Things are mighty busy here in comic land. First, there has been some notable new entries into the webcomic scene lately. I’ve mentioned some of them but here they are in a short list:

• Cleopatra in Space by Mike Maihack. A fun sci-fi comic with Cleo and her pet cat. Just getting started.
• Escape from Planet Nowhere by Otis Frampton. More sci-fi, this one just got started last Sunday. Stunning visuals in the promos and the first installment.
• My Sister, the Freak by Dani Jones. Yes, more sci-fi. An all ages sci-fi story about two sisters learning to deal with life, family, and alien invaders. Dani is a children’s book illustrator and the work is amazing.
• Zahra’s Paradise – this one is a little different but definitely worth checking out. “Set in the aftermath of Iran’s fraudulent elections of 2009, Zahra’s Paradise is the fictional story of the search for Mehdi, a young protestor who has disappeared in the Islamic Republic’s gulags.” So far it’s pretty gripping.
• Monster Isle by Joey Weisner – Just a fun, once-a-week comic about some monsters… on an isle.

SPACE show April 24-25

Next, as you may know the 11th Annual Small Press and Alternative Expo (SPACE) is coming up April 24-25. And of course, Steve Ogden and I will be appearing there as Wishtales with all our Marooned and Moon Town goodies. So if you are in the Columbus, Ohio area stop by and see us! If not, make a trip and see us!

It’s shaping up to be a good show, they just announced that all the exhibitor tables are sold out, so it’s going to be a full house. Steve and I will have books galore, some original art, buttons, prints and we might even do a few sketches (I’m not sure about that just yet.)

I’ll also be part of a Webcomics panel moderated by Lora Innes. I’ll post more info on that closer to the show.

Original Art Auction

In case you missed it, I’ve put the first piece of Marooned original art up for auction on eBay. This is a kind of test to see how it goes. You can view the auction here (there’s currently 1 bid). If there is decent interest, I’ll try and put together some more. I think it only makes sense to do certain strips, they don’t all really stand up as individual pieces. Some get modified after scanning, some are incomplete and so forth. There’s 2 days left on the auction.

Marooned Book #2

I’ve been slowly trying to get book 2 planned behind the scenes. As I mentioned before, this time instead of an art gallery there will be comics produced by various artists. Most will be Marooned one page comics in their own style and of their own creation, but there may be some original stories too. I’ve got most of the list set, I’m still waiting to hear back from a couple people. Here’s a list of confirmed people that have agreed to do a comic:

• Steve Ogden of Moon Town (You all know who he is!)
• Mike Maihack of Cleopatra in Space
• Michael Regina of From Death Til’ Now
• Eddie Pittman of Red’s Planet
• Matt Forcum of Robot Beach
• Josh Ulrich of Newman and Jackie Rose

There’s a good chance my daughter Amanda will do one as well, and as I said I am waiting on a couple more answers.

And this time around there will also be another exclusive Marooned story. This one will not be part of the continuity of the main story, but it will be fun. It’s a little look at a scene that occurred just after John and Asimov landed. I’m happy to announce that the wonderful artist Joey Ammons has agreed to do the story.

I’m also planning on doing another unrelated short story for the book. It’s titled “The Flower.” The script is written, but I’m still working on character designs.

And of course, the book will contain strips starting at 101, where book 1 left off all the way up to… well I’m not sure yet. At least 200, probably further. I’ll be going back and fixing some things in the art like before – especially some of the early drawings of Lian which are just horrendous.

Still working on the title – that has proved to be the hardest part so far.

That’s all for now. Hope you have enjoyed the backstory of Ugo. I promise we’ll find out what happened with the Geborga plan, too!

There was little or no interest in the raffle idea, so I’m going to test the waters with a piece on eBay. If there’s enough interest I’ll do more, and if not – well, I won’t!

(note, the little shadow under the text is just from my desk lamp.)

This piece is from June 2, 2008’s “More to the Mission” where Asimov explains part one of his origin. So I guess you could consider this Asimov’s origin strip As you can see by the link it’s a four panel strip. This is the reworked version, those of you who have been around since then may remember that I redid the first 25 or so strips once I got some things figured out and the character designs down. I doubt I’ll ever do anything with the first versions.

Anyway, this piece comes with an overlay that has the text on it so you can have it with the text, or take the overlay off and have it without – up to you. If you have any questions let me know. Also if you are interested in art but not this one – let me know what kind of strips you prefer.

Visit the auction here.

Interested in Rag the Viking but don’t have two dollars? How about 99 cents?!

It’s like iTunes for minicomics! (Well, with only one selection.) I’ve made Rag available in hi-res as an e-book (well, a PDF). Help support Marooned and get a great story for under a buck! Face it, you were just going to go get a Snickers bar. Instead, order Rag and you’ll read a fun story AND lose weight! I mean, how can you beat THAT deal?

A great new sci-fi webcomic begins today. Escape from Planet Nowhere, by artist Otis Frampton. Otis is a great artist as you can see by the poster, wonderful style and there are three fun pages up on the site that begin the story. I don’t know much about it other than that, but you’re going to want to check it out.

It came to my attention that the Rag the Viking buttons in the store were adding extra shipping charges effectively doubling the price of the book. I’ve gone in and fixed it, so it should be working now.