Making Comics Podcast!

Now, this is really exciting news! Jason Brubaker of formidable graphic novel reMIND has started a new website at makingcomics.com. This is going to be an invaluable ressource for everyone who wants to create his own comic or graphic novel. To kick off the website he's starting a podcast and I'm very happy to announce that I will be co-hosting it together with Jason.

When I started to create the Wormworld Saga graphic novel in late 2009, the first thing I did was searching the internet for other people that were trying the same thing. I was very lucky to find Jason's blog where he had just started to post the first pages of reMIND. But it wasn't only his graphic novel that inspired me. He wrote a huge bunch of articles about creating graphic novels and later he even started an online forum in which I eagerly participated. He really is passionate about graphic novels and after finishing his first book, receiving a Xeric Foundation grant, and successfully financing the first print run of reMIND via kickstarter.com, he definitely is someone you want to listen to, if you share this passion.

So, from now on I will take a few hours at the evening every now and then and have a conversation with Jason Brubaker and a not yet to be disclosed list of amazingly talented guests. Our first test recording already ended up to be an interesting conversation which Jason has fashioned into a 9 minute teaser for the podcast. You can listen to it on the makingcomics.com website or in iTunes.

I'm really looking forward to this and I hope that you all will enjoy the podcast!

Back Home And Finally Back to Art!

I'm back from Frankfurt Bookfair and I'm not only returning home but I'm also returning to producing artwork on a regular schedule. "Finally!" I hear some of you say and I agree.

I know that some of you started to get the impression that I might have spent too much time on the wrong stuff and that I should simply have concentrated on the graphic novel. I myself am a bit shocked by the fact that 9 months have passed and that I'm only 20% into Chapter 2. On the other hand, if we compare the different options I had this year, it turns out that nothing was lost and a lot was gained.

Had I decided not to act on the success of Chapter 1 and just continue on Chapter 2 besides my day job, I would have been at about 80% of the final artwork by now and a release in December would have been a save bet. Chapter 3 would have been coming at the end of 2012 and Chapter 4 in 2013 and so on.

What I did instead was giving interviews for blogs, newspapers, radio and tv stations in January. I prepared a kickstarter fundraising campaign in February and fueled it with videos and PR in March. I worked on the app, created, packed and shipped the kickstarter rewards and negotiated with publishers in April, Mai and June. I quit my job in July, attended startup workshops and prepared a business plan in order to apply for state money to support my new business. In August, I finished my work on the app, produced the first 20% of artwork for Chapter 2 and took a summer vacation with my wife and son. I launched the Wormworld Saga App and prepared the bookfair when I came home late September.

Now, Chapter 2 is still scheduled for December but, thanks to my work on the business and infrastructure, I'm working fulltime on the graphic novel now and I'm fully financed until at least July 2012. By that time I plan to have already released Chapter 3 and 4. How it will go on from that point will heavily depend on the success of the app and the number of countries my publisher can place the Wormworld Saga Book Edition.

So, there's still a lot to do in the future. I'm at the very beginning of this adventure. I've just built my ship and set my course towards the unknown. But out on the sea I'll have plenty of time for painting!

My return from the bookfair marks an important milestone for me. I have now finished the business stuff and I'm happy with the result so far. I'm now going to concentrate on art again. That means that from now on you'll see milestone updates and artwork posts here on the blog. Of course I'll keep you updated about app updates (especially the upcoming Android version) but this blog is going to see a lot more art than in the last few months. I promise that.

To kick that off, I want to share an artwork with you that I created at Frankfurt Bookfair. When I wasn't talking to people I painted on this insanely detailed abstract composition. Click on it for a HUGE version!

See you soon with the next Chapter 2 milestone!

First English Video2Brain Workshop Available

My first Video2Brain workshop in English is available now! In this workshop I'm painting a nature scene with a well-known little adventurer inside. I'm painting this artwork without a preliminary drawing. Instead I'm using abstract shapes and overlay techniques to "find" the scene that I want to paint. The workshop runs for 2 hrs 15 min.You'll find further information about the workshop on the product page.

There's a second English workshop titled "Focus on Digital Drawing" in preparation.

iPad App Available Worldwide and Website Update

I'm happy to inform you that our update of the Wormworld Saga App for iPad got approved by Apple and that the app is now available worldwide! You should find it in your local iTunes App Store now by simply searching for "Wormworld".

