Favorite Comics

Hey guys,
I did that piece a while back regarding my favorite web comics (which I'll be doing a sequel to in the near future) but I never did my favorite straight-up comics. So, well, here's that list. This is by no means everything I read but it's definitely a good start.

Hellboy:
by Mike Mignola, Duncan Fedgredo, Richard Corben, & others

Hellboy is hands-down my favorite and is the comic that got be back into the funny books when I was in college. Mignola has created a massive world and his art work never disappoints. Even when the book's art is in the hands of Richard Corben or Duncan Fegredo, it's still freaking fantastic looking. How can you not love a cigar-chomping bad-ass demon from Hell who talks like a 1920's noir detective that fights Lovecraftian horrors, vampires, and other things that go bump in the night? I'm also in love with the spin-offs B.P.R.D. and Lobster Johnson which just expand Hellboy's universe even more! But at the end of the day, ol' H.B. is still king! The first volume: Seed of Destruction is one of those trades that I've read so many times that it is literally falling apart.

The Goon:
by Eric Powell & others

The Goond comes from a special place in comic-book heaven where zombies, werewolves, vampires, and other things that would normally give us nightmares get a proper ass-whooping by a gorilla-looking son of a bitch and his little freakish peanut-headed side-kick! The Goon feels like a love-letter to pulp horror with a huge dash of comedy! I don't think any other comic makes me laugh out loud as frequently as The Goon. And to top it off Powell is one of those artists that just keeps getting better and better as the series goes on.

Fear Agent
by Rick Remender, Tony Moore, Jerome Opena, & others

Man, I found out about Fear Agent back when it was still being put out by Image and the first volume had just come out in trade paperback and it was love at first sight. I was already a big fan of Tony Moore thanks to his short run on The Walking Dead but Fear Agent sealed the fuggin' deal for me. Awesome 1950's style Sci-Fi with robots and aliens and UFO's and a hero with more flaws than admirable qualities. I immediately fell in love with Heath Huston who is one a bad-ass sonofabitch but still extremely human. You can't help but sympathize with the guy and feel like you could have ended up in his shoes too... if you hadn't been annihilated by the invading aliens that is. Fear Agent is as good as you remember the old E.C. comics being. If that doesn't get you to check this out... well... then nothing will.

The Walking Dead
by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore, & Charlie Adlard

The Walking Dead is the quintessential zombie comic. (And you folks know how much I zombies.) It's epic, horrifying, and depressing as hell. The fact that the comic is colored in grey-scale only adds to the somber tone of the book. In The Walking Dead nobody is safe. And I mean NOBODY and that makes for some serious drama because this comic isn't about the zombies as much as it is about the people. And that's what separates it from all the zombie comics out there. On the art end while I do miss Tony Moore's initial run on the series, I really feel that Charlie Adlard has come into his own on this book and really produced some amazing stuff!

Watchmen
by Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons

Watchmen is, well, Watchmen. It's easily my favorite limited-run series ever. The epic and earth-shattering tale alone make this work a read. It's one of those stories that can really make you question your definitions of good and evil and how far you'd be willing to go to save the world. Throw in characters that are genuinely complex and fleshed then top it off with Dave Gibbons amazing artwork and you have a freaking comic masterpiece.

Batman: The Long Halloween
by Jeph Loeb & Tim Sale

The Long Halloween is set after Frank Miller's Year One and is a brilliant continuation of that version of Gotham. Gotham has become a haven for freaks who are trying to wrest control of the city away from Carmine Falcone and his gangsters, and if that wasn't enough to keep Batman, Jim Gordon, and Harvey Dent busy, a serial killer called Holiday has begun marking their calendar with murders of Gotham's organized crime families. The Long Halloween plays out like a brilliant murder mystery and you'll never guess the end! And don't forget to throw in that it covers the origins of one of the great super-villains ever: Two-Face! This is easily my favorite Batman book.

Sin City
by Frank Miller

Man, if you love pulp noir stories (and Lord know, I do) nobody has done them better than Frank Miller. Beautiful women, tough-as-nails guys, evil villains, and some of the most hard-boiled brutal stories put into funny-books. Miller's stark black and white pages with splashes of color accentuate the old-school noir tone of the books.

