Lindelof loves Underwater Welder

I'm way behind in my updates, but here's a recap of page 79, to follow along with posting about The Tomb of the Undead. Some news for today . . . I registered the domain for the second chapter of this - though I likely won't get to it for ... jeeze, probably two more years. However, I know what I WANT to be in there, and I think it'll be a really crazy story.

I designed this all to fit into a trilogy, and I think after what I've done with the first installment, I MAY conflate the second and third stories into one, and use a flash-back mechanism to keep things really interesting. Although, that could be problematic in only one capacity. I'll require flashbacks to the "Good ol' days" similar to the Tomb of the Undead, when I keep jumping back to 32 A.D.

It's quite possible jumping to the end of the trilogy, while introducing the second part of the story, while continuously jumping back to the backstory and origins might be a bit much to make sense of, and could dramatically slow the story-telling way down.

I've got probably two years to worry about that, so ... I'm certainly a bit premature even mentoining it.

Without further ado, here's page 79, which wraps up the the final segments of Escape from M____.

Dr. Casey Miller, Dr. Howard Bolam and Evelyn escape from an unknown assailant in Escape from M____.

See more by following the links:

• Fundraising Faux-Pas, (updated Dec. 19, 2011)
• King Street Capers I'll update this today, there are a few more comics in there.(updated Aug. 19)
• General comics There's new stuff here, too, check it out (updated Aug. 19)
• Tomb of the Undead (updated Aug. 16), or the
• Mugabe comic strip (Pinocchio parody)

Graphic novel news
Hear from Persepolis director Marjane Satrapi (video), about how graphics are essential to winning a Newbery Award and what Damon Lindelof from Lost had to say about Underwater Welder.

Conversation: Graphic Novelist, Director Marjane Satrapi  
Jeffrey Brown 
PBS.org

Marjane Satrapi's "Persepolis" won international acclaim as an autobiographical tale, told first in the form of a graphic novel, later turned into a film, of a young girl coming of age amid the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran.

Click to read more.

Why a graphic novel probably can’t win the Newbery Award 
The Beat 
ComicsBeat.com

The Newbery Award is the gold standard for children’s books; it’s awarded to one book each year (along with a handful of Honor books) and signifies the level of excellence that such past winners as A Wrinkle in Time, Sarah, Plain and Tall and The Graveyard Book imply.
But could a graphic novel win this award? Librarian Elizabeth Moreau says No, because the rules for the award call for it to be based on words alone, without the impact of illustrations . . .

Click to read more.

Graphic Books Best Sellers: Talking About ‘The Underwater Welder’ 
George Gene Gustines 
artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com

“The Underwater Welder,” by Jeff Lemire, enters our graphic books paperback best-seller list at No. 6 this week. It’s about Jack Joseph, a man feeling pressure because of his deep sea welding gig and the fact that he’s going to become a father. The introduction to the book, by Damon Lindelof, one of the creators of “Lost,” compares it to “The Twilight Zone.” The book starts out innocently enough, seemingly a story about Jack, his pregnant wife, their life struggles and Jack’s relationship with his own father. Things get a bit eerie after Jack emerges from one of his dives to a changed world. Mr. Lemire’s characters, even when they’re happy, have a melancholy look to them. They create an almost instant rapport with the reader.

Click to read more.

Please MIND Cow Boy and Bat Man

 Here's an update for page 78 - bringing back the villains from earlier (much earlier by now) in Part One. Max Von Sydow and Jason Miller from the Exorcist were my models for the Sadducees - though if you were to look at them, of course, you'd probably not "see it." Dustin isn't based on anyone in particular.

(You'd probably be surprised to see who the other characters are based off - ask away, I'll tell you).

The directors of the mysterious murderer chasing Evelyn, Casey and Howard is revealed to be Dustin Mugabe by his directors in Damnit Mugabe. Hope you like it!

See more by following the links:

• Fundraising Faux-Pas,
• King Street Capers
• General comics (updated May 5)
• Tomb of the Undead(updated Apr. 29), or the
• Mugabe comic strip (Pinocchio parody)

Graphic novel news
Described as "Deadwood for kids," Cow Boy is cute ... but read how this story has a hard look at the price people say for choosing to be moral, and melancholy. Also, read how Lost co-creator and showrunner Damon Lindelof found his way to being involved with Jeff Lemire and a new Batman digital novel. Lastly, read about the thick and intense data being crammed into each issue of MIND MGMT - so much the author says reading it all in one sitting "might be hazardous to your mental health."

