FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FIRST PARADIGM SHIFT SOLD OUT

BOSTON, MA - August 13th, 2008 - Less than a year after its national release, independent graphic novel series Paradigm Shift sells out of its first volume, Part One: Equilibrium, just in time for the release of the second volume in PREVIEWS this September. Plans are under way to reprint immediately.

Paradigm Shift is a police procedural punctuated by sardonic humor, explosive gunfights, and supernatural horror. It originally appeared in the starting lineup of the exclusive online comics portal, ModernTales, and now thrills thousands of fans worldwide with weekly installments at Webcomicsnation.com. The series is applauded by fans and critics alike for its strong writing, beautiful artwork, and the meticulous care taken in its detailed depictions of the artist’s hometown Chicago.

Paradigm Shift - Part One: Equilibrium (ISBN-13: 978-0-9789717-1-7) collects the first volume of online material, including a special bonus section detailing the process of creating the comic, and is priced at $9.95. Released as a 100 page black-and-white, digest-sized soft cover, distributed by Diamond Comics Distributors (Order Code: DEC073615 F).

Paradigm Shift - Part Two: Agitation (ISBN-13: 978-0-9789717-2-4) collects the second volume of online material, and is priced at $12.95. Released as a 120 page black-and-white, digest-sized soft cover, the books ship in November from Dynamanga.net, distributed by Diamond Comics Distributors.

Sample art from the comic is available upon request. Read the ongoing webcomic at www.paradigmshiftmanga.com and see more of Dirk I. Tiede’s work at www.dynamanga.net.

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For further information contact:
Dynamanga.net
Dirk I, Tiede, Owner
dirk@dynamanga.net

What an end to a whirlwind month. Otakon was amazing, frustrating, exhilarating, and exhausting. Thanks to my friend and traveling companion Shelli Paroline for braving the roads with me, and to Brion and Jen, who were kind enough to squeeze me into their tables this year due to registration snafu. And a HUGE THANK YOU to Andy, Michelle, James, Jeff, Jaeger, and everyone else for helping us run the table. Seriously, we could not have survived this con without you guys. SERIOUSLY. It may have been unbearable, otherwise.

First, the Good: Sales-wise, this con was incredible, once again. I have the pleasure to announce that I am now officially sold out of my print run of PART ONE! I will have to reprint in the coming month if I want to have books at my next show. Thanks to everyone who came by the table, new and returning, who bought books or just flipped through the artwork. You guys have made my summer. Because of you, I don’t have to go into debt to reprint books. Yay!

Also, a big hello Jennie Breeden for putting up with us as neighbors, despite sticky soda on the floor, and shout-outs to (in no particular order) Jamie (In His Likeness), Hawk, Ananth & Crew (Applegeeks), Shawn (Staccato), Dave (Paradox Lost), Dave, Dave & Jay (Chugworth), Brian (Geist Panik), Chris (Blue & Blond), Greg (Abandon), and Nick, Marty & the Gang (Dead of Summer). Thanks for hanging out with us in what little spare time we had, being good neighbors, and generally enduring the con with us. It’s always nice to see familiar and friendly faces at the show.

The Bad:Not since my own beloved hometown con of ACEN have I encountered such disorganization at a large convention. Waiting in line for over two hours to pick up a regular attendee badge before going to Artist’s Alley to set up is a completely unacceptable way to do business. Add in the backups to get in and out of the loading dock (since the security won’t let you load/unload through the street entrance), and a general surliness, you get for a pretty stressful show. I have related my grievances to the AA staff, who unlike the rest of the staff pretty friendly and understanding about the whole thing. Being on ACEN AA staff, myself, I can understand their position. Hopefully some advice will be taken, and things will be better next year.

