New Year, New You, New Comics!

This blog has been horibly underutlized by myself. My new year's resolution: try to post just three times a month. This shouldn't be such a hard thing for me to do; I don't know why it has been in the past. So, here goes!

Sketches from PIX

I had a super time at PIX two weekends ago! I (for the first time ever) sold back the cost of the table, and then actually MADE. MONEY. It may be in part due to the fact that the table cost only $25, but I'm still feeling pretty good about myself.

Since I was at the show by myself, I had a lot of time to work on my comics. So of course I didn't; I just doodled the whole time.

Come see me at PIX!

Hello out there!

This weekend there is going to be a comic convention in Pittsburgh, PA called PIX (Pittsburgh Indy Comic Expo 2010). And I will be there! It's happening the same weekend as APE, so all you poor folks that don't have the money or time to go out to San Fransisco will have something that's destined to be equally awesome closer to home! Also, I will be there selling my comics.


Click here for a link to the PIX site.
Click here for an article about it in the Tribune Review.


And here is a copy of my It Gets Better strip I did last week for the new gay. I will be selling copies of this at PIX for $10, $8 of which will go to the Trevor Project. If you are not able to come but would like to get a copy, send me an email at katie.omberg at gmail.com.

It gets better

I'm a huge fan of the campaign that Dan Savage started. No matter what flaws it has, and no matter how imperfectly better it gets, lets be honest: not being in high school is an improvement. Here's a link to my it gets better strip at the new gay.

Things I am up to related to comics

Here is a recent iteration of Office Bitch, the weekly strip I do for The New Gay. I am really loving working for them and having a deadline that is enforced by someone other than me. Without it, I have a really hard time getting my act together and producing work (as you can tell by my really intense presence here on my blog).

I went to SPX a few weeks ago and LOVED. IT. It was so great to see so many people just zoned out on comics. I met a lot of awesome people, and don't know what a single one of them does for their day jobs. It's so awesome to make connections like that. People responded really well to "Gay Kid," which is now the formal name for the coming out comic. I actually sold out and had to make more copies half-way through the convention to keep it going!

Next on the docket, is PIX (Pittsburgh Indy Comics Expo) which is Oct 16 - 17. I'm not sure I'll have anything brand new for it, but I will have all my old minis, as well as the first issue of Gay Kid, which was finished in September. If any of you will be around then, please please please come check out my table! It's free to get into the show, which is rare in comic cons.

Cover IN COLOR

Ok, I can't keep a lid on this one. I'm really really pumped about this cover; even more now that it's in full color!

FULL DISCLOSURE: I haven't worked in real, hand-inked color since probably high school. I used to do a large scale, full color comic book at the end of each year (full-full disclosure: only after 8th and 9th grade). It took FOREVER and I've never really liked working in color since it takes up more time than I want it to.

So, here it is in color. I shaded it in Faber-Castel brush pens, which are hands down my favorite markers in the world.

The one thing that I wish was true of working in marker is that it was a smoother line. I HATE seeing the grain of the marker, but there's really no way around it. Painting is much more frustrating for me, and I don't have access to Photoshop any more. Coloring it in paint sounds like pulling teeth.

And this is why working in color is so tricky; it always really ups the ante, but it requires a lot more work; is it worth it? Thankfully, since this is a cover, yes I definitely need color for it to have that extra pop. But other than covers, I'm not sure if i'd really work with color on my own volition.

Update on my projects

Hello! I've been working on the Suggestion Box anthology Matthew and I are putting out in time for SPX 2010 (if any of you will be there, or in the DC area the weekend of Sept 11-12, come see me!). I just finished the b&w of the cover yesterday. I'm pretty excited cause I've always been interested in how people draw the old-school style of comics (lots of shading, using both a pen and a brush in a way that works--instead of having it look like a kindergartner using both a marker and a crayon on the same piece of paper, which is usually how it ends up looking for me. ANYways, here it is. I'm hoping that Matthew can do the coloring on it, mostly because I don't have access to photoshop the way I used to (I used to work at an arts college) and it's not that fun for me to do coloring.