The Grim Collection update

As I post a new horror comic on The Grim Collection today I realize I did not mention on this blog the posting of a short fiction in October. So let me correct that even as I announce the arrival of Orphan.

Orphan is written by me and drawn by Manoel Magalhaes, who you will likely remember as that artist of The Three Princes, Colonel and Synchronicity. Orphan is a ghost story in which we tap into a little bit of history and slide away from the “horror” of horror storytelling. We hope you enjoy it. http://grimcollection.wordpress.com/2012/01/02/orphan/.

The Draw of Memories is a short fiction I posted on The Grim Collection in October 2011. I shook the dust off a short fiction I wrote years ago that had never found a home. I hope you agree that it is a good fit for The Grim Collection. You can read it online.

Song’s End to appear in IF-X

A short comic I wrote called Song’s End has been accepted into the December 2011 edition of IF-X. The theme that month is “West”. My tale takes place in West Virginia during the American Civil War.  My earlier appearances in IF-X (Halloween 2009 and Halloween 2011) were horror tales, but this newest story is perhaps best described as a drama. The six-page tale is drawn by Adam Sward and lettered by E.T. Dollman.

Here is the first page of Song’s End. Art by Adam Sward.

Dark Art gets published

Dark Art is a short horror comic I wrote and Adam Sward drew back in early to mid 2010. Originally slated to appear in a horror anthology in 2010, Dark Art went into limbo when that anthology stopped publishing. A second anthology emerged from the ashes of the first and Dark Art was going to appear in its pages but that anthology never saw the light of day. This was frustrating because I thought Adam and I did a great job on this piece and I wanted everyone to see it. When I hatched the idea for The Grim Collection in the summer of 2011 I knew Dark Art was going to be one of comics published soon after the launch. And it was. Dark Art was published on The Grim Collection in September 2011.

But Dark Art was also accepted into the 2011 Halloween edition of IF-X. I received my 30 copies of that edition today. It’s a great looking book and Dark Art looks fantastic within. I will be selling this issue of IF-X at Central Canadian Comic-Con in October 2011.

It took more than a year, but it feels good to have Dark Art available to the public.

The Grim Collection publishing schedule

The publishing schedule I intend for The Grim Collection is an aggressive one.  I plan to have a new short fiction or short comic every three months. That said, a new short fiction or short comic will be added every month for the first three months after its August 2 launch in order to generate interest in the Web site. In between comics and short fiction, pin-ups and Grim Reality content will be added. Pin-ups will be added as those are obtained from artists. There will be no set schedule for Grim Reality content but I would like to have at least two Grim Reality updates a month. This should be possible because Grim Reality content is derived from my writing process and research and I intend to be very active in that go forward.

Black Salt #5: Pencils finished

I received the final pencilled pages for Black Salt #5 on the 14th. The pages looked fantastic, which isn’t unusual for artist J.C. Grande. I had one change to request. J.C. will proceed with inks, making that one change as he does so. That means the pencils for issue #5 are now complete!