UnCONventional

So the world may be on fire, but we don’t stop living just because we’re also doing our best surviving, y’know? This Saturday I’m going to be at UWEC GEEKcon 2024, a one day convention held at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Davies Center in (you guessed it) Eau Claire, WI!

I’m going to have copies of UnCONventional print editions, and (of course) copies of my Mia Graves novels. Importantly I will have copies of Shadowcasting, the third book in the series, a week earlier than the general sale date. Yep, you can get book three early and meet me.

The best part? GEEKcon is inexpensive to attend as well. If you’re a student, entry is free with showing your ID, and if you’re not there’s a suggested donation of either $3 or 2 non-perishable food items.

Honestly, small college shows like this are my favorite kind of convention. Just people running a geeky event for the fun of it and the community. It’s my favorite kind of con, and if you start going to them, they’ll probably become your favorite too.

So if you’re in the Eau Claire, WI area and free December 7th (and you’re the kind of person who’d be reading this blog entry), why not come down and say hi? I think it’s going to be a good time.

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So the big difference between Peregrine Lake and my earlier comics is, obviously, that I’m not the one drawing it. When I was doing my earlier comics, I never wrote down what I was planning, I just had it in my head and would translate it directly to the page. At most I’d write one sentence lines about strips so I could plot out pacing. I did a few thumbnails early on to figure out page layouts, but more often than not the pages didn’t exist in any form until I wrote them.

That obviously isn’t a way we can work for this comic.

I can’t sit there over Ethan’s shoulder while they draw, since that would be weird and we don’t live in the same city. So I do what comic writers have been doing for quite some time. I write scripts. That’s where every page for Peregrine Lake starts. Then, if Ethan needs any clarification on a description or has an alternate suggestion for a setting or scene, we talk about it.

But again, we start by my writing a script.

So I thought it might be fun to take a look at a recent installment and compare the final art to the initial script I wrote. Our example is the October 22nd page titled “Greg.” It is, unsurprisingly, the first page where we see the final of our four main characters.

I love this page, but let’s see the initial script:

Panel 1

Greg emerges from the curtained doorway. Tall panel. If this were television or film, we’d smear some Vaseline on the lens for the best gooey soft focus shot we could get. God damn, we want everyone seeing this to want a piece of Greg. Like take a second slice home in a take out box and eat it while watching Netflix. Let’s make this far more detailed than any other panel. Let’s get people to demand we print this man on body pillows.

Panel 2

Close up of Bev’s face. She wants to just lay Greg down and cover him in butter.

Bev: (tiny ass words, whispering to self) Yeah… not talking good.

Panel 3

Greg leans on the counter towards Lynn, Bev is… “reacting” quietly, but no one’s paying her any attention

Greg: Hey Lynn, Bob hasn’t gotten me those antique iron nails yet. I said I’d call when they come in.

Lynn: Thanks, but not what I’m here for. I may have an… off the books job for you

Greg: How off the books

Panel 4

Close up of Lynn. Lynn is very serious.

Lynn: Off the books off the books. Greg, this is my new friend Bev.

Panel 5

Back to a shot of the three of them, Greg turns to Bev smiling

Greg: Hi! Nice to meet you.

Bev: (tiny words) Hello tall man

Yep. That is… that is pretty close to what we got. We moved some of the dialogue around to fit better with the art (moving some of Greg’s stuff to panel one from panel three), but overall we stick pretty true to it. Ethan read my ridiculous descriptions and understood the assignment.

And yeah, I think it’s safe to assume at least some of our audience wants a piece of Greg now.

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So UnCONventional has been in print for a long time – as the first print collection came out way back in 2010. The first four volumes of the book came out in 6″ x 9″ editions, while the rest of the series came out as larger 7″ x 10″ editions. The first volume was also pretty light on bonus features, as it was the first book I ever put out and didn’t necessarily know what I was doing.

This always bothered me, honestly, so I decided to do something about it.

As of today, the original four volumes of UnCONventional have been removed from the market, and replaced with a single collected volume. It’s 7″ x 10″ like the rest of the series, has new additional commentary (along with the existing commentary and bonus materials updated for 2024), and it’s just nicer. Also, where it would have cost $75 to buy books one through four the old way, this collected volume is cheaper at $60 US.

Now if you just want the commentary and other bonus features and don’t care about having the book in print (or if you already have these comics in the original print version and just want the new stuff), there is a PDF version of the volume for sale in my Patreon shop for only $12.

So yeah, same comics as before, just a new print edition, and its available today. Not super exciting. Not like the next bit.

(I think that was a good transition)

Super Awesome Action Heroes has been around in one form or another since 2006. The Second Edition went into print back in 2020, and we’ve been running Stormwood & Associates and The Meatgrinder on it pretty successfully. But I found a few flaws in the book that needed improving, and rolled out an online appendix to correct those flaws. Well, earlier this year I decided I needed to update the print version to reflect those rule updates too.

So yeah, on September 17th Super Awesome Action Heroes Second Edition Revised comes out. The print edition will still cost $7 the way the old one does, and honestly if you already own the book? Just download the free expansion. It’s like 99% the same rule book, just with the information on that page sprinkled in.

But, uh, if you don’t own the book and want it? That’s the version to get. That’s going to be the only version available from now on.

But yeah — you know how I said September 17th? That’s just for the print edition and Kindle edition. If you only want the eBook, you can actually buy that right now for $3 on my Patreon shop. Or, if you’re a Patreon supporter even at the $1 level, you get the eBook version included as a part of your Patreon benefits.

So, yeah. That’s the news for today with “books made by Trae.” There will be Mia Graves Book 3 news in the next couple of weeks, but we’ll save that for another day (like after I have some cover art to share with it).

See you then.

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