Monsterplex

AND NOW...MONSTERPLEX PAGE 18...AND 19 AND 20 (sort of)!

2010-09-09T00:00:00.001-04:00

Annnnnd...that's all, folks! I know that's a horrible, horrible place to stop. No cliffhanger, no nothing. So, let me give you a little more. Here's the pages I had scripted that David never got a chance to draw:

Page 19-

1- Lina out from behind the podium and walking in front of the staff. She’s on the left side of the panel. In the foreground of the panel, in the right side, we see Bitsy and Ken. Ken is stretching (as if he’s yawning—he’s trying to do the cheesy move of putting his arm around Bitsy)

LINA

You shouldn’t see

me or the Ishiro Corp.

as your enemy.

We’re here to help.

KEN

Yawn!

2- Ken now has his arm wrapped around Bitsy’s shoulders.

LINA (from off-panel)

It has been many

years since Corman

Cinemas turned

a profit.

3- Bitsy pushes Ken’s hand off of her.

LINA (from off-panel)

I believe that by

thinking outside of

the box that can

change.

4- Bitsy punches Ken in the stomach and he doubles over in pain. A worm flies out of his mouth.

LINA (from off-panel)

Together, we

can turn things around.

5- On Lina. An angled-up shot on her face. Think Hitler and Citizen Kane. A real dictator-like shot.

LINA

There’s an obvious

revenue stream that Corman

has never tapped into.

Here this now:

Size. Matters.

I think it’s time for

Corman Cinemas to

start showing high profit

Giant Monster

Movies.

6- Ryan is up out of his chair. He can’t believe what he’s hearing. The glasses on his head are about to fly off. Priscilla next to him is surprised and recoiling.

RYAN

WHAT!?!?

Page 20-

1- Medium on Ryan still out of his chair and shouting. He tosses aside his sunglasses angrily.

RYAN

Lady, are you off

your nut?

You can’t show Giant Monster

Movies in here!

2- Medium shot on Lina. She’s smallish in the panel.

LINA

And why not?

3- Ryan making his way down the aisle towards Lina. He’s clearly upset. The other employees watch with fear and shock as he walks by.

RYAN

Do you have any idea

what would happen if a giant

lizard or ape came through

the portal?

They’d tear this place

apart in minutes!

4- Lina and Ryan now face-to-face. It’s a stare down. (Not a profile shot though. Let’s find another approach.)

LINA

That won’t be a problem.

RYAN

How do you figure?

LINA

We’ll simply show

the movies without

the monsters present.

5- Ryan looks like he’s going to pop a vessel on his forhead.

RYAN

“Show the movies

without the…”

6- Lower on Ryan now, and looking past him to Ken with Sludge right behind him.

KEN

Go to your happy

place, boss.

Imagine

Sludge going

down the toilet.

SLUDGE

Hey!

And that's truly all that was scripted. In then next several pages you would have seen Lina trying to enforce her rules even while all the Corman employees appealed to Ryan to "do something about this." Then, the worst possible thing was going to happen. Aunt Ant was going to make a run for it and escape Corman Cinemas. Lina then would have split everyone up into teams. She and Cooper would go east and Ryan, Priscilla and Wolf would have gone west. Bitsy and Ken would have stayed behind to "mind the store" and make sure Sludge stays out of trouble. The stakes were gonna get high--we were going to learn from Cooper that a monster escaping had only happened one other time before, during 1970's. That monster's name? Well, we knew him as the Zodiac Killer.

Needless to say...Season One of Monsterplex was not going to end well for one of the staff.

But the hunt and its consequences were all in the second half of the Season...which you, for the time being, will not be seeing. Will there be more MONSTERPLEX? I still don't know. There wasn't a huge response to these pages and traffic was low, which tells me that if we were to start MP back up then there would be a lot of work to be done not only in production, but also, just like any other webcomic, in getting the word out and promoting it. Without the Zuda Machine behind us, it would be tough going.

I said after we won that it felt like I was suddenly living in my own alternate reality. I was a surreal--and good--feeling. Maybe there's another reality where the contract wasn't pulled away from us and all of our plans got to come to pass.

A big shout out to my co-conspirators, artist David Schlotterback and colorist Michael DeVito. They did the kind of work I was so proud of and so excited to share with all of you.

A hearty thanks to all of you for your support and enthusiasm. That's the thing I take away from this in the end--all the goodwill that rose up in our favor and the time and effort you all put into it for no other reason than you liked what we were doing. It was tremendous.

-Brock

P.S. I can always be found doing my thing over at superfogeys.com. Hope to see you there.

AND NOW...MONSTERPLEX PAGE 17!

2010-09-08T00:00:00.002-04:00

Hey Everyone,

I want to thank everyone who has taken the time to comment. Some of you are really enthusiastic about MONSTERPLEX and that's great to see. Would be nice if there were more of you...but this is a burn-off so I suppose I can't expect too much.

More tomorrow!

-Brock

AND NOW...MONSTERPLEX PAGE 16!

2010-09-07T00:00:00.000-04:00

AND NOW...MONSTERPLEX PAGE 15!

2010-09-06T00:00:00.000-04:00

AND NOW...MONSTERPLEX PAGE 14!

2010-09-03T00:00:00.003-04:00

(Click to embiggen!)

How great is David at designing monsters? I love this page.

AND NOW...MONSTERPLEX PAGE 13!

2010-09-02T00:00:00.001-04:00

(Click to embiggen!)

If any page suffers from a lack of color, it might be this one. I think the air of mystery is there, but it would have been cool to see this one with the dark tones that were originally intended. Still, I love the detail in Dave's art here. This is one you really need to click on and see bigger. No doubt about it--this was Ryan's office!

In non-MONSTERPLEX news, SuperFogeys Chapter 10, Bubbles of Light starts today. This is the strip I both write AND draw. It's a great jumping on point.

More tomorrow.

-Brock

AND NOW...MONSTERPLEX PAGE 12!

2010-09-01T00:00:00.002-04:00

(Click to embiggen!)

All the MONSTERPLEX pages from here on out will be in black and white. Better that than nothing, right? And besides, I think Dave's pages hold up well in black and white.

This page and the last set up the two little romances I was gonna be playing with over the course of our woulda'-been first season. This is the first and last taste of the Ken/Bitsy relationship that you'll be getting for now. Shame, that. Their story was my favorite thing of everything we had planned.

Well, that and the plans I had for Aunt Ant.

More missed opportunities revealed tomorrow!

-Brock

AND NOW...MONSTERPLEX PAGE 11!

2010-08-31T00:00:00.001-04:00

(Click on the image to embiggen!)

Welcome to page 11! Those of you that are taking the time to comment and let us know what you think, we thank you. We worked hard on these pages and hope you dig where the story is heading. Remember, Monsterplex is not continuing past page 18 (for now), so please enjoy these with that in mind.

If you are looking for a continuing story written by me and drawn by someone far better, you could do a lot worse than the Spy Gal origin that starts today over at my primary webcomic, The SuperFogeys.

More tomorrow.

-Brock

AND NOW...MONSTERPLEX PAGE 10!

2010-08-30T00:00:00.003-04:00

(Click to embiggen!)

Welcome back and happy Monday! You'll notice that this is the first MONSTERPLEX page in black and white. The MP Team was going full steam ahead on production until the editors at Zuda told us to stop and wait until they could take a look at our plans for the story. Which they never did. I had it ready to go, my outline was ready--but they wouldn't look at it. And then everything fell apart.

As it stood at the time of stopping, we had 10 pages inked and lettered and only two of those pages were colored (the next colored page is tomorrow). We hope you can enjoy the uncolored pages anyway as they will at least give you an idea of what we were up to.

If you get a chance, please do leave a comment. We're partly using this unveiling to gauge just how much interest there still is out there for MONSTERPLEX and we'd appreciate you letting us know what you think of the new pages.

More tomorrow!

-Brock

AND NOW...MONSTERPLEX PAGE 9!

2010-08-27T00:01:00.002-04:00

(Click to make it bigger!)

This is it, the first MONSTERPLEX page since February, 2010! Now you finally get to see where we were taking this thing. My team is watching and we would most definitely appreciate your feedback.

For those of you who still have questions about Zuda shutting down and letting us go, I recently did a VERY candid interview with Tom Racine over at Tall Tale Radio about the shut down, the money involved and why I think Zuda failed. It's an interesting listen and it's actually the back half of an interview primarily about the big, BIG things happening in my first webcomic, The SuperFogeys, right now. Give it a listen here!

Don't forget! We're posting one new MONSTERPLEX page every weekday until we run out. More on Monday!

-Brock

AND NOW...THE COMPLETE MONSTERPLEX

2010-08-26T13:30:00.000-04:00

Hey ladies and gents,

So. I've been trying for weeks now to create a bare bones site to host the MONSTERPLEX pages on and, logistically, it's just not happening. So, since you're all familiar with this blog already, I figured why not post them here? It's not the easiest way to browse through the pages, but it's better than nothing, right?

And nothing is about all we have right now besides this. At this time, no decision has been made as to whether or not MONSTERPLEX will continue. Sorry to be so lame, but that's the truth. I can tell you though that the entire team is anxious to see what you think of these pages!

Here's how this is gonna work. Today you get the 8 pages you've all already seen. Then, starting tomorrow, I'll be posting one new page every weekday until I run out. That's right, RUN OUT. The MONSTERPLEX team (myself, artist David Schlotterback and colorist Michael DeVito) only produced 10 pages of MONSTERPLEX that you've never seen (in various stages of completion--more on that on Monday). We had great plans for stuff after those 10 pages, but, well, you all know how that went.

And now...the first 8! (Click on the page to make it bigger, as always.)

More tomorrow!

-Brock

UPDATE ON WHEN AND HOW YOU CAN SEE MORE MONSTERPLEX

2010-07-19T12:25:00.000-04:00

My plan was to start posting the new Monsterplex pages today. We now have the rights back and there's nothing to stop us from showing you the 8 pages you're already familiar with, plus the 10 mostly completed additional pages you've never seen.

Then, over the weekend, I got to thinking that this blog wasn't really the best place for that. I talked it over with colorist Mike DeVito and he agreed to set up a temp site over at www.th3rdworld.com so the pages can be read and accessed easily. Mike is one of the co-publishers of Th3rd World Studios (which also publishes The Stuff of Legend, Space Doubles, Pinkerton and, of course, The SuperFogeys), so it's not really a big trick to get this done in a hurry.

The problem is the San Diego Comic-Con. Until the Con is over, this isn't happening. There's just too much to do.

So, I'm going to ask for just a little more patience. Once the new Monsterplex site goes live, I'll be able to post commentaries to each strip and you'll be able to leave comments, page easily through the archive, etc. It's going to look at lot like this.

For now, www.monsterplex.com still takes you to Zuda. When the new Monsterplex site is ready, it'll take you to there. Bookmark now if you haven't already!

Update on the San Diego Comic-Con: I will now not only be packin' some SuperFogeys trades to sell, but I'll also have some brand spankin' new SuperFogeys bookmarks to hand out. Cool, right? If you can find me, hit me up for one and I'll gladly oblige. Or you can find me at the panel on Digital Comics in Room 7AB on Friday at 11:30am.

Thanks for everyone's support lately. Your faith in us and MP is tremendous.

More later.

Brock

COMIC-CON APPEARANCE!

2010-07-12T18:09:00.000-04:00

Before Zuda went belly up, Mike, David and I were all looking foward to this year's San Diego Comic-Con and spending some quality time at the Zuda booth inside the DC booth on the main floor. I remember going last year and saying high to some of the Zuda creators and feeling envious and thinking "Next year, that's gonna be me..."

And then...it was!

And then it wasn't.

Still, the plans were all made and the tickets were secured a long time ago so all three of us will still be going to Comic-Con, we just won't really have anywhere to sit. Not over at the DC Booth anyway.

