BLACK
AND WHITE
• 9 x 12 original and signed, finished pencil drawing on heavy vellum paper
• One character
• No background • $25 plus shipping
B/W PLUS COLOR
• 9 x 12 original and signed, finished Pencil Drawing on heavy vellum paper
• A signed, digitally colored print on high quality glossy paper
• One character
• No background • $50 plus shipping
Payment accepted through PayPal.
All
art will ship via USPS Priority Mail.
• $5.00 Within United States
• $12.00 Canada or Mexico
• $14.00 International
The
above basic options are only the beginning! We'll do
more complex illustrations with multiple characters and
backgrounds as well as larger format images too!
Just send us the details of what you want and we'll
give you an estimate!
THE
FINE PRINT
Send us your detailed request first and then we'll contact you with acceptance
of the project, an estimate of completion, and amount due including shipping.
We require
payment before we'll begin a project. Completion and shipment
can take up to 2 weeks upon receipt of payment.
All pieces
are final so BE SPECIFIC about what you want. Almost anything
goes... superheroes, fantasy and sci-fi characters, hot guys,
whatever you fancy. Just email us with your idea and we'll
let you know if we can handle it. We will offer preliminary
sketch approval or revisions for an additional fee and upon
request only. Otherwise we'll produce the drawing based on
your request and at our discretion.
View some
of our work at our deviant
art gallery to get an overview of
what we can do for you.
This
is pricing for individuals only. We do offer other graphic design
services for advertising, graphic design or any other corporate
interests. Please contact
us for pricing and availability.
HAPPY
2010!
January 3, 2010
Happy New
Year to you all! We had a great holiday... busy but great.
I know we've been neglecting the updates over the past month
but between my job, some freelance stuff, my b-day, plus
all the usual holiday gatherings we haven't had much time
for anything else. Rest assured though, we are working on
more Blue Comet and Fusion content for 2010 and beyond.
In the
meantime we've been having fun illustrating new one-off images
featuring some sexy new guys. You can see our gallery over
at our
Deviant Art page.The most recent image is of
Jake Sulley from our fave movie of 2009, Avatar.
It is a fantastic film and we can't wait for sequels, lol.
Chayne illustrated an awesome version of Jake as a Na'vi
and I illustrated the background and did the colors. Check
it out here!
We wish
you all a very happy year ahead and be sure to check back
frequently. Soon we'll be offering signed
prints of a bunch of our illustrations AND
we're going to begin accepting commissions
for illustrations. Superheroes,
fantasy characters, or just cute guys, practically whatever
you fancy we'll do our best to create some cool art for you.
Our rates will vary depending on the drawing requested, from
simple sketches to complete color illustrations and prints.
So start thinking of what you'd like to see us draw for you
:)
-Russ
What
up with dat?
November 22nd, 2009
Hiya fans
and friends! Just a quick update to let you know that Chayne's
blog is still moving along and he recently posted a rant
on the current state of comic books. Check
it out here!
Also our
friend and colleague Jezza recently did a fun and revealing
interview with Chayne. You can read
it over at Jezza's blog! (Plus you can
see some of Jezza's super sexy art :)
In other
news we've had a lot of requests for a print version of the Titanna
Strikes story (for those that don't know, it
was the follow up to Boy Meets Hero) so we've started
work on one! The version that is available now for download
only was an experiment of sorts. We decided to go all digital
and illustrated the entire comic using vectored graphics.
It was a pain to produce and took a long time to do as well.
For the print version we're literally going back to the drawing
board. Chayne is drawing the entire comic in glorious pencil
on actual paper! For those that have already downloaded the
original story don't fret, it will be the same story page
for page with a few tweaks thrown in. It will look so much
better in print as a hand-drawn art than the vectored pages
would have so we're really excited that we'll have a tangible
book to put into people's hands.
-Russ
BOY
MEETS HERO... THE BLOG!!!
October 8th, 2009
Hello all!
It's been a craaaaazy couple of months for us but we're here
and still queer. We've taken a bit of a pause on working
on Blue Comet and Fusion as we're developing another comic
as well. Don't fear we'll return with the further adventures
of our super gay heroes soon!
We'd like
to invite you all to read a new
blog we've started over at Wordpress. Chayne
is maintaining it and posting new art and his take on geek
stuff we all know and love. He's just kicked it off but please
go check it out and leave a comment or two while you're there!
Also, feel
free to drop us a line here by emailing us at: creators@boymeetshero.com
We love hearing from you guys!
Before
I scram I wanted to recommend a couple of sites (in case
you don't already know about them!)
The
Gay Comic Geek - Awesome blog about all
things comics! Plus the G.C.G. is a cutie :)
Heroscribe
Comics - Our pal Tony Smith (Queeros) site
featuring his new project "The Gay Terror",
scary stuff, check it out!
**UPDATE** Gay
League - A fantastic blog about gay comics
and novels. Joe Palmer wrote a really nice review of
our book Boy Meets Hero earlier this year, check
it our won't you?
First the good news, the
new page, which will also be the final page of the latest storyline, is looking
great! It's currently on Chayne's drawing desk, almost ready to
be scanned. The bad news our scanner is toast, kaput, done-o-rama. But fortunately,
all is not lost, thanks to a very generous fan donation (PETER
F. THANK YOU!!!) we have
a shiny new 11x17 scanner on the way!!! Yay! So look for the next page very
soon, we promise :)
Also the script that I'm
writing for our new project is coming along really well. I can't tell you
much about it yet, except that it doesn't involve any superheroics and is
much more of a "slice of life" sort of story. The characters so
far feel really alive and funny (at least to us, lol). This one will likely
be a 32
page printed b/w comic and with any luck, will be out sometime next year.
Before I leave I wanted
to share with you my new obsession. I stumbled upon this show on hulu.com
and completely fell in love with it! It's a british show called SPACEDco-written by and starring Simon Pegg. I can't believe it took me
so long to notice it but, better late than never. If you haven't seen it,
check out
a little "best
of" clip here. It's really brilliant! -Russ
A
Narrow Escape... or is it?
August 17th, 2009
This week's page is finally
here and it looks the the fellas might just make it home...Or they might
have all died in a fiery dragon's inferno. Click the link up top quick to
find out!!!
Also before I sign of for
this week I just wanted to mention that we're now down to 75 of the
numbered and signed copies of the Boy Meets
Hero hardcover! They'd make a great gift...
just sayin, lol! - Russ
The
Dragon's Lair
August 2nd, 2009
Well, the boys are finally
on their way to retrieve the lost power rods and Zack will finally get them
home.. or will he?
Also wanted to tell you
all that we saw the latest animated DC movie Green
Lantern: First Flight (Two-Disc Special Edition)
and it was really great! GL is one of Chayne's fave comic book characters
so he was giddly when we finally watched it, lol. Anyway
if you're interested you can click HERE to
go to Amazon.com to check it out. Just a reminder that if you click
through to Amazon from our site and buy
something we get a small cut from the purchase... hey every little bit helps
keep us going :) - Russ
Just
a quickie....
July 26th, 2009
Hi
guys and gals this week's post is a quick one. Just wanted to let you all
know that our friend Tony Smith is starting up a new comic called "The
Exceptionals" .
Check it out! Plus we received some cool fan art this week from DAVID
M. and wanted to share it with you, so here ya go. Thanks David, great job!
DRAMA!
July 19th, 2009
This
week's page is up! Hope you all are having a great summer
so far. Things are going well for us as we continue work on the
"Fantasyland" storyline in between seeing all the summer blockbusters.
