Triptych

My friend, the insanely talented Devon Devereaux, and I have launched a new web comic. Triptych will update to the tune of one page a week beginning last Friday! I've wanted to work with Devon since I first met him some ten years ago and the planets finally aligned and made it possible.

But what is Triptych? Well, here's the description I wrote for the About page:

"Terry is sixteen-years-old, and he's reached a watershed moment in his life. His friends are growing beyond him, his family and school are failing him, and he's beginning to realize that he's losing control of his life – if he ever had control of it in the first place. Full of the self-assurance and bitterness only a teenager can bring to bear, Terry looks around him, at the culture in which he's immersed, at the friends he's supposed to emulate, and he decides that only one thing can change his life for the better – magic. But the path of the magician is never an easy one. Terry may kill himself trying to save his life."

I think that says it pretty well.

I hope you'll join us every Friday as we take this angry, spooky trip.

Joe Kubert 1926-2012

Sgt. Rock by Joe Kubert.

Copyright DC Comics.

I learned today that Joe Kubert passed away at the age of 85. I know there will be a lot of articles written about his passing, but I felt the need to saysomething. Kubert was a legend in comics; he began working in comics at the age of 12. He's most famous for his work on Hawkman and the DC war comics, especially Sgt. Rock -- I remember pouring over issues of Sgt. Rock and Weird War Tales as a kid. Later, he founded the Kubert School which has become a Mecca for fledgling comics artists.

I worked at Dark Horse Comics when they released his book, Fax from Sarajevo. I was especially proud that the company would associate themselves with Mr Kubert.

And he never stopped working. He's got a book out now; Before Watchmen: Nite Owl, which features him inking over his son's pencils. He really is an inspiration. Geeks of Doom has the first write-up on his passing that I've seen.

The world doesn't seem as nice knowing that he is no longer with us. Rest in peace, Mr. Kubert.

Book talk: Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season 8 Library Edition Volume 1 HC

They were just so young. First season 

promo photo. Copyright 20th Century

Fox Television.

I've never made a secret of my love for Buffy the Vampire Slayer. A big, huge, titanic-sized reason for that love is the dialogue of series creator Joss Whedon. Whedon makes the language his characters speak dance, do jumping jacks, and do the shimmy. And for all of that, he has a rare ability to get at emotional truths like few other screen writers I can think of. (And I know there are people out there who don't like Whedon's writer. There's a term for these people. That term is: "wrong.")

Previous attempts to bring Buffy to the comics page failed, in my estimation, because try as they might, the writers couldn't quite capture the voice of the TV series writers. And there were some good writers on that original comics series, Andi Watson among them.

And so, we get a new comics series that starts where the TV series ended, and its original arc is written by none other than Mr. Whedon. Glory be! It's really nice to once again be visiting the world and the characters he created, and to have him, initially at least, at the helm. And Brian K. Vaughn, who takes over after Whedon leaves, does a good job of maintaining that voice.

The art by Georges Jeanty captures the likeness of the actors who played these characters on the show without being slavish to them, and he has a fine eye for storytelling. A bonus, for me at least, is that Cliff Richards gets to draw a stand-alone issue in this collection. Richards was the regular artist on the original back when I was its assistant editor. Seeing his art again is like a blast from the past. In a good way.

The whole tone of the comic just feels right. Seriously folks, this is as close as we're likely to get to another season of one of my favorite shows. And that's close enough.

The Lonely Spaceman tease

I've been receiving art from my collaborator on The Lonely Spaceman, Matthew Hope. I'm so happy with what I'm getting that I wanted to share some here. There's no text or titles here, I didn't want to muddy up Matthew's art with my words. And here you go:

So, there's that done

The Lonely Spaceman

I want to write a short series of posts about the new comic series I find myself working on. I hope this will prove interesting to someone other than me. Today's installment is pretty much just setting the stage and introducing the players.

Two, maybe three years ago, I stood on the stage at a Salem Ignite event and I told the audience how much I loved the Internet as a method of distributing... well, everything. I concentrated on comics and I closed with the promise that the next comics project I did would be published to the web.

