Stan Lee, agents and Set to Sea

The latest post has taken a long time to get ready, which is too bad. I have been playing a lot of catch-up with the Nanowrimo competition this month and that's significantly affected my time spent on Tomb of the Undead. However, the good news is that I'm only about 4,000 words away from finishing Nanowriomo, getting the little .gif that says "Winner" and then being done with it and getting back to drawing comic pages.

Anyhow - here's the latest update, page 13.


A lot more backgrounds coming up as the characters continue to move through the museum - I didn't really take much advantage of actually having much of this story happening in a museum. There really could have been some awesome sights - but really, there's only going to be one cool museum location that's awesome.

List of agents who take graphic novels
If you're interested in pitching your graphic novel, some user named elae (a.k.a. Niki Smith) over at absolutewrite.com has compiled what I imagine is a lengthy list for your reference.

Graphic Novel Review: Set to Sea
Steve Duin
The Oregonian

In the postscript to his debut graphic novel, Drew Weing extends gratitude "to all of the friends who gave me advice and support in the two cities and five years it took me to get this book together."

I have no idea how many months Weing was handcuffed to his drawing board before he found the rhythm in this book. But find it he did, producing a series of 134 panels that -- finally collected here by Fantagraphics -- betray an admirable gift for storytelling.

Had I been following along when Weing was posting individual panels on his website, I don't know that I would have similarly swept away by the story he tells in Set to Sea. A lazy lug of a poet is trying to write a book about the sea-faring life. As he is wedged at the end of a dock, it's not surprising that he eventually concludes, "Something's still missing." He promptly falls asleep, waking only to find that he has been shanghaied and is now serving at the pleasure of Captain Conrad Porter aboard a clipper ship that won't see land for months.

In a panel that Weing draws from the crow's nest, the lug turns that last good eye to the stars, the stars that abandoned him long ago. Over the next 21 pages, not a word is spoken. The poet has found all that he will ever find of his purpose in life, Weing has found his rhythm, and years -- 10? 15? 30? -- pass in a sequence of images that have my hands shaking. There are icebergs, a whale, a sexton, a card game, a storm, and a lonely sailor curled beneath a palm tree with his journal. We are witness to a man's life unfolding, unraveling, before us in a series of postcards that leave nothing -- or is it everything? -- to the imagination. I don't know Drew Weing, or whether he's lucky or good, but in Set to Sea, he has reminded me once again just how much story you can share in a brief flurry of comic panels, so long as you know how to trim the sails and catch the wind.

Stan Lee working on sci-fi Romeo and Juliet graphic novel

The busiest man in comics keeps getting busier, as Stan Lee’s POW! Entertainment and 1821 Pictures are teaming up for three new graphic novels.

Per Deadline Hollywood, Lee and Terry Douglas will write the first one, Romeo and Juliet: The War, which sets William Shakespeare’s famous lovers in a futuristic setting. Skan Srisuwan will provide the art, and the book is due out in the spring.

Here’s the description of the project provided by Deadline: “Two groups of superhuman soldiers turn the Empire of Verona into the most powerful territory on earth. The Montagues (powerful cyborgs made of artificial DNA) team with the Capulets (genetically enhanced humans with super speed and agility) to destroy all threats to Verona. When they succeed, they turn on one another in a race for total dominance. In this volatile backdrop, a young Monague boy and Capulet girl fall in love and plan to marry in secret.”