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Oh yeah... I forgot...
Sorry, it's been a long week. While walking the floor I discovered/remembered that I have THREE books making their premieres in one way or another at the show. Each is just a smaller story in a bigger book. First, The Cleaners, Mark Wheaton's breathtaking new horror series, that I was privlidged enough to be invited to the birthing of, gets a five page preview in Dark Horse's preview book this year.
Second, there's a brand new Punks strip in the brand new Tripwire Annual (available at the Image booth).
Finally, there's the Josh Medors fund rasier book featuring the second collaboration of mine with Friday the 13th artist/godsend Andy B, available at the Boom Studios booth. They're also accepting donations at the table.
Alright, for this week, I say adieu.
Adieu!
Sandy Eggo
Tomorrow I head down to the city by the sea, for the convention by the... uh... sea. I'm 'taking it easy' compared to recent cons, and will only be appearing at the Top Cow booth and at their panel. The rest of the time will hopefully be a combination of meetings and hanging out with the wife. Here's my tentative signing schedule. Thursday 10am - Top Cow
Friday 4:30pm - Top Cow
Saturday 12:00pm - Top Cow
Saturday 3:00pm - Top Cow Panel
Sunday 2:30pm - Top Cow
All of those signings I'll be with Jeremy Haun, schemeing and planning our sinister futures together. Bring your copies of Alibi for us to deface.
See you at the show!
AICN Previews the Medors Benefit Comic...
AICN COMICS SHOOT THE MESSENGER: NEWS & PREVIEWS OF PULP COMICS - JOSH MEDORS BENEFIT COMIC & CORRECTIVE MEASURES!!!
Click the link for pages from everyone's stories! And remember, you can preorder over at Boom's website.
Two More Alibi Reviews!
Inked: A Comic Book Review Blog
Alibi is probably the best one-shot yet in the two Pilot Seasons we’ve had so far. Combine an intriguing story with excellent art and you’ve got a hit on your hands. I’d love to see what other adventures the two brothers have in store so it’s easy to say that this is definitely one of the one-shots that should be picked up as an on-going. Pick this up, you won’t be disappointed.
Fialkov builds up some good tension over the brief twenty-six pages, keeping both the characters and the readers on their toes. There are twists and turns down to the very bitter end of this hard candy, going from sweet to sour and back again. In many ways, it reminded me of Greg Rucka's Queen & Country, from the other side of the fence. John and Rick are annoyingly likeable, you like them, and yet you feel you really shouldn't. Their adversaries are confoundingly vague in their intentions. In other words, it dark and mysterious, and ends on an extreme note.
Thanks so much guys! Really glad y'all dug the book!
Comic Pants on Alibi
Comic Pants » Short Pants Reviews 7/1/08
Well, I guess after Genius, I know my vote for the other series I want to see out of Top Cow’s Pilot Season. Alibi is a slick little spy thriller about an assassin and his (twin?) brother who work a clever scheme that lets them be both assassin and alibi at the same time. Half of the story is an interrogation and intrigue bit, as we see the inner workings of the job on the logistics end, and the other half is the action piece, as Rick does the assassinate and escape thing. It works out well, partly because Fialkov’s dialogue-driven storytelling has a nice patter to it that hits just the right balance of verisimilitude and cinematic (erring on the cinematic side) and partly because Haun is an exceptional artist who just needs the right project to shine, and this might be it. Haun is perfectly suited to a modern military/espionage type book, and he does some great work here, particularly on the bit with Rick dodging the satellite oversight, which looks just as cool as it sounds. There’s also a lot of great work on distinctive characters, realistic costuming and technology and some great use of silhouettes. Given the success of shows like Alias, Burn Notice and 24, I’ve always been a bit boggled that comics can’t come up with an action-heavy spy series in that vein, and it looks like Alibi might fill that niche, if it “goes to series” after Pilot Season is over.
Broken Frontier on Alibi
I got my start as a reviewer and columnist over at Broken Frontier, so it's always nice to get a review from the kind folks there. Broken Frontier | The Portal for Quality Comics Coverage!
Fialkov and Haun have crafted a very organic feeling package in Alibi. Text and images are smoothly in tune and the rythm is a well-oiled steamroller. Espionage ahoy and plots keep turning around more than Ahab in his tub, looking for the white whale. If the white whale had a sniper rifle, and a satellite GPS-watch, and infrared goggles and who wouldn't like to own a set of those! I'd say this is a very good contender for Pilot Season and goshdarnit, I would vote for these guys!
