Get Your Books in Barnes & Noble's Database

Walking through my local Barnes and Noble location this last weekend, I stumbled upon a kiosk that was promoting the introduction of their new eBook reader...the Color Nook.

This is a wonderful tool in the iPad mold, that offers those who wish to read their literature in digital format access to any books in the Barnes and Noble library.

But when searching their sample for my Eye Witness graphic novels, I found they were not listed, even though they ARE in their online database and available for anyone to order in their printed version through their website.

Doing some research on this subject I uncovered some wonderful news for small and indy press publishers...that Barnes and Noble has the process already in place to make your books (or graphic novels) available to anyone with a Nook reader...even though you might not be distributed by a major wholesaler (since that is not listed as a prerequisite for inclusion).

Quoting their information to me:

Independent publishers and self-published authors are encouraged to sign up for PubIt!, our self-publishing platform. Through the site, you’ll be able to set up an account, load title data, convert files to ePub, and sell on BN.com.
PubIt's website is: www.pubit.com

This is a wonderful opportunity for indy publishers who might have previously struggled to get their products into a mainstream bookseller like Barnes and Noble (and FYI...Books A Million also markets the Color Nook on their website). And for these big-box booksellers, it's an opportunity to stay on top of the current hot trend in readership.

Go for it, my friends and brothers!

R.J. Luedke
http://www.headpress.info/

Eye Witness in the Media

Hey gang, just to update you on what's been happening lately, now that we are winding down from the 7 month long, Unknown God tour.

Over the last couple weeks I've been interviewed on a number or radio programs around the country about our latest release, The Collected Eye Witness Slipcase Set.

Here's a podcast of an interview I did on the Family Life Network last month:

http://www.fln.org/media/family-life-podcasts/detail/bob-luedke-eyewitness-book-4/

Here's one I did last week for the Messiah's Branch radio program:

http://branch.podomatic.com/entry/index/2010-11-22T21_09_39-08_00

...and coinciding with my appearance at the upcoming Wizard world Atlanta Comic Con, I'll be interviewed live on WATV's "Atlanta Live" program on Fri. Dec. 3rd at 7pm.

Enjoy, share them with a friend and post any comments.

R.J. Luedke
http://www.headpress.info/

It's A Digital World

In our quest to make the Eye Witness epic available to more readers than ever...not just in North America...but all around the world, we are happy to announce our new partnership with Drive Thru Comics, who markets their site as, "The First Download Comic Shop."






Available immediately for you to download from their site are, both, Eye Witness (Book One: Revised Edition) and Eye Witness (Book Two): Acts of the Spirit. The two titles are broken up into three chapters, each retailing for $1.99 (so if you purchased all three, you'll save 50% off the hard copy price). AND...as an additional incentive, Drivethru is offering the first chapter of Book One for FREE!




For those of you who prefer to read comics on your ipad or iphone, Eye Witness Book One is still available for those applications/hardware through Comixology!


R.J. Luedke
http://www.headpress.info/

Unknown God Honored with Award

LOS ANGELES – USABookNews.com, the premiere online magazine and review website for mainstream and independent publishing houses, announced the winners and finalists of THE “BEST BOOKS 2010” AWARDS (BBA) on October 26, 2010. Robert James Luedke’s, Eye Witness: Unknown God, has been honored as the winning entry in category of…Fiction & Literature: Graphic Novels.

This is the second time the Eye Witness series has been honored by the BBA (the third book in the series, Eye Witness: Rise of the Apostle, also captured this prestigious award in 2009) and the fourth national book award for Luedke’s groundbreaking series.

“As an independent publisher it’s been a constant challenge to draw attention to our work,” stated Luedke, “so awards like the BBA…which acknowledges the work of smaller publishers along side the big boys…has been a valuable tool for drawing the attention of those who may not run across Eye Witness otherwise.”

Eye Witness is a unique combination of a modern day action thriller that has a Biblical adaptation at it's foundation. It's been called a cross between Mission Impossible, Indiana Jones and the Bible.

Jeffrey Keen, President and CEO of USABookNews.com , says of the awards (now in their eighth year) that they represent a phenomenal mix of books from a wide array of publishers throughout the United States. Winners and finalists traversed the publishing landscape: Simon & Schuster, Penguin/Putnum, Rodale, McGraw-Hill, John Wiley & Sons, Moody Publishers, American Cancer Society, Sourcebooks & hundreds of independent houses contributed to this year’s outstanding BBA competition.

