Gnourg Dot Com

Torture Squid collaboration unveiled

2008-06-26T16:53:00.008-05:00

Posted by author Jeff Vandermeer on his blog:

TORTURE SQUID: Zach Taylor/VanderMeer Comic to Be Completed Soonish

"Artist Zach Taylor has been working on preliminary sketches for a Torture Squid comic book/graphic novel. I'm providing him with a rough textual treatment for him to use as the basis for the storyline. We haven't sought out a publisher -we're going to finish it first. (Zach, btw, has created some great Evil Monkey for President swag, based on my EM persona, available here. Check it out.)

What're The Torture Squid? Well, they're a ruthless gang of anti-heroes who run amok through my fictional creation of Ambergris. They're described in City of Saints & Madmen, in a story called "King Squid". Below you can find Zach's sketches and also the relevant City text for context. The resulting comic will be somewhat darkly humorous with a fair amount of slapstick. Should be fun."

Check out the rest of the blog post, which includes prose excerpts, here!

Yes, that's right. I'm collaborating on my next project. (I finished "The Miner and the Cave That Ate Time" way back in April. What? I forgot to post about that? I'm a sorry excuse for a blogger!)

I'm really excited about this. If you don't know who Jeff Vandermeer is, go read The City of Saints and Madmen and/or Shriek: An Afterword. He's an incredible fantasy author in the "New Weird" school. He writes awesome books and I'm thrilled to be working with him.

Posters a Plenty

2008-03-04T08:18:00.006-06:00

Staple went awesomely. It'll give me just the right amount of motivation to finish the last twenty pages of the book (yes, twenty pages and it's done).

I'm now offering posters of the "Mine!" image (check last post), as well as these two older ones. Repost:

Wasteland

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Clowns and Lawyers

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They are 11x17. To buy, go to the Store Store Store. Um...I mean the Store.

Mine!

2008-02-28T01:38:00.003-06:00

Staple! is going on this Saturday in Austin! So if you're around you best show up. I'll be there with tons of cool posters and mini-comics. But don't be expecting me to have the completed Miner book or anything (that'll be done in a month or so, but, you know, I'll have to get it printed and all that too). The show will be fantastic.

Mine!

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Mine! Mine! He's a Miner! You get it, right? eh? I'm going to have these teaser postcards with the above image to promote the soon-to-be-done graphic novel. Come by the Austin Sketch Group table to grab one!

Fear - wide panel glimpse

2008-01-07T20:18:00.000-06:00

This is the part where I apologize for not posting lately and you ignore me. I take your momentary lapse in attention as an opportunity to slip in this page count:

Finished Page Count:......77 (of 112)

and this 'wide panel glimpse(tm):'

Fear - wide panel glimpse

and pretend I never did anything wrong. I'm clever, you see. But what you really want to know is my choice as presidential candidate. You read this blog for the politics really; I know you. Well, there's definitely something brewing with this new candidate. If the election were today, he'd get my vote.

Hand of God - Fistacuffs Veteran

2007-11-27T12:41:00.000-06:00

Hand of God (nicknamed "Hando" by his friends) was recently bested in the FACA 4 Tournament with his team, The Handy Capables. They went three rounds in the West Division before falling to The Daughters of General Melee. Check the Fistacuffs Blog for the blow by blow.

He'd like to thank his tag-team partner, Magic Fingers MacDoogal, and his manager, Señor Dedo.

Released from medical care after breaking his leg in the fight, he is now considering a change of career.

Kirby's Fourth World - Miracle Race

2007-11-26T07:51:00.000-06:00

You best believe Jack Kirby was a genius! Here's a tribute to his "Fourth World" material, which I've been reading a lot of lately. DC has been putting out these excellent omnibus hardcovers of all the comics in the order they were published starting in 1970. Crazily inventive, brilliant old comics...But you knew that, right?

Here we have Mister Miracle and Oberon being chased by The Black Racer, with disapproving original Mister Miracle and a foreboding Darkseid statue in the background. Tapping into my long neglected superhero fandom is fun!

