The Worst Writer in the World: So much stuff to blog about! Tom Brown! Rick Worley! Rabbits! Politics! New writing gigs! WOW!!!

So much stuff to blog about! Tom Brown! Rick Worley! Rabbits! Politics! New writing gigs! WOW!!!

Holy hell, okay, TONS to talk about, so here we go:

First off, The Inimitable Tom Brown (as I now think of him, in uppercase letters, just like that) has produced two exquisite new pieces he's shared with me:

1) First up, the Halloween e-card, in full beauteous color, check it out:

That Myspace URL on the bottom is his website for the nonce, so visit it and tell him how much you dig his art! Wait...that perfectly-shaded vellum-orange and eerie mummified figure doesn't convince? Dude, just look at THIS:

Now THAT is beauty. Go to http://www.myspace.com/copperage to see more. His stuff is really some of the best I've seen recently.

And speaking of artwork that's amazing, I got to go meet artist RICK WORLEY at APE Con recently, a guy whose been kind enough to sign on to collaborate with me and my co-writing gal-pal-for-life. This boy is the next R. Crumb, I shit not one person out there. He's inordinately talented, and he had his first small press book on sale at APE to prove it:

Go to INDYPLANET to purchase a copy now, and see some incredible samples of the pages within! It's hysterical, heartwarming, depressing, and poignant, and Rick makes it seem effortless to achieve such results. It's only $4 for 32 pages of funny/touching-in-a-sexual-way rabbit-cursing goodness.

Here's a few bonus sketches he doodled at the con (this is pre-election day, mind):

So YAY! Rick Worley's A WASTE OF TIME #1 (of, thus far, 1) $4.00 at INDYPLANET.

Hmmmm....what else?

Oh, yes! I am now writing for three, coun 'em, THREE online comic book news sites.

1) I'm still on with Broken Frontier, which is itself back with a vengeance after suffering a series of technical setbacks with its site - suddenly corrupted code, a redesigns that has been started and stalled THREE TIMES to date. CEO Frederik Hautain was actually the very first of the comic news site publishers to conceptualize a Web 2.0 overhaul of the usual comic book news site, but after a series of deals which fell through, corporate alliances that backed out at the last minute, etc., we're now the ones lagging behind in the race. Still, Fred's a visionary, and BF is one of the best sites to find articles on the most obscure never-before-covered shit. Others catch up and cover things maybe a month or two after, but I swear, a lot of new small press companies or self-publishers find us much more receptive than the average comic news site, and far less buried behind the Marvel/DC/Image maelstrom.

2) I'm now also to begin writing a monthly column for the incredible SEPTAGON STUDIOS (just put my name in the above pic, that'll be me reeeeal soon!). This is that site I blogged about just a few weeks ago, when they were nominated for best comics blog on the web by Blognet.com Well, now I get to cover online/downloadable e-comics, being one of the very first to explore...not webcomics...but PDF/CBR books such as those found on Wowio, ClickWheel, Lulu, and the like. This is the section of the comics world that has simply received nearly zippo mainstream coverage. I aim to change that. There is no more viable option to self-publish than to do so electronically. If we can all finally get over our prejudices of having grown up in a print-centric universe, we can free the entire industry from the shackles of big money. Seriously, folks. E-comics, even more so than webcomics, are the stepping stone we've been looking for. So a regular monthly column at this amazing new site, focusing on e-comics, the best and brightest of that world.

3) Finally, I've also been offered to write reviews for the site COMICS BULLETIN. A rather talented and ridiculously sweethearted-fellow name of Matt Mclean, who I met via a gig at Spacedog Entertainment and then in person at the last Emerald City Con in Seattle, offered me the job, and I said yes, because Matt rules, and Comics Bulletin allows me to stretch my wings and cover print books at EITHER Broken Frontier or Comics Bulletin, depending on whichever might serve the book best. I really feel this will give me a stronger voice for the works I want to support, placing reviews on the proper site with the proper audience the book will likely be looking for, or say, whichever site they HAVEN'T been able to make any headway with previously.

Oh, and BTW: Matt Mclean recently made it to the top 50 finalists for 2008 Comic Book Challenge hosted by Platinum, and now he's got gigs with BOOM! Studios, 407 Studios, and more. He's an up-and-coming force to be reckoned with, and you can check out his ludicrous level of creative output by going to his BLOG. Really good stuff.

Okay, and THAT is all for today. Whew! There's even more, but I have got to get on with my life for tonight. Catch y'all real soon! --Dave B.