Hey everyone,

I'd like to write a bit about Ed Brisson, the wonderful letterer for Lotus. You can check out his blog and portfolio here. Ed has actually worked on Abigail?s War, Alma, Black Jack O?Breen, Blake Undying, The Brothers McElroy, Deutschmaschine, Hero High, Lotus, Mind Crimes, Minus One, Rip Current, Slaughter Inc and Supremacy: Dawn of Heroes.

Anyways, the story with Ed was a bit different than most. As some of you know, Lotus was the experimental project put together by Z2H a couple of years ago to test the process. At the time, the lettering was actually going to be done by the editor Julian Lawrence. I thought Julian did a great job and we had a finished book within a few months. When the CCN winners were announced and I found out Lotus would be published with the other books, I guess Ed had already been on board with some of the others.


He came in and made quite a big difference. Julian's letters were great, and for me as a first time comic writer, it was a amazing, but when Ed came on board he actually made Lotus better.


He paid really close attention to the details of how each character was speaking. He looked at the story as a whole and not just the panel and was able to visually define voice. Not to take anything away from the initial work done by Julian, but Ed really did make the voices of Lotus what you see.

Hey Crackwalker!  Loved this story!  The art work is good and reflects Saturday morning animation well!  I instantly liked Moondog and the few other characters introduced in this issue.  I am intrigued to find out why there are so many supers in such a small town.  Or is that just a given?

Oh, I dig the designs and the action sequences.  The action seemed to flow well and were full of energy.  Loved the battle sequence between Viper and Moondog.  Classic supers doing battle before they even really get to know each other.

Just curious, how did Farley choose the name Moondog?  Does it have significance to him?  Or is just something that he chose at random?

I do want to thank you for making a GREAT all age comic.  So much of the stuff that's done now days excludes kids.  I feel safe reading this with my 9 and 11 year old.  

Soooooooooooooo when does #2 come out????  Are you hoping to one day release this in hard copy form (like common paper comic books?).  Sure would be nice to be able to have it in that form (and I think it really deserves to).  I'd buy it!

As a special treat for longtime fans, here's a never before seen look at the very first sketch ever made of Blake Undying, so far back in fact that I didn't have a title for it as yet!

In November of 2006, I shared my idea for Blake Undying with a friend of mine, Gary Slotnikov. At that time I was considering launching it as a webcomic, with two or three updates a week. Gary sketched out some roughs for the look of the comic, but eventually decided that after going through the grind of his own webcomic "Spoonman" for four years, that he didn't really want to throw himself back into it.

At that time I hadn't settled on a title, and I was going through a number of puns on the work "Bleak". As a placeholder, Gary wrote in "Blake Life" in the title panel.



As you can see the original scene came to me fully formed, remaining unchanged through all iterations of the script right through to the present day.



For more interesting original sketches, check out the Blake Undying Fan page on Facebook!

Many many years ago, before I fell in love with trying to write for TV, I was a comic kid.  I would devour graphic novels and single issues with a ferocity that bordered on lunacy.  

For hours I would lie in bed, enthralled as Weapon X clawed his way free from his watery prison, as Superman made that final, desperate sacrifice, as Dream faced down Lucifer himself for the love of his life.

The mere pittance I was paid for my paper route at the time could never support my habit and so I spent many great years hanging out at my local comic shop and just... reading.

As I grew up and figured out what I want to do with my life - I'm a TV writer in my soul, I know that now - I always held a special place in my heart for the comics that set my young imagination ablaze and soaring into the night.

You know, now that I think about it, it's funny how similar Television and Comics are - I mean, once you get past that whole 'moving pictures' thing: the potential for epic, engrossing story lines, the complex characters that grow over time, the soul-crushing wait for the next chapter/episode... 

And yet that challenge to convey emotion and intrigue without sound or motion, to imply these effects and form a direct connection with another imagination is one that I can't help but find thrilling.  It stirs something inside me, something dormant for far too long.

When I found out about this site (thanks Jennica!) my heart skipped a beat.  There are stories that I've wanted to tell - fantastical stories that no television producer would touch - and that's the freedom that I believe Comics can offer.  Combining that with the potential that this site offers - the sheer concentration of creative minds and enthusiasm - well, I have to say that I'm hooked. 

I hope that you will come along with me and Samuel as we explore the world of Shaderin and the dark secrets hidden within, with any luck we'll scare ourselves silly in the process.

