Thomas Mauer, Letterer

PinkRayGun.com on Contropussy

2010-05-10T20:44:00.000+02:00

Mis-interpreted lyrics usually just
lead to funny stories. Well, until the internet came along and allowed
you to correct your friend with a twenty second Google search.
Anyways. In the case of Contropussy,
it led to a kicking webcomic. Emma Caulfield (yes, that Emma
Caulfield, Anya from Buffy the Vampire Slayer) was talking to
her friend Camilla Rantsen about a Prince song and how she was never
sure if he was singing contropussy instead of controversy. Since the
word was so wonderful, they decided they had to do something with it.
The obvious solution was to create a webcomic about a cat.

The big news from a few days ago

2010-04-09T10:49:00.002+02:00

The equivalent of the Academy Awards in comics is called the Eisner Awards (named after seminal cartoonist Will Eisner). This year's nominations have now been published and two of my projects are on the list:

First up is POPGUN VOL. 3 from Image Comics in the Best Anthology category. I did production edits on the book, as on all other volumes. We actually won the Harvey Award with the first volume of the book 2 years ago, which is the other major industry award. So being nominated for the Eisner now shows that we're not just continuing to be good, but getting better all the time. (Volume 4 was released a few weeks ago, btw. Check Amazon and get it.)

The second project is the webcomic The Guns of Shadow Valley by Dave Wachter and Jim Clark in the Best Webcomic category. I letter it. One of the most fun projects I've been working on over the years. Got new pages last night, so I'm getting my fix now. :D

To see the entire list of nominations, follow this link:

http://www.comic-con.org/cci/cci_eisners_10nom.php#nominees

SHUDDERTOWN #1 review by The Onion A.V. Club: A- !!

2010-04-07T09:13:00.001+02:00

http://www.avclub.com/articles/march-26-2010,39574/

One of the more rewarding trends in contemporary comics is the revival of crime noir stories, and, after a somewhat shaky start, Nick Spencer has become one of the finest practitioners of the genre. His latest series, Shuddertown (Image), starts out as a winner: It follows the slow deterioration of homicide detective Isaac Hernandez as he investigates a series of killings in the titular housing project. Hernandez is a perfectly drawn noir anti-hero and Spencer portrays his frustrationand exhaustion viscerally. Artist Adam Geen does a fine job on the visuals as well; his sharp lines and washed-out colors provide a fitting backdrop for Hernandez’s self-destructive descent as it becomes more and more clear that the only rational suspects in the crimes he’s investigating have themselves been dead for years. Spencer has come a long way in a short time, and if the rest of Shuddertown lives up to the first few issues, he’ll be an author to watch for the foreseeable future… A-

Just got some kick-ass news.

2010-04-06T18:48:00.001+02:00

Itching to tell the world, but it looks like I have to sit on this for a few more days. Will let you know ASAP!

SHUDDERTOWN #1 review: CBR gives it 4.5 out of 5 stars!

2010-03-30T14:57:00.001+02:00

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=user_review&id=2060

THE GUNS OF SHADOW VALLEY chapter 2 is in the can.

2010-03-05T18:02:00.001+01:00

Dave just sent the last page of chapter 2 - page 43, and I prepped them for the web. There's no SFX on it because it would only look weird. It's got a much stronger impact silent, IMO. You can see it in the next few days here: http://www.gunsofshadowvalley.com/

If you haven't read the comic, go and catch up!

We're going to take a short break from publishing pages so we can build up a backlog of pages in chapter 3. Will let you all know when the webcomic resumes!

SHUDDERTOWN #1 seven page preview on BrokenFrontier.com

2010-03-04T23:58:00.002+01:00

Very cool crime mini series at Image that I'm lettering right now. It's written by Nick Spencer who's a writer to look out for IMO, and drawn by Adam Geen. I met Adam years and years ago, and it's been a joy to see his art evolve. So great to finally see him published and to be working with him.

Book design is by Tim Daniel who's responsible for quite a few logos and book designs at Image recently, and who's been designing awesome website for creators, and POPGUN as well. He wrote a story for either Popgun vol. 2 or 3 that I lettered, actually.

Check the link for the first seven pages of Shuddertown issue 1.

http://brokenfrontier.com/headlines/p/detail/preview-shuddertown-1

SHUDDERTOWN #1 (OF 4)

Story by NICK SPENCER
Art and cover by ADAM GEEN
Letters by THOMAS MAUER
Cover design by TIM DANIEL

MARCH 24
32 pgs/FC
$3.50

The dead are killing, and troubled homicide cop Isaac Hernandez is on a desperate search for answers. His investigation leads him deep into the corridors of the Shuddertown housing projects, and towards a truth too terrible to face.

A story of guilt, redemption, and resurrection; perfect for fans of THE WIRE, MULHOLLAND DRIVE, and SE7EN.

The OUTLAW TERRITORY VOL. 2 cover is sweet!

2010-03-02T17:36:00.001+01:00

Got the artwork today. Nic Klein fires on all cylinders. This is gonna rock so hard.

Before I forget: POPGUN 4 is in stores today!

2010-02-24T11:44:00.001+01:00

Yikes, nearly forgot about this. Since I get my comics shipped, I never really get them on their in-store dates anyway. But for you lucky dogs out there who can go to their LCS, go pick up volume 4!

This time around we have even more pages for the same price as the older volumes. And Templesmith did the gorgeous cover. Whee!

READY TO WHERE? webcomic goes live!

2010-02-12T09:28:00.002+01:00

http://www.thefashionspot.com/ready-to-where

Never in a million years would I have thought I'd ever work on something fashion related. Hah!

Written by Andrea Grant who works in fashion journalismnd models herself, and drawn by Liza Biggers. It's fun to work with them.

So we bought a new printer

2010-02-02T21:38:00.001+01:00

It's an HP Color Laserjet CM1312fni MFP. Just set it up, printed out some b/w and color pages, scanned/xeroxed some stuff, set up the network and "scan to folder" settings, and it's a great printer/scanner/photocopy machine for sure. The only thing left to do is color adjustment since it bleeds into the red a bit/is too light on color printing. Other than that, couldn't be happier. Fingers crossed it stays this way.

Also, just finished the first issue of SHUDDERTOWN and I'm pleased as punch with it. Look for it in March from Image Comics.

New Doug Lefler short story on 7XT: The Rat Catcher's Son

2010-02-01T23:45:00.001+01:00

http://www.sevenextraordinarythings.com/the-rat-catchers-son

Fun little story. Hopefully Doug will do more and put them online.

A handout I designed for a friend's lecture on Jhonen Vasquez

2010-01-25T00:27:00.001+01:00

A friend of mine has a course on dissent in America this semester, and he's working on the topic of dissent in popular culture (particularly in non-mainstream comics) using Jhonen Vasquez as an example. To mix things up, he asked if I could design his handout so it doesn't look like your typical bland presentation. He told me it'd be cool to blog it, so here it is.

The WHEE! balloon pointing to Fillerbunny and the sound effects in the bottom right were particularly fun to do.

The copy in the panel showing J.V. is actually from another balloon from Squee! or JtHM. Tried to mimic his brush style in Illustrator, but it's a poor attempt. Anyone who's tried to hand letter in Illustrator using brushes knows what a bitch it is. Hopefully Adobe will improve this in future versions of the software.

Popgun vol. 4 write-ups so far

2010-01-24T17:32:00.001+01:00

A little late but not too late to blog these links. Thanks for reminding me, DJ! Set your calendars to February 24 when the next installment of POPGUN hits stores!

CBR.cc: "Popgun" Takes A Fourth Shot

Newsarama.com: "Pop" Rocks! Creators & Editors On POPGUN Volume 4

I'm digging these articles. Will post more as they come along.

Yonchi - the insanest comic I've ever worked on

2010-01-16T04:53:00.001+01:00

And when I say insane, I mean INSAAAAAAAANE! Just finished lettering issue 1.

Wow, hilarious writing by Richard Meyer and Carlos Silva, you don't know what's gonna happen next, and it's shaping up to be a fun ride for sure. I just hope the writing stays on target for following issues. Would really suck if the comic lost itself in battle scenes when it can explore the human condition in a humorous, action packed way.

The artwork by Alan Robinson and coloring by Chamakoso is gorgeous and that won't change in the future. So if the writing stays this off-the-wall yet on point, this series could become a hit.

Btw, the first 10 pages showing the origin of the titular hero Yonchi were already in POPGUN vol. 2, but since my style has changes, I decided to reletter those pages. Would have hated to do that old style and use the old font just to stay consistent. Plus, wanted to give the guys their money's worth.

I'd be curious to hear what people think comparing the two takes on the lettering, so keep your eyes peeled for Yonchi #1!

Seven Extraordinary Things Trailer

2010-01-11T17:21:00.000+01:00

Just got a link to this really cool trailer from Doug Lefler. He's collecting his graphic novel 7XT online and it rocks. The trailer is extremely well done. Kudos to all involved!

http://www.sevenextraordinarythings.com/

Awesome interview with Len about LOVE BUZZ et al.

2010-01-07T10:40:00.001+01:00

http://www.acmecomics.com/node/1363

Rock!

