More Holiday Seasons with Frank and His Friend

Time flies, at Curio & Co. we are getting ready for the holiday season and since we have to work ahead of scheduled, I figured I better post these before I forget and it's too late.  Plus it gives you an opportunity for a sneak peak to some new material of Frank and His Friend.

I sure enjoy any opportunity to draw!

More Frank and His Friend from Curio & Co.

Here's a couple of illustrations and design I've done to recently for the Franks and His Friend series of Curio & Co. - In this case I've done the work under the pseudonym Clarence 'Otis' Dooley and the fictional publishing house is Ringer when in reality it's Curio & Co.

To stay in character with Curio & Co.'s fictional world the Hidden Treasures publication was the first collection of Frank and His Friend strips that Ringer published.

Get a Taste of the New: Frank and His Friend Special Collector's Edition, Vol.1, is a teaser cover for a free 30+ page digital publication of the new book being released to the large public on December 2 titled Frank and His Friend Special Collector's Edition, Vol.1.

If you are interested in the FREE teaser publication you can downloaded here:

http://www.curiocorp.com/FF/freebie/Get_A_Taste_Of_Frank_And_His_Friend_s.pdf

Happy Sunday!

Past Holiday Seasons with Curio & Co.

I was going throughout some files and I found these Christmas holiday cards, and since that time of the season is around the corner… I though of posting them. As always, these are my designs mascaraed under different pseudonyms to fit the Curio & Co. world.

Curio & Co. at Comic Con booth #2102

When we first decided to start exhibiting at Comi-Con back in 2009 I had no idea there was so much demand for an exhibit space at the show.  Back then I was told that the average wait for an available space is 3 yrs.  I was astonished and speechless even now that we've exhibited at plenty of trade shows the wait is considerable.  Other trade shows usually pester you trying to sell you the space 8-9 months prior to the show.

Comic-Con is something different. We've had nothing but good experiences with them, they are professional, easy to work with, and the most well organized show we've exhibited at.  Putting together a show of that size is a massive undertaking, an organizational nightmare.  I hear story of people constantly complaining about insignificant issues; people complain all the time about the smallest things and loose sight of their goals.  They should try exhibiting in Italy or France, beside the costs the organization has no comparison.

When I think that we first launched Curio & Co. at Comic-Con 2010 in the Small Press section: we've come a long way from premiering Finding Frank and His Friend, and trying to explain that our goal was to make fakes based on entertainment and pop culture that never existed.  Really hard to do when you only have one product to show.  Now that we have a sizable portfolio of material is soooo much simpler.  And, every image, every product, every step bring us closer to our vision of the Curio World including our latest step of landing a booth.

Comic-Con booth #2102

See you there!

Curio & Co. - Comic-Con Panel - U.S. Pop Culture Abroad

This year we'll be at booth #2102 at Comic-Con and in addition to the Genuine Fakes: Making the Artificial Real (Thursday, 7/18/13, 7:00p.m. - 8:00p.m., Room: 32AB) panel we've also organized this one:

U.S. Pop Culture Abroad

Putting the "international" in Comic-Con International, panelists Cesare Asaro(creator, Finding Frank and His Friend), Harold Buchholz (senior VP, publishing and operations, Archie Comic Publications, Inc.), Adam B. Finer (chair of industry outreach and professional development, New York Film Academy), Rich Johnston (Bleeding Cool), and Kirstie Shepherd (author, Gadabout Time Machine User's Manual) explore how American pop culture is perceived and consumed outside of the United States. They'll be looking at how U.S. pop culture (from classic comics to film and entertainment properties) find its way to foreign markets, what qualities make an American property successful overseas, and how U.S. pop culture influences -- and is influenced by -- artists abroad.

Friday July 19, 2013 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Room 29A

The Idea behind the panel is to have an open discussion on how specific projects which then turned into pop culture gained their footing outside the US, through influences, passing of time, their poultry thanks to their supporters.

In the years we've worked as Curio & Co. we've enriched our knowledge of brands, their IP's, and how they work in specific markets.  Because what we do is grounded in Pop Culture an most of in US pop culture we are constantly researching and analyzing this content in order to do our job well.  I would've liked to have gone to a panel on this subject when I first was thinking of getting in this field, so we though of passing on some of our experiences.  It's important to know as a creator what projects to pursue (I'm talking commercial projects, not personal artistic ones), if you are looking to make a living with them.  Unfortunately for the creative ones of us the business of creativity is very much tied to finances and the funding of a project, so the reality is can I pay the bill with this, or do I have alternative means to support this project.  Thinking of your target audience and where, what, and how you are going to reach out to them is key in taking a product into development.

