Power Rangers Megaforce Vol 3 IN PRINT!

SUPER EXCITED to announce the printing of Papercutz' Power Rangers Megaforce Volume 3!  I got some complimentary books ("comps") mailed to me and it's so great to be holding a work I contributed to in my hands!

Look for me in the credits page as a colorist :)  I'm so happy my name is spelled right!  This is the first job I've done with a large company that has my name in print as "Mindy Indy."  Back when I colored Deadpool Max with Kyle Baker, I was "ghosting" so it was under just his name.

These are the pages I'm most proud of :)  This is when the rangers call upon their "Zords" and they all combine to form the big Megazord (like Voltron).  Also in this episode, the rangers fight a giant trash monster.  It's pretty sweet!  Power Rangers Megaforce Vol 3 is supposed to be in stores on August 27th, so mark your calendars!

Last week when I was dragging my suitcase in the rain for like 20 minutes, I also had a sandwich with me.  The Subway bag was wet, so I feared the worst.  Luckily, you know how they double wrap the sandwich in paper?  That mostly saved it!

Boston Comic Con Success!!!

Boston Comic Con was SUPER AMAZINGLY AWESOME!!!  Here's my new set up:  my own pipe frame to hang artwork and signs from, and new red cloth tablecloth (instead of plastic... those things got torn up).  To the far right of the picture, you'll see Bill Walko, another artist/writer, who's super friendly.  Special thanks to my friend Julia for helping me with the table and passing out flyers :)  And thanks also to her husband Matt for driving us :)  I was doing sketch commissions non-stop Saturday and most of the day Sunday.  Yay for profits!  And it seems like everyone I talked to did pretty well too.  Boston Comic Con will definitely be on my touring schedule for years to come!

Here are a few of the sketches I did:

This one wins best sketch of the con:  the guy wanted a specific boat (forgot what it was called exactly) with a unicorn's horn instead of the prow.

This little girl loved Sponge Bob.  The parents just wanted me to draw her and him together, and voila!  A fun portrait :)

I love when people ask me to combine characters in unique ways.

Did lots of portraits of people dressed as their favorite characters - especially couples!

The 2 guys on the right were very specific like "I want to have Wolverine claws and please highlight my pocket within a pocket," while the 2 on the left were like "do whatever."  Yep, cute animal ears is what you get when you let mindy indy take over!

Yep - my friend Julia's dog encountered a skunk on Saturday night after the convention.  Craziness ensued.

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Yeah... so this happened to me Thursday.  It's a couple avenues walk from the subway stop to where Megabus picks you up - it's not even in a station either, it's on the side of the road with no shelter. Luckily I had put a plastic bag over my backpack, but was still worried my laptop had damage (thank God it didn't!). But when I go to Boston I found out that a bunch of my prints had water damage on the edges I laid them out to dry and will probably cut off those edges later. But yeah I'll need to ask other exhibitors what they do to protect their wares in rain. Come to think of it, I've been really lucky until now that I haven't had to deal with rain with all the conventions I've done. First time for everything. But relaxing with friends in Boston today, and it's gonna be a craZy weekend for Boston Comic Con!  (This post was Friday's post, but the site was still screwed up - catching up!)

Website Issues

My website has been down off and on for the past week :(  I get an error message that says "the server has been reset" and GoDaddy hosts my server, and whenever I call in, they can't determine the problem.  My site is on wordpress, but they don't host the server, but I'm wondering if it's a bug in wordpress?  Does anyone have any ideas?  Thanks!  This comes at the worst time because I've been getting stuff ready for the Boston Comic Con this weekend.  People are going to be going to my site and I can't have the server be down :(

3 days to go

No time to post much today - got so much stuff going on!  Finished inking my new story just now!  Gotta go to work, pack, scan the story and hopefully do some photoshop magic tonight.  Looks like I'm gonna print them in Boston.  Luckily, Staples is everywhere!  If you or a friend will be in Boston this weekend, make sure to check out the Boston Comic Con!  More special guests include:  Laurie Holden from "The Walking Dead," Dean O'Gorman & Aidan Turner from "The Hobbit," and Kristin Bauer from "True Blood."

PS:  To the people on my mailing list, you may get this on Thursday instead of Wednesday because GoDaddy sucks and my site has been down off & on for like a week.

4 Days...

4 days until Boston Comic Con!  Some cool people that will be there include Neal Adams, Mike Mignola, and George Perez, among other awesome artists you may or may not have heard of!  Here's the lineup for Artist's Alley.  They have me listed under "Melinda Steffen" instead of "Mindy Indy."

I'll be at Carmine St. Comics today, hopefully finishing up all the inking on my new comic.

Boston Comic Con Countdown!

5 days until Boston Comic Con!  Super excited!  There's a lot going on at BCC - some things I'd go to if I didn't have a table are:

Saturday 8/2

Female Creators 6pm-6:45pm Amy Reeder, Colleen Doran, Sara Richard

Colleen Doran totally rocks!  I looooooove her art style and her graphic novels of "A Distant Soil" influenced the look of "Aer Head."  (Yes, been awhile since I've worked on Aer... I need to stop being such a perfectionist about it).