We saw HP: The Half-Blood Prince yesterday and as an avid reader
of the books I was torn. On one hand I really like that the movie
makers are re-interpreting the books and understand the difficulty
in adaping a 600+ page book into a 200 page screenplay. Scenes
from the books have to be rearranged and even dropped and I'm
okay with that. The movies are really a completely separate universe
from the books and I love them both. I'm sure I'll grow to love
it upon multiple viewings on blu-ray. I am really glad through
that the last book is going to be two movies to give the long
story room to breathe onscreen. I definitely wanna see the flashbacks
with Dumbledore and his "special" wizard pal :)
Before
I sign off, I wanted to share a little guilty pleasure with
you. DISCO! Specifically this insane remix of a classic Bee
Gees tune "Night Moves". This remix is guaranteed to make
wanna boogie down, lol. Check it out if you please.... -Russ
The
page for the week of June 21st is called "Meanwhile in
GBC" and features
a worried Sunstar and the typically smarmy Zap-Man searching
for the missing heroes! I don't
know about you guys, but we're seeing right through Sunstar's
disgust for the Zapster... could love be on the horizon
for the unlikely pair? You'll just have to stay tuned to
find out.
Just for
fun we wanted to give you a little tune to listen to from
Russ' new music obsession :)
Fusion's
Interview in Instinct Magazine (2008)
May 31st, 2009
Hey dudes
and dudettes! Just a couple of notes before you check out the
second half of the "couple's quiz" that Justin and Blue Comet
did last year for Instinct Magazine, we have a brand new
killer mug up for sale at our Cafe
Press store:
Cool huh?!
Also we are down to 81 copies of our hardcover so if your
on the fence about buying a signed copy from us don't wait
too long :)
Justin's couple's quiz answers from Instinct
Magazine, 2008
1.
When he wakes up, what's his first thought? What's
yours?
Probably something to do with protecting the city from evil
doers. My first thought is that I still can't believe I'm lucky
enough to be dating a super hero.
2.
What does he love most about Golden Bay City? You?
He loves the people here. He's always concerned about being
the best hero he can be for them. I love Golden Bay's atmosphere.
Its got beautiful beaches, modern buildings, and of course,
tons of super heroes constantly flying overhead for me to
daydream about.
3.
What's been the hardest part of moving to a suburban setting
for him? For you?
Well, before we moved into our new house, he used to live
in an apartment at W.H.O. Tower like a lot of other
Super Heroes. I think he probably misses all the excitement
of being
in a setting like that. The hardest part for me was the
move itself. I had to do a lot of the moving myself while
he was
out saving the city from some disaster or another.
4.
What's surprised him most about becoming a home owner? What's
surprised you most?
I don't think he had any idea how much fun it would be
to paint the walls a million different colors. What surprised
me the
most is how much of a pain it is to fix stuff yourself.
If
I never see the inside of a home improvement store again
it'll be too soon!
5.
What's his favorite cheesy, science fiction film? What's
yours?
He doesn't watch many sci-fi movies because he lives
that stuff everyday. I guess that's understandable.
For me that's
a hard
question! I love so many it's hard to choose... I'd
say one of the cheesiest in my collection is "Invasion
From Planet Nine".
6.
What's his least favorite music? What's yours?
Country, both of us, hands down!
7.
In three words or less, describe your first date with him. How
will he describe it?
Best date ever! He'd better describe it the same! (Wink,
wink!)
8. What's his favorite color in spandex? What's
yours?
His fave color is definitely blue. My favorite is
red.
9.
What'll he say is the greatest virtue of wearing a cape in
public? What do you say?
He'll say wearing a cape helps him to gain the trust
of the people he protects. I say it just looks
fabulous on
him!
10.
He's just discovered that you are your own evil twin. How
he will react? How would you react if you
found out the same for him?
He'd react by trying to help me stop my evil
ways. Are you kidding!? If I had access to two
versions
of my boyfriend,
evil or otherwise, I'd have to say... Three-way!!!
Heh, heh.
Just kidding. Or am I? I just discovered I'm
an evil clone after all, right?
11.
He's going to be stuck in the Phantom Zone for a month, and
you get to
pick his only companion. Do you
pick Zap-Man, Strato, or a clone of your own
mother? What'll
he pick for you?
Zap-Man bugs the crap out of both of us and
Strato tried to kill me. So I would say a clone
of my
mom for both
answers because she'll take great care of us
being the "super" mom
that she is.
12.
What will he say is another superpower that Blue Comet needs? What
do you say?
He's mentioned that he wished he had super
strength, so I'd imagine that's something
he'd like to
have. I think
it would
be cool if he could stop time so I could
spend more of it with him! Awwww!
13.
What super-science device needs to be applied to your everyday
life
(i.e. a teleporter
to
work, etc.),
according to him? According to you?
He'd probably say that super-science is
too dangerous for us normal citizens. I'd
say
a device that
could give anyone
the
ability to fly would be so cool!
14.
If he weren't doing what he's doing now, professionally speaking,
what would he be doing?
Since he has such a compulsion to help
those in need, he would probably be a
police officer
or
a fireman...
a really
hunky
fireman... All muscley and sweaty
as he slides down that pole!!!
15. Which
transformation would you endure for the
sake of a night of kinky fun: Wolf
Man, Human Porcupine, Blob, Nazi Caveman,
or Giant Turtle Boy?
Man, if I could be a shape-shifter
that would be awesome! Then I could
transform
into all
of those
things and
the kink would
be off the chart!
Blue
Comet's Interview in Instinct Magazine
April 19th, 2009
Hey guys,
we'll begin posting new pages next weekend but to hold you over
here's part one of an "interview" Blue Comet did with Instinct
Magazine last year, enjoy! -Russ
1.
When Justin wakes up, what's his first thought? What's
yours? Justin's first
thought when he wakes up is probably"what action figure
are out today?" Unless it's a Friday which is the day
for new comic books in which case his first thought would be "what
comics are out today?" This might sound cheesy but my
first thought when I wake up next to Justin is how lucky I
am to have him in my life (awwww, lol) my next thought is I
hope I can get through the day without any S.V.'s (super-villains)
trying to blow up the Golden Bay Bridge or mind control the
city to make everyone act like chimps, both of which happen
more often than you'd think.
2. What does he love most about Golden Bay City? You? Justin loves being in a city where he's right in
the middle of lots of superhero action... wait, did that
sound right? What I love most about Golden Bay is that there
is never a dull moment, the restaurants are amazing, and
I get to fly around and protect a city that I sort of adopted
me when I was just a kid.
3. What's been the hardest part of moving to a suburban setting for him? For
you? After living in the middle of Golden Bay for so long I think he's
probably had a difficult time adjusting to the relative quiet, it's nice
waking up to chirping birds instead of sirens and traffic! As a superhero,
the hardest part for me is trying to just relax. After living in W.H.O (World
Hero Organization) tower for so many years I got used to being around constant
activity so I guess the hardest part for me is just letting go of that part
of the job when I'm home with Justin.
4. What's surprised him most about becoming a home owner? What's surprised
you most? Having to fix stuff himself! The same goes for me. We weren't in
our house two days before the upstairs bathroom starting leaking and flooded
our kitchen. I was on a mission at the time so I only had to deal with the
the frantic phone calls. Be sure to ask him sometime how many strange looks
you get from the Home Depot guys when you tell them you're looking for caulk!
5. What's his favorite cheesy, science fiction film? What's yours? No question it would have to be "Plan 12 from Planet Xenon",
I think that's the title... I have a hard time staying awake during those
movies so I guess I don't have a favorite.
6. What's his least favorite music? What's yours? I'd say Justin's least favorite music is country or classic rock.
I'm a huge music fan so there's probably not much I don't like, but if I
have to choose I'd say I really can't stand opera.
