2016 3rd QUARTERLY EDITION

EMERALD CITY COMI-CON NO MORE

For the time being, QEW Publishing has decided that it will forego exhibiting at Emerald City Comi-Con. That event is sadly no longer a feasible venue for showcasing. Under ECCC's new management, ReedPOP, the convention seems to now be implementing a particular new criterion for applying exhibitors. QEW Publishing was denied reservation exhibit space for ECCC 2016, and now again for its 2017 scheduled event. However, despite this bittersweet parting of ways, QEW Publishing has elected to direct its resources towards attending other local convention venues here in the state of Washington. The horror convention Crypticon Seattle, in Seatac, Lilac City Comicon in Spokane, Rose City Comi-Con in Portland, Oregon, Bellingham Comicon in Ferndale, and Jet City Comic Show in Tacoma all remain accessible and fitting venues for QEW Publishing. Four of these events have already been settled to attend around  the end of this year and the beginning of next year. ECCC's growth and success will continue to be applauded and edified here at QEW HQ, so all should be well and good and balanced for the future of the convention-exhibiting home front.

HELLION #4 HALLOWEEN RELEASE

When HELLION creator/writer, Jim Savard, submitted a proposal that HELLION #4 should be released on Halloween 2016, a plan was immediately drafted to help make it a possibility. The story art for the fourth issue has already been fully penciled and inked. All the coloring and lettering just needs to be completed. To achieve this production feat, a series of pretty tight deadlines have been imposed during the month of October. All of HELLION #4's coloring must be completed by October 5th; lettering has a deadline of October 10th. Full completion of production and pre-press of the book is set for the delivery of printed editions by no later than October 13th. So October will certainly be a challenging month, but Team HELLION member and colorist, James Rodriguez, has already accepted and risen to meet it head-on to help assure a timely Halloween 2016 release.

NIGHTMARIUM 

The developing mystery and suspense comic book project, NIGHTMARIUM [see it here on Patreon]  has been delayed for quite some time. Scripting submitted by writer, Carmen Lopez, remained unedited for far too long. The project had also been one of numerous other works-in-progress that had been rendered inactive in the aftermath of the operational changes here at QEW HQ. Thankfully a decision was then finally made to place NIGHTMARIUM on the official Active To-Do List. A renewed focus now exists on completing any or all the editorial scripting comprising NIGHTMARIUM PART 1 for some measurable progress to finally be attained.

ACTIVE TDL & THE BUGS NEXT DOOR

After a potentially fortunate turn of events, QEW Publishing is now very eager to vigorously begin promoting THE BUGS NEXT DOOR [see it here on Patreon] next year at Rose City Comi-Con 2017. There is plenty of preparation to accomplish first before this can happen. 
Narrative & Dialogue scripting has to be done and the right penciling artist, who has the closest compatible illustrative style to the comic, must be brought aboard the creative team to bring the interior story art into fruition. Some significant headway has already been made in pursuit of achieving these goals. A detailed breakdown process for the primary story line has been completed and the first few pages of Visual Plot scripting continues to be a work-in-progress. As far as the Active To-Do List is concerned, this project is currently listed under in the Writing Strata, and no way near the Production Strata, which is already significantly committed. So while this effort will certainly be a challenge, it'll be a challenge that can and will be met.

AUTHOR, JD McGOWAN

JD McGowan has been an aspiring writer for most of his adult life. When he was encouraged to try his hand at writing a bit of fiction, JD managed to maintain a consistent productive course long enough to write a few series of short stories of his own. Each story revolved around a mysterious motley family of various were-creatures, whose territorial roots and lineage are connected to ancient woodland region located in the Pacific Northwest of Washington state. A fair and candid review of JD's stories deemed them admirably creative and compelling. QEW Publishing has challenged him to produce a total of twenty short stories and he's actually succeeded. Though it's still in the developmental stage, but pretty much under consideration, there's an effort now here at QEW HQ release JD McGowan's collected stories under the single title, THE SECRETS OF OLDEN WOOD. JD himself intends to submit his works for editing as QEW Publishing proudly envisions the publication and release of a perfect bound, trade paperback with JD McGowan bearing the mantle as author.

