Happy New Year, Everybody… albeit a little late!
I was away for a personal vacation over the Holidays and then of course, vacations mean playing catch-up when you get back so I’ve been tied up for a few weeks once again. Here, though, is an update on what’s been on my drawing table the last few weeks…
Just before my vacation, I had to wrap up TWO major projects that absolutely had to be completed before I could leave. First was my end of the DIE KITTY DIE Free Comic Book Day story that will appear this May in Chapterhouse Comics’ FCBD Captain Canuck special. I’ve talked about this before but just to refresh you here… Die Kitty Die has been a pretty good hit for Chapterhouse so they invited Dan Parent and myself to contribute an all-new original story to their FCBD special. We of course jumped at the opportunity. We co-wrote an original eight page story in which our favorite redheaded witch, Kitty, meets several other Chapterhouse characters like Freya from Rossi Gifford’s beautifully illustrated Spirit Leaves, the Human Lizard and Mother Wonder from one of my personal favorites, The Pitiful Human Lizard, and a few others. Art-wise, Dan and I have split up the drawing with each of us pencilling four pages a piece. The great Rich Koslowski is on hand to ink and the talented Glenn Whitmore is coloring. There’s a little preview of a couple of my panels up above.
Because of the firm deadline of Free Comic Book Day, there’s not much room to play with the schedule on a project like this so I absolutely had to finish my pages before I left on vacation and fortunately, I was able to do so. Die Kitty Die isn’t my only Free Comic Book Day project this year. Not only did I have to wrap up these Kitty pages, but as I’ve mentioned before, I also had to wrap up the Animal Jam Free Comic Book Day Special for Dynamite. This is a twenty page original story featuring Animal Jam that I am writing, pencilling and inking. This too needed to be completed before my vacation. Luckily, the Kubert School, where I teach three days a week had closed for their Christmas break so that freed me up a little. It was still a few mighty long days but I was also able to wrap this one up before I left. I’m really very anxious to the colored pages. I believe… I’m not sure so forgive me if I get this wrong… but I believe that the great Pete Pantazis will be coloring. He did a beautiful job on the cover so I’m VERY encouraged and excited to see what he does with the interiors. I’ll definitely post updates and sneak peaks as soon as I’m able. In the meantime, here we can revisit Pete’s beautiful colors on the cover:
Both of these jobs are done and out of the way so what’s next?
Since I’ve gotten back, I’ve been working on a couple of big projects. First of course there is the NEW Die Kitty Die project Die Kitty Die: Hollywood Or Bust. Dan and I are hard at work on this latest Kitty epic and we hope to have the first issue available digitally by the end of January 2017. Then we’re looking to put out an issue a month through April. Then we’ll have the hardcover collection with bonus material available during the Summer of 2017. Keep checking back here for more Kitty news and previews.
Aside from new Kitty, there is more Animal Jam ahead too! Right now I’m working on writing and drawing a new Animal Jam series for Dynamite. I’m not sure yet if it will be a three or four issue series but I will be writing a story in each issue and handling all of the pencilling and inking. Its been a fun property to work on. I hope everyone will dig it.
I also have another story for Pixie Trix Comix’s Eerie Cuties webcomic coming. To my eternal shame, I’ve taken forever to finish this story but I swear I could wrap it up in an afternoon. This week I’m going to try to seize that afternoon somewhere. It’s disgraceful that I’ve taken so long to wrap this one up and Pixie’s founder, my pal, Gisele Lagace, has been an absolute saint in her patience with me. Check out Gisele’s incredible stable of her Pixie Trix webcomics here:
Its been a happily busy time. I’m hammering out this year’s convention schedule so I’ll be posting that to my Events page soon. Please keep checking back there.
Thanks for tuning in and please leave comments below. I have to check in here daily to clean out all the spam anyway, so I promise I’ll respond to you. Comment and share!
