By Sam Kirkman: This Month with everyone busy with the holidays and family, I decided to put together a shorter cast with excerpts from a couple of interviews from 2009. Some of you may have already listened to the full interviews with Stephen Silver and Mark McDonnell posted to the VSS web site.

I wanted to emphasize in our 4th episode the importance of accomplishing our goals and not just dreaming about it. JUST DO IT seemed to fit the bill and These two artists really know how to “Get er Done!” as they say.

We hope that you enjoy the pondcast for December and look forward to finding something great to bring to you for January. 2012 Here we come!

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In this episode we discuss:

Stephan Silver
Silvertoons.com 

Mark McDonnell
Cre8tivemarks.com

By Sam Kirkman: In this episode of the illopond.com PONDcast I had a great discussion with fellow ponder Lee Wiley. I’m glad to have him on the show, not only because his project is really cool, but also, his is an example of how being involved in a project on the illopond can lead to bigger and better things.

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In this episode we discuss:
http://projectexpirationdate.com/

His kickstarter campaign;
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2037907027/expiration-date

Paper Wings Podcast:
http://www.paperwingspodcast.com/2011/11/pwp-17-creator-interview-with-comfort-love-and-adam-withers/

Comfort Love and Adam Withers:
http://uniquescomic.com/

And on todays episode an open invitation to become part of our Steampunk Anthology #2, if you are interested in joining us, Drop me an Email at samuelkirkman@me.com

Thanks again for listening and we hope to see you on the pond!

On this episode of the pond cast, Sam speaks with Charlotte Cheng, Denver Wagner, and Michelle Kondrich about their experience in preparation for, and in retrospect after the Alternative Press Exposition in San Francisco. This was the first time for members of the illopond to actually table together. They had a BLAST! There is so much to learn and much to take away from jumping in and doing it!

Sam also speaks with Jenni Gregory of Ka-Blam!  about their end of the process, the actual production of the books we creators wish to get into the hands of the public. and Jenni & Sam also plug a Kick-starter campaign to promote a worthy project which was set up to pay the creators for their contributions to the first Dreamwalker Press project; Dark Mischief an Anthology of spooky stories. Barry was unable to join us, having much on his plate to get our books to us, but we think you will enjoy the conversations and insight on the printing end of the business.

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Show links:

Alternative Press Exposition
The Anthology Project 
Joy Ang 
Jake Wyatt 
Ka-Blam! 
indyplanet 
Comicsmonkey 
Jenni Gregory 
Dark mischief 
Dark mischief Kick-starter campaign  

Illopond members Sam Kirkman, Michelle Kondrich, Denver Wagner and Charlotte Cheng have just returned from the Alternative Press Expo 2011 in San Francisco. The gang were selling copies of our community anthologies, along with their own individual books and prints, including the brand new Boo! A Spooky Anthology For Kids!

Our group met some great people and have returned with some great ideas for future episodes of the illopond pondCAST, so stay tuned!

You can read Sam Kirkman’s first impressions on the community forums, or read Michelle Kondrich’s recap at her blog!

Welcome to episode one of the illopond ‘pondCAST‘! Hosted by Sam Kirkman, joined by members of the illopond community. In episode one we approach the subject of finding your voice. Denver Wagner touches briefly on the beginnings of the illopond community and shares his experiences running Boo! A spooky anthology for kids. Paul Caggegi invites you all to join his new project 8: in SPAAAAACE! and shares some of the realities of self publishing. And finally we have an interview with David Petersen, creator of the popular series Mouseguard, from 2009.

The community would like to extend it’s thanks to Sam Kirkman whose hard work has made this pondcast possible, and to all the episodes contributors. We hope you enjoyed listening to our first show and welcome your feedback below.

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Show notes:
Denver Wagner: @DenverWagner on twitter, http://www.denverwagner.com/

Stack, Stuck by Denver Wagner
Digital   http://stackstuck.blogspot.com/
Print     http://indyplanet.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=5312

8 a Kids book Anthology: http://indyplanet.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=4214

A Roar and a Squeak: http://www.denverwagner.com/A-Roar-and-a-Squeak.html

Paul Caggegi: @pandeiacomic on twitter, http://processdiary.com/author/process/
Paul’s Web comic Paneia: http://pandeia.com

Great Googly Moogly! by Paul Caggegi
Print: http://indyplanet.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=5967
Digital: http://theillustratedsection.com/great-googly-moogly

David Petersen: http://www.davidpetersen.net

MouseGuard: http://www.mouseguard.net

8in SPAAACE!!!!  call out for contributors!

Space has captured the imaginations of generations. We see it when we look up at night, and yet it remains a vast and exciting frontier full of possibility and promise. My aim is to collect 8 original stories which will inspire, excite, enthrall and excite. Themes can vary, all that I ask is that it has a space setting (this can include “it came from outer space” earth-bound stories as well).

This anthology will need 8 creators to each contribute an 8 page story. I want to keep these limitations on this anthology, as I’ve discovered limits can actually boost creativity. Keep your story simple. Keep your main cast as small as possible. Keep your premise concise. These should aid you in telling a good story.

To submit your work for selection, simply start a discussion in the SPAAAAACE! Board of the community.

The deadline for completed work is January 31st 2012. I want to submit the final book early February, so I can sell this at Supanova next year. If I get the orders by April, then I will consider doing a second Australian convention interstate.

