C2E2 2013!

I love C2E2 – I’ve gone every year since its inception, and it’s always a good time.  It’s the con where 27 was picked up back in the day, it’s the con where Strange Attractors was announced (last year) and it’s the con where it will debut (this year).  I have at least one additional big announcement coming this show too.  Aside from comics, Chicago’s a really quick flight, the food’s fantastic, and I look forward to going for a run along the waterfront every year.  From Grant Park over to Millenium Park and then to Navy Pier and back – hard to beat it.

As seems to be the case every year, C2E2 changes for me based on what’s happening with my writing.  I’m not tabling this year, but I still have one of the busiest schedules I’ve ever had at a con, between panels and signings.  That’s due in large part to the release of Strange Attractors, my beautiful new hardcover OGN, published by Archaia.  I’ve posted about it before – there’s a tag on the blog if you want to see those posts, which include art and so on.  You can also read the whole thing digitally here: http://www.comixology.com/Strange-Attractors/comics-series/9685, and if you want the hardcover, you can get it at the Archaia booth at C2E2 this weekend or at finer retailers near you very shortly  – I think either May 1, 8 or 15, depending on the vagaries of international shipping.

I should also say that I was truly touched by the support people showed for my first Swamp Thing issue (#19), which came out about three weeks back.  If you scroll down, you’ll see that I was a bit nervous about it, but many of you seemed to connect with it, and that’s all I can ask.  We have some incredible stuff coming as the run continues – next issue’s out next week, in fact – and I think that if you liked 19 you’re going to love where we go from there.

Now, here’s my C2E2 schedule:

Friday, April 26

12:30- 2 PM – STRANGE ATTRACTORS SIGNING (Archaia, Booth 1019) – I’ll be signing as many copies of Strange Attractors as you can shove at me.

4:30-5:30 – DC ALL ACCESS PANEL (Room W474) -

6:00-7:00 – STRANGE ATTRACTORS SIGNING (Archaia, Booth 1019) – As before, signing away.

Saturday, April 27

12:45-1:45 PM – DC NEW 52 PANEL (Room W474) – If there’s anything you didn’t ask me on Friday at the DC panel, here’s your second chance!

2:00-3:00 PM – STRANGE ATTRACTORS SIGNING (Archaia, Booth 1019) – by now I’m sure you get the drill.

3:15-4:15 PM – POP & COMICS PANEL (Room W475b) – I’m on this panel with a bunch of other creators who have worked on music-related comics.  I’ve done this before at a number of cons, and it’s always a really interesting, compelling discussion.  If you like music OR comics, very much worth your time.

4:30-5:30 PM – MARVEL FROM NOW! TO INFINITY (Room W474) – I’ll be talking about Thunderbolts and how it ties into Marvel’s upcoming Infinity crossover.  Should be fun.

6:00-7:00 PM – STRANGE ATTRACTORS SIGNING (Archaia, Booth 1019)

Sunday, April 28

11:00 AM – 12:30 PM – STRANGE ATTRACTORS SIGNING (Archaia, Booth 1019)

It’ll be a pretty packed con, but I hope I get to see each and every one of you.  Viva Chicago!

 

The Bog is Imminent

I’m writing this on April 2, 2013, which means that tomorrow, my first issue written for one of the “Big 2″ publishers of American comics – Marvel or DC – will appear on shelves.  That issue is Swamp Thing #19.  It opens a new storyline following the completion of the long and wonderful “Rotworld” story written by Scott Snyder, with primary art from Yanick Paquette.  The penciller for 19 is Kano – he also inked his own work.  Colors were by Matt Wilson, letters by Travis Lanham, and the book was ably edited by Matt Idelson and Chris Conroy.  The cover was drawn by Andy Brase.  Every single one of them did amazing work.

