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.

ANTIQUES FEATURED ON COMIX 411

Comix 411 has a new feature article about Antiques: The Comic Strip posted. It's written by none other than Tom Mason, who frankly could have retired at the top of my list after he created Dinosaurs For Hire back in the days of Malibu Comics (man, I loved that series!). He clearly "gets" what the story is about, and that's always fun to read in a review.

The characers in Antiques are ones I would definitely like to revisit (aside from the pilot teleplay which I wrote last fall). With all the great collections of classic strips that IDW Publishing and The Library of American Comics are putting out -- particularly The Complete Terry and the Pirates -- I've learned so much more than I knew before... it makes me want to just jump back into it!

Thanks to Tom and to Comix 411!

Antiques remains available in the Diamond Comic Distributors system for comic book retailers and their customers. It's also available directly from Gemstone Publishing.

NEW 20 QUESTIONS POSTED

"20 QUESTIONS WITH BRANDON JERWA" has just been posted over on the COMICS SPOTLIGHT blog. I didn't know Brandon before this interview, except through his work. It's a good read and I hope it will turn you onto this very interesting writer of Battlestar Galactica, Highlander, and more...