Thoughts on Comics over a Cup of Tea

post from website...

2009-07-26T11:32:00.001-04:00

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7/13/04 We met a lot of great people at Charlotte ComicCon. Of course we always do. We will also be going in September so make sure you check out that date.

6/22/09 We had a wonderful time at Heroes Con. We met a lot of great people. A few people: Evan Dahm (Rice-Boy,Order of Tales), Dave McDonald (Hamster Sam), Adam Goudelock (Sketches and Prints), Bradd and Nikki Parton (Gloomy Roomies), Tom Davidson (Circle City Tales), Corina Bechko (Heathentown). I am sure there are others but at this moment my brain is fried. We however had a great time at Heroes and hope to see you all next year.

6/16/09 We are very excited to be at Heroes Con this weekend. We will be with at Booth 657 under the name Mixed Media. We will be sharing the booth with 3 other studios. Olde Towne Comix, Jester Press, and Post Mortem Comic Studios. Come a see us. If you print out this front page of the website we will take off $5 of any Bitter TEA Graphic Novel!

6/9/09 We had a great time a the Union West Mini-Con and met some great folks: Dave McDonald (Hamster Sam), Troy Hasbrouck (Jester Press), Buddy Prince, Budd Root, Andy Smith, and Marcus Hamilton (Dennis the Menace).

Working hard

2009-03-17T22:01:00.002-04:00

It has been a long time. I have been busy working for Post Mortem Comics Studios on a great title called Dorothy Rising. I have only 3 pages to go on issue 2. Make sure you check them out at http://www.postmortemcomics.com.
Haven has picked up T.E.A. The Ered Adventures: Blurred Reality and T.E.A. The Ered Adventures: Skinny Skelley. Look for these books in the upcoming May release of their catalog.
http://www.havendistro.com.
We would love to hear from you. Just drop us a line at http://www.bitterteastudios.com.
Make sure to vote for us on our website. Just go to the links after the comic strip. WebComic Planet, Top Web comics and Comics South.
Thanks,
Derek

dogs are cool!

2009-01-13T22:52:00.003-05:00

Name are dog at http:// www.bitterteastudios.com Follow the rule and you could win a PRIZE!

Good luck!

New Dead Ringer Graphic Novel

2009-01-09T23:18:00.001-05:00

Check out the teaser for the Dead Ringer Graphic Novel at http:/www.bitterteastudios.com.
Now on sale at http://www.lulu.com/derekandnikki.
Have a happy New Year!

Happy New Year.... 2 new strips.

2008-12-28T17:07:00.000-05:00

Well, Christmas is over and now it is time to pack up the decorations and throw away the boxes unless you were smart enough to give gifts in reusable bags. That seemed to be a good trend this year. I hope you like the new story arc we are starting with Sam. It will be about 6-8 strips long. Part 1 and 2 are up today and 3 and 4 will be up at the end of the week. Happy New Year. http://www.bitterteastudios.com.

Merry Christmas again...

2008-12-25T23:12:00.001-05:00

Well it is Christmas… so one strip this week. This Christmas has been very eventful this year. We had a great time with family all day long. Luckily for us all our family (Derek and me) lives within 30 miles of us. No crazy trips on a plane or train but we did take an automobile. I hope you had a Merry Christmas. http://www.bitterteastudios.com

From Nikki

I hope you have a great Christmas

2008-12-25T22:06:00.002-05:00

Merry Christmas! I hope you all had a very merry day I know I did. I got to be with my family and my beautiful wife. We didn't have a lot of money to buy gifts this year but we did have a lot of love and caring to go all over every thing. So I hope you all have had the same thing!

www.bitterteastudios.com wish you a happy new year.

Merry Christmas...

2008-12-18T21:29:00.001-05:00

Yes, it is quickly approaching that enchanted night. Where children are told if they do not go to bed at 8:30pm they might miss Santa. At least that is what one of my students told me. He asked if it were true. I told him of course it was. Santa was very busy and he could come at any moment. It is also a time to reflect on this holiday season. I know I have. Merry Christmas. 2 New strips http://www.bitterteastudios.com

My husband...