The Truly Ugly:I have learned a new meaning of the word hell, and it is THE NEW JERSEY TURNPIKE. I thought I was prepared, but I was completely schooled, East Coast-style. Chicago traffic is no laughing matter, but I was left completely unprepared for the soul-crushing power of entire states turned into parking lots. It was bad enough that we chose to take the George Washington bridge on the way down (two hours I will never see again. Thank you, NYC), but I had no idea that returning on a Sunday night would be such a mind-bogglingly bad idea. It took us two hours to get out of Maryland alone. Once we realized that the back-up was caused by the dreaded NJ Pike, we opted to take the back-roads home. What should have been a 7-hour drive turned into a 10-hour Odyssey. We actually made good time once we avoided the Pike, but it meant traveling through some strange areas to get it to work (Thank you, GPS unit!). Anyway, I finally got home well after three in the morning, and I am still recovering two days later. I’m sure all you native East-Coasters could have told me, warned me, and otherwise ridiculed me over this, but all the advice in the world is no substitute for raw, unbridled and brutal experience. I will never make the same mistake again. I will drive through Pennsylvania if it means avoiding this in the future. And considering all the cons that happen in the D.C./Baltimore area, I may just have to. We’ll see.

In closing, all I can say is that I’m glad convention season is over for now. Thanks again for your patience. PS will resume regularly scheduled updates next Tuesday. Until then, enjoy some more impromptu artwork.

Man, what another great weekend! I met up with my old Chicago pals Brion Foulke and Jen Brazas to claim our prize as winners of last year’s Webcomic Challenge, which earned us full Guest of Honor status and an all-expenses paid trip back to the show. It made for a wonderfully low-stress and fun weekend. We shared a dealer’s room table between the three of us, and got to hang out with a bevy of fantastic webcomickers, including reunions with folks we hung out with last year, like Brian Wilson who’s launched his new comic Geist Panik, the always funny and affableMichael “Mookie” Terracciano, and Chris Malone, who was on the receiving end of his feud with the aforementioned Mr. Wilson at the webcomics auction this year.

I also caught up with well-travelled Jennie Breedan and In His Likeness’ James Hatten in the Artist’s Colony, picked up two Octopus Pie volumes from Meredith (with sparkles!), and chatted with Aaron Diaz about the particulars of page composition and the wonders of the Cintiq. I also bumped into the creators of Prime of Ambition, a particularly well done fantasy comic who I’d had the pleasure of meeting last year.

Lastly, we had the good fortune to spend some quality time with the talented Dave Lister of Paradox Lost and his charming girlfriend. Much talk was had over our shared geek origins of Robotech, Nausicaa, and all things Science! Great times.

Now to get you that page I promised.

Then Otakon!

EDIT: I would be completely remiss if I neglected to mention that I also had a really fun Art Jam with Nick of GHOSTBUSTERS-STYLE.

Also, a big hello to Ross of The System. It was good to catch up with you, too, man!

Wow. This has been an amazing week! I shared a table at Comic-Con with Spike of Templar, Arizona, and we completely sold out of books. Every day of the show was as busy and crazy as a usual Saturday. As a result, this is the first time I’ve ever paid for my trip to the show here, after all expenses. Thanks to everyone who came by the table! I couldn’t have done it without you!

In other news, the Webcomicsnation site was hacked over the weekend, and with heroic efforts on the part of Joey Manley (who has had to miss most of the con as a result), it should be up and running in the next day or two as the domain repropagates across the Net. In the meantime, you can read the PS archive over at its mirror on Moderntales.

Looks like the folks at Comic Fencing got ahold of PS this week with mixed results (2.5-5 stars, depending on the reviewer). I have to admit, I do find some of their critique to be pretty accurate. I’m way more aware of my shortcomings than you might expect, especially in the writing department. I guess I’m an artist first and writer second. I just try my best, and hope that it works out in the end.

My only real objection is to the claim that the Chicago references are too picture perfect to be inaccurate. Maybe there is a general attitude that Chi-town is much dirtier than it actually is. Perhaps I need to post the 1000+ archive of photos I took while living in the city for over ten years to help correct this. Oh, well. That’s a pretty minor quibble, though. The same reviewer gave the comic 5 stars, so I can’t really complain.

Thanks for the reviews, folks!

My goodness, have the last couple of months been busy. It all started back in May with my trip back to Chicago for ACEN. It turned out to be my best show to date, and was a fantastic homecoming after the big move. I actually stayed in town for a whole week, and got plenty of chances to hang out with friends and take some much-needed final photos in order to finish out Part Three.