'Cow Boy' By Nate Cosby And Chris Eliopoulos: More Than Cute [Review] 
Matt D. Wilson
Comics Alliance

Speaking with Chris Sims and me on the War Rocket Ajax podcast a few weeks ago, Cosby described Cow Boy as "Deadwood for kids." Thematically, that's a pretty good comparison. Both stories take a hard look at the price people pay for choosing to be moral, and have a pretty strong underlying sense of melancholy as a result.

Click to read more.

EXCLUSIVE: Damon Lindelof On His And Jeff Lemire's "Batman" Digital Comic 
Jeffrey Renaud
Comic Book Resources

What happened was that I basically became obsessed with Jeff [Lemire]. [Laughs] I read "Sweet Tooth" and was like, "Holy shit. Who is this guy?" I googled him and found out about "Essex County," so I ran out and grabbed the collected edition and read it cover to cover. Then I tweeted about him and about how awesome "Sweet Tooth" was. And then, he tweeted back at me, we exchanged email addresses and just started talking to each other.

Click to read more.

Matt Kindt Shares the Secrets of "3 Story" & "Mind MGMT" 
Shaun Manning
Comic Book Resources

The series ... deals with questions of how we perceive the world and how those perceptions are manipulated, and Kindt said this will play out through the series' episodic format.

"I think a lot of the inspiration for how I'm telling the story this time around came from the actual format that the story is in," Kindt said. "At this point it seems like there's no one making monthly comics anymore. The monthly comics come out but they're mostly written for trades. So I'm actually trying to make a 24-page comic that is a satisfying read all on its own. To me, that means making something that takes a while to get through. And something that will take multiple readings to get everything out of it.

[....] So the inside covers/back covers have super dense stories and there are back cover ads with secret messages and that actually work as a bigger puzzle (when you put the first six issues together). And I'm writing a MIND MGMT field guide that I'm threading into the borders of each page -- guide excerpts that give you insight into the MIND MGMT organization but also serve double duty by commenting on the actual page you're reading. I'm hoping it's dense. I did a similar thing with 'Super Spy.' I was writing that book as a weekly 8-page comic. Each week had to stand on its own. And then when I put it together in the eventual graphic novel it became this crazy dense puzzle-box of a book. 'Mind MGMT' is following a similar path, I think. I think it will be way healthier to read this book in monthly installments rather than waiting for the collection -- that might be hazardous to your mental health."

Click to read more.

Lady, Go Hammer on Comic-Con and Gaiman's commencement

Here's an update for page 77. It's a quick study in regret and forgiveness - it shouldn't be considered disingenuous, I simply wanted the pace to keep up - so it had to be quick and dirty.

Dr. Casey Miller confronts Dr. Howard Bolam for everything that's happened to him so far in  You Son of a Bitch, Bolam! I hope you like it!

See more by following the links:

• Fundraising Faux-Pas,
• King Street Capers
• General comics, (updated May 5),
• Tomb of the Undead (updated Apr. 29), or the
• Mugabe comic strip (Pinocchio parody)

Graphic novel news
Neil Gaiman shares his vision while receiving his honorary Ph.D. in fine arts at the University of the Arts', thanks to his career as a "cartographer" mapping the world just beneath our "waking life." In other news, PopMatters.com interviews author Rob Salkowitz on his upcoming new book, Comic-Con and the Business of Pop Culture, which sounds very interesting. Finally, classic graphic novel character Mike Hammer will be restored posthumously after his creator Mickey Spillane passed away in 2006.

Neil Gaiman’s singular vision 
Tirdad Derakhshani
Philly.com

Neil Gaiman has spent a career mapping out the myths that make our world worth living in.
A cartographer of the fantastical, terrifying, chaotic, and sublime world beneath our waking life, he perfected the graphic novel into a work of high literary art with The Sandman (1989-96)... On Thursday, Gaiman, 51, delivered the commencement address at the University of the Arts’ graduation ceremony, where he also was awarded an honorary Ph.D. in fine arts.

Click to read more.

Writing to "Rain Dogs": Talking With Rob Salkowitz #2 
shathley Q
PopMatters.com

While I’m talking to Rob Salkowitz about his June 10-released Comic-Con and the Business of Pop Culture my mind drifts exactly to Frank Miller at the peak of his creativity, and to Family Values. Rob attempts rarely before seen—a business book that’s relevant for readers and enthusiast of popculture, and a popcultural book that’s instructive to business analysts. He talks openly about how his passion as a comics fan engaged him to undertake this project. And how his profession as futurist and business analyst allowed him the tools to interpret and describe the very crossroads of flux the comics industry now finds itself in.

Click to read more.