2008-12-15T16:44:00.003-05:00

Is sick. His uninary flow is not working. They do not know what is wrong. Is is going back for more tests on Friday. They think it is his bladder. We could really use prayer.
Make sure to check out http://www.bitterteastudios.com.

New comic strip today...

2008-12-14T22:32:00.002-05:00

hey check out are new strips we put up. Oh bye the way we have a new graphic novel and the deadringe will have a new trade in 2009. I hope you all have a merry christmas and a happy new year. hope to here from you on are web site. take care.

go to www.bitterteastudios.com

Good day to you all.

2008-11-22T17:04:00.002-05:00

Hey out there in this big wide world. Me I've been making comic strips on my website and trying to start a business. A lot of hard work. I hope it pays off. STOP BY AND CHECK US OUT AT WWW.BITTERTEASTUDIOS.COM. Take care and if you get a change write us back.

Paper Heroes Con

2008-10-26T19:08:00.000-04:00

Paper Heroes Con in Burlington, Nc October 17-19, 2008. Chrissie Zullo and Adam McIver attended for us Friday-Sunday and Derek and Nikki were not able to attend because of Nikki's Surgery on the October 10. Nikki was then rushed back to the emergency room on Sunday the 12. She tought she was doing better but had extreme pain on the 15th. This was due to a backup of her ureter (connects kidney to bladder) back up. She only has one kidney. She saw her doctor on the 16th and he took out her stent, but that was not the problem. she was admitted to the hospital that day and had another surgery that night. She is now recovering at home. Pray for Nikki's speedy recovery. Thanks Chirssie and adam for taking our place!

Whats going on in my life.

2008-10-19T09:52:00.002-04:00

Sorry I have not been here in a while. My wife has been sick and had 4 surgeries this week. I was supposed to be at paperheroes con. this weekend. I hope all is going well on your end.

I will be going to X-Con in Myrtle Beach. I will have 2 issues of the Deadringer comics there.

New Strip on our site.

2008-09-21T11:28:00.001-04:00

Check out the new strip on our site http://www.bitterteastudios.com.
Think Dead Pool...
If you like it email us on the Contact page.

Monster Con in Concord, NC

2008-08-28T21:42:00.002-04:00

We will be at Monster Con in Concord, NC on October 3-4. Come and check out T.E.A. The Ered Adventures and our new horror comic Tales of the Dead Ringer. Hope to see you there. Make sure to check out a new comic strip every Monday at http://www.bitterteastudios.com.

The book

2008-08-22T21:31:00.001-04:00

The new book is here at lulu.com. WE are very happy. Hope you check it out. http://www.lulu.com/derekandnikki

New clothing line...

2008-08-12T00:13:00.001-04:00

Just created! New clothing line for Bitter TEA Studios at http://www.cafepress.com/bitterteastudio.

We have several different items up from our books T.E.A. The Ered Adventures and Skinny Skelley. We will have more items coming soon.

Star Wars toys.....Troopers....Oh My!

2008-07-26T11:21:00.002-04:00

We don't usally do stuff like go out for midnight "specials" but we did last night. The brand new toys for the Clone Wars came out at midnight at select Toy's R' Us stores last night. We grabbed a strong cup of coffee and headed out to the store in Pineville, NC to stand around. We got there around 9pm but played our DSs in the car until 10pm. We got in line with only 2 other people in front of us. By 11pm there were about 5 Storm Troopers and various other Star War clothed figures. The people in line had picked up to about 20. Soon... more people in line and MORE 501st showed up and it ended up with 1 Pragme (pregnant Padme, I give props to the guy in front of us that coined the phrase, didn't catch his name) 1 blaster Padme, 1 tusken radier, 1 Tie Piolet, 1 Jedi, and various Troopers. The local 501st really did a great job entertaining the crowd and I hardly knew it when midnight rolled around. We met lots of cool people standing in line. I wish had gotten their names. When people when through the doors there was a pretty good selection of toys and we walked out with a yoda, obi one kenobie, and R2 D2. We also got this sweet looking Clone Trooper Helmet which fits a adult head. Derek is very excited. The voice is very crisp on it. Check out the 501st of Charlotte MySpace.

