Hi guys. Today we ask you for a little favor. Today we ask you to vote for Run Freak Run in topwebcomics.com. We’ve noticed that we get occasional traffic and new readers through them, and if our rankings would be highers, then we’d be able to reach more.
So, today we ask that you take a second to vote for RFR, and help us find new readers.
Just click below! Boink! And remember, you can do it multiple times!
Thank you in advance,
Silver and Kaija
We finally have the first draft of Run Freak Run available for download for free. If you’re curious to see how it was different, please check it out!
(Feel free to tip us for Christmas cookies and coffee, comicking makes one hungry!)
Before Run Freak Run was what is now, it went through a few iterations. The first draft was created in horizontal web format, with gradient atmospheric inks. I remembered watching Kaija hand-cut paper masks to each panel, and painfully splatter ink. The effect was beautiful, brilliant and eerie, but ultimately too time-consuming for a project we do in the evenings and weekends. We wanted to publish more than every two weeks, and hence had to approach it differently.
We also rewrote and simplified the story. We’ve been studying storytelling for the past three years now, and while we feel like we’re finally starting to understand something, it’s been through some struggles and millions of rewrites – honestly, we had no idea what were doing in the beginning.
Kaija actually blogged about this earlier.
For the first draft of RFR Kaija had drawn 22 pages and I had lettered 16 pages until we decided to put on the break and start over. That was over 3 months of work reset there, but in the end we were happy with the decision. The first chapter of RFR is already quite scarce story wise, and with half the amount of panels per page it was even scarcer. We actually have plans to go over the current first chapter and re-letter it with more dialogue and sound effects (which are currently missing totally *gasp!*), hopefully we’ll be able to do that for early next year.
Great part about doing RFR like this is that it’s a living project. We can go back in and fix things as we see fit and make it a better experience.
Anyways! Check out and download the first draft and enjoy some beautiful art from Kaija!
Click to enlarge!
Click to enlarge!
Love,
Silver
Tweet, tweet me at @runfreakrun and join our newsletter, pronto!
We haven’t done an art lottery since our two months anniversary lottery, which was almost two years ago (whoah!) – and we thought it’d be a great time to do a new one. It’s quite simple really – We’ll randomly draft one person from our newsletter list to win this original piece of art by Kaija, with a frame included. All shipping expenses will be taken care of by us.
Only thing you need to worry about is to get yourself signed up for newsletter by the end of February, and you’re automatically in the lottery.
We’re really keen on building our newsletter at the moment, because it allows us a more direct way to keep in touch with our readers, especially when we want to start talking about our next project.
So what are you waiting for? Get signed up for a chance to get an original!
A3 bristol paper, hand-inked with sumi-e inks by Kaija Rudkiewicz
Zap, zap!
Love,
Silver and Kaija
Hellooooooouuuuuu!
Today I want to talk about one of our favorite books, that I thought would go really well with our readers, since like – most of you are into fairy tales and mythologies. The book in question is The Grimm’s Complete Fairy Tales and it is magnificent.
It has over 700 pages of short stories collected by the Brothers Grimm, during the early 19th century. The stories are often strange in nature; often magical, divine (God and the angels do a few cameos), sometimes plain weird and always entertaining. It has all the classics from Rapunzel, Snow White and Hansel & Gretel, but also a lot of unknown delights.
I can’t really recommend this book enough, it’s a bible for story lovers and beautifully presented. Many of the stories are illustrated by Arthur Rackham and are just full wonder. Kaija got me this book last year as Christmas present and it’s been a great source of inspiration and references. I don’t know how, but I hope to use a lot of the things from it somewhere, some day.
So please, go get this book, trust me – you’ll love it – Just look at the photos below!
“It’s leather bound and big, and like heroin for a bookphile.”
“Illustrations by Arthur Rackham. The cat jumping around a late medieval city reminds me of something, hmm… We swear we thought of it first!”
“Thanks to this book, I now know that the woods are full of old creepy ladies.”
“Cinderella’s wild night out. Gurrl’s gonna go crazy.”
“Never mind the logic, it’s beautiful.”
“And then she throws her in to the oven. That’s just cruel. They could have just taken her cane away and she’d be immobilized, but no – burning her seemed just more natural. Crazy kids.”
“Over 700 pages of wonder.”
