Each piece is about 3×4″ in watercolor and acrylic, and was made specifically for the Nordguard Card Game earlier this year. You can get more information on the game itself right here!

By the way, Sofawolf Press is having a 20% sale this weekend, until November 26th! It’s a great deal if you’ve been waiting to buy! They have Nordguard: Across Thin Ice in both soft and hard cover, and the Nordguard Card Game is in stock, and makes a great stocking stuffer!

Click here for more info!

In brief:
ComicCon International was amazing, and overwhelming, as always. 150,000 attendees and five days of a convention can have that effect. It was a wonderful week of nerdy shenanigans with friends, buying awesome art, good food, and (of course) late nights drinking all over the town.

Nordguard received a lot of positive feedback again this year, both from new folks who’d never seen the book, and from people who picked it up last year and came by to pick up the free preview of the second book, Under Dark Skies. Competition in the Russ Manning Award for Most Promising Newcomer was stiff, as expected, and while Teagan didn’t win, the honor is in the nomination. Seeing Across Thin Ice up on the Eisner’s screen during the ceremony was pretty awesome. :]

It’s good to be home, however. It’s exciting to see what other people are doing with comics and storytelling, and it only fuels my own wants to make really awesome comics. So, aside from a few projects on the side, that’s what I’ll be trying to do for the next few months.

On the horizon is Rocky Mountain FurCon in August, and then RainFurrest in September, which will be our last two American conventions for the year. In December, we’ll be in Melbourne, Australia, for MidFur!

Speaking of MidFur, I plan on LiveStreaming painting the two badges for Sponsors and Regular Attendees for the convention this Friday evening, around 8PM MST or so. Feel free to follow @screwbald on Twitter to know exactly when the LiveStream will start (and for that matter, all my LiveStreams.)

We’re always excited for CCI, especially this year. In cased you missed it, Teagan Gavet, the author/layout/penciling half, has been nominated for the Russ Manning Award for Most Promising Newcomer for her work on Nordguard: Across Thin Ice. The nomination in itself is a huge honor, and competition is steep, but we’ll be keeping our fingers crossed this Friday at the Eisner Award ceremony when the winner of the Manning award will be announced.

Where We’ll Be:

Every day of the convention, you’ll be able to find us sporadically at theSofawolf Press booth #1236 (which is in the Webcomics section of the dealer’s room.) Sofawolf Press will have Across Thin Ice, free 8-page previews of the second Nordguard book (Under Dark Skies), the Nordguard Card Game, copies of Dog’s Days of Summer, Art of Kenket books, plus all of their new summer releases and the bulk of their full catalog! Come check it out!

We are more than happy to sign any of our books, so feel free to watch@screwbald on Twitter to know when we’ll be at the Sofawolf Press booth! You can also follow @sofawolfpress on Twitter to find out when other Sofawolf creative will be on hand to sign books, such as Kyell Gold, Lynn Hogan (author/artist of Prydwen), Mandi Tremblay (author/artist of Peachy Keen,) and Kamui, the cover artist for many of Sofawolf’s publications.

Free Stuff:

Aside from the free 8-page preview of the next Nordguard book, Under Dark Skies, Sofawolf will be giving out different buttons on different days of the convention, featuring either Pi, London, Nickel from Nordguard, or Diego and Bayshore from Dog’s Days! Supplies will be limited, so stop by or follow @sofawolfpress for the heads up on free stuff!
There’s also going to be a free preview of Spain Fischer’s upcoming comic, Caterwall!

Also, when we’re at the Sofawolf table to sign, we will be giving out a special, collector card for the Nordguard Card Game, the “White Bear!” event card! This card is not included in the original decks, and this will be it’s first release! If you are unable to get one from us at CCI, we’ll have some with us at other conventions throughout this year and the next!

So, once again, feel free to follow us @screwbald on Twitter to know when we’re signing/giving out stuff!

Have a great week!

Cheers,
-Blotch

It’s really exciting, I can’t even. Wow. I get a grin ear to ear whenever I think about it! 25 top comic creators, film producers and other industry folk judge the awards, and will see and read our book. Just that alone is awesome. Being nominated and recognized for the story telling and layout of the book is a real honor to me.

The awards are given at the Eisner Awards ceremony in July at ComicCon International in San Diego… so, wish me luck!

With that bit of awesome news, it’s back to the comic-mines, and more work on Nordguard book two, Under Dark Skies!

The book will pick up right where Across Thin Ice left off, and if everything goes to plan, will be out in 2013. According to the current rough layouts, it will be a little bit longer than Across Thin Ice, and in the neighborhood of 80-85 pages.

You’ll be able to pick up a free 8 page preview of Under Dark Skies at AnthroCon in June, and of course ComicCon in San Diego, as well as all the other conventions that Sofawolf Press attends!

Here’s the cover for the preview, as well as the first two pages of the teaser!

And that brings us to…

Thank you, you guys are awesome!

It’s been really great to hear from people who’ve walked to comic book shops in New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, London, Amsterdam, Helsinki, Melbourne—even Cape Town—to find Across Thin Ice on the shelves!

A huge part of that is because people have asked their local stores to carry it. Creator-owned comics are underdogs in the comic market, and it’s really difficult to make even the slightest impact. You guys have really helped however, by taking the initiative to ask for the comic, talking about it, and getting stores to keep copies on their shelves. So, thank you all so much for the support, for helping spreading the word, and your continued effort to! Every book that sells helps us to keep making more comics, and more artwork.