LOVE BUZZ named Best Graphic Novel of 2009 at http://graphicpolicy.com!

2010-01-03T22:36:00.001+01:00

http://graphicpolicy.com/2010/01/01/best-comic-books-of-2009/

Best Graphic Novel – Love Buzz
What can I say? I gushed over this graphic novel when I read it about a month ago and haven’t stopped talking about it since.

While the various graphic novels listed in this category stand out for their story telling and use of visuals to tell them, Love Buzz stands at the top.

Not only is the story fun, and real (I could of sworn this was my high school and college love life) but the use of panels and art increase and enhance the already solid narrative. The characters are realistic with their banter and the dialogue is exactly what you’d expect from individuals their age.

This was a graphic novel I could relate to. It had me reflect on loves that have come and gone, it made me think at an emotional level. How many comic books made you do that this year?

This graphic novel was not just the surprise of the year, but also think it’s the sleeper comic of the year. It also helps we gave the graphic novel our first perfect 10 ever.

Very nice LOVE BUZZ interview with Len, Michelle & Dave on BleedingCool.com

2009-12-16T22:34:00.001+01:00

Since it was over the phone, I unfortunately couldn't participate. The phone bill for a conference call including Germany would have been a bit out of bounds. I'm digging this though. While I've worked with and talked to all three of them about the book, there are still some new aspects for me to find in here that I didn't know before.

Interviewer Richard Caldwell did a great job. Thumbs up!

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2009/12/16/richard-caldwell-talks-to-love-buzz/

PS: I realize that I've had something on this blog each day for the past few days. It's kind of weird since it's usually as quiet as a graveyard. Well, I hereby promise to rectify that situation and eventually return you to the soothing sound of static on this channel.

RAPTURE is MTV's Best Mini Series, NEW BRIGHTON ARCHEOLOGICAL SOCIETY is its Best All-Ages Comic of 2009!

2009-12-15T20:53:00.001+01:00

So awesome.

http://splashpage.mtv.com/2009/12/15/best-of-2009-comics/

"BEST MINISERIES
Rapture (Dark Horse)
It's been said that true love can survive anything, but whoever said that never suffered through armageddon. Michael Avon Oeming and Taki Soma test the limits of romance against an apocalyptic backdrop in Dark Horse's "Rapture," a truly stand-out epic due to its expertly crafted plot and world design. With cannibals aplenty, starvation mounting and superheroes at a premium, love very well could fall in the face of the hellish world of "Rapture" — but that's not stopping me from loving the hell out of this book.
- Josh Wigler"

BEST ALL-AGES COMIC
"The New Brighton Archeological Society" (Image)
"New Brighton" readers get the best of two worlds in a story that's fun to read on its own and a comic that can be shared with readers of any age — whether they can read it themselves or have it read to them. In fact, it feels like Mark Andrew Smith and Matthew Weldon have all the ingredients for success in "New Brighton": a spunky group of kids with lots of free time, a wild world ripe for exploration, fantastic creatures culled from various faerie tales, and dangers that manage to be scary without being truly terrifying. It's the sort of book we're quite certain we'd love when we were little, but get a kick out of reading now, too.
- Rick Marshall

(I lettered RAPTURE and designed NBAS, for those who don't know.)

LOVE BUZZ review with a Ted Rall mention makes me laugh!

2009-12-14T20:42:00.001+01:00

http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/bibliolatry/blogs/post?oid=1333694

For LOVE BUZZ, scroll down to the 12/3/09 entry.

To better enjoy the Ted Rall reference, read the 11/27/09 entry about Rall's THE YEAR OF LOVING DANGEROUSLY first.

Image's SULLIVAN'S SLUGGERS by Mark Andrew Smith & James Stokoe on Amazon.com

2009-12-14T02:20:00.001+01:00

New OGN project i'm working on at the moment. It'll be released in a few months. The pages look awesome and I'm having a lot of fun with it!

Written by Mark Andrew Smith
Art by James Stokoe
Colors by Rodrigo Avilés
Lettered & Designed by Thomas Mauer

http://www.amazon.com/Sullivans-Sluggers-Mark-Andrew-Smith/dp/1607062534/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1260746875&sr=8-1

Paperback: 150 pages
Publisher: Image Comics (May 19, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1607062534
ISBN-13: 978-1607062530

"Long past their former glory, the minor league Sluggers get an invitation to play a baseball game in a cursed small town. After the 7th inning stretch, the sun goes down, and the dysfunctional teammates find themselves fighting for their lives against a town of flesh-eating monsters! Now, it's up to coach Casey Sullivan to put down the booze, step up to the proverbial plate, and help his team escape from being the next dish in the town's terrifying feeding frenzy! Harvey Award-winning graphic novel author Mark Andrew Smith joins forces with Eisner Award-nominated illustrator James Stokoe for a gripping rollercoaster of a graphic novel, packed with shocks, gore, and screamingly outrageous humor, when America's Favorite Past Time becomes one team's nightmare!"

LOVE BUZZ Review on GraphicPolicy.com

2009-12-13T09:11:00.001+01:00

http://graphicpolicy.com/2009/12/10/review-love-buzz/

Here's an excerpt:

I’ll admit I was skeptical going into reading this graphic novel. But in a few hours I found myself tearing through it cover to cover and wanting to go back and read it again.

This is one of the best graphic novels of the year, and definitely a sleeper you should not miss.

AICN Review of Love Buzz

2009-12-11T00:18:00.001+01:00

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/43325#9

More at the link but here's the first paragraph:

"When the “everyday” transcends to art you are left with a piece that can only be called authentic. If the name wasn’t enough of an indicator I’ll just say it outright — LOVE BUZZ is not your standard comic. You will not find any cars being hurled through windows, there aren’t any megalomaniacs trying to take over the world nor a spandex clad hero to save the day in the last harrowing minutes. What LOVE BUZZ does deliver is one of the most honest and true interpretations of young love and the horrific labyrinth of emotions that we all must navigate at some point in our lives as we mature into adulthood."

RAPTURE on MTV's Splash Page

2009-12-11T00:17:00.001+01:00

Mike just sent this link. Pretty cool to see this on the site:

http://splashpage.mtv.com/2009/12/09/adapt-this-rapture-by-michael-avon-oeming-taki-soma/

Popgun vol. 4 in the December Previews!

2009-11-29T23:40:00.001+01:00

Hey party people, as of today, Image has the print files for the fourth outing of the Popgun anthology, and we've got the order code to go with it, too:

DEC09 0379

The book will be in stores next February. It features a cover by Ben Templesmith, is even longer than the last two volumes clocking in at 512 pages, and is chock-full of awesome stories.

Don't miss out, order as quickly as you can!

If you'd like a taste, sample a few of the stories on the official Popgun site: http://popguncomics.com/

Look what BleedingCool.com posted:

2009-11-26T15:52:00.001+01:00

Thanks Given #4 - Thomas Mauer and Christian Meesey

Love Buzz OGN from Oni in stores Dec 9!

2009-11-24T11:17:00.000+01:00

Just got word that this is the actual in-store date. Make your calendars, boys and girls, this is a great book!

Popgun vol. 4 will be out in February 2010!

2009-11-19T11:11:00.001+01:00

This time we give you even more pages than before, but at the same price! 512 pages jam packed with stories from today's innovators of the comics medium.

LOVE BUZZ 22 page preview online at onipress.com!

2009-10-19T21:03:00.001+02:00

http://onipress.com/display.php?type=bk&id=378

Letters by yours truly. In fact, I'm finishing up the book today. It's scheduled for release on my birthday. Nice coincidence. :)

Love Buzz

Click to enlarge Author(s):

Len Wallace
Michelle Silva
Dave Tuney

$14.95 Available 11/11

22-page preview!

Genres: Slice-of-Life, Comedy, Drama
Rating: T
Pages: 168
Format: 6x9" - Trade Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-934964-21-7
Diamond Code: SEP09 0946

Book Description
What if the one that got away kept coming back?
Norm Raymer, an aspiring comic artist, has a turbulent relationship with Maggie. With their passionate ups and chaotic downs, is this love, or a youthful lust? For better or worse, Norm and Maggie must discover whether or not they can ever really make it as a normal couple. Can you really be a normal couple when your whole life is just fodder for your comic book? A new romantic comedy graphic novel for young comic nerds in love.

Available 11/11

The Guns of Shadow Valley chapter 2 has begun!

2009-10-08T17:40:00.002+02:00

Almost forgot to post about it. This week, sees the start of the second chapter of the kickass Western-with-supernatural-elements THE GUNS OF SHADOW VALLEY by Jim Clark and Dave Wachter. I'm lettering.

http://www.gunsofshadowvalley.com/

New Contropussy storyline starts today with #16

2009-09-28T17:14:00.001+02:00

Check it out:

http://www.contropussy.com

Contropussy fan art

2009-09-19T01:45:00.001+02:00

This looks really cool:

http://tacokat.blogspot.com/2009/09/contropussy.html

My current lettering portfolio

2009-09-19T01:44:00.001+02:00

For those of you interested in such things:

http://www.thomasmauer.com/mauer_lettering-portfolio-2009-09-18_lowres.pdf

A Contropussy fan poem

2009-09-13T09:21:00.002+02:00

http://jayswordvomit.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!9E794250953FF358!209.trak

So cool!

