So, my quest to clean my work plate is nearing its end.
Right now the only thing I have left to letter is LOVE BUZZ by Len Wallace and Michelle Silva w/ additional art by Dave Tuney. This OGN will come out in a few months from Oni Press, and it'll be awesome. Len's hustled his ass off for years to get to this point and I'm happy it'll be paying off for him--if you all give the book a shot!
Originally LOVE BUZZ was scheduled to come out this week for Valentine's Day, but production required the date be pushed back. And yes, I'm partly responsible for that. After lettering the pitch in 2007, I didn't manage to add the book into my schedule again until now. However, that's a GOOD thing.
A few weeks ago, I had another lettering breakthrough thanks to Mike Oeming asking me to figure out how to do the organic Hellboy hand lettering look. Finally figured that out, and even though I'm sticking to my balloon shapes, it's that organic style he wanted. I'm still not comfortable putting all copy into close-to-perfect-circle balloons because it covers up so much artwork. Gonna take some more time with Mike till we gel to the point that he leaves me the exact amount of space to do those balloons without worry.
Anyway, now that I have nothing else on the plate, LOVE BUZZ is a breeze to letter in the span of a few days/weeks. So there won't be any noticeable style changes, which will help keep the lettering off people's conscious thoughts.
The Oeming book is of course RAPTURE which premieres on Myspace Dark Horse Presents #19 this month. The first issue will be solicited in the next Previews. Val Staples is doing the colors this weekend and I'll just have to check placements and correct SFX colors. Easy and short.
Popgun 3 is nearly finished. We're just waiting on two stories to come in. One of which is being done by one guy, the other story just needs to get finished coloring since I lettered that yesterday. Another instance of simply adjusting sfx colors and be done.
The story order is done, the interiors are laid out, biographies are pretty much in, and back cover files are just pending selecting which names to put on the back and artwork Steven wants to put into the tape roll thingamabob.
Outlaw Territory vol. 1 is what I'm finishing after getting up to speed on Love Buzz. All I need to do there is do the table of contents/credits design and stuff, but I'm working on something special for that. So it's taken more time. I know the book's late, but we're getting there. And it will be worth it. This volume contains the lettering I'm most proud of in my career right after the RAPTURE and BAD DOG stuff.
Speaking of BAD DOG, thanks everybody who's giving the book a shot. We've had a lot of positive feedback, and I hope this is an indicator for the book's future. Right now it's scheduled for 5 issues, but if the numbers are good, writer Joe Kelly wants to do it as an ongoing series--which I would LOVE to do. It's a blast to work on this book. Joe's a great comedic writer and Diego's art clicks from page 1. This week I lettered issue 2 and am currently waiting for Joe to give the final go to send it to Image. I nearly pissed myself laughing so much while working on it. Now hopefully that's not going to raise expectations too high, but I think you'll love the jokes as much as I do.
Sooo, work work work...after Love Buzz, Popgun, and Outlaw Territory are done, I'll be in a bit of a quandary with working off all of that stuff. Aside from RAPTURE (mini series) and BAD DOG (mini-hopefully-ongoing), there won't be any paying work for a while. Which leaves time to get back to font creation, research, and writing--but that don't pay the bills.
That's where PLAY PLAY PLAY comes in. Next Friday, I'm boarding a plane for sunny (rainy?) California to hang out with CB and Ahmet in the Monsterfoot/Kingdom Comics office on the Disney lot for two weeks. CB's already mad-busy setting up meetings with publishers and creators, producers, directors, and managers etc. Hope we can get the ball rolling on a few things for Lead Pipe Entertainment and score some straight up lettering work. Though I wouldn't mind getting some kind of production job out there and moving ASAP. Which I still want to do, but well, the work visa/money process is slow. So fingers crossed, and see what happens.
But it wouldn't be play if all I did was work at the office there. Looking forward to meeting a lot new people, adventuring around LA, and just having fun. (True story: My last proper vacation was in 1997 and I have no idea how "vactioning" like normal people works anymore.)
I'll try to update the blog more often while in California. There's bound to be more to talk about out there.
If you're out Californy-way give me a shout.