Free Elk’s Run!

Over at Popthought you can win yourself a free copy of the Elk's Run Bumper Edition. Click the link and win. It's almost that simple.

Housecleaning

Woof. Today was "Take care of lingering shit" day. Got the H&B site nice and updated, just about squared away Elk's Run #5 to go to the printer, got a long awaited check, so that I could actually pay some bills, and got most of my invoicing for the week done. I even managed to finally get my writers portfolio squared away (for a last minute possible job.) I've got about four projects percolating, artists already in place on two, and then the other two are still being formulated. I spent a helluva long time prepping Ritual Homicide, and thanks to the whole "story of the book coming true" it was nixed. I'm dying to work with the artist, (the sensational Chris Burnham). My good buddy Gary and I have dueling Post-Apocalypse projects we're developing seperately, so I get to have fun "Well, when I get to blow up the world," conversations at least once a week.

Also, got my first look at the finished Dillinger, by James Patrick, which is in Previews next month, and which I edited. It turned out really nicely and I recommend you all give it an order. I'll post its order number when I get a chance.

Been giving a lot of thought to the realities of publishing lately. The fact is the comic industry is in shambles, despite some record sales for the big boys, things haven't looked much grimmer for us on the bottom in a long time. I'm in this strange place where the critical acclaim keeps on coming (although Randy Lander manages to actually match my sentiments on the first 3 issues of the book pretty well right here), but the book remains pretty much unchanged in terms of sales. The Bumper Edition seems to have been purchased almost exclusively by our fans who were already on board, and god damn to I love you guys for buying it.

Here's the thing, I can't think of any other medium that relies so heavily on its fans getting the word out. Comics... I mean, seriously, how many times have you been in a shop and some guy says, "You should check this out, its awesome," and bam. You're done. You try it, you love it. It all comes down to this Lion King-esque circle of life. If you love it, and want it to stick around, all you can do is shout from the treetops that you love it, and hope for the best.

Anyways, back to work.

Buzzscope Names Elk’s Run One of 2005’s best…

Buzzscope EIC Guy LeCharles Gonzalezr gives Elk's Run the distinction of being of his personal favorite top ten books of 2005. Go! Comment! Spread the word!

The Fused! Tales Artists Round Table

Click Here to Read it All including some details on my story with Nick Stakal.

Nick: Well, I kinda got two bonuses from this project. First, like you mentioned, it was pretty sweet to get a stab at doing Fused!. It's cool that BOOM! was eager to work with newer, less established, talent. And the second, wasn't working with Steve (since he didn't write the tale I drew) but working with Josh Fialkov, who did. I've known Josh for a little bit now, and I'd done some stuff for his Western Tales of Terror comic with other writers, but not with him. It was great to finally get to work on something together.

Elk’s Run #6 — In Previews Now!

Cover and Preview Art Below. Click Images for Full Size. Diamond Order #DEC05 3188

PLEASE PRE-ORDER, we really need the help.

Comic World News & Mark Fossen Do Elk’s Run Giveaways!

Right Here you can win a free copy of the Elk's Run Bumper, courtesy of the fantastic Comic World News and the wonderfully talented Michael May. Check it out, and make sure to fish around the site for some of the great articles the make up their archives.

AND... Here super-blogger Mark Fossen is ALSO giving away a bumper and some of the individual issues. ELK'S RUN ACTIVISM! GO!

Comic Book Galaxy on ER Bumper…

Click here for the full review...

I missed out on Elk's Run #1-3 in the original floppy editions published by Hoarse and Buggy in 2004. But, judging by Joshua Fialkov's letter to his readers (printed on the final page of this collection), Elk's Run flew under the radar of most comic book readers, so I'm not alone. But, again like most of those who have finally become aware of the existence of Elk's Run, I'm pleased to have finally discovered it, and dismayed that such a quality piece of work has eluded the attention of so many readers thus far. So far, Elk's Run has delivered the goods - characters to care about, a great story that keeps the pages turning, artwork that draws the reader into that story, and colouring that sets the mood beautifully.

Screenplayin’

I've been working on this screenplay for about three months now. Got up around page 50 or so and then realized why it was taking so long. I made a choice on around page 16 that was wrong. The whole thing just unravelled because of it, and I kept trying to spin it into something that it wasn't. So, tonight I finally sucked it up and chucked it, starting over from right before the bad choice. So, after spending the better part of the day screenwriting, I'm reminded of one of the other reasons I stopped. It's tremendously hard for me to write without wanting to direct. I have it all in my head, down to minute details, and I just... burn to direct it. I directed a feature I wrote in college, and it was... well, an experience. The final product turned out okay (Chris Arundel once told me there's a great fifteen minute movie in that hour and a half, and he's right), but, I think it was at least partly due to scripting problems. I'm semi-confident that with a tight enough script I could pull off a pretty cool movie.