USABookNews.com is an online publication providing coverage for books from mainstream and independent publishers to the world online community. A complete list of the winners and finalists of the USABookNews.com National “Best Books 2010” Awards are available online at http://www.usabooknews.com/.

Unknown God Tour Interview: Dallas Comic Con

Hey gang, just got wind of the YouTube posting of an interview I did for the website TheSpectralRealm.com at the 2010 Dallas Comic Con.

*Also, editor Eric Shirey just posted his review of the entire Eye Witness series.

The interview did by Eric ran in two parts (since I had to stop the interview in the middle to answer questions at my table). Enjoy!

Part One:



Part Two:

Unkown God Tour at Chicago Comic Con

Hey gang, just wanted to share my thoughts and some pics from this year's Chicago Comic Con.


I had not did this event, (which has previously been known as Wizard World Chicago), since 2006. That year I was quite disappointed with the event, my sales and the lack of foot traffic...which probably explains why I stayed away so long.


But this year's show was quite a different experience for me. There was significant foot traffic in the artist's alley area all 3 and 1/2 days of the event and Saturday's crowds reminded me of a day at Comic Con International (in San Diego) with isles so filled with people it was difficult just to try to move through the hall.

In 2006, it seemed that the crowd was very indifferent to Eye Witness, which I basically determined by the few number of people that actually stopped to ask about it or grabbed a free poster. While during this year's show, it seemed many more people were interested in finding out just what the heck it was about, stopped to hear my pitch and gobbled up the free Unknown God Posters as fast as I could autograph them. And of course, when more people stop to take a look, that meant many more purchased.


There were a number of "brother creators" were in the house this year also, which gave me an opportunity to refer people I knew were in search of comics and GN's with Christian or spiritual content, to their tables. There was Dr. "Solo" Perry of Honors Studios, with his War in Paradise comic...which. if you haven't seen it, is a beautifully rendered story of Angels and Demons which is reminiscent of the widely popular Archangels comics of the '90's. Got a chance to briefly meet Marc Moran, who shared with me his massive Conqueror and Conqueris graphic novel...can't wait to give it a read. I also got a chance to touch base briefly with the gang over at Kingdom Comics...who had a whole table of different faith based comic offerings. Also a big shout out to Martin Oakly and George Macas, who were also in attendence selling (literally) tons of comics they had just purchased!



As with most major conventions this one was loaded with people in costumes. There was the requisite Joker in the Nurses uniform and Captain Jack Sparrow, groups of characters from the World of Batman and X-Men, as well as two guys who created home-made Iron Man and War Machine armor, that I would have sworn was the product of Marvel studios. But this was the only one I felt compelled to run out and get a picture of.

This young girl was the perfect Hit-Girl!








As with any of the Wizard promoted events this one had a real nice assortment of celebrity, movie and TV guests. But the biggest surprise along those lines was an appearance on Saturday morning by the newly convicted ex-governor of IL, Rod Blagojevich. He was there to sign autographs, have your picture taken with him and in general attempt to start building his new war chest for his second trial. Granted I did not leave my table to go see how many people actually gave this "character" their money, but when they announced his arrival most in the hall let out a thunderous boo!

But as this picture here shows, even pro. wrestlers enjoy the Eye Witness series! If you don't recognize him, this is the legendary, Raven, of the WWE, getting his copy of book one!


Overall this was a very fine show for me...the best outside of the Creation NW music festival...in amount of sales. Now I'm really looking forward to the next Wizard sponsored shows I'll be doing in the fall leg of the Unknown God tour, in Boston, Austin and Atlanta!


R.J. Luedke
http://www.headpress.info/

Searching for Windmills?

Hey gang, I couldn't resist speaking out on the absurdity of this story.

I read in my morning paper that a media watchdog group, The Parent's Television Council, was organizing a boycott against any advertisers or local affiliates that would be supporting or airing the new CBS comedy, @#&& My Dad Says."

The series, starring William Shatner, is based upon the widely popular twitter account of Justin Halpern of the same name, (which has also spawned a best selling book) and uses an actual profanity in it's title, rather than the symbols CBS is employing...which is a common practice in publishing/broadcasting to indicate profane language without using it. According to Halpern, "I'm 29. I live with my 74-year-old dad. He is awesome. I just write down @$%& that he says."


