Our First Milestone!

Hey there fellow space cadets! This is turning out to be quite a special week around here. Yesterday I bought a brand new car with a spacious hatchback (for haulin’ around boxes of Boxcar Astronaut merch to take to conventions in the future, natch’), and this Sunday Boxcar Astronaut hits it’s first big milestone. That’s right kids, Ben, Devin, Robot, and Diogee have reached their 25th adventure!

Wow, it’s crazy to think that 25 weeks have gone by already since we started this webcomic. We’ve come a long way over these 25 strips, got a lot of great reviews and feedback, and made a lot of excellent friends in the webcomic community. The truly exciting part for me is that this is only the beginning. With lots of luck, and (most importantly), lots of support and feedback from you, the readers, there is no limit to how far Boxcar Astronaut can soar!

Oh and before I go, here’s some links to check out more Boxcar Astronaut coolness!

Boxcar Astronaut Character Bios!

The Boxcar Astronaut Myspace Page!

Meet The Creators Of Boxcar Astronaut!

Marc Lapierre’s Madfrog Graphics Website!

Boxcar Astronaut’s OnlineComics Page!

Jeff’s Comicspace Profile!

…And Marc’s!

TTYL! 

Pool’s Closin’, Everyone Out!!!

Hello everyone! I hope you are all having a good weekend. It’s been murderously hot and humid in these parts over the past several days. So miserable, in fact, that I’ve actually been jealous of my own fictional comic strip characters for having a swimming pool to cool off in! ( I blame this on the intense heat warping my brain).

Anyway, I really dig this strip. I love what Marc did with the linework and the detail of the “alien planet surface”. It puts me in the mind of Jack Kirby and Geof Darrow’s stuff. It’s another one of our strips that employs the “three panels of something up-close and mysterious before pulling back for the fourth panel gag” storytelling device, which you’ve seen executed before in our most talked-about strip. Rest assured, there will be more of these to follow because we love them so darned much. Enjoy the last installment of the “swimming pool series” and stay cool!

A Good Day…

Hey there! Hi There! Ho there! As you can see by the gratuitous use of exclamation points, I’m pretty excited today, primarily for two reasons:

First off, three words: FREE ICE CREAM! More specifically, FREE ICE CREAM AT WORK! That’s right kids, my company had a Ding-Dong Cart roll up in front of the building and dispense creamy treats to all the employees this afternoon! Oh, and did I mention it was all FREE? Heck yeah. That made the day a bit more tolerable. Sadly, there was no sign of Robot mackin’ on the truck, but it did put me in the mindset of our recent strips.

The only thing that could improve upon that free ice cream would be yet another glowing review of Boxcar Astronaut, and that’s exactly what was waiting for me on the ol’ computer when I got home. This time the high praise comes from Delos Woodruff over at his review site, Artpatient. He has really nice things to say about the strip, especially the visual gags, the expressions of our characters, and the unique camera angles and special techniques Marc employs (the ray-gun effects that show the boys’ skeletons, for example).

Early on in the review Mr. Woodruff discusses the premise of the strip and the potential for future topics/storylines, and says something that really hit home for me:

“It’s important not to be too vague (according to Dilbert creator Scott Adams) nor too limited with the potential pool of topics. It should be specific enough to have personality but open enough that a general audience can relate.”

The “recipe” for Boxcar Astronaut is something that Marc and I always discuss very deeply whenever we have a creative pow-wow. One thing we are very conscious of is ensuring that Boxcar Astronaut maintains a sense of innocence and wonder that any age group can relate to. Simplicity and accessibilty are paramount.

Obviously, being in our 30’s we were heavily influenced by Star Wars and other Sci-Fi adventures of the late 70’s early 80’s, but you didn’t have to grow up in that generation to pretend you were a spaceman or a superhero in your backyard. That kind of stuff has been going on since the 1930’s, with Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers and has continued throughout the decades.