It looks like I'm keeping that promise. I just didn't expect it to take this long.

I made several half-hearted attempts at getting a web comic up and running, but there were a couple of things that slowed down the process. The first is that a lot of people still see working in web comics as less prestigious than working in print comics. The second is that not a lot of artists want to work for no money up front with no guarantee of money on the back end. And, once I put it in those terms, it's not hard to see why they aren't beating down my door to work on such a project. I would definitely need to find just the right artist for this.

About that: It always helps to know people. In this case it helped a great deal to know Devon Devereaux. Devon is sort of a nexus of cool people (Malcolm Gladwell would call him a "maven") and when I told him that I wanted to work on a web comic, he immediately thought of someone I should contact – his buddy, Matthew Hope. Matt is a designer and he does illustrations for concert posters and other things. Devon sent me the link to his web site, Poor Man's Bread, and after poking around for just a minute, I knew I wanted to work with Matt. And I know on which project I wanted us to join forces. A lot of Matt's work has a SF feel to it and I've had a SF idea kicking around for several years. One piece in particular caught my eye and it's the piece that starts this blog entry. Often when I contact an artist about working together, I send them several ideas and let them choose which one most appeals to them. This time I sent just one idea: The Lonely Spaceman.

Next: What is The Lonely Spaceman?

Words, words, words

I've really had my head down lately in an attempt to get some stuff done before Baby 2.0 arrives at the end of June/beginning of July. Let's see, there's homework to be done (two papers to write, a bunch of books to read for the next residency); I've started to meet with a friend whom I hope will be the producer of the short film I plan to make next semester, and I've been trying to get a lot done on the web comic I'm trying to get off the ground. The novel I started working on is going to sit and marinate for a while. Something had to give way and that seemed like the easiest thing to set aside.

The web comic is really taking shape on paper. I've never worked this quickly on a comics project. Last week I wrote a pitch document that included character descriptions, a description of the world and the general shape of the story. I also plotted out and scripted the first chapter of the book (26 pages!) and got all of that to the artist. Best of all, he likes what I've written and didn't ask for any changes. This is a rare and magical occurrence. Over the last two days I've worked out a very basic plot of the rest of the first book (in a perfect world this will be a story told in three volumes). I wanted to work far ahead on this project because come the arrival of the baby, I'll probably have to set it aside for a while. I want the artist to have lots of material to work with while I settle into my new life. Also, the more material there is, the easier it will be for me to hit the ground running when I get back to the project. I think I'm at a place where I can leave it alone for a while and concentrate on homework.

Thanks for indulging me and my sporadic updates. As a reward, have a video of Jenny Owen Youngs performing one of my favorite of her songs live. Take it away, Jenny.

The future of music distribution

Damian Kulash, the lead singer of the band OK Go, was interviewed on NPR's Talk of the Nation yesterday. Kulash talks about, in broad strokes, the history of music distribution and, more in depth, his band's decision to leave the major label which handled them and start their own. He also wrote an opinion piece on the subject for The Wall Street Journal.

This is relevant to my interests for a couple of reasons. 1) Because I like this band and am interested in how they conduct themselves and 2) because I wonder if what they've done in music can be replicated in the medium of comics. Especially on the scale they seem to be doing it at.

Here's a link to the audio of that interview.

Cooperation!

Something I've never done before is to collaborate on a piece of writing. That may be changing. If I'm lucky.

I have a friend who also writes comics on occasion. He contacted me out of the blue last month to tell me that he had an artist who was interested in working with him to put together a comics pitch. They both know an editor at a large comics publisher and wanted to work up something to pitch to him specifically. My writer friend worried that he didn't have enough time to work on anything by himself, so he wrote to me and asked if I'd like to write something with him. For a number of reason -- the chance to work with my friend, the chance to be published by this particular company -- I said yes.