Also, the Joss'd podcast discusses the webcomic.

An AWAKENING review (including some nice words about yours truly)

2009-08-16T23:46:00.000+02:00

http://www.omnivoracious.com/2009/08...h-archaia.html

...

One publisher I've meant to cover on Graphic Novel Friday for awhile but haven't, due to that aforementioned press of books, is Archaia. Archaia consistently publishes quality work, and they have three new titles this year that should hit a number of different reader sweet spots--from talking mice to zombies to mythology...

Awakening by Nick Tapalansky, Alex Eckman-Lawn, and Thomas Mauer - Billed as existential horror, this moody, sometimes disturbing graphic novel uses a dark but expressive color palate along with photo-realistic renderings of backgrounds to achieve a gritty, atmospheric tension. I can't say that the detective element or the zombie element are that unique, but in combination they create a powerful effect. The city of Park Falls has been haunted by a series of murders and disappearances. A retired police detective sets out to investigate, only to find the cause isn't your "normal" serial killer. Thomas Mauer, the letterer, gets equal billing with the writer and artist, and it's easy to see why: the lettering is superb, and contributes to the success of the brooding and eerie settings. Mauer's influence on the success of Awakening is particularly evident in the way he handles the "voice-over" text and other layering effects. If you like hardboiled and you don't mind zombies and situations that will make the ttle hairs on the back of your neck stand on end, Awakening's adult approach to crime and to the supernatural should be a good fit.

...

Emma Caulfield at Wizard World Chicago & Contropussy

2009-08-11T21:05:00.001+02:00

Sorry that this is late, but we're moving and internet access is spotty for the next two weeks.

Anyway, head over to Comic Book Resources for the Emma Caulfield Q&A coverage from WizChicago 2009. Here's a short excerpt:

A packed house greeted former Buffy star Emma Caulfield for a two-part panel at Chicago Comic-Con Friday beginning with a question and answer session that recounted the star's career as Anya the vengeance demon and her new comic book venture, "Contropussy," before transitioning to a full-on Buffy discussion featuring Doug Jones and Camden Toy.

Caulfield took the stage to applause before greeting a malfunctioning sound system, which she countered by using her "stage voice" to reach the fans in the back while staff worked to correct the problem during the opening minutes of the panel.

"I'm sort of blind, so I can't fully make out hands," said Caulfield as she addressed fan questions.

The sound then started, allowing the first fan to ask Caulfield's opinion on her least favorite animal, a timely question given her new comic stars anthropomorphic pets.

"Moths," said Caulfield to a laughing audience, "honestly I don't see what their purpose is. They eat clothing and they burrow into your food, but other than that no. "I have a healthy respect for sharks. I can't go into the ocean for that reason – up to my knees is about as far as I go. But as for an actual problematic issue, just moths."

You can also find the link to the Contropussy website on the right in my WEBCOMICS link list, though you really should subscribe to the comic itself. It updated Mondays and Fridays.

Interview on NEWSARAMA's "Christian Beranek's Life of High Adventure" with yours truly

2009-08-05T01:10:00.001+02:00

http://blog.newsarama.com/2009/08/04/christian-beraneks-life-of-high-adventure-11-interview-with-lettering-samurai-thomas-mauer

Among others, we're talking about workflow, sound effects, captions, and Outlaw Territory. Check it out.

This Friday, new webcomic CONTROPUSSY goes live

2009-08-04T08:39:00.003+02:00

http://www.contropussy.com/

More news at Wizard World Chicago!

AWAKENING VOL. 1 HC is in stores!

2009-07-24T14:31:00.001+02:00

So I just checked my next DCBS shipment to see what they'll send, and they added the book. Whee!

Mauer's forum banner for July 2009

2009-07-05T10:44:00.001+02:00

Slow month. Just one new title, so I decided to run AWAKENING vol. 1 HC and the KILLER OF DEMONS trade again.

AWAKENING VOL. 1 HC trailer - updated shipping details

2009-06-30T10:35:00.002+02:00

We've managed to build a ton of buzz for the release of Awakening Volume One. Our debut copies sold out in the first two days of Wizard World Philly and we're looking for a repeat performance at SDCC in a few weeks, though hopefully we'll make it through more than two days! While there's been an unfortunate shipping delay, I can't stress enough that the book is printed (obviously since we sold out last weekend!) and is en route as I type this. It'll be in stores no later than July 29th, though hopefully sooner. We've waited a year for this so I hope you'll all hang on for just a few weeks more...

To keep the momentum strong and keep appetites whet, we've put together an exciting trailer for the book!

And for those who dig the book, a quick stop at their LCS or bookstore to reserve a copy or a click online at Amazon.com - http://www.amazon.com/Awakening-One-Nick-Tapalansky/dp/1932386483/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1246336312&sr=8-1 - (still with a discount!) to pre-order is all that stands between them and their copy of the first volume of our existential horror and zombie noir tale.

Nick, Alex, and I hope you'll post this up to let people know we're coming, and sooner rather than later. Your support has been invaluable and we can't stress enough how much we appreciate it. Just a few more weeks, guys - then the countdown to Volume Two begins...

You've been warned... :)

Outlaw Territory is in stores today!

2009-06-24T13:03:00.001+02:00

At long last, the first volume of OT is out in the wild.

Published by Image comics, Outlaw Territory is an anthology depicting a rougher and grittier time in Americawhen men with six shooters roamed the frontier in search of fame, fortune, revenge, and escape from the law or their past.

Volume one contributors include: Melike Acar, Frank Beaton, Christian Beranek, Ivan Brandon, John Cboins, , Jason Cheeseman-Meyer, Shannon Eric Denton, Ming Doyle, Joshua Hale Fialkov, Max Fiumara, Simon Fraser, Trevor Goring, George Gousis, Steven Grant, Yeray Gil Hernandez, Jose Holder, Joiton, Joe Kelly, Ian Kim, Chad Kinkle, Dean Kotz, Koray Kuranel, PJ Kryfko, Noble Larimer, Pat Loika, Andy Macdonald, Skipper Martin, Danika Massey, M. Sean McManus, Jorge Molina , David Miller, Christopher Mitten, Chris Moreno, Moritat, mpMann, Tyler Niccum, Steve Orlando, Joshua Ortega, Greg Pak, James Patrick, Khoi Pham, Christopher Provencher, Stephen Reedy, Greg Ruth, Chad Sell, Shay, Michelle Silva, William Simpson, Johnny Timmons, Jose Torres, Christie Tseng, Fred Van Lente, Josh Wagner, Leonard Wallace, Nemo Woodbine, and Michael Woods.

You can see preview pages and read more about it here and here.

Give it a shot.

Mauer's forum banner for June 2009

2009-06-06T17:09:00.001+02:00

Killer of Demons trade. HELL YEAH!!!

Mauer's forum banner for May 2009

2009-05-04T10:59:00.001+02:00

Sucks that this is the only book in the current Previews. All the more reason to order, though!

Agents of the WTF in: Would You Like To Dance, Papi?

2009-04-10T01:47:00.003+02:00

One of the stories I lettered in POPGUN vol. 3. Love it to death. And it got this sweet review on thecomicaddiction.com (along with reviews for every other story in the book):

http://www.thecomicaddiction.com/reviews/image/popgun_v3/popgun_v3p01.htm#Agents_of_WTF_in_would_you_like_to_Dance,_Papi

Review by Aziz Bawany
Writers: D.J. Kirkbride & Adam P. Knave
Artist: Matteo Scalera
Colorist: Antonio Campo
Letterer: Thomas Mauer
Page 153
So far this is the best story I’ve reviewed in this Anthology. While we’re all splitting duties up, Agents of WTF has to be one of the craziest, off the wall concepts to be put on a page.
While the idea of a superhero team is nothing new, and can feature a who’s-who of weird characters, Agents of WTF lives up to its name with a 300 but really 8 year old man-boy and a Native American princess who battle some of the odder creatures of earth. In this case it was an evil demon-summoning clown, and the agents of WTF used every trick in the book of WTF moments to make sure they won. Quite enjoyable and with its chaotic art style of Matteo Scalera, highly recommended.
Rating: 9 out of 10 (Excellent!)

For a complete list, by table of contents: http://www.thecomicaddiction.com/reviews/image/popgun_v3/popgun_v3p00.htm

Mauer's forum banner for April 2009

2009-04-07T14:07:00.001+02:00

Please note that if you order AWAKENING Vol. 1 HC through http://www.dcbservice.com, you will receive a free print.

AWAKENING VOL. 1 HC - First Advance review

2009-04-07T13:20:00.002+02:00

http://reviews.comicswaitingroom.com/2009/03/31/awakening.aspx

Posted by Marc Mason at 3/31/2009 8:43 PM
Categories: archaia studios press

AWAKENING: Volume One
Written by Nick Tapalansky and Illustrated by Alex Eckman-Lawn
Published by Archaia Studios Press
Zombies really freak me out, and it is stories like AWAKENING which do not let me forget that fact. More than just another scary monster story, this is one of the most incredibly illustrated and uniquely written comics I have ever read. Zombie, comic and art fans of all sorts should not hesitate to pick up this book and marvel at it for years to come.

