Day 25 of 31: Drop Dead Vince Updated With Page 29 of Chapter One!

Hey cats and kittens! Hard to believe there's less than a week to go for Halloween. I hope everyone's ready for the big night this year! 

I'd like to apologize for the last few updates days. I finally got the chance to finish the next update for Drop Dead Vince! You can read it on Smack Jeeves and on Tapastic. The next update will be a Double Update with the last two pages of chapter one, and the goal is to hopefully have them both uploaded on Smack Jeeves around Halloween. For Tapastic it'll be online November 1st, which happens to fall on the Day of the Dead!

Thank you everyone for being so patient and for supporting Drop Dead Vince. Take care and stay spooky!

Day 22 of 31: Drop Dead Sketchbook - the First Promo Pinup

Hey cats and kittens! Hard to believe there's only 9 days to Halloween! I hope everyone's plans for the big night are going swimmingly. While there's going to be an entry dedicated to early concept art and sketches for Drop Dead Vince sometime this week, tonight is dedicated to Vince's very first promo pinup! 

The top left was some sketches I scratched out for ideas. At the time I really liked the bottom two but eventually I decided to go with the bottom left. I then sketched out a larger and more fleshed out version of it, went over the lines with PaintTool SAI and worked some magic in Photoshop. This was pretty exciting for me since it was my first "official" illustration with Vince and Betty together and I really enjoyed how it turned out. It was the start of a pretty crazy ride and even after two and a half years I'm thankful that it's still going, even despite the bumps in the road. 

Thank you everyone for your support! Take care and stay spooky! 

Day 21 of 31: Drop Dead Sketchbook Sketchdump Coming Soon!

Hey cats and kittens! How is everyone doing? I hope you're all doing well and getting your Halloween plans taken care of since the clock is winding down.

It's another short entry I'm afraid but I have some news for you: one, I'll be working again soon so that will affect my blog updates depending on my work schedule. And two, there's going to be a BIG entry of sketches and concept art for Drop Dead Vince very soon! I'll be gathering my sketchbooks and scanning them this week so stay tuned!

Thank you everyone for being so patient and for your support. Take care and stay spooky!

Day 20 of 31: Drop Dead Sketchbook - Designing the Logo

Hey cats and kittens! I know it's been a few days and I'd like to apologize for being inactive over the past few days, I've been working on the last few pages for Vince's first chapter and whenever I suddenly remember I had to update the production blog I look at the clock on my computer and it's midnight. Oops. But I promise that I'll make it up to everyone, in fact I'm going to be scanning some material from my sketchbooks to upload for the blog for you to take a gander at. This is the first batch: Designing the Drop Dead Vince logo! 

I do freelance graphic design work and I can tell you that designing a good logo takes a lot of thought even before you put it to paper; although sometimes little things like the doodle I did in the top left of the scans above can inspire a big design or concept. The text was a challenge since while I am experience in graphic design I'm not quite experienced in typography (designing text and typefaces/fonts), but I think it turned out pretty well despite my inexperience. Originally when I was setting up the tombstone I thought of using the broken heart design, but I liked the pompadour skull the best since it represented the main character Vince the best and was much more iconic. I tinted the sketch red in Photoshop and printed it out to go over with multiliner ink and brush pens (the grass was done with a brush pen) and then rescanned it to touch up and color in Photoshop again. And the last image is the end result of the logo!

Thank you every one for your support and for being so patient with me. I hope you're having a great Halloween season and have your plans for the 31st underway, there's only 11 days left until the big night! Take care everyone, and stay spooky!

Day 15 of 31: Drop Dead Sketchbook - Brush Pen Betty Doodles

Hey cats and kittens! I hope everyone's been well and having a good week so far. I know a while back I promised that you would be able to see some special sketches and doodles for Drop Dead vince, but now the wait is over! This is Drop Dead Sketchbook, where I pull out a few sketches of concepts, page thumbnails, or any doodles that might stir some interest.

This here was an experiment around the time I was first starting out the comic, trying to figure out if I wanted to do the comic traditionally with ink or digitally. Unfortunately I still need some practice with brush pens and brush inking and eventually I decided to draw the pages digitally. But these doodles of Betty were so cute I colored them in Photoshop and added the halftones to it (I think this was around the same time I was trying to figure out her color scheme as well).

Expect more artwork and sketchbook goodies very soon! Take care and stay spooky!

