the Beginning is near

Absolute Magnitude

2009-08-06T22:03:00.004-06:00

I should probably mention that a comic I co-created with Martin Morazzo, ABSOLUTE MAGNITUDE, is competing right now on Zuda.com. If you'd head over there and vote for it, that'd be swell (even if you only hit this blog entry after searching for any of the following traffic-generating words -- lohan hilton free porn madonna shark anus diet -- vote for it even then).

A guy talks about it here; another guys talks about it here; a lot of folks talk about it here. So, y'know, vote for it and stuff.

The Matriarch -- Chapter 3!

2009-05-01T14:07:00.002-06:00

The third and final chapter of The Matriarch has begun at http://www.arcanacomics.com/thematriarch/

mother's day

The collection should be showing up in stores soon, hopefully in time for Mother's Day (The Matriarch is the story of a super hero who is also a single mother).

Check it out. ...mother's day... superhero

Permanently Damaged

2009-04-09T12:42:00.000-06:00

Many thanks to Steven Grant for mentioning The Matriarch in his weekly column, Permanent Damage, especially since it's still available to order.

Was also reminded that Steven wrote the Hamlet comic that allowed me to pass the "prove you read it" quiz back in high-school (I eventually read the play -- and starred in a production of it, too -- I'm just a slow reader).

Sci-Fi Date

2009-03-13T16:18:00.002-06:00

For some reason I always wanted to write a wacky, sci-fi/superhero date, and ended up finally doing it in chapter 2 of The Matriarch (pre-order it now at your local comic shop, or at least read the webcomic!). The emotional through-line here is the typical stuff you go through on a first date: social maneuvering, demonstrating ones attractive attributes, and also -- in this case -- a little bit of one-upsmanship.

The concept inside of which this all plays out, however, is an aggressive alien thought making itself manifest in the ground beneath Leviathan City. TechnoKill has seen this sort of thing before, but never penetrated all the way to the third level, where the meat of the thought is kept. The Matriarch is new to it all, but has a lot more than Tech in the way of superpowers, and so is able to hold her own pretty well.

Looking back, I'm pretty proud of it as a dramatic unit. Steven (Yarbrough, co-creator of The Matriarch) drew the whole thing pretty quickly, and it's definitely got a different feel to it than the first or third chapters. It's a classic journey to the underworld motif, with the super-powered duo penetrating deeper and deeper into the ground (and the alien thought) until…

…well, I guess that would still be spoiling at this point. But it's no accident that our cover image for chapter 2 looks like this:

Anyway, pre-order the book (it's on page 197 of Previews, order code MAR094065) or follow along online (we update with new pages every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday), and let me know if you think I did the concept of the sci-fi date justice.

feminist feminism women comic comics mothers sex mother's day

A Strong Woman... Literally

2009-02-22T20:47:00.001-07:00

Superhero comics are often described as being white adolescent male power fantasies, which is, in my opinion, exactly what they are. That’s one bit of conventional wisdom that seems clear. Exactly what it means in terms of having, say, a woman in the lead role, however, is less clear. Does one need to subvert the traditional male power fantasy and create, instead, a female power fantasy? Do women even have power fantasies?

It seems to me that most women do have power fantasies (and the ones that don’t probably aren’t reading superhero comics). If we take as a given that superhero stories are, at least in part, power fantasies, is there a basic power fantasy common to both the male and female (as well as people of other colours, cultures, and sexual orientations) variations?

It seems to me -- again -- that there is, and that the commonality is the very thing intrinsic to all superheroic fiction: the presence of characters with extraordinary powers, talents, or psychological traits. Where the story goes from there -- who has the power, what they use it for, and how the super individual relates to the world around them -- is where most of the differences come in.

We all, though, I think, can agree that being invulnerable could have its uses. Being able to turn invisible, too (though whether this one breaks down as females fantasizing about turning invisible so as not to be seen, and males fantasizing about turning invisible so they can look at women -- though not the invisible ones, of course -- or if those generalizations don’t really apply, is an open question). Most of us, I think, have wondered what it might be like to fly.

In The Matriarch, the webcomic I do with Steven Yarbrough about a superhero who is also a single mom, the power fantasy plays out largely as having the power to help the ones you love. Again, this is something I think most of us can relate to (although it doesn’t strike me as a particularly adolescent trait). Sherry, our protagonist, enjoys having and using her powers. There are times when she gets into trouble, of course -- times when things go poorly despite her making all the right choices -- but, generally speaking, having power beats having had no power.

We’ve been running for about a month now -- updating every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday -- and the majority of folks I’ve gotten feedback from (facebook, blogger, MySpace) are female (though that may be sample bias owing to the relatively small sample size).

As a writer, the most interesting thing about superhero stories (which, again, I see as largely white male power fantasies) is seeing what happens with someone else in the driver’s seat, whether it’s a woman, old people, or even an alien pet. But ultimately, in terms of expanded horizons (both for comics as a medium and for human beings), do we want to expand white male power fantasies to include everybody, or do we need to erect new fantasies reflecting the needs, wants, and desires of other people with other experiences? Are we ultimately more alike than we are different, or are we more different than we are alike?

women comics feminism feminist matriarch webcomic

fewer let's

2009-01-21T23:40:00.000-07:00

I think I've just about given up on the apostrophe in "let's" -- it seems to be dying out rapidly (replaced by the sleeker "lets"), and I'm tired of fighting for it.

I am, however, holding on to "fewer." It's been over a year since I've heard anyone other than myself use it, as "less" expands beyond its neighbouring kingdom to take over the lingual territory formerly claimed by "fewer." (eg. "I have less jelly beans than you." "I realized recently there are less days ahead than behind.")

The Matriarch

2009-01-18T15:29:00.002-07:00

This is a place for comments on my webcomic, The Matriarch, which updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday -- leave some, so I won't feel embarrassed!

.

OLD SCHOOL: Pin Me Up!

2009-01-13T22:33:00.004-07:00

Putting the files together for the OLD SCHOOL OGN, and I'd love to fill it out with a few pin-ups. If you're an artist and would like to contribute something, send it to me by January 20th at littlemanfromfaraway //at// yahoo.com. If you'd like to contribute something but need a little more than a week to fit it in, drop me a line and I'll hold a slot for you. I'll have room for 4 or 5 pin-ups.

OLD SCHOOL is the story of a team of really old superheroes coming together for the first time.

In order of appearance in the image above, the cast is: Ace, a WWII-era fighter pilot. He has no powers, but he kind of looks like William Shatner. Strong-Arm, Ace's former side-kick and the youngest of the group at 69 -- he has super strength and a bad back. Weather Girl, who controls the weather and uses a walker. The Zeppelin is a super-suave ladies man whose suit puffs up and lets him fly. The Stare has eye-beam power like Cyclops, but his cataracts sometimes make his beams go astray.

Old School's arch-nemesis is Rex Imperius, who sort of looks like an elderly Steve Buscemi. He can turn into a big, mean dinosaur.

More images below, and even more here.

How to Make a Comic Page

2009-01-12T00:55:00.005-07:00

Artist Jim Rodgers takes you step by step through the creation of a page from BrainStorm.

***
The Matriarch updates! (As it does every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.)

***
And I love Da-De-O restaurant so much I'm on the website (right after the Mississippi Mud).

Magistria: Realm of the Sorceror

2008-12-28T20:20:00.004-07:00

This is an anthology I contributed to many years ago that has since gone out of print. I'm making this page so I have somewhere to link to when I mention it.

It was reviewed by Bruce Durham, and by David A. Olson at SFReader. I'll repost the parts of the reviews relevant to my story, "The Metal Mages," since those are the sections most interesting to me. :)

Here's Bruce's take:

Onark can't understand why the girl is reluctant to become an Automaton, thereby achieving immortality. And then young Luje attempts to save her. This science-as-magic tale is well written and intriguing. A nice, smooth read with a disturbing finish.

David considered "The Metal Mages" the best story in the book, and says:

A boy follows a girl who was sacrificed up a mountain to save her from the metal mages. Two shocking surprises await the reader at the conclusion of this short, gripping tale. I hope that this story's plot line is followed up on in the future books planned for this anthology. Could make for some exciting sequels!

New Stuff

2008-12-19T03:13:00.003-07:00

BrainStorm from Jim Rodgers and Javi Laparra:

Horrorama from PJ:

And a science fiction story from Martin Morazzo:

These are all at the pitch stage right now.

Pictures with Guns

2008-12-17T01:27:00.005-07:00

Yes, I'm still alive. Fool.

And, for some reason, I've been watching lots of film noir and writing stories involving crimes and guns, which is something I don't normally do.

Here's a peek at something called MemNoir I'm working on with the hyper-talented Andrea Menghin:

And here's a peek at something called... something. By the magnificent... someone. (I'm not really sure I'm allowed to talk about this one yet; hence the coyness.)

A million others here if you're bored...

Dark Worlds #1

2008-06-28T20:39:00.003-06:00

The premiere issue of DARK WORLDS, a quarterly magazine of "Pulp-descended" fiction, featuring science fiction, fantasy, horror, dark fantasy, mystery, sword and sorcery, mystery, suspense, action-adventure tales illustrated in the old Pulp manner.

This issue features C. J. Burch's novella "In the Service of the All-Father" (sword and sorcery), Bret Tallman's "Red Engine" (dark fantasy), David Bain's "Fifteen Minutes" (suspense), G. W. Thomas' "Heller" (weird western), J. F. Gonzalez's "The Revenge of Cthulhu" (horror), Joel Jenkins' space opera novella "The Investment", Robert Burke Richardson's "Eye, Urreal" (Fantasy) and a review of Justin Gustainis' new novel BLACK MAGIC WOMAN with an interview with the author. Illustrations by M. D. Jackson, Samuel de Graff and G. W. Thomas. Cover by M. D. Jackson.

