I suppose it's politically correct to say "Happy Holidays" now but I grew up celebrating Christmas so that's what I'm calling it. In whatever way the rest of you celebrate this time of year, Genevieve and I wish you and your family all the best...and by that, I mean lots of great food and great gifts, yo. =)
The Islands in the Sky site will be quiet till the start of the new year but we've set into motion some exciting plans that we hope to share with all our readers as soon as we can. Everyone, please be safe on the roads, enjoy your time with loved ones, and have a great time!
See y'all next year!
- Joseph
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Contest Winner! (WARNING: LONG POST)
Hey IITS Readers,
Thanks for all the submissions to our Snowball War print contest, Genevieve and I really enjoyed reading all of them. The first five questions were clearly "gimme's" and every answer could be easily gleaned from either the comic book or the blog site. In the end, it really came down to a choice between the people who made a real effort to come up with creative ideas for the bonus question. One of our contestants suggested that we post all the answers that everyone submitted and while we thought that would be a good idea, it would make for a ridonkulously long post so we decided to just share with the rest of the readers our three finalists. They are:
Chris P.
FifthFanZac
Chris B.
Here are their entries:
Chris P.
Stuck in their cell, Gordo comes up with a plan. He calls for the
guard, frantically screaming that Kayli is trying to copulate with
him, and he's unwilling- he needs help to get her off of him!
Immediately awake, the guard eagerly runs over and throws open the
door- and is promptly stabbed with the gnawed, splintered bone. Gordo dons the guard's keys and uniform. A confused Kayli asks what he's doing, but is interrupted as Gordo pours oily gruel all over her. Her eyes stinging, she suddenly feels a draft- Gordo has stripped her of her bodysuit!
Before she knows it, she's been pushed down the hallway. Unable to
stop herself on her oily feet, she bursts through the double doors,
right into the middle of the pirates cafeteria. The rough crowd is
suddenly silent. After a pause, Kayli, with an embarrassed grin, takes
off, streaking towards the exit. The pirates give chase, but find
themselves unable to get a hold of her- her well-oiled body slips from
their grasp each time.
With the cafeteria clear, Gordo briskly finds his way to the docking
bay, where the pirates stashed their stuff after being captured.
Meanwhile, Kayli blindly (and slippery-ly) makes her way through the
compound, eventually finding the exit. With pirates in tow, she runs
outside. However, she finds herself at the edge of the island, with
nothing but grass beneath her, an atmospheric fall in front of her,
and incensed pirates behind her. Facing the crowd of poorly groomed
ruffians, she places a foot over the edge. The pirates hesitate for a
moment, but then advance. Resigned to her fate, Kayli leans back and
tumbles off the edge.
The pirates let out a gasp, and rush to the edge- only to have their
faces buzzed by an swiftly climbing Manty! Gordo, holding Kayli in his
arms, unceremoniously dumps her onto the seat next to him- there's not much room on Manty and he has to keep the machine stable. The temporary pilot casually tosses Kayli her bodysuit. After re-dressing, she angrily takes Manty's reigns. As explosions from sabotaged vehicles in the pirates docking bay sound in the distance, Kayli steers them away into parts unknown. Gordo finishes eating the banana.
FifthFanZac
Kayli:"Quick take off all your clothes."
Gordo: "What why?!"
"To distract the guard. Then when he enters the cell for a little Gordo lovin I'll push this pole on his head."
An exasperated sigh leaves Gordo's lips as he pinches the bridge of his nose.
"Listen lets just look around first and see if any of these stones are loose."
"Phoo, you never go with my ideas."
A quick search reveals a loose block!
"Ok help me push it."
"But Gordy what about the G-U-A-R-D?"
"Kayli he's asleep, not an infant, you don't have to spell out guard. Besides this block looks to be right above his head, we'll free ourselves and knock him out at the same time."
"Two meats over one fire."
"Yeaaahhh, ok sure, look just watch the guard while I push this and tell me if he's waking up"
"Kay"
Gordo uses his manly physique to push the block out of the wall where it falls on the sleeping guard's face, gently guiding him into a deeper dreamworld.
Both our heroes, wait don't sound right. . . Adventurers. . . hmmm. The meat hunter and the hermit jump though the hole and promptly retrieve their equipment which was placed in the armory just next door. Good fortune smiles upon them.
"Hey don't call me a meat hunter, I'm more of a meat gourmet!"
"Gah, Kayli don't talk to the narrator like that!"
"Aww, but-"
Angry shouts can be heard down the hall, the incapacitated guard has been noticed.
"See this is what happens when you talk to people."
"Well what now oh Mr. Plans."
"We steal their gliders."
They sneak to the hanger using a cardboard box. Once there hermit boy hot wires a glider with a paperclip while the meat gourmet uses a nearby pole to bar the door.
"Ok it's ready lets get out of here."
The glider rockets into the sky taking our dynamic duo to new heights.
"Batman AND Robin? Here?"
"I think he means us Kayli."
"Ohhh. . . victory banana!"
"No, don't eat that you don't know where it's been!"
"AWWWWW!"
Come again next time, same sky time, same sky channel.
Chris B.
The attached picture is what I believe the situation to look like. So let's begin shall we? Kayli gathered all of the items in the room thinking of a plan to come up with, when Gordo finally came out of his helpless slump! Thinking he could possibly use Kayli's looks, he woke the guard. Gordo called him over, telling him to open the door. Obviously the guard refused, but with a little persuasion and a little 'charm' from Kayli, he opened the door. Hoping to get Kayli all for himself, she grabbed the bone and smashed it on his head, knocking him out cold. Poor guard. Anyhow, seeing as they had no means of escape it was time to put some serious thinking faces on. However, it wasn't too long before Kayli was distracted by the smell of meat coming from the dining hall. Being, well...Kayli, she was determined to get that meat by any means necessary..which also meant she ran into the hall full of men eating that same meat.. The men stared blankly at Kayli until she realized she was caught. Without any warning they all jumped up and ran after her. Gordo, unaware of the situation, casually walked down the hall looking for any means of escape until he heard a crowd of yells and grunts. "What the hell?" He ran in, only to find Kayli on top of a group of knocked out pirates. Well except one, but he decided to run away, stashing away any meat he had with him. Grabbing all the meat she could, Kayli and Gordo escaped with their lives and a belly full of food. Poor Gordo. ):
And the winner is...
FifthFanZac...congratulations!
We decided to go with FifthFanZac because while Chris P. had funny and creative use of the gruel and Chris B.'s was charming because of the fun little picture he shared, FFZ had us laughing the most. We loved these three entries the most and to us...it was almost to close to call. We didn't want the other two guys to go away empty handed so after some discussion we decided that while FFZ wins the deluxe 19x13 Snowball War Print, we would award each of our two runner's ups with the almost as awesome 14x11 smaller sized Snowball War prints! Yay! If you are a winner and haven't already sent Kayli your mailing address, please do so now. FifthFanZac, your print can be mailed this week...Chris B. and Chris P., please forgive us, we'll need to contact someone to print up yours before we can mail them out. It was a last minute decision to hand out the additional prizes and we only have the 19x13 print on hand.
