Things got a little shaky and hectic for us last month. Middle of June my longtime girlfriend, Olivia, and I split, leaving me in a mad dash to sort my life out and find a new place to live. At the same time Adam’s lease was up so he was also moving.

As it turns out, disentangling the last 5 years of your life from someone else is not easy and I haven’t had a lot of time for comics. But its done now and I am moved in. Adam is in his new place too, but no sooner than he got moved he crashed his bike. Into a thorn patch. Hands first into a thorn patch. Drawing hand mangled. The guy had to perform surgery on himself to get the thorns out. He is just now able to draw without pain again.

So, currently we are gearing up for comic con…tomorrow. Expect full con reports from me. And in the immediate future here’s what you can expect from us:

• Prizes from the Light Years A Day event will be mailed out as soon as we return from the con
• Light Years Away will resume and finish book 1 before summer’s end
• Fat Baby will resume immediately as well.
• We will take a short break to conceptualize some things for book two and then begin publishing.
• Expect announcements on a few new projects soon.
• Expect a site re-design before year’s end.

Exciting stuff. We are so sorry for our absence guys. Sometimes real life gets in the way and flings breakups and thorns and shit at you. You do what you can.

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Adam: What is your reaction to Josh’s piece

Adam: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_zg0UA1ktQc8/TAlE6_2zHnI/AAAAAAAAAeU/5PhzAUfqM2Y/s1600/Screen+shot+2010-06-04+at+1.24.04+PM.png

Ethan: Josh’s piece is funny, but ultimately loses favor for not including stab master arson. quite fond of it, but would have liked to see more of an original piece from him

Adam: I agree. I’m awed by how well he remixed this scene using CB4, but I have to say I was a bit disappointed knowing that he could have done something equally as funny using an original piece.

Ethan: Really, though he picked a perfect page to remix

so major recognition there

Adam: definitely. Possibly a good idea for a remix contest down the line.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v191/deluillus/cryuncleyouant.png

Next up is Kate Z

Ethan: Kate Z’s entry blows me away, original take on one of the characters, and on concepts from the story. High end execution, Davis’ facial expression is great. Smooth action line to figure. Very very impressive,

Adam: It turned the idea of the Little Black Ants on its head in a great way.

I loved the use of the knockout x’s as well. Great sense of motion.

It is a bit cool to see characters I’ve created through the work of other people, must say.

Ethan: I do, however, want to state that the tattoo is not cannon

Adam: Yes. His black ant band is actually located on his penis, not his arm. Just to be clear.

Ethan: but yeah, really cool to see an original interpretation of one of our characters

Adam: Yeah, great great piece all around.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Ofc2tPper1Q/TAn4Pcko27I/AAAAAAAACHM/O3VymtZVknE/s1600/LYAD_contest.jpg

Next up is Eric Schuster’s sketch.

Ethan: Love this one, concept is great, Milo’s face is awesome

Realistic battle damage Milo

now with home suture kit

Adam: Yeah, this is one that I think had the most character and narrative to it

You get a perfect picture of exactly who this guy is and what he’s been through in one image.

His stance is pretty unassuming He looks meek if it weren’t for his body being littered with the signs of fighting

Ethan: Yeah, more than any other piece you can tell he really thought about the character and presented something that, while we haven’t seen it in the comic, totally is part of this character’s life

Adam: Granted, Milo never really gets hit in this story, save for being dialed into unconsciousness by the guards and the control bracelet

But the drawing perfectly portrays a guy that gets pulled into messes out of his control.

Ethan: for real

Adam: http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc159/sticman77/vagabond.jpg
Now to Guhn “Gang Bang” Chang

Ethan: haha, much love for the Colin Lovejoy/ Andrew W.K. Mashup

Funny, but a clear example of how men with beards are stereotyped in this country.

Adam: Everyone knows that Colin Lovejoy likes to PARTY HARD

Or is that KICK HARD?

Ethan: it’s both

Adam: First one, then the other.

I think I’d give it higher marks if he didn’t clearly swipe the last panel of page 60 for Lovejoy’s face.

Swiping kills, kids.

Ethan: hahah

Adam: If Mr. Chang shows up in comics later reusing my panels, I’m going to have to call my lawyer.

Which is unfortunate, because Guhn Chang is my lawyer.

Up next, we have a three piece entry from Brad Bentley

http://picasaweb.google.com/b2thrad/LightyearsAwayContest#5479766465856222018

Ethan: Bentley’s entries are funny, and the execution, for the style he was going for, is very high. He had a clear concept, kids art of something kids shouldn’t read, and he pulled it off well.

Adam: I particularly love the self-insertion with the high five between himself and Clipper

Who WOULDN’T want a high five from Clipper?

Ethan: Now some nit-picky details:

Adam: Except with his safety arm. I imagine a high five might set off its release trigger

pink electroreactive bath all over the place

Ethan: Clipper’s safety limb is only worn by him in prison, the second he gets out, he would be sporting his full custom cybernetic limb replacement he had when he got pinched.

Adam: To be fair, they haven’t seen what his real cybernetic limb looks like

Ethan: So I would have liked to have seen an original take on what that would look like, from a 26 year-old- imitating a 5-year old

Adam: Most likely, the prosthetic arm will also be pink.

Because Clipper rolls like Cam’Ron

Ethan: But a technical plus for Bentley is that every time Clipper punches a guy he is literally punching them to a moon

Adam: Brad also correctly assumed that Clipper sports more chains than China has people when he’s free.

So great job all around

AND THE WINNER IS

Ethan: For me, that standout was Kate Z, I loved all the entries but her’s was the one that really floored me. Plus she gets points because, I believe, she is the only entrant that we don’t actually know in real life, which is way cool.

Adam: Agreed. While I love the other entries, I think she went beyond the others in terms of concept and execution.

It’s a gorgeous piece unto itself.

Ethan: Yeah, without knowing the character or anything about it, I would be attracted to it as an illustration. Knowing Davis only makes it better

Adam: So, congrats to Kate Z! Shoot us an email and we’ll get rolling on your prize package. And big thanks to everyone who participated in the contest. All of you will get a signed Light Years Away print for participating. Big ups to you all!

Ethan: For real, and don’t forget to tell us who you want the original illustration of. (I hope its Clancy)

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This is a page. Adam and I are hard at work judging the entries to the fan art contest.

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Bam! There it is, the final page in our LIGHT YEARS A DAY event. Thanks so much for reading and for driving our hits up like crazy guys. You’re the best. We now return to our regular update schedule of  2 pages a week, usually on Mondays and Wednesday.   Be sure to check back as the fan art for our give away contest starts rolling in.

Thanks again guys, and welcome to our new readers.  Expect a similar event FAT BABY A DAYBY in the future, as well as future LIGHT YEARS A DAY weeks.  You know, once Adam recovers.

• Draw a piece of art featuring a Light Years Away character.
• It can be an illustration or narrative flow, we don’t care.
• It doesn’t have to be great art, it just has to be our favorite.
• Deadline is one week from today.
• Open to everyone including, friends, family and past winners.

The Winner shall Receive:

1. An exclusive 11×17 print of the Little Black Ants squadron photograph
2. And original piece of art from Adam featuring a character of your choice from LYA.

A Prize!

Link your to your piece in the comments of this post, and good luck!

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Only one more day of LIGHT YEARS A DAY remains. Are you guys sad? I’m sad. Its been awesome. So final page in the event  tomorrow, along with our final give away contest extraordinaire.