Tomorrow marks a significant milestone in my comics writing career.  Writing for the Big 2 isn’t the only reason I got into comics.  Creating my own characters and stories will always be something that means more than almost anything else.  That said, I would be lying if I said that doing Big 2 work doesn’t matter to me.  It does. A lot.  Swamp Thing and other characters in DC’s stable are folks I’ve seen interacting in a thousand different ways since I was very young.  There probably hasn’t been a single day since I was about six that I haven’t seen a DC character.  My Mego Superman was one of my most prized possessions for several years starting with my seventh birthday.  The impact of the DC characters on the world over the past 70+ years is immense.  Same’s true of Marvel (although for a bit less time, of course). 

Are they “just” superheroes?  Sure.  Do these comics tell deep stories that touch people’s lives?  Sometimes, but more often they’re just disposable entertainment.  Still, for me, getting to be part of that shared tradition of writers and artists – craftspeople, really – stretching back over the decades… it’s meaningful to me on a level that surprised me.  I had a conversation with a friend recently at a con (it was probably Jim Zub, since he’s the guy I tend to chat with about stuff like this): Detective Comics 27 came out in 1939, so a little over 70 years ago.  There have been a ton of Batman comics since then, especially if you bring in the ancillary titles like Batman & Robin, Legends of the Dark Knight and so on, but still, we figured that less than five hundred writers have ever written a Batman comic in all that time.  Swamp Thing’s even crazier – the comic debuted in 1971, forty years back.  In that time, there have been seventeen people who have written this character in his flagship title.  I’m the eighteenth, starting tomorrow.  And the names on that list of seventeen – literally some of the most brilliant comics writers to ever touch the medium.  Look it up for yourself if you don’t believe me.  It’s humbling and intimidating and wonderful, all at once.

I know some of those folks (awesome people one and all), and they might think it’s ridiculous that I’m saying this, but it feels almost like a bit of a fellowship.  Swamp Thing is just a silly comic character owned by a huge corporation – and not even someone big like Superman.  He’s a walking plant dude, for god’s sake.  I could be kicked off the book ignominiously in two issues, or it could be cancelled if it doesn’t sell.  But you know what? I’m still going to do my very best work. Anything less wouldn’t be true to the other writers who came before me, and those who will inevitably come after me.  I don’t want to let any of those people down (even the guys who will make fun of me for writing this the next time I see them at a con), and I don’t want to let myself down.  Whether you like superhero books or not, there’s a legacy of shared creation in that part of the medium that’s like nothing else in comics.  Everything I do on Swamp Thing can be traced back through the years in a winding trail leading back to the very first issue.  All those ideas, all those images, all that brilliance – and now it’s my turn.  I best not fuck it up.

It’s just Swamp Thing.  But it’s not “just” anything, really.

The issue is done, the work is complete.  It’s hitting stands tomorrow, unless the world ends.  We’re hard at work wrapping up the next one, and making solid progress on the next after that.  That’s Big 2 monthly comics, though – you only get a moment to take a breath and appreciate what you’ve made before it’s time to look ahead.  That’s why I wanted to write this, to crystallize for a moment in my own mind what it’s meant to have worked so long and so hard, and to finally be at the point where I’ll go to the shop tomorrow and see a Big 2 book with my name on the cover.

It doesn’t mean everything, and if it hadn’t ever happened I’d still be thrilled to be making comics – I’ve already been incredibly fortunate with my comics work up to this point – but it means a lot.

If you pick up Swamp Thing 19 at the store tomorrow, or download it (one way or another), I hope you enjoy it.  I loved making it, and I hope there will be many, many more to come.

 

Emerald

Tomorrow morning, at the moderately ungodly hour of 7:45 AM, I shall begin my annual spring journey westward to celebrate the weekend-long commencement of convention season that is Emerald City Comicon.  I’ve written about ECCC several times before, so I won’t rehash in any great detail.  We’ll leave it at this: it’s in Seattle, and it’s one of the best shows around.  ECCC is the first major comic convention of the year for most folks, and then there’s at least one big show per month all the way through to New York Comicon in October.  I try to keep it to one per month, because there’s a point where the fun of hanging out at shows is no longer outweighed by the stress and intensity of getting to them.

