SLIPSTREAM coming December 2012!

NOT AT SDCC ANNOUNCEMENT #1

So, I'm not at SDCC. To keep myself from being too depressed about it, I'm going to be announcing a few projects that I have, until now, kept hush-hush about. The first announcement is...

SLIPSTREAM: ORIGIN

You heard it here first - this is my first superhero comic, my first work with Big Dog Ink, and my first time playing in the Critter universe! For those unfamiliar with Critter, check out this brand new superhero universe from Big Dog Ink right here. Created by Tom Hutchison, the ongoing Critter series is the flagship title of Big Dog Ink, and it is putting the fun and adventure back into superhero comics.

Slipstream: Origin, written by me with art by the wonderful Owen Gieni, is the latest in a series of one-shot Critter spinoffs. It'll hit shelves in December 2012 (for those keeping up with the things that've been announced so far, that's the same month as Robyn Hood #4, Unannounced Project #3, and probably Super Unannounced Project #??). A cover will be coming soon but, until then, here is a Critter cover by Slipstream: Origin artist Owen Gieni.

Slipstream captures the same sense of fun that Critter embodies, but with a sci-fi twist. I won't spoil anything, but when I started plotting the comic, I was inspired by how much freedom Tom was letting me have with Slipstream, so I decided to make the comic about Slipstream building herself up from nothing and becoming the hero that we see in the monthly Critter title. It's completely standalone, but I hope it'll make folks eager to read more of Slipstream's adventures, because that character has been in my head for a while now.

--

Now, because I'm a fan of hearing about the writing process, I'll give a bit of background on how this comic came to be. It's funny that I'm announcing this in my Not at SDCC blog, because this tale proves how important it is for freelancers to go to cons. I met Tom Hutchison at NYCC 2011. I had only had one comic published at that point (Angel: Yearbook at IDW), but my work on Zenescope's Grimm Fairy Tales Holiday Edition 2011had already been solicited. Wanting to showcase my first work in the industry, I made a business card that had my contact info and little images featuring cover art from my soon-to-be-published comics. I found the Big Dog Ink booth, and was fascinated by their titles. I gave Tom my business card, and he recognized the Grimm Fairy Tales comic on it - funny sidebar, Zenescope editor and all around great dude Raven Gregory was checking out the booth too, and heard us talking about GFT. So I met Tom and Raven at the same time! Anyway, I asked Tom if I could pitch stories to him, read up on Critter, and wrote some ideas for one-shot stories. Tom dug Slipstream, and the rest is history. Moral of the story? Cons are important. If you can go, go. I hope to see you at NYCC 2012, and surely SDCC 2013.

More tomorrow!

-

PATRICK SHAND writes ROBYN HOOD, GRIMM FAIRY TALES, 1000 WAYS TO DIE, and more for Zenescope. He has written ANGEL for IDW, SLIPSTREAM for Big Dog Ink, and short stories published in various anthologies by Pill Hill Press, Rainstorm Press, and Wicked East Press. His plays have been produced in Manhattan and he currently teaches screenwriting and scriptwriting at Five Towns College.

I'm Writing ROBYN HOOD for Zenescope!

So here it is. The big news I've been teasing for a while and, really, the coolest thing I've done in my career thus far. I am writing Zenescope Entertainment's new flagship series, ROBYN HOOD. I've been plotting and chatting about this with Raven Gregory for a while now, so it feels good to finally be able to let the world know! More will be revealed this week as we continue to tease, but this series encompasses everything I love about comics and I can't wait for you all to read it.

I promise all you Robin Hood fans out there, while this is clearly a new take, I'm as into the original ballads as any English major can be. Hell, when we're able to reveal the title of the first issue, I think you'll be assured that the Robber in the Hood is in good hands.

TEASERS HERE:

http://www.newsarama.com/comics/zenescope-robyn-hood-teasers.html

"Just" Work for Hire

I went back and forth about whether or not I'd actually write this post, but I think it's pretty important. I've been lucky enough in my career in comics to meet a bunch of awesome and talented people, and I'm grateful for that. I read a comic today that made me pretty mad, though, and it made me decide to write a post about an experience I had with the writer of said book at this past New York Comic Con.

This writer is a really well-known creator of a bunch of wonderful indie books. Books I love. When NYCC rolled around, though, his latest release was the first issue of a series he'd written for a company owned property. I still respect and love the guy's work, so I won't give anymore than that. Anyway, I walked up to his booth, did the whole "nice to meet you" thing, and told him how much I loved his first issue of _________.

