OINK is the creator owned project of artist John Mueller. This blog documents the creation of this new edition. The new book will be available in 2014. The new art will be posted here as it's created, comment, critique, and discuss with creator.
Monday, December 16, 2013
new stuff
some new stuff- getting into the home stretch on this project...at least on the outskirts of the home stretch :)
Thursday, October 24, 2013
Sunday, September 8, 2013
Saturday, September 7, 2013
Manga Studio livestream
I'm going to be demonstrating some of the spectacular tools I've discovered in Manga Studio 5. The perspective tool will literally blow your mind if you've ever wanted to tackle drawing cities or complex buildings. I am not in any way affiliated with the makers of the program.
http://new.livestream.com/accounts/86038/http
http://new.livestream.com/accounts/86038/http
Friday, August 30, 2013
New issue is out!
The second issue of OINK: Heaven's Butcher PRESTIGE EDITION has hit my store!
http://bigpigink.storenvy.com/collections/304714-books
http://bigpigink.storenvy.com/collections/304714-books
Sunday, August 25, 2013
OINK pilot in AirMECH
OINK is now a pilot in Airmech! If you buy a copy of my book you get a promo code to unlock this custom bad-ass pilot! check out AirMech by Carbon Games, it's amazing for any fan of strategy games and it's totally free!! GET IT HERE
Friday, August 16, 2013
New stuff in the store!
New stuff up in the store! The first issue of the original OINK series is also available at my store for direct download!
http://bigpigink.storenvy.com
http://bigpigink.storenvy.com
Sunday, August 11, 2013
The Prestige!
Now available for the first time in 15 years, the all new PRESTIGE EDITION digital download of my original comic books. I will be releasing them monthly, only available at my store! Please share and tell a friend!
Thank you for supporting this 100% creator-owned book!
http://bigpigink.storenvy.com/products/2085647-oink-heavens-butcher-1
Thank you for supporting this 100% creator-owned book!
http://bigpigink.storenvy.com/products/2085647-oink-heavens-butcher-1
Monday, August 5, 2013
I wanted to give a big giant THANKYOU to all the folks that picked up art this weekend at my sale. You guys are my biggest backers, thank you so much! I've had many of these paintings for nearly 20 years and it's just awesome to know that they are going to good homes and true fans of this project. With your help I raised a solid chunk of the publishing budget for the new book, Thank you!
Thursday, August 1, 2013
My big art sale starting right now and going all weekend! I'm selling art to fund the costs for the new ultimate edition of OINK: Heaven's Butcher. You can find out about future sales and the books release by signing up for my newsletter! My books are 100% creator owned with no corporate funding, and they will stay that way with your support!
www.muellerart.com
www.muellerart.com
Announcing the BIG PIG INK Newsletter
You can now sign up for my quarterly newsletter. You will receive discount codes on art, and merchandise from my store. All those folks that sign up for my newsletter can buy their signed edition of OINK directly from me.
www.muellerart.com
Click on the mailing list link!
Thank you for your support I simply could not do this without yoou!
John
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
I'm running a 25% off sale this weekend on all my original paintings, also FREE SHIPPING on all sketches! Proceeds from my store directly finance the publishing costs of the new edition of OINK! You can be a patron of the arts and buy an original work or signed print of a truly original story and character.
http://bigpigink.storenvy.com/
http://bigpigink.storenvy.com/
Thursday, July 25, 2013
New stuff in the store!
I've added some new sketches and some small format signed prints of excellent quality.
You can get to my store using the tabs on this blog!
Sunday, July 21, 2013
The Sacrifice
This is a signed limited edtion 22"x19" fine art print titled 'The Sacrifice'. The proceeds directly finance my costs of producing the new book. The edition is limited to 100. I'm offering this print only through my site and to all the great patrons of the arts who have liked my Facebook page.
Saturday, July 20, 2013
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
Friday, July 5, 2013
Thursday, July 4, 2013
My Store
http://bigpigink.storenvy.com/
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
My Store!