According to PTC President, Tim Winter, "The title is indecent. Parents really do care about profanity when their kids are watching TV." Just so we are clear, the PTC is saying, "@#&$" (which is bleep, when spoken according to CBS), is indecent? Seriously?! Yes the original title does contain a profanity which is on the networks 7 words you can't say on Tv, but a bleep or symbols most certainly are not and never have been!

Winter goes on to say, “CBS intentionally chose to insert an expletive into the actual name of a show and despite its claim that the word will be bleeped, it is just CBS’ latest demonstration of its contempt for families and the public. There are an infinite number of alternatives that CBS could have chosen but its desire to shock and offend is crystal clear in this decision,” said PTC President Tim Winter. I get the feeling the PTC must be kind of short on windmills to tilt at, (re: high profile issues...that aren't really issues....that fuel new fundraising efforts), because CBS did not insert "an expletive into the title," it inserted symbols that represent one...big difference folks!

How thin skinned have we gotten as a culture if we now are offended not only by naughty words, but now by the terms or symbols that are commonly used to replace the offending words? This borders on the ridiculous, as it is tantamount to wanting to censor the idea, (I.E. that we must not allow people to watch a show that is based upon something that has a naughty word in it's title...even if the word is not used).

The PTC is doing this under the banner of that they are protecting our children, but seriously, in this day and age of cable and satellite TV providing any number of non-network TV shows (and movies into our homes) which use the actual offending words, sexuality and acts of gratuitous violence, this seems a rather silly and trivial issue to stand behind. But like I inferred earlier, this feels more about publicity and fundraising...since they really can't do much to affect networks like HBO or Cinemax...and the over the air networks make a prime target to demonstrate how much organizations like this are needed and should be supported by concerned parents everywhere.

When there are potentially dangerous ideas out there, we know the PTC will be there to make sure we can't hear, see or read about them. Carry on the good fight, gentlemen!

R.J. Luedke
www.headpress.info

Is Ann Rice Evil, Bold or Just Sick & Tired

I just got wind of Ann Rice's announcement concerning her Christian Faith over the weekend at my Church (The Village) during a talk by Matt Chandler about the reasons people use to insulate themselves from knowing God or embracing faith.

A world famous author, (the original one to make Vampires cool) Anne Rice has boldly declared that she is no longer a Christian. On her Facebook page yesterday Rice wrote this:

Today I quit being a Christian. I’m out. I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being “Christian” or to being part of Christianity. It’s simply impossible for me to “belong” to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group. For ten years, I’ve tried. I’ve failed. I’m an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else. … I’m out. In the name of Christ, I refuse to be anti-gay. I refuse to be anti-feminist. I refuse to be anti-artificial birth control. I refuse to be anti-Democrat. I refuse to be anti-secular humanism. I refuse to be anti-science. I refuse to be anti-life. In the name of …Christ, I quit Christianity and being Christian. Amen.

My thoughts?...

This could be a very cleverly hatched promotional scheme to generate buzz for her upcoming book release (Of Love and Evil). And by association, it could also be part of a continuing attempt to recoup readers she lost during her "Christian" writing period (re: Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt) many of which who undoubtedly want the "Dark" Anne Back!

Or this could also just be a modern American Christian (granted a very high profile one) venting about some of the very same issues that trouble many believers...that the faith has come full circle back to a religion that is not so different than Judaism during the time of Jesus and become the very essence of what he fought against. In other words, that with many "corporate Christians" it's become less about the Word, Jesus, salvation, forgiveness and compassion and more about the layer upon layer of "man-centered" rules and interpretations that have piled up over the centuries (Re: that to be Christian is to be conservative republican, to be against health care for all, to be against birth control etc...). During the time of the first century it was almost impossible to uphold all the rules man had piled on to Judaism, which is what Jesus came to strip away and why he was so despised by the religious leaders of the day.

Just for the record, I don't share her beliefs on all the issues she lists, but understand and appreciate the spirit in which she is making this declaration. For almost 40 years I kept Christianity and Jesus at arm's length, due to the irresponsible, hypocritical and even criminal behavior of some of it's high profile members. How many others are not opening their hearts, minds and souls to the Word now, because of the exclusion they feel because they fall into one of many groups that the talking-Christian-heads they hear on TV say cannot join the club...when Jesus made it very clear that "all can join"! And of course he also told us, "all will not," but that is not for us to decide, but God.

