Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Still in Transition

Well there has been some progress with all the Fan-Atic Press projects.....just slow progress. Scarlet Fields by Edward Pun has been all sketched out and he is working on the inks. It'll be a fanatistic comic, just wait and see! I'll try and show a bit more of it at www.fanaticpress.com soon. Slam Bang #1 (Volume III) is still in production....latest contributor is Brad Foster! Of course the issue wouldn't be complete without something from the master. He has contributed to just about every issue of the rag and I'm very glad to see he is continuing the tradition. Daryl Hutchinson will also have a gallery of images in the issue. I'd love to get ahold of his brother Joe as I've heard he has alot of comic pages that are begging to be published. I plan to have this book to a printer by the end of November. Wish me luck, as I also plan to be moved into a new house by then. Yeah, we are still living in my parents spare room (it's not really that bad) and are itching to be in a house. We will close on the selling of our house in WA on the 30th of November. Wish us luck in having it all work out as planned. We are looking at more houses this week but have our eye on a nice one with room for the Fan-Atic Press studios and storage for all the soon to be published issues....

Also on the plate is Morgana X the graphic novel. 3 stories by Chris Moshier are being done by 3 different artists. Anton Bogaty, Rob Schneiders, and Dave Johnson. This is turning out to be a fantastic book! Full color of course. There is also talk of a Morgana X novel by Chris, with more details soon.

Berserker Brother:Assassin the novel by Fred Saberhagen that is being adapted to comics is also moving along. The script by Chris Moshier is in it's final stages of being approved by the Saberhagens. We are still trying to tie down an artist for this series, then things will really get rolling.

Anton Bogaty's Drawings, is selling very well. We only printed a limited edition of 100 and have sold about 60 of them in just a few weeks! Next step is to submit the book to Diamond and see if we can get this out to all the stores! Depending on the orders we will go back to press and the name Anton Bogaty will be a household word. This book deserves to be seen!

Solitaire "The Witch" is still in production with over 1/2 the book penciled in great detail by Thiago Carvalho. Written by Michael Berry who just can't wait to see this out (Neither can I!) More pages are on their way and then it's up to me to ink/color/and letter this baby. Wish me luck!

The Adventures of Strange Boy has been in need of completion and hopefully I'll finish this up in early 2006. Written by my wife Bonnie, based on a true story of her younger brother, and illustrated by me. This will be in a children's book format but for all ages of course.

Doc Paradox by Paul Allen will be well worth the wait. Sort of a Peter Max meets Doctor Suess, this book will amaze everyone with it's intergalactic time traveling story, and original art and design. I can't wait!

So watch this space for more details of progress here at the house of idears.

===Allen

Friday, November 04, 2005

Guest Speaker --Ron Fontes

I think this email from Ron should be shared (He said I could) so here it is:

Have you ever extended a helping hand to a fanboy and had it chewed off while he climbed over you, intent on The Top? It's sad to see so many half-baked comics and the greedy "creators" who dream of the merchandising and mega-budget movies they think will spring up in mere months. It's even worse when these starry-eyed egomaniacs are in their 40s. Damn, boys, it took 50 years to get Batman in a big movie. Even Hellboy has been around for 10 and Mignola paid his dues for years before that. Frank Miller has been working since the 70s. And they earned the privilege by working for other people, deferring their pet projects until they proved their worth.If you've spent 20 years being a cop, then you're a cop, not an artist or storyteller. I would never presume to tell a cop how to do his job. As for the initial hero-worship (which never fails to creep me out), that was his wish-fulfillment working overtime. Yeah, I worked at Marvel for a few years, but so what? I was hired by Special Projects because I didn't want to draw the superheroes. They wanted a skilled, competent, reliable, experienced person to stay in the job, not use it to platform a Career. It was a strain and boring at the same time. The ridiculous politics were unbearable. And all that stuff in COMIC WARS? Started then, got worse, so I got out.I'm not the world's greatest artist, actor, writer or film-maker, but I am better than average. That does not oblige me to try to exploit my talents or ideas to the max in a frantic rush to Fame and Fortune. I like a nice, quiet, steady life. I don't want to be idolized or make millions of bucks, I just want to live by telling stories and die in my sleep at a very advanced age. I want to be good to people, but I have found I can only be good to good people. The other sort just grab and boss and stuff themselves like pigs and they'll never feel gratitude. --rf