Wrapping Up TORCTOBER

Last Quixote Coyote for the week.  This one's a good one.

Welp, that brings an end to another TORCTOBER.  16 Years.  Jeez.

I love making comics.  I have made so many comics, man.  I should hit 150 Comics in... (ugh.  Math) somewhere around 6 months.  So many, weird, bizarre, funny, violent, cosmic, stupid, brilliant, ridiculous, amazing comics.  And I've had so much fun making them.  Sure, it can be a bit of a slog sometimes, and there's been plenty of bad times and bad Cons.  But overall, the cool outweighs the suck. 

This year in TORC Press, I'm gonna continue to chronicle the Adventures of the Hot Fudge Sundae Adventure Club.  I'm gonna introduce a few more Space Gods, because I'm insane and can't stop myself.  The War with Ortex is gonna escalate into its next phase around Issue 10 (presuming I can stick to my plan... good luck with that one).  In the meantime, we're gonna occasionally check in with Prometheon and the War for the Soul of Saturn.  The Quixote Coyote Strips will continue, as Quixote has to survive Three Nights in a Haunted House.  I'm gonna try to adapt a Fairy Tale, tell a Horror story, get Weird (Super Weird), explore the concept of living without a body in space, do a Dungeon Crawl, and hit the seas with some Pirates.  And no matter what I think I'm gonna do, I'll probably end up coming up with some completely different idea and go off in some direction I never saw coming.  Because that's the TORC Press Way.

I'd like to thank everybody that's ever supported TORC Press in any way.  I really, truly appreciate it.  Although I resolved early to produce comics no matter if people read them or not, it's still pretty cool that people have read and enjoyed my comics.  Again, thanks everybody!  Here's to another 16 Years or longer or something.

Viva la TORC Press!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

TORCTOBER: Haunted Mansions and SPACE and Alice

New Quixote Coyote.  Oh!  I have a story about this one!  Click on Image to Blahblah.

So, this strip is actually the Genesis of the whole Quixote Coyote thing.  A few years back, Conventions were starting to get more and more expensive.  Table prices were going up, and I was trying to come up with some ways to make my money back on the overbearing table prices.  One of the ideas I came up with was to create a series of Fancy Drawings and Paintings, which I then framed in very nice frames, and set a price tag of around $75 a piece.  The idea was that I would sell maybe one very nice piece per show, and that would cover a significant chunk of the Table Price, which meant that I wouldn't be in a blind panic trying to sell comics for $1 to $5 a pop.  Needless to say, this plan did not work at all.  The Paintings were too big, they took up too much space in my vehicle and my table, they were cumbersome to lug around, and it took close to two years to sell the bulk of them (a lot of my plans turn out this way).

Aaaaaaanyway, one of the Cool Pieces I did during this period was designed to look like an animation cell from an old cartoon that never existed.  I took watercolor paper and did a grey inkwash of the background, which was designed to look like a Haunted Mansion.  Then I painted the characters of the piece onto a transparent overlay with Acrylic Paint.  The characters on the piece were a little Mickey Mouse type character and a Skeleton with an Axe lurking behind the corner (it was virtually identical to the last panel of today's page, except the character wasn't Quixote Coyote yet).  When it was done, it really did look like an old animation cell.  People would point at and go "That's so cool!" and then not buy it.  Raven, the Pro Wrestler, actually saw it and liked it.  He didn't buy it though.  Didn't hit me with the Evenflo either.  I know it took over a year to sell that piece, which sucked because a lot of people thought it was cool.  If I had sold it earlier I might have considered making more pieces along that vein.

Anyway anyway, when I was piecing together the ideas for Quixote Coyote, I thought it would be neat to do a shout out to my old Animation Cell from a Cartoon that Never Existed.  So I did.

