Projects, projects, and more projects... more coming?

So, over at the BeardedLadyOnline.com site, we've got a few projects mentioned... well, some of those are going to be getting a lot of wordplay from us in the coming weeks... We're actually going to start doing web comics, too!

First to be mentioned... Capetown Chronicles... Part 1: Just a Cup of Coffee...

After some of the buzz surrounding the story, perhaps for its sheer vulgarity, I'm not sure, we've decided to share the story in the coming weeks and follow it up with some more installments, all on the web!

The page just shows a sample, so be prepared, there's a lot more coming... Roger is just working to get some more life in the pages. You'll see!

Go to the Bearded Lady Comics section of the site here and click on "Capetown Chronicles"...

Enjoy!

thanks,
Erik
erik@beardedladyonline.com
http://www.beardedladyonline.com
http://thelastbardsblog.blogspot.com

Image Crazy 99! Ok, maybe it's just the third one, but I thought I'd share...

Yeah, I know it's a crazy number of images, but that's the point! Welcome to my mind, people! What happens to me when I'm writing, or should I say when I'm in a creative mode, is that other ideas start popping into my head. Rather than consider them distractions to the stories I'm working on, I welcome them, flush them out, and get them out of my mind by writing as much as I can in a short period of time.

I've probably talked about my process before, but when I get that initial idea, I try to get to my computer, open a file and brain dump as much as I can out at the same time. It's a loose plot and dialog and whatever else might pop up... names, locations, time, whatever happens to come out. I'd say it's a brainstorm, but I don't limit myself in any way, I just throw what I can out in as large chunks as possible. In the end, I'll end up with anywhere between a page and a handful of pages and I can set it aside until I get back to it again. The nice thing about co-writing with someone, if you do that, is you can take that same brain dump, throw it into a Google Doc (I recommend it if you haven't tried it), and bat it back and forth, organizing as you go along, add, subtract, separate into different files, etc... in the end, you have something you can almost start scripting from. Over the past handful of months, I've ended up with over 30 of these "little" brain dumps ranging from solo projects to things I've worked on with Michael Nelsen, etc... So there you have it!!!

What you have is... Unfiltered, written by Me with art by Jason Baroody... Unbeatables, created by Michael Nelsen and I with art by Michael Nelsen.... "TLA" created by myself and Michael Nelsen... pen "doodle" by Michael... The Evil Tree written by me with art by Denman Rooke... My Detective book, written by me with Art by Sachin Nagar... Any lettering you see is done by me, I try to do all of my own lettering, but sometimes I get some help. ;)

Have fun and please go check out the Bearded Lady site, it's getting ready to go through some SERIOUS changes!

Thanks,
Erik
erik@beardedladyonline.com

Faction - Need a hail mary pass from the fans, what it means, reviews, & check us out online

Well, this is it! Just 2 days left in Small Press Idol 2009 - Last time to order Faction and have it count towards the results is midnight EST on Monday August 31st. If you haven't already picked up a copy, please go get one. A print version is $3.50 plus shipping and a PDF download is just $2.00. You can click on the image above to get into the store to buy one.

I have to say it has been challenging, fun, funny, frustrating, rewarding, and just about every other emotion under the sun the last six months (yes, the contest has been going on that long), but absolutely worth it. I started the competition with a notion that I was going to make it in comics one way or another. I've walked away with more ideas than I could have dreamed, somewhere over 30 now on my handy-dandy pen drive. Why and how so many? When you're focused so much on the creative side of things, more ideas just keep flowing to you! In a world like Faction's, it's completely possible to throw more and more in there, but at some point you have to stop adding to the idea. Faction as a world is robust enough without me pouring every new idea into it.

While I'm rambling (yes I know, I know)... Winning Small Press Idol is something I've been dreaming of since joining the competition. I've had my moments where I wasn't even sure I was going to make it through rounds, but not because of the quality of the book, but because other contestants managed to get more voters and support for their projects. My "friend-base" may not be as large as others', but I hope by now my fan base is equally as large as the other contestants'.

I went from starting Small Press Idol and thinking Faction was a pretty cool idea and a story worth telling. As I wrote it, the idea grew and became more and more of a dream to write. Adding in Arnie for art and then Mike for colors just put the book in a place where I can imagine it sitting on the shelf next to new copies of New Avengers, BatMan, and Invincible. Why, you ask? Well, look at the cover and the pages! Despite everything, a high majority of the reviews and feedback of Faction have been nothing but encouraging to that fact. Showing pages to comic book shops and fans have helped to cement that as well. No one to my knowledge has walked away saying, "darn it, I just wasted X money on that book."

There's so much more to tell, though... Faction is something that I can write for dozens of issues, the plot is already outlined, the details written, just waiting to be put into script format. Things will happen to challenge the characters in the series and the world on a fundamental level... and I wouldn't have it any other way.

This isn't just another action book, though there is action.

This isn't just another "tough as nails" character in Acker... he's all about economy of words and action, but he has been through so much, he can't help but have a harder exterior. Inside, though, is someone who just wants to help.

This isn't just another cast of archetypical characters... each has their own unique identity despite the destinies that push them.

This isn't just another battle of good versus evil... Evil has many faces and good has just as much of a reason to destroy as evil. War makes strange bedfellows and Faction makes for complex alliances. Just because you think they're "evil" doesn't mean you don't have to work with them for a common goal. Just because they're "good" doesn't mean they won't kill you for their ideals.

Just some food for thought...

