NIGHT OWLS Anniversary!

This might be a day late, but yesterday was the one year anniversary of the launch of NIGHT OWLS on ZUDA! There was much celebrating, illegal hooch was consumed, and I just woke up at 2:30 today, hence the late blog post.

Anyway, I prefer to think of it this way: This Happy Anniversary is not one day late, OH NO! It is in fact 364 days EARLY.

Peter

A New Chapter Begins!

A new page of NIGHT OWLS is up, and a new storyline is started, this one features Irish v. Italian mobsters, with the added complication of a family banshee!

Read it HERE!

Zuda week at Schwapp! SCHWAPP!

The folks over at SCHWAPP online have excellent taste in webcomics. They reviewed Street Code, High Moon and of course, The Night Owls. You can find some reviews of the Zuda November Competition as well!

Happy Birthday to ZUDA!

Today is the one year anniversary of the launch of ZUDA! Man, I remember that day well! The whole website had that "new website" smell. I remember reading Bayou first, then reading the competition comics. I thought to myself, "Myself," which is how I address myself when thinking to myself, for myself is me, "Myself," I thought, "These comics are good, and so different from what we're doing... does Night Owls even stand a chance?!?" Then I logged in and voted for High Moon.

It also happens to be Free Pie Thursday, so have a piece of pie in honor of Zuda! Then go there and read free comics... FREE COMICS!!!

Night Owls Fan Art!

Check out this new piece of fan art by Michael Walton. Michael is a fellow Zuda winner for his entry, DUAL. You should go check it out. I believe it is going to start updating very soon.

Enjoy!

Bust out those Decoder Wheels!

There is a secret code in the new page of NIGHT OWLS! http://www.zudacomics.com/the_night_owls

Email the secret word to Roscoe for free stuff! roscoegargoyle@gmail.com

Don't have a Decoder Wheel? GO GET ONE!
Details here---> http://www.nightowlscomic.com

Peter

Celadore Vs. Night Owls

Have you sen this?
Canaan Grall, creator of the awesome webcomic "Celadore" went straight into "what if?" territory and came back with this amazing hypothetical matchup! Celadore vs. Night Owls! I love it!
Thanks Canaan!

Timony Twins at Jim Hanley's Universe This Weekend

Bobby and I will be attempting to undergo the 24 Hour Comic Book Challenge for the fifth time this weekend! We will be drawing at Jim Hanley's Universe in NYC from noon on Saturday the 18th to noon on Sunday the 19th! If you happen to find yourselves in Manhattan this weekend, please, stop by! We'll be happy to show you what we're working on! If you've never met us before, come and introduce yourself! If you come on Sunday morning, we'll be sleep deprived and out of our minds! We also accept gifts of food, coffee and energy drinks!

Jim Hanley's Universe is at 4 W. 33rd street!

What's the 24 Hour Comic Challenge? In a nutshell, you have 24 hours to write and draw a 24 page comic!

Did I mention that Bobby and I have done this before? You can read our previous efforts FOR FREE HERE!

Hope to see you all there!

Peter

NIGHT OWLS Interviews and Rumors

REPOSTED FROM THE ZUDA BLOG. You can find the original post here: http://zudacomics.com/node/925

Hey Everybody! It's still NIGHT OWLS month here at Zuda, so we're gonna celebrate with a couple of interviews with The Most Famous Twins in Comics, who also happen to be us!

The first one is with Big Kev's Geek Stuff! Some of you may know Big Kev from his appearances on the Opie and Anthony show.

The second one is Comics Coast to Coast with Brian Dunaway and my old pal from way back, Justin Thompson! Justin also has a webcomic of his own, which I invite you to read, called MYTHTICKLE!

Lastly, some of you may have already heard the rumors being sprouted over at Rich Johnston's column on Comic Book Resources, Lying in the Gutters. I'm here to tell you now that these rumors are most emphatically and without question, possibly slightly maybe sort of untrue, give or take a few falsehoods, and not taking into account the possibility of alternate dimensions in which a version of these events that is exactly, partly, or not at all the same may or may not have taken place, or at the very least, the opposite of what I just said.

However, if you are absolutely jonesing for some animated Night Owls, there is always that cartoon we made on You Tube... as well as this new one here, featuring my wife (some of you know her as screamingdolai here at Zuda) as Mindy!

New Timony Interview on Comics Coast to Coast!

New Timony interview on Comics Coast to Coast! Listen HERE! http://comicscoasttocoast.com/images/podcast/cccep54.mp3

EVIL LEAGUE OF EVIL

A friend of mine is attempting to join the Evil League of Evil!

You can help her out by going to YouTube, and leaving nice comments! Favorites and 5 stars!!!

HERE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvBpAiOSdOY

Peter

Popeye

Hi everyone. Bobby here.
Alot of people who know me know that I love Popeye. In fact, I've always wanted to do a Popeye comic.
As luck would have it, just prior to San Diego ComicCon, I was introduced to a guy by the name of Frank Caruso who works on Popeye over at King Features. Frank is a great guy who also loves Popeye, naturally, and we talked for a long while on the subject.
Needless to say, I'd never forgive myself if I didn't at least try to pitch a Popeye comic, so I drew up a couple pages.
According to Frank, there isn't alot of interest in a Popeye graphic novel right now, but who knows? Popeye never dies, so maybe someday...
Anyways, I thought it's be fun to share the pages I drew. Here's a brief sample of what a Popeye graphic novel as drawn by me might look like.

NEW Night Owls Animation

TIMONY TWINS Live at COMIC BOOK CLUB

The Timony Twins will be appearing at COMIC BOOK CLUB, A Live Weekly Talk Show about Comic Books in NYC, TOMORROW!

