House of Fun Update 1/25/20 (Patreon)

It's been a busy week, with a number of our writing projects all moving forward. Here's what's happening:

MARVELS SNAPSHOT: FANTASTIC FOUR #1

Sarah and I are just got the editorial notes on the last 20 pages of our 30-page script, which Benjamin Dewey is doing all the art duties on. We asked Nate Piekos (of Blambot!) to come on board as our letterer, which he's agreed to, so we have the full current Beasts of Burden team working on the comic, which is pretty cool. Ben's layouts are looking terrific, and if things continue as they have been, a lot of our Easter eggs in the script should make it to print. We still have final dialogue passes and tweaks once the actual art starts coming in, but we're done with most of the heavy lifting and decision-making. The comic is scheduled for March 25th, it'll be weird to have a Marvel book out after all this time (I think the last project I did for them was published in 2004).

Here's the latest information on the Snapshots project, Marvel has announced the first four books, I think there will be 8 in total:

https://www.marvel.com/articles/comics/kurt-busiek-assembles-amazing-talent-for-marvel-snapshots 

BLACKWOOD: THE MOURNING AFTER 

I think I missed mentioning the second issue of the new arc being solicited for March, and now the solicitations for the third issue are out. At the top of this post is co-creator Veronica Fish's cover for the second issue, featuring one of our new characters, Professor Liam Mortlake.  The variant cover for #2 is a cool mad scientist take on Acting Dean Colby by Andrew Maclean (Head Lopper). 

The variant cover for the third issue is this lovely portrait of Reiko by artist Peach Momoko:

The first three issues of the series are done, and looking mighty swell. Veronica and Andy Fish are finishing up the art for #4, and once I do a revision pass for new letterer Greg McKenna to ply his wares, we'll have everything in the can. I'm hoping we can start the next arc before the year's out, the tentative title for the story is "The Crawling Campus". 

BEASTS OF BURDEN: OCCUPIED TERRITORY

Issue one is done. Ben Dewey completed the art for the second issue, and just turned in the layouts for the third issue. Nate Piekos turned in the lettering for the second issue, which we still need to go over for notes. Two variant covers have been turned in, we're reaching out to two more artists and will hopefully have the last slots locked down this coming week.  I think we're still looking at a late 2020 schedule for the series.   

And I just got word that the next Beasts of Burden project has been given the go-ahead. I'm assuming we won't see that until sometime in 2021, but just the hope that we may have five collections in print someday fills me with something that might actually be akin to happiness.  

Speaking of collections, the Brazilian edition of the third volume (Neighborhood Watch) is due out in March, and for a few days it was the #1-selling book on Brazil's Amazon chart. It's currently the #1 graphic novel on the list. Which is pretty wild, to me, at least. I've never had a #1 anything before when it comes to sales. Amazon and the NYT and the Diamond Top 100 all need to have a "Graphic Novels/Violent Dairy Products/comics by Evan Dorkin" category. Yeah. They really do. Then I'd kill.

Anyway, fter the relatively tepid response we've had in the States for the new books, it's nice to know someone loves us somewhere. We lost a number of our foreign publishing partners because of the shitty release schedule, but Pipoca Y Nanquim in Brazil began publishing fairly recently, and did well enough with the first volume that they're the only folks who have committed to releasing all three volumes.  We may be rekindling the relationship with one of our European publishers, and there's been a new inquiry from a new outfit, but we definitely lost momentum since Animal Rites came out in 2010 (here and abroad). I just wish I could get my paws on the Russian edition of Animal Rites, which has been out for well over a year. The comps showed up damaged at the Dark Horse office, and there was supposed to be a replacement shipment...but...cue the Russian crickets.

Otherwise, let's see...there's been a meeting (which went well), and some e-mails and enthusiasm from certain parties, and in the next few weeks I should find out if that means I have more writing work. Which would be nice, and which might make some folks happy (besides me). There's the other thing. A variant cover we did will be made public in a month or three, since the series was just announced/solicited. We might do some album art later this year. I might do a design for a licensed Milk & Cheese thing later this year, not a toy, but something nifty. There's a convention actually interested in possibly having me as a guest this year, but, I haven't been invited yet. We'll see if any of this stuff happens. 

I'm starting on the commissions list in earnest after the Marvel gig settles down this week. Thanks to everyone who signed up. I still have a few folks to get back to, it's been a busy couple of weeks. Just dealing with the commissions ate up a day's work. I'm working on two that I still owe folks, then the Patreon list gets underway.   

Again, apologies for the Patreon PDFs and stuff still running late. I do not know how to format the darned things and Sarah will help me out as soon as we both can get to it. We're still dealing with the car, and the oven, and the other things that has us running around trying to drum up money, which starts throwing off the schedule, and then we have to do the commissions and work we scratched up, and the schedule gets stupider, and yadda yadda Afrika Baambaata, rock, rock to Planet Rock, don't stop.  

I have some ideas of what we'll be posting for the PDF crowd (group? squad?), and we'll also have some art giveaways soon. I am not going anywhere, so don't you go anywhere. Unless you have to go rock, rock to Planet Rock. Then, yeah, please don't stop on my account. 

(Tonight was the NYC memorial for Tom Spurgeon, so, I'm down in the dumps, despite all the wonderful people who came out and said wonderful things. I'm typing all this malarkey up as a way to keep my mind occupied. It's not working. Tom was awesome. I miss him every day. Thanks for listening.)

The tenth episode of the Tear Them Apart horror movie podcast I do with my friend Paul Yellovich should be posted on Monday, January 27th. 

Which is also the date of my next therapy session. That's been going pretty okay.   

See you! Hope everyone's well.