Issue #6 (of 9) of IN MAPS & LEGENDS and Issue #7 (of 9) of IN MAPS & LEGENDS are out now!

The last few months have been a bit hectic, so apologies for missing an update! In May I shared a table at TCAF, and it was great to meet everyone. A few people who stopped by remembered IN MAPS & LEGENDS from our Zuda run, which was great! Thanks to all who stopped by.

For the rest of May, I spent almost three weeks traveling through China and doing research for a graphic novel I’m hoping to get published. It was a beautiful, but very sobering trip.

And while I was gone, issue 6 of IN MAPS & LEGENDS was released! I came back and immediately set to work on meeting our deadline for issue 7, which came out at the beginning of July. So now you can catch up and grab the two issues from your favorite digital comics distributor! Let us know what you think. Each issue is 22 full color pages for only $.99.

In issue 6, Kait gets lost on a world she can’t map — with a man she can’t comprehend and a boy she can’t protect — while her old friends and new allies scatter across the ravaged world of Stryla.

Issue 7: All maps lead to one place on the dying world of Stryla: Balasander’s Crest, an active volcano at the top of the world. And that’s where Kait and her friends, old and new, must travel, though the price they must pay at the Crest may be too high for any of them to bear.

We’re on both Kindle and Nook (in both English and German!), or you can read it on the web or download a PDF. And, of course, we’re still on Comixology and other iOS (or Android!) apps. Buy it once, read it anywhere.

One of our distributors, Graphicly, has a new site, and on it you can sign up to read IN MAPS & LEGENDS and other comics using only your Facebook account! One step easier. The site also comes with embedding capabilities, like you can see below:

Now you can share comics anywhere you can embed a youtube video!

I also started a new monthly spotlight on IM&L’s site blog. You can see this month’s entry here: Recommended Digital Comics – July 2011. Since the beginning, I’ve highlighted a few digital comics each month, but I decided to expand that into full blog posts to provide more info to visitors looking for information on what’s out there and what formats are available. Let me know if there are any digital comics you think deserve a spotlight!

I’m sad to announce that ZudaComics.com, DC Comics’ web comic imprint, is no more. The publisher has folded Zuda into its digital publishing plans with Comixology, and, due to a number of reasons, none of the most recent series (any from the last year or so) are making the transition. This unfortunately means that IN MAPS & LEGENDS and a number of other great comics have ceased serializing.

A lot of Zuda fans saw this coming when the site shut down the monthly competitions earlier this year and it was clear changes were coming. That in itself was a big loss; every month readers had been presented with a ten new comics to vote on in a huge variety of styles– stories written in haiku, drawn with crayon, drawing manga or superheroes or cartoons, all by the most international group of creators around. But the change bodes well for the future of the surviving Zuda comics, I think; the pages are practically made to fit the screens of iPads and tablets, and the new App-driven releases are great for hooking readers.

Here are a few interviews with Ron Perazza, VP of Creative Services at DC Comics (and as such, head of Zuda), about the site’s transition:
Newsarama
Robot 6
Multiversity

We were only able to be serialized for a few short months, but the experience was great and our readers were amazing. We’ll miss having an open forum for your comments, but hopefully Michael Jasper and I will be able to find IN MAPS & LEGENDS a new home soon, so check back for more! You can also join our Facebook group for updates.

Last November, readers at DC Comics’ web imprint Zuda.com rallied and voted for IN MAPS & LEGENDS, written by Michael Jasper and drawn by myself. Now, I’m very happy to say that our winning webcomic has officially launched “season one”! Screen 9 is now up on the website– be sure to try “full view” for the complete, immersive effect.

In the six months between competition and launch, we’ve recieved 15,000 more views and 100 more favorites, and we’re hoping for those numbers to grow much faster now that we’ll be updating every Thursday for the next year! For weekly reminders of the new pages, be sure to subscribe to the IN MAPS & LEGENDS RSS feed. We also keep our Facebook page updated with behind the scenes art and more.

We’ve got magic, mystery, some airships and more coming up in the next few weeks. Spread the word and step into the world(s) of maps & legends…

March already?

Still no sequential art I can show, but I’ve been doing a few covers for small presses as freelance.

I’m deep into the first bit of SOME DID REST at the moment, inking the second half of the chapter and prepping files. It seems like script revisions never end, and I’m just lucky that the ones I’m thinking about right now won’t result in what I’ve drawn so far going into the trash. My days are spent hunched over my lightbox, drawing rubble…

Things are coming together for IN MAPS & LEGENDS, though I still don’t have anything I’m allowed to share. Soon, though! I’ve even tricked collaborator Mike Jasper into doing a few pages of thumbnails. Poor guy doesn’t realize he’s been swindled into doing the least enjoyable part of comics for me~ ;) We’re both eager to move forward with the story.

Fellow Cleveland Institute of Art grad and comics guy Kevin Czapiewski is teaching a continuing education class called The Art of Comics right now at CIA, and he recently asked me if I was interested in stopping by and getting involved. He’s got a great curriculum planned, and those who sign up go through the process of building a comic from a script and series of thumbnails all the way to a finished story.

I’m hoping to help out with next week’s session, where Kevin’s talking about how time can be portrayed in sequential art. He plans on teaching the class again during the summer, so I’ll be sure to post more info when I have it so anyone local can take a look. Who says Cleveland doesn’t have a comics scene?

And while you’re at it, take a look at Kevin’s long-scrolling webcomic, SPOILERS! We’re both what you get when you combine fine arts majors with a love of comics.

I also recently did an extensive update to the list of literary agents who represent graphic novels, going through it to fix links and remove names of those who are no longer in the business– as well as adding a few agents. So take a look if you’ve got a graphic novel ready to query. (But please– I’m not an agent! Queries that come to me don’t get you anywhere!)