Tapalansky takes his time effectively building suspense surrounding the strange and gruesome things happening in Park Falls and keeps the mystery alive, even after encountering several ‘zombies,’ of what exactly is causing these horrific events. This is not an instant epidemic or ‘guy wakes up in a coma after several months’ type of zombie story. Things are gradually getting worse, spreading slowly out from Park Falls, and there is no real pattern to explain why. The main characters are likable and easy to become invested in; an important aspect of a zombie story since you’re never sure how long someone is going to be alive. The journal pages of Derrick Peters, a cop-turned-private detective and the story’s leading man, add a personal touch and insight to the narrative.
The artwork in this book is simply stunning. The amazing mosaic of different media displayed throughout the pages completely vibes with the story and is a veritable feast for the eyes. The mixture of standard comic panels with gritty lines and noir color schemes and full pages of artwork so fine and beautiful you cannot tell whether it was hand drawn or a photograph from the early 1900’s creates a hazy, dark mood suiting for the story. The whole effect is, quite frankly, completely cool.
AWAKENING is a fantastic creation of unlimited imagination, superb writing and pure talent, and is without a doubt highly recommended for anyone with a taste for a slightly different kind of scary story that grips your brain and doesn’t let go.
Avril Brown

Popgun Vol. 3 has arrived at the Image office!

2009-03-31T20:33:00.002+02:00

We've just been informed by Popgun co-creator & Image PR guru Joe Keatinge that copies of the book have arrived at the office. Here's Joe showing off the book:

In stores on April 8!

First POPGUN Vol. 3 review I know of

2009-03-27T18:12:00.002+01:00

...and a story I lettered got name checked (Cuffs by Derek McCullogh and Peter Krause with colors by Ron A. Turner). Nice!

http://www.graemesfantasybookreview.com/2009/03/popgun-volume-3-edited-by-mark-andrew.html

AWAKENING Vol. 1 HC - Order code APR090649 - PREVIEWS page 196

2009-03-27T13:14:00.001+01:00

The time has arrived…

AWAKENING Volume One is being solicited in April Previews (comic shop ordering magazine)! It’s alllllll set for it’s June release and we couldn’t be more excited. We'll post up some more previews over the next two and a half months as the release nears, just to whet your appetites...

Now the first step in our multi-pronged effort to throw ourselves in the faces of as many people as possible begins. We’re working with a limited time frame, so any help you guys can give would be appreciated more than you know. :)

The deadline for initial order cut-offs from comic shops is incredibly short this month. While they can place re-orders later, if you want to guarantee that the shop will get the book in on the day it’s released, you’ll need to stop in no later than April 11^th. To make it super easy for everyone, Nick and Alex have created a coupon with all our Previews info on it. Just download it below!

Just print that sucker out, give it to the shop along with your name and phone number, and away you go! If you need help finding a local shop, visit http://www.comicshoplocator.com/. Don't worry, it only looks big (that's what she said) - it prints at 4"x6" and won't kill any ink cartridges. Download link is at the top of the image once it loads.

In the event that you don’t have a local comic shop, don’t panic! As soon as the book is available for pre-order through bookstores (Barnes & Noble, Amazon, etc.) or online comic shops I’ll be posting links and a second coupon you can bring to said stores.

In the meantime, please pass this along to friends, family, and loved ones who might be interested in a little existential horror/noir to brighten their day... They can find out more about the book by visiting http://www.myspace.comAwakeningComic or http://thehumungusstudio.deviantart.com.

Likewise, if you’ve got a blog or an online presence (website, MySpace, Facebook, etc.) and dig the book, please please please help us spread the word. Post the coupon up for download, sing our praises, talk about how handsome Nick, Alex, and I are, you know… the usual.

Thanks again everybody for all the support you’ve given us so far! We couldn’t have gotten to this point without all of you and we hope you know how much that means to us.

We love you.

Myspace Dark Horse Presents #19: RAPTURE

2009-02-18T01:58:00.000+01:00

http://www.myspace.com/darkhorsepresents?issuenum=19&storynum=3&?qt=bl_090216_EF

Nice, it's online now. The short story to Mike Oeming and Taki Soma's RAPTURE from Dark Horse, with colors by Val Staples and letters by yours truly.

Issue 1 of the six issue mini series will hit stands on May 27, 2009. We're currently wrapping that up and Mike's already drawn 1/3 or so of issue 2. Gonna start lettering in the next few days.

"Coming Soon" banner for LOVE BUZZ that Len and I came up with

2009-02-16T02:35:00.001+01:00

Work work work, PLAY PLAY PLAY!

2009-02-13T16:58:00.000+01:00

So, my quest to clean my work plate is nearing its end.

Right now the only thing I have left to letter is LOVE BUZZ by Len Wallace and Michelle Silva w/ additional art by Dave Tuney. This OGN will come out in a few months from Oni Press, and it'll be awesome. Len's hustled his ass off for years to get to this point and I'm happy it'll be paying off for him--if you all give the book a shot!

Originally LOVE BUZZ was scheduled to come out this week for Valentine's Day, but production required the date be pushed back. And yes, I'm partly responsible for that. After lettering the pitch in 2007, I didn't manage to add the book into my schedule again until now. However, that's a GOOD thing.

A few weeks ago, I had another lettering breakthrough thanks to Mike Oeming asking me to figure out how to do the organic Hellboy hand lettering look. Finally figured that out, and even though I'm sticking to my balloon shapes, it's that organic style he wanted. I'm still not comfortable putting all copy into close-to-perfect-circle balloons because it covers up so much artwork. Gonna take some more time with Mike till we gel to the point that he leaves me the exact amount of space to do those balloons without worry.

Anyway, now that I have nothing else on the plate, LOVE BUZZ is a breeze to letter in the span of a few days/weeks. So there won't be any noticable style changes, which will help keep the lettering off people's conscious thoughts.

The Oeming book is of course RAPTURE which premieres on Myspace Dark Horse Presents #19 this month. The first issue will be solicited in the next Previews. Val Staples is doing the colors this weekend and I'll just have to check placements and correct SFX colors. Easy and short.

Popgun 3 is nearly finished. We're just waiting on two stories to come in. One of which is being done by one guy, the other story just needs to get finished coloring since I lettered that yesterday. Another instance of simply adjusting sfx colors and be done.

The story order is done, the interiors are laid out, biographies are pretty much in, and back cover files are just pending selecting which names to put on the back and artwork Steven wants to put into the tape roll thingamabob.

Outlaw Territory vol. 1 is what I'm finishing after getting up to speed on Love Buzz. All I need to do there is do the table of contents/credits design and stuff, but I'm working on something special for that. So it's taken more time. I know the book's late, but we're getting there. And it will be worth it. This volume contains the lettering I'm most proud of in my career right after the RAPTURE and BAD DOG stuff.

Speaking of BAD DOG, thanks everybody who's giving the book a shot. We've had a lot of positive feedback, and I hope this is an indicator for the book's future. Right now it's scheduled for 5 issues, but if the numbers are good, writer Joe Kelly wants to do it as an ongoing series--which I would LOVE to do. It's a blast to work on this book. Joe's a great comedic writer and Diego's art clicks from page 1. This week I lettered issue 2 and am currently waiting for Joe to give the final go to send it to Image. I nearly pissed myself laughing so much while working on it. Now hopefully that's not going to raise expectations too high, but I think you'll love the jokes as much as I do.

Sooo, work work work...after Love Buzz, Popgun, and Outlaw Territory are done, I'll be in a bit of a quandary with working off all of that stuff. Aside from RAPTURE (mini series) and BAD DOG (mini-hopefully-ongoing), there won't be any paying work for a while. Which leaves time to get back to font creation, research, and writing--but that don't pay the bills.

That's where PLAY PLAY PLAY comes in. Next Friday, I'm boarding a plane for sunny (rainy?) California to hang out with CB and Ahmet in the Monsterfoot/Kingdom Comics office on the Disney lot for two weeks. CB's already mad-busy setting up meetings with publishers and creators, producers, directors, and managers etc. Hope we can get the ball rolling on a few things for Lead Pipe Entertainment and score some straight up lettering work. Though I wouldn't mind getting some kind of production job out there and moving ASAP. Which I still want to do, but well, the work visa/money process is slow. So fingers crossed, and see what happens.

But it wouldn't be play if all I did was work at the office there. Looking forward to meeting a lot new people, adventuring around LA, and just having fun. (True story: My last proper vacation was in 1997 and I have no idea how "vactioning" like normal people works anymore.)

I'll try to update the blog more often while in California. There's bound to be more to talk about out there.

If you're out Californy-way give me a shout.

Mauer's forum banner for February 2009

2009-02-02T06:44:00.001+01:00

Mauer's forum banner for January 2009

2009-01-04T11:58:00.001+01:00

2009 will be busy and awesome

2009-01-01T22:05:00.002+01:00

Happy New Year, all. Hope your heads aren't killing you too much.

