FEEDING GROUND _ NYCC 2012 Effective Pitches Panel

New York Comic Con is here again but this will be the first time in a few years that I won't be attending. I'm already missing old friends, the meeting of new people, and the little tingle you get from all of that paper drying out your lungs.

FEEDING GROUND co-creator and co-hort, writer Swifty Lang will be representing us signing at the Archaia booth from 3-4PM on Friday, October 11th.

He will also be included as a presenter and the following panel:

How to Prepare an Effective Submission

Friday, 10/12 5:15-6:15pm, Room 1A06
Want to pitch your idea as a graphic novel? Archaia editors and a pair of Archaia creators—Feeding Ground’s Swifty Lang and Pantalones, TX’s Yehudi Mercado—show what should go into an effective submission.

 

Our publisher Archaia, and in particular our Editor-in-Chief Stephen Christy, have pointed to our NYCC 2009 Pitch Book (cover above) as a great format, both in style and content, for other aspiring creators to follow when pitching their ideas. We were one of very few books that they signed right on the Con floor.

 

Now, you can NOW download the whole Pitch Book PDF HERE

There's video of me talking through the process at the NYCC 2011 Panel on my YouTube page HERE

And, I went into some discussion of the particulars of the pitch book in a previous blog post HERE

Good luck, all - have a great Con and score some free posters for me.

FEEDING GROUND _ The Movie...

Haven't been able to post in a little while but I'd be remiss not to share some news here. I started this site as a way to offer up some lessons I was learning as a novice illustrating my first graphic novel-length comic, FEEDING GROUND. I've shared posts on comic classes and pitching. On page layouts, logos, covers, coloring, and book design. About a year ago I was contacted by Jason Carpenter, an employee of Hollywood producer Ed Pressman, through this very blog. And, a few weeks ago, it was finally announced on the Hollywood Reporter that FEEDING GROUND has been optioned as a movie by PRESSMAN FILM.


Ed's a visionary who has produced a wide range of classics from WALL STREET to AMERICAN PSYCHO, other comic adaptations like CONAN and THE CROW, and exotic animals like The Talking Heads' TRUE STORIES. Here's what he has to say about FEEDING GROUND:


“Feeding Ground is an intense and terrifying thriller with a subtle but pointed commentary on immigration in modern America,” said Pressman. “The graphic novel is so cinematic in nature — as soon as I read it, I knew we could make a film that would resonate with a wide audience.”


Ed also recently gave an interview with Comic Book Resources here. Stephen Christy, the most handsome man in comics, has been soft love shepherding this into existence on the Archaia end.


We're fortunate to be in this position and I'm proud of my collaboration with Swifty Lang and Chris Mangun, the process as much, if not more than, the product. You can read Swifty's account at comicbook.com.


So, what does this mean? Nothing's guaranteed but we've already received the first treatment by screenwriter Carlos Coto (NIKITA, 24). I wasn't expecting the rush of reading our characters as existing outside of our heads and alive in someone else's hands. Carlos has already unearthed and boiled down the essential narrative and greater myth of FEEDING GROUND, and, if our fortune continues, we'll be seeing the tale directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon (AMERICAN HORROR STORY).


Thanks for your support and, hopefully, more news to come...

FEEDING GROUND _ For Your Consideration...

Comic Book award season is upon us, particularly the nominations for the 2012 Harvey Awards which are due by April 16th. The Harveys are exclusively selected by other comic creators and you can learn more and fill out the ballot HERE.

Below is a list of categories that our book FEEDING GROUND, published by Archaia Entertainment, is eligible for. Links to reviews for FEEDING GROUND are available HERE.

I personally find it difficult to put FEEDING GROUND up on a pedestal, or even to see it on the rack, next to other work I admire. But, I recognize it as a solid first comic for us as a group and I'm proud of the dense and complex story we crafted. Of my own contributions, I think I was at least able to bring something to the table in terms of my approach to color art and cover design.

Thanks for reading and please let us, and the Harveys, know what you think.

BEST LETTERER
Christopher Mangun, “FEEDING GROUND”, Archaia
BEST COLORIST
Micahel Lapinski, “FEEDING GROUND”, Archaia
BEST INKER
Michael Lapinski, “FEEDING GROUND”, Archaia
BEST GRAPHIC ALBUM PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED MATERIAL
“FEEDING GROUND”, Swifty Lang, Michael Lapinski, Chris Mangun, Archaia
BEST COVER ARTIST
Michael Lapinski
BEST WRITER
Swifty Lang, “FEEDING GROUND”, Archaia
BEST NEW TALENT
Michael Lapinski, “FEEDING GROUND”, Archaia
BEST CONTINUING OR LIMITED SERIES
“FEEDING GROUND”, Archaia

FEEDING GROUND _ Store Signing!

