KNIGHTS MISSIVE 12/11/2015

KNIGHTS MISSIVE 12/11/2015

Gryphon Knights announces the publication of Millennials #1! This series, written by Dimitrios Fragiskatos, drawn by Guillermo Villareal, and colored & lettered by our own SirGryphon .  


The book was successfully crowdfunded and completed and was released on November 25 along side the Frank Millers Dark Knight III in a David vs. Goliath launch. Both a parody of and homage to The X-Men, the comic takes us on the adventures of... Entitleman! Mr. Hideous! Buzzgirl! Cyber Bully! and Know-It-All! Featured in Bleeding Cool the comic was crowdfunded and received press from sites like the 13th Dimension The comic MILLENNIALS hit stores in late November and sold through the first run quickly, Dimitrios also appeared and talked about the book on the Midtown Comics Podcast; we couldn't be more proud.  

The Second Issue is Due out in late January but we will keep you up to date on any changes!

More coming soon...

This article was written by Tony Wolf who is the creator of Greenpoint of View and True Tales of Comics Series featured on Gryphon Knights Comics. He is also an actor and writer and you can find more about him as well as his social media on his site (Tonywolfactor.com)

Getting Away with Murder: A Comic Book Kickstarter

I can’t say I had it tough growing up. At least, not in an outward way that would make sense of the heroin cravings and passionate strangulation of “Getting Away with Murder: A Lowlife Story”.

For me, the mental maelstrom and cynicism I experience daily is what shapes my characters. This inner struggle reacting to an outside force is where my stories start. The chaos and constant fight of addiction and the overwhelming corrosive force of guilt are the internal struggles of the nameless main character in, “Getting Away with Murder: A Lowlife Story”.

Back when I was more of a musician, playing shows all around New York, my band had played a show at this lounge in Brooklyn. The lounge has since closed down and at the time it was not thriving with activity. But when you walked in there was a huge empty floor with a couple pillars disrupting the view across the lounge. There was a stage that was painted the same matte black that coated the whole interior of the building and just past it was a hallway to a couple dressing rooms. There were three acts playing that night and only two dressing rooms. We were first to arrive so we put some of our equipment in one of the dressing rooms thinking ourselves grand that we had as large a room to occupy before going on.

However, as the other acts showed, we were relegated to the hallway, letting the “bigger” acts have the preparatory space. I remember having forgotten a piece of equipment in our former dressing room. I opened the door while knocking, not expecting anyone to be naked but instead seeing the 12-piece band, the headliner that night, all turn to look at me, aghast that someone should walk in. The lead singer was hunched over in front of the makeup mirror, the kind with the clear bauble bulbs so bright you don’t see a crevice in your skin, with a line of coke just below his nose. Their brief look of fear quickly changed to anger. Who the hell was I and all that nonsense.

But really, who the hell were they? We were, all of us, nobodies.

Our story, “Getting Away with Murder: A Lowlife Story” came somehow and somewhere from that idea. The main character, a rocker who had a brush with money and fame, now forced to live a middle class life not only addicted to heroin but addicted to the thrill of playing. He thirsts for the old days of people cheering for him, of having “rock star privileges”, and the parties where he’s the focal point. He’s on the downslide of stardom, plummeting toward being a nobody and it’s the most painful thing. Also, he just killed his ex-groupie.

Two MoCCAs ago, I was walking the floor when I met MJ Steele (MJ's Site). He had an 11” x 14” inked drawing of Kurt Cobain mid-air playing his lefty fender strat in a warehouse to a silhouetted crowd, the Seattle Space Needle seen through one of the warehouse windows. No doubt about it, I had found the artist to help me tell this story. 

MJ’s style could be compared to more known talents like Sean Murphy or Rafael Albuquerque. Could be. If I were forced to make the comparison. The reality is, he draws inspiration from those artists while still maintaining his own unique style. He’s a balance of precision and broad strokes. Sharp black lines meeting swooping water colors. MJ studies illustration and cartooning at the School of Visual Arts.

Once MJ started churning out fully inked and beautiful pages, we need a letterer. We were lucky my brother, Thomas Griffin (Tom's Art), who can do any part of comic work artfully and skillfully, stepped in. He lettered the pages without the black outlines typically seen on word bubbles and captions. This let the bubbles fit MJs artwork without the obvious outside source that can sometimes disconnect the words from the pictures.

Currently, we’ve started a Kickstarter campaign to help us raise the funds and some buzz for this one-shot comic. Check it out at this link:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/583569168/getting-away-with-murder-a-lowlife-story

Help support us by donating and sharing. If you donate a minimum of $10 and mention this blog post you’ll get a special little something extra.

Article by Sean Griffin. Sean is a writer and co-founder of Gryphon Knights Comics. He currently writes the comic book "Hero" for GK and is studying Creative Writing for his MFA at Manhattanville College.

Webcomic Review: Black Mudpuppy or "How the Word Chumblenuts Invaded my Vocabulary."

Face the god of death... I mean 

The Black Mudpuppy is a action comedy webcomic written by Ethan Kocak. The first question you might have when you read the title of this webcomic, is "what the hey is a black mudpuppy." Well a mudpuppy is a type of salamander. The same type of critter that the protagonist Xolotl, the crazy god of death, is imprisoned in by another god Quetzalcoatl, for blowing up goats and terrorizing villagers. Now imprisoned in that form he terrorizes local small wildlife for 500 years until Quetzalcoatl offers him an ultimatum, be good and slowly he can regain his godhood.