Hosted by Justin Tyler, Pete LePage, and Alex Zalben

Tuesday, October 7th @ 8:00 PM

Featuring:
The Timony Brothers (Night Owls)
Mark Sable (Grounded, Cyborg)
& Paul Azaceta (Potter's Field, Foolkiller)

Tickets: $5
Online: ThePIT-NYC.com
Phone: 1-800-838-3006
Questions? 212-563-7488

The Peoples Improv Theater
154 West 29th Street, 2nd Floor
Between 6th and 7th Aves.

Check out our website:
http://www.popcultureshock.com/cbclub

Check out our web stuff:
http://www.youtube.com/comicbookclub

The show is sponsored in part by Midtown Comics:
http://www.midtowncomics.com

Check out our podcast:
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=273148505

Zuda October Competition

The Zuda October Competition is up! All these comics were hand selected by me and Bobby, so go check them out and vote for your favorite!

http://www.zudacomics.com

SPX and Comic Fencing

Hey family and friends and fans and other!

2 things to mention today!

First, The Timony twins are heading to SPX in Bethesda MD this weekend. We have a table, so stop on by, get some stuff and say hello!

Info on SPX can be found HERE!

Second, Comic Fencing Reviewed NIGHT OWLS a bunch of times!

Those who are familiar with Comic Fencing will recall that it is a website where a bunch of reviewers pick one comic a week and review it! This week they wisely chose THE NIGHT OWLS, and found themselves raving! Go read the reviews HERE!

Kleefeld on Comics reviews Night Owls!

Sean Kleefeld reviewed Night Owls over on his Blog!

I think it is a fair review. Bordering on rave.

Peter

TIMONY TWINS take over ZUDA!

Here is a cut 'n paste of my first ever ZUDA Blog post!

Hey everybody, Peter Timony here. Some of you may have already noticed our nifty new STAFF badges, and wondered what they meant. Well, to coincide with the Season 2 Premier of THE NIGHT OWLS, Bobby and I will be your guest editors for the month of October! That means we chose the competitors for October (more on that next week!) and we will be updating the Zuda blog!

That’s not to say the regular Zuda crew is taking the month off, mind you. Kwanza is keeping a close eye on us! It is a bold move, putting Zuda into our hands, and he just wants to make sure we don’t hijack the site for our own nefarious purposes.

Now go read The Night Owls, or I’'ll suspend all your accounts! Bloo Ha Ha!

Peter

NIGHT OWLS SEASON 2

Night Owls Season 2 has begun! Page 61 is online NOW!

http://www.zudacomics.com/the_night_owls

Peter

NEW Night Owls Season 2

Just a heads up, NIGHT OWLS Season 2 starts September 30!

Peter

Press Release: Night Owls Animated!

Monday, September 15, 2008
Press Release: The Night Owls are Animated!

Untitled Project Productions and the Timony Twins present THE NIGHT OWLS, Episode 1, an animated short based on the popular comic strip published by Zuda Comics!


The Untitled Project

The Night Owls is about to start its highly anticipated second season this October. To celebrate, series creators Peter and Bobby Timony have teamed with Untitled Project Productions to bring their first episode to life in this short cartoon.
Untitled Project Productions is an animation and editorial house based in the trendy Brooklyn neighborhood of Dumbo. Visit us online at www.theuntitledproject.com.

What is Zuda?

Zuda is an imprint of DC Comics. Each month, they select ten user-submitted webcomics and post them on the site. Anyone can go, read the comics and vote on the one they like best. At the end of the month the comic creator who gets the most votes gets a contract with DC to continue their webcomic for 60 screens. All the comics are free to read, and it is free to register and vote as well.
NIGHT OWLS was not in the regular competition. It was an Instant Winner.

Who are The Night Owls?

"The Night Owls" is a Detective Agency set in New York City in the 1920s and specializing in cases that involve the supernatural. Professor Ernest Baxter is the brains of the operation, utilizing his vast knowledge of all things weird to right the wrongs that leave ordinary police baffled! He's a bit of a bookworm, and allergic to sunlight, but his inquisitive nature has led to the downfall of many of New York's deadliest demons! Of course, he couldn't have done it without Mindy Markus. She's a feisty flapper that's put the hurt on a lot of nocturnal nasties! Don't try to tell her she can't fight the forces of evil because she's just a girl, unless you're looking for a face full of feminine fist, that is! Then there's Roscoe, the Gargoyle. He's a tough little bruiser from the Bronx, more at home at the dinner table than on a church roof. Together, they solve the crimes that no one else can solve! When you suspect your wife is a werewolf, when you're haunted by a petulant poltergeist, or caught in the trap of a vicious vampire, your best chance of survival is the Night Owls!

---

Pray For Death!

Monday marks the exciting conclusion of the excellent crime comic, "Pray For Death" on Zuda!
Will the killer succeed in pissing off God Almighty? I don't know if God is angry or not, but Detective Jenkins seems to have enough anger for the both of them!
The last installment threw a nice little unexpected twist at us. What do Nick Doan and Dani Serra have planned for the climax? Make sure to check it out on Monday to see how it all shakes down!

NIGHT OWLS ANIMATION

Check out this animated version of the NIGHT OWLS!

NIGHT OWLS review on AICN

Head on over to Ain't It Cool News to see a short (but good) review of THE NIGHT OWLS. Click HERE and scroll down until you get to the dot comics section!

NINE HATS!!!

