Lorretto

This is our good friend Lorretto, a flag girl whose personality is bigger then life. Just watch out for flying flags and rifles when she's around, they leave nasty bruises.

Merry Christmas

We hope everyone has a great holiday!

What's the deal with Kim?

Some more character concept art. Kim was inspired by the lead singer of THE MUFFS and other female alternative rock goddesses. I wanted her to have a "back off" kinda attitude, but also just be a really cool indie chick with a heart of gold. She is definitely the smartest of the characters. The way things are going she may play a vital role in the stories to come.

Say Hello to Annie!

In an attempt to add a little estrogen to Forever Freshman we are introducing some female characters. This is Annie, a flute playing red head who has all the boys drooling. Don't let her appearance fool you though, she's a tough cookie who is always in control of the situation and won't hesitate to give any boy a roundhouse kick to the head.

Now Available at GEEKS COMICS!

Good news!! Forever Freshman is now available at GEEKS COMICS. Geeks is a great little comic shop in uptown whittier (our old stopping grounds), we are honored to be among other great local indie comics and good people who have a passion for what they do. Stop by and pick up a copy and support your local comic store. We hope to participate in some events there in 2011 which include signings, art shows, and GEEK CON.

GEEKS

12907 E. Philadelphia St.

Whittier, CA 90601

(562) 696-9300

Open Mon-Sat 11am-9pm; Sun 12am-5pm

If you are not in the area you can now order books from our new online store.

Things are starting to happen. We have a table at 2011 San Diego Comic Con, which we are very grateful and excited about. Currently, we are working on the next comic book which will be bigger, better, stronger…ok this is starting to sound like a daft punk song, but really it will be good! You have all been so supportive and we want to give you the best comic we can. So get ready for the return of your favorite band nerds, along with new characters and wacky adventures that will turn the funny dial all the way to 11!

BAND GEEKS HOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

Thanksgiving!!!

Here is a fun little holiday illustration for all you folks. Have a great thanksgiving!

Long Beach Comic Con Review

Long Beach Comic Con was quite an experience. It was our first large scale event and really gave us a swift kick in the collective asses. I gotta say it was nice having badges and entering through the back door ( insert perverted joke here ).

We got there early Friday morning. Wide eyed and full of glee, we walked through the floor, taking in all the sights and sounds of the pre-comic con hustle and bustle. When we arrived at Artist Alley the tables were not numbered and we had to rely on a tiny printout of the floor plan to figure out where are table was. Luckily we read the floor plan correctly and found our spot. We then became the information booth for all other artists coming after us wondering where the hell their table was located. After setting up Neil had to drive down to Torrance to pick up the stickers he had ordered 3 weeks ago in a rush to get back in time for the grand opening. He arrived back just in time with a bag of McDonalds and a scorn for the parking attendant who made him pay the parking fee again because they do not allow reentry once you leave. Ray had already gotten to know the neighbors and just like out of the comic introduced Neil as the guy he had been telling them about. We were very lucky to have a wonderful, funny, exciting, energetic, magical, crazy group of people around us.

As the doors opened we sat in anticipation wondering what the reaction would be to our little homemade comic and if anyone would even buy it. The day started off slow, but picked up later in the day as people got out of school and work. We made our first sale sometime in afternoon, and were over the moon about it! Trying to keep our cool, we signed the comic and thanked the buyer for his support. Our first sale.

As the day went on the sales continued and things were looking good, really good. When Neil's wife Joanna showed up, Ray and Neil took a much needed break. When they returned Joanna had sold 4 more comics! Needless to say she worked the booth the rest of the day.

Saturday was a great day, we more then doubled our sales and received some very positive feedback. Our friends Ramon and Tiffany joined us at the booth and did a little street team work, passing out stickers and postcards on the floor.

Sunday was laid back. We were feeling more confident about talking to people and although we did not do as good as we did on Saturday, we still past up fridays sales. All in all it was a great learning experience.

We asked a few neighboring artists to do a sketch for our comic. Here are their amazing works:

We couldn't have asked for a better table mate than Sheika Lugtu. She does as online semi-daily diary comic. She struggled a little the at first with sales, mostly because she didn't have anything to sell. At one point she started to do these little card sized drawings out of boredom. Soon after that people were flocking to her table to get these precious works of art. All we could do was watch in amazement as people bought her art as fast as she could pump them out. What a talent.