My store is up- I will be updating regularly adding sketches from my moleskine series.
http://www.muellerart.com/153014/1532091/gallery/my-store
http://www.muellerart.com/153014/1532091/gallery/my-store
Sunday, June 30, 2013
This Project is 100% Creator Owned
This project is 100% CREATOR OWNED
If you read nothing else of this, please seek out and support a 100% Creator Owned project! Take a moment and learn the difference between Creator Owned and corporate created entertainment. I don't mean to make that sound negative it's justthere is a difference and I've come to see it as an important one if we hope to have a healthy creative economy.
What this brand seeks to do is promote awareness about the difference between a corporate sponsored project and a guy in his basement trying to build something that keeps him up at nights...maybe you will seek out and support some creator owned projects! If you are already involved with Kickstarter, Indiegogo.com, or other crowdfunding sites YOU are the reason cool things will exist in the future! It's the reason why 5000 copies of my crazy-ass book about a homicidal pig-man will most likely see the light of day and allow me to do another crazy-ass project.
It occurred to me that the David and Goliath paradigm may not really be clear to folks who don't make a living off their creative work, or they may not understand what its like to be launching your labor of love the same month some giant franchise is sucking the air off the planet with a 50 million dollar marketing budget. The difference can be excellently illustrated by the entertainment all around you, lots of sequels, and lots of movies, comics, all vying for your attention. I love many of these projects and I know people who make them, they're amazing, built by brilliant people! Those kinds of projects are like the pyramids of Egypt. It's a given they will exist in the future as they do today, but 100% creator owned projects are actually quite rare if you look at the industry as a whole.
100% Creator Owned is different, it means it's an individual or a small group of people who are laboring on something outside the framework of a corporate sponsorship. It means we own our intellectual property rights..it means if we can do whatever we want with our stories and characters. It means we can earn money from these efforts our entire creative lives regardless of who employs us.
I created this little stamp for Oink because I had recently heard a guy use that term 'creator-owned' which hearkens back to an amazing time in comics and it's really coming back again in a big way, not just for comics but all entertainment and there is no better way to support it than crowdfunding!
I recall the term Creator Owned was on everyone's lips in the early 90's and it meant that whatever it was it would be different, it would attempt to step outside the norm and be incredible, and the best part was any single person could do it! That's happening in video games right now and it's incredible what's being produced.
With creator-owned comics in the 90's It was a guy telling a story he wanted to tell you, exactly how he wanted to tell it to. Stories like Jams O’Barr’s The Crow, or Dave McKean’s Cages...and I’m proud to say stories like Oink. What it meant was you knew the motivations for it's existence went beyond money. You knew that someone defied commerce, common sense, and faced adversity in it's creation. When I read Frank Miller's Sin City the first time it literally blew my brain out the back of my head and I was not alone.
The creative economy of 1998 put Oink and other stories I had planned on hold. You see distribution and awareness was the problem. This problem was the critical factor in putting my publisher Kitchen Sink Press out of business. In 1998 I had spent 2 years working on a follow up to Oink called Blood & Circus. Like the first book it was a 96 page fully painted novel, KSP was literally folding as I was trying to finish it. I remember the call from my editor she told me if I didn't finish my book in within the next 30 days it would not be published...this was two years of my life. So I completed 30 pages of fully painted art and story in 30 days..and strangely looking back at it it was some of my best work, but I was exhausted and broke at the end of it.
We were able to get the four issues out the door, but with a sky-high price tag on the book, and no money for marketing unable to refill orders with a single outlet of distribution it just put me in the poorhouse and I found myself waiting tables that summer after one of the most grueling crunches of my life...it sort of broke my enthusiasm and I left the industry for the amazing world of video games, which has been absolutely incredible to me.
Okay okay, with the sob story, what does that have to do with this stupid stamp? It was hard earned is what it means to me, and it’s the one thing I can legitimately claim that differentiates Oink from 99% of the entertainment options you could be spending your dollars on when it comes time to bring it to market. It’s just a statement about it’s origin. If someone is pirating a PDF of my book I really want them to know they aren’t taking money from a faceless corporation...that’s years of my life they’re bootlegging.
Crowdfunding has essentially made a level playing field and it has me believing in the dream again...it's why I toil nights and weekends on my book, but I love my career in games and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I just want to be a guy that tinkers on a book and every few years comes out with something new.