In other news, and speaking of Cons, I'm not working very many Cons next year, because I am getting married to my lovely Darlin my Darlin Mei.  The only show I'm definitely working next year (because I just got signed up for it) is SPACE in Columbus, OH.  Ironically, the show is exactly one week before my wedding.  Odd.  Anyway anyway anyway, as I have raved before, SPACE is my most favorite show of the year, it is awesome and fun, I always have good sales, I meet lots of cool people, I get to hang with people I only get to see once a year and talk comics, and I do excessive run on sentences.  So, I'm excited for that.

Speaking of appearances, I'm gonna be at a Local Authors Signing at Frontier Community College in Fairfield, IL on Friday from Noon to 5.  Should be fun.  I'll also be at Halloweenfest at Comic Quest in Evansville, IN on Saturday from 10 until whenever I get bored.

Last up today, we've got another sneak peak of "Lost Alice" which is available in the Online Store at http://www.torcpress.com/store/.  We're slapping up another page today. 

TORCTOBER: Ghosts Smosts

Quixote Coyote Strip #8.  Cleek on Eemage to make beeger.

Now we're starting to roll with the strip.  This is pretty much where I've been heading from the beginning.  The idea for this first arc actually came to me after reading an obscure Grim Fairy Tale called "If Only I Could Shiver", although the germ of the idea has been percolating in my head for years.  There's bits and pieces of old Mickey Mouse and Betty Boop cartoons floating around in here as well.  I think it's gonna be fun. 

Anyway, as I've said before, I've got a new book called "Lost Alice" available for Sale in the Online Store.  Since I'm using Sales to decide whether there will be future "Lost Alice" books, I should probably do some Hype.

As a reminder, here's the Cover, which I think looks nice.

It's only $2.50 (which includes shipping), so it's pretty cheap.  Here's Page One:

Anyway, if it looks neat, buy a copy.  It'll help in the creation of future issues. 

TORCTOBER: Lost Alice Now Available

First off, new Quixote Coyote.  Tap on the Image to make it bigger.

Thanks to some of the time off I've had this month, combined with my New Game, I'm a little ahead of the Game.  As such, I've got a new book available.  Here's the Cover:

The Book is called "Lost Alice", and it's a new take on my continued obsession with Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland".  It's 8 Pages in Black & White, and it's only a measly $1 with a $1.50 S&H.  Seriously, you can't buy nuttin for Two Fifty. 

I'm always trying new stuff, trying to find things that work or catch people's interest.  I'm not a business man by nature, so I tend to fumble about in the pursuit of making TORC Press a legitimate... thing that makes money.  Anyway, this new thing I'm trying is a series of Try Out Books, where I will be releasing an 8 Page B&W Comic.  These comics won't be set in the TORCverse and will be designed as stand alone projects.  Whether or not I continue to follow "Lost Alice" and expand her book to a full length book will depend on Sales.  Normally I just follow my Muse and produce the Comics that interest me, but with this new round of Try Out Books, I won't be doing that.

So, it works like this.  Think of it a little like a Slow Kickstarter.  If I Sell 10 Books either Online or at Public Appearances/Cons, then I will expand this initial story into a full length 24 Page Comic.  If I Sell 20, then the book will be in Color.  There's not a Hard Line Deadline for this little Experiment since I don't have a lot of Conventions or Appearances over the next year.  I'll just keep track for awhile and see what happens.

The point is, if Lost Alice intrigues you, and you want to see more of it, Buy the Comic.  If not, don't.  Easy.  Grass Roots.

Speaking of which, here's the Link to the Online Store:  http://www.torcpress.com/store/

OH!  If you're a $5 or $10 Patron on PATREON, you get this in your November Comix Pack!

TORCTOBER: One Moment

Say what you will about me, I don't Cut n' Paste.  Anyway, Click on the Image Below to make it Bigger.

Welp, this is the last week of TORCTOBER Sweet 16.  16 Years.  Jeez. 

Mei asked me if I was doing anything special this week.  Like everything I do, I don't know how special this is, but today I will tell a tale I've told before, but haven't in awhile.

