KTG client Len N. Wallace will speak and sign copies of Love Buzz 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, April 2, at the Yale Bookstore in New Haven, Connecticut.  The talk is titled “The Buzz(es) That Almost Was(es)“, and will focus on the nearly eight-year journey Len had getting this, his first book made.

That’s right.  EIGHT.  YEARS.  For one book.  And authors take note: one and a half years after it’s release, Len is still racing around promoting it.

FORGOTTEN 22 is the name, written by Matt with art by Italian sensation Stephano Cardoselli and published by Studio 407.

Official Listing:

Watch out!  There’s a new Sheriff in Hell!

Experience the undead Western that Mark Waid called “REALLY good stuff!” and that Mike Carey declared “A fun read!”

Meet Dakota Smith, a former soldier who wakes up dead from three bullets in his chest.  Quickly made Sheriff of Forgotten, a ghost town in a tiny corner of Hell, Dakota Smith makes a deal with the Devil: he gets to wear the badge — but must do the Devil’s dirty work.

Smith thought it would be easy being the Devil’s Sheriff…but he was wrong. Dead wrong.  A brand-new mini-series of the dead West brought to you by writer Matthew McLean (Cthulhu Tales, Murder at Pine Lake) and Heavy Metal artist Stefano Cardoselli.

The Diamond order number is MAR111247.

Or pre-order it directly here: http://heavyink.com/comic/18569-Forgotten-22-1

Plus check out a 10-page preview: http://www.studio-407.com/the-forgotten-22/comic.html

The most fascinating part of the interview, for me, was listening to Frankie talk about the challenges involved with telling a story on 2.5 x 3.5 spaces:

Honestly, I did not know anything about sketch cards until May of 2009 when I was approached by 5Finity Productions to do some Archie Charity Cards. I’ve done storyboards for film and television but it intrigued me that there was a community devoted to the collection of artwork that measured only 2.5 x 3.5.

 

Since my baptism into the industry, I’ve found that drawing at such a reduced size has allowed me to challenge my artistic skills more so than working on a 11 x17 comic book format. The ability to tell a story through sketch cards is now the force that drives me every time the pencil hits the paper.

 

–Frankie B. Washington

Read the full interview here:

http://www.upperdeckblog.com/2011/03/catching-up-with-illustrator-frankie-b-washington/

KTG Client Josh Wagner’s ADAM FUNN is now ranked SECOND in a contest that could win it a $500,000 financing deal to make a feature.

VOTE FOR IT! (it’s a fast process – 30 seconds tops, promise).

Client Daniel Lieske’s big online project – THE WORMWORLD SAGA has passed the 250,000 reads mark!

Congrats, Daniel! Everyone check this out if you haven’t already.  With a seamless, fluid, single-page scrolling layout, it’s the first unique online comic experience of 2011, no question.

Currently you can read it in English and German.

You can also BUY PRINTS ONLINE of Lieske’s incredible coffee table artwork!

Killing the Grizzly has officially partnered with Hukilau to offer a brand new opportunity for independent comic creators to create, fund, and distribute comics, as well as offer the possibility for professional literary representation.

This is a ground breaking partnership that offers a wide array of services for shepherding creator projects through their full production process – from concept to funding to creation to distribution.

Included are studio services, professional polish, marketing support, and review by KTG for possible agency representation.  This partnership is also part of a larger coalition of companies that have teamed with Hukilau to offer a one-stop resource for digital distribution, transmedia marketing, branded mobile app creation and distribution, and the ability to showcase creator work to entertainment industry professionals.

What is Hukilau?

Hukilau is a new venture that launched in July 2010.  It’s mission is to offer a new platform to create, fund and distribute independent media.  In the converging media landscape, their aim is to help digital media find it’s audience.  Creators can propose independent projects, get them funded, produced and distributed.

While Hukilau is the core portal for all its resources, it is through strategic partnerships with other companies that they plan to offer every possible service an independent creator might want or need.

“Hukilau is a brilliant new platform that digital savvy professionals have predicted for years,” KTG vice president Dallas Miller mentions.  “Between the services that Killing the Grizzly will offer, alongside the mobile-specific services of Robot Comics, comic creators will find virtually anything and everything they need through the single resource called Hukilau.”

The Services

Killing the Grizzly will offer creators a range of Studio Services including professional logo design, cover and interior design, editorial services, as well as help match incomplete creative teams with writers, pencilers, inkers, letterers, and colorists.

KTG will additionally, on request, review any comic, prose, or poetry work that comes through Hukilau for possible literary agency representation.

How it Works

All creators will need to apply and be accepted into the Hukilau Creator’s Program.  Once inside, if a creator reaches out to Killing the Grizzly for any of its listed Studio Services, KTG will work with the creator to put together a full creative team and then a quote for all desired labor.  The creator then utilizes the Hukilau system to fund the project in part or in full.

In regard to the literary agency, if a creator’s work is selected of representation and they agree to all terms, KTG will work on a  commission based structure only, and no funding will be required on the creator’s part.

About Hukilau

For more information on Hukilau, visit their website.  If you’re a creator, begin by signing up to the Hukilau Creator’s Program.

Killing the Grizzly has officially teamed up with film management and production house, Archetype, to help represent and shepherd KTG properties for film, television, and animation.

“It’s the first of many open-ended partnerships we hope to establish with co-agents and studios,” KTG president Dave Baxter says.  “We chatted with Ray Miller and David Server of Archetype over the course of a couple weeks, and discovered we very much were on the same page in regards to comic properties and what we were both looking for.  I think this relationship is a very organic one, which is the best kind of all.”

We’ll keep everyone updated with news on our subsidiary sales in regards to Archetype as they occur.  Onward and upward!

Just this weekend, Tom sent me the finished inks for the new cover, minus the colors by Bill (still waiting on those).  Pretty cool, eh?:

KILLING THE GRIZZLY is not the “Alternative to Zuda” alluded to in the PR. But we are working on an “Alternative to Zuda”, yes.

The PR announced our debut as an agency and production house.   Then rather over-excitedly (we were and are over-excited about it, what can we say?) announced that an “Alternative to Zuda” was in the works to debut in the very near future.

This website that you’re on right now, however – www.killingthegrizzly.com, is the agency, nothing more, nothing less.  We’ll also be producing limited edition runs of our creators’ works for raising reader, publisher, and producer awareness, however we are not a publisher, distributor, or a stand-alone production site ourselves.

We’ll be partnering with two other companies to bring the Zuda alternative to life.  The news for this will be announced shortly after SDCC.  Hope that clarifies things a bit for those that have been distressed by it.