Fun at the Nashville Comic Con and Expo

On September 17, 2013September 17, 2013 By R. PettyIn Random Fun, ReviewsLeave a comment

Some things can’t wait. This post is one of those things.

Instead of a traditional story of the month, we decided to talk about the Nashville Comic Con and Expo we attended this past Saturday, Sept. 14. It was actually our first take pics, spend-lots-of-money con!

Highlights

Robert Englund: I can’t speak for our whole group, but hearing Englund tell stories about shooting the Nightmare on Elm Street movies or share his feelings on the reboot was a real treat. Englund is a cool dude, and he loves the entertainment industry. You can see it in his eyes and hear it in his voice. I was blown away by the number of kids ages 10 and under who stood at the mic and asked him questions about his movies — it just shows that the slasher movie is alive and well. Englund treated every fan with the same respect and gratitude his fans showed him.

Costumes: I admit I was impressed by the costumes people walked around in all day. Sure, there were some standard ones you’d find at a party store, and then there were the costumes. The ones that made you stop and ask for a pic because they were so freaking cool. We all were so inspired by the ones who dressed up, we all decided to dress up for the upcoming Wizard World Comic Con in October!

Ghostbuster — This guy’s costume came complete with lights and sound effects!

The Crowd: Everyone was so unbelievably nice. There was no pushing, no fighting, and no attitude. It was a large group of people who were there to have fun. I did not see one person decline a photo op; it didn’t matter what they were doing at the time. The artists talked to you without pressuring you to buy, and you could walk away with almost anything signed.

Merchandise: One tip: bring cash and lots of it. It was no surprise there were dozens of vendors, but the amount of items they brought with them surprised me. There was SO much cool stuff – and it wasn’t just comic books. We found clothes, figures, games, accessories, artwork, hair bows, posters, weapons, stuffed animals, and almost anything else you can imagine.

My son bought a replica of the Master Sword. It’s almost as big as me.

Raven: Teen Titans print — Awesome Raven from *Teen Titans* print that I framed the next day.

We did miss Maggie and Glen from The Walking Dead, and I would have liked to have stayed for the costume contest, but I can see how the first time can be a little overwhelming. Thousands of people wandered all over the area, and you could easily spend 20-plus minutes at every table browsing through stuff or talking to artists. If you have never been to one, plan to spend at least a few hours there.

If you attended the event, we’d love to hear about your experience, and don’t forget your tickets for Wizard World. Who knows … maybe next year RevPub will have a booth!

100th Post: And Now for a Taste of Things to Come!

On February 6, 2013February 6, 2013 By James CastroIn Art, ProjectsLeave a comment

When Raven and I started RevPub we wanted to have an outlet for all of our random thoughts, opinions, and interests. We love posting our topics every week and find lots of new topics and threads we can follow and share with our readers. Though we enjoy our weekly posts we never lose sight on our true goal, and that is to find a venue for our creative works.

Last October we introduced our first (and for me monumental) publication, Lil Horsemen #1: How Death and War Postponed the Apocalypse, a story I wrote as a teenager finally brought to full-color life as a graphic novel. This was only the beginning of things and we have more Lil Horsemen and other series to come.

This post, as it’s our one-hundredth, I thought it would be a good time to share what we have in store for this year and beyond.

In the Spring/Summer of 2013 we’ll introduce the second adventure of Grimmy and Skirmish in Lil Horsemen #2: The Soulless Shoes. This issue will introduce the other two Lil Horsemen, Smally Pox and Faminista.

(Sorry for the scan quality, I only had access to a consumer scanner this week…)

Below is the first design of Smally Pox!

And Faminista with her lil dog Fam-Fam:

By the end of this year we also hope to introduce the first installment of a continuing, more traditional, graphic novel action series, Bloody Bantam IV. Introducing the gunslinging swordsman character, Bantam IV, aka “Quad the Merciless!” I’m truly excited about this series. I have the story arch planned and this, unlike the random fun of Lil Horsemen, is more of a traditional narrative.