I am a Believer.  This is my Nature.  I've believed in God all my life, and even now, when I feel the Bible I was raised on was largely false, I still believe in some form of the Almighty.  I believe in Psychic Powers.  Not the fancy kind you see on the TeeVee or in Sci-Fi.  I don't mean fancy voodoo hoodoo or telemarketing nonsense, or any of that.  I believe that there are things going on in our brain, or maybe our souls that we don't understand.  I get De Ja Vu from time to time.  A serious understanding that I have experienced a situation before, a literal moment in time I have already lived.  I don't know what this is.  Do I have prophetic dreams that I can only remember when I have arrived at that moment?  Or am I already dead, and this life is just the memories of the life I lived, and occasionally I awaken to that?  Or are we all just moving through time in ways we all just don't fully understand.  I dunno.  Why do I sometimes have a song stuck in my head, a song I almost never normally have stuck in my head, and then when I hop in the car and turn it on, the exact song is playing on the radio, at the exact spot I left off in my head?  How do you explain that?

Empathy I understand.  That's just imagination.  But there's more to it than that, isn't there?  Have you ever been watching a movie, and you see a person get their ankle broken, and you FEEL the break in your own ankle?  Just for a moment you can feel your own bones snap, your own tendons rip.  It's not real, and what's on screen isn't real, but you can feel it anyway, just for a moment.  And you wince and grind your teeth.  Now, how is that just imagination?

I sometimes think we're all connected on a psychic level.  Just a little bit, some of us more than others.  I think some of us aren't connected at all, and I think those are the people you've gotta watch out for.  The people that don't feel the terror at being held against their will.  The people that don't feel the bullet rip into their flesh and their heartbeat stop and the cold blackness descend.  You have to watch out for those people, because they don't feel what the rest of us do.  They don't understand what's it's like to be cold and broke on the street, and so they've got no sympathy for those that do.  They don't hesitate to pull the trigger, because they don't feel the bullet they fire penetrating their own body.

I believe in Free Will, but I also feel like the Universe or God or the Gods or Whatever gives us moments.  Moments where everything stacks up just right, where all the puzzle pieces are in place, and all you have to do is snap that last piece into place and voila.  Puzzle solved.  Stealing blatantly from Eastern Philosophy, I call these Zen Moments.  Those little moments of absolute perfection.

For example, I am a terrible bowler.  Seriously, I may be the worst bowler who ever lived.  I have a very bizarre underhanded bowling style.  There is no rhythm, rhyme, method, or accuracy to the way I bowl.  And yet sometimes, I know from the very second my fingers slip loose of the ball that I have bowled a strike, and 9 times out of 10 I am right.  BOOM!  10 Pins.  Zen.

Me and Mei shouldn't be together.  There are literally a string of reasons that occurred that prevented her from saying "No Thanks" before we even met.  She didn't read my profile close enough, and didn't notice I lived 2 hours away.  I showed up for dinner early.  She liked my voice.  Little puzzle pieces that all came together just right to make us who we are.  Zen.

Whew.  That was a really long, really bizarre intro.

Anyway, it was October of 1999, and I was a loser.  I had an Associates in General Studies, I was working at the Mill, and living with my parents.  No girlfriend and no prospect thereof.  All I wanted to do was make comics, but I had no idea how.  Internet access was hard to get back then, and I didn't know much about Art Supplies stores.  All I had was want and desire, with no idea how to pursue my dream.  I had read as many books as I could find, but still had no idea where to start.  I was young, dumb, listless, and horribly depressed. 

At this time in October 1999, there was a Comic Book Shop in Effingham, IL, about an hour from me.  It's not there now, and, in fact, it would be out of business a few months later.  Anyway, one day, when I went into the shop in early October, they just happened to have a Create-Your-Own-Comics Kit for sale. 

What's weird is, I hesitated.  I actually stared at the Box for a little bit.  There it was, my Destiny, and I almost turned my back on it.  But I didn't.  I bought the Kit, and I made Pulp Horrorshow #1, and I printed it up, and TORC Press was born.  Any number of things would have prevented this.  If I didn't know about the store.  If the store had went out of business earlier.  If someone had bought the Kit before I found it.  If I hadn't decided to go all the way to Effingham to get comics.  The Universe put the Kit in front of me, all I had to do was seize it.  So, yeah, Zen.