In any case, I haven’t been to a big con in about five months, so I’m rested and ready to rock.  I’m really looking forward to this weekend – these shows are like weird family reunions.  Actually, who am I kidding – family reunions are nowhere near as fun as cons.

I have a lot going on at ECCC this time around, and I wanted to post my schedule so that if any of you want to find me, you can.  After the schedule, I’ll give the lowdown on the various projects I have in the hopper – some cool things to report.

First, I will be sitting at table I-15 in Artist’s Alley for the majority of the show.  I’ll be near an amazing set of creators, so even if you could care less about chatting with me, it’ll still be worth your time to hit up section I.  ECCC always has one of the best Artist’s Alleys around, and I can’t imagine this year will be any exception.  I will have the following things for sale:

27 (First Set and Second Set trades)

Strongman (Vol. 1 and the always impossible to find Vol. 2 – both of these will be pretty limited quantities, though)

The ECCC variant cover version of Strange Attractors #1 – 26 pages of absolutely gorgeous images of New York City and mathematicians doing nefarious things with complexity theory.  Also limited in number.  We only made fifty, and I’m holding a bunch back for various purposes. Here’s what the cover looks like:

Emeraldy!

T-shirts! I still have some 27 shirts left, and I’ll bring what I have.

I will be on three panels:

1. ARCHAIA PRESENTS: HOW I BROKE INTO COMICS (AND HOW YOU CAN TOO!) -Friday, 4 PM, Room 3AB.  This will be a great opportunity for aspiring writers and artists to learn how a number of established pros got into the business. Aside from me, you’ll also be able to hear from Royden Lepp (Rust), David Marquez (Ultimate Spider-Man), David Petersen (Mouse Guard) and others.

2. THE ONI PRESS “REVOLUTIONIZE COMICS” PANEL -Saturday, 6PM, Room 3AB.  Oni’s going to be announcing a new title here, and if you’re at all interested in whether or not that’s a series I’m writing (it is), then come, enjoy.  I would guess you’ll get to see some of the amazing art from… ah, well, wait and see.  Honestly, I’m incredibly proud of this project, and I’m thrilled that I’ll finally get to tell you guys something about it.  Even if you could care less about what I have going on, the panel will also boast Cullen Bunn & Brian Hurtt from Sixth Gun, and Joelle Jones (working with Cullen on Helheim.)  Oni panels are always fun.

3. WRITERS UNITE – Sunday, 12:20, Hall C. I’ve done this panel four or five times at conventions across the country, and it is a DO NOT MISS event.  The ever-voluble and informative Jim Zub moderates a panel of skilled, successful writers (and me) as we share our thoughts on successful comics writing.  It covers everything from story techniques to pitching to format to networking.  No subject is off the table, and it’s often wildly funny.  The emphasis is on practical, useful information that isn’t typically disseminated.  This year, the panel will feature Jim, me, Cullen Bunn and possibly another foxy young comics superstar. Really worth your time if you want to write comics, and I’m not just saying that because I’m on the panel.

Beyond the panels, I’ll also be signing posters and the ECCC Strange Attractors variant at the Archaia booth, #808, on Saturday from 1-2 and Sunday from 10-11.

Should be a great show – looking forward to seeing all of you.

And now, a few quick updates on what’s what…

First, SWAMP THING. All is well.  Very well, I think/hope.  The art for my first issue is incredible, the cover looks sweet, and basically, I can’t wait until the first week of April when you guys can take a look.  I’m scripted fairly far ahead, and I’ve got detailed outlines for up to the end of the year.  Swampy’s in for a wild ride. (Speaking of which, I really need to do a post on my research trip down to Louisiana.  That was a great time, and I learned a lot.)  I wish I could tell you more than this, and I’ll see if I can’t get approval to post some art.  By and large, though, I think fans of the character will be happy, and we might even convert some of those sad folks ignorant of the greatness that is Swamp Thing.

