BLAM! Storms Philly, Eats Cheesesteaks & Hawks GWoM Stuff

Hey all, portly apologies for not keeping you updated, but the gang at BLAM! have been working hard to make things happen. So hard, in fact, that we regrettably had to cancel last weekend’s scheduled appearance at Ohio’s MARCON as Richard Hatch had to shoot additional scenes for the upcoming season of Battlestar Galactica, and we had to continue our never ending quest to make The Great War of Magellan the best comic EVER!.

That said, piglets, we will be at Wizard World this weekend, June 3-5, and in full force! Yep, our entire creative team will be on hand to meet the fans at our first ever Wizard World con, and we can’t be more excited. Andrew, Christian and Lucius will be on hand all three days, while Richard will be jetting in after filming the last of his scenes for a special Sunday appearance. Now is your chance to meet the boys, get their Hancock’s on our Official GWoM Comics Magazine if you haven’t already done so, and if you’re lucky enough, pick up a copy of our special ashcan preview available only at Wizard World Philadelphia.

And be sure to check in daily as Christian posts daily updates right here on The Hammer.

Pig out!
Tiny Fred
Information Director
BLAM! Press

Something Amusing

Just because we could all use a good laugh. The rest of the site is ridiculously fun, but this particular page had me nearly on the floor laughing.

Christian
clb@blamcomics.com

Something Cool

So, on an otherwise normal Sunday for me (my regular day off, filled with making lots of plans, getting nothing done, etc., etc.) I was just in the local grocery store trying to decide if I needed anything else. I strolled into the media aisle -- I suppose that's what you would call it, it's rather like an airport magazine shop with nice fixtures for their books and mags, they even have a decent selection of DVDs and CDs (decent for a supermarket, that is) -- and what do I see but comic book spinner! Marvel, DC and Dark Horse sat in harmony together in a sight I had not witnessed in some years, four sides chocked full of four color delight. It was even slightly off kilter as if time and small children had roughed it up -- though I imagine it was a wayard pallet of tissue paper or some such.

This comes after hearing news of Marvel's reintroduction to 7-Eleven franchises around the country, and their headway into Barnes & Noble stores. I was heartened, having become more gloomy about the industry lately. Maybe things will get better after all, and maybe someday Magellan will sit there as well.

Maybe.

Christian Berntsen
Editorial Director
BLAM! Press
clb@blamcomics.com

Getting Around...

Hey all,

I was just cruisin' the net and saw that we're up on the Comics Continuum site, they were kind enough to post some info and images on The Official Great War of Magellan Comics Magazine. If you haven't picked it up yet, these should whet your appetite (then go pick it up at Comic SLOP!). You will have to scroll down a bit, as Sin City movie news is the lead, but I'd make way for Jessica Alba, too (she makes me squeal).

Later,
Tiny Fred
Lord of the Hammer

MegaCon Day Three: A Very Past Due Accounting

I know, I know. MegaCon ended over two weeks ago, and I never told you guys how the weekend finished. I was tired, Andrew’s PowerBook didn’t want to format the blogs the way I wanted them to look (and it didn’t seem to matter which browser I used; however, Day Two is now all gussied up the way I intended it, links and all, thank you very much), and the next day (Monday for those of you keeping tabs) was full of packing and getting home type stuff so I had no time then.

The day went fairly well, overall. We did a bunch of running around, as we attended two GWoM panels (Richard’s and our own) and were busy making more industry contacts. The panels went smoothly, Richard giving a decent chunk of time during his panel to introduce us, while promoting BLAM! Press and our efforts with the GWoM comic series (and very complimentary, thanks, dude!). Andrew took the reins at our panel later that afternoon (with support from Richard) presenting a slide show of art and giving an overview of what we’re doing with Revenant, the first year’s story arc.

After our panel Richard headed back to our table and stayed there for the remainder of the con to sign and talk up GWoM. A cool time was had by all, despite the fact that we never received that last package from UPS, the one with the exploding paint.

That’s pretty much it. We owe a few thank yous here to all those who help make our first convention outing as professionals a good one. Thanks go first and foremost to Beth, who runs MegaCon, for all her help getting us set up, and getting the word about BLAM! Press out through our co-sponsorship opportunity. To J. David Spurlock, our publishing partner at Vanguard Productions, for advise and help with getting the The Official Comics Magazine put together and printed in time. To Jason Ng, our graphic designer who, along with Andrew, slaved away for days on end to layout the magazine, getting little sleep and still working his day job. To Jeremy, for coming down to launch our sister company www.comicSLOP.com. To Renae, for taking the trip to Florida with us, and helping out at our booth all weekend (and for bringing us food everyday). To superfan Jean, for helping the cause.

And, of course, thanks also go out to Richard Hatch and his crew, Diana, Jim, Erik and Steve. You gave us rides, you helped us pack, you pushed our magazine on an unsuspecting public, you did all sorts of little things and for that we are eternally grateful.

