Out in Space

So, did I mention that my good buddies over at Free Lunch Comics publish some wicked-cool funnybooks? Yeah, well if I haven’t I really should have. A couple or three months back they put out a Sci-Fi (yeah, THAT’S the way it is spelled) comic entitled Beyond the Kuiper Belt. This issue features art by Matt Ryan (one of my personal favorite artists), and Keith Murphey (another good artist and personal friend of mine).

Oh yeah, I probably should mention at this point that I contributed a prose piece to the publication as well. I did so under a pseudonym (not because I’m bashful, shy, or was trying to hide out, but because it was intended to the “letters” page — which was constructed as part of the over theme of the publication — and needed to be built as if it was from a reader of the mag.

Beyond the Kuiper Belt is a fun romp constructed as if it were a serious fringe publication, catering to that group of folk that live and die by the kind of odd-ball stuff that could populate real-life X-Files, Fringe, Warehouse 13, and Eureka. Personally, I not only enjoyed working on my (small) piece of the publication, I truly enjoyed reading it as well, and I’m betting that you will as well.

You can get your own copy of Beyond the Kuiper Belt by going here and getting one yourself.

Wülf Girlz: Resurrection

OK, perhaps that is a bit more dramatic than required. My Wülf Girlz haven’t really gone away, as much as have metamorphed. The last time we all saw them, they appeared in the Guild Work Production comicbook, Psychosis!, as illustrated by the incomparable Matt Ryan. Well, Matt is the heart and soul of MattsMineStudio, that produces the most excellent line of Free Lunch Comics. So, as you can probably expect, Matt is wicked-busy these days producing some of the finest Indie comics to come out of New England, so he really hasn’t had much time to devote to the Girlz.

And well, I really want to continue their adventures. Still, as much as I wanted to wait for Matt, I really couldn’t, so (with his understanding) I have engaged the services of the very talented Rick Lundeen, who as you all recall, illustrated my Gustave Whitehead story which appeared in the recently-published Iconic graphic album from CAG.

So, Rick has finished his first installment of Wülf Girlz (and agreed to do more), so I’m currently writing a new Wülf Girlz script for him, but the really big news is that I just finished my very first Wülf Girlz prose story. Yep. That’s right, prose (some 6,500 words long, I might add).

Needless to say, I’m really very excited about it and I can’t wait to tell you more about it (including where and when it will be released). Suffice it to say, that it (along with the first illustrated story by Rick, and perhaps even the second) will all be out sometime this year under the Atlas Unleashed banner.

Here is a sneak peak at Rick’s take on the Girlz...

Stay tuned.

Apparently the IS such a thing as a Free Lunch!

Well, Free Lunch Comics, that is. Yep, Free Lunch comics is the publishing company of my good buddies Matt Ryan and Steve Kanaras. Matt (as you already know, was the kickoff artist on my own Wülf Girls feature that debuted in Guild Works Productions horror anthology Psychosis!). Well Free Lunch is the home of Matt’s Bigger, Steve’s Only in Whispers, and well a whole bunch of other very cool comics, including Mark Tarrant’s The Blood Rider.

The Blood Rider is a vampire western story that tells the tale of Ezekiel Carson who is cursed to roam the untamed west as an undead blood-sucking creature of the night who was once a devoted man of God. now Ezekiel is haunted by his past as he attempts to deal with what he has become. He does this by feeding on bandits and spending his nights satisfying his endless lusts, he has found his life is empty. The very nature of this story (vampires in the old west) make it stand out from among most of what is being published these days.

As long as I’m discussing one of my favorite artists, I wanted to also mention Unhappy Grandma (Radbu Productions). Now Radbu has no connection to Free Lunch save that the guys at Radbu (Tom Van Zandt & Markellus Ragans) hired Matt Ryan to illustrate the comic. This story is about a world where many folk have extraordinary powers. One of those folks is this one rather irritated grandmother, who is simply put bone tired of these hooligans ruining her once peaceful Boston Neighborhood.

Not to be taken entirely seriously, it is an entertaining respite from all of the comics being published these days that feel that they have to be dark and gritty to garner an audience. it is light, humorous, and quite entertaining. I suggest you give it a try.

The Wülf Girlz are Returning!

I just the other day saw some of the lettered art on my follow-up story to Never Judge a book (printed in the premiere issue of Psychosis! published by Guild works Production). Let me tell you that not only do I totally love Matt Ryan’s distinctive artwork, but I was totally blown away by the entire story as it now appears in print.

Sure. sure you knew I was going to say that, after all the work is mine, but still. living with these characters in my head for the past year or so, and then writing the script, and waiting (waiting) for the art. Now finally seeing the whole thing lettered.