On Wednesday, November 30th I'll be doing an all-day FEEDING GROUND comic signing at RICK'S COMIC CITY in Nashville. Info below and here's a link to the Google Map.

2710 Old Lebanon Rd Suite 3
Nashville TN 37214
(615) 883 - 7890

It's a great shop with a deep selection of back issues and toys that also does a great job of displaying a group of the previous issues of most titles on the main wall.


For those of you that are new to FEEDING GROUND, here's a brief description and some links to bring you up to speed:

A new nightmare plagues the Mexico-Arizona border. A famine caused by Blackwell Industries drives Diego Busqueda, a noble coyote, to lead a band of Mexican border crossers across the unforgiving Devil’s Highway, a desert cursed with blistering days and deadly nights. Back home, Diego’s daughter, Flaca, discovers that something hungrier prowls the factory fields. Stalked and persecuted, can the Busqueda family maintain their dreams of immigration or will the unspeakable horrors of the desert tear them apart? On the Feeding Ground, there is no freedom without sacrifice...

- Previous Blog Posts
- Our Facebook Group Page
- The Archaia Website


And, here's the trailer we cut for the book.

Hope to see you there!

FEEDING GROUND _ Back to the Future

Saturday, November 5th was "Flux Capacitor Day," the unofficial (as of yet) annual holiday celebrating Dr. Emmett Brown's innovation of the device that would make time travel possible. Swifty, Chris, and I did a little time traveling of our own recently at New York Comic Con where we had the great fortune of seeing so many old and new friends from our past who came out to support us, sometimes with artistic creations of their own or grown kids we had not yet met.

With the FEEDING GROUND Hardcover out on stores (and on Amazon) and the holidays fast approaching this seemed like a good time to reflect and do a round-up of key links and recent events from our FEEDING GROUND timeline, in reverse. You can see all FG-related blog posts HERE and we'll be detailing a select group below:

OCTOBER 31, 2011

FEEDING GROUND HALLOWEEN PARTY, SALON HECHO, NYC

In many ways for me, this event, organized by Chris, was the bow on my FEEDING GROUND experience. I had recently moved to Nashville and, even more so than at NYCC, this was a gathering of my closest friends who came to party. I was floored to have the modern Mexi-Polka band Rana Santacruz perform (they also scored the FG Trailer) and it made for the perfect so-long-for-now to the book and city of New York. You can see more photos and videos at our FG Facebook Page HERE.

OCTOBER 30, 2011

HALLOWEEN REVIEWS

"Moody, tactical, arrogant and downright chilling—Sénor Blackwell is perhaps one of the greatest villains in recent comics history." - The Comic Book Snob

From the start, reviews let us know we existed and provided a constructive mirror to let us know how our craft and ideas were received. But, this pair of Halloween reviews (from Comic Book.com and The Comic Book Snob) also included us with distinguished company (SEVERED, THE WALKING DEAD, 30 DAYS OF NIGHT) that suggested that we've earned our space on the shelf alongside them.

OCTOBER 14-16, 2011

NEW YORK COMIC CON 2011

Did a fairly comprehensive Top 11 List of the Con HERE. Major highlights included signing all of the floppy issues of FEEDING GROUND for a fan (above) and participating on Archaia's HOW TO MAKE A GREAT GRAPHIC NOVEL PANEL. All five of my clips are up on my Youtube channel and you can watch the segment about Pitching, below:

SEPTEMBER 27, 2011

FEEDING GROUND HARDCOVER FOR SALE ON AMAZON.COM

No fanfare, it was just there one day after over a year of work, and soon so was our first reader review. Even more than a critic's review, this was interpretation of the story that signaled to me that the book was out of my hands and belonged to the world.

Feeding Ground uniquely captures the spirit of "The American Dream". Historically, the crossings to this land have been fraught with both fear and unfairness. The werewolves of Feeding Ground serve as metaphors, and political reminders, of the "unwelcome mat" that has greeted countless groups of immigrants, who sniffed freedom, only to be turned away from our shores. A must read for those who still believe in the Emma Lazarus inscription at the base of Lady Liberty.

