No, it’s not buy one get one free at the taco stand (although, I wish it did). It means it’s time for a new Albert the Alien!

So Albert and Gerty finish their talk about the mystery locker, which Wally (who was nearby picking on Martin) has overheard. Wally saying “we can check out the locker later,” implies something more nefarious in my book. I don’t think he means just looking at it. I think he means something more evil and mean.

And then Wally goes to pull one of his old tricks – the ol’ pool on the roof trick.

This was big at my school growing up, always trying to tell freshmen or new kids in the school about the pool on the roof. Now, most people in middle school are probably quick to pick up on this being a fib – however, Albert is a little more trusting than most. He doesn’t know any better that Wally is a mean kid, and Albert’s sense of adventure always propels him forward. In this case, he’s headed up to the roof to check things out.

For the record, whenever someone tells you there’s a pool on the roof, chances are there isn’t really a pool on the roof. Unless, maybe, you’re in a fancy hotel. Which has roof access. And signs that say “pool, this way” pointing towards the stairs to the roof.

Will Wally get away with his mean schemes? Let’s find out next week: same Albert time, same Albert website!

So Albert has a device that can bend time and space – a storage device where he can access all of his stuff at any given time from any place with a Trans-Dimensional Distortion Device (TD3). Basically, it’s like accessing digital files from a cloud, only this is for physical objects.

How cool would it be able to access your stuff anywhere you went? If you took a long trip and wanted a bulky toy, you could get it from the TD3. Forgot to pack your important personal item, but you put it in the cloud? No worries – you can access it right away! Want to share your stuff with your friends – it’s all good! Just give them access and they can return the stuff they borrowed, no muss no fuss.

Yeah, I think it would be awesome!

Gabe drew a number of fun things to go into Albert’s locker – including a Metroid-like creature in a glass globe. Fun stuff that a middle school alien kid would likely own. What would be in your ideal alien locker?

Then we switch focus to “the mystery locker,” which Gabe numbered as “locker 13.” It’s my experience that in every school there is that one undesirable spot – sometimes a locker, sometimes a seat in the classroom or cafeteria. And in my past schools, there’s always a spot that’s considered unlucky. In my old school, it was this off-colored sidewalk tile. At WMU (granted, a college campus) it’s the “W” in the middle of the campus. If you touch these things, you risk failing your next test. So I wanted to combine these two elements in Albert’s world to be the cursed locker. We will find out more about the mystery locker much later in Albert’s adventures.

Do you have any fun mystery lockers in school, or cursed areas?

Enter CIA agent Tony Mendez (Affleck), who specializes in extracting people from situations just like this. His idea is to use a cover – the team is a Canadian film crew doing a location scout for a science fiction movie. It’s never been done before, and no one is sure if it will work – but it’s the best worst idea they have.

Based on a true story and winner of several Oscars in 2013, Argo is an incredible movie chronically the journey of desperate people in a desperate situation – and one man who is trying to get them home safely. The performances are great, the music is excellent, and the tension is palpable throughout the entire movie.

Do yourself a favor and get this movie. It is awesome – and the documentaries on the actual declassified mission are pretty great as well.

There’s a lot of activity on this page, so we’ll start in the background with Wally picking on Martin. He said he was going to do it again in an earlier page, and here he is – following through.

Meanwhile, in the foreground, Albert and Gerty talk about why Albert came to Earth, and talk about decorating their lockers. I remember when I was in middle school was had locker buddies, and the two of you got to decorate the lockers. My locker buddy was Kevin, and we both loved comics – so our lockers were decorated with comic stuff. Some of it was even our own artwork.

So when thinking about Albert, I had to come up with a way that he would personalize his locker – preferably something that could carry over into later story elements of the series. What did I come up with? Well, come back on Wednesday to find out!

Today we see Albert’s school supplies are not normal inanimate objects, like our school supplies. In fact, they appear to be somewhat EVIL!

When coming up with the concepts for Albert the Alien, I knew I wanted to turn a normal first day in school on its side. So I asked myself what were things everyone brought to school with them on the first day of school – and how do we make that cool and interesting for Albert? School supplies seemed like a natural thing to manipulate – what if they had personas, and did the teaching at Albert’s school? What if they finally got off world and decided they could do a better job teaching than our teachers?

Having the school supplies be characters was a fun way to introduce the world of Albert to the readers, and for me to platform later adventures to come. Plus, they’re a lot of fun to write. The drill Sargent-like laser pen, the correcting / explanatory tablet, and the silent laser pointer – which fires real lasers!

We’ll be seeing a lot of these guys throughout our first adventure with Albert. Come back on Friday for more fun adventures!