If you want to hear more about my approach to the story and working in DC in general, I’d recommend this podcast.  It’s a great, detailed conversation between Josh Flanagan of iFanboy.com and myself.  We talk about Swamp Thing and so on, but also the creator-owned stuff and working in comics in general.

STRANGE ATTRACTORS – my next big OGN project, is available in digital chapters now from Comixology.  Get it here.  It’s a fun story about two complexity mathematicians who use their theories to turn all of New York City into sort of a giant machine, and what happens when they turn it on.  The full, gorgeous hardcover (which I have seen in mockup form and CANNOT WAIT to hold in my hands) will be available in late April, it seems.  It came out incredibly well, especially the design.  A large part of the story revolves around these intricate maps of NYC’s systems, and those were incorporated into the book design in a very cool way.

There’s also the new thing for Oni, which I’ll talk more about next week, plus a totally unannounced limited series that I think will start around August, being drawn by a very talented friend of mine, and a one-shot featuring a character that’s arguably the entire reason people decide they want to work in comics in the first place.

See you in Seattle!

 

Strange Attractors at NYCC!

As I’ve mentioned here and there on my Twitter, I’m going to have a special 26-page preview of Strange Attractors available at New York Comicon this coming weekend.  It’s a limited edition thing, only 100 copies, and we did up a special cover for it.  It’s super cool, and I just got them in, so I thought I would show you the cover so you know what to look for at the show.  Here you go:

Cool, right? This combines designs by Robert Saywitz and Matthew Petz – REAL NICE.

 

You can get it, along with the other stuff I’ll have (lots of 27, Strongman, etc.) at table R6 in Artist’s Alley.  I also expect to have a few at my Archaia signings.  I’ll post up my schedule for the week soon – typically crazy, but wonderful.  I hope we all survive all that fun.

 

Rockin’ rockers who rock (and write)

Rocker.com, the “lifestyle magazine for mature hipsters,” included me in a profile of various comic creators who also play music from time to time, along with folks like Mike Allred and Joe Quesada.  It’s a great article, and includes a bonus YouTube clip of me playing “Silent Running” with my band.  (Fun fact – that song doesn’t work without keys, and that clip doesn’t have keys. Hooray!)

Anyway, here’s the link: http://www.rockerzine.com/index.php/2012/09/comic-guys-who-rock/

I need to get out and play more than I have been.  While I’m beyond thrilled that I have as much writing to do as I do, music scratches an entirely different itch.

 

 

Peculiar…

I’m September’s Peculiar Person of the Month on the This Peculiar Life blog!  What this means in practice is that I did a very in-depth interview for the site and provided some great photos from Seth Kushner and Sandy Pertuz.  Lots of stuff on future and current projects, as well as thoughts on writing, travel, NYC and all kinds of stuff.  Thanks to David Rondinelli for setting it all up – check it out here:

http://weirdlifenyc.blogspot.com/2012/09/septembers-peculiar-person-of-month_3451.html

With NYCC coming up, by the way, seems like it’s a good time to do a state of the union on all the stuff I have in the works right now… but I will save that for next time, as there’s work to be done!

(Particularly this week – I’ve been in jury duty for several days, and it was astonishing to see how dependent I’ve become on being able to quickly bounce from one task to another – phone to computer to whatever.  It was a bit torturous to know my to-do list was getting longer and longer and not be able to do a thing about it.)

 

The Dark Knight Rises

I saw The Dark Knight Rises last night.  Packed theater, lots of energy in the crowd, and I was able to get great seat by virtue of showing up more than an hour early. (I live in NYC, where the one constant is lines.  Because so many people live here, everywhere you go, anything you do, other people go and do it too.  And if it’s something particularly cool or anticipated… well.)

