Et Scripsi Super Murus

It's 2013! Wow, time is flying. A lot's been going on, and there's a lot still to come.

Before we get too crazy about things to come though, I wanted to share about what's going on.

#1. Rue

Rue is a stand-alone graphic novel I co-wrote with Marcel Losada, James Ninness, and Joe Pezzula. This book originally came about because we wanted to have something to showcase our work at conventions. We were going to partner up with Forbidden Panel to put out a book and create some buzz. They are some good people and the collaborative effort of comic book-making is all about networking and so it was win-win.

Or so we thought. After we crafted our spaghetti-western inspired story, the artist dropped the project because he felt some of the content went against his religious beliefs. The violence was okay, but he had a problem with (*spoiler/disclaimer alert) nudity. I know, I know, it seems hypocritical. But consider that one of the most heinous and torturous forms of capital punishment ever invented has become the most famous religious icon in the world. Nailing a person to a board and watching them suffocate to death? Awesome! Let's wear a picture of that around our necks. Boobies? Keep those sinful images away!

Sorry. Rant's over. And I want to be clear that the people at Forbidden Panel are awesome, and I'd totally work with them. Just not with that artist. That bridge was burned.

Anyway. So we lost the artist and missed the opportunity to get our book out for conventions. But we felt we'd crafted a fun revenge story and didn't want to give up on it. So we decided to produce it ourselves.

Enter Scott Irwin. We found him through a different project we're working on (more on that in a few weeks), and realized he was perfect. So we put our heads together, scraped up some funds to pay him, and got thirty great pages of story.
Then Shannon Forrey put together the design of the book and Ben Glibert took care of the lettering, and now the book is done and available.

Yep. I said available. We decided against printing the book and instead made it available digitally. It saved our butts on production costs and also allowed it to be available to readers for $1.50.
James was already putting together his website to sell his own books, and graciously offered to host our group project as well.
I'm proud of this book. Do yourself a favor a pick-up Rue.

#2. The Get Up

Some of you may remember, a little less than a year ago, a kickstarter campaign for this series. It's a four-issue comic book written by me, James, Joe, and Marcel with art by Chris Burkheart, ink washes by James Hiralez, design by Shannon, and letters by Ben.

Well, the kickstarter was successful and we got the pitch done.

The Get Up is a fun sci-fi romp across the universe and it's still looking for a home. Hopefully as the year goes on I'll have some good news about it.

I really want to share this story with you.




#3 Con Jure

Con Jure is another book I really hope I get to share with you. Our kickstarter for The Get Up was successful enough that we were able to put together the funds to pitch this book as well. The usual suspects all worked on this book, but the art this time the artist is the incredibly talented Joel Gomez.

Joel knocked it out of the park. We wanted to do a crime book set in a world as contemporary as the real one, except that the driving force behind technology was magic instead of science. (Con Jure, get it? Because in Latin it means "against the law" and it's a crime book with magic and oh nevermind)

The pitch for this book is done as well, and we're hoping to find a home for this gritty four-issue story soon as well. I'll keep you posted. Trust me.