Check her out at http://omgcow.blogspot.com/

Shane and Chris Houghton (aka The Dales) have a fun, cowboy western comic called Reed Gunther. We learned a lot from them, these 2 brothers really got there act together. We are so glad to have met them and thankful for all their advise.

Check out there comic at http://reedgunther.com/

We met Chris Waterman and were just blown away by his passion for illustration and comic creating. He was telling us about his latest character METULHED. We can't wait to see what he does with this. We know it's gonna be good.

Check him out at http://www.radixrising.deviantart.com/

Robert Quill is a true convention pro. With a slight of his hand and the smoothest of lines he draws people to his booth with copperfield like magic. Even when distracted by us trying to learn the ways of the force, he still manages to be effective. We can learn a lot from him.

Find his work at http://www.robertquill.com/

We sat across from John Narcomey Jr. at the San Gabriel Valley Comic Book Festival and it was a pleasure to be by him for this comic con. John is another comic con pro busting out drawings with lighting speed. I picked up his Cholo Libre comic.

See his work at http://www.drawhard.com/

I bumped into an old work colleagues Lord Mesa who does amazing 3-D art

http://lordmesa.deviantart.com/

Ray and I could not resist buying one of Nhu Diep's amazing prints

http://www.nhudiep.daportfolio.com/

Trigger men. We really enjoyed this comic.

http://www.TriptychBooks.com/

This is just a cool picture. Angus Oblong, creator of the Oblongs, eating a Forever Freshman sticker!

We got a great response from people. They are already asking when the next issue is coming out. We are ready to start the next story, and should have that out early next year. After that it's on to a full length 32-pager. We are more motivated than ever to take this to the next level. So, keep checking back for updates.

Forever Freshman Premier Comic is Here!

For less than a cup of coffee you can help 2 struggling comic creators…

After a long month of nonstop work our first comic is finally complete. I worked super hard to get this done in time for the Long Beach Comic Con and I can honestly say I am very pleased with the outcome. A big thanks to everyone who was so patient while we figured this whole thing out. So, now that the comic is done we gotta promote it, and thats where we really need your help. We will obviously be selling it at the comic con, but if you can't make it out there we will be setting up an online store where you can purchase it and we'll mail it out to you, or just ask for a copy and we will gladly get one to you. We also hope to get these out at some local venues. The book is only $2.50. We are not looking to get rich off this, just want to get the word out and break even so we can start on the next book. So if you have the extra cash ( you know you do), and your willing to help us out it will be greatly appreciated. Thank you all again sooo much for your support!

Long Beach Comic Con info

We will be at Booth 2011A

Friday 10.29 - Opening Ceremony at 12:45 PM with the show floor open from 1:00-8:00 PM

Saturday 10.30 - 10:00 AM - 7:00 PM

Sunday 10.31 - 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM

Go here for tickets:

http://shop.longbeachcomiccon.com/

Here is a sneak peak at the first 3 pages.

Long Beach Comic Con Oct. 29-31

Happy October everybody! We are hard at work creating our very first comic book, which will make it's public debut at the Long Beach Comic Con Oct. 29-31. So here is the low down on the con, tickets are $25 per day if you buy them on-line and $30 at the door. The event is located in downtown long beach so there is a ton of places to eat, drink and be scary, after all it will be halloween weekend and after parties will be in full effect. So, come by and make a day/night of it.

In other news, you can hear Ray's interview from the San Gabriel Valley Comic Book Festival on the cartoonista radio. Hear him speak so elegantly about Forever Freshman.

Thanks again to everyone for supporting us, as we continue to grow and make a name for ourselves. There is still a long road ahead.

San Gabriel Valley Comic Book Festival

We had an awesome time at SGVCBF (Although the name is super long). This was our first time showing our work in public, outside a digital realm. The reaction was very positive for the small amount of stuff we had, just some postcards, stickers and printed artwork. Everybody was super supportive and friendly, they made us feel very welcomed.

A special thanks to Grasiela Rodriguez who organized the entire event and with whom we were lucky enough to share a table with. She was promoting her first comic "Lunatic Fringe". It was nice being next to someone who is just starting out like us.

We saw a lot of familiar faces including my recent DIY comic instructor Javier Hernandez creator of El Muerto. He had some awesome sketch dolls of his character and others. I was lucky enough to pick up one of the first at geek con. I am looking forward to hearing his latest Podcast "Javiland"!

I was able to talk to Sherm Cohen a character designer I only recently discovered and now greatly admire. He showed me his sketch book that was filled with the most beautiful character drawings. I also hit up Jim Lujan and talked to him about Ghettomation. I scored an awesome freekdaddy poster, which is one of my favorite animations by Jim. There were so many others, some I met before, others I met for the first time. It's really great being in a community of like minded creatives.

