Zapman Remasterd Line Art DONE!!!

Greetings 3twins fans,

Today I won't be talking about the game, but rather an old project that has seen a new step toward completion.  Zapman Remastered, all three parts, are completed in the pencil/ink stage!

S. LaDon Ware has been working on in-game art for our upcoming Of Mages & Pages game for the Nintendo Wii U, but prior to that, he was working on the Zapman Remastered line art in his spare time.  Just yesterday I received the last of those pages!  While I would love to devote the next couple weeks to coloring, recording and editing this story so we could release it on our site, we are just all too busy with the game.  However, I will also mention that work has continued on a "lost" story of Hatman, and our goal is that as soon as our game publishes next fall we will resume publishing comics on our site at a regular rate.  It is good that we will have about 7-10 issues backlogged by that time, so we can continue to work on more games and comics at the same time!

Next week, I should have something really big to show you all for the game, but for now, marvel at the beautiful handiwork of S. LaDon Ware!  I've chosen to share with you a panel from the first page of Zapman Remastered part 3. 

Why are Hatman and Indigo weaving through traffic in the Hatmobile?  Will they reach their destination in time?  Tune in this fall, same HAT time same HAT website!

-Jason

Zapman Preview Page!

Greetings Hatmaniacs!

With the Holiday Season in full swing things have been moving at a snails pace here at 3twins. I thought that since it has been over a month since we released Hatman: The Short Haloween, I would tickle your fancy with a preview of Zapman Remastered Part 1. Which I will be working on over my Christmas break from school!

As you can see by the page to the right, it is still uncolored at this point. We have most of the audio recorded and all of the art is finished for part 1, so the only real hold up is my coloring. As you can see, S. LaDon Ware really pulled out all the stops with his art this time around, drawing this comic in a more wacky/Tex Avery style.

I really love the art on this and I really think this retcon of one of our earliest stories will stand the test of time. If you are familiar with the first Zapman story, you will notice that all of the panels to the right seem to depict events that were previously untold in Hatman lore.

That is one of the things we were so excited about when taking on these earlier stories, the opportunity to add elements we felt were missing. This page, for instance comes right after an early interaction with Hatman and Blonde that we never explored early on. I don't want to give anything away about Zapman Remastered, but those of you familiar with the original will definitely have new material to enjoy in addition to the story following the same vein as its original counterpart.

Zapman Remastered Part 1 boasts some amazingly detailed art, and because of that, coloring will probably take me a while. I am going to be diligent in coloring as soon as my school lets out December 20th. I would like to guarantee a New Years release of this comic, but I can't make that promise. However, I do promise that Andy and I will be working hard to get this done and online as soon as we can. S. LaDon Ware has already begun work on part 2 and that will roll out in the following months.

Until then,
Stay Crazy Hatmaniacs!

-Jason

Hatman's next adventure

Hello Hatman & Indigo fans!

As I'm sure you've noticed, we haven't had a new comic out in a couple of weeks. This is because we've run into some setbacks in the production of our Superheroes saga and it might take us a while to get things figured out. But in the meantime, we have our next adventure of Hatman & Indigo ready to go, and seeing as it's time for Halloween again, could that mean another appearance of the fearsome foe The Big Giant Pumpkin Headed Man? You'll just have to tune in and see!

-Steve

Everyone, Artists, and Illustrators alike.

Check it Out!

For all you artist and illustrators out there, there is a new drawing tablet you should definetly consider. The Wacom Cintiq 12WX LCD pen tablet. I heard it to be one of the “best peripheral on the market”. Rumored to be great even for those who consider themselves among the, not-so-artistic but who love to doodle and sketch out things for fun. The price is considerably cheaper than the new drawing monitors now on the market. To learn more go to http://gizmodo.com/338021/wacom-cintiq-12wx-lcd-pen-tablet-video-review-verdict-simply-amazing-updated and check out the video review and article on this amazing product. Its safe to say I know what to put on my Christmas list this year.

Twelve hours of creatvity

This last Saturday Andy, Steve, and I shut ourselves in my house completely isolated from the world and immersed ourselves in the world of Hatman & Indigo. Our goal was to work out a massive saga for 2010 and possibly 2011; and let me tell you this, it's going to be amazing!

Obviously I can't give away much at all. However, I can tell you a couple of things to hopefully entice you:

New Villains!

New Heroes!