See you at the panel.

Curio & Co. - Comic-Con Panel 2013 - Genuine Fakes: Making the Artificial Real

I finally managed to do the graphics for the panles...

Genuine Fakes: Making the Artificial Real

From comics to movie monsters and authenticity to alternate universes, how "real" does a fake need to be in order to be believable? Cesare Asaro (creator, Finding Frank and His Friend), Kim Hutsell (Steampunk designer and prop maker, founder of the annual Starburner Awards), Luke Khanlian (special effects creature creator, Alien Resurrection, Starship Troopers), Peter Maresca (editor, Sunday Press Books), and Kirstie Shepherd (author, Gadabout Time Machine User's Manual) discuss how to get the details right when creating a believable fake world. They'll be looking at what materials say about an object and how those materials can be manipulated to create the suspension of disbelief.

Thursday July 18, 2013 7:00pm - 8:00pm 

Room 32AB

1000 Times Vol.1 - 1000 Times Franks and His Friend - 1000 Times of Fun

I was thinking of using the titles 1000 Times of Awesome, but that was way too pretentious, this is not a movie trailer.

We got the books (Frank and His Friend Special Collector's Edition Vol.1) from the printer on Wednesday, and we'll be putting the finishing touches on them over the weekend, meaning we'll be embossing the certificates and adding the Curio stamp of authenticity in the back of the book, yup hand stamped (obviously I'm a masochist) .  We're looking forward to doing that, it will really bring things together and give a good sense of accomplishment, plus it's relaxing work, and no brain teaser.

This production run was of 1000 units, still published by Ringer Publishing but the contemporary 2013 Ringer.  As a matter of fact we updated the logo of the company.  The back story is that the company bought up other smaller companies and grew since the 1979, when it published Time for Frank and His Friend.  For those that know it we introduced Ringer in 2012 as the publishing house of Time for Frank and His Friend, a .  Of course our good friend Melvin Goodge also make an appearance in the book, along with a easter eggs, for the ones that know our products.

I really enjoy doing graphic design as much as doing illustration, type face design or anything else that is in the end visual.  That's why we started Curio & Co., it's a good excuse to do research and use all aspects of visual communication, as well as dealing in entertainment.  Everything we enjoy in one package.

I try to spend as much time as I have available on details, and updating the Ringer Publishing logo was imperative for this publication, a small detail that creates continuity in the Curio World and ground the product in reality.  The design choices of the logo should also help tell the story of Ringer as a company, where it was and where it's now, hopefully that come comes across.  The title of the book show help filling in the blanks.

As I mentioned in the previous post we'll be talking about our development proces at this Comic-Con Panel:

Genuine Fakes: Making the Artificial Real

Thursday July 18, 2013 7:00pm - 8:00pm 
Room 32AB

From comics to movie monsters and authenticity to alternate universes, how "real" does a fake need to be in order to be believable? Cesare Asaro (creator,Finding Frank and His Friend), Kim Hutsell(Steampunk designer and prop maker, founder of the annual Starburner Awards), Luke Khanlian (special effects creature creator, Alien Resurrection, Starship Troopers), Peter Maresca (editor, Sunday Press Books), and Kirstie Shepherd (author, Gadabout Time Machine User's Manual) discuss how to get the details right when creating a believable fake world. They'll be looking at what materials say about an object and how those materials can be manipulated to create the suspension of disbelief.

The Curio World of Curio & Co. - Updated

Making fakes is what we do, and to make a genuine fake, we need to know where things come from, and specially how they are connected to what we already have.  Every decision needs to follow a thread in order for that world to makes sense.  This is pretty much, my approach to design in general, I repeat to my self quite often: if it doesn't have a reason it doesn't belong there.  I had to kill many designs with this approach, but in the long run the product is more cohesive and the people respond better to it.  In college the line was, you got to kill your darlings, I'm sure many of you have heard that before.

We used to start by developing and idea and see what it grew in to, now that we have the foundation of  what we call the Curio World, the ideas that come to mind are already connected to this skeleton.  Having created the brands, their personalities, and their back story, it's easy to make the initial decision of how to connect things.  Let's say we were to come out with a vintage Spaceman Jax comic book, would it be published by Ringer Publishing, who also published Frank and His Friend? Or, would we feel the need to create a new publishing hose for that project, or maybe just a subsidiary or Ringer?  In this case it would have to be a subsidiary, with a similar name to but different logo.  Obviously it would be easier to say Ringer Publishing does all the books in the Curio World but that would not make things feel real.  After all Penguin Books is very different from Phaidon or Taschen.

