Issue 3, a look behind the scenes, and lots of cons ahead!
Hi readers and friends,
It's been a month since our last update and we have a lot to share, including some email exclusive behind-the-scenes pics!
First, thought you should all know that ISSUE 3 IS AVAILABLE NOW! We are so proud of this issue. Jordan really stepped it up to bring our new character and location to life. There are so many incredible details and beautiful scenes, so we hope you'll take your time to appreciate it as you read!
You can pick up where we left Jack with a digital or physical copy from www.starsidecomic.com/shop - You could also pick it up at an upcoming convention or at JHU Comics on Staten Island if you're local (hopefully more stores coming soon!)
Second, we'd like to welcome the new members of our email club from POW! Con! It was really great to meet every one of you. This was our second year at POW! Con, and although it was much bigger than the first, it was still a really friendly and supportive community. We hope you all had a great time there and discovered a lot of great indie comics and talented artists - we sure did!
Before I get to our fun peek behind-the-scenes, I just want to remind you of the events we have coming up:
FanFaire - NYC - February 8-9 - https://www.fanfairenyc.com/
*Just added!* Bronx Library Center Comic Con - NYC - March 28 - https://www.nypl.org/locations/bronx-library-center
East Coast Comic Con - Secaucus, NJ - May 15-17 - https://www.eastcoastcomicon.com/
FanExpo - Boston, MA - August 7-9 - https://www.fanexpoboston.com/
Rhode Island Comic Con - Providence, RI - November 6-8 - https://www.ricomiccon.com/
We also applied to the Chicago Alternative Comics Expo (CAKE). We should find out any day now if we got in, so stay tuned. If you're in the midwest and planning to go to that event, cross your fingers for us!
Okay, onto the fun stuff! On our social media pages a couple weeks ago, we shared this image:
This is the very first sketch Jordan did for our logo. When we saw it, Dylan and I both thought he nailed it. When Jordan took the logo from the sketch to a digital version (below), he adjusted some of the letters and the dot over the i. Again, we thought it was perfection!
We then showed it to some friends for feedback and upon seeing it, a friend of ours said "So it's called 'Tarside?'" That's when we knew we needed to do some more work on it.
It was difficult to make changes since we were so used to how it looked. We really liked how the lead S helped spell out the name but could also stand alone as a symbol. Ultimately Jordan went back and tried a couple different styles while still trying to make the lead S stand out in an iconic way:
This style (above), though interesting, had too much of a metal band vibe and didn't quite capture the tone we were searching for.
With this idea (above), we were still trying to make the lead S read like an S but also maintain the ability to be a symbol on its own. It wasn't perfect, but we were getting close!
Simplifying the S was probably the best way to achieve what we were looking for. This idea above worked off of the previous one and got us closer to the final design.
Finally, after going back and forth numerous times (and thanks to my MS Paint skills) we landed on the version that you see on your comics today:
That's all for now! Thanks again for tuning in to these updates. Let us know if you like them, or if there are other things you'd like to see/hear from us!
Talk to you soon!
Lane & the Starside team
*Editor's note from 2022: Check out these bonus sketches Jordan did during the process!