However...on Friday morning I will be putting in an appearance at the Digital Comics panel! Check it out:

11:30-1:00, Friday July 23rd Comics Arts Conference Session #6: Digital Comics— Nick Langley (Rocket Llama) gives a brief history of webcomics and evaluates online economic experiments from subscriptions to micropayments. Neil Granitz and Steven Chen (CSU Fullerton) examines consumer attitudes toward comic book digitization and argues that comics could enjoy a period of technological convergence due to the hedonic qualities enjoyed by readers. David B. Olsen (Saint Louis University) explores the implications of moving comics from the page to the screen and considers the ways in which print comics have always been multimedia. Room 26AB

Reason you don't see my name up there is because I'm such a late addition. Nick Langley of Rocket Llama asked me to participate with him in the first part of panel dealing with the economics of webcomics. I think it's fair to say I was asked to help out based on my Zuda experience. I've been told there will be a Q&A portion, so if you're gonna be there...bring it. If nothing else, stop by and say hi.

Also, I'll have a limited supply of SuperFogeys Vol. 1 (created, written and drawn by me--yes, the writer can draw) for sale if anyone is interested. (No hard sale here, they'll be in my bag unless you ask.)

Hope to see you there!

More later.

Brock

GETTING OUR RIGHTS BACK and WHAT ABOUT PAGES 9-18?

2010-07-07T17:05:00.001-04:00

I'm pleased to report that we are now in active negotiations with Zuda for getting the rights to Monsterplex back. Given the terms we've already been discussing, I don't see anything that will prevent us from having full ownership of Monsterplex very, very soon. There will come a time when I can discuss the details and terms of the negotiation, but that time is not quite here.

One of the first things I did once negotiations began was to express my anger and frustration at not being able to continue Monsterplex as per our contract. It felt good to say that out loud, but I was also quick to point out that what I'm feeling isn't really directed towards anybody. I think that, as far as Zuda goes, there was no one who wanted to see things go this way with the site shutting down and so many creators set adrift. I'm not even entirely sure that those who remain--from the creators to Zuda Editorial--think that this Zuda 2.0 (folding the Zuda titles into the DC Digital Initiative) is at all an improvement. They very well may, but I can't agree with that in the least. Zuda, effectively, no longer exists. Now that I know we're getting our rights to Monsterplex back, I'm almost glad we weren't chosen to move on to Zuda 2.0. Almost. I'm getting there.

Speaking of being chosen, I found out why we weren't. It has been made clear to me that quality and talent truly WAS NOT part of the equation. I must say, I had my doubts. I had been feeling like the rejection of Monsterplex was truly a rejection--that we were simply deemed not good enough to continue. I imagined a scenario in which Zuda Editorial sat around, looked at what they had with Monsterplex, and declared, "These pages suck." Turns out, that's not true.

The real criteria for choosing which titles made it into Zuda 2.0 had entirely to do with where the comics were in their life cycle. Comics with a significant number of screens (pages) were chosen to move on, and those that didn't have that, weren't. This means that every winner from this year, including us, was let go, and a number of winners from last year as well. Don't ask me the exact titles because I don't know; that's just he basic criteria. In a lot of ways, this makes me feel better. We're all feeling less rejected now.

So, what now Monsterplex? Mike, Dave and I are exploring our options. I'll report more on that when I can. However, I will tell you that we've reached a decision about the 10 additional pages that we created that you haven't seen yet:

We're gonna show them to you.

As soon as negotiations are completed, I'll be posting the initial eight pages all together. Then, in the next 10 weekdays afterwards, I'll post the rest of the pages one at a time, bringing you right through page 18. You'll finally get a good sense of where we were heading with this thing and I can't wait to see what you guys think.

So, that's something to look forward to at least. Does this mean that Monsterplex as a comic will continue past those 18 pages? Nope. It doesn't mean anything, really. This will simply be our gift to you for fighting the good fight back in January and for being so patient all these months.

More later.

-Brock

ZUDA POST MORTEM ROUNDTABLE

2010-07-02T11:54:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, David Harper of Multiversity Comics interview myself and a bunch of other Zuda creators about the demise of Zuda as we know it and what's next. Participating in the article are creators who are both sticking with Zuda and those who, like myself, were kicked to the curb.

You can read the entire article here.

I think I come off as a bit of Grumpy Gus when compared to the others, but that certainly was not my intention. I was just doing my best to be honest about my feelings and perceptions. See what you think at the link!

In other news, Mike, David and I talked for the first time yesterday about the possibility of continuing Monsterplex in the wake of what's happened. A lot of pros and con were tossed around, but one thing we all agreed on was that none of us are in a place, emotionally, where we can make this decision this week. So, the discussion has been officially tabled...for now.

Thanks to everyone for the outpouring of support and love in the past 24 hours. The response has been encouraging and showed me that everyone who was with us back in February is still with us now.

More later,
Brock

MONSTERPLEX IS DEAD, LONG LIVE MONSTERPLEX

2010-07-01T12:43:00.001-04:00

The news has traveled fast and is more or less official, so let it be known: MONSTERPLEX is dead.

Zuda Comics announced today that it would be shutting down its website and that some titles would be moving over to DC Comics' digital initiatives. Sadly, MONSTERPLEX is not one of them. Safe to say that MONSTERPLEX never quite proved itself to be a viable property for the company. Of course, it never really got the chance to either.

That's the one consolation in all of this, the thing that makes it a little less personal: we never got a chance to prove what we could do. I don't see this as a rejection of my team's talents or abilities. We had great stuff planned and it never saw the light of day. Would we have been wildly successful if we had had that chance? Well, duh. Why not? It's my alternate possible future, I'm saying 2012 would have seen the debut of the MONSTERPLEX animated series!

My feelings are pretty raw right now. I'm sorely, sorely disappointed and saddened. Winning Zuda and signing a contract with DC Comics was the fulfillment of a dream. It honestly didn't seem real. Heh.

My heart goes out to all the other Zuda creators and Zuda Editorial. I know this change isn't what any of us wanted. Here's hoping we all land in a better place.

So, what now, MONSTERPLEX? The big question everyone has been asking me since the news broke is: Who has the rights? The short answer is DC Comics. Is that the way it's gonna stay? That's something that will be determined soon. It's certainly the next, most important item on mine and Zuda's agenda. Until that question is settled, you won't be seeing MONSTERPLEX anywhere.

A lot of people have already told me how much they were looking forward to seeing where the MONSTERPLEX story was heading. Me too. David and Mike and I worked well beyond the 8 pages you saw. 10 additional pages are scripted and drawn, and three of those pages are colored. Additionally, the entire first season of MONSTERPLEX - 60 pages! - have been outlined and detailed plans were made for what comes after that. If nothing else, I'll share those plans with all of you at some point. You deserve to know what could have been. Let me tell you though: it's friggin' awesome.

I simply must take this opportunity to thank my co-conspirators, artist David Schlotterback and colorist Michael DeVito. These two guys are class acts and they made the creation of this comic a real pleasure. Will we continue working together on it if we get the rights back? I'm not even in a place where I can begin to answer that question, but I know that if we do it will be a blast. Because it's all about who you let into your life, and these guys are among the very best I've ever known.

I also want to thank all of you who supported, voted and have been rooting for us. The love that was thrown our way during the competition was incredible. We couldn't have won without you. At the end of the day, we'll always have that. I'm just so sorry that we couldn't make good on the promise of our win.

The future is a funny thing. Every time I've suffered a setback or a disappointment or a tragedy in my life, it's always been as a precursor to something great. I look forward to seeing what comes next. All this really means is that there's great stuff ahead.

For the time being, the best place to find news on MONSTERPLEX is right here in this blog. I'll be updating it further as I have news to share. And, just because I can get away with it today and no one will fault me, you can always follow my other comic, The SuperFogeys, which updates every Tuesday and Thursday. I post great comics and more general news on that site.

Thanks again everyone for all the support and love! I know Mike, Dave and myself will be following this blog today, so if you have any questions or declarations of love, you can pass them along in the comments.

More later,
Brock

P.S. Before all this went down, all three of us were planning to attend the San Diego Comic Con and spend some time in the DC Booth. I can't imagine you'll be seeing us in the booth, but you can bet we'll still be roaming the halls of San Diego. If you see us there, say hi. We'll be the ones with the DC badges with nowhere to sit!

WHERE'S MONSTERPLEX?

2010-05-10T17:59:00.000-04:00

It seems like not a day goes by that someone doesn't ask me "Where's Monsterplex?"

I mean, we won the Zuda competition back in February, right? That was almost 3 months ago! Does it really take that long to produce new pages? "Hey," I hear you saying. "Aren't we supposed to get a new page a week?"

To answer those questions in order: yes, no and yes.

Typically, after a comic has won a Zuda competition, there is somewhat of a delay between the win and the official launch the comic. How much of a delay can vary and from talking with my fellow Zuda winners it seems that 3-5 months is not unusual.

I can tell you that David, Mike and myself are all ready to go just as soon as it's the right time. We've made some big plans for the remainder of the first season (the next 52 pages you're GUARANTEED to see) and as soon as we get a chance to get together with Zuda Editorial to discuss those plans it won't be too long afterwards that you'll see the official Monsterplex launch.

In short: it's coming. It's coming.

IN OTHER ZUDA NEWS
Did you hear the monthly competitions have ended? It's true. April was the last regular Zuda competition. Now, that doesn't mean that you won't be seeing new talent on Zuda anymore. Far from it. While the new submission guidelines have yet to be released, my understanding is that new submissions will be reviewed by editorial for a possible "Instant Win." Basically, some good comics have slipped through the cracks with the voting system and now Zuda will be determining for itself which comics make the cut.

I'm a little sad to see the voting disappear and all the fan participation that went with it, but this is kind of exciting. I don't know what this means for Zuda's future or what, if anything, this means for Monsterplex. I'll say this though: February of 2010 was one of the most stressful months of my life! To make it through that with a win...well, we were in rare company before. Now that there's a finite number of us, I feel like we need badges or something.

Stinking badges, preferably.

FROM THE VAULT
Can't leave you on that note. I want to resume the behind-the-scenes blogs soon, but I thought it would be best to wait on that until I know exactly when Monsterplex will be back. Still, I don't want to be too stingy so here's a unique little artifact from the production notebook:

One of the early challenges David had when drawing the first 8 pages of Monsterplex was trying to figure out what Corman Cinemas looked like and where the action was taking place within it. Since in my head Corman looked just like the movie theater I worked at back in college (which has, sadly, since closed down), it was easy enough for me to draw a crude (VERY crude) map of the place. I showed David, using my fingers, where the action was taking place and where the various characters were on any given page.

Dave took that instruction one step further by then color-coding the action on each page onto different layers in Photoshop, making it easy to see what was going on and how people and monsters were getting from one place to another. The above drawing is with all of those layers turned on.

Thanks to those of you that are keeping the Monsterplex flame going strong. Never stop asking me when it's coming back. One of these days...I'm gonna say a date instead of "I don't know." Count on it.

MUCH more later.

-Brock

THE FIRST CHECK!

2010-03-24T13:33:00.001-04:00

So, this is a banner day. Or rather yesterday was. We got our first Monsterplex check from DC Comics! This stuff just got real.

This is the check that we got just for being in the competition--all the competitors got one just like it. Check it out, it even came in an official DC envelope! (In my head, I imagine our mail carrier--a devout comics fan, no doubt--looking at the envelope and saying to him/herself, "Lucky.")

The best part? There's more checks to come! Thanks again to everyone for their support. Today the dream was fulfilled just a little more.

More later.

Brock

FROM SCRIPT TO PAGE: PAGE 5

2010-03-23T19:14:00.000-04:00

Hey everybody!

Sorry all has been quiet on the Monsterplex front lately. We're working hard to get new pages to you as soon as possible and as soon as I know when that will happen, I'll let you know. Right now, our contracts are signed and mailed and we should be hearing from Zuda Editorial any day now. That's when the real work will begin.

For now, let's look back again the first 8 pages. This time, page 5. First, the script:

Page 5-

1- Ryan helping Lina up, who is none too pleased.

RYAN
You mean you don’t
know?

LINA (coldly)
Why don’t you
explain it to me?

2- Ryan escorting Lucy and Lina through the theater. Ryan is sweating bullets. We see some beetles crawling on the wall nearby. This is the mighty exposition panel. Panel doesn’t need to be very large, but I need some space for the dialogue.

