Newsarama has a preview of the Sept. '09 DC solicits up, so that means I can say that I'm writing a new monthly ongoing series: The Shield, spinning out of J. Michael Straczynski's "Red Circle" series.

For the full skinny head on over to my website: www.eric-trautmann.com.

Originally posted on erictrautmann.vox.com

I've been very lax about posting lately (though, courtesy of installing Tweetdeck, I've been more active on my Twitter account of late).

(Be warned, if you decide to "follow" me on Twitter--I do occasionally go on music jags via Blip.FM, which crosspost to Twitter.)

Things have been very, very busy. I just finished a short script, a sort of six-page Free Comic Book Day "teaser" or prologue for Wide Awake, the soon-to-be-launched webcomic I'm doing with Brandon Jerwa, Mirco Pierfederici (who's name I have consistently butchered; sorry Mirco!) and David Messina. I'm pretty happy with it, and I've spent some time lately whipping up some suitably weird monster designs. Can't wait to see what the art folk do with 'em.

Work proceeds apace on Mystery Video Game Projekt™; it is an intensely frustrating project, one I'm quite ambivalent about if truth be told, though I'm apparently adding value to the game. As an exercise in story development, it has been a decent experience, and -- on the plus side -- I'm not dealing with complete jerks (which has all too frequently been the case in the past). But overall, it seems to be going well, and they seem to like me (and more importantly, they seem to think I know what I'm talking about and don't automatically assume I'm an incompetent ass), so that's nice.

JSA VS. KOBRA is still cranking along. Hope to be done with the issue #3 script in the next few days, and then back onto the VERTIGO book (where I am rather significantly behind where I want to be for Act 2 rewrites; Act 3 is due soon as well, and I am circling it warily). Just saw the cover to JSA VS KOBRA #2; Gene Ha is, as is well documented elsewhere, a golden god and I wish to have his babies. Holy. Cow.

Freelance writing: Feast or Famine. Coming off more than a year of famine, the sudden feast is rather overwhelming at times.

Haven't had much time to spend with friends for the last several, uh, months. I am an awful friend. Haven't talked to Rucka in ages, nor to Tim (both of whom have also been insanely busy of late). I do get "quality time" with Jerwa, though lately that consists largely of him insulting me and/or my mother on Twitter.

Hopefully after Emerald City Comic Con (you're going, right?), I'll have a little downtime and can have some face-to-face time with friends.

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Haven't managed any significant movie or TV viewing of late, though on the train to Vancouver, B.C. I read most of Peter Guralnick's Searching for Robert Johnson, which is surprisingly meaty for such a thin tome. I commend it to your attention if you like music bios or blues. Especially you, Wes.

Originally posted on erictrautmann.vox.com

My next DC book -- a six issue miniseries -- comes out in June; the solicits for June just landed online.

JSA VS. KOBRA: ENGINES OF FAITH #1
Written by Eric Trautmann
Art by Don Kramer & Michael Babinski
Cover by Gene Ha
The new lord of Kobra has shown his true face of evil, and now the JSA stands ready to face Kobra. But the old tactics may not work against this new terrorist network. Conspiracy mastermind Eric Trautmann (CHECKMATE, FINAL CRISIS: RESIST) and artist Don Kramer (DETECTIVE COMICS, NIGHTWING) take you inside the mind of Jason Burr, the diabolically clever Kobra leader whose goal is nothing less than bringing the world into the age of Kali Yuga. Set throughout the major cities of the DC Universe and wrapped in the gorgeous covers of Gene Ha (TOP 10), this 6-issue miniseries sets the stakes higher than ever before for the Justice Society!
On sale June 10 • 1 of 6 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US

Check out the cover by Gene Ha.

Originally posted on erictrautmann.vox.com

Over on CBR, Hannibal Tabu's "Buy Pile" column lists Black Lightning: Year One #5 as a book you should go out and purchase.

Couldn't agree more.

Scripted by the insanely talented Jen Van Meter, Black Lightning: Year One has been a reverential, tactful handling of an often mistreated character. Add to that the lovely, clean linework of Cully Hamner and you've got a hell of a good book.

So, yeah: go out and buy it.