Once again, congratulations to all our winners and thanks to everyone who entered!
- Joseph
Thanks for all the submissions to our Snowball War print contest, Genevieve and I really enjoyed reading all of them. The first five questions were clearly "gimme's" and every answer could be easily gleaned from either the comic book or the blog site. In the end, it really came down to a choice between the people who made a real effort to come up with creative ideas for the bonus question. One of our contestants suggested that we post all the answers that everyone submitted and while we thought that would be a good idea, it would make for a ridonkulously long post so we decided to just share with the rest of the readers our three finalists. They are:
Chris P.
FifthFanZac
Chris B.
Here are their entries:
Chris P.
Stuck in their cell, Gordo comes up with a plan. He calls for the
guard, frantically screaming that Kayli is trying to copulate with
him, and he's unwilling- he needs help to get her off of him!
Immediately awake, the guard eagerly runs over and throws open the
door- and is promptly stabbed with the gnawed, splintered bone. Gordo dons the guard's keys and uniform. A confused Kayli asks what he's doing, but is interrupted as Gordo pours oily gruel all over her. Her eyes stinging, she suddenly feels a draft- Gordo has stripped her of her bodysuit!
Before she knows it, she's been pushed down the hallway. Unable to
stop herself on her oily feet, she bursts through the double doors,
right into the middle of the pirates cafeteria. The rough crowd is
suddenly silent. After a pause, Kayli, with an embarrassed grin, takes
off, streaking towards the exit. The pirates give chase, but find
themselves unable to get a hold of her- her well-oiled body slips from
their grasp each time.
With the cafeteria clear, Gordo briskly finds his way to the docking
bay, where the pirates stashed their stuff after being captured.
Meanwhile, Kayli blindly (and slippery-ly) makes her way through the
compound, eventually finding the exit. With pirates in tow, she runs
outside. However, she finds herself at the edge of the island, with
nothing but grass beneath her, an atmospheric fall in front of her,
and incensed pirates behind her. Facing the crowd of poorly groomed
ruffians, she places a foot over the edge. The pirates hesitate for a
moment, but then advance. Resigned to her fate, Kayli leans back and
tumbles off the edge.
The pirates let out a gasp, and rush to the edge- only to have their
faces buzzed by an swiftly climbing Manty! Gordo, holding Kayli in his
arms, unceremoniously dumps her onto the seat next to him- there's not much room on Manty and he has to keep the machine stable. The temporary pilot casually tosses Kayli her bodysuit. After re-dressing, she angrily takes Manty's reigns. As explosions from sabotaged vehicles in the pirates docking bay sound in the distance, Kayli steers them away into parts unknown. Gordo finishes eating the banana.
FifthFanZac
Kayli:"Quick take off all your clothes."
Gordo: "What why?!"
"To distract the guard. Then when he enters the cell for a little Gordo lovin I'll push this pole on his head."
An exasperated sigh leaves Gordo's lips as he pinches the bridge of his nose.
"Listen lets just look around first and see if any of these stones are loose."
"Phoo, you never go with my ideas."
A quick search reveals a loose block!
"Ok help me push it."
"But Gordy what about the G-U-A-R-D?"
"Kayli he's asleep, not an infant, you don't have to spell out guard. Besides this block looks to be right above his head, we'll free ourselves and knock him out at the same time."
"Two meats over one fire."
"Yeaaahhh, ok sure, look just watch the guard while I push this and tell me if he's waking up"
"Kay"
Gordo uses his manly physique to push the block out of the wall where it falls on the sleeping guard's face, gently guiding him into a deeper dreamworld.
Both our heroes, wait don't sound right. . . Adventurers. . . hmmm. The meat hunter and the hermit jump though the hole and promptly retrieve their equipment which was placed in the armory just next door. Good fortune smiles upon them.
"Hey don't call me a meat hunter, I'm more of a meat gourmet!"
"Gah, Kayli don't talk to the narrator like that!"
"Aww, but-"
Angry shouts can be heard down the hall, the incapacitated guard has been noticed.
"See this is what happens when you talk to people."
"Well what now oh Mr. Plans."
"We steal their gliders."
They sneak to the hanger using a cardboard box. Once there hermit boy hot wires a glider with a paperclip while the meat gourmet uses a nearby pole to bar the door.
"Ok it's ready lets get out of here."
The glider rockets into the sky taking our dynamic duo to new heights.
"Batman AND Robin? Here?"
"I think he means us Kayli."
"Ohhh. . . victory banana!"
"No, don't eat that you don't know where it's been!"
"AWWWWW!"
Come again next time, same sky time, same sky channel.
Chris B.
The attached picture is what I believe the situation to look like. So let's begin shall we? Kayli gathered all of the items in the room thinking of a plan to come up with, when Gordo finally came out of his helpless slump! Thinking he could possibly use Kayli's looks, he woke the guard. Gordo called him over, telling him to open the door. Obviously the guard refused, but with a little persuasion and a little 'charm' from Kayli, he opened the door. Hoping to get Kayli all for himself, she grabbed the bone and smashed it on his head, knocking him out cold. Poor guard. Anyhow, seeing as they had no means of escape it was time to put some serious thinking faces on. However, it wasn't too long before Kayli was distracted by the smell of meat coming from the dining hall. Being, well...Kayli, she was determined to get that meat by any means necessary..which also meant she ran into the hall full of men eating that same meat.. The men stared blankly at Kayli until she realized she was caught. Without any warning they all jumped up and ran after her. Gordo, unaware of the situation, casually walked down the hall looking for any means of escape until he heard a crowd of yells and grunts. "What the hell?" He ran in, only to find Kayli on top of a group of knocked out pirates. Well except one, but he decided to run away, stashing away any meat he had with him. Grabbing all the meat she could, Kayli and Gordo escaped with their lives and a belly full of food. Poor Gordo. ):And the winner is...
FifthFanZac...congratulations!
We decided to go with FifthFanZac because while Chris P. had funny and creative use of the gruel and Chris B.'s was charming because of the fun little picture he shared, FFZ had us laughing the most. We loved these three entries the most and to us...it was almost to close to call. We didn't want the other two guys to go away empty handed so after some discussion we decided that while FFZ wins the deluxe 19x13 Snowball War Print, we would award each of our two runner's ups with the almost as awesome 14x11 smaller sized Snowball War prints! Yay! If you are a winner and haven't already sent Kayli your mailing address, please do so now. FifthFanZac, your print can be mailed this week...Chris B. and Chris P., please forgive us, we'll need to contact someone to print up yours before we can mail them out. It was a last minute decision to hand out the additional prizes and we only have the 19x13 print on hand.
Once again, congratulations to all our winners and thanks to everyone who entered!
