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Jim Hanley's Universe, October 22

On Tuesday of next week, I’ve got jury duty. On Wednesday, I’ll be at Hanley’s, signing copies of NO FORMULA, the new Chemistry Set anthology from Desperado. From the JHU newsletter:

Last week’s CHEMISTRY SET signing has been rescheduled for THIS WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22! The Setters have a new book coming out this week called NO FORMULA: Stories from the Chemistry Set, and we’re bringing in a few of the creators. Meet Jim Dougan, Kevin Colden, Elizabeth Genco, Rami Efal, Michel Fiffe, and myself (Vito Delsante) on Wednesday, OCTOBER 22 from 5:00 to 7:00 PM.

Jim Hanley’s Universe
West 33rd St., NYC (Opposite the Empire State Building)
(212) 268-7088
http://www.JHUniverse.com

Dead Killer

Actually I`ve been doing Deadworld Slaughterhouse issue #3. Here is one pic from it. Issue #1 is now at the comic shops.

drawing Blue

Elizabeth seems to be doing all the posting here (while I have been drinking and having fun) so here is one little drawing I just did.

Well, that's rather fun...

Dirk Deppey mentions BLUE on Journalista today. With artwork!

Fun.

New BLUE interviews

Wow! Yes, I know I haven't been keeping this up to date. I will endeavor to do better. Here are some recent interviews:

Jen Contino interviews me at The Pulse (yay!)

Van Jensen interviews me over at ComicMix

And did I post the interview with Tim O'Shea? I think I did. But here it is again.

Vote for JUNK!

Guys!

Vote for JUNK at Zuda
JUNK is a webcomic that mixes the materialism and Tsukamoto`s Tetsuo pretty cool way and is done by me and writer Justin Jordan. Vote and help us to get this gig we really really want! You will get a dark and original comic to read. It will only take a minute to vote. The metal will merge with flesh!

SDCC ahoy!

We're packing furiously for San Diego here in casa de Genco Purvis. Do I pack the extra pair of dress shoes for the Eisners or just rock the shiny new black Sketchers, a.k.a. the most comfortable shoes on the planet? Decisions, decisions...

Here's my signing schedule for COMIC BOOK TATTOO. I'll be handing out BLUE bookmarks while signing. All signings will be at the Image booth, #2729:

Wed 7pm w/James Owen
Thurs 2pm w/G. Willow Wilson + David Mack
Fri 1pm w/Lea Hernandez + Neil Kleid
Sat 4pm w/David Mack & Dame Darcy
Sun 12pm w/Jason Levesque + Ivan Brandon

There will be a rotation of CBT folks at the table from Wednesday night on. (I might try to sneak in to a few of the empty slots on the schedule, as there's no better place to be than behind a table at a crowded show!)

The CBT panel with Tori, Rantz, David Mack, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Ted McKeever and yours truly will be in room 6B at 11:30 on Saturday.

Leland and I will also be checking in at Fresh Start Friday:

9:00-10:00 ComicsPRO "Fresh Start Friday"— ComicsPRO board members Joe Field (Flying Colors Comics, Concord, CA), Chris Powell (Lone Star Comics, Dallas, TX), Amanda Fisher (Muse Comics, Missoula, MT), and Carr D'Angelo (Earth-2, Sherman Oaks, CA) and other ComicsPRO members welcome retailers, publishers, creators, and fans to this event, which will include a buffet of pastries, fresh fruit, juices and coffee, as well as gifts from ComicsPRO. Note: The cost for "Fresh Start Friday" is $5 per person, payable in cash at the door, and requires advance reservations. Room 21

Hope to see you at the show!

A few BLUE bits

BLUE has been out for a week, and so far, so good! I stopped by the excellent Forbidden Planet here in NYC a couple of days ago and said hello to the manager, Jeff. Looks like they were selling a healthy number of copies, which Jeff confirmed ("everyone loves your book").

(Can I just say how gorgeous Forbidden Planet looks these days? I haven't been in in a while and I love what they've got going on there now.)

James Sime of Isotope also wrote to report that "everyone was picking it up" and that it sold out on release day. Yay!! It's been a long time since I've seen the Isotope crew; it'll be great to see them in SDCC this week!

