The series, which will lead up to the MCM Expo London Comic Con on 27-29 May, follows “a  young girl called Chloe and her mission to educate her friend in the art of Cosplay in time for the London MCM Expo event.” Inventive and appropriate marketing, at the very least.

Christopher Chong's Chloe

MCM Buzz editor Stuart Claw says of the series: “The release of this Manga marks the first of many new pieces of original content that we plan to release on the MCM Buzz as part of the Buzz originals brand. It is a great opportunity for us to help give new talent a voice in this competitive industry and we plan to offer more people that opportunity in the months to come.”

Gator Butch

Gator Butch is the story of Charles “Gator Butch” Buchinsky, a mutant half-human, half-alligator country boy and licensed ‘Monster Fighter’. When Gator Butch agreed to find a runaway teenager, he never expected his job to lead him into an encounter with the River Children, the most feared band of criminals in his little Kentucky town of Doghole.

“Gator Butch is not your average hero, he’s not fighting your average villain and this is not your average comic launch,” says Septagon Studios president Nick Defina. “Having the opportunity to release Gator Butch on Graphic.ly allows us to showcase the comic on a variety of digital devices and connect with comic fans in a unique way. “

Gator Butch is available digitally for your computer, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. It’s only $0.99 on Graphic.ly, and it comes with 10 Bonuses…that’s a lot of comic stuff for under a buck! If you would like to check out Gator Butch on your desktop click here: http://chrome.graphicly.com/septagon-studios or download the Graphic.ly App available for the iPhone and iPad.

“We’re psyched to welcome Septagon Studios and Gator Butch to Graphic.ly,” said CEO Micah Baldwin, “Not only does it give our community a great comic to read, but with the bonus content makes for a great entertaining experience.”

If you are even just a little bit curious, take a quick timeout to visit www.GatorButch.com and pick up a Free 30 page digital Artbook just for stopping by.

Gator Butch

Septagon Studios Inc.

Septagon Studios is a company focused on imaginative, innovative properties and concepts. We stand for creator freedom and artistic integrity. We embrace diversity with a major focus on art and inspirational storytelling. To learn more about Septagon Studios Publishing visit www.SeptagonStudios.com.

About Graphicly

Graphicly is a cutting-edge entertainment digital content delivery system and community platform, providing an immersive social experience and marketplace around digital comics and associated entertainment.For more information, please visit http://www.graphicly.com

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This video is provided by Garage Door Repair Madision

Tom Kelly

Kelly’s children’s web comic “The Stuffed Animal Sagas” appeared on DC comics’ website ZUDA.com. “Indie Comics Magazine is 64 pages of the best story and art from today’s independent comic book creators,” said Beatty. “We’re doing in print what DC attempted online: giving greater exposure to talented indy creators. And Tom’s work is just phenomenal.”

Kelly has produced graphic design and illustration for numerous design, production and toy companies, such as Spin Master Toys, Rittenhouse Archives, Topps, Hasbro, EA Sports, Wizards of the Coast and Mattel. His illustrations have appeared in Black Petals magazine, Star Wars Insider, Imagine Fx, Design Graphics, Tales of the Talisman, Thrasher, Wired and Time Out Chicago magazine.

The Chicago based artist has also designed posters and promotional art for Chicago bands Daemon Familiar, Unibrow and Moses Gun.

“Tom’s style is beautifully balanced and intricate, with graceful line work,” Beatty gushed. “We’re very lucky to have him in the new Indie Comics Magazine.” Kelly has won several awards, including the Wayne Wright Key for Excellence and the Pennsylvania Keystone Silver Seal.

Each issue of the new comic will feature eight full stories from eight different independent comic book creators, said Beatty. Short biographies and contact information are included with the stories so readers can easily seek out more of the creators’ work. Kelly accepts commissions through http://tommm9.daportfolio.com.

Indie Comics Magazine is available only through the Previews order magazine at your local comic shop. The first issue premieres January, 2011. Information about Indie Comics Magazine is online at http://indiecomicsmagazine.com.

Press Release: Cheapjack Partners today announced production of “The Bullpen,” a web series, will begin in November with webisodes premiering early in the New Year.

“The Bullpen” is a workplace comedy centered on the office of “Bullpen Comics,” a company started by three well-known creators. Unhappy with the restrictions and sure they can make more money and control their characters’ destiny, they set up their own shop only to find that creators don’t necessarily run a business well.

The series will feature Daniel Morris, Drew McCabe and Shaun McLaughlin as the creators charting their own destiny. Gabriel Benson and McLaughlin will produce the series. The conceit of the series is that the creators consider what they are doing to be so important that they feel they must record every minute of it for posterity, even if every minute includes someone deciding he’s more comfortable working in his underwear.

The Bullpen

Previously, the crew had worked on “Cheapjack Shakespeare: The Non-Musical” the stage adaptation of “Cheapjack Shakespeare” which appears approximately five days a week on the website www.cheapjackshakespeare.com.  Collections are available at Drive Thru comics (comics.drivethru.stuff) and for the Kindle e-reader on Amazon. The partners are very close to announcing a paperback collection of the book and are close to announcing a motion picture adaptation.

In addition, Cheapjack Partners will soon announce their next webcomic, described as a “Rollicking comedy about the undead”.

Shaun McLaughlin began his career writing “Aquaman” (the non-maimed version) for DC Comics. He went on to write for DC, Malibu, Disney and Dark Horse. In 1994 he moved to Warner Bros. Animation where he produced over 400 episodes of television (5 Emmy Award Winners) including “Batman Beyond”, “Static Shock”, and the various incarnations of “Justice League”. Besides “Cheapjack Shakespeare”, McLaughlin is writing an animated feature for Omens Studios and preparing a live-action feature with Benson.