- Joseph
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Reminder: Last Day for Contest Entries
If you want a chance at winning the signed 19"x13" Snowball War print, it's not too late to enter. Officially, the contest ends tonight but more than likely, I'll just see what I have tomorrow morning, er...tomorrow afternoon when I wake up.
The contest isn't a tough one and if you haven't guessed yet...your chance of winning mostly depends on your own creativity. So flex your creative muscles and give it a shot, you never know!
P.S. If this is the first time you've heard of this, the contest rules are below.
- Joseph
The contest isn't a tough one and if you haven't guessed yet...your chance of winning mostly depends on your own creativity. So flex your creative muscles and give it a shot, you never know!
P.S. If this is the first time you've heard of this, the contest rules are below.
- Joseph
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Contest: Win a "Snowball War" Print
Here it is, folks! The contest isn't very difficult...it's just a series of IITS questions.
Win a "Snowball War" Print Contest Rules:
1. "The world of IITS has three distinct layers: Overworld, The Central Islands, and Coreworld. Which layer is Kayli and Gordo from?"
2. "Kayli's unique bodysuit is made which of the following materials? A) Behemoth Stomach Lining, B) Skin of a Giant Plumaba Fruit, or C) Goretex(™)?"
3. "Kayli borrowed one of Gordo's neckties for a recent photo shoot...what color is the tie?"
4. "What is Kayli's favorite food? A) Dempi Fruits, B) Deep Fried Behemoth Testicles, or C) Meat?"
5. "True or False: Gordo is happy he met Kayli."
Bonus Question:
"Kayli and Gordo have been imprisoned by some dastardly pirates in the same 15'x15' cell. The walls are 30' high and made of stone. The door to their cell is made of 2" thick hardwood and has a tiny observation window at eye level. Opposite the door is a small, barred window 20 feet from the floor. In the center of the room is a tiny hole that acts as a drain. Additionally, there is a very small grating along one wall where the squeaks of rats can be heard.
The pair were stripped of all their useful gear before being thrown in the cell but Kayli has her bodysuit and Gordo has his clothes as well. At their disposal, they have a six foot long, heavy steel pole (too heavy to be used as a weapon) leaning against a wall, three lengths of string about a foot long each, a well gnawed bone about eight inches long, a ceramic bowl of very oily gruel, and a half eaten banana.
Outside is a single sleeping guard and down the hall, the dining hall where dozens of pirates are eating their dinner and discussing what they should do with their prisoners and, more specifically, what they should do with Kayli. In about 500 words or less, describe how Kayli and Gordo get themselves out of this mess. Have fun!"
Note: If you have a question about the scenario, make up your own answer! Bonus Question responses will be judged on their humor and creativity and given a value between 1-5. Consider the Bonus Question to be the tie-breaker question.
The winner will be announced sometime next week after the last entries are received. Good luck, everyone!
- Joseph
Win a "Snowball War" Print Contest Rules:
- Questions #1-#5 are worth (1) Point each.
- The Bonus Question is worth between (1-5) Points (see below).
- Total Possible Points: (10)
- Highest point total wins a signed 19"x13" Snowball War print!
- Email answers to kayli.iits(a)gmail.com (replace (a) with @).
- Winner must provide a valid mailing address to receive the print.
- Entries must be received by: Tuesday, December 15th 2009.
1. "The world of IITS has three distinct layers: Overworld, The Central Islands, and Coreworld. Which layer is Kayli and Gordo from?"
2. "Kayli's unique bodysuit is made which of the following materials? A) Behemoth Stomach Lining, B) Skin of a Giant Plumaba Fruit, or C) Goretex(™)?"
3. "Kayli borrowed one of Gordo's neckties for a recent photo shoot...what color is the tie?"
4. "What is Kayli's favorite food? A) Dempi Fruits, B) Deep Fried Behemoth Testicles, or C) Meat?"
5. "True or False: Gordo is happy he met Kayli."
Bonus Question:
"Kayli and Gordo have been imprisoned by some dastardly pirates in the same 15'x15' cell. The walls are 30' high and made of stone. The door to their cell is made of 2" thick hardwood and has a tiny observation window at eye level. Opposite the door is a small, barred window 20 feet from the floor. In the center of the room is a tiny hole that acts as a drain. Additionally, there is a very small grating along one wall where the squeaks of rats can be heard.
The pair were stripped of all their useful gear before being thrown in the cell but Kayli has her bodysuit and Gordo has his clothes as well. At their disposal, they have a six foot long, heavy steel pole (too heavy to be used as a weapon) leaning against a wall, three lengths of string about a foot long each, a well gnawed bone about eight inches long, a ceramic bowl of very oily gruel, and a half eaten banana.
Outside is a single sleeping guard and down the hall, the dining hall where dozens of pirates are eating their dinner and discussing what they should do with their prisoners and, more specifically, what they should do with Kayli. In about 500 words or less, describe how Kayli and Gordo get themselves out of this mess. Have fun!"
Note: If you have a question about the scenario, make up your own answer! Bonus Question responses will be judged on their humor and creativity and given a value between 1-5. Consider the Bonus Question to be the tie-breaker question.
The winner will be announced sometime next week after the last entries are received. Good luck, everyone!
- Joseph
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Mighty Nomad Gallery Pics!
The gallery was literally right next door to the Sony studios in L.A. so before we went in, we were standing in awe of the gigantic lot. The movie posters on the sides of the buildings were so huge and Genevieve commented that their size and epic-ness could make an "Ernest Goes to..." movie look good.
It was pretty quiet in the first hour or so, with just a few people coming in and quietly appreciating the works...but as the night went on, we got a pretty good crowd in. A lot of really talented animated film industry people, friends and family, and some game developers too. Though I'm not in the industry, it was very inspiring to talk to some of these Dreamworks veterans who were so nice and gave us such great insight into their work and companies. I'll let Genevieve share her own thoughts and feelings but I think it's fair to say that she was fairly starstruck by some of the talent in attendance. =)
The pieces on the display were a great mix of styles. Since so many of those showing at the gallery were animators, there was A LOT of character stuff and all of it was great. There were also some memorable scenery pieces that looked like they were plucked right out of a classic 2D feature. Genevieve was humbled to be in the presence of so many talented artists but I was proud that her piece was able to stand up with the best of them.
I didn't mingle as much as Genevieve but her gallery piece was right next to the snack table so I gorged myself with junk food in order to surreptitiously overhear the candid comments of people viewing her "Snowball War". Here are some of the anonymous comments:
...oh and here are the pics!
Artists and attendees mingle as a young girl Twitters:
"It's SUCH a drag..." Just kidding. =)
See that dude in the back to the right of the guy with the hat?
That's Genevieve's head right above his shoulder.
Some girls trying to avoid eye contact me. Apparently,
"Hey, baby...I'm a comic book writer," does NOT get you chicks.
