!!!CONTEST!!!

Our next full issue of Hatman & Indigo has a parody cover that parodies something somewhat obscure. Next week, the first few pages of Hatman & Indigo: Shocking Science Fiction Stories will go live online featuring the new cover (Drawn by S. LaDon Ware, and colored by Andy Kuder and Michael Lude), but I thought I'd give you a glimpse of it here.

This issue was originally titled Hatman & Indigo: Back to the Beginning Part 4, but we decided to use the parody cover as inspiration for the title of this individual issue (like we did with Back to the Beginning Part 3 being titled Hatman & Indigo's Excellent Adventure).

If you can figure out what this cover is parodying, post your answers here. The first correct answer will get a special prize. It's something cool we've been working on for the next Indy Comic-con, August 30th.

So, who will be the first fan with this new "prize"?

It could be you!

Andy

Greetings!

Continuing our meanderings through the web comics cosmos, we come upon a unique little gem called 'Kevin and Kell': www.kevinandkell.com

Take a typical family- Dad (Kevin), Mom (Kell), a stepson, an adopted daughter, and a new baby. Now, make dad a 6 foot tall rabbit, mom and son a wolf, the daughter a hedgehog, and the baby a carnivorous rabbit/wolf hybrid and you get the idea where this is going. Beyond the well-sculpted alternate universe of anthropomorphic animals the family inhabits you get a traditional newspaper style feel and some really sharp writing. At times it seems a little too 'furry' to me, but if you stick with it I promise it will grow on you.

Rated PG for mostly harmless humor. K&K has been around for a long time, so they're plenty of strips to keep you reading for a long time.

Next episode we'll take a look at Fantasy RPG comics, specifically "Looking for Group"

See ya 'round!

Uncle Mutzie

The woes of writing

As I've previously blogged, I am currently in the process of writing a couple of Hatman scripts in addition to editing a couple other Hatman scripts and doing layouts for upcoming Hatman comics. But sometimes I get stuck. I believe this is traditionally called writers block, but I don't really think of it as a block per say. I know that if I were to sit down to work on one of those scripts I could write, it just wouldn't be as good as if I were to sit down when I'm feeling "it".

What do I mean by "it" you may ask? Well, I'm not even sure how to articulate what the "it" is that I'm referring to, but when you are feeling "it" the words flow like... well if I was feeling "it" I'd have a beautiful analogy here, but because I'm not, you'll just have to fill in something that flows well.

I know many writers and artists of various forms fall into this place of stuck-ed-ness (for lack of a better term). But I think sometimes it isn't more that I'm stuck but that the words or the finished work itself are incubating, or gestating in my subconscious and once they are ready to be "hatched" they will produce themselves.

I know this might sound like a bunch of artsy fartsy nonsense, but I honestly can't articulate it any better than that. Especially at this moment.

The thing that I hate the most about these bouts of "incubation" (if you will) are that I fear missing my deadlines or holding up the whole process. However, I do tend to work six months out or more, so I haven't held us back yet!

If you watch a 3 or 4 issue story that I wrote, you may be able to see that I wrote one part at a different time than another because even though they are still one overarching story, the "feel" is a little different. You'll get what I mean with this years Halloween special. I wrote the first part in one setting and really liked it; it sets up a new villain and tells a story in and of itself that is somewhat inspired by a popular Spider-Man story. Then I was "stuck" for a couple of months on where to go with the second issue, but I finally felt "it" again and quickly wrote the second issue out alongside the third in nearly a weeks time.

Other times I will be "stuck" prior to writing anything at all, as I've previously mentioned that was partly the case with "Back to the Beginning" we had all taken a crack at the story and had missed the mark a bit and then one day I was alone in the house and I sat down at my computer and refined the notes we had taken of what we wanted to happen and I wrote all 4 parts in that day. It was exhausting but satisfying as well. I really do hope that you are enjoying it. The last installments should be out in the next few weeks and hopefully you can watch them all back to back and see the whole story in one setting somewhat how I saw it unfold through my fingertips when I wrote it.

I apologize for the long somewhat ADD post, but hopefully this sort of thing will help me recapture that magic "it".

Jason

Hatman and Indigo's Excellent Adventure

Today the next installment of Hatman & Indigo #38, Hatman & Indigo's Excellent Adventure, went on-line. The title is a parody of the 1989 film Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure.

Bill and Ted was one of my favorite movies growing up. In addition to the quotable lines and goofy plot, I was sucked in by the fact that it was a time-travel movie. I've always been fascinated by the idea of time travel. After all, who hasn't at some point wished they could go back and correct a mistake, witness a great event in history or have a conversation with a past version of themselves?