Order from Lulu

The project that wouldn't die...

2008-04-27T17:01:00.000-06:00

The July 2008 Zuda contest is going to feature ten strips from previous months that didn't win their respective contests. The ten strips will be selected based on recommendations from readers, so send your list of up to ten previous competitiors -- including, I hope, Urbis Faerie -- to feedback@zudacomics.com.

'Kay?

Start spreading the news...

2008-04-15T23:47:00.000-06:00

If you happen to be going to this year's show and feel like looking me up, I will be:

@ the DC Booth between 2 and 2:30 on Saturday

looking for people selling hotdogs out of little carts (all weekend)

@ the Zuda panel between 4 and 5 (room 1E02) on Saturday

hiding from rats and cockroaches?

@ the DC Booth between 1:30 and 2 on Sunday

Just A Canadian Writer

2008-04-07T15:42:00.002-06:00

By Alberto "Just A Latin Drawer" Pessoa.

Hearts in the Mountain

2008-04-04T16:20:00.001-06:00

This one is like Shyamalan's The Village, except instead of the twist being that nothing is there... something is there. Just seemed less boring somehow.

Art by Andrea Meneghin.

Calamity

2008-04-03T17:20:00.002-06:00

Calamity strikes, courtesy of Mike Roberts.

Cities of the Troglodytes

2008-04-02T18:01:00.004-06:00

Peek week, I guess: here's one I'm working on with Roe Mesquita of Super Pet Mojo fame.

If you go too far down in the elevator, I'm pretty sure this is what you'd find...

Faerie Folk

2008-04-01T19:17:00.003-06:00

Here's a (fascinating? tell me it's fascinating!) glimpse at something I'm cooking up with Rodrigo Ricci.

Mmmm, Edeny...

March already...

2008-03-29T15:26:00.005-06:00

Wow, been a while since I posted. After getting 2008 off to a great start with Urbis Faerie appearing on DC's online imprint Zuda, and Super Pet Mojo launching at SugarySerials.com in February, I've spent most every free moment creating new comic properties with a variety of talented artists. Here's me with my cheque from DC Comics:

I'll be heading down to the New York Comic Con in April; I'll be at the Zuda panel on Saturday, taking in the Con, taking in new York, and trying not to die.

Urbis Faerie

2008-01-30T21:55:00.000-07:00

Urbis Faerie, is up at Zuda.com: view it, vote for it, love it! Zuda is a monthly competition, and the comic with the most votes wins a contract with DC Comics for a full year's worth of stories. Check it out and, if you like what you see, vote for it.

Some people shine with a special light (while others seem naturally inclined to scowl and scurry from that light). In the world of Urbis Faerie, all human beings are the direct descendants of various fantasy races, so that beautiful girl with the long blonde hair and glittering eyes may actually be an elf… or a fairy.

Urbis Faerie is a town founded as a haven for those in whom the old bloodlines run strong; a fresh start away from the old feuds and the tyranny of the Masters. Lauren hasn’t been in town long, but she’s fallen in love with her life here. When she receives a summons from her parents via their terrifying henchman, Mr. Hound, Lauren has to decide whether to leave Urbis Faerie and those she just might love, or risk the destruction of the town itself at the hands of her parents. But people are changing –- becoming more like their fantastic ancestors –- and unravelling the riddle of just who is descended from what will allow Lauren to stop the town from destroying itself… but only if she sticks around long enough to figure it all out!

This is from Robert Burke Richardson, Martin Morazzo, Carolina Cesare, and Robt L. Snyder, the team behind Elf-Help (now free at Wowio.com!)

Tags: comics, webcomics, DC, Zuda, Zuda.com, Nietzsche, romance

Urbis Faerie: the interview

2008-01-20T16:51:00.000-07:00

Yep. Over at knave of krypton.

Urbis Faerie Character Profiles: Lucas

2008-01-15T03:16:00.001-07:00

(Vote for Urbis Faerie at Zuda.com!)

Lucas: Hair Where There Wasn't Hair Before!

A Woman Called Lauren

2008-01-11T23:45:00.000-07:00

(Vote for Urbis Faerie at Zuda!)

Towards the end of 2004 I started writing a short story I'd had no prior intention of writing. I was a strict 1000-words-a-day guy in those days, and wrote exclusively in a safe, slightly distant third person past tense voice -- always after at least a couple of days of careful planning. And then one day, when I'd already completed my daily 1000 word quota, I suddenly typed these words:

The ad sounded perfect:

Walk to the train station. Outdoor swimming-pool on site.
Furnished/issues.

Lauren called on her lunch break and signed the
lease by fax when she was able to talk the landlord down to $300 a month.
The furnishing, she discovered later, was tasteful, and even a bit on the
expensive side: pine floors, mahogany table, and a red/blue/orange
loveseat that actually looked cool despite being plaid. The issues were a
tiny but perfectly proportioned couple who lived in the wall behind the bedroom,
but at $300 a month, and with the word issues included in the ad, Lauren had
expected something to be a little off about the whole thing...

Nothing all that Earth-shattering, but it seemed very strange to me at the time. The story ended up about 2,500 words, and I considered it something I'd written only for myself, and didn't expect I'd be able to interest a publisher in it. To my further surprise it found a home in the first market I sent it to: On Spec, the Canadian Magazine of the Fantastic. (In issue #62; order it here. I'll post the story to this blog if there's any interest.)

This signaled a shift in my prose writing that is till in effect more than three years later. It also introduced me to a character named Lauren whom I -- at least consciously -- did not create. She's some sort of dark horse of my subconscious mind.

The Coming Years of Good is the story of a young woman finding herself, and becoming comfortable in her own skin. Later I would take that same character and drop her whole (but without the continuity of the short story) into a comic called Urbis Faerie, which is in this month's competition at Zuda.com (vote for it! You MUST!!).

From the outside looking in, these must seem the most mundane of personal revelations, but I've always been a bit dense when it comes to seeing myself in my own work. I only realized a few days ago that The Coming Years of Good was really the story of me finally getting comfortable with being a writer -- finding my true calling and recognizing it, if you'll allow me to get a little dramatic. Urbis Faerie picks up the character in the exact same state, emotionally -- finally having found herself by moving to this strange little town.

The first panel establishes just exactly the mood I was looking for. Like my character Nikki, I'm a fan of '90's TV shows, especially the ones that emphasized a sense of place. The Urbis Faerie sign is reminiscent of the "Welcome to Twin Peaks" sign from the show, and Lauren lives just outside of town and has to walk in every morning, like Doctor Fleischman in Northern Exposure. Lauren also shares an appellation with Lauren Graham of the Gilmore Girls (not a 90's show, but one with a strong sense of place nonetheless).

Colourist Robt Snyder did something I really liked with the rays of sun, which to me suggests a connection between the Earth and the Heavens, which resonates with the fact that humans in the world of Urbis Faerie are descended from mythological creatures like elves and leprechauns and ancient cat-warriors -- imperfect instances of eternal ideals.

At the heart of Urbis Faerie is the idea of finding your place -- your bliss, as Joseph Campbell might say -- and the threat of having it taken away from you. The threat is only hinted at in the 8 pages on display at Zuda (Lauren will need to unravel some Nietzchean philosophy in order to have any chance at preserving her happiness).

To me -- and this is a completely personal definition, not suggested as any sort of academic standard -- Urbis Faerie is female fiction. I've always been dismissive of notions of shojo vs. shonen stories -- the idea that stories could be primarily for one sex or another strikes me as silly (then again, I've never been able to read more than a sentence of a Harlequin romance).

Female fiction, when I write it, comes from somewhere I don't quite no where. Maybe it's really just a conscious/unconscious distinction (I'm reading From Hell right now), but those inscrutable characters never seem to be male in my fiction. My male characters are all aspects of myself, placed in situations that (hopefully) bring them to life. A lot of my female characters work this way, too (single-mother superhero the Matriarch, for instance), but others just appear unplanned, with lists of strange demands (like Lauren, or Gerd in Elf-Help).

Female-oriented fiction supposedly stresses character over plot, and relationships over action. In its Zuda form, I suppose Urbis Faerie could be said to fit that bill. (As a corollary -- it's been suggested that only plot-centric Zuda entries have a shot at winning the top slot -- does that make Zuda (or rather the voting aspect of it) male-biased?)

In actual practice, female readers appreciate action as much as male readers, and male readers appreciate well-drawn characters and interesting relationships, too. If there truly is a difference between "male" and "female" fiction, then that difference would be dangerous to ignore, but it seems to me that transcending these generally outdated would simply serve to make stories better.

Urbis Faerie Character Profiles: Chris

2008-01-11T03:38:00.000-07:00

(Vote for Urbis Faerie @ Zuda.com!)

When you’re fated to be the bad guy, what kind of life can you hope to lead?

Chris’s father rejected the proud traditions of his people, and Chris doesn’t want to end up a snivelling coward like his dad… but embracing the savagery of his line would mean jail or worse in this modern age. Is Chris bad because of his ancestry, or because he’s just a jerk? Does he excel at football because of the violence… or is he really a team-player at heart? Does he even actually think about any of these issues, or are we just projecting?

Chris is with Nikki right now, but he wants to be with the new girl, Ariel. And Nikki. Preferably at the same time.

Fun Facts about Chris:

Favourite Tea: Beer.
Hates: That dorky reverend, Cat.
Year Book Quote: “FREE PORN!!!”
zuda

Urbis Faerie Character Profiles: Theodora

2008-01-10T23:26:00.000-07:00

(Vote for Urbis Faerie at Zuda.com!)

The last time a woman from Theodora’s bloodline fell in love, fourteen thousand people died.