How I Write - #1 - The Outline
Consider this the first in a series of short essays I use to give some excuse as to why I'm not doing my work. I have a creator owned book coming early next year from a big ol' publisher. I figured it may be an interesting time for me to reflect on the process a bit, both for the sake of any interested readers, and for myself to put me somewhat on the spot for what I do and how I do it.
This project has been a peculiar one. It started out as a comic pitch, morphed into the early scribblings of a novel, and then back into a comic book. Getting to this point has been atypical for a project for me, and I think for comics in general. Most projects I spend a fair amount of time writing a document a few pages long that covers the in's and out's of the plot, characters, and themes. For this one, I wrote an outline that really amounted to more of a spirited explanation of the first issue and what the book would probably be like if I got to do it.
But it wasn't even that strange document that got the ball rolling at the publisher. It was just me, bullshitting with the editor (and friend). I was telling him how desperately I wanted to do something that was lighter, more fun, and, most importantly, my own.
Let me be clear here. Doing work for hire is a LOT of fun, and you get a paycheck at the end, which really just makes it even better than work. But, still, at the end of the day, you're answering to someone else. Having worked in film, tv, and theater, as well as a bit of radio, I know that the freedoms of comics are still unseen in just about any other medium, but, still...
So, so animated was this presentation that the editor just about okayed it on the spot. A few weeks went by , going through the rounds at their offices, and now, a month or two later, it's time for me to do the part that i normally do first. The outline.
At a recent dinner with Brian Reed, we had a long discussion about the merits of outlining. I wasn't a huge outliner until a year or two ago. I used to have the ability to hold stuff in my head. Now, with half a dozen projects rattling around in my head, and as I start writing longer and longer pieces with more intricacy (theoretically), the outline has become a fantastic tool. Brian's counter argument was that you become a slave to the outline.
Well, as I work on this one, it becomes clear that he has a point. The thing is that for me, 80% of the work of writing is outlining and figuring out the story. The actual typing of dialogue is almost secondary. That being said, certainly as you write, the outline goes out the window. That's part of why I outline in a few different ways. The style and detail level of the outlines changes from project to project, and publisher to publisher.
Here's a general look at the basic type of outline I do.
The first round outline, which I'm working on now, is essentially the equivalent of a movie treatment. Around 3/4's of a page per issue (or act, or chapter, or whatever). If necessary, there's an addendum with character descriptions, and sometimes cover design ideas. If it's for an ongoing series, I'll also include a few other jumping off points for down the road.
Once that's satisfactory (to either me or the editor, depending), I move onto a more specific issue outline. I'll usually expand that 3/4's of a page into something closer to a page and a half. These are done immediately before I write the issues. Again, this is about filling in the road map.
Here's an example from Alibi which came out last week.
We open inside an interrogation room. John Stephens is being interrogated by Agent Al Micelli. Or rather, he’s smoking a cigarette wile Micelli tries unsuccessfully to get him to crack. He lists off the charges against him... Assassination of the Azerbaijani Minister of Finance, strategic strikes against oil executives in Bahrain, leading a coup in Kurdistan.
At the same time, we cut to an assassin plastered to a roof in a desert swept city which we learn is Muscat, Oman. An American Businessman walks with a trio of sheik-looking guys. He tracks them with his scope, it’s not clear which he’s trying to take out.
Back in interrogation, Micelli has the orders intercepted by CIA that Stephens and his ‘firm’ have been hired for the hit in Muscat, and that they specifically requested him to do the job. Stephens laughs.
An alternate/additional step to this is something I learned from good ol' Andy Schmidt back when he was still over at Marvel. I'd guess it had to do with my inexperience working with him the first time, but, he asked me to do something that radically changed how I thought about writing comics. He had me do an outline broken down by page. So, I take the overall outline, and I split up the action into pages.
Here's an example from the outline for The Outlaw Kid from Marvel Comics Presents:
PAGE 1 Lance Temple, young, svelte, and armed with twin six-shooters walks through the desert with purpose. His face is tightened into a rictus of anger and resentment. Hanging from his neck is a large red bandana… that’s important later. He’s on a mission to find the man who murdered his father and, even though it goes against everything he stands for, put him in the ground. He’s tracked his enemy for three days, taking Lance from his home in the fledgling city of Tucson to the dirty streets of Nogales. A town of scoundrels and thieves, it only makes sense that the masked murderer would come here.
PAGE 2 As Lance rides into town, the world seems to blur around him All of the crimes, the monstrosities around him… they’re all secondary to his goal. All he cares about is finding THE OUTLAW KID. He walks straight up to the rough and rumbling saloon, and slams the doors open. Lance looks around for the toughest SOB in the bar, and grabs him by the shirt.