SEPTEMBER 21, 2011

FOREWORD BY LUIS ALBERTO URREA

Luis literally wrote the book on THE DEVIL'S HIGHWAY and his epic non-fiction prose educated us on the desert border; mind, body, and soul. It was an honor that he agreed to write the foreword to our Hardcover and his comments will always be all the affirmation we'll ever need. Be sure to check out both his novels and non-fiction work and you can read the foreword in my original post HERE.

APRIL, 2011

"SOMEBODY NEEDS A HAPPY ENDING"

One person we wanted to give an extra shout out to is our editor Paul Morrissey. On top of the regular proofing and production work of getting the book out the door (along with Archaia house designer Scott Newman) he gave one particular note that changed the trajectory of the final chapter of our book. Basically, a happy ending for at least one of our family members. Even after all of the trials and traps that our family went through, with repercussions resonating across the landscape, Swifty was able a believable note of hope; that our survivors can still step with integrity into an uncertain future.

NYCC 2011 _ Top 11 List

11) BEST COSTUMES - Dayna / Zuul / "The Gatekeeper" & Louis / Vinz Clortho / "The Keymaster" from GHOSTBUSTERS

There were plenty of costumes that were more elaborate or obscure but this one hit the sweet spot for me for execution (light-up helmet!), conviction, and goofy delight. Bonus points for being a couple.

10) BEST TOYS - The Ever-Expanding Line of Marvel Universe Figures

I had no shortage of toys growing up and I'm no longer buying them now but I always get a little rush when I see action figure versions of a seemingly endless crowd of favorite characters. In this cluster alone: the cat version of Beast, Beta Ray Bill, and Kraven the Hunter.

9) BEST SUPERHERO ANNOUNCEMENT - Storm Joins the Avengers

At the time I was reading UNCANNY X-MEN as a kid Storm went through her famous transformation from a slightly aloof mutant weather goddess to a powerless punk with a mohawk as leader of the X-Men. I definitely have affection for the character but felt she should always have been more prominent as a leader of the Marvel Universe and, as a minority woman with an iconic look, an easy-to-understand power set, and complex identity (benevolent mutant worshipped as an Earth goddess) a banner character for the company. Now in the hands of Brian Michael Bendis and Daniel Acuña I have high hopes that that will be the case.

I'm no superhero artist but you can see my costume re-design for the character, HERE.

8) BEST ARTISTIC DISCOVERY - NICK DRAGOTTA

It often crosses my mind that there are countless undiscovered talents in this world. And then there are those like Nick Dragotta that were right in front of me but I'm seeing for the first time. Nick is no unknown. He's been working on Marvel books for some time, but, seeing his art at full size and in Black & White my eyes were snapped open and will never see the same again.

While his style pulls from all of the great Marvel illustrators (Kirby, Ditko, Adams) he recombines and delivers them in a package that feels new and slightly punked out. It's a visual language that I immediately respond to and one that movies can't match and with a cool they can only hope to emulate.

His website, HERE.

7) BEST BOOK - HEART #1 by BLAIR BUTLER & KEVIN MELLON

You know that for a while in Japan the number 1 selling comic was about Tennis? While there is a great diversity of genres and subject matter in American comics, it's clearly the superheroes that are the bread and butter and what most people associate with the medium.

Taking one step to remedy that is the Image series HEART written by Blair Butler and with art by Kevin Mellon and set in the competitive world of Mixed Martial Arts. I can't say that I've ever watched a match but the book takes full advantage of the medium's ability to convey external and internal drama with full visual might. And, Kevin's rendering is not what I would expect from such a book. Rather than muscular bold inks, he successfully builds figures and their environments from energized and well-chosen hatches.

Great review/analysis on Bleeding Cool, HERE.

6) MEETING OTHER NOVICE CREATORS - FRANK REYNOSO

One of the great changes over the last year is that now that we are published "professionals," aspiring writers and artists have been approaching us for advice.

We've seen a lot of incredible and promising work but the guy that impressed me the most is Frank Reynoso. From his EC-inspired writing on THE HUNTER to his own written/drawn horror book THE REMAINS he is someone with an engaging voice and with real chops when it comes to the not easy task of panel to panel storytelling. Publishers, I need to see Frank on the other side of the table signing books, come 2012.

Here are links to his website and blog.

