Hey gang.
* First off, KEEPER just wrapped up Issue 2 this week, the last two pages featuring some of the strongest art I’ve seen from Jeff in a while. So, wow, three issues (well, two-and-a-half really) done and dusted. We’re working on Issue 3. Jeff is also taking some time to redraw Issue 0, getting the format more print-ready. Because we need to make it ready. For print. Ahem. Stay tuned.
* Discharged is also coming along, Alwyn and I are near ready to unveil this for any and all interested parties to see. I’ve seen a bunch of art of Alwyn that, frankly, you haven’t, and it’s all pretty derned exciting.
* Oh, and if you care about such things, last week I wrote a guest editorial for an Arsenal supporters site called You Are My Arsenal. Some liked it, some didn’t. It happens.
* A couple of weekends ago I had an interesting incident happen that drove home Wil Wheaton’s rule of “Don’t Be A Dick.”
Bleeding Cool had reported on a new digital anthology that was being undertaken by none other than David Lloyd called Aces Weekly featuring, among work by Kyle Baker, John McCrea, and friend of the program Phil Hester, a work by someone named Yishan Lias called “The Keeper.” Hmm, a digital comic called KEEPER? Yeah I better look into this.
PMs on Twitter to Phil Hester (who of course has read my KEEPER, even contributed a quote for it!) lead to an email to Phil Hester, which lead to an email back from David Lloyd himself. Lloyd explained that the title was actually by Chinese UK manga artist Yishan Li (another infamous Bleeding Cool typo eh!), whereas I explained my position (some of which I don’t feel I can readily divulge yet!) about KEEPER. He said he would talk to Yishan about it.
Later that same day, I get a Facebook friend request from… Yishan Li! I accepted, and sent a DM acknowledging it. Happy to report that after a brief conversation, where I found out there were in fact some thematic similarities between our respective KEEPERs, she relayed to me that it was a working title, and she would talk to the writer (an unknown French woman, she didn’t say whom) about changing it to something else for the benefit of my strip.
See? No lawyers, no threats, but a nice couple of emails and IMs, and an issue that even 15 years ago might have taken weeks to resolve was done and dusted within 24 hours. And hey, I have a slight door opened to maybe working with Yishan Li… maybe even David Lloyd down the line? Time will tell?
* Meanwhile, an offhanded remark made to someone had lead me to working on a pitch that could see me in a magazine I’ve pretty much always dreamed of being in. This could get real interesting, folks.
* Speaking of interesting, had a reminder of the “interesting” that is Indiana weather yesterday. This is the state where I swear, in 2007, it went from shorts weather to snowing within 24 hours. Well, yesterday afternoon I happened upon this little critter, apparently a blue tailed skink, out in the wild of Indianapolis! Wondering if soon we’d be seeing palm trees any day now, within two hours we had a hailstorm that ended up borking up my backyard. The only explanation I can think of for all this is Bea left for the weekend — the last time that happened, I had to drive from Lafayette to Indy in the beginning of that megastorm that went all the way from Indiana to the East Coast, knocking out power all over the eastern part of the United States (my father in the DC metro area was without power for several days, couldn’t even see the Euro 2012 final!), on a trip that included me having to drive over a bridge that was on fire. For real. See, Bea just shouldn’t leave anymore…
Of course, the good news is, the drought that’s wracked Indiana and 26 other states seems to be abating a bit, and my backyard seems to be getting back some of its green color again.
* My stance on Kickstarter recently has, well, “softened” quite a bit from where it was. I still don’t think it is, or should be, the be all end all method of publishing indie comics, and in fact I think Penny Arcade is absolutely full of shit for pulling the stunt they did. But, be that as it may, I’m glad to see some projects from people I like and support have done well recently. Not the least of which is Duster by Micah Ian Wright & company (whom I did a very well acclaimed interview with for Comics Bulletin a couple of weeks ago). Also noteworthy is The Cabinet by Christian Sager and my artist for “Paint A Vulgar Picture”(+) / “Full Disclosure”, Kelly Williams. I also see Quandary by old Zuda era pal Janine Naimoli Frederick and her husband Ken, that thematically seems a bit similar to a project I abandoned, so she’s welcome to it haha. Look forward to that. A buck gets you a PDF of #1.
I am failing to see why a project by Jamie freakin’ Delano is struggling so badly. Has his star really fallen that low? Five days to come up with $18,000. Good luck, Jamie.
(+) – You can still buy Unite & Take Over Volume 2 and There Is A Light from me. Just sayin’.
* Anything else? Other than I told a B****e W******n creator to fuck off, not really. Got things to write, errands to run. Yup. Seeya gang.