He looked at me as if I'd just said "Would you like a bite of this shit sandwich, good sir? I made it myself. Just now."

Nervous that I'd somehow walked up to the wrong table, I laughed and said, "You... you did write that book, right?"

He nodded and said, "Yeah, but it was just work for hire. Did it a while ago. I guess they're putting it out now."

Flabbergasted and a bit put off, I nodded, talked with him for a minute or two more, bought one of his other books, and left. Hoping he was just having an off day, I went online and searched to see if he had posted anything about having written this book. Annnd he did. He did an interview that talked about that book and another property he was writing (one that I love). In this interview, his response was dismissive of the interviewer's question and he even reiterated that both of these projects were work for hire, so that the devout fans shouldn't expect much.

...What.

I was let down that a creator I respect would say this about any work of his, much less work that I enjoyed. And as his just-work-for-hire series went on, I noticed the drop in quality every issue. As it went on, the levels of shits not given increased exponentially, climaxing in the final issue, which I got around to reading today.

And here's my thoughts. Some pretty cool blog recently described me as an "up-and-coming comics writer" so I'll go with that. My first gig was my dream gig... Angel. Working in a world that Joss Whedon, my writerly hero, created was more than I could have hoped for - but I only had two pages with which to tell my story. I made those two pages the best damn two pages I was capable of. And after that, did I fulfill my second dream of doing a Supergirl/Stephanie Brown/Stargirl team book? Naw, I got some work for hire. I've been writing comics for Zenescope ever since and, yeah, it's work for hire, but there is no "just" in the equation. I was offered a shot at writing a good portion of their 1000 Ways to Die graphic novel. I'd never seen the show, but you can bet I watched every episode I could before I went to script.

Point is this... if you, as a writer or artist or actor or whatever, can't find it in yourself to care about what you're writing, then don't write it. Just don't write it. I am the last person to say "never write for money" because, let's face it, that's an inherently flawed piece of advice to give to writers. If you're a Career Writer, what you're doing is attempting to make a living out of writing - you write for money. The dangerous thing is when you start looking at work for hire as a "just" instead of a privilege and a challenge to live up to. Thing is, there are hundreds of other hungry, talented writers out there who would love to get their hands on the book you are currently not giving a shit about.

And so help you if you give a fan a weird look for saying they like your work, even if it's something you just pulled out of your ass for a check. The day I do that is the day I stop writing.

BLOOD PONG: six page preview of my new creator owned comic

Hey all. So, one more post to celebrate Creator Owned Day! Here's a six page preview of my creator owned comic, BLOOD PONG. Frustrated with the modern depiction of vampires as romantic creatures, CHAD and JOHN, two vampires who spend their days playing beer pong with blood, hit the town with a video camera. They’ve decided to make their own reality/horror movie that gives vampires back their badassery.

Open publication - Free publishing - More blood pong

The art is by the wonderful Ian McGinty (co-creator). We've been pitching it around, so it would be great to get any thoughts or reactions.,

Creator Owned graphic novel: THOMASINA'S HUMAN ZOO (preview)

Happy Creator Owned Day! To celebrate, I'm going to post two previews for upcoming creator owned graphic novels. First, here's a 2-page sneak peak at THOMASINA'S HUMAN ZOO, an all-ages graphic novel created by me and Sarah 'Pickles' Dill!

Open publication - Free publishing - More animals

THOMASINA is a work in progress and will be pitched to various publishers this summer. Leave comments and feedback, please!

My 2011 - A Retrospect

So, less than seven hours, 2011 will be over. It was... well, it was a strange one. It was the best year of my life in some ways, the worst in others. As I'm writing this, I'm trying to place how I feel about this year as my fiancee's cats run around the apartment, smashing into blinds, chewing on shoes, bouncing off the bed... and no, they're not even on catnip. They're just wonderfully strange.

I'm leaving this year with a lot more than I had last year. I have twelve publications to my name now, when last year I had... well, none. I have what appears to be a beard growing on my face, which makes me feel more like a writer than any of those publications. I have a fiancee. I have a bit more confidence that I'm going to be able to "make it" as a writer (lame as the phrase "make it" is), and a good deal more frustration that I haven't already.