30 Days of Night
by Steve Niles & Ben Templesmith

If The Walking Dead is the quintessential zombie comic then 30 Days of Night is the quintessential vampire comic. A feral and terrifying re-imagining of
everyone's favorite night-stalkers set in the Alaskan town of Barrow, 30 Days of Night makes vampires scary again. These aren't your suave, well-dressed vampires, these things are true monsters made all the scarier by Templesmith's stylized art-style.

The Dylan Dog Case Files
by Tiziano Sclavi & others

Dylan Dog combines horror, humor, and great weird tales! The art work while handled by 3 or 4 different artists still maintains a consistent quality throughout that always impresses. Sclavi's tales are strange, scary, and brilliant. A must-read for any comic fan!

Tales from the Crypt
by Al Feldstein, Bill Gaines, Wally Wood, Jack Kamen, & others

People talk about knowing your roots and this is it for me. Horror comics at their original state. Undead monsters come back from the grave for revenge, vampires, psychos, serial killers, it's all here! These guys were truly comic pioneers who refused to fall into line when the Comics Code was put into action. Unfortunately, it was also the cause of their death. But Tales from the Crypt and all the old E.C. New Trend books pioneered modern comics. Without these guys we'd all be reading Marvel and DC 24/7.

Nothing Ordinary About All Things Ordinary

Hey guys,

So my good friend Derek Neuland created this amazing zine a couple months ago called All Things Ordinary. He asked me to use some drawings I had done of our mutual friends Lemuria for it and sent me a copy. I've been meaning to do a formal write-up about this for over a month, but apparently I'm a total jerk and am just getting to it now.

Anyway, All Things Ordinary chronicles Derek's last month in Buffalo, NY before he moved to Portland, OR. And it is funny, touching, and just awesome. Even if you're not from Buffalo it's easy to relate to All Things Ordinary and the universal themes it deals with.



I really can't recommend this enough. And if you do your own zine Derek is willing to just trade with you. If not, it only costs $3.00, which is totally worth it for this awesome little zine. Check out his LJ for ordering info: http://backstabber.livejournal.com/340760.html

Please check out this awesome little project by a good friend of mine and you will be happily surprised plus you get silly Lemuria art drawn by me! Thanks folks!

Design by ZOMBIES!!!

Hey folks,

I've got a design up for voting on Design By Humans for their Halloweek 3 contest. It's entitled "Call from Cthulhu." It blends my love of all things Lovecraft with my ridiculous sense of humor so please check it out.

Just click the link right here or click the picture below to check it out and vote! This is one of my favorite t-shirt ideas and I'd really love to see it make print!



Thanks so much for your continued support, folks!

Pittsburgh Comicon 2009 Part 2

SATURDAY September 12, 2009 - Con Day #2



Saturday started poorly. I woke up still drunk from the night before. Corey was seriously assed-out so I decided to let him sleep until 8:30. I showered and got ready and decided to grab breakfast without him. I came back up to wake him up and he was not having it. I was starting to feel better but I knew he hadn't crawled in until way late so I decided to give him another half hour. Well, the little bugger got up at 9:30 after a shit ton of coercing.

We got to the con at 10:15am. Late. Joe and Phil took one look at us and just laughed. They knew it had been a long night. Saturday was Stan Lee day and a lot of us thought it was more of a curse than a blessing. It pulled in a lot of people but most of them dropped their $40 for an autograph and then didn't buy anything else. We made a little bit of money so I splurged and picked up a copy of Joe's Joe Loves Crappy Movies TPB which I had been wanting for a long while now. Joe did an awesome sketch of Senator Palpatine who is a recurring character in the strip.



I actually managed to gather the stones to go over and talk to Danielle Corsetto. She ended up being extremely nice and a very lovely person. We just talked comics and technique and nonsense for a little bit before I retreated back to my table.

The day wound down so Corey and I decided to recover a bit and sleep until about 8:00pm. We then ran to Taco Bell for some chow. We headed back to the hotel so I could get ahold of Mr. Dunn regarding that evening's activities. I ended up heading to the Mariott with Joe and Phil for a couple beers. Corey decided to lay low since he was still feeling a bit under the weather. But at the Marriott I got to meet some new folks, Joe and Phil's friends Mark and Todd of Kill Joy Comics and Jorge Vega a writer known for his comics 9 Months and Bloody Pulp. We hung out and talked and joked. I honestly can't think of the last time I laughed so hard. The phrases "Fine mahogany" and "Melted smoothy" will never mean the same thing to me. Ever. We actually called it a night pretty early which was a good idea considering our ride home Sunday.