Theodora turned seventeen last month…

Urbis Faerie Character Profiles: Mister O

2008-01-08T23:53:00.000-07:00

(Vote for Urbis Faerie at Zuda.com!)

He’s small. He’s Irish. He loves Lucky Charms. Can you guess what race of mythological creatures Mister O’Shannon’s descended from?

If I had to guess, I’d say… werewolf. Or maybe some type of spider-thing.

Mister O’ has walked the Earth a long time, and no one seems to know just how old he really is. He traveled the world – twice – before settling in Urbis Faerie, and has a vast knowledge of both teas, and eastern philosophy. His diner, “O’Shannon’s,” is the spiritual center of the town. The Portuguese egg tarts come highly recommended.

Fun Facts About Mr. O:

Interests: Shelley Paley
Activities: Shelley Paley
Secret Hobbies: Shelley Paley
Biggest Crush: Noelia

Urbis Faerie Character Profiles: Nikki

2008-01-08T17:13:00.000-07:00

Vote for Urbis Faerie at Zuda.com!

Born in 1992, Nikki was eight years old when what she considers the greatest decade in the history of the world came to a close. Do you think she understood the full impact of the death of Kurt Cobain in ’94 when she was only two? The Beatles Anthology in ’96 when she was four? The visionary genius of Captain Sisko meeting the Prophets in the Celestial Temple on Deep Space Nine?

Twin Peaks was OVER before Nikki was even CONCEIVED!!!

Nikki is mad at the world for letting her be born so late, and often takes her frustration out on Lucas, whose outward brooding most mirrors her own inner turmoil. On particularly boring mornings Nikki has been known to gaze out over her sleepy home town of Urbis Faerie saying, “Here we are now. Entertain us.”

Nietzsche on Zuda

2008-01-07T23:49:00.000-07:00

An interview with Friedrich Nietzsche (brought to you by Urbis Faerie)

RBR: Thank you so much for being here, Mr. Nietzsche. In all honesty, I was a little surprised when you accepted my request to interview you on this topic. I had no idea you were so passionate about comics.

Nietzsche: Oh, I love comics. (Or Graphic Novels -- I call them Graphic Novels so I won't lose my bookstore cred.) Remember, I invented Superman.

RBR: You invented Superman? But I thought --

Nietzsche: Jerry and Joe made some tweaks, to be sure. But it's clearly my concept of the Ubermensch. All the super hero books are based on my ideas.

And all the other books, too.

RBR: I see…

What do you make of something like Urbis Faerie, which deliberately misreads your study in On the Genealogy of Morals on the origin and historical development of the words we use to refer to the concepts of "good," "bad," and "evil," to posit an ancient and sinister group called The Masters who dominated the various mythological creatures modern humans eventually evolved from?

Nietzsche: It's all good as long as the characters talk about me a lot.

RBR: And the concept of Zuda itself? What do you think of the idea of handing over such a significant chunk of the editorial control to the masses?

Nietzsche: Well, they've basically killed God -- or the God's-eye-view, or the concept of a single, right and true perspective -- haven't they? They've obliterated the foundations of objective truth, and banished clarity forever; never again will we have more than a screaming plurality of voices.

All of which means I approve wholeheartedly, of course.

RBR: Of course. So... why aren't you dead?

Nietzsche: The zombie craze, my friend. We're all here now. I had lunch with Zombie Shakespeare this afternoon.

RBR: So, can I count on your vote for Urbis Faerie?

Nietzsche: Beware the desire to rule --

I have found strength where one does not look for it: in simple, mild, and pleasant people, without the least desire to rule—and, conversely, the desire to rule has often appeared to me a sign of inward weakness: they fear their own slave soul and shroud it in a royal cloak (in the end, they still become the slaves of their followers, their fame, etc.) The powerful natures dominate, it is a necessity, they need not lift one finger. Even if, during their lifetime, they bury themselves in a garden house!

RBR: Uh, all right then. Maybe it's better if you don't vote for me...

tags: zuda, interview, dc, comics, webcomics, philosophy, zombies

"Au Plaisir --

2008-01-03T01:31:00.000-07:00

-- tocard!"

Got a copy of a French comics magazine called Strange in the mail today. Here's me looking at it:

It contains six pages of an adventure serial I'm writing called Venturesome Motes with art by Chris Malgrain, Pierre Minne, Reed Man, and Virginie Blancher (translated by Jean Depelley), as well as a hefty helping of Jack Kirby characters, dinosaurs, and even some Myth of 8-Opus courtesy of Tom Scioli. The French make nice looking books, so getting this makes a great beginning to the new year.

(Click the image to enlarge it... tocard!)

Territory

2007-12-16T19:52:00.000-07:00

A new short story drawn by Rudi Gunther of Deathworld fame. This one will be in Tales From the Harbor vol. 3, from Happy Harbor Comics.

Update (now with 25% more art!)

2007-11-18T17:30:00.000-07:00

Venturesome Motes: some characters are talking now, but I'm not really sure what they're saying. Is that Spanish?

Here's a peek at a secret project. Tell no one -- in fact, don't even look:

Super Pet Mojo marches on:

Elf-Help: please force all your American friends to download it from Wowio.

Old School gets older -- will I ever stop yammering on and actually publish this? Only time will tell.

The Matriarch: see above for time/publishing quip.

Other things you may or may not have heard of:

Madgorum:

Flying Cars:

And a revival of one of the first comics projects I ever came up with called Urbis Faerie, that I think might be right for Zuda:

art, comics, webcomics

more Mojo peekery

2007-10-20T15:51:00.001-06:00

Super Pet Mojo

2007-10-17T03:43:00.000-06:00

Coming soon...

Find out more about Mojo in Elf-Help, free now at Wowio.com!

Elf-Help free at Wowio.com

2007-10-14T20:05:00.000-06:00

Elf-Help is available for download for free at Wowio.com. The site is only open to Americans for the time-being, but please download a copy and help support us if you live in the United States (and tell all your American buddies to do the same!).

http://www.wowio.com/users/product.asp?BookId=1908

Sugary Serials -- It Lives!

2007-10-01T17:11:00.000-06:00

SugarySerials.com has new content daily starting... now.

Venturesome Colours

2007-08-20T23:44:00.000-06:00

One of my long-simmering comics projects, VENTURESOME MOTES, has moved to the colour stage.

So pretty!

The first two pages are structured as gags -- first the guy on foot is overtaken by a dogsled, then uses a snow-mobile to outrace the dogsled.

The tough part for me is that I'm working backwards on this project, adding captions and dialogue after the pages are drawn, which means every word I choose to add is going to cover up a piece of the artwork.

Brevity: can I achieve it? And what in the world should I make everybody say?

OLD SCHOOL

2007-08-13T01:59:00.001-06:00

OLD SCHOOL is coming from Arcana Comics, and we're looking for a skilled digital inker to help us finish up the third issue. The book is drawn by Alan Gallo, and finished pages look like this:

More finished pages at my ComicSpace page.

Alan's pencils are pretty tight:

We need about ten pages inked. Our publishing deal is already in place, so your work will see print. If you're interested, please send links or samples to littlemanfromfaraway -/at/- yahoo.com.

Previous OLD SCHOOL posts
MySpace

Silly

2007-07-18T15:30:00.000-06:00

Deep thoughts on Mr. Silly:

Is this the greatest page in the history of literature?
The pursuit of novelty
I go back so far I'm in front of me...
Pig
Blue grass

Lots on LOST

2007-05-28T23:30:00.000-06:00

One thing that bothered me a bit from a structural perspective about the LOST finale was the whole fake killing of Sayid, Jin, and Bernard, and Hurley’s subsequent (and completely AWESOME!!) rescue.

Seems to me it would have been far more satisfying if Jack heard the gunshots, and we later discovered the shots were fired at the Hurley-bus, and not the prisoners. Jack’s Tom death-threat walkie-call would have to be cut, of course, but so what? He’s Jack Sheppard, not Jack Bauer.

This would also clear up Tom and the other Others’ motivation. I mean, why did they decide to just “shoot into the sand?”

Upon closer inspection, this seeming folly really sets up two things. Firstly, we have Joss Whedon’s Serenity effect in reverse: rather than killing off a character (or two) in order to make the jeopardy the other characters face feel all the more real (“They just killed that character – no one is safe now!”), we get a cheap (initial) save for our three gunmen, perhaps setting up the notion that the character who dies later in the LOST finale will get a last-minute reprieve as well. (That it isn’t so makes the death all the more surprising and emotional.)

The second thing the muddying of Tom and the other Others’ motivation does is… it muddies their motivation. Are they bad guys? Misdirected but okay guys? At the very least, they appear to not be stone-cold killers; moreover, at least some of them express doubt in their orders (enough to shoot into the sand rather than kill defenceless hostages).

Our people – as exemplified by Sawyer – have no such doubts. Ignoring Tom’s uncanny resemblance to Fred Flintstone, Sawyer shoots him dead without a second thought, and it’s about then we begin to feel that something has gone terribly wrong (later echoed by Jack at his secret rendezvous that ends the episode).

The dawning realization that Ben and the Others may have been right all along is one thing – but the glimpse at what our guys (and, by extension, we the viewers – I know I personally was hoping for a little Other blood over the past three years) have become is rather chilling.

The Island is a place that takes an “international cast” and makes them all into people who wage war if they think they might be right. Or if they think the things they were told might be right. It is a place where killing hot girls with satellite phones is cool as long as a mysterious force only you can hear tells you to do it. It is a place where only the information you want in gets in, and virtually no information ever gets out. The Island is… NeoCon Heaven.

More on LOST

Free Comic Book Day: OLD SCHOOL

2007-05-04T13:40:00.000-06:00

Saturday, May 5th (tomorrow!) is Free Comic Book Day. If there's a comic store near you, you should be able to go in and pick up a bunch of free comics, no strings attached.

