NIGHT OF THE LIVING VIDIOTS comics kickstarter!

Hey, folks!

Andy Ristaino here. I've been working on a bunch of short form funny books in my spare time over the past 8 years and now I want to collect them into one book, entitled NIGHT OF THE LIVING VIDIOTS.

It's a Sci-fi, horror, and comedy melted together and topped with a Twilight Zone twist.  Darkly funny tales featuring mad science, gothic anime, TV zombies, kaiju, giant robots, monsters from the deep, and even a haunted sweatshirt. 

please check it out if you have some time!

here's the link!

thanks

Andy

Prophet #29 out in stores TODAY!!!

I'm very excited to say I have a five page backup story in issue 29 of Brandon Graham's Prophet reboot for Image comics.  Prophet is one my favorite books being published at the moment and i'm super excited to be a part of it.  Here's a preview of the issue drawn by Farel Dalrymple.

and here's a preview of my backup story, the first page sans text

 and here's the excellent cover image by Fil Barlow.

Prophet #29 is out in stores today so go pick up an issue!

-a

hot rod horror

i just finished a 24 page story for the anthology Tales of Hot Rod Horror vol. 2. Here's a little preview of the story i did.

-a

nearing the end of the tunnel...

here's a sneak peak at the comic i've been working on. this is probably not final colors but it's pretty damn close enough for jazz. i'm hoping to have this 18 page story finished by the end of october.

now i sleep!

-a

whatats been going on...

it's been a while since i posted any art, so here's a quick post to give you a sneak peak of things to come.

this is the pencils for a page from a story i'm working on for the Hot Rod Horror vol. 2 anthology called "tunnel".

(i'm almost done inking the whole thing)

i'm also doing three pieces for and art show in L.A. called the 3 g's. Gremlins, Goonies, and Ghostbusters. below are the pencils for my ghostbusters piece.

also you can now follow me on twitter, if you dare!

-a

opera...

-a

looker...

-a

venti

-a

popgun in stores today!

page three from my story in Popgun vol. 4. to see the rest of the story pick up a copy of Popgun for your very own in stores today!

here's what the cover, painted by Ben Templesmith, looks like.

-a

1 day till popgun 4 lands in a comic or book store near you.

here's page two of my 20 page story that appears in popgun vol. 4. Popgun vol. 4 will be out in stores this Wednesday.

-a

3 days till Popgun vol 4.

this wednesday the image comics anthology Popgun vol. 4 will be in stores. Here's a preview of the first page of my 20 page story in the book.


-a

preview copy of escape from dullsville!

there it is...i received an advance copy of my new comic Escape from Dullsville in the mail the other day. boy am i psyched. the book weighs in at 1 pound 288 pages and boy do those pages smell great.

one month till you all should start to receive your copies!

-a

the wrong door

new one page comic i just finished.

-a

Escape from Dullsville coming out in February!

WE DID IT! The book is going to be printed!

Thanks to all your help and pre-orders we have sold enough books to get the graphic novel printed. If you have pre-ordered the book you should be getting your copy sometime in late February. If you haven't pre-ordered there is still time to get your copy from Amazon.com, at $6 dollars less than cover price, by clicking on the this link. And you can check out a preview of the book by going here.

thanks again for all your support!
This book wouldn’t have been printed without your help.


-Andy Ristaino

Popgun on CBR!

Josh Wigler of Comic Book Resources interviewed me and a bunch of other artists for an article about POPGUN vol. 4, a comic anthology that i have a story in, due out in febuary from image comics.

below are some choice exerpts from the article click the link to read the whole thing.

"Popgun" Takes A Fourth Shot

• by Josh Wigler, Staff Writer

Tue, December 29th, 2009 at 12:58PM (PST)

Ben Templesmith covers the fourth volume of "PopGun"

As comic books become more and more prevalent in popular culture, the mainstream crowd is becoming increasingly aware that comics have more to offer than just superpowers and spandex. Image Comics has certainly done their part to showcase the diversity of the medium, perhaps most prominently through "Popgun," a series of anthology books filled to the brim with short stories of various shapes, sizes and genres.