So bottom line, I feel like Anne Rice is really just venting and saying stuff some of us wish we had the courage or platform to give voice to...."Hey world, we are not exclusive, we are inclusive to anyone who wants salvation!" Notice she doesn't say she no longer believes, she's just saying she's sick and tired of the religious games. Saying so doesn't make us unworthy of our faith, just unsatisfied with how some men (and women, of course) have corrupted it.

R.J. Luedke

Here's a postscript to my ramblings...a blog that deals with Rice's declartion from a Catholic perspective: http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/theanchoress/2010/07/30/anne-rice-quits-christianity/

Annnnd....Here's Anne Rice herself addressing this whole thing on the Joy Behar Show on Weds. August 4th:

The Unknown God, Summer of Festivals Roundup

Hey gang,

I wanted to give you all an update on the other big event that went on last weekend (July 21st-24th) besides Comic Con International, 2010. I'm referring to the Creation Northwest Music Festival, which bills itself as the nation's largest. Now, since I've also attended Cornerstone and Sonshine Music festivals over the past month, I'm not sure I would agree with that bit of hyperbol. But what I can tell you is this, that as someone who was an exhibitor at these three events, Creation did indeed blow the others two events away in terms of sales for us!

I tried to corner the promoter into giving me final attendence numbers, but he wouldn't share that info (said it was still be compiled). But according to one of the other people running the show, it looked liked it was going to be a bit under 20,000 (but that estimate was made on Friday morning...with two more day's walk up traffic to be counted).

Out of the three events Cornerstone had the most exhibtor space (one large tent and one smaller one), but the downside was you had to brave the heat and considerable dust and the smaller tent got considerably less traffic then the main tent (which was were I was unfortunately positioned). We had heard from many attendees of past events that they didn't even know there was a second tent!

Sonshine had their exhibitor area in a converted hockey arena, so the elements were a bit more controlled, but still a bit toasty, as the main doors were open to the outside, so if there was AC you couldn't feel it.

Likewise, Creation has their exhibitor area inside a building with doors open to the outside. But since the outside temp for most of the weekend was in the mid-80's with not a whole lot of humidity, it was very pleasant.

Out of the three, Creation had the least amount of space for exhibitors and also the least amount of stages for bands and as a result the people in attendence seemed to hang out in the exhibitor areas quite a bit more each and every day. Customers cruising the exhibitor areas seem to wane a bit each day the other two events went forward. Not so at Creation, as traffic stayed consistent right up to the late afternoon the final day...when some exhibitors began tearing down.

But for us, when all was said and done, we did about the same volume of sales at Creation, that I did the last time I exhibited at Comic Con Interantional (in 2008). So, I was quite pleased. Cornerstone came in second (about $300 behind) and Sonshine was a distant third. That's even more impressive when you consider that we did that volume at Creation with basically about a fifth of the potential audience (20k verses 120k at CCI)!

A constant theme I heard from people of all ages is, "I love the idea of Christian based comics and graphic novels and didn't know there were any out there!"...and these were Christians! So I think this type of venue is ripe for more publishers of Christian based properties to share their books next season, 'cause there is a whole group of people looking for this type of material, but not finding it in their local bookstores (or comic shops).

Food for thought, for sure!

R.J. Luedke
www.headpress.info

Project Comic Con, Posts Interview

The promoters of the upcoming Project Comic Con 2, (in suburban St. Louis, MO), have graciously posted an interview they did with me a couple months back. The piece does a very nice job in covering my brief history in the medium.

http://projectcomiccon.com/?p=1258

Enjoy and share with a friend...I think this event is shaping up to be a very nice convention, since it is firmly focused on comics rather than movies and TV. It has a pretty strong lineup of creative types, but promises to be intimate enough to get some real quality time with your favorite artist, writer or indy publisher.

R.J. Luedke
www.headpress.info

ReadTheSpirit Calls Attention to Christian Comics

Hey gang,

One of my favorite writers on all matters spiritual is David Crumm, formerly of the Detroit Free Press and now editor of the website, Readthespirit.com

He just penned a wonderful article on the state of the Christian Comic (Graphic novel) scene:

http://www.readthespirit.com/explore/723-comic-book-news-independent-publishers-continue-to-produ.html

There's also a good supplemental story about the bad rap comics (and their creators) have gotten over the years.