SUNDAY September 13, 2009 - Con Day #3
Sunday started on a much more positive note. We got up on time, got ready, packed up our bags and such and checked out of the hotel without incidence. We got to the con nice and early and snatched a great parking spot (which was great for loading up the car at the end of the night.)

We did much better financially and actually had a lot of fun. I did zombie caricatures which a lot of people seemed to dig on, did some sketches, and actually sold some books. We still had a lot of time to walk around to talk to people which was really nice. I made enough money to grab the first volume of Danielle's comic Girls with Slingshots which I absolutely adore. She did an awesome little sketch in my book of McPedro. She even came over to our table for a little bit to check out what I was selling which was extremely cool.



So as the day ended Corey and I said our good-byes and packed up. Corey wanted to get something for his girlfriend so we ran back the Monroeville Mall where he picked up a gift and I got myself a Monroeville Zombie t-shirt. Since we actually made some money I decided we should grab some good food at Primanti Brothers. They're known for their sandwiches made with thick-ass Italian bread, provolone cheese, coleslaw, and french fries with pretty much whatever meat you can think of! I got the Capicola and it was to die for. If you are ever in the Pittsburgh area find a Primanti Brothers location and eat there! So Corey and I sit down and order and who walks in? Joe and Phil! They come over and sit with us while we all house our sandwiches.

Once again we say goodbye and head our separate ways. Corey and I headed to grab some gas and cigarettes and as I'm walking out of the convenience store I hear a horn honk and look up to see Joe and Phil standing at the goddamn gas pump. I just screamed "Stop following me!" they both just laughed. So we shot the shit for a few minutes while everyone filled up their cars and finally said our final good-byes.



The ride home actually was a bit shorter than the ride there since there really wasn't much traffic on the roads. We rolled in around 10pm.

Below is a list of people that we met at the show that you should totally check out because they are freaking awesome:
Digital Pimp Comics
Danielle Corsetto
Kill Joy Comics
Rat Tangent
Two-Fisted Press
Josh Warner
Josh Johnson
Chogger
Carbonated Comics

Pittsburgh Comicon 2009 Part 1

Hey folks,

I am back from Pittsburgh Comicon and man, did I have one hell of a weekend! I'm going to break this down by days just to attempt to keep this nice and tidy. Also it should be noted that my brother, Corey, helped me out this weekend. So here we go.



THURSDAY September 10, 2009 - Con Day #0 (Set-up)
Thursday morning I got up at 8am to check the UPS status of my book order. They still had not arrived and were headed to my old address. But the folks over at Ka-Blam! were amazing as ever and helped me get the package stopped at the hub so Corey and I could pick it up in the morning. But UPS said they couldn't guarantee that they could stop it. So, needless to say I was pretty damn stressed out.

Everything worked out, though. We got up, showered, got dressed, and grabbed some grub before heading to UPS to grab the books. After hitting up UPS, we stopped to Tops for some junk food for the road, cigarettes, and gas. We then ran home quickly to bag the 50 or so loose comics we just picked up.

We hit the road at about 11:45am. It took us about 4 hours on the road to get to Monroeville. The ride was more or less uneventful. We got to the Days Inn and things went to pot. It turns out I didn't have enough room on my credit card and I had to pay for our room with cash leaving me a whopping $40.00 in cash. Fuck.

We headed up to our room and unpacked a bit then just lounged about for about an hour. We then headed over to the Monroeville Convention Center for set-up. I think it took us all of an hour if that. Afterward, we decided to head over to the Monroeville Mall where George Romero filmed the classic Dawn of the Dead. It was literally across the street from the convention center. We wandered about and we actually found a tiny little store called Time and Space that was pretty much geek heaven. It had collectibles, toys, DVD's, comics, and a whole zombie section (of course)!

We then grabbed some dinner in the food court, stopped at a liquor store to grab some Sailor Jerry's then headed back to the hotel to relax and watch the Steelers' game.

