Old projects...new projects

A1 Annual to be published by Titan Books this summer will feature a short story by Norman Felchle and me. The title is "Odd Ball" and is something that we completed about 3 years ago (it was first printed in black/white in my 2010 sketchbook). For the A1 book, Norman colored the whole thing and it looks awesome.

Also Outlaw Territory #3 has been announced by Image and should be out this summer with a story that I collaborated on with Ryan Sook called "Heaven Sent". Ryan not only wrote and laid out the story, but also supplied the color.

Currently I am working on a story titled "Cave Girl" written by Dan Fogler. It is a crazy homage to the sword and sorcery genre with barbarians, zombies, saber tooth tigers, and zombie dinosaurs. I am not sure if it will be a stand alone graphic novel or will be a part of "Moon Lake" volume 2 (Dan published volume 1, back in 2010 through Archaia). The story is almost 50 pages and will keep me busy into early summer.

And Michael Golden's GI Joe Portfolio is supposed to come out May 1!

50 Girls 50 and other stories by Al Williamson (Fantagraphics 2013)

I have received the new collection of Al Williamson EC stories. It has a lot of short stories that Williamson did for EC with some wonderful inking assistance from Angelo Torres, Roy Krenkel, and Frank Frazetta.

There wil be other reviewers who will do a wonderful job talking about the content of the book and the significance that each story in the content of EC, I just want to make one observation. What struck me about the artwork for all the stories (and that includes the stories that I did not enjoy much), is that unlike the current over stylized comic book approach utilized at Marvel and DC, all the artwork was very "accessible" to everyone who would pick-up the books. Currently, most of the superhero titles being published, are so dependent on the reader being versed in comic book "conventions" (in depiction of environments, anatomy, facial expressions, and storytelling) that only someone like me, who has been reading comic books for 2 decades, can decipher an issue.

The stories here are so easy to read and the artwork is very easy to relate to. Most of the artwork would be considered excellent by today's standards...which is incredible considering that it was created almost 70 years ago.

James Harren...Wow!

A while back I stopped buying monthly floppies and started waiting for collections. I like collections because I get to see all the cover (even the rare ones), sketches, and sometimes even penciled pre-inked pages....and it's easier to store collections.

Before, I would go to the comic book store on weekly basis and look through everything that came out that week to see what was interesting. I am not sure how to shop for collections. I hear about something, or amazon recommends something because I bought something else, or maybe I saw an issue somewhere that looked interesting and I look for it in some collection...The negative aspect of that, is my inability to closely follow new voices in comics. There might be artists and writers working in comics for years before I discover their work.

Recently I saw an issue of Conan from Dark Horse illustrated by James Harren. I was impressed and went to the comic store to buy the rest of his Conan issues...I did not want to wait for a collection! After that I looked him up and saw that his work is contained in 2 Hellboy collections: Abe Sapien Vol 2 and BPRD Vol 4. This week I bought both and I am so glad that I did. Mr. Harren is a fresh voice in comics and I love how he draws. His style has a great dynamic feel to it, with all the figures being very expressive and wonderfully rendered. Also excellent monster designs!

I will be looking for his work from now on (and hoping that he would someday take over Swamp Thing over at DC!).