Marcelo Vignali (2nd from left) with his family and
Tang Heng (5th) with his fiancee' Noelle Triaureau (4th).
Genevieve and Craig Harris strike poses in front of "Snowball War".
Genevieve with my brother this time in front of her gallery piece.
He got the good looks and I got...hmmm, well...he got the good looks.
The table where people could purchase smaller sized prints.
The contest prize is the larger version you see on the right there.
Genevieve mingling with animators Corey and Jesse from Insomniac.
Tuna Bora with Genevieve in front of Tuna's gallery work.
Tuna awesomely gave her gallery piece to Genevieve!
Here's Genevieve and Craig holding each others prints.
Finally, here's the two of us with Craig and his wife Meredith
after the show was almost packed up. Thanks, guys!
It was pretty quiet in the first hour or so, with just a few people coming in and quietly appreciating the works...but as the night went on, we got a pretty good crowd in. A lot of really talented animated film industry people, friends and family, and some game developers too. Though I'm not in the industry, it was very inspiring to talk to some of these Dreamworks veterans who were so nice and gave us such great insight into their work and companies. I'll let Genevieve share her own thoughts and feelings but I think it's fair to say that she was fairly starstruck by some of the talent in attendance. =)
The pieces on the display were a great mix of styles. Since so many of those showing at the gallery were animators, there was A LOT of character stuff and all of it was great. There were also some memorable scenery pieces that looked like they were plucked right out of a classic 2D feature. Genevieve was humbled to be in the presence of so many talented artists but I was proud that her piece was able to stand up with the best of them.
I didn't mingle as much as Genevieve but her gallery piece was right next to the snack table so I gorged myself with junk food in order to surreptitiously overhear the candid comments of people viewing her "Snowball War". Here are some of the anonymous comments:
- "There are so many little stories in it..."
- "It's really fun and festive!"
- "It's sooo funny!"
- "Who is this creepy Asian guy standing next to us?"
- "Is he even going to wipe his mouth after that handful of Chex Mix? Gross."
...oh and here are the pics!
Artists and attendees mingle as a young girl Twitters:"It's SUCH a drag..." Just kidding. =)
See that dude in the back to the right of the guy with the hat?That's Genevieve's head right above his shoulder.
Some girls trying to avoid eye contact me. Apparently,"Hey, baby...I'm a comic book writer," does NOT get you chicks.
Marcelo Vignali (2nd from left) with his family andTang Heng (5th) with his fiancee' Noelle Triaureau (4th).
Genevieve and Craig Harris strike poses in front of "Snowball War".
Genevieve with my brother this time in front of her gallery piece.He got the good looks and I got...hmmm, well...he got the good looks.
The table where people could purchase smaller sized prints.The contest prize is the larger version you see on the right there.
Genevieve mingling with animators Corey and Jesse from Insomniac.
Tuna Bora with Genevieve in front of Tuna's gallery work.Tuna awesomely gave her gallery piece to Genevieve!
Here's Genevieve and Craig holding each others prints.
Finally, here's the two of us with Craig and his wife Meredithafter the show was almost packed up. Thanks, guys!
P.S. The contest details will be posted on the blog in a day or two so if you want a chance to win that print, check back later this week!
- Joseph
- Joseph
Monday, December 7, 2009
Win a "Snowball War" Print!
Hey IITS Readers,
As soon as Genevieve sends me the pictures from the Mighty Nomad Gallery, I'm going to post them here but...medium story short, we had a great time and met lots of cool people! However, I also wanted to let our readers know that we're going to hold a contest sometime this week and the winner will receive a free 19"x13" print of the IITS Snowball War signed by Genevieve...so keep watching this space for the contest! Hint: Your creativity and knowledge of IITS will be challenged! Be prepared!
- Joseph
As soon as Genevieve sends me the pictures from the Mighty Nomad Gallery, I'm going to post them here but...medium story short, we had a great time and met lots of cool people! However, I also wanted to let our readers know that we're going to hold a contest sometime this week and the winner will receive a free 19"x13" print of the IITS Snowball War signed by Genevieve...so keep watching this space for the contest! Hint: Your creativity and knowledge of IITS will be challenged! Be prepared!
- Joseph
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Mighty Nomad Gallery is this Saturday!
If you're in the L.A. area and want to check out the art of Genevieve and a lot of great artists, consider attending the Mighty Nomad Gallery this Saturday! Here's a list of those showing and here are the gallery details:
When:
Saturday, December 5th, 5pm - 9pm
Saturday, December 5th, 5pm - 9pm
Where:
Los Angeles Meeting and Event Center
10601 W. Washington Blvd,
Los Angeles, CA 90232
In addition to the originals, all artists will have affordable prints for sale (including the snowball war print we previewed in the last post) for all their pieces. If you're in the area, drop on by! =)
- Joseph
Los Angeles Meeting and Event Center
10601 W. Washington Blvd,
Los Angeles, CA 90232
In addition to the originals, all artists will have affordable prints for sale (including the snowball war print we previewed in the last post) for all their pieces. If you're in the area, drop on by! =)
- Joseph
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Mighty Nomad Gallery Preview
Hello IITS Readers!
As a Thanksgiving surprise, I've shared images from Genevieve's Islands in the Sky themed gallery piece which she generously allowed me to preview here on the site. Back in July, when she was invited to show at the Mighty Nomad Gallery, I was proud and rather pleased that without my urging, she chose to use IITS characters as the subject for her piece. Going with the gallery's seasonal theme of "Snowball Fight", Genevieve and I brainstormed on some ideas together and the end result is a fun look at what the holidays are like when Kayli and Gordo are around.
If you're in the Los Angeles area and would like to see the the piece in person, as well as the works of many other talented artists, here is a link to the gallery details. The piece itself is a 25x30 framed Giclee print on Hahnmuhle Museum Etching paper and while the following tiny images don't really do the actual piece justice, we still wanted to share them with our IITS Readers. Enjoy!
Kayli is ambushed on her way to deliver some treats to her forest friends. Her enemies? Gordo, Manty, and...inexplicably, a trained baby arctic seal.
You can almost see a cross-section of Kayli's head,
revealing cob web covered gears...slooowly turning.
(thick Brooklyn accent)
"Yer killin' me here, lady!"
Hardworking patriots doing their part or opportunistic squirrels profiting from the bravery of the field mice? You decide.
The resistance is, in fact, futile.
Babs & Buster: The Final Chapter
Genevieve and I would like to wish all our readers a Happy Thanksgiving...whether or not all of them actually take part in the yearly gorging on turkey flesh. Have a great weekend, everyone!
P.S. If you're interested, yes...the framed print is available for purchase. Please contact myself or Genevieve for further details after December 5th. At some point in the future, Genevieve may opt to make smaller size, high quality prints available in a limited print run. We'll post more information here as it becomes available.