I'm really sorry for the delay that this caused for a lot of you. But we reasoned that it would be better to wait a few days instead of presenting you a potentially flawed experience of the Wormworld Saga App. I hope that you will enjoy the app now.

By the way, you all would help to promote the app tremendously by giving it a rating or by even writing a review in the App Store. These things are very important to get the app to places where it receives better recognition.

And there's other news, too! I updated the Wormworld Saga Website to reflect the launch of the app and to prepare for the fact that there will be two chapters soon. This is the first update of the website since December 2010. It really was about time!

I got a lot of stuff out of my way now and I'm finally able to concentrate on Chapter 2 again. Next week Frankfurt Bookfair will occupy me for some days though. By the way: there will be an official Wormworld Saga Event at the Tokyopop booth (hall 3.0, booth K834) on Saturday 15th October at 1:30pm (13:30) and I will do some signing afterwards. I'm really looking forward to that! Maybe I'll see some of you there?

The Wormworld Saga App for iPad launched!

When I prepared the fundraising campaign for the Wormworld Saga App on kickstarter.com in March, I really couldn't imagine that it would be possible to raise $12.000 from people that I actually didn't know at all. The overwhelming feedback my work received from the online community fortunately made me give it a try anyway. Although the donations and print orders of the preceding months had surprised the hell out of me, it was the unsuspected outcome of the kickstarter campaign that, for the first time, gave me the impression that I possibly was creating something that could become my actual job in the future.


I've learned a lot in the past six months. I've learned that creating a successful graphic novel doesn't only mean to write and paint. It also means to make plans for the future, communicate with a lot of people and do a lot of work that pops up just everywhere. The development of the app took much longer than I had imagined. There is just so much to take into account when you want to release a running app and there's so much work in the detail. I've REALLY learned a lot.

Now that it's finally done, I have a strong feeling of achievement. The Wormworld Saga App is the kind of thing that I imagined to create. A digital graphic novel that overcomes the limits of traditional book publishing. A hub to connect to just everything around the Wormworld Saga. The app humbly starts with the first chapter in four languages and the first three items inside the artbook and the production notes in English. I hope to be able to provide more languages and completely translated content in the future. It's a matter of budget only. The second chapter will follow at the end of the year and by the end of next year I hope to see the first 6 chapters and a host of artbook items inside the app. Just imagine that!

The Wormworld Saga App is a living thing. Now that it exists I already have the first ideas to extend and improve it. You can expect me to constantly think about stuff that will make the app and the Wormworld Saga in general more and more enjoyable for you. We will frequently update and your feedback is highly appreciated in order to evolve the Wormworld Saga App towards something that hopefully will set standards for graphic novel apps in general.

But for now I want to invite you to explore what's already there. A lot of work and love went into the Wormworld Saga App and I hope that you will enjoy it!

Here's a link to the U.S. App Store but you can easily find the app by searching for "Wormworld" in your local App Store in iTunes:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-wormworld-saga/id453680677?ls=1&mt=8

Back at work and Wormworld Saga App coming up!

I'm back! Back from a summer vation in Spain and back from the convention of the digitalartforum which took place this weekend in Berlin. It was a great event and I'm happy that we had an absolute record in participants this year because that way a lot of people were able to enjoy what I think was the best convention we've ever experienced. We've never been at a cooler location and we've never had better talks than this year which, by the way, was the 10th anniversary of the community.

The traditional convention group shot

And I had a nice surprise in my mailbox: finally the trademark registration process is completed and "Wormworld" is now a registered trademark in the United States of America!

that's what a U.S. trademark certificate looks like

I'm happy that this issue is off my mind now. I just checked and I can't believe that it took almost 22 months to register the Wormworld Saga trademark in the European Union and the United States. 

However, I will continue my work on Chapter 2 in a few days. Before I can fully concentrate on the graphic novel again I have to prepare some promotional work for the launch of the Wormworld Saga App which is going to happen very soon. In fact, we have a definite launch date which is going to be October 1st. I'm excited!

So, you'll hear from me again in a few days!

Chapter 2, Milestone 1 reached!

Today I reached my first milestone and finished 20% of the Chapter 2 final artwork. I spent 40 hours working on it. Normally that would have taken me over a month but with my new fulltime schedule I accomplished the first milestone in 1.5 weeks. And that's in fact longer than it should normally take. The finishing touches on the app and the upcoming digitalartconvention in Berlin (which I'm organizing) took away some time from my schedule. However, it feels great to make such fast progress on Chapter 2. I really can't wait to present it to you.

