The Double Debut of "Closer To The Sky"

I have good news to report. I received an email from Joe Pruett of Desperado Publishing who sincerely apologized for the mistake in the printing of "Closer To The Sky" in Negative Burn #13. He's certainly done everything possible to make it right. In fact, he will be reprinting the story in issue #16 (hopefully) in the correct sequence with a blurb about the original appearance's mistake. That was very gracious of Joe to do, and Jeremy and I really appreciate his willingness to make right a printing accident that sometimes will happen.

So, look out for Negative Burn #16 with a scheduled ship date sometime in December.

The Dubious Debut of "Closer To The Sky"

Our latest story, "Closer To The Sky," hit the stands this past Wednesday in Negative Burn #13. I was so excited as I went to the store to pick up the first issue. I hadn't receive my printer copies yet, so I was eager to see how it looked. We are featured as the lead story in this month's issue, and it looked wonderful. There was a HUGE problem, though. One of the pages was out of sequence -- almost turning the story into complete nonsense. The "pay-off" shot which is the last page of the story was printed as page 2 -- with all of the rest of the pages appearing in proper order. Disappointed is too weak a word for how I felt about that. It totally ruined the story and the joy of getting it printed. Once we knew we were going to be featured as the lead, we carefully planned out each page so that the end would appear on the left-hand side and you would have to turn the page to see the pay-off after reading the whole story. It really ruined everything. My only consolation as an artist is that the printing looks wonderful, and at least it gets my work out. I'm sure many readers or reviewers will be utterly confused.

The Black Coat Pin-up

Fresh from my meetings in Chicago, I've just completed a pin-up of The Black Coat for Ape Entertainment.

Back from Wizard World Chicago

The convention in Chicago was great fun again, though I might say, San Diego's convention being held just before has really been apparent this year and last with a lot of missing or less-than-full-steam booths of companies I was hoping would be well-represented. Hopefully, moving the Chicago convention to June next year should help alleviate some of that and bring some vibrancy back which has been lacking the last couple years.

That being said, I had a great three days. I was on Marvel's and DC's short-list of people getting portfolio reviews (one of around 25 for each company). It was my first year on DC's. I had great feedback from them and a number of the independent companies with whom I spoke. I should be getting a few chances at some gigs as a result.

It was good running into Shane White again this year. He's a really stellar artist who has produced some very fine independent work. Two years ago when I first met him in Artist's Alley, he had just release his "North Country" graphic novel. He's drawing a series now called "The Overman" which sees release in December, I believe. He always offers some great feedback and encouragement. He also gave me a good contact this year on which I'm following up.

Along with all of this, I have a new, short story by Jeremy Nichols to illustrate. It's called "West Side Man," but that's all I'm saying now.

This coming year is going to be a busy one. Stay tuned.

"Closer To The Sky" to be published

Closer To The Sky p10


Closer To The Sky p9


Closer To The Sky p8


Closer To The Sky p7


Closer To The Sky p6


Closer To The Sky p5


Closer To The Sky p4


Closer To The Sky p3


Closer To The Sky p2


Closer To The Sky p1

The pages shown on this and the previous post are from my and Jeremy's recently completed short story, "Closer To The Sky." In it, a girl and her family go mushroom hunting. The girl has bad luck at finding mushrooms but finds something much more interesting.

See it in Negative Burn #13 in stores in August. Negative Burn is a monthly anthology published by Desperado Publishing. We really appreciate Joe Pruett's support of our work and his willingness in publishing this story and our last one, "The Paradox Outlet," in Negative Burn.

Teaser page from upcoming story

Here is a teaser page from an upcoming story (written by Jeremy Nichols) I'm working on. The page is not retouched or ready for print. The art for the whole story isn't done, and I don't have a publishing date, yet. But, I'll post it as soon as I do.