(That was a really long lead up to a really short story.  Sorry folks.)

TORCTOBER: Poll Results & Taking a Knee on the Game

Alrighty, the Polls have closed on the Next Project Poll.  I got a pretty good response, and I'd like to thank everyone that contributed.  I appreciate the Feedback.  As a result, I've decided to suspend "Cosmic Pulp" after the next Issue, and instead use my 8 Page Comic to pursue these ideas.  So, from January until June 2016 the monthly 8 Page Comic will be a Black & White comic where I will be introducing some of these new ideas and stories on a Tryout basis.  If you're a $5 or $10 Subscriber on PATREON, you'll be getting these comics Monthly next year.  I'll also be using these books as possible Submission Material for other Publishers.  Anyway, here's the Poll Results and the Order I'll be Publishing them:

January- FAIRY TALE.  Fairy Tale was tied for the most votes, and also got the most votes earliest, so it will come out first.  I'm currently planning on doing an adaptation of one Grimm's Fairy Tales (preferably one that hasn't been used a lot by other groups).  I'm leaning towards "Snow White & Rose Red", but there's a couple of others I might use instead. 

February- HORROR.  Horror got the same amount of votes as Fairy Tale, but the votes came in later, so it goes second.  Originally I was going to do a story that was a mash-up of an 80s Slasher Movie with H.P. Lovecraft, but I've been watching "Hannibal" lately, so I may try to shoehorn something along that vein into the story as well.  Of course, I have to remember I only have 8 Pages to work with.  Can't get too ambitious.

March-  BIZARRE.  Ah, my Wheelhouse.  "Fear and Loathing" meets "Naked Lunch".

April- SCI-FI.  Thanks to Mei's Double Vote, Sci-fi got bumped up to fourth place.  The idea I'm toying with is the concept of a Space based Society where the Physical Body is no longer necessary and only serves as a Fashion Accessory.

May-  FANTASY.  A fun homage to Dungeons & Dragons style Dungeon Crawls, starring a character I found in an obscure Grimm's Fairy Tale called "Bearskin".  I'm looking forward to this one, presuming I can remember all of this that far away.

June-  PIRATE.  Sadly, Pirate brings up the rear (sorry Steven).  I'm thinking about creating a story themed around the life and times of real life pirate Captain William Kidd.  Except with Giant Sea Serpents and Mystic Powers and absolutely no actual knowledge of sea stuff.  Or how to draw Pirate Ships.

Other than that, the second week into the Game, and I'm already running behind.  That's what I get for being too ambitious with my scoring.  Anyway, I'm down 5 Points, and I'm gonna be pretty busy today, so I'm not liking my odds.  Ce la vie.  Can't win em all.

Oh!  The story that I started in "Cosmic Pulp" will be continued in a full length series that I will use to give me an occasional breather from HFSAC.  I'm very excited about the Alternate Pantheon I've introduced, and I'm curious to see how the War for Saturn will turn out.

Right.  Links:

http://www.torcpress.com/
http://www.torcpress.com/store/
https://www.patreon.com/torcpress?ty=h

TORCTOBER: Last Day of the Polls

It's Friday, so this is our last Quixote Coyote strip for the week.  As usual, Click on the Image to enhance.

I always like drawing pairs of characters, and I always like it when one of the characters speaks in a single word or phrase.  Not sure why.  Also, I have no idea how to draw a weasel, so I just kinda faked it.

Other than that, the TORC Press Next Project Poll Closes today.  Current standings:

Tied for First Place with 3 Votes:  FAIRY TALE & HORROR
Tied for Second Place with 2 Votes:  BIZARRE & SCI-FI
Tied for Third Place with 1 Vote:  FANTASY & PIRATE

Thanks for all of the Votes!  The Poll doesn't close until the end of the day today, so if anyone hasn't voted yet, there's still time.  We've currently got ties across the board, so any votes will completely shake up the polls.