- Joseph
As a Thanksgiving surprise, I've shared images from Genevieve's Islands in the Sky themed gallery piece which she generously allowed me to preview here on the site. Back in July, when she was invited to show at the Mighty Nomad Gallery, I was proud and rather pleased that without my urging, she chose to use IITS characters as the subject for her piece. Going with the gallery's seasonal theme of "Snowball Fight", Genevieve and I brainstormed on some ideas together and the end result is a fun look at what the holidays are like when Kayli and Gordo are around.
If you're in the Los Angeles area and would like to see the the piece in person, as well as the works of many other talented artists, here is a link to the gallery details. The piece itself is a 25x30 framed Giclee print on Hahnmuhle Museum Etching paper and while the following tiny images don't really do the actual piece justice, we still wanted to share them with our IITS Readers. Enjoy!
(Click the images to see the larger version!)
Kayli is ambushed on her way to deliver some treats to her forest friends. Her enemies? Gordo, Manty, and...inexplicably, a trained baby arctic seal.
You can almost see a cross-section of Kayli's head,revealing cob web covered gears...slooowly turning.
"Yer killin' me here, lady!"
Hardworking patriots doing their part or opportunistic squirrels profiting from the bravery of the field mice? You decide.
The resistance is, in fact, futile.
Babs & Buster: The Final ChapterGenevieve and I would like to wish all our readers a Happy Thanksgiving...whether or not all of them actually take part in the yearly gorging on turkey flesh. Have a great weekend, everyone!
P.S. If you're interested, yes...the framed print is available for purchase. Please contact myself or Genevieve for further details after December 5th. At some point in the future, Genevieve may opt to make smaller size, high quality prints available in a limited print run. We'll post more information here as it becomes available.
- Joseph
Friday, November 20, 2009
We'd Still Love to Do This Someday
Way back before we even started work in earnest on the first issue, Genevieve and I wanted to create character designs for each of the three layers, basically...main characters in the Islands in the Sky storyline that we'd introduce as the comic developed. The idea was to give a male and female pair from each layer their own promotional poster. Each pair would exemplify the design aesthetics of their layer and be positioned on or around an airship or glider...also from their layer.
Each poster would be strong enough to stand on its own, however, by making each poster wide and short, you could "stack" the posters...putting Overworld on top, Central in the middle, and Coreworld on the bottom. Naturally, Kayli and Gordo would represent Central but we never got around to fleshing out the designs for the other two layers and it may be some time before the story even reaches the other layers or has a chance to introduce those characters.
Still, it's one of the promotional items that Genevieve and I still want to do so if ever the stars align so that we can commit more time to this project, well...we can hope. =)
- Joseph
Each poster would be strong enough to stand on its own, however, by making each poster wide and short, you could "stack" the posters...putting Overworld on top, Central in the middle, and Coreworld on the bottom. Naturally, Kayli and Gordo would represent Central but we never got around to fleshing out the designs for the other two layers and it may be some time before the story even reaches the other layers or has a chance to introduce those characters.
Still, it's one of the promotional items that Genevieve and I still want to do so if ever the stars align so that we can commit more time to this project, well...we can hope. =)
- Joseph
Friday, November 13, 2009
Still working...
Hello IITS Readers,
Genevieve is wrapping up work on her gallery submission for The Mighty Nomad and I've been busy with my hobby of working on a game design doc for an IITS video game. The current plan is for Genevieve to take a break on IITS work till the end of the year but during that time, we'll be doing pre-production planning for our comic work, then go into full production in the new year, and ideally...hit all our goals for WonderCon 2010.
Hopefully, Genevieve can unveil her IITS themed gallery piece next week on our site. Keep an eye out for it! =)
- Joseph
Genevieve is wrapping up work on her gallery submission for The Mighty Nomad and I've been busy with my hobby of working on a game design doc for an IITS video game. The current plan is for Genevieve to take a break on IITS work till the end of the year but during that time, we'll be doing pre-production planning for our comic work, then go into full production in the new year, and ideally...hit all our goals for WonderCon 2010.
Hopefully, Genevieve can unveil her IITS themed gallery piece next week on our site. Keep an eye out for it! =)
- Joseph
Friday, November 6, 2009
Still plodding along...
I almost forgot to post an update this week...but that's actually good news, in a way. Genevieve and I have been both really busy working on things related to the IITS property. I've been talking to different people about how to grow the franchise and one of the things we really want to get done is to have a real website...but not enough things have fallen into place just yet. We'll have to plan what sort of content the launch of the site will have and make sure it doesn't conflict too much with work on the comic. Anyway, hopefully I'll have more to share sometime next week...
- Joseph
- Joseph
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
The Future of Islands in the Sky
Our fans often ask us when the next issue is coming out and, as always, we deflect the question with a vague date in the future. Please believe me when I say that we're not stringing you along. We'd love nothing more than to have the freedom to pursue all of our IITS ambitions with complete freedom but reality always comes in to spoil the party. As a two person operation, we have complete creative control...but it comes at the price of having to deal with all the financial responsibility of printing the books and merchandise and the risk that comes with printing too much. Furthermore, while making a little money on the side is nice, this hobby cannot pay each of us our respective rent and living costs like "real jobs" would. So much of the time, we are either focused on working these day jobs or looking for new day jobs.
Before anyone gets the idea that this is a "We're stopping production on Islands in the Sky," announcement...it's not. I just wanted to take a moment to tell our readers where we're at and what we are thinking. Well, first of all...Genevieve and I both really love the IITS world and it's a source of constant frustration for us that we have so far left it in such an unfinished / unresolved state. All the questions you have about world, characters, and story...we want to give you the answers. We have more characters to introduce, a fun story to continue, more layers of the world to explore...but not enough time at the present to do it.
I still haven't addressed the topic of the post...what is the future of Islands in the Sky? In the near future, we want to continue work on the comic and shoot for a major new content release in April of 2010 at WonderCon. Depending on how much we get done, we will either introduce the new work as a final cut of the first book or as the second issue. Some of you may be wondering, "What does the 'final cut' of the first book mean?" Don't worry, we don't want to just pad the original book with a few new pages and resell it to our older fans. If we add content to the first book for WonderCon 2010, we will do our best to make it worth it to new and old fans alike.
So why do that at all, you wonder? Why not just make a whole new book? The reason why we may add content to the original issue and re-release it is because we want to better define our property with the first book. In other words, we want a second chance at a first impression. We've listened to feedback from both friends and strangers and these are two of the most common criticisms:
1. The story is too short and it seems to end very abruptly...right when the plot begin to move.
2. There is an overall lack of backgrounds and/or toning.
In regards to #1, the original story was 42 pages long in pre-production. Early during production, we trimmed it to about 36 pages...basically, a "deluxe" sized, premiere issue. Late in production, when we realized we were never going to finish that many pages, we cut two double page spreads (great visuals but did not serve to further the story), and then a bunch of pages in between and after the pages we had already completed. So the resulting pages were actually reworked and in-production pages changed to keep everything making sense despite the cuts.