7. In three words of less, describe your first date with him. How will he describe
it? Nerve wracking! He might say it was "magical" up until
the waiter spilled wine on him.
8. What's his favorite color in spandex? What's yours? His favorite color is red but in spandex it would definitely be
blue because that's what color his favorite superhero wears! My favorite
color in spandex is blue as well.
9. What'll he say is the greatest virtue of wearing a cape in public? What
do you say? He would say that the instant respect people have for a hero is
the best virtue of wearing a cape. For me it's just an amazing feeling to
help people in need so wearing the cape and having people just smile when
they see you makes it all worthwhile.
10. He's just discovered that you are your own evil twin. How will react? How
would you react if you found out the same for him?
He'd probably demand that the real me would be returned immediately so the
three of us could have a three-way, he's actually had an evil twin fantasy
as long as I've know him! If I found out he was an evil twin I might tie him
up and smack him around until he told me where the real Justin is... that sounds
as kinky as the three-way, lol.
11. He's going to be stuck in the Phantom Zone for a month, and you get to
pick his only companion. Do you pick Zap-Man, Strato, or a clone of your own
mother? What'll he pick for you?
Wow that's a tough choice! I guess with Strato they'd get to talk about ridiculously
cheese sci-fi movies so Justin would definitely like that.. on the other hand
Strato did try to kill him, so I guess the safe choice would be my mom. He
would pick his mom for me because he knows how much I love hanging out with
her!
12. What will he say is another superpower that Blue Comet needs? What do you
say? Hmmm, maybe transmogrification so I could turn any piece of plastic
into a wildly rare action figure he's always on the hunt for. I'm pretty
happy with the powers I have BUT I must say that I've always wished I could
make my hair glow another color besides yellow. Yellow is cool but it would
be nice to change it up now and then!
13. What super-science device needs to be applied to your everyday life (i.e.
a teleporter to work, etc.), according to him? According to you? You nailed it! He'd say teleporter for sure. I think if he could "port" to
get to work instead of ride the train into the city everyday he'd be a very
happy camper. Unfortunately teleporter use is restricted to supers only so
it's mass transit for him! As for me, W.H.O. recently developed a "neural
HUD (heads up display)" that seemed really fun. It would be like living
in a video game.
14. If he weren't doing what he's doing now, professionally speaking, what
would he be doing? He'd be drawing comic books most likely.
15. Which transformation would you endure for the sake of a night of kinky
fun: Wolf Man, Human Porcupine, Blob, Nazi Caveman, or Giant Turtle
Boy?
Nice! I think I would happily endure being a Wolf Man because I'm pretty sure
Justin has a thing for hairy dudes and I am, to quote one of his favorite sci-fi
characters, as smooth as an android's butt!
Zack's
new look
April 5th, 2009
The
week's post is another peek into Chayne's sketchbook,
this time featuring Zack Savage's re-design. Chayne
wanted Zack to have a killer new look when he shows
up again after Cold Snap broke him out of jail. The
2008 sketch features Zack with a very gay make-over.
This version even sports some armored nipples (Joel
Schumacher would be proud, lol). The final version
on the right is what you'll be seeing in the upcoming
epic story featuring Zack and the boys. Zack is getting
in touch with his inner diva and decided to show much
more skin and we couldn't be happier!
Also,
we're going to begin posting the new comic pages in a couple
of weeks. I can't wait for you all to see the new stuff,
it will be like nothing you've seen yet from Blue Comet
and Fusion! -Russ
How
to create a page of Blue Comet and Fusion
in 83 easy steps!
March 28th, 2009
Hiya and
welcome back! This week we decided to give you a peek into
the many steps it takes to create a single page of our comic
from idea to final page. Also work is proceeding along on
the upcoming pages. They are proving to be the most complex
pages we've attempted so we thank you for your patience!
But for now please enjoy another look behind-the-scenes at
BMH comics...
Steps
1 to 15: Ideas,
ideas, ideas, and writing the script
The most important first step is nailing down the script. Both Chayne and I share
responsibility for writing the comic. Typically after we've brainstormed an idea,
Chayne will outline the story and some dialogue then I'll take my pass at the
script, writing dialogue and some captions. Chayne will then take a final editorial
pass at it and then, after some occasional "creative differences" (read:
knock-down, drag-out fights LOL. We still love each other though.), we'll finalize
the script and then Chayne is off to build the mock-up.
Steps
16 to 33
1/3: Mock-up
Chayne here... Once the script is finalized, I copy and paste the dialogue
onto a template page in Photoshop which is made up of a few empty panels. I
try to visualize how much space I will need for the illustrations and then
place the words around the mock-up. Next I determine what type of images will
be needed. I think to myself, "how many images of hot guys can I squeeze
into this page"... I then draw rough sketches, such as the image of the
boys holding hands, scan them and then place it into the photoshop file. In
some cases, like with the airplane, I needed a photo reference which I was
able to find online. The next part is where my skills as a graphic designer
come in as I assemble the page for the best visual impact. Once the mock-up
reaches completion, I print that out and place it on a light table (which is
actually kind of heavy) and transfer the image onto 11" x 14", 70
lb illustration paper.
Steps
33 1/3 to 55: Drawing
After the image for the layout is transferred, the magic happens! Using my
tremendous talent, lol, I fill in the detail much tighter than the roughs as
I darken the image. And since we don't ink our pages anymore, I don't have
to deal with inking! Hooray! Ink has a tendency to bleed on paper anyway, which
is why we used to draw on illustration board in the past. But who cares about
how we used to do it, right!?! This is about how we are doing it now! Where
was I? Oh yeah, I use my years of experience as an amateur comic book artist
to finish the page! How easy is that? Then it's back to Russ.
Steps
55 to 62.5: Scanning
and coloring the line art
Russ here... now it's my turn again as I scan Chayne's penciled line art and
then do some minor tweaking in Photoshop to get it nice and contrasty (is that
a word? well, it is now). Then I add in a layer for the panel borders and erase
the drawn borders on the line art layer underneath. This is so the borders
have an nice precise edge and they can stay consistent from page to page. Now
I can finally start adding color! I begin with coloring the character lines
to give the characters an animated/soft appearance. It' looks strange at this
step, but once the actual colors get added the page really begins to take shape.
Steps
62.5 to 83: Adding
color, shading and lettering
So now the really fun part for me begins... adding color! I begin by using
Photoshop's "magic wand" tool to select the areas I need to add color
into. I always start with the skin color, then hair then costumes. I also fill
in color for every instance of a character all at once. For example I'll select
all instances of Fusion's body, (face, arms, hands) and then fill in the color
at the same time. Then I'll select all instances of the red part of Fusion's
costume and fill that color, etc. The same goes for the shading, I don't like
to "jump" around coloring character to character simply because I
want to avoid coloring mistakes like accidentally shading in Fusion's skin
with Blue Comet's shade color.
You might
notice that we use an animation style of shading for the
characters, using hard edged, flat colors, no gradients or
airbrushed edges. This technique gives the art a very sharp
and in-focus look.
You might
also notice that without the dialogue balloons and sound
effects the page looks really empty! There are also areas
of the background that remain incomplete like the clouds
are in most of the panels. It's not that I'm a sloppy colorist,
it's because I don't bother to polish areas that are going
to get covered by word balloons. It's funny that seems like
such an obvious idea but it took us (Chayne gets most of
the credit for this) awhile to develop a technique of building
a very tight mock-up with plenty of room for the words so
that when we finally get around to "lettering" the
page, we know for sure we'll have plenty of space and that
the characters won't be fighting for room with the words.
