Author: Mel Dale

 

Today’s the day we’ve all been waiting for, Your Cold Felt Heart – Issue No. 1 is now available for purchase! Click on the shop button at the top of this page to pick up your copy from my Etsy store today!!!

Issue No. 1 will be rolling out in select comic shops over the next few weeks, starting today with ACME Superstore over in Longwood, FL. Enzo and the team at ACME are long time friends and supporters of Your Cold Felt Heart, and I couldn’t be prouder to have my book available in such an incredible comic shop. So if you’re fortunate enough to live near ACME, swing by on this glorious new comic day and pick up a copy from Enzo at the shop!

Coinciding with the release of Issue No. 1 is the launch of yourcoldfeltheart.com the center of all things YCFH on the internet. Check out the sites awesome design courtesy of the always incredible Arbiter Design (and don’t be afraid to noodle around a bit for some really cool hidden treats).

So much is happening right now, it’s hard to take it all in. Thank you so much to everyone that’s supported me over the years leading up to this day. Your kindness and encouragement means more to me than words ever could express.

Here’s to doing all this again, with Issue No. 2!

 

 

Mark your calendars folks! Wednesday October 15th, 2014 Your Cold Felt Heart – Issue No. 1 will be available for purchase for the first time through my Mel Dale Comics Etsy store. I’ll also have new copies of Your Cold Felt Heart – Issue No. 0 in the store, as well as several other YCFH tie-in products for all of you to enjoy. In the meantime, for the first time on the internet, here’s the cover for Your Cold Felt Heart – Issue No. 1:

 

Your Cold Felt Heart – Issue No. 1 “Dangerous Game of Love” has 26 black & white story pages and a full color cover, with story, art, colors, and lettering by me. Your Cold Felt Heart is the mixed up blending of crime stories, mobsters, and vigilantes with the silliness, sight gags, and puns of puppets.

Between now and the release of Issue No. 1 I’ll be posting images counting down to the release on all my social media sites. To join in on the excitement, follow me on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook. #toughstuffing

 

Aw yeah internet! Today is a good day to swing by your local comic shop. First, because it’s new comic day (so shouldn’t you be going anyway?) and second, because today is the official release of the trade paperback Aw Yeah Comics! And… Action! from Dark Horse collecting issues 1-4 of this super-fun comic series!

For the uninitiated, Aw Yeah Comics! is an all-ages friendly anthology comic featuring a world and characters created by the oh-so-awesome Art Baltazar & Franco Aureliani (of Tiny Titans and Itty Bitty Hellboy fame). Each issue of Aw Yeah Comics! features multiple short stories created by a rotating team of really great artists and writers (including a little something from me). The original single issues of this comic were funded through Kickstarter, with a successful campaign bringing in over THREE TIMES its original goal. This series is the publishing side of Art and Franco’s comic shop, Aw Yeah Comics in Skokie, Illinois which they co-own with my friend (and real life super hero) Marc Hammond.

I was lucky enough to get to hangout with Art and Franco at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con and Eisner Awards ceremony, and can personally attest to these guys being ridiculously cool on top of being incredible cartoonists and storytellers (true story).

To celebrate the release of this awesome collection, here’s an unused pin-up I did for Aw Yeah Comics a while back: 

The big red villain in the pin-up is Marquaid, whose name is a little “wink” at the friend and business partner of Aw Yeah Comics, Mark Waid. Back when I was asked to draw the pin-up for Aw Yeah it was announced that Mark Waid would be writing my favorite comic character, the Rocketeer, for IDW. Before the release of that series Mark had mentioned he’d be introducing a new potential love interest to compete with Betty for Cliff Secord’s affection. With all that news fresh on my mind, I thought it would be funny to include a little “wink” in my illustration. So… in the finished drawing we see Marquaid swooping in on a rocket pack and kidnapping a woman who just happens to resemble the Rocketeer’s longtime girlfriend in the comics, Betty (even down to the sexy blue dress from Cliff’s New York Adventure #1). Get it!?! (rim shot)

Well, even if you don’t, I thought it was funny at least. Even if the reference was so obscure it took a whole paragraph on my blog to explain…

Anyways, be sure to pick up “Aw Yeah Comics! And… Action” at your local comic shop; and if you haven’t already, be sure to check out “The Rocketeer: Cargo of Doom” by Mark Waid and Chris Samnee.

Awwww Yeah!

 

Sunday, October 5th from 10am to 5pm I’ll be exhibiting at the fifth annual So Cal Comic Con in Oceanside, CA.  This is a comic-centric convention featuring some really great local cartoonists from Southern California as well as some awesome big name creators, including this year’s Guests of Honor: Len Wein and Herb Trimpe!

I’ll have copies of the first full-size issue of my comic Your Cold Felt Heart available for the first time ANYWHERE at this con, so stop by and be the first to get a copy complete with a signature and a sketch. I’ll also have a new printing of my mini-comic on hand, as well as other fun Your Cold Felt Heart themed items to check out.