Max Allan Collins on new Mike Hammer novel, “Lady, Go Die!” 
nerdblog
blog.newsok.com/nerdage

“Of the half-dozen substantial unfinished novel manuscripts in Mickey Spillane’s files, this was perhaps the most exciting find,” Collins said in an email interview with The Oklahoman. “It’s the second Mike Hammer novel, begun in 1945 shortly after he completed ‘I, The Jury.’ It’s unclear why he set it aside, but he may have been told by an editor that until ‘I, The Jury’ came out, there was no need to finish a sequel. And when it came out, ‘I, The Jury’ was not initially successful — in hardcover, it was a disappointment. But when the paperback came out, Mike Hammer was suddenly a sensation.”

Click to read more.

Inspiration for the Joker and J. J. Abrams and prequels to the Watchmen

I've plotted out the next six pages for the next scene, which I hope to get some work done on very shortly. I'm really looking forward to putting them up soon. Until then, here's Page 76.

While I was drawing this page it struck me how difficult it is to draw someone putting on or taking off their glasses. Not easy. Usually when I draw the sketches for a scene they're very, very loose but for this page I remember actually going into great detail to design it.

There was a tough combination of vehicles, postures, movements and emotions to put into each cell - more so than in most pages I've put up, so this one's a great example of a lot of things going on in each scene, though it may not look it.

Dr. Casey Miller confronts Dr. Howard Bolam for everything that's happened to him so far in You son of a bitch, Bolam!

See more by following the links:

• Fundraising Faux-Pas,
  
• King Street Capers
• General comics
• Tomb of the Undead (updated Jan. 28), or the
• Mugabe comic strip (Pinocchio parody)

Graphic novel news
In graphic novel news we've got some details on the reworking of the comic The Man Who Laughs, which was the old imspiration for The Joker of Bathman fame, which is pretty cool. Read about J. J. Abram's latest concept borrowing from "Boilerplate" which is being adapted for the silver screen. And see who's writing the prequels for the Watchmen is released, despite the disatifaction of creator Alan Moore's protests to leave his characters alone. Check it out!

David Hine And Mark Stafford Make A Joker Of A Graphic Novel
Rich Johnston
BleedingCool.com

Batman and Azrael writer David Hine who seemed to, well, stop writing for DC with the relaunch, is continuing to write a Batman character in a new graphic novel, The Man Who Laughs, an adaptation the Victor Hugo which inspired the 1928 film starring Conrad Veidt with a “grim carnival freak-like grin” which inspired the appearance of The Joker.

Click to read more.

"Frank Reade" Flies Again with "Boilerplate's" Guinan & Bennett
Shaun Manning
ComicBookResources

Following up 2009's "Boilerplate: History's Mechanical Marvel," which inserted the titular robot into turn-of-the-20th-century America, the husband and wife team of Paul Guinan and Anina Bennett return with another alternate history tale from Abrams Image. "Frank Reade: Adventures in the Age of Invention" resurrects the family of heroes first introduced in the pages of boys' magazines in 1868, which rose to even greater fame during the late 1880s and 1890s in the pages of dime novels under the banner "Frank Reade Library."

Click to read more.

DC Comics plans 'Before Watchmen' prequel comics
Curt Holman
Creative Loafing Atlanta

The graphic novel Watchmen has a reputation as the Citizen Kane of graphic novels, so DC Comics' decision to publish a series of prequels sounds as ill-advised as a film called Charles Foster Kane: The College Years. Nevertheless, this summer DC will release 7 titles involving such Watchmen characters as Rorschach and Dr. Manhattan, written and drawn by big name creators in the comics industry:

• RORSCHACH (4 issues) — Writer: Brian Azzarello. Artist: Lee Bermejo
• MINUTEMEN (6 issues) — Writer/Artist: Darwyn Cooke
• COMEDIAN (6 issues) — Writer: Brian Azzarello. Artist: J.G. Jones
• DR. MANHATTAN (4 issues) — Writer: J. Michael Straczynski. Artist: Adam Hughes
• NITE OWL (4 issues) — Writer: J. Michael Straczynski. Artists: Andy and Joe Kubert
• OZYMANDIAS (6 issues) — Writer: Len Wein. Artist: Jae Lee
• SILK SPECTRE (4 issues) — Writer: Darwyn Cooke. Artist: Amanda Conner

Click to read more.

The Chained Gun, Last Airbender and City Troll speak

You have any idea what an ambulance looks like in Marseilles? I sure didn't, but did my best to figure it out and make it happen for the first page of this scene, You Son of a Bitch, Bolam. I like how this scene worked out, mostly because I was really happy with how the story and the artwork came together. It may not look like much, but I think the expressions matched the expressions I was hoping for, and what the story was calling for. I really liked this scene, I hope you do, too.