Oh, how I want to "spill the beans" on the gritty details; but alas I must abstain. Suffice it to say, you do not want to miss one single issue of Hatman & Indigo

-Jason

Writing: the heart and soul of 3Twins

Well Andy may have forgotten his turn at blogging, but I certainly did not forget mine!

I had a conversation last week with Jason about writing, specifically writing for Hatman & Indigo. One thing is for sure, Jason, Andy and I love to write, maybe more than anything else. And I think you'll notice if you watch some of our earlier comics and compare them to some of our recent comics that our writing really has improved.

I feel like quite often one of us will write a new Hatman & Indigo script that really raises the bar (like Jason's script for The Hatman Clause, or my script Superheroes, which you'll see come to life in a few weeks). Many times these "raise the bar" scripts end up sitting on the shelf for a while to the point that by the time they are actually released, the comic itself is just sort of average, even though the writing of the script inspired us to get better.

In other words, even our best stuff can be improved upon.

So with that in mind, this Saturday Jason, Andy and I are getting together for a 3Twins writing conference where we'll brainstorm ideas, rework some upcoming scripts, and even write some new material.

This is where you as a fan can help us out. If there are any particular Hatman & Indigo stories that stand out to you as funnier, more action packed, or just all around better than the rest, let us know. Or if there are certain stories that just didn't do anything for you, tell us. Or if you have any comments that you think could help us write even better stories, please, say something. We'll take all of your feedback into consideration when we come together Saturday, and maybe your input will have a big impact on our upcoming stories!

Now, in other news, last week I blogged about how it can be discouraging to create comics for 3Twins, believe they're really great, but struggle to get people to come to the site. Well, here's an opportunity for you to help us correct that. There are several websites dedicated to promoting webcomics. For example thewebcomiclist.com, topwebcomics.com, webcomicz.com and comicon.com. With some of these sites, just by searching for the Hatman & Indigo page, you can increase our popularity and potentially drive up our ranking on the site. And in the case of topwebcomics, you can even vote for Hatman & Indigo to move us up the list of top comics.

So we are shamelessly asking you to click here and vote for Hatman & Indigo. In fact, you can go back every 12 hours or so and vote again. And with your help, we can move Hatman & Indigo up the list and hopefully bring in more viewers! And while you're at it, check out some of the other great webcomics on the list and help them find new viewers as well!

-Steve

Just another face in the crowd?

A few years ago when Andy, Jason and I decided to start writing stories and making silly videos, our whole intention was to just have fun with it - and trust me, we did. At the time none of us realized that our having fun would eventually morph into what you now know as www.3twins.net. Today we're still just a group of friends having fun, but obviously things have changed now and with it there are different expectations.

In putting your work out there for the world to see, there suddenly becomes the expectation that you will actually get viewers - that people will want to see your finished product and actually like it. But in a sea of internet media, the question is, how do we actually get people to come and see what we're doing at 3Twins? Of course there are people out there who are interested in watching funny and entertaining comics or cartoons on-line, but with so many options to choose from, how do we get them to find, much less stop and watch, our site?

It's sort of like everybody in town just broke for lunch at the same time, and there's one street with 500 restaurants. 3Twins is one of those restaurants. Now how do we convince them to come eat here instead of one of the other 499?

Now, it's not EXACTLY like that, because you don't have to pick 3Twins over other sites like Homestar Runner, 8-bit Theater or Penny Arcade, you can enjoy them all. Nevertheless, how do we move beyond just being another face in the crowd?

The discouraging part is, I know we've got something great on our hands, and something that's quite a bit different than a lot of the other, often more popular, web comic or cartoon sites out there. But just as we've learned how to do everything else along the way, we're having to learn how to generate hits and attract viewers as we go.

The easiest method, of course, is word-of-mouth, but that can really only take you so far. Then there's getting out name out there on sites like Facebook or Twitter, but it seems if people haven't heard of us already, then again, this only takes us so far. There are also numerous webcomic listings, but as stated previously, that leaves us as yet another face in the crowd. And so that leaves us at something of a loss. Do we keep trudging along and hope for that big break? Or do we keep trying new methods? And if so, what?

At the end of the day, perhaps the best thing we can do is to keep working hard to make 3Twins the best website it can be and have faith that someday, hopefully soon, all of this hard work will pay off! And of course, as always, your feedback on all things 3Twins is accepted and encouraged.

!!!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