March 18, 2005

A long, long, long, long, long time ago I started a project called ALTERCATIONS. Since its humble beginnings in an 8.5 x 11 inch sketchbook, largely conceived in a dive bar in South Philly, ALTERCATIONS has undergone more metamorphoses than a Kafka character. When ALTERCATIONS 1 published in late 2002, I was rather confident that issue 2 would shortly follow (I only had 13 pages left to draw when issue 1 went on sale). However, 2 years later I still had those same 13 pages to complete. A lot happened during that time--I relocated to LA, produced LESS THAN HEROES for Top Shelf, started work on the novel, traveled, and worked more jobs than I thought possible. And somewhere during that passage of time I lost the ability to sit and draw with any regularity. Fortunately, it's returned, in spades, and many thanks are due to the lovely and talented Di for purchasing me a desk and supplies after I gave away most of my drawing materials (including my desk). Issue 2 now has 12 pages to go, though I have been reworking the layouts and actually adding new pages. But I'm working on it again, and there is an end in sight. Check back again soon for a few samples of the most recent work. It's dark and unusually violent; I think you'll enjoy it.

Part 2 of the Star Wars essay should continue next week. It would have been here this week, but the Word file has vanished from my desktop, and much of what was written is now lost.

See you this weekend at the Long Beach Comic Con (aka, "Wizard World Long Beach")...