stuff going on these last few weeks, here are a few highlights:

The first issue of Sweets is now FREE on ComiXology, grab a copy and see what everyone's been talking about.

I'm thrilled to announce I just received a very nice foreword for the Sweets trade paperback (collected edition) from comic book legend Duncan Fegredo! This really made my day. If you're not familiar with Fegredo's work, pick up the new issue of Hellboy that hit last week, I highly recommend you pick some up today, and since it happens to be new comic Wednesday at your local comic shop, pick up the new issue of Hellboy that came out last week.

I recently did a new audio interview with Comic Book Page Podcast, hosted by Elizabeth Amber. Give it a listen. Please note, There are a few strange stuttering pauses during the conversation, that's just a little bug in the recording process and we had to restart a few times.

Kody goes On The Page!

While visiting Los Angeles about two weeks ago, I was asked to be a guest on the 'On The Page' podcast, one of my favorite screenwriting podcasts. Give it a listen (episode 193), and don't forget to subscribe free on iTunes, it's the bombdiggity.

Upcoming Appearances

Signing at Big Easy Comics
with Rob Guillory (CHEW) and Nick Jones (Green Lantern)
Saturday, April 9th, 2011, 10am - 4pm
5150 Hwy 22, Suite C-3, Mandeville, LA
(985) 792-7800 ‎

Signing at Southern Fried Comics
with Rob Guillory (CHEW)
Saturday, April 16, 2011 from 4pm - 9pm
136 East Front St., Hattiesburg, MS
(601) 582-7080

New Orleans Comic-Con 2011, my schedule for the weekend.

I'm exhibiting at the New Orleans Comic-Con this weekend. I'm bringing a bunch of copies of Sweets, sketchbooks, original art, and a variety of other goodies. I'm also bringing a massive stack of clearance artwork, some as low as $10 a page!

Here's my schedule for the weekend:


Saturday:


New Orleans WDSU-TV Channel 6 - Live interview at 9am
Interview with Kody Chamberlain (Sweets, Punks) and Ernie Hudson (Ghostbusters, Oz)

Artist Alley table 907
New Orleans Comic Con - 10am—7pm
New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center
900 Convention Center Blvd.
New Orleans, LA 70130

The Art of ‘Chew’ and ‘Sweets’ - 1pm—1:45pm (Room B)
Indie art sensations Kody Chamberlain (Sweets) and Rob Guillory (Chew) join the Wizard World Comic Con Tour and discuss their breakout Image hits.

The Wizard World New Orleans Comic Con Live Art Show and After Party - 9:00pm—til
Music by DJ Rüs with Jeff Hebert on drums—Join us for this special after-hours event hosted by Kody
Chamberlain (Sweets, Punkst) and Rob Guillory (Chew), and watch some of your favorite comic artists create original work from start to finish right before your eyes. This is a rare opportunity to hang out, network, and get to know some of the top artists in the business. Who knows, you may even get to own an original masterpiece! This is a free event; must be 18 to enter.
LOCATION: Hey! Café
4332 Magazine St. (Corner of Magazine & Napoleon Ave.)
New Orleans, LA 70115

Sunday:

Artist Alley table 907
New Orleans Comic Con - 10am—5pm
New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center
900 Convention Center Blvd.
New Orleans, LA 70130

Sweets 2 got a great mention on this week's Fresh Ink!

Game Trailers - E3 2011

I originally posted this as a reaction to a news story about Comic-Con, but I figured I'd share it here as well. My thoughts on Comic-Con:


I was set up in the Image Comics booth all week pimping SWEETS #1, and I had a fantastic Comic-Con. I was flooded by people all week long specifically interested in comics and meeting the Image Comics' creators. In fact, the Image booth was packed, non stop action all week long for every creator at our booth. One quick look around, and I could tell Rob Guillory, John Layman, Jason Howard, Ryan Ottley, Andy Kuhn, and Phil Hester had people swarming all week long.

I'd say that comics have certainly been overshadowed in the press by movies and TV, but lets face it, the press NEVER cover comics anyway. If the film and TV stuff was pushed out of the convention, the media would simply loose interest all together.

Photo by Philip Simon

But the ATTENDEES still love comics and that's what it's all about. Lots of comic readers also love DEXTER, and that's cool with me. If it ever gets to the point where the attendees ignore comics in favor of TV, that's when I move on. But that hasn't happened. In fact, I'd say the attendees were swarming around the comic booths MORE than they were around the movie booths. I don't do many panels, so I can't speak on that subject, but our KICKSTART YOUR COMICS panel was packed, standing room only. People were eager to learn more about how we used the Kickstarter.com site to launch our comics and we were flooded with follow-up questions at our booth the following day. I wasn't at the Image Comics panel, but I'm told it was also standing room only.

I think we, as industry professionals, can look at the 'spectacle' of Comic-Con as a true opportunity. I was able to get coverage on G4TV not once, but TWICE, I was on camera several times as the Spurlock documentary crew followed John Layman at our booth, and I also did an interview with the crew filming Comic-Con in 3D for a separate documentary. I did 2 or 3 podcasts a day for comic and non-comic audiences, and I was even interviewed by a Jonas brother. Yes, I know the Jonas Brothers aren't exactly what we'd consider our normal "comics audience," but one of my main goals of Comic-Con is to reach out and EXPAND my audience.

Mission accomplished.

If we go into Comic-Con with an optimistic view and carefully plan our attack, a lot can be accomplished at that show. If you just sit around and complain about GLEE all week, you'll miss an amazing opportunity to reach an impressionable pop-culture-friendly audience that only comes around once a year.