Over at the WEBCOMIC WITCHFINDER, MPD57 is attempting to give all 97 comics on Zuda a hat/cat rating. The hat/cat rating is sort of described in lack of detail on the site. ANYWAY, head on over there and see how your favorite Zuda comics have fared.

Incidentally, I wouldn't have mentioned it if The Night Owls hadn't done so well. NINE HATS! W00T!

Peter

The Timony Twins on the Radio

Hey folks, be sure to check out our latest radio interview, with some eclectic tunes to boot! Here's the Skinny:

Host: Sheri Barclay
Format: Eclectic Music

The Barclay Hour is an old school radio show every Wednesday on CJSR 88.5 FM Edmonton, AB from 1-3 pm, 24/7 on myspace.

Rodney Bingenheimer introduces every show, click his name if you don't know what's up, and click out the following:

1) Sheribarclay.com

2) Get a feel for it here

3) PODCAST feed is here: feed://www.bigcontact.com/sheribarclay/rssaudio
(drag this into itunes or equivalent to receive the show as a weekly podcast)


you can listen live on the radio or... on the website.
If you miss the live airing, it will be re-broadcast on www.viva-radio.com on Thursday the 11th @ 6pm during the "The Barclay Hour"
You'll also be able to download the podcast from www.sheribarclay.com

Peter

NIGHT OWLS Season One Finale

Page 60 is finally up! The shocking cliff-hanger conclusion to season one of the NIGHT OWLS!

Also, go read this glowing review over at the Webcomic Witchfinder!

And then, check out this interview with us over at Amalgamated Artists!

Ron Perazza draws Roscoe

This sketch of Roscoe is by Ron Perazza, one of my bosses over at Zuda. While drawing this he was heard to remark, "Man, drawing Roscoe is hard! He's got a lot of distorted features!"
I think he did a fine job.

A Rob Berry Birthday present!

Check out this stunning portrait of the amazing Mindy Markus by none other than Rob Berry, creator of the literary classic-to-comics project "Ulysses Seen" based on the novel by James Joyce at Amalgamated Artists. Thank you, Rob!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO US!

Today is the shared birthday of the Timony Twins. If you want to get us a present, but you are broke, please visit our comic and say nice things! We are 34 years old today.

Peter

5 Good Reasons to Read THE NIGHT OWLS!

In no particular order:

1. Mindy Markus! From page One: "Ain't she a scrappy flapper! Get this, Fellas! She's SINGLE!

2. At some point, the Night Owls probably saved the lives of your grandparents! Or Great grandparents. And, without them, where would you be?

3. Duke Ellington, live at the Cotton Club! See pages 21-25.

4. The bad guys! Werewolves, vampires, demons, Giant Owl Gods and Mr. YOU! And that's just the first season.

5. Is Ernie really allergic to sunlight? Is he really a vampire? Is it something else entirely? Page 60 arrives August 28th.

http://www.zudacomics.com/the_night_owls

Peter

New Night Owls

New Night Owls page is up. This storyline leads directly to the SHOCKING climax of Season One. Yes, SHOCKING!

New Zuda Competition!

There's a new competition, live right now, over at Zuda! 10 new contestants, 80 pages of free comics, what are you waiting for? Go read, and vote!

Roscoe Spore!

My pal, Brian Michael Stempien, made Roscoe in the video game Spore. How awesome is that?!? Thanks, Brian!

Zuda Animation

At the DC Booth they had a bunch of monitors running various trailers including this one for Zuda... check it out HERE!

Night Owls on Myspace

The Night Owls has a new Myspace page. Go friend us!

10 Questions

The folks over at the SCIENTEERS have posted 10 questions with the Timony Twins. Go check it out!

SEASON ONE FINAL ARC

The Final Arc of the Night Owls first season begins today! Read it HERE.

Timony Twins on Comicmix

Check THIS out! about 10 minutes in, you'll hear me and Bobby talking about our comics with the ComicMix Crew! With Special Guest Stars, the Pray for Death creators!

Peter

Night Owls on Cool Aggregator

Click!

Timony Twins at San Diego Comic Con 2008!

Hey Everybody,

For the first time ever, we're going to San Diego for the Comic Con! If you are interested in meeting us, or if you've met us but want to do it again, here's where we'll be!

Thurs-Sat, we will be at the Zuda table signing Zuda comics and giving away postcards from 2-3.

Sunday, we will be signing from 4-5, and in the morning we'll be speaking at the Zuda Comics Panel along with a whole mess of Zuda guys. Here's what it says on the comic con schedule:

10:30-11:30 Zuda Online Comics— Read. Vote. Create. With those three little words, Zuda is changing the face of webcomics. Panel participants include Zuda staff Richard Bruning, Ron Perazza, Kwanza Johnson, and Dave McCullough, along with creators Jeremy Love (Bayou), Bobby & Peter Timony (The Night Owls), David Gallaher & Steve Ellis (High Moon), Nick Doan (Pray for Death), Johnny Zito & Tony Trovarello (The Black Cherry Bombshells), Sheldon Vella (Supertron), and Caanan Grall (Celadore). Listen as they ramble incoherently, pausing occasionally to make a good point. Room 4

ADDITIONALLY, when we're not in the places mentioned, you may be able to find us at a table in Artisit's Alley, which we are sharing with the hyper-talented Steve Ellis, artist on Zuda's HIGH MOON. Table GG-04. If we're not there, you can still buy some Night Owls original art, or a print.

See you at the Con,

Peter

Night Owls Origins

It's time for the story of how Ernest met Mindy! Starting now at www.zuda.com!

Night Owls Easter Egg

Some people have already noticed the hidden coordinates on page 40 of the Night Owls. For more info on this visit the NIGHT OWLS GEOCACHE!