In February, Image will release the fourth and latest installment of "Popgun," featuring a cover drawn by "Choker" artist Ben Templesmith and stories from illustrator Frank Stockton, "Life of a Fetus" creator Andy Ristiano, "Sulk" creator Jeffrey Brown, "Popgun" veterans and creative duo Amanda Becker and Janet Kim, and many more. CBR News spoke to the aforementioned creators and "Popgun" editor D.J. Kirkbride about what readers can expect from the upcoming volume.

"We wanted to make [the fourth 'Popgun' installment] even more eclectic and exciting and bigger than the previous volumes," Kirkbride told CBR about his goals for the upcoming volume. "In terms of the first two goals, I do think we achieved them, to be honest. There are so many different styles and tones for each story in this collection, it's kind of overwhelming, in the best possible way. We continue to find great and varied talent, which is what makes these books work. We're very lucky that so many excellent creators, new and established, are interested in working with us."

As for Kirkbride's third goal — making "Popgun's" fourth volume bigger than previous editions — that mission was also accomplished. "It's 512 pages compared to 448 for volume one and 472 for volumes two and three, and all at the same price," he said. "That's pretty cool, and we're grateful that Image let us do it, as, well, it's kind of crazy."

Cartoonist Andy Ristiano contributed a humorous 20-page story titled "Night of the Living Vidiots" that posits a spin on the classic zombie tale by turning the flesh-eaters into walking advertisements — literally, single-minded humans with television sets for heads. "'Night of the Living Vidiots' is the first story in the book and a great way to kick off this volume of 'Popgun,'" said Kirkbride of Ristiano's contribution. "'Vidiots' is a hyper, wordy, colorful and amazingly fun 20-page adventure. Though it's very humorous and fast-paced, Andy weaves in some effective commentary on consumerism and the media."

"I didn't want to knock television shows — I end up watching a lot of TV while I'm working and I enjoy a good story no matter what form it takes — I can't, however, stand watching or listening to commercials," Ristiano described of his story. "When I first got out of school, I used to animate on commercials, and doing that made me realize that for every commercial there were people just sitting around in rooms trying to figure out the best way to trick people into wanting their products. When you watch commercials, they seem so insincere and insulting, and while you might think commercials are completely ineffectual, the information in there sneaks in. I can still remember commercial jingles from when I was a kid. It's upsetting to think there is so much space in my brain devoted to remembering things like the theme to a 'Fruit Islands Cereal' commercial when it could be put to better use. There is no escape."

In order to combat the commercial-addled vidiots, Ristiano created a quartet of heroes with various artistic inclinations. "The Bookworm represents the written word, the Painter represents the visual arts, the Martial Artist represents the physical arts and the Rocker represents music," he said. "The main characters are the people who are focused and inspired enough with what they are interested in that popular media does not have control over their lives and how they choose to live them. These artists possess the power to shock the vidiots out of their stupors. I liked the idea of telling a story where the hero saves the world using books or wins through non-violent ways. While I wasn't able to completely pull that off with this story, it's definitely a theme I want to explore more in the future."

"Vidiots" isn't the only action-centric story in the book, as Jeffrey Brown contributed a swords-and-sorcery tale called "The Dark Master's Reign." "It's a fantasy tale of a lone badass kind of warrior who's attempting to infiltrate the castle of an evil overlord," described Brown. "I've always been a big fan of science fiction and fantasy, but diverged from my once intended career path of illustrating [Dungeons & Dragons] and Magic cards. I felt like 'Popgun' was the perfect place to have some fun and have a go at the genre."

Artwork from "Night of the Living Vidiots"

The fourth volume of "Popgun" goes on sale on February 10th, 2010, courtesy of Image Comics.

Dullsville update...

