Well, as you may have figured out if you have not been in a coma for the last few months there is something of a global pandemic swirling around the planet and it seems highly unlikely that there will be any comic book conventions for 2020.
Since we can't attend a TCAF that isn't happening, we figured we could bring a little TCAF to all of you. It works like this: check out our online store and get 10% off EVERYTHING with the coupon code TCAF2020 at checkout.
Howdy, folks.
Just wanted to let you know our latest campaign is in its final 36-ish hours. So, if you want one of these handsome tote bags...
...(and I guess a hardcover book or something) then you better head on over and click some buttons!
Well, we went and done it.
We launched our latest Kickstarter campaign. This time we're making the hardcover edition of Atomic Robo and the Dawn of a New Era.
Check it out!
We've got the usual goodies like The Secret Files of Doctor Dinosaur, original pages and cover art, a print set, and more. And don't forget our very first officially licensed tote bag for what appears to be Doctor Dinosaur's personal health food brand? We don't like to ask him questions, it just leads to more gunfire.
Things are chugging along behind the scenes and will continue to do so pending any sudden health emergencies. Everyone on Team Robo has been working from home since things started getting weird and so far no one has any symptoms.
You might have heard that your local shops won't be getting new comics for a while. That's a bit of a kick in the ol' finances. Especially after we had to cancel our major convention appearances for Spring and early Summer. Lots of industry folks are planning like conventions will back by late Summer, but that's wishful thinking. The venue for the biggest show of the back half of the year is being converted into a hospital right now. And I just don't see how we're going to justify allowing a convention's worth of people to travel from all over the country so they can mingle in one place for a weekend given the risks associated with, uh, every step of doing that. Not until somewhere in 2021 at least.
With the lack of convention sales and the Direct Market income for the rest of the year, independent creators need your support more than ever. You can help Atomic Robo by grabbing comiXology editions, or backing this year's Kickstarters, or joining our Patreon, or just adding atomic-robo.com to your ad blocker's whitelist. Every little bit helps! You can pick up something from our online shop but there will be no shipments until April 10th at the earliest due to, y'know, state mandated shutdowns.
Hey, how about some good news?
We spent most of 2019 working on an all new creator owned property and it's our hope to share that with you later this year. That's also why we've been posting these cute "zine" style comics. We wanted to do something like them for years, but they never fit into our production schedule until now. And, bonus points, doing these lets us get to know Alan and the New Kids better before we throw them into our next crazy sci-fi adventure, Atomic Robo and the Vengeful Dead. The whole volume is already written, we're currently outlining the one after that, and planning the one after that. So, like I said, we're chugging along.
It is my hope that the urgency of this pandemic reveals the need for radical action to solve the monumental global scale problems our civilization has created. We must think of the COVID-19 response as a preview of what will be required by all of us to confront the ongoing climate catastrophe. We are already seeing proof that a radical rearrangement of human activities and priorities to solve monumental problems is possible. What we do today with empathy, imagination, and bravery to save millions of lives will be the foundation of what we do tomorrow to save billions of them.
Stay safe.
As you may have heard Emerald City Comic Con 2020 was postponed until Summer. It wasn't easy for convention staff to make this decision — they know that for many indie creators our entire Second Quarter financial plan every year is just ECCC written in a notebook and circled a bunch — but it was the right decision to make and all of us at Atomic Robo are glad they made it. We all need to be doing whatever we can to help slow the spread of COVID-19 to help our health care infrastructure to cope with this influx of new patients.
So, while the convention is canceled, we can bring convention sales to you! It's simple, just use coupon code ECCC2020 to get 10% off every single item at our online store for the week.
Hey.
Hey, you.
Do you live within the vicinity of Richmond VA? Then you should come out to the Richmond Convention Center this weekend, February 28 - March 1 to see Scott and Brian at GalaxyCon!
We'll have hardcovers, and T-shirts, and all kinds of goodies for sale. Come on by and see for yourself why so many folks describe us as, "not entirely ugly," and, "I've seen dumber."
Hope you folks had a good winter break with friends and family while we toiled away on new material for you.
I mean, yeah, we also had a good time with friends and family, but what's the point of serving up free comics all year if we can't pointlessly guilt trip you every so often for enjoying them?
We're gonna be running these "zine" style comics for a while. Partly this is to help us build up a content buffer so we work on our next volume, Atomic Robo and the Vengeful Dead. But the other partly is that it lets us explore how Alan fits into the Tesladyne family and to spend some more time hanging out with the cast and crew without having to worry about racing around to deal with the ticking time bomb of an ACTION SCIENCE CATASTROPHE. That's what The Vengeful Dead is for!
Meanwhile, we just restructured our Patreon, so if you're looking for more early access to online comics, insight into our creative process, and exclusive bonus material, then swing on by!
Did you miss our previous Kickstarter campaign for the hardcover edition of The Nicodemus Job and Doctor Dinosaur's incredibly stupid time travel guide book?
Well, good news! You can hop into our Pledge Manager campaign by clicking this here fancy linkylink! Just follow the instructions and you'll soon be living the good life.
BIG HOLIDAY SHIPPING ANNOUNCEMENT the cut off for standard shipping of domestic orders to arrive in time for Christmas is DECEMBER 10TH. That's Tuesday! Place your holiday orders now before it's too late! Or place them later and just get them, y'know, after Christmas. It won't be the end of the world.
Now, about them comics.
No, there's nothing wrong with your monitor or eyes.
Or, hell, maybe there is, how would I know?
But in the specific case of this here website and the comics we put upon it, the recent crop of black and white pages is entirely intentional.
It goes like this: we knew as far back as Ring of Fire that we were going to introduce Alan with a new crop of young Action Scientists in training. And that became Dawn of a New Era. As we worked out who these characters were, how they would get along, what sorts of hijinks they would create or fall into, Scott and I pitched each other little scenes. Just throwing cute moments or visuals at one another to see what we liked as Alan and the New Kids took shape.
It was stuff that we enjoyed and wanted to share with you folks, but it was also stuff that would make no sense in the midst of a regular volume. Particularly our next volume, Atomic Robo and the Vengeful Dead, which uh, hmmm, not to spoil anything but that sure doesn't sound like a nice relaxing romp.
So we're doing these Quickie Quomics. These Kwickie Komics. We're doing these simple comics to share a bunch of scenes of Alan, the New Kids, Robo, and the rest hanging out around Tesladyne. These are totally canonical. Orientation, for example, takes place maybe an hour after the final page of Dawn of a New Era. They'll be short stories, most of them are only four pages. They're sketchy, black and white, and use minimal backgrounds so we can make them without interrupting our regular production schedule.
So, sit back and enjoy.
Black Friday was so last week, but the sales don't have to stop.
Hit up our online store to get 20% off every book from now until December 10th. But December 2nd, that's today, is the last day you can get FREE SHIPPING ON ANY ORDER OVER $50!
