Raised By Squirrels

2009-06-29T22:51:00.004-06:00

Wow! Cowtown Comix Fest was an awesome time among some terrific people. Thanks again to John Porcellino for putting it all together. Some photos at 7000 BC's Flickr stream and at the event's MySpace photo page.

2009-06-26T18:54:00.007-06:00

Traveling this past week, and now we're in Denver for tomorrow's Cowtown Comix Fest at the LoDo Tattered Cover Bookstore. And — just in — the new printing of Death, Cold As Steel, featuring a new cover. See us at the 7000 BC table.

And, with any luck, we're stopping by I Want More Comics in the morning to restock them.

2009-06-23T21:20:00.006-06:00

"Meehan has crafted a chapter in the early days from the Special Qualities Research Lab’s casefiles that offers here a new, pulp-enthused take on a golden dawn of super heroes .... Chase’s greyscaled artwork is something to be praised. The people look as how real people are supposed to look, and in a 1940s era abundant with manly fedoras and classy dames." The ComicNews.Info review of Death, Cold As Steel.

For those of you just joining us, Monica and I produce the Raised By Squirrels series — all available for free download over there at the left, or purchase (which we greatly appreciate) above. Death, Cold As Steel and The Darkness From Warsaw are standalone stories set in the same world, but an earlier time, with artwork by the wildly talented Jamie Chase. All are published under our Panel Press imprint.

If you'd prefer to get your comics digitally, they're available at Scribd and at Literate Machine.

2009-06-22T18:29:00.002-06:00

Score one for the type geeks. Featuring: the Undying Evil of Comic Sans.

2009-06-21T11:45:00.003-06:00

Jeff's put together a roundup of recent reviews of various 7000 BC and 7000 BC member projects, including several of our Panel Press books.

2009-06-20T09:43:00.005-06:00

Just got pointed to Underground, an upcoming series by two major inspirations at Squirrel Central, Jeff Parker and Steve Lieber. Via Midnight Fiction. Just trying to help help them promote what looks to be a great comic; preview here.

2009-06-19T21:14:00.000-06:00

Our friend, poet and novelist Robert Stikmanz will have a party for the release of Sleeper Awakes, the third novel in his Hidden Lands of Nod series on Tuesday, June 23 at BookPeople at 603 N. Lamar in Austin. Each book in the series has a distinct style and tone, and this is a guy who loves language — check it out if you're in the area. If you're not, you can see him when you're visiting the 7000 BC table at Bubonicon this year.

2009-06-18T19:35:00.003-06:00

Thanks to all who helped out a while back with my Sleeper freakout when I was worried I wasn't going to be able to complete my TPB collection. Got 'em all and it worked out to still be a good deal. But turns out the four trades are just being reissued — with a few new extras; my consolation there is that Chris at True Believers pulled a copy of the also-reissued Point Blank for me. Just read the other night, and (despite featuring Grifter), loved it, both story and art, and it helps explain/expand upon some of the stuff that later comes up in Sleeper.

In an essay in the back Brubaker notes that it was to be just a standalone story, and Sleeper grew out of that. There's a bit more behind-the scenes at his interview at io9.

2009-06-17T21:51:00.002-06:00

Still finalizing our travel arrangements, but we'll be representing 7000 BC at the first Cowtown Comix Fest at the LoDo Tattered Cover Bookstore in Denver on Saturday, June 27. We'll be joining John, Stan, Noah, and a whole bunch of other talented independent comics creators for this small press event.

2009-06-14T21:44:00.003-06:00

A lazy, mostly unproductive day (hey, it was actually gray and raining here in Santa Fe), but I did spend a fair amount of time getting 7000 BC's upgraded Flickr stream going.

2009-06-14T09:33:00.004-06:00

The names really mean nothing to me, but from the pedigree and the comments, I've got some hope for the next Bond outing.

In news about guys I know can write, Alan Furst signing last night at Garcia Street Books. An entertaining time, during which he explained, in response to my question, why he doesn't use original sources for his books in a way that makes perfect sense. Picked up Night Soldiers for him to sign. That might need a reread.

2009-06-12T22:27:00.004-06:00

7000 BC meeting on Saturday. We'll be hanging out at Warehouse 21 at 1:00, stop by and talk comics.

2009-06-10T20:25:00.002-06:00

Covered, where artists "cover" their favorite comic book covers of the past. Noted over at The International Cartoonist Conspiracy blog, reminded when it appeared at Coudal.

2009-06-09T17:46:00.004-06:00

"This work is smart, it is horrific, it is stylish, and it is one of a kind … LOUD applause from this reviewer to the entire creative force behind The Darkness From Warsaw. My highest possible endorsement." From Richard Caldwell's review at ComicNews.Info.