RYAN
Happy to oblige!

Here at Corman Cinemas
we cater to a very specific,
thrill-seeking clientele.

We pride ourselves on
the chillingly authentic experience
only we can provide.

We don’t just exhibit
monster movies, we show
you real monsters!

3- This is the showcase of this page. Panel 3 is really a series of 4 panels as Ryan and the ladies walk by the four posters outlined below. The posters themselves are free-floating on the page, like panels. Ryan, Lina and Lucy walk by the posters. (See SuperFogeys 45 from Chapter 2 to see how I did a similar thing—though I would not recommend going full body shots on our trio, from about the chest up should do it.)

panel a – “It Came From the Back Nine” – Show the swamp monster from page 4 terrorizing golfers. Tagline: They Never Should Have Gotten a Hole-in-One.

panel b – “Aunt Attack” – Show aunt wielding a knife and scaring kids. Tagline: Where’s the Fun Uncle When You Need Him?

panel c – “Beetles in the Breadbasket” – Show Beetles spilling out of breadbasket on fine restaurant table, much to the horror of the couple in formal wear sitting there. Tagline: Shh! This is One Ingredient That Should Stay Secret!

panel d – “Vampire Love Boat” – Show a Titanic Poster spoof with Vampires. Tagline: Love. Blood. Boat.

RYAN
Imagine watching a vampire
on screen, even as you avoid
him in the aisles!

At Corman Cinemas
we import monsters
of only the highest quality from
the lowest of dimensions.

Our mission is to turn your
hair white with fright, all
within a safe and controlled
environment!

LINA
Controlled!?
I ate a bug!

4- Ryan and the ladies at the door to “Vampire Love Boat.” Ryan is reaching for the door, as though he is about to open it. Let’s be sure and see the marquee above the door or the poster or something, if possible.

RYAN
Yes, well, I won’t say we
haven’t had some…issues
lately.

No worries!
Our staff is well-trained and
I doubt we’ll be seeing
any more trouble today!

5- Same as 4, but now the door has flown open and a stream of vampires is rushing out of the auditorium, completely obscuring our view of Ryan and the ladies. Vamps shouldn’t be in tuxedos, ala Dracula. Should be more pedestrian looking. Like a modern gang with fangs, pointed ears and the same reversed-out look to their eyes that Priscilla has.

This first layout was a little boring. This was back when Dave was still doing his own layouts (now we do them together) and I felt like, on this first pass, there was a more dynamic way to present the posters.

This page was a real butt-kicker. Not only was it unconventional, but each of the posters had to be designed individually. Easy to script, but lots of work for both Mike and Dave.

That did it. Just putting the posters slightly askew made it feel more like the trio was walking in an abstract space instead of past a boring wall. It gave Ryan's monologue kind of a "montage feel." I really liked that.

Here Dave is fleshing out his layout. It always amazes me how rough his pencils are in light of how exacting the inks are. Here, see for yourself:

Pretty nice, huh? Dave's inks always blow me away. You'll see the posters have been dropped in now as well. Dave does a great job with those. We need to make more! For the record, the one Ryan is covering up is called "Beetles in the Bread Basket."

More later.

Brock

SWAMPY FAN ART BY JAMES LEE!

2010-03-15T13:08:00.000-04:00

Morning, all! I've been lax on updating this blog the past couple weeks (trying to give you all a break), but I'm hoping to fix that this week. There's still lots of production sketches and "From Script to Pages" to share with you.

Today's fan art comes to us from James Lee over on Deviant Art! Check out Swampy:

Pretty sweet, huh?

More later.

-Brock

MONSTERPLEX FAN ART BY BRIAN ANDERSON!

2010-03-08T12:32:00.000-05:00

Man, have I got a sweet piece for you this morning. Brian Anderson is the powerhouse cartoonist behind the adorable, family-friendly (and really, really good) syndicated cartoon strip, Dog Eat Doug. This is important to understand, because that fact will make this fan art all the more shocking:

Brian is a HUGE Zuda junkie and jumped on the MONSTERPLEX bandwagon immediately. Brian and I also founding members of Tall Tale Features, an online cartoonist collective that is worth your valuable time to check out.

And don't forget to check out Dog Eat Doug! It's hilarious.

More later.

-Brock

NEW, POST-WIN MONSTERPLEX INTERVIEW!

2010-03-03T13:11:00.001-05:00

Morning, all! I've got something really special for you today. This latest Monsterplex interview really dives into what's coming up next in the MP story. I also reveal what I believe are the two most important things for any creator just starting out to keep in mind.

Big thanks to David Harper at Multiversity Comics for this great in-depth discussion!

Here's a teaser:

David Harper: While we've seen plenty of monsters so far, are we continously see new classic movie monsters shuffle in and out of the title (as allowed by copyrights of course)?

Brock Heasley: Heh. Yeah, that's something we have to be careful. We get around it by being real general in our designs. Our Swamp Monster doesn't look anything like the Swamp Thing, for example. And our vampires don't sparkle. You'll see a lot of monsters pop up here and there, some that you'll recognize and some that are entirely new creations of artist David Schlotterback.

Read more here!

More later.

-Brock

A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM CAMI

2010-03-01T12:09:00.000-05:00

Morning, all! Well, it's been a few days and I think it's fair to say I've settled down a little after our win, but I'm still completely pumped. It's just that now...now I realize how much work I have ahead of me! All fun stuff though.

Been thinking a lot about what to do with this blog between now and our official launch on Zuda (most likely about 2-3 months from now). I don't want to lose our momentum so expect regular progress reports, artwork, teases, etc. I'll even post fan art here if you'd like to send some along.

Of course, I will be most active over at my other comic, The SuperFogeys. If you haven't checked out SF yet, might I recommend it? I think if you like MONSTERPLEX, you'll like SuperFogeys.

The outpouring of support and well-wishes has been tremendous. As a thank you, today I bring to you a very special message from Cami, my youngest daughter (with a little help from her grandma).

More later.

-Brock

WE WON AND WE THANK YOU

2010-02-26T12:43:00.000-05:00

"Promise me you're never going to do this again!"

That's what my wife Erin said to me over the phone as soon as she found out. And after she screamed with delight. My response?

"You got it."

This month has been a whirlwind of hard work and emotions for me and my family. In my adult life, I learned a long time ago what it really means to work hard for something. You almost have to not care about the outcome. You just do the work that needs to be done. Focus on that and, even if it doesn't work out, you'll at least know you did everything you could. Most of your satisfaction will come from just knowing that, no matter what the result.

But...sometimes things come together perfectly and you win one! Now that's a sweet feeling. MONSTERPLEX has been a 2 year journey for me. 2 years. David came on around the same time, and Mike about a year later. Having now won...I'm still in a kind of shell-shock.

Mike was the first to tell me. I didn't see it through the refresh. I instantly got chills and they lasted for about a minute solid. Have you ever had chills for that long? You start thinking you might be sick. But, I wasn't. I was on cloud nine.

I'm still there and if there's one feeling that's overriding all others it's this: gratitude.

You are all awesome. If someone asks you today, "Are you awesome?" You will be able to say "Yes, I am awesome." If that same person fires back with "How do you know?" you will turn to that person and say, simply, "Because MONSTERPLEX won."

I really, truly feel as though this win is because of all of you. Yesterday, we had given up. No, no, we had. We talked about what we'd do with MONSTERPLEX after losing. But you guys just kept at it and pulled off one of the biggest upsets I think any of us have ever seen.

I wish I could thank you all individually, but there's no way I possibly can. There's too many of you! We're humbled by that. Truly humbled. We could not have done it without all of you and I'm just so amazed by how everyone came out to support us. I see all of you as a part of this thing with us.

I do need to name at least three people that were INTEGRAL to this success:

To our wives Erin, Tracy and Lauren. They took this journey with us, fought for us and, in some ways, it meant even more to them!

Also, thanks to David Schlotterback and Michael DeVito for doing this thing with me. They make it look like I can write.

Guys, you have the floor.

David Schlotterback says:

I want to personally thank all of my friends, family and anyone who came out to support us in this! I'm truly indebted to you all! Extra-special thanks goes to my wife, Tracy!

Michael DeVito says:

I want to thank everyone who helped to get us to this point. If it wasn't for all the support you guys have showed we wouldn't have been neck and neck with our competition, who put up an amazing fight. I'll be honest I thought we were done for weeks ago. That said we never stopped trying. Thanks Brock and Dave for making me a part of this great collaboration. And, of course, big thanks to Zuda.

A special thanks also goes out to my wife Lauren, and kids Matteo and Luca for their support and putting up with the late nights to come.

To that I would also like to thank my girls, Elora and Cami for putting up with Dad spending hours at the computer and in the bedroom doing interviews. I hope they enjoy Monsterplex for many years to come.

Now...a lot of you are asking, what's next? What's next is that we're going to disappear for a little while. Maybe 2 or three months. During that time, we'll going to be heavy into production on MONSTERPLEX. Then, soon, Monsterplex will restart on Zuda and you'll get one new page a week for one solid year. We have a contract. We will fulfill it. (We will be paid!) We are excited.

During that time, we hope the popularity of MONSTERPLEX can grow. If it does sufficiently, DC/Zuda will renew our contract and maybe one day you'll see it in print! We hope so! This thing is for real now and we want to make good on the promise we've shown this past month.

But besides all that...we think you're in for a real treat. We have a fantastic, fantastic story planned. It's got twists, turns, suspense, cliffhangers, romance, violence, comedy, monsters galore, mystery...man, MONSTERPLEX has it all.

Stick with us. It's gonna be one heckuva ride!

One more time...THANK YOU!

More later. Much more.

-Brock

P.S. Keep your eye on the blog, you never know when it might update!

IT'S ALMOST OVER! 1/2 HOUR LEFT!

2010-02-26T11:30:00.001-05:00

Morning, all! There's only 1/2 hour left in the competition and we need those last few people to get in there and vote DESPERATELY.

Please, if each of you could just help another couple of people go over and vote and favorite and star rate, IT WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE. Tell 'em to go here!

Thanks!

See you again after the final results!

-Brock

MONSTERPLEX BOUNCES BACK!! (NOW WE'RE REALLY IN TROUBLE)

2010-02-25T17:43:00.000-05:00

Afternoon, all! Sorry for the lack of posting today. It's been a little crazy as I've been working and promoting since yesterday. And, yknow--

DID YOU SEE THE RANK UPDATE ON ZUDA!?!?!???

That's right, WE'RE BACK IN FIRST PLACE! We haven't been in first place since the first week of competition. Can you friggin' believe this? We stand at 17267 views, 381 favorites and a solid 4 1/2 star rating. And, oh yeah, WE'RE IN FIRST PLACE!!

As of this writing, we're 18 hours away from this whole thing being over and the winner being called. Of course, what's nice is that now that we're in first place we can just sit back and coast. It's pretty much a done deal at this point, right?

Um, no.

No, we're actually in an even more precarious position than we were before! NOW WE'VE GOT A BIG HONKIN' TARGET ON OUR BACKS! Seriously, I'm freaking out. We're so close, but there's still plenty of time to lose this thing. PLENTY of time.

I'm gonna be honest with you here. I've been asked a lot this past week about what we're going to do with MONSTERPLEX if we don't win. Publicly, I've refused to answer this question. But privately...I'll tell you right now that privately David, Michael and I were all resigned to losing yesterday and we were talking about precisely what we would do with MONSTERPLEX when we lost. No "if"--WHEN. We all talked about what we'd like to see happen and under what conditions we'd consider going forward with this thing. Decisions and plans were made.

And in all likelihood I'll never have to share them with you! I mean, that's actually possible. That's mind-blowing to me.

To live this dream--to produce a comic for DC Comics...well, that's just something that would be very special to me. And to David. And to Michael.

Thank you. Thanks to everyone who has cared and supported and championed us. Your enthusiasm for us and for MONSTERPLEX has been amazing. And humbling.

But it's not over yet...now is the time when the word must spread as far as it possibly can. We need votes, yes, but also favorites, star ratings, etc. You know the drill. I've gotta think we're on the razor's edge here. We just need you for 18 more hours! It all ends at 9am PST/Noon EST.