Gabriel Benson worked on numerous feature films that people might have seen during his years in Hollywood, including a lengthy stint developing Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines.  Benson is also the writer of the graphic novels “The Ballad Of Sleeping Beauty,” “Fade From Grace” and the animated feature “Gene-Fusion” which will be released in 2010.  Gabriel is currently adapting Fade From Grace for film.  In addition, Gabriel is a marketing and business consultant for numerous small businesses.

For more information please contact info@cheapjackshakespeare.com

For many an aspiring writer/artist, resilience is probably a more valuable asset than any measure of talent. Michael Jasper and Niki Smith must have felt like their moment had finally come when their effort In Maps & Legends found a weekly webcomic spot on DC Comic’s Zuda site in 2009… only to have its home demolished when Zuda Comics was closed down earlier this year. Undeterred, Jasper and Smith are continuing the series as a self-published and digitally distributed comic, with ambitious plans for a new issue every six weeks.

The first issue of In Maps saw artist Kaitlin Grayson visited by ambiguous suited stranger Bartamus, who wishes Kait to somehow use her artistic abilities to save his dying world. Kaitlin had been working on a cartographical sculpture, see, based on an outline drawn by her grandpa, now missing; and as is always the way, our protagonist and three friends have now found themselves sucked into said map. In this issue we get to see a little more, if arguably not quite enough, of the fantasy landscapes that Kait somehow has mapped into her subconscious.

In Maps & Legends #2

This is a truly wonderful looking series. Niki Smith’s illustrations look like the concept art for a fantasy video game that never was… heavily textured but never overworked, with some distinctive character designs and uncanny creatures and contractions. The series has an aged, weathered “feel” to it, perfectly encapsulating Jasper’s themes of artistry and history, and giving In Maps & Legends an aesthetic unlike anything else currently on the web.

According to its creators the series is being targeted at fans of The Sandman and Lost. The latter comparison now fills me with dread; not merely because of that series’ infuriating, unfulfilling finale, but due to the sad truth that few independent comic creators are ever able to see their dreams through to the bitter end. In Maps & Legends is the sort of book that gets a kick from teasing its readers, which means that it’ll be a far more satisfying read in collected form – and infuriating for us readers should the series not see at least reach its proposed 10-part initial arc completed. But that said, In Maps is about as beautifully produced as any online comic I’ve ever read, and hopefully the series’ recent Zuda exposure will have already earned it a devoted enough fan base to ensure that Michael Jasper and Niki Smith’s perceptible ambitions are fully realised.

In Maps & Legends is currently available from, well, pretty much every digital distributer imaginable, including Comixology, Graphic.ly, and DriveThruComics, and priced at a mere $.99 per issue. It’s also available in an equally vast range of formats, from PDF to iPhone, iPad and Kindle versions. So what you waiting for, eh?

8/10

For further information on the series, series visit http://inmapsandlegendscomic.com, or take a look at Niki’s and Mike’s sites at http://niki-smith.com and http://michaeljasper.net, respectively.

Anyway, Swedish fashion designer Katarina Emgård has opened her Kisenja Superhero Store, which features outfits modelled by her characters in the webcomic of the same name. Far removed from gaudy tights and sparkly capes, these trendy urban garments are pretty damn cool – I especially dig the hoodie shown below.

Kisenja Superhero Store

As for the Kisenja comic, it’s a non-linear tale of five strangers brought together by their unique gifts, with neon-noir visuals and ultra-slick presentation. The Kisenja webcomic and related clothing can be found at www.kisenja.com.

Sugarshock! originally debuted as part of the Myspace Dark Horse Presents project, from which it somehow went on to win an Eisner Award for Best Digital Comic. The only possible reasons I can come up with for Sugar Shock (not entirely sure on the exact spelling of the title) winning such an accolade are:

a) it was written by a big name writer, and therefore more likely to prosper from the award, b) it was at the time one of the few webcomic produced by a prominent publisher, and therefore got noticed more than other, better efforts, and c) whoever judges these things considered the category as completely trivial, and nominated whatever piece of fluff entered their periphery.

Sugar Shock! - Joss Whedon

Anyway, the planet-hopping adventures of Dandelion and her fellow rock chicks have been compiled into this here volume. Sugarshock is the kind of pretentious nonsense that revels in its own quirkiness. Joss Whedon is indisputably talented, but here he casually shoves numerous pop culture elements into one colourful package and utilises the old “it wasn’t supposed to make sense” clause to justify a comic that is so in love with itself that each zany one-liner and stupid, stupid plot twists will probably be considered genius by pink-haired fifteen year-olds.

… or maybe I’m just old, and Sugarshock’s blue bugglegum flavour (taste your copy and see for yourself) just wasn’t designed for my palate. The outstanding art by Fábio Moon and Dave Stewart just about manages to hold everything together, and there’s likely to be more than a fair share of people who dig what Whedon has done here.

5/10

www.kisenja.com, however, has to be a first. It’s a combination of webcomic and clothes store from Swedish fashion designer Katarina Emgård, with the basis concept being that Katarina’s design’s will be modelled by her characters before being sold online. The shop section of the site is currently still under development, but the first episode of the comic is up for all to read.

Kisenja Fuses Superheroes and Fashion

Kisenja tells the tale of “Five individualists with very different lifestyles and appearances, but there is one thing they all have in common: A great sense of fashion.” Fortunately, this narcissistic attitude doesn’t infringe on Kisenja’s story, which is a non-linear, five-chaptered affair chronicling the backgrounds and associations between the gifted strangers.

It’s an impressively slick first issue too, with noirish visuals, considered landscape page layouts and the virtually monochromic art implementing a single additional colour per character. All with some killer threads on display, naturally.

Kisenja can be read at www.kisenja.com… or join the site and receive your metafictional superhero certificate here.