I’m completely blown away. I can hardly wait for the story to finally be published next month (just in time for Comic Con NY).

So, yeah, I’m going to be enjoying my time at the show (word has it that CAG #7 will also be there and will have the artwork for my new Agent Unknown Story in it. I’ve see the are and love it. Right now I’m just waiting on the pages to be lettered. As soon as I get the electronic images from that I'll post some of those pages as well. In the mean time, I have to wait.

The Sky is Falling! The Sky is Falling!

Well, no, not really, but there are Pirates in the sky (Arrgh!)

What the heck am I talking about? Well Sky Pirates, of course. Sky Pirates began life as an entrant into DimeStore Productions Small Press Idol contest from 2007.

Sky Pirates is the brainchild of my buddy and fellow CAGer Everett Soares. Everett is the creator and writer of Sky Pirates which became a finalist in Small Press Idol and has since launched into its own series. From that endeavor, he managed a “zero issue” one-shot which lead to him being picked up by Matt Ryan’s Free Lunch Comics (Matt is another good buddy of mine, and is the artist of record for my own Wülf Girlz). Matt has contracted with Everett for a 5-book limited series.

I have acquired the first two issues (0 & 1), read them both, and let me tell you how very cool they are. The series is something of a throwback to to ‘80s space opera with aliens and anthropomorphic characters intermingled with humans, along with lighter-than-air ships and sword fighting and blasters. I’m like a kid in a candy shop reading this. It is pure, unadulterated fun, complete with a breezy script, clear, clean, crisp art, sexy babes, and a straight-forward story that is simple to follow yet, compelling to read.

After reading it you have to wonder why can’t the pros at the big comic publishing houses tell stories like this?

Anyways, it is great stuff, you should all run right out and buy yourselves a copy.

Upcoming Projects

I wanted to take a minute or two out of my on-going anti Brand-New Day Rants to let you all know about a couple or three of my upcoming projects.

A year or so ago, I had a short story entitled Never Judge a Book, published in an illustrated horror anthology (Psychosis!, published by Guild Works Productions). Well, that story was meant to be a one-off story. That is to say, a fully complete story, with no continuation. Interestingly enough, that didn’t quite happen. It was suggested to me that these characters had more to say. At first I objected, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that that wasn’t going to happen.

As fate would have it, there is more to the story of Hope and Grace. The continuation of that story occurs in Psychosis! #3 with How Deep the Wood. In this story we learn how the girls became the way they became, along with who they were before they became that way. Intrigued? I hope you are, stick around you’ll learn more; that story is slated to come out shortly, again with art from the very talented Matt Ryan.

Another story of mine that is due out soon, is the continuation of a comic series that I began in the mid ‘80s. That series, Agent Unknown (published by Renegade Press) came to a rather abrupt end (canceled in mid stream when the B&W comicbook market collapsed (I still have the first three issues, post that you are interested and we’ll see what we can arrange).

Anyways, the new Agent Unknown story (Springload & Renegade) is slated to appear in CAG #7. While this story is a continuation of the concepts began in Agent Unknown, the characters are new, and the story itself is darker, and far more violent than those earlier stories. Personally, I love the new artist, Chris Torres, I have seen the pages and he has crafted a spectacular story that is moody and powerful. I can hardly wait to see the last two pages.

Another story of mine is being drawn by a fellow named Roy Cutting. I have seen his work posted on Deviant Art, and it is very fine, lovely in fact, and I specifically chose him to illustrate a fun superheroine story of mine that I’m calling Hot Girl and Totally Hot Girl, and yes, it is exactly what it sounds like.

I’ve seen a pin-up of Roy’s as well as page one of the series, and I’m including them both here. I have to say you that I am really looking forward to this year, because these are just three of the stories of mine that are coming out, and I’m very excited.

So, when I have more to tell you good folks, you can most assuredly bet that I’ll do just that.

Matt Ryan Rules! So too does Mark Mazz, but we’ll get there in a minute.

This past weekend, my good buddy and collaborator on Wülf Girlz, Matt Ryan handed me what was easily the coolest piece of comicbook art that I’ve ever received. Yep, cooler than than the Stan Goldberg con sketch of Jughead, cooler than the con sketch I have of Betty Anderson. Hey it is even cooler than the page of original art by John Constanza from my first published comic strip — which John drew.

(OK, OK, it still takes second place to the Gwen Stacey illustration that was drawn for me by John Romita, Sr. back when I was 17 or 18, but it is a close second.)