Despite a lot of science-fiction writing on the topic and even some serious thought by some brilliant physicists, traveling backwards through time remains beyond us, and may very likely be impossible. And one of the biggest arguments that it never will be possible is that we've never witnessed a traveler from the future coming to the past. But is this really a good argument against time travel? Let's take a hypothetical, 3Twins look at why we don't seem to have experienced this phenomenon.

1) Maybe time travelers are very careful: As you'll see in Hatman & Indigo's Back to the Beginning, our time travelers realize that even the slightest change to the past could have devestating effects on their present. So any half-way intelligent time travelers wouldn't exactly broadcast the fact that they were from another time. They would more likely just observe the past.

2) Even evil time travelers would be careful: When the Terrible Trio traveled back in time, they did have the intention of changing the past. But even these less-than-genius guys kept their time-traveling a secret. Broadcasting their plans would have only made changing the past more difficult.

3) Who would believe the time-traveler? While we don't see this in Hatman & Indigo (or do we?), how many rational people would be quick to believe the claims of a time traveler? Most likely we'd deem them crazy and have them locked up. Even those who did believe the time-traveler would probably keep it a secret so they woudln't look crazy and maybe even so they wouldn't change the future.

4) Time-traveling creates an alternate timeline: Perhaps we live in the original time-line and any backwards time-travel would create a parallel universe (think Spock in the new Star Trek film). Thus we would never witness time-travelers because they would always be traveling to the parallel universes. By the way, if time travel created an alternate time-line in the new Star Trek, why didn't time travel create a new time-line in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home? Or did it?

5) Time-travelers aren't coming to our time period: Time travel has only existed as a sci-fi concept since the 1700's or so. Perhaps time-travelers just haven't found history since then very interesting and no one would have considered the possibility that strange visitors prior to that point were from another time?

Well, there you have it - my reasons why we haven't seen any time-travelers from the future. Of course the obvious reason is that there won't ever be any time-travelers... but it wouldn't be nearly as fun to explore that option.

The grand significance of today

"So, What's the grand significance of today?" you must be asking yourself.

Well today is July 20th 2009 (or it's supposed to be when you read this, unless your reading it as an older post), not only is today the 40th anniversary of the lunar landing (and yes I do believe they did land on the moon) it is also the 29th anniversary of Jason's and my birth.

Yup two of the 3twins are 365 days away from being 30!!! Some of you might think we're old. Some of you might think we're just babies. Well I'd like to think we're well seasoned adults with a long life span ahead of us.

"Well seasoned?" you may ask. "Yes" is my reply. I am like a seasoned steak ready for the grill, although Jason is more like chicken seasoned for a nice burrito.

"You're not making much sense, Andy" you're probably thinking to yourself. And you're right! I'm not making much sense, but I don't have to, because its my birthday and I can do what I want!

I hope this has brightened your day, I know it has mine!

Andy

The mouse has no voice

It may be somewhat old news to some of you out there, but I first found out a couple of days ago that Wayne Allwine, voice actor who played Mickey Mouse since 1977 passed away on May 18th 2009.

As you are aware, we at 3twins aren't just writers, artists, dreamers and animators, we are also voice actors. Much of who our characters are comes first from the voice we give them. I personally have always had a skill with various voices. As far back as I can remember, I was bothering my parents or cracking up my grandparents and friends with my impressions and accents. And now I get to do that as part of my job which is the best perk!

So, you can see why this news would sadden me on many levels. As an avid fan of animation, Mickey-phile, and fellow voice person I worry what will become of the worlds most famous mouse. From what I've read the fairly new preschool show, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, is most likely going to cease and The Disney company has not replaced Mickey's voice.

It is my personal opinion that Disney has become too "preteen" in the last decade or so. I grew up enamored by such cartoon blocks as "The Disney Afternoon" and the reruns of old Mickey, Donald, and Goofy shorts. I fear that it may be a while before the "big wigs" at Disney return to those types of shows featuring their cornerstone characters.

I encourage you to click on the link I attached to the crying mickey photo (or this paragraph), it is part 1 of a 3 part interview with Wayne, his wife Russi (who does the voice of Minnie interestingly enough) and Leonard Maltin. Apparently this interview can be found on a DVD set of Mickey shorts, Mickey Mouse: In Living Color vol2.

I raise my Mickey coffee mug in sad farewell to a man who brought an icon to life for 32 years!