This is just a thought I had- that if people clearly knew the difference it might make them consume their entertainment differently...maybe more balanced. Just like 'certified organic' says a whole lot with a stamp maybe this will too. It's a confusing world of entertainment and it's not always clear what you're buying, where it comes from, or who is benefitting.
I created Oink because some pretty amazing guys came before me. Frank Miller, Mike Mignola, Arthur Adams, and all the amazing creators at Image Comics in the early 90's. These guys pretty much coined the term Creator Owned and educated people about the difference...which when I was 17 years of age I had no understanding why all my comic books were the way the were. When these guys broke off and started to create books like Spawn, Sin City, 300, Hellboy, Battle Chasers, they pretty much reinvented comics...it was an amazing time and I really miss it...so if you find this topic interesting go find a creator owned project to support on a crowdfunding site. You may even get to know the creator and I can tell you they will appreciate your interest more than they can ever express.
Over the coming months I'm going to be producing some shirts, posters, and I encourage the mass proliferation of this brand and awareness of this topic. If you are a creator and you want people to know that you are a creator owned project- use this logo if it suits you or make your own!
Where I live there is a concept called 'Go Local' what it means is that Austinites support local businesses because we live here. It's why our city is thriving and why people say 'Keep Austin Weird!!' I'd like to keep the world weird and have more strange things being created and finding an audience.
I'm guilty of watching movies that I am not that excited to see, what I'm doing now instead of giving my money to something I have really low expectations for is finding campaigns I can contribute toward. It feels good doing it because you know that contribution is greatly appreciated by those guys defying commerce and logic to make something that they hope you will love...maybe they succeed or maybe they struggle or things don’t turn out as they hoped, but you will have a good story to tell and you will be a bona fide patron of the arts.
Thanks for reading and just by liking this or sharing it you are supporting a 100% Creator Owned project today!!!
John Mueller
Creator of Oink
Austin, Texas
What this brand seeks to do is promote awareness about the difference between a corporate sponsored project and a guy in his basement trying to build something that keeps him up at nights...maybe you will seek out and support some creator owned projects! If you are already involved with Kickstarter, Indiegogo.com, or other crowdfunding sites YOU are the reason cool things will exist in the future! It's the reason why 5000 copies of my crazy-ass book about a homicidal pig-man will most likely see the light of day and allow me to do another crazy-ass project.
It occurred to me that the David and Goliath paradigm may not really be clear to folks who don't make a living off their creative work, or they may not understand what its like to be launching your labor of love the same month some giant franchise is sucking the air off the planet with a 50 million dollar marketing budget. The difference can be excellently illustrated by the entertainment all around you, lots of sequels, and lots of movies, comics, all vying for your attention. I love many of these projects and I know people who make them, they're amazing, built by brilliant people! Those kinds of projects are like the pyramids of Egypt. It's a given they will exist in the future as they do today, but 100% creator owned projects are actually quite rare if you look at the industry as a whole.
100% Creator Owned is different, it means it's an individual or a small group of people who are laboring on something outside the framework of a corporate sponsorship. It means we own our intellectual property rights..it means if we can do whatever we want with our stories and characters. It means we can earn money from these efforts our entire creative lives regardless of who employs us.
I created this little stamp for Oink because I had recently heard a guy use that term 'creator-owned' which hearkens back to an amazing time in comics and it's really coming back again in a big way, not just for comics but all entertainment and there is no better way to support it than crowdfunding!
I recall the term Creator Owned was on everyone's lips in the early 90's and it meant that whatever it was it would be different, it would attempt to step outside the norm and be incredible, and the best part was any single person could do it! That's happening in video games right now and it's incredible what's being produced.
With creator-owned comics in the 90's It was a guy telling a story he wanted to tell you, exactly how he wanted to tell it to. Stories like Jams O’Barr’s The Crow, or Dave McKean’s Cages...and I’m proud to say stories like Oink. What it meant was you knew the motivations for it's existence went beyond money. You knew that someone defied commerce, common sense, and faced adversity in it's creation. When I read Frank Miller's Sin City the first time it literally blew my brain out the back of my head and I was not alone.
