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.

Updates galore

The last half of October has been a heck of a few weeks for me. The biggest highlight was my trip to Winnipeg for Central Canada Comic Con where I was selling Acts of Violence: An Anthology of Crime Comics and the issue of IF-X featuring Dark Art, promoting The Grim Collection, and checking out Artist Alley in the hopes of finding some talented artists who might be interested in working together on comics for The Grim Collection. I will have a full Con report posted on this here blog in the near future.

In other news, Song’s End has been lettered by E.T. Dollman. I will be packaging the files and sending it to the Hamtramck Idea Men over the weekend. You might recall that Song’s End will appear in the December 2011 edition of IF-X. The theme is “West”.

There has been movement on other comics as well. Manoel Magalhaes has turned in more pages for Orphan. Tim Hall has completed character designs for On The Other Side of The Bridge, and just the other day turned in thumbs of the first eight pages. My experience with Tim has been great thus far and I can’t wait to see what the final artwork looks like. The third comic currently in production for The Grim Collection, The Dig, is also moving forward. Adam Sward provided me with character sketches that were quickly approved. This will be the third collaboration between Adam and I.

And, I hate to announce this for fear of jinxing it, but there is a very good possibility that a long gestating comic project is soon to debut.

I will finish with one final word about The Grim Collection. I added new content to it on November 4. The Draw of Memories is a short fiction, the first to appear on The Grim Collection.

Synchronicity

Synchronicity is a 128-page full color graphic novel Manoel Magalhães, Osmarco Valladão, and I have been working on together for most of 2010.

It was two years or more ago when Manoel first showed me pages from Synchronicity. It was his artwork and Osmarco’s colors, working from an idea that originated with Manoel and a partial script put together by another writer. I don’t know when Manoel came up with the original idea, but the script and the resulting pages were a few years old when I saw them. I gave praise and feedback. I thought it had great potential and wished them the best.

Fast forward a year or more. Acts of Violence was finished and in comic stores. The publication of the book had Manoel and I corresponding again. He was finishing up a sci-fi graphic novel called Colonel, which I’ve talked about on my blog before. Around this same time, I asked about Synchronicity. Turns out the writer moved on to other projects and Manoel was trying to finish the graphic novel by writing as well as doing art. I agreed to take a look.

I felt the story still had potential. After reading what he sent, I asked Manoel a number of questions. I then made some suggestions as to how the story could be enhanced. He liked my ideas and shortly thereafter I was the new writer, taking the original ideas and shaping them into something more complex in regards to both plot and character arcs.

The development of Synchronicity has been a rewarding experience. The three of us are very proud of what we’ve created. We’re going to shop it around soon.

Black Salt Update

My last post about Black Salt was in February 2010. At that time, the creative team was working on issue #3 and we were waiting for issue #2 to become available online. A lot has happened since February…

- Black Salt is no longer at Blackline Comics. There were a number of reasons for this. The details aren’t that important so I’ll just say the parting was mutual. Owen Ratliff, creator of Black Salt, has been looking for an online distributor and a publisher that would be willing to publish the print version of Black Salt.

- Ed Brisson is back on Black Salt as letterer. He lettered issue #1, but then Mike DeLepine of Blackline Comics took over lettering chores for issue #2 and #3. With Black Salt and Blackline parting ways, Ed is back on letters. He has re-lettered issue #2 and has lettered issue #3.

- Issue #3 is complete. J.C. Grande finished the artwork a few months ago, and Santosh Kumar Rath turned in the colors. Ed was back on lettering duty, so he did the lettering this summer.

- Issue #4 has been written. The 22-page script was approved yesterday (August 29).

- Script writing for issue #5 will begin in a couple days. I’m taking a couple days off to work on a project I’m doing with Manoel Magalhaes, who you will remember as the artist on The Three Princes, and then I’ll get started on issue #5 of Black Salt.

Colonel is finished

Potential cover art for Colonel

On June 6, Manoel Magalhaes sent me the finished pages of Colonel. This is a 56-page science fiction graphic novel created by Manoel and Osmarco Valladao. It is a great book, featuring fantastic artwork by Manoel and a rich color palette by Osmarco. The two men developed the story together.

Manoel, you may recall, was the artist on The Three Princes, my contribution to the Acts of Violence anthology. He and I kept in touch after our work was finished on that project. Manoel is a talented, hard-working artist, and a great guy in general.

In the latter part of 2008, Manoel sent me pages of Colonel. The book wasn’t finished yet, but it was well on its way. The story grabbed me immediately, as did the artwork and colors.  I gave him my positive feedback, but also mentioned I noticed a number of grammar and word use errors. Osmarco and Manoel’s first language isn’t English, so they appreciated the feedback. I offered to lend a hand as an editor of sorts, massaging dialogue, fixing grammar, etc.

From time to time in 2009, I edited pages, and Manoel and Osmarco worked on completing the book. It was around this time too I suggested Manoel contact Blackline Comics to pitch them Colonel. He did. They liked it. The details of the book’s release are currently being finalized.

I read the whole book from cover to cover on June 7. A handful of small, final changes are needed, but it’s a solid book. It’s a great read and is going to pop in print form. It’s that good-looking.

For me personally, it was a treat to follow the development of this graphic novel. For me professionally, I get an editor credit on a graphic novel that should have no trouble finding an audience among science fiction fans.

Stay tuned for more updates, including a release date.