So...

Labor Days @ NYC Comic Con Oh Nine

...and all that jazz. This will be the first home town con for Labor Days: Volume 1 and Phil and I will certainly be out there too make sure its a good one. Catch us at the Oni Press Booth every day of the convention for signings and whimsical storytelling. I'll be sketching as much as I can and taking commissions as well as toting around new pages and designs for volume two of the series. Just ask for a sneak peek!

Our Signing Schedule:

Fri.
5:45 – 7:00 Philip Gelatt, Rick Lacy (with Thomas Kirsch, John Layman)

Sat.
1:15 – 2:30 Philip Gelatt, Rick Lacy

Sun.
2:45 – 4:00 Philip Gelatt, Rick Lacy (with Vasilis Lolos)

We're also including this fun lil' keepsake bookmark with every purchase of Volume 1...or if you happen to tickle my fancy ;). It promotes our Second Volume's release date...sort of. The date has yet to be announced but it'll certainly be out this fall. It also invites the readers to join the Two Dukes at our live chat thread at the Oni Press Forum, aptly titled "The Rick and Phil Hour!"


Designed by Sean Ferguson

Seeya this weekend!

LD Gang

Artwork for a bookmaker we're going to give away at cons with the purchase of the LDv.1 Like at the upcoming NYC Comic Con this Feb. 6th. Catch Phil and I at the Oni booth all weekend!




Tone and color by Sean Ferguson who's doing a stellar job at designing the marker. I'll post that when its finished.

Post-It Panels

Whenever I'm stuck with a panel I take it to the streets. Right at the corner of Ass-stomping and Post-It Ave! I'll normally build up levels and levels of lil' post-its until I reach the desired outcome. And sometimes I do it in one!**

At any rate here are a few post-it panels from Labor Days Vol.2.





And an unfinished panel from Ch.7 featuring a mysterious cloaked man! OOOOOOO!










**that's what she said!

So this is just awesome

100% endorsed by LD.

Cool Guy

Rick and Phil gab it up at Sequential Tart

Check out our musing by clicking the link!

SEQUENTIAL TART!

Off on a Trangent

Sifting through the boxes and boxes of LD art we have have over here in the dungeon levels of Labor Days Tower I came across some very ancient character designs. One of which was this quintessential drawing of Bags' ex, Kelly Trangent. In the early drafts of LD, Ms. Trangent had a bigger roll and her rocky relationship with Bags a larger plot scenario. Well that all hit the cutting room floor and she was only used to further the idea of Bags' out of control life. She can be seen more prominently in our Ashcan that leads into the first volume.


And here also are a few choice pages from Chapter 2: Bags In Bedlam

Saddle, I can has back in it?

This blog is in sour need of a new post! Fortunatly Phil and I have been very busy with a number of new projects, including LABOR DAYS VOL. 2, so rest assured we havent been sitting on our rumps. We were at APE last weekend and had a good time of it. I prefered SPX more, but had never been out to San Fran before. So it was a good time. Except for the rainy weather. We met some very verocious fans and ran into our buddy JK Parkin from Newsarama. Plus strong sales on the book. I good weekend for sure.

I haven't scanned in any new art recently, but I have uploaded two pictures of pages from Vol. 2 on my FLICKR. Which I posted below. Check out my full photostream HERE!

Come One, Come All...

Sunday night and I have a few things to report.

1! Labor Days now has a group on that silly ole social networking site, Facebook.

Check it out and join the party.

2! good Sir Lacy and I are both giving this Twitter thing a shot.

We're here:

Lil Rickle. Lil Philbert.

That's it for now!

ASIFA East gets itself to Status: Bags

This Thursday, Oct. 16th at 7pm, Phil and I are going to be at the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU to discuss our newest creator owned comic book, the aforementioned Labor Days: Vol. 1: All Things With Wings. Hosted by ASIFA - East.

So come on by, bring a friend and get the dirt on the two Dukes of Labor Days Towers as we bicker back and forth about the industry, our new book and how to make it in the biz. Or, at least how we tricked everyone into letting us join the club.



Thanks go out to Dave Levy for taking the helm on this one!

LD: In stores & Newsarama-rama Interview!

In case all you Bagsolites haven't seen our latest interview with Newsarama's John Parkin, check it out here:

http://blog.newsarama.com/2008/10/09/blog-qa-philip-gelatt-and-rick-lacy/


And get out to your local comic shoppe or hit the amazon trail to get yur own copy of Labor Days!


p.s. my laptop is currently in surgery, so no art updates for now :(

Someone Grab That Tape!