The final
step I take with coloring a page involves the special effects,
like glowing objects or power blasts, lighting highlights,
and special background objects. For this page you'll notice
that the lightning in the panel with the airplane doesn't
appear until the finalized version of the page (see below).
That's because it wasn't until I was hours into the coloring
when Chayne suggested we change the blue skies to stormy
to give the unscripted impression that it was the storm that
caused the plane's peril. So I shifted the hue for the sky
from blue to gray, added more dramatic clouds and the very
dramatic flash of lightning. Then by making the sky a sunset
in the last two panels I was able to shift the time of day
and give the impression that some time has passed since the
storm has now cleared.
So, once
all the coloring is done, I move on to the lettering which
is done in Illustrator. I'll import a low resolution version
of the final page and then add the word balloons and sound
effects over that then import the word balloons back into
Photoshop into a new layer over all the other layers. Speaking
of layers this page has a total of 32 photoshop layers. Whew!
Finally the page is done and I can relax...
...Oh
wait, I forgot the final, most important step!
After the page is finished, we have to get it out there for you guys to see,
and that's practically another whole other day's worth of tweaking, writing
and uploading.
Wrapping
up this crazy long post
So, all told from idea, script, mock-up, drawing, coloring and lettering, each
page takes us collectively about 30 hours to finish. Whew! That's a lotta work,
but it's fun for us to create (most of the time, lol) and we hope it's fun
for you to enjoy as well! So, until next week be safe, be happy, and get back
to work already! -Russ
Spring
has Sprung!
March 22nd, 2009
Greetings
all! Work is proceeding well on the new story-arc with
Zack Savage and the boys. It's gonna be epic and we can't
wait to start showing it to you. In the meantime we're
excited to kick off a new "sketchbook" feature
here at BMH starting with some amazing early concept sketches
that Chayne drew way back in 2004 just as Boy Meets Hero
was beginning to take shape. I'm gonna pass the keyboard
over to Chayne so he can tell you a bit more about them.
-Russ
This
was my very first attempt for the three main characters
of Boy Meets Hero way back in 2004!
(Can you believe It's been five years!?!) Here we have
from left to right: Justin, Blue Comet and Sunstar. Egad,
they were so different back then! This drawing was before
I had thought of any of their names or even before I had
a title for the project.
All
I knew back then was that I wanted to create a comic that
featured a gay super hero. At the time I was calling them
Adam and Steve... Thank god I didn't go with that, huh!?!
Adam became Derek, aka Blue Comet, and Steve became Justin.
I know, I know, the names became way hotter!!!!
Anyway,
back when I started I didn't plan for my super heroes to
use code names. I mean, it's like practically impossible
these days to come up with a cool sounding super hero code
name that someone, somewhere hasn't already taken! I didn't
want to focus on alternate "secret" identites
either. That's why Sunstar didn't wear a mask at this stage.
The idea was that Adam, who's last name was Armstrong,
was one of the few heroes who actually still hid his identity
from the public. It was also tied into how he hid his sexual
orientation as well.
You
can still see similar elements that made it into the final
designs for these three characters.
On to
Zack, or rather, Jack Savage. That's right, back then Zack
was going to be called Jack. Then we started watching a
cartoon called Xiaolin
Showdown which
had a very funny villain called Jack Spicer who utilized
robot minions. So I decided to change the name because
our character was also going to use robot minions. And
since I was calling Blue Comet Adam Armstrong at the time,
I called his main villain Zack Savage. And it stuck! That's
why he doesn't have a code name like the other characters...
Interesting, huh?
Anyway,
good 'ol Jack started out being a bald, evil scientist
type and was actually much older than the other characters.
After much consideration, I decided that wasn't quite the
character type I wanted for then "Adam Armstrong's" arch
nemesis. So I quickly decided to change his whole age and
appearance. I felt I would have much more fun drawing him
if Jack was just has hot as the good guys!!! And that's
how he changed to become the bad boy that he is today!
:) -Chayne
Hyper
modes...ACTIVATE!
March 8th, 2009
Wanna know
what that cryptic headline means then click the link above
to check out the new page "Hyper Active!" for
March 8th!
We, like
many of you, went out an saw Watchmen this
past weekend. I read the graphic novel just last year (I
know!). It is of course a fascinatingly complex story and
the the movie takes all that's amazing about the book and
translates almost every panel to the screen, beautifully.
Reading reviews and message forums around the web I've noticed
that it has become a "love it or hate it" sorta
movie. I personally cannot wait the the 4 hour promised director's
cut that will hit DVD later this year. At the risk of being
stoned for heresy, lol, I even think the ending for the movie
made far more sense than the ending for the book. There I
said it. The squid is dumb! Anyway if you're still waiting
to see the movie be warned it is wildly violent and some
of the gore was WAY over the top. I had to look away from
the screen a couple of times.
The enivitable
comparisons will be made between The Dark Knight and Watchmen the
movie, but there's really no contest. Where TDK was bland
and colorless, Watchmen is exciting and vibrant. Where TDK
was sadistic and hopeless, Watchmen offers optimism in the
face of annihilation. Where TDK had plot holes and fantastic
leaps of logic, Watchmen actually built an alternate timeline
that felt both fully realized and fantastic. Where TDK had
a bi-polar rich dude in desperate need of a throat lozenge,
Watchmen had a 6ft. naked blue god! So, in my opinion, there
really is no contest!
The weather
here in Albuquerque has been amazing the past week and its
given both of us a bad case of spring fever!
So with that in mind we're keeping the post short this week
so we can spend the day outside, lol. Nice weather notwithstanding,
the new pages just keep on coming, click on the link above
to check out the latest page! The week's page features the
boys gettin' sweaty in the gym, need we say more?!
Also, Paul,
aka, THE
GAY COMIC GEEK, posted an awesome review of
our book! Check it out!
Zack's
Escape!
February 22nd,
2009
Finally
after a long absence from the scene, Zack Savage makes his
return! You'll definitely want to see how he makes his escape
and wow, the boy has been workin' out! Click
here to read all about it!
As always
please feel free to drop
us a line with any comments or questions!! -Russ & Chayne
As always
please feel free to drop
us a line with any comments or questions!! -Russ
Sunstar
Returns!
February 8th, 2009
This
week's comic (Sunstar Returns - February 8th, 2009) features
the reappearance of Justin/Fusion's big sister and superhero,
Sunstar. She's
back and hotter
(or cooler) than ever!
Also a
quick reminder that we have this retro-looking cover available
for sale as a poster over at our lulu store! Check
it out!! -Russ
Comet's
Confrontation
February 1st, 2009
In the Boy
Meets Hero story it was Justin who had to stand up
to a couple of trash talkin' teens who were badmouthing
gay guys, but in this
week's comic it's Blue Comet standing tall
against a another hero and another ugly gay stereotype. -Russ
Boy
Meets City of Heroes
January 25th, 2009
Up, up
and away I go into the addictive world of City
of Heroes! That's right, COH was recently
released for the Mac and I got it last week for my birthday.
I've been aching to play this game ever since I heard about
it. Feeling like a real super hero and patrolling the city
preventing crime is SO cool! I've had a blast my first week
of hero-ing!
This is
my first venture into MMORPG territory and I was pretty overwhelmed
by it at first. There is so much that I have yet to learn.
Fortunately I managed to find and become a member of the "City
of Gaymers" guild. The people I've met
there so far have been incredibly nice! Thanks Indigo (@Gaymer)
for welcoming me into the group! I also want to thank Dutch70 & Bresah
for teaming with me and showing me the ropes. You guys rock!
So if any
of you Blue Comet and Fusion fans out there play COH, hopefully
we can team-up sometime! :) See you in Paragon City! -Chayne
This
week's strip is exciting for us because
it is the start of our re-introducing Zack Savage, the
very deeply closeted villain from "Boy Meets Hero".