I thought that we would just be working on an idea that he had come up with, but he and the artist had not actually settled on an idea yet, so I was asked to contribute some ideas as well. My friend then put the four best ideas, two from him and two from me, into one list and sent it off to the artist. I just heard back from my friend today and it turns out the artist picked one of my ideas. I won! General congratulations and back slapping for me...

And now I feel the pressure to deliver since it was my idea that was chosen. *sigh*

And the idea? In a nutshell, t's about Mexican wrestlers, Aztec death gods and general mayhem and untra-violence. You know, the usual...

More updates as the situation warrants, of course. Oh, and this is the comics project that I wrote about on occasion last month. It'll be interesting to fit in even more writing with everything that's going on now, and everything that I know is coming down the pike in the near future.

Wish me luck.

The Holiday Pimp

File this under "shameless self-promotion." Christmas is just around the corner, Hanukkah is nearly over, Kwanzaa is nearly upon as are other celebrations about which I am unaware because I am an American with a public school education. In that spirit, I thought I would take this opportunity to point out to you, the gift-buying public, that I am the author of several fine comic books. Which comics? Well, let me show you. Consider the list below the only one you need to complete your holiday shopping:

Star Wars: Infinities -- Return of the Jedi

Art by Ryan Benjamin

My very first published work. Also the most awkwardly titled. It's an alternate-universe take on the third of the Star Wars films (or the sixth if you are a heretic and consider the new trilogy worthy of the canon). This book is perfect for the sci-fi-loving geek in your household.

100 Girls

Art by Todd Demong

My first creator-owned titled. Originally published by Arcana

Comics, it was later collected by big-time publisher, Simon & Schuster. This one is near and dear to heart. It's the story of

thirteen-year-old Sylvia Mark. She's the product of a government-funded experiment and she can totally kick your butt. Honestly,

my favorite thing about this book is Todd Demong's art, which evolved over the course of our doing the book together (as a bonus, if you follow the link to Todd's blog, he posted a new sketch of Regina from 100 Girls just today!). It starts out great and moves on to face-meltingly great. This is recommended for teens as there is a fair bit of violence.

Tales of Hot-Rod Horror

Art by Justin Nitz

An anthology of indie horror comics featuring some very cool cats (Rick Geary is at the top of that heap!) and published by my good friend Devon Devereaux. Buy this book and see my riff on classic EC horror tales of old. There's a lot of fun stuff here for those who like their horror mixed with black comedy. This is definitely suggested for adults.

Gear School

Art by Nuria Peris, Sergio Sandoval and Studio Fenix

Another creator-owned title, this one published by Dark Horse Comics. It features a young girl in a world where giant mecha

are the principle war machines. Children are taught to drive these machines at an early age. I've always thought of this series as Digrassi High meets Mobile Suit Gundum. It's high melodrama in a futuristic high school and the occasional alien menace. Yes. And it features gorgeous art by a team of Spanish

artists. Suitable for younger teens or anyone who was once a young teen.

MySpace Dark Horse Presents volumes 1 & 5

I have one short story in each of these volumes. Volume one features a Gear School short story with art by Nuria and Sergio. Volume five features a new character, Dalton, with art by Todd Demong. Both are fun little romps surrounded by an eclectic collection of very cool comics. DHP has always had a reputation for publishing some of the finest comics in the business, and the on-line incarnation was no exception (my own contributions notwithstanding). Get these for anyone who is looking to be exposed to a lot of new titles. Probably rated PG-13.

Gear School volume 2

Art by Nuria Peris, Sergio Sandoval and Studio Fenix

A follow-up to the original Gear School, this book features more of everything you (well, maybe not you) loved in the first volume -- romance, rivalry, giant robots beating the snot out of each other. Buy this for anyone who loved book one or buy both for a great little set. Again, suitable for young teens and up.

Arcana Team-Up

Art by Todd Demong and mumble-mumble...

