National Graphic Novel Writing Month

Well to day is November 1st and when I was online checking out Heavyink.com I saw a tab on the site titled 'NaGraNoWriMo'. I gave it a click and read some of the threads there. Please go and check it out yourself too. By the way Heavyink.com is a great online store and its where I buy all my comics now. Anyway, basically this is about writing a graphic novel or illustrating pages or doing 3 individual issues. Basically its a take on National Novel Writing Month. It's about getting out there and putting on the pressure to yourself to produce and have fun.

So for me I'm going to use this as my starting point on getting back on top of The Venger: Dead Man Rising. The special is almost done and needs a few finishing touches. I'm going to get that done first. Then it will be some serious script revisions for issue #3 of the main series and working with the artist on getting that on track and complete.

I have been busy in my personal and professional life for a while now. And that busyness has really sandbagged this book. I need to fix that. And I will.

The Avengers trailer is LIVE

Well the first full trailer for the Avengers movie debuted online today. It has almost everything you could imagine in there- hints on the real villain, a great glimpse of all the guys in action and of course the obligatory fight scene between Cap and Thor! Obviously like so many other comics fans I am dying for May 12 2012 to get here. Everyone- Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Hawkeye, Nick Fury and Black Widow- looks great!

Captain America Movie Trailer

Here's the newest movie trailer for Captain America: The First Avenger showing in previews this weekend.

Red Skull!

After seeing a quick glimpse of him during the Captain America mini-trailer during the Super Bowl we finally get a full reveal. Marvel released a fantastic shot of Hugo Weeving as the Red Skull in the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly. A fantastic design that I am sure will look even better in the film.

And the Winner Is...

Last year The Venger: Dead Man Rising was nominated for the Eagle Award for Favorite American Black and White Comic Book Series. Well because of my extended absence from the blog I never got a chance to update on the award.

The winners of the awards were announced on October 29 at the London MCM Expo, a fantastic comic book-movie-fantasy convention; sort of the British SDCC. Not surprisingly, The Walking Dead took the award in the category. And a well deserved win I might add.

I said before and truly believe that for me personally just having my book The Venger: Dead Man Rising included with all the other nominees was 'it' for me. Thanks to all our fans who helped put us on the ballot. Hopefully we can do it again!

What Looks Good

Another quick post from me; but hey it's a start to regular blog updating! Anyway as I said in the previous post I have been 'away' from working on Venger for a bit. I have still been trying to keep up on what's happening in comics and with working on my semi-regular column at Comics Bulletin called What Looks Good. My latest column was published this week with me sharing my picks for the week's new releases and my thoughts on some industry trends. Please go and check it out, it's a great site with some fantastic stories.

Captain America: First Avenger movie trailer

Yes I know I've been away from this blog for what seems like forever. I apologize. I actually have been away from working on Venger all that time too. I'll post again soon and go into it some more. Right now I wanted to post about the fantastic trailer for the Captain America movie Marvel Studios ran during the Super Bowl. Wow, I can't wait.

The Venger: Deadly Beginnings UPDATE 2

As promised here are the final versions of those two pages from Deadly Beginnings I've been previewing. We've already seen the original penciled pages by Jun Joe Monares. And I recently posted the inked version of those pages by Scott Shriver. So today we get the final version with the great toning also done by Scott.

All the pages for this story are now done and complete. The files have been sent to the letterer and Stephen is in the process of finishing that work. I have really enjoyed working with Jun and Scott on these two stories for the Venger Special. I'm hoping that we will be able to continue the team onto more projects in the future.

The Venger: Deadly Beginnings UPDATE

SDCC is still in full effect. The amount of announcements and news items coming out from the con is crazy. You really can't keep up with everything and I don't see how the publishers in attendance think they will be able to build any traction on their news. As soon as they make an announcement the news cycle is already focused on the next publisher or panel. I think the best shot for the most publicity is to make the announcement at SDCC and then follow up with some more details the week after. Still lots of good clips from Tron: Legacy and Young Justice among others. I have to say I'm most curious so far about the Batman Inc. book from Grant Morrison.

I've continued working on the Venger Special. I just went over some preliminary book designs with Stephen as well as approved the lettering on the 'Crossfire' story. Jun has done the final revisions on the last page for 'Deadly Beginnings'. I've already sent that over to Scott for inks and toning and then when Scott is done that goes to Stephen too for lettering.

I previously posted some of Jun's pencils for 'Deadly Beginnings' and today I have Scott's inked versions.

The Venger on MyEbook.com

Well with all the talk of digital downloads of comics and the Apple iPad being the future of the industry I've been looking for ways to get Venger involved in it too. As a small self-publisher it is important for me to find as many ways as I can to get The Venger: Dead Man Rising out there and in front of people. It all falls on me. So far I have the Venger available through DriveThruComics.com and also for Amazon's Kindle as well.

Now I've added another site to get Venger downloads. You can go to Myebook.com and now download digital copies of both issues of The Venger: Dead Man Rising. This is a wonderful site that has thousands of ebooks available, including hundreds of comics and graphic novels. Please check it out and pass it on to any friends that might be interested in digital comics. And check out the rest of the blog for more information about the comic book too.

The Venger: Deadly Beginnings

Hey everyone. It's been a busy few weeks of writing for me. I posted another What Looks Good column at ComicsBulletin.com so if you get a chance to check that out please do. I also finished the script for The Venger: Crossfire and sent that to the letterer. And finally I finished- I think- the edits of  The Venger vs the Wolfman story. I still need to send those to Barri for his opinion.

Anyway now that the writing update is done I thought I would post some new artwork. These pages are from another story from the Venger Special- The Venger: Deadly Beginnings. The whole creative team from the Black Mercy story has returned to work on this very important story in 'Venger continuity', meaning more fantastic artwork from Jun and Scott. In this story we will get the first part of the origin of the original Venger. Here's a look at two of the penciled pages.

Batman: City of Scars

There's a great Batman fanflick doing the rounds right now that I just had to blog about. Batman: City of Scars was created by Bat in The Sun Productions which is the team behind another excellent fanflick Patient J. Batman: City of Scars packs so much into its 37 minutes it is amazing. Deeply rooted in the comics version of the character it explores the psychology behind the Batman and the twisted relationship between him and a truly maniacal Joker.

Also be sure to check out the rest of the blog for more updates of  The Venger: Dead Man Rising. I have other movie clips and I'll also be posting some new artwork later this week.

The Venger vs the Wolfman UPDATE 2

Another quick update for you guys. I've been doing some rewrites on The Venger Vs the Wolfman story that will be appearing in the Venger Special. Barri has done a great job with the plot and anything I do is just some polishing and making sure it matches with established continuity. Also more illustrations for the story keep coming in as well. Here's the latest which is the finished version of one I have previously posted ...

Venger vs Wolfman illustration by Eleonora Korsatz

A Venger Classic

I came across this picture while going through some older Venger folders. This cool pic was created by John West, the colorist for the first issues of The Venger: Dead Man Rising. He wanted to throw together a quick piece that would have Black Mercy and the new Venger in it. I do love what he came up with. As to the Venger series well work is still going on issue 3 and the Venger Special. I've been revising scripts while the art teams are doing their thing. I've also been trying to outline a few more stories featuring other members of the cast. Hopefully I'll finish them and have more info on creative teams soon.

Just a reminder for anyone who hasn't gone and voted in the Eagle Awards. Again as I posted earlier The Venger: Dead Man Rising has been nominated for the 2010 Eagle Award for Favorite American Black and White Comic Book. Please go to the link and vote if you haven't already.