Originally posted on erictrautmann.vox.com

Any of you lucky bastards with your shiny iPods: have you used the >iVerse comic-reader app? If so, what are your thoughts? What works? What doesn't?

Genuinely curious.

Thanks!

-E



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Currently listening to: Pearl Django - Belleville
http://foxytunes.com/artist/pearl+django/track/belleville

My frequent collaborator (on projects that haven't come out yet), Brandon Jerwa, was the subject of a very thorough interview over on Comics Spotlight.

Reports of my saying nice things about him in the interview are possibly unreliable. That is my story and I'm sticking to it.

Originally posted on erictrautmann.vox.com

If I might blather for a moment...

Letter columns.

I want my letter columns back, dammit. One of the things The Walking Dead gets right is the very, very long-form lettercol; I miss the days when "Uncle Elvis" managed to comment on, as near as I can tell, every book published.

(And whatever happened to Uncle Elvis? Or T.M. Maple?)

Seeing the letter columns replaced with advertising and the general shift of the letter column to online forums and message boards -- which generally have an awful signal-to-noise ratio -- has fairly melancholy undertones to me.

For a while, the Vertigo books -- notably Transmetropolitan and Preacher -- has amazing lettercols; lots of humor (albeit rude and bleak, given the books they were appearing in) and lots of fan outreach. Garth Ennis regularly asked some tough movie trivia and gave away autographed scripts (and possibly artwork); Ellis used the too-brief Transmet lettercol as a sort of prototype for his current blogging style, it seems.

It was all very involving and energizing, and something about the effort necessary to write the words down and mail them in seemed to make folks really try to be clever and engaging. It also really helped Ellis and Ennis establish very clear authorial personas, for lack of a better term; you got a sense of who these guys were and are, and it helped forge a kinship with them that probably carried over into sales of subsequent titles they worked on.

I do really miss it.

(I remember a good friend of mine, Josh, being so pleased that an excerpt from a submission to The Maxx lettercol made the cut -- and it was damn funny, too. You just can't get that same sense of accomplishment and validation from posting to a forum. Or rather, if you can, you should summon medical attention, immediately.)

If I ever wind up doing a creator owned book, I am totally doing a letter column. I think one fewer ad for Axe body spray or the next awful EA video game is a fair price to pay for one measley page of fan outreach, one that confers a certain amount of "fan ownership and involvement" than an online forum post ever will.

Corrollary: there's no excuse for all-ages books like the excellent Marvel Adventures titles and Johnny DC fare like Shazam! and Supergirl! don't have kid-friendly letter columns or, sigh, a really well-done online space. Birthday announcements, kid-drawn fan art gallerys, do-it-yourself fan club kits. Why, Big Two? Why don't you do this?

(I also miss Hostess Fruit Pie ads featuring the Hulk or Batman. But that's a screed for another day.)

 

Originally posted on erictrautmann.vox.com

 

A while back, a local artist asked me if I had any "old scripts" lying around he could use to practice on. He'd done mainly horror work in a sort of "underground" style -- good stuff, too -- but he was looking for more mainstream material to add to his portfolio, in hopes of generating some mainstream interest.

He specifically wanted a female protagonist, a sci-fi setting, a lot of tech and vehicles, and lots of action and combat. I suspect he may have wanted a Perfect Dark script to practice on, but I'm generally leery of handing those out, just to avoid stepping on Microsoft or Prima toes.

I was under deadline guns on Checkmate at the time, but I told him "As long as you're willing to wait, I'll whip you up an 8- or 9-page script that'll do what you want," the deal being: I own the character, the story, etc. (which leaves me free to develop it further if I want, but leaves him free to plaster it all over his portfolio without any problems).

A month or two later, I sat down to get it off my list of things to do, and it turned out that the character I cooked up -- a cross-dimensional/time traveler/gun-runner/thief who nominally works for an interdimensional police force (but generally always wants to make a buck while she's saving universes, often at the expense of her own mission) -- was ridiculously fun to write. I just fell in love with her, because she's such a cheerfully amoral little fruitcake.

It's nothing "serious" -- it's possibly the goofiest damn thing I ever wrote, in the best four-color, zany way -- but it was remarkably easy to crank out sixteen pages.

