Updated Updates

You know, I keep saying that I’ll get more frequent on these blogs and I can do that by doing shorter pieces.  But usually once I do actually get started, I tend to ramble. 

There’s actually a lot going on behind the scenes even though I haven’t been too present in the comics market this year thus far.  My last release was late last year and that was the War of the Dead graphic novel from IDW.  There’s lots of stuff being worked on but most of my time has been spent on the “bigger” picture.  If that sounds ambiguous, that’s because it is…to me as well.   But it involves lawyers, accountants, and other business stuff and maybe next time, I can delve into that.

For now, a few updates, mostly on what I posted last time.

Night Pieces is a collection of my short stories and should be hitting Amazon and other sites any day now.  It collects stories from Negative Burn, Chillers, High Caliber, and other places.

Subversives is just about ready for the printer and should be out late August or in September.

Street Shadows will collect ALL the Street Shadow stories that appeared in Caliber Presents and that one is due out in September.

I’m doing two special collaborative books that will debut at Detroit Fanfare.  One will be an overview of the Tarot Cards with each card of the Major Arcana drawn by a different artist.  This is the third time I’ve done something like this, with the first two from Caliber.  This will be an all new edition of Book of the Tarot.  Another book will be a children’s book, again featuring contributions from a number of different artists and this is Zelda’s Zombie Zoo and I think the name pretty much says it all.  Again, both will debut at Detroit Fanfare and every contributor to the two books are planned to be in attendance at the con.

The new Deadworld series, Restoration, is nearly finished.  IDW has pushed it back to December as the artist, Sami Makkonen was put on a special project as IDW is working with Microsoft Studios on the digital and print comic book RYSE: Sword of Damocles.  Since War of the Dead, Sami has also been doing covers for Clive Barker books, the art on  Hatter M, and some other stuff, yet he has most of the new Deadworld series finished.  As usual, it looks great.

I haven’t announced the name yet of the mystery series I’m doing but will shortly.  I keep going back and forth between two names and will have to decide soon, of course.  Issue three of that is nearly completed and when that’s ready, I’m going to do it as a kickstarter project.  I’ve never done a project on kickstarter so I have to do some ground work on that.  I will also send it out to publishers to do as a comic series but I want to be sure the artistic team (artist, colorist, letterer) can get some guaranteed money and I really want this to be an ongoing.  Not since I did Saint Germaine have I been so attuned to a project so the goal is to keep it going.

See, I knew I could keep it shorter…now let’s see if I can get it more frequent.

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Projects Forthcoming

It's been a busy couple of weeks as I moved ahead on a number of projects. I find that as I get ready for vacations, I like to get to a certain point where I can map out a current series that I'm working on. For me, the first issue (or equivalent) is the hardest as I have to decide where to start the story and how to bring all the characters into play and how all that weaves together. Once I'm done with that, I find the rest so much easier. 

The Deadworld mini-series coming from IDW in the fall is just about finished on my end. I just have a few scenes to retool and the artist, Sami Makkonen, has finished the first three issues and all the covers. So, that's nearly a wrap. 

 I'm doing a mystery in the 1900s with artist Wayne Reid that ties into an insane asylum. I'm not sure of the name of the series yet so I don't want to announce it but I've written the first three issues and Wayne is just about done with the first. I've worked with Wayne numerous times in the past, most recently on a Sherlock Holmes story that was in The Curious Cases of Sherlock Holmes that came out from IDW and right before that, A Murder of Scarecrows. Both of us want to get back to the Scarecrow storyline and do another installment of that. I think I will take this mystery series to Kickstarter and I've sort of been waiting for the right project for that and I think this is it. 

 I have four issues written, and the story arc will go to five, on The Rain People. This is a self contained spin-off of my Raven Chronicles which was sort of my shared universe as the characters have appeared in many other titles I've written (Red Diaries, Saint Germaine, Seeker, Helsing) as well as some other titles. I have an artist working on it and will be announcing that as soon as he gets most of the way through issue two. The Rain People refers to certain people with enhanced mental abilities that is triggered by a drug from the Amazon Rain Forest, hence the name. 

I've pretty much got the graphic novel, Subversives set to go. A few stories to touch up and then lettered. It's a mixture of text, illustrations, and photos but over half of it will be traditional comic storytelling. This will likely be the first one out from me and I'm shooting for July. 

Mentioned before were two short story collections. One is Street Shadows from the pages of Caliber Presents. The second is Night Pieces which is a collection of most of my other short stories and these are primarily horror but not always. I just have to find artists to do the covers as I get them together. 