The creative economy of 1998 put Oink and other stories I had planned on hold. You see distribution and awareness was the problem. This problem was the critical factor in putting my publisher Kitchen Sink Press out of business. In 1998 I had spent 2 years working on a follow up to Oink called Blood & Circus. Like the first book it was a 96 page fully painted novel, KSP was literally folding as I was trying to finish it. I remember the call from my editor she told me if I didn't finish my book in within the next 30 days it would not be published...this was two years of my life. So I completed 30 pages of fully painted art and story in 30 days..and strangely looking back at it it was some of my best work, but I was exhausted and broke at the end of it.
We were able to get the four issues out the door, but with a sky-high price tag on the book, and no money for marketing unable to refill orders with a single outlet of distribution it just put me in the poorhouse and I found myself waiting tables that summer after one of the most grueling crunches of my life...it sort of broke my enthusiasm and I left the industry for the amazing world of video games, which has been absolutely incredible to me.
Okay okay, with the sob story, what does that have to do with this stupid stamp? It was hard earned is what it means to me, and it’s the one thing I can legitimately claim that differentiates Oink from 99% of the entertainment options you could be spending your dollars on when it comes time to bring it to market. It’s just a statement about it’s origin. If someone is pirating a PDF of my book I really want them to know they aren’t taking money from a faceless corporation...that’s years of my life they’re bootlegging.
Crowdfunding has essentially made a level playing field and it has me believing in the dream again...it's why I toil nights and weekends on my book, but I love my career in games and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I just want to be a guy that tinkers on a book and every few years comes out with something new.
This is just a thought I had- that if people clearly knew the difference it might make them consume their entertainment differently...maybe more balanced. Just like 'certified organic' says a whole lot with a stamp maybe this will too. It's a confusing world of entertainment and it's not always clear what you're buying, where it comes from, or who is benefitting.
I created Oink because some pretty amazing guys came before me. Frank Miller, Mike Mignola, Arthur Adams, and all the amazing creators at Image Comics in the early 90's. These guys pretty much coined the term Creator Owned and educated people about the difference...which when I was 17 years of age I had no understanding why all my comic books were the way the were. When these guys broke off and started to create books like Spawn, Sin City, 300, Hellboy, Battle Chasers, they pretty much reinvented comics...it was an amazing time and I really miss it...so if you find this topic interesting go find a creator owned project to support on a crowdfunding site. You may even get to know the creator and I can tell you they will appreciate your interest more than they can ever express.
Over the coming months I'm going to be producing some shirts, posters, and I encourage the mass proliferation of this brand and awareness of this topic. If you are a creator and you want people to know that you are a creator owned project- use this logo if it suits you or make your own!
Where I live there is a concept called 'Go Local' what it means is that Austinites support local businesses because we live here. It's why our city is thriving and why people say 'Keep Austin Weird!!' I'd like to keep the world weird and have more strange things being created and finding an audience.
I'm guilty of watching movies that I am not that excited to see, what I'm doing now instead of giving my money to something I have really low expectations for is finding campaigns I can contribute toward. It feels good doing it because you know that contribution is greatly appreciated by those guys defying commerce and logic to make something that they hope you will love...maybe they succeed or maybe they struggle or things don’t turn out as they hoped, but you will have a good story to tell and you will be a bona fide patron of the arts.
Thanks for reading and just by liking this or sharing it you are supporting a 100% Creator Owned project today!!!
John Mueller
Creator of Oink
Austin, Texas
Thursday, June 27, 2013
Go read Oink...or at least part of it!
This is a link to my new Behance site- It's cool because you can now see how the pages in the new book are flowing. There's about 40 pages up there now 32 that are sequential and lettered....so I give you a free comic on my birthday!!! Do me a solid back and share this!
http://muellerart.prosite.com/
http://muellerart.prosite.com/
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Monday, June 24, 2013
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
New Stuff!
Some new pages I've done recently, the first chapter of the book is pretty much all new stuff. I'm having a blast with these pages.
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Saturday, January 5, 2013
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