Deus No Ex Machina et al.

Just got the word from Mark at Archaia. Unfortunately, I won't be lettering Chadra Free's THE GOD MACHINE, after all. Would have been fun, but it's understandable with the current restructuring of the company. There's still more AWAKENING up ahead and who knows what the future brings!

In the meantime, we're closing in on the finish line on POPGUN Vol. 2 production and I got the first full color page story for OUTLAW TERRITORY. It's gonna be a terrific year for Image anthologies!

I'm about to start lettering THE GUNS OF SHADOW VALLEY for Jim Clark and Dave Wachter, will finally get to work on the Moreno project, and the Boatwright project as well. It's been a long time coming. :)

Another top secret project should be starting sometime soon as well. It's real exciting!

Awakening podcast from NYCC - just found this

So yeah, the week after NYCC, I was out cold with a bad cold - and
still am recovering because this fucking thing's been with me since
MArch and I just can't seem to shake it.



At any rate, I totally missed that the AWAKENING interview Nick, Alex, and I did with comiXology went live already. So click on the link and enjoy. :)

No Bristol Comics Expo 2008 for me!

Why? For two reasons:

I've been dragging along a pretty nasty cold since the end of March. Every time it was nearly over, I had to go out of town for a weekend. And each time, I'd come home with an even nastier cold. The one after last weekend was the worst, so I decided it'd be best to stay at home until it's really cured this time around. The weather is too nice outside to lie sick in bed, and I want to get back to the gym as well.

More importantly though, the last minute travel expenses I would be looking at are so high that they rival what I paid for to go to New York. That's just not sensible. Too bad they didn't come down at the last minute or that any discounters offered anything.

Funny aside, if I tried to fly directly into Bristol airport, I would have to deal with a 5+ hours layover in France. That would make the flight 8:45 hours long, which is just 10 minutes short of the direct flight to New York! Flying into London (what is the SPN airport anyway?) would only take 1:46 hours in comparison, but then traveling to Bristol would also ramp up the costs some more.

Next year I'll have to buy tickets 3 to 4 months in advance, I guess.

Have fun if you're going and send me some photos or link me to your photosets online, please.

Woohoo! I'm in the final five for the Eagle Award 2008's "Best Letterer" award and more.

http://www.eagleawards.co.uk/vote.asp

Just saw that the actual voting for the Eagle Awards is up, and lo and behold, the stuffing of the ballot box has worked - I'm nominated for best letterer alongside Chris Eliopoulos, Dave Gibbons, Richard Starkings, and Todd Klein!

What's more, Archaia's AWAKENING, Nick Tapalansky, Alex Eckman-Lawn and my noir zombie tale about how a town copes with what seems to be the apocalypse is nominated for best American comic alongside Allstar Superman, Captain, America, Hellboy, and Y: The Last Man, and also in the "best new comic" category.

And then STARSHIP TROOPERS is nominated as best British comic. Working on this book is tons of fun.

Apparently voting works the same way, so if you could click the above link one more time and vote, that would be awesome. :)

A lot of my friends and colleagues also got the love including:

Nick Tapalansky (best new writer - for AWAKENING)

Azim Akberali (best new artist/fully painted artwork - an artist from Tanzania, I think. He does great watercolor work for AAM/Markosia at the moment)

Thomas Boatwright (best penciler/inker - The Surreal Adventures of Edgar Allan Poo, Cemetery Blues, and now a new project where we're reunited again!)

AWAKENING (best American comic/best new - holy shit!)

STARSHIP TROOPERS (best British comic - man, do I love this book, too)

ELEVENTH HOUR (favorite British b/w comic - a kickass old school anthology by AAM/Markosia including work by Azim Akberali, and coloring machines Ian Sharman and Cherie Donovan)

THE SURREAL ADVENTURES OF EDGAR ALLAN POO (favorite OGN - Dwight MacPherson, Thomas Boatwright and me doing an all ages book about Edgar Allan Poe's last year and his works)

JINXWORLD (favorite comics related website - my favorite hangout on the web)


So, if you have a few minutes to spare, please head on over and vote. Thanks. :)

13 hours, 49 pages, 2 issues done

I have my groove back!

March was hellish. While this week wasn't as stressful, the two before had me doing 18 hour shifts for 14 days straight. My lettering output slowed down to a snail's pace. Some issues took me three fucking days to letter!

Well, it seems that's over. Today (or rather yesterday) at 12:30pm, I started lettering Awakening #5. After I finished that, correx came in quickly and I wasted some time on those.

Then I got the final colors for The Piper #2 and did placement correx for half an hour - doesn't really count for this blog entry's subject line, but I also got that out of the way. Nyaaa.

After this, I did Thirteen Steps #5 (of 5) and just finished and sent off lowres to be proofed.

Oh, and in between there were some pre-press things I had to bang out for a meeting CB has today.