Many thanks to our good friend Mr. Wood, too, who had some wonderful words for BLUE on his blog this week:

"This is a good book, a seriously ambitious re-working of the classic and very bloody fairytale Bluebeard, but I didn't realize that when I first read it, and so I had a couple interesting experiences reading and re-reading the book. I could relate to a lot of it; reminded me in some ways of parts of Demo and Local, so I felt a kinship to what these creators were doing. It was something I was drawn to right away."

While I wasn't going for DEMO or LOCAL per se in BLUE, Brian's writing and sensibilities are a big inspiration to me, so this was nice to hear.

Lastly, BLUE was featured in Newsarama's "Best Shots" column this week.

Today's the day...

BLUE hits your local comics shop today. So when you head on in for your Wednesday fix, be sure to ask for it.

Thanks so much to everyone who has emailed or stopped me in a shop or at a party or wherever to tell me lovely things. I'm very proud of BLUE and hope you enjoy it.

The eagle has landed!

And it looks totally gorgeous...





Seriously, the production value on this thing is CRAZY good. Blue's hair came out perfectly. The cover is so shiny! And I actually sound like I have my act together in the back matter! :P

If you haven't asked your friendly retailer for the book yet, it's not too late! Order code is MAY083778.

(Pix by Sami and nipped from his blog.)

Here's some fun news

Looks like I'll be on a panel at San Diego with Tori Amos, David Mack, Ted McKeever, and the lovely Kelly Sue, for the launch of COMIC BOOK TATTOO.

Tori at San Diego Comic Con!
Promoting the release of Comic Book Tattoo, Tori has scheduled a couple appearances at the San Diego Comic Con. Plans begin with a COMIC BOOK TATTOO panel, hosted by comics and music critic Douglas Wolk, and featuring discussion between Tori, editor Rantz Hoseley and several of the contributing creators on Saturday, July 26 from 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM.

Shortly thereafter, 2:00 pm to be exact, Tori will be doing a signing on site. Fans wishing to meet Tori can receive tickets to her signing, limited to 200 fans, by purchasing a copy of COMIC BOOK TATTOO at the Image Comics booth.

Tickets will be made available in increments with 20 given out on Wednesday, July 23, 75 on Thursday, July 24, another 75 on Friday, July 25 and 30 on Saturday, July 26.

Rantz has pix of an advance copy on his Flickr, too:

NO FORMULA in Comic Shop News

When you go to your local comics shop this week, be sure to pick up a copy of Comic Shop News, because there's a big article on The Chemistry Set and NO FORMULA in it.

How cool is this?

Thanks to Vito for the tip!

New Interview + ad to go in NO FORMULA

Sami reworked the cover for an ad for BLUE that'll go in the back of NO FORMULA - nothing like a little cross-promotion...



Also, I recently answered a few questions for Tim O'Shea, which you'll find on his blog here.

"That’s usually how I work with songs and stories - I look for a line to set it all off. In this case, I was looking for a way in, and even though the song has a real meaning and mood for me, I was struggling. We were specifically asked to avoid “illustrated lyrics.” Makes perfect sense, and I’m not interested in that anyway. But that still left me looking for a way in!"

NO FORMULA roundtable interview @ THE PULSE

Wherein I talk about RED, the companion piece to BLUE:

"Both RED and BLUE are based on fairy tales (Red Riding Hood and Bluebeard, respectively). Both are tales about predators and the choices we make in the face of them. I thought it would be interesting to tell a Red Riding Hood story from the point of view of the wolf."

RED and BLUE were begun at the same time, and were initially meant to go together in a self-published anthology for the MoCCA Art Festival in 2006. BLUE quickly became waaaay too big for such a thing and got set aside. RED became a stand-alone self-published dilly-oh, and now it's seeing wider print in NO FORMULA, the Chemistry Set anthology.

And there you have it.

More here.

BLUE bookmarks for the asking!

Got me a box of some mighty fine BLUE bookmarks. I made them for retailers, but they're free for the asking to anyone who wants 'em. The bookmark features the cover on the front and comic shop ordering info on the back.

Just drop me an email: elizabeth dot genco atsign gmail.