WORK

At this time last year, I was working at Borders and preparing to teach a class at Five Towns College. I stayed at Borders until the bittersweet end in September, when the store closed its doors for good. I'll never really be able to articulate how much I miss Borders... not only my friends there, but the store as a whole. It has been my favorite store since I was eight or nine, and it's left a hole in the book industry that won't easily be filled. But yeah... I do miss all my wonderful co-workers.

And that sexy, sexy discount.

While I was day-jobbing it at Borders, I also worked as an adjunct professor at Five Towns. That's still going on. I teach Screenwriting and Script Writing classes in the spring semester and two Script Writing units in the Fall. Though the list of prose novels that I read this year is literally 1/5th of what I'd conquered last year, I think I read more this year than ever before... because the thing about being a writing professor is that you've got a hell of a lot of screenplays to read through multiple drafts. It was enlightening, rewarding, frustrating, and beautiful to see students grow as writers in my class, and it showed me that maybe I do have a future in teaching. I always thought of my career as "write or nothing." But now, I think I may have to amend that to "writing and..." I'm proud of the classes that I taught, and I'm excited to see what I can improve for next semester.

A student of mine drew this fine example of a storyboard

featuring yours truly

When Borders closed, though, I knew I needed another day job. I applied at all sorts of places until I was finally hired at Barnes and Noble. The pay was the lowest I've ever taken, and it was seasonal, but it was something. It turned out being the worst job I've ever had, but that came to an end today. They called me into the office on Wednesday and informed me that, as of January 1st, none of the seasonal employees (myself and two other really cool people) would be brought back. "You," they told me, "will be the first we call if we need someone to cover a shift!" Then, they expected me to work as scheduled New Years Eve, even though they failed to give me more than three days notice that I'd no longer be employed there. It's this marginalization of employees, seasonal or otherwise, that makes me look back and appreciate my other jobs, no matter how little they paid or how long they lasted. Even McDonalds is shiny in comparison.

But as of today, that's the past. It's behind me, and I already have a job interview lined up. I hope that the days I'll need to have day jobs are numbered, but until I can support myself with no assistance on writing and teaching, I'm going to keep workin' em.

A side note, just because I think everyone needs to know. Westley, a very large cat, is currently swatting at the chair, poking my butt in order to get attention. He's very important, after all.

Clearly

COMICS

Angel: Yearbook. Cover by David Messina.

In May, my dream came true. I wrote for Joss Whedon's Angel. My story, "My Only Friend," (illustrated by Stephen Mooney) was included in IDW's final installment of their five year long run on the title, Angel: Yearbook. I owe thanks to Chris Ryall, Scott Tipton, Stephen Mooney (of course), Dan Roth, and Mariah Huehner for making that dream come to beautiful fruition.

It was also great to see the story reprinted in the massive Angel: The End hardcover (pictured above), with a beautiful cover by Jenny Frison.

Grimm Fairy Tales Holiday Edition 2011. Cover by Stjepan Sejic.

Determined to use my story as a stepping stone to a career in comics, I contacted Zenescope Entertainment and have since worked with editor Ralph Tedesco on a number of projects. My first release with Zenescope hit shelves a week and a half ago. I wrote the 2011 Holiday Edition of their flagship title, Grimm Fairy Tales from a plot by Ralph Tedesco, based on Dickens' A Christmas Carol. I'm incredibly proud of how it came out.

Double page spread from GFT: Holiday 2011. Art by Anthony Spay.

I got to work with a handful of wonderful artists, who brought out the sweetness and the horror in this story in big ways.

I also wrote five stories for their 1000 Ways to Die graphic novel, which should come out a few weeks into 2012.

I spent a lot of 2011 pitching, making connections, and assembling teams for creator owned projects. I'm working on more than ten pitches for graphic novels and comic books right now, and I hope to see a few of them released next year. I'm confident in the work I've been creating, more so than ever - and I'm thrilled to be working with such brilliant, brilliant artists.

Page from Blood Pong #1. Art by Ian McGinty.

Promo art for PLAYGROUND, an original graphic novel

with art by Matt Roscetti.

SHORT STORIES

2011 was the year of the short story for me. Between May and August, I wrote about two stories every week. I am currently recycling a bunch of these ideas into comic book projects, so more people will be able to see them, but I loved working with small presses such as Pill Hill Press, Rainstorm Press, and May December Publications on these strange pieces of prose. I really let loose and played with bigger ideas that I've always wanted to tackle in some way, and I think a lot of them came out really nicely. There are a few glaring typos, some from editors and some from me, in the earliest of the volumes, but that simply makes me want to be more attentive to the mechanics of proofreading.