This is an odd little number, but of potential interest to some folks out there. This book collects some team-up stories featuring characters that Arcana has published over the years. One of these is a 100 girls story published for the first time ever. It was written and drawn years ago and fell into a pit of legal darkness when the character with which Sylvia teamed up had her company go bankrupt. Some deft maneuvering on the part of Arcana makes this story's publication possible. It's a 48-page story told in two parts. Part one features art by Todd Demong, part two by a fine young man whose name I've forgotten and can't find record of. C'mon, it was like four or five years ago. Buy the book and you can look it up yourself. Recommended for older teens.

There you go. A little something for everyone on your holiday gift list. Unless I'm that person, of course. But you can always just send me cash. Happy holidays, folks.

More inspiration coming soon

I read today on his blog that Warren Ellis is working on, as he calls it, "a short booklet about writing comics." This is exciting news. When Ellis writes about comics, I pay attention. I may not love every comic he does, but they are all worth looking at and dissecting. He seems to be one of the few people working in the field who really thinks about the medium. I think most people, myself included, operate from a sort of gut-level, but Ellis is a formalist. That's my take on it anyway.

The last book of his about comics that I read was 2001's Come In Alone which collected the columns he wrote for Comic Book Resources. I've read it several times and have been thinking recently that it's time to read it again. A new book on the subject from the same author makes me happy. Maybe I'll finally be able to figure out how these comics things work. Though that is asking a lot.

And, before I forget, here are today's numbers.

Words for the day: 1,249

Words for the month: 4,533

Also, I should note that I love writing scary, prophetic dream sequences. That is all.

Gear School + FaceBook

The folks at Bamf! have created a presence for the Gear School short film on FaceBook. It's in Spanish, but for those of you who went to public school and can only read one language (like me!) there is some non-language-specific content up there including a peek behind the scenes at the making of the film and some production photos. It's all pretty neat. If you're on the FaceBook, which I hear is popular with the kids, then you should "like" it.

That is all.

I'm standing exactly like that right now

This is the single greatest comics panel I have ever encountered.

That is all.

Gear School news

I have just been informed that the short film based on my comic, Gear School, has been chosen to be screened at the Sitges International Film Festival. Wikipedia tells me that Sitges is "considered the world's foremost international film festival specializing in fantasy and horror movies". Sounds good. And it looks like the festival is underway even as I type this. Congratulations to everyone at Bamf! Productions who produced the film. I hope to hear a full report on the doings over there in Spain.

And you can go here to see the trailer for the short film.

Young and Uninsured

Hi, Internet,

Prepare to be depressed. Time magazine has done a series of videos called "Young and Uninsured". The one I am posting here features the cartoonist Julia Wertz. Ms Wertz is best known for her web strip and book, Fart Party. Ms Wertz also has lupus and is, as the title of the series implies, uninsured.

This feels like an amazing injustice to me.

I suppose I am putting this video here to highlight her plight and to hopefully direct people to her site and to buy her books and maybe help her out a little. She faces her disease, in the video, with great humor--and please don't think that her comic is only about her disease. She addresses her day-to-day life and she makes it all very funny. Her books are some of my favorite autobiographical comics. Seeing this makes me want to go and buy everything she's done even though we already own a lot of it. Anyway, I hope you watch the video and then check out her site and her store.

It's my two-day, two-city world wide tour!

Gear School II is being released today and it seemed like a good time to remind everyone that I'll be doing a couple of signing's this weekend.

Saturday, October 2, 12-5

Tony's Kingdom of Comics

5420 River Rd N

Keizer, OR

(503) 463-1142

In addition to me signing and straining the limits of my interpersonal skills, the Corrosive Comics gang will be there; the local 501st Stormtrooper garrison will be on hand; we'll be collecting food for the Keizer food bank and we'll hold a drawing for Shiner's hospitals.

Sunday, October 3, 1-3

Cosmic Monkey Comics

5335 NE Sandy Blvd

Portland, OR

(503) 517-9050

This time you just get me, but if you rub my belly and offer me a treat I'll do tricks!

