BROS. FRAIM HEAD TO OHIO

The art team supreme of ANTIQUES: THE COMIC STRIP and VAMPIRE, PA are the kick-off artists for The Akron Public School District's new program that introduces students to working artists! A big shout out to Brendon & Brian Fraim for the honor and to the Akron Public School District for having the good sense to get these hard working guys on board! The proverbial win-win!

Scoop has the full story on their Friday, March 23, 2012 appearance!

FLASHBACK: ANTIQUES for HERO

Other than covering them in Scoop, The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide and other publications, one of the first things I got to do for The Hero Initiative was donate the Week 33 original art from Antiques: The Comic Strip for a fundraiser auction. Artists Brendon and Brian Fraim and I signed the piece, as did special guest star Stan Lee. My biggest thrill was that Stan did not change my dialogue for him!

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.

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.