It’s been a pretty good first year for the Nordguard. That is to say, we can afford to eat, buy beer, and pick up enough paint and paper to launch right into work on the next book! So far this year, we have been pretty busy working on Under Dark Skies, and the summer promises the same.

Telling stories on paper with pen and paint is not just something we love to do; it’s really something we have to do. Art is such a huge part of our lives, there would almost be no life without it. Being able to work at something we love every day, and challenge ourselves with it, and create things which people enjoy is… honestly, really amazing.

Thank you guys so much for enjoying the work we put out, your kind comments, and your support.
You rock, you really do. :]

Now, it’s time to get back to the paint-and-paper mines!

  

  

Here’s three cards we made earlier this year for the Nordguard Card Game, “Shortcut,” “London,” and “Raiders!” respectively.

The originals are small, each about 3×4, in watercolor and acrylic.
You can see a sped-up recording of painting the London card right here!

This is also a reminder for those that might have missed it–the Nordguard Card Game will come in two editions, Standard and Deluxe. While the standard decks will likely be around for a while, there is a very limited and finite number of the Deluxe sets. Here’s more information on the differences, and how to get your hands on a Deluxe set, starting tomorrow!

Pre-Orders for the Nordguard Card Game, as well as the return of Across Thin Ice hardcovers, start tomorrow (May 26th) at 10AM Central time (That’s Chicago time!)

NORDGUARD CARD GAME

The Nordguard Card Game is being released in two editions: Standard ($14.95) and Deluxe ($24.95). Both editions contain the full 130 card deck, which features a ton of new artwork created for the game, and 4 custom six-sided dice etched with the Nordguard logo. The Deluxe edition adds 4 extra dice (for faster game play,) a metallic Nordguard collector’s coin, in a black canvas belt-pouch screen-printed with the Nordguard logo, signed and numbered by everyone who worked on the game!

Click Here for Standard Edition Pre-Order, and Here for the Deluxe!

While the standard sets will probably be around and readily available for a while, there will be an extremely limited number of Deluxe editions. Once the Deluxe editions are gone, that is it! If you want to get your hand on one, you have the following opportunities:

#1 – Sofawolf Press will be put 1/4 of the Deluxe edition (approximately 50) up for pre-orders on Saturday, May 26th at 10AM Central Time (the Chicago time-zone.) Once they are sold out, there will be no more deluxe editions available online until after AnthroCon (see #3 below.)

#2 – Sofawolf will have 1/4 of the deluxe decks (again, about 50) for sale at AnthroCon in Pittsburgh, PA the weekend of June 15-17. As in the past, they will split these roughly into three equal groups to be released each day of the convention, when the Dealer’s Room opens in the morning. (So, if you miss out one morning, you can try again the next.)

#3 – Sofawolf will have another batch available online shortly after AnthroCon. They will release these on Saturday June 23rd at 10PM Central Time. Once this batch of Deluxe sets sells out, they will not have any more available online.

#4 – Lastly, the remaining few decks will be available in very limited numbers at conventions through the year, for as long as they last. (Sofawolf will definitely have some for sale at ComicCon International in San Diego, however!)

ACROSS THIN ICE: HARDCOVERS

Secondly, something I know a few people have been eagerly waiting for–Sofawolf Press has ordered a second printing of the Nordguard: Across Thin Ice hard cover books! They sold out really fast last time around, so if you missed out last year, now’s your chance!

Click Here for Across Thin Ice Hardcover Pre-Order!

Once again, pre-orders will begin this Saturday (May 26th) at 10AM Central! Check out the Sofawolf Press site for the full pre-order announcement, and to see all the new summer titles available for pre-order, such as Heat #9, Flight of the Godkin Griffin, and The Blood Jaguar!

“Stray”

This was a piece painted a couple of weeks ago, for the Nordguard Card Game. Specifically, it’s one of the “Stray Territory” location cards, featuring a stray Maguruq who thinks you would be tasty to eat.

While the majority of the original artwork for the game is about 3×4″, we liked the thumbnail sketch of this one enough to page it a bit larger. The original is about 8×10, watercolors and acrylic.

Here is the original sketch, and some work-in-progress photographs:

The first step, aside from stretching the paper, is to add masking fluid to the foreground rocks/skull. (I use Winsor&Newton brand masking fluid.)

I also recorded a video of the painting on LiveStream. I’ve sped it up and edited it a bit:

The original is small, about 3×4, in watercolor and acrylic.

Over the years, a couple people have asked where Pi got her name. Pi is actually a nick name (her real name comes up in the next book, actually…) There’s two stories behind how she got the nickname–one, being that she’s black and white and it’s short for piebald. The other is a slightly longer story from her days of basic training. In searching for an object buried in the snow, she stumbled and tripped, landing directly on the target. She set a new record time of 3.14, hence, the nickname “Pi.”

This is the fandom’s own award, and this is your chance to vote for your favorites from 2011!

The voting procedure is simple, and you have until May 4th to cast your ballot!

I’m happy to say that Nordguard: Across Thin Ice has been nominated in the “Best Other Literary Work” category.

In the “Best Published Illustration” category, I actually have two pieces nominated– both the cover for Across Thin Ice, and Isolation Play!

Thanks for the vote, and don’t forget to check out the Recommended Reading list from 2011! There’s a lot of good stuff on there!