Sure, there have a been a few quotes from the Star Wars films and other identifable motifs, but we really want Boxcar to have broad appeal, and lately we’ve been very careful in the creative process to avoid the traps and pitfalls of weighing down the material with lazy pop-culture references. We’re drawing on archetypes here, imagery and concepts culled from over 50 years of space adventures and other imaginary flights of fancy.

It’s evident in the little touches like the design of Robot, the toy guns Ben and Devin use, and even Ben’s helmet. Star Wars, 50’s Cold-War-influenced Sci-Fi, Star Trek, Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers…they all are a part of the influence of our strip, but even if you’ve never seen or heard of any of that material, we hope people can still identify with the simple, timeless concept of two kids using their limitless imaginations in the backyard.

Happy 100th To ‘I Am Geek’!

Hello all! I wanted to take a moment to wish I Am Geek a Happy 100th! (100th strip, that is). I Am Geek’s creator, Benj Christensen was one of the first webcomic artists to express his admiration and praise for our comic, and it really made us feel welcome in the webcomics “community”.

Benj is a great, hardworking guy and his stuff is brilliantly funny. If you consider yourself a “geek” on any level whatsoever (sci-fi, comics, video games, TV, music, pop-culture), you owe it to yourself to check out I Am Geek. It updates Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Congratulations again, Benj!

It’s A “Good Week” To Go Swimming. Haw!

Hi everyone! This week’s strip features what may be the funniest visual gag yet. Ben and Devin in their “swimmies” or “water wings” is truly giggle-inducing, but Robot’s version is absolutely priceless! “Good-Week” heh-heh. Good one, Marc. (and kudos for putting this strip together from concept to finished piece in literally just a couple of days!).

This comic actually went through quite a few incarnations, with a lot of ideas tossed around before settling on a finished product. I would imagine a good percentage of the webcomics out there are drawn and assembled weeks or even months before they go “live”, and Boxcar is no different, but when Marc put together the “airdates” if you will, for the pool series he asked me to come up with another pool strip to add to the storyline.

That was about two weeks ago, and I was struggling to come up with something else for the boys to do in the pool. I came up with a bunch of ideas, the best of which involved the boys lounging around on inner tubes, and Robot suddenly emerging from the water, hooking the boys’ inner tubes around his protruding cathodes (those thingies on the either side of his head), jettisoning Ben and Devin into the water. Marc then riffed off of that and came up with the genius idea of Robot wearing tires around his arms like water wings to mimic the boys, as he is prone to do from time to time in a misguided effort to “fit in”. I like exploring that relationship he has with Ben and Devin, so look for more of that in the future.

Pats On The Back

Congrats are in order for a few of the best webcomic creators out there. Firstly, to Wally & Osborne creator Tyler Martin on the birth of his son Rhoan. Secondly, to Jim Tierney of Jetpacks & Time Machines and the other members of the new webcomic “supergroup” on the scene, The Panel Mammals. Joining Tierney in this new collective are Jarrett Osborne, who does the fun and highly imaginitive The Pursuit of Mandy, Mike Witmer, caretaker of the funny (and fuzzy) inhabitants of Pinkerton National Park in Pinkerton, and Scott Metzger of Tree fame, the webcomic about…well, a talking Tree! All of these guys do tremendous work, and I wish them the best of success. Good luck guys!

Before I run off I want to give a brief plug to Comics Coast to Coast, one of the few comic-related podcasts on the ‘Net. Brian, Tom, and Justin do a good job on the show and a recent ‘cast featured an interview with the aforementioned Jim Tierney.

Oh, and one more thing, apparently Delos Woodruff over at Artpatient is going to post a review of our strip next week. Judging by previous review listings, the piece should be up on Thursday, August 23. Mark your calendars!

Have a great weekend and be sure to come by Sunday for an all-new Boxcar Astronaut adventure as the “Swimming Pool Saga” continues!