I already have another short story set for publication next year, but I'll talk about that a bit closer to the release date.

PLAYS

A good chunk of my year was spent with the lovely folks of the Amios Company. I wrote six short plays for Shotz, their monthly festival of short plays, and a thirty minute play called Rosary which was performed five times in December for their LongShotz event.

From Rosary (Jennifer Le Blance, Alanna Wilson). Photography by Gregg Le Blanc.

There is really nothing like seeing your work performed live by people more talented than you can begin to imagine. I love all of these actors and directors, and look forward to another very Shotzy year.

Game Face, a play I co-created with Tanya Everett and Clinton Lowe, received a staged reading on my birthday. It had a few bumps, but it showed me that all of those bumps are worth working with people as creative and talented and badass as Tanya and Clinton. To the future.

OTHER

I wrote - get this - literary critique. I know, right? Weird. Five of my academic articles are going to be published in Joss Whedon: The Complete Companion: the TV Series, the Movies, the Comic Books, and More: The Essential Guide to the Whedonverse. I've never been in a book with so many colons, but I'm excited to branch out into (completely) uncharted territory in my writing. I hope to do more of this kind of work in 2012, because... well, it was a lot more fun writing scholarly articles than I could have imagined. Maybe I'm itchin' to be an English student again, who knows?

Also, I wrote the index for Brian Cogan's upcoming book, Deconstructing South Park. More info on that when it comes out. It has the sweetest index you've ever not read, I promise.

FILM

Sadly, my film company Stinky Burger Productions called it quits this year. Steve Wisnowski (President) and I are still planning on releasing our feature film, Besiegement! next year (now that we're able to edit it again), but SBP will no longer produce short films. Perhaps, in the future, there will be something else down the line. But for now... it was a good ride.

I wrote a short film called The Sucker for director Katie Carman (Eat Me, Off Season). I like describing it as "American Beauty with the chupacabra." Hopefully, in a few months, you'll see what I'm talking about.

LIFE

Had some good times with friends. Took my girlfriend to Mohonk, the most beautiful place in the world. Got engaged. Fell deeper in love. Spent a lot of time with my favorite person. Witnessed a miracle. Read some really, really good comics (here's looking at you, The Saga of the Swamp Thing, Nick Spencer, and Scott Snyder). Discovered a really, really good author (hi, Patrick Rothfuss). Opening up my own checking account. Opened up a joint savings account. Again, grew a beard.

Erica took this picture of me

before answering the question.

Thanks to everyone who enjoyed this year with me. Thanks to Erica. Thanks to my mom, dad, and the rest of my family. Thanks to Chris, Antwon, Charlotte, Rachel, Brian, Steve, Jenna, Kristina, and everyone else I saw on Christmas eve. Thanks to Tanya and Clinton. Thanks to Kibibi, a wonderfully talented woman who was unfortunately taken from us just a few days ago. Thanks to Scott, Brian, Mooney, Ryall, Jay, Ralph Tedesco, Suzanne Robb, Brian Cogan, Pill Hill Press, Rainstorm Press, May December Publications, the BiblioBabes, and everyone else who helped elevate my career. Thanks to Ian McGinty, Matt Roscetti, Jon Roscetti, Mike Hamlett, and everyone else I'm developing creator owned properties with. Thanks to Massey. Thanks to all of my students who put in the effort to learn, as well as those that pushed me to be better. Thanks to Rob Hille, Alanna Wilson, Jennifer Le Blanc, Zach Evenson, Kristy Powers, Mike Fulvio, Christian Haines, and everyone else who brought Shotz and LongShotz to life. Thanks to the cutest cats in the world, Cleese, Deanna, Westley, and Dagny. Thanks to Shannon, Ian, Sean, and... yeah, getting lazy, thanks to everyone who worked at Borders. Thanks to Scott Snyder, Nick Spencer, and Alan Moore - the work of these three writers pushed me to push myself this year. Thanks to everyone who made me think, made me love, and made me work. If I forgot your name, it's because I'm tired and anxious to spend New Years Eve the best way possible... doing absolutely nothing.