---

Just the other day, another local artist looking to build his portfolio was in the store; we got to talking, and his stuff is pretty good. The conversation turned to this old script I had lying around, so I gave it to *him*, too. Same deal: do what you want with it, as long as you don't sell it to anyone, and I still own the script/plot/etc.

It occurred to me then that I should just throw this up as a Creative Commons piece and just let artists play with it.

So: here it is.

( VERY long. )

---

Yes. Silly. Good silly, I think. But silly nonetheless.

Update: Brian Rogers -- the second illustrator to tackle Trixie -- just sent me a couple sketches, just color tests and pencil sketches of the dubious "heroine."

Thus inspired, I set up a small Flickr stream of a couple of the images I have, from Brian, and from the fellow who started it all off, Jared Souza. It's interesting to see the wildly different styles at play on the subject matter; I find it deeply fascinating. Enjoy.

(Large-ish pic below).

( Read more... )

My good friend, Greg Rucka, has been hard at work for some time on a series featuring Batwoman -- a long abandoned DC character reintroduced a while back in the excellent weekly series 52.

In the wake of Batman: R.I.P., the powers-that-be apparently decided to move Batwoman out of a planned solo book into the crown jewel title, Detective Comics.

I've been lucky enough to see bits and pieces of the story as it developed, and I'm pleased to see the series finally coming out -- and in 'Tec, no less! -- but I'm doubly pleased that it's also getting Greg some great ink. Congrats to both Greg and his collaborator, illustrator J.H. Williams III.

Like, BBC NEWS.

Wow.

[x-post from eric-trautmann.com]

Originally posted on erictrautmann.vox.com

Or just a damn good read?

The Philadelphia Daily News again sends the love to my good friend, Brandon Jerwa, with a glowing review of his two-part HIGHLANDER ORIGINS: THE KURGAN comics series (the first issue of which was also a feature weekly pick at my wife's store).

Good couple weeks for my writing pals.

So, yeah, run out to your Friendly Local Comics Shoppe and acquire yourself the first issue. It's a ripping yarn.

-E

Originally posted on erictrautmann.vox.com

With events over on LiveJournal -- where I've had my primary blog for years -- being what they are, it seemed prudent to set up another blatherspace, just in case.

So, lemming-like, here I am. :)

---

General update:

The flooding in and around where I live has started to recede; major route closures prevented me from leaving Raymond, WA for several days, and while it was pretty bad, there was significantly less damage this time, when compared to last year's flooding.

A bunch of merchandise from my wife's comic store was damaged when we had some basement flooding, but we didn't lose power, trees, or really much of anything, so that's a mercy.

---

Turned in my proposal for a DC miniseries project this week, and it has apparently been greenlighted. More on that when I can discuss, but yes, I'll be doing more DC work in 2009.

---

Just downloaded Delicious Library, a piece of media/book cataloging software for the Mac I've been considering for a while. It is, from all initial indications, superb.

---

I'll be starting the "100 movie meme" again for 2009, and will post that shortly, but to start, I've watched "Bolt," "The Shawshank Redemption," "Hearts in Atlantis," and "Open Range" recently.

---

If I were to do a "Best of 2008" list, it'd include the "Iron Man: The Five Nightmares" series by Matt Fraction and Salvador Larocca. Just read the hardcover (as we sold out of the single issues too quickly for me to keep up with the series), and it is just astoundingly good.

---

That is all.

Originally posted on erictrautmann.vox.com

My good friend and frequent collaborator, Brandon Jerwa, wrote a really fantastic prequel comic series to the "reimagined" Battlestar Galactica TV show, titled Season Zero.

It is a fabulous series, and I commend it to your attention.

So does the Philadelphia Daily News.

Good job, Brandon!



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Currently listening to: Colin Hay - Beautiful World (Alternate Mix)
http://foxytunes.com/artist/colin+hay/track/beautiful+world+(alternate+mix)

According to CBR it was. Specifically, it was #84.

Thanks, Comic Book Resources!



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Currently listening to: Benjamin Bates - The Next Big Thing
http://foxytunes.com/artist/benjamin+bates/track/the+next+big+thing

Sitting down today to start finalizing an outline for DC, AND (knock wood) to continue on yet another Jerwa/Trautmann concept doc.