If you see a copy of Arcana Studio's FCBD book, which will probably be called Arcana Studio Presents, keep an eye out for an image promoting my upcoming series OLD SCHOOL, about a group of elderly heroes who continue kicking butt well into their eighties.

An image from The Pure Lands

2007-04-27T13:31:00.000-06:00

From The Pure Lands #1, by Martin Morazzo and Carolina Cesare.

"The Girl with the Half-Moon Eyes"

2007-04-25T14:01:00.000-06:00

The Girl with the Half-Moon Eyes
By Robert Burke Richardson

(Originally published in On Spec #64)

A field of purple flora, sea-green at the ridges, stretches all the way to a red-tinged horizon. The plants give off a fragrance like too much perfume, but the dry air retains a desert essence on your tongue. You turn 180 degrees and study the prefab buildings just to reassure yourself you’re still on planet Earth and weren’t transported -- as you sometimes wish -- to an alien world while napping on the plane.

Doctor Sawnhey walks carefully between rows of knee-high sorghum hybrids on a series of white boards resting on the coffee-brown topsoil. Her skin is tan, but she doesn’t look like an Iraqi. She speaks in a European accent you’re not worldly enough to identify. “Welcome to the Biogenic Oil Reclamation Project,” she says, squeezing a greeting into your hand. You wonder how she keeps her skin so cool in the heat. “The boards we’re walking on are made from coconut husks,” she says. “People pay us to haul the husks away in some tropical countries. Both fiber and pith are extremely high in lignin and phenolic content.”

You flip your handheld open, but your eyes are already scanning the strange horizon for the real story. Twin dump-trucks lead dust clouds in from the dunes to the South.

Sawnhey pulls an edge-worn card from the pocket of her lab coat and hands it to you. It is a painting of a leafy, olive-green plant. “Let’s head for the refinery,” she says, inclining her head toward a large wood-and-plastic structure off to the right. “This was our first-stage plant,” Sawnhey says, taking the picture back. “It drew the pollutants from the soil and turned them into the hemp rope we used to hang the warmongers with.” She glances at your eyes, and continues only when you don’t visibly react. “The plants then became fertilizer for the intermediary phase, which created the top-soil.”

“And then you grew these purple plants?” you ask. “The ones that produce petroleum?”

Pleased by your understanding, Sawnhey stomps a little foot. “This ground is probably the second richest oil-field on the entire planet, and all the locals ever did was squabble with each other. At long last they have become part of the solution, rather than all of the problem.”

Sawnhey stops and turns to you confidentially. You are just outside the refinery now, and can hear machines pounding out a complicated rhythm. “I don’t mean to be racist, but have you ever seen an Iraqi?” You shake your head no, and Sawnhey leans in closer. Her breath is sterile, like an instrument in a hospital. “The buggers are really oily,” she says. “You can see it in their pores.”

You step around Sawnhey and head toward the dump-trucks, which are just pulling up. Forget the refinery -- you don’t want to see how the machines extract plastics and petroleum from the plants. That isn’t the story. You came here to see bodies.

“No pictures,” Sawnhey reminds you over the scuff of her sensible shoes on the unnatural boards.

One of the drivers is Asian, the other Caucasian. Men and women of a dozen different ancestries stand around a large, shallow pit holding hoes, shovels, axes, and saws. The first truck backs into position with a series of warning beeps, then dumps its cargo into the shallow pit. You are surprised to see that most of the bodies are young Hindi women, lushly proportioned but with the kiss of youth still fresh on their faces. Some wear clothes of cotton or other biodegradable fabric, some are naked, with tattoos on their arms and breasts. The fragrant plants are not enough to mask the smell as the beautiful women fall one on top of the other in the coffee-colored dirt.

The workers begin hacking and digging, mixing the blood and bodies with soil. A corpse with curious half-moon eyes stares at you until you are forced to turn away. Doctor Sawnhey comes to stand at your shoulder. “Nature makes oil from biogenic matter,” she says, “but it’s a slow process. We’ve improved on it a thousand times at this facility. Every ounce of every corpse is used.”

Sensing an even deeper story, you pull out your digital-recorder. “What happened to these girls?” you ask.

Sawnhey wrinkles her nose. “Bangalore prostitutes,” she says. “These are ten, twelve years old now -- it’s a difficult age. Rather than risk the girls escaping or becoming difficult to control, their owners choose euthanasia for them.” She shakes her head as if at a great injustice, then brightens. “But we make good use of them here. Our postnationals harvest and deliver the deceased, and mix them into the soil. It would comfort these ladies, I think, to know that their remains will heat homes and power automobiles.” She smiles. “Would you like to see the refinery now?”

You shake your head and say, “Thank you for your time, Doctor. I’ve seen more than enough.”

Two days left. You fly to Bangalore on a whim. You’ll never know exactly what happened to any of the girls you saw, but you piece the general story together through a series of interviews and discreet observations.

You name the girl with the half-moon eyes Midori and imagine her with a poor family in the Bangalore slums. The baby rests on Mother’s breast while Father paces the rundown hut, wondering what to do with his degree in advanced mathematics. Midori’s brother with the sad eyes and wavy hair is old enough to know that times are hard. He wishes he was bigger so he could help out more.

One day a man comes to the house and offers three hundred rupees for the baby, whom he will see gets a good home. A cash-infusion coupled with a reduction in the number of mouths to feed: the math is inescapable and not at all advanced. Father has to tear the baby from Mother’s arms. It hurts their marriage, but they eat goat and lamb curry for an entire week before going back to rice and watery dal.

A few years later, Father is coming home from a meeting with a colleague. The family remains far from wealthy but, with hard work and sacrifice, they’ve managed to move up in the world, building on the foundation purchased with their little girl-child. Father is a member in good standing at his company, and he works hard to stay accepted and well-liked.

Hanuman, his supervisor, takes him to an American-style club where you can have white girls for money. Hanuman chooses a girl with honey-blonde hair, and leads her to the ornate spiral staircase. Father watches the girls dancing, white and brown alike, turns to leave once his friend is out of sight -- but he can’t go home. The rift between him and his wife has widened. He works such long hours, all for her. He needs a little comfort. He drinks champagne, and tries to forget about the horrible sacrifices he’s made.

Father’s eyes alight on a dancer with half-moon lids just like his daughter’s. She dances over and he smiles. He cries into her breasts after he comes inside of her and goes back to see her every Friday evening. He brings her little gifts because things don’t seem so bad when he’s with her.

Midori dreams of freedom. She is only five years old, but she knows that not every child has a life like hers. Vidroha showed Midori a child through the window once, a tiny thing with a mother to cling to. “Lardkee. Little girl,” Vidroha says. “That’s what we should be.”

Midori’s favorite customer is the man who comes on Friday evenings. He doesn’t choke or beat her and it feels nice when he moves inside of her; it feels nice when he holds her and cries. Midori hopes the man will take her away one day.

By the time she is six, Midori knows the score. She’s seen how quickly the hormone supplements develop the toddlers into women, and she knows that older girls like Vidroha vanish mysteriously when they start to know too many things. Midori is an expert cocksucker, the star of the brothel, but she cries before bed and calls to you in her dreams. You can’t help -- she’s half-a-world away, and you need to put gas in your car and get to work and change the baby’s diapers.

One day Midori escapes the brothel. She slips out with one of the customers, hits him over the head, and runs down the back-alley that’s as much of the world as she’s ever seen. She can talk now, but everyone she approaches reacts with outrage and fear. Some of the women -- what’s wrong with their skin? their faces are so wrinkly -- hit her and shriek at her. Men come and take her away in a car like the ones she’s seen, only this one screams sometimes when the lights turn red.

One of the drivers is Sarad. Midori knows him from the brothel, but he pretends she doesn’t. They put her in a cage and she is very frightened. She weeps into her hands. She would go back to the brothel if only she knew where it was -- if only she could bend these bars. A man in a fancy suit comes to see her. He speaks kindly and lets her out of the cage. Midori can tell the man wants her, but he pretends he doesn’t. He shows her a machine that pricks her little finger. He says the DNA will lead them to Midori’s parents. She remembers the child on the street, and cries to think she too might have a mommy.

Despite the vague warnings, Mother is so happy when she gets the phone-call. She cries and hugs Father and, for the first time in a long while, he thinks maybe things will work out okay. Mother says the man on the phone says that people changed Midori, that she’s grown old before her time. Father says he doesn’t care, he just wants his daughter back.

It is the happiest moment of Midori’s life when Father answers the door. Her savior and protector is really her father, just as she always hoped. She throws her arms around him. They are finally free to live the life they’ve always wanted.

Father pushes Midori to the ground. He threatens the cops. “This is not my daughter!” he screams. “Take this whore away!” Mother comes to the door, and he pushes her back inside. Midori’s brother tries to run to her, but Father punches him in the face. If any of this comes to light, the family will lose their precarious social standing. Father will lose his job, and the family will be right back where they started. He looks at Midori, his daughter, his lover, and erases her from his mind. She does not exist.

The boy disappears the next day, and the mother burns herself to death a week after. Father goes back to work and goes back to the club. He knows what the girls are now, but it is the only place he can find solace.

Midori ends up under a field of purple flora with sea-green ridges stretching all the way to a red-tinged horizon. You flesh out the sex scenes, add an action sequence where a handful of bio-engineered postnationals kill off every last Iraqi for the reclamation project, and sell the feature story for ten-cents a word.

Sandy is sleeping on the couch when you get home, Lily asleep in her big-girl bed. You watch the slight rise and fall of her chest, wonder what the correct course of action is. Maybe you should eliminate milk and meat from her diet so the steroids don’t cause her to grow breasts when she’s seven-years-old. But vegetables have become strange and industrialized too, haven't they? Do you forbid the TV and internet so she won’t be wounded by the sorrow of the world -- or force her to watch so she’ll be prepared for it? Some sorrows cannot be swallowed; they resist narrativization, comfort, and meaning.