Enjoy-
R.J. Luedke
http://www.headpress.info/

Cornerstone 2010 Overview

Cornerstone is now completed: Wow, that was the first outdoor show I've done in years. Forgot how much that can take out of you with the heat, dust and humidity! I think this was the closest thing I've ever been a part of that's akin to being at Woodstock (but without the alcohol or drugs, of course). And the creator certainly did his part as the whole week was mid-80's and blue skies!

Overall the crowds were consistent, (except for last day: Saturday...when many it seems were already starting home for the 4th, including the vendors). I Had a decent amount of sales of the Unknown God graphic novel and T-shirts, (as well as the other books in the Eye Witness series), but more importantly exposed a huge number of people to Christian based graphic novels for the first time in their lives (you know, the old "I never knew anyone made comics/GN's like this"...kind of thing). It tells me, that as a genre of literature "we" (the editorial we) are not doing a good enough job in educating people that our products exist, for if "we" were, more Christian youth (teen to twenty-somethings) would be aware of them. Now before you think I'm sitting in judgement of others, I certainly am not exempting myself from these comments, for I've been out there with Eye Witness since 2004, yet most in this gathering had never heard of the series before. But they sure have now after the weekend!

I really think the a group of Christian creators/publishers needs to consider doing a group booth at one of these types of events next year. I understand that places like comic conventions are our mission fields, but with a lot of our properties those who are already Christian can also enjoy them, purchase them and share them with their non-believing friends (which is a comment I heard a lot with people buying Eye Witness over the weekend). And with the amount of business I did over the weekend, I'm can say pretty authoritatively that a couple tables put together with all manner of comics, tracts and graphic novels would have went over real big at this show! So if anybody has an interest in joining forces, I'm all in.

I want to thank Scott Shuford for stopping by my booth a couple times over the weekend, while he was enjoying the music and making the rounds drumming up business!

A final point I want to share, is how refreshing this event was for me! Doing comic conventions can sometimes be a bit of a downer, as many people there will steer clear of your table when they see Christian or spiritual imagery...as if we're going to yell out, "repent, you sinner," at them like some street corner prophet. But the people here, (of all ages), were just so friendly. Even if they were not particularly interested in what I had to offer at my table they always had a smile on their face and were at least willing to engage in polite conversation. In fact, I got to hear some wonderful and diverse testimonials over the weekend.

Living in Dallas (in the heart of the Bible Belt) it's sometimes kind of hard to realize the true diverse nature of Christians out there in this country. And this show was a testament to the fact that it does not matter how you look outwardly, how you dress, what kind of hair-do you sport, (if you have hair), whether you have piercings-tats or other body art....the inner love of Jesus overcomes and binds us all!

As I drove away from the campsite on Saturday night for the final time, I experienced both joy (that I felt a bit closer to God through this experience) and a sorrow (that I had to leave this event and the people involved behind and go back to the real world).

But now I'm even more excited to my time at SonShine and Creation Northwest Festivals in July, 'cause I'll have my daughter with me, so I'll be able to mill about a bit more and see some of the bands and hear some of the speakers (which I was unable to do at Cornerstone).

I recommend this experience to you my brothers and sisters out there and even those who may not believe but just want to hear four days of some great music of all styles!

R.J. Luedke
www.headpress.info

Late Edition to the Unknown God Tour

Hey gang,

Talk about your basic last minute addition to the Unknown God tour...I'll be going to San Antonio this weekend for the Texas Comic Con.

Visit their website for full details:
http://www.texascomicon.com/index.htm

Hope to see any of my south Texas friends there.

R.J. Luedke
www.headpress.info

Bob's Washington (and East Coast) Adventure

Hey gang,

I wanted to share a bit about what I've been doing between my convention stops at Heroes Convention and the Philadelphia Comic Con.

First of all I had an opportunity to get back on line, thanks to the generous offers from Best Buy and got a fairly decent Compaq laptop (which I believe in now a part of HP) for less than $400.