Day 13 of 31: Sneak Peak of Page 30 and 31 Chapter One of Drop Dead Vince!

Hey cats and kittens! I'd like to apologize for the REALLY late entry tonight, I've had to do a few things around the house and was working on the next Vince page. And speaking of, check this out: Exclusive previews of two frames from the last two pages for the first chapter of Drop Dead Vince!

As for which page each frame is from and what's going on I can't say for the moment. But you'll see soon enough. You can say that you have gotten a peek at the last two pages before anyone else! As for page 29 it's off to a bit of a slow start this week but hopefully I'll be able to get back into the groove of things soon.

Thank you so much for your support since the countdown and Betty and Vince Month started! Take care and say spooky!

Day 13 of 31: Progress on the 2013 Drop Dead Vince Special Edition Halloween Print

Hey cats and kittens! Tomorrow is the start of a new week and I hope everyone is having a great October so far. Thankfully I was able to get that project I was working on finished (for the moment) and get back to working on some Vince projects!

Here's another preview for the 2013 Drop Dead Vince Special Edition print, which is finally getting some lines! When it'll be finished I can't say, since I'm also working on the last few pages of the comic, but I'll definitely keep you informed on the status of both, as well as any other surprises you might see in the Drop Dead Shop. So sit tight!

Thank you so much for your support! Take care and stay spooky!

Day 12 of 31: A Sketch Just For You!

Hey cats and kittens! I hope everyone's having a nice weekend so far. Unfortunately this is going to be another short entry again for Betty and Vince month. Today was a crazy day for me, I had to do a lot of work but I sadly didn't get anything Vince-related done. Hopefully soon I'll be able to get this project finished and get back to the comic as well as the Halloween print for this year. 

In the meantime, here's a special sketch just for you guys! Take care and stay spooky! 

Day 11 of 31: 2013 Drop Dead Vince Halloween Print Preview!

Hey cats and kittens! I hope everyone had a great Friday! For me it was kind of hectic, I had a last-minute project I had to deal with and I also had some family visit from out of town. So this is going to be another mini entry, but I promise you'll get to see something much more interesting soon (maybe much sooner than you think!).

BUT! I can give you a preview for something you might see pop up in the Drop Dead Shop this month: the 2013 Drop Dead Vince Special Edition Halloween Print! It'll feature both Betty and Vince getting festive for the season, and along with the print you will get a special Halloween goodie bag featuring stickers and other spooky treats! So stay tuned for more updates on that in the (hopefully not-too-distant) future.

Thank you everyone for your support! Take care and stay spooky!

Day 10 of 31: Drop Dead Inspirations - Movies

Hey cats and kittens! It's hard to believe it's almost the weekend already and I'm planning on having a nice Halloweeny one in-between working on Vince-related things. And speaking of Vince, I thought I'd do the first of many posts called Drop Dead Inspirations dedicated to what inspired me to create Drop Dead Vince! First up, movies.

• Fido - A zombie film set in an alternate 1950s universe where zombies are controlled by special electric collars and used for manual labor. As weird as it sounds it's very funny and also very charming! 
• American Graffiti - One of George Lucas' early movies pre-Star Wars and in my opinion one of his best. It all takes place one night in Modesto, California in 1962 and revolves around of group of teenagers who recently graduated high school and all of the crazy shenanigans they get into. It also features famous radio personality Wolfman Jack! 
• Beetlejuice - My favorite Tim Burton film, a kind young couple die in a car accident and retrun as ghosts, onlt to have their home sold to another couple and their young daughter. They decide to enlist the help of a "bio-exorcist" by the name of Beetlejuice, and soon realize they made a terrible mistake.
• Rebel Without a Cause - The film that made James Dean famous, it revolves around a teenage delinquent who meets two other teenagers with their own set of problems. It's very sad and sweet, and despite it being close to 60 years old it's still an unforgettable classic.
• The Nightmare Before Christmas - Celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, a stop-motion animated film about Jack Skellington, the skeletal Pumpkin King of Halloween Town who grows tired of celebrating Halloween each year. He soon discovers the magical place known as Christmas Town and decides that he'll create his own holiday magic. 
• The Return of the Living Dead - One of the best zombie films of the 1980s with one of the best soundtracks to boot! A group of teenage punks and some medical suppliers try to battle the undead, and everything imaginable goes completely wrong in the process. 