Dr. Casey Miller confronts Dr. Howard Bolam for everything that's happened to him so far in You son of a bitch, Bolam!

See more by following the links:

• Fundraising Faux-Pas,
  
• King Street Capers
• General comics
• Tomb of the Undead (updated Jan. 28), or the
• Mugabe comic strip (Pinocchio parody)

Graphic novel news
Chained Gun author Donny Frank Morris is awaiting the publication of his first graphic novel, which should be hitting Amazon soon. In related news, Kickstarter has been helping finance amateur opportunities by lobbying donations en mass from the internet community, which resulted in $2,000 for Aaron Whitaker and his The City Troll. Finally, The Last Airbender continues its story from a three-season cartoon series from the U.S.

Check it out!

Northland artist awaits publication of first graphic novel
Julie Krienke
duluthnewstribune.com

It was during his year in California that [Donny Frank Morris] completed most of the work for the graphic novel, which he says is different from comic books in that graphic novels are typically longer. The story is about a slave who becomes a bounty hunter after the Civil War so he can seek revenge.

Morris said the nearly 150-page book most closely resembles a western theme, which he is familiar with from watching many western films as a child with his mother. Morris now works at the Holiday Inn in downtown Duluth to help him support his passion for art.

Click to read more.

Gene Yang Plots the Next Stage of "Avatar: The Last Airbender"
Shaun Manning
comicbookresources.com

Created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, "Avatar: The Last Airbender" is set in a world where tribes which can each manipulate one of the four elements -- Air, Water, Earth and Fire -- have been at war for centuries, and are now dominated by the ruthless Fire Nation. The Air Nomads have been hunted seemingly to extinction. But a strange boy found frozen in ice turns out to be a surviving Airbender, and also this generation's Avatar -- one who can tame all four elements.

Click to read more.


An interview with Aaron Whitaker
Ao Meng
dailytexanonline.com

Kickstarter and websites like it allow creators to publicly ask for financial assistance in seeing the completion of a project that the creators themselves would not have the funds to realize. Whitaker, for instance, asked initally for $2000 to finance a print run of The City Troll. The creator then has one month to rally up support for the project— if the project gets enough supporters, all the money offered is pocketed by the creator (and Kickstarter gets a small cut). But if the fundrasing goal isn't met, the creator gets nothing

Click to read more.

Autobiographies, Health Care Reform and the history of superheroes

It's a little tricky when you have to spread pages out over a few weeks, because that's just how long it takes to get updates finished, but hopefully this is a worthy payoff for the "where there's smoke" line from page 67. In any case, onward they go, avoiding the villain.

Drawing people sitting in a car, and climbing out of a car ... what a challenge! Something I'd never done before (which you can probably tell) and obviously something I didn't spend any time practicing in a sketchbook before I published.

Here's page 74!

Dr. Casey Miller, Dr. Howard Bolam and Evelyn escape from an unknown assailant in Escape from M____.

See more by following the links:

• Fundraising Faux-Pas,
  
• King Street Capers
• General comics
• Tomb of the Undead (updated Jan. 28), or the
• Mugabe comic strip (Pinocchio parody)

Graphic novel news
A couple different types of posts this time to share. In particular, we have a post articulating the transformation of graphic novels from the tales of super heroes, when the world needed heroes to route for during fascist regimes, to a different type of medium that tells all kinds of complicated tales, not just those about superheroes. And of course, graphic novels have an accessibility and acceptance that make them excellent media to translate difficult subject matter - as seen in a graphic novel on Health Care Reform (which I've probably mentioned more than once). Then there's the autobiography, which is a classic narrative form, but lending it to the graphic novel medium is a new stylistic choice, which we hear about in our final update.

Check it out!

Graphic Novels Get Bloody Good
derekberry
Word Salad

With the advent of e-readers, graphic novels are better than ever, some even interactive. Books can be cumbersome to carry and only avid comic fans buy every issue of a comic. If it’s sent straight to an e-reader, though, it is much easier to deal with. I’m certainly looking forward to buying some graphic novels for my Nook tablet to see how it might enhance the experience.

Click to read more.


Deciphering Health Care Reform With Jonathan Gruber
Rachel Solomon
http://kuow.org

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was passed by President Obama last year, and polls still show most Americans are against health care reform — though many don't understand how it works or what's at stake. This worried economics professor Jonathan Gruber, who consulted with both the Obama and Romney administrations on health care reform. Gruber decided to write a graphic novel to break down the massive, 900–page bill that's changing our country's health care system.

Click to read more.


