Joshua Hale Fialkov

Purveyor of sheer awesomeness.

Joshua Hale Fialkov is the Harvey, Eisner, and Emmy Award nominated writer of graphic novels, animation, video games, film, and television, including:

THE LIFE AFTER, THE BUNKER, PUNKS, ELK'S RUN, TUMOR, ECHOES, KING, PACIFIC RIM, THE ULTIMATES, I, VAMPIRE, and JEFF STEINBERG CHAMPION OF EARTH. He's also written television including MAX’s YOUNG JUSTICE, NBC's CHICAGO MED and NETFLIX’s AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER.

David Welsh on Elk’s Run #4

December 21, 2005  /  Joshua Fialkov

When something like the Speakeasy situation happens, I usually just sit back and look at what smarter people have to say on the subject. Because really, what I know about the economics of comics publishing and anything resembling high finance could comfortably fit in half of a hollowed-out Skittle, with plenty of room left over. (And to anyone who got a good chuckle out of the use of “comics” and “high finance” in the same sentence, you’re welcome.) But reading the updates and analysis and noting that the fourth issue of Elk’s Run is due out today, I find myself a little more wistful than I would normally be at yet another industry implosion.

Click Here for the Rest

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categories / Comics, My Comics, Reviews, Reviews of Me

Elk’s Run #4 Out Today And….

December 20, 2005  /  Joshua Fialkov

LOS ANGELES, CA 12-19-05 – Independent Sensation Hoarse and Buggy Productions Updates the World on Elk’s Run! “Hello comic fans, retailers, and creators! This is Elk’s Run creator Joshua Hale Fialkov writing to give a quick update on the status of the book, in light of Speakeasy’s recent announcement.

First and foremost, the book will be continuing in print, through the full run of the series. We have Speakeasy’s assurance that come hell or high water, the rest of the book will absolutely see print. The first all new Speakeasy issue, #4 (Diamond Order #SEP05 3086), is in shops this week. Issue #5 (OCT05 3177) will follow in January, with issue #6 in February or March. Make sure to get your orders in for Issue 6 (DEC05 3188) as they’re due this week!

In addition to all of this, we’re offering something special for fans and new readers during this holiday of giving, We’ve already offered the first issue of Elk’s Run for free at Newsarama (link: http://www.newsarama.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=41646 ), now we’re offering the third issue for free o hoarseandbuggy.com ! With these two free issues available, you know everything you need to know to dive in with this week’s issue 4! You can view the book, for free, here: http://hoarseandbuggy.com/news/release/38

Finally, we wanted to send a big thank you and a happy holidays to all of our fans and supporters! It’s been a hell of a year, and we’re eternally grateful for all of your supports, and we promise there’ll be some great stuff from the whole H&B team in 2007!

Have a happy new year and enjoy your free Elk’s Run!

--

Hoarse and Buggy Productions is an independent comics studio and production company focusing primarily on comics, but with forays into filmmaking, music, and animation. Founded by Joshua Hale Fialkov and Christopher Arundel in 2003, H&B was responsible for the Cult Hit Western Tales of Terror, featuring the biggest and brightest creators in comics, and the Critical Success Elk’s Run. You can visit them online at http://www.hoarseandbuggy.com for more information!

2 Comments
categories / Comics, My Comics

Christmas Present

December 20, 2005  /  Joshua Fialkov

Got this in the mail today from friend and artist extraordinaire Marco Magallanes. One of our earliest conversations was about how much I loved the Thing, and Marco tried his damndest but just didn't know what he looked like. Well, for the Holiday Season, he figured it out, and it's fucking outstanding. Many thanks, Marco, and congrats on the new baby.

Happy Holidays, mein freund.

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categories / Art, Comics, Other People's Comics

Right, so… Here’s the Dilly-o.

December 18, 2005  /  Joshua Fialkov

Doing some house-keeping and reorganizing. As you could tell, did some re-coloring on here, thought it was time for something a little... grayer. I don't know. Anyways, I've sort of organized my ideas for what I want each online spot to be.

First, this blog, will continue pretty much as it is. All purpose news for whatever I'm doing, whatever's coming out, and random pictures of me looking miserable.

One of the things I've wanted to do was sort of an 'idea blog' just a place to put ideas down and keep them for later, plus maybe open discussions about it with other people. I finally settled on making it a Live Journal page, cause I like how the comments there work. Seems functional. So, you can see that page (complete with the first nugget) here.