Go TEAM MONSTERPLEX!

More later.

-Brock

THE MONSTERPLEX/RE-EVOLUTION CROSSOVER!

2010-02-24T11:29:00.000-05:00

Morning, all! I have something incredibly cool to share with you, but first a quick update. As far as I know, this is the last full day of competition. We stand at 15306 views, 320 favorites and our star rating is very nearly 4 1/2! This puts us way ahead of most of the competition, but still far behind the leader in favorites. Hoping we can see a last minute save. It could still happen.

Now, the coolness. Re-Evolution is a winning comic on Zuda and one of the very best comics Zuda has to offer. Writer Gus Higuera and artist Juan Felipe Salcedo are good guys who took the time to talk to me at the DC booth at the San Diego Comic Con this past year. They even said they were fans of the SuperFogeys! That was humbling.

Gus and Juan have thrown their support behind MONSTERPLEX and David and Juan got together for this great jam piece featuring characters from both Monsterplex and Re-Evolution! I'm impressed with how well the two art styles mesh together--totally did not expect that.

I love it! Be sure and go on over to Re-Evolution to give it a read and favorite it! Also, Re-Evolution needs your support to continue for another season. Be sure and go and sign the petition if you like what you see. Thanks!

And thanks again to Gus and Juan!

More later.

-Brock

FROM SCRIPT TO PAGE: PAGE 4

2010-02-23T18:25:00.000-05:00

So little time left! We've seen a 15+ jump in favorites since this morning, but we're still WAY off he leader. We need those votes and those favorites. Although, I'm guessing that if you're reading this blog then you've probably already done both!

Today, let's look at the creation of Page 4. First, the script:

Page 4-

1- Now you go big. Big action panel here. The swamp-like monster tries to pound Ryan, Lucy, Lina and Bitsy. Ryan tackles Lucy and Lina to the floor so that the monster just misses. Bitsy keeps playing with her hair and just kind of leans out of the way. She’s entirely nonplussed.

MONSTER
RRRARRRR!!

2- Lucy and Lina are on the floor as Ryan crouches low, the only thing standing between them and the monster. His arm is outstretched, as if he expects something to be in his hand. A large sword is spinning and flying towards that hand.

RYAN
Bitsy!
Sword!

3- Ryan’s hero shot as he faces down the monster and the monster rears up to hit him. Ryan holds his sword in front of him, towards the monster. Total Conan the Barbarian pose.

RYAN
We just had these
carpets cleaned.

I swear if you’ve tracked
in any mud…

4- The monster takes a swipe at Ryan and tears off the back of his suit coat as he leaps away.

5- Ryan puts his sword into the monster’s back. We see the monster’s comical expression of surprise.

6- In the foreground we see the monster face first on the ground with the sword sticking out of his back. Ryan has one foot on the monster and holds the sword, trying to get it out. Beyond him and the monster are Lucy and Lina, still on the floor and looking up at Ryan. Lucy looks up admirably at Ryan, while Lina is screaming at him.

RYAN
Are you ladies alright?

LINA
JUST WHAT
IS GOING ON
HERE!?

-------------------------

This page was pretty straightforward and didn't require a ton of revision. However, we do have a pretty good record of David's process to share with you. Check out the evolution of Page 4:

Don't forget to check out MONSTERPLEX today! More views and more comments will help!

More later.

-Brock

MORNING UPDATE AND THE INTERVIEW THAT NEVER HAPPENED

2010-02-23T12:29:00.000-05:00

Morning, all! Sorry for the lack of updates yesterday. I was very much under the weather AND my daughter's IEP was yesterday. (An IEP is an annual meeting that parents with Special Needs children have with the school to assess progress and needs--an emotionally draining and event to say the least.)

As of this writing, MONSTERPLEX stands at 13931 views, 308 favorites and almost 4 1/2 stars. This morning on Twitter and Facebook we're playing a little game where I'm asking everyone to go visit MONSTERPLEX one more time to see how fast we can get those views to rise. 150 in about 3 minutes is what we're looking at right now! Wow! Zuda, you seeing this? You see the support we have here?

There's only two days left. We're 100 favorites and who knows how many votes behind. Can TEAM MONSTERPLEX do it? It's up to you at this point!

Something that I look forward to reading is the monthly round of interviews JK Parkin over at Comic Book Resources does with all of the contestants. Well, for some reason, this month JK appears to have sat out. (I know I haven't been contacted at least.) However, his questions are always standards so...on the suggestion of Zuda Reader mookieblaylock...I figured why not give myself the interview and post it here. Right? Right?

Here we go:

JK: Tell me a little bit about yourself -- where you're from, other comics projects you've worked on if this isn't your first, what you do when you aren't doing comics, etc.

Brock: Born and raised in the Central Valley in California (nowhere near the beach). In addition to MONSTERPLEX, I'm also the creator of both The SuperFogeys (which I write and draw) and SuperFogeys Origins (which I only write and many other artists draw, primarily T.L. Collins). You can find both of those at www.superfogeys.com For my day job I'm a graphic artist/illustrator for a non-profit education company that helps teachers teach math and science better.

JK: Tell me a little bit about your strip and what it's about. What makes it unique when compared to the other strips in this competition?

Brock: MONSTERPLEX could not be any simpler. In a movie theater that doesn't just show you monster movies, but also real monsters, hilarity and complications ensue. MP is about the people and monsters that work there and mysterious corporation that has recently bought out the theater. The thing I hear a lot about MP is that people like that we're using familiar elements (the monsters and monster movie conventions), but in an original way. I don't think anyone has ever quite approached monsters the way we are. Plus, it's just a whole lot of fun. At the end of the day, I just want people to have a good time when they read it.

JK: How are you promoting your strip this month?

Brock: Oh man, how AREN'T we promoting the strip? We're on Twitter and Facebook relentlessly. I'm continually pumping it on my own site. We have an ad campaign making the internet rounds. We've been doing numerous podcast and online print interviews. We also have the MONSTERPLEX production blog (which you're reading right now because JK sat out this month--thanks dude! Saved me from having to do another link!).

JK: What have you learned from participating in Zuda so far and what do you hope to gain from the experience over the long run?

Brock: What have I learned? Campaigning sucks! Seriously, it's hard work. I don't like getting into people's faces, but, with the limited time frame, you kind of have to. I've also learned that there's not better feeling than putting a new comic in front of people that they dig. Been a long time since I created the SuperFogeys, so it was cool to get back to that initial rush. Plus, I've learned that I've got some really great poeple in my life. The support has been amazing.

JK: What do you plan to do with your strip if you don't win? Will you continue with it somewhere else?

Brock: I don't really want to talk about not winning. Right now, I've gotta think positively. We've only got two days to get the vote out and I still think it can turn around for us. Ask me again on February 26th!

More later.

-Brock

FINAL WEEK! TWO NEW INTERVIEWS!

2010-02-22T11:12:00.000-05:00

Morning, all! With the weekend over and the last few days of voting before us, let's check in and see where we're at... 13155 views, 297 favorites and just over 4 stars. This puts us 103 favorites behind the number one ranked comic and just under 100 views. You know what that means?

NOW IS THE TIME!

If you've been waiting to join TEAM MONSTERPLEX or haven't yet done all of the big four--voted, favorited, star rated and commented--then you don't have to wait any longer. It's crunch time! Only 3 days to go!

Please, please, please let everyone know how close we are. I know the gap between us and first place is ever-widening, but it's not so wide that we can't still overcome. It's entirely up to you!

Now, with that out of the way, I've got a couple of great interviews to share with you. First up is MONSTERPLEX artist David Schlotterback's first solo interview over at Rocket Llama! He talks about what it's like to work with me, what his experience with comics has been and what he likes most about drawing Monsterplex. A fun read!

Secondly, be sure and check out my audio podcast interview with Byron Wilkins and Kurt Sasso over at TGT Webcomics. We talked for about an hour and half about both MONSTERPLEX and SUPERFOGEYS. This was one of the best interviews I've done, I think (haven't listened back to it yet).

For the first half, I talk about the creation of MONSTERPLEX and break down just why it took two years for it to arrive one your screens. I also drop a lot of hints about future storylines!

After that, we turned out attention to SuperFogeys, talking a lot about the chapter that just wrapped up, Chapter 7, "Visiting Day." It was great talking with Byron and Kurt because you could tell that they are true fans of SF. They had some good questions and some good observations to make and prompted me to share some things about Cami and Swifty that I've never touched on anywhere. We also talked a bit about the Third Man and Kurt offered some theories on what his possible motivation might be. If you're a die hard SF fan, then you don't want to miss this one.

You can listen to all right here!(scroll down to the bottom)

More later.

-Brock

MONSTERPLEX/SUPERFOGEYS LIVE CHAT ON SUNDAY, 9PM EST

2010-02-19T15:10:00.000-05:00

Hey all, just a quick note to let you know about a Live Chat and Podcast I'll be doing with the guys over at TGT Webcomics this Sunday at 9pm EST/6pm PST. The chat will be done through Talk Shoe, so anyone who would like to be able to participate in the call can do so, and there will also be a simultaneous chat going on that you can join in and lob questions through.

Hit this link Sunday night to listen in and/or participate. We'll be talking MONSTERPLEX, of course, but also SuperFogeys. And, given what's gone down this week over at the SuperFogeys, we should have lots to talk about.

Also, the good guys over at the Digital Strips have just posted their monthly Zuda Watch podcast in which they review all of this month's entries. Haven't listened to it yet, but it's always a good time. Looking forward to what they have to say about MP!

More later.

-Brock

THE EVOLUTION OF KEN "ZOMBIE" WATANABE

2010-02-19T12:51:00.000-05:00

Morning, all! We're seeing a bit of a rebound in the MONSTERPLEX numbers today. Not a lot, but we have a good trend going with about 10 times more comments than usual during the overnight and favorites are on the rise as well. As of this writing, we're at 11429 views, 268 favorites and just over 4 stars. Will that increase steadily over the course of the day? We'll see...

Let's take a look at Ken today. He started out quite a bit different from what we eventually ended up with!

DAVID SCHLOTTERBACK (Monsterplex Artist): This was my first attempt at good ole Ken. I’ll admit, I didn’t truly understand the character at first. I think of zombies as creatures that are void of personality, so bringing personality to a zombie seemed a tough task. My attempt was a little too gross for Brock. Fun to draw, but hard to look at. You can see from the notes along the edge that we wanted a “little scrapper, make him a little more … anime.” He is an unusual zombie in that he actually has personality and can spill out a little action.

BROCK HEASLEY (Monsterplex Writer): First pass was a great zombie, but not a character I'd want to follow and care about. So, I hunkered down and showed Dave what I had in mind.

DAVID: Once I saw that, I knew I was waaaay off the mark in my interpretation.

BROCK: I wanted Ken to have an element of cool. It was basically all in the hair with my design. I think I went a little too far with the nose.

BROCK: Once Dave could see better what I had intended, he had no problem adapting it to his style and giving Ken a modified Corman uniform. My favorite part was his left arm being exposed bone. Wolf will have a lot of fun with that once the fight settles down.

More later.

-Brock

SKETCH REQUEST: PRISCILLA THE PRINCESS

2010-02-18T15:15:00.000-05:00

This request came to us from Kristie, a big MONSTERPLEX supporter. Thanks, Kristie!

Dave will be taking sketch requests right up until the end, Feb. 25th. What do you want to see the MONSTERPLEX characters doing? Tell us in the comments below!

More later.

-Brock

MONSTERPLEX FAN ART BY WILLIAM "THUNDERCHICKENS" BLANKENSHIP!

2010-02-18T13:16:00.000-05:00

William Blankenship is one heck of a cartoonist. His work on last month's Zuda entry, "The Thunderchickens," was top notch. He's got a real kinetic and loose style that belies the firm grip he has on the fundamentals of illustration. I WISH I could draw like him.

Check out his great Priscilla and Ken piece! (As always, click to see it bigger.)

Man, that's good stuff. You can follow William on his Twitter feed.

Stop on by MONSTERPLEX to see Priscilla and Ken in action. We still need more votes! (Lots more!)

