Northwest Press

Northwest Press is real y’alls.

// June 17th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Teleny and Camille

I’ve been maintaining this site for quite a while as a place to post all my comics stuff and to talk about The Mark of Aeacus, that I write for Class Comics, but the idea that Northwest Comics was a real publisher was kind of a fantasy.

But “Northwest Press” will be publishing its first official project next month: the graphic novel masterpiece Teleny and Camille by Jon Macy. This is an adaptation of the anonymous gay erotic novel Teleny, which is attributed to Oscar Wilde and his circle of writers and poets. Jon shared it with me over a year ago, when it was nearly finished, and he produced a small print-on-demand run for WonderCon earlier this year. It’s a gorgeous book, and it really deserves a deluxe presentation and a wide audience.

I’m sure I’ll be talking more about it in the coming weeks and sharing previews and such—especially since both Jon and I will be at Comic-Con next month!—but I’m nearly ready to send the cover off to the printer’s and I wanted to share it with the world.

Enjoy!

Mark Brill is an amazing artist!

// March 28th, 2010 // No Comments » // The Mark of Aeacus

Just finished inking page 20 of 24 (the finish line is in sight!) and wanted to post a little note to talk about how great Mark’s pencil work is. Regardless of my fluency in Photoshop, the fact that the writer of the book with no comic book art credits is able to take his pencils and clean them up to look like inkwork is pretty astounding.

And just when I start to get cocky and think I’m some inking wunderkind, I come across a background that he didn’t flesh out completely and realize that it’s not me that can draw, it’s him.

Mark of Aeacus mo…men…tummm…

// March 21st, 2009 // No Comments » // The Mark of Aeacus

Folks who picked up a preview copy of The Mark of Aeacus way back in April of 2007 (!) and are still patiently waiting for a second issue to come out (both of you) will be excited to hear that final pencil art is finally rolling in for issue #2!

Mark has set a deadline of early April to finish all the pencil work, which will be inked by Max Banks, who’s previously inked The Tick. We settled on this panel to share as a special preview.

If you want to see more of Mark of Aeacus #2, you can stop by and visit us at the Emerald City ComiCon on April 4th and 5th, where I’ll not only be promoting Mark of Aeacus, but also helping out LGBT comics organization Prism Comics!

OMG! Eric Shanower meets Aeacus!

// February 24th, 2009 // No Comments » // The Mark of Aeacus

A while back, I had chatted with Eric Shanower, illustrator of The Age of Bronze, friend, and all-around-groovy-guy about collaborating on a mythology storybook. It would take these ancient tales and retell them in a modern voice, recounting all the fucking and betrayal and bad behavior just like you might do in a Facebook blog post.

The idea was to do a 16-page storybook—with an art panel for each—that followed the life (and death) of judger-of-the-dead King Aeacus, who got the ball rolling long ago when he crafted The Mark of Aeacus and sent it up from Hades.

Of course, I knew Eric—being as busy as he is with being an actual comics artist with real paying work—would have to fit this project in around the edges, as it were. It’s been gestating.

But I was happily surprised to get some pencil artwork in my email box yesterday morning! I’ll share some of the work as soon as it’s clean and approved for preview; it’s comic, lively, and brings this dusty tale to life with the fun and bite I was hoping for.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

// December 6th, 2006 // No Comments » // The Mark of Aeacus

Mark wrote me an email with the subject: “The good, the bad and the ugly…”

Fortunately, the good news was great news, the bad news wasn’t that big a deal and, as for the ugly…? Read on…

“The good news is—the comic is done!! (Except for the cover which I am going to paint some time this month—I don’t care if we ARE having guests for two weeks!)”

“The bad news is, it’s a bit late tonight for me to scan everything, so it’ll be tomorrow night before I get the new pages sent.”

“The ugly news…well, there isn’t really any ugly news—I just wanted to use that in the subject line.”

Huzzah!

Aeacus #1 moving along

// September 3rd, 2006 // No Comments » // The Mark of Aeacus

Mark sent me some scans of the rest of the pages for The Mark of Aeacus #1 and they look pretty awesome. I’ve gotten the lettering going so we’ll hit the ground running when the pages are finished.

I’ve gotten the lettering going so we’ll hit the ground running when the pages are finished.

Check out this page of our hero (?) smacking down some baddies. He’s vicious. Scary.

New Hub Site!

// June 19th, 2006 // No Comments » // The Mark of Aeacus

I’ve been trying for ages to get going with a lot of my comics projects, and it seems as good a time as any to dive in. The Northwest Comics website will be the hub for all things comics and Zan, and I’m starting by posting some information about the new book I’m working on with Mark Brill, The Mark of Aeacus.

Mark, whose work you might be familiar with from his Wizards of the Coast work, or his furry book
Rocketship Rodents, is pulling out all the stops to illustrate this book in a fresh, new style, and the initial pages are wonderful. We both have high hopes that readers will find the book provocative, original and fun.

We’ve been working on the book for almost a year, after meeting at the Emerald City ComiCon last April. Aeacus was originally intended as a porn book, but Mark paid me a great compliment by telling me he didn’t want to make it explicit after reading the first issue script, because he thought it was too good to be “just porn.”

The book is rooted in ancient Greek myth, and tells the story of Jack, a young man who is given a mysterious tattoo which grants him extraordinary power. The power does not come without a price, however, and soon Jack finds himself caught in the middle of an age-old rivalry, starting to lose himself in the process.

Although it isn’t an explicit book, there is still an extremely sexual element to the story—think of it as Showtime movie, not a Spice Channel one. The comic dives into issues of sexual confidence and guilt, and is unabashedly, erotically gay (you’ll have to see for yourself how Jack gets the tattoo… Mark outdid himself). We’ve all read comics that draw the not-so-subtle line between a woman’s sexual freedom and how powerful (and dangerous) she becomes; I’m trying to play with that theme while also turning it on its ear. Fans of the X-Men and the Dark Phoenix saga will hopefully enjoy our take on the internal struggle that Jack goes through.

We contributed a preview of issue 1 to Prism Comics’ new anthology Unsafe for All Ages 2, which you can get from the Prism Comics online store.