2009-06-07T21:41:00.007-06:00

OK, I'm just sayin' here: I pretty much flat-out loved Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely's Batman and Robin. The blogosphere's full of all sorts of commentary, most of it good, but having left the character behind decades ago, I thought it was a total blast. Wacky fun + creepy Morrison weirdness that will only end badly. To the LCS manager's criticism that he never though Dick Grayson's jaw would look like that, I would add that, if I hadn't just got that series that introduced Damian from the library, I wouldn't fully appreciate what Morrison's done with the character. That's about all that's wrong.

2009-06-06T22:09:00.005-06:00

Sean at I Want More Comics in Colorado just let us know he's pretty much sold out of everything we passed along to him at Comicfest. Restock on its way, plus Jamie's first two issues of his anthology Myx and, once it gets printed, the new edition of Death, Cold As Steel — check out a preview of the new cover here.

2009-06-06T09:13:00.003-06:00

Secrets of Scalped via Blog @ Newsarama, which notes there's really no hope for you if you're not reading Scalped already. Which is true.

2009-06-01T22:45:00.005-06:00

In honor of posting Raised By Squirrels to Scribd — I mean, I think I did, I did the work, they appear on my page ~~(well, now only one seems to)~~, but other than some "reads," I can find no evidence of them on the site — some links about ebooks:

Predictably, the digital future of publishing was the hot topic at Book Expo America; and predictably, there's still no clear path. But Google's getting in on it and seems to be trying to ensure that content will not be tied into any one reading technology. And can we beat the bookstore for finding books, and how do we continue to reward them? It pains me to say it, as a lifelong book guy, but the future is digital, even if it still takes a physical form.

We, like so many others are continuing to experiment, offering Raised By Squirrels for sale over there to the left, and through Tony Shenton, Haven Distributors, and some terrific regional shops; as PDF downloads also over on the side; as complete PDF volumes at Literate Machine; and as free reads at ComicSpace, all while we continue to look at other distribution channels. Oh yeah, and Scribd. I think. Let me know if you find them there.

2009-05-27T18:46:00.002-06:00

It's official — if you want to make a Raised By Squirrels movie now, you're going to have to talk to my agent.

2009-05-26T21:14:00.002-06:00

Piling on the spectactularity that is the Star Trek movie: this illustration from Kate Beaton and this one from Molly Lawless.

2009-05-25T21:59:00.014-06:00

Settled in, sending the long weekend off, Monica's reading through the four Seven Soldiers of Victory I picked up at the Albuquerque Collectors Con last weekend. Lobo Anime had complete runs of all sorts of assorted series. I was seriously contemplating the re-purchase of two I'd gotten rid of a while back: Cinnamon: El Ciclo and Scarab, not because they were that good, but because they were flawed; and the Invaders relaunch, most of which I own, but I C.P. Smith's art was so great. But since I'd read them already, I went with some of Grant Morrison's … weirdness … 'cause I'd caught the preview and followed some of the commentary as the series came out.

I knew it wasn't the complete series, but forgot there was a whole giant one-shot special that brought them all together at the end. But here's what I read, in chronological order, last Sunday night:

The Manhattan Guardian turned out to be, I think, the most successful of the bunch. It combined the whole modern reinvention of the superhero through a character who was the heroic face of a dying medium with the usual sort of Morrison-created oddness of a whole pirate culture in the subways. Satisfying story with tie-ins of what else was going on, especially in …
Klarion the Witch Boy, chock-full of Morrison ideas; Monica noted some similarities to Gutsville (where is that anyway?), I was just happy to know the answer to Crotoan. It unfolded slowly, but surprisingly involvingly. In a more just world, all the Goth kids would've adopted this as the next Harry Potter.
Shining Knight was utterly forgettable. The whole Arthur-before-Arthur a great idea, but too slow to unfold to even care. True of the whole series, by the time the "big reveal" came, I'd lost interest (and track, I think) in the action.
Bulleteer looked awfully nice, and had a lot of great things going on that never quite came together. I think this would've been a pretty great standalone series, in the vein of X-Statix, commentary on the superhero in the celebrity world.

For cheap, I'd love to know what happens in/to the rest. Gives me a quest at any cons I make it to.

There have been new comics, there have been nights of reading them … with any luck there will be some reports from them coming.

2009-05-25T18:38:00.007-06:00

Reading Exiles trades on loan from Raph, discovered that someone had come up with the name Nocturne years ago. And I was so proud of that one. Ah, well, Death, Cold As Steel just got a nice writeup at Sequential Tart.

In other news, in how many ways was Star Trek totally awesome? I'm not sure I can count that high.

2009-05-22T10:43:00.001-06:00

Want.

2009-05-21T22:20:00.002-06:00

A look at some more of Marc's Target adventure that's in the works. Um … kind of a spoiler, but since I'm promising giant-robot-beating action, it shouldn't be too much of a surprise.

2009-05-20T22:39:00.003-06:00

Our old friends at the DC Conspiracy will present the fourth DC Counter Culture Festival this Saturday, May 24 from 10:00 to 10:00 at The Soundry in Virginia. Group members with their comics will be among the vendors, and there will be workshops and entertainment throughout the day.