Catching up from Comic-Con 2010

Alright, here's my almost-complete Comic-Con update:

Got 18 hours of sleep in the last 24 hours. I have officially recovered from Comic-Con :)

Highlights of the week: Lee Bermejo, Sean Phillips and Duncan Fegredo all dropped by my table to check out Sweets and talk comics. For those that don't know, these are three of my favorite artists working in comics today. I had met Bermejo briefly a few years ago, but didn't really have a chance to hang. Great guy, super talented. And pick up INTERSECTIONS by Sean Phillips and Duncan Fegredo because it's brilliant. I got to flip through the actual Moleskine sketchbook at the show. TONS of inspiration in that book.

G4TV's Blair Butler loved SWEETS, she stopped by my table twice during the show to chat a bit, and I passed off some original art to her from issue 2 (hint, I drew a cameo for her in that issue). I got great reviews from all the big comic news sites including Newsarama, Comic Book Resources iFanboy, etc. Massive fan buzz on the floor, this book was selling itself all week long.

Comic pros flooded my table to see SWEETS and I had many appearances on TV news, documentaries, podcasts, and got interviewed by a Jonas brother.

I was also bombarded by producers, managers, agents, and even a couple of actors stopped by to check out the book.

Foreign publishers loved SWEETS, so we may be reprinting the eventual graphic novel version in Italian and French.

Me, Eisner-winning artist Rob Guillory (and our pal Ross) got tickets to check out Adam Carolla on Saturday night, had an amazing time. If you haven't listened to the podcast, you should give it a try. Funny stuff.

I sort of fell behind on reposting reviews of SWEETS #1 since I was so busy at the show, but here are a couple that I wanted to share:

"A brilliant start to the five-part series" —Newsarama

"…I really loved ‘Sweets’ It was an impulse buy and paid off" —ComicNews.info

I got a half dozen job offers from writers I'd love to work with someday, and a whole slew of upcoming writers were asking about collaborations. Sadly, I can only take on a few projects a year, so I've got to choose carefully. But two projects in particular caught my interest, so I'll follow up about those soon.

It's always great to hang out with industry friends and catch up. There's never enough time to hang out with everyone, but it's great to catch up a bit and share a few minutes of conversation. The smaller conventions are always much better for hanging out because there's less chaos overall. I hope to make it to the Wizard Austin show, and possibly the NYCC.

And I truly enjoyed meeting the readers that keep this industry alive. You guys ROCKED Comic-Con for me. I sold a ton of comics and for the first time ever, I had almost as many people walk up with copies they've already purchased. It's great to know that someone cared enough about the book to pack it up and fly across the country just to get it signed. I'm humbled.

Thanks for reading!

Now I'm gonna get back to work.

Kody Chamberlain
July 27, 2010

Random stuff.

Couple of things...

• I'm honored that SWEETS was picked as one of the Robot 6 'Comics on a $15 Budget' picks! Thanks Robot 6! http://ow.ly/2bmXJ

• And I'm told that the new issue of GOOD Magazine is out, there's a nice write up on SWEETS in there. Page 88.

• Remember, today is SWEETS Day, so head to your local comic shop and grab a copy before they sell out. http://tinyurl.com/sweetsday

• Finally, four appearances coming up:

AND BOOKS TOO in Lafayette, LA - Saturday, July 17th from 1pm to 5pm. Here's the flyer.

Comic-Con International in San Diego, CA - July 22 - 25, daily.

BSI Comics in Metairie, LA - Saturday, July 31st from 12pm to 4pm.

Acadiana Comic & Collectibles in Lafayette, LA - This signing is set for mid August, exact date and time coming soon.

Release Party Flyer!

Click to enlarge:

Join me for the Kickstarter panel at Comic-Con

I'll be participating in a panel at Comic-Con about my experience using Kickstarter, and offering tips and suggestions for those looking to start a Kickstarter project of their own. Here's the official description:

Kickstart Your Comic! (Saturday 6:30-7:30pm) Room 7AB
Producing an independent comic requires not only a huge time commitment, but also a sizable financial investment to cover the printing, promotion, and distribution costs incurred before your book even hits the shelves. Recently, some creators have discovered a new and effective way to raise start-up capital for their comics online. Since it's founding in 2009, Kickstarter.com has been helping artists in all media find financial backing for their projects through user donations. Join Kody Chamberlain (Sweets), Steve Earnhart and Pat Loika (The Villain), and Steve Bryant (Athena Voltaire) as they discuss their highly successful Kickstarter campaigns and offer advice to help you fund your own comic through Kickstarter.com

Free Comic Book Day

Free Comic Book Day is tomorrow (May 1) all across the USA. To celebrate the event I'll be signing, sketching, and hanging at Walley’s Pop Comics for a few hours, getting in around 11am. I'm told there might be FREE pizza, ice cream & beer. Here's the location:

Walley’s Pop Comics

711 Jefferson Hwy, suite 7

Baton Rouge, Louisiana (map)

Here's some info on Free Comic Book Day:

Free Comic Book Day is a single day - the first Saturday in May each year - when participating comic book shops across North America and around the world give away comic books absolutely FREE* to anyone who comes into their stores. *Check with your local shop for their participation and rules.

Publisher and Fanboy Radio

The publisher is locked in, SWEETS #1 has a target date of Jul 14, one week before Comic-Con. I'm showing the cover on Fanboy Radio this SUNDAY (March 28 @ 7pm/6c).

http://www.fanboyradio.com - You can listen online, or download the podcast after it airs.