Then I've taken the four days between events to literally stop in each major city between Charlotte and Philly, to visit and leave book samples with as many comic shops as feasible (thank God for Google Maps....a few years back this kind of thing would have just been too labor intensive to put together)!

Being a former retailer myself, it's always a blast to see the very different character of shops around the county and how different they can be right within the same city...as well as how the store owners/mgr's greet and deal with people who walk into their stores. I'm happy to report that out of the 30 odd stores I visited, only one shop (and store owner) was rude to me and wouldn't even except my book sample (he told me he doesn't sell anything over $10...and all the Eye Witness books were $13.99 SRP). Yeah right! But as a professional courtesy I won't name the store, but only let you know it's in Raleigh.

But on the other hand here's a list of stores I would definitely seek out, if I needed my comic and/or GN fix and found myself in one of these cities:

Chapel Hill Comics (Chapel Hill, NC)
SciFi Genre (Durham, NC)
EG Comics (Vienna, VA)
Nostalgia Plus (Richmond, VA)
Laughing Ogre (Fairfax, VA)
Heroes Aren't Hard to Find (Charlotte, NC)

One final note. During one of my two days in the Washington area, I decided to do a bit of sightseeing, since I had never had the opportunity before in our nation's capital. Coming into the city I lucked into a parking place right along one of the main streets next to the Washington monument and better yet, it was free parking....score!

I went on my way to see the Wash. Monument, toured the Smithsonian Natural history Museum and made myself walk the approximate 1 mile distance to the Lincoln Monument(which I just had to see). During that last hike I made a point of making sure all was well with my vehicle and making sure there it was still where I left it. It was.

On my way back to my truck though, I noticed a lack of cars parked along the street I was parked on and became concerned. A brisk walk ended up becoming a jog, which turned into an outright sprint, when I saw several motorcycle cops along the block where I was parked and only a handful of cars still parked. Yikes!

I was in full panic mode as I was sure the spot where I left my truck was now vacant, but kept sprinting forward as I saw there was a blue vehicle up ahead (but it looked like a van). But I kept running forward just in case (rather than stop and talk to the cops) and to my relief it was my truck and the tow truck was lining it up to haul away next!!!! I ran up and told him in a breathless manner, "Dude, that's mine,"...and to my total surprise he just said, go ahead and take it!

I soon learned that where I was parked was legal parking, that is until 4:30 to 6pm...and at that moment it was 4:45pm. Wow...what a bullet I dodged. That would have put a serious black cloud over this trip if I would have just taken my time to get back to the spot.

Today starts the Philly CC...more to come

R.J. Luedke
http://www.headpress.info/

A Heroes Con Overview

Hey gang,

The first stop in the Unknown God tour is now behind me.

I started the trip out on a dubious note by having my laptop die on me the first night on the road. But truth be told, it was a 10 year old Compaq who had served both me, my wife and my daughter faithfully...so I think you could say it just died of old age.

Our first stop, Heroes Con in Charlotte, was wonderful on a couple levels. First of all I got a chance to reacquaint with a lot of old friends in the comic industry (Brian Stelfreeze, Gary Fredrich and Bernard Chang to name a few). Secondly, I was pleasantly surprised by how many of my Facebook friends stopped by to say hello (and pick up a copy of Eye Witness).

The show was a bit slow on Friday and Sunday, but Saturday had a pretty strong turnout...as you can see from the pics I've included in this post.

This show is defined by it's old-school style in that it is a comic convention that actually still focuses on comics and comic creators. There was many, many talented creators and their indy creations on hand, but at shows like this...when I'm on my own...I just didn't get much of a chance to visit many tables. But I must say if you want to relish in all things comic related, I'd add this convention to your schedule next year!

Coming up next....Philadelphia Comic con

R. J. Luedke

http://www.headpress.info/

Unknown God has Arrived!

Hey gang,

Advance cases of Eye Witness: Unknown God arrived last night at 8:30pm (nothing like cutting it close...thanks UPS for that ulcer).

So I'm off to Heroes Con this morning for the Unknown God World Premier! I'm at... AA737, so make sure to look me up if you're attending!

FYI...I give Josten's Printing a big thumbs up of the quality of their job, their customer service and the speed in which they worked (contact me if you need a referral).

Hope to see ya' all in Charlotte this weekend!