Just finished the first working day for the year despite the hangover from last night's party.

Sent some more BAD DOG proofs to Joe, though only of one page. I'd like to change the font before we go to press. When he gets back, the first issue will be in the can pretty quickly. Took way longer than it should have, I know.

Finished the RAPTURE short story for DARK HORSE PRESENTS #19 though it needs some adjustments and probably placement corrections when the colors are in. I just wanted to give Taki and Mike something to look at now that I stocked up on a few more fonts from Comicraft, what with their sale today.

Yeah, it was necessary. My own fonts aren't near ready yet. I can't believe how fast 2008 went by. Didn't manage to get ONE done to have it ready for use, though two are pretty close.

Oh yeah, and I need to find the time to build my website. Heh.

Recently read comics roundup

2008-12-31T09:34:00.001+01:00

CAPOTE IN KANSAS (Oni Press)

I loved this OGN! Actually bought it to flesh out an Amazon order the other day, but now I wish I'd read it much earlier. Len told me the movie isn't based on this OGN but the biography, but still it read as if the movie makers had taken Parks' & Samnee's book as a template. Quite strange.

LAST EXIT BEFORE TOLL (Oni Press)

Bought this because the title has intrigued me for years. I had no idea what I was getting into here but the book drew me in so much that I breezed right through. Interesting to see Chris Mitten's first published artwork and how much he has evolved since.

NORTHLANDERS (DC/Vertigo)

Great book through and through.

SHOOTING WAR (Grand Central Publishing)

I'm actually not done with the book yet but put it back on the shelf. Bought it because of everybody raving about the book and because Goldman's POPGUN vol. 2 story had a cool design. The design in the OGN is cool as well, but there's this false bravado in the writing that puts me off the same way that the writing in PHONOGRAM has put me off that series. I might yet finish reading SHOOTING WAR, but there are other books to get to first.

Fun little project I finished today

2008-12-13T00:32:00.001+01:00

Last week I was asked if I could restore a bomb squad patch in Illustrator. The lowres image is a photo or scan of the faded patch on a t-shirt. The circle wasn't completely round, and as you can see the wings and shield at the bottom look a little wonky in the original. Not sure if the wings should have had the same curve as the rest of circles, but I got approval, so it must be okay.

What surprised me when doing the stars is that these are actually Cthulhu-like pentagrams. I wonder if the original designer was a Lovecraft fan. :)

Trying to identify the font took a few days and I wasn't successful. The lowres image makes it hard to nail the serifs. Out of the 14 fonts I narrowed it down to, Lucida Standard Bold was the closest match. All that I had to adjust were the center bar in the Es, the lower bar in the F (adding serifs), and the two Rs (removing the serifs on the stem).

The original patch has a height of 3". The image I worked on has a height of 5.25" or something. After scaling the vectors down to a 3" height, the amount of air around the copy is JUST right, so while it looks like there's too much in the above comparison shot of the 5.25" badge, the final output works well visually.

Mini reviews of comics I read

2008-12-09T22:50:00.002+01:00

Over at the Bendisboard, there's a thread called What were the last two trades/OGNs you read?

I've been posting mini reviews for a while there and thought why not put them on ye olde blogge as well - that way at least there's some more content once in a while. (Never been good at keeping a journal of any kind.) So here's a copy/paste of whatever I've posted there so far and from now on, new mini reviews will go up here, too. More white noise on the internet. What's not to like?!

DEAR DRACULA (Image/Shadowline)

I got my new box of books today and the first thing I read was DEAR DRACULA from Image/Shadowline. It's a square-format all ages HC about a young kid named Sam who loves Dracula movies so much that he decides to forgo waiting for X-mas and Santa, and instead writes to Dracula in time for Halloween asking if he can become a real vampire for a day.

Any of you with kids out there, this book is great to share with them. Highly recommended.

SCALPED VOL. 2 (DC/Vertigo)

Finished reading SCALPED Vol. 2 today (and ordered vol. 3 straight away). Aaron's multi-angle approach to this single night on the rez was fantastic. He's as byzantine as THE WIRE and every single one of these issues payed off, while the end of the arc is a REAL whammy. RM Guerra is one of my favorite artists now.

I canNOT wait for their OUTLAW TERRITORY Vol. 2 story to come in so I can FINALLY work with both of them!

THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION: A GRAPHIC ADAPTATION (Hill and Wang)

All right, finished THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION: A GRAPHIC ADAPTATION by Hennessey & McConnell from Hill & Wang last night. A really insightful non-fiction comic explaining how the Constitution came about and what the various articles and amendments stand for. Artwork is really nice, too. The one contention I have here is that my boy Jason Arthur overlaid his own SFX when McConnell did SFX himself, without erasing McConnell's - that's just distracting and shouldn't have been done.

This is a nice introduction to the Constitution, so if you've never cracked it open or discussed it in school, you'd really profit from reading it - and even if you had it in school, it wouldn't hurt to revisit.

SENTENCES: THE LIFE OF M.F. GRIMM (DC/Vertigo)

Right after that, I read SENTENCES: THE LIFE OF M.F. GRIMM, the autobiography about the rise and fall - and rise again - of hip hop legend Percy Carey, drawn by Ronald Wimberly, and published by Vertigo. I don't know if Carey read early 20th-century African-American autobiographies, but his is in that same vein. Since he's an avid reader, I bet he has and that some of the elements in this book are consciously constructed.

SENTENCES is a very refreshing read and while I tried to just read the prologue before turning in, I couldn't put the book down until the last page.

If you're a hip hop fan, do not pass this up.

ENIGMA CIPHER (BOOM! Studios)

Wordballoon brought this to my attention and I finally got around to reading this. It was a very well constructed action thriller. The script sample in the back is a really nice extra as it shows how the artist deviated from the script and helped get the story to the next level.

NARCOLEPTIC SUNDAY (Oni Press)

Jeremy Haun's first writing work. I'd intended to buy this from Jeremy at NYCC on the Sunday but forgot, and then finally caved two months ago and ordered the book instead of waiting for the next con we're both at. Overall it's a satisfying noir story, but it seems as if it took about 4 issues until Jeremy found out what he actually wants to do with the book (which is silly since he had to outline the book before pitching).

Early on the constant "I know what's going on (but I won't tell you, HAHA!)" moments were very distracting and clichee. That's what dragged it down. Around the halfway point however the writing becomes a lot stronger and surer. The final reveal was a little too standard noir fare for me, but those who aren't familiar with the genre might be okay with it. I think with some more careful planning early on, this could have had a better lead-in.

The artwork by Brian Koschak is very unique. His women are gorgeous femme fatales and his villains creepy or larger than life monsters. There are a few places where it gets a little wonky, but overall the artwork is exactly what this book needs to show the somewhat distorted, sleep deprived and coming apart world of the lead character.

A solid read that I'm glad to have in my library.

SPEAK OF THE DEVIL (Dark Horse)

I bought this because the title is catchy. So it starts out as a sort of slice-of-lifey book and halfway through turns into sheer insanity. I was like, wtf?! until the very last page. Very fun yet seriously fucked up book.

FEAR AGENT VOL. 4: HATCHET JOB (Dark Horse)

More insane space alien ass-kicking action while we learn more about Mara's past. Giant flying fish, lava cave civilizations, and space pirates! This volume rocked and I'm looking forward to the "I AGAINST I" trade already.

ALAN'S WAR (:01 First Second)

Not quite what I expected in a biography about a G.I. who fought in WWII. This was a very pleasant surprise, actually, and a fun read. Loved the artwork. I'm hoping ALAN'S YOUTH isn't too far off.

VEEPS: PROFILES IN INSIGNIFICANCE (Top Shelf)

I started this book today. It's about the American Vice Presidents from Adams to Cheney. Expected to find anecdotes in graphic novel form, but this is actually a prose anecdote book with cartoon illustrations reminiscent of late 18th century/early 19th century newspaper cartoonists. The cover design of this HC has been "aged," looking as if it has a lot of wear. Very nice and very convincing effect. Gotta love Photoshop.

This book will take me quite some time to read and I think I'll read a few veeps at a time while also reading other books. Recommended for history buffs and for the coffee table.

Mauer's forum banner for December 2008

2008-12-08T20:20:00.001+01:00

Thought I would start doing monthly banners with updated order info. Right now I only have BAD DOG #1 in the current Previews, so I'm rocking the Popgun banner as well. Let's see what next month brings.

And yes, the left part of the banner could do with some work. Oh well.

Also, the BAD DOG logo color works much better at a bigger size. Heh.

Aww, MAAAAAN!

2008-12-02T02:17:00.000+01:00

Just learned that Hollywood Project #2 is a bust. It was going to be something like a 64 page graphic novel and my rate was going to be premium. The art was finished and the writers and artists were paid, but the studio pulled the plug before I could get started and then my share.

Would have been some nice extra scratch that I had planned to use toward buying new furniture, and it was a project I was really excited about.

Oh well, gotta keep hustling.

Genesis of Aurora – A graphic novel prequel to Babylon A.D.