In your email, please let me know if you're a reader or a retailer. Thanks!

The Chemistry Set's first anthology: NO FORMULA

I've been out of town at a marketing seminar so I'm a little late to the party on posting this cool news.

In other news, remind me to hire Mr. Jim Dougan to write all my press releases in the future!



August 2008 marks the print debut of the webcomics collective The Chemistry Set in an anthology collection from Desperado Publishing entitled 'NO FORMULA: STORIES FROM THE CHEMISTRY SET, VOL.1' (Diamond Order Code JUN083849), just in time for the Set's two-year anniversary. "There's no better way to celebrate our Terrible Twos than with a big release like this," said Jim Dougan, an original ChemSetter approached by Desperado publisher Joe Pruett to edit the anthology. "The only problem was choosing from among the literally hundreds of pages of great comics we've got on the site. Joe wanted only self-contained stories, though, so while that unfortunately left out a lot of great stuff, it helped me narrow it down. Are these the best 120 pages of comics ever to appear at the ChemSet? No. Are they the 120 pages that fit together best as a book? I think so."

NO FORMULA will feature 12 stories from the two-year history of the ChemSet, in both black-and-white and color, all under a gorgeous color cover by Hyeondo Park. The story contents, most of which can be previewed online at www.chemsetcomics.com, are:

"The System" by Tony Goins and Tom Williams

"Night's Plutonian Shore" by Neil Kleid and jamesmith3

"Rest Stop" by Jim Dougan, Dean Haspiel and Michel Fiffe

"Red" by Elizabeth Genco and Kevin Colden

"Snowblind" by Chris Arrant and Jessica Hickman

"The Legend of Caraboy" by Andrew Drilon

"Yes, Mother" by Elizabeth Genco and Sami Makkonen

"I'm Madly in Love" by Vito Delsante and Michel Fiffe

"Grinwit" by Andrew Drilon

"Dinner Date #9" by Steven Goldman and Rami Efal

"Come the Dawn" by Jim Dougan and Hyeondo Park

"Rosa" by Steven Goldman and Rami Efal

"Joe Pruett has been an extraordinary supporter of the ChemSet virtually since its inception, and NO FORMULA is just an outgrowth of that," said Dougan. "At least half a dozen issues of NEGATIVE BURN have featured ChemSetters, and in July we've got the graphic novel BLUE (Diamond order code MAY083778) coming from Elizabeth [Genco] and Sami [Makkonen], who also have a short story together in NO FORMULA. The relationship with Desperado is something we're thankful for, and hope will continue to grow (thus the perhaps-optimistic 'Vol.1' in the title). For that to happen, folks need to go out and buy the books, though – so please pre-order your copies!"

NO FORMULA is found on page 256 of the June PREVIEWS (for comics shipping in August) - conveniently right next to the short order form.

Official Solicitation Text:

Haunting. Humorous. Harrowing. Those are just some of the words to describe the short stories compiled in this inaugural collection from the international comics collective the Chemistry Set. Founded in 2006, the Chemistry Set has served as the breeding ground for tomorrow's comic all-stars and includes three Xeric Award winners. Combining talents from America, Australia, Europe and Asia, their chemistry together is seen in stories that range from the heartfelt to the horrifying, from the mythological to the macabre.

NO FORMULA: STORIES FROM THE CHEMISTRY SET, VOL.1
Color / B&W, 120 pp. 6in x. 9in.
Price: $16.99
Diamond Order Code: JUN083849
ISBN-10: 1935002090
ISBN-13: 978-1935002093

Get your orders in!

My friendly local retailer tells me that May 27 is the cutoff date for May orders. So if you haven't yet pre-ordered BLUE, now's the time. :)

You can see previews online at The Beat, Stainless Steel Droppings, and (of course) at Newsarama.

Oh yeah! Pages are also available on this very blog, here.

The order code is MAY083778.

Thanks, everyone!

goodbye, rory

Had my head down yesterday, so I missed the fact that he was in the hospital. Wake up this morning to find he's gone. Ghah! This is awful.

I posted my reminiscences over on LJ. While I'm not usually one for reposting, it feels appropriate this time...

