I'm not complaining....

For reasons that I cannot explain, it would appear that Gear School will be shipping two weeks early and will be showing up in comics shops as of tomorrow. That's if we can believe the Diamond ship list, and I think we can.

I've got to admit that this leaves me feeling like I'm experiencing an anticlimax somehow. Here I've been waiting for a year for the book to be draw, designed, printed, etc, and I was completely ready to wait another two weeks for it to hit store shelves. Well, it's early and I feel... oddly deflated. It's like being given your Christmas present unexpectedly early. I think the excruciating joy of waiting for the day to arrive is a big part of the process for me. Does that make sense or am I just a big whiner?

Don't answer that.

Also, Gear School got a so-so endorsement today on newsarama.com as part of their regular "Can't Wait for Wednesday" feature. I will take any kind of endorsement whatsoever.

Horror Writer May Have Dismembered Women

Via CBSnews.com: "Cops Find Torso In Closet, Leg In Refrigerator, Draft For Cannibalistic Instincts.

"An aspiring horror novelist was arrested after police discovered his girlfriend's torso in his closet, a leg in the refrigerator and bones in a cereal box, the city prosecutor's spokesman said Thursday."

Ben is funny and, one hopes, prophetic

Email exchange! Cast includes Ben Stenbeck and yours truly.

Ben: A little bird tells me that Mike R(ichardson) is super happy with Living with the Dead. And I'd imagine they are pretty keen on Gear School.

so...

What's this? Huh?! SHAZAM!! A super awesome proposal from these two hot new-comers??! 'How can I resist?!' says Mike Richardson and rubs our bellies with hot cash and movie deals.

Me: Will super models also be involved in the belly-rubbing?

Ben: I'm sure Mike will be all like, "Nothing's too good for my hotshots -- Heidi Klum? Have you finished warming those $100 bills betwixt your thighs? Yes? Very well, let the rubbing begin!!"

This is just to illustrate that Ben is awesomely funny. Funnier than me. The Living with the Dead Ben talks about is the comic that he drew which was written by Mike R (which hits the street this week and which has a making-of feature on the Dark Horse web site). And the proposal he mentions is the Horror Thing I've mentioned a few times.

About that: I went to the library and checked out a pile of books about World War I so I can seriously dive into writing the notes for the series. Please wish me luck.

I'm going to Hell for liking this, aren't I?

The Internets can be both a blessing and a curse. Sometimes both all wrapped up into one.

My new favorite thing is a set of photos posted on flickr called stripper_polaroids. Before anyone gets up in arms, please be aware that flickr had provisions about decency so none of these photos is too racy. The set's owner gives this bit of explanation:

"This photo came from a collection of over 400 Polaroid photos of strippers trying out for dancing jobs at a So. Cal club. They were taken from the late 1960's thru the early 1970's. I bought the entire collection for $10."

Many of the photos are hi-larious, as one would imagine, but some really struck a chord with me. Perhaps it's my willingness to read too much into people's facial expressions and body language, but some of the photos in this set filled me with a real sense of pathos. Regardless, the photos should prove interesting and I hope the set's owner posts more.

Promethea

Alan Moore and JH Williams' comics series (along with inker Mick Gray, colorists Jeromy Cox and Jose Villarrubia, and letterer Todd Klein) began life as a pastiche of super-heroine comics, a la Wonder Woman, but it quickly grew into a meditation on the history and philosophy of magic.

The plot concerns college student Sophie Bangs who is researching a character called Promethea who shows up in a number of stories across a number of media throughout the late 19th and early 20th century. But Promethea doesn't just show up in stories, she also shows up in real life, giving aid and comfort to those in need. As a consequence of her research, Sophie actually becomes the latest incarnation of Promethea.

Book one and two concern themselves mostly with Sophie assuming her new role and learning the histories of the Prometheas who came before her. Books four and five focus on Promethea traveling up the Qabbalistic Tree of Life to the God-head. And in book five, we watch Promethea preside over the Apocalypse and what comes after it.

For me, Promethea works best when it acts as a magical primer. Moore can slip easily between scenes of action and instruction. Those few chapters that are purely plot or action driven feel the weakest to me.

Special attention has to be given to the art team of Williams, Gray, Cox and Villarrubia. Moore's scripts make so many demands of them and they are up to all of them. During the sequence where Promethea climbs the Tree of Life, each issue is drawn in a different art style; no mean feat for an art team.

Part of me, a small part, wishes it was this series, not League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, that was going to be continued by Top Shelf Publishing. But then, where else is there to go after the world ends?

Simon and Schuster loves 100 Girls

We've (Todd and me and Arcana Comics) been waiting for the contracts to be signed before making any kind of official announcement, but Simon and Schuster have scooped us. As that sparsely detailed page shows, Simon and Schuster's Aladdin Books imprint will be publishing the first 100 Girls collection, "The First Girl", next Summer.

I've been referring to this here on the blog as "the book thing." I've collected a ton of extras materials and sent them off to S&S, Todd is busy drawing a new cover for the collection, and we are both preparing for untold fame and riches. That's how this works, right?

Some kind of official announcement/press release likely to follow.

That sketch, by the way, is of Sylvia, our main character, and is by Mr. Todd Demong.

Stumptown de-brief

I attended the Stumptown Comics Festival in Portland this past weekend and... man, it wasn't a good experience. Personally. I know a lot of folks there had a great show and sold lots of stuff, but for me not so much.

Part of it is probably that I didn't really have any new stuff to sell. But I think a larger part of it is that the comics I write are not in sync with the Stumptown vibe. This is the only show I sell at where attendees are looking for lots of small, indy stuff. Everything I work on is pretty slick and, at least, mainstream-seeming. The art is very polished, the stories are genre and, worst of all, it's in color. I actually saw at least one person propel themselves away from my table as if mainstream comics were a disease you could catch like the God-damned SARS. It's hard to begrudge the indy folks for dominating this show; at every other show I go to, the indy crowd is relegated to a dank corner far from any of the other displays.

Anyway. Saturday I sat there fuming, really considered not even coming back on Sunday, but then I figured I just needed to change my outlook. I came to terms with the fact that I was not going to sell a million copies of my books. Sunday then became an exercise in retail therapy. I spent many, many dollars buying lots of interesting stuff. It was fun to go around and introduce myself to the folks making comics and to help support them by actually making some purchases. I spent maybe thirty bucks on comics zines and walked away with some really interesting stuff.

Other highlights of the show were attending the after-party at Cosmic Monkey Comics, which is a great store in Portland. Free beer and PB&J sandwiches. Nice. Melissa and I had dinner with Philip Simon and his partner Kate and they put us up for the night. Sunday night before we came home, we had dinner with my friends Devon and Jon, and their friends (and comics people) Mike, Miriam Libicki, and Camilla D'Errico. It was Camilla's birthday and we got the waitress at the Mediterranean restaurant we were at to bring us some baklava with a candle in it.

In situations like this, I can generally turn around a shitty situation if I can just get to a place where I realize that it's my own negative attitude that's making things so bad. So, the con wasn't so bad, but my attitude was. I recognize that.

But I still don't think I'll do the show next year.