Here's another oldie but goodie from Alexis Sottile and myself going back to 2008. This short appeared in the anthology, I Saw You…Comics Inspired by Real-Life Missed Connections. Nocturnal Transmission was originally a two pager created in response to an open call for submissions. Anthology editor, Julia Wertz liked the story so much she asked that it be expanded to the three page version you see above.

The inspiration from the story came from the Carl Sagan commissioned 'universal message' accompanying the Pioneer 10 Satellite launched into space in 1972. It has a number of visual signs that describe the location of Earth in the cosmos, the nature of mankind and the chemical composition of our atmosphere. An excerpt showing the drawings of a man and woman appears in the fifth panel of the first page of Nocturnal Transmission. All the information contained in the plaque can be found in this Wikipedia article.

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Here it is, the entire 12 page story of my sordid New York City rental history! This story, written with Alexis Sottile and edited by Dean Haspiel, first appeared as part of SMITH magazine's webcomics series, Next Door Neighbor in 2008. It was also my second Eisner award nomination for the digital comics category. I have very fond memories associated with this piece. As battered and bruised as I am in the story about neighbors and NYC apartments, I was as optimistic and naïve about the comics industry and publishing when I created this. This story coincides with a time where I met many of the folks that I now call friends and studiomates. Deep6 studios (Joan Reilly, Simon Fraser, Mike Cavallaro, Leland Purvis, Tim Hamilton and Dean Haspiel) opened their doors to me and allowed me to create much of the work that went into the comics I have on Act-i-vate and more. For that, I am eternally grateful because in the time I've spent working alongside them, I've learned so much about comics storytelling, art and writing. I would not be the creator I am (such as it is) without them.

The naiveté I associate with this time only hints at some of the ways I've since been buffeted about by the ups and downs of creating comics professionally. Don't expect any exposé any time soon but rest assured when I do it will cut to the bone and no doubt implicate myself as much as Vs. does. If I had to come up with a title now, it would be Gutter-Snipe!

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