More later.

-Brock

AND NOW A VERY SPECIAL MONSTERPLEX MESSAGE FROM GREG BULMASH

2010-02-18T11:35:00.000-05:00

Greg Bulmash is a longtime reader of my first webcomic, The SuperFogeys. (Still going strong and finishing up its Seventh chapter today!) Greg posted one of the funniest, longest comments on SuperFogeys last night, after what was probably my millionth plug for MONSTERPLEX over there. It's so good, I had to share it with you guys. Anyone who is annoyed with my hundreds and hundreds of tweets should get a big kick out of this.

"All right, ya piles of pointless wet carbon... I've registered and voted for Monsterplex and I'm the laziest SOB on this planet! When my wife goes to take a pee, I ask her to take one for me too so I can stay on the couch and watch TV. And I've voted for Monsterplex. I gave it 5 stars. I left a comment. And I favorited it.

"Why do you want to crush Brock's dream?!?! What's wrong with you haterators. Go, vote, comment, favorite, and give it 5 stars!

"If you don't do it, the terrorists win. Seriously. The teams behind all the other comics are secretly funded by Osama Bin Ladin and the Arts & Crafts wing of Al Quaeda. There's only one way to prove you're a true patriot who despises child pornography, dirty bombs, torn underwear, and Satan worship. Go to Zuda.com now, register, vote for MonsterPlex, give it a 5-star rating favorite it, and leave a comment.

"This message was composed by an Amish minister in 1847. It has travelled around the world 57,834 times. If you go to Zuda.com now, register, vote for MonsterPlex, give it a 5-star rating favorite it, and leave a comment, the love of your life will knock on your door within 48 hours, carrying a six pack of beer and a check for a million dollars. If you do not go to Zuda.com now, register, vote for MonsterPlex, give it a 5-star rating favorite it, and leave a comment, you'll break the chain and your right butt cheek will fall off."

Thanks, Greg! You made both Erin and I laugh very, very hard.

Some awesome, awesome fan art coming up later today.

-Brock

MONSTERPLEX FAN ART BY MARC LAPIERRE!

2010-02-17T17:07:00.000-05:00

Holy snot do I love this. Marc Lapierre, creator of the consistently good Spooky Doofus, is one of the true gentlemen of webcomics. Marc and I worked together on my SuperFogeys spinoff comic, SuperFogeys Origins, and he also contributed a guest strip late last year when I took a short vacation from 'tooning.

His take on Priscilla here is just absolutely perfect. Thanks, Marc! You've outdone yourself. (Click to embiggen)

Be sure and stop by MONSTERPLEX to vote and fave and all of that. Already done it? Come on back and leave a comment again. It'll help!

More later.

-Brock

THE EVOLUTION OF PRISCILLA

2010-02-17T12:50:00.001-05:00

Morning, all! MONSTERPLEX'S current numbers stand at 10465 views, 242 favorites and just over 4 stars. Sadly, this puts us way behind the first place ranked comic which has about 80 more favorites than MP. We're way down, but we're still not out. Please stop by MONSTERPLEX again to comment and view if you haven't done so in a while.

And encourage your friends to vote, favorite and star rate! Team Monsterplex can still take this. I truly believe that.

Today we take a look at Priscilla, the vampiress. This was a tricky character as I wanted a very specific look for her. To expedite matters, I did the first sketch so Dave could have a jumping off point.

DAVID SCHLOTTERBACK (Monsterplex Artist): Brock had a very clear picture of Pris and I liked it from the get-go. I knew that once I got my hands on her, I mean, the character, it would be a fun character to hack out page after page. And she has become just that.

BROCK: Look at those legs! Way too short. It was just a design sketch though, so I didn't worry too much about it. At the time. Now, it's just embarrassing.

DAVID: We had established the Corman attire by this point, so it became a matter of incorporating that attire with her personality. In Brock’s original sketch he was going for a thicker body type, but I objected to the idea being that it would be too close to Lina and we needed to have the two wholly separated in their body types. So, I thinned her up, ala Christina Aguilera, yet still wanted to retain the sexy appeal to her. I believe we made a few revisions to her face, but this is basically what we ended up with.

BROCK: I don't know what I was thinking with the white vest...thing. That kind of thing wouldn't contrast very well with pale vampire skin. Dave did a good job adapting the design to what he'd already designed for the Corman crew.

Pris doesn't have much screen time in the 8-page Zuda submission, but look for her to pop up a lot more in the rest of the story. She's one of the characters I'm most excited about.

More later.

-Brock

MONSTERPLEX FAN ART BY BROCK HEASLEY (???)

2010-02-16T18:09:00.001-05:00

Did you know we're seeking and posting MONSTERPLEX fan art? We've gotten a couple of pieces so far and they've been great!

As the writer, I've mostly stayed away from trying my hand at the MONSTERPLEX characters, but the fan art we've gotten so far inspired me and last week I went to town on the piece you see below. As with all pictures on this blog, you can click on it to make it bigger.

Whaddaya think?

Submit your own MONSTERPLEX fan art by sending it to me at bwhheasley (at) gmail (dot) com!

More later.

-Brock

FROM SCRIPT TO PAGE: PAGE 3

2010-02-16T17:03:00.000-05:00

Each page of Monsterplex took quite the journey from initial conception to finished product. Some more of a journey than others. Let's take a look at Page 3.

THE SCRIPT:

Page 3 –

1- The women watching Ryan give Ken his marching orders. Icky, dirty sludge is dripping down and landing on Lina’s shoulder. I see Ryan and Ken in the foreground squaring off, with us looking past them to the women.

RYAN
Ken, I don't want to hear it.
The bugs are wild in three.
Clean them up and tell them
this is their second warning!

KEN
Yes, boss!

2- Same angle as 1. Ryan is still boring a hole into Ken, but is now pointing up. Lucy is wiping some sludge off of Lina’s shoulder.

RYAN
And take Sludge
with you.

3- Looking up from the ladies’ perspective at Sludge on the ceiling leering at them.

SLUDGE
Mmm…ladies…

LUCY AND LINA (from below and off-panel)
EEEEE!!!

4- Ken busts out his utility broom with sword tip in one hand and his sawed-off shotgun in the other. Total hero pose. (Can combine panels 4 and 5 if it’s easier—it’s the whole “goin’ off to battle shot.”)

KEN
Let’s do this,
Sludge.

5- Ken in the foreground making his way to auditorium three. Sludge follows him along the wall. Behind them, in the background, we can see Ryan, Lucy, Lina, and Bitsy watching (or not if you can’t fit them in. It’s not crucial).

SLUDGE
I want off mop
duty for a week
for this.

6- Now back on Ryan, Lucy, Lina and Bitsy. Ryan is putting on his best game face. All eyes in Ken and Sludge’s direction. Lucy and Lina still a little peeved. Bitsy couldn’t care less and plays with her hair. Unbeknownst to them, a giant swamp-like monster is behind them and about to pounce (he’s the monster from “It Came From the Back Nine”) This should not be a huge panel on the page, even though it’s tempting. Big panel should be the one before it.

RYAN
So sorry. Ken is usually so
on top of things.

Might be the decay.
I’ll have a good look
at the left side of his brain later, you
can be sure of that!

Nothing to worry about!

-----------------------------------------

Dave's first pass at penciling Page 3 showed me that he was already improving quite a bit as their were very few elements that needed changing.

Panel 3, I felt, didn't quite get across the idea that Sludge was bearing down on the ladies. And Ken's big hero-going-off-to-fight-the-battle panel just wasn't dynamic enough for me. I made a few suggestions and Dave came back with this:

Don't forget to vote for, star rate and favorite MONSTERPLEX! We're in the final days of the competition and this when things can turn around fast. Spread the word and help us do it!

More later.

-Brock

THE MONSTERPLEX CREW ON TALL TALE RADIO!

2010-02-16T11:56:00.000-05:00

Every once in a while it's my privilege to sit down with the great Tom Racine over at Tall Tale Radio to talk shop. This week's episode of TTR is a very special one as it features not only me, but MONSTERPLEX artists David Schlotterback and Michael DeVito. This is the only interview we're doing as a group and I have to say it's a great listen.

So says Tom:

"It’s time to talk Zuda with Tall Tale Features very own Brock Heasley, he of “The Superfogeys” fame. Brock has written a wicked-cool comic called “Monsterplex,” and he’s got it entered into the monthly contest over on Zuda. Brock did a great interview recently over on the wonderful Comics Coast to Coast site, but this time, he’s brought reinforcements! Joining me are artist Dave Schlotterback and colorist (and Th3rd World mogul) Mike DeVito. We talk about the whole Zuda experience, the background of “Monsterplex,” and how each gentleman fits into the puzzle. We also talk comic book influences, and a discussion about the future of comic books in the upcoming post-iPad world we’re going to find ourselves living in!"

You can listen to whole chat right here!

More later.

-Brock

HOW THE NAMES OF THE MONSTERPLEX CHARACTERS WERE CHOSEN

2010-02-15T22:57:00.001-05:00

I've been asked this question a couple of times now, so I figured it might be high time I pull all this info together in one convenient spot.

WHERE DO THE NAMES OF THE MONSTERPLEX CHARACTERS COME FROM?

LINA PATEL and LUCY LING - These characters were both created at the same time and I was going for that very comic booky thing of using multiple "L's." (See: Superman - Lois Lane, Lana Lang, Lex Luthor, etc.) I just like the musical quality of the 'L.' Lina is, of course, short for Angelina. Being that Lina is a strong woman, I think it's fair to say that I had Ms. Jolie on the brain when creating her. The name 'Patel' is a very common Indian surname and it has that 'L' sound in it again, which is a plus.

RYAN HULL - Ryan Hull is the name of a good friend of mine. Ryan had been begging me for a while to base a character on him, but my SuperFogeys comic just wasn't quite right for him. Plus, two four-letter names is a good things in comic. When you're constantly dealing the space issues inherent in speech balloons, the shorter the better.

BITSY ANDREWS - Bitsy Andrews is a spin on the name of a girl I knew in High School named Betsy Andrews. I always thought that was a great name. I changed Betsy to Bitsy because of the way the name 'Bitsy' really describes and offsets this little goth girl running around the theater.

PRISCILLA - Priscilla the vampiress is a spin on the name Drusilla from the Buffy the Vampire series, who was also a vampiress. And, like Drusilla was often called Dru, I liked that I could have some characters call Priscilla, Pris.

WOLF - Wolf has a very simple mind so I figured a very simple name would fit him best. Doesn't get much simpler.

KEN "ZOMBIE" WATANABE - I knew a guy named Watanabe at the movie theater I worked at when I was younger, and it rhymes with "zombie" so...bonus, right? Ken came from actor Ken Watanabe (Batman Begins).

SLUDGE - Sludge is like a mini-blob. I couldn't call him Blob, so what else do you call him besides Sludge, right? By the way, Sludge's full name is Sludge, the Living Mop.

OFFICER CARL COOPER - Officer Cooper is a character that so far has only shown up in the Promo piece. His first real appearance will be on page 9, the very next page after the initial Zuda submission. I'm a big Twin Peaks fan, so Cooper is named after Agent Dale Cooper. Carl just sounds good with Cooper. Double consonants are always good.

More later.

-Brock

THE MONSTERPLEX PROMO IN FULL COLOR!

2010-02-15T13:31:00.000-05:00

You may have seen this here and there on the internet attached to interviews we've done. Well, I'm now pleased to present the MONSTERPLEX promo in all it's full-color glory!

(Click to embiggen)

You'll notice a character in there that we haven't seen yet. He first shows up in the as-yet unseen page 9, so consider this a sneak peek!

It's Monday morning now and MONSTERPLEX has taken some heavy losses over the weekend. We're still up in overall traffic, but the number one ranked comic is leading by more than 60 favorites. We really need to get that number up if we're ever going to win this thing. Please spread the word on Facebok and to all of your friends! --And please share this promo!

More later. Probably not today. (It's a holiday, y'know.)