Then, three weeks later it was off to NYC for MoCCA, where I shared a table with my new friends from the Boston Comics Roundtable, who were premiering the anthology, INBOUND. The new book looks great, and I’m looking forward to maybe contributing to a later issue. My Chicago buddy Spike also came out and ended up smoking us all on sales, which was awesome. I have to admit, despite my undying love for Chicago, NYC is growing me. It’s a fun town, though I think I’d prefer to visit often rather than live there. I’m liking Boston quite well enough. Besides, it’s only a 4 hour, $3 bus ride away (Chinatown bus, oh yeah!), so it’s easy enough to go visit. Anyway, great fun times hanging out with all my comic friends, even if I didn’t sell that much. No problem.

Now, I just got back from Wizard World Chicago this past weekend. Once again, Chicago blew me away! I shared a table with my old friend and co-founder of ModernTales, Tim Broderick, and we ended up selling out of books! It was amazing. I came back with only 4 copies of Part Two, after nearly selling out of Part One on Saturday, and being replenished with an extra 10 copies from Brian ‘BMAN’ Babenderede finally sold out completely on Sunday. Along the way, we got to hang out with the rest of the Chicago ART NIGHT crew (Brion, Jen, Spike, Pascal), plus indy comics veterans and buddies Jane Irwin, Paul Sizer, & Carla Speed McNeil, and Miss Monster, too! I even had the pleasure of meeting newcomer Nathan Heigert, who blew us all away with an already complete 80-page, full-color graphic novel, SHADE, that’s just waiting to be published. Good luck, Nate! Hope to see more from you!

Anyway, it was a totally fantastic weekend, as were the previous two cons. Next up is San Diego. Spike and I will be sharing a table, so if you’re coming out to the Big Show, please come by and tell us “Hi!”.

Well, tomorrow I fly back to the Windy City for my first trip since the move. The occasion is Anime Central, of course. It’s my first full convention of the year. (I hit the NY Comic-Con, but only as an attendee). Since Part Three isn’t complete, I obviously won’t have anything new, but hopefully I’ll at least pay for the trip.

I’ll be back for an entire week so I have plenty of time to hang out with friends, hit the con, and take a bunch of pictures while wandering around town. It seems a little odd that I have to go back to take pictures at this point, but there just wasn’t time before the move. It’s too bad I wasn’t able to finish the third book before I left, but that’s okay. I have a feeling that being away is giving me some perspective and ultimately more time to work on producing the artwork, so I guess it all works out.

Anyway, I’ll see you in Chicago!

As some of you may know, my wife Emily has been on a job hunt since last fall. Well, as of last Friday, that search is over, and she has accepted a wonderful opportunity. In Boston.

So, we’re moving east. And while this means that I’m going to have to leave my beloved Chicago, I’m genuinely excited about this. I’ve known for months now that the chances that we could stay here were pretty slim, and I’ve had plenty of time to think about what it means. There have been job prospects from Long Island to the Bay Area, but not any here at home. It had me in a funk for awhile, but since this Boston gig has materialized, I’ve been in an increasingly better mood.

I’m torn about the idea of leaving Chicago, since I’ve invested so much here, especially in my artwork. But, I’ve lived here over ten years — all of my adult life, and I’ve lived in the Midwest for twenty years. If I have to leave, this isn’t a bad time. Obviously, it’s going to mean some major changes, but I think they’ll ultimately be for the better. Moving to the East Coast gives me an opportunity to expand more solidly into a new market, and puts me closer to more publishing houses. The first six months might be a little bumpy, but I’m confident I can make it work. In the end, Chicago will always be my adopted hometown, and my love for it will never go away.

In the short term it will mean I’ll have to put the comic on hold while we take care of moving, but in the long run, it’s going to mean I’ll be able to focus on long term planning for my artwork. I also plan on getting some scripting and planning done before I start drawing again, so I’ll be able to produce the comic much more quickly once I’m back.

We’ll be moving at the end of March, and I will continue to update the comic over the next few weeks to finish out the current scene. After that I’ll need to go on hiatus for a month or two in order to get our new house in order (quite literally) before returning. I’ll keep you posted once I have that final plan together.

Thanks for all your support and patience. I promise you this will be a good thing. Just don’t expect Kate & Mike to move to Boston, okay?