VIRGINIA COMIC-CON: November 21-22, 2009

I'm looking forward to attending the Virginia Comic-Con this weekend in Richmond. It looks like Brett Carreras and Guy Rose have put together a great show with Larry Hama, Chris Claremont, Chuck Dixon, my frequent collaborator Billy Tucci, John Gallagher, Steve Conley, yours truly, and many others.

I'll be on a panel with my good friend James Kuhoric (Dead Irons, Army of Darkness, Battlestar Galactica) talking about licensed properties, among other things.

It ought to be fun, and I hope to see you there!

VAMPIRES: DRACULA AND THE UNDEAD LEGIONS

The blood runs red under the moon as Moonstone follows up its first monster anthology, Werewolves: Dead Moon Rising, with Vampires: Dracula and the Undead Legions. This second “Moonstone Monsters” anthology features Dracula stories (which open and close this collection) and eight other new vampire tales.

Contributing authors from screenwriters and novelists to comic book scribes, including L.A. Banks (2008 Essence Storyteller of the Year), P.N. Elrod (The Vampire Files), Elaine Bergstrom (Kolchak: The Night Stalker Chronicles), Martin Powell (Scarlet In Gaslight) and yours truly, with “Vampire Hunter Dean,” the short story from which my new comic book project grew.

24 OMNIBUS

IDW Publishing, which had released four one-shot graphic novels and one five-issue mini-series based on the series, is set to release the 24 Omnibus in November 2009. The compendium will feature their complete 24 output to date.

I collaborated with screenwriter Mark L. Haynes on the first three one-shots (24: One Shot, 24 Stories, and 24 Midnight Sun) and the 24: Nightfall mini-series, and writer Beau Smith (Wynonna Earp) penned 24: Cold Warriors. An interview with us ran in Scoop.

I expect to have copies with me at this weekend’s Virginia Comic-Con, but I haven’t seen them yet.

Pirate Alphabet - Part 3

A LITTLE MORE ZOMBIE-PROOF

Click for larger images.

THE PIRATE ALPHABET - Part 2

ZOMBIE-PROOF LIMITED EDITION

Billy Bob Driwahl lives! The original Zombie-Proof mini-series will be collected into a limited edition trade paperback. So far it looks really cool.

Details to follow...

VAMPIRE HUNTER DEAN - Four-Page Preview

Vampire Hunter Dean is illustrated by those whiz kids Brendon and Brian Fraim, and it's based on my short story that is schedule to appear in an anthology from Moonstone Books. In fact, the comic book story picks up where the short story left off, but both pieces work fine without the other.

As usual, the guys' work has been outstanding and seems to be getting better page by page. That was my experience with them on Antiques: The Comic Strip, so I probably should have expected as much.

This is a four-page sequence from early in the story. You can click the images to see them much larger.

BACK ISSUE #34

From TwoMorrows Publishing

Experience a “New World Order” in Back Issue #34, featuring the soul-searching story of Counter-Earth’s Adam Warlock, with Jim Starlin and Roy Thomas, and the behind-the-scenes history of the revolutionary Marvelman, with Alan Davis and Garry Leach. Also, Jim Shooter stands tall in an exclusive interview and we look back at Marvel’s New Universe. Plus: Logan’s Run, Star Hunters, Bob Wiacek on Star Wars and Star-Lord, the conclusion of the Steve Skeates interview, a new AA COMICS chapter, Dick Giordano and Pat Bastienne revisit Crisis on Infinite Earths, and “The Post-Crisis DC Universe You Didn’t See”! Contributors include Gerry Conway, Tom Defalco, David Michelinie, Paul Ryan, and more. All behind an incredibly cosmic Warlock and Thanos cover illustrated by Jim Starlin! Edited by Michael Eury.

I'm very happy to finally be contributing to this outstanding publication on comics history. Michael Eury has done a mindboggling job of finding enthusiastic writers to provide articles about a very wide range of subjects from my favorite era of comics. Just the day before this issue arrived, I wondered if anyone could be the inside view on Star Hunters, and then suddenly here it is!

My article on Jim Shooter is derived from one part of a lengthy interview he and I are working ourselves through, and this portion of it is something that I can't recall Jim commenting on before. I hope you'll take a look. Thanks.

THE PIRATE ALPHABET - PART 1

Study this. There will be a quiz.