We've been wanting to bring him back into our heroes
lives so he can start causing some trouble again! Look
for his appearance in the coming weeks. Also this week's
strip begins to introduce a bit of conflict between the
boys. Once Justin's powers bloomed at the end of BMH
we knew there would be a lot of situations when living
AND working with his boyfriend wouldn't always be so
easy. Chayne and I have had plenty of heated arguments
while working on the comic and like this week's strip
the conflict sometimes comes from my being overbearing
and bossy while Chayne was just trying to do the best
he can (which is always pretty darn good, lol.)
And finally
for all of you out there with a Playstation 3 we
are on the lookout for friends to add to our list at Playstation
Home. So feel free to send us a friend request!
Our Playstation ID is: chayruss
'Til next
week, take it easy!
-Russ
Good
news everybody!
January 10th, 2009
We had
a fun surprise this week when our friend Brian Anderson,
the dude behind "So
Super Duper" alerted us that we were featured in
an article at the awesome gay news site AFTER ELTON!
We want to send out a big thanks to Lyle Masaki who included
us in a wonderful
article he wrote about gay webcomics! Head over
to After
Elton to read it!
As promised
we have a new page up of The
Further Adventures of Blue Comet & Fusion!
Click the link above to check it out. And in case you missed
it, you can download all three issues of the "Titanna
Strikes" story at our Lulu.com
store. Each issue is $1.99 and in PDF format. The Titanna
story takes place a few months after the events in Boy Meets
Hero and the current pages we're posting now take place immediately
after the Titanna story. Enjoy!!!
Also we
want to quickly mention how much we appreciate everyone who's
ordered the hardcovers this
week! We got a little surge in sales and it was fun to have
so many books to ship out again :)
Thanks
JC (of the sexy comic, Anti-Heroes.net)
for spotting our book in a bookstore in New York and then
ordering a copy from us!
-Russ
Happy
New Year!
January 4th, 2009
Hope you
all had a fantastic holiday season and are looking forward
to a great 2009! As you can see from the giant link at the
top of the page, we've launched the new, weekly series of
adventures of Blue Comet and Fusion. We're kicking off the
new series with a "cover" image that Chayne based
on a classic comic cover for "Giant Size X-Men #1" He
had fun drawing it and I had a blast doing the colors.
We're gonna
try really hard to post a new page every week. We have a
lot of fun stuff to show you guys and we're hoping you'll
make our site a regular stop on your journey around the Net!
As always our best to you all and please tell your friends
about us!
Oh, yeah,
in case you haven't got one yet (or even if you have, lol),
we still have some signed hardcovers
available of the story that started it all, Boy
Meets Hero. -Russ
Crossroads
December 6th, 2008
2008
was quite a roller coaster year for me regarding Blue
Comet and Fusion. After we finished the BMH graphic
novel, we were left wondering; what's next? An ongoing
series of course! Well, as it turns out, an ongoing series
was way too much work for the two of us to keep up with.
We decided to try going all digital with the art, hoping
it would speed up the process. No such luck. It ended up
being much more time consuming than we thought. After much
frustration, I finally reached a breaking point where I
was ready to stop all together.
Fortunately,
Russ wouldn't let me! Both he and I love the characters
we've created and we wanted to keep working on them in
some way. So during a break I took from the digital stuff,
I returned to drawing the characters in pencil. I scanned
the pencil drawing without inking it and colored it in
Photoshop. I really liked the look of it and showed it
to Russ. I asked what he thought of ditching the digital
style (which was my idea to begin with) and do BC & F
with Photoshop enhanced pencil drawings. Since we wouldn't
have to spend time inking, we could get pages done much
faster. He loved the idea!
After
that was decided, we looked back over the past year and
realized telling stories in the traditional 22 page format
(12 in our case) was just too overwhelming for us. So after
researching other options, I suggested we treat our stories
like short, one page comic strips, sort of like the Sunday
Funnies. That way we can get our ideas across very quickly,
and then move on to something new. Since we were coming
up with more ideas than we could introduce into our old
format, this new approach became more and more appealing.
We then
decided to return to posting our pages once a week like
we used to when we created Boy Meets Hero. We felt that
we lost touch with our fans because of the long wait between
digital issues and we want to build that fan base up again!
This "New
Direction", as we're calling it, is a breath of fresh
air! It is just what I needed to get out of the rut I'd
found myself in. One thing I noticed with the digital art
was that it was a pain in the ass to do. I wasn't having
fun anymore. Now with our change in direction, I'm thrilled
to say that I love working on BC & F again!!!
We are
wrapping up work on the third and final issue of our digital "Titanna
Strikes" comic and will have that up for sale
very soon. I've already begun illustrating some new pages
and we are planning to start posting those around the beginning
of the new year, (fingers crossed!) We hope you fans still
plan to purchase our third issue. It wraps up the story
arc nicely and will be fairly important in the coming pages
of the new weekly stuff. Plus, any little bit of cash we
can make off of our hard work means we can keep at it!
So here
is a sneak peak at our "New Direction" look for
Blue Comet and Fusion. I simplified their costumes a bit,
returned Blue Comet's logo to it's original location, and
gave Fusion a much needed, more interesting logo. I think
they look sexy as hell! Enjoy! -Chayne
Wow,
2008 went by fast!
November 19th, 2008
Hi everyone
in cyberland! Yes, we are still alive and kicking out here
in sunny New Mexico! We know it's been awhile since we posted
an update... apologies! We've been busy with life stuff,
doggy stuff, and yes, comic book stuff too ;)
Also, we
have currently sold 90 copies of the signed hardcover, so
that makes 110 copies left! Remember it's only $25.00
plus shipping, what a bargain! :)
The big
news is that we're returning to our roots and, starting very
soon, are going to be posting a BRAND
NEW PAGE EVERY WEEK! Yes you read that right,
it's gonna be FREE TO READ again!
That is until we have enough pages finished to make you all
buy a print version, lol. (just kidding, sheesh! stop throwing
stuff)
The format
is going to be a bit different than the Titanna story-line.
We're going back to the drawing board, literally, to the
more traditional method we used for BMH. You may have noticed
that the Titanna story had a very different look and that
is due to the all digital approach we tried. Turns out it
doesn't save any time and well, it's just not as fun for
us to produce. So it's back to basics and we're really stoked
about the new stories. TONS of new stories actually, because
we're also moving to a quicker pace of storytelling. While
we'll still have all your fave characters and plenty of new
ones too, the stories will be one or two pages long rather
than 120, like BMH was. We were getting a bit frustrated
by our slow pace and we have so many exciting stories we
want to share.
So we feel
this is the best, most fun way to get those tales out there.
We think we kinda got stuck in a rut of trying to produce
a comic like the industry pros and traditions dictate, and
we finally realized that really, there are no rules we must
follow. So we're gonna try something different for us and
we hope you all will come along with us for the ride.
Soon, we'll
also be offering prints, greeting cards, postcards and more
stuff featuring the characters of BMH but if you all have
any ideas or suggestions about what you'd like to see us
offer for sale PLEASE LET US KNOW!!! We
would love your input so don't be shy! You can send us an email or
try out our new comment setup below. (We're trying out
Disqus comments system for now, so give it shot! We'll be
moderating all comments so don't get too upset if yours doesn't
show up right away - we'll try to approve messages frequently.)
So be sure
to check back for updates in the coming weeks as we slightly
revise boymeetshero.com and launch the new BLUECOMETandFUSION.com!
