Facebeast #2, HeroesCon, and The Future!

by admin on June 10, 2013 at 10:57 pm
Posted In: News!, Updates!

It’s been a while since the last update (since before Megacon!). I know, I’m the worst. But I’m here now to show you that I can be a little less terrible by giving you a big, long, detailed update on what’s going on in NB Comics Land. Or maybe I’ll just give you the gist if my fingers are tired of typing. Let’s just wing it… you know how these things go…

1First is great news on the Facebeast front. The long-awaited Facebeast #2 is completely done! Finally! In fact we were able to print some advance copies for HeroesCon (more on that later) and it’s already getting a great response! It took a bit of all nighters in the last couple weeks, but we can finally put this one on the shelf! We’ll be adding the comic to our online store very soon, and you’ll be able to purchase it in either physical or digital form… or both! You should do both! You know, for the full experience. After that we’ll be working hard to get it in a few local shops in Tampa Bay, Orlando, and possibly more! We’ll keep you updated on all of that in the near future.

On the convention front, we just got done with HeroesCon in Charlotte, NC. It was our first time at the legendary convention, and we had a great time! It was certainly awesome to sell comics and prints, but most of the fun came from meeting new people and hanging out with friends! Here are some of the highlights from the weekend:WP_001038

  • Kate and I met one of our favorite artists from the Penny Arcade show Strip Search, Abby Howard. She was an absolute delight, and is super hilarious if you didn’t already know that. I managed to snag one of her Naughty Mystery prints (one of her elimination comics from the show), and Kate got her to do a commission of Facebeast which can be seen below. Isn’t she just the greatest? The answer is yes, yes she is.
  • In addition to Abby’s commission, we got commissions from other great artists including Joel Carroll, Mike Maihack, and Meghan Hetrick.
  • We hung out with our friends at Fine Print Shoppe for Taste of Charlotte, a local food event. Did I ever mention those guys are our oldest con buddies? Well they are, and they are super rad.
  • MERT’S CORN BREAD!
  • The annual art auction was an interesting experience. Kate donated a piece which sold for $150, not too shabby.
  • COOK OUT!
  • The discovery and abuse of Vine on the road trip up to the con. Seriously, we shouldn’t be allowed to operate a camera.

Speaking of operating a camera, I think now is a good time to announce a new thing we’re gonna do. It is tentatively titled Drink and Draw With Josh and Kate! Essentially this is just going to be us getting drunk in front of a camera and drawing something for fun. Not all of the details have been worked out yet, but we’re going to try to start doing this a few times a month and upload the resulting episode to our  currently dormant YouTube channel. At first we will probably pick a theme for every episode, but we may be open to taking suggestions in future episodes. We are scheduled to record our first episode this weekend, and I have no idea how this is going to turn out. OH GOD, I HOPE THIS DOESN’T TURN INTO A COMPLETE DRUNKEN MESS.

I think that’s about all I’d like to mention in this update. There are plenty of new developments happening, but none of them are ready for announcement. Check out our updated convention schedule on the right to know where you can see us, and be sure to check out (and “like”) our Facebook page if you haven’t already.

Thanks for reading!

- Josh

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New Prints For Megacon!!!

by admin on March 2, 2013 at 5:27 pm
Posted In: Art!, News!

Here are some of the prints we’re offering for sale at Megacon this year! We have at least 4 new ones, plus some older ones we’ve decided to reprint. Josh even got off his lazy butt to make a print of his own for once (the Poison Ivy). They are all in 11×17, and we’re selling them for $15 a piece, or $10 a piece if you buy 2 or more! Check them out!!!

See you guys at Megacon!

- Josh

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ALL DONE!

by admin on February 12, 2013 at 11:23 am
Posted In: Uncategorized

Our Kickstarter campaign is done! We finished with a total of $5299 and 224 backers! Thank you to everyone who helped us out whether it was $1, $350, or helping with promotion! With all of the donations Kate and I are able to do the following:

- Print 400 copies of Facebeast #2
- 200 additional copies of Facebeast #1
- Order a variety of merchandise for the comic and Naughty Bicycle in general
- Take a trip to DragonCon in Atlanta
- Take a trip to C2E2 in Chicago
- Upgrade our convention equipment
- plus lots more!

This is defintiely waaay bigger than the Kickstarter we did for Agatha Frisky back in 2011. This is allowing us to expand our little operation and we might, JUST MIGHT, resemble an actual company! Whodathunkit?!

