Happy New Year Last Week
FOR DAYS OF AULD SYNE
- matt fraction -
2014 was a motherfucker. It started like one anyway. It ran like one through, oh, hell, fall. Then it ended great. well. Kel's been sick like ten days and TL was sick in the run up to Christmas and i basically didn't sit in front of work for like ten days for this reason or that and i'm fixin' to start shitting my pants with all the shit that suddenly has to be done at once but --
but -- !!
but we made it. we're still here. and you're still here. or you are a ghost with a computer, in which case, i would like to make a television program about you.
more likely than not you are not and that means you and me are still here and 2014 is about 22 hours away from being in the books.*
so all right. good on ya. get ready because we're about to head 'round again. okay. don't die. here we go. may the bridges we've burned light our way forward.
* I wrote this twelve days ago.
- kelly sue deconnick -
If I have a pet peeve, it's whiners, so I'm doing my damnedest not to pout over the fact that our family lost my favorite week of the year--the week between Christmas and New Year's--to illness. I'm trying. It's January 11th as I write this, T woke up at 4 this morning complaining of a sore throat and Henry Leo and I are both still coughing and sniffling, so my triumphant rising above may be a few days away yet. Apologies.
Here's what's going on around here:
Change is afoot in the MILKFED offices. We've made a couple of new hires, are doing some restructuring and are even having our buddy Merlin Mann come in and do a formal consult with us on some of our workflow practices. Some of you just nodded off, I know, but Warren Ellis and Rich Stevens are aroused and really, that's all I'm after in bringing this up.)
Books and writing projects --
PRETTY DEADLY. Just back from Image Expo in San Francisco, where I got to chill with my sister-from-another-mister, Emma Ríos, and announce the second volume of PRETTY DEADLY will be out in September. (We'll be doing 4 and a half arcs of Pretty Deadly all in.)
BITCH PLANET 2 is with the printer. Here's a three page lettered preview, just for you. (Thanks to Clayton Cowles for putting that together.) BITCH PLANET is planned for 30 issues, with every third issue featuring a guest artist and focusing on the backstory of one character. Our first "special third" features Robert Wilson IV, and focuses on Penny Rolle. (My favorite fan collective name I've seen suggested for Bitch Planet so far, btw, is "Penny Rollers.")
CAPTAIN MARVEL. Warren Ellis!!! My favorite comic book writer, one of my favorite writers in any medium and a dear, dear friend. (He calls me "samebrain," which is a lie, as he's far more clever than I am, but it fills me pride and glee, so I'm bragging. Not even sorry.) We worked together on AVENGERS ASSEMBLE a while back and I would work with him on anything, at any time, no questions asked. He's graciously agreed to join me and David Lopez on Captain Marvel 12 & 13 and even if you're not a regular CM reader, you're going to want to pick those up. Oh, and I think CM 11 is out this Wednesday? Christmas issue. A little late, yes, I know, that's how the schedule worked out.
Speaking of Ellis, he does a thing in Orbital Operations where he assigns codenames to unannounced projects, so that he can talk about them a bit. I'm shamelessly stealing that practice here.
Project Codename: PALETTE. Still not sure this is going to happen, but if it does, it's with my dream artist and it's going to be a bucket list item. Which I guess means I'll be one step closer to a satisfied death. Yay...!
Project Codename: MOTHERS. First venture into a new medium. Scary as hell, but that's always a sign I'm on the right path.
Project Codename: SWIMMING WITH CATS. A new book with an old friend. I think we're starting this in June.
Whatnot --
Project Codename: CODPAST. I've been asked to do this sort of thing before, but I've never had the time. Still don't, but I'm going to invent a day between Tuesday and Wednesday to make this one possible.
ÜBERLIST. I'm going to try and do an Überlist for the first time in... well, YEARS at this point, I think. Danielle Henderson prodded me, so I'm in. An Überlist is basically a year-long To Do list that you make at the start of the year. If you want a longer explanation, here's a post I made in 2003...? Nikol Lohr, my college roommate, started the practice. She runs the Harveyville Project now and sells datebooks that include Überlist trackers here.
STUFF. Post-Christmas I'm feeling a bit bloated with crap and I'm dying to put the house on a diet. (House diet: more stuff goes out than comes in. Easy principle, much simpler to pull off with households than with bodies, alas.) Couple of exceptions, though --
I think it was Ellis, actually, who recommended this Anker portable charger for travel and I seriously don't know how I left my house without it. Charged my phone 3 times with it over the course of Image Expo, and still didn't drain the thing.
Fraction got me a Wu-Tang Christmas sweater.
Next time I have a gift to buy for a fellow, I'm ordering one of these Stuff Sheaths. They pair nicely with Field Notes and they're made by the Red Clouds Collective, of whom I am fond.
Now that the kids are old enough that they don't throw dishes anymore, I'm shopping for new dinnerware. This is more stressful than you might imagine.
Looking into doing more merch and getting serious about those Bitch Planet t-shirts folks keep asking about. Anything in particular you want me to look into? On my list right now: stickers, t-shirts, patches and, at some point, BP inmate trading cards. I'm open to suggestions, though.
In this second story arc of PRETTY DEADLY, the mantle of Death has fallen to the little girl, Sissy, who, along with her tattered band of reapers, is tasked with gathering souls whose time has come. An old woman has a dying request. Her son has been missing for more than a year, gone east, and from there to fight in the trenches overseas. She wants to see the boy one last time before she passes. Deathface Ginny is dispatched through clouds of mustard gas to find the young man, but between her and her quarry, atop bitter black mount of twenty hands, sits the Reaper of War himself.
#ICYMI
UNBELIEVABLE fan-made trailer for Bitch Planet is up on YouTube. WE LOVE IT. Four for you, Amalgam Studios.
How Ody-C and Bitch Planet Empower Women on Comic Booked.
Ogling ODY-C #1 (Analysis) on Atoll Comics.
Comic Review: Bitch Planet #1 (Part 1 of 5) on The Dinglehopper.
Brandon Graham and Emma Ríos enlist an array of cosmopolitan talent for new comics magazine, 'Island' on Comics & Cola.
Blacksploitation by Emma Ríos. HT to David Brothers for reminding us those pages exist.
Jamelle Bouie has a newsletter. You can sign up for it here.
Uncle Warren just announced INJECTION with Jordie and Declan and there's a tumblr set up for it here.
Coverage of the Image Expo "Storytelling" Panel with Snyder, DeConnick and Liu on CBR.
Bitch Planet 3, Page 1, Panel 1. Art by Robert Wilson IV.
tl;dr
January 28 - Bitch Planet #2 in stores
January 28 - Casanova: Acedia #1 in stores
February 4 - ODY-C #3 in stores
February 4 - Satellite Sam #11 in stores
February 18 - Bitch Planet #3 in stores
February 18-21 - ComicsPro Annual Meeting in Portland, OR
February 19-22 - KS at Disney Princess Half Marathon Weekend
Milkfed Logo by Rian Hughes.