This Alternate World
David Chislett
bookslive.co.za

... I am enjoying retracing my steps back into this place. This after all has been a long journey: One that was born over an idle conversation in a car on the way back from the Oppikoppi festival with journalist Therese Owen and promoter Bill Botes. Those ideas evolved around a graphic novel that fused a definite past with a fictional now to create a metaphorical city of ideals and extremes.

After pursuing those thoughts for a while I realised, graphic version or not, there still had to be a novel to illustrate! So rather than work through that process, here I am, writing up a large book about my home town, its people, my friends, and my ideas about the world.

Click to read more.

Stan Lee saving journalism in Lunch Lady Land

While you don't get much of the feel of racing through Marseilles, I thought my portrayal of the motorcycle was pretty well done, and the car was even close to good. I'm not a strong drawer of vehicles, but I was pretty happy with this.

I imaged a long, drawn out race scene, but figured that not everyone wanted to wait for three weeks, while I drew three pages of the story not progressing. Granted, this might be the type of thing that's more exciting to read, that there doesn't necessarily have to be a lot of talking to progress the story, IF you're moving it forward visually. In any case, here's page 73 from Escape From M__.

Dr. Casey Miller, Dr. Howard Bolam and Evelyn escape from an unknown assailant in Escape from M____.

See more by following the links:

• Fundraising Faux-Pas,
  
• King Street Capers
• General comics
• Tomb of the Undead (updated Jan. 28), or the
• Mugabe comic strip (Pinocchio parody)

Folks I'm following
Here are a few links from the blogs I'm following these days. A great post from the talented Skottie Young [Snow Day], a series of podcasts from the incredibly useful (and edgy) Your Screenplay Sucks [PODCASTS #10, #11, #12 are reaaaaaady and waiiiiiiting! More Filmmaking Sins!] here's something of a year in review from Script Magazine [WGA News: End of Year 2011] and an amateur project that deserve just as much recognition as mine, Wonder [Newfoundland and Other Things]

Graphic novel news
Read a one-on-one interview with Stan Lee, reflecting on his story in comics. As they put it, Lee's story is really the story OF comics. Pretty cool. Read how Caleb Melby (I think Caleb is a sweet name) is looking to using graphic novels as a new form of story telling (like unique maps) and finding the human element in stories to keep people reading. And one for my wife her passion for Adam Sandler + Chris Farley. A graphic-novel series on the Lunch Lady has GOT to be funny, or else it'd be nothing more than a tragedy.

Check it out!

Stan Lee Reflects on 70 Years in Comics
Joey Esposito
http://comics.ign.com

"Stan's story is really the history of comics and he was inspired by so many real-life events that were happening at the time, so it was covering history, comic book history, and it was covering his personal life which is the part that everyone is responding to," explained Dougas. "His relationship with his business partners, his friends, his wife. The guy's not as tough as he seems to be. He's a sweetheart."

Click to read more.

Why The Graphic Novel Will Save Business Journalism
Aziz Ali
psfk.com

[J]ournalism remains an industry in crisis. Caleb [Melby] believes that focusing on newer ways of storytelling (i.e. interactive maps, unique story ideas) and finding the human element (i.e business leaders, relationships within a particular industry) are the keys to saving journalism. The graphic novel therefore, is one form that can easily be leveraged to achieve this.

Click to read more.

Author of 'Lunch Lady' children's book series visits students at George L. Hess in Hamilton Township
JOEL LANDAU
pressofatlanticcity.com

Children's author Jarrett J. Krosoczka used an active imagination and perseverance to turn stories he wrote in elementary school into a successful career and a popular graphic novel series.

Krosoczka spoke to the fourth- and fifth-grade classes Monday at the George L. Hess Education Complex to encourage children to write and draw using their imagination and creativity. Krosoczka, who writes and illustrates his books, showed students stories, which featured kitchen appliances, that he wrote and drew as an elementary school student.

Click to read more.

The Shadow of a Hero Reborn with Dragon Tattoos

When I was naming scenes, some are cute cultural references to different things, but not this one. It was simply "Escape from M.." but I didn't want to reveal this guy's name just yet. You'd never hear the name in the story, so I couldn't rightly put it in the name of one of the scenes.

Is it more intriguing or mysterious without his name? Maybe not, but I'm OK with the choice. I'm not especially good at drawing motorized vehicles, but I tried my best with the car chase.

Dr. Casey Miller, Dr. Howard Bolam and Evelyn escape from an unknown assailant in Escape from M____.