We’re super excited to see how the rest of 2013 plays out, so keep coming back for more updates. I will try to update once a week on our prgress with Facebeast and other NB stuff.  

- Josh

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FACEBEAST Progress! The Kickstarter is wrapping up!

by admin on February 5, 2013 at 4:15 pm
Posted In: Updates!

So, as many of you guys know, we are still in the middle of a Kickstarter campaign for our comic book, Facebeast! As of right now we have earned $4,244 and we only have FOUR days left. We have come such a long way this past month and it has definitely started our year off on the right foot. I thought I would show you a couple pages Kate has been working on lately. I didn’t inlcude any lettering so I’m not spoiling it for anyone. Take a look!

You only have FOUR days left to pledge to the Kickstarter! After that you won’t be able to get a physical copy of the comic unless you buy it from us at a convention! However, we are working on setting up an online store for digital downloads for all of our comics, so if you can’t make it out to a con you’ll be able to at least download a PDF or CBR file. Look out for that in the very near future!

I would also like to talk about the pre-order for The Hall Monitors: Season 1 book. It’s still up, and will be up until February 24th! Right now I am finishing up the last two pages of the book, as well as the cover and a couple other loose ends. After all that is complete I’ll send it off to the printer. This is another book you won’t be able to buy from us unless you buy it at a convention. I’m printing a very limited quantity, so if you want a copy you have to get it via pre-order. How do you pre-order? EASY! Just go to the website (HTTP://HALLMONITORSCOMIC.COM) and click on the PayPal button on the right sidebar. Then just fill out your information and that’s all there is to it!

That’s all I’ve got for right now. I’ll keep you all updated with more progress on Facebeast as it comes along. Thanks for reading!

- Josh

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Convention Recap: Time Lord Fest!

by admin on January 29, 2013 at 9:20 am
Posted In: Convention Recaps!

So we had the chance to set up at Time Lord Fest this past weekend. This convention centered on all things Doctor Who and was an absolute blast! So let me tell you what’s what about Time Lord Fest.  WP_000891

We met a lot of new people here (including George Perez, but I’ll get to that later). We met people who haven’t been at other conventions and just wanted to get their Who on. We had a lot of fun talking about our comics, particularly Agatha Frisky because I pitched it to everyone as Doctor Who meets The Time Machine. There were a lot of people really interested in Facebeast as well. One dude even gave me some neat ideas to incorporate into the next issue. If you’re from Tampa, and familiar with Ybor City at all, you’ll get a kick out of it when you see it! I had someone tell me they saw Facebeast on Kickstarter, so he bought a copy and asked us to sign it. (I still feel weird when someone asks me to sign something, but alright!) We didn’t get a lot of commissions, though, just one of the 4th Doctor. However, our Doctor Who prints, buttons, magnets, and keychains went flying off the table!

I tried to keep a mental tally of all the Doctor cosplays I saw to see who was the most popular Doctor at the show. Honestly though, I lost track. SO MANY DOCTORS! I was surprised that so many people cosplayed the 4th Doctor. I think people just like to wear the scarf and hand out jelly babies. I was also surprised to see as many 9th Doctors as I did. And I didn’t see nearly as many 11th Docotrs as I thought I would. If  I had to guess, I would break down the top 4 like this:

  1. 10th
  2. 4th
  3.  11th
  4. 9th

One of the stand-out moments at the show was when we crossed paths with comic book legend, George Perez. It was completely random! I

don’t think he was doing anything for the con, but I heard his wife was associated with the convention or something? I dunno, but it was pretty awesome! He came up to our table (and we were completely oblivious of his presence due to the volume of people in that room) and looked down at our Avengers/Adventure Time print and said, “Well I’ve never drawn them like THAT before!” He chuckled, introduced himself and shook Kate’s hand. We talked briefly, but there were so many people, it couldn’t have lasted more than a minute. Anywho, here’s a picture of Kate with George Perez. What a cool guy!

Welp, that was about it with Time Lord Fest. If I had to rate it on some arbitrary and meaningless scale, I’d give it 8.5 out of 10 sonic screwdrivers.

Thanks for reading!

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A Gallery of Commissions From 2012

by admin on January 18, 2013 at 9:21 pm
Posted In: Art!

Here’s a small gallery of some of the commissions Kate made at conventions in 2012. This is just a small portion of what she was asked to do, you can find more at http://keelhaulkateart.weebly.com

 

commissions2012

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Convention Recap: SwampCon 2013

by admin on January 15, 2013 at 8:52 am
Posted In: Convention Recaps!