Kirby's Fourth World - Miracle Race

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The Aviary by Jamie Tanner

2007-11-01T07:32:00.000-05:00

Everyone thinks the sticker I have on my laptop is Drinky Crow. It is, in fact, the (more or less) title character from Jamie Tanner's "The Aviary," the Quiet Bird-Man. Most normal people should never be exposed to the unfiltered insanity of this work. It may seem unbelievable, but Mr. Tanner has gone several degrees weirder than Tony Millionaire.

This is a collection of short stories. Ones with normal enough sounding names like "Always in Love" and "Amber." The content is anything but normal. You might be right that the story "Barry Pago, Crime Scene Investigator" is about a murder and criminal forensics. You might be mildly surprised at the twist that this investigator brings his kid to work with him. But you will be weirded out by the fact that Barry is a cyborg penguin. And you'll be freaked about the atrocious things he does to the female corpses.

A lot of times it may seem Tanner is reaching for just the most messed up and absurd story he can, but there is an organizing force at work here. All the stories are connected, and what starts as an exercise in absurdity turns into one of the best achievements in world-building I've seen in comics. The first handful of stories are entertaining, but a couple shades too nonsensical, weird for weirds sake. Then begins the puzzle-like process of making some semblance of sense out of the thing. It's like Tanner fully set out to produce something unabashedly strange, but his brain wouldn't let it go unexplained. And, whether intentional or not, a mad logic is slowly put in place, he retcons his nonsense into a world where it all could really happen. These stories were originally put out as mini-comics, and I fear for anyone who just read one story and didn't get this whole book to justify it.

So it's a masterwork of world-building, I say? What about the rest, then? Well, the style of it is of the cross-hatched Victorian sort and fits well. It doesn't blow you away, but it is solid and consistent. Almost every character in the book is foul-mouthed and cartoonishly angry. Either that or talks stilted Olde-Timey speak. But I guess that gets back into the world-building again.

It's definitely what they call a "love it or hate it" book. I'd call it near a genius sort of thing. It comes highly recommended for me. But, for you? I'm not as sure.

Here's the official page. It's got preview stuff.

Take the Stage! - wide panel glimpse

2007-10-31T23:59:00.000-05:00

I haven't updated in a while but I assure you it is because I am working ever so hard on my book, "The Miner and the Cave That Ate Time." I'll prove it:

Finished Page Count:......59 (of 112)

That's a lot of pages, I think. Pretty sure it's over halfway even. Wow!

To further prove it I'm going to start showing 'wide panel glimpses(tm).' Which are panels from a portion of the book you haven't seen. I know it's not as cool as a finished page. But at least it let's you know I'm still at it!

Take the Stage! - wide panel glimpse

Robert E. Howard's Conan

2007-10-08T08:47:00.000-05:00

It's weird. I never liked Conan as a kid. I thought it was low-brow, beneath my tastes, even then. But now...I'm a legitimate Conan fan. I've rediscovered the child I never was. I'm twenty-seven years old and only now does it make sense to me: I think every man has at least a part of him that wants to be Conan. He's the embodiment of every misanthropic idea you've ever had, shunning civilization while stealing all its women. Here's my tribute to Howard:

Rob's Conan

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You should pick up Robert E. Howard's original stories or Dark Horse's current comic run if you are still not convinced. Can't vouch for those movies though.

The Miner - preview page 11

2007-09-29T00:48:00.000-05:00

This is the last preview page. Isn't eleven a great round number to end on? As a prize for reading it, you get a total cliffhanger ending! You love those!

The Miner - preview page 11

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Next up:...fan art?

The Miner - preview page 10

2007-09-20T08:06:00.000-05:00

Oh no! Nearly done with this preview. I'll have to find something else to update this blog with then!

The Miner - preview page 10

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Finished Page Count:......41 (of 112)

The Miner - preview page 9

2007-09-13T03:08:00.000-05:00

The Miner - preview page 9

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The Miner - preview page 8

2007-09-06T07:34:00.000-05:00

The Miner - preview page 8

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Deadlines. I'm currently meeting my self-imposed deadline of doing an average of a page every two days. It requires 30 hours of work a week on top of my full-time job. It's the most I've ever pushed myself. Looking back on my progress over the past four years (when I seriously started pursuing comics), I wasn't happy with the amount of work I was averaging. Thus: hardcore deadlines. My (light) OCD has kicked into gear, too. I'll find myself really stressed out the whole day if I wasn't able to finish every little detail, invading my thoughts like, "I can't enjoy this movie because that clown doesn't have a cast shadow yet!" I'll be okay, though.

