Heavy Metal, Pt. 1

Since Daniel and I have been working together, it seems we have always been pitching one idea or another to someone. For some reason, it seems that most of those pitches have been asked for rather than us sending things out to people cold. While that's a nice feeling (who doesn't want to be in demand?), we are finding that a good portion of the pitches we've done have been to people who really don't know what to with what we give them.

It's cool to be cautious about what you want to bring to market, but I as a writer shouldn't have to school people who run companies as to what to do with my stuff.

It's really odd, too, when I find out that some of the people who are making decisions on a daily basis have no taste at all. When I say that, I don't mean that these people have a poor taste in creative projects or that they pick losers because they like stuff contrary to most popular sensibilities; If that were the case, it wouldn't be so bad. I don't fault someone for having an affinity for the esoteric. Ask the owner of my most freqented comic store, and he'll tell you I buy the stuff that nobody else seems to want. But when a person has no definitve point of view on creative matters and no particular things they lean toward, then why on Earth would they think that they should be picking what's good and what isn't?

Most of those people aren't looking for "Good," though.

They are looking for "Hot."

Problem is- of you have no sense of "Good," you are a blind man in the dark looking for "Hot" anyway, because you are looking for an after-the-fact reaction and by that point, things have already begun to change....

Domo Arigato, Mr. Robato

A while ago, Daniel made this sketch. He didn't really have anything in mind for it- it was just a robot that looked kinda cool... He's working on a new version of it, and I think that one should be even cooler.

Why?

Well... all I can say is- someday, this robot will save the world.

Don't believe me?

You will.

Covering What We Covered Before

Markosia has been going through some changes as of late; So far as they effect Daniel and I, they all seem good changes, which is a relief. One thing that happened, however, is Markosia changed their logo and trade dress setup... which is a fancy pants way of saying that we had to make some changes to our final cover for Enlightenment.

Here it is, and I think it looks snazzy!

Shhhhhh......

I keep getting some really great surprises from Daniel in my E-mail inbox. Today was a bunch of pages that I really want to gab on & on about, but it's not such a good idea.

Even so, I can say that Enlightenment: the devil you know is continuing to surprise and impress me with the artwork that Daniel is turning out. It's making me work that much harder on the script to the followup book...

Well- back to work!

Someday, Your Name Will be in Lights...

For the past few years, I have been doing Free Comic Book Day events at New Moon Comics in New Jersey with my friends from Megazeen, and this year is no exception. Come check it out if you are in the area.

If you aren't local to NJ, check out their guest signings list here to see a favorite creator near you!

"You Spit Out Manna, God Sends Quails"

This weekend, Megazeen will unleash upon the world it's 13th issue; It's not only a milestone for a quaterly publication, it's an issue I take personal satisfaction in because I was guest editor...

When Megazeen started doing theme issues, I talked to Joey (Megazeen's big Kahuna) and mentioned to him that with issue 13 coming up, that doing the theme of Failure would be fitting. Not only is 13 the numerical posterchild for all things Murphy's Law, doing a Indie Anthology comic series is a love affair with all forms of potential disaster- and going on for 13 issues is a committment that has outlasted all of Britney Spears' marriages combined. My idea was jumped upon, and I was given the task of putting the issue together.

While I didn't put any of my own comics in the issue (the piece I did for it remains sadly unfinished... quite fitting, don't you think?) I had a very guiding hand in it. Interacting with the Artists was SO much fun, and I got a chance to work with several of them for the first time. Many of them came to the table not knowing exactly what to do, and it was rewarding to dialogue with them and help to bring out what became an amazing group of stories. It was a long but great experience, and one I'd be glad to do again... maybe in another 13 issues. :-P

The book will be available here in a few days. Pick of a copy if you can.

Oh- and the title of today's post is a line from a song by The 77's, one of the best bands of all time....