THE GIFTED

THE GIFTED  [see it here on Patreon] has been a WIP (Work In-Progress) comic book project archived here at QEW HQ since the year 2000. Production of this 6-part, sword-and-sorcery fantasy had been dormant for years until one day--out of the blue--it was suddenly rekindled. Once things had settled with all the recent and partially disruptive re-organizational changes, THE GIFTED was then placed on the official Active TDL. The biggest bonus gained since then is that artist Gabriel Armenta has rejoined the creative team as the original colorist. And because of such a resurgence in momentum with its production, THE GIFTED may possibly be considered for an early publication. Gabriel has already successfully completed coloring issues 1 and 2, and creator/writer, Chad Dulac has already produced all the penciled interior art comprising issues 1-5; he just needs to finish issue 6. So if this is the case, THE GIFTED could easily become likely to be selected as one of QEW Publishing's 2017 1st Quarter New Releases. 

VOID XANADU

For this futuristic, science fiction/action fantasy, production has made some immensely significant progress. Initially, VOID XANADU's stellar progress was abruptly stalled due to the necessary in-house changes here at QEW HQ and the production was placed on hold. In the midst of the lengthy inaction, the creative team had unfortunately lost its awesome colorist, Nicoleta Ionescu. To matters worst, it was discovered that all of the inked story art had somehow become misplaced. Nevertheless, QEW Publishing is currently making an effort to reset VOID XANADU's production and things have begun to turn around to help make this possible again. Issues 1 and 2 have already been fully inked, colored, and prepped for lettering. And thanks to VOID XANADU's inker, Kelli Michelle Andrews, nearly all of the inked interior story art has been recovered. Once a new colorist is able to join the creative team, VOID XANADU's production can then resume the progress towards its completion.

DARK POWERS

Conceived way back in the year 2000, DARK POWERS, the 6-part, supernatural/suspense mini-series actually predates QEW Publishing's existence. Sadly, however, its production had been undermined by an unfortunate series of circumstances. DARK POWERS [see it here on Patreon] ultimately became buried beneath one too many other production commitments regarding the development of other projects here at QEW HQ.  This burden of too many commitments eventually rendered it inactive for years. However, the fortunate advent of its new colorist, Ibrahim Aydin, has established a new rising dawn of hope for the completion of DARK POWERS' production. Ibrahim has already successfully colored issues 1-2 and is now patiently waiting to resume with coloring issues 3-6. Such a dramatic and favorable turn of events could lead to DARK POWERS being selected as another possible candidate title of QEW Publishing's 2017 1st Quarter New Releases.






Next Quarterly Blog Update: December 31, 2016

2016 2nd QUARTERLY EDITION

EMERALD CITY COMI-CON 2017 APPLICATION

Like a number of other small press comic creators and artists last year, QEW Publishing was denied its reservation for an Artist Alley exhibit spot at Emerald City Comi-Con. A change in ownership by ReedPOP ushered forth new managerial decisions that slightly altered the criterion for reservation approvals. ECCC had originally been a 3-day event, but had now been extended to a nearly week-long, 4-day event. Considering the logistics and cost for attending admittedly made the choice of taking a break from cons for 2016 a bit easier. Nevertheless, an application to attend ECCC 2017 for next year has recently been submitted. The application is merely a formal registered request for a reservation, and in no way provides a guarantee for an approval. QEW Publishing is hoping to receive an approval. Attending Emerald City Comi-Con again would offer showcasing opportunities for new printed editions of 2016 1st Quarter New Releases, BLOOD & SILVER #3 and BLACKSTONE #0. Penciling story illustrator for the horror comic, ARACHNE, Steven Millage, has been invited to attend as QEW Publishing's official guest artist. There would also be a wonderful chance to see friends and colleagues again, review and scout new talent for future projects, and it would be particularly great to attempt to reunite a few of the QEW Gals, QEW Publishing's cadre of lovely lady volunteers who help out at the show.

OPERATING THE ACTIVE TDL--"TO-DO LIST"

The result of some of the massive changes that were implemented earlier here this year at QEW HQ resulted in the formation of QEW Publishing's Active TDL, or "To-Do List." This has helped keep control of QEW Publishing's limited internal resources and finances while it currently focuses heavily on the challenging determination  to produce multiple projects through vigorous multi-tasking. So far, it's been very effective. Within the TDL's Active Operations section under "Writing," a total of ten developing projects are listed. Script production for five of these comic book projects, ARACHNE, MAGISPHERE, BLOOD & SILVER, REPO KATZ, and P.I. McQUEEN has made significant progress. This even includes the progress on the rough draft manuscript for QEW Publishing's first novel of vampire fiction, BLOOD ROOT. The level of accomplishment here is an important milestone for productions in the area of writing. This certainly encourages extending these efforts to the remaining four other projects, THE BUGS NEXT DOOR, G.O. GIRL, NIGHTMARIUM, and BEAUTIFUL BEAST. Completing one or two of these previously mentioned projects could make this extension much easier. More disciplined usage of the Active TDL should continue to help streamline productions even further.

