24-Hour Comic Book Day Status Update 2: Electric Bugaloo

Just over the halfway point in terms of story development, as I've got 12 pages scripted and penciled, and I've created a very nice little device to hold together what has rapidly become a series of vignettes. I don't know if that's cheating a bit, since they aren't technically “a story,” but it's going to be 24 pages of comics, and they'll be written in a day, and the device will hold them together to be debatably one larger story. I'm getting tired and hungry and have lost much faith that the book will be fully inked by the end of the day, but inking and lettering are less of a concern because if it's written and penciled, I'm not going to back out of the inking and lettering. So all I have to do is lay it out and script it and the damned book is basically done.

My clothes have changed because I walked my beautiful girlfriend to the subway and didn't want to do so in the same t-shirt I'd been wearing around for 30 hours.

24-Hour Comic Book Day Status Update

So I've got 8 pages loosely penciled and laid out. There's a basic script for two stories--the first, five pages, is already finished and the second is about halfway drawn, which will be 8-10 pages. After that, I'm not sure what I'll do to fill out the remaining pages and hours, but it'll probably involve inking what I've got to that point and brainstorming while I do so. I expect to do the lettering later this week, once the art has been scanned, but I'll upload a text for the stories to the blog(s) once it's completed.

The first story is "World Without a Crusader," wherein a whiny Democratic voter who bemoans "why Ralph Nader ever bothered us in the first place" is taken by a Serling-like, suited companion to a world where Ralph Nader was never born--someplace where Americans are fatter than hell because there's no nutritional information anywhere, ignorant of any number of government activities because there's no Freedom of Information Act, and still dying in the tens of thousands from preventable road injuries and food poisoning because Nader wasn't there to hassle General Motors or the FDA.

The second story revolves around Cap'n Internet, and the first time HTMLad was old enough to vote. Since my current Cap story is going to get rid of the kid sidekick, this is the last time we'll actually see him on-page unless I decide to make him not-gone, but that's not foreseeable.

First Sketch for Free Comic Book Day

It's Paulson, pulling the strings on McCain and Obama. It'll eventually say, "PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE MAIN BEHIND THE BAILOUT."

Manhunter Canceled...Again.

Eight issues.

That's how long Marc Andreyko's Manhunter lasted this time around, before DC decided to cancel the critically-acclaimed, low-selling series. The final issue will reportedly be January's #38.

After Comics Continuum got wind of the story last night, Andreyko confirmed the cancellation today, saying on his Facebook page, “Marc Andreyko sadly announces Manhunter's cancellation. Again.” Andreyko then implored fans—and particularly retailers—to engage in a letter-writing campaign to DC to save the book. This would be the third such campaign on behalf of the beleaguered title, and a website—SaveManhunter.com—has remained functioning since before the first cancellation, never abandoning their site merely because the book had once again been “saved.”

The series was previously canceled at issues #25, given a five issue “trial period” and re-canceled at #30. The recent relaunch, with artist Michael Gaydos, began in April with #31. Andreyko had told ComicRelated that with the relaunch, the book was being viewed by the publisher as a forum to examine social and political issues in the context of the DC Universe. They have explored similar territory with their election-themed miniseries DC Universe: Decisions by Bill Willingham and Judd Winick.

Manhunter's first arc back will end with November's #36; it dealt with immigration, human rights, medical ethics and a number of related issues. The second arc was originally slated to deal with abortion, as was hinted in the final pages of #30, but it remains to be seen what will happen to that story, as Andreyko indicated to ComicRelated that it was a six-part story and that the book is currently slated to end two parts in.

Whether series protagonist Kate Spencer will appear in other DC Universe books in the absence of her ongoing series is unclear, but it seems likely. When the series was canceled after #30, the character was added to the cast of the all-girl superteam Birds of Prey as a way of keeping her in circulation. It seems likely that Manhunter will remain there as a member of the team, since the Birds of Prey have guest-starred in the current story arc in Manhunter.

When reached for comment, Andreyko said that he would be available to ComicRelated later today, so expect updates as the story develops.

Back

I'm going to be using this more. In conjunction with the ColumnRelated blog I have at ComicRelated, this will be where my stories start before they get fully-formed enough to be columns...and where links to my columns at ComicRelated will go. I will no longer publish completed stories here, as it just seems to defeat the purpose by detracting whatever small number of people read this blog from going to CR.

For personal entries, my Livejournal site is probably still the best. Even so, I don't update it much. I do have MySpace and Facebook pages that are relatively regularly maintained.

New York Comic Con Update

The bad news:

Zach and I have had technical problems ranging from my computer to our home Internet, and it came during the Con, of course, which is the worst possible time becuase we don't have time to both stop to fix things AND cover our events. So we've covered the events and now things are trickling in slowly.

The good news:

We've got a LOT of great video footage coming up soon. Conscientious Sequentials and the Hot Shot of the Week should be up in special video format tonight/early tomorrow morning (before you wake up anyway) and they're a doozy--CS features an interview with Neal Adams about his weird science, and HS features Todd DeZago and Craig Rousseau, the creative team behind the wonderful Image title The Perhapanauts. BUY THEIR BOOK!

I've been getting a spot of work over at Newsarama, too. You can see the stories (the ones that are up so far) at:
The Grant Morrison Spotlight Panel
The Bryan Hitch Spotlight Panel

There will be stories based on both of those here soon; I promised Matt Brady that I wouldn't just take stuff he's paying for and spread it around the Internet, so I need to edit down, change around and stuff like that.

Probably my favorite comment of the day: "If I weren't here, you'd be shirtless!"

That was told to me by Kevin Maguire, longtime penciller on the Giffen-DeMatteis Justice League titles, upon noticing that I was wearing a JLI t-shirt he had done the artwork for.

Yeah, out of context the quote is funnier.

My YouTube channel is also picking right up. We've got stuff from the X-Files panel, stuff from Grant Morrison, plus the CS and HS stuff going up there tonight. Maybe more; a lot will depend on our editing timeframe. But check out the channel, and Chuck will be updating as long as we're sending him content on the front page.

A little taste.

CBLDF Drink 'n' Draw Fundraiser Video (Featuring Russ)