Greetings from the brand-spanking-new FRIED Comics offices, where I’ve been dutifully procrastinating on writing this newsletter (and everything else) by trying to figure out how to work the printer in this joint.
Here’s the nickel tour:
Officemate Mick Beyers and I have been here two weeks now, and I gotta say—it’s nice to have a dedicated space for making comics that isn’t in my house, and our expansion is a great sign of how the FRIED/Bloodline Comics empire is growing.
(And did I mention it’s not in my house?)
Anyway, here’s what’s currently cooking in this office (that I can talk about!):
BLAZING BLADE OF FRANKENSTEIN
Line art and lettering for issue 2 is complete, with Ilaria Chiocca hard at work on the colors now.
Unfortunately, issue 1 ran into a little snag at the printer, but fret not! We are dutifully working to correct it and get the issue in the hands of our backers…
PBOW
We haven’t forgotten about our time-tossed pregnant ladies!
Artist Fabio Ramacci has been a bit of a superstar lately, working for some of the top Italian publishers and breaking into the ad world by storyboarding a billboard you’ll soon see in Times Square, Piccadilly Circus, and Tokyo.
But he swears he’s been hard at work on the next issue PBOW, which aims to launch around Mother’s Day (see what we did there?)
Here’s a sneak peek at his inks for the cover, featuring a giant mecha-kaiju that looks like… a werewolf?
Meanwhile, we somehow convinced rising star artist Valentina Pinti, along with her colorist partner in crime Francesco Segala to provide our variant cover this go round.
They came back to us with two sweet versions of the finished cover, and we’d love to know which one you like best.
#1…
…or #2?
We think they’re both pretty sweet for different reasons, but we’d love to know what you think.
You can either HIT REPLY or…
TOP SECRET!
And finally, I’m currently working on a top-secret script for an as-yet-unannounced project, under the guidance former Marvel & DC Editor Frank Pittarese.
Frank’s been a joy to work with, and this one is sure to please NIGHTMARE THEATER fans, especially if you’ve enjoyed the collaborations with my aforementioned officemate, Hollow’s Mick Beyers.
And that’s just the stuff I can talk about!
Meanwhile, here’s what else is going on…
RED XMAS on comiXology
The Scout Comics edition of RED XMAS is now available on Amazon and comiXology, so if you’ve been waiting to buy a digital copy, now’s a perfect time to snag it (and get me and Alexandre O. Philippe moving on the much-discussed sequel).
It’s not Christmas, you say?
Well, the fine folks at Starburst Magazine call it “Brilliant reading whatever the time of year. 9 out of 10 stars.”
So, there.
If you dig the book, please consider leaving us a review. (They help!)
Bloodline Comics
Over at BLOODLINE COMICS, we are still waiting for NIGHTMARE THEATER 2 to print, but my co-editor D.E. Schrader is getting ready to launch his brand-spanking new book…
Featuring the artistic talents of Albert Einstein: Time Mason’s Tony Donley (who drew our PBOW “Man with the Metal Dick” variant last year) and Nightmare Theater contributor Andres Salazar on colors, CANNIBALS ON MARS has been in the works for quite some time (in fact, I lettered this puppy early last year).
But the topic couldn't be more timely, as possible future Twitter owner (?) Elon Musk had this to say about the red planet recently:
So with our hot-button Cannibal space story ready to launch in a couple weeks, now’s a perfect time to head to the pre-launch page and give it a follow so you can be among the first to back it when it goes live.
Click the logo above, or…
OK, that’s enough writing for one day. I really gotta figure out how to make this printer work.
Anybody good with I.T.?
- Clay
#2 cause it pops just a bit more cause of the pink/purple
2 by a hair