EAT & RUN #0 SHOWCASE & SIGNING

May 13th and 14th were the dates for QEW Publishing's signing and showcasing event for the EAT & RUN #0 printed edition comic book. The event was held at the Finders Keepers retail and trade store located in Bellingham, Washington. Despite a few minor challenges with paying for parking every hour for one day, the overall experience was fun, enlightening, and rewarding. Finders Keepers has a great location there in downtown Bellingham. Owner and manager Roger, and his assistant, Embry, were exceptionally welcoming and accommodating. Friday yielded a surprisingly steady amount of foot traffic throughout the day, resulting in some favorable interactions with patrons. There were some fruitful opportunities for editions of EAT & RUN #0 to be showcased and even sold. Printed editions of ZOMBIES MINUS ZERO #1 were on display there, too, but only because Finders Keepers kindly advertised it as part of the store's promotion for the event. All parking in downtown was free on Saturday and it was not as busy as expected. There were two fun twists that still made it worthwhile. EAT & RUN's character model and all-around awesome QEW Gal, Sarah Williams, who's actually a Bellingham local herself, joined in to help showcase and sell EAT & RUN comics for a few hours. And though the live video broadcast scheduled around noon didn't garner any large numbers of viewers, the technical operations managed to go well without any hitches or glitches. The event concluded very favorably with QEW Publishing proposing another signing event in the future after the release of the EAT & RUN full-color, 75-page graphic novel. 

NEW PATREON CAMPAIGN VIDEO PROMO AD

QEW Publishing's new promo video ad for it's ongoing Patreon Campaign is short. sweet, and to the point. The ad features the wonderful Ad Twins, who hail from the popular oddjobs website, Fiverr. The "twins" really perform exceptionally. They clearly and succinctly describe QEW Publishing's purpose and its goals for being there on Patreon. The video wraps-up quite nicely with them happily mentioning the rewards available there and then inviting visitors to like QEW Publishing on Facebook and follow its tweets on Twitter. This video in its current form is actually very raw. Very unrefined. Plans to incorporate more visual graphics and musical soundtrack are currently underway. Friend and associate of QEW Publishing, Louisa Benitez, is in collaboration now to ply some her know-how to help achieve this goal. Being that this video is well done and professionally produced, there is great confidence a refined version will no doubt be as great as its original.

NEW QEW EMPORIUM

As stated earlier, some of the changes made here at QEW Publishing actually helped to nudge forward several new ideas to help earn a bit more revenue. One of these ideas is to set up a new online consignment venue on Etsy called QEW Emporium. It would help diversify the availability of alternative small press products not exclusively produced by QEW Publishing while providing commercial opportunities for other small press creators. QEW Emporium's has already settled consignment agreements with its first several clients. Two of these items are published books the other is a piece of furniture that has been refurbished by hand into an impressive work of art. There aren't very many selections on Etsy's QEW Emporium at the moment, but there's no doubt that more products will be added there in the future.

YO-YO PRODUCTION TERMINATED

Earlier YO-YO penciled/inked story art

Sadly, after numerous attempts to complete this 4-part superhero/action mini-series, efforts have once again failed to enable YO-YO to reach its printable fruition. YO-YO's penciling artist, Chandra Purnamakelly, has elected to terminate his agreement contract with QEW Publishing. After being directed one too many times to ply revisions to his submitted work, Chandra had become disheartened and discouraged and finally decided to call it quits. Despite efforts to help encourage him to understand that constructive criticism and editorial directives were normal protocols of the comic book production process, he was having none of it. Chandra had had enough. As disappointing as his decision was, Chandra, to his credit, actually achieved some significant progress. He seemed to strive consistently to overcome a language barrier in order to better comprehend YO-YO's visual plot scripts. He also still managed to complete all the interior story art comprising issues 1-3. Needless to say, this is a major loss of money and time, and effort--especially for the other artists involved. For now, YO-YO will sadly be consigned to an indefinite inactive status.