See more by following the links:

• Fundraising Faux-Pas,
  
• King Street Capers
• General comics
• Tomb of the Undead (updated Dec. 21), or the
• Mugabe comic strip (Pinocchio parody)

Graphic novel news
It's kind of backwards, what with most graphic novels and comic characters being turned into movies these days, including the awesome Kick Ass, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is going from foreign film, to novel, to Hollywood film and finally to graphic novel. An interesting path.

Also, read about the upcoming "The Shadow"and an engineering student's new graphic novel. An engineer surely can create some fascinating super powers, right?

Garth Ennis to Write New 'The Shadow' Ongoing Series for Dynamite
Andy Khouri
Comics Alliance

Just a few days after we learned that Dynamite Entertainment had done the impossible and secured the rights to reprint Howard Chaykin's legendary The Shadow: Blood and Judgement in a new graphic novel edition, the publisher dropped another pulp bomb on us Monday morning: Garth Ennis will write an all-new The Shadow series for Dynamite. Debuting in April, the book will be drawn by Aaron Campbell (Dynamite's The Complete Dracula, Green Hornet: Year One) and feature cover artwork by the usual suspects: Alex Ross, John Cassaday, Jae Lee and, of course, Howard Chaykin. But unlike Chaykin's radical interpretation of The Shadow, the new Ennis series will be set in the 1930s.

Click to read more.

‘A Hero Reborn’ flies onto bookshelves
Amanda Rossetti
The Temple News Online

Torin Johnson, freshman engineering major, wrote a graphic novel to be released later this month.

Writing a novel is many people’s dream, yet due to the arduous nature of the undertaking, many aspiring writers become too discouraged to ever start. And, once written, getting a novel published is an even more difficult and daunting task. However, freshman civil engineering major Torin Johnson was not intimidated by these tasks and faced the adventure head on.

Click to read more.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo To Become Graphic Novel
Jack Greer
Comic Book.com

‘The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo’ seems to find success everywhere, it appears. First with the three novels, and recently with the U.S. film adaptation starring Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara. Now, the books are expanding into another genre: graphic novels.

DC Entertainment’s Vertigo division will write multiple graphic novels based on the best selling Millennium trilogy by Stieg Larsson. Crime author Denise Mina will write the book, with art by Leonardo Manco and Andrea Mutti. Lee Bermejo will handle the cover image. “We’re thrilled to be adapting this incredible story into a series of graphic novels,” stated Karen Berger, executive editor, Vertigo. “Denise, Lee, Leonardo and Andrea have such great passion for the material and stylistically they’re a perfect match to bring it to comics life. Their beautifully dark and visceral work will certainly blow us all away.”

Click to read more.

“It’s like a brutal accident; you can't watch but you can't turn away.”

I love this page - nothing really gets said, but it was really fun writing something and showing it again from a different perspective. The different lighting, excitement, etc, I was looking forward to drawing this page for a long time, knowing that the story was leading up to it.

There are a few really exciting scenes that I'm eager to do work on - I'll be eager to show you the rest, too.

Hope you like it. Here's Page 71.

Dr. Howard Bolam finally catches up with Ian Escutcheon, but their meeting is cut short by an devastating interruption in Why, what happened in there?

See more by following the links:

• Fundraising Faux-Pas,
  
• King Street Capers
• General comics (Update Jan. 20)
• Tomb of the Undead, or the
• Mugabe comic strip (Pinocchio parody)

Graphic novel news
Preachers, kids, perversity, blasphemy and Billy Fog's 'trouble vision.' Check 'em all out!

Book Review: Preacher by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon
Clive Maxfield
embedded.com

The story follows an ex-preacher, Jesse, who has become disgusted with God's abandoning of His responsibilities. So Jesse sets off into the wilds of Texas with his “hit-man” girlfriend and his new best friend (a vampire) to find God so that he can give Him a piece of his mind.

Be warned: Preacher is littered with perversity and blasphemy. As the official Amazon review says: “It’s like a brutal accident; you can't watch but you can't turn away.”

Click to read more.

Kids TV and Comics Writer Jorge Aguirre
Brian Glaser
kids.baristanet.com

For kids, their favorite cartoons or comic book characters will come and go, and eventually be replaced by entertainment for teens and adults. But for people like Jorge Aguirre, a Montclair dad who writes for childrens shows like Dora the Explorer, Handy Manny and Go, Diego, Go!, the characters stay in his imagination for years and years.

Click to read more.

Graphic novel 'Billy Fog' stars a boy with 'trouble sight'
Brian Truitt
USA TODAY

Story by French graphic novelist Guillaume Bianco.