Things are moving along on the Escape from Dullsville pre-sales campaign. Thanks to everyone who pre-ordered a book and everyone who passed on the info to others though email, facebook, twitter, and blogs. I'm sorry if I haven't thanked each of you personally it's been a very hectic time, but you should know you have my gratitude.

super huge thanks to the following:
Meredith Yayanos of Coilhouse
Andrew Farago at the Cartoon Art Museum
Stefan Blitz of Forces of Geek
Chris McD from Meathaus
Graeme McMillan from io9
Rich Johnston of bleedingcool

Each went out of their way to write up articles and post on their respective blogs and/or email lists.

collage of press pieces on "Escape from Dullsville" featured below coilhouse, meathaus, io9, forces of geek, mysterious universe, and amazon top 100 graphic novels (of which we made it up to #21 for a day).

We are more than half way there, but we still have a ways to go. so if you know anyone who might be interested in the book please pass along the info, or if you'd like to know more about escape from dullsville just click the link.

thanks

-andy

HELP GET "ESCAPE FROM DULLSVILLE" PRINTED!

About a week ago I finished my newest graphic novel, a 288 page book collecting all 7 issues of my comic “Life of a Fetus.” The collection, "Escape from Dullsville" contains over 80 pages of new material including the previously unpublished L.O.A.F. issue 8.

Unfortunately, pre - orders were not high enough for my publisher SLG Comics to justify printing the book just yet, so unless i can raise enough pre-order sales quickly it might NEVER BE PRINTED

That’s where you come in!
My hope is to get everyone who would normally buy the book when it comes out to preorder it from Amazon.com ASAP! If we can get enough pre-order sales the book WILL BE PRINTED! If you can pass this message along to anyone you think would be interested in it, that would help a lot too!

Not only is it super easy to preorder the book from Amazon, you’ll be getting the book at $6 less than the cover price! Just click the Amazon links in this post. Amazon will not charge you until the book ships so if the book never gets printed you won't ever be charged.

As a bonus, if you email me a photo of yourself holding the book, I’ll will personally send you an original sketch of a character of your choosing from "Escape from Dullsville!" I'm sure with your help we can this thing printed lickety splits.

You can read the press release for more information about the book here, or puruse the images below.

Thanks again for your support!

- Andy Ristaino

(some examples of pages from the book. click the image to see em' bigger!)

Escape from Dullsville

It all starts when a claustrophobic fetus, tired of its surroundings, decides to make an early exit. Setting in motion an avalanche of bizarre happenings. Soon the fetus becomes embroiled in the plots and schemes of the likes of little green men, mad scientist puppets, government cover-ups, jet-packed babysitters, strange cults, anarchists, beatniks, psychotic magicians, truckers, and crazy mothers, as it goes on the most wigged-out of road trips through the good ol' U.S. of A.

go for the gold 3

i've got some artwork in meathaus' new sketchbook anthology go for the gold 3. (click link to see a preview of the book.) along with a bunch of other great artists.

(this is the cover)

here's the info:

Meathaus’ new anthology sketchbook features: Andy Ristaino, Arik Roper, Benjamin Marra, Bob Flynn, Dash Shaw, Dave Kiersh, Esao Andrews, Farel Dalrymple, Jason Sacher, Josh Latta, HARVEYJAMES™, Inés Estrada, Jesse Moynihan, Katie Rice, Kevin Fagan, Michaela Zacchilli, Mu Pan, Nathan Fox, Nicholas Gazin, Nick Bertozzi, Peter Chung, Rebecca Sugar, Ron Wimberly, Sam Kim, Thomas Herpich, Victor Cayro, Vincent Giard, Vincent Stall, Zachary Baldus, Tomer Hanuka, James Jean, Brandon Graham, Robertryan Cory, Al Columbia, and Chris McD.

You can pre-order it right now and it will Priority Mail out to you first week in December along with a bonus mini doodle zine and optional Chris McD doodle (just select what you want in the store).

