I loved the panel Kaija made for today’s RFR, and made it in to a wallpaper. Maybe you guys like it too, so here it is!
1920×1080 – Click to open full size.
And how it looks in action:
Love,
Silver
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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
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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.
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
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
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The moving frenzy continues. From packing and sending to frantic house searching and familiarizing with everything strange.
But in order to lighten up the tone from last blogpost’s “moving sucks”-statement to something positive, we can give you a little peak of Berlin on our second Saturday afternoon here:
This is the street we live on. A slight shock after the pristine Frankfurt, but I prefer the liveliness here.
What is a post about Berlin, if it doesn’t contain graffiti of some kind?
This city has an endless amount of dogs, mostly running around without a leash, minding their business, while the owners are walking a hundred meters behind. The mutual trust between these dogs and the people is impressive.
Meet Peter. We’re lunching in a hipster cafe with him, while the conversation takes a plunge into goals, expectations and affirmations that the playlist playing on the background is indeed surprisingly awesome.
And lastly a sneak peak into our temporarily-teeny-tiny workspace and the pages that I’m working on..
And with that, I wish everybody a great week, and see you next Monday :)
Smiles,
Kaija
Moving sucks. It sucks a big time, but there comes a time in everyone’s life that you just cannot avoid it any longer – and ‘hoy that time has happened to us! Silver and Kaija have now ended their four-year stay in Frankfurt, Germany and moved to Berlin to work on mobile and tablet games!
For five days and five nights we’ve packed, organized and packed some more until our entire life had been reduced to carton boxes and bubble wraps – until all that was left was the surreal feeling of owning so many things that I’ve totally forgotten about.
I hate moving, not because I’m not excited to see a new part of the world, but because I hate the hassle of packing away all my precious artifacts, for I am a creature of habit and comfort, and my house is my safe place, and it will take a while to get it all re-organized.
When it comes to packing away our precious’, I will especially miss our books. We have a lot of books from novels, to comics, to art books. We have so many books we could fill a small library and they are all delightful and special in their own ways. My only regret is that I can’t give them as much attention as I want to, and many of those books I’ve only read once.
And so, we are now in a state of anxiety and excitement as we’re starting new adventures and a search for a new apartment that will fill that hole that our previous apartment has left behind. Thank you Frankfurt for having us, you were extremely convenient, clean, and well maintained and I hope you never change.
For those of you concerned if this will affect the publication of Run Freak Run at all, let me assure you that we’ve prepared well and RFR will continue coming out page-by-page every Monday! So please keep on reading, and have a wonderful Monday! :)
Love,
Silver
A little over a week ago we got a question on the comments that we’d never thought of: what would Two’s theme song sound like?
It felt a little simple to just name one, so I thought I’d put together a small playlist of songs that I think fit the mood of Two and RFR in general. I’ll also try to explain a little why I chose a particular song, where I heard it first and how I feel about it.
So lets put on our hearing hats and listen on!
When I first read this questions out loud, me and Kaija both immediately started thinking about Kill Bill soundtrack’s. Now, Tarantino’s a genius in my books, a definite inspiration, and I consider Beatrix from Kill Bill be the ultimate femme fatale. But she’s also a little sad, has anger issues, and solves way too many problems with violence – hence why this song fits perfectly with Two. Also the song has witches in it.
I first heard about Black Angels about 7 years ago, and I’m still in love with their Passover-album. It’s just pure, raw, gritty energy that has a special place in my heart. I chose this song because it’s stubborn, narrow, never-give-up-once-you-made-your-mind attitude is something we feel Two can relate to.
Fun fact, this song was also on the first mix tape I gave to Kaija, during a time when Spotify and Ipods weren’t the mainstream listening devices that they are now. *old man mode*
Continuing with the psychedelic rock, this chilling song from Roky Erickson is just the right amount of cool, funny, and magical. And I think that’s just perfect in describing the world Two lives in; with it’s roaming witches, wandering monsters, and sleeping gods.
Now, I’m a huge fan of Cowboy Bebop the anime and the way it used music in it’s storytelling. This particular song, and the particular scene in question are burned in my minds eye so deeply that’s it hard to sleep at night. There will be a time in RFR when Two will fight again, and I hope you think of this song when it happens.
Andra is fantastic. I wrote this the first time I heard her. Great song for coffee during the upcoming autumn days.
Yes, I know Lana is like a hipster queen and vain or whatever, but so what since so are we (in my case, a king). She’s also unapologetic, and a go-getter and while those are also traits she shares with Two, I think she’s even more alike to the Queen. Everyone needs an enemy, eh?
This was a recent find for us, and there’s something indescribable for me, a certain connection of melancholy that’s fitting for Two, no matter what she does – a right or a wrong thing – it’s always bittersweet. The kid really can’t catch a break, can she?
Or can she?
I guess you just have to read and see what happens.
Love,
Silver
Tweet, tweet us over Twitter, Facebook, or write in the comments, section to tell us what songs you’re reminded of when you read RFR. We’re super curious to hear about things like this :)
“WZOOOOOOM DRAWING IN HIGH SPEED!”
I glimpsed Kaija drawing tweety birds for this RFR chapter, and thought I’d take some photos and share them with everyone. Because Sundays just aren’t Sundays without some birds.
Yes, indeed – these are magical birds for the current Run Freak Run chapter, and if you are wondering why are there adorable magical birds being chased by monster-fish while what-you-might-call-it ethereal flying lady is flies past them? What kind of an adventure has Two got herself into this time? I can only tell you to be patient, and find out when the page is released, so nyeh-nyeh!
“Tweet tweet everyone, and keep it real.”
Have a great Sunday!
Silver
Tweet tweet me @runfreakrun