Tickets will be available onsite and are only $7 for adults, and FREE for kids 13 and under when accompanied by a paid adult. Local comic shops in San Diego (like my local shop Comikaze) have flyers for the show worth $1 off admission.

The convention will take place at the QLN Conference Center in Oceanside, CA and the word is the first 100 attendees get a free grab bag (so get there early).

I got to attend this show last year and had a blast seeing friends and scooping up some great books, so I’m absolutely thrilled to be exhibiting at this year’s and look forward to meeting all of you there.

Episode 6 of the Monster Popcorn Podcast just posted this week featuring a discussion of one of my favorite movies, The Great Muppet Caper. The Muppets are one of my biggest influences as a creator, and one of my favorite things to talk about as a fan of stories.

You can listen to the podcast here (or search for us on iTunes).

 

Aw Yeah Comics! Issue #1 was just released digitally from Comixology, and I couldn’t be more excited. In part, because Aw Yeah Comics is the brain child of some of my favorite cartoonist (Art Baltazar and Franco Aureliani of Tiny Titans fame) but also because I had the extreme pleasure of contributing to this issue.

My good friend Marc Hammond is the manager of Aw Yeah Comics (the comic book shop) in Skokie, IL, which he co-owns with Art and Franco. Marc and I met several years ago when we both lived in Central Florida. We both eventually set out from there to follow our dreams, mine leading me to San Diego and cartooning, and Marc’s to the suburbs of Chicago running his own comic book shop. During these hard, pioneering years of our journeys our collective struggles have endeared us to one another. We’ve celebrated success, encouraged the other through setbacks, and commiserated on the strain of living far from your family and friends.

Not too long ago, Marc emailed me a script he’d written for a one page, Public Service Announcement inspired, strip for Aw Yeah Comics! Issue #1. Although I’m pretty busy with my own projects, the opportunity to be in an anthology comic which will feature Art Baltazar and Franco Aureliani was too good to pass up.

Here’s one of the panel’s from the PSA I drew for the issue:

Issue #1 of Aw Yeah Comics! is available now from Comixology with a print version available at Marc’s store Aw Yeah Comics in Skokie, IL.

AAAAAAAAWWWWW YEEEEAAAAAHHHHH!!!! Check it out.

I’ve known Daniel Wheatfall for a little under two years, and have the extreme pleasure of counting him amongst my friends. Daniel is an incredibly talented Motion Graphic artist (check out his portfolio here), and over the course of our friendship I’ve grown to truly admire his body of work. On occasion I’ve had flights of fancy where I’ve imagined Daniel and I collaborating together, but since we both have pretty hectic schedules I assumed a collaboration between us to be just that, fantasy. However, a little over a week ago happenstance brought Daniel and I together and I’m excited to say it was to create a motion comic from Issue No. 0 of Your Cold Felt Heart.

We’re still in production so don’t press us for a hard release date, just know it’s coming sooner rather than later. As of now Daniel’s about halfway through creating the animations for the issue, and they’re absolutely amazing. We couldn’t keep a lid on this all the way until it’s completion, so we put together a little teaser trailer for you to enjoy in the meantime.

I’m really excited for this project, and I can’t wait to share it with all of you.

So, I’m only three pages into Your Cold Felt Heart Issue No. 1. Why? I’m in the midst of a full-blown workflow and art style crisis.

While creating Issue No. 0 I crafted a workflow and art style that involved incorporating my hand drawn characters with backgrounds I created using Adobe Illustrator. The upside to that workflow and art style was the ease of use for creating “true” on perspective backgrounds and three-demensional objects (like cars and trash cans, and other fancy things). The downside to that workflow was that it was slow as molasses, and involved a lot of back and forth between programs to create the final finished page. One of the reasons I went with that workflow and art style was a lack of self-confidence in my ability to draw three-demensional objects exactly on perspective, but honestly these days I wonder if  “perfect perspective” really matters.

I’ve been reading a lot of Bill Watterson’s comic strip Calvin and Hobbes lately, and can’t help but notice how little true perspective mattered to Bill. Calvin and Hobbes is an absolutely beautiful comic strip, probably the best since Schulz’s Peanuts, and it’s beautiful without the use of perfectly measured and executed perspective. Now, I don’t think I’ll ever compete with Bill Watterson’s beautiful line work, but I am thinking I might be putting too much emphasis on true perspective.

Although I’m really happy with how Issue No. 0 of Your Cold Felt Heart turned out, I really wanted to improve my turnaround time on creating Issue No. 1. Only being three pages in so far is not the improvement I had in mind; which brings me to my workflow crisis: Do I stay the course, and keep drawing my backgrounds and objects using Adobe Illustrator despite it being a slow and cumbersome process; or do I take the leap and draw the whole thing by hand this time, improving my speed while possibly creating some terrible artwork?

I have no idea what I’m going to do…