MEETING COMICS

Hey, folks! I’ve got tidbits and event announcements for you and then a bit about a comic cover that I debuted six years ago!

TIDBITS

• Reminder: sign up to be notified about the launch of the NO RACCOONS IN HELL kickstarter right here!

• Reminder: get the first two Val Cannon Mysteries (WHERE THE RENT WENT and GONE GHOST) in digital format for free right here (through next Monday)!

• Page 26 of NO RACCOONS IN HELL has been posted at my patreon for subscribers who pay $1/month or more!

UPCOMING APPEARANCES

Other than NOICE in Norfolk, which I attended in February, I’m only planning on doing events within an hour of my house this year. Spring’s gonna be busy:

CHBORO ZINE FEST: Sunday, April 27th, 11am - 4pm, Carrboro Town Commons, Carrboro, NC. Website here. Instagram here.

ACME COMICS FREE COMIC BOOK DAY BLOCK PARTY: Saturday, May 3, Acme Comics Downtown, Greensboro, NC. More information coming soon. Acme Comics email newsletter announcement here.

DURHAM WORKS ON PAPER ROUNDUP: Friday, May 23, 6-10pm, Durham Armory, Durham, NC. More information coming soon. This is run by Bill Fick, who also puts on Zine Machine. His instagram is here.

SIX YEARS AGO

Six years ago I debuted what is probably my most successful cover, if the criteria for judging is the amount of people who talk to me about it at shows (and just sheer graphic simplicity).

When people do mention the cover at shows, I get to make my pitch about the The Ribbon Cutter, which is that he shows up at grand opening ceremonies and cuts the ribbon before the mayor has a chance. People usually respond well to that. I think it’s a solid joke.

I had designed The Ribbon Cutter's costume before drawing the cover. I was thinking of both luchadors like El Santo and Japanese superhero characters like Ultraman. I wanted to design a costume around the scissors that he used, I put a scissors logo on the chest and flipped it for the eyepiece.

As for how I came up with the actual cover, I'm not a huge Frank Miller guy, but was thinking of him when I did it, in two different ways. First, I was thinking of the cover to Dark Knight Returns #1 with the image of Batman’s midair silhouette. Second, I was thinking of Sin City because of the stark black and white costume design.

I have sold shirts and caps with the image of The Ribbon Cutter on them, and now that the issue is out of print I clearly need to have something with this image on it on display at my table because it draws people! I’m thinking I need to order stickers and maybe some kind of banner.

Shirts are still available here, by the way.

That’s the thought process behind that cover, which I thought I would share because the internet told me yesterday that the cover was six years old!

If you’re interested in reading about the origins of The Ribbon Cutter as a character, I wrote about that last year for my patreon. It’s a free post that anyone can read.

Here’s an image from that post:

OK, take care!

Thanks for reading!
Andrew Neal