FRIDAY September 11, 2009 - Con Day #1
Friday we woke up at 7:45am and got ourselves ready. We headed down the hotel lobby for our free breakfast. The food available consisted of bagels, doughnut holes, cereal, some fruit, coffee and juice. No protein to be found anywhere much to our disappointment (we pretty much ate bagels, doughnuts, and fruit every morning...ugh.)

We hit up the con and got situated right away. The first thing I notice is that we are stationed directly across from Danielle Corsetto. Now let me tell you a little something about Danielle. I am absolutely in love with her work. I have been a fan for a little over a year now and I read Girls with Slingshots every morning before I go to work. And I'm not going to lie, I definitely have a bit of a geek crush on her. So, of course, I'm bugging out a little bit.



The next thing I notice is a big banner down the aisle reading "Digital Pimp Comics!" Now, don't get me wrong, I knew Joe Dunn was going to be there, but I didn't expect the guy to be in the same damn aisle as us. Joe and I have been "internet friends" for probably about two years and I've been a fan of his for about four years but I'd never met the guy in person. He was kind enough to contribute both the introduction and a pin-up to the Red Eye TPB that came out back in May, so I was stoked to finally meet him in person. Joe was there with Digital Pimp writer Phil Chan (Matriculated, Another Video Game Web Comic).

So Friday was hands-down the slowest and least profitable (but not by much). So Joe, Phil, Corey, and I spent a good portion of our nine hour day wandering back between the Zombie Ink and Digital Pimp tables conversing and shooting the shit. We decided that after the show that we should get together for some beers around 9pm.

The show let out at 7pm and we were fucking starved (though this is the only con I can remember where they actually GAVE us food and drinks for lunch, which was totally awesome), so Corey and I hit up some cheap Wendy's before heading back to the hotel to change and chill out a bit.

We headed down to the bar (which was literally behind our hotel) at 9:00pm and waited for Joe and Phil. They ended up running late having dinner with some friends, so Corey and I had a few drinks (9 between the two of us) until Joe and Phil came to pick us up and go to the Mariott to meet some their friends and for more drinks. So I decide to hit the bourbon (Corey was kind enough to pay for the evening). I could have kissed that bartender the way she was making the drinks... just like I like 'em heavy on the bourbon light on the coke. Heh. We actually ended up running into three guys who were from Buffalo... one easily distinguishable by his Bills jersey... they were in town for the con as well but as fans. After lots of nonsense and hilarity Joe and Phil were ready to call it a night so we headed back to our hotel.

Corey decided that he wasn't done drinking yet and I decided to tag along for what I swore would be only one beer. Well, one turned into five and a round of snakebites. Shit. I stumbled back to the hotel at about 2am and hit the hay. Corey rolled in sometime after 4am after finding a hotel party four rooms down from us. Ah, I love my brother.

Pittsburgh Comicon this weekend...

Hey guys,

I'm going to be heading to Pittsburgh Comicon this weekend for the first time ever. My brother and I leave tomorrow for setup. I'm going to try to keep everyone posted on everything going on with daily updates but realistically I don't know if that's going to happen. If these things are as crazy as I hear, I might be too drunk to post nightly. Hahaha. Worst case I'll come back and write a giant blog post about it complete with pictures and I'll tweet from the con as well! So if you're not following me on twitter get on that sucka's! http://www.twitter.com/zombieinkcomics That's about it. Just wanted to give everyone a heads up to the awesomeness that approaches!

New comics and so much more!

Horror is finally coming to Zombie Ink Comics! In 2010, Zombie Ink Comics will be releasing a horror anthology in the style of Tales from the Crypt entitled: Weird Tales of Horror! The first issue will feature terror-tales from artist/film producer Terry Kimmel, painter Tony "Monk" Skubis, and Zombie Ink founder, Kyle J. Kaczmarczyk!

Zombie Ink Comics is also proud to announce that we have added a couple of members to our staff. A few months ago we welcomed author Lori Staufenberger as our editor. Lori is best known for her novellas "Eternal Winter" and "From Blood to Fire." And just last week Tyler Oakley joined our team as a colorist! We want to give both the warmest welcome!

Finally, due to some personal and professional issues Matty Mask will no longer be producing the 6" Red Eye bust. From a personal recommendation from Matty Mask himself Special F/X guru and sculptor Andrew Lavin will be taking over the task! Andrew is best known for his work with Buffalo Nickel productions and his work will be featured prominently in the upcoming feature film Slime City Massacre.