Congratulations It's a Book

Huzzah! According to Tom Spurgeon's Comics Reporter website, which keeps much tighter tabs on these things than I do, the first Muppet Show Comic Book collection, Meet the Muppets, is out this week. (Amazon link here.) And good news for readers in the UK: it appears that Amazon UK are going to have it because I found a link for it there. So now British readers can stop wondering what I've been up to for the last year or so. Added incentive: the ten-page story I did for Disney Adventures a couple of years ago, which has never before been published in its entirety, will finally see the light of day in the collection. (And there's a hardback edition for those of you with deep pockets!) This is technically my first original graphic novel since Fred the Clown, so I hope you'll forgive my excitement.

Also out this week is the second issue of The Treasure of Peg-Leg Wilson.


While I'm plugging books, I encourage you to check out the ACT-I-VATE PRIMER preview over at the AIV site, where I believe you can also pre-order the book directly (click on the sexy banner ad at the top of the preview page).

Mugwhump fans take note, I'm vigorously moving stuff around in my schedule so I can recommence the strip at the earliest opportunity. I'm discussing with Boom! how best to lessen my Muppet workload without interrupting the monthly schedule, and once all those ducks are in a row I'll have a bit more wiggle room. (Not to mention more sleep.) Watch this space!

Sequential Archaeology

I can't recall mentioning this before, so here it is: The Muppet Show comic book will be a proper ongoing series as of the November issue, the Pigs in Space one-shot, which will start the numbering at Issue #0 for some weird reason I'm unable to fathom*. After that, it's #1 for the first issue of the next story arc, On the Road, and we get to do all the numbers in sequence from then on until none of us are able to stand it any longer. No more of this re-starting every four issues with a new #1, no sir! It's a proper comic at last!

Mugwhump watchers may be interested to read a piece about the ACT-I-VATE Primer over at Comic Book Resources.

And finally, here are some old sketches I found in a folder with some really unhelpful file names, so I had no idea what they were until I opened them. They must predate Fred the Clown #1, because one of them is a cover idea for that comic, so I'm guessing they're from around the year 2000. Time I put some artwork up here that wasn't a plug for something.




(*I mean, I can understand Robert Crumb putting out Zap Comix #0, because he thought the artwork was gone forever when he put out #1 and inserted it in sequence after the fact when photocopies eventually showed up, but I don't understand modern #0 issues at all. It's not like the comic is non-existent. A zero-numbered issue would make sense if it was only released on the internet or something, because then a physical comic wouldn't actually exist. Am I thinking about this stuff too hard?)

Random chicken scratchings

This week I finished writing a pitch for a Marvel Adventures series (or rather, I tightened up a pitch I'd already written which was far too long) which I have a very good feeling about. Not that I'm confident it's going to be approved or anything, I'm just very pleased with it. Especially so since it would be quite a long piece of work if it goes ahead and I'm rarely happy with my attempts to write anything long-form. More news on that front if and when I have anything, always allowing for the possibility that it may sink without a trace... I'm finding increasing amounts of enjoyment from writing for other artists. It's a place I never expected to end up, but I'm kind of glad I have.

Which is just as well, because I'm on the home stretch of the script for the upcoming Pigs in Space one-shot. I'm still not 100% sure if the artist has been decided, although I met someone at San Diego who was at the top of the list who'd be a really good choice. Sorry to be so oblique, but I really don't know if that decision has been made yet or not.
But I'm writing with that artist in mind.

Finished inking the third issue of The Treasure of Peg-Leg Wilson last night. One more issue to go before I get to sleep in for a day or two, for the first time in eight months. Ooohhh, I'm looking forward to that. I'm hoping to be able to pick up where I left off with Mugwhump the Great at that point, ACT-I-VATE followers... and, speaking of which:

All are welcome to join the ACT-I-Vate Primer group on Facebook. Come join us, won't you?

You may be wondering why you sent for me

Okay - got a couple of announcements here. The first involves the Act-I-Vate Primer - a fine and fabulous book published by IDW, featuring brand-new print stories featuring characters from the Act-I-Vate website. My own contribution is a Mugwhump the Great story, a prequel to the web strip (which I will be picking up again as soon as I get a minute!). Now available for pre-order from Diamond Previews or through Amazon.

Next thing I want to draw your attention to is a short interview with me on the MuppetCast podcast - partly about my experiences at the San Diego Comic Con, and partly about more general Muppet comic matters. An excellent show for your inner Muppet!

Another interview I forgot to link to earlier is one I did with the Secret Identity Podcast boys - find that here.

And I need to mention the rather fabulous Awesome 2: Awesomer anthology published by Top Shelf, for which I contributed the back cover. Edited by Indie Spinner Rack's Charlito and Mr Phil, it's a veritable who's that of indie comics, and a percentage of profits will go towards a scholarship for a lucky student at the Centre for Cartoon Studies - so well worth your support.

End of Plugorama!

The Act-I-Vate Primer

ACT-I-VATE is proud to announce THE ACT-I-VATE PRIMER.

16 original stories by the premier webcomix collective, ACT-I-VATE, with a foreword by Warren Ellis, coming this October from IDW Publishing.

With its roster of renowned creators serializing webcomix for free since 2006, ACT-I-VATE, has reached a comicbook critical mass. Now this funnybook big bang has birthed The Act-i-vate Primer, the very first collection of stand alone, never-before-seen stories. This tome is a lot bigger than it seems. Each of these stories extend way beyond the boundaries of mere paper and cardboard out into ACT-I-VATE.com where you’ll already be initiated to the worlds greatest webcomix collective.

The Act-i-vate Primer boasts original art and stories by Joe Infurnari, Roger Langridge, Mike Dawson, Nick Bertozzi, Tim Hamilton, Dean Haspiel, Simon Fraser, Molly Crabapple & John Leavitt, Mike Cavallaro, Pedro Camargo, Jim Dougan & Hyeondo Park, Ulises Farinas, Michel Fiffe, Maurice Fontenot, Jennifer Hayden, and Leland Purvis.

“ACT-I-VATE makes comics better.”
–Warren Ellis [from the ACT-I-VATE PRIMER foreword].

Diamond Item Code: AUG090968
ISBN: 978-1-60010-528-9

Amazon US link
Amazon UK link