WP_000877Hey everyone! This is my attempt at doing at least one post a week. Since we just got done with our first con of the year I figured this would be a good opportunity to talk about our time at SwampCon 2013.

It was pretty rad, surprisingly. When we set up last year we didn’t do too well, but we couldn’t complain since it was a free table. This was their second year doing the con, and it was much better! Saturday was super packed and we did a lot of business. I was surprised because I went in thinking this was just another anime con, and we weren’t going to make any money, and I thought we had learned our lesson on that. But nothing could be further from the truth. There were a lot of people there who really dug Kate’s art and our comics! RAD!

538614_10100236875531727_654399488_nKate also had the opportunity to be part of a panel discussion about comic book publishing with our friend Andre Frattino. I didn’t get to see the panel (since I had to stay at our table), but I heard it went great. After the first day ended, we went out to eat with Andre and some friends at Reggae Shack. It’s a Jamaican themed restaurant. I had the boneless curry chicken. It was spicy.

Day 2 was a bit slower, but I had the opportunity to scetch out some Hall Monitors pages. Kate got a few commssions, which can be seen below, and we sold a good amount of prints and comics. Overall we made way more than I expected, considering the heavy presence of anime at this convention. We’ll probably be back next year… if they’ll have us.

That’s about all I can get away with typing while I’m at work. I should probably get back to doing worky things like work. See you guys in the next post!

- Josh

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2012 Recap! What a Year!

by admin on January 10, 2013 at 9:08 am
Posted In: Updates!

To start things off in 2013 I thought I’d talk about what went well in 2012. We had a lot of fun, meet a bunch of new people, broke a few sales records, and accomplished a lot with conventions.

By far our most successful convention last year was DragonCon in Atlanta. Not only did we have 4 days of fun, but we broke our overall sales record and made a lot of friends doing it! However, one of the main things I learned from DragonCon is how expensive some of those bigger cons can get. We’re not even talking about San Diego here. The table cost itself was average for a con that size, but the hotel cost was crazy! That’s where most of our expenses went. While we did break our record for most sales in a weekend, I think we ended up breaking even overall. Not bad, I’m just happy we had the chance to travel outside of Florida to promote our comics. We gained so many new fans, it really made it all worth it. All in all, it was a very successful trip.

I would say our second most successful con was PalmCon in West Palm Beach, FL, which is run by our friend Martin Pierro of Cosmic Times. It was only a one-day con, but man what a great time we had! It was very well run, and we broke our record for most sales in one day. If you want a good con to attend or table at in South Florida, I’d say this is a must do.

However, not every con can be successful. We learned a big lesson in 2012, and that was to stop doing anime conventions. Well, I wouldn’t say cut them out completely, but we definitely need to choose them more wisely. There are two cons that come to mind last year that really hit the nail in the coffin. FreeCon in Tallahassee and PariahCon in Lakeland. These two cons were so terribly run, it just left a bad taste in our mouth. For one, FreeCon was held at FSU, so there were all of these rules the organizers had to abide by. Also, pretty much every attendee spent all their money on accessories for cosplaying. I’m not even sure why people who sell accessories are put in artist alley, but whatever. The other one, PariahCon, was run by some friends who asked Kate to be the guest artist. They said they would pay her to design their badges, and pay for our hotel and all that jazz. They ended up paying her far less than what was promised, and they didn’t pay for the hotel at all. The response from con goers wasn’t great either. I finally realized at this con that the typical anime fan (usually about 10-18 years old at this con) has very little money. They are literally dropped off by their parents and given $20, which they spend on lunch, admission to the con, and some Pocky. Come to think of it, do anime fans read comic books that aren’t printed backwards? And not Scott Pilgrim?  I dunno. I’m not saying everyone should swear off anime conventions, but it’s quite obvious they’re not for us.

Now I’d like to talk about comics. As far as comic books, we didn’t really get a lot done. Our big debut for Agatha Frisky was at MegaCon, and it has done really well since then, but we hadn’t made any other books all year long. I’ve mostly been writing Facebeast #2, and the artwork for it just kept getting pushed back more and more. The one thing we did do was successfully launch a webcomic. Back in April I decided to try my hand at making a comic, and The Hall Monitors is what came out of it. It started off pretty rough (I hadn’t drawn since high school!), but I seemed to get the hang of it within a few months. I’m actually really surpried at how quickly the artwork has been coming along. I think it’s looking great, and I can’t wait to see what I can do with it from here!