-Jason

Uncle Mutzie: Webomic Explorer

3Twins Blog Post July 16

Greetings!

Continuing on our explorations of the web comics universe, we examine another gamer-geek webcomic 'Penny Arcade' - http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/

Much more than a simple comic, Penny Arcade to an exploration into video culture. While last time we talked about PVP and how the story drives it along, this time we'll be looking at a character driven comic.

One of the more 'famous' webcomics, the strip is often one-shots revolving around a particular video game as seen from the perspectives of Gabe and Tycho, the alter egos of their creatures. They also have an extensive blog worth checking out. Notable items about Penny Arcade are that they're spawned their own video game and they run a charity called Child's Play http://www.childsplaycharity.org/

Beware when checking it out that Penny Arcade is at least a PG-13 to R in it's content, mostly language.

Tune in later as we discover the world of "Kevin and Kell"

Uncle Mutzie

Up Close and Personal

I've done caricatures for charity events, fundraisers, and for many other reasons but for the first time I was able to connect my artistic abilities in junction with a pre-established company. In doing so I got to chat with old and new coming fans. I realized how much 3twins it truly enjoyed and loved. From my experience people always hang on to their caricatures as well as their memorable experience of having their faces illustrated for fun. They expressed to me what a treasure it was to have this on top of an exciting web comic. Some stated, "they felt as if they were apart of something that was genuine something that was about to be famously rediscovered", so to the fans we thank you and keep spreading the word.

Glomo and Zap Man

You might already know that I, Steve, am the voice of two-thirds of the Terrible Trio: Glomo and Zap Man. Lately I've noticed that the voices of these characters have evolved a bit and are starting to sound a bit more like each other, so I've been exploring past Hatman & Indigo issues to try and resolve the problem.

When we created Glomo the original idea was that he have a very proper British accent. And if you check out the original concepts of our villains on 3Twins Raw, you'll also see that he was originally going to have zebra stripes instead of cow spots. As you can imagine, his character was going to be quite a bit different. After seeing Chris Secondi's final draft of the character, I felt more of a raspy southern accent would fit Glomo better, and the rest is history.

The Evil Zap Man's voice had an interesting path as well. Again, if you check out the original concept drawings, Zap Man was going to be a giant, humanoid lightning bolt - basically a six foot zapling. We envisioned an electrified, throaty sounding voice for him. In fact, one of our ideas was for Jason and I to both record his lines in a similar voice and then lay the tracks over each other for an interesting, echoed effect.

Yet again, though, the final draft of the character was much different and a different voice was in order. I went with a higher pitched, evil sounding voice and made sure that every word Zap Man said was spoken totally over the top.

I thinking through the origin of these voices, I've reminded myself of just why I made them sound as they originally did. So next time you hear Zap Man and Glomo, expect much greater things!

Themes?

The 3twins.net blog seems to be forming a pattern. Mutz blogs about other web comics, Michael blogs about artwork, Jason blogs about upcoming stories.

I need a theme. So it's up to you, readers, to come up with a theme for me. OR I will continue to blog about the need for a theme.

Please respond,

Andy

A sneak peek into Zapman Remastered

I've recently been giving you sneak peeks into the upcoming comics I've written or am in the process of writing. Well, today I'm going to talk a little more in depth than I have in the past. Because the story is Zapman Remastered. This is a much improved retelling of H&I issues 3 & 4 sometimes referred to as "Comic #2".

I have recently been made aware that the original Zapman is actually the all time favorite for some of our fans. Well, it is my all time least favorite. My writing was immature and much of what I wanted to convey when I began writing was lost.

So, this leaves me with a bit of a dilemma for the re-write. On one hand I have the fervent need to make this the story I had originally set out to make. While on the other hand, I must try my best to stay true to the elements of the original that made it so memorable to many. To be totally honest I think the true reason the original one was so funny was due mostly to my brother, Andy and his Indigo inflections. I have polled some fans to see what exactly they liked the most about the original, and I am weaving those elements into this new version.

However, I am my biggest critic, and I want to write something that I like and I am proud of. So, what can you expect to see in Zapman Remastered that is different from the original? Well, firs off as I had previously mentioned in my post "2006 Remastered?" it will be a 3 issue story instead of a 2 issue story.

Part One is mostly a whole new adventure featuring a brawl between Glomo and our heroes, and a much more proper introduction of Blonde Damsel. Only at the very end of part one will we get to see Zapman in all his remastered glory! I have finished writing part one and I am very pleased with it. It was incredibly fun to turn back the dial of time, if you will, and broaden the scope of Twin City before super villains had run amuk and a whole slew of other superheroes had been created.

