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

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

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.

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!

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!

Vaneta Rogers at Newsarama chatted with Greg Rucka and I about Final Crisis: Resist, a one-shot we wrote and that is due out shortly.

Check it out. :)

Jerwa and I made the trek north to Bellingham, Wa., where we were guests of Bell-Con.

It's a pleasant enough show, small but well-attended; the hosts were quite nice and friendly. Not a great show for us, alas. Definitely more of an "indy" crowd, and both Jerwa and I had a table full of material that was about as mainstream as the show got.

Still, got to shoot the breeze with Jerwa for a rather extended period, which is always nice, so there's that.

Oh, and the Bellingham Herald has a bit on it, and mentions both me and my cowriter "Brenden Jerwad" which I assume refers to Brandon. I hope. Or else I REALLY need to lay off the scotch.

Also got to visit with Neal Bailey (of the Superman Homepage fame) and the lovely Kristen, as well as some "regulars," including a rather charming young woman who has been having creators sign her leather jacket, and a fellow named Eric who has stopped by to say "hi" at just about every signing I've ever done.

All in all, not really a financially viable trip, but an entertaining one.

Jerwa and I will be appearing this weekend at Bell-Con, in Bellingham, Wa.

Come and watch us desperately try and earn your attention.

Hope to see you there.

Jerwa and I babble about lots of, um, stuff on the "Johnny Gigawatt & The Tiger Men From Mars" podcast tonight.

...this one was kind of strange. Fun, of course, and the guys are always good hosts, but I think all of us were feeling a little goofy tonight.

You Have Been Warned.

Also: I'm told there may be Ted Nugent. That was Jerwa's fault. All. His. Fault.

Enjoy.

Jerwa and I will be guests of the fine folks of the "Johnny Gigawatt & The Tiger Men From Mars"* podcast this evening; not sure what time exactly it goes live, but I'll post a link here when it does.

I was asked to participate in an earlier show, and it was a ton of fun—though my cell phone cut out at some distinctly inopportune moments. Trying it through Skype this time, hoping to avoid that issue on this show.

(* How can you NOT love the name of this show? I mean, COME ON.)

Tomorrow, Comic Book Resources hosts an interview with Brandon Jerwa, David Messina and I -- a discussion about the eight-page short we did for Image's PopGun Vol. 2.

It'll feature some sketches and various artworks from Messina, and we wax eloquent about what we want to do with the character.

Best of all, though, they'll feature the story in its entirety, so if you haven't picked up the weighty tome yet (and, obviously, you SHOULD), but want to check out "Wide Awake," our Lovecraftian horror-adventure-in-Dreamlands story, you can for the amazing price of Cheap-As-Free!

And if you like it, write to Oni Press or Image or Boom! or Dark Horse and tell them you want to see monthly adventures. Yes. This is only Right and Just.

That is all.

Co-writer Brandon Jerwa and I (aided and abetted by ace penciler David Messina) have an 8-page short in the forthcoming second volume of Image's much-lauded Popgun anthology series.

The story, "Wide Awake," is a teaser for a series Jerwa and I are shopping around, so if you like the character and want to see more? Write to your favorite indy comics publisher and tell them to give us piles and piles of cash and booze. :D

Preview pics'll be up here soon.

---

In other news, I should be done with Final Crisis: Resist shortly. If it kills me. And it's trying to.

The book, a tie in to DC's Final Crisis "event" series, comes out in October, with art by Ryan Sook (which gives me happy feet just thinking about it).

Here's the cover. [Edit: this is one of two covers for the book; this cover is by Rodolfo Migliari; the second will be illustrated by Ryan Sook, the interior artist.

( Read more... )

As I am about to discuss my recent experience as a guest of Emerald City ComiCon, I feel the use of my pretentious scary author icon is warranted. Your mileage may vary.

Day One was great, with few hiccups. It was especially nice to see David, who graciously brought me an almond muffin and french fries, since apparently, I am not comic writer-ly enough to merit food from the show staff. (That was a common complaint from some of my friends at the show; there were clearly some issues with feeding us creator types.)

Always nice to see friends (the family Rucka-Van Meter, the Jerwas, Steve Lieber, Matthew Clark, Tom Peyer, Neal Bailey, Josh Ortega, and a bunch of other folks I'm too con-addled to mention). Got to see Elicia (who, in terms of pure sarcasm, can kill a man at 50 paces, and that's awesome) and her "fella."

Also saw my former coworker, Alicia, who gave me the run down on what happened to my old group at Microsoft--short version: it took Microsoft less than two years to utterly dismantle what took eight years of backbreaking labor to build.