It’s been a crazy winter. I spent a wonderful three weeks in Germany, visiting friends and family, and, most importantly, getting married. :) It was the perfect way to cool down from the crazy ride that was the Zuda competition.

Speaking of which, things have started moving with IN MAPS & LEGENDS! Writer Michael Jasper is hard at work on the script for season 1, and we’re waiting to hear back from our editor about the path we want to take MAPS down. I’ve started doing sketches of the new characters that will be introduced in the upcoming pages, one of whom you can see to the right. He may be old and crotchety, but he’s good at what he does… We hope to launch the first season within a few months.

I’ve also been hard at work on SOME DID REST. I just finished some major script revisions, and I hope to start on the sample chapter’s art for the pitch soon. I really want this book to go places. For now, I’m keeping it tightly under wraps.

IN MAPS & LEGENDS is the November 2009 Zuda.com Winner!

Thank you to everyone for your support– for signing up and voting, faving, rating and spreading the word! And most of all for reading it and enjoying it. We couldn’t have done it without you. :)

So what does this mean? Well, writer Michael Jasper and I have won a contract to start serializing MAPS on the Zuda website! We’ll probably spend a bit of time telling the editors where we plan on taking it, and in a few months new pages should start rolling out. IN MAPS & LEGENDS will still be free to read and enjoy online (and if it’s successful enough with Zuda readers, maybe someday we’ll have a print copy available for you too. ;))

It’s the last week of the November Zuda competition, so if you’re interested in voting for IN MAPS & LEGENDS, now is the time to take a look!

Remember, vote, rate, fave and let us know what you think. :) I threw together a new sketch of Kait this morning as some extra encouragement.

November’s been a crazy month, with a lot of support pouring in from all over. Mike and I have done a couple in-depth interviews about the Zuda process and IN MAPS & LEGENDS.

Robot 6: Zudist Colony- Talking with November’s Zuda Contestants
Hypergeek: An Interview with Michael Jasper & Niki Smith

And a new review:
MPD57: In Maps & Legends

I’ve been keeping busy with projects outside of Zuda too. The script for SOME DID REST is in the early stages of revisions, and I recently went to the launch party for Faber Castell’s new line of coloring books, which I was invited to be a part of this spring. My book is out on Amazon now, so pick up a copy for any horse-loving kids you may know.

I’ve also updated the list of literary agents who represent graphic novels, so if you’re trying to get your comic published, be sure to take a look. There are a handful of new agencies, and almost all of them are open to queries.

Remember, vote, rate and fave! If the Zuda site confuses you, it’s all cleared up here.

The ZUDA.com competition is still running, and if you haven’t had the time to take a look, please do! IN MAPS & LEGENDS is only a short 8 pages, with the potential for a sprawling ride ahead– but only if we win! You’ve got until the end of November to make your vote count.

Maps play a big part in this story, with the most prominent one carved into the walls of Kait’s apartment… so I put together a quick promotional pin-up of our lead girl, tools in hand.

Here are some of the great reviews of IN MAPS & LEGENDS so far:
Hypergeek Endorses In Maps & Legends
Art Sequential
The Left Films Blog

Week two of the competition is underway, and so far IN MAPS & LEGENDS has survived two rankings updates. There’s still close to three weeks left to vote, however, so we could easily be shaken off our rather precarious perch. If you haven’t already, click your way over to the comic’s Zuda page and sign up & vote!

If you’re confused, I put together a visual guide to the Zuda site. Think of it as a map. ;)

Don’t forget: Vote, Rate, Fave and Comment! We’d love to hear what you think.

A few months ago, I posted that I was hard at work on a collaboration with a fellow author, Michael Jasper. A few days ago, we got an email saying that our short comic, IN MAPS AND LEGENDS, has been chosen to take part in Zuda.com, a competition run by the mighty DC Comics!

Now, what’s our story about?

Kait doesn’t know why she gets up in the middle of the night to carve a map onto the wall of the spare room of her apartment. Before she can finish it, though, a strange man named Bartamus shows up at her place in the middle of a wintry night, claiming to be from another, dying world that desperately needs Kait’s help.

If Mike and I come in first place in this contest, we’ll be given a contract to continue the story. We’ve already got our foot in the door, getting this far, but at this point it’s up to voters (and anyone they can pass it on to) to get us to #1.

So if you want to help, please CLICK HERE for instructions on voting!

Other links to check out:
My collaborator’s announcement of the news on his blog.
Become a Facebook fan of IN MAPS & LEGENDS!

I’ve been taking a break from writing Some Did Rest recently to work on a few shorter projects, samples of which you can see to the left and below! Maps & Legends is 8 pages, full-color, and is part of a collaboration with author Michael Jasper. We’re revisiting a book he wrote and adapting it to visual form; as you can tell from the title, maps play a large part in the story, and portraying them has been a fun challenge. Hopefully I’ll have an update about Maps & Legends’ future soon! Mike has some great ideas about where the story will go.

I also finished up a short submission for a comics anthology. Best Erotic Comics is true to its name: an annual anthology out from Last Gasp. I had a short story in this year’s BEC 2009. The book just got a great review from Carnal Nation, and it has short comics from a lot of great artists: Alison Bechdel, Gilbert Hernandez, and others. So pick it up if it’s your kind of thing! The short story I just submitted is titled In Winter, and is only three pages. I’ll update with any news about whether it will be in next year’s edition when I find out. I love doing short comics because of the freedom they allow– I’m always playing with different styles and figuring out what works best for the story I’m drawing.

Now, though, I’m ready to focus. Some Did Rest needs a finished script (and I’m dying to figure out the look of the pages and send it out into the world). And then… who knows? I’ve got another YA idea floating around in the back of my head that might get some attention when I’m done.