Also don't forget to check out our website http://www.bitterteastudios.com. We just uploaded the new cover for our book. Artwork by Chrissie Zullo.

The cover is here! Here is it is!

2008-07-26T11:14:00.004-04:00

Look at this fabulous cover by Chrissie Zullo. The graphic novel will be out in September. Check out Chrissie other stupendous artwork at http://noghost.deviantart.com/ and her MySpace.

So excited about the new cover by Chrissy Zullo.

2008-07-20T10:36:00.003-04:00

Did not have time to upload the cover picture yet. We hope still to do that. But it is great. Make sure to check out our website at http://www.bitterteastudios.com/.

More to follow.

MonsterCon

2008-07-13T22:16:00.001-04:00

We are going to try to make it to Monster Con in October in Concord, NC. Get in touch with us on My Space. http://www.myspace.com/bitterteastudios and don't forget our main website http://www.bitterteastudios.com

Email and let us know if you have seen our page.

New Strip Today.

2008-07-02T18:56:00.003-04:00

Check out our new website. We added a new web strip just this past Monday but we are adding one again today. Check it out! Bookmark it!. New strip added every Monday. Except today...there is a new one. On Wed can you imagine? http://www.bitterteastudios.com

It's been a while....but

2008-07-01T09:39:00.002-04:00

We have a great new website that is now up a running. We worked on it for a good amount of time but still need some comments on making it better. Leave a message here or at derekandnikki@bitterteastudios.com. You can find the link to the website on the bar to the right or click right here http://www.bitterteastudios.com. There is going to be a weekly comic strip added. Yes that's right a WEB COMIC! Check it out.

We got some great artwork for you.

2008-06-20T21:16:00.005-04:00

Here is a selection of artwork that we have for sale. There is a variety of sports related artwork that would be great for T-shirts or bumper stickers. You can own the copyrights.

This includes:

Baseball

Basketball

Water Sking

Para Gliding

Scuba Diving

Football

Also availible for sale is a selection of Sharks for Bike Week. The year can easily be changed with no charge.

And last but not least is a cute little octopus playing the slots. Don't we all wish we had that many hands.

Email for prices. We are very reasonible.

Don't forget to check out our new Skinny Skelley book: Do the Right Thing. It is super funny. http://www.lulu.com/derekandnikki

See you later.

The Mad Wampa

2007-11-11T11:05:00.000-05:00

What are friends for?

2007-11-09T19:43:00.000-05:00

Have you ever worked on a project and the other person wanted to take all the credit? Well the project I worked on was just my project but I HAD a friend who thought I should have told him I was working on. I mean he got mad when I didn't and because I worked on it with my wife. I mean come on shouldn't you be happy for a friend if they get published. I would have been the first to buy their book if that was the case. But not my friend. They went behind my back and talk trash about me. So I learned a very good lesson don't work with friends just be friends with them. I mean I don't want to lose my friendship with them but I do believe I already have. It's very sad. So what would you do?

Hey long time no see

2007-10-20T21:36:00.000-04:00

You haven't "seen" any writting lately from me. I has been a rough two months getting back into the swing of things at school. The topic of the day...Marvel Zomibies. Leaping from the pages of Ultimate Fantastic Four I would have never expected that a three part miniseries would spawn Zombie mania. You get a five part mini, then Zombie vs. Ash, and now we are on Zombies 2. How many more Marvel Zomibes are we going to get? Are we going to have Zombies vs. Transformers or Zombies vs. Power Pack? It looks as if there is a Zombie book from every company out there. The Walking Dead was a smash hit that no one expected and now it is as if everyone is jumping on the band wagon. I am not complaining or anything but what about werewolves, vampires, and witches. I miss those other things that go bump in the night. That way in my new strip for T.E.A. The Ered Adventures I am thinking about a zombie Ered. What do you think? I hope you all have a Happy Halloween and go to your comic shops and demand the other things that go bump in the night.