I want to aim this at as wide an audience as possible. Young teens through to adult comic aficionados (like us!) While I have nothing personal against more “adult” genres, but try and keep these stories as teen-friendly as possible. No nudity. Comic-book violence (if necessary) is okay, but consider being clever about it (e.g.: keep it out of shot; suggest, imply, don’t be gratuitous). If swearing is important to the plot/character, either get creative (Like Firefly!), or use symbols to mask the $#%^& word. In short, I want to give you guys scope to explore!

Comicons have been around for a while “Down Unda“, but none rival Supanova for numbers of visitors. It is possibly because it’s so much more than just a comic convention. It is a pop-culture expo, a combination of various geeky interests attracting a wide spectrum of people from anime aficionados to fans of sci-fi TV shows, and video games. 2011 proved to be the biggest year on record. The expo takes place in four major Australian cities (Brisbane, Perth, Melbourne and Sydney) and the numbers for Sydney alone topped 21,000 over the two days.

Illopond.com community member Paul Caggegi (of the popular blog, “The Process Diary“) decided he’d attempt to table at the event and see if there’d be any interest in some of the comicbook work he’s produced over the last twelve months. He ordered 30 copies of 8: A Steampunk Anthology, 20 copies of the single-issue version of “Data Point” (from the anthology) and his own title, “Pandeia“.

He designed and printed all his own promotional material, printed some original art, and presented his sketchbook for passer’s by to peruse at their leisure.

He’d read and chatted to other illopond members who’d tabled before, as well as more local artists who would be tabling again at Supanova. All the advice was heeded: be friendly, be approachable, smile, and have fun.

Over the two days, Paul sold out of his own comic, and sold 24 copies of the anthology. While he didn’t exactly break even, he did recoup the majority of his costs, and even made some valuable contacts. He was interviewed twice, designed a tattoo, got hugged by Princess Leia, and had some local students model a character from his sketchbook.

Paul says it was both fun and successful. He puts the high yield of of sales down to a combination of things. Firstly, he was in prime real-estate. While on the “Artist’s Alley“, he was on the row which faced the commercial stands. Secondly, many people approached the table because of the sketchbook and artwork on display. The books were also available to be flicked through at leisure. The price point was attractive for an independent and high-quality book. oh, and the unpredictable X-Factor was hands-down the love so many people seemed to have for Steampunk. Every passer-by who cried “oooh! STEAMPUNK!“ walked away with a copy of the book.

Paul will be tabling again at Supanova in Sydney, and is hinting that he *may* do a second Australian city.

Paul feels honored to have represented such a fine bunch of artists who can now officially say they’ve cracked the international scene!

The latest episode of the excellent PaperWings Podcast mentions our little community, on the topic of community collaboration, as part of a larger discussion on productivity and time management.

We encourage you to listen to the episode on the PaperWings site here, and check out their back catalogue too!

Find out more @PaperWingsShow.

8: A Steampunk Anthology has been such a success Sam Kirkman is now managing the creation of 8.5: A Second Steampunk Anthology! Find out more by visiting the project forum…

DEADLINE for 8.5 A Steampunk Anthology : 1st week of August 2011
The deadline is set so that we will be able to represent at APE, the Alternative Press Exposition at the Concourse Building in San Francisco October 1st & 2nd. check out the details of last years APE here http://www.comic-con.org/ape2010/

DETAILS : The Cogs & Rivets
Again we will limit the number of contributing artists to 8, 8 artists, 8 stories, and 8 being the minimum number of pages. However I would like to open it up to a max of 16 pages of story. I think that this will stimulate some interesting developments and allow each of us a bit more freedom to round out a story so that it won’t feel truncated or rushed. We will maintain the original format with Bio page, cover and then story. And for those who are venturing past 8 pages, keep the number of them even, 10,12,14,16, total pages so the layout will be uniform. That is the only other stipulation to page count.

YOUR COMMITMENT : And what this means for you
As with our previous works, each contributing Artist retains the full range of creative rights to their respective works. They may list them separately for sales through any means they see fit, indyplanet.com, Theillustratedsection.com etc. I would like to add that we all agree not to revoke the inclusion of our stories from the collected work at any time in the future. To do so would effectively kill the collaborative venture for all involved. ALL would be affected, so once it’s a part of the collected work, let’s keep our family of stories together. All sales of the printed work through indyplanet.com and PDF through theillustratedsection.com will be divided evenly amongst the contributing members, however from experience, this isn’t expected to be too significant. One application of such proceeds we might want to consider as a group is directing such to printing costs. Ka-Blam! offers 110% if these funds are directed to printing credits. This could be utilized by those who could use a little help in the defraying of convention costs. It should be open to all contributing authors who are using Ka-Blam. A thought for discussion at least.

The best way each of us will be able to see a profit from this venture will be from our personal involvement in it’s distribution through book Fairs & publishing conventions. The more you apply yourself to the marketing the better chance of a return, and in the process, exposure of our work to the fans. There is always the possibility that our work my be picked up by a mainstream publisher as well, and since the new resume is a project, we all benefit in many ways.

AN IMPORTANT POINT
I would like to emphasize the importance of posting our progress on a regular basis here on the pond. By keeping in touch with the group and accepting and giving critiques of the work, is at the very heart of what life on the pond is all about. The virtual studio buddy-ness that builds friendships and hopefully helps shape carriers. Posting on a regular basis will also help prevent technical snafus that plagued the first volume. We can catch problem before it goes to print.

SPREAD THE WORD
Help me tweet about it, blog about it, podcast about it, Facebook about it, Let’s get our Cadre formed!
Thanks for considering this project and like the first one, I feel that it will truly be an incredible experience!