R.J. Luedke
www.headpress.info

New Interview Posted

Here's a link to an interview I did today for a blog-radio site. You can listen now or download it for later:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/conservativetalenthour

R.J. Luedke
www.headpress.info

The Unkown God tour...2010.

Here is a listing of my scheduled appearances in support of the release of the fourth book in the Eye witness series...Unknown God!*

6/4-6 Heroes Convention/ Charlotte, NC
http://www.heroesonline.com/heroescon/

6/11-13 Philadelphia Comic Con/Philadelphia, PA
http://www.wizardworld.com/home-pa.html

6/30-7/3 Cornerstone Music Festival/Bushnell, IL.
http://www.cornerstonefestival.com/

7/14-17 Sonshine Festival/Willmar, MN.
http://www.sonshinefestival.com/

7/21-25 Creation Northwest/ Enumclaw, WA
http://www.creationfest.com/nw/

8/19-22 Chicago Comic Con/ Chicago, IL
http://www.wizardworld.com/home-ch.html

8/28-29 Dallas Comic Con/ DFW, TX
http://www.scifiexpo.com/DCC/dallascomiccon.html

9/18-19 Project Comiccon/St. Louis, MO.
http://projectcomiccon.com/

9/25-26 Nashville Comic Con/Nashville, TN
http://www.comiccitytn.com/

10/8-10 New York Comic Con/ NYC
http://www.newyorkcomiccon.com/

10/15-17 New England Comic Con/Boston, MA
http://www.wizardworld.com/home-newengland.html

10-29-31 Long Beach Comic Con/ Long Beach, CA
http://longbeachcomiccon.com/

11/6-7 Mid-Ohio Con/ Columbus, OH
http://midohiocon.blogspot.com/

11/12-14 Austin Comic Con/ Austin, TX
http://www.wizardworld.com/home-tx.html

12/3-5 Atlanta Comic Con/ Atlanta, GA
http://www.wizardworld.com/home-atlanta.html

If you are owner of a book or comic shop, or pastor/minister of a youth group in one of these regions and have an interest in having me come in and do a book signing, or sharing my testimonial about my mission with this series, by all means contact me through my website
During much of this tour, I will be driving and have some down time between events and would love to fill it by visiting your location.

* All events are subject to change and more will be added soon!

R.J. Luedke
http://www.headpress.info/

Unknown God Tour---Promo Poster

Here is hot image we'll be using as our Unknown God 2010 tour promotional giveaway poster.

The image was based upon my original cover design, which was re-envisioned and painted by artist supreme, David Rodriguez.

To get your copy, watch for the posting of my upcoming appearance schedule coming here soon...and simply make your way to my table!

R.J. Luedke
http://www.headpress.info/

Unknown God----Preview Pages!

Get an advance peek at a sampling of pages from the upcoming Eye Witness: Unknown God, graphic novel.

This is the fourth and final book in the award-winning Eye Witness series. The book will available nationally in book and comic outlets in July 2010.

Click here for your preview!

Enjoy!
R.J. Luedke

The Unknown God Lives!

I know I haven't been doing a very good job of regularly posting here at "Eye Witnessed", but I had been working my tail off for months to get the fourth book in the Eye Witness series...Unknown God...finished and ready for press.

But I'm happy to announce that the book has basically been completed and we are now in the final stages of editing and proofing. So now I have a bit more time to share what we have coming up over the rest of 2010. First things first.



UNKNOWN GOD COMETH

Unknown God is the final chapter of the Eye Witness series, which has been eight years in the making. People will ask me, "why has it taken so long between books (on average, 2 years)?" The answer is simple! Since I do most of the work involved in the books myself (writing, illustration, inking, coloring and production) there is no way I can rush the process on these books, that run from 96 to 120 pages each. The artwork for each book is what consumes about 14 months for each book and I'm pretty consistent that I can pencil or ink 1-2 pages each day I work. I just feel blessed that God has allowed me physically to complete this project, which took close to a decade of my life to complete.

The book is schedule to hit store shelves and websites in July 2010, but I'll start selling copies direct at my convention appearances begining in June (see upcoming post for my summer schedule).