2008-11-28T00:23:00.001+01:00

http://www.moviesonline.ca/movienews_15853.html

Babylon AD DVD / BluRay Specs
Movie Babylon AD Posted By: PuppetMaster / Source

On Jan 6th Bablyon AD will hit BluRay and DVD. Below we have the complete specs for all the available discs.

[...]

Special Edition DVD With Digital Copy: The Babylon A.D. Special Edition two-disc unrated cut is presented in widescreen (1.85:1 aspect ratio) and features English 5.1 Dolby Digital and French Dolby Surround with English, Spanish and French subtitles. The Special Edition DVD also features Digital Copy. Bonus Features include:

* Babylon Babies –How author Maurice G. Dantec’s novel went from page to screen
* Arctic Escape – An inside look at the snow mobile chase
* Fit For The Screen – A featurette about the martial arts and stunts of the film
* Flight of the Hummers – The exciting Humvee chase is dissected
* Genesis of Aurora – A graphic novel prequel to Babylon A.D.
* Still gallery

This prequel was written by Christian Beranek, drawn by Dennis Calero, and I guess you know who lettered it.

Now I have my own thoughts on the movie, but this story is different and it's a first step career wise.

Outlaw Territory on Myspace Comic Books

2008-10-16T22:46:00.002+02:00

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=92159514&blogID=441230008

Ah-yup. This is Fialkov's story with art by Christie Tseng and letters by yours truly. I'm 6 stories away from wrapping up lettering which will be Saturday - missed the mark today since LAST night, I was working on the third story of the day till 6am this morning. So wrapping on Friday is out of the question now.

Anyway, it's not a big problem. This is the home stretch and I'm having a shitload of fun with all of these stories. There's only one story in volume 1 that's not lettered by me. Moritat did his own lettering and it looks cool.

My favorite story in the book and probably a hot contender for Best Short Story in next year's award shows is Joe Kelly's "The Ballad of a Bad Man." Motherfucker makes you misty around the eyes.

Favorite artwork is by Christopher Mitten on Len Wallace's story "Savage Practices." I went all out on the lettering there. It looks as if the lettering's part of Chris' watercolor work. Booyah!

Actually, I've done a lot of experimenting and decided on lettering styles based on the artwork and tone of the story. So you won't see a book lettered by one dude that looks like one solid block of lettering no matter what kind of story you're reading. Those are boring as fuck if you ask me.

Well, let's see if I get a nomination for the lettering on this book next year. Sure would be sweet, and I think when people see the anthology, they won't be disappointed. :)

WonderCon 2009 - I will be there

2008-10-05T07:48:00.002+02:00

Just booked a flight to LA from February 20 to March 6, and CB and I will be at WonderCon Feb 27-Mar 1. It's gonna be fun to work in the Kingdom Comics office on the Disney lot while I'm over there and the con will be rad. At long last, I can visit the Isotope in San Francisco!

Looking forward to hanging out with you LA and SF peeps soon.

POPGUN Vol. 1 won "Best Anthology" in the Harvey Awards 2008!!!

2008-09-29T15:57:00.002+02:00

http://www.newsarama.com/comics/090827-2008Harveys.html

Best Anthology - Popgun Volume 1, Edited by Joe Keatinge, Image Comics

Wooooooooo! No name check for me, but who gives a fuck? This is still my first award. :boogie:

Jazma Online interview + MINIONS OF KA @ Dragon*Con

2008-08-29T01:02:00.002+02:00

A few weeks ago, Richard Vasseur of Jasma Online wanted to do an interview about KINGDOM COMICS, AWAKENING, and THE MINIONS OF KA. He emailed me yesterday that it's finally up. Go have a look:

http://www.jazmaonline.com/interviews/interviews2008.asp?intID=164

About 30 seconds ago, CB texted me that the printer came through and copies of THE MINIONS OF KA have arrived at Dragon*Con. You'll be able to talk to the creators Dave Wilbur, Michael Furno, and Michael Ahearn, as well as artist Chris Moreno and project manager Christian Beranek (yes, CB) at the show and have them sign the book. Also, I hear the Mikes' and Dave's wives will dress up as characters from the book!

In the meantime, you can listen to a cool interview with Dave and Mike F. at DreadCentral.com. Dave, the word I used in the email was "existentialism." Thanks for the shout-out. :)

Also, make sure to check out http://www.trackthestrain.com/ - MINIONS OF KA is a multimedia endeavor and it's really cool to see it all come to fruition now. I really hope we'll be able to do more comics in this universe and would love to be involved again. It was a lot of fun.

AWAKENING vol. 1 HC at Amazon

2008-08-09T05:13:00.001+02:00

Well wouldn't you know it, Amazon lists our first HC, collecting issues 1-5 of the 10 issue mini series AWAKENING from Archaia Studios Press.

Check it out and place a pre-order. You won't regret it!

http://www.amazon.com/Awakening-One-Nick-Tapalansky/dp/1932386483/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1218251467&sr=8-1

AWAKENING is a zombie noir which may or may not feature zombies at all,
taking place in a city that seems to be slowly marching toward the
apocalypse. Readers follow an ensemble cast over the course of a full
year as the situation slowly escalates. They must first determine what
is indeed happening in town, then determine a cause and discover a
solution as the city succumbs to the slowly building pressure of the
mounting crisis.

In the last few days, I've had two misconceptions destroyed

2008-06-24T23:49:00.002+02:00

1. Windows Vista is not de debil. It's in fact a solid OS once you get used to the cosmetic changes. And who can argue with 8GB of RAM? Har har!

Gotta admit, when I first started it and only had Firefox running, it was already using 1.2GB of RAM, so anybody stuck with 2GB of RAM is pretty much fucked - like your standard laptop right now. But even with just 4GB, everything should be running smoothly. But boy, are 8GB fine to work with!

2. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is actually a very enjoyable film. It's definitely in keeping with how the other movies worked, and it's a fun action romp with myth and pseudo science mixed in like in the first three movies. I just finished watching it, so I thought I'd post these thoughts.

Anyway, back to work. I've got a lot of stuff to letter and some great news on the horizon. Stay tuned!

HOLY cow! Another Harvey nomination right out of left field.

2008-06-23T13:27:00.002+02:00

So while it was already cool to hear that PopGun vol. 1 was nominated for Best Anthology, I just found out that "The Surreal Adventures of Edgar Allan Poo" is also up for Best Online Comics Work and my name is right on the ballot!

If you're a creator, please consider voting for both. :)

The cat's out of the bag! I will be the production manager at Disney's KINGDOM COMICS

2008-05-29T00:00:00.000+02:00

Official PR from Disney:

http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=158376

Interview with Ahmet and Christian (and a mention for me):

http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=158399

The big thread on the Bendisboard:

http://www.606studios.com/bendisboard/showthread.php?t=152583

This has been in the pipe for almost a year now. Last year, CB and Ahmet asked me to design the business proposal and mock up some covers so they could pitch to Disney.

I'm going to be the production manager and letterer on all the books.

This is the day I've been waiting for since last summer. The dry spell is almost over. I can get to work real soon and the money will come in. No more having to put off sending submissions to other publishers in hopes of getting deals while waiting for this whopper to come through.

Today is a good day.

Deus No Ex Machina et al.

2008-05-23T22:06:00.003+02:00

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

2008-05-09T16:18:00.001+02:00

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!

2008-05-08T21:55:00.002+02:00

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.

2008-04-07T16:16:00.004+02:00

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

2008-03-29T01:34:00.001+01:00

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

2008-03-25T00:04:00.001+01:00

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

2008-03-06T13:50:00.002+01:00

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.

“Aqua Leung is the son of a slain octopus god and he wants to conquer everything on Earth and beyond”

2008-03-04T13:07:00.002+01:00

http://www.comicbookresources.com/news/newsitem.cgi?id=13203

Interview with Mark and Paul on CBR's The Comic Wire about Aqua Leung. Go check it out!

Awakening #4 took only 5 hours to letter

2008-03-03T04:23:00.002+01:00

So, it seems that the GFT speed wasn't a fluke. Depending on the amount of copy and my familiarity with the artists, it seems that I can beat the 7 hour average for 24 pages by roughly 2 hours. Nice!

I should say that Grimm Fairy Tales #24 was rather quick to letter because it had less copy than usual, so that's where the 30 minutes lead on Awakening #4 comes from.

Interview with "The Boy Who Made Silence" creator Joshua Hagler on NEWSARAMA!

2008-02-29T17:52:00.003+01:00

http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=148527

The interview is with creator Joshua Hagler who lets me help him letter this cool 10 issue mini series about a boy who lost the ability to hear but becomes something of an enigma in his home town.

Includes many a cool picture. Go check it out! This is a fine arts comic you won't want to miss. It won the Xeric Grant in 2006.

New personal lettering record

2008-02-21T04:39:00.001+01:00

4 hours and 30 minutes to letter the 22 pages of Grimm Fairy Tales #24 from Zenescope.

Printers with non-resumable, web based file uploads. GAH!

2008-02-11T22:54:00.001+01:00

Today is printfile upload day at AAM/Markosia. We have a total of four books going to print this month which total 352.3MB - actually, it's probably gonna be more like 450MB, but one interior file goes up later.