NEXT YEAR

I want to write more than I wrote this year. I want to publish more than I published this year. I want to spend time with more people that I love, I want to keep falling more and more in love with Erica, I want to exercise, I want to lose weight, and I want to try new things. I want to get a book deal. I want to create. And, as lame as resolutions can be, I'm going to start working on these tomorrow morning.

Happy New Year.

My GRIMM comic in stores 12/21!

Grimm Fairy Tales Holiday 2011 - Cover B by Stjepan Sejic

I'm a bit of a sap. I've always loved holiday specials. I think it may have started with the episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer where Angel, taunted by the ghosts of those he has murdered, attempts to end his life. It was a powerful episode, that simultaneously embraced the tropes of the "holiday special" while also flying in the face of stereotypical holiday cheer. Roswell also did Christmas episodes really well.

I guess it was only a matter of time before I tried my hands at a holiday special.

Cover A by Mike Debalfo

In a bit less than two weeks, my issue of Grimm Fairy Tales hits the shelves of comic books everywhere. For those who are unfamiliar with the series, Grimm Fairy Tales is the long-running flagship title of Zenescope Entertainment. The series and its many spin-offs are populated with rich characters that play roles in an intricate mythology that incorporates the realms of Myst (essentially Fairie Land), Oz, Wonderland, Neverland, and Earth.

I wrote this year's giant sized holiday special, which features some of the Grimm characters in very interesting roles. It's a horror comic, and we really go for the scares... but it's also one of the most romantic things I've written.

Page 14. Art by Reno Maniquis.

Here's the solicit: Zenescope presents a very special Grimm Fairy Tales version of a Christmas Carol. Sela puts her own spin on the classic holiday tale while trying to teach a future princess of Myst a valuable lesson.

You can pre-order the comic here, or simply visit your local comic shop on Wednesday, 12/21. It's been incredibly exciting working on this book, and I think the story came out cool. Let me know if you agree!

Upcoming Pat Shandery

Hey all. I promise there will be some original content here as soon as I catch up on grading and whatnot. Whatnot being the eleven creator-owned comic book proposals that I'm working on - mostly because I'm crazy. For now, here's a bunch of stuff that's either out or coming out soon that you might find some me-ness in.

COMICS

Angel: The End

This is a biiiiig hardcover that collects all of IDW's final Angel stories. It has the entire Bill Willingham run, all of the Eddie Hope back-ups by Bill Williams, the David Tischman/Mariah Huehner final arc, and all of the ANGEL: YEARBOOK stories. That means that this recollects my story Angel: My Only Friend, which was illustrated by the brilliant Stephen Mooney. It's up at Amazon for almost half price now!

ORDER here.

Grimm Fairy Tales: Holiday Edition 2011 - COVER A

COVER B

I wrote this giant sized issue off of an outline by GFT creator Ralph Tedesco. It's a modern take on "A Christmas Carol" and it's completely new-reader friendly.

ORDER: Cover A and Cover B.

1000 Ways to Die - graphic novel

This is a big collection of stories based on the show from Spike TV. I wrote five of the stories in this graphic novel, all off of outlines provided by Spike. It's very true to the show, but it adds a lot of stuff that could only be done in comics.

ORDER here.

PROSE

Big Book of New Short Horror

Includes my short story The Dick, the Wife, and the Pen.

ORDER in hardcover or softcover here: http://www.pillhillpress.com/shoppe-anthologies.html

31 Nights of Halloween

Includes two flash-fiction stories that I wrote (The Ghost of Gertrude Garvey and A Pity Party of Monstrous Proportions).

ORDER from Amazon here.

Halloween Frights - Volume One

Includes my short story Kids Playing Monster. I'm partial to this one, as it's a very long story and ended up feeling a hell of a lot more like a novella than a short. I'm proud of this one, so even with Halloween about to pass... I'd definitely encourage checking this one out.

ORDER here: http://www.pillhillpress.com/shoppe-anthologies.html

Zero

Includes my short story The Morning Show Host.

ORDER from Amazon here.

Told You So: An Anthology of Conspiracy

Includes my short story Gordon Macduff is Just a Man.

ORDER here: http://www.pillhillpress.com/shoppe-anthologies.html

The Undead that Saved Christmas: Vampire Edition

Includes my short story Not Many Vampires, which introduces my character Winter... something I have been waiting for the right moment to do. My story includes an illustration by the amazing Rachel Dukes.

COMING SOON from Rainstorm Press.

