Terrance Zdunich's Blog, page 6
October 17, 2012
The Number(ing) Of The Beast
2012 has been a year of setting unreasonable goals and, somehow—by hook and by crook—meeting them.
Eleven days into ’012, director Darren Lynn Bousman and I began principal photography on our sophomore film collaboration, The Devil’s Carnival. Three months later, The Devil’s Carnival was completed and we embarked on two consecutive, concert-like film tours, blazing a trail across sixty cities between April and August. On tour, we shared our musical movie with North American audiences at a series of one-night-only event screenings. In September, we stumbled off our devilish tour van and began creating content and striking retail and digital distribution deals for an October Blu-ray and DVD release. And, before the year is wrapped, we plan to be in pre-production on a second episode of The Devil’s Carnival, revving up to make 2013 another year of unreasonable—yet somehow achieved—goals (note: amidst all of the devilish deeds above, I also managed to produce the seventh issue of my twelve-part comic book series, The Molting, which is available now at www.TheMoltingComic.com).
Unlike Darren’s and my foremost film collaboration, Repo! The Genetic Opera, The Devil’s Carnival was produced—and is now being distributed—completely independently. This indie model means a lot of work for us, the filmmakers, but it also means a lot of creative freedom… including making and sharing our content at the accelerated pace listed above.
With The Devil’s Carnival, we didn’t need to contend with the drawn-out approval processes that would be customary with a studio film. If The Devil’s Carnival needed to be passed through the traditional movie mill, we’d most likely still be waiting for an official release date to be announced, hoping that the project would reach audiences before enthusiasm waned.
Waiting aside, there’s a certain freedom in handing off the management of a project, relinquishing control of the hows and whens of distribution. With Repo!, for example, Darren and I never had to worry about how DVDs of the film would be assembled, where and when they’d be shipped, or how inventory would be accounted for. It simply happened. Lionsgate had a system and team in place to make Repo!‘s cinema cogs spin. The Devil’s Carnival, however, is a very different story…
Throughout the year, Darren, producer Sean E Demott, a fist full of friends and colleagues, and myself, have had our fingers in every aspect of The Devil’s Carnival‘s production and distribution pie. In the past two months, for example, we’ve learned more than we’d ever cared to know about DVDs and Blu-rays…. and we’re using this knowledge to assemble the coolest presentations possible, including two unique collector’s sets available October 23rd!
The Devil’s Carnival‘s top-shelf, fancy-schmancy “Ringmaster Edition” is a Blu-ray and DVD box set. The menu includes almost two hours of exclusive behind-the-scenes documentaries, including “The Devil Made Me Do It: The Making-of The Devil’s Carnival”, “A Devil of a Time: The Devil’s Carnival Road Tour”, and “The Devil’s In The Details: The Special Makeup and Prosthetic Effects of The Devil’s Carnival”. The discs also contain creator, cast, and “Repo! Reunion” audio commentary tracks, a collectable booklet of T.D.C. song lyrics, and more. There are only 6,660 of these gems manufatured (we should know because we hand-numbered them during an all-night silver Sharpee session earlier this week!). The Ringmaster Edition is available for pre-order now at www.TheDevilsCarnival.com… so get yours while supplies last!
The “Sinner Edition” DVD & Expanded Soundtrack Set will be available only at Hot Topic retail stores on October 23rd. The “Sinner” stars T.D.C.‘s music team, with a music audio commentary track and featurette, “The Devil’s Interval: The Music of The Devil’s Carnival”. The Sinner Edition also includes an eighteen-song expanded soundtrack with never-before-released music.
On October 23rd, The Devil’s Carnival will also be available on digital download… so mark your calendars because “a wicked wonderland of beauty and seductive fun” (Horror.com) will be available this Tuesday for home viewing! And, for all of you Sinners from across the sea, those sad souls who weren’t able to attend our North American Tours, the Ringmaster Edition Blu-rays and DVDs are multi-regional, so pre-order your set today ’cause we’re a-shipping Internationally as well as domestically!
Starting Friday, we will begin mailing Ringmaster Sets all over the world. As mentioned earlier, The Devil’s Carnival is an independent effort so Darren and I will personally be fulfilling many of your orders, along with the help of our dedicated carnie team, Laura Bousman, Benjamin Michael Marsh, Courtney Ortega, Spooky Dan Walker, and Kimmie Yan. We’ll be working tirelessly to get your orders into your mailboxes as close to October 23rd as (sub)humanly possible.
Due to varying customs procedures, International orders may take longer to arrive than domestic ones—please allow a week to ten business days—but rest assured that we take every order seriously. If your Ringmaster Set is not sitting in your box by 8:00 AM on Tuesday morning, however, we ask that you not punish your mailman, your mailman’s children, your mailman’s pets, or us. Bombarding us with emails and phone calls regarding the status of your order will only slow down our delivery process. We’re a small crew, not a company, working to tackle a lot of orders, so we appreciate your patience and understanding in this regard… but rest assured that your orders will be dealt with, and that it will be worth any wait that you may experience!