BCC's Indie Film Fest

Sunday 8/3

How to Pitch Your Comic to Publishers 2pm-2:45pm Anthony Del Col, co-creator of Kill Shakespeare

I've finished drawing my new comic, and am moving on to inking today.  Can't wait to show it off!

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Glad to announce that last Saturday, over $5,000 was raised at Super Heroes for Hospice!  Thanks to everyone that came to the show!

Super excited about next week's Boston Comic Con!  OOOOOOOO!!!  I'm kicking my table display up a notch - just went to Home Depot today and got supplies to build a frame to hang my pictures on.

Here's a picture of the scaffolding thing.  My friend Alitha showed me how to build one!

New Custom Comic!

This comic is part of a set of 4 comic strips about troubles this guy encountered when trying to propose!  He did in fact get to propose at the end.  If you'd like to get a custom comic, please look at my custom comics page and we can discuss.  Custom comics are super fun and super personalized gifts!

My mom witnessed this.  On the 4th of July.  Great to live in America!

New Postcard Flyers!

It's time to make more postcards!  Made this one super quick last night.  I'm going to be doing more conventions like Boston Comic Con and Baltimore Comic Con, and because these are bigger conventions, I want to do the street team thing again to drive people to my table.  Another goal is to direct people to my social media sites more.  Last time I designed the postcards, I had The Daily Misfortune taking up the whole card, which was good to see an example of my work, but it was black and white and not very eye-catching.  This time I made it more colorful and bold.  (Almost looks like mindy indy is a club ;)  This look may or may not have been influenced by actual club flyers.  Speaking of which, the company I printed from is called clubflyers.com....)

Lately I've been eating a lot of Chinese take-out because it's too hot to cook.  I love fortune cookies (which is why I started this crazy comic) and I look forward to the fortune at the end of the meal.  Unfortunately (or should I say Mis-fortunately?), all my fortunes have been SUPER LAME and I was super disappointed each time!  I don't even remember any of them, but they didn't even make sense and I really think the fortune cookie people need to hire new writers, like me > : )  But luckily, you'll always get a SUPER AWESOME FUNNY fortune when you read The Daily Misfortune!  So yeah, do that the next time you get a dumb boring fortune from a real restaurant.

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This happened to some people I know who wish to remain anonymous ;)  Sh*t you just can't make up.  Although the raccoon didn't break ALL the tchochkes, only the ones by the window.

Today is Carmine St. Comics Tuesdays for me!  Stop by 34 Carmine St in the Village to see what new stuff I'm working on (lettering for a freelance comic), get a sketch, or just chill.

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This actually happened yesterday evening and it scared the crap out of me!  I put a check in the ATM like normal, but then it made a scary crunching noise and had an error message saying the check wasn't deposited.  It didn't spit the check back out.  PANIC.  Called the number it says to call if the ATM has a problem, but it was after hours on a Sunday and nobody could help.  EXTRA PANIC.  Saw an emergency help line to call if there's a crime:  this is an emergency - it's $500 freakin dollars!  It's not like it's $25... it's $500!  Got through thank God and it took a half hour to clear things up and get a credit.  I'm so glad I thought to call that other number, and you should too if it happens to you.  Most upsetting ATM experience ever.  I guess it would be more upsetting if I got robbed though.  Thankfully, things are cleared up.  At least it inspired another Daily Misfortune.

In other news, Super Heroes for Hospice went ok on Saturday.  Not as much of a turnout as last time, but still good.  Had to do my presentation without my Power Point though, because their computer didn't have the program.  Next time I'll have to bring my own.  Luckily, I practiced beforehand and made notes, so it was still a good presentation.

In other OTHER news, I also submitted that talk as a panel for NYCC - fingers crossed that I get in!  Just found out I was approved for a professional pass, so at least I'm in there somehow, but ideally I'd love to make a presentation and I'll keep an ear out if table spots open up.

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Hopefully this won't happen to me tomorrow at Super Heroes for Hospice.  It's a lot of cookies from Brooklyn to Jersey.  If you're in the area, check it out!  10a-6p at the Barnabas Health Corporate Office, 95 Old Short Hills Rd, West Orange NJ.  FREE!

Super Heroes for Hospice This Saturday!

I'm in another Super Heroes for Hospice convention this Saturday July 20th!  10AM-6PM.  95 Old Short Hills Rd., West Orange, NJ 07052.  It's their special 5 year anniversary, and should be even more awesome than the last few shows they did.  I'll also give my talk about selling your comic art at conventions at 12:30.  Each time I do this talk, I add some things I've learned, so it's a bit different from the last time I presented.  Here are more details:

Superheroes For Hospice hosts their 5th Anniversary, Summer, Charity Comic Book Sale!

