In Russ News...

What's up my people? So we're trying to keep our promise of keeping you guys updated more frequently on the news section. With that in mind, I decided I'd dedicate this blog to our title Russ5377. So here it is!

Russ is an idea that I came up with, oh 10 years ago! Wow! A decade! A lot has happened in those ten years. Russ has gone through quite a transformation. Not only in appearance but also in story. The basic premise as some of you might know, is the story of a young boy who lives in an orphanage where the doctors who run it are bent on creating the perfect specimen, so they use the boys in the orphanage as their guinea pigs.

A friend of mine, David Quiles described Russ as a "sci-fi, urban tale". I like that. Why? well because it is, or at least that's how it started. The story is definitely "sci-fi" why with all those scientist running around experimenting on kids. And it was "urban" because of the style it was originally drawn in. Growing up in the late eighties to mid nineties, I was heavily influenced by hip hop and graffiti style art, so when I designed the original sketches for Russ, I threw in that hip hop-baggy-clothes style of that era. But like I said earlier, Russ has gone through quite a transformation. Today, Russ has acquired a different style. It's moved more towards manga. When I hired the current artists to take on the project late last year, I asked them to give me The Boondocks meets Dragon Ball Z as far as art style. And they answered the call!

The story is a 6-part mini series (Anibal can tell you how he feels about "6-part story archs") due out as a graphic novel in early 2010. Currently we are starting art work on the fifth book. Here's a sneak peak at the cover for issue#4. We are very excited about this project and as the release date approaches, we will have more updates. Talk to you guys soon.

Medinamus

It's October! It's the Big Apple Comic Con

The Big Apple Comic Con is back. And although the venue has been changed and it will now make its home at pier 94 55th street at 12th ave in New York, this show promises to be a big one with lots of guests. The show has something for everyone and the guest list is a great example of that. There will be celebrities from TV-to the big screen-to sports-to music! But don't fear comic fans! There WILL be comics! And MAS Media Studios (us) will be there in full effect! For those of you who have yet to pick up the Street Journal we will have copies of the first issue and the entire team will be there to sign it for you!

Also at the show, I am happy to announce that we will be sharing a table with our friend James Rodriguez of Novastar Studios who will be debuting his creator owned project The Chronicles of Sarah. This a project that James has been working very hard on and you guys won't be disappointed. Come check that out!

The show is a three day event so come on down for the weekend! See you there guys.

Medinamus

At the Lab with MAS!

It's been an exciting couple of months behind the scenes here in MASodonia. The lab is percolating! Our mad scientist Arroyocus, is concocting the perfect blend of pencils and inks on the next chapter of Street Journal and the pages looks great! (Sneak peek coming soon we promise!) Now although it's been a while since you guys got an update, never fear, we are hard at work putting together some quality product.

Check it out... for our Street Journal fans, we are glad to report that the third book is just about finished and Mr. Arroyo has begun penciling the fourth installment of this 6-part mini series. We have our sights set on an early Summer 2010 release! The graphic novel promises to have lots of behind the scene stuff like script-to-final-page comparisons, sketches and other cool things! We've worked long and hard on this project and I think it is safe to say it will not disappoint.

Russ5377 is the other project that we have been very busy with. Now I know we have a few pages posted here on the site for you to check out, but in the upcoming months we will have a surprise for those that have been wondering "when is this thing being released". I wanna personally thank all of you who picked up the mini comic at our past comic book convention appearances. Here's the scoop on the project. There was a disclaimer within the mini comic that explained that this project would not be printed out as single issues but instead, will be compiled into a graphic novel due out winter 2009. A lot of that is still true...the book will not be printed out as single issues. The plan is to (here comes the surprise) have the first 22 pages available for download as a PDF right here on masmediastudios.com. As far as the book being released winter 2009... the release date has been pushed back a few months to winter 2010. We apologize for that, but we promise the book looks great and I think it will be worth the wait.

Our next project comes from the wild and crazy mind of Mr. Anibal Arroyo. The artist who brought you the hardcore and edgy, no holds barred, grungy, dirty, dark and explicit artwork for Street Journal comes with... a children's book? That's right folks! That's called versatility brothers and sisters! The book is called Lil' Steve's Closet, but that's all we can say right now! We will be posting more about it on "The Projects" section of the site.

Finally, Mr. Jonathan Syphax AKA Syphaxius, has a project he's been working hard and diligently on for the past few years. A collection of short stories! Yeah my people, a prose book from MAS! That's all I will say for now, but look for updates on that as well.

Ok chicos and chicas, I must now bid all of you farewell. It's been real...see you in a few months! heh heh!
Medinamus