-a

POPGUN 4

forgot to put this in the news dump.

i am among 80 plus artists appearing in the monstrous 512 paged popgun 4. it's coming out 2/2/2010 here is the line up:

Night of the Living Vidiots by Andy Ristaino
Kill The Legend by Jonathan Silvestre
The Black Decahedron by Adam P. Knave, D.J. Kirkbride, & Jason Ibarra
Reggie 1 by Erik Larsen
7:42 by Stuart Livingston
Thinking Out Cloud by Stephanie Ramirez
The Seneschal by Tom Scioli
Theory of Colors by Jessica Fink
Reggie 2 by Erik Larsen
Agent Orange by Darren Rawlings
Family Reunion pt 1 by Dave Brenion, Joe Flood
Reggie 3 by Erik Larsen
Bastard Road: Elle Hath No Fury by Brian Winkeler, Dave Curd
Sanz Pantz in Tsugaru-Shamurai Showdown! by Chris Moreno, Thomas Mauer
Fables From Fractured Earth by Todd Dezago, Nikos Koutsis, Vassilis Gogtzilas, Mike Toris, Thomas Mauer
The Jewel of Kurvi Tasch by Andrea Kalfas
Revenge of the Kraken by Alison Acton, Jim Charalampidis
Chasing The Goldfish by JM Ken Niimura
Jacket by Amanda Becker, Janet Kim
Untangled by JEIK, Dominique Carrier
Stay For Breakfast (Or The Lonely Ghost) by Michael Dialynas
Love in the Time of Plenty by Angie Wang
Hamburgers For One by Frank Stockton
Intermission by Jock
Sisterhood of the Armageddon by Anthony Wu
He Floated Away by Elton Pruitt, Manoel Magalhaes, Osmarco Valladao, Brandon Seifert
Bacon And Tulula by Stephen Reedy, Adam Lucas
Quiet Explosions by Adam P. Knave, Wayne Nichols
Queen of Cups by Elizabeth Genco, John Bivens
The Curse of Neph by Lars Brown, MJ
The Dark Master's Reign by Jefferey Brown, Bill Crabtree
Queasy by John Malloy
Harshing The Mellow by Derek McCulloch, Anthony Peruzzo
Acid Sunset by Anna Wieszczyk
Reggie 4 by Erik Larsen
The Eye by Jeremy Tinder
The Orb by Nils Hamm
Honolulu Lorie's Lava Love Lounge by Salgood Sam
Bloom by Fernanda Jaber, Fellipe Martins
Reggie 5 by Erik Larsen
Family Reunion pt 2 by Dave Brenion, Joe Flood, Shana Brenion
Bastard Road: This Bludz For You by Brian Winkeler, Dave Curd, Eric Sandhop
Agents of the WTF in Blue Light Special by D.J. Kirkbride, Adam P. Knave, Matteo Scalera, Paolo Ferrante, Antonio
Campo, Thomas Mauer
Endangered by Michael Woods, Michael Meier
Bullets for the Poor by Mark Andrew Smith, Dave Collinsun
Rusted - Fading Signal by Nick Tapalansky, Alex Eckman-Lawn, & Thomas Mauer
Mekano Turbo by Alexis Ziritt, Elliot Blake, Mike Houlihan
The Hellbender by Maximo V. Lorenzo
The Mad Mauler by Robert Love, David Walker
The Golden Mantis of Chinatown by Vito Delsante, Attila Adorjany
Hate League by Alice Hung, Meg Hunt
Mr. Universe - Broken Hearts by Vassilis Gogtzilas, Nikos Koutsis, Thomas Mauer
Ruby Red Tomato by Becky Dreistadt, Frank Gibson
Sasquatch by Nick Edwards
Reggie 6 by Erik Larsen

last issue of nickelodeon magazine is out today...

i received my comp copies of the last issue of nickelodeon magazine

Under the guidance of Chris Duffy and Dave Roman, the comics section of Nickelodeon magazine was a monthly showcase for all the superstars of the current alternative comic scene.

Not only does this issue have my last Lucinda Ziggles strip in it but it contains comics by alot of other great artists such as gregg schiegiel, j. torres, dave cooper, steve weissman, evan dorkin, sarah dyer, jonny ryan, and many more!

I'm sad to see it go.

here's my last lucinda ziggles strip.

-a