Art Lopez finished off the event with a great live painting of his sculpture.

I can't wait for next year. It was a good start for us. Now it's time to get ready for the Long Beach Comic Con!

Comic Book Festival

Next Sunday September 19th we will be at the San Gabriel Valley Comic Book Festival. This is a free event for the whole family to enjoy. Neil and Ray will be there to talk about forever freshman and dance like monkeys for spare change. We hope to see you there!

Check this link for more info
http://www.sgvcomicbookfestival.com/

DIY Comic Workshop

Geeks comics held a DIY Comic Workshop with Javier Hernandez creator of El Muerto. I had a great time talking to fellow artists woking on their first comic book. Javier went over the process of creating, promoting and selling a self published comic. We all shared our individual projects and exchanged networking info. It was a very eclectic group with everyone taking a unique approach to creating their comic. Javier only got a few words in before we bombarded him with questions. I guess being super excited and new to the whole process we got impatient, but it lead to some good conversation and understanding of all the hard work that is involved with creating your own comic. Luckily he made a handbook with all the info in it so we can always go back and read that. Over all I was very happy with the workshop and enjoyed sharing my enthusiasm with my peers and mentor. I highly recommend attending one of Javier's workshops.

Freshman Muppets

A tribute to those wacky muppets.

I'm still working out the whole Forever Freshman concept and really starting to think about where I want to take it, and the best way to go about it. This is still very new and I'll be working out the kinks for a while. Now that we have a rough website I'm thinking about going the web comic route for now. We'll be improving the site and making it the command center. I've been listening to other artists and their ideas about marketing, so the wheels are turning. My goal is to build a following and find our audience. I want to start doing a consistent bi-weekly web comic. We're are still planning on doing a print comic, but it may take a little longer then expected. If you are following this it all begins here. Who knows where it will end up.

Thanks

-Neil

FOREVER FICTION

Did a sketch during lunch of Ray and I in a Pulp Fiction Posse. Thought I'd make a little poster out of it.

BAND GEEKS!

Awww band, so many memories. Let's get this party started!

Quick sketch of Ramone

What is Forever Freshman? / New Logo

Forever freshman is a celebration of the underdogs, freaks, geeks, nerds, misfits and outcasts. Which is pretty much everybody! We've all been in awkward situations, picked on, rejected or humiliated (or all of the above). These experiences help define who we are and shape our lives. For every new situation, challenge and endeavor we become freshman all over again. Figuring things out and making mistakes along the way, but hopefully learning and becoming better people.

That's all nice and good, but I still don't know what the hell it is!?!?

We are telling our story through a comic book/comic strips roughly based on the lives of an adolescent Neil Segura and Ray Mendivil. It takes place in a working class suburb of LA in which we grew up and includes many equally peculiar friends. The comic strips will be posted online at www.foreverfreshman.com (Coming Soon) and we will be printing out a full length comic book as well. Aside from the comics we plan on creating other outlets such as, music, stickers, shirts, art, podcasts and animation just to name a few. All based on the characters from Forever Freshman. Our hope is to create a brand for everyone and anyone brave enough to embrace a grassroots/do it yourself culture. It's about choosing your own path and being an individual.

So, I spent all weekend drawing and designing this logo. One of the biggest challenges was designing the text in an unfamiliar style. I wanted it to be kinda graffitish, fun, cartoony look. I wasn't getting what I wanted using any type font so I decided to draw it out myself, which wasn't the easiest thing for me to do but after many failures I got something I was happy with. I decided to add some other design elements to better communicate what Forever Freshman is all about, but tried to keep the title treatment as the main focus. The other stuff is more for embelishment, but still designed to compliment the logo.

Green Eggs & Spam

Comic Strip #1

Block Printing

So I bought a block printing starter kit and spent the weekend carving and printing. It was pretty great! I haven't made a block print since high school, so it took a little time getting into the groove. I used a very soft material which was extremely easy to cut and made two prints of characters from my comic. Until now I have only had sketches and computer renderings so to have some tangible artwork feels good. My hope is to make a series of these prints to coincide with the comic. Since they are small and easy to reproduce I'm gonna try to sell them for relatively cheap, but for this first round I'll most likely give away for promotion. If you are interested in these let me know.

P.S. I have to give thanks to my wonderful wife who took pictures of the process for all to enjoy.