Friday, August 30, 2013

Whats the deal with Apocalypse Pizza?

Since AP's inception, around 2005, I've had an very specific idea for the way I wanted the world and themes Mad Dog encounters to be. As I've said before, it was initially going to be a "beer and pretzel" style table top role playing game. A lot of the material was written, but assumed to be lost in the fire. It wasn't until just recently, that a friend of mine (Say hello, Billy.), and test player for the game, emailed me an electronic copy of the first draft of the book. I had totally forgotten he had this!

Once I had gotten into making comics, I decided to bring Mad Dog and his world to life in a web comic. In the years between the fire and the rediscovery of the game book, I had added a few more ideas to the concept and developed an idea for making AP more than just a web comic. About the time I was writing up page 5 is when that fantastic email came in.

After reading over the game book for the first time in almost a decade, I had to take a step back and examining the project. Armed with the old, the new, and a vision, I decided to just put it on hold...yet again. It was a very difficult decision. But, I couldn't justify the time and resources to continue with it as is since it was going to get a reboot anyway. 

Now that I have access to everything i need. And  a wealth of information from the world building process of both the game and comic, The development of the new Apocalypse Pizza project has started! I'll keep you posted.
-Jessie

Sunday, August 25, 2013

SDMW, Apocalypse Pizza, and web Comics Update News.

As I mentioned in the last news update, the closure of the cafe will be eating up a lot of my time this month. I want to keep the comics updating on Fridays, but I may have to make a temporary change to Sunday or Monday until the cafe affairs have been dealt with.

SWMW: I have plans to get the Companion updated with two pages by the end of next week. Also, some of you may have notice some minor changes in Year of the Rabbit. We are cleaning it up, correcting errors, and image quality. 

Apocalypse Pizza: It kills me to put in on full hiatus after just getting started, but the changes to it will require some time. So, to keep it active, I'm pulling the "Mad Dog's Armory" story from CKS Chronicles and putting it in as updates to the current Apocalypse Pizza comic. I hope to have at least One page of that posted by the end of next week. 

Thank you for your time,
-Jessie

Friday, August 23, 2013

New CKS Partnership

We have some very exciting news to announce. Charisma Kills Studios has partnered with the extremely talented Mrs. Mattie Rojas Kupper to add costuming to the studios product line's. Once all of the details have been worked out, costuming and cosplay fans will be able to purchase high quality, hand made, costumes, accessories, and props. Again, we are still working out the specifics, but here are some images of her designs that will be used for the "Steam Punk Genre" line.






Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Hopefully, everyone has seen the new web home for Charisma Kills Studios. Sherri was able to create my vision for the page almost exactly as I had designed. It was a major project and learning experience, especially with everything going on at the time. I'm very proud of it and her.  I feel that having everything under one roof (a hub so to speak.) makes the studio projects more accessible. We also have the CKS store function. At this time we are only selling prints, but stay tuned. Within the next few weeks we will be adding original art, ACEO original art cards and mini print editions, t-shirts and other items. Thats right, no zazzle, cafe press, or middle men. customers will be dealing directly with CKS which will allow for much better prices.  And now for the news!

Worlds End Cafe: We have closed the cafe. Economic pressure, rising fuel and food cost, and insane taxation in our area made the cafe no longer viable. We do thank all of he customers and those that followed us on the cafe's facebook (which is still up). It will be missed. This has a few effects on CKS,

First: This next month I will be busy with the processes involved with closing all all of the cafe's affairs. I will still try and update all of the comics on Fridays, even if it's just pin ups of guest strips fans or other web comic artist. The exceptions are:
          C.O.G. Comics and CKS Chronicles. These two comics will be updated no later than midnight on Fridays. 
          Apocalypse Pizza. I know I've been a bit tight lipped on this one. Mainly because I'm attempting something fairly ambitious with it. I'm not sure when it will be back up, but, I will post guest strips, pin-ups, and new concept materials for it to keep in alive. I'am am toying with the Idea of doing an e-comics atlas for it that will help set the stage when it returns. 

Second: Selling off the cafe's fixtures and equipment will give me the funds I need to update the studios primary equipment. The nightmare of dealing with the outdated systems has been causing major delays in multimedia and transmedia projects. Most importantly, the CK Radio project. 

Third: If you were and artist that had your work displayed in the cafe, and want it back, arrangements need to be made. But, I must say it's going to hurt returning Tedd Walley's. I'm quite fond of it, lol. 

Event News: I will be an artist guest at Contraflow three which is held in the New Orleans area. I will be giving panels, entering mixed media into the art show, running demos of CKS Game Studio projects, and donating the original Apocalypse Pizza page one to the charity Auction. I will be set up in the dealers area next to the C.O.G. (Yes the Consortium of Genius will be playing!) fan table and The Wyatt's Comics and cards booth. He's picked up a few cool items that Dr. Who fans will enjoy. If you are in the area, come in and say hello. 
-Jessie