There are a few Ringmaster Sets left, so, if you haven’t already, be sure to pre-order yours before we run out. For everyone else, Sinner Edition Sets will be available at Hot Topic stores, and digital downloads will be available from iTunes, this Tuesday, October 23rd!
October 9, 2012
Living With Your Art
Throughout adulthood, I’ve not only been living with the consequences of life as an artist—exciting creative exploration mixed with stifling financial hardship—but living with the artwork itself. Especially since the fall of ’09.
Three and a half years ago, I began creating and distributing an independent comic book series called The Molting about a dysfunctional American family living near Disneyland. When finished, this graphic, twelve-issue story arc will breach six hundred pages. Since embarking on this multi-year, multi-paneled journey, I’ve been living with the repercussions of life as a comic book artist—long hours hunched over a drafting table—while also residing with the art itself: my studio has become a veritable comic book warehouse. There, I store and ship orders of The Molting to readers all over the globe.
Issue Seven, “Supernatural Aid”, was completed and delivered early last week from Jakprints, the Cleveland-based shop that’s loyally printed each installment of The Molting. The new chapter was transported via fourteen twenty-four pound boxes—a shipment totaling over three hundred and thirty-six pounds! Imagine this hefty comics load, then multiply it for each of the seven issues. You should now have a better appreciation of the title of this blog.
With the launch of each issue, I’m tasked with finding new ways to position and stack the expanding sea of “Molting” inventory. It’s like a life-size Tetris game trying to divine the most spatially-economic, least-obtrusive way of stationing the multiplying paper pillars. With every box I heave, I pray that The Molting series will do well… not only so that I can afford to keep the lights on in my hut o’ art, but so that I can clear enough space so that I no longer need to high hurdle over comic book boxes to reach the toilet.
As with each Molting freight, when issue seven arrived, I met the delivery person at the curb and helped him lug the heavy boxes up the stairs to my apartment. On our third or fourth trip from the FedEx van to my second-story stoop, the driver built up the nerve to ask a question… a question that had been itching at him since he loaded the three hundred-plus pounds of The Molting into his delivery vehicle that morning.
“Sir, I don’t mean to pry, but what’s in the boxes? Is it chemicals, ’cause I’ve been smelling something all day? It’s given me a bit of a headache, actually.”
I contemplated telling the driver that I was a meth cook, and that he just aided and abetted my criminal enterprise by transporting drug ingredients into my lair… but, feeling guilty that the freshly-pressed stink of ink permeating from the pages of my latest work had given him a headache, I refrained.
While nauseating in bulk, there’s nothing more satisfying than cracking open the pages of a just-printed book—one that you’ve spent months to create—and breathing in that fresh ink smell. It’s the scent of graphic goodness mixed with creative victory; the aroma that makes living with your art fucking worth it!
I invite you to join me in a freshly-inked whiff and order a copy of The Molting today. The first seven issues are available only at TheMoltingComic.com.
I’m tempted to extol upon you the non-olfactory virtues of The Molting comic book series, but, like most artists, I’m my own worst salesman. As such, I’m hoping to get some assistance from you, fair readers.
If you’ve been following The Molting, please share what you like about it/what’s kept you coming back for each new issue. Is there a character that you relate to, or elements of the story that resinate with you? Do you like the artwork, or the non-superhero nature of the series? Basically, if you were going to recommend The Molting to somebody who knew nothing of the series, what would you say? Or, would you tell them that I’m a hack and to stray clear of anything Molting? All opinions are welcome. Please share your thoughts in the “Comments” section below.
October 7, 2012
Come Hang With Me In Corpus Christi This Weekend!
Oct 12-14: I’ll be in South Texas at RealmsCon, a multi-media convention that specializes in anime, gaming, horror, and comic books. The weekend includes screenings of my musical films Repo! The Genetic Opera and The Devil’s Carnival (TDC‘s premiere convention screening!), a panel on musical storytelling, and autograph opportunities. Here’s my weekend schedule (come by, say hi, and pick up an autographed set of my indie comic book series, The Molting):
Friday, Oct 12:
4:30-6:30 PM: Autographs
7:30 PM: The Devil’s Carnival intro/Q&A
8:00 PM: The Devil’s Carnival screening
Saturday, Oct 13:
4:30-6:30 PM: Autographs
8:00 PM: Repo! The Genetic Opera intro/Q&A
9:00 PM: Repo! The Genetic Opera screening (with live shadowcast)
Sunday, Oct 14:
1:00-2:00 PM: “Storytelling Through Music” Panel
2:30-4:30 PM: Autographs
For tickets and info, visit: http://realmscon.com/wordpress/
October 4, 2012
October 2, 2012
The Molting #7 is Now Available!
Chapter 7 of “One of the most creative and unusual comic books going today” (411mania) is now available! This 60-page, full-color issue chronicles the continuing misadventures of The Pryzkinds, America’s most dysfunctional family.
THE MOLTING COMIC is a 12-part independent series by author and illustrator Terrance Zdunich (Repo! The Genetic Opera, The Devil’s Carnival), created with the help of letterer Oceano Ransford, and colorists Brian Johnson and Molly Rodman.
In chapter 7, “Supernatural Aid”, winter’s religious holiday season provokes the Pryzkind family to contemplate whether they are the masters of their own destiny or being guided by invisible forces.