Thanks
to all who have stuck with these past few years new and old
fans alike! Your enthusiasm and support make all our effort
worthwhile and we thank you from the bottoms of our hearts! -Russ & Chayne
"Out of many, we are one;
that while we breathe, we hope, and where we are met with
cynicism and doubt, and those who tell us that we can't,
we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the
spirit of a people: Yes We Can." -President-Elect
Barack Obama
PART
2 NOW AVAILABLE!
August 14th, 2008
We're back
with some new stuff! Part
TWO of Blue Comet & Fusion: Titanna Strikes is now available
for download! By the way we'll have the
final part of this story ready in a coupla months (fingers
crossed, lol). BTW, a print version of this three parter
won't be available this year so if you want in on the story,
the download version is the only one for now. Plus it's cheap
sooooo, there ya go.
Also, we
have a new poll over on the left :)
I know
we haven't been too active with posting on the site lately
but we have a really good excuse! In addition to working
on Blue Comet & Fusion we're
also developing a brand new comic and it rocks so far (if
I say so myself, lol) Chayne has outdone himself because
the new characters look amazingly cute and fun. This new
project will be part of a totally different universe from
the Boy Meets Hero universe of characters.
Think of it as Final Fantasy meets Indiana
Jones with a twist of space travel and big
gay splash of crazy hijinks. We'll have more details to share
very soon to stay tuned. -RuSs
Helllloooooooo!
July 11th, 2008
Hi all!
Sorry for the long delay between posts, but we've been hard
at work on part 2 of Blue Comet & Fusion and also had
to take a break for a quickie summer vacation! We drove to
Las Vegas (nine hour drive but we love road trips so it wasn't
too horrible, lol). In other news, we're really close to
selling enough books to get us a shiny new Mac and boy do
we need a new one! The old G4 tower we have now has been
an incredible computer (yea Apple!) as we've used it every
day for hours at a time for 8 years now!
The wait
is finally over. For months the most asked question we get
is "when will there be more comics?" And finally
we can answer with a resounding RIGHT NOW! LOL.
Yup, the
first exciting issue of Blue Comet and Fusion is
now for sale! For a measly $1.99 you can soak up the delicious
first installment featuring yours (and our) favorite out
'n proud, gay super hero couple! And the best part? There's
no waiting. That's right, I'm talkin' instant gratification
here because the issue is available to download right
now!
Also in
the interest of full disclosure Blue Comet & Fusion will
be available ONLY as a downloadable comic for the time being.
The earliest any sort of graphic novel collection would be
available would be in mid-2009, but as of now there are no
plans for one.
In other
news we Joveth a.k.a. jonostarsmore over at Pink Kryptonite
was kind enough to feature Boy Meets Hero the LGBT
Comic of the Month! Thanks Joveth! (and Brian too)!
Also we
received another glowing review this time from Francois Peneaud
at gaycomicslist.com. You
can click here to read it!
Have a
great week! -Russ
Still
kickin' out in ABQ!
May 21th, 2008
Wow, sorry
for the long delay between updates! We have a good excuse
though :) since we've been super busy finishing up issue
one of Blue Comet and Fusion as well as working on the story
and script for more issues as well, plus shipping copies
of the BMH graphic novel too!
Also I
want to HIGHLY RECOMMEND the new album by Jamie
Lidell. The disc is called "JIM" and
it easily in my top five fave albums of 2008 so far and probably
would make it onto my "desert island" list as well.
At ten songs and about 40 minutes long, it's short and oh
so sweet. It's soulful, funky and sort of in the vein of
the retro-soul sound that Amy Winehouse is famous for but
IMHO so much more enjoyable. You can check out his myspace
and hear some tunes here.
As ALWAYS
we love to make time to read and respond to all your great
letters and we wanted to share a really great one we received
this past week:
Dear
Chayne and Russell,
I just wanted to let you guys know that I loved the entire Boy Meets Hero
story. I don’t know how I missed this on the web before now. It’s
exactly what I have been searching for for a long time! I’ve wanted
to see positive representations of gay characters and heroes that the major
comics don’t offer. I ordered the hardcover from you guys two weeks
ago, on a Friday, the same day I found your site. The book was in my hands
on Monday! That’s great service! I was going on a 4 hour flight to
Seattle on Wednesday that week and was planning to read the book then. It
was so hard to not peek and read some of it ahead of time. I’m glad
I didn’t. I was able to read the whole book at once and I loved it!
The action was great, engaging and believable. But I also liked the quiet
times: the glimpses into the lives of our hero and his partner, the relationships
with other heroes, family interactions, and even the dreaded ex. I can’t
get enough of Derek and Justin together, and I’m also glad that you
guys are showing that a healthy relationship between two men can exist, even
with superpowers. And it doesn’t need to be perfect at all times. I’d
like to see more of these guys. They’ve got the house and each other.
I think they need some friends or neighbors to interact with, or more heroes
now that Justin has powers. The art was clean and colorful. It truly made
the characters pop out of the book and come to life. I love your style. I
want more. Please get back to work!!
My trip to Seattle, previously mentioned, was to the Emerald City Comic Convention
for the first time. While there I met my all-time favorite artist, Phil Jimenez,
for the first time as well. I was able to get a quick sketch from him, and
since I had your book with me, I had him sketch Blue Comet. I have attached
the sketch with this e-mail as a thank you gift for your hard work and creativity.
He did an amazing job, and I hope you guys like it as much as I do.
Craig
D.
Needless
to say we were incredibly flattered by all of Craig's kind
words and also by the sketch by the very popular and talented
Phil Jimenez! How cool is that?! -Russ
What a week!
May 4th, 2008
Have we
mentioned lately how much our fans rock? We got off to a
great start selling the book and it's thanks to you all!
We wanted
to update you on how we're shipping the books. We are shipping
out books on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Also for all
of you outside the U.S. we are shipping the books via USPS
International Priority Mail but the tracking information
for those shipments never gets updated at usps.com. Annoying,
huh? Anyway rest assured that your books are indeed being
shipped out promptly. But since they begin their journey
from Albuquerque, New Mexico and then have to pass through
customs, etc., they should arrive around 7-10 days later.
(That will vary greatly depending on the destination.)
Have a
great week! -Russ
Hey everyone check out the new site!
April 27th, 2008
To all
our fans, old and new, I'd like to say WELCOME to
the new home of BOY MEETS HERO COMICS! We've
re-organized the site just a little so please click around
and check it out!
The big
news is that after months of telling you all about the upcoming
hardcover of Boy Meets Hero the
time to get it is finally here! We have oodles of books sitting
in our garage and we can't wait to get them into your hands.
So click
on the graphic at the top of the page or select "Buy
Comics & More" link on the left to check out
the options to buy the book from us. We are offering 200
LIMITED EDITION, NUMBERED AND AUTOGRAPHED copies.
We've set up easy options to pay through PayPal (you don't
need an PayPal account to buy the book!) for all our fans
around the world. All the prices INCLUDE shipping. We'll
be shipping them via USPS Priority Mail for domestic and
international orders.
By the
way the books look fantastic. Bruno Gmunder did an insanely
great job putting these hardcovers together. The colors just
pop off every glossy page and the cover just feels good to
touch, lol. Also a note to all the fans who read the story
online when we were posting pages weekly, we've added in
several scenes and polished all the the old scenes so it's
kinda like getting the "director's cut" of your
favorite movie on DVD. Adam, one of our fans from myspace
had this to say:
"I'm
an American living in Germany, and I just had a long
weekend in Berlin, where I found your book for sale!
I bought a copy: it looks absolutely awesome! It really
looks stunning on paper, and it's such a great story."
Also be
sure to visit the BLUE
COMET & FUSION page to see the exciting
cover for their debut issue and their sexy new costumes.