Between Awakening and Thirteen Steps, I lettered 49 pages in 13 hours (ooh, auspicious number!) and I still feel fit enough to letter the last Space Doubles story now. That one was slated for tomorrow, but since I didn't go to the gym today, I want to get this out of the way now, then go work out in the morning, and then continue with the Moreno font. If things go well, I'll get around to the TV Dinner Assassin font as well tomorrow.

Fingers crossed!

New awesome The Flying Friar review at Popculturezoo.com

http://popculturezoo.com/archives/100

"It’s been a while since I’ve been as pleasantly surprised by a book as much as I was by The Flying Friar.
Granted, the only thing I knew about this book going in was the title
and having been a reader of writer Rich Johnston’s online comic book
gossip column for years so I had no preconceived expectations, but I
wish there were more comics like this one. Put simply, Johnston has
taken actual records of a 17th century friar whom multiple witnesses
claim flew and subtly remade them into a story of Superman versus Lex
Luthor. Really. And it works far better and way less contrived than any
Superman Elseworlds you can name. It’s either a credit to the story or
a highlight of my somewhat being clueless that I was a third of the way
in before I realized what Johnston was doing with the narrative. I then
immediately started the book over just to catch the little things I
missed, for what a rich (no pun intended) tapestry Johnston weaves with
this tale.

"Friar begins in Italy, 1602 where a meteor in the sky is
witnessed by a small town. Notable among the witnesses is a distant
descendant of the Protestant reformer Martin Luthor named Lionel and
his son Lux. The meteor storm causes Lux to lose his hair. Sound
familiar? Several years later, Lux, now a man of science, befriends the
hapless Joseph of Copertino, the future patron saint of air travelers,
aviators, people with a mental handicap, and weak students. Indeed,
Joseph doesn’t seem to be overly bright, but is singularly dedicated to
the Church and becoming a friar. The trouble is, Joseph is prone to
moments of drifting suddenly into a state of staring blankly into space
which sometimes results in spontaneous fires igniting in the direction
he’s staring. Since Joseph is Lux’s only friend Lionel, a rich man, is
prone to bail him out of trouble and to also use his considerable
influence for Joseph’s benefit. Lux also shares a secret with Joseph;
he is building a machine which will allow him to fly, something that
causes a further division between the two when Joseph appears to fly
without assistance. The elegant story touches on themes of friendship,
religious differences and the corruption of greed, not only that of
money and power, but also in a zealous lust of faith. Those are some
very heady ideas for a Superman story, but make this one shine.

"The artwork by Thomas Nachlik is crisp and tells the story in a
simple yet emotive way. His artwork is sometimes reminiscent of Matt
Wagner and I look forward to seeing more work from him in the future.
The lettering by Thomas Mauer complements the art well and does a good
job of reminding the reader of the setting of the story. The coloring
by Ian Sharman in this new edition from Markosia
is quite beautiful. He’s taken the black and white story and added an
almost sepia tone-like wash to it with subtle use of Lex Luthor’s
signature green in places. In all respects this book is a true work of
art.

"I know that even Rich Johnston describes this book as Smallville meets The Name of the Rose,
but I personally found it more in the style of the Silver Age Superman
imaginary stories. I can almost picture a Curt Swan cover with Supes in
a monk outfit being berated by a purple and green silk adorned Luthor.
I think this story would have fit nicely amongst those others. All in
all, this is one terrific book and I can’t recommend it highly enough.
Buy this book, get cozy on the couch with nice cup of tea and prepare
to be entertained."

Anybody not reading Mat Johnson's INCOGNEGRO does themselves a great disservice

Mat Johnson and Warren Pleece's Vertigo OGN Incognegro which came out a while ago is a b/w noirish tale dealing with the exposition of lynchings in the 1930s/40s. The main character, Zane Pinchback is a black journalist who can pass for white and travels to the big lynchings all over the country to document white mobs' atrocities, taking down names, addresses, and getting a hold of the carnival-like memento lynching postcards with people posing with the victim. His articles are published in a black-run Harlem newspaper under the alias "Incognegro" and he's a thorn in the KKK's side.

It's the beginning of the Harlem Renaissance and Zane wants out to make a name for himself under his real name, but his publisher convinces him to go on one last mission - one that is personal and Zane can't pass it up. He goes South again to investigate an alleged murder of a white woman by a black man in an attempt to stop the lynching before it happens.

In this graphic novel, Johnson condenses the scholarship on lynching from the last 80 years into a riveting story that must be read in one sitting. Scholarship on lynching is vast by now yet still not all-encompassing, but Johnson manages to hit on all the major and many, many minor points associated with the practice and the times.

Pleece's art fits the story perfectly, and Hellboy/100 Bullets letterer Clem Robins' lettering is gorgeous.

This is not a pretty topic, but one that cannot and should not be ignored. Incognegro is an OGN that should be in everybody's library, so I'd encourage all of you who haven't checked it out yet to give it a shot.