-Brock

SKETCH REQUEST: MONSTERPLEX VERSION OF NATIONAL LAMPOON'S VACATION MOVIE POSTER

2010-02-12T12:23:00.000-05:00

The sketch requests are getting weirder and weirder, none more so than today's which comes to us from Evil Greg. It's a parody of the classic National Lampoon's Vacation movie poster and I think Dave did it justice!

Use the comments field below to get your sketch request in and Dave will get to it asap! Dave is looking to do up sketches of the MONSTERPLEX characters in whatever form you see fit. Have a comic? Dave could do the MP characters dressed up like them! Please, no nudity or anything otherwise inappropriate.

We're also looking for fan art. Send 'em along to bwhheasley (at) gmail (dot) com and we'll post it along with a link to your comic or site. Have fun!

More later.

-Brock

INTERVIEW WITH COMICS COAST TO COAST!

2010-02-12T11:36:00.001-05:00

Morning, all! As of now we stand at 8545 views, 209 favorites and just over 4 stars in the stats that we can see (can't see how many votes we're getting)! That's good--really good in fact--but we're still about 40 favorites away from the leader. Can we overtake him? Entirely up to you!

Earlier this week I had the chance to talk with Brian Dunaway over at Comics Coast to Coast about MONSTERPLEX and, more specifically, Zuda and the ins and outs of competition. Want to know how much we'll be paid if we win the contract? Brian and I discuss it at length in the podcast. Brian was great to talk with and a real pro. Thanks, man!

Listen to the interview here!

Special note: sorry about the audio issues on the podcast interview I posted earlier. These things happen sometimes and it's too bad, really, because the guys at Strangers With Comics conducted a great interview. Don't worry about today's interview--shouldn't have any of those issues.

A little later today you can expect a new sketch request to be fulfilled and I'm hoping to also get another Script to Page installment done. We'll see.

More later.

-Brock

FRESNO SUPPORTS MONSTERPLEX and RANKINGS UPDATED

2010-02-11T17:50:00.000-05:00

Big thanks to Fresno Bee Entertainment Reporter and Beehive Blogger Mike Oz for letting Dave's and my hometown Fresno, CA know about MONSTERPLEX!

Check out the coverage right here!

Also, the rankings were updated today and MONSTERPLEX...didn't move an inch. We're still in second place, which is good, but we've got to bump up those favorites and votes if we wanna take that number one spot. If you're reading this, chances are you've done so already, but you can still spread the word!

Thanks for all your efforts!

Don't forget that Dave is still taking sketch requests (simple state what you'd like to see in the commments below) and we're still accepting fan art (email to bwhheasley (at) gmail (dot) com)!

More later.

-Brock

SKETCH REQUESTx2: LUCY AS THE CHESHIRE CAT AND BITSY AS MARY ANN

2010-02-11T12:05:00.000-05:00

Morning, all! Had some trouble with our servers earlier. Sorry about that. Everything should be running fine now.

MONSTERPLEX began this morning much like it has every morning this week, staying juuuuuust this far away from first place, with 7852 views, 185 favorites and just over 4 stars. The margin appears to be very slim between MP and the current number one comic, and I don't see any reason we can't push it over the edge. Can TEAM MONSTERPLEX grow? Let's spread the word some more and find out.

Now, first up in the sketch requests was one from my brother Tyler who asked for Lucy as the Chesire Cat. That's....just bizarre, Tyler. Still, here you go! I think you'll be pleased.

Next is a request from MONSTERPLEX mega fan Heather who asked for Bitsy dressed us as Mary Ann from Gilligan's Island. Dave has called this his favorite of the sketches he's done, and I tend to agree.

Use the comments field below to get your sketch request in and Dave will get to it asap! Dave is looking to do up sketches of the MONSTERPLEX characters in whatever form you see fit. Have a comic? Dave could do the MP characters dressed up like them! Please, no nudity or anything otherwise inappropriate.

We're also looking for fan art. Send 'em along to bwhheasley (at) gmail (dot) com and we'll post it along with a link to your comic or site. Have fun!

More later.

-Brock

THE EVOLUTION OF RYAN

2010-02-10T18:18:00.000-05:00

Kind of late in the day for this, but with everything else going on, why not mix it up with an Evolution entry. This time we take a look at Ryan Hull, onetime manager of Corman Cinemas:

DAVID SCHLOTTERBACK (Monsterplex Artist): I had no idea who Ryan was. I, for some reason, couldn’t picture him.

BROCK (Monsterplex Writer): That was fine with me because Ryan, both in name and in appearance, was intended to based on a friend of mine, Ryan Hull. Ryan is one of these guys that has a classically American athletic build, but it also kind of a goofball (which is why we're friends). I wanted Ryan in MONSTERPLEX to embody those same qualities so it seemed simple enough to just start there. Since I had the clearest idea, I did my version first.

After that, Dave went to work translating my ideas into his own style.

DAVID: In Brock’s version he appeared to be a bit of a “big” guy, so, I sketched him as so. Also, Brock indicated he wanted a bit of “messy” to him. I really pushed that aspect of his character.

BROCK: Dave saw a lot more "jock" in my version of Ryan than I'd intended. I didn't want to make him a bruiser.

DAVID: : Told to thin him up and to tuck his shirt in, I came back with this. Much closer to the Ryan of today. I was beginning to understand this Ryan fellow. But, I needed some more tries at the guy.

BROCK: Classic case of "this porridge is too cold." Great design for a side character or background walk-on, but not for a lead.

DAVID: Now we’re there. I really liked this sketch. It captured the style of what I was going for all along for these characters.

BROCK: With all of designs it was always the same--we just kept working it until it felt right. This last design gave us the perfect mix of athleticism and goofball. Ryan isn't meant to be an immediately intimidating character...but you should be able to imagine that he could be.

That's it for today! More later. Don't forget to tell your friends about MONSTERPLEX and this blog!

-Brock

FIRST MONSTERPLEX PODCAST INTERVIEW - WITH STRANGERS WITH COMICS!

2010-02-10T18:11:00.000-05:00

This week we've begun phase two of MONSTERPLEX promotion, kicking things off with an interview with the guys over at Strangers With Comics. SWC is a podcast based out of my hometown, Fresno, and this is actually my second interview with these guys, having done one last year for SuperFogeys.

Always a good time talking with Tony, Rob and Gabe. You can listen the entire podcast right here. Skip ahead to the 37-minute mark to hear the interview portion.

More podcast interviews to come! Including one where the entire time will sit down for a group interview!

More later.

-Brock

SLUDGE FAN ART BY ED KREBES!!

2010-02-10T13:17:00.000-05:00

Today's fan art comes to us from one of nicest guys on the ol' internets you'll ever have the pleasure of Googling - Ed Krebes. Ed has been a big supporter of my webcomic, the SuperFogeys, and now he's turned his attention towards MONSTERPLEX for a look at Sludge that made me laugh out loud.

I'm so not eating that. Be sure and check out Ed's own webcomic, Hobo and Bowser!

If you'd like to submit some MONSTERPLEX fan art (and get some linkage, of course), please send your piece along to bwhheasley (at) gmail (dot) com. I'm even working on my own fan art just to see what some of these characters look like in my own style. No reason I can't play too, right?

Hoping to do another Evolution of a Character today. Any requests?

-Brock

MONSTERPLEX REVIEW BY DAVID HARPER!

2010-02-10T11:44:00.000-05:00

Morning, all! As of this morning Monsterplex is holding fast in its place, nipping at the heels of number one ranked Island, Alone. Seems it will only take a slight push to put us over the edge. Can we do it? Up to you guys! What we really need (in case you're wondering) are more people to add MONSTERPLEX to their favorites!

New review this morning comes to us from David Harper over at Multiversity Comics! David reviewed all of the Zuda entries this month and some VERY kind things to say about MONSTERPLEX.

Go and see!

More fan art coming very soon!

-Brock

1ST FAN ART - BY RYAN ESTRADA???

2010-02-09T17:52:00.000-05:00

The call for fan art went out and look at who responded...RYAN ESTRADA!??!??!?

That's right, Ryan Estrada of the very funny Sci-Fi Driveby is our COMPETITOR in this month's Zuda competition, currently ranking right behind MONSTERPLEX in 3rd place! Ryan in truly a class act and has been intent on making this a friendly competition from the get-go. Mission accomplished, my friend.

Check out Ryan Estrada's Swampy!

Pretty stinkin' cool. A response of some sort seems to be in order...

-Brock

SKETCH REQUEST x 2: SWAMPY THE TUSCAN RAIDER AND WOLF THE TOTORO

2010-02-09T14:28:00.000-05:00

Double sketch post update! This first one comes by request from my brother Tyler. It's the monster we're affectionately calling "Swampy" as a Tusdan Raider! (Star Wars)

This second one comes by request from the great Chris Watkins. Chris made an either/or request and Dave chose to go with Wolf as a Totoro. Is that right? I've got no idea what a totoro (Totoro?) is, but Dave did so here you go, Chris! This does make me laugh.

Use the comments field below to get your sketch request in and Dave will get to it asap! Dave is looking to do up sketches of the MONSTERPLEX characters in whatever form you see fit. Have a comic? Dave could do the MP characters dressed up like them! Please, no nudity or anything otherwise inappropriate.

We're also looking for fan art. Send 'em along to bwhheasley (at) gmail (dot) com and we'll post it along with a link to your comic or site. Have fun!

More later.

-Brock

FROM SCRIPT TO PAGE: PAGE 2

2010-02-09T11:39:00.000-05:00

Morning, all! As of this morning MONSTERPLEX is holding steady in the number two spot. We're way out in front in total view numbers, but lagging behind in our star rating and way behind in number of favorites. If you haven't favorited or star rated yet, please do so!

Today we take a look at what went into the creation of Page 2. This was a tricky page to pull off as there was a couple of tonal shifts going on. Here, take a look at the script:

PAGE 2-

1- Lucy and Lina running screaming out of the auditorium. I see them as kind of coming at the camera real close like, with the door to the auditorium way in the background. Just trying to evoke the old woman screaming cliché of the those monster movies.

LUCY AND LINA
EEEEEE!!!!

2- Lucy and Lina talking to Bitsy, our “Juno”-like, regular teenaged girl employee of Corman Cinemas. Bitsy is holding a broom and scoop, like would be typically used by a movie theater employee. Lucy is screaming at Bitsy, while Lina is doubled over and looks like she’s about to throw up.

BITSY
Uh, yeah?

LUCY
I want to speak to the
manager, RIGHT NOW!

3- Ryan Hull, the manager of Corman Cinemas pops up behind Lucy and Lina. Lucy is now turned to Ryan, while Lina still looks like she’s about to throw up. Ryan is sweating and nervous.

RYAN
Hi there!
What can I do
for you lovely
ladies?

LUCY
For starters, you can
explain to my friend here
why her popcorn was
seasoned with
beetles!

RYAN
Ma’am, I’m sure
there aren’t any beetles
in our pop—

4- All eyes on Lina as she throws up a beetle.

5- Same angle as 4 as Lina, still hunched over, wipes green slime from her mouth.

RYAN
Riiiight…

6- Ryan talking to Bitsy.

RYAN
Bitsy, who’s got
auditorium three?

BITSY
Ken, I think.

7- Ryan turning around and screaming. (You might want to combine panel 7 with 6, if you need to.)
RYAN
KENNNN!!!

8- Looking past Ryan, Lucy and Lina to see Ken, also known as Zombie Watanabe, running up. Ken has on his decaying uniform and has a broom and a shotgun strapped to his back. Ken should be the true focus of this panel, as this is the big reveal.

KEN
Sorry boss, there’s this—

LUCY AND LINA
EEEEEEE!!!

------------------------------------------

Now, check out Dave's first pass at the script:

I felt like was a good first try, but that Dave was way overemphasizing the vomit scene. I meant for it to be a little joke on a page with a lot of important things going on. Dave took what was visually the most interesting part of the page and made it huge. Sometimes, that's what you want to do. Other times...

DAVID SCHLOTTERBACK (Monsterplex Artist): The big “throw up” scene with LIna was a favorite of mine. I thought the real humor would take place in that panel. But, it was a little over the top and I admit a little gross for our star heroine to be displayed in such a ugly demonstration right off the bat. So, the throw up scene was toned down a lot in the final version.