T.E.A. The Ered Adventures

2007-09-07T21:07:00.001-04:00

My wife and I have published our first graphic novel. Check us out. http://www.lulu.com/content/1167864 Tell us what you think.

comics why they're great

2007-08-30T19:05:00.000-04:00

I just got my new Star Wars comic and my art was in it. This is why I love comics. You can not only be surprised with the story but get lucky and sometimes get your artwork in the letter page. If you ever have the dream of drawing your own comic book or drawing for the big companies it is good to start somewhere. You can see the wookie Romelacca here or in Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic #19.

Back issues.

2007-08-17T18:30:00.000-04:00

One thing I was taking into consideration is it better to buy back issues or get graphic novels. I know comic books from the golden age keep their value but what I am talking about is the current comic books coming out. Do current comics keep the high prices that comic book store mark them up to a dollar more, 10 dollars more, or even sometimes 50 more than cover price a month after they are out? Is it really worth it? Unless you are a die hard fan for that character is it really feasible to buy it? Then if you really are a die hard fan would it really bother you to buy a graphic novel? You would probably come out cheaper even if you do have the other issues in the book. The reason why I ask this question is I have come to a crossroads, I have been looking at filling in my runs and I have been thinking about filling in my runs with Essentials or Showcases. I mean all I want to do is read these stories and have them in my collection. Do I want to say I have all the issues or do I want to say I have all the stories? Some stories I just love reading on a monthly basis. Well, that is just my thoughts have a good weekend.

A Legend will be missed...Mike Wieringo.

2007-08-13T19:43:00.000-04:00

His artwork was some of the first artwork I had of the Flash. In fact my wife bought the first appearance of Impluse for me. From that point on I followed his career from Flash to Green Lantern to Superman, Tellos, Fantastic Four, Spiderman. I just loved his artwork. Getting to meet him at the Heroes Convention was very interesting. My wife got to know his artwork very well when he was drawing Meridian for Crossgen. For all the legends he has drawn his was a legend before his time. He will be deeply missed.

The fun things about comics.

2007-08-09T18:36:00.000-04:00

I took these two surveys and it made me think what is fun about comics. See I believe anybody can be a comic book fan no matter what your background is. It doesn't matter what kind of job you have there is a comic out there for you. When you find your favorite character you can look forward to seeing them in a cartoon, a blog, a toy, a movie, my space, or you tube. There is something about seeing your character come to life that brings joy to your heart. I have a friend that is a big Fanstastic Four nut and he was all about the FF movies. All infatuated about it. Had to get the toys, the t-shirt, the dvd's, and cartoons. His girlfriend is a huge manga fan who has just gotten into comic books. Now she is all hung up on Hawkman. I have a brother who loves the Punisher. Boy can't get enought of him. Bullets here, bullets there, string 'em up. I have a little sister that is 10 years old and she loves Power Pack. I can't forget the most important person in my life, right below God himself, that is my wife. When we first started dating she picked up this comic book that I thought was really stupid but I wasn't going to stop her from buying it. It was Liberty Meadows. Then she was really big into CrossGen until the company folded. There was a lot of heartache that I could see in her face but she never stopped hunting for her next favorite comic. She went to Batgirl, Wonder Woman, and Birds of Prey but these books never reached the love she had for the first series she picked up. I felt sorry for her because I wanted her to love a character as much as I do. My brother told me, "You know what Derek there is a character that you turned me on to that I would never had looked at. You should get her to read it also". The character that I gave my wife to read and the comic books she will tell you is her comic books and not mine is The Hulk. From that she is getting all the issues of Planet Hulk, World War Hulk, and has expressed an intrest in back issues. That is alright I will let her think those issues are hers but I still have the Avengers and the man himself, Thor. So go to your local comic book store and find a comic or a graphic novel and give it a shot. The universe you step into may be the love of a lifetime.

If I was a Superhero...

2007-08-09T18:32:00.000-04:00

Your results:
You are Hulk

Hulk		90%
The Flash		80%
Green Lantern		70%
Spider-Man		65%
Iron Man		65%
Batman		50%
Wonder Woman		50%
Robin		50%
Supergirl		45%
Catwoman		40%
Superman		20%

You are a wanderer with
amazing strength.