Definitely check out these movies, I hope that they'll inspire you as much as they inspired me. Take care and stay spooky! 

Day 9 0f 31: Another Preview of Page 29!

Hey cats and kittens! I hope everyone's been doing alright this week. As for me I'm still pretty stuffy but I feel like my allergies are getting better so hopefully I won't be snotty for that much longer.

I've been trying to work on the next Vince page and I thought I'd give you a mini preview of what it looks like when I work on pages. The software here I'm using is called PaintTool SAI, it's a fantastic program with incredibly smooth lineart tools. Unfortunately it's only available for PCs, but from what I hear the lineart tools for Manga Studio 5 took cues from SAI so if you use a Mac I would look into that! As for what goes into making a Vince page I'll make a more detailed entry about that in a future entry.

Thank you everyone for your support and for tuning in for each entry for Betty & Vince Month. Take care and stay spooky!

Day 8 of 31: Still Accepting Questions For the Drop Dead Vince FAQ/Q&A!

Hey cats and kittens! How is everyone feeling? I'm still pretty snotty but thankfully I don't think I have a cold, it seems more like seasonal allergies (usually when the seasons change I get them, especially if it's been windy). So thank goodness for that!

Unfortunately I didn't really get a chance to do an official entry today since I had a pretty long and crazy day today. I'm really sorry guys! However, I AM still looking for some questions for the Drop Dead Vince FAQ/Q&A entry that I'd like to create sometime soon. So if any of you have any questions about the characters, the story, or even the creative process behind the comic, feel free to leave them in the comments below!

I apologize again for such a uneventful entry for the Halloween Countdown and Betty & Vince month, but I promise that you'll get to see something much more interesting (and maybe spine-tingling!) soon! Take care and stay spooky!

Day 7 of 31: Page 29 of Chapter One Coming Soon!

Hey cats and kittens! I hope everyone's doing well this month so far. I'm currently feeling a little under the weather but I hope that whatever it is it'll be short-lived. 

Anyhow, here is a preview of a panel from page 29 of the first chapter of Drop Dead Vince. There's still some work to be done for this page but hopefully I'll be able to get this page online soon. As for the last two pages, they're both close to being finished and will both be uploaded together as a double update once the time comes. So stay tuned for them! 

Thank you everyone so much for all your support. Take care of yourself and stay spooky! 

Day 6 of 31: Betty Makes a Sweet Pumpkin! (And Some Future Entry News)

Hey cats and kittens! I hope everyone had a nice weekend and got a good head start on their Halloween plans. Speaking of Halloween, Betty's Pumpkin Carving Stencil is finally finished and ready to order in the Drop Dead Shop! It'll be the same price as the Vince one and will also include instructions ( however, as I said before, carving kits and tools will NOT be included and you will have to purchase elsewhere separately). Also be sure to send pictures of your pumpkins if you purchase a stencil to use for your jack-o-lanterns this year!

I also have some more news for future blog entries: along with the FAQ/Q&A for Drop Dead Vince I will also be scanning and uploading exclusive concept sketches of Betty and Vince for you to see! I'll also be uploading character designs for some future characters these two might run into sometime in the future. So stay tuned!

Back to the FAQ/Q&A, I am still open to accepting questions so please leave any questions you have in the comments. Thanks again for all your support and stay spooky!

Day 5 of 31: Looking For Drop Dead Vince Questions For an FAQ/Q&A!

Hey cats and kittens! It's five days into the Halloween countdown for Betty & Vince month and nearly a week into October! I hope everyone's gotten started on their Halloween plans, as for me I don't really know what I'm doing for this year aside from Vince-related things. But I'm going to try my best to finish the remaining Vince pages and keep up with this production blog!

Firstly, here's a preview of Betty's Pumpkin Carving Stencil sketch. Vince's stencil is already finished and can be purchased here, along with some other fun Drop Dead Vince goodies. And more merchandise for the Halloween season will be added sometime this month so definitely keep an eye out and I'll be giving previews and first-looks for them on this blog as well!

Also, sometime this week I'd like to compile some questions for an FAQ or Q&A blog entry about Drop Dead Vince. It can be either about the story, the characters, or even about the creative process for the comic itself! Please feel free to leave any questions below in the comments section, I look forward to what you'd like to ask about Vince and Betty! Take care and stay spooky.