We'll be talking in more details about this subject at one of the two Comic-Con panel we organized, it will be an open discussion with different type of creators from movie monsters, books and products to, steam punk props:

Genuine Fakes: Making the Artificial Real 

Thursday, 7/18/13, 7:00p.m. - 8:00p.m., Room: 32AB

From comics to movie monsters and authenticity to alternate universes – how “real” does a fake need to be in order to be believable? Join Cesare Asaro (Creator, Finding Frank and His Friend), Kim Hutsell (Steampunk Designer and Prop Maker, Founder of the Annual Starburner Awards), Luke Khanlian (Design Engineer on the 10,000 Year Clock and Special Effects Creature Creator, Alien Resurrection, Starship Troopers, The Green Mile), Peter Maresca (Editor, Sunday Press Books), and Kirstie Shepherd (Author, Gadabout Time Machine User’s Manual) for a panel discussion on getting the details right when creating a believable fake world. We’ll be looking at what materials say about an object and how those materials can be manipulated to create the suspension of disbelief.

Marvel - DC - Dark Horse - Comic Book Covers

Much of the work that I do for Curio & Co. is tied to a specific time period with restrictions to type of medium and look.  Once in a while I like to let my self go and see what comes out, that means anything goes as far as techniques.

Here are some covers for some of the big american comic book house.  These were not commissioned and they are not in print. They're only visual sampels of covers that could be.

Curio & Co.'s Spaceman Jax Gets Reboot

Many, many properties in Hollywood are getting reboot.  In the studio we constantly joke about how quick a property is turned around.  And if the reboot fails in two years time it's attempted again, until success is achieved.  Not even a week after it's release, and the new Superman's success made the decision for the studio's heads to fast track the sequel for a 2014 release.  They're already behind schedule before they started.  Given my little experience in the industry rushing a movie into production with such a short production schedule and such high expectations can be, at best, a nightmare of a project.  But I'm digressing.  We were talking about reboots.

Reboots: we started to think how about rebooting a fake animated TV show like Spaceman Jax and the Galactic Adventures? How would that look like? Who would do the project? I set out to update the logo for the reboot and made some teaser poster designs, and here they are.

A quick disclaimer, obviously these are just simulations of how the property could look if DC, Pixar or Disney were to do a "reboot" of Spaceman Jax.

Curio & Co. - New Oberpfaffendorfer posters

I've been working on multiple projects at once, what a surprise.  The problem with that is not so much the work load but not having the time to share the work that I've been doing.

These are the new posters I designed for the Oberpfaffendorfer series of Curio & Co.

If you take a close look a the posters the fake printer Dillinger is tied to the Gadabout TM 1050 book.  Do you know how?

Relaxing A Bit

I took a day to just doodle around with characters, just doing fun stuff.  It's soooo good for the soul.

Printer Resources For Independent Art Publishers

At the bottom of this post you'll find, what I would call, a golden link, if you are looking for an art printer.  Finding a good printer is HELL! finding an Art Printer that understands what the heck you are trying to achieve, well… that will drive you to HELL permanently.  OK, ok, I exaggerated, but at list for a long time, and you'll still have to digest the nightmare that you endure.  I'm still getting rid of the bitter taste dealing with incompetent people during the production of the Gadabout.


The list at the link claims to be a "Printer Resources For Independent Art Publishers", now, to me it looks well managed and there are printers in the list that I know have a high reputation. I wish I had know about this list long time ago when I first started in this business. It would've made my research and production much easier.  It's even subdivided in printers that specialize in smaller quantity runs down to 1 unit up to 3000 and more, or in letterpress, or in large formats, and more.


If you are in the art printing business it just may be worth your time taking a look, this list of printers is international so, you just may find what you are looking for next door.

http://print-resources.tumblr.com

Comic-Con Panel - "The Myth of Nostalgia"... enhanced!

Curio & Co. is proud to be at Comic-Con at P5 (just like last year), but wait, there's more.  This year we've also put together a little something else.

The panel we did back in March at Wonder-Con was well received, so with the help of Peter Maresca of Sunday Press we've augmented our panel and we'll be expanding on the subject of nostalgia with two more panelist: Grant Geissman, whom we met right after the panel in March.  Not only is he an author and avid collector, but he is first and formost an excellent musician.  Check out his material, really groovy.  Also I can happily say that we'll have a comic book legend on the panel: R.C. Harvey, creator of Terry and the Pirates and Steve Canyon, will be joining us on the stage.  He's also an author, and critic - let's just say that he knows his medium.  If you like comics and but don't know his work, you should! And, we are lucky to have Bob Foster, the Animation Guild Presiden, with 40+ years of experience in comics publishing, writing, and animation.  We have a heck of a line-up!

