Hello All,
It’s been a while. But despite what the cobwebs and dust bunnies collecting in the corners of this site might suggest I have been busy, so I thought I’d share what I’ve been up to and the exciting things coming up in the next couple months. But first, recap.
Though 2017 was difficult on a macro level for all peace-loving, environmentally-minded futurists, I was fortunate enough to enjoy an unprecedented amount of prosperity at least on a micro-scale. One highlight was when Angler, one of my short horror comics, was accepted as a finalist in the Ghost City Comics Competition. There were so many incredible stories featured and it was quite fulfilling to see mine and artist Kevin Learn’s work featured among them. If you’d like to check out Angler as well as the other great finalists from the competition, they’re collected in a free digital anthology, available here.
But despite how cool that was, the high point of 2017 for me was definitely getting married! I don’t like to talk much about personal stuff here, but the primary reason I’ve had such a wonderful (and busy) year is because I got to ritually cement my life-partnership with the single greatest human being the evolutionary process ever managed to cobble together! The joy is impossible to put into words, so here’s a picture instead:
Along with these accomplishments, a major part of 2017 for me was working on projects that will start seeing the light of day in 2018 and boy are there a lot of them.
I have two comics stories that will be featured in two different anthologies from Stache Publishing. The first, Sistara, is a great little short that artist Rob Toal brought to life with a vibrant and delightfully grotesque flair. It will be featured in their kaiju-centric anthology “Colossal Chaos.”
The second, Avalon Can Wait, is a fantasy-noir about Lancelot, cursed with immortality for betraying Arthur and trying to find meaning in a world without Guinevere. My collaborator, Iulia Zolotcov, did an incredible job blending the noir tone together with the fantasy tale and the final product is sharp and stunning. It will be featured in the fairy-tale themed anthology “Ever Afterward.”
Both projects were lettered by Comic Jam MVP letterer Nikki Powers and both will be available sometime in 2018, with further details to come.
But wait…there’s more!
In February, Strange Romance Volume 3, which features my comic short, The Time We Spend Together, will be available on Comixology. The story was brought to life by the very talented Bree Jordan, and tells the tale of a smart-TV who falls in love with the man who watches her.
Finally, on February 4th, a Kickstarter campaign will launch for “Corpus: A Comic Anthology of Bodily Ailments,” which will feature my first non-fiction comic, a short drawn and lettered by Olivia Mercurio. The story will focus on my grandmother and grandfather’s endurance in the aftermath of an accident which resulted in the amputation of one of his legs and the immobilization of his right hand. Since this piece is still in production I can’t post a preview, but you can view Olivia’s incredible portfolio here to get a taste of what’s to come.
While that’s all I can currently share, I have a few other projects (including some prose!) that are coming along nicely but have yet to find a home. So stay tuned and let’s all hope that 2018 beats the shit out of last year on both a micro and a macro level.
Happy New Year and Thanks for Reading,
– Hal