I liked the movie a lot.  I think that Nolan obviously set out to tell a finite Batman story through the three films (or perhaps that’s what he decided to do once he realized WB would allow him to, after the success of Batman Begins.)  It’s not the story of the comics version of Batman, but it’s A story of Batman, and in many respects a fantastic one – one of the best we’ve ever had, and certainly the best on film.  One of the reasons Batman has endured for more than 70 years is his incredible flexibility – you can have Batmen as distinct from one anoter as the one in the 60s show, the original comic version, Miller’s 80s-90s work, the day-glo Batman from Schumacher’s films, the mildly comic (but still badass) Batman from The Brave and the Bold and so many more.  I’ve seen a bunch of complaints about people being upset because ‘Batman wouldn’t do that…”  The thing is, Batman DID do that, in The Dark Knight Rises.  When a creator as talented as Nolan makes a film out of an established property, if you prevent yourself from getting into his version just because it’s not the way you’ve seen it done before, then you’re cutting yourself off from something potentially inspired.  The movie exists as the movie exists.  Calling one story beat or another “bad” for the sole reason that it’s not how many other creators working with the character have done it before is ridiculous.  Do we really want to see the same thing over and over again?  I know that many do, but for me, seeing a take on Batman that acknowledged the physical, mental and spiritual toll such a path would cost was exactly what the doctor ordered.  We see what being Batman did to Bruce Wayne, and we understand why he kept going regardless.  That’s Batman to me.
Can’t wait to see it again.

So, that’s my take on the film.  I can’t end this post, though, without talking about what happened in Aurora, Colorado last week.  Insanity and evil have always been a part of human society.  Sometimes we are able to prevent tragedies before they occur, and sometimes, god help us, we just have to deal with the aftermath.  I don’t think it’s American society and its easy access to guns that’s to blame – if that fellow hadn’t been able to get a gun he’d have found another way to kill, probably.  Things like this happen all over the world, even in countries with strict gun control laws.  Off the top of my head, there’s the psychopath who opened up at the summer camp in Norway, the Aum Shinrikyo attacks in Tokyo subways, the Madrid and London bombings, etc.  I know that if I hit up Google I could find dozens of similar events – but that’s not how I feel like spending even a part of my morning.  For the record, I do wish it were harder to get some of the truly deadly weapons with no apparent purpose beyond the murder of humans (handguns and assault weapons), but as I said, I’m not sure that would have prevented James Holmes from doing something horrific.

The difference between last week’s tragedy and, say, Columbine (at least for me), is that millions of people around the country are replicating the exact experience the victims had before the attack began.  The killer in Aurora began firing right when the first big shootout occurs in The Dark Knight Rises.  Going forward, everyone who sees the film in the theater sees the same images as the Century 16 crowd, sits in a theater very similar to the Colorado space, and yet we walk out a few hours later talking about Bane or Catwoman, and twelve people in Aurora did not.  We did nothing differently than they did.  We walked the same path in basically every way.  It’s not like saying “Oh, I went to high school – wouldn’t that have been terrible if some kid came in and…” or “I ride the subway every day, wouldn’t it be awful if…”  Those are nothing more than rough analogies – we’ve had experiences like the ones surrounding other tragedies.  In this case, however, this one, strange, horrible situation, it’s easy to imagine precisely what it was like for the people in that Colorado theater.  In fact, (for me), it was hard not to.  It’s like the country now has thousands of theaters which are inadvertently letting moviegoers role-play part of that godawful nightmare.  Strange and horrible.

What does this mean?  It’s just an observation, and I don’t know that I want to put it in some larger political context, or hope that the potential resonance of the experience causes some sort of political change.  This is just a silly little personal blog, after all.  Perhaps the inevitable cultural longevity of Dark Knight Rises will keep people thinking about tragedies like the Aurora shootings a little more than they otherwise would, as the blu-ray hits, and the inevitable three-pack, and it ends up on year-end lists, and so on.  And if that happens, perhaps people will reach out more, give more help, take better care… hard to say.  Anything’s possible.  The Dark Knight Rises is no longer just a movie – certainly for worse, but maybe just a tiny bit for better, as well.