A Hacked-Up Holiday Massacre

Includes my short story Face, which is my first go at straight horror. Just finished copy-editing my story for this one, and it turned out pretty damn creepy.

COMING SOON from Pill Hill Press.

Thanks to everyone for supporting me, working with me, and buying stuff. To those who didn't buy stuff, I'm watching you. It's Halloween. Be afraid. Mwahhahahaa...

Supernatural Caledonia #1 review, Mystic #3 review, Static Shock #2 review

Comic Book Wednesday

Issue #21

Part One (of Two)

Before I get to my reviews, give me a minute to geek out. I went to my local comic shop this morning (Cosmic Comics in Oceanside, NY) and saw the new PREVIEWS book. Naturally, I did what any pretentious comic writer would do. I picked it up to see if it had anything I'd written was featured inside.

I defy you with my Super Work Boots!

Sure enough, my two Zenescope comics coming out in December were solicited. Check it out! My Grimm Fairy Tales: Holiday Special 2011 book is on the left. On the bottom right, Zenescope has featured my upcoming 1000 Ways to Die graphic novel.

Clicky.

For those interested in orders these, they're on pages 336 and 337 of this month's PREVIEWS, and they'll be in store December 2011. If you like this blog, if you like comics, if you like me, if you like gingers, or if you like (insert something that you like right here - doesn't matter if it's relevant), these books are for you!

Now that that utterly shameless self-promotion is out of the way... let's get to the reviews.

Supernatural: Caledonia #1

The Dogs of Edinburgh - Part 1 of 2

Written by Brian Wood

Art by Grant Bond

DC Comics

I was wondering where this series had been hiding.

DC's Wildstorm imprint had been publishing Supernatural comics pretty steadily for a while. They mostly focused on John Winchester, telling tales set before the TV series. Most of the stories were straight horror, which evoked a similar feel to the first season. Thing about Supernatural, though, is that it's the most improved series on television. It started as a pretty straight-faced horror anthology show, but had developed into an epic story of two brothers looking destiny in the face and saying "Screw you." It's currently one of the funniest, most engaging, and daring shows on TV. While the comic was always entertaining, it never really lived up to the incredibly high standard the show set.

Until now.

Fans of the show should be warned, though, that the comic is still not much like the show in tone. It takes place before the series, but this time it focuses on Sam Winchester. Thing is, I like that its tone is different from the show. The comic managed to snag acclaimed comic book writer Brian Wood for the scripts, and it's clear from this issue that Wood is more interested in building atmosphere, character, and the emotion than he is in the action in which the older comics reveled. The plot is simple: Sam Winchester goes to Edinburgh, Scotland on a university trip and ends up meeting Emma, a fellow hunter (Scot's call 'em "breakers"), who shows him around. There's a wonderful scene with a ghostly funeral procession, but it's more atmospheric and romantic than creepy... and I think that's wonderful.

Brian Wood and Grant Bond (the incredible artist, who does pencils, inks, and colors for this issue) are telling a daringly different Supernatural story... and if you watch the show, isn't that what the writers are all about?

Can't recommend this highly enough to fans of the show, Brian Wood, or just comics readers. It's completely new-reader-friendly, and just really, really rocks. I'd love for this to become an on-going.

Mystic #3

Written by G. Willow Wilson

Pencils by David Lopez

CrossGen Comics

Either I love magic in an academic setting (The Name of the Wind and Harry Potter FTW), or this series is quality storytelling. I'm thinking the latter.

Mystic is one of the best comics on the shelves. For the past three months, I've enjoyed the hell out of this funny and compelling story that's different from everything on the shelves. There has been a lot of talk about the misrepresentation of women in comics recently (particularly but not limited to superhero comics), and I think Mystic is just the antidote for that. The leads are two young women that read like - you won't believe this - actual young women. These are characters that you want to root for, that you can sympathize with, and that manage to be pretty and appealing without even coming close to being objectified.

Enough about comic book politics in a post-Red Hood and the Outlaws word, though. This is just a damn good story by an excellent writer and an excellent artist that should be at the top of your pull list. The final page made me hunger for next month's issue, but it also made me a bit sad. The words "to be concluded" are at the bottom. #4 will be the final installment. I hope that another storyline follows this one, and that the G. Willow Wilson & David Lopez team comes back to give us more of these characters and this world.