In regards to #2, we were torn between doing the gorgeous backgrounds of European comics and the simplicity of, well...simply doing NO backgrounds like so many manga books. In the end, to save time...we simply did not do backgrounds on many panels. As a compromise, we decided to do toning to make the characters pop a bit but even then, we ran out of time. So one of our major goals is to address these two main issues about the overall quality of the book.
Nudity has also been an issue that is frequently brought up in regards to our book. Our book has been both praised for having a more adult oriented nature and shunned for that same reason. Like I tell everyone at the shows we attend, "We wanted the nudity to be fun and sexy, not sexual," but I think that too many times people mistake sexy for sexual. We're not trying to push smut...we think Kayli is sexy and cute and we want to be able to share ALL of her with our fans. However, we also promise to make her an endearing character beyond her boobs...someone that both guys and gals will come to love. We do realize that between the boobage that is revealed in the book and some of our revealing Kayli prints and magnets, that we have perhaps overdone it a bit...but like I said, we will balance it not by showing less of Kayli but by giving you more story. The nudity is just a fun bonus and despite what she may tell you, Genevieve loves drawing it as much as I love coming up with ways we can show it. =)
I realize this is a long post but I decided that rather than be accused of coming up with "fluff" content to post, I'll not divide up everything into smaller, separate posts and just drop it all down right here in one day. Moving on, one of my ambitions is to make Islands in the Sky into a video game. Since the release of the comic, I've put together some preliminary design documents for two versions of the game dubbed: IITS-U (for Ultimate) and IITS-L (for Lite). IITS Ultimate is a "blue sky" design that is a big budget production. IITS Lite is a smaller scale game that retains the same basic principles of IITS-U but presented in such a way that it can be done in less time, with less money, and a smaller team. Another way to describe the differences would be to say that IITS-U would be the equivalent of a fully featured console or PC game and IITS-L would be a PSN, XBLA, or Steam released indie game. So will it ever become a reality? Well, if we can make the comic a big success...the game is that much closer to being made.
Finally, we've been approached by a rather cool guy about worldwide publishing rights to the Islands in the Sky comic. I don't want to reveal too much about it right now because we've only discussed it in a few meetings but suffice it to say that we've been talking to him about the possibility since WonderCon 2009. I will say, however, that his treatment of another IP (one that Genevieve herself is really rather fond of) is nothing short of fantastic and if Genevieve and I ever get the time to polish and work more on IITS, his company has the potential to really launch the adventures of Kayli and Gordo beyond what we ever hoped. The main reason why we chose not to sign anything at this point? We don't want to disappoint anyone with promises we can't keep. The only thing that Genevieve and I can promise is to do our best...no matter how long it takes. We hope that if we ever get there...you'll all be here to cheer us on and support us.
Thanks for reading.
- Joseph
Before anyone gets the idea that this is a "We're stopping production on Islands in the Sky," announcement...it's not. I just wanted to take a moment to tell our readers where we're at and what we are thinking. Well, first of all...Genevieve and I both really love the IITS world and it's a source of constant frustration for us that we have so far left it in such an unfinished / unresolved state. All the questions you have about world, characters, and story...we want to give you the answers. We have more characters to introduce, a fun story to continue, more layers of the world to explore...but not enough time at the present to do it.
I still haven't addressed the topic of the post...what is the future of Islands in the Sky? In the near future, we want to continue work on the comic and shoot for a major new content release in April of 2010 at WonderCon. Depending on how much we get done, we will either introduce the new work as a final cut of the first book or as the second issue. Some of you may be wondering, "What does the 'final cut' of the first book mean?" Don't worry, we don't want to just pad the original book with a few new pages and resell it to our older fans. If we add content to the first book for WonderCon 2010, we will do our best to make it worth it to new and old fans alike.
So why do that at all, you wonder? Why not just make a whole new book? The reason why we may add content to the original issue and re-release it is because we want to better define our property with the first book. In other words, we want a second chance at a first impression. We've listened to feedback from both friends and strangers and these are two of the most common criticisms:
1. The story is too short and it seems to end very abruptly...right when the plot begin to move.
2. There is an overall lack of backgrounds and/or toning.
In regards to #1, the original story was 42 pages long in pre-production. Early during production, we trimmed it to about 36 pages...basically, a "deluxe" sized, premiere issue. Late in production, when we realized we were never going to finish that many pages, we cut two double page spreads (great visuals but did not serve to further the story), and then a bunch of pages in between and after the pages we had already completed. So the resulting pages were actually reworked and in-production pages changed to keep everything making sense despite the cuts.
In regards to #2, we were torn between doing the gorgeous backgrounds of European comics and the simplicity of, well...simply doing NO backgrounds like so many manga books. In the end, to save time...we simply did not do backgrounds on many panels. As a compromise, we decided to do toning to make the characters pop a bit but even then, we ran out of time. So one of our major goals is to address these two main issues about the overall quality of the book.
Nudity has also been an issue that is frequently brought up in regards to our book. Our book has been both praised for having a more adult oriented nature and shunned for that same reason. Like I tell everyone at the shows we attend, "We wanted the nudity to be fun and sexy, not sexual," but I think that too many times people mistake sexy for sexual. We're not trying to push smut...we think Kayli is sexy and cute and we want to be able to share ALL of her with our fans. However, we also promise to make her an endearing character beyond her boobs...someone that both guys and gals will come to love. We do realize that between the boobage that is revealed in the book and some of our revealing Kayli prints and magnets, that we have perhaps overdone it a bit...but like I said, we will balance it not by showing less of Kayli but by giving you more story. The nudity is just a fun bonus and despite what she may tell you, Genevieve loves drawing it as much as I love coming up with ways we can show it. =)
I realize this is a long post but I decided that rather than be accused of coming up with "fluff" content to post, I'll not divide up everything into smaller, separate posts and just drop it all down right here in one day. Moving on, one of my ambitions is to make Islands in the Sky into a video game. Since the release of the comic, I've put together some preliminary design documents for two versions of the game dubbed: IITS-U (for Ultimate) and IITS-L (for Lite). IITS Ultimate is a "blue sky" design that is a big budget production. IITS Lite is a smaller scale game that retains the same basic principles of IITS-U but presented in such a way that it can be done in less time, with less money, and a smaller team. Another way to describe the differences would be to say that IITS-U would be the equivalent of a fully featured console or PC game and IITS-L would be a PSN, XBLA, or Steam released indie game. So will it ever become a reality? Well, if we can make the comic a big success...the game is that much closer to being made.
Finally, we've been approached by a rather cool guy about worldwide publishing rights to the Islands in the Sky comic. I don't want to reveal too much about it right now because we've only discussed it in a few meetings but suffice it to say that we've been talking to him about the possibility since WonderCon 2009. I will say, however, that his treatment of another IP (one that Genevieve herself is really rather fond of) is nothing short of fantastic and if Genevieve and I ever get the time to polish and work more on IITS, his company has the potential to really launch the adventures of Kayli and Gordo beyond what we ever hoped. The main reason why we chose not to sign anything at this point? We don't want to disappoint anyone with promises we can't keep. The only thing that Genevieve and I can promise is to do our best...no matter how long it takes. We hope that if we ever get there...you'll all be here to cheer us on and support us.
