Thursday, September 18, 2008
Monday, September 8, 2008
Inflated Ego!
My pals Ron and Beth went to the Comic GeekSpeak Supershow, and while they were there, they commissioned the uber-talented balloon artist Pascale to create...Twilight Guardian!
Thanks so much, you guys. You are now BOTH official members of Twilight Guardian's Midnight Squad. I'll teach you the secret handshake later (it involves deer jerky).
Here are some pics:
Thanks so much, you guys. You are now BOTH official members of Twilight Guardian's Midnight Squad. I'll teach you the secret handshake later (it involves deer jerky).
Here are some pics:
This Is It!
We're down to the last day, gang, so if you can, vote vote vote today! And if you can convince anyone else to do the same, please do!
If they'd like to read the comic, by the way, they can do so here.
Thanks, everyone. Let's make this happen!
If they'd like to read the comic, by the way, they can do so here.
Thanks, everyone. Let's make this happen!
Saturday, September 6, 2008
This Pretty Much Says It
Here's another piece I wrote for the Pilot Season blog:
Top Ten Reasons to Vote for Twilight Guardian
10. I'm poor. Terribly, dreadfully poor. I'm so poor, when someone dies I can't even pay my respects. I'm so poor I've still got last Monday's lunch on layaway. If Twilight Guardian can get picked up as a series, it'll make a HUGE difference. Beyond that, though, it will push me that much closer to my eventual goal: to get out of my rather dead-end, low-paying, no-benefits teaching job and start writing comics full-time. Gang, I just can't keep reusing tea bags (as pillows!).
9. Twilight Guardian is an unconventional superheroine. Y'know, we hear all the time that there need to be more comics starring female characters. And we likewise hear that we need more female characters who are NOT wasp-waisted supermodels with breasts the size and heft of sixteen-pound bowling balls. Well, here's a heroine who fits the bill on both counts. Lets put our votes where our mouths are (oh, you know what I mean).
8. We're the underdog in this fight. Look, everyone loves a little-guy-triumphs-over-the-odds story, and I think that's what we've got here. Let's face it: if you walk into the average comic convention and yell, "Hey, it's Troy Hickman," you're going to get one of two responses: (A) "Who?" and (B) "The guy who did Pax Romana??" I don't have a large fanbase, I don't have a bunch of titles on the stands. I don't have projects in the works for any other sort of media. I'm a relatively obscure comic book writer, and what I have going for me are a love for the medium, and hopefully your support. So if you really want to see a David and Goliath story...well, hit that button for Twilight Guardian and start chanting "Ru-dy! Ru-dy!"
7. There is not another book on the stands like Twilight Guardian. I'm pretty sure just about everyone says that when they're promoting their book, but I think it's quite true here. It's not just the concept of a "real-life superhero," but also the execution of that idea. Twilight Guardian is a book that attempts to grab you without the conventions of a typical superhero book, and that will continue to do so (this book may become a lot of things, but you have my word that "standard" will never be one of them). We're not bound by the structures of a pre-existing comic universe or notions of what a superhero comic is required to be. Because of that, ANYTHING can happen.
6. Reza's art is terrific, and he's just going to keep getting better and better. This guy has a huge range (you should see his action shots), and he's going to be very big in this business. You, dear reader, will be able to tell folks you got in on the ground floor. And frankly, I want to keep working with the guy, and you can help me do that.
5. The members of the American Federation of Hoodie Manufacturers will thank you for it.
4. Twilight Guardian is something of an enigma, and readers haven't had a chance to puzzle through all the mysteries that surround her. We need the opportunity to answer those questions, and to piece together this life and this quest she's forged for herself. I don't know about you, but there are few things that upset me more than a comic or a TV show that suddenly disappears before the payoff. Cliffhanging is for Wile E. Coyote.
3. It you vote for it, you're invited to the big Twilight Guardian Victory Party & Barbecue Extravaganza (BYOB).
2. A lot of people have put a ton of work into this project. Besides Reza and the folks at IFS, and Rob, Mel, and the rest of the guys at Top Cow, there are also a TON of fans and friends out there who have supported and voted for this comic. As much as I want this for myself, I want it for them, too. All their efforts have meant so much to me, and part of my way of repaying them would be to pull off one hell of a Twilight Guardian series.
1. I believe it's a pretty darned good comic, and you have my word that it will continue to get better and better. Please give me that chance.
Time to go.
Troy Hickman, September 2008
Top Ten Reasons to Vote for Twilight Guardian
10. I'm poor. Terribly, dreadfully poor. I'm so poor, when someone dies I can't even pay my respects. I'm so poor I've still got last Monday's lunch on layaway. If Twilight Guardian can get picked up as a series, it'll make a HUGE difference. Beyond that, though, it will push me that much closer to my eventual goal: to get out of my rather dead-end, low-paying, no-benefits teaching job and start writing comics full-time. Gang, I just can't keep reusing tea bags (as pillows!).