Through the sale of comic books, graphic novels and other hero related items, like action figures and artwork, funds are raised to support the work of Barnabas Health Hospice and Palliative Care Center.

The sale will feature over 450 long comic book boxes filled with all kinds of comics that will appeal to a wide spectrum of collectors. From Archie Comics, Marvel and DC comics, to a myriad of independent titles, all age groups will find so many choices, that buyers should allow time to browse. A guest vendor will be showcasing comics from the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s, for those who are real serious collectors.

In attendance will also be over a dozen sketch artists and local creators, so you’ll want to leave yourself enough time to discuss their projects and/or to get their version of your favorite hero.

Two guests will present lectures for budding artists. Mindy Indy will focus her 12:30pm talk on presenting work at conventions and Paris Cullns, the original Blue Devil artist (DC Comics), will, at 2:30pm, highlight the do’s and don’ts of submitting work to publishers.

There is no admission fee to enter the sale or these discussions.

Between 11am and 3pm, the cosplay group, known as the East Coast Avengers, will have their members in costume roaming the sale and available for photos….Last time we saw Spider-man, Captain America, Thor and Iron Man; who’ll show up this time?

Superheroes for Hospice was started by Volunteer Coordinator, Spiro Ballas in 2009. To date over $48,000 has been raised to support the agency’s work. If you have a question about this sale or donating to the project, please contact him at 973-322-4866 or Sballas@BarnabasHealth.org

GUESTS:

Nadia Burgess – Artist - http://toughspirit.deviantart.com/ Paul Castiglia – Writer / Editor (Archie Comics) - Wrote the entire Archie’s Weird Mystery comic book series - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Castiglia Paris Cullins – Artist; original artist for the Blue Devil (DC Comics) - http://comicbookdb.com/creator.php?ID=467 Edward Dippolito – Writer / Artist / Creator of Frank N. Stein - http://franknsteincomic.com/ Michael Grassia – Cartoonist - www.michaelgrassia.com Darrell Goza – Writer / Artist / Creator of Spiritfist - http://ScriptGraphics.weebly.com/ Mindy Indy – Writer / Artist - www.mindyindy.com Jeffrey F. Kipnis – Writer / Creator of Lightning Squirrel - http://danokdath.tripod.com/index.html Sharon Levine – Writer / Artist - https://www.facebook.com/ThePerfectRaindrop David Earl McClain – Artist / Creator of The Artifyce Connection - https://www.facebook.com/QsGrafix Janimal Quisumbing – Artist / Writer / Creator of The Adventures of PogiBoy and Big Brown Monkey - http://thejanimal.com/ Don Smith – Writer – http://donsmith74.wordpress.com/ Edwin Vazquez – Artist / Writer / Creator of Werewolf of NYC - http://www.edwinvazquezart.com/ Emilio Velez Jr. – Artist / Writer / Creator of The Dodgeball Teens - www.dodgeballteens.com

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Today I'm at Carmine St. Comics all day!  Working on the next No Tears:  Life With FD comic and maybe some of my own stuff too.  I've been slowly working on a NEW short story :)  Stop by 34 Carmine St. for a sketch, see what I'm working on, check out cool comics, and/or chill (WE HAVE AIR CONDITIONING!).

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New Monthly Comic!

I'm excited to share with you a new monthly comic!  Formerly called RLS, or Restless Legs Syndrome, the WED (Willis-Ekbom Disease) Foundation has commissioned me to do a monthly comic!  You may have heard of Restless Legs Syndrome and thought "oh now they're making up diseases" (even people I told about the strip did!).  One of the goals of this comic is to spread the knowledge that this is actually a serious condition that really affects quality of life for a lot of people.  Basically, because people (it mostly affects women) who have WED get intense pain in their legs at night, they need to get up to try to relieve the pain and it causes insomnia.  Having experienced insomnia myself at times, I can relate to the tolls it can take.

A person that's involved with both the WED Foundation and the FD Foundation (that I do the weekly No Tears:  Life With FD strip for) made this connection happen.  And what's extra cool is that the WED Foundation is based in Minnesota!  (Go Midwest!)  I love that I'm now getting work from people I haven't even met in person.  I've heard a lot that American companies are hiring artists from other countries to work for cheap, which bothers me.  I've also heard of some language miscommunication that happens because of this, and the comic turns out ok, but some details are wrong.  But I'm happy to say that my communication has been great over phone and email for this project and another project I did previously.  Don't hire overseas artists - hire mindy indy for your comics to get the best quality of work :)

Here's an FD comic from a few weeks ago:

When they said "the setting is in a mall" I of course had to put one of my favorite stores, Hot Topic, in the background.  And Cinnabon :)  When I was drawing this I wanted a Cinnabon SO BAD!  I kind of got carried away with all the details... there's a lot of stuff in malls!

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I swear, this has happened to me all summer!

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I found out that I didn't make it into New York Comic Con.  But this happened last year, and a space opened up last minute!  I'm not discouraged yet.  Hopefully lightning will strike twice!