I was doing a little mid-chapter planning last night and laid out the pages for Book #2. I thought those of you who are interested in such things may want to see it. Get a better look at the BOOKS section of the site.
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Tom Dell’Aringa and I will be appearing together at the 11th Annual Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo (SPACE)! Hey, how appropriate is it for a couple of space-story purveyors like Tom and me that we’re actually doing a show called SPACE?
The show happens April 24-25, so it’s actually coming up fairly soon. We’re hard at work preparing all sorts of goodies for the show, getting signage made, buttons, stickers, you name it. We’ll both be bringing original art and I imagine we’ll be doing some sketching, too. It’s going to be our first con for the both of us, so it should be fun and a learning experience, too.
Moon Town: Episode One: Breaking Lane
As you know, I have been hard at work finishing my first book, Episode One: Breaking Lane. I’m nearly finished and it will be available soon on this very site. I would think this is something any Moon Town fan would love to have. It’s one thing to read these comics online, but it’s just so nice to have the book and read it how it’s intended. If you’ve got the Marooned book, you know what I mean. These comics just look so great in print. Here are the details on my book:
Episode One: Breaking Lane, chronicling the first three chapters in the Moon Town saga:
- Chapter 1: New Sherrif in Town (Cassandra Quinn arrives at Luna Seven)
- Chapter 2: Moon Men (Introducing Simon Tripline and the spaders)
- Chapter 3: Digging in the Dark (Simon begins trying to solve the mystery of Vin Sinclair)
- Letters page
- Sci-fi short story
- Total length: 40 pages
- Price: $4.75 USD (plus shipping)
Tom Dell’Aringa and my wife Barbara spent a lot of time helping me beat the cover into shape. I think it came out pretty nice in the end, and I love Tom’s design touches, which evoke the Golden Age of Comics.
It hearkens back to the old Marvel days of yore. In the upper left is a character box, below is our Wishtales logo and the date and issue number. And to the right, we have our All Ages Stamp – approved for general consumption!
Announcing: I, ASIMOV!
I should also mention another Marooned book. This one is not a full book collection like the larger Out of Orbit, but rather a floppy instead. If you missed out on the big book, or it was too expensive, this is a nice alternative. And if you’re a completest, well – you’ll want this one too!
I, ASIMOV is a 24-page book featuring strips of – you guessed it – Asimov. It starts at the beginning with a selection of his strips, then runs the whole Saga of Bob story. Following that are a few Asimov strips from the post-Bob story.
There are 3 small bonuses to the book. First, there are 2 gag strips featuring Asimov co-written by me. Second, there’s a full page comic featuring Asimov and John in the ship on their way to Mars. It’s in the format of the new Croaker’s Gorge that I’m doing, big and square like that. Tom thinks it will probably be 12 panels.
Once he finishes that comic, it will be off to the printer. We expect it will be available in a couple weeks or thereabouts through the Marooned website. We’ll keep you updated. And here’s the cover:
Not sure on the price yet until we make the order – again we’ll let you know.
Lastly, the first book Tom did was the little “ashcan” version which contained the first 15 strips in black and white with creator commentary (like Out of Orbit) and a couple of vault pages with some development artwork. WishTales is reprinting that one (called Arrival) with a brand new cover and inside cover to match our branding. This is the lowest price point Marooned book you can get. It will be available at IndyPlanet for $3.25.
As I roll down to the finish of Moon Town #1, I’ve decided on a format change for the book. When I first began planning it, I went with a typical comic book format, 6×9. However, after having worked on a story for Tom Dell’Aringa’s Marooned collection, which is a 9×9 square format, I got to thinking the square format was better. First, and most importantly, at 9″ wide, the art is much bigger than the 6″ wide version. And second of all, the square format lends itself to a more horizontal aspect ratio, which feels a lot more cinematic. That of course makes me thrilled.
The only bad news is that because of the page breaks in the new format, there are some blank spots in the book (I’ve doped them in with small question marks). The good news is that I’ll be filling them in with some ideas I’d had along the way and originally had to cut for space. Luckily, those ideas are back in.
The other change to the book – originally it was going to be a 22-page story with a 5-page backup story unrelated to Moon Town, just some funny little story. Instead, I’m going to be producing Moon Town #1 as a 36-page story, which feels really nice and chunky to me. That feels worth releasing.
You can follow along on my progress at the BOOKS page at the website. The first book will chronicle the first 3 chapters in the Moon Town saga, and at this writing, only needs 9 more drawings. Exciting!