9. Twilight Guardian is an unconventional superheroine. Y'know, we hear all the time that there need to be more comics starring female characters. And we likewise hear that we need more female characters who are NOT wasp-waisted supermodels with breasts the size and heft of sixteen-pound bowling balls. Well, here's a heroine who fits the bill on both counts. Lets put our votes where our mouths are (oh, you know what I mean).
8. We're the underdog in this fight. Look, everyone loves a little-guy-triumphs-over-the-odds story, and I think that's what we've got here. Let's face it: if you walk into the average comic convention and yell, "Hey, it's Troy Hickman," you're going to get one of two responses: (A) "Who?" and (B) "The guy who did Pax Romana??" I don't have a large fanbase, I don't have a bunch of titles on the stands. I don't have projects in the works for any other sort of media. I'm a relatively obscure comic book writer, and what I have going for me are a love for the medium, and hopefully your support. So if you really want to see a David and Goliath story...well, hit that button for Twilight Guardian and start chanting "Ru-dy! Ru-dy!"
7. There is not another book on the stands like Twilight Guardian. I'm pretty sure just about everyone says that when they're promoting their book, but I think it's quite true here. It's not just the concept of a "real-life superhero," but also the execution of that idea. Twilight Guardian is a book that attempts to grab you without the conventions of a typical superhero book, and that will continue to do so (this book may become a lot of things, but you have my word that "standard" will never be one of them). We're not bound by the structures of a pre-existing comic universe or notions of what a superhero comic is required to be. Because of that, ANYTHING can happen.
6. Reza's art is terrific, and he's just going to keep getting better and better. This guy has a huge range (you should see his action shots), and he's going to be very big in this business. You, dear reader, will be able to tell folks you got in on the ground floor. And frankly, I want to keep working with the guy, and you can help me do that.
5. The members of the American Federation of Hoodie Manufacturers will thank you for it.
4. Twilight Guardian is something of an enigma, and readers haven't had a chance to puzzle through all the mysteries that surround her. We need the opportunity to answer those questions, and to piece together this life and this quest she's forged for herself. I don't know about you, but there are few things that upset me more than a comic or a TV show that suddenly disappears before the payoff. Cliffhanging is for Wile E. Coyote.
3. It you vote for it, you're invited to the big Twilight Guardian Victory Party & Barbecue Extravaganza (BYOB).
2. A lot of people have put a ton of work into this project. Besides Reza and the folks at IFS, and Rob, Mel, and the rest of the guys at Top Cow, there are also a TON of fans and friends out there who have supported and voted for this comic. As much as I want this for myself, I want it for them, too. All their efforts have meant so much to me, and part of my way of repaying them would be to pull off one hell of a Twilight Guardian series.
1. I believe it's a pretty darned good comic, and you have my word that it will continue to get better and better. Please give me that chance.
Time to go.
Troy Hickman, September 2008
Friday, September 5, 2008
One of Our Own
My dear pal Mike O'Connell just posted a piece on his blog urging folks to vote for Twilight Guardian. I tell ya, this guy has been plugging TG forever now, and really going out of his way, from sending out emails to printing up t-shirts (and wearing them to conventions), and on and on.A lot of great stuff has come out of my association with The Clobberin' Times (that's our ol' Champions rpg APA, folks), and you are definitely one of them, buddy. Thanks so much.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Twilight Guardian at #2
Gang, with a week to go, we've slipped into second place.
While the top two books get their own series, I'm really worried that one of the other books will creep up on us between now and the close of voting next week.
PLEASE, if you can, vote every day at www.topcow.com. And if you can convince other folks to do the same, I'd sure appreciate it.
If I can get a series for TG, it's going to make such a major difference in my life, so this is no small thing.
Anyway, thanks so much for all the effort you've put into this thus far. It's been incredible, as have you.
Troy
While the top two books get their own series, I'm really worried that one of the other books will creep up on us between now and the close of voting next week.
PLEASE, if you can, vote every day at www.topcow.com. And if you can convince other folks to do the same, I'd sure appreciate it.
If I can get a series for TG, it's going to make such a major difference in my life, so this is no small thing.
Anyway, thanks so much for all the effort you've put into this thus far. It's been incredible, as have you.
Troy
Beginnings
Here's another piece I wrote for the Pilot Season blog page:
What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been
There are obviously a number of mysteries surrounding Twilight Guardian. How did she become what she is? What prompted her nocturnal patrols? What tragedy drives her? While those questions are crucial, I'm not at liberty to answer them just yet. What I CAN tell you about, however, is how Twilight Guardian came to exist as a comic, and how it became part of this year's Pilot Season line-up.
Back in 1991, I started my own line of black & white, photocopied mini-comics (digest-sized, to be precise). Among them were titles like Yoyo the Dieting Clown, Made-Up Stuff is Stranger than Fiction, Holey Crullers (remember that one; it'll be pertinent later), and Tales of the Pathetic Club.