CHANGE IN DISTRIBUTION TO COMIC SHOPS


Like a number of small and indy press publishers, we learned this spring that we have become a causualty of the more restrictive Diamond Distribution order thresholds. These new minimum order levels (established in 2009) have resulted in lots of wonderful indy comic titles to virtually disappear from many comic store shelves over night. Despite the fact that Diamond had filled orders for more than $10,000 of books in the Eye Witness series, it was not enough and now Head Press Publishing has formally severed our distribution with Diamond, ending a 15 year business relationship.

I'll put my prophet cap on for a moment here...when I owed a pair of comic shops back in the 90's, I became concerned when Diamond started signing exclusive deals with publishers (as a way to combat Marvel's move to self distribution at the time) because you could see it immediately started to put a strain on their competition. This trend continued, even after Marvel returned to their ranks, until almost all the major large to medium sized publishers had become exclusive publishers with Diamond.

Now, there is virtually no competition for Diamond and they are pretty much free to do whatever they like where distribution is concerned and we have situations like you see today... that they now determine what publishers and creators are made available to the retailers (hence the readers). And that's not right! I said it 15 years ago...as I sold my shops, because I didn't like how the business landscape for stores was changing....and I continue to say it today, as a publisher effected by their monopoly. Where's Teddy Rosevelt when you really need him?

But the good news? There are more ways to get your comic/gn novel fix then ever before!

Eye Witness is available to the general bookstrade through STL Distribution North America, which makes our books available through basically any book stores, (whether mainstream or Christian), big-box retailers who carry books and/or websites which sell books (including Amazon of course).

We have entered into a deal with Haven Distribution, which is catagorized as a restock distributor...in other words they do carry product/publishers that Diamond no longer carries, but they do not publisher or market a regular monthy order catalog. Retailers go to their site and see what they are stocking currently. So any comic retailer can now get they Eye Witness books from Haven!

And finally, we make all of our books avaible for direct wholesale purchase to the retail community through our website. To help overcome the additional work from ordering direct, we've even upped our wholesale discounts to put more money in the store owners pockets!

HIGH POWER ENDORSEMENT

I'm excited to announce that over the past few months I developed a friendship with comic legend, Brian Augustyn, and he has agreed to supply the forward for Unknown God! If you're not familiar with Brian's work, he has been involved as a writer and editor for some of the best crafted issues of: Batman, Superman, Wonderwoman, JLA, Flash and the X-Men.

More to come....

A Time to Show What/Who You Are?

Hey Gang....

Let me start out by saying how sorry I am that I've not been able to post much anything here lately. But the production of Eye Witness: Unknown God, has literally been consuming my life.

In fact, I just wrapped up the principle artwork on the project by completing the coloring yesterday. So the major hurdles have been cleared and now all that's left is to do the lettering and final editing. So we're still on schedule for a later June, early July release. I'll start posting more regular information and thoughts once pre-production begins to wrap up. Promise!

That being said let me share a few thoughts about Today....Easter Sunday, or ressurrection day, as I like to call it*:

To me, this seems like the holiday we should be celebrating above all others, (as opposed to Christmas), since as Christians it is at the core of what we are all about.

Sure Jesus birth into the world is significant, but his death, (Good Friday) and rebirth, (Easter), are what we are all about. Without them, Jesus would have been just another prophet...not the Son of the Living God, whom walked the earth and helped us to know God, because he was God.

It's Jesus ability to overcome death, (which was witnessed by the way, in over 500 separately reported incidents all around Palestine, over a 40 day time period), that separates him from every other Holy Man or figure, in every other religion. So this event should take on massive importance, (like in the same type of level Islam celebrates their holy week in Mecca, with hundreds of thousands of people taking to the streets in every city in the world where the Church exists).

But when it's all said and done...the public display of worship is just that! Jesus talked about it in fact, that men who worshipped primarily on the street corners were the ones to be weary of, since they were doing it for man, rather than for God. So, as a spiritual person....yes, attending corporate Easter worship at your local church is important, especially in Fellowship with your brothers in Christ...but more important is your personal worship this weekend. I worship God and especially his son Jesus with a personal fervor during this time, that rivals Islam in their shows of public display...in prayer, in compassion shown to everyone I come across, and in trying especially hard to honor Jesus this weekend with a sacrificial act for someone in need. For our love and compassion will show who (and what) we really are.

As Christians we all should hold these qualities within our hearts year-round, but especially during thise three day period... the most important of days in the history of mankind.

RJ Luedke

*These thoughts were a repost of an entry on this blogg from 4/09