('Billy Fog' is about) [a] witty, quirky book that would appeal to those who fancy the works of Lemony Snicket or Tim Burton, Billy Fog follows the title character, who has the gift of "trouble sight" — the little boy naturally sees monsters, ghosts and the most interesting supernatural creatures unless he puts on his glasses, which return his vision to what most people would consider "normal."

One day, Billy finds the body of his cat Tarzan dead and he becomes obsessed with death, wanting to figure out how to bring Tarzan back to life and running into strange and wonderful characters in his quest, all while tormenting his little sister Jeannie.

Click to read more.

Axe-Job for the best of 2011

I feel awful I haven't posted anything in like two weeks - BUT this weekend there will be progress. You can hold me to that!

Here's page 70 posted up. Another great scene of exposition with Ian Escutcheon. He's sort of a gatekeeper of information, and luckily the protagonists ask questions, so they get answers unless there's a problem of some sort.

You can see that I've had difficultly maintaining consistency in Escutcheon's appearance, he just doesn't quite resemble Gene Wilder like he should, but ... as I may have said before, Wilder was just a reference point.

Dr. Howard Bolam finally catches up with Ian Escutcheon, but their meeting is cut short by an devastating interruption in Why, what happened in there?

See more by following the links:

• Fundraising Faux-Pas,
  
• King Street Capers
• General comics
• Tomb of the Undead or the
• Mugabe comic strip (Pinocchio parody)

Graphic novel news
The Comics Alliance has released its best 11 comics of 2011, Axe Body Spray has created a wiki-comic where people can influence the direction of the story, and a graphic novel about Steve Jobs is ready to roll.

Check it out!

ComicsAlliance's Complete 11 Best Comics of 2011
CA Staff
ComicsAlliance.com

Over the last several weeks, ComicsAlliance assembled its annual list of the best comics and graphic novels of the year with the help of our editors, writers, and readers. Like any list, it is naturally subjective, but we've packed it chock full of eleven comics that have awed us, excited us, and entertained us over the last 12 months, and books that we're passionate about recommending. Now that the year has finally come to a close, we've assembled the entire list in one place for easy reading as we take a much-needed day off. Let us know what comics you enjoyed the most in 2011, and what you're looking forward to in 2012!

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Steve Jobs comic book: Local firm Jess3 ventures into 'business folklore'
Andrew Beaujon
tbd.com

Jesse Thomas, the CEO of local creative firm Jess3, was at lunch with Bruce Upbin, an editor at Forbes, last May when he and Jess3's Leslie Bradshaw pitched a graphic account of what Thomas calls the Apple co-founder's "lost years" -- after he got forced out of Apple in 1985. It was "this mysterious time where he went through some kind of change and came back the person we know," Thomas says.

Forbes bought the idea immediately, Thomas says. Caleb Melby, a Forbes reporter, was assigned to write the text; Jess3 handled hiring illustrators and bringing the resulting book, The Zen of Steve Jobs, together.

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Axe Invites Fans To Write Their Graphic Novel
Jonathan Barnard
zenithoptimedia.blogspot.com

“Axe Anarchy” is a crowdsourced graphic novel about two of Axe’s newest fragrances. Axe is reaching out to fans on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube for suggestions to help create and develop the storyline. If you’re lucky, you may even be drawn in as a character in the story.

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Perdition, Revelations and Escapin' Nazis

I'm just strippin' to put myself through college.

Here's Page 69. I should load up my guideline artwork that I draw Ian Escutcheon from - they're based on Gene Wilder, and if you look at my guidelines, they definitely look like Gene Wilder - but when I put it in the comic, something gets lost in translation.

It's probably better that Wilder is just the guideline, and Escutcheon takes on an appearance of his own, though. Can you see the Wilder in Escutcheon? It seems the scenes with Escutcheon have a lot of exposition in them, which is important - he's sort of the gatekeeper of information in this story. But he's willing to give information up - which is important. It also means that we get scenes with a whole lot of talkin' in them, too.

My wife thought it was funny that Escutcheon pulls a "ventriloquist act" by speaking while taking a sip of water. ... for the record, that wasn't my intention.

Dr. Howard Bolam finally catches up with Ian Escutcheon, but their meeting is cut short by an devastating interruption in Why, what happened in there?

See more by following the links:

• Fundraising Faux-Pas,
  
• King Street Capers
• General comics
• Tomb of the Undead (updated Dec. 21), or the
• Mugabe comic strip (Pinocchio parody)

Graphic novel news
Read about a graphic novel that's inspired by a true story about escaping from Nazis, the Greatest Battle, a war in Heaven based on the book of Revelations, and Max Allan Collins's, the author of "Road to Perdition" latest work. Check it out!