5) PITCHING LIKE IT'S 2011

While I can't spill any details on my own 2011 pitching, two things became clear. 1) After the halcyon buzz of publishing our first book, this Con was a great perch to witness the industry and better understand our place in it. 2) I love telling stories. While I'm primarily an artist, I have gotten my greatest satisfaction out of working up stories with my collaborators. My bud and FEEDING GROUND co-hort Swift Lang is a writer with his finger on inherently visual stories that are essential and need to be told, now. And, with Jef Burandt, I have the potential to bring visuals to a concept that is both a sociopolitical epic and has the potential to be the coolest toy line this side of GI Joe. We'll see what comes of these pitches but I already benefited from the experience of working up the stories with friends and the editorial feedback we received in telling them over the weekend.

4) THIS IS YOUR LIFE

I cannot be more warm and grateful for the people that visited us to wish us well from all places and periods from our lives. Former co-workers, good friends, new friends, their families, and our family all came out with their support - often at the same time. Got to have dinner with my cousin Jen who I grew up with, blogger/podcaster pal Eric Jason Ratcliffe, and good friend/writer Swifty Lang all at the same table. Below are my Nickelodeon co-worker and pal Keelmy Carlo who had a whole list of friends he was there to cheer and also my sister's co-worker Angie, horror fan and FEEDING GROUND booster. Awesome people.

3) SIGNING THE FULL RUN OF FEEDING GROUND

There are many milestones in the act of bringing something like a book into the world. At our first convention appearance as creators in San Diego 2010 we were only signing a promotional poster for FEEDING GROUND and now this Con felt to me like we were tying a bow on the experience with the release of the Hardcover. The best book-related moment had to be when a fan had us sign the final 5 issues of the mini-series. We had hand-sold him on Issue 1 at NYCC 2010 and he continued to buy the rest at his local comic shop. Then, he thought enough of our work to bring them to the Con, find us, and have us sign them. Another first for us and I'll never forget it.

2) HUG THIS MAN! - Multiple outpourings of brotherly affection

PART 1 - Regular readers of this blog know that artist Juan Doe has been a great pal and artistic godfather to the FEEDING GROUND crew from the moment I met him signing at a Marvel booth in NYCC 2009, literally just before I pitched the book to Archaia.

I was hoping to see him this year but we've both been busy and out of touch. And then he appeared at our booth. Hugs all around and all night long as we celebrated personal and professional successes of the last year. So happy for him and the much-deserved love he's getting for his work on Marvel's LEGION OF MONSTERS mini but more so for the life he's created. Bonus - there he is below (LEFT) with Marvel editor Alejandro Arbona and Archaia's Mel Caylo, in total an NYC carpool crew from when they all met working at Wizard Magazine.

PART 2 - I was disappointed to hear that I wouldn't have the chance to meet up with MORNING GLORIES artist Joe Eisma at the con. We met over the Bendis Board and I'm honored to have seen his work grow and then explode with the success of his book with fellow Benboer Nick Spencer.

Joe and fellow Image artist Nick Pitarra (RED WING) decided to play a prank on Kevin Mellon (HEART, see #7 above) who I had just met. The premise: hug Kevin and win some books.

Contest + hugs + mild embarrassment = I'm all over it. Had a hard time getting a signal to be the first to send the picture but the guys were cool to include me as co-winner.

More details on the promotion and a look at their books, HERE.

1) HOW TO MAKE A GREAT INDIE GRAPHIC NOVEL PANEL

In Fall of 2008 we began construction of a pitch book based on advice we had seen given by creator Robert Kirkman in the back of a reprint of WALKING DEAD #1. In 2011, we were able to thank him and give him a copy of our finished book.

For me, more than anything, conventions are about paying it forward. I was proud to be included on Archaia's HOW TO MAKE A GREAT GRAPHIC NOVEL panel with Mark Smylie, Jim McCann, David Petersen, and Stephen Christy where we were able to lend advice to a standing room only room of aspiring creators who are looking for the same thing I wanted - how to make an idea a reality. Archaia owner PJ Bickett moderated a nuanced conversation that illustrated multiple experiences; no perfect answer but with many paths to learn from.

I've talked about our FEEDING GROUND pitch book in the past HERE. You can read our full pitch as a PDF HERE and we will be posting clips from the panel (recorded by FG co-creator Chris Mangun) on our FaceBook fan page by joining HERE.

Thanks to PJ and the whole Archaia team for taking a chance on us and bringing it all full circle.

COMIC EVENTS _ Nashville Comic Con 2011

Just relocated to Nashville a little while ago and jumped at the chance when I heard that there were still tables left to exhibit at the 13th Annual Horror & Comic Con. I'll be there on Saturday, Oct 1st from 10-7 to promote FEEDING GROUND which just came out in Hardcover on Amazon and in most book stores this week. You can read the first issue for FREE by joining our Facebook page HERE and check out some posters I just printed out for the Con below. Comics, y'all.