Rick and I had this crazy idea that we would hand out old VHS tapes as promotional items. This was Rick's mock-up of what they might look like. Unfortunately, it was a bit cost prohibitive and really, who wants an old VHS tape?

But still, a fun idea.

And it does make you wonder...

Just what the hell is on that tape?

SPX-tacular!

It's Phil here, back on the Blog-train.

Labor Days hits your local comic shops this Wednesday. If they don't carry it, feel free to ask them to order it.

And check us out on Myspace comics!

PREMIERING THIS WEEKEND!

Phil and I will be at the Small Press Expo this weekend in Bethesda, MD for the official release of Labor Days Volume 1: Wine, Woman, and Song! The first unbound proof went to Oni Press this week and we're told it looks AWESOME! So if you plan on attending, come by the Oni Press booth for your very own copy of the most exciting thing to hit your shelf! We'll be on hand to chat about our first creator owned book, buy a few drinks, sketch a few drawings and I will be selling some pin-up art (like the one below of LD's leading ladies), a few pages from the book and my own personal art. Hope to see some familiar faces and make some new friends at what's turning out to be the most exciting artistic event of our career thus far!

Original Labor Days FUNttons!

...or at least that's what we're calling them here at Labor Days Towers.

The first LD merch (aside from the book) are some fashionable buttons! These were fun to make and we've got a few more planned for when readers become more familiarized with the specific quirk of Labor days.




This one was designed by blogspots own Sean "keep it sleazy" Ferguson

Forum: Oni

Have you checked out the Oni Press Forum yet? It went live at SDCC and is gaining a sizeable audience. Go check it out for the most up to date coverage on future events and comics by Oni press. Plus you can chat with your favorite creators!

www.onipress.com/forum

oh look! Bags' is on it right now!

Victoria in Ten Pants

As of yesterday Phil and I finished proof reading the lettered pages for Labor Days. After corrections and a bit more fussing over at Oni, they'll upload the book, which should be designed, layed out and ready to go to the printers.

For now here's a bit of fun with Victoria's weekly wardrobe.


Monday: Tight Black Stretch Pants. Whenever she puts them on she's compelled to high kick. Partly show off, partly to enjoy the freedom. She calls these ones her "stretchies."

Tuesday: Grey Dress Pants, loose at the bottom (but not flair, because c'mon…). She can't high kick in these one, but after a day of stretch pants she needs to feel a little dressy, and they certainly don't inhibit her ability to punch, grapple, or otherwise detain.

Wednesday: New Jeans. A little tight in the hip, but a perfect thigh fit. These are new for the fall.

Thursday: Old Jeans. The pair she was wearing the first time she went on special assignment. They are covered in faded stains; vomit, chocolate, blood, and coffee. She views the stains with nostalgia.

Thursday Night: Used Leather. Thursday night she walks to the local pub to have a drink and a cigar. Nobody bothers her there and she doesn’t bother anybody. It's just her and the pants.

Friday: Stripey Pajama Pants. Friday she does nothing but watch television with her brother. Her brother changes moods, personalities and sentiments approximately 2.5 times as many times as she changes channels.

Saturday: Black Billowy Skirt with Shorts Under It. Saturday she's out on dangerous business all day long. She wears the skirt her father gave her on her 16th birthday. She wonders if it was her mothers.

Sunday: Full Business Suit. Sunday she makes the round with her father and a number of investors. They review treatments, they gossip about patients and they have a supper of sandwiches. She is bored.

Sunday Night: Black Sweat Pants. Sunday night, after they leave and after her brother is asleep, she curls up in the corner of her room and just listens to the building, trapped somewhere between resignation and a remorse she can't name.

Monday, again: Stretchies. She wakes up with a smile and a high kick, lights up a fine fine cigar and heads off into another week.
written by PMG

Like Magic...

... the very last book art for Labor Days has been finished on Labor Day! This is purely coincidence. And a funny one at that. Initially there wasn't going to be cover art for the first chapter, as I planned the book cover to lead into it after a few pages of credits and what not. After the Oni design guru (Kieth) started working his miracles he thought it better to have a new piece of art starting off the first chapter. So I banged out this fella over the weekend and just put the final touches on it today. This week the lettering is getting finished, Phil and I will do proofs and if all goes according to plan Labor Days: Volume One: Consorts to Chaos will be at the printer by the weeks end.

And then on to SPX for wild releases and launches!

Its all so exciting!

Chapter Covers

For the beginning of every chapter in Labor Days I created new art for interior covers. Chapter 2 I posted a while ago, but with the rest of them complete now I think it fitting to showcase them all together. The cover art for chapters 2, 3, 4 and 5.