“Don’t let your kids get this book, they’ll throw you in the fire too.”
Love,
Silver
Twitter me or comment below your favorite fairy tale books and collections, I’m always up to talking anything books!
P.S – Please join our newsletter! It’ll make it so much easier for us to share the cool new project we’re working on. We hope to make some first sneak peaks the upcoming month. Join, join, join.
Ever wondered what happens to neglectful people’s pumpkins after Halloween? Me neither, but today I got to see it anyway. Today, after 20 days, they finally caught my eye while walking past the balcony. First the toothless grandpa grin that one of them was sporting, and then to my horror the mangled face of the other’s.
I gotta say, the wrinkles and the mouths frothing with mould make the pumpkins quite photogenic, but needless to say, after taking couple of pictures they served their last purpose in life.
Can’t wait until next year for a repeat performance!
Cheers,
Kaija
Jelou! It’s time for another RFR pay-what-you-want sale!
We only ask a minimum donation of $25 for shipping and packaging. Only four three pages left, so hurry! :)
(Join up for the RFR newsletter to get all the pay-what-you-want sales a week earlier, straight to your inbox.)
Cheers,
Silver and Kaija
You know what I realised while I stumbling from one hipster-tumblr-blog to another: Most of the previous generations of young people fought for a revolution of some sorts, while we seem to be burnt out in our 20s, and now only desire to be the grandmas and grandpas, retired into our log cabins, making rustic food, with a mug of coffee in hand and snuggling in front of a fire in our cozy cardigans.
Smiles,
Kaija
Some of you might have already noticed the brand new pop-up and sidebar signup for it, and now it’s about time we put it on the blog too.
So what is this newsletter thingy?
It’s a way for us to send you regular monthly updates on Run Freak Run pages, so you’ll never lose track with how the story is progressing. You’ll also get exclusive sketches, subscriber only art sales, and updates from the blog.
It might sound heavy, but we promise not to spam – we’re way too busy to spam.
And last, you’ll get the first teasers about our new story.
What new story?
We’re not quite there yet, but eventually we’ll reach a comfortable place to talk about. The first scoop will come to e-mail subscribers, because that’s how we roll.
Will it have witches?
Oh yes.
And magic?
Unbelievably tasty magic.
What else?
Rain, lots of it.
Wait, what about RFR?
Run Freak Run is still going to run without any hiccups. The newsletter will only help us reach our readers easier, and help us deliver you more stories with less hassle. We’re really quite excited about it because it feels like there’s one less barrier between us and our audience.
So, once more to summarize – Please subscribe to our newsletter and help us get you more RFR.
This year we thought we try it out a little.
So here you go, our first ever carved pumpkins straight from the heart of Berlin. It was super fun and we feel dumb for never trying it before. The pumpkin was surprisingly easy to carve and cut, and emptying it wasn’t even that messy. Lighting it up was especially fun, because it burned the roof a tad and you got this funny roasted smell.
Nevertheless, have a great and spookylicious Halloween dear readers, and we hope to hear about yours. :)
Love,
Silver and Kaija
Unlike previously, the book I want to share with you is not a fiction novel, nor is it a history book, it’s not even a comic book (gah!). It’s a self-help book on creativity and entrepreneurship.
Normally I am not a big fan of self-help books at all; I’m wary of anything that promises to teach you all you need in just a few pages, I’m dubious of anything that’s supposed to be inspirational by default, and I downright oppose twelve easy steps.
Evil Plans by Hugh MacLeod is not really a self-help book, it’s something different altogether. It’s really more like a collection of essays and meditations on the subject of creative expression, the insights and why’s of it, and how to combine that with business mentality – which I think most artists and creators tend to avoid thinking about.
The books a fantastic combination of prose and cartoon strips, illustrated by Hugh himself, who came from an advertising background. He got his big creative breakthrough by starting to comic on the backside of business cards and you can see many of them in this book.
It’s a great book because these days you don’t have to be a lone suffering artist anymore. You can do what ever you dream of, connect with the world, share it, and reap benefits like never before. But it’s hard to find out how to start, and this book can help out a little.
So go read it, enjoy it, and be inspired for another day.
Love,
Silver
Tweet me your evil plans @runfreakrun and subscribe to our newsletter to keep up with latest news, updates and secrets!