While you are there, check out some of the other geocache listings. They are hidden all over the country!

Peter

Career Day at New Providence Middle School

Today, Peter and I bored the stuffing out of some middle-schoolers in our hometown of New Providence, NJ, as we talked about a career in the arts. We were honored guests for their "Career Day" Bi-annual event, and we dispensed many nuggets of chewy, hard-won wisdom to the impressionable youngsters as they peppered us with penetrating questions.
I contributed this drawing for the program, and we gave away some Zuda samplers, and treated them to a step by step slideshow on how to assemble a comic!
On the off chance that any NPMS student is reading this, feel free to chime in and tell us how tedious our demonstration was!
-Bobby Timony

Josh Alves draws Ernest Baxter!

Hey Everybody,

Josh Alves sent us this nifty pic of Ernie. Enjoy!

Josh is known in the Zuda community for his comic Arachnid Kid! Go check it out!

Peter

Girls with Slingshots guest strip

Our pal Danielle Corsetto put out the call for some guest strips for her excellent webcomic, Girls with Slingshots, and we were happy to supply one.
She recently put it up on her site, here.
Thanks Danielle!

Caanan draws Mindy Markus

This drawing of Mindy by Caanan Grall was inspired by the notion of Anne Hathaway as Mindy in a hypothetical Night Owls Movie! (If you're reading this, Anne, I think you'd be great as Mindy!)
Caanan has a great comic up in the Zuda competition right now called Celadore featuring its own scrappy female lead character. It's currently in first place, but the competition ain't over yet! If you like Celadore, I know Canaan would appreciate your vote!

Li'l Donny Curcio draws Roscoe

This awesome drawing of Roscoe was made by my very own nine-year old nephew, Donny Curcio! Great job, Donny!
Donny says he's been drawing some of his own comics. What a good kid! Keep up the good work, you talented fellow!

Steve Steiner Draws Roscoe!

This drawing was sent by Steve Steiner, creator of "Everybody Laughs at the Crocodile Man" and the current Zuda Competitor "Colonel MacTagart".
Colonel Mactagart would like remind you to vote for him on Zuda, or he'll put a hole in Roscoe with his elephant gun.

Night of the Living Owls!

Get ready for the nightmares, kids! These aren't the lovable Night Owls you've come to expect from the Brothers Timony. That's because it's not from us!
This gruesome, spine chilling piece of amazingness was drawn by Daniele Serra, artist of Zuda Comic's Pray for Death!
Thank you, Dani!

Comic Book Club Podcast

Hey everybody, in case you missed our recent appearance on the Comic Book Club, it is now available as a podcast! You can listen to it HERE!

Bobby Timony on Pray For Death

If anyone out there is curious about what a PRAY FOR DEATH Comic would look like if it was drawn by Bobby Timony, head over to the P4D Blog to check out a sketch of Detective Jenkins!

What's that? Never heard of PRAY FOR DEATH? Well click here to go read it on Zuda!

Peter

BIG OWL!!!

There's a new page of Night Owls on Zuda, featuring the first appearance of a new monster, BIG OWL, who features prominently in Ernest baxter's mysterious past! Please go read!

Timony Twins on Comic Book Club

Well, last night we had our appearance at the Comic Book Club in NYC... We had a BLAST. The show was so much fun! They do a new show every Tuesday Night, and admission is only $5 so if you love comics and you are in the area, check it out. Also, they podcast each show. I will inform you when our episode is available.

Also sharing the couch with us was Matt Loux, who's comic, Salt Water Taffy, is in stores TODAY!

Peter

The Timony Twins Next Live Appearance

Here's what Kwanza said about it...

Kwanza says:

For dems of youse in da New Yawk eh-rea, da Timony Twins of Night Owls fame are sittin' down wit dem fellas from Comic Book Club on May 6.

*ahem*

Man, it is difficult to type in that accent!

If you are not familiar with it, the Comic Book Club is a weekly comic book talk show featuring the best comedians in New York talking shop with industry professionals from all corners of the comic book world. Hosted by Justin Tyler, Pete LePage, and Alex Zalben.

Comic Book Club is every Tuesday night at 8:00pm at the Peoples Improv Theater. Tickets are just $5!

If you're around, drop by and heckle.

The RETURN of MR. YOU!

Hey everybody, this is a quick heads up to let you guys know that our Zuda comic, Night Owls, began a new story arc yesterday, featuring a familiar face (or lack thereof). Go check it out! THE NIGHT OWLS

Ellis and Colden draw the Night Owls!

I was pretty busy at the NY Comic Con, but I still found some time to harass some artist friends for sketches! A couple of them even decided to draw some Night Owls stuff for me!
Here's an awesome sketch by High Moon's Steve Ellis:

This drawing of Roscoe is by Kevin Colden, author of Fishtown on Act-I-Vate and Stangle/Switch on Zuda:

Thanks, Fellas!
-Bobby

More 24 Hour Comics!

Peter and I took part in a 24 hour comics challenge a few weeks ago, and I finally got around to posting the results!
Peter's comic is called "Head Case" and it involves a guy who wakes up with no memory and is missing some very important things...
My comic is called "The Ballad of Basil the Bunny". It's about a bunny who gets roped into battling a wolf to save his home, and it's all in rhyme!
I invite you all to have a look and let us know what you think. Here come the links!
Head Case!
The Ballad of Basil the Bunny!
Thanks,
Bobby

NIGHT OWLS updated!

Just a reminder, Night Owls is now twice weekly. You get a page on Tuesdays and a page on Thursday! And, as luck would have it, today is Thursday. So go read some new NIGHT OWLS! Today's page contains rats... LOTS and LOTS of rats!

