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

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.

It's been a hell of a couple weeks -- lots of projects are starting to pop, though few I can talk about in anything but vague generalizations at this point, which is a pain in the ass, but a necessary evil, I guess.

Thanksgiving was a pleasant affair; hope all of you had a good holiday (if you indeed celebrated it). We spent Thanksgiving morning prepping an early afternoon turkey dinner and dining with some of our store "family" (staffers who didn't have family plans), then raced off to Shelton for Thanksgiving dinner with Gabi's parents.

Made for a long day, but a good one.

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Turned in the first third of the Vertigo script right before the holidays, and Dauntless Editrix seemed to like it.

Not a fun project to write -- the subject matter is both unpleasant and deeply personal -- and one of the key scenes in Act I was just shattering to write; it was more or less violently expelled onto the page, during a marathon writing session that left me fairly numb, shaken, and nauseated for, oh, 48 hours or so.

Hopefully, when the final book comes out, it'll do the same to all of you.

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Hacking my way through some scripts as research for a potential six-issue thing for DC. More on that later, I hope. Wish me luck.

---

Just got my copies of the complete Black Books DVDs, and seasons 1 and 2 of Venture Brothers, which will likely provide the soundtrack to my day.

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Spent part of the weekend with the Mighty Rucka Army, celebrating Greg's birthday with him. And, in true Rucka fashion, he gave me a present (as my birthday was also in November): the lunchbox edition of Fallout 3.

So, to all the editors expecting stuff from me? It's Rucka's fault. Heh.

It was a great visit -- full of fun shop talk, dancing happy children, and my wife knitting hats for everyone.

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I think I finally found a use for my Twitter account. I don't use it very often, but once or twice a month I binge, and start using blip.fm to blast out music I like (which conveniently cross posts to my Twitter feed. Let's hear it for technology.).

So, yeah: if you're not using the service, it's a good way to find new music. It's all Flash-based streaming, so no software downloads or anything annoying like that (though most of the songs have "buy the song" links, if you like what you hear).

I can be found here, on blip.fm.

Today, I'm in a classic R&B mood. Do join me.

---

How are you?

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!

(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. )

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. :)

I've been back on the East Coast in my hometown as my father recovers from some surgery -- he's doing fine, incidentally -- and on the morning after I got here, while driving Dad to the hospital for his operation? Snow. Terrible visibility, cold, awful.

It didn't stick, though, and that's been nice. There's even been some decent weather through much of my visit.

Of course, right now, the sky has opened up and it is just dumping buckets of Satan's Icy Dandruff. Which, as many of you know, I just love.

6 to 12 inches predicted, and I gotta say, it's looking like it'll end up at the top end of that range.

That sound you hear is me weeping. Too much snow + not enough good scotch in the parents' liquor cabinet = Donner Party.

---

On the plus side, Greg and I had a lovely chat with Vaneta Rogers about Final Crisis: Resist. The piece should show up on Newsarama tomorrow.

No idea if there'll be preview art or anything, but the book ended up being unspeakably gorgeous. So, kudos to the art team on that one. Very pleased with it.

I've been heads-down on the Vertigo project for the last couple weeks, trying to get a lot of pages in the can before I depart for the frozen Northern wastes I hail from (think Cimmeria, but with more French-Canadian accents).

Work is progressing slower than I'd like, but I'm reasonably happy with the work I've been turning out. The opening scene is fairly complex, despite a seemingly simple set-up, and a lot has to be communicated by ambient background dialogue and character "acting," stuff that generally makes my fearless editor absolutely nuts.

(I fully expect to get the initial note from her that I got on damn near every complex scene I wrote in Checkmate: "I'm not sure that's going to work." Moo hoo ha ha.)

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Also, I'm an IDIOT. I mentioned last week that I'd gotten a new iPod. What I forget to mention, because, as I said, I am an idiot what's got no brains, is that my wife arranged for the purchase of said device. So, yes, BEST. WIFE. EVER. Despite being slammed with work -- and the normal grind of dealing with taxes and bills and whatnot that goes into maintaining both the store and our "civilian" lives -- she took the time out to treat me to the iPod Classic I've been lusting over since it came out.

Week Two with the new device, and I have to say I am quite pleased with how it's working. Every scrap of music I own, plus 100 or so podcasted old radio dramas, a season of BSG, a handful of videos, and a bunch of other crap and it's only half-full.

I'm still re-ripping a bunch of old CDs; when my external drive at home had a massive failure a while back -- thus decimating my complete archive of work from Microsoft -- I also lost my .mp3 library.

Most of it had been backed up elsewhere, but coordinating between two remote computers, one of which is about 8 years old, and completely unconnected to the internet has been, um, challenging.

Started really monkeying with Smart Playlists -- which have been a feature of iTunes for, like, forever -- and I'm starting to really like them. Any iTunes users, feel free to share your Smart Playlist setups in the comments. I'm interested in seeing 'em.

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Jerwa and I had a notion (not even an idea, really) for a sci-fi "thing." Plus we've had a sudden windfall in contact from people at various publishers suitable for such a project. So, that's proven distracting, but an interesting distraction.


---

That's about it. Work. Music. Jerwa. Oh, and Greg Rucka is sick, and that makes me sad.

--

That is all.

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.)

It's been a prolific day.

Wrote and submitted three(!) pitches to Joe Rybandt at Dynamite, per his request. (Had a lovely time at the retailer summit in Vegas, and got to spend an evening discussing comics and drinking with Joe. It was all Very Professional and Not At All Boozy.)

Made the zillions of phone calls I needed to make today, though none of the bureaucratic ones yielded fruit, alas. Tomorrow is a new day, though.

Also managed to run all the system updates and whatnot I needed to run to polish up the OS on the laptop; the recurring issue (wherein the machine simply wouldn't reboot—it would just spin the fans and overheat) has been repaired and thus I now have a shiny new version of iTunes 8 and the updated system file.

Machine is running great, and I must say this again: Apple customer service on this issue has been absolutely above reproach. Courteous, friendly, fast, and they did more than I asked them too.

The ONLY gripe I have (and I suspect it's an iTunes gripe) is that it's treating my laptop as a new machine for the purposes of authorizing songs. So, I have to deauthorize all of my iTunes approved machines and reauthorize them. Whatever. Not a big deal at all.

Today I am actually happy.

As I continue to beat the piece Jerwa and I did for PopGun like a cheap drum...

Frequent collaborator Brandon Jerwa and I deliver annotations/"directors' commentary" for our short piece, Wide Awake, over on Comics Waiting Room.

(And, as with the Comic Book Resources article, the complete nine-page story is available for your perusal, for the whopping price of "FREE.") Check it out; as always, comments, questions, and so on are welcome.

Enjoy!

The aforementioned interview with Brandon Jerwa, David Messina and I is now available on Comic Book Resources, which also features the complete 8-page horror-adventure short we contributed to the second volume of Image Comics' PopGun anthology series.

Tell all your friends! Collect them all!

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.

The second volume of Image Comics 400+ page anthology series, Popgun, hits store shelves today.

Of note (at least I think so, anyhow) is an eight-page horror/adventure short written by Brandon Jerwa and I, and ably illustrated by David Messina, contained in that weighty tome.

Beneath the cut are some sample pages of David's spectacular work.

Enjoy!

( Read more... )

Brandon and I hope to do more with the main character someday; if you like it, let us (and Image) know.



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Now playing: The Weepies - All That I Want
http://foxytunes.com/artist/the+weepies/track/all+that+i+want