R.I.P. Mike Wieringo…

I just got a terribly sad myspace message from Marc that I had to share here. Comics artist Mike Weiringo passed away as a result of a sudden heart attack on Sunday. He was only 44 years old. Mike had worked on pretty much all of the major superheroes, but he’s probably best known for his work on The Flash, Impulse, Spider-Man, and his own creation, Tellos. Back when I was a heavy comics reader in the mid-to-late 90’s, Mike was one of my favorite artists. His artwork had a clean, youthful exuberance that exploded off the page. He was one of the best and the light of the superhero world just got a bit dimmer today.

The Chlorinated Oasis…

Ahhh, the swimming pool…the crown jewel, the Pièce de résistance of many a childhood backyard. I don’t how it was in your neck of the woods, but around here, if you were lucky enough to have a pool on your property you were instantly a pretty popular kid.

My family wasn’t able to afford a magical oasis of fun until I was 13, so as a young whippersnapper I was forced to make due with lame substitutes like plastic kiddie pools, slip n’ slides, and the ultimate in watersports technology…the common garden sprinkler! (Oh come on! Don’t tell me you never set that thing up on the grass and spent 20 minutes running through those refreshing jets of water arcing high in the air. Glorious, I tell ya…).

Anyway, looks like Ben is one of the fortunate ones, able to escape the heat and spend blissful hours soaking in chemically-treated waters. And as you can see, that kid doesn’t take his helmet off for anything! Originally I had Ben decked out in some scuba goggles as well because I thought it would make a really funny visual, but Marc discovered that it was a bit too  much with the helmet and his character got sort of lost, so he transferred the gear over to Devin and I think he looks hilarious!

This strip marks the first in a short “pool” series, sort of nice tribute to summer along with the “ice cream truck” strips. We hope you enjoy them!

 

How Are We Doing???

Hello everyone, I’d like to begin this blog by wishing Marc a Happy Birthday! If anyone wants to send him some Birthday wishes, you can leave a comment here or on our Myspace page. And speaking of the Myspace site, Marc has given it a spiffy new facelift. If you haven’t been by in a while, stop in and say hello!

I’ve been getting lots of inspiration for strips out of daily life these days (a first birthday party this weekend proved especially bountiful, thanks to an awesome tire swing!), and things with the strip are going well, but we can always use some more feedback, both positive and negative. We’d love to hear more from those of you who read the strip on a regular basis. What do you love about Boxcar Astronaut? What do you dislike? What do you want to see more or less of? Who is your favorite character and why? Please, let us know! It can only help us as we continue to flesh out the characters, discover their “voices”, and discover the direction we want to take the strip in the future.

If you want to leave us a comment there’s the “Tell a friend” button at the bottom of each strip on the main page, you can leave a comment here on the blog, or here’s my e-mail address, and Marc’s. Hope to hear from you all soon!

Robot Romance

Happy Sunday to one and all! This week’s strip is pretty much all Marc. He came up with a great visual gag to continue (and wrap up) the “ice cream truck” story that began with strip #20. My favorite thing about the strip is all the little touches that Marc sprinkled throughout it. I love the P.O.V view of the ice cream man looking out at the kids, Devin paying the ice cream man with a bag full of pennies (he would soooo be that kid!), the musical notes of the ding-dong cart drifting through the top of all the panels, and there’s even a nifty Easter Egg for all of you Firefly/Serenity fans out there! (I’m not telling you where it is, but if you find it, leave a comment and you’ll win a prize). You’ve also gotta love that little heart on the top of Robot’s anntenna. The idea of him falling for the ice cream truck is classic and makes a terrific visual punchline.

Speaking of Robot, have you voted for Boxcar Astronaut on Buzzcomix yet? Well, if you haven’t, now you have two very good reasons for doing so. First, you’ll be helping support the comic, and second, you’ll get a super-sweet exclusive Robot desktop wallpaper! Marc designed it to look like a blueprint with schematics on everyone’s favorite android visitor from outer space, complete with wrinkles and a coffee mug stain! Vote for us and get yours right now!