A link for the lazy: NIGHT OWLS
Peter

NYCC Part Two: ACT-I-VATE

It's time to talk a little about ACT-I-VATE! For those of you who don't know, Act-i-vate is a webcomic group much like Zuda with the following exceptions, they are not backed by a major comic company like DC, they do not get paid per screen, and they do not hold contests. Despite the lack of major backing, they still get lots of great press and are continually updating every week. The reason is because they love webcomics and it shows. That's why I attended the ACT-I-VATE panel on Friday.

The panel was moderated by Dan Goldman, who is officially a Freind-of-Timony. Dan has a comic on Act-i-vate called KELLY and also has a graphic novel in stores now called SHOOTING WAR. As soon as you're done reading this, you should go buy.

Backtracking a bit, last October, Bobby and I did the 24 Hour comic under the watchful eye of Scott McCloud himself, over at Jim Hanley's Universe in Manhattan. Also in attendence was Josh Adams (a link to his blog can be found to your right) as well as three members of Act-i-vate, Dan Goldman, Ryan Roman and Ulises Farinas. Over the course of the 24 hours, we got to know these fellas, and they were all very cool. Sometime during that grueling ordeal that is the 24 hour comic, Dan Goldman mentioned to us that Zuda would be going live soon, so if we were planning to submit something we should hurry up and get it ready. Without that warning, Bobby might not have had Night Owls ready in time for the Zuda launch party, and we might not have become Instant Winners! So, again, big thanks to Dan Golman at Act-i-vate!

So, back to the panel. They talked a little bit about how Act-i-vate came to be. They introduced the members of Act-i-vate, some of who I had met. Besides Dan, Ryan and Ulises, I had met Paul Maybury at a party the previous Tuesday. It was celebrating the release of his new graphic novel AQUA LEUNG, and benefiting the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. Also at that party we met Dean Haspiel, Mike Cavallaro, Kevin Colden and Molly Crabapple. So, going into the panel, I now knew about eight Act-i-vate members, but like any collector, I gotta meet 'em all!

Some of you reading this are Zuda fans and no doubt recognize the name Dean Haspiel as the new Instant Winner (Congrats, Dean!) at Zuda. He is also the founder of Act-i-vate, and his Billy Dogma comics there are amazing. He's also been nominated for an Eisner, as has Mike Cavallaro for his comic, PARADE (WITH FIREWORKS).

There has been a bit of Zuda/Act-i-vate crossover, starting with Paul Maybury, who's Zuda entry MAXY J. MILLIONAIRE has moved to Act-i-vate. Then came Kevin Colden, who had a Zuda comic called STRANGLE/SWITCH and does a comic on Act-i-vate called FISHTOWN, and lately, Jim Dougan announced that he is bringing his Zuda entry, SAM & LILAH, over to Act-i-vate! Incidentally, my wife is a big fan of SAM & LILAH, so when it starts updating over there (in May, I think) another fan will find her way to Act-i-vate. And now, Dean Haspiel has a comic on Zuda.

Act-i-vate has been around for over two years, and is doing great. One of the things I like about the guys (and Molly) who I met at Act-i-vate is how supportive they have been of us comic creators at Zuda. I met a lot of cool people this weekend. I met some really famous people. But mostly, I'm glad I met the people who create the webcomics I read, be it on Zuda or Act-i-vate. They are comic creators after my own heart.

You will find a link to Act-i-vate on the right. Be sure to read MOTRO, BACKSTAGE, BILLY DOGMA, LOVIATHAN, KID ZERO, GLAM, FISHTOWN, PARTY BEAR, PERSIMMON CUP or any other comic you find. They are all quality.

Peter

Zuda Panel Podcast

The Zuda Panel podcast is online at the DC Comics site now. Here's a link! http://www.dccomics.com/news/?nw=9844

NYCC Part One: Zuda

The New York Comic Con wrapped up yesterday, and I think I've finally recovered enough to start talking about it. I'll start off by talking about Zuda.

First of all, unlike the Wondercon in San Fran, Zuda's table was a part of the larger DC booth. This was cool because of all the great DC talent that was walking around in our vicinity, but a little uncool because we didn't have as much room as we did before. In San Fran, the Zuda booth became a home base where we would hang and meet other Zuda creators, and there was plenty of room to sign stuff, even if you weren't officially supposed to be there. This weekend, we didn't have that luxury.

However, I learned that the Zuda community doesn't really need a home base to hang out in. Every single Zuda creator I met was AWESOME, in the full 80's sense of the word. Here's a brief run-down of the Zuda people we met and/or hung out with: David Gallaher and Steve Ellis of HIGH MOON, Jeremy Love of BAYOU, Nick Doan of PRAY FOR DEATH, Johnny Zito and Tony Trov of BLACK CHERRY BOMBSHELLS, Paul Maybury of MAXY J. MILLIONAIRE, Jim Dougan of SAM & LILA, Greg Delcurla of LEPRINOMICON, Mike Imboden of THOMAS: AGENT OF CHAOS, Chachi & Gabe Hernandez of JOE COMICS, Kevin Colden of STRANGLE/SWITCH, Tony Tobin of YULETIDE and Tyler James of SUPER SEED! Oh yeah, and also Zuda's newest addition, Dean Haspiel of STREET CODE!