Static Shock #2

Disarmed

Written by Scott McDaniel and John Rozum

Art by Scott McDaniel

DC Comics

I found the first issue of Static Shock to be one of the best of the New 52. The second issue doesn't quite live up to that, but it was still a fun read. The dialogue is weak in parts, though, which wasn't an issue in the first installment. A scene where Static talks to himself for an entire page, soliloquy style, was pretty painful - it would've been fine if those were thought captions, but it just makes Static appear to be a mouth for the writer's exposition.

The plot develops nicely, though, as the Slate Gang races to kill Static for their bosses. And we also get a very cool surprise appearance of the Joker and a strange, and maybe promising development with Static's sister. It's a very busy book with a lot of action and a break-neck pace, but I think the dialogue in general could've done with a good brush up. That aside, though, I look forward to the next issue. I read that co-writer John Rozum left the series, but I wonder how much of these he wrote and who will take over the writerly reigns.

Anyway, this was a good read, Static is a great protagonist, the villains are fun, and the action is top notch. I hope this book makes it in the long-run, because Static is one of the coolest heroes to come out of DC.

-

Thanks for reading, all! Catch you tomorrow.

TOMORROW: Action Comics, Detective Comics, Batwing.

GRIMM Solicitation

The updated solicitation for my issue of GRIMM FAIRY TALES just came out.

Check it out here:

http://www.comicscontinuum.com/stories/1109/30/zenescopedec.htm

GRIMM FAIRY TALES PRESENTS 2011 HOLIDAY SPECIAL

Written by Ralph Tedesco, Patrick Shand, art by TBD, covers by Mike DeBalfo, Stjepan Sejic.

Zenescope brings readers an incredible re-telling of the infamous Holiday story: A Christmas Carol! When a spoiled and selfish Hollywood actress crosses the line of bad behavior on Christmas Eve, Sela intervenes to teach her a lesson she soon won't forget!

48 pages, $5.99.

Writing Grimm Fairy Tales for Zenescope

Hey all. Big news!

A while back, I teased that I got a big comics job. The covers came out yesterday, so it seems that I can talk about it. I'm writing the 2011 Holiday Special of Zenescope Entertainment's GRIMM FAIRY TALES comic. The series has been running for 60+ issues, and is one of the longest running comics not being published by Marvel or DC. I'm thrilled to have written for these wonderful characters.

The solicitation information hasn't been updated (the credits and the plot description are wrong), but just look at those covers below. I am so, so excited for this. It should be out in mid December this year. You can order from the site below site or pre-order at your local comic shop.

Two different versions of the comic will be released. One with this painted cover:

Which you can pre-order here.

And here's the other cover, which is a bit more playful.

Which you can pre-order here.

For those interested, GRIMM FAIRY TALES is a horror comic that began as a series of modern retellings of the classic fairy tales. However, the series ended up developing its own mythology, building its own world, and creating an long, epic story arc.

My story, told in this 42 page comic, tells a very modern version of "A Christmas Carol." It's super fun to riff off of Dickens' work, as I was an English major in college, but the best part was writing for the characters in this series. Sela, the lead character, is outright kick-ass.

Be sure to pre-order from TFAW. They have it discounted.

I love the universe and am eager to work on more of their books, so let's make this book a big hit!

I hope you guys dig this!

PLAYGROUND - concept art

Concept art by Matt Roscetti for our graphic novel PLAYGROUND.

This image is from a pitch for an all ages graphic novel I'm putting together with Matt Roscetti. It's called PLAYGROUND.

PLAYGROUND

When Marshall, a ten-year-old boy who feels rejected by his peers, discovers a magical jungle gym, he ends up steering it into a strange dimension and gets involved in a battle against a big jerk of a tyrant.

This strange land is a mish-mash of every fantasy world in fiction. You’ve got the sword & sorcery stuff of Tolkien, the talking animals of Lewis, the futuristic villains of Blade Runner, gods and goddesses running around like Percy Jackson, and flying penguins because that’s just fun.

The flying penguin is Cornell Terrance Gilbert (yes, his name pays homage to my buddy Dwayne Gilbert - had to immortalize it man!).

The big guy is Genglore, the Big Bad.

And our lead character, Marshall, is getting ready to kick some bad guy butt.

I'm working with another Roscetti on a very different pitch. Jon Roscetti and I are putting together. You can check out his art here. Or hell, you can search the floor of NYCC and find me, Matt, or Jon and ask us about anything.