Strangeways update –

So let’s see. Busy week. Mostly busy with getting shows together (three in the last part of the year, maybe a fourth).

The Land Beyond/Sac horror
Honestly not sure if they’re calling it “The Land Beyond” anymore or not. This one’s in my hometown and towards the end of September. Mike Mignola’s gonna be there, along with a bunch of other cool folks. Might be worth a trip for some of you out-of-towners. If things work out well, this is the show where THE THIRSTY will be first available for public purchase, so if you want to be ahead of the pack, you wanna go.

The Alternative Press Expo
You know it, you love it. At the San Francisco concourse the first weekend of October. THE THIRSTY and bargain copies of MURDER MOON (I gotta start blowing them out–my loss is your gain) and Five Minute Sketches for everyone.

The Long Beach Comic Convention
Darwyn Cooke’s gonna be there. I mean, so are a bunch of other folks, but he’s at the top of the list so far as I’m concerned. This one’s on Halloween weekend (which means I’ll probably leave early Sunday so I don’t miss trick-or-treating with the kids). Still, should be a good time. The show’s in a nice place, right by the water.

THE THIRSTY is currently at Lebonfon in Quebec where it should be printed. Spent too much of this week fixing screwups that were entirely avoidable. Still should be printed up in time for all of these shows. No, it’s still doesn’t have big distribution.

THE LAND WILL KNOW (aka STRANGEWAYS book 3) is (mostly) written and artists have been locked in. I’m going to start announcing them. Okay, we all know Gervasio and Jok will be in on it, as they have from the start. They’ll be drawing the main storyline and a story called “Dry Heart” which some sharp-eyed among you might actually remember as being the story that was originally going to follow MURDER MOON as a monthly comic story, back when the book was going to be published by Speakeasy comics. There’s probably even preview pages floating around somewhere.

Oh, like right here
And right here

I might’ve lied. There’s only “Dry Heart” pages in one of those. But still, it’s a good interview with one of my favorite comics commentators (and friend), Jeff Lester.

So, THE LAND WILL know is really ten (or eleven) stories that lock together into one. Some are much more integral to the whole piece than others, but they do all play together. I hope that this all comes off, actually. It ended up being a little more (and I hesitate to use this word) ambitious than when I first planned. Anyways, I wanted to get a bunch of different looks at the world of STRANGEWAYS and see what other artists would do with it. And I’ve been pretty thrilled with the response and acceptance from the artists I’ve asked to work alongside with.

So here’s the first mystery artist revealed.

Tom Fowler originally came to my attention with CAPER, a mostly-overlooked DC crime series some several years back. And I actually got to meet Tom at SDCC some years ago (doubt he remembers it). Then again at the MYSTERIUS THE UNFATHOMABLE signing he and Jeff Parker did at the Isotope a couple of years ago. Since then, he’s gotten a higher profile in comics, working on a couple of Marvel books including VENOM most recently. And dig this, he does actual CARTOONING.

Tom’s working on a story called “Between Salamander and Jackstraw” which is mostly a revenge story, but really it’s an excuse for him to draw some crazy western stuff.

In other news, I’ll be wandering the floor of this weekend’s Worldcon in Reno, Nevada. I’ll have printed copies of my story “Tug on the Ribbon” for sale if you can find me, and even if you can’t.