Click here to take the "Which Superhero am I?" quiz...

I am Apocalypse.

2007-08-09T13:44:00.000-04:00

Your results:
You are Apocalypse

Apocalypse		100%
Venom		88%
Magneto		88%
Dr. Doom		85%
Mr. Freeze		84%
Lex Luthor		75%
Dark Phoenix		72%
Mystique		68%
Two-Face		68%
The Joker		63%
Juggernaut		60%
Green Goblin		52%
Catwoman		51%
Kingpin		41%
Riddler		36%
Poison Ivy		30%

You believe in survival of the fittest and you believe that you are the fittest.

Click here to take the Super Villain Personality Test

New Sketches

2007-08-02T21:13:00.001-04:00

Check out my new sketches of Nik in Black Cat costume. She is based off my wife and we hope to have a website with the strips on it soon. Tell me what you think about the poses.

Should you be loyal to your comic book store or should your comic book store be loyal to you?

2007-08-02T15:54:00.000-04:00

I have come to a dilemma in my comic book buying. I no longer have to get my graphic novels(GN)from my comic book store I can get them online and delivered to my house. I have been very loyal to my comic book store for many many years but just recently my wife and I went to an art gallery. There is a comic book store right next to it and I went in to look at the store. The owner gave me 20% off. He told me if I would open up a bag (start a subscription) with just 5 titles I would get 20% off current titles(plus other items in the store) and 25% back issues. Now I buy a lot of comics. Anywhere from 30-50 a month. For someone that buys as many comics as I do this seems like a logical choice but because I am very loyal to the comic store I go to I went to them to tell them what the other store offered me. It is also a little closer to my house. I did not go into my comic store expecting them to bow down and kiss my feet. I just wanted them to respect me as a customer and understand where I was coming from because you see I only get 10% off current titles and 15% off back issues and no percentage off anything else in the store. So when I asked this question the first thing I was asked why did I go to another comic book store? What comic book store? I politely told them and asked if they could do the same thing for me since I have been here so long. I didn't ask them to give me 35-50% of what I get at the website for GN's. I don't expect them to meet that when they have to pay for a store and employees. Even though the employees there get 40% off. Instead I got "I am not going to get into a bidding war with my competitors. If you want to open your bag there you can." Do you feel where I am coming from? These guys have to realize they are not the only comic store in the area. There are 2 others in a 10 mile radius. You see the reason why I ask should you be loyal to your comic store or should the comic store be loyal to you, is because this is the question me and my wife are asking ourselves right now. There are alot of great people that work at the current comic store we go to and we really enjoying talking to them but with movies, comics,and gas going up in price it is really getting expensive. It would be nice if you can get a little back.

Wow! In Stock Trades

2007-07-31T21:27:00.000-04:00

We have found this great new site. In Stock Trades! This place is great. I really love comics but it is really hard to keep up our habit with comic prices soring to great heights. It is also equally hard to decide if we are going to get the comic book or the graphic novels. You usally save a little money $5 to $10 dollars. But at this website you can save up to 35% off and if you buy more than $50 the shipping and handling is FREE! Can you believe it. We thought oh this is a great deal but I bet the books will come in damaged. Well we got our comics in yesterday and they were in great condition. We bought about 5 to 6 books and they can in a cardboard box filled with packing peanuts. They were also indivdually wrapped to protect them. Also on the web site they have comics listed by company and they even have the new company Checker. Who is Checker you might ask. Well they are publishing trades that have never been published as a graphic novel. We got X-Files vol. 1,2 and 3. They are also going to be producing completed Crossgen titles. I am very very very excited about this because you will be able to have the complete story of those wonderful issues you always wondered about. Check it out. We are very excited about this company and I can forsee spending lots of money at this site. Now don't get me wrong I love the comic store we frequent but sometimes you just can afford all the titles you really want to buy. It is also good to go to the comic store because you never know what new titles are coming out that you might miss out out if you don't scope out the rows and rows of beautiful glossy images. And who could pass up the comic book store chat. Sometimes you really get the inside scope just by asking the right questions to the right people. The joy of going to the comic store on Wednesdays is sometimes the height of the week. As an educator it is very hard sometimes to get out of the house after working with students that sometimes really do not want to be at school. The comic store ends up being the calm after the storm after the work day. But do try out the In Stock Trading website.

