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 In the spring of 2010, French (singer and founder of the band Annie Automatic) had an idea. He thought that it would be interesting to expand on the mythical muse-like character "Annie Automatic" after whom the band was named, and her complex story, in a Comic Book. He contacted friend, Comic Book connoisseur, illustrator and color artist Joey Feldman, who loved the idea. They began putting some thoughts together and building what would later become the framework of Annie Automatic's graphic world. They wanted to put something in place for San Diego's Comic-Con 2010, so with the help of designer Dana Jones, they released a promotional poster, eluding to SD Comic-Con 2011 for release. Throughout the following year, Joey introduced British screen-writer Sam Scott to the project, who immediately blew the story wide open with his expansion on the characters and story. Having worked as a writer for 11 years, Sam came to LA in early 2011 (perfect timing), unexpectedly lending his masterful pen to "Killer In Disguise", he quickly began developing what could easily become the first intense 10 issues. Next was the introduction of dream-weaving, innovative illustrator Russell Dauterman. "One thing that drew me most to Russell's work" commented French, "was his chic, fashionable approach to character design and illustration. I wanted to do something RocknRoll, something 'cool', to bridge the gap between the music and the average comic. With Russell's background in wardrobe design, his style ends up lending so much modern flavor to every detail, bringing the standard idea of a 'Comic Book', into a very sexy, glamorous light." With a Masters of Fine Arts degree from UCLA and numerous costume design and comic projects on his resumé, not to mention his lifelong Love of the art of the Comic, Russell has just begun making his mark on the artistic world, and the World of Annie Automatic. With characters based off a few of the band members - French (vocals/guitars/keys), TH Howard (guitars) and DT Howard (drums) - and the mysterious "Annie Automatic", who French describes as "the strange little animal inside us all" (and who, in graphic form has been portrayed here by his real-life girlfriend, actress Kaley Cuoco) - the sexy, fashionable drawings of Russell Dauterman were very necessary. These characters, and this story is so deep, so intriguing, so "COOL", that it pushes the boundaries of what we think of as a Comic Book or Graphic Novel. It introduces us to a world where there is never a shortage of action and mystery, and with the intense music of the band (who released their debut album, "Don't Look Down" on August 23rd of this year), there's a soundtrack that never stops moving in the background. French says, about the process, "I'm just so grateful for the opportunity to create something so radical and fun, with such talented friends, and be able to do it ourselves. Plus, being able to completely bypass all the business and politics involved in the industry, and get it directly to the readers and listeners, who really matter, is just so awesome." The Annie Automatic street team distributed over 10,000 copies of this Limited, "Issue #0", by hand, to attendees at San Diego's Comic-Con 2011, for Free. Along with the QR code on the back cover, which leads to a secret "QR Code Access Only" website, which features more info and backstory, more images and a Free Download of both their single, "Burn This Prison", and the book in PDF format for the digitally inclined. There are very few of this first run left, and who knows where this
story might lead... |
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