A soft snow falls outside. You turn the heat up a few degrees, scoop Lily up in your arms, and take her to sleep in the bed with you. You enclose her in your arms, lay her head on your chest, and feel, if just for that moment, that you can keep her safe.

End.

tags: sf, fiction, Auroras, science fiction, iraq, cannibilism

Lost, toes, sentences, and plugs

2007-04-19T18:13:00.000-06:00

Been enjoying Lost again after a handful of mediocre episodes when they first came back from hiatus. Last night's episode, Catch-22, was particularly good, and the first episode co-written by Pride of Baghdad scribe Brian K. Vaughan. The episode had BKV's fingerprints all over it -- pop-culture references (Superman vs. the Flash), shocking character death (though one that doesn't actually take place) -- and was thoroughly enjoyable, so good on ya, Brian.

***

Theoretics:

So, women who conceive on the island cannot successfully give birth (the mother's body treats the fetus like an invading organism): could this mean that babies conceived of on the island aren't entirely human? (Perhaps they'd only have four toes!)

***

Nice to find my name in the same sentence with Brian Vaughan, Sean McKeever, and Eric Wight on newsarama today in the Shots in the Dark press release. Makes me feel like I've accomplished something, although I really haven't.

***

Here I plug my upcoming projects:

Dumb stuff I thought a year ago

2007-04-08T12:54:00.000-06:00

One year ago (roughly), this is what I thought.

The all-ages stuff I had a hankering to do is coming along (tantalizing glimpses above!), and production is wrapping on both OLD SCHOOL and THE MATRIARCH.

TWILIGHT PRECINCT is dead, although I did eventually get the submission package finished thanks to the help and talents of Giuseppe Pica. THE EREHWYNA DESTINY remains stalled, but I think it will roar back to life one of these days.

Work on THE PURE LANDS resumed only recently, but we'll hopefully have lineart for the first seven or eight pages within the next week or two.

Turned out it wasn't fantasy, but rather science fiction that came to dominate 2006 for me, as I placed both PATHWALKERS and its tonal and thematic opposite, VENTURESOME MOTES at Arcana.

So. It's good to make plans, I guess, as long as you expect them to sometimes go off track. And then to find the track again later. Sometimes. But not always. I guess.

Canadian Comic Book Creator Awards

2007-04-02T11:44:00.000-06:00

This is the Canadian comic book awards; I forgot to vote last year, so thought I'd post this as a reminder to all the sillies out there like me.

Here's a link to the Shuster's main page. There are two categories in which International (ie. non-Canadian) fans can also vote: Outstanding Canadian Comic Book Creator - English Language, and Outstanding Canadian Comic Book Creator - French Language.

Matriarch: Covered

2007-03-27T11:42:00.000-06:00

Art by Steven Yarbrough.

If only it would rain frogs we'd have it all...

2007-03-20T19:36:00.000-06:00

At about 4:30 PM today it was raining, hailing, snowing, and foggy. I found it oddly pleasant, and thought about getting a Bernard Callebaut hot chocolate to go and walking around outside for a bit, but my extreme laziness wouldn't allow it.

Death to America!

2007-03-12T13:31:00.000-06:00

Best coverage of Captain America I've found so far is this podcast interview with Captain America writer Ed Brubaker, and Captain America creator Joe Simon on NPR's On the Media.
Ed's always well spoken and a personal favorite, but it's especially great to hear Joe's reaction and recollections.

Death to America!!

tags: captain america, comics, podcast, NPR, myspace, interview

Art!

2007-03-07T12:36:00.000-07:00

A page from Old School #1, pencil and ink by Alan Gallo.

Webslinger!

2007-02-19T15:41:00.000-07:00

Got my contributor copies for Webslinger today, so I imagine it will begin appearing in book stores soon enough. This is a collection of essays about Spider-Man, guest-edited by Law & Order: Criminal Intent guru and comic book legend Gerry Conway.

Order online from Benbella Books or Amazon.com.

tags: spider-man, myspace, essays, comics

Flying Cars

2007-02-14T14:25:00.000-07:00

The new story I started on my Lazy Day is tentatively called Flying Cars. It's a near-future espionage thing designed to let me serially explore some of my extrapolative science-fictional ideas. Flying cars, like personal jetpacks, will always signal the future, I think, even when we actually have them (in the same way the years 1984 and 2001 are inextricably linked to the future, even though both now belong to the past). Plus, flying cars are linked to spies and espionage, at least for me.

I built a story engine, and very quickly had ideas for three or four self-contained stories (which means the engine works, I think). I then got sidetracked by The Amelia File, but continued rolling Flying Cars around in my head during idle moments. During one such moment, something slightly disturbing occurred to me: the concepts powering the stories were big -- HUGE, in fact. Quite possibly too big, for what I had conceived of as a series of fairly intimate character-based pieces.

This concern led me to take another look at Ellis and Templesmith's Fell, which I have already analyzed (and enjoyed) to death. (Issue #7 came out the day we went to a Barenaked Ladies concert, and my girlfriend and I read it before the show started, earning many puzzled looks from passers by.)

Fell is a bit deceptive in that at first glance it seems to be about the small, almost the way modern literary fiction tends to be. I think it may actually be a limited omniscient book -- do we ever pull away from Richard Fell and his unique perspective on Snowtown? (Maybe in the beginning of the interrogation issue -- remind me to check that out later.)

Fell is small and intimate, its concerns immediate, but a lot of the ideas themselves are quite big -- in fact, this filtering down of big ideas into tiny, relevant shapes may be an integral part of what makes the book work so well.

I went right to the source and asked Warren about this directly, since he is currently running one of his Mass Interrogation Threads where he answers questions about pretty much anything. I said:

Warren;

The ideas in Fell always seem to come in their smallest, most intimate forms -- larger socio-economic movements expressed through the old lady who gives guns away from her shop, for instance, or the very Snowtown-specific effects of the military drugs (as opposed to Fell, say, taking on the military or something, which would just feel wrong).

I suppose I'm juxtaposing this with Casanova, where intimate experiences (like a day trip with friends) are turned into something larger (the way, maybe, a song like Norwegian Wood takes a specific personal experience and finds a way to have it open into something more universal).
When constructing Fell, was the idea of keeping things small, intimate, and immediate a formal part of the story engine, or did it just naturally evolve?

Warren replied:

Yeah. Everything, everything has to be focused down to local effect.

Which makes good sense to me, now that I think about it. I think this is just the way in which Flying Cars wants to work itself out, too. (And yes, I'm comfortable doing something Warren Ellis has already done -- he's already done everything anyway.)

Except.

I think I need the stories in Flying Cars to open back up again in the end. The character I've come up with is trying to go the other way -- to find the mind-blowing WTF hidden at the center of the safe, bland ST: TNG future she lives in. But the stories themselves -- and her world, I suppose -- resist this. I imagine my character will fail to get the results she wants most of the time, but if there is even just a moment where she glimpses the wondrous possibilities…

Probably needs to roll around in my head a bit more.

The Amelia File

2007-02-12T14:43:00.000-07:00

I've been in the unfamiliar (but happy) position the last few months of having second (and third and forth) issues of comics to write. I've got a fair amount of experience writing first issues, since that's what you do when you're developing original comics properties. Serious thought about second and subsequent issues only begins -- for me, at least -- once two conditions have been met: 1). a great artist is attached, and ready to draw, and 2). a publisher has commited to publishing the thing.

So lately I've been in a place I've been working toward being in for a couple of years -- exploiting the hard premise-building work that went into some of my first issues. As of now, I still have issues #3 and #4 of Pathwalkers to write, issue #3 of Venturesome Motes, and pretty much all of Brilig & the Dreamsea.

But.

I kind of started missing the thrill/cloud of self-delusion that goes into creating a new idea from scratch, and the rush of connecting with a talented artist, and... well, all the stuff I'd been dreaming of getting away from for a bit, basically.

So I did it. One week ago, there was no such thing as The Amelia File, but now it's a full-fledged (partial) script in the hands of a very promising artist. With any luck, it will soon be an irresistable pitch with which we shall bombard comics publishing-type companies.

Now I pray it gets rejected, since I have no time to write it!

Robert Abides

2007-02-07T23:54:00.000-07:00

Took a lazy day yesterday, even though I didn't particularly deserve one. I slept in until about 1:30 in the afternoon, then just puttered around and didn't do much of anything, writing-wise or other. (I made a blog entry and sent some emails, but that's about it.)

By about 6:00 P.M. I got an idea for how to finish the script for the second issue of Pathwalkers, and by about 7:00 I'd written it (it was only four pages, but still). I wanted the issue to suggest something really fascinating, like the best issues of Planetary do, but not say so much about the thing that it kills the mystery. But I also didn't want to leave the ending too open-ended.

For the last week or two, my two desires for the issue seemed mutually exclusive. And fatally so, at that. My eventual solution was to leave the conceptual mystery stuff mostly hinted at (but with a small, specific part of the puzzle filled in) and to make the closure and (semi-)cliffhanger elements character-based, instead.

I think it hangs together, but I'm still a bit too close to it to say for certain.

And then, lazily -- lying in bed literally doing nothing and grabbing the notebook and pen only because I didn't even have to sit up to do it -- I started making notes on a brand new project. A couple hours later, I'd nailed down the first page, and loosely plotted the first three issues.

Which means I wrote about as much as I would have if I'd been a good boy and forced myself to write for an hour or three.

Oh yeah, and I got up early today.

Laziness rules!

The Matriarch -- finished!

2007-02-06T13:46:00.000-07:00

Line art for all three issues of The Matriarch is finished, thanks to the fabulously talented Steven Yarbrough. I think he actually pencilled #2 in less time than it took for me to write it.