Trina Robbins Discovers "Lily Renee"
Alex Dueben
ComicbookResources.com

... (Trina) Robbins' new book from Graphic Universe is "Lily Renee: Escape Artist." The true story of Lily Renee, a girl who grew up in Vienna, escaped to Britain after Nazi Germany annexed Austria on the kindertransport, worked at a hospital during the blitz and was later reunited with her parents in the United States. All before she turned 17. In her teens and twenties, Renee worked as a comic book artist, most notably for Golden Age publisher Fiction House. Being the early '40s, many of the comics this young woman illustrated involved fighting the Nazis she had escaped and on paper was able to tell the stories of strong women fighting the Nazi threat in their own way.

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Author uses graphic visuals to depict battle that changed creation forever
Chidi Emebo
PRNewsChannel.com

In the book of Revelation, the Bible references a great war in heaven. Chidi Emebo paints a picture of what he thinks this battle looked like in “The Greatest Battle: Love & Pride” (ISBN 1463773862). Emebo creates a fictional story based on biblical information, and uses unique visuals to help the reader’s imagination come to life.

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Collins Returns to "Perdition"
Alex Dueben
ComicbookResources.com

Max Allan Collins is a name familiar to most mystery and comics fans. In the world of comics, he worked on a number of Batman projects, co-created and wrote the long running independent comic "Ms. Tree" -- in addition to other projects like "Johnny Dynamite," "Wild Dog" and "Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer" -- and enjoyed a long run on the "Dick Tracy" comic strip. His best known comics work is the graphic novel "Road to Perdition," which was turned into an award-winning film starring Tom Hanks and Paul Newman.

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Kid koala space cadets and inspirational hurricanes and gothic architecture

Stripper with a heart of gold.

Here's Page 68 of "What happened in there?." You can see in this page I'm starting to put to good use a "word bubble" technique I picked up from reading "Y: The Last Man" by Brian K. Vaughan (which is awesome, because he was part of the writing team for Lost during Season 4). I was a little more creative in the paneling, though it's still pretty standard - the next development in my cartoon-stripping might be coming up with more dynamic cells and borders for each page.

BUT - I'm not making any promises. I personally can see a huge difference in the layout, shading, lettering and even the expressions on the characters a year after starting. A big difference - I can only hope the improvement continues!

Dr. Howard Bolam finally catches up with Ian Escutcheon, but their meeting is cut short by an devastating interruption in Why, what happened in there?

See more by following the links:

• Fundraising Faux-Pas,
  
• King Street Capers
• General comics
• Tomb of the Undead (updated Jan. 6), or the
• Mugabe comic strip (Pinocchio parody)

Graphic novel news

This time, read about how the devastation of Hurricane Katrina inspired a state lawmaker to co-create a graphic novel, how architecture is just as important in a Batman comic as the heroic dark knight himself, and the energetic multi-media creativity of Kid Koala. Check it out!

Graphic appeal: Former state lawmaker works with local college artists to bring zombie comic novel to print
Adam Goldstein
AuroraSentinel.com

Nearly six years later (after visiting Hurricane Katrina-devastated New Orleans), (Bob) Hagedorn’s mixed sense of hopelessness and horror has found an unlikely expression. Drawing on a long-held passion for fiction, Hagedorn used his initial reaction to the destruction as the spur to write a graphic novel, a comic titled, “An American Apocalypse” that revolves around zombies roving in the cityscape of post-Katrina New Orleans.

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Chip Kidd Presents 'Batman: Death by Design' to Designers
Andy Khouri
ComicsAlliance.com

It turns out we're not the only ones with more than a passing interest in the architecture-based approach to Batman: Death by Design. The book's writer, award-winning graphic designer Chip Kidd, presented the project to a fascinated crowd of fellow graphic artists at PIVOT: AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts) Design Conference this past October. Expanding on what we already know about the Dave Taylor-illustrated book and offering many new details and artwork besides, Kidd took his audience through the book's first 20 pages.

Kidd began his presentation with childhood photos that demonstrated his lifelong obsession with Batman and detailed how he came to write his first graphic novel, which he came to with the title first.

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DJ Kid Koala keeps spinning an interesting career
Mike Bell
CalgaryHerald.com

.... There’s (Kid Koala's) ongoing work as a member of the hip-hop act Deltron 3030, which he says are putting the finishing touches on a new album. There’s his work in the project The Slew with members of Wolfmother. And there is, of course, his graphic novel work, which saw the recent release of his second graphic novel Space Cadet.

Space Cadet is a 132-page graphic novel drawn entirely on etchboards. It is accompanied by a "still picture score" of music composed and recorded by Kid Koala.

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