I've been reading the posts over at the retailers forum. Everyone keeps saying how they'll miss the late-night talks 'til 4 in the morning. How wonderful such conversations must have been.

Others talked about how helpful he was to indy creators and zine creators. The latter would be me. I met Rory in 2002, when I took copies of PLATFORM to San Diego. I can't remember who it was - Larry Young, maybe? - who pointed me in Rory's direction. "Oh, you've got to go take some to Rory." I'm going, "Ok, whatever you say, who is this guy?"

He looked over my book and started reading it in front of me. That totally would have made me nuts were it not for his body language and demeanor. He didn't want me to prove anything to him. He was sincerely interested. He really did want to see what I had to offer.

An agonizing minute or two later, he laughed out loud. Then he smiled and said something like, "I know where to put these." Right by the cash register.

When I came back later to settle up, he gave me some pointers. "Always use good cover stock, it's much more professional" and "Always, always put the price on the cover and make sure everyone can SEE it".

I was so grateful for his kindness, and I never forgot it. Now I'm incredibly grateful that I did not pass up the chance to tell him, when we were emailing just about a week ago for this retailer interview.

I'll never forget you, Rory!

EDITED TO ADD: Heidi has more on Rory (in case you didn't know him), including an awesome picture of him... without his hat! ("I never saw him without his hat," says Leland.)

"So I've got this book. I need to get it into your store..."

Four amazing retailers generously gave me pointers on how to get a small press book into their shops. If you're a creator or publisher, don't miss my interview with Rory Root, Alex Cox, Andrew Neal and Ben Trujillo over on the Newsarama blog:

How To Get Your Indie Book Into Comics Shops
By: The Retailers (and l'il old me)

Much thanks to Kevin Melrose for posting this bad boy and TONS of thanks to Heidi M. of The Beat for the incredible notion of doing this in the first place!

Lastly, we've got about 2 weeks left to get pre-orders in for BLUE. If you like what you see, please please please visit your friendly local retailer and ask for it by name. Use the order code MAY083778.

BLUE on SSD

Carl Vincent gave BLUE some coverage on his excellent blog, Stainless Steel Droppings, including yet more preview pages.

If you've never read SSD before, you're in for a treat. I discovered SSD only recently, but it has already become one of my favorites. If you're interested in mythic fiction and art, you'll definitely want to check it out. I've made so many cool discoveries thanks to Carl! ("Just so far," as Leland would say.)

BLUE @ The Beat

Heidi has three more BLUE preview pages over at The Beat. Go look!

Elizabeth Genco, founding member of The Chemistry Set, sends us word of her first graphic novel, BLUE, which will be illustrated by Finnish artist Sami Makkonen and published by Desperado. It’s the tale of a young woman locked in the apartment of a long-lost boyfriend with the ghost of a young girl. “It’s a new take on Bluebeard, a fairy tale about a serial killer first written in 17th century France,” says Genco. “There are some crucial differences, of course. In the most popular version of tale, the young woman is saved at the last minute by her brothers, who ride in on thundering horses armed with big swords. Let’s just say that doesn’t happen here!”

BLUE will be published by Desperado Publishing and is featured in the May issue of PREVIEWS for a July release (order code: MAY083778). 80 pages, 6×9, full color, 9.99. News, reviews, sample pages and special extras can be found at the frequently updated BLUE blog, http://bluecomics.blogspot.com.

BLUE Diamond Order Code is HERE!

Huzzah! We have the order code for BLUE:



So what does that mean to you? Short answer: to make sure you get your hands on BLUE, pre-order the book from your local comics shop sometime this month. Just give them the code MAY083778 and you're good to get one when it's released in July.

Longer answer: Diamond Distributors are the folks that get the comics in the comics shops. Retailers look through Diamond's catalog, PREVIEWS, every month to decide what to order. PREVIEWS is huge, they have a ton to choose from, and aren't able to return books that don't sell. This means that a lot of indy books get passed over at order time. Pre-ordering the book will guarantee you get a copy (huzzah for you), tells retailers there's interest in/demand for the book (huzzah for me), and is another sale (huzzah for retailers).