Now as the Black Mudpuppy, Xolotl muddies his way through trying to perform good deeds while accidentally destroying charity buildings. The book is filled with such amusing ADHD antics that might remind you of some gems in the 90s, like the Warner Brothers and Freakazoid. While it starts off slow investing in the book is well worth it as its curve balls are sure to make the sternest person chuckle. To give you an idea some of the highlights; there is a brawl between a couple of dinosaurs from hell Stego-Stalin fighting Hitlersaurus Rex. Another nemesis is the evil anti-Ghandi whose passive aggresivism will leave you very upset!

Make my monster GROW!!!

The book slowly evolves from a bunch of gags to a more meaty storyline that is seasoned with bits of Aztec mythology and characters from those same tales, and truly challenging the english speaker in pronouncing something wholly different.

The artwork too takes a bit of warming up to. While rough at first the ink work begins to take on a liveliness and dynamism that resembles books like Bone and the colors go from a flat to dynamic lighting. Additionally the character designs, influenced again from Aztecian designs culture are refreshing and interesting. T
hey are so simple and visually inviting, as too often I think people think detail makes a dynamic and eyecatching spectacle.

The fresh injection of Aztec stylings and the clean cartoon asthetic make Black Mudpuppy a great tale to enjoy. My only regret is that there isn't an animated series yet...

Listen chumblenuts, Sir Thomas J. Griffin is a force to reckon with, as he is the god of gingers trapped in a speckled body creating work like Frankenstein vs. Dracula for Gryphon Knights Comics. 

The Daunting Comic Convention: The right convention.

Being an artist is tough, one of the difficulties is garnering an audience. Some are wizards at networking or social media, others not at times it may seem impossible to make dough, even elicit attention for your work. One sure way to garner the attention you need is having a table at a convention, and putting up a sign that says free candy. That's the way to reel'em in... BAIT!

Candy won't be enough if you don't have sufficient content to litter your table with. Having a book or two out even having some free swag or other extras like posters and stickers for sale will help you sell. Not everyone wants the same thing so having diverse merchandise is more certain to earn a sale. "Don't just hit up any convention!" He warned earnestly, as going big or going home can be soul crushing in this industry.

NY Comic Con might be your initial thought. It's one of the best promoted and largest conventions, touting an amount of traffic that would have the BQE jealous. They have an artist's alley for those newbies. Still the table costs are outrageous and your sales skills might be crushed under the pressure of breaking even over the long weekend.

It might be easier to start with cheaper cons like the Garden State Comicfest. At 150 bucks for two days its harder to lose out. Sometimes you can even find smaller inexpensive 1 day events like the recent con in Queens, First Con-tact. These are good testing grounds for what sells, though every convention is a bit different: sketchcards, indie comics, prints, toys, stickers, and anything else your twisted mind can conjure depends on the convention. Over time regularly attending a show can help you learn the audience better and adapt your skills.

In addition certain shows like the one in Boston seem to have attendees with deeper pockets who are into dropping fives for random memorabilia like stickers, or trading cards.

Other things that can help or hinder you at cons could be splitting a table with someone... But we'll talk about that in our next blog about conventions called "Neighbors"

The entity known as Sir Tom Gryphon is at a table in the dark waiting to throw goods onto passerbys for Gryphon Knights Comics. Some of these goods are books he's illustrated like HERO and WOW Signal and lettering books like Getting Away with Murder.

Webcomic Review: Calachurras

Jesus and Angel Delgado understatingly summarize their webcomic Calachurras as "a few three-arm guys, a beach and a very strange battle."

You are welcomed into this world in a first person POV through the eyes of a churra. The plot is cleanly laid out by one of the leaders of the clan (or Misters) that their clan's purpose is to battle a rival clan, and defeat them before the great wave comes and destroys them all.

You quickly garner the concepts in this society by their castes and jobs. Following two of the Misters, Mr. Future and Mr. Maker you become drawn into the urgency and the innovation they are trying to execute so that their tribe may survive.

Things aren't easy though as they quickly encounter red tape, and taboos which pepper this culture and makes for amazing parody & commentary on religion & politics. This satire while silly strikes very close to home for anyone who has dealt with a system.

The art captures one's attention right away. It has beautiful simple landscapes and in its simplicity immediately reminds me of the works of Jeff Smith (the creator of Bone) or Lewis Trondheim. The Brothers Delgado allow the time of day to affect their characters, fully immersing them into this world, a detail which many forget to do. The lighting plays off their civilization indicating the passage of time, as well as ticking down to the oncoming battle, and creating a sense of urgency that continues to draw the reader in.

In most webcomics you see the art evolving or improving over time, but this book has a consistent look throughout its first arc, a nice feature (although I do find see the evolution of an artist's style entertaining.)

The pacing in this book is amazing, the art and dialogue work in tandem to create a time bubble that races you through this story, but leave you wishing for another tome in this epic.

I would encourage anyone to step into the... grabbers of these churras, and experience the difficult battle and complex war they are engaged in. 

Sir Thomas J. Griffin is an artist and acloyte of Chaos Magick working for GryphonKnights Comics. He's illustrated books like Greasers in Geese , Hero, and The Only Choice.

For readers who enjoyed Calachurras I'd recommend reading GryphonKnights's Frankenstein Vs. Dracula!