Well it looks like the Skyreader part of the company is publishing their books as learn to read apps/iBooks on iTunes in February. So if you’re a fan of my art and you have kids and an iPad, you might want to check it out! Also, at the time of the writing there aren’t any comments on the iBook/app page, so it would be awesome if someone left some good feedback there and happened to mention the artist as well

I met Chris last year at the same convention and was immediately impressed and entertained by his presence (which is to say I was eavesdropping).  He soon visited our booth and purchased the first Ralf the Destroyer book “Am I There Yet?“. When I saw him again this year he had nothing but entirely gracious things to say about it. Since the next Ralf volume (“Friend or Faux”) is in the chute, my wife had suggested having a forward. Fast forward to the convention and hearing Chris’ lyrical enthusiasm we decided he was the right man for the job, so I asked if he would and he heartily agreed. I laughed and was humbled upon reading it and would like to share that Forward with my online audience before the new book is finalized:

Now let’s get one thing straight: I know a lot about space aliens! In addition to following them in comics and pulp literature for decades, I’ve seen just about every documentary, heard every radio broadcast and slept through every motion picture on the subject. I’ve been to family reunions, eaten their cereals and even dated one in high school (she was out of this world!).
In my X-File opinion, Scott Lincoln’s RALF THE DESTROYER is all the hardcase proof we need that there is intelligent life out there! RALF is well-crafted, well-drafted and worthy of any sci-fan’s bookshelf collection. Unlike other characters in the little green invaders category, RALF won’t get a chance to become a dusty ancient astronaut relic. You’ll want to read it over and over again! Smart, fun and adventurous with just a pinch of cute. OK – Two pinches.
The only backside probe you’ll ever feel is your hand digging for your wallet in order to buy the latest collected edition.

CHRIS YAMBAR
Bart Simpson Comics / Mr.Beat

Of course now the site is pretty disheveled, so there will need to be some work cleaning up the design. I am by no means a professional webmaster, so my brain is fried just getting me to this point. However, I do know more needs to be done to get it to a more polished state. If anyone has recommendations about how to spiffy up the layout, please comment (my wife has already let me know the side bars are unreadable). On the other side of the coin, please let me know if and/or what you do like as well.  I look forward to hearing from you.

If I had known I would have campaigned a bit more by posting about it sooner and yacking about it on Facebook and Twitter a bit. Aside from that there are a bunch of great comics over there that can still use your vote, so mosey on over there and help your other favorites out!

Thanks for your patience in this matter.

Some of you may know that Ralf appears on Comics Sherpa and mirrored to the GoComics Site. I did it to try different audiences and see how newspaper readers would respond vs web comic readers and the comments have been pretty encouraging on both fronts, here’s one from the GoComics site:

Buzza Wuzza said, February 07, 2012
This strip does everything right. Good jokes daily, a solid premise to begin with, really great art, subplots that don’t drown you, etc. Why are you in Sherpa and not in 200 newspapers daily?

That’s my goal, Ralf the Destroyer running daily online and in newspapers nation/world wide and I’m hoping this trip will be a step forward in that direction.

Another thing I thought I’d announce is that even though I won’t be running a full daily schedule I will be including Sunday strips more often, every seventh strip to be exact. It may appear on a Monday, Wednesday or a Friday but every seventh strip will be in a Sunday format. I’m doing this because if Ralf makes it into newspapers on a daily basis, I don’t want to be too far behind on my Sundays and I also want to make sure I can hit the right balance with them as individual strips as well as part of a series. It helps me feel like I’m moving towards the goal anyhow. For now they will be in Black and white as the consensus has been positive for that.

Thank you for reading!

Well a new development has once again put more pressure than I can resist on the issue of color, Bill Kellogg (of Tundra & Inkbottle Syndicate fame) asked if I would be interested in having Ralf the Destroyer distributed in their new project, Funnies Extra . That’s right, Ralf the Destroyer is going to be in newspapers!… and in color. The above strip is the sample I submitted to be included in their promotional issue. So now would be a great time to ask your local paper if they are going to include Funnies Extra and Ralf the Destroyer in their content!

Finally I would like to run something by I’ve been considering: Would you be interested in a Member’s section that included color strips and/or a weekly color long form comic book page?

I’d love to hear back from you and thanks for reading!