In closing: pre-ordering is good, all around. :)

more from the pages of Blue

New York Comic-Con!

Off to the New York Comic-Con this weekend, complete with BLUE postcards designed and made by Leland. I don't have an official table, but I'll most likely be hanging with the Weird Tales peeps, wherever they are.

My one panel is on Friday at 4:

Friday
4:00 PM- 5:00 PM
1E10-1E11
WEIRD TALES - 85 Years, 85 Storytellers

Celebrating 85 years in print, Weird Tales has enjoyed a devoted cult following as the very first magazine of gothic and bizarre dark fantasy. Weird Tales is well known for launching the careers of great authors like Ray Bradbury and H.P. Lovecraft; even Stephen King has called the magazine a major inspiration. Come join the dynamic new creative team as they discuss the 85 Weirdest talents of the past 85 years.

After that, I'll probably sneak into the "Women In Comics" panel because Gail will be there. Squee!

Anyway, if you're around and you see me, please be sure to say hello! Do not be afraid to shake me outta my daze if need be...

blue final cover

I just had to put it up here again.

Squee!

The cover

...And here it is. The final cover will be either this or something very similar to this.

Squee!

"Squee" is the sound I make whenever Sami sends me something new. Which he did today, of course. The cover! (No, the cover in PREVIEWS is not the real cover.)

Alas, it's not quite ready for prime time. But soon.

Blue drawing

Okay. Here we go; my first post to our new great Blue blog!
Here we have some unfinished drawings that will eventually end up to the pages of Blue.
I`ll try to drop a drawing here every now and then. Some new finished pages and stuff like that. So keep checking.

Sami

Other projects

Just got back from Nashville last night - whew!

Still getting a handle on all I need to catch up on. In the meantime, I thought I'd mention another one of my projects: Comic Book Tattoo!

Here's a bit from the latest write-up from CBR, in which songs and creators are finally revealed. Though Rantz goes beyond that to reveal quite a bit about my story, "Here. In My Head" with Carla Speed McNeil:

Among those stories is “Here In My Head” by Elizabeth Genco and Carla Speed McNeil (“Finder”), based on the B-side of “Winter” (UK release), circa 1992. Hoseley interprets the song as a reflection on a relationship that never seems to start or end. “[It’s about] wanting someone, even though you know they want another person and that the things they say are just complete BS,” he said. “From that, [Genco and McNeil] end up creating this haunting, sexy, and incredibly touching tale of a girl on the verge of womanhood, who’s pinned under the weight of the upcoming choice she has to make on whether she is going to spend the rest of her life as a human, or as a bird. A transformative choice that has to be made on her seventeenth birthday, as is her familial legacy. A choice made all the harder by her love/lust for a boy who wants a different girl and who sees her as just a friend.”

There is some amazing art in that article, including a page from Ted McKeever that will completely knock you down, so be sure to check it out.

Sami has another big project in the works as well, but I'm not allowed to mention it yet. :)

And we're off! And I'm off!

I'll be out of the office 'til April 6th. In fact, I'm kind of panicking as a cab is due here in an hour. But there will be much more here after I return (and I'll gussy up the blog a bit as well).

In the meantime, here's some BLUE-in-progress that Sami posted on his blog back in February.

While you're there, stick around and peruse - Sami has a lot of amazing artwork up there from his other projects.

Meanwhile, I can always be found online here.

BLUE: first look

To get things rolling, here are five pages for you to check out (click on the thumbnail to see them bigger):

BLUE from Desperado Publishing

Welcome! I've created this blog to keep you updated on BLUE, our forthcoming graphic novel from Desperado.

BLUE is about a girl whose ex-turned-indie-rock-god comes back and is not as he seems. It's a bit of a sendup of Bluebeard, a old school fairy tale.

Here's a picture of the cover that'll be in PREVIEWS in May (this is NOT the final cover):


Here's the solicitation copy:

"A fresh, fantastic take on the bloodiest of classic fairy tales. When Blue's ex-boyfriend appears on her doorstep, he says he wants to make things right. His true intentions are far more sinister. Blue's shape-shifting powers can help her outrun him, but to survive, she must face him as herself."

With any luck, I'll be able to give Sami posting access as well. :)