While I'm busy sitting here absolutely freezing, you can listen to me blather about Final Crisis: Resist over on Comic Geek Speak. And once again, I am briefly failed by my cell phone.

Thanks for having me on, guys.

Fellow comics scribe (and my partner-in-crime on the upcoming DC/VERTIGO book), Brandon Jerwa, writes a metric ton of other comics, from acclaimed long-term runs on G.I. Joe to our contribution to Image's PopGun anthology series.

Jerwa and co-writer Elliot Serrano have been working on the sequel to Dynamite's Army of Darkness/Xena: Warrior Princess crossover. ("The sequel no one demanded," Jerwa has quipped on more than one occasion.)

As someone who has zero affection for both characters, I was pretty surprised at the entertainment value packed in those pages. The title alone -- Xena/Army of Darkness: What . . . Again?! -- is worth the price of admission.

The Philadelphia Daily News agrees, apparently.

Congratulations to Jerwa, Serrano and the other batch of misfits press-ganged into cranking that bad boy out. I can't wait for the third installment: Xena/Army of Darkness: Oh, God, why won't they just STOP?

Shortly after polishing off one of the more emotionally shattering things I've ever written for the Vertigo project, I was asked by comics blogger Will Eslinger to discuss some comics stuff.

Topics range from what it was like working with Greg Rucka on Resist and Checkmate (answer: great.) to what it was like working with Brandon Jerwa (answer: great, but I'm taller than he is).

You can find the interview here. Enjoy!

Friend and frequent collaborator Brandon Jerwa has a new Highlander comic series coming out from Dynamite -- this one focused on that beacon of warmth and compassion, The Kurgan (a character SO badass it took someone named 'Clancy' to play him).

Jerwa discusses the new series with Newsarama's Matt Brady. Check it out, and then tell Brandon how great he is.

Or better yet, when you see him at cons, growl menacingly at him and warn him "There Can Be Only One."

Trust me. It'll be hilarious.

So, despite some mild production hiccups, I'm pretty pleased with how Final Crisis: Resist turned out.

And, as an added bonus, initial reactions are pretty positive.

IGN and Broken Frontier weigh in, as does iFanboy. Apparently, iFanboy really liked it, making it a "pick of the week."

Edit: And Brian Cronin weighs in at CBR...

My favorite quote thus far from the forums of Comic Geek Speak: "When did Snapper Carr become such a pimp?"

...and, iFanboy's "Pick of the Week" podcast opens with a review of Resist,. Thanks, guys!

Heh.

Thanks to all for the kind words!

My good, good friend and frequent collaborator Brandon Jerwa will be in Seattle this evening, giving a class on comics writing at the Seattle library.

Specifics, gakked directly from Mr. Jerwa himself, are as follows:


Comic Writing With Brandon Jerwa

Education: Class Workshop

Learn all about the comic industry and the production of comics. Jerwa will discuss the creative process, dealing with licensed properties, the growing role of comics as accepted literature and sources of inspiration for movies and video games and the changes in media in the 21st century.

Where: Seattle Public Library - University Branch
5009 Roosevelt Way, N.E.
Seattle, WA 98105
Phone: 206-684-4063

When: 6:15pm
Thu 11.06.08

---

Brandon is a first-rate talent (and if asked, I'll deny I said this: and is a writer who's prodigious talent and sheer SPEED intimidates the hell out of me) and any of my Seattle-area writer friends or comics fans (*cough* BRANNON *cough*) should avail themselves of this class. Yes.

Go. Do. There will be a quiz.

(Originally intended to post this tomorrow, but I'll be on a plane, so...)

On Wednesday, the Final Crisis tie-in that Greg Rucka and I wrote, Final Crisis: Resist, hits store shelves.

It's a 30-page one-shot, and more or less is our "final" issue of Checkmate, showing what the agency tasked to protect the world does when "evil wins."

The art, by Ryan Sook, is fan-damn-tastic, and I couldn't be happier with it.

Beneath the cut (since the images are quite large) are the first four pages, without lettering, showcasing the gorgeous art, and equally gorgeous coloring.

Enjoy!

( Pretty pics under the clicky. )