After the events in Avengers, Tony Stark is having some trouble sleeping. So instead he goes into his basement and tinkers on the Iron Man technology – having created a new suit, called Mark 42, which can travel to him and attach itself to his body wherever he may be. Meanwhile, a new terrorist called The Mandarin (Kingsley) has been bombing cities around the world, leaving no traces of the explosive devices. War Machine, now Iron Patriot, piloted by Colonel James Rhodes (Cheadle) has been investigating, but cannot figure out how he’s doing it.

When an explosion goes off on American soil injuring Tony’s friend Happy (Favreau), Tony gets personally involved and calls out the Mandarin – causing his home to be attacked and Tony to be considered dead. Now, with little resources at his disposal, Tony must find the connection between these bombings and stop this new threat once and for all.

I’m torn on how I feel about this movie (and here come the spoilers). So let’s break out the positives and negatives:

POSITIVES:

• More action than the previous Iron Man movies
• Robert Downey Jr kicks all kinds of ass
• More emphasis on the great supporting cast – Pepper (Paltrow) and Rhodes are awesome
• Finally a kick ass villain on par with Tony both physically as well as intellectually
• Awesome ending sequence with all of the Iron Man armors battling on Tony’s behalf

NEGATIVES:

• Tonally very different from the previous Iron Man flicks – much darker and Tony is more desperate (this is like the Die Hard of superhero flicks)
• Tension points could have been dragged out a bit more to, you know…build tension. The trailer has more tension in it than many scenes in the movie
• Big twist that completely contradicts the comic book continuity – this has thrown the comic book world into two camps: the lovers and the haters. And honestly, both have a strong leg to stand on
• No set up for future Marvel movies – movie felt more like a fond farewell to RDJ, since this is his last contracted movie with Marvel

So how did I feel about the movie? Well, overall I liked it. It was pretty funny like past Iron Man movies, and it was great to see what a desperate Tony Stark would do. But the movie was just very dark – the villains very frightening – and the themes very contemporary. And the big twist left me with a bitter taste in my mouth. I was entertained when happened, but I spent the entire movie asking if the twist was necessary. Or if there would be another twist that said, “Just kidding. That twist was a lie!” But it never happened.

I’m sure I will be buying this movie when it comes out, but it didn’t feel like the first installment of Phase 2 of the Marvel movies. It felt like a goodbye to RDJ – and while I understand he was only contracted for 5 movies (come on, Hulk barely counted) I really wanted a better teaser for Avengers 2, Guardians of the Galaxy, or Thor 2 later this year. I wanted a twist that didn’t undo decades of comic book continuity. I wanted something to be excited about after this movie ended and the scene after the credits was over.

But in the end, the movie just left me wanting.

It’s not the same tone as what Marvel did with Phase 1, and that’s disappointing. And unfortunately they didn’t give me anything to be excited about for Phase 2. So the question remains – how do I feel about the movie?

I think I need some more time to process….

FRIDAY:
Trevor and the Panel that Shall Not be Named
WHEN: 9:30pm-10:30pm
WHERE: DaVinci A-B (Hyatt)
WHAT: Nor described

SATURDAY:
So you Want to Make Comics
WHEN: 8:15pm-9:15pm
WHERE: Narita A-B (Hyatt)
WHAT: Russell Lissau, John Bivens, Steve Horton and Trevor Mueller will answer all your questions about writing, drawing and the business of comics. It’s never been easier or more fun to make comics, but there’s a lot of work that needs to be done, too.

Making Webcomics
WHEN: 9:30pm-10:30pm
WHERE: Vienna (Hyatt)
WHAT: Comic guest Trevor Mueller has been making webcomics for almost 10 years. He discusses the different formats, how to get set up with a website (especially if you don’t know how to make your own), ways to promote your work and build a community, and answers your questions about making you webcomic a success on the web.

The first day of school brings a lot of new things with it. New school outfits. New classes, study partners, and locker buddies. And yes, new school supplies. However, if you’re shopping for school supplies on another planet, it goes to show that they would be a little different from what we buy at the local store.

Enter Albert’s school supplies – which, on Albert’s home planet of Xevon VII, are actually the ones who educate the students. Albert’s school supplies are the teachers – with minds and homework assignments of their very own. And we’ll find out a bit more about this in the pages to come.

No matter what planet they are from, however, they appear to know a bad apple when they see one. Clearly, they don’t get along with Wally.

My favorite part of this page is actually the line about the calculator. I remember reading an article growing up about how mathematics were the universal language. If that were the case, then Albert wouldn’t need a fancy calculator – it would function the same way as our calculators, since math is “universal.” This joke always made me chuckle a little.

