TWO FISTED HOMEOPAPE May/09 - EVERFROST and BLACK BEACON Need You This Week!
A day early! So you can contact your LCS on a Sunday!
♫ I applied for a rescue dog,
But if I get you dog,
You're rescuing me ♫
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2021 -- beyond.
It’s time you had a chat with your LCS.
This week has two very important things going down straight outta RKL HQ:
EVERFROST #1 - FOC is Monday!
The Final Order Cutoff is the date where retailers lock in any tweaks to their orders, so you still have a chance of securing your copy for June 02, when we land on shelves.
Please tell your comic shop you want this comic preordered and waiting for you because then you are guaranteed it, and won’t be subject to possible sell outs on the day. Retailers tend to order less indie comics than they do the latest X-Event [I know, insane business model] and every preorder tells the shop it’s a winner, so they’re more likely to order an extra 1-2 for the shelf. Every preorder actively helps to move our initial sales much higher than just your 1 order. Here’s what you can say, or email:
“Hey [INSERT SHOP NAME, or employee name if you’re really something special], can I please preorder a comic, it looks amazing. It’s called EVERFROST, from Black Mask Studios, the order code is APR211533 - I’d like all 4 issues set aside, please.”
Yes, in fact, tell your shop you want all 4 issues, because this is a 4 issue mini, and you don’t wanna get started and then get shorted on future installments of this, trust me. Here’s a look at the first 2 covers from Sami Kivela:
And also…
BLACK BEACON is in Heavy Metal #306 - THIS WEEK!
I have a shelf debut this week, my sci fi collaboration with Sebastian Piriz lands this week in the pages of Heavy Metal Magazine - pick up #306 when it lands from Wednesday and find the opening 22 page chapter of BLACK BEACON!
This is a huuuuuge sci fi story, and we’ll be in the next 5 issues of the magazine. Here’s a look at the first page:
You can pick up a copy this week, or tell your LCS to put it aside for you while you are talking to them about EVERFROST :] The cover looks like this:
Or, if you really wanna commit: BLACK BEACON is also getting a single issue release later in the year, and the first issue is up for preorder, so you can tell your comic shop to preorder BLACK BEACON #1 for you, it’s from Heavy Metal, with order code MAY211491 - here’s the cover:
It’s a lot to remember - maybe keep this newsletter open while you have the chat, if you need the support. I am, if nothing else, always here for you.
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Everfrost Data Trawl.
I had previously sent out an online survey for people to fill in about whether they had preordered EVERFROST #1 yet and some of the responses were awesome, and deserved my own lines back to them, but seeing as I made it anonymous, you all get to join in the discourse now:
This is interesting because out of the 11 who said no, the reasons they gave were the inability of getting to an LCS, or them being digital readers or trade waiters. Only one person selected “This comic does not appeal to me, good sir” which is something I found heartening.
Heartening is a word right? Feels like a word to me.
My favourite aspect of this data was seeing 3 people called to action to do it this week - I hope they got the job done.
What made people preorder the comic? Mostly just people who want to support me and Sami, but one person said:
Big bang comics convinced me
And another said:
I want to ride the wild stallion of your vivid imagination.
Both valid responses. Glad to see a comic shop actively get themselves some sales on this one, way to go Big Bang, the finest shop in Ireland [nay, the world…?].
And for 2 people, EVERFROST will be their first RKL comic. And may something from above have mercy on their soul.
For those not preordering the comic: 4 are trade waiters, so full respect.
One person wanted to be certain I wasn’t going to just write 50 issues for the sake of it - I can guarantee them no publisher is allowing me to run that long, EVERFROST is 4 issues and then it closes, and when I close a story, I nail it shut.
Many others said they didn’t have an LCS, or only bought digitally, so I have a few links:
For Aussies without a shop - you can buy the comic and get a free bag & board on comicbookeroo
For US readers without a shop - Black Dragon Comics have it on their site, with free shipping on order $75+ - so maybe make a splash
Digital Readers - it’s not yet up on ComiXology, but Black Mask put theirs out on the date, so maybe stay tuned on there - here is the RKL page on ComiXology
Looking on ComiXology made me realise there’s a bunch of my older stuff there so you can browse and purchase if you like. Not everything is there, but it’s a start, perhaps.
My final question was - Is there anything else you need to get off your chest?
Here are the great responses, with answers:
“You work so hard and it’s consistently impressive. Also I’m wondering if you’ve gotten your bookshelf deer tattoo yet”
A: Thank you, and as for the book shelf tattoo - this was something I spoke about with a mate at a con once, it would be a tattoo of a bookshelf, and every time I wrote a new story I’d add a book spine, or a shelf trinket to represent that story. Like a bust of a deer head on the shelf for DEER EDITOR, etc.
Alas, I’ve still not got that tattoo, nor any tattoo related to my writing.
“Still patiently waiting for the Deer Editor collected edition! :)”
A: You and me both. There’s a plan in the chamber, and it’s looked upon from time to time, but the trigger is still yet to be squeezed.