He threatens him… but the brute fights him off. As things are about to turn ugly, the bartender chirps up.
“I SAW HIM HEADIN’ OUT OF TOWN… TOWARDS ‘PACHE COUNTRY AFORE I COME IN TODAY, MR. TEMPLE. IF YOU RIDE FAST YOU CAN CATCH ‘IM!”
With barely a word, Lance cleans himself up and heads out.
“WHAT THE HELL D’YOU DO THAT FOR?”
“THAT BOY’S LOOKIN’ FOR TROUBLE, I RECKON HE’LL FIND IT ONE WAY OR ANOTHER.”
PAGE 3 As Lance walks into the desert, he thinks back to that fateful night.
His poor blind father heard a noise… he came into the room and found the Outlaw Kid. He tried to fool him….
“IT’S ME DAD… PLEASE… YOUR SON-“
“I MIGHT BE BLIND BUT I AIN’T STUPID. NO SON OF MINE WOULD DARE COME INTO MY HOUSE SMELLIN’ LIKE GUNPOWDER.”
His dad knew there was trouble and brought a blackjack he kept around for protection… but, the Outlaw Kid grabbed it from him and clubbed him to death… Lance came in just in time to see The Kid running away with a laugh and a smile.
PAGE 4 As Lance rides through some desert canyons, his mind still wandering, we see a small group of Apache Warriors watching him through the cliffs. Lance makes clear his vow to avenge his father’s death even if it kills him. As if on cue, arrows start flying from above. Lance is knocked off his horse, and as he goes to draw, an arrow rips through his shoulder, and drops him to the ground.
PAGE 5 Lance is seriously wounded. The arrow through his shoulder has left him a quivering mess. He’s starting to panic, as he fumbles for his guns. The Apache are upon him, and he’s shaking. They’re going to kill him. Lance’s hand shakes and shudders as it comes to pull the red bandanna hung around his neck up to his face.
Now again, for me, doing all of this frees me up to worry about characterization, about emotion, and about visual dymanic, rather than having to remember "Oh shit, I need to have Lance wearing the red bandanna here."
From there, obviously, I move to script. While I pain and slave over these outlines, scripting is a brisk, worry free affair for the most part, because I've already built the foundation, layed the cement, and sold a few of the condos to the old folks moving out from Ames. And, despite having the outline right there to guide me, things still get moved, rejiggered, shortened, lengthened, and removed. But, instead of doing it willie nillie, I have an idea of just how many pieces need to fit into the final thing, and exactly how much room I have to do it in.
For me, a lot of the real work comes in the second draft, where you have to look at where everything sits and shift things around.
So, that's what I do. As me move along, I'll probably keep posting more info about the project from a behind the scenes-y pov. Assuming anybody actually cares.
“I just punched a bitch in the throat,” which is where I have a problem.
In response to Greg's question, I'd probably used the same line if he punched a man OR a woman. Rest of the review at the link. Comics Should Be Good! » What I bought - 25 June 2008
Fialkov tells the story of John, a super assassin who always seems to have an alibi when a hit goes down. Now, the CIA has him in custody and they claim they’ve figured out his secret. It’s a pretty prosaic secret, actually, but I’m still not giving it away! What we get is a twisty tale of betrayal and murder, and Fialkov does a very good job of throwing us into the action but not leaving us behind. It’s very easy to get confused in espionage books, because you’re never sure who’s screwing whom, but that’s not the case in this book.
The Quarter Bin is keen on Alibi
» Blog Archive » Review: ALIBI
Alibi thankfully doesn’t start off with any lengthy explanations, but instead throws the reader right into the story, assuming he or she can follow along. Fialkov understands that showing the reader is more important (although usually more difficult) than simply telling the reader, and luckily he knows how to make it work. Even though it’s a serious story, it doesn’t take itself too seriously, and the small moments of humor are much appreciated. The story is intriguing and the dialogue is well written; it’s pretty much all you could ask for in a new book.
The Girls Entertainment Network finds Alibi Entertaining for Girls...
Comic Book Review: Alibi #1 | The Girls Entertainment Network
I definitely want to know more about this storyline and the characters, especially with the huge cliffhanger at the end. So Alibi’s definitely got my vote for the top two spots of Top Cow’s Pilot Season ‘08. I hope it gets the chance to truly shine.
Comicvine on Alibi (with five page preview)
Comicvine: The Latest In Comic Book News and Blogs
That is not the case here. So where as we are told the basic gist of the story, we are left with a pretty big cliffhanger on the last page. It's pretty much a "holy crap, how will they get out of this one?"So I have to say, for me, this is one of the main contenders so far.