Day 4 of 31: Drop Dead Vince Character Playlists

Hey cats and kittens! It's day 4 of our Halloween countdown for Betty & Vince month and I'd thought I'd do something different for once. Music plays a big part in inspiring me when I work on art or projects and for Drop Dead Vince it was no exception. So I decided to make a list of songs that inspired me when creating the two main characters of the series, Vince and Betty! (These links however are NOT download links but to Youtube videos of the songs, but you can find most of the songs on this list on iTunes or other music sites)

• "Venus" by Frankie Avalon
• "The Girl Upstairs" by Alfred Newman (score from the film the Seven Year Itch)
• "My Special Angel" by Bobby Helms
• "(She's) Sexy + 17" by Stray Cats
• "Long Blond Hair" by the Go-Kats (cover of the Johnny Powers song)

• "Surfin' Dead" by the Cramps (featured in the film the Return of the Living Dead)
• "Billy's Dead" by Deadbolt
• "Dead Man's Curve" by Jan & Dean
• "Mr. Sandman" by Oranger (cover of the Chordettes song, featured in the video game Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse)
• "Rockin' Bones" by Ronnie Dawson

I hope that you'll enjoy the tunes and maybe they'll inspire you to create something yourself! Take care and stay spooky!

Day 3 of 31: Who Wants to Carve a Drop Dead Pumpkin?

Hey cats and kittens! And speaking of cats this one's out of the bag: the Drop Dead Shop is getting pumpkin carving stencils this year!

I don't know too many artists who make their own pumpkin stencils, especially of their own characters, but I thought it'd be something unique for this year and I thought a skeleton on a pumpkin would suit Halloween pretty well. They're currently going for $4 and will also include instructions (carving knives or tools however will NOT be included). Right now Vince's mug is the only design available, but Betty will be joining him very soon as well as some other Halloween Vince-related goodies so stay tuned!

Thanks again everyone for all your comments and support. If any of you use the stencils for carving your pumpkins this year please let me know! Take care and stay spooky!

Day 2 of 31: Drop Dead Vince 2013 Halloween Merchandise Coming Soon!

Hey cats and kittens, it's Day 2 of Betty & Vince month here at the Drop Dead Vince Production Blog!  I hope everyone's having a nice October so far. It's a bumpy start for me, but here's hoping things will look up soon.

As I said before I've not only been busy with the remaining Vince pages but also some special upcoming Halloween merchandise for the Drop Dead Shop. Above this post is a preview of something that I actually just finished last night and will be in the shop hopefully later this week! What it is I can't say for the moment, but I don't know if it's been done by other webcomic artists and I thought it'd be something fun and festive for this time of year. You'll see soon enough!

I'm also planning on doing a new Halloween special edition print for this year. The remaining copies of the Halloween Print from 2011 will available for purchase in the shop also later this week and will still include a special goodie bag that will include two free stickers of Betty and Vince (and there will also be new goodie bags included with the new print as well!) and at a discounted price! You can also get the 2011 Halloween Print in the discounted Graveyard Rock Pack along with an exclusive postcard and the First Year Anniversary Print and sticker! What a screaming deal!

Thank you everyone for your support and I hope that your October so far is a great one this year. Take care and stay spooky!

We're Back (Again)! Let's Count Down to Halloween!

Hey cats and kittens! I apologize again for disappearing for several months. As I said before, 2013 has not been my best year and I've had a lot of ups and downs (mostly downs it seems like). But I'm doing my best to hang in there and keep at it, after all you can't really get anywhere if you just drop everything and give up.

Back on track, Drop Dead Vince is updating again! And actually very close to finishing the first chapter! I've been plugging away on the pages and there's about three more to go until the first episode wraps up. I'm also going to be cooking up some special Halloween goodies for the Drop Dead Shop so stay tuned for more news on that!

And speaking of news, the Drop Dead Vince Production Blog is now participating in the Countdown to Halloween! Along with some other awesome and creepy blogs, I'll be committing myself to updating every day of this month and keeping with the Halloween spirit. This month is going to be Betty & Vince Month so keep in touch for DDV-related news and posts!

Thanks you again for your support and for being so patient with me this year. I'll do my best to update more often, so stay tuned and stay spooky!

We're Back! And New Webstore!