Part Two is about half way done in the writing process and this is where I've begun weaving in those things you adored about the first one, but with a new flavor and hopefully many more laughs. I'm not going to give away too much, but I've also added the foundation for the animosity between Indigo and Blonde as well as amped up the "girl power" of Miss Damsel. But that's all I'm going t devulge for now, because I need to leave you wanting more, so you'll be excited when Zapman Remastered hits the bit-stream, most likely early 2010!

-Jason Kuder

Exploring Webcomics: PVP

3Twins Blog Post July 08

Greeting Hatmaniacs!

In my continuing series of posts exploring the webcomic-verse, we'll be looking at the well-known and maybe lesser know webcomics out there for public consumption

I'd like to start with a personal favorite of mine: PVP by Scott Kurtz (www.pvponline.com). PVP stands for player-versus-player and takes place at a gaming magazine of the same name. It falls into the web comic category of a 'gamer comic' so the humor is focused mainly to a geeky audience and has lots of computer game references. The humor is PG to PG-13 and has been around for over a decade making it one of the 'grown-ups' on the block. While a 'gamer comic' it can't truly be pigeon-holed into that category, the stories are accessible to almost everyone.

Not only is the art and writing top-notch but the author is a true success story. Scott has been able to grown from a comic he did part-time to a full time gig and the recognition he deserves. You really see him pour his heart and soul into his comic and it shows through his work.

Another comic in the genre is Penny Arcade. The humor there is a bit more PG-13 to R and is even more geeky. Also one of the big kids in web comics, it's been around for quite a while- we'll be looking into it more next time.

That's all for now True Believers- Excelsior!

Uncle Mutzie

Art Prize

Back in April, Rick DeVos, grandson of Amway founder Richard DeVos, announced an international art festival/event that will be coming to Grand Rapids, Michigan this September called Art Prize. The festival will last two weeks and will feature artists from around the world displaying pieces in virtually any medium in venues all over the city of Grand Rapids. Patrons at the event will be able to vote for their favorite pieces and the top vote getter will win a staggering $250,000 prize.

This begs the question, could 3Twins get involved in the festivities?

I know what you're thinking, "3Twins is a web comic and this is a serious art competition!" But I don't think that idea could be any further from the truth.

Comics, by their nature, are a blend of art and literature. Yet, for decades they have sought to find acceptance in either medium. They seem to be deemed not intellectual enough for the literary world and not "artsy" enough for the art world. Although, all you have to do is compare the art and story of a recent comic from one 40 or 50 years ago to realize that the comic industry has created a whole new artistic and literary form. And web comics are yet another development of this new medium.

As the creators of 3Twins, Andy, Jason and I have always sought to improve our storytelling to make comics like Hatman & Indigo as fun and exciting as possible. In our early days, though, art was secondary to story. This was mostly due to the fact that we didn't have any professional artists at our disposal and we relied on artists like myself who drew as more of a hobby.

Recently, though, we have been fortunate enough to get some talented artists on board like Michael Lude who has now drawn four Hatman comics including the recent Back to the Beginning saga, plus a few other artists who you'll see in some upcoming issues.

And with these improvements in our visual quality to go along with our storytelling ability, I think that 3Twins has a true art form on its hands. Does this mean we'll be able to take part in events such as Art Prize? Actually, we already are and you can catch us as various events around the MidWest. And even if we don't enter Art Prize this year, I'm sure you'll see us at similar events in the near future.

Just stay tuned at 3Twins.net and on our blog to catch the latest updates!

Bringing to Life A Vision

Updated, Hatman & Blonde

Here at 3twins we work hard to make sure the characters you have come to love are as great as the story lines that depict them. As seen from our previous blog you know we are striving for a greater excellence, an excellence that truly expresses both the level at which we have grown to as storytellers and the level of passion you feel when you share our vision.

When my favorite stories or heroes are recaptured, whether it be on big screen, a Tv mini series, or in the latest issued comic; I anxiously await hoping that the people bringing these stories to life yet again are able to capture the very essence and passion that first captivate me as a loyal viewer.

As an artist at 3twins I want my art to speak to you as clear as the images you see and feel in your minds when listening to Jason, Andy, or Steve's stories. You, the audience are why we exist more importantly you are the reason why I Have a wonderful job that I love. In light of this face I ask for all the input and truth you can give. Here is just a taste of what is coming in the form of what I call new art, and what I suspect to only get better.

-Michael J. Lude