Vote Giant Squid.

I ended up pulling a lot out of Infestation as I redrafted it, and this shows a little bit, although I suspect I’m the only person who will notice. What I kept was the essence of the story. A mysterious structure. Some investigators who use poor methodology, and, naturally, the monster.

His spidery warmth provides nutrients

You gotta have a monster.

When you hear a noise in the night, this guy is rearranging your shoes.

Seth turned in several slightly different iterations during the design process. They’re very monstery and I love them all.

I’m not crazy about it.

Today we have another preview image from Infestation while Seth continues to work on the pages for the story. Here’s our protagonist, Captain Christen McCall.

Captain McCall does not ice skate in the story.

On a more positive note, I have good news on a long delayed upcoming project. Two years ago I wrote Tales From Fremont Street, a comic book to support the Las Vegas Valley Library District. Well, to be more accurate, I wrote two stories in the anthology book, and wrote the characters and framework for the other stories. It was a good book. People liked it. I still have a box of them somewhere. When you see me, feel free to buy one. Or ten. Or fifty. We had planned a followup book to debut at the next Vegas Valley Comic Book Festival this past November. That didn’t happen for a variety of reasons. The script I wrote last year has gone through a number of significant changes, and with direction from my editor we’ve gone back to the outline stage. We met to discuss the latest version of the outline yesterday and agreed on all the major points.

I’ve started redrafting the script. Seth has started designing the characters and settings. Local artists are being selected for the project. The book has a title.

I will be in San Diego in July for the Big Show. I already paid for it. I can’t afford not to go. Also, it might just be the only show I make it to this year. With any luck, we’ll have Infestation posted by then.

The front and the back

Until then, here’s another preview image for Infestation.

The monk walked through the spring and into the winter before reaching the Levant and becoming a confidant and tutor to Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa Pasha. Before the spring was through, the Grand Vizier was tempted to sack Vienna, and before the year was out, the forces of the Ottoman Empire had been dealt two crushing defeats in Vienna and Parkany and the Grand Vizier was dead by the hand of an executioner. This marked the beginning of the end for the Ottoman Empire. When the monk was told that the Grand Vizier had been executed by strangulation, it is said that he quietly shrugged and replied, “He was not a very good student.”

The monk was last seen walking north, with the intent of visiting Moscow. His reasons were his own, and he would only offer a small smile when asked what he would do when he got there.

And that’s why I didn’t update last week. Because of a mysterious old Monk traveling into Tsarist Russia at the end of the 17th century. No, really. It’s all true.

Three heads, none of them historical Chinese monks.

Seth is still banging away at the pages for Infestation, and I’m still neck deep in cardboard boxes, although more and more of them are empty, as opposed to full. Last week my house looked like the final scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Now it just looks cluttered and disorganized.

Until Seth is ready, we’ll just keep running with these preliminary sketches. Today we have some conceptual head shots of some of the main characters.

I immediately unloaded the RV and went to sleep.

Sunday I spent clearing an inch of ice from my new drive way.

Today, I assembled IKEA furniture, installed a thermostat, and ruined some frozen pizza.

All of which is little more than a long excuse for why there was no update earlier today. Also, we don’t have a new comic yet.

Space bus.

It’s coming though, and to prove it, I’m going to show you some of the preliminary artwork Seth has handed in for the next story. A few months ago I sent Seth the script for the new story, titled Infestation. Less than 20 minutes later Seth replied that he had only read the first half of the first page, and that he was in. The next day he had sent me some questions about character design, and noted that he still hadn’t read more than a page of the script,  but his excitement was growing. The next day he sent me this drawing. The guy was jazzed. He hadn’t even finished illustrating Corner Shot, No Magic, and he hadn’t read hardly any of the script for Infestation, but he couldn’t stop talking about illustrating a space adventure. As you’ll see, eventually, his excitement paid off.

For a story written in just a few hours 10 years or more ago, I’m pretty pleased with the way it came out. The collaborative process with Seth on the layout and design was a lot of fun, and he added some significant contributions to how the story evolved from a short piece of prose into a comic that more or less makes sense.

Next up is a story called Infestation. Seth is hard at work on getting the pages in the can, but we’re not quite there yet. Next Monday we’ll have some preliminary art from the story to show you. I’m really excited about this one, and I think you’re going to like it.

So, today is Monday. Happy normal Monday, where nothing bad happens. Unless your name is Roger and you were kidnapped by a deranged woman battling some inner demons. If that’s the case, you probably wish it really were Tuesday.

Last Tuesday my wife gave birth to our second child, a little girl named Emma who looks like a tiny old man. As a consequence, I’ve been spending a lot of time sitting quietly and holding the baby as she sleeps. I’ve taken this opportunity to finally watch Lost.

There are parts of this show that just don’t make any sense. I’m not talking about the polar bears, elaborate conspiracies or smoke monsters, that stuff all makes sense in the context of the established fantasy. I’m talking about things like, how much physical abuse Sawyer takes, How Hurley manages to keep on the weight, how easily Charlie kicks heroin, why John Locke would choose such shitty knives, how no one gets heat exhaustion, how quickly papayas grow.

I’m five episodes into the third season, and poor jackass Sawyer has been stabbed through the arm, shot in the shoulder, tortured, and been the target of multiple vicious ass kickings. The primary semi-permanent side effect of all this attention is some headaches that force him to wear funny looking spectacles. He hasn’t gotten any infections, abscesses, or broken bones, and he’s still spry enough to hike about and get in more fist fights. I have a feeling, that as I continue to watch, Sawyer will continue to be the woeful target of inexplicable amounts of abuse so the audience can relate to the dangers of their situation.

Also, and this just happens to be on the top of my mind having watched SE03E05, how is it that Eko is such a notorious warlord that everyone knows him, yet no one questions why he is suddenly a priest, or where his brother has suddenly gone?