Bigfoot Awareness Month... the Tease

So... if June's Bigfoot Awareness Month is all about getting the word out... what's July going to be about?

What... is... this? 

Answers.

Stay tuned...

Josh S. Henaman

Designing Bigfoot

No, it's not a new CBS series starring Dixie Carter and Delta Burke as... (Nah, that's too easy.)

This week we're revealing the brand new, 100% fresh, title design.  Out with the old, in with the tweaked and totally rockin'.

Title design by Tim Daniel

For those familiar with the old title design, you'll notice at first glance the two look similar, but you'll note we've dispatched the old Conan-centric "crom" font.  The reason?  Well, we don't need Conan Properties Inc. knocking on our door, so better safe than sorry.

So now... "Bigfoot" is more rustic, "Sword of the Earthman" truly stands alone and we're good to go.

Thanks to Tim "Enormous" Daniel, Bigfoot has a new look.  

And by the way, if you haven't checked out Tim's new book, Enormous, just yet, do yourselves a favor... get on it.

Enormous hits at this year's SDCC!  July 2012!

Thanks again, Tim!

Have a good one,

Josh S. Henaman

Inspiration... part II

Hello again, everybody!

It's a short one today (Bigfoot Awareness Month has us stretched in all directions!)  So to break it up a little, here's an alternate interpretation of our hero.

Can I have my sword back?

Bigfoot... the softer side.  Special thanks to Jody for the use of the adorable little hominid.

In other news, Andy and Tom are hard at work on some promos, so I thought I'd tease the artwork a bit with some inspirational sources...

Picture this:

A moment of calm...

And this:

Who's stomping who?

And you can kind of see where we're going with the promos.

Yeah, it's a tease... but well worth it.

The finished pieces are going to blow you away.

And remember to celebrate B.A.M. in style!

Have a good one,

Josh "The Big Tease" Henaman

Celebrating Bigfoot Awareness Month!

I'll bet you didn't know it was Bigfoot Awareness Month, did you?

B-A-M?  I had no idea.

Well, my friends, we didn't either until we decided to declare it as such.  So... with that said, this month is all about getting the word out.

And what better way than to give everybody a handy intro/guide/primer to all things Bigfoot - Sword of the Earthman.  This week we're filling the post with past links, updates and inspirations.  All packaged up in a handy (easy to forward on to your friends) guide.

Or as we like to think of it... It's kind of like one of those funky flashback episodes we all remember from the 80's.  "Hey, remember that time..."

First up, you can do no wrong with a good four-page preview.

Bigfoot - Sword of the Earthman Preview!!

Written by Josh S. Henaman with line art by Andy Taylor, colors by Thomas Bonvillain and boasting a logo design by Tim Daniel, Bigfoot - Sword of the Earthman can be summed up in four words.

Bigfoot... with a Broadsword.

All broadsword... no Bigfoot

A sci-fi adventure that's equal parts Conan and Flash Gordon, B:SOTE is the story of the world famous sasquatch and his adventures on a dying planet.

But you can't have a comic book with just one character, right?

Who's Who in the Bigfoot Universe

Korovan Muspin - badass of the Bigfoot Universe

But before we get ahead of ourselves with this little "look back" post, prior to all the characters and such, where did it all begin?  Where did the idea of a barbarian fighting, sword-slinging Bigfoot on an alien world (with a little otherworldly tech) idea come from?  

Blame it on NASA. 

Origin of the Species

Just sittin' on a rock with nothin' but my thoughts.

After that, the kernal of an idea sprouted into the written page.

With no art... you get words.

And then an artist was located...

How to make a Bigfoot

Given the go-ahead for some pages...

Page Designs

Bigfoot and his amazing technicolor dreamcoat

To which a title was finally added...

So once the book was completed, we submitted it to some publishers, did some recon at Wondercon...

The Waiting Game

All Things Wondercon!

... and worked on some marketing.

Bigfoot Marketing

Bigfoot, beer and a marketing plan

And finally, after all the waiting, all the thumb-twiddling, we decided that we'd had enough waiting around.  We were moving forward.  Enter: the self-publishing route...

Self-publishing milestones!

But you know, we really couldn't have gotten this far without a few helpful folks (whether they knew it or not) who blazed the trail ahead of us, gave us inspiration and continue to move the medium forward.  

www.comixtribe.com - From writing a script, to finding an artist, to wondering how all of the "Bolts & Nuts" fit together.  

http://www.matnastos.net/ - all things comic book marketing (author of Comic Book Marketing 101.)

www.cryptomundo.com - Bigfoot, you say?  How about Bigfoot, Loch Ness, chupacabra, mothman...  Special thanks to Craig Woolheater for getting the early word out!

www.markwaid.com - meeting place for some digital goings-ons

http://www.spacelordmofo.com/ - an example of what a digital comic could look like (sometimes NSFW, sometimes a little violent, so if you're faint of heart...) 

http://thegeekzodiac.com/ - one of the first allies in our corner!  What's your sign? 

http://www.theenormouscomic.com/ - Tim Daniel and Mehdi Cheggour's giant monster book!

And finally, the core of Team Bigfoot...

http://andytaylor-garbage.deviantart.com/# - Andy Taylor, artist, designer, Bigfoot fanatic.

http://bonvillain.deviantart.com/ - Thomas Bonvillain, colorist extraordinaire.  (Check out his work in Zenescope's Grimm Fairy Tales!)

******************************************

So there you have it.  A little Bigfoot primer on where we started, where we've been and where we're headed.  Stick around, because we're not done yet!  Not by a longshot.

And don't forget to "Like" us on Facebook!  It really does wonders to get others to sit up and take notice.

Link to "Like"

Keep spreading the word!

Have a good one, 

Josh "A blogging fool" Henaman

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.

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

Bigfoot Character Reveal... (literally)

Bigfoot.

Broadsword.

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 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.)

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.

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.

Boom

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

After that, we only needed one final addition.

Until next time...

Josh S. Henaman

Bigfoot of Mars

Kind of catchy isn't it?

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.

Until next time...

Have a good one,

Josh S. Henaman