Hello everyone!  I'd like to apologize for such a long absence.  After Animation On Display, which was a wonderful convention that I plan to do again next year, I have been in a bit of a rut.  I'm currently looking for work but haven't had much luck, and have had a hard time trying to finish up the first chapter of Vince or really work on anything.  But don't you fret, Vince's first chapter will be finished and hopefully I'll be able to start making plans for the zine once the pages are finished.  I just can't say how long it will take for the moment, but I appreciate all of you being so patient with me.

In other news, the Drop Dead Shop has a new home now!  Now it's a Storenvy store and offers international shipping for any of my international fans!  I've also included some new products like the second anniversary print and glow-in-the-dark buttons!

Thanks again for being so patient with me these past few months, I'll do my best to update the production blog again soon with more content.

Drop Dead Vince Will Be At Animation On Display in San Francisco Feb. 16-17th!

Hello everyone!  I hope you had a nice Valentine's Day this year.  This weekend I'll be in San Francisco at Animation On Display, a convention dedicated to animation and video games.  Feel free to stop by and say hello!  I'll be doing on-the-spot commissions and there will be Drop Dead Vince goodies for sale, including prints and glow-in-the-dark buttons!

I'll be here at table #18 in the Artist Alley.  The convention will be held at Hotel Kabuki in Japantown in San Francisco, California.  I hope to see you there!

2/14/13 Drop Dead Vince's 2nd Anniversary!

Two years ago today, Drop Dead Vince went online for the very first time!  

It's funny, I never thought that this comic would take up so much of my time (and my life too) but here we are.  In fact, Vince started out as something pretty simple.

Back in late 2010 I was working on another webcomic called Johnny Angel Loves Elenore Rigby, about a young rockabilly musician who falls in love with a girl who works at a gothic lolita clothing store in San Francisco.  The project was eventually shelved since it was a pretty big story and since I was just starting out in webcomics it would have been smarter to start out small.  At the time I was working on characters for the comic and one of them was the main character's, Johnny Angel's, friend who was a psychobilly musician and the frontman of a band called the Wrekkin Krew.  I was doing research on psychobilly culture and I discovered an artist and musician named Vince Ray.  I was really inspired by his work and found it really unique and creative, especially these two pieces he had designed as stickers for Poster Pop:

Eventually that led me to create a mascot character for Johnny's friend's fictional band who at the time was named Boney Betty, who eventually became Vince's co-star and object of undead affections Betty Baker:

This was the first image of her, unfinished since I was experimenting in creating a tattoo flash-style pin up while emulating Vince Ray's style and never really got around to finishing it. The little doodles surrounding her of the skeleton dude was me messing around at the time but this guy soon became our main character, Vince Valiant.

Here's an semi-official first doodle I did of Vince, who is actually named after Vince Ray (his full name is Vincent Ray Valiant).  At the time he had a psychobilly wedge-style pompadour hairstyle and had a ratted bloody t-shirt under his leather jacket.

Eventually I was doodling the two nonstop and having them interact with each other.  Around this time I was having trouble with Johnny Angel and my good friend Halie told me that maybe I could try doing a one shot comic with Vince and Betty.  So I shelved Johnny Angel and started working on a 31 page one shot for these two.  Sure enough, one comic eventually became ten chapters, other characters were created, and here we are today.

I launched Drop Dead Vince on Valentine's Day in 2011 on Smack Jeeves.  I've had some up and downs with it (2011 was a bit of a rough year for it) but I refuse to give up on this project.  Betty and Vince are both close to my heart and I hope that you will enjoy their adventures online.  Stay tuned for more news and goodies in the not-so-distant future, Happy Valentine's Day!

Welcome to the Blog!

Hello everyone! My name is Kelsey Kraus, I'm a web and graphic designer and illustrator from California.  I love art, drawing, comics, vintage everything, green tea desserts, bunnies, and spooky stuff.  Speaking of comics and spooky and vintage stuff, I'm the creator of a webcomic from Smack Jeeves called Drop Dead Vince.  It's been a project I've been working on for nearly two years and it's near and dear to my heart, as well as something I'm very proud of.

Which is why I decided to start a production blog for Drop Dead Vince!  Here you'll get to see character designs, production sketches, thumbnails, and even mini essays or bios about the characters and the story as well as general Vince-related news!  I hope that you'll find this blog interesting but that it'll inspire you to create your own comics or creations to share with other people.

Thanks so much and I hope that you'll stick around!