Stay tuned for the next page update on Friday, when we get even more Albert fun! See you then!

Despite being in a bit of a funk the entire weekend (for reasons I have yet to fully understand), the weekend was an amazing success – both socially and financially.

FRIDAY:
Friday morning the group got up, packed the car, and left for the show to set up the booth space. Reading with Pictures (RWP) had a fantastic location, which got a lot of traffic. We were selling through the last of the RWP hardcover stock (the softcovers for volume 1 having sold out last year), and sales were strong and steady throughout the day.

Russell Lissau, Trevor Mueller, and Gabriel Bautista run the Reading with Pictures booth at C2E2

In addition to the anthologies, I was also selling my all ages books Junkyard Chase and Albert the Alien. Overall, sales were strong and the fans were very receptive to trying a new book.

After the show, the group joined up with several other creators and went to China Town for dinner. A little stir-fry place with poor service but delicious food was the topic of the day. And despite it taking forever to get our meal, the server did bring us a few free appetizers and meals to make up for it.

Dinner in China Town

After dinner, we headed back to my place for much needed sleep. The major events of the weekend were yet to come!

After dinner, the group stands outside the restaurant. Photo by Russell Lissau

SATURDAY:
Waking up early, the group headed to the convention and set up the booth. I had a very important meeting set up with an important creator / editor, and it was very fruitful (announcements forthcoming, once I can talk about them). Gabe and I talked some business post meeting, and plans were made to really blow out some future projects we have in the pipeline.

The show was almost sold out on Saturday, so the convention center was wall-to-wall people. In addition to the plethora of attendees, some of our comic creator friends were in attendance – including Rival Angels creator Alan Evans.

Alan and Tracie Evans, Trevor Mueller and Beth Noonkester stand in front of the RWP booth

After a brief walk around artist alley, it was back to selling at the booth. A long day resulted in lower sales volume – which was also the case at NYCC last year – but still a ton of fun. And, the sales were more than made up for the next day.

After the show we grabbed Bryan Glass (Mice Templar) and headed to my favorite sushi place in the city, Niu. The group enjoyed a good dinner and relaxing beverages – followed by more much needed sleep.

SUNDAY:
The final day of the show was kids day, and man oh man where there a lot of families at the show. And those families were buying! We sold through the RWP hardcovers, Russ sold a ton of Strawberry Shortcakes, and I sold through a solid chunk of Albert the Alien.

During the afternoon, Josh and I had a live reading of new RWP material. Unfortunately, due to a technical issue, we had to read from the Albert the Alien books instead. This went over really well with the audience, who laughed at all the right spots and enjoyed all of the jokes through. Between the stories, Josh talked about some of the other stories appearing in the Graphic Textbook (RWP vol 2), and how those stories can be applied to an academic environment. The reading was a huge success, resulting in several families coming back to the RWP table to purchase all of the copies of Albert (and learn about the newly launched webcomic series)

Russell Lissau, intern Aliza, Trevor Mueller and Gabriel Bautista laugh it up at the booth

Meanwhile, back at the booth, the gang was having a fun time selling books and hanging out. And even posing for pictures with fans. Gabe was in full form, and providing sketches for kids – and selling commission sketch cards.

One of our many fans poses behind the booth with the creative duo

A fan who wanted a sketch of a character we didn’t know. So they decided to sketch it for us

Intern Aliza, Trevor Mueller and Gabriel Bautista try to sell copies of the book to Trevor’s fiance. She already owns copies of everything, however….

At the end of the show it was time to clean up, and get home. The weekend had been a lot of hard work, but a ton of fun and rewarding in every sense of the word. I can’t wait until the next C2E2!

The student paparazzi, lead by student reporter Miranda Tam, are documenting his first steps inside of the school. Albert is a seriously fun character to write because he’s just a normal everyday kid – but he’s just different enough to be a little strange. This is often the way I felt as a kid growing up – being into comics, cartoons, video games and other things that the normal or popular kids thought were nerdy. Back when “nerdy” meant “not cool.” Now, with the popularity of video game systems and comic book movies, I think it may be a little different story. Maybe.

“Take me to your teacher” is probably my favorite line from Albert in the first issue. It’s like the cliche alien line “take me to your leader,” but just different enough to have charm and be cute and funny. Which is what Albert is – unintentionally funny and odd.

In fact, upon telling the class a little about himself, they’re not really sure how to react. Or what he even said, exactly. The only person who has an opinion at this point is Wally – the school bully. And let’s be honest, Wally’s feelings are probably not towards the positive end of the spectrum.

Another fantastic update goes live on Friday! Be sure to come back and check it out!