Dark Horrors review

2007-02-02T12:27:00.000-07:00

Chris Tupper of The Comics Review weighs in on the Dark Horrors anthology right over here.

television for breakfast

2007-01-25T13:09:00.000-07:00

Here is a video of my very brief appearance on City TV's Breakfast Television on January 22nd.

Edit: D'oh -- video isn't working now. Head here, please.

Robert, Happy Harbor Comics on City TV Monday 22nd

2007-01-19T12:03:00.000-07:00

That's right, I chose "movies, tv, celebrities" as the category of this post. Birds will be running into my giant freak head if it gets any bigger.

If all goes according to plan, I will appear briefly in one of the Happy Harbor Comics sections of City TV's Breakfast Television (Monday morning, January 22nd). I'll even have Old School news to report.

Give it a watch if you can.

Buster Keaton's The General

2007-01-18T16:48:00.000-07:00

A few frames I collected from The General while preparing for a new comic project.

Cover: OLD SCHOOL #1

2007-01-10T01:20:00.000-07:00

Should end up looking something like this:

wordses

2007-01-08T01:25:00.000-07:00

Wrang in the New Year writing, and I've pretty much kept it up since then. Feels good to accomplish hefty word-counts again; sometimes "writing" comics doesn't actually involve much writing as there are creators to network, art to review, files to prepare, and a whole pile o' trouble-shootin' t' be done.

Yep.

Been working on a prose novel, and sinking my teeth into issue #2 of The Pathwalkers. Both are very involved worlds and genuine joys to revisit; glad I've still got a long ways to go before either is completed.

I'll probably do a post where I set out some goals for the new year one of these days, as it seemed to work well last year.

Iron-Man's Whang

2006-12-28T01:49:00.000-07:00

Exactly where is Spider-Man punching Tony here?

And is the sound effect meant as a clue?

Posters/Covers

2006-12-21T00:42:00.000-07:00

Dark Horrors: The Gargoyle

2006-12-20T13:34:00.000-07:00

Dark Horrors, a new anthology from Arcana Studio, should be showing up Wednesday (the 20th of December) at discerning comic shops everywhere.

Artist Shom Bhuiya and I have a story in here called "The Gargoyle," which was grey-scaled and lettered under the supervision of Dario Carrasco, when this was going to be a Panday Studio affair (thanks, Dario!). I still haven't seen it in finished form -- fingers crossed it looks good!

Incidentally, "The Gargoyle" was the very first comic script I ever wrote, way back in 2003. Fitting that it should be the first comic work of mine to see print.

Alright, I'll shut-up now. Here's the first two pages:

LOST = Dark City?

2006-12-18T11:44:00.000-07:00

*This post contains spoilers for the 1998 movie Dark City*

Dark City is set in a city/spaceship constructed by aliens in order to, as the film's tagline states, "see what makes us tick." All the inhabitants of the city have been abducted from Earth and, despite the fact that it is always night, have no idea that anything has changed.

Part of the reason the inhabitants of Dark City remain so clueless is that they are routinely given brand new identities -- memories mixed up in a syringe and delivered by Keifer Sutherland's Dr. Schreber. The reason the aliens are pulling us apart and putting us together again is, essentially, to find the human soul.

Dark City, in my opinion, does everything The Matrix tries to do, but does it in a far more successful and entertaining manner. But that, of course is neither here nor there: the real reason for this post is to see what, if anything, Dark City tells us about Lost.

So, the City and the Island. The City has been artificially constructed; might the Island be as well? (Possibly by people with three toes?) It's simpler at this point, I think, to assume the island was formed by natural means and that the Others, the other Others, and Those Who Came Before simply took advantage of the Island's natural properties. Whether artificially created for a specific purpose, or discovered and turned to this purpose, we know one thing, then: the island has a purpose.

And that purpose is…? At this moment -- very, very late at night -- I think the purpose must be to discover the human soul. To discover it and, possibly, to change it.

The lostaways are not unlike the inhabitants of Dark City: each of them has been reborn on the island, and many have been profoundly changed as a result. Each survivor was torn from their pre-crash lives and introduced into a new social situation; more recently Jack, Kate, and Sawyer have been introduced into yet another social situation.

This mixing and matching of experience and personality in order to grow something new is what writers do, anyway. It's what fiction (good fiction, at least) has always done. It's the magic of being able to learn something true from a lie, as we do with fables (and issues of Groo); or being able to learn something about oneself by watching and empathizing with a (fictional) person who is not you.

Is there something more other than the Others lurking within the mysteries of Lost? Most definitely. Will it turn out to be as concrete as the aliens from Dark City? My personal suspicion is no: Lost has always been about human beings, and I think it will continue to be so. We may encounter an older species of human, or even a more highly evolved species of human, or even a differently evolved species of human -- whatever it is, it will be something related to us in some way.

Or not. Maybe in the end I'll be wrong: maybe the ultimate Other on Lost is the Island itself.

(Btw, I totally called the smoke monster thing...)

tags: Lost, theories, TV, Dark City, Schreber

Team Venturesome Motes!

2006-12-15T02:27:00.000-07:00

Check out our manly beauty!

Elf-Help #38 -- final episode

2006-12-11T13:45:00.000-07:00

The first chapter of Elf-Help has come to a close. Both co-creator Martin Morazzo and I are very close to these characters, so I think it's safe to say their story will continue in some form in the not-too-distant future.

Meet the Zeppelin

2006-12-08T19:06:00.000-07:00

Construction of the Superheroine

2006-12-04T12:52:00.000-07:00

I was in the middle of finishing the third and (for now) final issue of The Matriarch when I discovered the Occasional Superheroine blog.

The account contained therein is gut-wrenching, eye-opening, funny, and tragic. And for me, inspiring in a very specific way. I was reflecting on the story I’d been telling with my single-mother superheroine, and wondering if it was edgy enough to be of interest to modern comics readers. No one dies in any of the three issues (although lives, psyches, and identities are shaken to the core (but don’t worry -- they re-emerge purified, re-imagined, and stronger than ever)).

Back when I first conceived of this story (putting a comic together can sometimes take a long while), none of the books starring female heroes were delivering quite the level of fun I wanted as a reader. There were some great books, mind you -- Andreyko's Manhunter at the forefront -- but they were all so dark. I wanted something along the lines of Invincible or Ultimate Spider-Man, but with a more female slant. After looking for a little while and not being able to find a book that delivered exactly what I wanted, I decided the best course of action was to make my own.*

Reading Occasional Superheroine, and the various reactions to it, made me thankful I went the way I did when constructing the Matriarch. Abuse can, I suppose, be a legitimate motivating factor in superheroic self-creation, or a tool for establishing a villain as really really bad, but it is hardly required. Spider-Man doesn’t need to be raped to get a good story out of him.

When constructing a character for the long haul, you need a timeless, iconic core, but you also need to build in enough ongoing personal or social issues that the types of stories you can tell with the character -- while hopefully resonating within a fairly narrow range of tensions or issues established in the first issue -- are ever evolving. Both Superman and Spider-Man, in the beginning at least, had secret identities that were integral parts of their stories. Superman was fuelled by the Clarke-Lois-Superman love triangle, and Spidey was torn between his duties to his family, and his responsibilities as a super hero. (For way more analysis than you could ever want on what makes Spider-Man tick, keep an eye out for my essay in the Gerry Conway-edited Webslingers anthology, coming soon from BenBella Books.)

For The Matriarch, I took the elements that I thought worked well in the classic characters whose stories have gone on for decades, and discarded elements that seem to hamper things. There are any numbers of ways to construct an enduring character, of course, but one of my chief concerns was for the Matriarch to be a likable character -- someone who would be a joy to write, and a person you might actually want to hang around with month after month. Rather than give her deep personal flaws to overcome, I try to grow plots organically (hopefully seeded with elements that resonate with her central tensions) and put her in situations where the world itself is flawed. This way, the Matriarch is always fighting for something: a better world.

Anyway, I found myself wondering if there was room on the shelves for a female super hero who doesn’t kill -- doesn’t get killed -- and actually wears clothing; Valerie’s tale reaffirmed my conviction. The Matriarch is a story worth telling -- and worth telling in just the way I first envisioned. (The market may, of course, tell a different story, but that’s another matter entirely.)

It’s all a bit corny, really. But if you can’t be a little corny in a super hero book, then where can you be? The Matriarch stands for positive values. She’s a hero you can look up to. Deal with it. :)

*Though it didn’t exist back when I first conceived of the Matriarch, Heinberg’s Wonder Woman seems to have a lot of the fun, romance, and adventure I was looking for (I can’t be sure yet, of course, since not enough of it has come out yet). Also, there are a whole gaggle of well-constructed (and fun to read!) younger female characters out there right now including the girls in Runaways, Giant Girls in both Young Avengers and Marvel Adventures Avengers, and of course Spider-Girl.

tags: comics, feminism, mothers, women, superheroine

Art Update

2006-11-27T13:03:00.000-07:00

Be sure and check out my super-sized art update on MySpace.

Elf-Help 37

2006-11-20T00:28:00.000-07:00

Check it out!

worm

2006-11-16T13:22:00.000-07:00

Today I drew a picture of a worm:

Elitism, Underwear, & Master Narratives in Shrek II

2006-11-15T13:02:00.000-07:00

Can't get enough of my long-winded and pretentious articles? Hear me prattle on about the movie Shrek II and the dangers and delights of franchizes over at Anna Tambours' Can of Worms:

Have Shrek and Fiona sold themselves to the status quo in order to feature prominently on children’s underwear? The truth, I fear, may be more sinister still. The Shrek of the original "Shrek" is Socrates as characterized by Plato: he interrogates and reevaluates every convention and establishes a new and better mode of life. Shrek in "Shrek II," however, is Socrates as characterized by Nietzsche in "Twilight of the Idols": a petty man who tears down the old truth = beauty paradigm simply because he, himself, is ugly.

