Mike has been writing blog posts for Modern Myth’s (a fantastic game and comic shop) website for a few weeks now. He’s been focusing on indie comic reviews. I thought I’d share some of the links here. Enjoy!
I wanted to take a moment to say happy holidays to everyone out there who has been kind enough to pick up First Law and give it a read. We love telling this story and hope you enjoy it.
Mike and I got to hang out the other night when he was in town, which is always nice. I finally got to give him his birthday present; Daniel’s original art from First Law. It is AMAZING. Daniel is an incredible artist, as you can see in the comic, but getting to see the original paper that he worked on to create the pages was incredible. I’ll post photos soon.
On a family note, my dad has had a big beard for over thirty years. Ever since I was a kid I have said that all I want for Christmas is for my dad to shave his beard; you know, to see his face. Each year he said the same thing, “I’m not going to shave it. This beard is older than you are.” Well, yesterday, I got my wish. Why, you might ask? Because my dad is better than yours.
Happy Holidays!
Last year, Mike and I wrote a few stories in the New York Times Best-selling zombie WWII anthology FUBAR: Empire of the Rising Dead. It was really fun to take a break from writing an ongoing epic to do some horror shorts. I’m pleased to say that Jeff McComsey is back with the next volume of FUBAR. Help out on Kickstarter and get comics!
I don’t usually leave our booth at comic cons to get autographs. You have to wait in line and that’s time you could be talking to someone about your own comic. This weekend at the Baltimore Comic Con I had to go over and line up to meet Garth Ennis, one of my favorite writers. He was nice enough to sign an issue of Preacher for me. And yes, I framed it and put it on my wall.
Hey everyone. Just wanted you to know that this is the last week to pre-order FUBAR2: Empire Of The Rising Dead through your local comic shop.
FUBAR is an anthology of World War II zombie stories. The new volume focuses on the Pacific front of the war, and includes two stories written by Oliver and myself! We’ve also gotten a peak at some of the other stories in the book, and they are really astounding.
The whole thing is edited by Jeff McComsey, who also does the grayscales for First Law Of Mad Science. Jeff has rounded up some of the best indie-comics talent out there to fill the pages of FUBAR with some really incredible stuff. If you like war stories and/or zombies, you should definitely check it out.
The book’s Diamond order code is OCT110764. Oh, and when you’re telling your local retailer to get you a copy, you might also want to mention that for every three copies they order from Previews, they’ll get a fourth for free. Let’s get this book out there!
Anyone out there like Minecraft? Looking for a multiplayer server to join? Oliver and I have been running a little private server, and we’ve decided to invite any fans of First Law who’d like to join.
Only a couple of people have access at the moment, and we haven’t been online all that often (busy busy busy working on First Law #2!), but we’d love to grow the population of our little server.
If you’re interested in joining us, send us an email with your Minecraft username. We’ll add you to the server whitelist, and send you the address. Then you’ll be able to log in and mine, build, and craft with us to your heart’s content. Just stay out of my melon patch!
A few weeks back I attended the February NERD Comics meet-up in New York, hosted by Bree and Ami (of “Sex, Drugs, & June Cleaver” and “The Glass Urchin,” respectively), and attended by a group of NYC-area comic creator types. Good times!
Besides drinking and general carousing, there was a good deal of art-making going on as well, which has recently been posted to the NERD Comics site. After I had a few drinks in me, I embarrassingly decided to join in the fun. Thankfully, the jam comics format allows for some anonymity, but it isn’t too hard to pick out which contributions were mine: the images that look like drunken pencil scrawls from someone who clearly has good reason to have someone else draw his comic… those are my work.
Be very glad, First Law readers, that we have such talented artists to help us tell our story. I know I am. My own unsteady renderings clearly shouldn’t be inflicted on anyone! 
(All joking aside the meet-up was really a lot of fun, and I’m looking forward to the next one. Thanks, Bree & Ami!)
When we started this blog it was about half First Law related posts, and half posts full of mad science, crazy robots, and random musings on how we’re all living in a science fiction novel but haven’t realized it yet. I guess we’ve had a lot more First Law news to report on lately, which is definitely a good thing, but I miss the mad science!
With that in mind, here’s a whole bunch of madness that’s been littering my desktop, crying out to be shared: Continue reading
Got a surprise knock on my door from the mailman this morning, with a package for me. I wasn’t expecting anything, but got very excited when I saw “Jamie Noguchi” (the name of our amazing Issue #1 cover artist) on the return address. Could this be… yes! Cuuuute!
Puppy Cow! It’s a cute little puppy, with somewhat-unsettling cow udders. Puppy Cow definitely is, in Jamie’s own words, “really adorable, and kind of horrifying, all at the same time.”
I mean, look at this. Doesn’t this just make you go “awwwww,” and then “euuugghhh,” but probably then “awwwww” again?
Right now they’ve only gone out to Jamie’s Kickstarter backers (and, I believe, people who saw Jamie at Katsucon). Anyone else who wants to give one of these cute/creepy little guys a home should keep their eyes on the Puppy Cow Facebook page to find out when they’ll be available for sale online.
Puppy Cow is a superb example of what I love about Kickstarter. Last fall Jamie’s Kickstarter campaign raised over $4,800, which allowed him to take his wonderfully original–yet incredibly quirky and offbeat–idea, and turn it into an actual, high-quality, physical product.
And as guilty as I feel about the delay in getting our own Kickstarter rewards out the door, I’m reminded of how much fun it is to get something really cool in the mail, long after you’ve forgotten that you paid for it, which is another thing I love about Kickstarter.
Honestly, though, I’m also a bit embarrassed that, while Jamie’s funding campaign ended a few weeks after ours, he’s managed to get all his rewards out before us, despite having to get his product prototyped and manufactured halfway across the world! Ours are on their way, we swear! (Latest news on that front: Daniel has signed and shipped the comics to Oliver, who should be receiving them early this week. Hopefully we’ll have them out the door again to our backers by the end of the week.) In any case, Issue #2 should be mostly done by the time our next Kickstarter campaign closes, so we’ll definitely have faster turn-around on the rewards next time!
As I’ve said before, First Law isn’t a zombie comic. I love the stuff, though, and sometimes I just have to share.
This is really amazing. More “short film” than “game trailer,” and on those terms definitely one of the best zombie films I’ve seen in years, even it if is only three minutes long. Incredibly bleak and deeply affecting; so much so that when I tried to watch it a second time I got all teary-eyed and had to turn it off. Yes, it’s true: I’m a big cry baby. Nevertheless, this is just a fantastic bit of film-making; check it out:
No idea if the game will be any good, but they’ve definitely got my attention!
(via Rock Paper Shotgun)