I was flying solo on Day One, but on Day Two, Gabi and several of the OCC crew (Frank and Annj) showed up to help me out, and Michelle arrived and provided conversation and moral support all day; too long since we saw you, lady. Had a nice long chat with Nicole and Chris, who I didn't recognize at first in my "hours of meeting complete strangers" haze. Michelle stopped by, with husband Bill in tow, and that's always supremely keen. Spoke briefly with Rodney, who seems like a swell guy.

After Day Two ended, the whole bunch of us went to the Dragonfish Café where I dined on an excellent chili-glazed chicken breast on a bed of spicy peanut noodles, which would normally not appeal to me, but damn if it wasn't delicious.

I was particularly surprised by how many people stopped by with copies of my old Perfect Dark series; that was probably the biggest surprise of the show, second only to the fact that on two occasions people thought I was Tim Truman. Heh.

Good weekend; my thanks to everyone who stopped by.

So, it appears that Diamond has sold out of it's initial order for Checkmate #25. I expect DC has a small reserve that it'll release, but this is the first time in a long while we haven't been able to re-order current issues of Checkmate.

Interesting. I wonder, given how the month-to-month numbers on the book continue to drop, if this is "normal" for a final issue for a creative team.

Hm.

Colleague, co-conspirator, and all-around swell guy Brandon Jerwa hosts a regular interview column over on Comics Waiting Room (which I commend to your attention).

This week, he totally classes the joint up by interviewing me.

Brandon runs a pretty good interview, and the conversation focuses quite a bit on subjects outside of comics, and best of all, he didn't ask me -- not even once -- about Halo. Bonus points for that. :)

---

Reminder: join us Thursday evening, at 6 pm Pacific Time, 9 pm Eastern Standard, on Comic Bloc.com (in their forum chat room), for a live chat with both Greg Rucka and myself, as we celebrate the release of our final issue of the regular Checkmate comic.

It'll be fun. Dude, you should totally come.

---

Over in those selfsame forums, Greg let slip that we are teaming up again to script one of the upcoming Final Crisis tie-ins, titled Resist.

---

A couple other projects, with the aforementioned Mr. Jerwa, seem to be moving along, and I hope to be able to talk about 'em here in the next few weeks. Keep your fingers crossed for us.

One of them is a fairly serious piece, and it's going to be positively brutal to write; to be honest, I think it may be the most challenging thing I've ever attempted. It's good to have a friend along for the ride.

So, in 20 minutes or so, I'm going to be interviewed for my first ever podcast, the colorfully-named "Johnny Gigawatt and the Tiger Men from Mars" podcast, which -- from the name alone -- promises to be an interesting experience. No idea when (or, if things run true to form, if) it'll run, but still, cool nonetheless.

Edit: So, what I thought would run 20-30 minutes ended up with me sitting in for most of the show; I'm about half an hour into listening, and -- aside from my stupid cell phone cutting out a whole bunch at one point -- seems reasonably coherent. Also: link above switched, as the original link did not seem to be serving up the correct podcast episode. Share and enjoy.

Edit the second: Wow. Yeah, my phone cut out at a *really* bad spot at the end -- honest, I said something funny when one of the hosts suggested I "talk to Dan DiDio" and get reinstated on Checkmate. Wow, that was a really cold few moments of dead air. Sorry guys.

...and the Checkmate love continues over at CBR, in which Hannibal says:

"Now this is what "Checkmate" is all about -- the forces of Kali Yuga have their master plan revealed, which requires the royals to coordinate endless legions of extrahumans ... even though it was all a Kansas City shuffle in the end.  The big reveal at the end has a nice air of menace to it, and although the artwork could have easily become busy and crowded, Joe Bennett and Jack Jadson keep everything crisp and clear while not sacrificing the passion on Sasha Bordeaux's face, the calmness on Kal-El's well-known visage or the strain on the Castellan.  All with punching and shooting and flying and what not.  In the same way that this week's "Fables" did, this issue pays off the storyline thus far and catapults the reader towards a big confrontation next issue.  Solid comics work all round here."

Woot!

Once again with the shameless whoring..er, "self-promotion."

Checkmate #24, the penultimate issue in the "Castling" arc (and marking the next-to-last Rucka/Trautmann Checkmate comic) hits store shelves tomorrow (I hope, unless something's gone really wrong).

I'm quite pleased with this one, perhaps the happiest I've been with the script for any issue of Checkmate i've worked on. Well, until #25.

Please do check it out, and tell me what you think.

And because I really like what Kalman's been doing with the covers, here's the cover...


( Clicky to looky. )

JNR is interviewed about the OGN I worked on last year, Army of Two: Dirty Money, and it's a good read. John's a hell of a nice guy, and a hell of a writer to boot.

Check it out.