Faction needs your help to continue it's epic journey... Please pick up a copy today...

a. PRINT COPY - http://www.dimestoredistro.com/faction-0-2274.html
b. PDF DOWNLOAD - http://www.dimestoredistro.com/faction-0-dl-2275.html

Reviews:
Geek Syndicate
FBomb Cast
Comic Related
Interesting Fodder
HeroSpy
Project Fanboy

Thank you! If you have ANY problems placing orders, please email me... If you want to tell us what you think of the book, email me that, too! As always, you can join up online and follow what we're up to... see below for links....

Bearded Lady Online
Bearded Lady on Twitter
Bearded Lady on FaceBook
Faction
Faction on FaceBook

Erik Hendrix
erik@beardedladyonline.com

Faction - Sales, marketing, and what may or may not work

Faction still appears to be at the top of the charts today, which is great... you can see by the below that really only 33 people have purchased copies of the book... Now, you might think that worries me, but really it doesn't. When it comes to indie books outside of mainstream distribution, you don't sell copies in droves all at once. I mean, if you're established and have a large fan base, sure, but when you're building a name, it doesn't seem to work that way. You need to get fans, reviews, word of mouth, convention time, etc, before people really buy into your book, right? Well... that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

1.) Copies: 38 ( +5) - [Mail: 4] DLs: 11 (+2) Bulk: 10 [1] (+10) People: 33 (+5) AVG: 23.00 - Faction
2.) Copies: 39 (+10) - [Mail:10] DLs: 10 (+2) Bulk: 0 [0] ( NC) People: 22 (+3) AVG: 17.75 - White Rose
3.) Copies: 22 ( +6) - [Mail: 2] DLs: 2 (NC) Bulk: 5 [1] ( NC) People: 10 (+2) AVG: 9.75 - The Underground
4.) Copies: 5 ( NC) - [Mail: 0] DLs: 7 (NC) Bulk: 0 [0] ( NC) People: 8 (NC) AVG: 5.00 - Varsity Squad

If you think about it, if we manage to sell, over a month, a few hundred copies, that's awesome. The way I see it, we could get to a convention and when people see the book first hand, they may buy it in droves! There's another X-Factor in the whole thing, too... Haven... No one knows exactly how many stores are going to get involved in the contest and order copies for their stores. It could be 50... it could be 500! When all is said and done, the order of things above could be completely different! This, though, is why we need fans of Faction to rise and purchase a copy... $2 PDF / $3.50 printed copy... If you have one, tell a friend... If you don't have one, get one, get two, get 549 of them! ha ha...

a. PRINT COPY - http://www.dimestoredistro.com/faction-0-2274.html
b. PDF DOWNLOAD - http://www.dimestoredistro.com/faction-0-dl-2275.html

As for the reviews, the links haven't changed, but I'm putting them here again so you can see them. Check 'em out!

http://forums.projectfanboy.com/showthread.php?t=3945
http://herospy.com/2009/faction-0-review/
http://makeitsomarketing.tripod.com/popularcultureblog/index.blog?from=20090805
http://interestingfodder.typepad.com/interesting_fodder/2009/08/faction-issue-0-promises-more-awesomeness-to-come.html
http://siskoid.blogspot.com/2009/08/submitted-for-review-faction-0.html
http://www.comixtreme.com/forums/showthread.php?t=49084
http://comicrelated.com/news/2676/faction-0
http://liambradley.wordpress.com/2009/08/10/faction-0-review/
http://www.majorspoilers.com/archives/21408.htm/ <-- more an FYI than review

By the way, there are several things on FaceBook you can check out...
Faction Group
Faction Round 4 / 0 Issue Event
Bearded Lady Online Group

Check them all out!

Bearded Lady, Faction, Unbeatables, Secret Projects, and the future

Most of you guys probably don't know this, but with fellow creator Michael Nelsen and some other people who are hanging out in the peripheral, we've formed Bearded Lady with a home on the web at BeardedLadyOnline.com. The goal of Bearded Lady is to gather Dreamers, Creators, Writers, and Artists under a common banner to do everything from self publishing comics to submission packages for major publishers to being what amounts to creative consultants (I do some of that now). As for the name, it ties to a couple of projects we're working on, I'll just leave it at that.

The image on this post is the cover to Unbeatables, something Michael Nelsen and I cooked up. We're not 100% sure where the book is going to end up, but we're confident people are going to love it! It's an over the top book which pays homage to our comic book roots, 60's - 80's Marvel Comics. We're proud of the idea and where it's going... the first script is written and there are TONS of notes we've written up on where the story is going from there.

As I mentioned there are a few people in the mix, but I'm not at liberty to discuss who they are until we get closer to an official launch. In the meantime, you can check out some of the artwork from various projects on the site. Since we're working on submission packages, some of the information on projects is pretty vague, but there's still something to look at!

We're very excited to be working together and are jazzed at all of the ideas coming to mind for projects and packages. The first book that we're self publishing isn't going to be too far away, maybe a couple of months... We'll see how that goes. Since Michael and I are both working on Faction, you could call Faction a Bearded Lady book, too! Faction's home on the web has already migrated to the site ~ http://www.beardedladyonline.com/Faction

As usual, if you haven't picked up a copy of Faction... go get 'em!

a. PRINT COPY - http://www.dimestoredistro.com/faction-0-2274.html

b. PDF DOWNLOAD - http://www.dimestoredistro.com/faction-0-dl-2275.html

There's a store on there as well, where you can check out some of the books we have for sale and other items. Since we don't have our own store yet, each links to another site, but at least you can access them all from one location.

Enjoy!