Quixotic

I have been thinking a lot about digital comics. That is, making digital comics. A little more than a year ago I was gearing up to take one of two paths. I thought that I would either do what was necessary to create and sustain an online comics anthology. Four stories with four different artists. Or I would go to grad school and work toward an MFA. Well, I got accepted to one of the best creative programs in the country so I decided to put the digital comics idea on hold for a while.

But now I'm wondering if it would be possible to do something a bit more limited in scope. What about doing a single story that would update once a week. Say, four-to-six pages every week with a few skip weeks built in. I'd need to find an artist who could handle that production load. And who wouldn't mind working free for a while. The way I see it, one could post free weekly updates and then either try and attract a publisher once enough material was extant, or one could try and self publish. Or, hell, maybe even use a direct-to-print service like Lulu.

Others have done it. Warren Ellis has been writing FreakAngels for a few years now. Though, to be fair, he's fucking Warren Ellis, and I am not (it should be mentioned that it was a post on Ellis's site that made me start to once again consider this ill-considered path). Let's see, the guys over at Penny Arcade do it, R. Stevens does it with his Diesel Sweeties. And those are just the few that come to mind, I know there are others doing it, too. So why not me and whatever poor schmuch who decides to hitch his wagon to my nonexistent star?

Tempting, right? But wait, we could also share copyright and any profits this project would generate. That's something, too, right?

I know this requires more thought, but I feel like the bare bones are there. And I know that I've been threatening this for a couple of years now, but I really do feel like the next comics project I work on will be published to the web. It feels like the right thing to do.

Gear School short Trailer

Below is the trailer for the Gear School short film produced by Bamf! Prodecciones. Bamf! are a subsidiary of Estudio Fenix. And Estudio Fenix are the studio that handled the art on the comics version of Gear School. Bamf! are getting ready to start submitting the short to film festivals around the world. I'll be watching with interest to see how the film does.

I feel like I don't have much to say lately. A lot of things in process. At stages that aren't that exciting to talk about (because I know that my readers have come to expect pure excitement from this blog).

One thing I should mention is that I got a part-time job. I'm now working as a projectionist at Salem Cinema, Salem's only independent theater. It specializes in indy and art-house movies. So far, except for the time it takes me away from Melissa and Oscar, it's a lot of fun. But it's helping to make ends meet, so it's hard to complain.

I've never worked a projector before, so it's been interesting learning the skill. I like machinery and the chance to get my hands inside of the projectors is great. And I think I take more satisfaction in having threaded the film properly than I likely should. Learning a new skill makes my head feel clear, which is nice. It's been a while since I learned anything new.

On the writing front, like I said, things are in process. Dalton is being considered for publication, which always turns into a hurry-up-and-wait situation (and I'm reminded that I need to write an email to the editor looking at it with my and Todd's ideas about publication--an email that will likely kill any chances the project has of moving forward). Todd is drawing an eight-page short story, but, because he has a day job, it's going to be a while before that's done. I need to start designing an actual web site for my self, but I am lazy and will probably put that off until... who knows when. I sent a query letter off last week to a literary agent, but that's another situation where I just have to wait for a response. Finally, I should be looking for artists for a couple of new projects, but with so many things up in the air, I'm reluctant to start anything new.

Maybe I'll just sit back and try and finish a book. Something I haven't been able to do in more than a week.

Stay tuned for more thrilling posts once things develop.

Brief bits of business

Oh, bullet points, how I've missed you!

• A reminder that the eight-page Dalton short story by Todd Demong and myself is still up at Myspace/DHP. If you haven't already, please read it and let me know what you think of it. Thanks.

• Núria, my partner in crime on Gear School has posted some new photos over on the blog dedicated to that book. And let me say once again that Spain is overflowing with beautiful people.

• This seems like a good time to remind folks that I am accessible in other places on the Internet. I can be found on myspace, though I am never on there anymore; facebook (where, besides a personal profile, I also have a group page and a page devoted to this blog); twitter; flickr; and photos I take with my phone can be seen on twitpic. So many ways to enjoy the spectacle that is me.

And after that bit of egotism, I must go shower.