More at the link.
Punks in Tripwire #2
It should be out 'round Comic-Con time. Here's a sneak peek.
Straight Outta Des Moines - Photo Parade
Fialkov & Hester in Des Moines
Hey gang,This week, the wife and I head to see my folks in lovely (and supposedly not underwater) Clive, Iowa. While there, I'll be joined by Iowan Superman Phil Hester for a signing at the Mayhem Comics in Des Moines.
The signing info is as follows:
Mayhem Comics Satuday June 21st 1 - 4pm 7500 University Ave. Des Moines, IA 50325 (515) 271-8104
See you there!
The Complete Poorly Drawn Animals - Free Download
So, ever since PoorlyDrawnAnimals.com went away, I get a steady stream of e-mails, in person complaints, and general nudging about it. While that chapter of my life is most definitely closed, I thought (spurred on by Diesel Sweeties releasing theirs) why not release the whole thing as an E-Book for your handy download.
So, click the image above to download PDA. For those who don't know, Poorly Drawn Animals was my very first comic. I did it as a three time a week webcomic, and it was selected by Yahoo as a Pick of the Week at one point, and was a recurring favorite over at b3ta.com. I went on to make mini-comics, t-shirts, buttons, and thongs bearing strips and the characters where in. Eventually, after around 180 of the strips, I felt like i was treading water, and just didn't have the time to devote properly to it. So, when you read this, I apologize for the last few strips which really aren't as good.
Anyways, this is under a so called Creative Commons license so, feel free to share, bit-torrent, print, fold, smack against a rock. Just please, send anybody back here and tell them to buy my books so I can make money.
Hope you enjoy it.
Oh the Places You Will Go...
It's been one of those 'spin around and see where you land' kind of weeks... hell, months. I had what can only be called a golden opportunity pop up the past few weeks that is going to massively alter my career path (at least for the time being.) I can't quite talk about it yet, but as soon as I can I will. So, I've been racing through as much of my already lined up work as possible trying to wrap it all up before starting on this new gig. It's been... harrowing, I suppose is the word. But, totally worth it. The thing about this job, and what I've come to realize about life/careers/writing in general, is that I got this job for because of more than just my writing. It was a confluence of events... I had my agent cheerleading for me, an amazing meeting with the folks from the company, and then... the suprising part. It turns out the years of non-writing that I did. Working in TV production, running Hoarse and Buggy, hell, even running the movie theater I ran in college... all these little things that at the time were just jobs added together become a "wealth of experience" that got me, what in many ways seems to be a dream job.
So, to all of you out there slaving through a day job and hating every minute of it, and wishing you were writing for a living, don't forget that whether you realize it or not, that job will come in handy one day. Whether it's the characters you meet (and then use in your work), the practical skills you pick up, or even just the discipline of doing the same thing every day.
If you work in the entertainment industry, the government let's you write off a LOT of stuff come tax time. Just be marking your occupation as Entertainment Industry, suddenly, you can write off DVD's, CD's, TV's, Computers, Software, Video Games, Comic books... I suspect most people are just happy to get the write off, but, the truth of it is the experience of reading, listening, watching, and experiencing art is what allows you to grow as a creator. I just think it's important to realize that it doesn't stop there.
Practically speaking, I'll still be working in comics, and I have a slew of books already lined up for the next year or two, and in fact, should have more books on the stands than I did this year. I'll probably be a little less on the blog and the twitter, and won't be attending as many conventions, but, that aside, it'll be business as usual.
So, folks, here's to the future.
Making Comics - LAPL Event - Photos
Photos by the amazing 
THE LIST: LOS ANGELES PUBLIC LIBRARY EVENT THIS WEEKEND!
Hey gang, A quick reminder this week about the "Making Comics" event at the Will and Ariel Durant Branch of the Los Angeles Public Library this Saturday.
The Durant Branch is located a mere hop skip and a jump from Meltdown Comics and Golden Apple Comics in Hollywood, at 7140 W. Sunset Blvd.
The program is geared for 'teens on up' and will be a light and fun 'How to' for making comics, breaking into the industry, and things of that nature. It's going to be a Q & A, so having someone there to Q for my A would be greatly appreciated.
And, best of all, from 2 to 4 at Meltdown Comics, there's an event featuring Mark Evanier and his Kirby King of Comics book. So, go there, see him speak, sign, and entertain, and then you can literally walk to the Library for the panel.
The flyer with all the information is both attached, and available for viewing here: http://www.thefialkov.com/?p=1101
See you this weekend!
j.
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Joshua Hale Fialkov www.thefialkov.com
Library Event is One Week (and a half) Away