What is, Thieves & Kings? “Thoroughly engrossing self-published black-and white fantasy saga. [. . .] This is a story for fans of Bone, Elfquest, Nausicaa, or Harry Potter to fall in love with; highly recommended for teen and adult fantasy readers everywhere.”    -The Library Journal JENNY MYSTERIOUS Page Number (Latest material pages 21-25)   Email Me! or write to. . . I Box Publishing #1 - 614 Main St. Wolfville, NS  B4P 1E8 Canada RSS News Feed Articles of Note: Comics in the New Media ~ How to Publish Comics on Tablets and eReaders Without Getting Ripped Off — Mark at the Movies: What do, Mirror Mirror, Hunger Games and Cabin in the Woods all have in common? More than you think! — Drawing Democracy — 365 Days of Digital Cartooning - Drawing Comics on a Tablet PC — UPDATED! Tablet button bar Button for Photoshop / PaintTool Sai — Photoshop CS4 vs CS5 Speed Comparison for Tablet PC — Photoshop Speed-Up Trick for Digital Art — Portable Drafting Board - Drawing Comics Outdoors

Stardrop. . . STARDROP Next Episode, May 30th Previous Next Stardrop Vol 2 "A Place to Hang My Spacesuit" $12.95 A huge THANK-YOU to all those who participated in the Crowd Sourcing campaign. There are dozens of packages now in the mail, and dozens more going out over the next few days to all those who contributed! -If you contributed, you should expect to see yours show up soon! NEW! Stardrop eBook Now Available! (See the Studio News (below) for the scoop on this!) Here's a little extra item; One of my favorite comic shops is moving location, and I decided to do a little 4-pager about it featuring Ashelle and Tom. The idea is that the comic shop will be giving out this little story to help advertise their new location. Enjoy! Tip StarDrop's cartoonist! Visit the Australian StarDrop Mirror. (Thanks to Andrew and Katherine for their wonderful support over the years!)        Jenny Mysterious. . . First Day Back        Thieves & Kings. . . Sample Chapter from, Thieves & Kings, Volume 3, "The Blue Book" Thieves & Kings is not a webcomic. It is an all-ages fantasy/adventure graphic novel series which I've been working on since 1994. It is nearly done; I hope to wrap up the story in the 7th volume, (currently in production). The chapter featured here offers a good example of what it's like to read Thieves & Kings. --It's a peppy sequence, and it contains both regular comic pages, and some text pages. It doesn't show much of the title character, (Rubel) and none of the Shadow Lady, but Heath and Varkias carry the show quite nicely. I hope you enjoy this sample of my work!        The Walking Mage. . . The Walking Mage is a complete story. Originally it was done in black & white, (which you can check out here, if you like). I wanted to experiment with color and so began by using a computer to color the Walking Mage for its print release. After a few panels I decided that it would be a lot more fun to paint it by hand, and so switched to water-color around episode six. The story itself is quite a good little yarn; funny and pointed in many places, as political satire ought to be. I was actually quite surprised to learn this! I found myself laughing out loud in several places. --I don't know why this story in particular was so hard for me to accept, but it was. I avoided reading it for several years after it first went to press. The ending is rather abrupt, but it was a serial strip, after all. So anyway, after having let this web-comic languish in the digital attic, I've decided to pull it out and post it again for all the world in its full-color glory. This is the first time the Walking Mage has been available in full color on the web. I hope you enjoy the adventures of Quinton and Varkias. Cheers!        News From the Studio. . . April 11th, 2013) Hey, hey! The new Stardrop Book has arrived! (The overnight shipped box, anyway. The big shipment rolls into my driveway in a few days.) They look GREAT! I'm blown away by the cover brightness and feel; The interiors are sharp as a knife, great reproduction quality. Good feel. Nice weight. No warping in the paper. Friesens Printing did an outstanding job on their very first comic book project. I hope they're proud of the result, because I sure am! (There are so many things which can go wrong on a print job, and my heart is always in my throat when these things arrive. I let out a huge sigh of relief as I inspected the book!) My life over the next couple of weeks is all going to be about order fulfillment. There are a lot of sketches and signatures to draw, packages to assemble and label, and treks to the post office to be made. But right now, I've got to get ready to head out to the New Booker School to take another comic book to press! (Well, small press. I was helping the kids there make their own comic book, and it's crunch time for them as well.) So much to do in these wonderful Spring days! Opened to the Nova Scotian clear skies for the first time! Like a box of treasure. Ain't they pretty?     Feels good in the hand! I like the dimensions of these digest-sized graphic novels.   A nice, thick read! Good comics for your money.   Excellent reproduction; blacks are black, lines are sharp. . . I'm always super-worried until I squint at the reproduction quality; there are a lot of things which can go wrong, (many of which are only visible to the trained eye, but still. . .) These turned out perfectly! What a relief! Also, these panels are double the size and more than twice the sharpness as they appear in their original incarnation in the Grapevine. It's good to at long last see them as they were intended.   The second volume, having come from a completely different printing company is surprisingly close in quality and dimensions to the first. Good! They'll fit nicely together on a bookshelf. Though, the second is a touch thicker, and the cover a touch brighter, and I thought the first was next to perfect. Friesens Printing basically just blew me away. They've got a repeat customer in me, no question! Cheers to you all, and thank-you to everybody who helped bring Stardrop "A Place to Hang My Spacesuit" into the world! After the Big Shipment arrives, I'll be making this book generally available in a variety of sales venues. Stay tuned! -Mark       Click on a book cover to learn more about it! Over-Seas customers, please inquire about shipping costs. The Red Book Vol.1 (154 Pages) cover price: $18.95 ISBN 0-9681025-0-6 Pay: $15.00 CAN   The Green Book Vol.2 (260 Pages) cover price: $24.75 ISBN 0-9681025-1-4 Pay: $20.00 CAN   OUT OF STOCK! Instead receive all the back-issues which went into this volume for the same price. The Blue Book Vol.3 (184 Pages) cover price: $24.75 ISBN 0-9681025-2-2 Pay: $19.99 CAN    The Shadow Book Vol.4 (272 pages) cover price: $24.75 ISBN 0-9681025-3-0 Pay: $20.00 CAN    The Winter Book Vol.5 (208 pgs) cover price: $24.75 ISBN 0-9681025-4-9 Pay: $20.00 CAN    Apprentices, Book I Thieves & Kings Vol.6 (104 pgs) cover price: $15.00 ISBN 0-9681025-6-5 Pay: $15.00 CAN    Thieves & Kings presents. . , The Walking Mage 64 pgs      ISBN 0-9681025-5-7 Full Color $11.00 CAN Thieves & Kings presents. . , Riverwolf Music from Oceansend $19.99 CAN Stardrop (192 pgs) ISBN 978-0-9681025-7-2 Now Only $10.00! Stardrop Vol 2 "A Place to Hang My Spacesuit" (208 pgs) ISBN 978-0-9681025-8-9 $12.95 NEW! The Stardrop Graphic Novel now available for eReaders! Kindle, iPad, Android and other devices. $4.95 To finalize a PayPal purchace or just see what you've ordered so far, click the "View Cart" button Shipping Charges explained.