Monday, May 28, 2012

The Momentum of Milestones

Happy Memorial Day everyone!

On the first (non) official day of summer, we thought we'd break from the bbqs and beer shenanigans to give you a few updates with the goings-ons of all things Bigfoot.

Bigfoot Sword Earthman barbarian comic book lord jeoffa image

Update #1:  About a week or so ago we met with a local offset printer to discuss all things paper-related.  Why paper?  Well, in this day and age the buzzword is digital, but there's something to be said about holding that copy of a comic in your hand.  An offset printer specializes in multiple copies.

Update #2:  We purchased our first ever UPC code.  What's the UPC code?  Simply put, it stands for "Universal Product Code."  Basically, if you want to sell a product (comic book, coaster, glassware, etc.) you need a way for it to be tracked electronically (some places won't even give you the time of day unless they have a way to track it via computer.)  That's where the UPC comes into play.  (For an even more in-depth... (boring)... analysis go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Product_Code.)

Update #3:  We're working on a press release.  The goal of a press release is to give as much info (in as little a space) as possible.  Once B:SOTE is ready for release, we'll submit a press release to any (and all) comic and Bigfoot-related sites with the goal of spreading awareness.  (Here's an outdated, but still interesting, archive of various press releases... http://www.comicsalliance.com/press-release-archive/)

So that's it.  Three updates and a couple of links.

But what does it all mean?

It means we just hit three important milestones for getting our ducks in a row.  Paper, Processing and Press.

This book is happening.

Stay tuned.

Have a good one,

Josh S. Henaman

Monday, May 14, 2012

Bigfoot Character Reveal... (literally)

Bigfoot.

Broadsword.

Bigfoot Sword Earthman barbarian comic book graphic novel
Bigfoot design

We waited a little for the ultimate reveal on the design for the big guy (not including the page 2 preview) because we wanted to give you a brief snippet of the alien world.  We've already seen the bad guys, alien races and a possible ally, so we figured it was time.

So... this is the hero of our little barbarian, sci-fi comic book.

But he didn't always look this way.

When Andy first came on board, we talked a little about what we thought our sasquatch should look like. There's no denying that Bigfoot has a certain look about him, but we didn't want to go too "Harry and the Hendersons" or "Jack Links" and we certainly didn't want him to look similar to the representations of Riley Rossmo's interpretation in "Proof" (an excellent book, by the way) or what Richard Corben had done in Rob Zombie's "Bigfoot".

So the first thing Andy did was give a few sketches of Bigfoot's noggin.

Bigfoot Sword Earthman barbarian comic book character head design
Bigfoot noggin

Running the gamut of "ape-man" heads, we have a few great ape interpretations, chimp-ish looks, standard Bigfoot and even some more creative interpretations (check out the final "sloth bigfoot!")  We finally settled on a hybrid with a few twists (mutton-chops, not as predominant of a forehead and a strong jaw.)

Bigfoot Sword of the Earthman barbarian comic book character head design

We then started looking at what could quite possibly be Bigfoot's trademark...  His feet.

Taking a page from your standard superhero design, the first interpretation gave us a broad-chested barbarian... with what looked like a size 10 shoe.

Bigfoot Sword Earthman barbarian comic book character foot design

Not a bad looking foot and it certainly kept with the "small feet = more super-heroic pose" look that all the big heroes have (Superman probably has a good size 10, Batman... 8.)  But we quickly realized, we just couldn't go with the standard.  We had to go with a size 22.

Bigfoot Sword Earthman barbarian comic book character foot design
Boom

And that, my friends, was that.  We had our hero.

After that, we only needed one final addition.

Bigfoot Sword Earthman barbarian comic book character broadsword design


Until next time...

Josh S. Henaman

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Bigfoot of Mars

Kind of catchy isn't it?

bigfoot comic book title of mars


It has that great pulp, throwback feel of an old dog-eared paperback.  Equal parts homage to the familiar yet something never seen before, it's the kind of title that all you have to do is hear it and you know exactly what the tone of the story will be.

Yeah, it's definitely catchy.

Back when I first had the idea for this little sasquatch graphic novel, I thought the same thing.  In fact, the entire six-issue arc was written with that title.

And then, of course, Disney had to go and greenlight a film adaptation of a book that was almost 100 years old.  A film adaptation that has been trying to get off the ground for the last 60 years.

Of course, I'm speaking of "John Carter... of Mars."

Prior to that, the title of our sci-fi barbarian comic was a play on a book that was virtually forgotten.  You'd have been hard-pressed to find someone other than the fanatical Edgar Rice Burroughs fan who knew where the "... of Mars" came from.  And just like that, it was gone.  With the Disney Machine pushing the making of "John Carter" into the multi-multi-millions, there was absolutely no way I could keep the title without someone thinking, "Oh, it's a parody of that Disney flick."

Bigfoot of Mars was destined to be forgotten.

And I couldn't be happier.

After weeks of going back and forth, declaring one title a hit, one a flop and another a possibility, I finally settled on the simplest of them all.

The book would simply be called...

"Bigfoot."

But, uh, wasn't there already a Rob Zombie comic book called, "Bigfoot"?

Well, yeah, so I guess that deserves some explaining.

Technically, the book is "Bigfoot", however, the title of the six-issue arc is, "Sword of the Earthman."  Bind all six-issues together and you have a nifty-looking, "Bigfoot - Sword of the Earthman" running along the spine.

It gives it that pulpy, adventurous tone that screams, "The further adventures of the mighty ape-man!"

And because of that name change, the possibilities for those further adventures are wide open.

In fact, the title of the next arc is, "Bigfoot - Wrath of the Lost God".

Or maybe, "Bigfoot - Souls of the Damned."

Or "Bigfoot... "  Well, you get the point.

You just can't do that with "Bigfoot of Mars".

So while I loved the original, I love the replacement even more.

And like Indiana Jones... The adventure's in the title.

bigfoot sword of the earthman comic book


Until next time...

Have a good one,

Josh S. Henaman