World of Dude!

2007-07-24T15:59:00.000-04:00

Speaking of comics and other cool things... We met an awesome guy at the Heroes Con this year. He is the one that told us about blogspot. He has come really great artwork up and it is worth checking out.

http://worldofeldude.blogspot.com

Tell him I sent ya,

Till next time.

comic book events

2007-07-24T15:19:00.000-04:00

With Marvel coming out of Civil War to World War Hulk and DC weekly event 52 to Countdown I feel like I am spending too much money. You have to wonder is it all worth the hype and the money. I looked at Newsarama (thats a web site for us comic nuts) and it showed the cost break down. If you buy every thing that ties into count down it will cost you $321. World War Hulk the same thing if you buy it all will cost you $123. I know when you look at as DC VS. Marvel then Marvel's not taking all your money and DC being money hogs. You see the thing is Marvel has a lot more crossover in the works. You see with comics going up in price you can't aford unless you make a lot of money you can't get every thing. When you put it into prespective the money you spend on comics for these crossover can pay for your rent ,car payment, and that trip you always wanted to take but couldn't. See comic book companies need help out their fans and not take them for all their worth.

comic books or graphic novels

2007-07-24T10:46:00.000-04:00

Comic books are going up in price which feels like every month. Like $2.99, $3.50, and now $3.99 and still having only 22 pages of reading material. I'm just wondering if comics are getting too expensive? I mean if you buy more than 10 comics a month it can cost you more then $30.00 dollars a month, then you throw in crossovers and mini series it all most double. The reason I even bring it up is for the fact that you can buy graphic novels a whole lot cheaper. Like at the price of $6.99 to $24.95 and the page count is 160 to 300. If it's 24.95 alot of time it a hardback. Graphic novels are also more durable. I'll give you an example, if you drop a comic it bends if you drop a graphic novel you really have to drop it to mess it up. Then you can look at the resale value. You know comic book stores are not going to give you the price you paid for the comic. I mean who can blame them they have to make money too. With a graphic novel you can come very close to resaleing it for what you payed for it on the internet.
Look I also forgot that if you want your comics to last you have to bag and board and that can cost you $15.00 for a 100 of them. Not really so for the graphic novel. I usely bag mine but you don't have to. In a graphic novel you get the whole story with comic books you get it monthly. But is it better to get it monthly and have to wait for it or take the chance if it is going to come out on time. Who knows if they will finish the story you're reading. With a graphic novel you get the story and you expect to wait 2 to 4 months for it. I know in my blog I look like I'm more for graphic novels but I do buy a lot of comics, just ask my wife. The real question I need answered is it worth getting someone new into comics and all the headache that comes with it or just turn them on to a good graphic novel ?

Heroes Con

2007-07-19T18:12:00.000-04:00

It has been a long time since the Heroes Convention in Charlotte, NC but I still wanted to touch on it a little. We helped at the Con on thursday before the show and looked for deals the next 3 days. If you are ever in NC you need to check out the Heroes Aren't Hard To Find store located on 4th street near center Charlotte. My wife worked on her Silver Surfer run. She is only 4 issues away from having vol. 2 and up to current. I got 4 issues away from getting Spiderman 2099. I remember this title from my youth and decided that I wanted the issues again. I also got Avengers, Ultimates, Fantastic Four, Exlies, X-Men, Black Panther, Cable and Deadpool, Captain America, Star Wars, Justice League, and Amazing Spiderman. The book you should be reading right now is Planet Hulk. It has a fantastic storyline.

We have been working on a children's book right now and have almost finished the cover. We have also been working on a comic strip but it is in production right now. Working out the kinks on it.