I'll be okay.

Finished Page Count:......33 (of 112)

The Miner - preview page 7

2007-08-28T07:01:00.000-05:00

Updating a blog is hard. But I'll persist, friends. See:

The Miner - preview page 7

(click for the full dang deal)

The Mourning Star by Kazimir Strzepek

2007-08-22T05:05:00.000-05:00

My first review. I'm only going to cover books I like, because (as those who know me can attest) I'm a pretty critical and negative dude overall. But who wants to focus on that? I will call it:

"The Mourning Star" seems to spring from a mind obsessed equally with indie comics and Dungeons and Dragons. It also seems very much like an early work, an art student too stubborn to create anything but the fantasy epic running wild in his head. I see a lot of new cartoonists creating work like this, ripe out of college: untethered, giving in to every crazy whim. It's easy for me to spot because that's exactly what I did. And while I, and many others, created what I'd call a baroque epic "mess", Kaz has created a work that I'd call "just short of absolutely fantastic."

If you make a checklist of all the things a pulp fantasy needs, this has got it: an enormous cast of characters (complete with an index in the back), giant beasts, treks across broken landscapes, weird races, melee, a dude with amnesia and a destiny. It doesn't have a map. At least not in the book. But I will bet money that Kaz has got one stored away somewhere, if only in his head. The world is interesting, feels complete, and you believe it, even though we only get a tiny glimpse.

But before you get the wrong idea by my list of clichés, know that this is anything but stock. Imagine those elements filtered through raw art comic sensibilites, made by someone reared in the black & white indie mold. It's kinetic, like Stan Sakai's "Usagi" or a more cartoony Miyazaki. And it's got some straight-up strange/awesome bits. Like that amnesiac with a destiny? His weapon of choice is dual scissors! Plus, these characters aren't even human. And they aren't that Tolkien elf nonsense either. I haven't a clue what they are, like all slight variations on goblin/bear hybrids. That's pretty strange. But it works. Kaz is just completely confident of this world and characters. That's the bottom line of why it is so great.

As with big epics, the problem is whether this thing is going to continue and be as long and unwavering as it needs to be. This just feels like the first of what could be a twenty volume set, or something thereabouts. The story is not self-contained so the overall success of "Mourning Star" has yet to be seen. Also, a small nitpick is the format. It seems like there is an art comics trend that thinks books are better if they are tiny and square. I've seen too many like this, and while it reads fine, I would much rather it be larger so I can see the cool artwork and fit it on my shelf.

Overall, a brilliant book I'd recommend to any indie comics or fantasy fan. There's a short preview here (it was originally called "Death Star," aren't you glad he changed it?). But just go buy the thing, it's worth it.

The Miner - preview pages 5&6

2007-08-20T03:01:00.000-05:00

The Miner preview continues. This jumps ahead....um, thirty pages in the book. So if you're wondering what happened to that fire, forget it! That's the past, man!

The Miner - preview page 6

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The Miner - preview page 5

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I think I'm going to start posting a few book reviews here and there. You guys like books, right?...Me? I like the books.

The Miner - preview pages 3&4

2007-08-09T11:26:00.000-05:00

Two new preview pages!

The Miner - preview page 4

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The Miner - preview page 3

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The Miner - preview pages 1&2

2007-08-04T09:02:00.000-05:00

The blog is here! Updated weekly with new artwork & comics, it will be dedicated to me. ME!

First up are preview pages for my crazily ambitious graphic novel, "The Miner and the Cave That Ate Time." Things are progressing swimmingly. Expect more soon.

The Miner - preview page 2

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The Miner - preview page 1

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Here's an Awesome (ding!) development! I was just mentioned on Indie Spinner Rack Podcast Issue #91. I love ISR, it's my favorite podcast, and I am quite happy for the mention (and praise). Thanks guys! Fast forward to around 1hr,12min for talk of my mini's (but you really should check out their backlog too).