I’ve another story to tell, one I promised long ago about my travels. I’ll get that one up soon, along with info on our upcoming East Coast convention tour.

Take care,
Christian Berntsen
Editorial Director
BLAM! Press
clb@blamcomics.com

Bringing it down!

Yo, Piglets:

So, you're all wondering where the heck day three of the Megacon blog is, right? Me, too. It's time to bring The Hammer down on that boy. I promise on my curly little tail there will be an update by tomorrow (or 'the morrow').

Kickin' Butt,
Tiny Fred
Lord of The Hammer

MegaCon Day Two: Where Things Go Better, and We Meet Michael Avon Oeming… Cool!

The alarm went off at 7:30 this morning, then again ten minutes later. Despite threatening Jeremy the night before that he would shove the cell phone the alarm was emitting from someplace unpleasant, Andrew actually restrained himself and merely yelled once about it. A few arguments about whether or not we were going to be in the lobby on tie for our ride later, and we were actually down on time.

After lugging the fifty pound box which contained our newly arrived posters across a loooong parking lot (that sucked, really and truly), we spent a busy day talking to customers, selling magazines (and posters) and making contacts. While we spoke to a lot of cool people, I think my favorite part was making those contacts.

One of our neighbors came over to our booth—Jessie from Viper Comics—and we talked for a bit, swapping war stories over getting our projects together and trading books. I haven’t had a chance to read them yet, but Dead@17: Revolution looks pretty cool, and from what Jessie told us, the series is doing well. I took a stroll over to MegaCon’s other Co-sponsor 3 Boys Productions, publishers of the horror comics anthology Students of the Unusual. Creator Terry Cronin! was a very cool guy (and he puts an exclamation point after his name, like we here at BLAM! do), and if you get a chance check out his anthology, they have a wonderfully eclectic mix of art.

At the day’s end, we did decent sales and continued our convention education in Vendor 101. We’ve also made a bunch of new friends, including Richard Hatch’s new assistant Diana (who has an incredible array of talents). The highlight of the day for me was getting to meet Michael Avon Oeming, who came up to our table after closing to watch The Great War of Magellan trailer Richard created. I had been off wandering among the other vendors myself, when I spotted him at our table talking to Andrew and headed home. Oeming’s badge had been flipped over, and Andrew, his focus on getting the GWoM word out there all day, hadn’t seen him sitting across the aisle from us and had no clue who he was. He had been giving him the whole GWoM spiel before realizing he must be another vendor and asked, “Who are you?” I was amused.

Until the morrow…

Christian Berntsen
Editorial Director
BLAM! Comics
clb@blamcomics.com

MegaCon: Day One, the Day of Days

So, when last I left you I was about to board a plane on Long Island with my friend Jeremy, co-proprietor of BLAM! Comics’s sister company ComicSlop.com (go there now and sign up, they don’t go live until May 2005, but you won’t regret it), and heavy snow was forecast for the East Coast. You’ll have to wait a bit for that story, I’ll tell it next week as it’s a long, sometimes amusing, sometimes irritating story, but we did finally make it to Orlando for MegaCon, albeit 2am on Friday (I told you: sometime Friday).

Not only did we make it, but our inaugural publication did as well! The Official Great War of Magellan Comics Magazine arrived without incident from our printer in Canada. So did the product from our publishing partner Vanguard Productions, the toys for Jeremy to sell, and the posters and promotional postcards. The only thing that didn’t make it was the package with the pegs and the rest of the hardware, including the can of paint that shouldn’t have been shipped UPS but was that exploded when the box was dropped. There’s a whole saga to that as we still have not received the package as of returning to the hotel tonight, but I’ll let our creative director Andrew recount that if should ever decide to post of this blog. In the end he wound up taking an expensive cab ride to Home Depot (our new saviors) and getting the required hardware.

That got us up and going, just in time for the early arrivals. In fact, just in time for our first customer, the lovely Jean. She honored us by purchasing not just one, but four copies of The Official Comics Magazine, and for that, we thank her. The rest of the day went fairly well, we chatted with the curious and non-curious alike, converting some of the latter and exciting the most of the former.

The magazines themselves were an amazing site, not just because of the relief we felt at having them in our hands, but because Andrew and graphic designer Jason Ng did an amazing job putting the magazine together; because Lucius Romero’s art was incredible on the printed page; because the printer did a fantastic job; because Richard Hatch, GWoM’s creator, seemed to be blown away by having it in his hands (finally); because of a million other little reasons, we had this beautiful magazine to share with the world. For $6.99 retail, of course.

Going to bed, I’ll report on day two tomorrow (on day two).

Christian Berntsen
Editorial Director
BLAM! Comics
clb@blamcomics.com