Stop by and see us at the Comic-Con in the San Diego Convention Center

Thursday July 12

7:00-8:00 PM. 

Room: 32AB 

The Myth of Nostalgia: Collecting and Memory.

Cesare Asaro (Creator, Finding Frank and His Friend), Bob Foster (Animation Guild President), Grant Geissman (Author, Foul Play! The Art and Artists of the Notorious 1950s E.C. Comics!), R.C. Harvey (Cartoonist, Critic and Comic Historian, Meanwhile... A Biography of Milton Caniff, Creator of Terry and the Pirates and Steve Canyon ), Peter Maresca (Editor, Sunday Press Books), and Kirstie Shepherd (Author, Gadabout Time Machine User’s Manual) have been collecting, creating and selling nostalgia for over forty years.  Join us for a panel discussion on how collecting allows us to revisit memories from the past – even a past that we might have been too young to have seen or may never have existed at all.  We’ll explore how nostalgia can be invented, whether it goes in and out of fashion, and what happens when the collector becomes the creator.

Spaceman Jax Model Sheets - Mantagons - Giclée Prints

We got ourself a profesional printer for Giclèe prints and we are in the process of printing the new Spaceman Jax model sheets for the Mantagons; the ones I did about a month ago. That really feels like ions ago, considering all the Roger believe covers I did.  Bottom line they are coming out really really cool, ok I had a glass of wine.  But, the hours work really paid off.  The pleasure in seeing one's work coming out the way it was intended... Ahhh it's a pleasure.  And worth all the hassels with icc profiles, media types, printers, types of papers (archival quality or not), inks (dyes vs pigments), ....  Total = we are printing on archival quality with pigment and they are coming out looking SWEET.  I'm simply happy! and best of all we'll be able to offer the giclèe prints for a more affordable price since we don't have to involve a third party with the printing process!

I'm going to seep like a baby tonight.

Curio & Co. - Plasticash Credit Card - Where Credit Is Due

In the Curio World things are sometime just a bit different and in some case the same, gravity still works.

We've been working hard to introduce more and more brands in our Curio World, brands that we are weaving together to create this fictional alternative universe full of crazy pop culture and make believe.  Ringer was the fake publishing house for Time for Frank and His Friend, Bunchy is the soft drink, and Oberpfaffendorfer makes frozen foods; they all help tell our story and let us have fun with the ads.  Now we are also adding on Plasticash for credi cards.

So starting our next show we'll also accept this Curio World credi card, if you can get your hands on it...

The above mentioned ads will be added to the shop by July, but we'll have prints with us at the shows.

Gadabout TM1050 Shakedown Diagnosis Stamp for 2012

Back in February in my post Sign Off On Your Gadabout TM1050 I mentioned that we were going do something special for it starting this time of the year.  Well, here it is.

We sell collectable at Curio & Co. that is no news now.  The Gadabout, if you bought if from us, should have received a dealer's inspection stamp, and now if you bring your manual with you next time you see us we'll be happy to stamp and date  the Shakedown Diagnosis at page 86 of your manual.  We'll start doing that as of Monday June 11, 2012.  So, if you are planing to come at one of the shows where we are exhibiting, don't forget to bring your manual.  This is an opportunity to make your manual even more unique.

Why are we doing it?  We wanted to celebrate the one year of the Gadabout, and give something back to those that have supported us from the early times.  And, yes, we are planing to have an other stamp for the following year.  Each manual will only receive one stamp and signature per year, so... no full set of stamps, unless you have a time machine, do you?

See you soon at one of the shows.

June 12-14, 2012

Licensing Expo

Mandalay Bay Convention Center

Las Vegas

Booth 4710

June 21-26, 2012

American Library Association 2012 Anual Conference

Anaheim Convention Center

Anaheim, CA

Booth 784

July 12-15, 2012

San Diego Comic-Con 2012

San Diego Convention Center

San Diego, CA

Small Press - P5

Stephen Burt Reviews The Gadabout TM 1050 in The Believer Magazine

The June 2012 issue of The Believer is out, and along with it the review by Stephen Burt of Curio & Co.'s Gadabout TM 1050 Time Machine User's Manual.  We were only able to get a glimpse of the review as our copy of the magazine if on it's way, but what we read sounds SWEET!  

If a literary critic, poet and Harvard University professor like Stephen Burt thinks we deserve a review in The Believer, we must be doing something right.

The review teaser that is available on the website is enough to ensure me a happy weekend.

Pick up your copy at newsstands today!