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?