“I really enjoy the newsletter and I’m going to pick up some of your earlier work. Good luck with Everfrost.”
A: Not a question - but I appreciate it because if something like a newsletter, or a Google Form, gets someone excited to read a comic, and then pushes them to dive through the back catalogue, then that also makes me excited as a reader [and really bloody thankful as a writer].
I still fondly remember when Duane Swierczynski took over writing duties on THE IMMORTAL IRON FIST after Aja/Fraction/Brubaker left and I was psyched and really dug his two arcs on the title, so I went through and found out he was also a crime novelist and I tracked down every one of his novels I could find, and found I really loved them, so now I own them all, and I’ve read nearly every single thing he’s ever written - including all of his old blog - and I’m a Swierczynski Fan For Life. That was nice to discover, and then follow along, basically because he got put on one of my favourite titles, and then he had a cool blog.
Writing is similar to reading in that both hope to engage with something passionately that exists between you and someone else - whether it’s you and a mate both reading the same comic and nerding out over it, or you reading the work of a creator you love - a lot of passion goes into this comics malarkey. I’m appreciative whenever someone meets me halfway.
To summarise, here’s the date list rundown:
Here’s the rundown, because the list is bigger now:
May 12 - HEAVY METAL #306 - sees the start of BLACK BEACON with me and Sebastian Piriz
June 02 - EVERFROST #1 lands - this miniseries starts here from me and Sami Kivela
June - HEAVY METAL #307 - the second chapter of BLACK BEACON lands in this issue, I assume, at this date
July 14 - EVERFROST #2 lands
July [insert number here] - BLACK BEACON starts to get a solo single issue release here, so if you missed the magazine, you can get our first chapter, with some back matter, right here.
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What else?
Surely this is all enough. Two series to preorder, with 3 single issues, and 1 magazine to choose from. You have your mission.
I’ll spend another week similar to this one - up at 4am, writing/editing some script pages, getting series ready to print, building weird worlds inside my head.
I actually sent a new pitch off this week to a publisher who had reached out to me about wanting to see what’s next, and it’s a story I’m dying to tell, so we’ll see what begins of this journey of shopping around my artistic soul.
I’m also about to hit the deadline crunch of writing semester reports for my students, so I’m sure that’ll take a big wet bite out of my time, but such is life.
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Oh, also, Patreon - script annotations.
For the month of June, to celebrate the release of EVERFROST #1, I’m going to release a page of script a day with annotations so you can see my thoughts behind writing this comic, and compare them to the pages as you read them, and that’ll give me a daily schedule for pretty much the whole month.
You can get in on this for just $1 for the whole month - sign up here and I’ll kick off June 01.
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ASD&D.
Wrapped up DMing for my mates - interesting to watch them work out interesting little things on the fly as the story/adventure unfolds. Sometimes little seeds have cool side effects.
I had them all trapped in a racist cop training facility, but they didn’t know it. So the goblins start emerging from this Goblin Production Line and they’re spouting all this shit that reinforces stereotypes about how terrible goblins are, and some of the players picked up that something was amiss, and started feeling bad about attacking the goblins, and it was cool to watch unfold.
They then found a safeword hack to get through a level which meant it would work on future levels and they completely bypassed this crime scene situation I had set up, which is funny because you can prepare all you want as a DM and you never know which way the players will swerve.
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PERHAPS YOU'D CARE TO SAMPLE
MUTINY Magazine #0 on Kickstarter - this comics magazine looks really bloody good. Like a new version of Wizard, but with more original comic content, from some awesome creators. Definitely worth checking out.
CUDDLES on Kickstarter - this crime one-shot comic is exceptional - I got an early look - and I cannot think of a reader I would not shove this into the hands of. Eagerly. Get in on the ground floor now.
THE 13TH LABOR on Kickstarter - a comic about Hercules, and the preview pages are pretty cool, check it.
MANDRILL P.I. on Kickstarter - a comic about an anthropomorphic character in a noir story. Yep, get down on it.
Great article on Worldbuilding - I love worldbuilding, but I hate exposition, and this article talks about blending that balance.
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GRIST FOR THE MILL
THE DOLLHOUSE FAMILY HC - discovered this other Hill House Book from DC and dove in because I’d heard good things, and I trust Joe Hill’s oversight judgement, and it’s pretty bloody good. A very dark tale, and the art looks like it came straight out of a 90s Vertigo title [that’s a compliment] and the production value on the cover and slipcase is just as gorgeous as it was on PLUNGE, which I bought at the start of the year.
Be one of the good guys, because there's way too many of the bad.
POST CREDITS SEQUENCE
Did anyone get my Aus Noir essay? I’ll wait and see because the deadline to get your Ownaindi receipts is tomorrow, and I’m sending this early to get people to speak to their LCS, so I’ll reconvene on the final total in a minute.
For now: you have your mission - tally ho to your LCS, and thank you [in advance].