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

2014 3RD QUARTERLY EDITION

GETTING REACQUAINTED WITH QPQ BLOGGING

Sunday, October 28, 2012 was the last time this blog was updated. During all that time in between since then, there’s been a number of pivotal events here at QEW Publishing that should’ve been shared, but weren’t. Now some of these recent past events and news flashes were avidly mentioned and posted about on QEW Publishing’s Official Facebook and Facebook Open Group pages, and even its own Twitter account, but it’s not the same as a periodic blog. So here’s another new attempt to rectify this shortcoming by exercising a substantive amount of discipline here at QEW HQ to dispense with this medium on a more focused and timely basis via QEW Publishing Quarterly. Following below is a careful summation of all of QEW Publishing’s in-house latest developments, successes, and setbacks that have occurred since the last posting of this blog.

--Quenton Shaw, Chief Editor

BLOOD ROOT QUADRILOGY

Progress on this special project has been terribly slow, but it continues to ensue. This is a novel that is an adaptation of an original premise created by Moya Jackie, who has officially commissioned QEW Publishing to extrapolate upon in order to produce. BLOOD ROOT is the first of four novels, comprising a vampire fiction quadrilogy series. Its length is currently projected to compose a total of twenty chapters. Chapters 1-9 have already been successfully completed.

BLOOD ROOT COVER SHOOT

Abi Selvidge plying make-up to Maria Cedar

Saturday, August 23, 2014 was the date of the final photo shoot session for the BLOOD ROOT Quadrilogy project. The purpose of this shoot was to acquire book cover art for the third and fourth novels in the series. Character models Jessica Bracken, Steven Selvidge, and QEW Publishing’s special guest, glamour and fitness model, Maria Cedar, happily went through their make-up applications aptly by Abi Selvidege, who happily contributed her time and knowledge. Maria Cedar looked fantastic in the costume dress produced by dressmaker, Synita Luckey-Bergesen. Steven brought the appropriate props produced for the shoot and some others that helped with some shots. Each of the models then provided their stellar presences for photographer, Bobby Dee Grant, who had meticulously and expertly converted our selected venue into a suitable studio, which enabled him to produce numerous images for QEW Publishing to choose from. The cover shoot was held at the Teamore Café in Federal Way, Washington.

YO-YO PRODUCTION PROGRESS

Page 1 Inked YO-YO #1

 Again, after so many false starts and failures to actually get the production of this original 4-part superhero mini-series effectively underway, there has finally been a significant modicum of success. This is all thanks to its newest creative team of artists, penciling illustrator Chandra Purnamakelly Hatasus and inker Kelli Michelle Andrews (inker of VOID XANADU), who have completed all the pencils and inks for YO-YO #1.

EAT & RUN GRAPHIC NOVEL

Page 4 Colored EAT & RUN 

After having Nick Olivo complete and submit every penciled story art page for this 75-page graphic horror novel, the majority of the inking and coloring remains to be completed. On the inking front, there’s been a successful completion of inking for pages 1-24, which lays the groundwork for the production of EAT & RUN #0, a special introductory and promotion edition of the graphic novel version, and where new colorist, Amanda Todd of Panduh Ink, is currently plying her dynamic coloring talents.

BLACKSTONE

Page 7 Inked BLACKSTONE

Pencils for this 3-part, crime/action comic has been completed by Rick Marcks. Inking for Parts 1 & 2 have been completed Steve Sprayson, who is currently wrapping up the remaining penciled art pages for Part 3. Veteran colorist, Natalya Golubkova, who was also the colorist for the 4-part mystery fantasy mini-series, DIABOLICUS, has been tapped as the prospective colorist to consider joining this creative team. Settlement of her agreement contract is currently pending.

KRISTARELLA

KRISTARELLA #1 Cover

KRISTARELLA#1 of this zany 3-part, science fiction fantasy, mini-series about a daring interstellar adventurer, which features character model Kristen Jensen, has been published and released. KRISTARELLA #2 & #3 are tapped for their release in the month of October for their showcasing debut at Bellingham Comicon 2014 in Ferndale, Washington.

ZOMBIES MINUS ZERO

ZOMBIES MINUS ZERO #1 Cover

Penciler and inker, Kyle Shold, did a fantastic job on QEW Publishing’s first and only free and interactive web comic series, ZOMBIES MINUS ZERO, and his handiwork is finally now available in printed editions of ZOMBIES MINUS ZERO #1, which were debuted this year at Emerald City Comi-Con, and later showcased at the Crypticon Seattle. And even though Kyle has now long since parted ways with this project, ZMZ’s new penciling artist, Narayan Baidya has signed on to resume its productive momentum as he’s about wrap up completion of pages 1-8, which will comprise ZOMBIES MINUS ZERO #2.1. This is the very first installment of the newest web comic segment, which should available in later October of this year. So, to all of you Zombiephiles out there, be on the look out!

HELLION STILL TRAILBLAZING

HELLION #2 Cover

Printed and e-comic editions of HELLION #1 & #2 are now currently available. HELLION’s creator-owner, Jim Savard, continues to effectively promote and market his horror comic mini-series to stores in his native Rhode Island. Even his Facebook promotion page now has well over 2,200 “Likes.” This year HELLION made its showcasing debut at the major comic convention, Boston Comi-Con 2014 and inspired the creation and production of a song titled, Ghost in the Mist, which is performed by Impending Reflections. Penciling artist, Phillip Hudson, continues with progress having completed all story art for HELLION #3 and pages 1-7 for HELLION #4. Jeff Standish continues with his inking of this series. New colorist, Lindsey Moore, is currently working very closely with Jim Savard, replacing former colorists, Dustin Pageloff and Joe Medieros, who have left the creative team.

MAGISPHERE

MAGISPHERE Page 18 Penciled

Penciling illustrator, Narayan Baidya, has successfully completed pages 1-20 of this 50-page, 1-shot, action fantasy yarn with plenty of highly impressive results. There is still more script pages that need production and revisions, but it appears that can soon be completed. Holli Richey, the muse modeled as the main character featured in MAGISPHERE, is very excited about the progress that has been accomplished. She is looking forward to its completion in its entirety.

STRUCK SETBACK

STRUCK #1 Page 8 Penciled

Terrible decisions with prioritization have resulted in numerous setbacks with this comic mini-series ultimate completion. But some new decisions will be made to rectify this predicament. STRUCK’s penciling illustrator, Harrison Wood, has signaled that he’s still committed to wrap-up penciling for it. This is really the crux of the matter for steering it towards completion. Alicia Groom still remains the character model who is the muse for STRUCK’s main character.

REPO KATZ PRODUCTION 
FINALLY UNDERWAY 

REPO KATZ Page 4 Pencils

After nearly seven long years of contending with compounding delays and setbacks, production and progress of this 4-part, action mini-series is finally underway. Thanks to penciling artist, Hakan Aydin, pages 1-10 REPO KATZ #1 have been completed with impressive results. REPO KATZ’s featured main characters are character models Svetlana & Tatyana.

LAST CONVENTIONS FOR 2014

QEW Publishing is scheduled to attend the last remaining comic book conventions of 2014. They are Rose City Comi-Con on September 20^th and 21^st, Bellingham Comicon, on October 18^th, and Jet City Comic Show on November 8^th. 


Next Edition December 2014