I'll also have copies of the Americans UK comic ROCKTRONIC MIX-TAPE  #2, which I think is the best thing the band has put out. Also, the Horror anthology DON'T LOOK! which won a Spectrum Award for the cover art and features our Yeti story, FROZEN DARK.

FEEDING GROUND _ Best Feedback Ever (so far)

One of the great honors in creating FEEDING GROUND has been the reaction we received from author/scholar Luis Alberto Urrea. In "The Devil's Highway: A True Story," Luis literally wrote the book on the too real horrors of the stretch US/Mexico desert that has consumed lives for centuries and continues to serve as a battlefront of modern immigration. He writes non-fiction that reads like epic poetry and presents an even-handed picture of all players in accounts that are harrowing, human, and darkly humorous. The book was a primary source of research in preparing FEEDING GROUND, our myth on the same subject, and it's with pride that we share Luis' Foreword to our Hardcover Collection, below:

FEEDING GROUNDS OF THE ELDER GODS
by Luis Alberto Urrea

As a writer, I am repeatedly confronted with the same question:  What are the most Influential books in your life? I always want to answer:  Armadillo Comix #2 by Jim Franklin.  You see, I came to writing through drawing. As much as my dad hated it, Batman and Hawkman fueled visions that later remained in my prose; unspeakable visions, spoken.  I’d love to see how many of us in the writing trade owe our “cinematic” styles to early comics and graphic novels.

As huge as the craft has become, comic books retain enough outsider, underground cachet to tackle subjects many of us wouldn’t dare touch -- not in polite company, not at Tea Party rallies.  One shouldn’t approach such vile, filthy subject matter as the worth of a human life, the dignity of a human soul, or the value of, as Bob Dylan once sang, “these children that you spit on.”  I’m talkin’ to you, Mr. Politician.

And, here is a series of books that leaps deep into the brilliant heart of darkness: the damned (in every sense) and glorious border.  The place I write about.  The place where I was born.

Swifty Lang and I share an interest in the exquisite horror and beauty of the wastelands through which the undocumented wanderers must struggle.  It is a formidable region of unforgiving landscape and gods who rule with little mercy.  In my book, THE DEVIL’S HIGHWAY, I stated that we are all aliens in this landscape, what I call “Desolation.”  For fans of the occult, this comes from The Book of Enoch.  Yeah, the lands wherein the fallen Watchers and their earth spawn, The Nephilim, are chained beneath the burning desert mountains.  They wait to return for their revenge.

How stunned and delighted was I when these amazing comics arrived in my mailbox.  As all great graphic novels do, these books create a literary work of searing poetry and awe.  The art allows us to see things we might not be able to—or want to—imagine for ourselves.  That my work has had even a little to do with the genesis of this epic is as cool as it gets.  I laugh out loud in appreciation when I see the smugglers (Coyotes) and The Devil’s Highway itself, the sly gangsters come alive, as if they had jumped out of my book.  But I don’t laugh because it’s funny.  No. I’m whistling past the graveyard, amigos.  This shit’s scary.

What Feeding Ground has envisioned and what Lang, Lapinski and Mangun have captured, is the eldritch nature of this new myth.  The darkness at the heart of the sun-baked killing fields.  There is something…other about it.  There is something from our deep nightmares lurking there.  Yes, there is a relentless toll of suffering and death to go with the realistic adventure and thrills and violent action. That is a given—every border-book ever written deals with it. However, Border Patrol agents know, DEA agents know, the medicine people of those canyons and dunes know that something…other…lurks.

I’m trying to capture this Lovecraftian feeling in my own work.  Yeah, a little pissed that Swifty et al have done it first, and done it so well. This sensation is what the philosophers call “the sublime” in art.  It is beauty, but it is also terror. It’s a higher horror: a sense of the eternal, the dark, the overwhelming.  This epic is so addictive that it will lure you into a deep redrock canyon where the worst dream awaits.  It’s so bad; it’s so pretty.  It’s a festival of wonder that shows you the true awe of awful death.

   
Luis Alberto Urrea
Chicago, 2011

FEEDING GROUND _ Book Design

Haven't been able to post in a bit due to a big move from NY/NJ to our new home in Nashville, TN. But, the release of the FEEDING GROUND Hardcover collection is fast approaching and I wanted to share some illustrations and layouts I executed for it.