Cheers,
Brandon

Niiiiiiiice!! I loved it!

*showers LOVE everywhere*

MORE!!

I watched the DNC last night. It was quite inspiring. I wanted to campaign for Barack Obama. It almost made me wish I was living in the USA. But then I woke up the next day and remembered why I'm glad I'm not.



'Aint that just nasty? There's no rational logic there - they're just trying to make a word association. 'Coincidence?' well what else could it be? Are they suggesting that Obama and Biden are clones made from the beard hairs of terrorists? Do they know how crazy it sounds? Sad thing is these tactics have worked just fine for George Dubba Yew.

Anyways - UT3 has been announced in the Groups Section, but for those of you with special dice penalties in the Groups Navigation Skill I am posting the deets here:

Unofficial Thinkup 3: Make a new pitch with these ingredients!

Your Title Here (UT3)

You pitches should include:

- a supernatural monster
- a social issue
- a theme song

Deadline September 15th

When they're done, we'll start an in-depth critique on the mssg boards. It's not too late to join in. Just sign up in the Groups section, or if you're having trouble with that, you can message me.

Okay, everybody, it's back to school soon, so what better for your first course than a little Minus One action.  The topic today is art, as in the artwork for the comicbook Minus One.
Ronn Sutton is the pencil artist and Ian Sokoliwski handled the inks and the colors.  When I first started talking to Josh Aitken, my editor, and described the feel I wanted for the book he recommended some artists for me to look at.  I checked out several but soon realized that Ronn and Ian were perfect for the book.  I wanted Minus One to look and feel like a silver age comic and I think the art team really delivered on that score.
From the great sand monster, to the faces of the children no detail was too great or too small for their talented hands and eyes.
My gratitude to these fine gentlemen, and a tip of the cap to all star letterer Ed Brisson who handled the lettering with ease making me look smarter than I am, and without cluttering up any more of the artwork than I made necessary.
Next time you are having a look at the book, take a few moments on each page to peel back the words and just savor the art.  You will be glad you did!
Your homework is to read the story, savor the art and rate and fan the book if you liked it!
Until next time.

Thanks so much to Final Chad for submitting the first (of I hope many) piece of fan art for Lotus!

Check out the gallery or if you are seeing this on the Lotus page, it should be right over there on the left.

Later

Lotus

Hey all. Just letting everyone know that I posted some new stuff in the "More LDB" gallery, and my "Pin Ups" gallery. I know I pimp Lil' Depressed Boy a lot (www.lildepressedboy.com), so I thought I'd change it up and pimp my other friend's site (which, incidentally houses a new strip I did), Chainsaw Comics (www.chainsawcomics.com). Some truly interesting stuff goes on over there that's all VERY off the beaten path for most comic readers? Even webcomic readers. Regardless, you should check it out. I especially recommend all the Chainsaw Guy comics, really funny and interesting stuff that revolves around ridiculously simple drawings of a guy with a chainsaw for hands.

A truely original story. Cool artwork too.

Hello again,

I'm not sure how many people have noticed (even though it's pretty obvious) but the cover for Lotus is created in a much different style than the rest of the book. In fact, the cover was created well after the completion. The brilliantly talented man behind the cover art is none other than Tong Zhao.

Mehe?

Yeah, that was my initial reaction and you can assume how the confusion continued when I found out Tong was living in China and that he spoke/understood limited English. I posted a similar blog to this a few years ago in the old Lotus Blog, but the gist of it this:

I was told to describe how I saw the cover of Lotus. So I did. I wrote a 2 page description that flowed with descriptive imagery and teased what the essence of the book was going to be.... Or so I thought.

When Z2H saw the document they knew right away that if they submitted this to Tong, it would be like deciphering hieroglyphics. So they sent it back, and I read it again..... And I realized it was CRAP!

I see it almost as a blessing to get to rethink the original idea. I boiled it down to what exactly the first issue of Lotus is... A story about a guy who tries to kill himself.

I described what it might look like if he had achieved his goal and how someone might feel if they weren't able to carry it out.

Tong took this and made a wildly emotional painting of exactly what Lotus needed.



Xie Xie!!

Well went through my Outcast Issue 2, and fixed some mistakes that I found.

Yeah, it's a good thing I did go through it again.  Such glaring mistakes that I missed as I was typing it up.

Probably still more, but not that I seen at the moment.  Next is to work on "The Other Side".

You Rock!!!!!!!!!!!111