TWO FISTED HOMEOPAPE June/06 - Two Comic Collections Coming Out!
Get your sci fi and dystopian car race right here!
♫ I applied for a rescue dog,
But if I get you dog,
You're rescuing me ♫
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2022 -- bounce.
Two Trade Paperbacks in August!
Gonna be a big build up to August for me because I have two collections of my comics dropping within a fortnight of each other. Here’s what they are, why I love them, and why I hope you dig one or the other or both! As always, talk to your local comic shop about them securing you an order for one now - it means you don’t miss out, and it means they’ll take a punt on ordering a backup copy because someone will nab it off the shelves.
BLACK BEACON with Sebastian Piriz - scope the preorder details here
I love this book.
Niko is the only surviving human from an intergalactic mission that followed a path to salvation only to find ineptitude and iniquity. Basically, imagine if CONTACT led us to SAGA.
Sebastian Piriz was the mastermind behind this idea, and the artbeast all over these pages, and getting 6 issues worth of his designs and layouts and creativity is beyond worth your price of admission.
I also think I wrote a pretty good story about trust and discovery and responsibility.
There’s also one of my biggest ideas ever in this book - not even kidding, big in scale, big in scope. And we pulled it off.
This got a little buried with an inconsistent release schedule, and difficult for me to track between when it appeared in the Heavy Metal magazine, and when the floppies came out, so now you can just get the whole damn thing and I’m gonna push and hustle for this so hard!
SPEED REPUBLIC with Emanuele Parascandolo - scope the preorder details here
I love so many details in this story - a car race in a dystopian Europe allows the winner access to a walled city of safety and security, but most racers just die along the way in this brutal road rage epic.
Basically, it’s THE HUNGER GAMES meets SPEED RACER - or as I like to think of it, THE LONG WALK meets THE WRAITH.
Emanuele Parascandolo has the hard part of this book as he draws these race scenes, as well as my usual sapping emotional character moments, and he absolutely smashes it no matter what gear I put the story into - absurd dog-mask wearing cult types [think the Ducky Boys] or two guys having a beer on a balcony - he’s there and he’s making it pop off the page.
This story has a lot of kinetic energy, but it’s also very much grounded in thoughts of the future, politics, the environment, and family. We got something to say here, so I hope people dig what we’ve done.
The last thing I’ll say is: indie comics make the best gifts for people you love. Both of these books are complete stories, so you aren’t giving someone Volume One [and the need to buy the following volumes themselves if they get hooked], you are giving someone everything. Drop this preorder now and be ready for gift giving for the rest of 2022, easy.
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EVERFROST hits the Shortlist for the Comic Arts Awards of Australia
It's always an honour to be recognised. My ego shouldn't need it, but it definitely likes it. There's a balance to be found.
Yesterday, I found out EVERFROST has made the shortlist for the prestigious Comic Arts Awards of Australia [formerly the Ledger awards].
Making this comic with Sami Kivela, Lauren Affe, Jim Campbell, Dan Hill, Matt Pizzolo, and the team behind Black Mask Studios was a dream project that was the result of years of hard work and passion. It was the fifth story Sami and I worked on [and hopefully not the last] and this massive sci fi tale of a mother trying to get her dead son's DNA back from the disgusting hands of an absent, yet oppressive, ruler was a story both personal in nature and satisfying in the creative energy of it.
There were over 200 comics added to the Long List for this award, so to be in the top ~20 is a true honour. I don't know if we'll win - there is a very cool array of spectacular comics in the mix and I'd like to see a lot of them win, so I'll feel no displeasure in losing out.
If you're looking for some amazing Aussie comics content, hit up that short list, and also browse the Long List as there is a lot of good four colour entertainment that comes from the eclectic brains of this land down under.
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This did get me thinking about the nature of awards - and how I perceive them and connect to them.
Ultimately, they're so much fun to win. I won a Bronze Ledger Award [kinda like third place for the awards that became these CAAoA] and the Aurealis Award [a national Spec Fic award, with media categories, and only one winner], both for NEGATIVE SPACE, and it felt truly humbly to be recognised for the work we'd done.
In the subsequent 5 years, I've won no awards, sometimes even missing the Short List, and it's another kind of humbling. I know within myself, I want to win one more award, to know it wasn't a fluke, but I also don't mind all that much when I don't win. And I also also know that winning one more award will make me want to win one more after that, it’s turtles all the way down. “I just need one more publishing contract to confirm my existence.” “I just wanna sell 10k of a creator owned book now, then I’ll know I’ve made it.” I know all of this is silly, but it’s also the nuts and bolts of this kind of brain - you gotta learn to tread water around the sharks and with your head above water [sometimes].
Awards are crazy subjective - see this year's CAAoA and Aurealis lists for comics - there is *no* overlap between them at all. They looked at the same field and came up with very different results. In the end, it's just judges liking what they like, and no one can call them "Wrong" on that front. Ultimately, it’s great to see Aussie talent seen and recognised, and hopefully appreciated by a new/wider audience.
But if I can get just one more tchotchke for my shelf, I’d be stoked *fingers crossed*
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PERHAPS YOU'D CARE TO SAMPLE
I’ve been meaning to read some reviews and stuff about UNDER THE SKIN because that flick was wild, and I’d love to see the interpretation of it by smarter people that I. But I’ve not had a chance. Not a lot of scrolling and imbibing of late.
But I did re-find this newspaper clipping generator - which is always fun.
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GRIST FOR THE MILL
PARASITE - I’m nearly finished watching this film* and I’m really loving it. It feels like every single scene has purpose and drive, and it is so tightly constructed. I can’t wait to finish this, but I also think I’d dearly love to teach this. It’s got a whole lot to say, and it says it with class. I’ll save final analysis for seeing how it ends, I suppose.
* I only watch films in 30 minute batches. I put something on during my morning exercise time. This has replaced my podcast time then. I can do those in the car on the commute. It’s not the optimal way to watch most flicks, but it’s better than just missing out.
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Be one of the good guys, because there's way too many of the bad.
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POST CREDITS SEQUENCE
I’m currently sitting on two pretty amazing pitches.
I have not sent them out anywhere yet.
I do not have the bandwidth to deal with the whole Pitching Cement Mixer mindset I get spun into when pitching. I am writing a miniseries, prepping a book launch, and teaching with everything I’ve got.
So these two pitches remain sitting, waiting, until the time is right to fire. It means my momentum is glacial at times, but it means my mental health is also glacial [mostly solid, prone to bursts of melting].
I’d love to be in a spot to just shotgun out ideas, and write a bunch of stuff at once [and still be able to make it my best], but I’m not, so I’m acting like I’m not. What do they say - you gotta be good, fast, and nice. You can maybe skip one if the other two are on point, but that’s about it. Well…I’m not really that fast, and no one ever swerved across the road to call me nice, so I’m banking on aiming for one main one to get me across the line [and if I do a lot of work under the water, maybe they’ll think I’m fast, ha].
Anyway, I am sure excited to pitch these things though and hopefully make them real. Just proof there’s never an end goal to all this, no finish line, it’s just a marathon race where you aim to stay upright, but you hope to get into a groove.