Thanks for reading.
- Joseph
Monday, October 19, 2009
A Great APE Weekend!
We had a fun time at the show. APE is much more relaxing than WonderCon or Comic-Con...there are also much smaller crowds but we still got our book into the hands of a lot of new people so that was the most important thing to us. We also had a lot of fans from previous shows come by to say "Hi," and ask about whether or not we had a new book out. Not yet! Sorry, everyone. We're going to try and make a big push for WonderCon 2010 in April so keep an eye out for us then.
It was great to see so many of our old IITS friends from the previous shows: Stephen, Cliff, A.J., and so many others that I'm failing to name here. Aside from those who already told us they might not make it, we were surprised that we didn't see Sparky. SPAAAAAARKY!!! Thanks for dropping by and chatting with us guys, it's always great to see you guys. =)
As usual, we wanted to snap pictures of all our customers but, as usual, we ran into a bit of a snag. This time, Genevieve's camera started acting weird halfway through the first day and, well...it stopped being able to take pictures. I managed to snap just a few with my BlackBerry camera but I was worried they would turn out crappy so I just stopped. There should be like 50-60 pictures here but unfortunately, we only have a few to show. I'll post the rest when Genevieve pulls them from her broken camera's memory card.
I want to send out a big thank you to all our old IITS friends...we really appreciate you stopping by to support us every time we exhibit at a show. A big thank you also to Martin at Bioroid Studios. This is the second time that they were exhibiting directly to our left at a con and it's always great to have them as con neighbors! Another big thank you to all our former and current co-workers for coming by and supporting us! Finally, a super huge thank you to all of you who picked up our book for the first time at APE. If you enjoyed it, please share your copy with a friend or send them to our IITS Store. We're just a two person, self-published operation and appreciate all the help we can get.
Genevieve and I had a great time at APE and we hope you did as well. We're doing our best to make an Issue 2 happen for WonderCon 2010 and we hope to see you all there. Thanks, everyone!
UPDATE: Genevieve recovered the photos from her broken camera and I've updated the post with them. What a great group of charming, smiling, and funny APE attendees these are! =)
- Joseph
That's it for this year's APE! See you at WonderCon 2010!
It was great to see so many of our old IITS friends from the previous shows: Stephen, Cliff, A.J., and so many others that I'm failing to name here. Aside from those who already told us they might not make it, we were surprised that we didn't see Sparky. SPAAAAAARKY!!! Thanks for dropping by and chatting with us guys, it's always great to see you guys. =)
As usual, we wanted to snap pictures of all our customers but, as usual, we ran into a bit of a snag. This time, Genevieve's camera started acting weird halfway through the first day and, well...it stopped being able to take pictures. I managed to snap just a few with my BlackBerry camera but I was worried they would turn out crappy so I just stopped. There should be like 50-60 pictures here but unfortunately, we only have a few to show. I'll post the rest when Genevieve pulls them from her broken camera's memory card.
I want to send out a big thank you to all our old IITS friends...we really appreciate you stopping by to support us every time we exhibit at a show. A big thank you also to Martin at Bioroid Studios. This is the second time that they were exhibiting directly to our left at a con and it's always great to have them as con neighbors! Another big thank you to all our former and current co-workers for coming by and supporting us! Finally, a super huge thank you to all of you who picked up our book for the first time at APE. If you enjoyed it, please share your copy with a friend or send them to our IITS Store. We're just a two person, self-published operation and appreciate all the help we can get.
Genevieve and I had a great time at APE and we hope you did as well. We're doing our best to make an Issue 2 happen for WonderCon 2010 and we hope to see you all there. Thanks, everyone!
UPDATE: Genevieve recovered the photos from her broken camera and I've updated the post with them. What a great group of charming, smiling, and funny APE attendees these are! =)
- Joseph
That's it for this year's APE! See you at WonderCon 2010!Thursday, October 15, 2009
APE is this weekend!
Wow...it's our first appearance at a show since Comic-Con. Time to dust off the ol' comics and knock 'em dead. I expect the show to be pretty chill overall. The vibe I get from APE is that it's mostly an indie pow-wow and social thing. A lot of local comic fans and creators will be there so I don't expect we'll move a ton of books but it'll be nice to talk to people and just relax in a very creative atmosphere. If you're in the neighborhood, why not drop by? Remember: If you have a paid Comic-Con '09 badge, you can use it to get into the show for free! Hope to see you there. Have a a great weekend everyone. =)
- Joseph
- Joseph
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Very, very quiet...
...because there just isn't much going on right now on the IITS front. Genevieve is hard at work on her gallery pieces and we can't wait to show you those when we can. APE will be pretty low key for us, just a bit a fun hanging out with other creators and selling some of our extra books. One more week...then we'll start planning out WonderCon 2010 in earnest. Thanks for being patient...if there's anyone still out there. =P
- Joseph
- Joseph
Friday, October 2, 2009
Doodles from Vacation
O Hai Guyth!
~Genevieve
Sorry about the lack of updates! Aside from IITS, I've been really busy at EA, the gallery stuff and many other things at the same time, so I apologize there hasn't been much on the site lately. I also came back from a cruise to Alaska with my family a few weeks ago. I went ziplining over a rainforest canopy in Ketchikan, and I took a helicopter to the top of Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau, where I went dogsledding. The sights were incredibly amazing! Anyway, I just thought I'd share some doodles I did while I was on the trip. I did a lot more but these are just the IITS-related ones. Some are kinda crappy cause I felt sea sick while I was doing them on the ship. But, I included a bonus sketch...
Enjoy! XD
~Genevieve
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Don't Forget...APE is October 17th & 18th!
The Alternative Press Expo is a fun, local SF show that is mostly local creators. It's never too crowded but there is a lot of great talent to see and you generally have a better chance to chat it up with people. Remember, if you attended Comic-Con 2009, your badge from that show is FREE admission to APE so why not drop by?
P.S. Oh, and come by and say "Hi" to us if you do. =)
- Joseph
P.S. Oh, and come by and say "Hi" to us if you do. =)
- Joseph
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Mighty Nomad Gallery
Nothing much to report this week on Islands in the Sky, however...I did want to let fans of Genevieve's art know that she will display her work in a pretty neat gallery later this year. The gallery itself moves its exhibits around here and there and the theme changes every time. Genevieve was invited by the organizer of the gallery, a Craig Harris, to take part in an exhibit around the holidays.