On Saturday we had our first ever Zuda Panel! A big thank you to anyone reading this who managed to attend our panel, and an even bigger thank you if you got a question in! If you missed it, no worries. I have a feeling it might be podcast somewhere soon. Anyway, there were four big Zuda announcements at the panel, which you have probably heard by now, but here they are again:
1. NIGHT OWLS is now going to update TWICE WEEKLY!!!
2. SUPERTRON is live and updating!
3. There's a new Instant Winner in Dean Haspiel, and the first page of his comic, STREET CODE, is now LIVE! Congrats, Dean!
4. July is the ZUDA INVITATIONAL! Any comic that was on Zuda and didn't win is eligible for a rematch, with 8 new screens! So go to Zuda and tell them (via the Feedback link) which comics you'd like to see return!

Thanks to Ron and Kwanza and everyone else at Zuda!

That's all I have time for now, but as you can see, there's a "Part One" at the top of the post, which means I have more to say. Stay tuned.

Peter

NY Comic Con Schedule

If anyone is planning on attending the NYC Comic Con this weekend, here's where you can find your favorite Timony Twins!

We will be making sketches, signing comics, giving away a printed Zuda sampler and Zuda postcards at the DC booth (Booth 1627) on Friday, from 4:00-5:00 and on Saturday from 12:30-1:30, and Sunday from 2:00-3:00.

Also, we'll be speaking at a panel about Zuda on Saturday from 4:00-5:00, Room 1E02.

So if you're going, stop by and say Hi!

Peter

The Bestiary

Peter and I have each contributed a drawing into the Amalgamated Artist's Bestiary, which features entries by lots of talented artists!

I drew this Tooth Faerie.

Peter drew this picture of Weird Beard.
While you're visiting Amalgamated Artists, there's plenty of great comics to look at, like Teachers, Untrue Tales, The Passenger, Danetropolis, Starfish, Yuletide, and Two Dimes on the Dollar!

Wow. That's quite an exciting lineup! I'll have to keep an eye on those Amalgamated Artist guys...

Danielle Corsetto draws the Night Owls!

While we were working on the 24 hour comics challenge, Danielle Corsetto, creator of the wonderful comic strip "Girls with Slingshots", managed to find time to draw this truly amazing sketch of the Night Owls! I'm just blown away by how lively and cool this drawing is! Thank you, Danielle!

Here's the Proof

David Gallaher forces me to leave nice comments on his High Moon Comic!

New Story Arc

A new Night Owls story arc has begun on Zuda. I think you're gonna like this one. It's got some vermin, historical New York locations, Jazz, and a touch of German folklore.

Night Owls on Facebook!

The Night Owls have a Facebook page!

I invite any of you mooks on the Facebook to check it out and become a fan.

Gabe Ostley draws the Night Owls!

While we were at WonderCon, we hung out with Gabe Ostley (creater of "Teachers"on Zuda comics) and exchanged Zuda postcards with each other's characters on them.

Here's the one Gabe drew for us.

Thanks, Gabe!

Night Owls at OnlineComics.net

The Night Owls is now listed on OnlineComics.net, a directory of Comics that are... Online. Obviously.

Go there! Make it the Night Owls a favorite and help boost it's ratings!

Thanks!

The long road to comics.

It all started in my Grandmother's house. In a small room under the stairs there was a trunk full of old Archie and Harvey comics from the 60's and 70s left over from my aunt Mary's youth. (Why hadn't Grandma kept any of dad's old superhero comics?!?)

A visit to Grandma invariably featured rummaging through that trunk for buried treasure. Among the Pep Comics and Baby Hueys we would occasionally find an awesome old Horror Comic or even a Superhero comic! The first Spiderman comic I can remember reading was part one of the classic "Six Armed Spidey Saga" featuring Morbius, the living Vampire. It would be many years until I found out how that story finally ended.

Peter and I had little school desks at the foot of our beds, and we'd sit in them and draw comics for hours. Usually we'd draw characters we liked from TV, like Laurel and Hardy or Scooby Doo. I still remember a Mork from Ork comic I drew. I remember it because when I showed it to my sister Rose, she pointed out that it was all backwards. I had made it read right to left. I vowed to get it right from that point on. (I had no idea that they did it that way in Japan, not that it would have mattered.)

Eventually, Peter hit on the innovation of using brand new characters that we made up! Our first original character was a Basset Hound named "McCool". He was the sheriff of DogTown. From there, we drew our own characters exclusively. Sometimes we'd make them up from scratch, and sometimes we'd assign a personality to one of our stuffed animals and put them in the comics.

Our exposure to real comics was sporadic. Aside from the trunk at Grandma's we would occasionally get comics off the newsstands and regularly mangle them, having not yet learned the proper respect that all comics deserve.

One evening in 1984, we cleaned our room. To my delight, I discovered that we had managed to accumulate a stack of comics nearly a foot tall.

A house fire turned that stack into ash, along with everything else in my room. 

Mom was compiling a list of stuff that was destroyed, and asked us what we had lost. "Besides everything?" I thought.

Then I remembered that stack of comics. I told Mom about it. The next day she brought home a box full of awesome comics! There was some Avengers, some Indiana Jones, and some Batman in there too. From that point on, I was officially a comics collector.

A few years after that, Gladstone started publishing Uncle Scrooge comics. I absolutely loved Uncle Scrooge. The wild inventiveness and adventure that Carl Barks and Don Rosa brought to their Duck stories sucked me in. These were the first comics I actually subscribed to. 

As for my own comics creations, they gradually moved from funny animal comics to funny Dungeons and Dragons inspired fantasy comics. 

In College I majored in Fine Arts. Unfortunately they didn't offer any cartooning or comics courses, but that was okay. I was having fun with my own comics and illustrations in the college newspaper.