Anyway, our printer has this nice web interface where you select your files, put in the job ID, company, and reply to email, and then woosh, it goes up to their server.

Except there's no "woosh" involved whatsoever.

First off, the interface can't deal with Firefox. I have to switch to IE or get my uploads canceled after a mere 10MB. Fortunately, you can emulate IE with an extension in Firefox.

Next, while I have a maximum upload speed of 125kb/s, this server caps me at around 30kb/s. So I'm twiddling my thumbs for the longest time while this shit goes up, and have to listen to this weird "clicking" noise every time a chunk is successfully transferred.

So then it was a few hours later, and I checked the stupid window. 97.8% were done. And what happens? My internet cuts out during the remaining 2.2% and I have to start all over again!

I usually prefer to get everything up at once so nothing gets lost, but now I decided to split this upload into two sessions. Which will have me up half the night while I've got a rather high fever.

Good times!

Another Starship Troopers #5 review - and this time I'm credited!

2008-02-05T13:36:00.001+01:00

http://www.whatevercomics.co.uk/news/Archives/feb08/batseyeviewst.htm

Starship Troopers #5

Bad Blood Part 1

By Cy Dethan, Paul Green & Thomas Mauer.

“Shame me, and I will piss bullets down your throats until you are very, very sorry”

And with dialogue like this you sure as hell know you are in for a ride.

Apparently this is not only the first published work for Cy Dethan but
also for artist Paul Green, and this effort is something that they
should both be very proud of, I know I would be.

The writers dialogue seems to have a really nice flow to it and at no
time did I find myself flipping back a couple of pages to see if I had
somehow missed something, it tells the story with the minimum of fuss
but also with a certain flair that makes me wonder “ if this is what he
is capable of while working within the tight perimeters of a licence
then what is he capable of given a complete free hand” time will tell,
and from what I have seen so far the future is bright, and we may well
have another Miller, Brubaker, Bendis, Ellis on our hands.

On to the art.

The first thing that strikes me about Paul’s art is how shinny it
is, it as if its lit up with hidden lights, I could have sworn that it
would glow in the dark, but it doesn’t, I tried it, the art is very
cool, and doesn’t seem to lend anything from anyone else, although I am
sure others will be lending from Paul before long.

As a sum up, the whole comic comes across as a labour of love
rather than a page rate grind, and the only gripe I had was the it all
ended to soon, I want more damm it, more.

Now on to a score, bearing in mind that this is a first published
work, and that it is working within the perimeters of a licence I am
going to give it a solid…

9/10

Woohoo! First Starship Troopers #5 review!

2008-02-04T18:03:00.001+01:00

http://www.comicsvillage.com/review.aspx?reviewID=126

While investigating Anachnid activity, Elite Pathfinder platoon, Vanuakens Vandals discovers much more than they expected.

New writer Cy Dethan and new artist Paul Green take the reigns for Markosia's flagship comic Starship Troopers. Cy Dethan clearly has a different take on the Starship Troopers franchise than Tony Lee and whereas I felt Lee tried to focus on human emotions, Dethan seems to be expanding the universe.

Which, at this point, is exactly what the comic needed. Dethan is clearly trying to go beyond the original premise of the book and the movies and create an expanded vision. He's right to do so. The comic was in danger of becoming stagnant, but bringing in new species, units and people, Dethan manages to push the comic forward in new directions.

In addition, his writing is good. Nothing here makes me doubt that Dethan is a good fit for the writing duties on the title.

Now to the art. The art is absolutely beautiful! The artist takes his stylish line art to the next level with the use of computer technologies for things like mist and light beams but somehow he manages not to overdo it and create a overly glossy soulless style.

In places, the artwork is absolutely breathtaking.

All in all, it's an auspicious start to the new look Starship Troopers. I was going to give it a 9, but I think I'll upgrade it to a 10.

10

PopGun vol. 1 reviewd on G4's Attack of the Show!

2008-02-02T01:49:00.001+01:00

http://www.g4tv.com/pile_player.aspx?video_key=20053

"You'll want to buy this for the art, not for the writing" is a weird thing to say, but fuck it. This plug made PopGun the #3 Image book on Amazon and we're at around place 11,000 of roughly 5,000,000 books offered on their site. Nice!

Also, toward the end of the clip, you can see the first page of Deadeye with the dead nun. That means I was on Attack of the Show, sort of. :D

PopGun vol. 1 reviewed by The Onion A.V. Club!

2008-01-21T13:22:00.001+01:00

http://www.avclub.com/content/node/72771

"Anthology fans will find a lot more variety and accessibility in Image's mammoth "mix-tape" Popgun Volume One, which reads like a 450-page answer to Villard's lovely Flight collections. The contents run from extended stories like Derek Hunter's 15-page Powerpuff Girls-esque goofy-girl-hero comic Gamma Rae to one-page posters and smirking faux-ads like Danny Hellman's sly, smirking ant-farm solicitation. While there are some kid-friendly stories, the tone runs generally darker, with ninja battles, noir murder mysteries, ghosts, vampires, monsters, zombies, and robot-on-robot violence cropping up amid the odd, alternative superheroes. Virtually all the work is colorful, entertaining, and immediate, with a strong sense of experimentation and play throughout; it's hard, in this rich an environment, for any one work to stand out. But Andy Kuhn's "Mexican Wrestler Funnies," in which two wrestlers trade Monty Python-esque barbs like "It is I who will make love to your corpse, with a Waring blender… set to puree!" is pretty hilarious, and Adrian Dominguez and Matthew Weldon's anime-influenced teen-hero story "Ellie Saves The World" is particularly gorgeous. But then, the wide variety of tones and visual styles guarantees something for just about everyone… A-"

Today was a good day

2008-01-18T11:36:00.001+01:00

...and I only got up 1.5 hours ago!

Got some awesome news from CB this morning. More to come as it develops, but it'll make a lot of people happy. A LOT of people.

Oh yeah, I'm also lettering "The Piper" and "Snow White Rose Red" for Zenescope Entertainment's Grimm Fairy Tales this month. Kinda curious to see if this will lead to more work at Zen. The first five penciled pages for "The Piper" are TIGHT!

Also, I'm one email away from closing on a job that will reunite me with the talented Thomas Boatwright on a 48 page one-shot.

And then I got an email from Atomic Robo/Killer of Demons colorist Ronda Pattison asking me if I'm interested in lettering for one of her clients. I told her yes, so we'll see what happens there.

I'm also expecting to hear more good news over the course of the day and next week.

Good things come to those who wait, and I've been toughing it out. At this very moment, life is great.

Font creation is a tedious task

2008-01-11T06:02:00.000+01:00

Who would have thought this could take so long?

So I wrote out this alphabet for "TV Dinner Assassin" with a 1.1mm fountain pen, scanned it at 1200dpi, and cleaned it up in Photoshop, saving as Bitmap. Sounds straight forward enough, right? The letters looked pretty clean to me.

Well, when I Live Traced them in Illustrator with the Lettering setting, all those stupid letters turned otu to be really complex. I'm talking 150 anchor points per letter minimum, and curves that are all over the place, recreating the aliasing effects and every little bit of unclean curve in vector graphics. Swell.

So now I have to resize and adjust two upper case alphabets for this one font and it's taking forever. After finishing with A - D (8 characters total), I called it a day.

That shit's boring, yo!

Well, I have to get through it so lettering can start on the first issue. I'll do two versions of the font: One with all those imperfections intact, yet all serifs properly adjusted, and one based on this final version where I simplify the curves and get the anchor points down to the bare minimum. Should be interesting to compare and contrast.

I've got to talk to JP and sit down each day to work on a few of those characters till it's done. Hopefully it gets faster soon.

One thing's for certain: I need to buy a graphics tablet so that I can draw out alphabets directly in Photoshop (or maybe even Illustrator. We'll see). That way, the scan won't produce shitty aliasing because of paper roughness.

NYCC is on like Donkey Kong!

2008-01-09T13:04:00.001+01:00

I just booked my flight for a trip to the New York Comic Convention in April. For about two weeks now, my credit card wouldn't work with the company I was trying to book the flight with, so trying another company, it worked -- and I got a cheaper offer!

For some reason, Delta must have dropped the prices by 150 Euros in the last two days, and in addition to that, http://www.mcflight.de apparently bought in bulk and could offer it cheaper.

CB and I will be rooming with Matt Dembicki, Mikie Woods, and another dude who's name I forgot. We already booked the room at the New Yorker last week, which is 3 blocks from the convention center.

I'll be staying with friends for a few days and then at the hotel with the gang during the show. All for roughly 500 Euros. It shall be glorious!

I Was A TV Dinner Assassin

2008-01-03T07:25:00.001+01:00

James Patrick fed me pages for issue 1 of "The TV Dinner Assassinations" yesterday and I resized them and cleaned them up. Noel Tuazon has not lost his spark since Elk's Run, let me tell you. His brush work is gorgeous.

I added a new category in my portfolio under PRE-PRESS/DESIGN for FONT CREATION. Check it out. You'll see how fucking clever I am in naming fonts!