Then, there's the MySpace blog, which'll be just my rantings and ravings about the media and the news and all the unpopular opinions that all of my friends hate me for.

Finally, make sure you keep checking the Hoarse and Buggy site and the Speakeasy Forums for updates and such, which'll become much more regular in the new year.

As to 'regularity,' I'd bank on this blog being updated the most (close to every day), the LiveJournal at least once a week, and the MySpace every once in a while. I'll probably cross-post to keep you guys abreast of what's updated.

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categories / links, Site Update

Buzzscope on Speakeasy

December 15, 2005  /  Joshua Fialkov

Buzzscope's massive article about the Speakeasy situation is now up. It's a doozy. Here's what I have to say.

Honestly? The numbers didn't move much at all. Had we continued self-publishing, our numbers would probably be at about the same plateau. The constant delays and miscommunications between Speakeasy and the printers have in fact probably hurt us in the long run, because when we self-published, we had every issue out not just on time, but usually early, and now issue 4 is two months late, issue 5 will be two months late, and hopefully, we'll be caught up by issue 6.

As to how it's going to affect us... Well, despite any animosity that comes out of my big stupid mouth, Adam's been doing his best to be a stand up guy. He assured me that Elk's Run will see print and that together we're finding a way to make it happen. I announced over on my blog a few of those steps. First, we're raising the price on issue 7 and 8 up to $3.99. This sucks. This kills me, because I've spent years criticising the pricing of comics, but, at the end of the day, I have a responsibility to my co-creators and to my business partner to lose as little money as possible, and that extra dollar means that we can actually afford to pay our letterist and colorist without having to take it out of my already quite depleted grocery money.

As to Diamond, we're well above their cutoff, and they've been huge supporters of the book from day one, so, for the time being, that's not a concern. Where all this stuff really affects us is in marketing and promotion. We can't afford Previews ads anymore; we�re drastically cutting back on our convention appearances this year; and, we're switching all of our comp list over to digital copies of the books. Right now, all we care about is getting the book out, and come hell or high water we're going to do it.�

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categories / Comics, Comics Business, My Comics

I’ve Done Opened My Big Mouth

December 13, 2005  /  Joshua Fialkov

Speakeasy had Rich Johnston let the cat out of the bag about their new 'policy shift' regarding their lagging creator owned comic series. A day passed uneventfully. Then all hell seems to have broken loose. Here's a few of the conversations going crazy about it:

Focused Totality The Beat The Engine The Bendis Board The Speakeasy Forums

So, in any event, here's the skinny for Elk's Run, and I'm doing an interview with Buzzscope later this week to give some more in depth insight into what it means for us.

Essentially, it means nothing for us. As of right now, despite our shit-tacular sales, Speakeasy is just as committed as they were day one, and the book will continue to come out for the forseeable future. There will however be a couple of minor changes. We are literally fighting tooth and nail to fight and make sure the book sees print as issues.

1) (I'll start with the smallest and stupidest) The Inside Covers of the book are now Black and White... it saves some money, in theory.

2) Issue 5 is due out next month, Issue 6 in February/March, Issue 7 in March/April, and Issue 8 in June/July.

3) We're IDW-ing up the place. Issues 7&8 will cost $3.99. It's pretty much what we have to do in order to survive. Issue 7 will have a 5 page backup from Event Horizon, and issue 8 will most likely be oversized, so, hopefully the price increase will feel worth it.

4) Same Great Story, Same Great Art.

Alright, so that's all the important stuff. You'll get to here more from me later this week from Buzzscope, so keep an eye out.

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categories / Comics, Comics Business, My Comics

Bronchitis and Projects

December 11, 2005  /  Joshua Fialkov

Spent much of the weekend in bed with bronchitis, gave me a decent amount of time to think about a couple of new projects that are in various stages of 'going.' This week a project I'd long figured as dead suddenly came back to life, and became something entirely different than I expected. It's much more Poorly Drawn Animals than it is Elk's Run, at this point. And it's pretty refreshing to get to do something much closer to 'free expression' than what I've been doing the past few months. As it sits, it's got a feel of The Young Onesor Red Dwarf and it's conceived as sort of a surrealist sitcom in pamphlet form. All self-contained, and hopefully satsifying enough to make you come back for more without the hook of a true on going story. Alright, back off to throwing up phlegm.

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categories / Comics, My Comics, Personal