Happy Halloween!

To celebrate Halloween this year, Helaine Crawford and I bring you Igor: Occult Detective "The Familiar" which originally appeared in the Washington DC comics magazine Magic Bullet #3! Click the image below to enlarge for reading purposes. Happy Halloween!

FUBAR VOL. 2 IS LURKING...

For those not in the know, FUBAR Vol. 2: Empire of the Rising Dead is now up for pre-orer. So head on over to your local comic shop and pre-order your copy using Diamond Order Code OCT110768 under Alterna Comics or visit TFAW.com and pre-order your copy there! Volume 2 features the story "Si Cheng" which reunites yours truly with the Mad Beglian Rob Croonenborghs (Jesus Hates Zombies: A Jurassic Kinda Life, FUBAR Vol. 1: European Theater of the Damned, Laura Bitch & the True Bastard), along with forty other Small Press Commandos for a total of twenty-seven stories! The first printing of Volume 1 sold out before it hit street date so don't miss out with Volume 2!

Come with Me If You Want to Live

Newsarama posted an article on their blog about a tweet Scott Kurtz made about buying the new Justice League on his iPad and why should he go to his local comic shop to grab a copy. (You can read that here if you like.) It was a kinda stupid article, but it got me thinking.

As local comic shops are closing all over the country, how do we and they prevent this? Especially faced with the "digital revolution" or whatever the hell you want to call it? How are shops supposed to offer extra value as an incentive to get customers through their doors?

Frankly, I think shops are going to need to up the ante here. I've been to a lot of comic shops over the years in the Buffalo area and you know what? Most of them suck. The owners are aloof elitist pricks who look down on you if you don't like the same things they do. The shops are generally dirty, dingy, and dark. And the half the time I have to order in the shit I want. Who the hell wants to shop in a place like that? I don't.

Then I did a signing at Two Kings Comics in Rochester. The shop was clean, very well lit, and the owners were some of the nicest dudes I've ever met. Plus they stocked product that I read! Holy shit! It was a comics Mecca for me! To sweeten the pot, the guys had a section just for kids' comics, an X-Box 360 hooked up to a flat screen TV, a cooler with drinks for sale, and couches and other seating. It wasn't just a store, it was a place to hang out! It was a place to make friends with other customers or the owners. If it wasn't an hour and a half from my house, I'd be there all the bleeding time!

I really think more shops should follow that line of thinking! Make your shop a home away from home for your customers. There are so many shops that I go into, grab my shit, and get outta Dodge! A friendly, clean, well-lit environment goes a long, long way. I spent like 8 hours in that shop and had a blast. I never felt bored or unwelcome. The guys were happy to shoot the shit with every customer who walked through their doors that day. (I think there were about 200 of 'em.)

So guys, it's either time to bring your A-Game or wither away and die. The choice is yours. I hope you choose to survive.

P.S.:
I still love Queen City Comics here in Buffalo. The owner, Emil, and his son run a tight ship and I love shopping with them.

The Creator Owned Battle -- Part II

Ah, once again we're back to the Creator Owned Battlefield. In recent months I've done a lot of thinking about all of this craziness and have noticed something kind of unnerving.

A lot of independent comic creators don't buy other creator-owned comics. I'm not saying they don't buy other indie comics, which can be rough sometimes, because they vary in quality so much, but some of these guys straight up only read DC and Marvel books. So I'm calling bullshit on these guys!

You can't expect folks to support your creator-owned project if you don't support other creator-owned books! Practice what you preach, man! You look at my shelf and sure, I've got some Marvel and some DC stuff, but the majority of it? Creator-owned, sucker. You'll find stuff like Hellboy, The Goon, The Walking Dead, Jesus Hates Zombies, 30 Days of Night, American Terror, Girls with Slingshots, Sin City, Honey and the Whirlwind, and whatever else strikes my fancy.

It drives me insane to hear these guys bitch about no one buying their new series when they won't take a chance on something else either. I'm a big fan of trading with other creators. Hey, check out my book and I'll check out yours! It doesn't cost you any cash outta pocket and someone else is gonna read your book! It's a great trade-off. And if you like it, tell other people! Lend it to a friend. Whatever, let other people know you dig it! I can't express enough how important word of mouth is for creator-owned books.

So in short, I'm calling you out, comics creators, buy creator-owned books. Or fuck off.

*Art by Jeff McComsey and Danilo Beyruth

M.I.A.

Howdy folks,
If you frequent this blog, you probably think I've been M.I.A. as of late. Frankly, you're kinda right. However, I've just been hard at work working on new content for you kids!

I have a huge announcement coming regarding Igor: Occult Detective which, sadly, I can't make just yet. Though I am writing Issue #8 as Helaine is working on Issue #1, and we will have a one page story appearing in the upcoming Issue #3 of Washington DC comics magazine Magic Bullet.

I also worked with Ronald Montgomery on the story "The Bedroom" for Black Ship Book's Horror Haikus #1 which can be purchased from Lulu.com

My story is well and done for FUBAR Vol. 2: Empire of the Rising Dead which was illustrated by the ever-amazing Rob Croonenborghs (FUBAR Vol. 1, Jesus Hates Zombies: Jurassic Kinda Life)!

Finally, I finished the short story "Spaceman Jack and the Planet Zorgadon" for the Small Press Commando's Kirby Challenge which was written by the awesome Phil McClorey and can be read for free here!

Oh! I also worked with Phil (as my editor) on the story "A Devil Came to Oregon" for his as of yet untitled horror western anthology, which I am obscenely excited about.

Well, that's about all the news I've got for now. I'll post again when I have more concrete news for you all!

Pulp Volume 1 is here!

I am proud to announce that Pulp Vol. 1: The Old Kingdom is now available from IndyPlanet.com! Click the link here to grab your copy! This TPB collects issues #1-4 of Pulp, introduction by Stephen Lindsay (Jesus Hates Zombies, Lincoln Hates Werewolves, FUBAR, Massive Awesome), a map of Edelgrond and more for $17.99!

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The Creator-Owned Battle

Art by Jeff McComsey and Jim McMunn
I'm going to talk about something here that's pretty damn important to not only me, but also a lot of my compatriots: Creator-Owned Comics.

As a lot of folks know, the comic industry is dying a slow and miserable death. Now it's, of course, easy to blame Marvel and DC for only putting out books that involve the same superheros every month... (how many Deadpool and Batman comics does the world really need, anyway?) And while they are partly to blame for putting out comics that are stale and nearly impossible to jump into without knowing decades of back continuity, it's not entirely their fault.

This is difficult for me to talk about, because a big part of the problem rests with, us, the readers. We need to be supporting creator-owned books or publishers aren't going to want to put them out. At the end of the day, publishers are businesses and they need to do what's best for their business. So if superhero tripe continues to sell, they're going to continue to make it.

But for all of you complaining about the state of DC and Marvel and the state of comics as a whole, go out and support original creator owned books! Go grab that copy of Hellboy, The Goon, Fear Agent, 30 Days of Night, The Walking Dead, Savage Dragon, Mouseguard, Powers, Wormwood, or whatever instead Issue #105,367 of Spider-man! Even better go pick up something by an up and comer like Stephen Lindsay or myself!

If you want a jump start on some interesting reading materials here are a few recommendations from yours truly:

American Terror by Jeff McComsey
Jesus Hates Zombies by Stephen Lindsay & various
Novo by Michael S. Bracco
FUBAR by various
Vic Boone by Shawn Aldridge & Geoffo

All of them are available through Diamond so get orderin'!

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