Before I forget, here's a link the gallery's site. Fans of comic and sci-fi/fantasy art may recognize some pretty big names in the gallery...aaand fans of IITS may notice that Genevieve chose a picture of Kayli to represent her work. Now, while I can't reveal exactly what kind of piece she is working on, I can say that I never post anything here that isn't actually IITS related in some way... =)
I'll have more info when I can freely give it.
- Joseph
Before I forget, here's a link the gallery's site. Fans of comic and sci-fi/fantasy art may recognize some pretty big names in the gallery...aaand fans of IITS may notice that Genevieve chose a picture of Kayli to represent her work. Now, while I can't reveal exactly what kind of piece she is working on, I can say that I never post anything here that isn't actually IITS related in some way... =)
I'll have more info when I can freely give it.
- Joseph
Monday, September 14, 2009
WonderCon 2010 Dates Announced
Hey everyone,
The Comic-Con people just announced the dates for WonderCon 2010 late last week and it turns out that it's going to be a whole month later this time...April 2nd to the 4th. It will, once again, be hosted at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. I've already applied for a Small Press table and though it's not 100% confirmed, we will more than likely be accepted.
Genevieve and I have a soft spot in our hearts for WonderCon, as it is the show we first launched Islands in the Sky at. Just so you know, it is our current plan to have more than just new prints at WonderCon 2010. It's too early to reveal what we have planned but we're going to do our best to work hard for this show and try to have as much new content as possible. Wish us luck!
P.S. At some point, I broke the IITS Preview Pages link on the sidebar. It had something to do with the permissions of who could view the album. It's fixed now...sorry to anyone who came by and was trying to check those pages out.
- Joseph
The Comic-Con people just announced the dates for WonderCon 2010 late last week and it turns out that it's going to be a whole month later this time...April 2nd to the 4th. It will, once again, be hosted at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. I've already applied for a Small Press table and though it's not 100% confirmed, we will more than likely be accepted.
Genevieve and I have a soft spot in our hearts for WonderCon, as it is the show we first launched Islands in the Sky at. Just so you know, it is our current plan to have more than just new prints at WonderCon 2010. It's too early to reveal what we have planned but we're going to do our best to work hard for this show and try to have as much new content as possible. Wish us luck!
P.S. At some point, I broke the IITS Preview Pages link on the sidebar. It had something to do with the permissions of who could view the album. It's fixed now...sorry to anyone who came by and was trying to check those pages out.
- Joseph
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Pets & Stuff
Hamasuki, one of the readers of this blog, asked last week if we planned on having a pet for either Kayli or Gordo so I decided to make that the subject of this weeks short update. Though Genevieve and I got together recently to work on and discuss future projects, we did not work on the comic specifically...but the project we did work on does involve our Islands in the Sky characters. We can't wait to reveal it to our readers but it maybe be awhile (around the end of the year) before we can show anything.
Comic-wise, we were supposed to do some planning but we'll get to it either this week or the next. We currently have about nine new pages plotted out and roughly storyboarded and to answer Hamasuki's question...we do, in fact, introduce a sort of pet for our characters. We think it's a pretty funny series of pages and hopefully, we'll refine it even more before they go into production.
We did have a pre-planning discussion and we went over a few things about our future plans for the books. We decided that, realistically...we may not be able to do the series like a regular comic book in the sense that it has a continuous storyline from book to book. As it stands...people have already been waiting a long time for us to do something new. What this means is that each book may end up jumping around between stories set in our world but not necessarily follow a strict comic book narrative. The good news is that when we do release a FULL new book, it should be a self contained story, longer than what you've seen already, and just get straight to the good parts. We'll use Field Guides and such to explain bits we can't waste time on in the panels themselves. None of this stuff is set in stone...but this is what we've talked about recently.
I realize these tidbits aren't a lot for any fans of our book to go on and I apologize for that. Nevertheless, I will still update at least once a week to let everyone know we're not dead. =)
- Joseph
Comic-wise, we were supposed to do some planning but we'll get to it either this week or the next. We currently have about nine new pages plotted out and roughly storyboarded and to answer Hamasuki's question...we do, in fact, introduce a sort of pet for our characters. We think it's a pretty funny series of pages and hopefully, we'll refine it even more before they go into production.
We did have a pre-planning discussion and we went over a few things about our future plans for the books. We decided that, realistically...we may not be able to do the series like a regular comic book in the sense that it has a continuous storyline from book to book. As it stands...people have already been waiting a long time for us to do something new. What this means is that each book may end up jumping around between stories set in our world but not necessarily follow a strict comic book narrative. The good news is that when we do release a FULL new book, it should be a self contained story, longer than what you've seen already, and just get straight to the good parts. We'll use Field Guides and such to explain bits we can't waste time on in the panels themselves. None of this stuff is set in stone...but this is what we've talked about recently.
I realize these tidbits aren't a lot for any fans of our book to go on and I apologize for that. Nevertheless, I will still update at least once a week to let everyone know we're not dead. =)
- Joseph
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Sorry for the late update...
...but we just don't have much to report right now. What I can say is that Genevieve and I have recently discussed the future of Islands in the Sky and we're still committed to the project. The most important thing for us right now is when we plan on putting out a new book. We'll be getting together soon to discuss those plans as well as the direction of the story and the possibility of color as well.
We have some other IITS related projects on the horizon and while I have to be vague right now, I'm pretty sure that fans of the comic and characters will think it's pretty cool. The next time I post, I might have some more solid info on what our future plans are. Thanks for being patient!
- Joseph
We have some other IITS related projects on the horizon and while I have to be vague right now, I'm pretty sure that fans of the comic and characters will think it's pretty cool. The next time I post, I might have some more solid info on what our future plans are. Thanks for being patient!
- Joseph
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Commissions, etc...
Hey folks,
Here's a few more commissions that Genevieve did for folks that we never posted. The first one was for Mike (aka Hamasuki), who posts comments here quite often. He's a big fan of Bleach apparently and who isn't a big fan of Rangiku from Bleach? Genevieve and I looked at her designs closely and both came to the same conclusion, "Yep...she's got bigger 'uns than Kayli."
The second was for Toby, who we met way back when at SuperCon...unfortunately, we fell out of contact with Toby and he has not been answering emails sent to him. On the off chance he stumbles to our site, "TOBY! Send us your current address so we can mail you this awesome Black Canary commission!"
Rangiku from Bleach.
DC Comics' Black Canary
Here's a few more commissions that Genevieve did for folks that we never posted. The first one was for Mike (aka Hamasuki), who posts comments here quite often. He's a big fan of Bleach apparently and who isn't a big fan of Rangiku from Bleach? Genevieve and I looked at her designs closely and both came to the same conclusion, "Yep...she's got bigger 'uns than Kayli."
The second was for Toby, who we met way back when at SuperCon...unfortunately, we fell out of contact with Toby and he has not been answering emails sent to him. On the off chance he stumbles to our site, "TOBY! Send us your current address so we can mail you this awesome Black Canary commission!"
Rangiku from Bleach.
DC Comics' Black Canary
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