The first issue will be available soon so check back often.
In other
HUGE news we are featured in the May issue of INSTINCT MAGAZINE!!!
(Big shout-out, hugs and thanks to Brian and Jonathan!) Pick
up a copy to read a really quirky interview with none other
than BLUE COMET and his boyfriend JUSTIN. What's it really
like to have a superhero as a bf? Check out the mag and find
out!
So, wow,
that's a lot of new stuff huh? Before I sign off and let
you go order the book (wink, wink) I just want to thank all
our long-time readers for sticking with us for the nearly
three years we've been online with Boy Meets Hero! You guys
and gals ROCK and we love you!!! -Russ
April
13, 2008
Hi again!
We have a new mini-strip up this week, it is the second
one written by our friend Daniel over at criticalcorner.net.
Enjoy!
This
week's post will be short and sweet as we just want to
let you all know that we're furiously preparing a lot of
fun stuff for May. Very soon we'll be premiering the updated
look for the site as well as begin selling the hardcover
of Boy Meets Hero. We're going to set up buttons so you
can pay for it through PayPal. One button will be for fans
in the U.S., the second button will be for fans in Mexico
and Canada and the third will be for international fans
everywhere else. We're going to be shipping them via USPS
Priority Mail which will get them too you faster and hopefully
in good shape!
Also
in May we're going to debut the first issue of Blue Comet
and Fusion. As of now, we're planning to offer it as a
download through Lulu.com for around $1.99 per issue. Each
issue will feature 12 full color pages, cover and a few
extras too. As we researched the print-on-demand options
we realized how pricey a printed single issue could be
for you guys to buy (around six bucks with shipping, a
lot more for fans outside the U.S.) plus we wanted to make
sure all our international fans wouldn't be left out in
the cold. Also it's also more realistic for us to produce
12 pages of story and deliver it to you every month or
so versus a 24 page print comic which could take a bit
longer to produce and then prepare for print.
Anyhoo,
we hope you all are as excited about reading the new adventures
of our heroes as we are to make them!
Take
it easy! -Russ
March
31, 2008
Greetings!
Thanks to you all who check in on us every week! As you
can see we have a new mini-strip this week and if you haven't
figured it out by now, we LOVES a good dick joke, lol.
Not too much new to report this week. I posted a new blog
entry called "Random
Thoughts from a Random Mind" over at our myspace page. I'm
gonna try to make it a regular thing, but then again I
said that a year and half ago when I posted my last blog
entry, lol. Also Daniel over at criticalcorner.net would
like to thank you all for checking out his film review
blog. He posted a hilarious new review for "Horton
Hears a Who" so be sure to check it out.
Also
this week Chayne came up with a way to sell the upcoming
comic series, Blue Comet and Fusion so
it won't break your pocket books. Look for an announcement
very soon. (Did you know print-on-demand comics can cost
up to seven bucks per issue with shipping! Ouch! We definitely
want ours to be more affordable than that.)
Also
for those of you who may have missed it, we did an interview
with Tony Smith (Queeroes)
a few months ago, so go check it out HERE!
Have
a great week! -Russ
March
23, 2008
Hi everyone!
We're back with another wacky mini comic! This week we're
introducing something new to the strip... girls! Gasp!
That's right, the mini strip is no longer just for boys.
We thought it was about time that Sunstar showed up to
add her unique style of humor! Plus we threw in Cold Snap
for fun! Now that we've added more characters besides Blue
Comet and Fusion, look for others to start showing up in
upcoming strips!
Last Monday, was a very special day for us. Not because it was Saint Patrick's
Day, no. March 17th, 2008 may have been the day that many people celebrated
all things green and Irish, but for us it was our 15th Anniversary!!! Yay!
We went to dinner, took the night off from working on the comic, and enjoyed
a nice evening of celebrating! (wink, wink!) It's still amazing to think that
we've been together for so many years! Here's to many, many more together!
Well, that's all for now. 'Till next time. -Chayne & Russ
March
16, 2008
We're
baaaaaack, sorry for the long delay but we've been busy!
We're juggling a lot of balls (heh, heh)! Between working
on issues 1 and 2, designing some new logos we just haven't
had much time to post anything new. Plus you may have noticed
a new mini-strip up top (with a brand new way to navigate
them) and a new poll on the left side of this page that
asks what your favorite Harry Potter movie is. Both are
inspired by the fact that we did an HP movie marathon and
now have the Harry Potter-verse on the brain, lol! Starting
this week no more movie marathons so we'll be posting more
regularly, we promise!
First
of all we'd like to debut the logo for the upcoming comic
book series! Check it out:
In other news, we got in our advance copies of the BMH hardcover and WOW it
totally exceeded our expectations! To our surprise it was printed on beautiful
glossy paper and boy do the colors really pop. We can't wait for you all
to see it (hopefully you've all been saving your pennies to buy a copy
:) Speaking of that, just a reminder that we will be selling the
book through our site. We're only selling 200 copies and the they will
be numbered and signed, (we'll even personalize them if you wish.) We are
currently trying to determine pricing and shipping so as soon as we know
we'll let you guys know!
In anticipation
of it's release here in the States in May we're going to
be previewing some panels from the new scenes we added
in. Long time readers who read the online version are going
to be pleasantly surprised at how much fuller the story
and art are. Anyway, the first new scene features Justin
as he deals with an obnoxious co-worker. Here's a taste:
February
15th, 2008
This
week we are excited to debut our latest mini-strip written
by one of our best friends; Daniel Boyer! Daniel is a
very talented and funny writer who is also a movie critic
here in Albuquerque. He currently writes very entertaining
movie reviews and is working on a website called Daniel's
Critical Corner. (Look for it soon!)
Daniel has been our friend for many years and has been very supportive of Boy
Meets Hero. I knew his wit and humor would be perfect for our strip and so
I asked him if he would be interested in writing some for us. He enthusiastically
agreed and this week's entry was his very first attempt.
I loved it immediately and laughed out loud when he turned in his script. He
even drew little images of the characters for me to illustrate. So, I hope
you enjoy Daniel's very, very funny sense of humor as much as Russ and I do.
Bye for now. -Chayne
February
1st, 2008
This
week work began on the outline and first pass at dialogue
for issue one of Blue Comet and Fusion the on-going series!
It feels great to be working on a new story after having
to spend so much time re-touching the original series.
It's all very exciting and we will be working hard on
it over the upcoming months and will keep everyone posted
on it's progress.
In the meantime, our "Comic Crusader fill-ins" continue to go from
one silly scene to the next. Take care everyone! -Chayne
January
25th, 2008
Last
Sunday we finally finished uploading all of the art to
Bruno in Germany. This included newly designed bio pages
for the main characters and a back cover design that
turned out really awesome! It feels great to finally
get every bit of art sent out and know that we were finally
done.
Now we can finally move forward and begin developing our on-going series! I'm
looking forward to being able to devote all of my time to Blue Comet and Fusion
now that the graphic novel project is all finished. Over our break for the
Holidays we brainstormed some ideas and have at least four nailed down. Our
next step is to put the ideas into outlines and then write the dialogue.
So it's back to work for me. 'Till next time! -Chayne
January
18th, 2008
Well
we're nearly finished assembling all the TONS and TONS
of artwork that is going into the BMH graphic novel.
Wow, was it a lot of work... especially when three months
ago we thought we were finished with it! Ha! Little did
we know, lol. Suffice to say we hope all you loyal readers
out there are as excited as us to enjoy the hardcover
graphic novel come this Spring!
In
other news you may have noticed that we have taken down
the entire online version of BMH and replaced it with
a "sampler" scene.