But, unfortunately, that's not the track I took. Directing is a road that I hope I get to walk down at some point again, it's rewarding in a very different way than writing, although it can be comprable to comics.

I mean, that's the thing, Comics is the closest thing to a true auteur medium we have any more. Even when working with an artist, you can have the same control as a director in terms of pacing, camera placement, and narrative flow, you just end up trusting in the artist as cinematographer.

Where that analogy falls apart is that a lot of times your artist brings a LOT more than just cinematography. I find myself looking at Noel's pages and being inspired to take the story in different directions, heading down different avenues of emotion, and truly collaborating.

Still, I miss wearing a head set and baseball cap and telling people what to do.

Tonight’s Tony Scott Film Festival Includes…

Click Here to Buy It

AND

Click Here to Buy It

Both of which Dina hasn't seen. There's a certain charm to the man's films that you just can't deny. His movies manage to be dynamic and have some pretty sophisticated storytelling despite a whole lot of cliche and formulaic plot devices. The Hunger, for me, represents him at his rawest, making something passionate and, for the time, pretty damn controversial. That he would so soon go on to make Top Gun, easily one of the definitive traditional action films of all time, which even twenty years later still holds up as a good time, is a tribute to the man.

Oh, and anyone still holding any "Josh is pretentious" notions, be aware: Enemy of the State remains one of my favorite modern action films.

Spy Game's still a piece of shit, though.

More Strange Los Angeles Bugs and Gastropods!

Found this son of a bitch crawling on our front porch. Biggest damn slug I've ever seen. Enjoy his sexy photo spread.

ER 4 First Look Review at The Comics Review

Click Here To Read the Rest

Congratulations. You’ve just won a prize. If you’ve bought previous issues of Elk’s Run, or if you’re thinking about picking up the Bumper Edition (that collects issues #1-3) and/or issue #4, then you’ve already won. You’ve laid down a pittance, only $3 dollars, for the mother of all cupie dolls—something to pat yourself on the back for, because you took the chance; and now you’ve brought home something more valuable than what you put on the line. Your money doesn’t come easy. You worked hard for it. So, congratulate yourself.

And, while you’re at it, congratulate Joshua Hale Fialkov, Noel Tuazon and Scott Keating, for being the barkers of a shell game, where the only slight-of-hand is in the end product, rather than your investment. It’s a no lose situation.

Elk’s Run — Update

To the left is a page of pencils from Elk's Run 6, No Spoilers, so click, and enjoy the brilliance of Noel.

So, Issue 7 is written. It came out of me in two days of intense scripting, and I think it's about the best thing I've ever written. It's a fucking whirlwind of action, so much so, that I'm actually suprised. I'd always envisioned issue 7 as a bridge between 6 and 8, but, instead it took on it's own life. This is me letting go. J-Rod's going to have a lot of cleaning up to do on it, but, it's easily the tightest (and one of the shortest, it's right at 22 pages) scripts I've ever written.

I'll be honest. Elk's Run is a schizophrenic book. It's partly due to my creative procss, and partly due to the construct of how the book's set up. The shifting POV's mean that I can't tell a linear story, no matter how much I want to. The device was picked as a way to present the story in an interesting way and set it apart from the rest of the art in it's medium. That thought process went all the way down into our artist choices in Noel and Keating, and into how Jaco letters the book. Every issue has a unique feel, and I think that's part of what people identify with in the book. This ISN'T just another indie book, and certainly not one of a sea of superhero lit.

That's what I'll be proudest of. I think the book has managed to tell a story that appeals to both sides of the fence (even if neither side has really adopted it as it's own.) I think, and maybe I'm crazy, that that's what you have to do in order to make something that lasts and has meaning in this industry. The unfortunate reality is that the most sophisticated and daring pieces of comic literature are generally ignored till after the fact.

This is much more pompous than I mean it to be. The fact is, I love this book. Dearly. At the end of each script I feel like I've given birth. I'm more than a little sad to know that in under a month, there's a distinct possibility that I'll never write these characters again... But, I think that at the end of it all, there'll be a pretty outstanding book made by a bunch of people who love it more than a sane person should.

