It gives me great pleasure to announce the upcoming release of The Bunker trade paperback by Oni Pres, Joshua Hale Fialkov and myself. The first story arc drops August 8th in bookstores and comic shops almost a year to the day after we launched this book on ComiXology Submit. To help celebrate this anniversary/release, Bleeding Cool has this preview of the entire double sized first issue:
the Process
The Process began with the idea to set up a narrative that gave me an occasion for experimentation in the art and story. Each chapter was going to be stylistically different while the reader traveled through my brain while passed out from hypoglycemia. After slipping away at the end of the pages above, my 'reality' would be revealed as a metaphorical stage before an audience of personified aspects of my mind. All are asleep but one. After the curtains close, there would be incredible crash and the one awake personification would leap to the stage to investigate backstage. The elaborate setting for 'reality' collapsed. It's splintered. Shattered. The stage is strewn with wreckage. In looking for survivors, one man was saved. Me. Likely in a coma. The personification volunteers to enter my mind to rescue my consciousness from within. From there on I would have complete license to put this character through any paces using any style of art with the larger 'bookending' quest being to resuscitate me.
Unfortunately it never got to that sweet spot. What you do have though, is 32 pages of me cranking on all cylinders at the time. Each page became such an epic venture to finish that burnout set in and the project has lain dormant since. Looking at these pages again in putting together this post, I can't deny that I felt a thrill at some of the pages and at memories of my plans for the Process. If I had my druthers I would force myself to do at least a page a month and just let it take me where it goes.
In the meantime, I'm thankful for the many great things that have come out of this project. I first had the idea for Ultra-lad in these pages. The strip was nominated for an Eisner under the Digital Comic category in 2008. I think it was through that nomination that I got in touch with Jeff Newelt who put me in touch with Act-i-vate. Countless great things have come out of joining Act-i-vate so I am definitely thankful for that, too. Thank you.
For more thoughts on the end of the Process, please read this great interview with Brigid Alverson over at Robot6.
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Mandala
Mandala (2007) was the very first story I wrote and published entirely on my own. The project's conceit was that it could only be enjoyed in a cyclical manner if it was read in book form. The reader was instructed to read all the pages on the right hand side until they would return to the beginning of the book reading only the left hand pages. The whole thing created a mandala in book form. I would even go so far that I conceived of it as an art object in the form of a book. I didn't give too much consideration to adding the lettering and sound effects into the book's layout because this material wasn't supposed to be in any other form! That explains why the images included here are taken from the book and not from scans of the art alone.
The story follows a young boy as he's swept up in a larger metaphorical process that might be mistaken for his life.
Some of the characters that appear here also make an appearance in my next major project, the Process. After selling out as a mini comic, Mandala was included in the fantasy anthology, Fablewood published by Ape Entertainment.
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Time F#©ker
Here's the complete first chapter of the project most likely to sink my already floundering career. If this story were a chimichanga (and who doesn't consider their work in terms of Mexican cuisine) it would have to be a heaping dollop of WRONG, wrapped and deep-fried in WRONG, and served in a dirty bed pan with melted Fromunda cheese. Sorry, the guac is extra. This comic was first featured at Trip City. It's your best destination for free quality music, videos, prose, comics and podcasts.
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Thanks!
Rammy & Soupy in Dreams of Flight
After the economic collapse of 2008, I speculated that hobos were the next big cultural phenomenon after zombies. Instead, it was Storage Wars. Undeterred, I paired up with writer, Cecil Castellucci, on a story emphasizing the values we thought should be valued in the new economic climate; ingenuity, imagination and empathy. I wrote and illustrated the above broadsheet for Pood, a newspaper style comics anthology that debuted in 2010 as an introduction to the characters that Cecil breathed full life into in her script for the upcoming graphic novel (title still to be determined). It's still a long way away but the book will be published by Dark Horse, edited by Sierra Hahn and released in the fall of 2014. Here's the recent announcement from Publisher's Weekly:
Castellucci, Infurnari Go with Dark HorseYA (and graphic) novelist Cecil Castellucci sold North American rights to a currently untitled Depression-era graphic novel to Dark Horse’s Sierra Hahn. The book, which William Morris Endeavor’s Kirby Kim represented, will be illustrated by Joe Infurnari, and is currently set for a fall 2014 release. The story is set in 1932 and follows, Dark Horse said, two misfits “and a relationship built during a train-hopping journey from the cold heartbreak of their eastern homes toward the sunny promise of California.
Workin' Girl Golem
From the pages of Heeb magazine comes this one page story called, Workin' Girl Golem! Jeff Newelt, editor for The Pekar Project was my editor for this piece. In Jewish folklore, the Golem is an animated being made of inanimate matter. The process of imbuing it with life involves placing a small scroll or 'shem' inscribed with Hebrew letters into the mouth of the clay figure. Some variations of the myth have the 'shem' placed in the figure's forehead while others describe carving the word directly into the forehead. The traditional Golem myth tells of the creation of the Golem as a protector of the Jewish community. The monster is obliged to comply with the wishes of its Rabbi creator but if asked to do any task outside Jewish law or is left alive on the Sabbath it will go berserk destroying what it was created to protect. In my version, a little sexual harassment in the workplace is more than enough motivation for the office Golem to exact poetic revenge.
For more information about Golems, I recommend this Wikipedia article.
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Nocturnal Transmission
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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Vs.
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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