WonderCon 2010, Day 2

Craaaaziness on the exhibits floor today...just crazy busy. I forgot something early on in the day and headed out to my car and the line for the show just went on and on. We really weren't expecting it to be so busy. The vibe of the attendees was really good though...it wasn't so crowded that people were uncomfortable when moving around. Once again, we were placed in the same aisle as the guest stars like Richard Hatch, Marina Sirtis, Denise Crosby, Adam Baldwin, Boomer (the original one), and a bunch more...that half of Small Press is super crowded but it's my feeling that the extra traffic it generates is always good for the rest of the people in the aisle. If I remember correctly, I think I specifically requested being in the guest star aisle. =)

Show goers hit our table like a tornado. It'd be a flurry of interest and activity for several minutes then all at once everyone would just disappear and we'd wonder if there was ever even a crowd there at all...it was sorta surreal. Lots of interest from new folks in IITS...we figured WonderCon would be a very local show with mostly people who we've seen at Fanime, SuperCon, and APE but we're moving a lot of books to a whole new group of folks and it's been fun and rewarding to talk to everyone about our work.

P.S. We probably snapped 80-85% of our customers today so there'll be a huge group of pictures when I receive the .zip from Genevieve. Thanks to all who let us take your pictures and share it here. =)

UPDATE: Saturday's customer pics are up! Thanks, everyone!

WonderCon 2010, Day 1

Hey IITS Readers!

The first day of WonderCon 2010 was awesome! We thought the weather might get bad and keep the crowds away but we had LOTS of con-goers. Lots of old friends and co-workers dropped by to say, "Hi!", lots of of old table neighbors from previous shows wishing us well, lots of folks who bought Issue 1 at our previous shows and demanding to know where the heck Issue 2 was at, and lots of new people who got to see and enjoy IITS for the first time.

Genevieve is already swamped with commissions but those who want them can still drop by tomorrow and see if she can fit it into her busy schedule. Thanks to everyone who dropped by to wish us well, talk to us, and help make the show great fun. Also, to our faithful readers waiting for Issue 2, we're sooo sorry...we'll do our best to bring it to you when we can.

P.S. Once again, I forgot to ask Genevieve for the show photos before I dropped her off...so there's a good chance she's crashed out snoring on the living room floor of her apartment right now. If that's the case, I'll post all of Friday and Saturday's pics tomorrow night.

UPDATE: Added the pics of the customers we did manage to snap a photo of...I think we missed about 33%. =( But what a lovely group of people we DID snap! =)

- Joseph

WoooOOOOoooonderCon!!!

Hey IITS Readers,

If you're in the Bay Area, don't forget to attend the WonderCon 2010 show at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, April 2nd-4th. It seems like it's going to be a great show this year. The show is chock full of neat creators like Sergio Aragones, Adam Hughes, Frank Cho, Greg Rucka and Kevin Smith! Check here for a full list of all the special guests. There's a lot of cool panels to go to across all three days...they also added late night gaming for the card gaming crowd, and don't forget the Sixth Annual WonderCon Masquerade!

Did I forget anything? Hmmm...seems like I should have mentioned something else...hmmm...it's on the tip of my tongue...OH RIGHT, Islands in the Sky will be there too! Please come see Genevieve and I in Small Press...we're probably listed under Keno's Lair or some nonsense. Please drop by our booth and say "Hi", we'd love to see ya! Genevieve will be available for commissions as well so if you love her art, secure a spot early...because the show is only so long and she only does as many as she can manage for the weekend and no more.

Looking forward to seeing all our friends from past shows and if you can't make it, please wish us luck in this second year of promoting Islands in the Sky!

- Joseph

...followed by a long period of silence.

Hey IITS Readers,

Sorry for the lack of news or updates...there was just nothing new to report. However, we're going to be at WonderCon between April 2nd - 4th and the Moscone Center in San Francisco and we'll have some new stuff for Islands in the Sky but as I said before, no new book. Sorry. =(

Genevieve and I discussed the project at length and I think the problem we have is trying to constantly do something new for each show we attend but never having enough time to do it. WonderCon in March/April, Fanime in May, Comic-Con in July, APE in October...it's just too much. This year, we didn't make the cut for Comic-Con so while we're still attending the other shows, we're going to try to use most of our IITS work time to work on better developing our comic...which is the most important thing overall. This means that we might not have anything new for the book for a year or more but the pressure of trying to develop something new for each show and our own personal lives is too much.

Islands in the Sky is an ongoing project for us and we're still dedicated to working on it but the realities of day jobs and personal life just make it very hard. We hope that our fans will still come to see us at the shows we do attend and whenever we have something new, we'll definitely share it with you all here. Thanks to everyone for being so patient while waiting for a new comic from us.

- Joseph

Sanzaru & Art Trade

Hey Guys!

As always, I've been pretty busy with a few projects lately. One is preparing some new stuff for Wondercon 2010, another is an Islands in the Sky: Expedition Artbook (name tentative) that a group of awesome artist friends of mine are collaborating with; and finally some more art trades I've been meaning to finish.

I've also been preparing for my move to Sanzaru Games. It's been an awesome experience working on the MySims team, and I'll dearly miss all my friends there at EA. ;_; Everyone's been so good to me! But I feel at Sanzaru my portfolio will really grow and I'll be both challenged and inspired by the new project, style and all the great artists there. I feel the change is just what I need to achieve the next step in the development of my career.

Anywho, here's another trade I've been working on for my friend Vince Riley, who's been helping on the new IITS: Expedition Artbook. He's drawn me some pretty cool Kayli sketches in the past and has been a great tablemate/neighbor at the various comic conventions we frequent.

As my end of the trade, I drew my rendition of the main character from Vince's comic, Native Drums (click this link to see the comic on DeviantArt!). I also added his freakin' adorable dog, Little Foot (his real dog--not in the comic), in there, with a little antennae and Scouter on one eye, just for kicks! ^__^

One of these days I'll fully color this, but for now I'm just inking/flat-shading this one.

And some roughs:

~Genevieve

Sorry it's been a little quiet...

...my internet connection went down for almost two weeks. Unfortunately, I'm posting something on a bit of a down note. As of right now, the likelyhood of us getting Issue #2 out for WonderCon 2010 is, well...not likely. Both of us are dealing with some pretty significant events in our lives right now (unrelated to each other and nothing bad) so we've not had the chance to really focus our attention on the IITS Comic. For those of you really looking forward to Issue #2, we're really sorry. We both really wish we had more time to dedicate to the project and will still continue to work on it when we can. Hopefully, our new plans for WonderCon will still be really cool and we look forward to sharing them with you.

Thanks to all of you for your continued support.

- Joseph