THE MOLTING COMIC is available only at www.TheMoltingComic.com.
September 24, 2012
September 19, 2012
THE MOLTING #7 ARTWORK UNVEILED!
After a sleepy six-legged stint, THE MOLTING COMIC is skittering back with a vengeance! “Supernatural Aid”, Chapter Seven of my twelve-part series will be available Tuesday, October 2nd, only at www.TheMoltingComic.com. Here’s a sneak peek at some artwork from the issue.
In “Supernatural Aid”, winter’s religious holiday season provokes the Pryzkind family to contemplate whether they are the masters of their own destiny or being guided by invisible forces.
THE MOLTING is an independent comic book series by author and illustrator Terrance Zdunich (Repo! The Genetic Opera, The Devil’s Carnival), created with the help of letterer Oceano Ransford and colorists Brian Johnson & Molly Rodman. Named “Best Horror Series 2010” (Comic Related), THE MOLTING is a portrait of a dysfunctional American family in the early ’90s. Set against a decaying urban landscape in Anaheim, CA, the so-called ‘Happiest Place On Earth’, the story traverses human history—from Upper Paleolithic hunting parties to Southern Gothic grotesqueries—to explore the family’s roots, secrets and unconventional family bonds.
Thanks in advance for your continued friendship and support!
September 17, 2012
September 12, 2012
CARRYON BAGGAGE
I’m on a plane, sitting in the dreaded middle seat, squeezed between two strangers. My prayers of being stationed beside a pretty woman—or, at the very least, a thin man—have gone unanswered. Yet again.
To my left sits a portly fellow. He falls asleep with his mouth open seconds after his ass touches down into the vinyl cushions of his chair. To my right, a bodybuilder rummages through a muscular snack sack. The sack is bulging with protein powders, strips of meat, and a dozen or so bottles of water.
Before he dozed, the portly man agreed to switch places with the bodybuilder. The bodybuilder asked for the seat change, stating that he was training for a men’s physique competition, and, as such, would be drinking copious amounts of water. His buff bladder would need easy aisle access to the inflight toilets.
At two hundred pounds, standing six foot and some change, finding a comfortable way to sandwich between these two behemoths is no easy feat… so it’s with knees squeezed and elbows tucked that I scribble this blog.
Planes are great theaters for people-watching. When you travel as frequently as I do, you witness all sorts of bizarre personalities and behaviors. If you care to pay attention.
On a recent flight, for example, I was seated next to a gray-haired woman who had a live cat hidden in her backpack, a bag that she tucked under the seat in front of her like lap luggage, a bag that cried and mewed in shrill, yet muffled intervals throughout the flight.
Across from me, past the aisle, past the bulging biceps of my current assigned travel mate, sits a petite, bookish woman. She strikes me as young, perhaps too young for me to be eyeing her. She has a plump, curvy bum, one that seems strikingly developed and womanly for—what I’m guessing to be—her limited years.
Perhaps being surrounded by so much heaving masculinity is causing me to stare at her more intently than I would otherwise. Sneaking peeks throughout the course of our two-hour flight, I watch as she orders and downs three Bloody Mary cocktails, all while reading from a science book, making the whole voyeuristic experience exceedingly sexy and confusing.
The muscle man between us doesn’t notice the curvy cutie at all. His gaze is fixed on the glossy photos of greased-up weightlifters in the fitness magazine in his lap. Chugging water, he reads training tips throughout the flight, in between mad aisle dashes to pee.
I realize that I too must seem bizarre to others on this flight, staring at inebriated science chicks, writing with a serial killer’s penmanship into a scraggly notebook, scowling at the parents of the screaming child a few rows up from me.
I take a break from writing to read a book I’ve been traveling with called Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers. Ironically, the author’s last name is Roach. The book chronicles the peculiar, gruesome journeys that our bodies take when donated to science, including sometimes serving as corpse-y crash test dummies.
One of the chapters deals with plane crashes and how various types of flight wrecks affect our fragile human forms. I chuckle quietly to myself, knowing how unsettling it would be for my midair neighbors to discover the macabre reading preferences of the longhaired, evil-eyed stranger sharing the fuselage with them. If given the opportunity, know that I’d definitely read the chapter aloud to them, in full Lucifer voice, over the aircraft’s intercom.
My ghoulish voice-over fantasy is interrupted by a coughing fit from a sweaty man seated in a row behind me. He coughs every few moments as he nibbles his way through several bags of airplane peanuts. A high-pitched throat seizure seems to follow every nut that he swallows. This uncomfortable-sounding salty seed side-effect does nothing to detour his peanut munching as he whines and wheezes with every bite. I watch him as he wipes crumbs and spittle from his chin and pops another roasted seed. Hackkkk! Cougggh! Wheeeeze!
So… how ’bout you? Care to share some of your midair misadventures? Any noteworthy airway antagonists? Or maybe your air commutes have been more congenial than mine? Perhaps you thwarted a hijacker? Or joined the mile-high club? Please fly me to the moon with your passenger cabin crusades in the comments section below.
September 10, 2012
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