So where’s the comic gone!

Well it’s time I filled you guys in on what’s been happening. After the first issue was published, I began talks with a comic publisher. They seemed interested and asked that I hold off on issue 2 while they decided. That took several months and in the end they came back with a no thank you.

Just as I was about to ask Brigitte to get going on the illustrations, another publisher showed interest. Thankfully, they made their mind up quickly (but also declined in the end). THEN it was nearly Xmas. I sent the issue to Brigitte to get cracking on, but after the Xmas break she told me that she now has full time work and simply doesn’t have the time to do issue 2. Naturally I’m delighted that as an artist, she has the job, but I am totally devastated that Peacemaker has been hamstrung.

I’m really not sure what to do now. Should I fold and chalk it up to experience? Should I try and find another illustrator? Brigitte created such a wonderful individual look in her work, I don’t know how anyone would go about replicating it. In fact I don’t think that’s possible. Which would mean re-imagining a whole new aesthetic.

I admit, I’m floundering now. What should I do? Issue 2 was 20 pages, double the size of issue 1. It’s written but may never see the light of day.

Someone talk sense to me one way of the other please!

I’ve recently taken part in Fablecroft’s series on Indie Press and you can find my thoughts here. Also upcoming is an article in Geek Speak about the Peacemaker Comic and my Bibliobuffet In Conversation with Gillian Polack and Justina Robson. Will post those links soon.

Tara Sharp 3 is surging along on a tide of Tara-like investigations and nonsense. Always such fun to be in her head. I’ll be taking her with me to SheKilda and hope I can step out of Tara-land at the convention and be me!

Brigitte has done some character sketches for the new characters in issue 2  of Peacemaker and will be starting on the sequencing soon. YAY!

Angel Arias is in stores in about ten days and Yunyu’s wonderful new song Bluebeard will be made available free for everyone to enjoy with the book. The song really fits the tempo of Angel Arias which is quite a fast-paced survival tale. There is also a pirate in the book which connects well with the title (even though my pirate is called Ruzalia).

There’ve been some wonderful reviews for Burn Bright over the last few months but this is definitely one of the best I’ve read. The reviewer really understood the themes of the book.

Lastly, I’m always happy to see people are still discovering Parrish Plessis and this review just popped up for Nylon Angel. “Guts and Personal Demons” is certainly an apt description of Parrish!

I’m still recovering from my latest hard drive fail and am slowly loading necessary software and data. What a colossal pain!

In amongst that and my Tara Sharp deadline, I written a few blog posts. One is for Tehani Wessely on Indie Publishing, and an interview with Readings books about Angel Arias, and a blog about Peacemaker for Geek Speak magazine. All these are upcoming and I’ll post the links soon.

Brigitte now has the manuscript for issue 2 of Peacemaker and is sketching some new characters for me to peruse. This issue will introduce Caro Jenae (journalist) and Indira Chance (detective) and abounds with action. So excited to see the sequences!

Other than that, it’s business as usual in the MDP office. My interview with the talented Tom Taylor Made is coming up soon as well. And following that I’ll be talking to the the comic legend, Marv Wolfman. I hope you’ve been enjoying meeting the varied creative types that have been visiting the MDP site over the past twelve months or so.

Next weekend, I’ll be part of the Gold Coast Writers Literary luncheon and am looking forward to meeting a bunch of new peeps. And not long after that is SheKilda and Supanova. I thoroughly enjoyed the Bris Writers Festival last week but did find the commuting into the city quite tiring. Glad I’m not doing a billion Xmas bookstore signings this year like in 2010.

Angel Arias is out in about ten days, so look for it in your bookstores (if you still have one near you!!). As of Ocotber 3rd you’ll be able to use the QRTag in the back of the book to download, Bluebeard, the song that Yunyu has made available as a complement to the book. I’m sure you’ll find them brilliantly suited to each other. For those that don’t have QR readers on their phones, we’ll be providing an url as well.

TTYS! MDP x