So, we moved on:

Now we were cookin', but again the emphasis was on the wrong thing. This time, it was panel one that was the problem. Way too big. I learned here that I needed to be a little more explicit in my scripts. I could have saved Dave a lot of trouble if I'd just let him in a little more on what I thought the focus of the page was.

After finally explaining myself, Dave was able to nail it:

More later today, including the latest sketch request!

-Brock

SKETCH REQUEST: RYAN AS ZEKE FROM ZOMBIES ATE MY NEIGHBORS

2010-02-08T19:22:00.001-05:00

Dave knocks another out out of the park, this time it's Ryan as Zeke from the game "Zombies Ate My Neighbors." Can't say I've ever heard of the game, but it looks like it would be a lot of fun.

This request comes to us from Anthony. Thanks, man!

Use the comments field below to get your sketch request in and Dave will get to it asap! Dave is looking to do up sketches of the MONSTERPLEX characters in whatever form you see fit. Have a comic? Dave could do the MP characters dressed up like them! Please, no nudity or anything otherwise inappropriate.

We're also looking for fan art. Send 'em along to bwhheasley (at) gmail (dot) com and we'll post it along with a link to your comic or site. Have fun!

Didn't quite get to that Script to Page entry thanks to Dave's amazing sketch output today. Hopefully tomorrow!

-Brock

NEW REVIEW: A+ FOR MONSTERPLEX!

2010-02-08T18:40:00.000-05:00

There's new reviews up for all of this month's Zuda entries. MONSTERPLEX has a great showing with an A+!! Go check it out!

-Brock

SKETCH REQUEST: WOLF IN KISS MAKEUP

2010-02-08T16:25:00.000-05:00

This one cracks me up. I mean, this is just so dead on perfect. The request comes to us from Jesse. Thanks for the great request, man!

Nice work, Dave!

Use the comments field below to get your sketch request in and Dave will get to it asap! Dave is looking to do up sketches of the MONSTERPLEX characters in whatever form you see fit. Have a comic? Dave could do the MP characters dressed up like them! Please, no nudity or anything otherwise inappropriate.

We're also looking for fan art. Send 'em along to bwhheasley (at) gmail (dot) com and we'll post it along with a link to your comic or site. Have fun!

Hoping to get another Script to Page entry done today, but we'll see how it goes.

-Brock

SKETCH REQUEST: BITSY AND KEN AS THE GHOSTBUSTERS

2010-02-08T15:35:00.000-05:00

Our first sketch request has been fulfilled! Reader ED- (a longtime reader of my webcomic THE SUPERFOGEYS) requested Bitsy and Ken as Ghostbusters and I think Dave did it up in fine style.

Use the comments field below to get your sketch request in and Dave will get to it asap! Dave is looking to do up sketches of the MONSTERPLEX characters in whatever form you see fit. Have a comic? Dave could do the MP characters dressed up like them! Please, no nudity or anything otherwise inappropriate.

We're also looking for fan art. Send 'em along to bwhheasley (at) gmail (dot) com and we'll post it along with a link to your comic or site. Have fun!

More later.

-Brock

A CALL FOR SKETCH REQUESTS AND FAN ART

2010-02-08T11:14:00.000-05:00

Dear avid readers of the comic known as MONSTERPLEX,

This is David Schlotterback, the artist for MP. For all of you that had already voted, commented, favorited, linked to and generally supported MONSTERPLEX at Zuda, allow me to give my sincerest thank yous.

Ahem.. Thank you!

I, however, would like to interact with you a little more, if you'll do me the pleasure. I would like to offer up my sketching services to you if you have any particular request regarding MP and her interesting characters.

In other words, if you would like to see Wolf dressed in your favorite superhero garb or Lina rocking out on a Fender Strat, let me know in the comments below and I'll do my best to sketch it. We'll post it here for all to see and for you to copy to your computer and keep forever and ever. The more absurd the request the better. However, I won't take any requests for nudity or profane content. Those sorts of things are best kept for those other websites... you know which ones.

Also, I've grown tired of seeing my versions of these characters. How about you show my your versions of the cast? I'd love to see 'em and we'll post all of them on the blog, presuming, once again, there is no nudity or profanity involved.

Please send your MONSTERPLEX Fan Art to Brock at bwhheasley (at) gmail (dot) com. Anyone who does so will be linked back to their comic or site (if they have ‘em)!

Anyway, I hope to hear from you. Even if you have no request or submission, drop us a line and just say hello.

Till then...

David

THE EVOLUTION OF WOLF

2010-02-05T15:27:00.000-05:00

Wolf takes the stage in the third installment of our evolution series, a character that proved fairly easy to get a handle on. Which is appropriate.

DAVID SCHLOTTERBACK (Monsterplex Artist): This was Brock’s idea for the design of Wolf. He was envisioning him to be young, if I remember correctly. He also wanted him to be a playful character, with dog-like cravings and behavior.

BROCK HEASLEY (Monsterplex Writer): I had a pretty fixed idea of what Wolf would look like in my head. The big eyes were meant to make him look child-like, but I think they made him look a little creepy instead.

DAVID: We weren’t going to go the classic wolf-man route in appearance. We were going to push the wolf more and not the man so much, which I was totally for. In Brock’s sketch, he portrayed Wolf as a young character, but I wanted Wolf to be big. I mean, BIG. We already had a slew of characters at this point and none took up the entire room. I felt Wolf could be this character and in doing so would really over-emphasize the giant, happy-to-please-master dog qualities in a very humorous way. This sketch was one of my first attempts at designing his face.

DAVID: By this point, I was beginning to realize how much fun drawing monsters was going to be. I still have the most fun with MP when drawing the eclectic mess of ghouls and goblins that Corman has to offer. We’ll be presenting more and more as the story unfolds.

BROCK: Wolf's final look here. David knew immediately how to handle Wolf's uniform, going for a minimal half-naked look. That was for the ladies.

More to come!

See Wolf debut on page 6 of MONSTERPLEX! And don't forget to vote, favorite, star rate and comment!

1ST REVIEW AND FIRST INTERVIEW!

2010-02-05T11:38:00.000-05:00

It's a new day and after the high of coming in first in the initial rankings, we come down a bit today as it looks like we're trailing the second place comic in favorites. We stand at 83 and they have 126.

Favorites are very important as they communicate to Zuda who might come back to keep reading a comic after the competition has concluded. Let's get out there and see if we can't raise that number!

Now then, couple of links this morning. The first review of MONSTERPLEX went up over at Storming the Tower. The author does not pick MONSTERPLEX as her fave of the month, but I actually understand why and don't blame here. Come see what that's all about here.

And, last night, my first MONSTERPLEX-related interview went up over at Rocket Llama. We talked about the genesis of MONSTERPLEX, how the peculiarities of Zuda influenced my writing an I answered the age-old question--who would win in a fight, Buffy or Edward?

You're also gonna wanna stop by the interview to see an exclusive peek at the MONSTERPLEX promo. It's not finished, but I think you'll dig what you see.

Another Evolution installment coming later today!

-Brock

TEAM MONSTERPLEX ROCKS! RANKINGS UPDATE 2/4/10!

2010-02-04T17:27:00.000-05:00

Woo-hoo! You guys truly do rock. The ranking at Zuda have just been updated, and guess who stands at number one?

THAT'S RIGHT! TEAM MONSTERPLEX!

Big, huge thanks to everyone who has voted, commented, favorited, star rated and visited MONSTERPLEX. It all makes a difference and come on back Monday for a special thank you.

4 days down...about 3 weeks to go. It's not in the bag, but the first hurdle has been cleared! Congrats, Team!

-Brock

From Script to Page: Page 1

2010-02-04T16:00:00.000-05:00

To a lot of people, the process of making a comic is a mysterious one. In this "From Script to Page" series, I'm gonna try to pull back the curtain a little and show you some of the thinking and drawing that went into the creation of MONSTERPLEX. Enjoy!

PAGE ONE

The first draft of the MONSTERPLEX script came together pretty quickly over just a few hours. It was one of those lightning-in-the-bottle creative sessions you always hope for but rarely get. Subsequent drafts did not differ greatly from the rough. The whole story just kind of fell out of head.

Let's look at the script for page one:

Page 1

1 – We see two women buying tickets for a show at the front ticket window of CORMAN CINEMAS. Corman Cinemas looks like the sort of place you wouldn’t have wanted to go into even if you were being chased by a mugger, an element which, unfortunately, tends to hand out around the theater. Old movie posters for such classics as “It Came From the Back Nine” (a monster terrorizes a country club golf course) and “Aunt Attack” (serial killer Aunt cuts through her nieces and nephews) and “Vampire Love Boat” (this one’s pretty obvious, but it’s about Vampires that seduce and feed on a cruise ship) and “Beetles in the Breadbasket” (Bugs storm a restaurant and get in the food) line the outer walls. The posters, like most everything on the outer façade of Corman Cinemas, are barely hanging on. (In fact, let’s not really see the posters very well. They should be mostly obscured or so small we can’t make them out. We’re going to feature them more prominently later.) We can see the large, fluorescent sign reading “Corman Cinemas” We can’t see who is selling the tickets in the ticket window because he or she is obscured by the dark glass. This should be the big panel on the page, either vertically off to the left side of the page, or horizontally across the top. Whichever works. Check out the other comics on Zuda to see how they handle the space.

The women: One is Lucy. . Lucy is in her mid-40’s, wears glasses and generally thinks she’s too cool for school. But she LOVES monster movies! Lucy carries a purse.

Not so excited is Angelina Patel, Lina for short. She’s an attractive East Indian woman in her mid-30’s. She’s dressed, as her friend is, in business attire. Lina would rather be anywhere other than Corman Cinemas.

LUCY
Two, please!

LINA
Lucy, what is
this place?

2- The two women are now inside the theater and having their tickets torn. The inside of Corman Cinemas stands as a direct contrast to the outside. Sleek and clean, this is an inviting theater with a great big lobby and classically styled architecture. At the same time, it’s very modern. Think of it like the great movie houses of old like Grauman’s Chinese and Egyptian, but with all the modern accouterments like an ATM, modern snack bar, an arcade, etc.

We shouldn’t be able to get a good look at any of the theater employees yet. Feel free to put other patrons roaming in the background, but I want the employees to remain mysterious. I see this panel as being shot over the ticket tearer’s husky shoulder.

The women are very wrapped up in their conversation, neither one paying any attention to the employee.

LUCY
Lina, relax.
I found it
online, isn’t it great?
They only show old
monster movies here,
nothing else. Is that
not the greatest thing
you’ve ever heard of?

LINA
Sounds like a
good way to lose a
lot of money.

EMPLOYEE
Second theater to your right.

3- The women are now at the concessions counter. Lucy is fishing money out of her purse to pay for the their snacks, while Lina takes the popcorn being handed to her by the concessions employee. Again, neither is paying any attention to the employee. Indeed, all we even see is a very hairy, clawed hand poking out of a uniformed sleeve handing the popcorn to Lina.

LUCY
For shame!
You dare besmirch the
name of man’s greatest creation,
the low budget b-movie!?
You are dead to me.

LINA
Better dead than
undead.

4- The two women walking down the hallway to their show. Again, keep the employees mostly hidden, but feel free to include a couple patrons.

LUCY
I see there’s a
lack of Zombie in
your movie diet.
We may made need to make
more than one trip.

LINA
You are really into
this stuff.

LUCY
It’s primal, Lina.
We all need a good
scare once in a while.
It’s only when we’re
frightened that we
truly want to be
alive.

5- The two women sitting by themselves in the darkened theater with their popcorn and sodas. Lina is reaching into the large popcorn tub.

LINA
You telling me
Zombies are life affirming?

LUCY
Not just zombies, but vampires,
werewolves, mutant creatures—
the whole lot of them.

LINA
Yeah?
What’s this one about?

6- A smallish panel, maybe inset in panel 5. We see Lina’s hand being brought to her mouth, full of popcorn and, more importantly, bugs. The bugs are crawling over her hand and in the popcorn. Let’s make ‘em beetles. This is a close-up shot. We should only see Lina’s mouth and hand. We wanna get up close and personal with the grossness.

