Saturday, April 7, 2012

Help Kickstart My Heart

Hi friends!

My name is Justin Castaneda and I am the creator of the
When I Was Little picture book series. Dave and I met at Wizard World Chicago a few years back. We have since shared the convention floor and continue to build a great creative friendship with him, Rene, and Instant Press Comics. He was kind enough to have me do a guest post because I have a new book project I am raising funds for thru Kickstarter.

The way Kickstarter works is it funds creativity. It accepts donations to help creative people get their passion projects made. Artists, writers, and filmmakers can set up a Kickstarter campaign and by supporting them and their work, you get rewarded! For instance when you donate to my project, you can receive a signed copy, sketch cards, digital prints, buttons, custom art and a lot more.

So the name of my new book is called,
Heart. Heart is a story about love and acceptance. This book has been a labor of love for many years. I really believe in this book. It's been an idea birthed through the struggles I had growing up trying to find where I fit in. I had difficulty making friends and I thought for the longest time it's because of who I was as a person. I thought if I changed who I was I would find my place. It wasn't until much later when I learned all that was non-sense and the most important thing I could ever do was: To Be Myself. 

It's a bit more expensive to release a hardcover children's book than I had anticipated. I didn't want to cop out into doing it as a softcover, it's not meant to be that way. With the help of some fellow creatives that gave me an extra push, I started this Kickstarter campaign:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/justin-castaneda/sharemyheart


I hope you can help support the book and the message this book gives.

I thank you for your time and consideration and thanks again to Dave for letting me post on his blog!






Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Convention Season! Duck Season!

The 2012 Convention Season has started!

We kicked it off at DanCon 2012 on March 4th.  This year was bigger and better than last year, which was hard to top.  We premiered House of the Wolfman, the second book in the Tales of the Wolfman series, with a standard cover and an exclusive sketch cover.  The book sold well along with the first book, Bride of the Wolfman.  People really enjoyed Rene’s original sketch covers. 

Last Sunday, Rene and I were panelists for the Author Afternoon at the Beverly Arts Center.  We were joined by Jim and Pat McGreal, creators of the Future Shock comic strip, and Jim Nelson, writer and artist of Crosstown Crush.  We each gave presentations about writing, drawing and working in comics.  The crowd, one of the biggest for Author Afternoons, was very receptive and participated in the Q&A.  Afterward, many came up and spoke to us, looked at our work and even bought some books. 

Coming up (April 13th – 15th) is C2E2. (www.c2e2.com)
Rene and I will be at Table E19 in Artists Alley all weekend.
On Friday, we will be joined by artist Mark Lone. (www.marklone.blogspot.com/)  And on Saturday, Dann Phillips (www.dannphillips.com) will be at the table promoting his book, Starbomb. 

Then, 2 weeks after C2E2 (April 27th – 29th) is Anime Central. (www.acen.org) Rene and I will be at Table 18 in Artists Alley all weekend.  The collected trade of the mini-series Distant will premiere at this show.

May brings Free Comic Book Day on May 5th.  We will be signing at First Aid Comics in Hyde Park.(www.firstaidcomics.com)  As in past years, we will have a free mini-comic.  This year will be Feast of the Wolfman.  All of our other titles will be available for purchase.

Then on May 12th, we will be at Summit City Comic Con. www.summitcitycomiccon.com


Stay tuned for more convention news.