Read it all here.

Deep Space Nine is Deep!

2006-11-13T02:04:00.000-07:00

Over at my MySpace blog I've been linking to some past articles I wrote about Deep Space Nine and how it intersects with certain political, philosophical, and literary issues. If that sort of thing interests you, check 'em out:

Deep Space Nine in the post 9/11 world
Is Sisko a Knight of Faith?
"What You Leave Behind": a heliocentric myth
Love, Klingon Style

Universe Pathways #3

2006-11-09T12:21:00.000-07:00

Fretting about your inability to read Greek? Fret no more! The English version of Universe Pathways #3 is available now through this fine link.

Old School #1 p 24

2006-11-06T11:37:00.000-07:00

...and he's finished.

2006-11-03T17:34:00.000-07:00

Pencils for The Matriarch #1 are now complete. Yay!

Elf-Help 36

2006-10-31T12:44:00.000-07:00

previous/ first/ info

Universe Pathways: Yay, I've been published in Greek!

2006-10-31T01:11:00.000-07:00

Looks real pretty, too, though of course I have no idea what it says, or if it's a good translation.

If you've been wracking your brains, trying to come up with the perfect gift for your Greek-speaking friend with geek-leanings, stop by the Universe Pathways website and snag a copy. :)

The Matriarch

2006-10-29T15:28:00.000-07:00

For those keeping score at home, Steven has started up again on The Matriarch. This one is a prequel of sorts to Old School, and we're hoping to have it in stores the first week of May (for Mother's day).

Steven's super-power is drawing pages fast, so fingers crossed... :)

In Dreams

2006-10-18T10:54:00.000-06:00

Below are three characters from Brilig & the Dreamsea drawn by manga-ka Binah Moon.

Brilig lay in the darkness of his room and listened. An irregularity in the night sounds of the house drew him from his bed and into the long hall that led to his father’s room, where softer snores intermingled with Togrove’s familiar ones. Brilig halted his advance when he realized his father must have found company for the night.

He half turned to re-enter his room but froze when the figures emerged. Togrove came first, a milky ghost slipping through the outer wall. This, Brilig realized, was his father’s dreamself, heading towards the dreamcove.

The second figure, the dreamself of Mrs. Horlig, the blacksmith’s wife, lingered in the hall. Her eyes had a faraway quality and she seemed unaware of her lack of clothing. Brilig painted her with the colors of his memories. She had shoulder-length red hair and a plump body with very large breasts--a common feature in all of Togrove’s companions. She slipped through the wall and Brilig moved to the window, which offered an ideal view of the sleepy town.

Dreamselves rose from thatched roofs and smoking chimneys. The ritual must have occurred every night but had, until this night, gone unseen. The dreamselves moved quickly, emerging from the small houses and flying immediately towards the shore. Some of the nearer figures, Brilig saw, maintained sleep-like poses as they flew, curled up or lying flat on their backs.

When the last of the figures vanished, Brilig drew the shutters against the cold night. The rhythmic breathing still filled the house, signifying that the adults had departed in spirit only.

Brilig crawled back into bed and tried to steady the rapid rise and fall of his chest. He pulled the covers over his head and played the strange images over and over in the theater of his mind...

More on Brilig.

Twilight Precinct: Punch!

2006-10-17T01:14:00.000-06:00

By Federico Zumel, Maurizio Russo, and Giuseppe Pica.

Pathwalkers

2006-10-12T13:44:00.000-06:00

Here's a peek at a new comic project I'm doing with artist Mike Roberts. Pathwalkers is a paranoid sci-fi/noir/thriller about a world not too much unlike our own, where a secret group of telepaths -- pathwalkers, as they call themselves -- vie for world domination.

Veronica's Lost Reavers

2006-10-11T12:44:00.000-06:00

So, yeah, I'm updating over here again (after a lengthy absence of... a week). Blogger just feels like home.

Here are some of my recent thoughts:

Lost 3x01 and Descartes:

In my essay, "Doubt, Descartes, and Evil Geniuses" in Getting LOST, from Orson Scott Card and BenBella Books, I link Descartes' doubt (the means through which he came to know the nature of reality) with Lost's mystery (the means through which we enter the Lost mythos). After seeing the first episode of season three, I can't help but think I was on to something...

Veronica Mars 3x01:

The structure of this show has always been pretty well thought out and nifty, and seems further refined this year. Instead of a single season-long mystery (who killed Lily? who blew up the bus?), they're going to do three this year, with no re-run breaks during each respective arc.

The initial ongoing stories for this arc are the campus rapist mystery, set up last season, and Keith's strange desert-adventure thing, which I don't quite have a handle on yet. The rapist-mystery works for me, because it breaks along a social fault-line...

Serenity: Reaver Fan Fiction:

Eeaarghh paced the deck in front of the window as the tiny vessel crept closer and closer to his own. A fragile bubble of life alone on the drift, Eeaarghh wished he could reach out to the other ship -- bring her passengers aboard the protective shelter of his own much larger vessel, where he and his crewmates could do what came most naturally to them: rape the other crew to death and eat their still-warm flesh.

Eeaarghh walked slowly to where his commanding officer, Ulp, gnawed thoughtfully on a skewer topped with a human wang. "AAAAIIIIEEEEE!!!" Eeaarghh said by way of broaching the subject of approaching the other ship...

Come say hello on MySpace if you have the time!

MySpace -- the Final Frontier

2006-10-03T17:38:00.000-06:00

Been blogging (and doing Elf-Help) for a full year now, and I think it's time to try something else (at least for a little while). I'm moving over to MySpace -- stop by and say hello: MySpace.com/thePureLands.

My main goal since starting this blog has been to publish some super hero comics, and I've been making steady progress. Both Old School and The Matriarch are set to be published by Arcana Studio in 2007, and Twilight Precinct is now in the capable hands of Giuseppe Pica and will soon be ready to start submitting.

For more on my various stories and publications, click here; and for more on my various comic book projects, click here.

Index of previous posts:

On my webcomic, Elf-Help:

Press release and description of series at SilverBulletComicBooks.com; Spotlight at The Pulse; Similarity between elves and "The Others" from TV's LOST; Behind the scenes look at Elf-Help episode 1.

On the TV show, LOST:

Logic of Lost * Lost=TV * Dave=monster * Others=Elves * LOST: choose-your-own-adventure * Underwater hatch and the truth about Hanso * Lost in Lost * Getting LOST

And, of course, I'm sure I'll write lots more on these and other topics at my MySpace page.

Ultimate Iron Earl

2006-09-29T12:51:00.000-06:00

ROBERT DOWNEY JR. CAST AS TONY STARK

I quite approve.

- ***

ULTIMATES 2 # 12

Wow. Delivers on all fronts.

A very pro-American story until you really stop to think about it. Traditionally, in super hero comics, one of the things that seperates the hero from the villain is that the villain is willing to go further to accomplish his aims. Many heroes, for instance, won't kill, even to save lives, but even villains who see themselves as noble or heroic will kill if they see it as necessary to achieving their goals.

The Ultimates win here not because they are inherently nobler or morally superior, but because they are stronger and more hardcore than the dreamy-eyed bad guys: Hulk simply tears Abomination apart, and Quicksilver basically disitegrates a Korean speedster by going faster and being tougher.

It's a great formula, and makes for a very satisfying super hero story. The self-commentary here is in how far it's allowed to go, and the fact that it is perfectly acceptable -- heroic, even -- to show a white American (Captain America) kill a Muslim (Abdul).

Ultimates is and has always been the best super hero comic published.

- ***

MY NAME IS EARL

How come it's not funny anymore? Was that second episode just a blip, or are they rethinking the show for the second season?

I think the problem is that they deviated from the show's premise -- My Name is Earl is about Earl crossing things off his list. Every episode, he needs to cross something off. Problem, complication (complication, complication, complication...), resolution. Each episode should tell its own story, not carry over from the previous episode.

This is the first time the show has stumbled for me -- I'm sure it will recover soon.

Elf-Help 35

2006-09-28T02:37:00.000-06:00

Up in the sky -- it's Elf-Help 35 at Stan Lee's Sunday Comics!

previous comic
first comic

Elf-Help Annual

2006-09-22T13:56:00.000-06:00

Wow. I've been at this blogging thing almost a full year. Here's what I was thinking about a year ago.

Thinking about shaking things up as far as a second year of online presence is concerned -- stay tuned!

Have a Happy Period.

2006-09-19T14:12:00.000-06:00

Today I got my first piece of personally addressed junk mail. We get lots of junk mail every week, of course, but usually there's no name attached and, the rare time it is addressed, it's always addressed to my girlfriend.

But today, this came in the mail: porn

"Two ways to feel shower clean…" Normally, I would have absolutely no interest. But this was addressed to me, specifically. Someone, somewhere, thought that I would find this product (a cleaning product of some kind, I assumed) of interest. Plus, it had a little tab you had to pull to find out what it was, sort of like a game, so…

I pull out the insert, and it's this:

An ad for the new Always feminine hygiene product. Which they apparently think I will dig. I, Mr. Bob Richardson, of Edmonton, Alberta.

If this isn't a successful direct marketing plan, I don't know what will be. Always was really limiting itself, when you think about it, by marketing only to women.

Have a Happy Period,
Robert

Pride of Baghdad

2006-09-15T14:51:00.000-06:00

In the spring of 2003, a pride of lions escaped from the Baghdad Zoo during an American bombing raid. Lost and confused, hungry but finally free, the four lions roamed the decimated streets of Baghdad in a desperate struggle for their lives. In documenting the plight of the lions, PRIDE OF BAGHDAD raises questions about the true meaning of liberation — can it be given, or is it earned only through self-determination and sacrifice? And in the end, is it truly better to die free than to live life in captivity?