Book Design was a whole separate skill set I had to acquire in addition to those that FEEDING GROUND had already added to my utility belt. These are all shown without the supporting text and some have been altered prior to printing but it should give you a sense of the design theme I was going for. You can also see roughs of the English and Spanish covers HERE and the book is already available for pre-order on Amazon.

 

(click to embiggen) 

THE COMIC FIX _ While I was gone

Just got back from a paradise vacation of beaches and scuba diving (see my sea turtle video HERE) and did my best to totally unplug and ignore social media. But, I'm new to Twitter ( @m_lapinski ) and most of my feed is filled with comic pros and updates that are a fix for the often addictive personality that comic fans like myself exhibit. I've wanted to start including more of the work of others on this blog and figured I'd use the occasion to kick it off with news of books that hit the Twitterverse while I was gone.

A TALE OF JIM HENSON

There isn't a single book that I'm more excited about than the FALL 2011 release of the Graphic Novel adaptation of A TALE OF SAND, an unpublished screenplay by Jim Henson and collaborator Jerry Juhl. Jim and his works have been a great influence on my creativity and personality, recently rekindled by the exhibit at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens. Published by Archaia Entertainment, our publisher for FEEDING GROUND, this book and much of the Henson library is under the great curatorial care and vision of Archaia Editor-in-Chief Stephen Christy. As illustrated by cartoonist Ramón Pérez, the story is conveyed with an elastic realism that evokes both a dream logic and earthy performances like those that populate the works of Will Eisner.

You can see an interview with Stephen about the project HERE.

Last week, Stephen continued to elaborate on the care and attention to detail being brought to this book in the following Tweets:

For TALE OF SAND we are going through old films that Jim Henson made in the 1960s and pulling colors from the footage to inform our coloring

The font that we're creating for TALE OF SAND is based on Jim Henson's handwriting, so the book will look like Jim lettered it himself!

You know a book is going to be crazy when you have to send 12 reference photos to printers to show them what it should look like

And, check out an interview with Ramón about the book HERE as well as a look at a fun earlier comic KUKUBURI.

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PAOLO'S PROCESS

As far as comic process blogs go, THE SELF-ABSORBING MAN by Marvel artist Paolo Rivera is a must-read resource for tips, tricks, tools and an overall appreciation of what it takes to be a professional artist working at the top of his game.  Paolo is smart about his work and, whether it is his fully painted art or pencil and ink cartoons, there is a plan and playfulness under his polished execution.  He is currently a part of the genre re-defining run on the Marvel superhero comic DAREDEVIL and I can, and will, dedicate an entire post on what makes that book tick. But, the first thing that ever caught my attention about Paolo was how, on top of photo reference, he has often sculpted reference maquettes of his lead characters in clay prior to illustrating a book.

More recently, Paolo discovered the free CG sculpting program SCULPTRIS and Tweeted the results:

I think this is gonna be Matt Murdock:

That's more like it:

I was able to pick this program up immediately, and I'm already making digital maquettes for myself.


Yep. It's crazy easy to use. I downloaded it yesterday, but just started using it an hour ago.

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BOOKS YOU CAN'T MISS!

ZEGAS by Michel Fiffe

OK, I missed the book launch party at Bergen Street Comics in Brooklyn but I read the strip when it first appeared on Act-i-vate and now the book is available on ETSY.  "Abstract" or "Surreal" don't do justice to describe a work in which every line and mark and color choice is as engrossing as a full narrative.

TROOP 142 by Mike Dawson

I WILL be in town for the book launch party of this one at Bergen Street comics on Sept 2.  I also followed this one when Mike was publishing it as an online comic and it has a supremely honest ear for the awkwardness and malevolence of boys and men trying to wear the too big suit of "masculinity."  His essential cartooning is punctuated by finely rendered moments of nature, a dichotomy often employed in the best of Manga.

Plus, a troop badge!

LOOSE ENDS written by Jason Latour, drawn by Chris Brunner, and color by Rico Renzi

I've been crowing about this book since I fist saw the preview for FREE COMIC DAY but it was Axel Alonso, the new Editor-in-Chief of Marvel who Tweeted:

Do yourself a favor & read "Loose Ends," by @jasonlatour, Chris Brunner & @whoisrico. What a page-turner! Updates at jasonlatour.com

The creative team seems to be working from a single mind and spirit and evokes a dangerous southern-fried world that is as fully-formed and specific as it is evocative as a work of art. Renzi's color is particularly exciting to me and is right in line with my own thoughts and approach to color. Check his blog HERE and more LOOSE ENDS art by the Comic Twarters HERE.