At this point in my life, a career in art seemed unattainable. The only viable way to make money as an artist (or so I believed) was either by being an architect or a graphic designer. Having a successful career as a movie star seemed like an easier thing to achieve! So that's what I pursued. I switched my major to Theater.

I still made half hearted attempts to find a career in art while I was busy being an actor. At one point I redrew some comic strips and sent them off to a bunch of syndicates, only to receive a steady stream of polite rejection letters.

After college I got lucky and landed a job as a storyboard artist at Bates Advertising in New York City. This profoundly changed my outlook on life. For the first time ever, I was making good money, and being paid to draw! Suddenly a career in art wasn't impossible, it was actual.

I was drawing every day and getting better and better. 

Drawing storyboards was great, but it rekindled my desire to make comics. I took a story Pete had written called "Fat Mitch" and started adapting that to comics.

When I had finished the first issue, I started going to conventions and showing it around. I met a bunch of people that were very helpful and gave me great advice.

Mike Manley was one of those people. He posed this question to me. "What is your goal with comics? What do you ultimately want to achieve?"

It's a simple question, but not one I had ever really thought about. He stumped me with that one.

So I thought about it for a while. I knew for sure that I wanted to make comics, but how, and in what capacity? I felt like I wasn't cut out for superhero comics, but there didn't seem to be a market for anything else.

In the meantime, I lost my steady storyboard job and went freelance. Working freelance is great, but the work was sometimes sporadic. After a few years at that, I was ready to take on another steady job.

But, since I was still making money as a freelancer, I decided I could be a little picky. Since I wanted to work in comics, I would only apply to comics related jobs. If I'm gonna get a full time job, it might as well be in the field that I want to be in, right?

So I applied to every comics job that I was even remotely qualified for. For the most part, that meant applying for jobs at DC. I applied for a couple of jobs at Marvel too, but for some reason it seemed like DC was putting up new want ads alot more often.

I got advice on writing cover letters and resumes, and asked everybody I knew with a comics connection to put in a good word for me. I applied for a ton of jobs, but I never got an interview. I never got a phone call or even an email. I'd send off my resume and never hear from it again. 

It was pretty discouraging. I felt like the world was conspiring to keep me in the advertising business.

So, I thought about my goals again. Although a job at DC Comics would have been awesome, I decided it was distracting me from my real goal, which was still a vague "Make Comics".

After a while I made my goal a little more specific. It wasn't enough to simply make comics. There had to be an end result I was looking for.

I decided I wanted to be like those comics creators that I admired most. I thought about Carl Barks, EC Segar, Charles Shultz and Jack Cole and realized that they were all recognized for creating characters that had a lasting impact on the culture of comics and on pop culture in general. 

So my new goal became "To contribute an original creation to the world of comics." 

Of course, anybody can achieve that goal, without even trying that hard. Just put up some comics on the web, and there you go. Mission accomplished. 

I realized for it to really count, my goal had to have some loftier ambition attached. 

My goal became "To contribute an original creation to the world of comics, and to have that creation receive wide recognition in the world of comics and pop culture in general."

So there's my ultimate career goal. I had that goal in mind when I first heard about Zuda Comics in June of 2007, and immediately realized what an amazing opportunity it would be.

So I worked hard on my submission, and when Zuda launched at the end of October, I was ready with "The Night Owls". I pitched it at Zuda's launch party, where it got a good reaction from Richard Bruning, the Creative Director.

I admit when I saw the comics that they launched with, I was intimidated, but thanks mostly to Richard's reaction, I was reasonably sure I'd get into the competition anyway. 

In the meantime, I started developing new ideas, just in case "Night Owls" got rejected.

I still can't believe I was an instant winner. 

I'm currently only a couple of months into my contract, but it's already been an amazingly rewarding experience. I love being a part of the Zuda community. I love hearing the reactions people post under my comics. I loved seeing "Night Owl" ads in the DC Comics. I loved getting my first check with the DC Spin logo on it.

At WonderCon in San Francisco, I reached a milestone in my career. It was the first time I met someone in person who knew about my comics without me having to tell them first!

Now, I'm not saying I'll ever reach my goal. I don't have enough hubris to actually make that claim. It's a pretty ambitious goal after all. I think as long as I try my best to achieve it, that will be enough. A goal like this is more about the journey than the destination.

From the trunk of comics under Grandma's stairs to now, its been a long road, but really, the journey is only getting started. I think "The Night Owls" is a step in the right direction.

I'll be sure to keep you updated on whatever interesting stops we make along the way.

Timony Twins LIVE IN PERSON!

Here's the latest news on personal appearances! Bobby and I will attempt to undergo the 24 Hour Comic Book challenge once again, this time at the Wild Pigs Comic Book Store in Kenilworth, NJ! We'll be joining a host of webcomic guys and gals! This whole thing is being done to promote Wild Pig's Spring sale, where everything on the shelves will be half off! So come on down and meet the Timony Twins, and buy some cool stuff on the cheap! The event kicks off at Noon on March 29th, and goes until 5PM the following day!

Also in attendence:

Webcomic sensation Danielle Corsetto of http://girlswithslingshots.com (she will be taking sketch requests!)!

The inimitable Jamie Hatton of http://www.inhislikeness.com!

David Gallaher, winner of DC’s online Zuda Comics contest as the creator of the werewolf western ‘High Moon’

Pete Stathis, the creator of the acclaimed Evenfall series published by Blue Feather Press!

Pin-up artist and 'The Key' creator Erica Hesse!

Bill Ellis of http://www.Silver-Rage.com!

All the nitty-gritty details of the event are right here:
http://www.wildpigcomics.com/spingsale.html

WonderCon 08 Wrap up.

