Ho. Lee. SHIT! It's out! It's out! It's FUCKING OUT!!!
Sorry, had to freak out for a minute there because it FINALLY happened! Awakening Volume One hit comic shops on Wednesday, 7/22 and hit 'em hard. Shops I've talked to have been selling out and placing re-orders which is the awesome.
I've also heard that folks who ordered from Amazon started receiving books this week. In other words, those of you who were waiting to see if it was the real deal this time before ordering are in for a treat - get thee to your LCS stat! Failing a local comic shop, hit up Amazon and help us speed our way up the bestseller lists there:
http://www.amazon.com/Awakening-One-Nick-Tapalansky/dp/1932386483/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1242403586&sr=1-1
As always, your friendly neighborhood Barnes & Noble is able to pre-order for you too.
To everybody who stopped by the booth at San Diego Comic-con, thanks for the love and support! More about the con coming in next week's blog, including pics and anecdotes galore.
SPREADING THE WORD...
Alright kids, listen up: The book is out. The trick now is to make sure EVERYBODY knows. Post the trailer hither and yon, cry forth to the heavens (and to everyone you see on the subway), and recommend it to your friends and loved ones. Especially grandmothers - they dig existential horror and zombie noir. Well, MINE does anyway but she may be partial.
A big part of self-promotion that I think gets overlooked in comics is the library circuit and, with it, reading groups. I'm talking to as many reading group heads and librarians as I can to suggest the book as a monthly selection (for horror, graphic novel, and mystery reading groups) and to make sure a copy is available in any and every library I can get in touch with, but I need your help! If you're following this blog it stands to reason that you dig the book, so do me a favor: check out your local Barnes & Noble, Borders, comic shops, and/or small indy bookshop (my faves) and see what reading groups they have - if they fit with a group which would enjoy Awakening recommend it to them! Likewise, if you frequent a library, whether at a university or just a city or town branch, recommend the book be stocked in their graphic novel section. Heck, show them your copy so they can see how loverly it is!
The short version is that we couldn't have gotten this far without you and any help you can give would be hugely appreciated. To anybody in the Southern New York or Philadelphia, PA areas: feel free to e-mail me if you get any bites at the libraries/reading groups - either Alex or myself (or both) would be happy to stop by and talk about the book, comics, writing, art, or just the weather. You can reach me at Nick.Tapalansky@gmail.com
AWAKENING IN THE PRESS...
First of all, if you're not following us on Twitter you're not as cool as your friends! Don't be uncool, follow @AwakeningComic for the latest updates on your favorite comic dudes.
Second of all, if you haven't already checked out http://www.NickTapalansky.com what are you waiting for?!
Now then, on with the show...
More reviews for Volume One are starting to roll in! Below is one from The Quarter Bin which has one of my favorite quotes ever:
"Nick Tapalansky and Alex Eckman-Lawn are the perfect team for Awakening."
Read the whole review here:
http://thequarterbin.com/?p=7001#more-7001
We also had the great pleasure of meeting Stephanie from ComicMonsters.com after our panel at the con - in her recap of the day she had this to say:
"One of the surprise moments of the day was the Archaia panel. Now that Zachary Quinto, of “Heroes” fame, is involved with the company, HUNDREDS of people were in attendance for the Archaia panel and gathered in the hall to hear about the recently released “Awakening” by Nick Tapalansky and Alex Eckman-Lawn. Here is Nick (left) and Alex (right) looking stoic and thoughtful immediately after handing out issues of “Awakening” to fans and attendees.
As a fan of the story for over a year, it was great to see them get the exposure they deserve. And congratulations to them both for reaching the best-seller list on Amazon.com on their first day of pre-order: #2 for Mystery (Graphic Novel) and #6 Hardcover (Graphic Novel) and even selling out of copies at Wizard World Philadelphia! Way to go, guys!"You can read her whole recap for Saturday here:
http://www.comicmonsters.com/ftopict-11751.html
Oh! For you art enthusiasts in the world, Alex was interviewed by our pal Patrick McEvoy for his Ninja Mountain podcast while we were all at the show. You can check out the podcast here (Alex starts around 22:50 if you're just in it for his purdy voice).
"I'm gonna get edited out of that entire episode, aren't I?"
http://ninjamountain.blogspot.com/
IN OTHER NEWS...
First, an amazing scientific discovery:
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/07/14/oldest-male-organ.html
"Now we've actually found it, a specimen with an undoubted clasper with a knobbly end."
Now, exciting Archaia releases!
Both The God Machine and Starkweather: Immortal are in this month's Previews for an October release! You can wander in to any LCS and tell them you want it but I'll have more exciting means, like pre-order coupons and links to various sites, posted here in the coming days. In the meantime... Just go tell your shop you want 'em, damnit!
LOCAL SIGHTINGS INCLUDE...
SUMMER/FALL!
New York Anime Festival (September 25th - 27th in Artist Alley with Jackie Santiago)
Baltimore Comic-Con (October 10th and 11th with Archaia)
Albany Comic-Con (November 1st with Jackie Santiago, Mark Holmes, and Luke Mierisch)
KEEP UP WITH ALL THE LATEST AWAKENING UPDATES! WE WANT YOU TO JOIN...
Meh, fughedit for now! I appreciate the sign-ups guys, but at present the idea of writing a separate e-mail newsletter containing largely the info your finding here anyway seems a bit silly. I'm gonna take it back to the lab for a bit of reworking and come back strong though so be on the lookout...