Matt, as I’ve said, illustrates Wülf Girlz, and does a beautiful job doing it, I might add. Well, Mark (another good buddy of mine as well as the creative director of Guild Works Productions) commissioned a piece of delightful art from Matt knowing that I would not only instantly love the art, but be inspired by it as well. (Today I penned a pair of story pitches to the Marvel Adventure line.)

Sure enough, I was both. and I’d love to show you that art now:



Is this the coolest picture or what?

Truthfully, I only have one small problem with it. I just can’t remember who that girl in the picture is with Spidey...

Bigger and Bigger!

I want to take some time to talk about my good buddy Matt Ryan. Matt drew my story, Never Judge a Book... which appeared in Psychosis! #1 (Published by Guild Works Productions). He has also drawn the follow-up to that story (How Deep the Wood, slated to appear in Psychosis! #3). I really like Matt’s style, he has this cartoony flavor to his art that makes it truly unique. When I first saw it on my story, I wasn’t sure that it was right for the story. However, after reading the story a second and third time, I came to realize that our creative director, Mark Mazz actually knew what he was doing by matching Matt and I up together. Yep, I really came to love Matt’s work on my characters, and have come to view him as a full contributor of this project.

I’m telling you all of this because I want top talk about another of Matt’s projects. He is the writer/artist on a very funny (very screwball, very unusual) series entitled Bigger. Bigger is the story of a teenager named Willie Rison who has something of a big problem. You see, whenever young Willie he gets, well “excited” it isn’t just his, ah, manhood that grows, it is all of him. Seriously

Hey, you can’t make this stuff up, I’m telling you what is going on in the comic; and remember, this isn’t my comic, it’s Matt’s). Anyways, what happens to Willie, is that he grows into a giant. Throughout the course of the comic, Willie must learn to cope with his (ahem) “growing” problem. On top of this, he has to focus on his school work, not to mention he has to save his burgeoning relationship with his best friend (now his girlfriend), Weez.

Matt has been producing Bigger for some 10 years, and has produced numerous comics as well as a few digest-sized versions of these oddball characters. I highly recommend this comic, it is very funny and entertaining as well. So I highly recommend that you all pop over to Free Lunch Comics, and pick up as many copies of this very funny book as you can carry home.

Oh, you can read more about Matt and his crew over here.

Spidey is Still Running Strong!

That’s right Boys and Girls, the Spider still rules the roost. (Has anyone checked out the new trailer running on Itunes? It is totally wicked-cool-awesome!) Yep. This film is going to top the other two as the comicbook-to-film to beat.

Yeah, yeah, I know that we were a bit disappointed with X-3, and Supes Returns, but I’m sayin it here and now that simply won’t be the case with Spidey 3. And, no, I’m not just saying that because I’m certifiable a card-carrying Spider-Geek, but because (director) Sam Raimi absolutely knows what he is doing, (and has proven it over and over again with films like Darkman, and the first two Spidey films).

Plus, of course, we are being treated to classic Lee-Ditko Spidey stories in the NY Post each and every week. In this week's edition, we have the second half of the introduction of The Lizard. I’m telling you that I grew up on this stuff, and I’m still not over it. Plus, I get chills every time I go back and read the material.

Yes, yes, I know that I have the original issues (bag and boarded) in my collection, plus I probably have a couple of three reprints of the material, but I seriously never get tired of reading them. Plus in this new format, I’m betting that Spidey is getting read by more folks than read his episodes the first time around. Yeah, I hope that this stuff continues for some time to come, as I just can’t get enough of it.

In other comic news, on Friday, I handed off the first new Agent Unknown script in nearly two decades to Mark Mazz for him to consider for inclusion in CAG #5. It features a pair of newly-introduced agents (not seen in the original, Renegade Press series, but who had been conceived at the time). To be sure, the script was probably written about 10 years back, but never typed up. Plus, I had originally written it as a 10-page story, only Mark wants only 8-page stories. Hence I had to trim two pages out of it, and still have it deliver the kind of punch I wanted. I believe that I succeeded.

Next up, (and even thought I’m half-way through a brand-spanking-new AU script) I’m working on a new story that I’m hoping will be included in Psychosis! #2. (Oh yeah, here is as good a place as any to announce that while I had originally intended the two young girls from my first Psychosis! story, Never Judge a Book..., to be a stand-alone story, I’ve discovered that they will return, in, not just one more tale, but a series of stories. Seems these gals have taken on a life of their own. As of this moment, Matt Ryan (who drew the first story) and Melvin Ylagan (who panted the cover) are interested in continuing along with me as we explore who these young gals really are.

Oh, but the new Psychosis! story isn’t about them. I have to get this one done first, but don’t worry, the girls are coming along soon, and I’ll let you know when they are on their way!

Is that cool or what?