Figured I’d mention this since it’ll be a little slower here now, but my main section of the site will be picking up… www.joshalves.com (figured I’d post it for links that direct to this Araknid Kid section).

Getting the 3rd and final part of Araknid Kid’s first episode for Sugary Serials together (which you’ll get to see in October ;)  )

Araknid Kid started out in fourth, slipped to 6th and remained there for the month. It being the same position I finished in last time, I’m happy to say that I remained consistent I also like to look at it like this; in a competition style that favors teams, you’ll notice that with the exception of Rey’s “Dead in the Now”, the bottom half is all one-person projects… so in ways… I came in 2nd!!!! (How’s that for optimism )

It was a great month and I was really glad to be included in the invitational. It meant alot that being invited meant people wanted to see more…. and I’m happy to say that you will! I’m still getting the exact details, but you’ll find the story being published at Sugary Serials starting next month. We’ll begin with the first 8 page part (it’ll be what you saw on Zuda in a standard comic book format plus an extra page that you didn’t get to see). The next 8 will be published in September, and the final 8 will be available in October. All parts will be available in the Sugary Serials collection and will also be collected into it’s own comic. In the meantime, there’s that little business of the Araknid Kid sculpt…

A big THANKS to all of you and your support. It was really cool to have people helping out putting up posters, passing out cards, promoting on sites and in comments…. just really, really encouraging to me. And with that… I’ve taken the names that signed up to be on the sculpt list… printed the out, cut em up, now gonna pick one… and here goes…

The winner is…. TRAVIS!!!

Thanks again! This isn’t the end for the Kid! Just the end of the Kid on Zuda Stay tuned!!!!

Ah… whatta weekend.

I was able to have the last 5 days off from work, relaxing… and busy.

Had an eye appointment at the Mall Friday, while I waited for my new glasses (ordered more contacts too). I puttered around handing out Araknid Kid cards. It was fun randomness.

Then, Friday afternoon, I was able to hang out at the San Diego Comic Con for a bit thanks to technology and the kindness of Peter Timony (Half of the Timony Brothers… the most famous Twins in Comics! If you’re not reading their Zuda series Night Owls… than what are you doing???)! He had posted an invitation for interested folks to IM him while they were at the Zuda booth for a vid chat… so I did! And it was COOL! He showed me the Zuda booth, the DC booth, I watched Bobby draw, saw multiple costumed folks, got to say “Hey” and plug Araknid Kid (THANKS PETE!).

The rest of the weekend was spent hanging out with family and spent yesterday morning with Amy walking through the Bangor Forest (Bog walk is always fun). And now it’s back to the ole’ grind…

Today is the last full day of voting. Thank you all for all the support in helping spread the work about the Kid. For putting up posters, handing out cards, plugging it on your sites and telling folks you know about it. It’s been greatly appreciated! As of right now I remain in 6th (same position as December’s comp… at least I’m consistent ) and it would take a “Christmas-in-July” miracle to pull off a win, but I’d love to finish a bit higher this go round… so if you haven’t already, now’s a great time to vote! Family, friends,neighbors… even random people you meet are eligible to vote too

Final push!

Thanks!

One of the videos my brother helped put together was this mock commercial for the Araknid Kid Wii game. He was able to find an actual commercial and cut it with “game” scenes I provided. Check it out

Here we introduce the sub-villains of this first episode… the Jack Pack! The frantic foursome was one of those “happy accidents” I had as I developed the story (so much so that I’m not sure how long they’ll be sub-villains….) As I was putting this together I was trying to think of a situation that introduced our hero in a… well… heroic manner. Immediately “thwarting a bank robbery” came to mind (classic “western” antagonist action)…

Part of one of the drafts for the Araknid Kid synopsis (actually… I think the one I submitted with the original 8 pages… not the one that was published on the site… all were done with the help of friend, John Gunningham) said “…the Kid is well equipped to deal with anything that comes his way; be it rustlers on mechanical horses or …” I knew that I wanted to display that. As I began doodling these “rustlers” I started thinking about cards (like playing poker in a saloon)… thus the Jacks were born. I thought that it would be fun if each Jack had a specific character traits and weapons.

Jack Spade: The Leader, weapon of choice: Spade (NOT a shovel)
Jack Diamund: The Slippery Sly one… weapon of choice, Daggers (to tell if you have a real diamond, you can see if it cuts glass…)
Jack Clubbe: The Jokester, weapon of choice, a Club (also outfitted in Irish Clover green)
Jack Hart: The “Good-Looking” one, weapon of choice, cross-bow (kinda like cupid)

Page 2:

Here we continue the background on who eventually becomes the episode’s title villains, Kracker & Flea. With panel one, I wanted to give a geographical depiction of Hattahtak Territory’s location (if you take out HT you’ll have the California coast as it currently exists ). What’s more perfect than show it while displaying the incoming meteor.

Panel 2-4 show the unknowning entertainer enjoying a cracker snack while behind him the flea notices the incoming danger.

Page 3:

Kaboom! Meteor hits (campfire scene at night because everyone knows explosions look better at night ). And when the dusk clears, we learn that not only are they still alive… but the flea… can talk! (dun-dun-dun)

Thus ends the Villain origin sequence… unto the “dispatching of subvillains” in the coming pages.

This week I was interviewed on “The Show”. For details on how to get a signed Araknid Kid print, listen here

Apparently the Marvel Masterpieces II cards are out… an artist that had contributed to the set mentioned how one of their cards was on ebay… and for fun I checked to see if any of mine were on there… and I found two! (I did 48 cards)

Doc Ock ends tomorrow (this was the second sketch card I had EVER done)

And Vision ends in a few days.

I’m going to be getting special Artist Proof sketch cards that I hope to take commissions on. If interested, email me. I’ll have only 10 of them… so they’re limited (a couple of them are already taken…)

In between projects this week I did this piece of Araknid Kid art.

Taking the list of folks that have signed up for the sculpture and newsletter, I randomly drew a name and this one goes to….. *drumroll*…. Darrell!

This’ll be dropped in the mail as soon as I get the address. If you want to be eligible for the AK sculpt, and potentially other Kid stuff (like a sketch). Sign-up today! (and tell your friends )