This year, I'm gonna start adding exact dates on when I start/finish stuff on the portfolio. That shit's getting way out of hand with just the start/end year, especially with books that are put on hold or take a few weeks/months to finish in the first place. I mean, where to place them, right? After everything that was finished before, or when I started them? Now it doesn't really matter anymore except that I'll probably get the urge to restructure a few things once in a while. Kinda like book shelves.

Anyway, it doesn't make sense to try and remember dates for the rest. I might be able to narrow down months, but we'll see if I get bored enough to let the OCD take over.

The Year of Wonderment Has Begun!

2008-01-01T23:19:00.001+01:00

Happy New Year, y'all! Hope everybody arrived safe and sound on the other side and that you had a good time yesterday. I certainly did, but am already back to work.

Joining CB in using the term Year of Wonderment, I've got to say the year's off to a good start.

Today I signed a contract to letter James Patrick's "The TV Dinner Assassinations." I've already begun creating a dialogue font for the book and will continue working on it in 2 to 3 days after finishing a bit of lettering that is due this week. This will be my first font, and if things work out, you'll see a nice little serif font that'll start my road to lettering Zen this year. My quest to bring handlettering sensibilities to digital lettering continues!

I also did a quick logo design today for something that can hopefully be announced within the next few weeks.

Right now, I'm finishing "No Enemy, But Peace" which I'm ashamed to say is way, way overdue. Other deadlines, some family issues, x-mas, and then a heavy cold knocked me way off course on this and it's time to put it to bed.

Once that is done, I've got to focus on Mark Smith's and Paul Maybury "Aqua Leung" a little this night so that Steven Finch has more pages to letter and we get that Image Comics OGN back on schedule as well.

Tomorrow, I'm lettering Starship Troopers 6 and the day after will work on Kong: King of Skull Island 3 and finish The Ritual 1.

After that, it's TV Dinner Assassination time.

My grandma passed away earlier

2007-12-16T22:01:00.000+01:00

It's about 10pm on a Sunday. Not a time I like getting calls, and usually not a time for my parents to call, anyway. But my mother just called to tell me that my grandma died a few hours ago. Earlier, my mother and uncle in Berlin were talking on the phone when my aunt tried to reach my uncle. A few minutes after they hung up, my uncle called back to tell ma that grandma had died at the nursing home in my aunt's arms.

Grandma's health had deteriorated rapidly throughout the year. She was bedside-bound and had suffered a number of strokes in the last few months, the last one this week. I saw her last in September, a few days before her birthday. She recognized me and was visibly glad to see me then.

I don't know how grandpa took it, but I'm worried about him now. He loved her very much. They went through a lot together.

Grandma had to grow up early after her father died. She was the eldest and had to help raise her siblings. She was a nursing student in West Pomerania during the war. In 1945, the doctors fled west, afraid of the reported savagery of the Soviet Army, and left the nurses behind to deal with the patients. She never talked about this time. Grandpa and her stayed in East Germany because she wanted to be close to her family - his had fled west. They raised their family, she became a proud grandmother and great-grandmother.

Rest in peace, Oma Dorchen. I love you.

Sweet, my copies of PopGun arrived! :D

2007-12-10T16:33:00.001+01:00

The print quality is terrific and it's great to finally hold this BOOK in hand instead of having to stare at a screen. The different way of doing blacks did away with the ink bleeds on the letters, so now I finally know it does work as advertised. Phew!

Now I just need to find some time to crack this monster open! :D

PopGun vol 1 is out TODAY!

2007-11-29T12:22:00.000+01:00

Today, the 29th of November will see Image Comics release the graphic mix tape entitled Popgun. This 448 page behemoth of awesome will feature only the freshest selection of sequential styling by new upcoming creators and creators new to the medium; it will even feature a select few veteran creators producing something new and different to what you would previously associate them with.

Popgun aims to deliver something for everyone by targeting the larger pop spectrum as opposed to the usual niche comics market. It was approached with the mindset of developing the ultimate comic book mix tape; a diverse and sophisticated collection of work with which to attract new readers and infect mainstream pop culture with comics.

I lettered a bunch of stories for the book and helped design and pre-press the book along with Steven Finch, better known as Fonografiks to attentive comics readers. It was a lot of fun, and we're already halfway done with PopGun vol. 2 which will be released in the summer next year!

In Stores November 29, 2007; 448 Pages; $29.99

Featuring work by : Mike Allred, Kris Anka, Mike Bullock, Dave Crosland, Coleman Engle, Andy Kuhn, Brandon Graham, Shepherd Hendrix, Dan Hipp, Josh Hoye, Derek Hunter, Andy Khun, Erik Larsen, Carlos Lerma, Corey Lewis, Jim Mahfood, Paul Maybury, Derek McCulloch, Khary Randolph, Rick Remender, Jamie S. Rich, Benjamin Roman, Mark Smith, James Stokoe, Joe Suitor, Matthew Weldon and many, many more.

Here are a few links so y'all can get a better picture of what the book is about and what it contains:

The PopGun Website that explains what the book is about.

Order it from Amazon.com

POPGUN ARTICLE ON CBR

POPGUN PREVIEW ON CBR

IGN PREVIEW

MYSPACE 16 PAGE PREVIEW

Two stories Previewed on Newsarama.

Popgun vol. 1 is printed!

2007-11-20T23:42:00.001+01:00

We got this image from the printer today:

Rock!

Well, fuck me sideways! 2 podcasts on two consecutive days. :)

2007-11-19T05:51:00.000+01:00

HobieBrown and Lamond of http://www.marvel-checklist.de interviewed me for the first, best, one and only German podcast focusing on the US comics market last Friday, and it's already online - one day after the R-Cast. Hoo-wee!

Listen to the episode here.

These guys are a lot of fun to talk and listen to. It was kinda like going to the bar with a bunch of old buddies even though I've never seen them face to face before.

We talked about lettering, editing, writing, and especially PopGun, Thirteen Steps, Starship Troopers and those writing projects I still gotta finish off (now it counts, doesn't it?) -- all of them topics that make you think "go figure, what else would you talk about?" Heh.

Well, this was a really, really fun two or so hours, and I hope the guys didn't mind that I was cutting them off so often. Fuck, Mauer, you gotta work on that shit! Rules of discussion, remember?

Listening to the episode (it's episode 10 of the podcast, btw), I finally realize why everybody always thinks I'm from Berlin. Holy crap, I had no idea the accent is THAT strong!

Oh well, it beats the Magdeburg accent. Heh.

Anyway, a new work week has begun and it's time to get cracking. First up on the menu for today is finishing Thirteen Steps #4, and doing Thommy's and Donal's pitch for Viper Comics.

R-Cast Interview With Yours Truly

2007-11-18T06:10:00.000+01:00

The latest podcast from the guys at Dial R Studios features yours truly talking about lettering, some of the books I'm working on, and grasping at straws when asked what books/movies/TV shows and comics I'm currently enjoying.

Have a listen!

Oh, and on today's schedule, we have some lettering and logo design. Fun times!

It's 11:21AM and I'm done with today's scheduled work

2007-11-05T11:19:00.000+01:00

Yay for waking up early at 4:30am. I took it slow and finished lettering 16 pages by 10:00am, and have done my chores around the apartment as well. Now the question is what to do with the rest of the day - be a lazy couch potato or do tomorrow's work today?

I'll decide after lunch, but it's probably gonna be work!

Research is fun again!

2007-11-03T00:35:00.000+01:00

Last year around this time, I was slaving away on my master's thesis - well, besides lettering like a madman, that is. Research for that was fun but turned into a drag after a while. Writing out the paper in particular was the fucking worst part of that whole ordeal. After finishing the degree, I noticed just how bad it had butchered my prose and script writing skills, and then work kept me from writing for a long time.

As I said the last time, I'm back to writing now and it's getting better and better. What's new is that I ordered a few books to do research for a creator owned project right after Frankfurt, and they all arrived yesterday and today. Started reading last night, and I have so many cool ideas for this project. Yes, research is fun again, and it only took 3/4 of a year to flush the system. :)

This weekend, I'll actually sit down and edit my thesis into a 20 minute lecture. I was invited to present it at the annual Otto von Guericke conference in late November. So I AM returning to that subject matter, too. Which isn't such a bad thing, really, because it'll give me the perfect excuse to map out my comic adaptation of the topic.

2008 is where I'll rock it like never before!

Click to enlarge		Author(s): Len Wallace Michelle Silva Dave Tuney
		$14.95 Available 11/11

22-page preview!

Genres: Slice-of-Life, Comedy, Drama
Rating: T
Pages: 168
Format: 6x9" - Trade Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-934964-21-7
Diamond Code: SEP09 0946

Book Description What if the one that got away kept coming back? Norm Raymer, an aspiring comic artist, has a turbulent relationship with Maggie. With their passionate ups and chaotic downs, is this love, or a youthful lust? For better or worse, Norm and Maggie must discover whether or not they can ever really make it as a normal couple. Can you really be a normal couple when your whole life is just fodder for your comic book? A new romantic comedy graphic novel for young comic nerds in love.


Available 11/11