AMERICAN RIPPER RESUMES

Excerpt from AMERICAN RIPPER

Some time a while back, while returning from a Comi-Con International event in San Diego on a Sunday evening, an epiphany had occurred, the idea to develop a new horror comic project was created, and AMERICAN RIPPER was conceived. A formal project proposal that included a plot summary was quickly drafted and published. Veteran author, John Steven Anderson, was tapped to extrapolate further upon the original source material. He succeeded to form AMERICAN RIPPER into a more tangible story. Artist Conan Momchilov signed on as both penciler and inker. Writer David Berner signed on later as scriptwriter to utilize Anderson's work as secondary source material. A dynamic creative team had been assembled. Initially, Conan started out submitting a few samples of fantastic pages of story art for AMERICAN RIPPER until he suddenly took a hiatus. QEW Publishing halted production. But then after nearly a couple of years passed, the creative team miraculously reassembled itself. Conan reached out and recommitted himself to the project and David instantly resumed his scripting. AMERICAN RIPPER is a historical suspense fantasy about the pursuit of Jack Ripper across the United States some time after the infamous killer escapes England undetected and leaving behind his bloody legacy. Thanks to the renewed reunion of its creative team, QEW Publishing is confident AMERICAN RIPPER has a better chance now reach its completion.

ARACHNE

Penciled cover by Steven Millage

Spiders have been fascinating subjects for horror stories forever.  In 1977 writer/producer, Dan Curtis, aired a TV horror movie, CURSE OF THE BLACK WIDOW.  It featured a tale about a woman with a split personality, one of which, preyed upon men at night, and was able to transform herself into a giant black widow spider. A film adaptation of Ray Bradbury's SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES featured a skin-crawling scene of hundreds of tarantulas invading the bedroom of a terrified little boy. These are the cornerstone elements inspiring the production of ARACHNE, a 4-part comic that once again features spiders as the central focus of horror. ARACHNE will introduce the penciled story art of Steven Millage, who is also QEW Publishing prospective guest artist for Emerald City Comi-Con 2017. The production on the project is significantly making progress. Visual Plot scripts for Parts 1 and 2 are nearly completed. All story art comprising Part 1 has been completed and pages 1-12 of story for Part 2 is done with remaining pages to follow. QEW Publishing will soon be seeking an inker to join the ARACHNE creative team.

Next  Quarterly Blog Update: September 30, 2016

2016 1st QUARTERLY EDITION

NECESSARY MEASURES

QEW Publishing has been creating and producing its own independent comics ever since it was established in 2003. When it reformed itself in 2011 and became its own self-publishing enterprise, it has maintained an annual standard of publishing and releasing two new comic books the first quarter of every new year. Numerous new comics were now being created, but gradually, QEW Publishing's annual standard was placed in financial jeopardy. The number of current active projects and developing future ones had begun exceeding the funding available for them. This drastically effected QEW Publishing's operations for comic book production and artistic support. Monetary cutbacks on significant activities were applied. The majority of active productions were immediately consigned to an inactive status and QEW Publishing's operational flowchart was revised, which reduced the overall workload to a more manageable configuration. Now that operations have now been drastically minimized and crucial cutbacks have been put in place, QEW Publishing still remains functional and productive. The focus here at QEW HQ will now be strongly fixated upon acquiring more funding to resume the majority of its productions again.

THE PATREON CAMPAIGN

During a brief conversation about fund-raising at the 2015 Rose City Comi-Con in Portland, Oregon with friend and colleague, Cara Nicole aka AZPowergirl, she suggested the idea of launching a campaign on Patreon. She believed it could help QEW Publishing with raising funds for its production and marketing efforts. QEW Publishing took Cara's suggestion as sound advice, and did just that, and discovered that Patreon offers a wonderful venue. QEW Publishing can still avidly promote its brand as it seeks out prospective supporters, who could gradually help comprise an exclusive readership willing to help the goal of continuing to create and produce comics. Supporters, who choose to become Patrons, can select to pledge a monetary allowance ranging in amounts between $1.00 to $10.00 per month. Depending on the amount pledged, these Patrons can be be rewarded either 1 to 4 downloadable e-comics currently available from QEW Publishing. Patrons can also attain periodic updates on the progress of QEW Publishing reaching goals on Patreon, Facebook, and even Twitter. QEW Publishing's Patreon Campaign can be visited via the following active link here at: QEW Publishing's Patreon Campaign.

2016 1ST QUARTER NEW RELEASES

BLOOD & SILVER #3

Despite overall production operations being effected, QEW Publishing's annual standard of two new comic book releases has still managed to be maintained for this year, but with a bit of a twist. The 2016 1st Quarter Line-Up of new releases are BLOOD & SILVER #3 and BLACKSTONE #1. BLOOD & SILVER #3 is the third sequel of  a 6-part, werewolf mini-series and BLACKSTONE #1 is first issue of 3-part, action/crime yarn. While BLOOD & SILVER #3 will be published and released as both printed and e-comic editions, BLACKSTONE #1 will be released only in e-comic form, but with an intention for a printed edition pending for a later release. Considering the new measures that have now been put in place, this is a partial achievement. Nevertheless, wrangling resources for printing and marketing these new books has been quite the financial struggle. New incentives are now in play for an emphasis on strictly producing and releasing e-comics instead.