Well, the first convention of the year is done! We had a great time, caught up with some old friends, and saw some pretty neat things. We also got some killer new Shakespeare the Traveling Pig photos.

Here's a little sample of our recent adventure.

Here we are with our good friend, Justin Thompson, creator of the amazing comic strip, "Mythtickle".

Shakespeare meets Terry Dodson.

Here we are enjoying the local flora at the Muir Woods.

No trip to San Francisco would be complete without a shot of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Kwanza Johnson and his puppet pals, Monkey Puppet and Shakespeare.

Shakespeare the Traveling Pig

This weekend we're taking a trip to California for Wondercon 08! 

I love to travel, and so does my pal, Shakespeare the Traveling Pig! He's been all over the world, but he's never been to San Francisco until now!

He's been to Ireland. Here he is, enjoying the view from the top of Blarney Castle.

Here he is at Chichen Itza, in Mexico.

In New Orleans...

Man, I got pictures of him everywhere. He's been to Paris, Amsterdam, London, Miami, Las Vegas, Hollywood and a bunch of other places too. I've got the pictures to prove it!

But this weekend, he's going to a comic con, so here's some more pics of him meeting people at previous comic cons!

People like Darwyn Cooke!

Mike Manley!

Bill Willingham!

Jim Lee!

And Lou Ferrigno!

I'll see if I can get some cool new pictures this weekend of Shakespeare with other Comics people. If you're gonna be at Wondercon, and want to have your picture taken with Shakespeare the Traveling Pig, let me know!

Mabel's Wedding

If you haven't seen this week's Night Owls, go check it out! There are a couple cool cameos in the first panel!

Please note the faceless gent in prison garb, he is none other than Mr. You, the villian captured on page 1 of Night Owls! Remember him? Can a guy who steals faces remain in prison for long? Only time will tell.

Also, you may have noticed our favorite is-he-is or is-he-ain't werewolf, MacGregor! He's the star of our second favorite Zuda comic in the whole wide world! HIGH MOON! It's a fun read, so in those long lonely hours between Night Owls updates, go check it out!

Peter

Randy Gentile Weighs in

Randy Gentile is a professional comics letterer, and has a column over at Comics Bulletin called "Font You".
I asked for a little feedback on my lettering, and he was kind enough to give me some pointers.
Thanks Randy!

See what Randy has to say here.

How I letter my comics

I do all the lettering in "Night Owls" in adobe illustrator. With these programs, there's a bunch of ways to do things. This is the way that works for me.

NOTE: I use a Mac. It might be slightly different on a PC, but the gist is the same.

STEP 1: Set it up.

The art is done and saved in Photoshop! I open a new file in Illustrator. 

In Illustrator go to File> Place... select your file and lock it into place. (Object> Lock> Selection)

Now you can work over the art without accidentally moving it out of the way.

First thing I do is add the type.

STEP 2: Add the type

Find a good comic font. Blambot and Comiccraft both offer some good fonts. Blambot has some free ones, but you might want to pay for one of the pro ones anyway. It's worth it.

Set it to whatever point size works for you. 

In the paragraph menu, set it to "centered" and untick the hyphonate button.

Select the text tool and drag a text box. Type in the Dialogue. Add any italics or bolds you need.

STEP 3: The Balloons!

Select your ellipse tool and drag out a white oval with a black border.

Go to the stroke pallete. The point size of your stroke is a matter of personal preference. Where it says Miter Limit, change that to 40. That will make the tails sharp and pointy.

Now take your Direct Selector Tool (the white arrow next to the black one) and click on the oval. You'll see these little blue lines with blue dots on them. Click a blue dot on either side and drag it up (or down). Hold the shift button while you do this if you want the lines to stay straight. Do this for both sides, top and bottom.

Now your oval looks a little squarer and not as circular. 

Why do I do this? Because a perfect oval makes an inefficient word balloon. Too much wasted space. This shape is much better.

Now take your new imperfect oval and put it over your text. Hit Command-[ to send it backwards until you can see the type over the balloon, then resize the balloon to fit.

For the tails, use the Pen tool. That's the one that looks like a quill pen.

You can add the tail with three clicks.

Click once inside the balloon, once near the speaking character's head, and once back in the balloon.  There's your tail!

 

Side note: If you like a curvy tail, use the Convert Anchor Point Tool (hidden under the Pen Tool) and drag the tail anchor points inside the oval to make them curve.

Now select both the Tail and the balloon. Be careful not to select the text box!

Open your Pathfinder Pallet. (Window>Pathfinder)

Click the first button under Shape Mode. That will make your tail/balloon one solid shape. Click the Expand button to the right to get rid of any extraneous points.

You might notice that your text has disappeared. It's under your balloon. Just hit Command-[ to send the balloon down under the text again.

There's a couple of things to look for if you're picky and you bought one of the pro fonts.

In the pro fonts, the capital letters look slightly different than the lower case letters. If you have two of the same letter close or right next to each other, use alternating caps and lowercase, to give your text a more natural look.

Also, mind your "I"s. If you're using the letter I as in "Me" or "myself", use the capital I with the crossbars. All other times the letter I appears, it should be the lowercase version; just a straight line. I incorrectly used the capital I in a couple of Night Owls episodes, and I'm still kicking myself for it. Don't make the same mistakes I did!

STEP 4: Putting it all together

Hit Command-A to select everything (You'll just select the balloons and text, since the image is locked).

Command-C will copy it to your clipboard.

Go back to Photoshop. Command-V will paste the balloons as a new layer over your art. Place it where it belongs and you're DONE! Ta Daaaaa!