These major projects aren’t all; we also have planned several new post series; a few one-shot comics; at least one more BIG Lil Horsemen adventure and several mini-adventures; new t-shirts and merchandise; and eventually the series to which Revenant Publications owes its namesake…

Here’s to 100 more posts! Thanks for reading!

Lil Horsemen Original Art

On November 7, 2012November 7, 2012 By James CastroIn Art, ProjectsLeave a comment

Thanks to everyone who read RevPub’s very first publication, Lil Horsemen #1: How Death and War Postponed the Apocalypse. I thought I’d share some of the art that went into the creation of the book. All the character art was pencil-drawn and the first issue consisted of more than 55 individual character drawings and dozens of computer-rendered pieces. Seeing as how this is a relatively simple story, it makes me wonder how my more ambitious stories will go!
Here are a couple of my favorites. In the next couple of weeks, while I’m in the planning stages of Issue #2 I’ll post some more of my favorite original pencils from this issue. I absolutely love the way the final issue came out, but I still like to look at the original pencils and see how it all started.
Skirmish ready for a fight!

And Grimmy-Fu!

Lil Horsemen #1: How Death and War Postponed the Apocalypse

On October 31, 2012December 9, 2012 By James CastroIn Art, Projects2 Comments

The two team members of Revenant Publications are proud to present the FIRST issue of our FIRST official publication!
The interface allows you to zoom in, flip pages, and enjoy it better than if it was printed on full glossy paper!

It was a great experience to produce this first issue, and I couldn’t have done it without, Raven Petty, my Revenant Publications partner. Thanks for being my muse and motivation 🙂

And to…

Misty Bach

Brandon Combs

Kathy Lauder

Ron Peaks

Isaiah Petty

Joey Petty

Braxton Shoop

Todd Spainhour

Brad Trombley

Michael Wardlow

Zach West

…without your support and encouragement this project wouldn’t be what it was.

And to all our RevPub readers. I hope this is the beginning of great things!

Things to come! – A Tiny Preview of “Lil’ Horsemen”

On June 6, 2012June 6, 2012 By James CastroIn Art, Projects, Random Fun1 Comment

Big things are in the works at Revenant Publications. Or medium-sized to big things at least. Anyone who saw the Lil Grimmy Reaper & Skirmish post from May 22nd will know the direction we’re headed, and anyone who’s been keeping up with the “Illustrator’s Foray” posts know I’ve been learning the software in a Google+YouTube taught accelerated fashion. I’ve got a couple more tutorials I’ve found (showing various trace and coloring tools) coming up that have helped me immensely, but until then I thought a taste of things to come would be a nice teaser.

I’ve been writing and planning no fewer than three comic series of various sizes, scopes, and complexity since middle school (yeah…s’been a while…) and I’m just now, with the motivation provided by the fairer-half of RevPub, on the cusp of publishing the first one, which will premiere on revenantpublications.com hopefully toward the end of summer or beginning of fall. It’s the first time since I’ve started working on them that I really feel like this will happen and it’s the most exciting creative rush I think I’ve ever had. It’s one thing to have ideas…it’s completely different to actually see your plans, writing, and concepts start to come together. Starting with the project of the least complexity, but potentially the most charm, we’re preparing to publish the graphic novelization of a concept that started with a little story written for sophomore English class in 1996 and came to maturity as a short story I wrote in creative writing class as a high school senior in 1998. This will eventually (hopefully) spread into a simple-paneled comic series published to RevPub with some regularity.

I give you the Lil’ Horsemen logo, as designed in Illustrator using all the tools I’ve learned and figured out on my own over the past two months:

As was mentioned in the May 22nd post. I think of it as”Muppet Babies in Hell” and follows the adventures of the Little Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the youngest children of the real Four Horsemen. It’s a fun, grim series and will hopefully be a taste of more great things to come from Revenant Publications!

Stay tuned!