Read this graphic novel a couple of days ago, and it's a real classic -- possibly the best original graphic novel I've ever read. Rather than go on about it, I'll point you to a couple of podcast interviews with PRIDE writer Brian K. Vaughan:

At NPR (on Pride of Baghdad); at USA Today's Pop Candy (on Y: the Last Man).

Comics Anthologies

2006-09-15T00:34:00.000-06:00

I've always been a fan of anthologies; most of my (prose) short stories have appeared in anthologies (as opposed to magazines), and my first in-print comic story will soon be published in Dark Horrors, an anthology from Arcana Studio.

A recent article on comics anthologies in Publisher's Weekly, Comics Anthologies Return as Graphic Novels, points to one of the reasons I've tended to prefer anthologies over magazines -- anthologies are intended (in theory, at least) to stay in print; they're book shelf items with spines, and built for long term storage and display.

Anyway, anthologies seem to be on the rise again in comics, and I for one couldn't be happier.

Comic Conversations

2006-09-13T14:13:00.000-06:00

On format:

At The Engine:

Warren Ellis:

When I devised the FELL format, I thought of it as The Dose (as long-suffering readers of Bad Signal will recall). Just a direct mainline shot of brainpower, taking longer to read and digest than the standard 32pp single for a dollar less than usual.

Now Matt's doing CASANOVA. I believe there's one more FELL-format book planned at Image Central right now.

I want more...

At Image Central:

JimmyKitty:

To be honest, it is much harder to write a short story than just ramble on. But is there an audience for it? I think so. In fact, since we're talking the spandex set, I would say your main audience is exactly who is LEFT behind.... now that we've shrunk so much as a community.

Also, FELL has proven you can do-it-in-one, and Ellis is doing it with even less pages. But, the important fact is to make it your own...

On breaking in:

At Newsarama:

Rick Remender:

From today’s vantage point, my only real problem with the idea that there is such a thing as an “over-night success” is that it gives aspiring creators and their audiences a false sense of reality. I can assure you 99% of your favorite creators put in long years toiling in obscurity before you gave two shits about them. When we become aware of a creator’s work, it’s new to us and indeed it seems as if the work appeared overnight. Yet, in most cases the entertainer had undoubtedly been working seven days a week, fourteen hours a day, for years and years prior to his or her “over-night success.”

For everyone who has ever asked me how to break into comics--and what to expect--I offer this, the humble tale of my ten-year, over-night success...

Bush on Extremists

2006-09-12T02:23:00.000-06:00

In an article on Yahoo! News, Bush says:

"The war is not over — and it will not be over until either we or the extremists emerge victorious."

So there's no possibility of finding a middle ground? Isn't that a bit... extreme?

Limbering up for Old School #2

2006-09-11T23:58:00.000-06:00

Alan has started on Old School #2. We're shooting to have #1 in stores for March, 2007. Wish us luck!

Dark Horrors: Spotlight and ToC

2006-09-11T13:10:00.000-06:00

The Dark Horrors anthology is not only in previews right now (SEP06 3063), but it also has a spotlight. Keep an eye out for the really ugly dude below when you're in shops looking for this around Halloween.

Here is the list of story titles and writers involved:

Ronn Sutton -- Tell-Tale Heart (Adaptation)
Janet Hetherington -- Wishbone
Ron Fortier -- Fright
David Hopkins -- Siren Song option
Dwight MacPherson -- La Famiglia
Mark Poulton -- Hog Wild!
Robert Burke Richardson -- The Gargoyle
Jon Hook -- In Season Variety
Crisman Strunk -- Safe at Home
Jim Wheelock -- Drawing on the Dead
Kenneth Olson-- Remember Me
Ben Fisher -- Me and My Shadow
Jeff Loew -- I Married a Ghost Girl: A Maskers Tale
Saul Haberfield -- Believe Hollywood
Chris Lynch -- The Exchange
Gerrin Bush -- Hinnom

I've had a peek at Ron Fortier's story, "Fright," and the art is top notch. I'll be watching this space over here for info on the other artists involved.

Upcoming Comics-Related Events

2006-09-07T12:49:00.000-06:00

From WordFest:

LET'S GET GRAPHIC -- October 12, 2006
Start: 7:00 pm End: 8:00 pm
Venue: The Banff Book & Art Den
Meet the new comics icons!
$6
Svetlana Chmakova, Andrew Foley

PICTURE THIS -- October 14, 2006
Start: 2:00 pm End: 3:00 pm
Venue: Calgary Public Library - Memorial Park Branch
Celebrate the next generation in comics!
$12
Chester Brown, Svetlana Chmakova, Andrew Foley

***

From Comic Talks at Pure Speculation (sponsored by Happy Harbor Comics):

PANEL ONE - Saturday, October 14, 11 am "Making Your Own Comics"

People who've struck out on their own to produce the tales they wanted to tell. Featuring; Edmonton's BOB PRODOR (Wine, Women & Song), Calgary's DAMIAN WILLCOX (Dorkboy), CHRIS PETERSON (Meltdown & Doll Steak) and JAMES DAVIDGE (Wandering Stars)!

PANEL TWO - Saturday, October 14, 3 pm "Inside The Industry"

Find out more about how things work in the professional comics industry by speaking with those who make four colour madness for a living. Meet; SEAN O'REILLY, Editor-In-Chief of Arcana Studios from Vancouver. CARY NORD, Dark Horse artist of Conan (more participants to be announced).

PANEL THREE - Sunday, October 15, 11 am"Comics and Life.

"Why do we love comics? Let four of Alberta's most brilliant minds discuss it with you. Meet; RICHARD HARRISON and LEE EASTON of Mount Royal College in Calgary along with ORION KIDDER and TOM WHARTON from the University of Alberta here in Edmonton.

PANEL FOUR - Sunday, October 15, 3 pm "The World of Webcomics"

I know you've got at least one webcomic bookmarked on your computer but what really goes into making these missives? Meet the makers from four webcomics featured on HH's website - MARIE-CLAIRE GOULD (Will Work For Games), RUDI GUNTHER (Deathworld), RICHARD BARKMAN and KEVIN SOLE (Twice. Thursday.) and TAROL HUNT (Goblins)!

Elf-Help 34

2006-09-07T01:08:00.000-06:00

At komikwerks.

(pic)...
Colorless "naked" version for now. I think inker Carolina Cesare really shines in the two panels above: the foreground images are crisp and clear, the backgrounds sketched just enough to let your imagination fill in the details. Too often in comics (and film and prose, for that matter) the creators become lost in trying to perfectly define absolutely every detail. Storytelling is a collaborative medium, requiring the participation of both the creator(s) and the reader, and this page reminds me to always leave a little space for the reader.

Part of the reason Elf-Help 34 is still colorless may be that I'm working colorist Giuseppe Pica a little too hard. Right now he's working on Elf-Help, Old School, and a new submission package called Twilight Precinct that I've been fiddling with for the better part of a year. I need him on all of these projects, though, because when it comes to coloring comics he is, quite simply, the man. His coloring on Elf-Help 33 totally sells the idea that the elves (who are pacifists) have attacked the Amazon Kobold Marauders by firing love potions at them:

Like Carolina, Giuseppe is a storyteller who uses his skills to bring focus to what matters most. The art for Twilight Precinct is hyper-detailed, so the coloring on it needs to focus attention and clarify exactly what is going on (which is no easy task). Here is Giuseppe's solution:

He puts all the focus on the figure in the foreground, and literally defocuses the background. The effect brings a real sense of cinematic realism to the art that grounds the more stylized, OTT superhero action.

Anyway, if this post should make its way to your eyeballs, thanks Carolina and Giuseppe for turning in page after page of great work -- it's always a treat to see what you guys will come up with next. sequel

Dark Horrors

2006-09-05T14:52:00.000-06:00

Dark Horrors, an anthology of psychological horror tales from Arcana Studio (and featuring a tale by myself and artist Shom Bhuiya) is available to order (in Previews, the big catalog that comics retailers order comics from) right now! If you think you might be interested in picking this up, use this secret code at your local comics shop:

SEP06 3063 DARK HORRORS ANTHOLOGY VOL 1 GN (MR) SRP: $9.95 (I think you only really need the SEP06 3063 part.)

Comic Conversations

2006-09-04T13:12:00.000-06:00

The disappearance of thought balloons in comics, at the Image forums:

JimmyKitty: I love me some thought balloons - mainly because I can't stand people talking aloud- but I guess I should be used to it nowadays with all the bluetooth cell phones in people's ears.

But yes... loss of the thought balloon, I don't understand it, either. People do think. And thinking is faster than talking. It's like reading a book, you get the full dynamic of a person when you're privy to what they think, not just what they say.

It also saves panels...

Booms and Busts, at Millarworld:

Mark Millar: As I just said to someone in an email, this is an AMAZING opportunity for new creators because as the market expands (and it's grown a lot every year since 2000) and creators are split between movies and comics then SOMEONE has to fill that gap. Marvel and DC always poach from the indies so anyone looking to replace the current crop of star writers and artists as their workloads decrease a little should be getting their books out NOW.

Reconstructing Night Star parts 1, 2, 3, and 4, at EX-3's View:

Mike Exner III: The colors for Night Star have always been a bit of a challenge to nail down. When I first concieved of the character in my mind, there was a bit of a clash of styles because of the name. The "Night" in Night Star implies that NS runs around battling criminals at night, and therefore it'd be a smart idea to establish a moody, broody color scheme that accentuates that aspect. But the "Star" in Night Star implies that this character is a celebrity who craves attention, and therefore a bit of flash would probably do the color scheme good...