The latter comic was a quasi-slice-of-life series that had grown out of my love for comics like American Splendor (and I was overjoyed when Harvey Pekar sent me a nice note telling me how much he dug it). Pathetic Club was the story of Edward Stein, a doctor who studied individuals suffering from a variety of obsessive-compulsive disorders (a subject you might say I know from the inside out). Among his "subjects" was a woman who patroled a 9-block area of her neighborhood every night, a woman who called herself the Twilight Guardian.
Though she only appeared in a couple of pages of Pathetic Club #2, there was something about TG that really haunted me, and after the series had finished its trilogy, I knew she had to return. So the original Twilight Guardian #1, a 12 page mini-comic, was born.
And then...well, nothing. Originally I had planned it as another trilogy, but for whatever reason, that never happened.
Flash forward all the way to 2003. Tragedy had struck at La Hacienda Hickman, and my son and I were about a week away from living under a bridge. Luckily for me, though, Jim McLauchlin had taken over the helm at Top Cow, and immediately contacted me about turning my Holey Crullers mini-comic into a new full-sized series (he'd picked up the book some years earlier while he was editor at Wizard, and had them do a four-page article on my obscure little title). We quickly worked out a deal to turn my Crullers stories into Common Grounds, and boy, I'm glad we did. That, however, is a story for another day.
At the same time, though, the Cow seemed interested in doing something with another of my old minis: Twilight Guardian. So we added it to the mix as a possible future title. And then...well, nothing.
Flash forward again to 2008. Top Cow was looking for comics to be part of Pilot Season 2008, and I received a call from editor Rob Levin, inquiring if I'd like to have Twilight Guardian included in the competition. Faster than you can say "homina homina," I was working on a new version of TG, one that combined the one-shot with TG's Pathetic Club appearance, as well as a bunch of additional material.
So...will Twilight Guardian disappear once again after a single appearance? That will be up to you, folks. If you'd like to see our suburban sentinel finally receive a true lease on life, you can make that happen with your votes.
I sure hope that you do, because she's been waiting almost fifteen years to have her story told.
Troy Hickman, September 2008
What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been
There are obviously a number of mysteries surrounding Twilight Guardian. How did she become what she is? What prompted her nocturnal patrols? What tragedy drives her? While those questions are crucial, I'm not at liberty to answer them just yet. What I CAN tell you about, however, is how Twilight Guardian came to exist as a comic, and how it became part of this year's Pilot Season line-up.
Back in 1991, I started my own line of black & white, photocopied mini-comics (digest-sized, to be precise). Among them were titles like Yoyo the Dieting Clown, Made-Up Stuff is Stranger than Fiction, Holey Crullers (remember that one; it'll be pertinent later), and Tales of the Pathetic Club.
The latter comic was a quasi-slice-of-life series that had grown out of my love for comics like American Splendor (and I was overjoyed when Harvey Pekar sent me a nice note telling me how much he dug it). Pathetic Club was the story of Edward Stein, a doctor who studied individuals suffering from a variety of obsessive-compulsive disorders (a subject you might say I know from the inside out). Among his "subjects" was a woman who patroled a 9-block area of her neighborhood every night, a woman who called herself the Twilight Guardian.
Though she only appeared in a couple of pages of Pathetic Club #2, there was something about TG that really haunted me, and after the series had finished its trilogy, I knew she had to return. So the original Twilight Guardian #1, a 12 page mini-comic, was born.
And then...well, nothing. Originally I had planned it as another trilogy, but for whatever reason, that never happened.
Flash forward all the way to 2003. Tragedy had struck at La Hacienda Hickman, and my son and I were about a week away from living under a bridge. Luckily for me, though, Jim McLauchlin had taken over the helm at Top Cow, and immediately contacted me about turning my Holey Crullers mini-comic into a new full-sized series (he'd picked up the book some years earlier while he was editor at Wizard, and had them do a four-page article on my obscure little title). We quickly worked out a deal to turn my Crullers stories into Common Grounds, and boy, I'm glad we did. That, however, is a story for another day.
At the same time, though, the Cow seemed interested in doing something with another of my old minis: Twilight Guardian. So we added it to the mix as a possible future title. And then...well, nothing.
Flash forward again to 2008. Top Cow was looking for comics to be part of Pilot Season 2008, and I received a call from editor Rob Levin, inquiring if I'd like to have Twilight Guardian included in the competition. Faster than you can say "homina homina," I was working on a new version of TG, one that combined the one-shot with TG's Pathetic Club appearance, as well as a bunch of additional material.
So...will Twilight Guardian disappear once again after a single appearance? That will be up to you, folks. If you'd like to see our suburban sentinel finally receive a true lease on life, you can make that happen with your votes.
I sure hope that you do, because she's been waiting almost fifteen years to have her story told.
Troy Hickman, September 2008
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