EMPHASIS ON E-COMICS

Since a portion of necessary cutbacks have been plied principally to QEW Publishing's operational budget for printing, there's been a renewed focus mainly on e-comic production as the annual new releases. There are naturally no printing costs required for e-comics and the internet are their ultimate distributor. Payloadz and Amazon's Comixology are the two key venues being utilized as the online platforms for downloadable sales. An active direct link to Payloadz is located on the footer of QEW Publishing's official website in the form of "e-Book" clip art and more e-comics are being submitted to Comixology. This emphasis on e-comics is necessary, but it's most assuredly a temporary adjustment. QEW Publishing is continuing to strive to resume producing and releasing its comics as both e-comics and printed editions.

DRAFTING OF BLOOD ROOT CONTINUES

BLOOD ROOT Promo Art

BLOOD ROOT is the first novel ever put into production by QEW Publishing. It is also the first book of a quadrilogy vampire fiction series. From its original handwritten draft composed of two regular notebooks, the production of the novel's actual manuscript continues with due diligence. The novel has a tentative projected length comprising a total of twenty-six chapters while the rough draft of Chapter 18 is currently in composition. BLOOD ROOT is based on the original idea of its co-creator and commissioner, Moya Jackie. BLOOD ROOT's premise is about two sisters with a contentious relationship. One of them human; the other a vampire. The crux of the premise revolves around the vampire sister's struggle with a mystery about whether her human sister is somehow responsible for her being turned. Moya Jackie had commissioned QEW Publishing to expound further upon her idea, which helped transform it into a 4-book series. With only eight chapters ideally now remaining for drafting, it's plausible the entire rough manuscript could finally be done by the end of the year.

HELLION'S AMAZING PROGRESS

HELLION #3 printed editions at Rah-Coco's Collectibles

When Jim Savard first submitted his idea for his creator-owned, horror comic mini-series, he had no idea of the amount of time, talent, and patience that would be invested in keeping its production on a consistent arc toward completion. The launch of HELLION's production has been amazing. Despite some unfortunate setbacks with some technical difficulties and losing creative team members along the way, HELLION has stayed the course. Jim has kept up with writing the scripts of every issue for submission. Phillip Hudson has been exemplary maintaining his due diligence as penciling illustrator, producing the penciled story art for issues 1-3, which have been published and released. Jim has also been outstanding in his inspiring efforts of promotion and marketing HELLION. The series' own Facebook page, Hellion: the comic book, has over two thousand followers. He has inspired his good friend, Regan Hurst, to carry the mini-series on the shelves of Rah-Coco's Collectibles, the comic store Regan owns. Jim has even inspired a local music band, Impending Reflections, which has composed and produced a song and music video titled Ghost in the Mist. He has also exhibited HELLION at Boston Comic Con, helping to make it QEW Publishing's most distributed comic book series on the east coast. So the course remains steady as production continues to ensue with issues 4 and 5.

THE RESURRECTION OF PIX

In 2003, the idea for an action/fantasy comic about magical faerie creatures at war with monstrous imps became the catalyst for the creation of a 4-part, comic mini-series titled PIX. It was one of QEW Publishing's earliest titles that sadly never seemed to ever get finished. After suffering a succession of artists failing to fully commit to its completion, PIX had been consigned to a categorical archive of indefinite stasis where it has been for years. Then just recently, a new artist named Kayla Townsend, who had showed some previous interest in the project, decided to join QEW Publishing and help to revive its production. Kayla admired PIX's premise and artistic theme. She has never worked artistically in comics before, but she has presented a significant amount of potential illustrative and inking talents and has displayed a sincere passion of rising to the challenge to complete PIX's production. So it's with great elation that this mini-series will finally receive a full restart after so many years in administrative exile.

NO CONVENTIONS...AT LEAST FOR NOW

QEW Publishing has sadly elected for now to forgo exhibiting at any comic conventions scheduled for this year. Annual attendance and presentation at conventions have been paramount to QEW Publishing's promotional and marketing operations, but cost-cutting has impacted budgeting efforts for covering reservation, attendance, and travel expenses. This is a necessary and bittersweet decision, but also a very tentative one. Even though QEW Publishing is fervently now fixated on its freshly launched Patreon campaign and concentrating mainly on producing and releasing e-comics instead of printed as well, due diligence will continue to be dispensed to return to the convention circuit as soon as possible.

Next Quarterly Blog Update: June 30, 2016