 

 

 

BIG DAY

This has been, and continues to be, quite a week.  I have about five things of note to write about, each of which probably deserves its own post.  Here are those things, none of which will be addressed in much detail right now, for reasons I’ll explain at the end:

1. 27 Second Set is out in its collected edition today – the FedEx dude showed up around 11 with a nice box of the trade, and my stars, does it look fantastic.  You can get it in better comics stores near you, or order it online from Amazon.

2. I did a comics-based talk show last week along with H. Jon Benjamin, the voice of Archer, among many other great characters, which just went live on the Nerdist Channel today.  Here’s the video, and the audio version is here.  It’s really, really funny, and a nice way to spend either 22 or 45 minutes, depending on your preference.

3. A short story I wrote a few years ago with the wonderful Robert Saywitz, artist extraordinaire and creator of the complexity maps for Strange Attractors, has been published by Trip City, Dean Haspiel’s online literary salon.  It’s called Sal & Chrys, and tells the story of a self-storage warehouse in Brooklyn that falls in love with the Chrysler Building.  That’s here.  I’m very proud of that story, and glad it found a good home.

4. I did an in-depth interview with Aintitcool.com, which makes for a pretty good read if you’re interested in 27 or my other projects.  Went live on Monday, read it here.

5. Finally, the folks at Trip City also did a podcast with me, also featuring Lizz Winstead, the co-creator of the Daily Show.  I was interviewed by JefUK (aka Jeff Burandt), a long-time friend and fellow Brooklynite, and we went fairly in-depth on the creative process, breaking in to comics, and a bunch of the things I think about where the industry is today and where it might go.  Not just shilling, and I think it’s a fun listen.  Enjoy.

Seriously, each of those items could be, and hopefully will be, discussed in great detail, especially 1-3.  But right now I don’t have time, because I’m off to Bergen Street Comics to buy a copy of the Second Set trade.  I do this with everything I have come out – sort of a ritual.  I keep the receipts in the books, and line them up on an otherwise empty shelf.  When that shelf is full – well, I won’t retire, probably, but I’ll be pretty thrilled.

Until next time!

 

On an age-old controversy: Floppy or Trade?

There’s a lot going on at the moment, enough that I expect this little blog to get much busier over the next few weeks as I figure out how to start sharing the news about some of the cool things being added to the mix.  In the meantime, I wanted to write up a quick post on my thoughts with respect to reading comic series in floppy vs. trade.  If you have no idea what I’m talking about, read on – I’ll make it clear.  This is a favorite topic of debate for people who read a lot of comics, not quite as prevalent as the evergreen “Who would win in a fight between…” discussions, but it’s up there.

For those who don’t already know, a “floppy” is one of several comic industry terms for the 22-page pamphlet that many of us think of as the classic “comic book.”  In most cases, they’re published for their respective series on a monthly basis (like magazines), and you can find them in comics specialty shops and at some newsstands and bookstores.

“Trades,” on the other hand, are the collected editions of the floppies, pulling together a run of comics into one cohesive whole.  The term is short for “trade paperback.”  They usually collect 4-6 issues of a given series, and often include some backup material (sketches, essays, even new stories) that weren’t part of the original floppies as published.  A trade will often tell a complete story from beginning to end (with the original floppies representing chapters in that story).  Trades generally come out well after the original floppy run has been completed – at least three months, but often more.  Trades are seen as the definitive edition of a given story, and can be reprinted once an initial press run sells out, while the floppies will almost never be seen again past their initial run.  You can find trades everywhere – comics shops, bookstores, Amazon, etc.

