Zuda submission revealed

The Thunderchickens logo as conceived and designed by 3!LL

Way back in June, I posted that I was collaborating with 3!LL on a submission for Zuda. I have kept quiet on the topic even though there is a lot of story development discussion, character sketches and rough page layouts I could have posted. I was hush on the topic because I am saving that background material for blog posts I will put up if and when our submission is accepted by Zuda. That is correct; we have completed and submitted our project. We did so on October 4.

Zuda is an online endeavour started by DC Comics. It is an American Idol for comics creators. Creative teams create and pitch eight completed panels of an online comic. If DC Comics likes the pitch the eight panels are entered into a monthly contest. The contest has ten such projects competing for votes from the public. The project that receives the most votes is given a contract by DC Comics. It is possible to become an instant winner, meaning DC Comics likes the project so much that the creative team is given a contract without needing to compete in the monthly contest.

I am not going to reveal much about our Zuda submission at this time. I will post more when the project is accepted by DC Comics. (If it does not get accepted we would likely continue the project on our own and seek another publishing venue.) I will tell you though that the title of our project is The Thunderchickens. I will also say the artwork and colors from 3!LL are the best I have seen him produce to date. We are both very excited and optimistic.

My Goon script

A few months ago, Viper Comics held a talent contest for artists and writers. The winners would be given the opportunity to work together on a Web comic for Viper Comics.

Writers had to submit a five-page script. It had to tell a complete story. It had to feature characters that already existed in comic-dom. That is, Viper Comics would not accept contest entries featuring original characters.

I entered. I figured this would be a chance for many writers to write about their favorite superheroes so I decided to stay away from heroes and villains from DC and Marvel. I also knew I wanted to write something funny. After some deliberation I selected Eric Powell’s The Goon.

For a plot device I turned to my teenage years. Near the home where I lived in Cape Breton was a large culvert through which ran a sizeable brook. A good friend of mine had a fear of Yeti and so he and I and a couple other friends concocted this neighbourhood mythology involving Yeti that lived in the culvert. We referred to them as “Culvert Yeti”. Yeti such as these are featured in my script.

For your enjoyment, I have decided to post my script. You can read it here.  I hope you enjoy it.

Alas, I did not win the contest. Reading the script again, I think I crammed too many panels on some of the pages, with too much dialogue in a few of the panels. Still, I enjoy the gags and think my comedic timing is well crafted. Perhaps these culvert Yeti will find their way into an original comic or fiction  from me some day.

Bohemian Zen Season 2 begins

With 52-pages of Special Edition excellence collected and now available in print form, we now turn our collective minds to the second season of comics and short fiction that shall appear on bohemian-zen.com. After a month hiatus to work on other projects, 3!LL and his writers are back and hard at it. Here is the line up, all of which features artwork, colors and letters by 3!LL:

- The introduction to “The Bell Hill Beast”, featuring Frank Balon, as written by Chad Boudreau.

- “The Bathroom Attendant”, a violent 10-page yarn from Josh Wigler.

- The much-anticipated 14-page origin of Spax Dexler, one of the costumed do-gooders featured in “Hero for the Ages”. Mike Colbert is the writer.

- The main feature in Season 2 is “The Bell Hill Beast”, one of Frank Balon’s early adventures. This tale is set in the past, a time before Frank had his dead man’s eyes and prior to him meeting Ogar.

- Chad Boudreau goes to a dark place with an as-yet untitled episode that introduces The Romantics, the most ruthless and vilest gang in the Special Edition universe.

- The much delayed continuation and conclusion to “When Rodney Met Dickie”, a short fiction. The first installment was published in July 2009.

The comics mentioned above will be published online at bohemian-zen.com as pages are completed. The finished material will then be collected in a print edition in the summer of 2010.

Whatever happened to The Three Princes?

Near the end of August 2008, I became involved in a crime comics anthology project. My comic that would appear in the anthology was The Three Princes, the creation of which has been covered extensively within my blog. The last post on the topic was March 15, 2009 in which I stated the artwork had been completed.

I was very excited about the project and very fond of the story I had written, which was then illustrated expertly by Manoel Magalhães. You might think the lack of updates means the project is dead, but it actually is still very much a reality.

The Three Princes is one of four stories that will appear in the anthology. It was also the first to be completed. Artwork on two of the remaining three stories was completed this summer and the final story’s artwork should be wrapped up before winter sets in. All of us involved are still very excited about the project. We had hoped to have the anthology published before the end of 2009, but it is looking more likely that it will be an early 2010 release. I can also say we originally intended to self-publish the anthology but due to the quality of the finished material we are now looking for a publisher.

I am sure I will have further updates in the near future.

“Cutter’s Reward” and Special Edition: The Printed Edition now available

September has been a good month for releases of projects in which I am involved. We’ve already seen the release of Black Salt #1 in downloadable form and the publication of my short story “Friday, 3 AM“. And now I am thrilled to announce the back-to-back availability of the Halloween 2009 edition of IF-X in which my short comic “Cutter’s Reward” appears, and the release of Special Edition: The Printed Edition, which is all the comics from bohemian-zen.com collected in print form.

The Halloween edition of IF-X can be purchased from the Hamtramck Idea Men Web site.

Special Edition: The Printed Edition can be purchased from IndyPlanet.