ART REMNANTS

HUGH JACKMAN PLUGS FREE COMIC BOOK DAY

FREE SHIPPING on ANTIQUES (one week only)

From now until Friday, April 3, 2009, Gemstone Publishing is offering free shipping on Antiques: The Comic Strip, by Brendon Fraim, Brian Fraim, and yours truly. It's one of my favorite projects that I've ever worked on.

It was nominated twice for Harvey Awards (due mainly to votes from my co-workers, I'm sure), both for best comic strip (2007) and best collected edition (2008).

The story concerns two cousins, one American and one British, who are the last of their once proud trans-Atlantic dynasty. They're both antiques dealers, they both end up at the largest auction ever of vintage pop culture collectibles and fine art, and they don't speak to each other. There's also a lot more than meets the eye. What is it? That's the story.

Is it an honor just to be nominated for Harvey Awward, you know, the way everyone always says? Well, actually, it was an honor just to get to do this strip that floated around in my head for so long... and to do it with such talented artists. And seriously, since these awards are voted on only be working comics professionals, I really do owe it to my co-workers and their support of the book that it was even considered.

If you haven't already checked it out, let the free shipping be your incentive to do so now!

If you're read this blog before, you might have noted that I've done a pilot teleplay based on Antiques. There are some important differences in pacing, but the characters are pretty true to what we've seen in the comic strip (or this collected edition). It would be great to see this one come to life on the small screen.

I recently did an interview with the Comix 411 site and blogged about it in an earlier entry.

VAMPIRE HUNTER DEAN...?

Vampire Hunter Dean first appeared... wait, can I say he first appeared if it's not published yet? Well, he first appeared to me in a short story I wrote for a forthcoming (I'm assured) vampires anthology from our friends at Moonstone Books. The story is entitled, and this is the really clever part, "Vampire Hunter Dean."

Ever since we finished Antiques: The Comic Strip, which I dearly miss, I've been looking for something on which to work with the uber-talented brother act of Brendon and Brian Fraim. I sent them the short story, they liked it, I wrote a script for a seven-page teaser that picks up right at the end of the short story, and -- as usual -- they nailed it. We sent it over to ace letterer Marshall Dillon, who got it right back to us.

It not only worked nicely as a comic, it worked great. I knew that we definitely had to do more. So I wrote some more and the guys got to work on it. Vampire Hunter Dean #1, a one-shot, is now in progress.

So, what's it about? Dean Marklin is a HVAC (that's heating, ventilation and air conditioning) repairman from suburban Pittsburgh (Dormont, to be exact) who goes to an industry convention in Miami and meets a super hot, model-esque woman who turns out to be much more than she seems. He leaves Miami knowing there are a lot more things in the world than he ever contemplated before.

And then he finds out there are vampires in his home town. Why are they there? What's their story? And what does Dean do about them? (The title may give it away, but hey, I'm writing hype on the fly here...)

The Fraim brothers are doing a fantastic job and each page I get in is better than the previous one. The seven-page teser should appear in the Zombie-Proof one-shot, Zombie-Proof: Zombie Zoo, followed by the one-shot.

The inked page above is from the teaser story. The page in pencil shows some of the action early in Vampire Hunter Dean #1.

Sometime later we'll talk about how Vampire Hunter Dean got his name.

WHO WATCHED THE WATCHMEN (in 1986)?

Over on Comix 411, our pal Tom Mason (veteran writer of things from YA novels to cartoon show, but for us he could have stopped after creating Dinosaurs For Hire and still been cool forever) took last Friday's release of the Watchmen movie to check in with comic book industry folks about their memories of the initial release of Watchmen #1 in 1986. It was a random, unscientific sampling to be sure, but the question prompted some very interesting responses.

Among the participants were Frank Mangiaracina (formerly of Friendly Frank’s Distribution), Chris Ulm (formerly Editor-in-Chief of Malibu Comics, now a game developer), Tom Heintjes (Editor of the great magazine Hogan’s Alley), our friend Mark Herr (who worked at Geppi's Comic World back in the day), Brian Augustyn (Gotham By Gaslight), John Jackson Miller (Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic), Gary Guzzo (former retailer and Marvel PR guy, among many other titles), Dave Olbrich (former Publisher of Malibu Comics), Carl Potts (former Executive Editor of Marvel Comics), Aaron Lopresti (artist), and yours truly.

Click for Part One or Part Two.