LUCY (from off panel)
Bugs.

-----------

As you can see, I'm a wordy sonuvagun. You'll even notice some dialogue in panel 3 that I later deleted completely.

I've found that most artists like a lot of description, not less. Monsterplex Artist David Schlotterback is a bit of comics novice so I really wanted to give him as much info as possible. As you can see, it really worked:

Dave did a great job with this first pass at page one, but there were some continuity problems and not enough room was left for the dialogue. I gave him some notes and he came back with something a lot closer to what you see in the final version:

I loved how Dave filled out the world a little more in this one.

DAVID: We wanted to have the backgrounds provide fodder for humor as the characters wander the halls. To take that further, I schemed to put my favorite people or characters from popular culture in the background for a little extra eye candy. I continue to do this with future pages of MP, so keep a look out in the background. You never know who you’ll see lurking the halls of Corman Cinemas.

Luckily, Dave is really good at sort of thing. Lots of cameos and great creature designs coming up as the MONSTERPLEX story really gets going on page 9! Be sure and help us get there by voting, favoriting, commenting, giving a 5-star rating and visiting often!

More later.

-Brock

THE EVOLUTION OF LINA

2010-02-03T18:20:00.001-05:00

Our lead is holding steady today, though we're not seeing much movement in the favorites anymore. If you've already stopped by MONSTERPLEX on Zuda and voted--thank you! But don't forget to add to your favorites. It all counts!

Today's entry in the "Evolution" series takes a look at Lina, the first character created for Monsterplex! Look at how she started!

David Schlotterback (Monsterplex Artist): Lina was the very first character I took a swat at in order to address the main issue of this very fine comic that was given to me. That issue being: What is the style of art going to be, anyway? Well, I had no idea and needed to play and play and play until something came forward worth looking at. This first attempt is waaay off the mark, but fun to look at, in my opinion. Not a beautiful specimen, but I tackled the first obstacle, which was her ethnicity. The character is supposed to be of Middle-Eastern descent. I’d never drawn this ethnicity before, so, needless to say, I feel I conquered that aspect of her character, but not the beauty. Definitely not the beauty. Back to the drawing board I went.

David: Yet another attempt to find the style. Getting closer, now, I can just feel it. I liked this one and still do. However, Brock saw Lina as a sexy woman and I agree that this is not sexy. Pretty and powerful, but not sexy. To get sexy I figured I need more hair, bigger breasts and no pants. Sexy doesn’t wear pants.

Brock (Monsterplex Writer): Getting David to draw a beautiful woman was like pulling teeth. My sense was that it wasn't something he was accustomed to and I admit I was freaking out a little at this point. That's when I sharpened my pencil and came up with this head sketch. Dave got a better idea of what I intended for Lina from this, but it wasn't exactly his style. The challenge was for Dave to try to adapt the look and feel I was going for here to his own way of doing things.

So, Dave went back to drawing board once again.

David: Another attempt at Lina using a different style. Keep in mind, the style chosen for her would dictate the style of the rest of the cast and comic in general. I thought this was too Josie and the Pussycats for my taste. I got the beauty to shine through though.

Brock: He did, but I thought she looked too much like a little girl in this one.

David: Another approach to her head in the new style. Wanted to see if I could get it to work. In the immortal words of Charles Bronson, “No dice!”.

Brock: The features were just a little too babyish still. But we were getting closer.

Brock: Finally, David nailed it. I mean, just nailed it. I knew if we could work this hard to get one character just right, he could do great work on all of them. And Dave did. I think one of the strengths of MONSTERPLEX is the strong character design, and Dave's commitment to getting it just right is why.

More later!

UPDATED! The MONSTERPLEX Avatars are Here!

2010-02-03T11:27:00.000-05:00

An easy way to show your support for MONSTERPLEX is through your very own avatar. Below you'll find a whole slew of Monsterplex Avatars from which you can pick the one that best fits your personality.

Avatars come in two sizes. The Large one is perfect for Facebook and Twitter. The smaller one is a custom made Zuda avatar that matches the Zuda's dimension requirements. If you're registered on Zuda, simply go into your settings to change or upload an Avatar.

(And for those of you wondering how to grab these avatars off of this post...simply grab them with your mouse cursor and drag over to the Desktop. You can upload easily from there.)

Here you go!

UPDATE! LINA!

WOLF

PRISCILLA

SLUDGE

LUCY

KEN "ZOMBIE" WATANABE

SWAMPY

RYAN

ZOMBIE HEAD

MONSTERPLEX BANNER AND BUTTON NOW LIVE!

2010-02-03T02:28:00.000-05:00

Hey, hey...looking to promote MONSTERPLEX on your own blog or site? The Zuda-crafted banner and button are now live on the support page!

Spread 'em around!

Another sketch blog post later on this morning. Watch for it!

-Brock

THE EVOLUTION OF BITSY

2010-02-02T12:26:00.000-05:00

Day two of the TEAM MONSTERPLEX effort and things are off to a good start. While the number of votes is not public knowledge, we do how many pageviews we're at and how many people have added MP to their favorites. As of 24 hours after the competition began, we stand at 1,436 pageviews and 45 favorites. Not bad!

Part of what I'd like to do with this blog is share with you some of the great artwork that's been produced for MONSTERPLEX that you'll likely never see on the Zuda site. First up is the Evolution of Bitsy. While she she doesn't do too much in the 8-page preview on Zuda, Bitsy has a big role to play going forward and so we had to get her to look juuuuust right...

DAVID SCHLOTTERBACK (Monsterplex Artist): This was the very first attempt at Bitsy. “Juno” was the jumping point for this character. Bitsy was to retain the cuteness, yet reclusive quality of that character and I felt that this first attempt contained too much similarity to Ellen Page herself. So, back to the drawing board.

DAVID: Here I obviously pushed the “alternative” side of Bitsy to the max. She looked too wild and loud and could easily be mistaken as a witch. However, I was digging the hair. So, I thought I’d give’r another shot.

DAVID: This was my favorite version at the time. But, we decided she looked a little too rough around the edges. Looking at it now after not seeing it for quite some time, I notice a similarity to Pink in her. She definitely lacks the “cute” aspect of the Bitsy of today, but I still fancy this approach mainly due to the dreadlocks. Brock was not sold on the dreadlocks, hence the 9 samples of hairstyles later to come. But, we were set on having her hairstyle be a little wild and also be dyed, as referenced in the notes along the edge. You can see at this point, we really were starting to bring her character together.

BROCK HEASLEY (Monsterplex Writer): I hated the hair. I admit that. I really hated the hair. But...I loved the look of the uniform. I felt like Dave really nailed in his third sketch and that look would dictate how we handled the uniforms on all the characters.

DAVID: Finding Bitsy’s hairstyle ended up being real crucial to her personality. We had settled on an alternative personality for her character. I mean, one would have to be a little off their rocker to want to work for Corman Cinemas. So, getting the hair to capture that personality, but still retain some fun and not evoke a dark persona was the key. It would be too easy and predictable to go the “goth” direction. As you can see I went through many sample ideas until we settled on a variation of the hairstyle on the bottom left.

BROCK: I think at one point I was arguing in favor of the top middle hairstyle. Really glad that didn't happen.

Bitsy's final look:

Don't forget to visit MONSTERPLEX and cast your vote! If you've already voted, did you add it to your favorites? No? There's still time!

THE BIG ANNOUNCEMENT

2010-02-01T12:30:00.000-05:00

I’m gonna cut right to the chase here: I have a shot at a contract with DC Comics.

This is it. This is what I’ve been waiting to tell you for months now. This is the “secret comics project.” What is it? It’s the story of a old movie theater that not only shows monster movies, but features real monsters. It’s called MONSTERPLEX.

Every month DC Comics (publisher of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, etc.) pits 10 comics against each other on their webcomics site, Zuda. For a few weeks, people are invited to rank, vote on and praise or damn the comics until one emerges victorious (read: most popular) and the creators of said comic are offered a one year contract to keep making it.

Yes, that means money. Yes, it’s thousands of dollars (not a ton, but enough to keep doing it). More importantly, it means the little boy inside me doing back flips will have his dreams come true. (He’s making me sick. Who knew the spleen was bouncy?)

On Monday, Feb. 1^st at Noon Eastern Standard time, my submission, MONSTERPLEX, went live on the Zuda site. You can go check it out right here, right now. Together with artist David Schlotterback (my office mate) and colorist Michael DeVito (Publisher of Th3rd World Studios, the company that publishes my comic, The SuperFogeys), I’ve created what I think is a great comic. I hope you agree.

I hope you agree because this is where you come in. I would like you to join me on TEAM MONSTERPLEX. Between the great work my creative team has done on MONSTERPLEX and the power you hold as one who can access the interweb, I think we can win this thing. We can’t do it without you.

So, how can you help? Lots of ways, actually. First and foremost is going to the Zuda site and giving MONSTERPLEX attention and votes. How do you do that? Let me explain:

1. First of all, go to http://www.zuda.com Pretty cool, right?

2. Hit the “Sign Up!” link in the upper right hand corner. You can’t vote or interact with the site in any meaningful way without registering first (don’t worry, it’s painless and DC Comics won’t spam you afterwards).

3. Follow the instructions to create your Zuda account. If you want to load up an avatar, cool (don’t have to though). We’ve even got some MONSTERPLEX avatars for you to use at the bottom of this post that are all ready to go!

4. Click on the Zuda logo in the upper left corner of the screen to go back to the homepage.

5. Click on “VOTE” to go to the current competition.

6. Scroll down until you see MONSTERPLEX and then click on that!

7. Now, this is the good part. There’s a whole bunch of things you can do to support MONSTERPLEX and they’re all right here:

a. Click the VOTE button!

b. Give MONSTERPLEX a star rating under “Rate This Comic:” (5 is great, but follow your conscience.)

c. Click the red “+” sign to “Add to Your Favorites”

d. Scroll way down on the page and leave a comment!

Yes, all of these things really do matter and are counted by Zuda. Here’s how they put it, from the FAQ:

“HOW DO I HELP A COMIC WIN A COMPETITION?

"There are a number of ways to help your favorite comic win a competition.

“The most direct way is by VOTING for it! The vote button is on the Competition Page and on the Comic Information drop-down on the Comic Page itself.

“You can also help a comic by making it one of your FAVORITES or by giving it a high RATING. The favorites button and a five-star rating scale are in the Comic Information section of the Comic Page. Even VIEWING and COMMENTING helps us determine which comic is ultimately going to be number one!

“Finally, if you're really dedicated, you can download a banner from our Support Page to post on your blog or personal web page. Nothing helps out a comic like bringing in a new audience that can also Read, Favorite, Rate, Comment and especially Vote!”

Let me talk a bit about that last part. There’s no way TEAM MONSTERPLEX can succeed without pulling people in. If you have a blog or a Facebook page or a Twitter account or webcomic or an etc.—you can help! We need to spread the word on this as far and wide as we can if we’re going to win.

That’s the only way this is going to happen.

Now, I know what you’re asking, “What’s in this for me?” Well, I wish I was a rich man. If I was, I’d give everybody truckloads of cash for the support (although I do think that would be against the rules, but still…). So, no, it’s not about money. It’s about supporting a comic you think is cool and the guys who are creating it. It’ about participating in something that’s gonna be a lot of fun. I hope you’ll join us.

Meanwhile, I’m gonna be out there like crazy trying to drum up support. I’ve established a MONSTERPLEX blog where I’ll be posting something new everyday—sketches, commentary, news, links to reviews and interviews. The works. Every day.

Bookmark http://monsterplex.blogspot.com/ to follow along!

You can also find me on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/brockheasley

Or on Twitter at http://twitter.com/brockheasley

And, of course, the Facebook MONSTERPLEX Fan Page: (Coming Soon!)

And I’ll be all over the comments section of the MONSTERPLEX comic on Zuda: http://zudacomics.com/node/1759

Thanks in advance to everyone who comes out to support us. Feel free to copy this post and paste it in your own blogs and such. I think it’ll be pretty safe to say I’ll owe you all one, and that’s okay.

It all begins now!

Brock