So, which is better?  First of all, they’re both great, and as long as you’re reading comics in one form or another, you’re okay by me.  The real answer is that both have their perks.  These days, I read most of what I read in floppy form, because I want to support the industry (especially creators I either know personally, particularly enjoy or both), and floppy sales still drive a lot of publisher decisions (even though I think they really shouldn’t, considering the much wider market for trades.)  That said, there are a few series I read in trade (Unwritten, Scalped, a few others), and a few more that I read in floppies and then buy in trade (which, to me, is the highest possible endorsement – it says that I can’t wait to read a given installment of the series, and then the pleasure I’ll get from owning the collected edition is worth the added expense.  I do that with Locke & Key, one of my favorite books running, and I expect it to be that way with Saga as well.  It certainly happened with Y the Last Man and Ex Machina.)

If you’ve got a series with detailed, nuanced storytelling (like Scalped), where something that happens in issue 2 might resonate all the way through issue 50, give me trades every time.  On the other hand, I truly enjoy floppies if the book is more about the reality presented in the book than it is the continuity or the overarching story being told (Walking Dead, Orc Stain, for example.)  With those, it doesn’t matter if you’re getting 22 pages or 132.  The experience of being in the universe is good enough that even a small amount works.  (Also known as the Ice Cream Principle.)  I’ve recently been enjoying a book that’s the perfect example of what I’m talking about – Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso’s Spaceman.

Cover for the wonderful Vertigo series Spaceman.

The book is hard sci-fi, set in a fully-realized post global warming world where the seas have risen and mankind has (apparently) engineered a small race of individuals tailored for space travel and life on Mars.  The dialogue is filled with elaborate future slang, and phrases or exchanges can occasionally require some puzzling out before it’s clear what’s actually being said.  It reminds me a bit of William Gibson’s Neuromancer or Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash – which are both novels, of course.  I don’t have many precedents in the comics world for what Azzarello and Risso are doing.  Fluorescent Black (the gorgeous dystopic fantasy from Nathan Fox and M.F. Wilson) was in the ballpark, but that wasn’t published in floppies as far as I know.

Anyway, the reason I like Spaceman so much, and I can’t wait to get any given issue, is that it brings me into its world so well.  The experience of reading a Spaceman issue is about immersion into that alternate reality (which is something you would think would happen constantly in comics, but really doesn’t, especially once you’ve read a lot of them).  When you read an issue, you are THERE, for better or for worse.  That is certainly due to the phenomenal level of craft the creators bring to the book, but again, not every comic works this way.

My favorite series to read as floppies act like little vacations.  If you can find a series that does that for you, then by all means, read it that way.  Other than those, though, I think I come down on the side of trades – for me, it’s a more complete experience.  It’s rare to find a series written so that it works as single issues and as a part of a comprehensive whole.  This makes sense, of course, because writers generally write for the trade, knowing that’s the version that will last (floppies are, and always will be, pretty transient.)

Every comics reader has a position on this “issue,” and most of those positions make sense (that’s why it’s the sort of thing comics fans love to debate).  As I said above, it doesn’t matter too much whether you go for floppies, trades, digital editions, webcomics or any other way comics might find their way to you, as long as you read them.

Coming soon – news on 27, Strongman (yes, finally!), Strange Attractors, and other titles that you don’t know yet… but you will.

 

Qs and As

Last Friday, I was asked to run a Q&A on Reddit’s comicbooks thread. As of this post, it has 126 comments, which include people’s questions as well as my answers. I got a bit more detailed in my responses than I expected, which meant that the middle of last Friday was taken up with an awful lot of typing.

However, the questions seemed to focus primarily on breaking into comics, process and so on, and I think it provided a bunch of pretty useful advice. So much so that I thought it would make sense to post the link here, so people can find the thread after the fact. What I should REALLY do is pull out some of the questions and answers and repost them here, and I may do that, but for now you’ll have to check out the thread.

In other news, I just sent off the pages for 27 Second Set #4 to the publisher – so, that’s one more book done and out the door. I made a weird choice on the last page of this issue, and I’m wondering how it will be received. I guess I’ll find out in a few months, eh?

Beyond that, just working to make a dent in everything else on my writing list. Right now, I’m going to put together some additional script pages for Strange Attractors, so the artist can keep rolling. It’s good to be busy.