MEDIA RELEASE: Black Mermaid Productions™ Launches Elf~Fin™ Emporium

MEDIA RELEASE
31 May 2013

Black Mermaid Productions™ (BMP) is proud and exceptionally happy to announce the launch of its online shop – the Elf~Fin Emporium, featuring several lines of Elf~Fin™ brand gifts and collectibles.

The Elf~Fin™ range of images is based on BMP's latest comic book series Elf~Fin: Hyfus & Tilaweed. BMP is an Australian creative team and publisher made up of Jozef Szekeres (artist) and Julie Ditrich (writer) that specialises in fantasy and mermaid-related comics and graphic novels.

The shop currently features four central images: three covers and what is becoming the definitive Hyfus and Tilaweed character signature image—the "Yin-Yang" design.

Designed by BMP artist, Jozef Szekeres, the images are lush, colourful and also tap into the growing mermaid market.

There are 60 products in the basic range. These include women's and men's clothing, kitchen utilities, home decor, as well as stationery items, greeting cards and framed prints. New designs will be released periodically in line with each issue release from the comic book series.

"This is the ONLY official trading post to purchase Elf~Fin collectibles,"says artist Jozef Szekeres, "Outside of hoping mermaid lovers will get pleasure and excitement out of wearing the designs or using them in some functional way, all sales help us push towards our comic book publication goals quicker which is our core business goal. We're greatly appreciative to our current readers for all their support and we hope more and more people will discover our artwork through this product range because we adore the characters and I adored painting them."

The Elf~Fin Emporium is run through CafePress. The official shop website is: www.elf-finemporium.com 

For further information contact Julie Ditrich or Jozef Szekeres on:
Phone: +61 2 9606 4728
Email: media@blackmermaid.com
Website: www.blackmermaid.com and www.elf-fin.com

Mermaid Fan Art

One of our constant readers – Pamela Crisp from Tasmania – occasionally sends us letters on her unique letterheads. They are lovingly embellished with her original mermaids that are partly inspired by Jozef's artwork, as well as other artistic sources. We've published some of these images before on the "Opening the Elf~Fin Conversation" post from a couple of years but now Pam has sent us a fresh bunch and has given us permission to post them on  here. We LOVE them!

New Mermaid Footage [UPDATED: 31/05/13]

The Abyss has always been one of our favourite movies and maybe James Cameron knew something the rest of the world didn't. Check out this new mermaid footage that's making the rounds. It was shot up in Greenland. It's unclear except for the translucent hand, face and body that swims off rapidly. It makes us think that the message in Cameron's film may have been portentous. We do SO hope this is not a hoax. The top video is from YouTube and the mermaid can be seen more clearly on it. The full video is below.

NOTE: Since posting this piece we have found confirmation that this is indeed a hoax (albeit a wonderful one that stimulates our imagination and that of millions of other people). Here is some information on the hoax: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/showtracker/la-et-st-animal-planet-mermaid-hoax-special-record-ratings-20130530,0,3088708.story 

 


(PLEASE NOTE THAT WE'VE ADJUSTED THE SIZE OF THE VIDEO IN HTML BUT IT DOESN'T SEEM TO BE SHRINKING TO FIT THE PAGE SO HOPE YOU CAN STILL SEE IT ADEQUATELY.

BMP Newsfront

Okay... we've been a bit quiet on this blog lately but that's because we've been super-busy! Here is a quick summary of what we've been up to:

• The first issue of Hyfus & Tilaweed in the TREASURY edition has now been published. We've just sent out our first two waves of orders around the world. They've gone out to the USA, Australia, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Serbia. If you want to order a copy for yourself, you can either go to the Elf~Fin™ website or to the ordering information in the right hand column of this blog.
• BMP attended the inaugural Comic Gong at Wollongong two weekends ago. It was only a three hour event but it had a great vibe and there were lots of friendly faces at our table and in general circulation. Great to see some of our comics compatriots too. A whole bunch of Elf~Fin™ Issue #1 made their way into the hands of new and established readers so that was gratifying for us. Word on the street is that the event was a huge success so it is looking like next year will be a whole dayer.
• We're delighted to tell you that the Elf~Fin: Hyfus & Tilaweed comic book trailer for Issue #1 has been featured on the Comic Book Trailer website, which has a great tag line: "Where comic books come to PLAY"
• We just launched the Elf~Fin™ Emporium – a shop with all things Elf~Fin™. There are three pieces of cover artwork up on various products, clothing, and collectibles. We also have a unique Yin-Yang design incorporated Hyfus and Tilaweed, which is the signature image for this shop. PLEASE BE AWARE that we run our online shop through CafePress. At the moment there is something funny going on – when you click on the link (and despite the url being correct), it seems to be defaulting to a CafePress gift page. This might be a fault in the algorithm or it may be a sneaky way that CafePress is taking you to one of their sections. Please persist by putting in the url again. It will come up correctly a second time. The actual shop name is "Elf~Fin Emporium". The domain name is www.elf-finemporium.com but it redirects to www.cafepress.com/elf_fin. We'll find out why this problem is occurring and hopefully fix it soon.

ELF~FIN: HYFUS & TILAWEED Out in Mid May 2013!

We've been a bit quiet on our blog as of late. Here's why.



The Elf~Fin™: Hyfus & Tilaweed Issue #1 Treasury Edition will be launched in mid May—first orders will be sent out on Monday 20 May. The new Elf~Fin website has gone live so you can place your pre-orders there or just click onto the PayPal button in the left hand column of this blog. 

Preview buyers may remember that we offered a signed or virgin copy last time. This time all the books will be shrink-wrapped while they're at the printer so unless you want us to slice open the packaging, we're not going to be signing them. Some of the packages will be travelling a long way and we just want them to land in your mail box in the best possible condition.

The cost of the actual book (comprising 56 pages of which 48 are comic art and story) is AUD$20. The rest is the postage and handling charge, which is what we call "shipping" in Australia. These rates are dictated by Australia Post. All the information you need about the book and the ordering process is on the Elf~Fin website. However, if you have any additional questions, just email us at: sales@blackmermaid.com

The first order came in within 15 minutes of the website going up so we expect the first print run to be sold out quickly.

Blood Chic Fan Art [UPDATED 30/03/13]

This delightful interpretation of our superhero shape-shifting mermaid Sirene from the the Dart mini-series was created by French artist Stéphane Dollégeal. He mentions on Facebook that she is the "leader of the fiercest and prettiest superhero team ever." You can see the original Sirene in the unpublished Blood Chic pinup that Jozef recently found in his art collection. The characters from left to right are Rosette, Death Gaze (because he's "drop dead gorgeous"), Noyade, Shaq Splade and Sirene. 

Support the Caravan of Comics 2013 [UPDATED 22/04/13]

Our friend and professional colleague Bruce Mutard is going on the road in this year's Caravan of Comics – a Melbourne based travelling comics contingent that is about to hit Canada and USA with their books.

Bruce emailed us with the following info:

You may have heard whispers in the wind that a submersible Winnebago was about to depart these antipodean shores for the northern New World. Yes, the proof is now in the pudding of mixed metaphors: the Caravan of Comics hits the road again for 2013. Myself, Mirranda Burton, Scarlette Baccini, Marijka Gooding, Patrick Alexander, Gregory Mackay and Dan Hayward will be hitting the Toronto Comics Arts Festival, Librarie Drawn & Quarterly in Montreal, Fantagraphics Bookshop in Seatle and myself to the International Comic Arts Forum in May. We are taking our comics,, the Graphic Novels! Melbourne! documentary and the idea of Australian comics, to show them we have the right stuff, we have the left stuff, we have the STUFF that comics are made of. Which is of course, the stuff of life. 

This is a deserved and worthy bunch of comics creators so we encourage you to stop by the campaign and support it if you can. I (julie) am about to pledge $40 for The Sound and Vision Book Club reward. Please head to http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/358899/emal/2677232 
For lots of info, please head to www.caravanofcomics.comCaravan of Comics is also on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/caravanofcomics (to be updated very soon) and on Twitter: https://twitter.com/caravanofcomics

CAMPAIGN NOW CLOSED! Over $6000 was raised.