 I'm also doing two special projects that will tie in with Detroit Fanfare. Both are ensemble pieces with lots of different artists contributing and I have one geared for a more serious tone and the second will be orientated towards kids. I always hate to reveal too much until something is well underway but when I get back from vacation towards the beginning of July, I think that they will both be ready to be announced as will some of the contributors. I want to make sure that all the contributors are those that are attending Detroit Fanfare with the goal that anyone that buys either of the books can get it autographed by everyone who participated in it. 

On the publishing side of things, prepping a lot of books coming from Transfuzion. Battron was just released and I think the next will be another war tale, Winter War, and I personally like that book a lot. There will likely be a flurry of releases from Transfuzion this summer and heading into the fall as so many are near ready production wise. 

The other company I'm involved with, Binary Publications, just had the Bettie Page book released. This book has been getting good feedback and in addition to being on Amazon, it should be able to be found at Barnes and Noble, Baker and Taylor, Bud Plant, Last Gasp, and others and it just got printed. A follow up to The Art of Jack Davis will ship at the beginning of July, and this is Jack Davis: Some of My Good Stuff. that gives Binary three Jack Davis books as we also have the kid's book, Bobby's Magic Pen, which features never seen before color illustrations from Jack. Binary has some interesting titles in the pipeline and should have a few titles out this summer and fall. 

The business aspects has been active as there's been some interesting conversations going on regarding a number of different things. Too early to talk about but I think it could be something really cool if it works out. 

No news on the movie front so I won't say anything about that. To me, its sort of something that's just running out its course.

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On those writing projects....

I actually am making headway on some projects that I've wanted to work on and it looks like 2013 should be a busy year as far as the writing goes.  I do have some OLD business (in terms of projects) to finish which I plan to this year.

First up, I will be finishing the last bit (mostly modifications) for the Deadworld mini-series coming out.  The artist, Sami Makkonen, has already drawn the first three issues but he was brought in on a hush-hush project that he just couldn't turn down.  So, Deadworld: Resurrection will start up in November of this year.  It will ship monthly.

I plan to finally finish off Subversives, a trade paperback in mostly comic format, although there are a variety of illustrations and photos used and this covers stories of traitors, spies, and other malcontents.  This will likely be the first project I finish.

Coming in October will be a special illustrated book which I don't want to reveal much on but I will be enlisting the aid of some 25 different artists to contribute to it.  There will be a special edition released at Detroit Fanfare and the plan is to have all the participating artists be in attendance at Fanfare so someone could get every contributor to autograph  it at the show.  I am thinking of doing an indiegogo project for it so the artists can at least get some money up front and not have to wait for royalties only.

A project that I actually wrote awhile ago called The Rain People and is sort of an offshoot of The Raven Chronicles (but meant to stand totally on its own).  The first issue is actually drawn but I don't know if he will be able to do the rest at this time.  If not, I have another artist in mind who is raring to go.  This project was actually commissioned by a publisher who after the first issue was pencilled had to back out because their funding didn't come through.  At least the artist was paid for his work.

My most ambitious project is geared towards an ongoing series which is set in New Orleans during the early 1900s.  At once a detective type series, it also delves into the time period and treatment of criminals and the insane. The artist is Wayne Reid and he's already through part of issue one.  When the second issue is done in a few weeks, I may launch this as a kickstarter project.  I think those that liked Saint Germaine and Red Diaries will like this one....at least I think they will.

Speaking of Saint Germaine, I really want to get back to doing at least a limited series on that, if not an ongoing .  But its a tough market out there for this type of material, I realize that.  But I'm structuring the storyline and hope to find an artist and will check to see if I can land it with a publisher.  Yes, I have Transfuzion but that is not geared up to do comics.

Another comic series I'd like to get back to is A Murder of Scarecrows.  I did have a publisher express some interest in it but their plans seem to be moving into a different direction.  In today's market, that seems to happen a lot...reality can waylaid the best of plans.

I was hired by a company to write a novel centering around the Biblical tale told from Lucifer's point of view.   I have completed about 60,000 words of it and then company folded due to a totally unrelated problem.  I have been in discussion with the remainder of the company about either finishing it or doing it as a graphic novel.  They paid me in advance, and paid me well, so I'd like to finish it in some form and get it out there.

Another novel that I really plan to get to is the Deadworld novel.  I have been putting this off for a couple of reason.  One is the potential movie deal which looks to be pretty much a non-starter at this point but mainly because I wanted to get Deadworld to a certain place in terms of story.  I wanted to move it far away from the beginning days into where its headed now.  I understand a lot of fans love the early Deadworld, as do I, but I think for a good story, it has to be more than that.  I don't want it to be just another "humans running form the dim-witted zombies" tale.  One of the reasons that I plan to get so much done in the next month or so is that I plan to devote almost all of my time to the novel as now I know where its going.

So, that's my summer plans.  How's yours shaping up?

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