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Comics: I Am Now In Them

Yotsuba & Benjamin!

15:39 / 21.06.06

Dateline: June 21, 2006...

What would The Best Day In Comics History be without my stunning and startling debut in print? Kevin Church and I have recently been all up in infusing upstart Boom! Studios with that old-style Marvel Bullpen sensation by providing a weekly dose of hilarious fun-poking in a strip called Nitroglycerin (Gettit? Ha!).

Well, today the strip made it's print debut. It went something like this:

How was your first time?

Tim Tempest

17:02 / 21.06.06

Congrats! That is frikken' awesome! I'm even going to read the strip! And then I'm going to calm the hell down!

Tim Tempest

17:09 / 21.06.06

Okay, I just went and actually read your comic.

And I liked it, especially the Cthulu bit.

H3ct0r L1m4

01:36 / 22.06.06

congrats, man!

how did you guys made it? Boom Studios seems to be impossible to get a hold of for submiting stuff.

my first time was... weird, anti-climatic. maybe because it wasn't actually in professional Comics. but seeing your work in print is always a thrill, even more when the process takes only a matter of a couple of months, tops.

Yotsuba & Benjamin!

02:13 / 22.06.06

Kevin was approached by the company and I won out on the grueling art competition which consisted of all the artists he was fond of. (He fell for my stuff after I sent him a copy of Kevin Analog.) Imagine it! MY art impressing someone! Quel strange, I know.

95% of the funny is him. Although every now and again I'll bring my formidible writing chops to some little artistic touch here or there. (I came up with Giff's 9 Panel Grid = Cash logo in #5, for example.)

I'm only my second bottle of Cristal. GOTTA GO!

DaveBCooper

09:08 / 22.06.06

My first time was at the age of 16, when 2000AD published a story I’d written (back when I was 15). I finished my paper round on Saturday morning, and then went back to the newsagent and bought two copies of that week’s issue and stared at my name there in the credit box.

When the newsagent asked me why I’d bought two copies, I told him, and proudly showed him the story. He looked at it blankly, as indeed did many of my family and friends, who didn’t get it at all. Ah well.

Anyway, well done BB!

sleazenation

10:58 / 22.06.06

Mine was truely awful. An 8 page strip for a bright young anthology comic. I pity anyone unfortunate enough to read it. Terribly earnest script about issues! The art was far more realist than I'd been expecting and the misplacement of a caption or two made the thing make even less sense than the original script did. But hey, at least it had a lovely Trevor Hairsine cover...

sleazenation

10:59 / 22.06.06

But, yes, congrats BB...

sleazenation

13:52 / 22.06.06

And I can cheerfully report that there are copies of this in GOSH in London...

MattShepherd: I WEDDED KALI!

18:22 / 22.06.06

I'll have to check that out. Mail-order ho! I live in a small town with no comic book stores, in Quebec, where everyone reads bédé anyway.

I'm currently scripting issue #6 of Dead Eyes Open for Slave Labor, which manages to simultaneously be (a) a zombie comic, (b) a really weird political thriller, (c) family drama and (d) quite possibly the worst-selling comic of all time.

Given (a) through (c), (d) shouldn't be that much of a shocker, but it's still been getting me down the past few months. I might be horribly embarrassed by this whole project in a year (even now, I keep rewriting the first five issues in my head), but it's neat to see your name on things. Even things that nobody buys.

DaveBCooper

11:54 / 23.06.06

BB, I bought X Isle last night, and your cartoon made me laugh – good work!

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

13:29 / 23.06.06

Nice one, man- have to try to grab a copy.

Haus of Mystery

13:46 / 23.06.06

Sleaze - was that anthology called 'Dream Logic', or 'Dream..' something? Cos i picked some up at Bristol years ago, and I remember a Hairsine cover..
If so I think I might of read your strip. Did it involve a car crash at some point? Or am I way off beam here?

FinderWolf

13:54 / 23.06.06

Congrats, Birdie! Very cool to see this! You've been working in the field for a long time; this is well-deserved exposure for you.

As for my appearances in comics, so far I have been given a 'special thanks' in the first issue of SCATTERBRAIN, a 4-issue miniseries written by Brendan Deneen, a friend of mine who used to read the comics I would write & draw in jr. high school/high school/college. Other than having many letters printed in various comics throughout the 80s and 90s, this is the extent of my professional comics mentions.

I dream of someday doing a pin-up/one page illustration for a friend of mine who's in the comics field. I just want to get at least one piece of art published in a comic somewhere. (I'm just about to finish my Jenny Everywhere story written by Alex Thoth, which has been far too long in the making on my end...maybe someday all the Jenny stories will be collected in a small press paperback!)

sleazenation

13:56 / 23.06.06

Yep, that sounds like the one. My strip involved a mixed race couple in a domestic abuse situation. The male half of the partnership was in the Police force. It was called "black and blue" (do you see?).

Seriously, it was terrible.

Haus of Mystery

14:12 / 23.06.06

Dude,we've all been there. Me and Gumbitch collaborated on a 'Maniac 5' strip for 'Zarjaz' (2000ad fanzine) which, as I recall, pretty much sucked. We both tried, but I cringe when i look at my wannabe artwork. I'm just glad I've found my own 'voice' now, and have stopped trying to do stuff that my art's not suited to.
Self-publishing kids! It's the way forward.

Speaking of which...keep your eyes peeled for my forthcoming Horror anthology, which features some sterling work by some Barbeloids (as well as, you know, real people). More info to follow...

Catjerome

01:57 / 24.06.06

Way to go!!! That's fantastic!

Spaniel

18:40 / 25.06.06

Obviously I haven't read it, but good on you Bird Man!

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