However, the next 4 weeks will hardly see any progress on Chapter 2. It's summer vacation time and my wife and I are looking forward to present little Lucas to his great-grandparents in Spain for the first time. The little rascal is starting to crawl and I'm curious to see his face when he sees a beach for the first time. Then, directly after our vacation there's the digitalartconvention, and in October the Frankfurt Book Fair will take away some days from my schedule, too. I will post details on Frankfurt as soon as I can say when exactly I will be available on the Tokyopop booth.

Well, that all combined leads to the fact that Chapter 2 will presumably not be released so much earlier than originally planned. I really didn't anticipate all the stuff that got in my way and with the app release and the book publishing ahead there's plenty of distraction still waiting for me. I'm planning to continue with Chapter 2 late September and hopefully I'll wrap up the artwork in early November. I don't quite know yet how much time editing and layout will take. For Chapter 1 that process was very tesselated and it's hard to say how long it'll take when I'm working on that part fulltime and in one stretch. There's still a lot to learn for me. I guess, Chapter 3 will be the first Chapter that I will create in a truly proven workflow.

Okay, of course I'm not leaving you without at least a small sneak peek into Chapter 2. Here's a panel from the first milestone that I really enjoyed painting. I was longing to paint forest scenes since the very beginning of my work on the Wormworld Saga and Chapter 2 fortunately has plenty of them:

First Video2Brain Video-Training (German) Released

Some of you might remember that I mentioned a journey to Graz, Austria at the beginning of July. I went there for a week and recorded a bunch of video-trainings for video2brain which is a company that offers online and DVD video-workshops. The first one (in German language) was just released. It runs for about two hours and covers all details of my digital drawing workflow. The video is not timelapsed. The full drawing process is filmed and commented in realtime. As you can see, I chose an image from the Wormworld Saga for the course:

Click to go to the product page

And there's a trailer, too:

A second video in German on digital painting will be released soon. I also recorded two video-trainings in English language which hopefully we will not have to wait for too long.

Alright, I hope that I can catch the interest of some of you with this. I will keep you informed about the following releases.

Kickstarter Drawings

Last week I finished a task that was sitting on my to-do-list for some time now. All backers of the Wormworld Saga App kickstarer campaign who pledged $500 or $1000 receive a custom pencil drawing. The outcome of this is a nice and diverse collection of drawings that will go out into the world today (click thumbnails for a larger resolution):

These are really unique items because not only are these originals but these are the only 10 drawings with the blue Wormseal stamp that will ever exist. So, collectors: watch out for these!

If you happen to be interested in an original pencil drawing from me, you might want to consider to buy an Ultimate Fan Collection from the wormworldsaga.com print shop. A pencil drawing is part of this package.

I'm starting with the Chapter 2 Final Artwork

"Finally!" A lot of you will say, I guess. And yes, I didn't think that it would take me so long before I could start on the next chapter of the Wormworld Saga neither. I promised fast progress the day when I announced to work fulltime on the Wormworld Saga and here we are - nearly 5 weeks later and I'm just starting with Chapter 2. I just completely underestimated the amount of work that I had to put into the app. It feels good having made the effort though. I'm really looking forward to the release as I hope a lot of you do, too. I have finished my part and now the developers are going to fix bugs and submit a version to Apple in order to get the approval for the App Store. We hope that the whole process will be completed by the end of August. The app should be landing in the App Store in early September at the latest.

So, that finally gives me the opportunity to start with the final artwork of Chapter 2. During the last two days I have reworked the preliminary version from ... April (oh God, is it really April?) and I'm now confident to say that I have landed a version that's ready to be finalized. 

I'm really excited about Chapter 2! I think that it's going to be a worthy follower to Chapter 1 - with more content, more action, more dramatic turning points, and a kickass ending that will make you wanna read Chapter 3 instantly. Well, okay, let's finish Chapter 2 before we begin to talk about Chapter 3...

I've established 5 milestones again. They are 25% larger than the milestones of Chapter 1. I hope to reach the first one before my summer vacation starts. I don't dare to announce a release date for Chapter 2 yet. There's a 3 weeks vacation coming up and I'm organizing the convention of the digitalartforum again which will take place in September. In October I've got to attend the Frankfurt Book Fair. Apart from that, I'm going to concentrate on Chapter 2 though. You'll get the updates here! 

So, no time to lose!