Through all the financial problems, low orders, and general malaise the book's received with the comic reading public, we have a dedicated fanbase who 'get it.' So, whenever I read about things like, ahem, "Apocalypse vs. Dracula" coming from Marvel or a 300 part crossover epic that will 'Break the internet in half,' it heartends me to know that there's still an audience for comics like mine.

So, in short. Thanks for the love and for letting the book exist. I promise not to disappoint you.

And, if we do... it's totally j-Rod's fault.

Falling Behind

Fell a bit behind on the Novel this weekend, because I have to finish Elk's Run #7. I'm about 1/2 way through it and should wrap it up today, and then try to crank out another thousand or so words on the novel. The novel, while definitely draining a lot of my time, has been pretty isnpirational. It's made me come to terms with what can only be seen as my own laziness in other writing with not getting them done. Cause, if I can do these massive sprawling chunks of text, I have no excuse for not finishing a 22 page comic script containing less words than a single chapter of the novel.

Anyways, Chapter 5 of the novel went up today, hopefully, Chapter 6 by the end of the day.

Preaching Veronica Mars

Holy. Fucking. Shit.

Just finished season 1 on DVD. Far and away one of the best seasons of television every created. This is St. Elsewhere good. Hill Street Blues good. The Shield good.

Literally every single episode weave together to tell a massively rich tapestry of a murder-mystery, with enough laughs and suspense to keep you going. Superb acting, directing, and writing merge to form THE best show on TV.

That this show is buried by running against Lost (which while also quite excellent, pales in comparison.)

There's a reason that Joss Whedon is doing a guest spot on the show. This is the show Buffy and Angel both aspired to be. The perfect melding of episodic telelvision and serialized story telling. In one season of the show, creator Rob Thomas has managed to create something as sprawling and brilliantly constructed as Whedon managed to do with 7 seasons of Buffy and 5 seasons of Angel.

This show IS the real deal. It's an outstanding acheivement in storytelling and massive leap forward for the medium. Yes. It IS that good. It's NOT hyperbole.

Do yourself a favor, pick up the DVD's. Then, start to watch the show. UPN, in what little wisdom they've shown with the show are doing replays on Sunday afternoons, so you don't have to give up Lost. But, just watch the first season, and I bet you'll make the same choice I have.

Veronica Mars, Wednesday Nights 9pm, on UPN.

Click on the image to order the DVD's from Amazon.

Millarworld Magazine on Elk’s Run

Read it here

"The Elk’s Run Bumper Edition is a collection of the first three issues of Elk’s Run, an independent comic book with too much press and not enough sales. This trade paperback is designed to bring new readers to a sagging miniseries that should be at the top of the independent charts.

Written by Joshua Hale Fialkov and illustrated by Noel Tuazon, Elk’s Run is one of those rare stories that appears every few years that changes how the medium is looked at. It’s not the best book on the market—though it’s pretty close to it—but Elk’s Run is a uniquely told story deserving of every amount of praise it has received."

Picture060.jpg

Picture060.jpg Originally uploaded by Joshua Hale Fialkov.

Picture059.jpg

Picture059.jpg Originally uploaded by Joshua Hale Fialkov.

Woof.

This whole novel writing thing is god damn exhausting. I'm about 1/9th done right now, which in theory is god, as I'll have an extra couple of days to finish off as needed. I have a general idea of how the story goes, but I like sort of free-wheeling it as I have been. Anyways, the third chapter will be up shortly. Keep an eye out.

Requiem for a Boxer

Ron Phillips is also participating in NaNoWriMo and he gave me much love today. How can I not return it? He's doing some really nice work, his prose has a smoothness to it that I'm yet to find. Give it a read. And, while you're at it here's a few of my other friends taking part:

http://nanowrimo.jasonrodriguez.com/ http://everydayanomaly.blogspot.com/ http://www.craigmaloof.com/lifewithoutregard/

I’m writing a novel….

For National Novel Writing Month Gonna give it the old college try at least. Anyways, it's sort of a Man of Mystery Dime Store Novel thing, and you can click on the image on the left of this post, or on the NaNoWriMo Icon on the sidebar to check in. Should be updating each chapter every day, so give it a readsie. There'll be an additional chapter done today, I think, as I'm in the grove. Please, let me know what you guys think. I can use all the cheering i can get.

Oh, and friend and editor Jason Rodriguez is writing one too. It's in fact entirely his fault that I'm doing this. So blame him.