This was done at the suggestion of our editor (hi Joris!!)
over in Germany at Bruno Gmunder. Be sure to check
it out because it features the flashback scene where
Justin "falls" for Derek. Both the art and
dialogue have been tweaked and improved!
We'd
like to be very clear that the previous "online" version
of BMH was really just a "rough draft". When
we started it three years ago, the story began as most
do, as just a very small seed of an idea. We had an inkling
of where we wanted the story to go but allowed the ideas
to breathe as we went along. Once we finished posting
the final page and landed the publishing deal for the
hardcover we went into full-on revision mode. We started
with page one and began re-writing and tweaking. Adjusting
dialogue so the characters didn't sound as expositional,
improving faces and bodies in early scenes to match their
appearances in later ones. And on and on the improvements
went.
We are
so grateful to our legion of loyal fans who have read and
loved the comic! We hope we created a story not just about
what it's like for a gay man to come out of the closet,
but also one where love and hope win out in the end. We
hope we've begun to create a universe where hate is in
the minority, where people are honored and respected for
being different, and where a super hero, who just happens
to be gay, can have wild and fun adventures with the man
he loves.
We had
a lot of fun creating the art and story for BMH. The thousands
of hours spent by both of us have been well worth the effort
and IT'S ALL THANKS TO OUR FANS!Your
letters of support, encouragement and praise make all the
difference. I don't think I can convey how much each
and every letter is a boost to help us keep on keepin'
on!
This
past week we put the finishing touches on all 106 pages
of the comic and started uploading them to Bruno Gmunder
for print. We began the unexpectedly long, slow process
of sending the files via FTP to their server all the
way in Germany. We thought the process would take about
eight hours or so. Boy were we wrong!
It
turned out that our modem was dropping the connection
just as a page was about to finish uploading. We realized
it was because our modem is an antique... almost seven
years old! So we quickly headed down to Best Buy and
purchased a new, more powerful modem and brought it
home.
After
we turned it on and hooked it up, the damn thing wouldn't
allow us access to the internet! UGH!!! So we had to
call our service provider and have them activate the
new modem for us. Once that happened we were finally
able to get back online and begin uploading files again!
It was still a long, slow process, but by midnight,
last night, we managed to get 60 or so pages uploaded.
I spent the rest of today finishing the uploads and
now all 106 pages are in Bruno's hot little hands!
Whew!
On
another note, I also had the opportunity this week
to finally get around to updating our fan
mail page! It was long over due! The last e-mail
we posted was all the way back in July of last summer!
So I spent all day on Tuesday painstakingly adding
each e-mail we received since then along with our responses
to the fan mail page. Now all of you out there can
read what people said about our comic last fall leading
up to its finale.
So
please take a gander at our "fan
male" page, we received some really
great comments from very nice people and we appreciate
them SO much! That's all for today. -Chayne
January
7th, 2008
Just
a quick post to mention that in addition to Amazon and TLA Video
the graphic novel is also available pre-order at 10
Percent.com!
As
always we LOVE to hear from you guys so please don't be
shy and feel free to send
us an email!
January
4th, 2008
Yay!
It's Friday! To celebrate we are debuting our ALL-NEW, hyper-silly,
mini-comic strip starring super cute versions of Blue Comet
and Fusion! These guys are here to add a bit of absurd wit
and commentary regarding Boy Meets Hero, video games, movies,
comics or anything else that pops up!
We plan on updating the site every Friday or so with a new mini-strip to give
fans a little something to look forward to every week as we continue to work
on Blue Comet and Fusion: the on-going series.
And if you are wondering where the poll went, don't worry, it will return just
as soon as we can figure out where the heck to place it so it doesn't interfere
with the mini-strip!
So without further ado, please enjoy Blue Comet and Fusion: the "Comic
Crusaders"! -Chayne
January
3rd, 2008
Today
I would like to share an enhancement that I am
pretty proud of. When we first posted the battle
against the sea monster all those months ago,
I didn't have the time (or the skill) to finish
the background.
I had always wanted to come back to this scene someday and add in the rest
of the ship deck behind the people calling for help. I felt it needed more
action and an actual background to help place where they were supposed to
be.
Here is the panel illustrating just how much we were able to improve the
old, online version and give the upcoming print version the "oomph" that
it needed!
Much better, huh? -Chayne
January 2nd, 2008
Some of you out there might've
been wondering what we've been doing since we posted the final page of Boy
Meets Hero last fall. (At least I hope some of you have...) Well,
since we do plan on printing it in graphic novel format this year, we felt
that we needed to go back through the entire comic and give it a bit of polish.
Originally we had planned to print the comic in four separate issues and
then offer a special 10-page "zero" issue that was set right before
the events in issue #1. However, as is often the case, plans change.
Instead, we decided to combine all of the issues into one graphic novel and
insert new pages throughout to help flesh-out the story better. The scenes
that we wrote for issue #0 were then slightly altered and absorbed into the
story.
We also wanted to fix any artwork that needed it and add in extra backgrounds
to enhance certain scenes. Dialogue has been punched-up as well since we
now have a better grasp on the characters than we did a few years ago when
we started.
As an example, here is a comparison image of Derek from
early in issue #1. The way I drew him changed after this scene and I wanted
to make sure he looked consisted throughout the book. The image on the left
is the original, and the one on the right is the enhanced version.
Getting the online version ready for print has been our focus over the past
few months because we want to present the best version of Boy Meets
Hero to our fans as we are able to. So when you read the graphic
novel, get ready for an enhanced experience!
Now, I need to get back to work... -Chayne
January 1st, 2008
Happy New Year everybody! We've been extremely busy these past two months
and just finished our week-and-a-half long holiday break. We had an incredible
Christmas this year and continue to be thankful for the friends and family
in our lives!
After
spending two months working on Boy Meets Hero, it was
great to take some time off for ourselves. We visited
friends and family and then spent the remainder of our
time at home. We watched plenty of movies and logged
many hours of video game playing. Currently we are making
our way through Ratchet & Clank on the PS3
and are having a blast playing it together.
We
saw National Treasure: Book of Secrets with
our friend Daniel and enjoyed it as much as the first.
It was so much fun! Nicolas Cage was great and Riley
was as cute as ever!
Now
that our holiday break is over, it's back to the drawing
board for us! We've got some fun stuff planned for 2008
and and will be working our perky behinds off over the
upcoming year! So stay tuned as we continue to update
and keep you informed of the goings-on at Boy Meets Hero! -Chayne
co-written by and starring Simon Pegg. I can't believe it took me
so long to notice it but, better late than never. If you haven't seen it,
check out
a little 
and it was really great! GL is one of Chayne's fave comic book characters
so he was giddly when we finally watched it, lol. Anyway
if you're interested you can click 
which
had a very funny villain called Jack Spicer who utilized
robot minions. So I decided to change the name because
our character was also going to use robot minions. And
since I was calling Blue Comet Adam Armstrong at the time,
I called his main villain Zack Savage. And it stuck! That's
why he doesn't have a code name like the other characters...
Interesting, huh?
this
past weekend. I read the graphic novel just last year (I
know!). It is of course a fascinatingly complex story and
the the movie takes all that's amazing about the book and
translates almost every panel to the screen, beautifully.
Reading reviews and message forums around the web I've noticed
that it has become a "love it or hate it" sorta
movie. I personally cannot wait the the 4 hour promised director's
cut that will hit DVD later this year. At the risk of being
stoned for heresy, lol, I even think the ending for the movie
made far more sense than the ending for the book. There I
said it. The squid is dumb! Anyway if you're still waiting
to see the movie be warned it is wildly violent and some
of the gore was WAY over the top. I had to look away from
the screen a couple of times.