That’s about it for my 2012 recap. Last year had it’s ups and sowns, but overall I’d say it was a good step into the future. 2013 is shaping up to be a great year. More conventions, more comics, more everything! I’ll post another update soon about what we currently have going on. So stay tuned for that!

Thanks for reading!

- Josh

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New website? New website.

by admin on January 9, 2013 at 10:21 pm
Posted In: Uncategorized

So seeing as how it’s been a good eight months or so since I last updated this website, I figured now was as good a time as any to spice it up a bit. I redesigned some things, hope it looks alright. If not, tough shit because I hate web design. You’re stuck with this layout for at least another eight months.

In case you’ve been living under a rock for the last eight months (or only come to this website for NB updates, in which case I am sorry) there have been some big developments in our little comic making operation here. 2012 ended up being a big year for us, we accomplished a lot of things. Better yet, 2013 is already shaping up to be bigger and better. I will discuss all of these things in a 2012 recap, as well as an update on where we’re headed in 2013. But for now, I must take a rest from all this website updating stuff. It’s tough work, I tell you. See you in another eight months! (or maybe a day or two.. whichever comes first).

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Lesson Learned!

by admin on May 1, 2012 at 9:33 pm
Posted In: Convention Recaps!, Updates!

No more anime cons! Well, unless we have friends that strongly recommend them to us and we know they will be worth it. After our weekend at PariahCon 2012, we’ve learned that we need to choose our cons more wisely. In general, cons that are more focused on anime/manga/weebo/wuhamajibbija seem to be far less organized, and don’t make us very much money. I think we ended up breaking even when you factor in the hotel cost and gas and such, so it doesn’t make much sense to keep doing this to ourselves. In addition to that, some disrespectful things happened to Kate as the guest artist and the con was LARGELY unorganized. Like, seriously. I don’t want to get too far into the details because I hate to be negative, and there’s no other way to give the details, unfortunately. Negativity won’t do anything to make the situation any better, other than to tell our friends and fellow artists not to get a table at PariahCon. I mean, I can do that without the details… HEY FRIENDS AND FELLOW ARTISTS! DON’T GET A TABLE AT PARIAHCON. On the other hand, I don’t want to tell people not to go to the con at all, because I’m sure it was more enjoyable to attendees. So if anime is your thing, or if you like one-day cons being spread across three days, or if you like seeing underage kids get drunk, maybe this is the con for you. I think I’ll just leave it at that…

Now let’s talk about some recent developments in Naughty Bicycle World…

The Hall Monitors!

First off, my new webcomic, THE HALL MONITORS, has launched! It went up last Friday, April 27th, actually. For those of you not in-the-know, The Hall Monitors is a new webcomic about a group of friends who start a band. After being in a band for a number of years, I saw the potential in making a webcomic out of the experience. I’ve got tons of ideas for this comic, as well as lots of input from friends and fellow musicians.

I posted four pages to start off with. Why four? Think of it as a mini story arc in which we discover how the band comes up with their band name. I’m currently finishing the next page, but I hope to create some sort of buffer of pages so I don’t have to worry about falling behind if something comes up. Anyway, the comic is up so be sure to tell all your friends about it. I’m really excited to see where I can take this!

As far as our next book, Facebeast issue 2, it’s still in progress! Our ultimate goal here is to have it done by Dragon*Con. It’s going to take some serious comic booking, but I think it can be done. I don’t think we’ll be launching a Kickstarter for this book, unless we get a bunch of people that think we should. I’d rather just order a small batch to start off with, and see where it goes from there. We met a lot of people at PariahCon who loved the first book, and one dude was actually disappointed we didn’t have issue 2 printed yet. That surprised the fuck out of me. Someone actually read my comic and liked it? Whodathunkit? So yeah, issue 2 is well underway and we’re shooting for an August release date!

And the last thing going on is Dragon*Con. It’s our next convention, and the biggest one yet! We’re taking the summer off to prepare for this bad boy, and in addition to Facebeast #2 we hope to have a slew of new prints and artwork for sale. This is going to be quite a busy summer for us, and I can’t wait for the payoff. OH GOD WHY ISN’T IT AUGUST YET?!?!

That’s it for now! Below is a bunch of Kate’s artwork from the con this past weekend. Most of the commissions we got were obscure anime characters that are completely lost on me. Maybe you can figure out who the hell they are. If you can, let me know. However, she managed to get a few other commissions done over the weekend. Take a look!

Thanks for reading!

- Josh

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