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.