The Show Goes On

Aaand we're back.

The final chapter of "The Show Must Go On" is now pencilled and I'm pretty pleased with how it all hangs together, considering that I was making it all up as I went along for the first two chapters (I was working within a very loose outline, but essentially I was busking - in the grand tradition of Mugwhump the Great, come to think of it). Now I've just got to ink the darn thing.

Oh, and colour it. Did I mention we're in colour now?

Kindly Take Your Seats...

... for the return of Mugwhump the Great at ACT-I-VATE has begun! The current episode is just a little recap for you, the fun starts in earnest next week, but I'm happier than a pig in muck to have Muggsy and Billy back in my life.

The Return

Mugwhumpery

After a quiet few weeks, I finally have a bit of news to report. Firstly, I am now working on the final chapter of Mugwhump the Great - the web strip on ACT-I-VATE that those of you with long memories may remember. I've got one more chapter to go, and I'm scripting it at the moment; negotiations are under way for a print collection once it's done. But more about that another day. For now, rest assured - it's coming.

Secondly, I may have a small Jim Henson-related project coming up. I'm waiting for a yea or nay on something, then I'll be able to spill a few more beans. Meanwhile, enjoy the suspense.

Lastly, I'm working on a brand-new mini-comic for the first time in YONKS - and it feels great! I've had a fun time working for the Diamond crowd over the past couple of years, but it feels nice to be doing a proper comic again. Here's the cover.


That's all the news I can share right now. I wish I could tell you more, but then I would have to kill you with my bare hands.

Salons, Scripts and Stories

First, those of of you in the New York area might like to know about the ACT-I-VATE Salon this Thursday - details below, or follow the link.


This week I was asked by Marvel to write a four-issue series for their Marvel Adventures line. This is exactly the sort of thing I gave up my magazine illustration work to be able to do more of - it's just where I think the biggest challenges are for me creatively right now - so I said yes, and now I have to figure out how the hell I'm going to do it. The brief is to do a big cosmic thing starring the Avengers and Thanos, loosely based on an old story in the Marvel Universe proper which I'd never heard of. Go on, lemming, over the cliff...

Quick recommendation: Art & Story, the podcast on the craft of creating comics. Right now they're in the middle of a series called "Your Comic from the Ground Up", where the hosts, Mark and Jerzy, discuss just that - how to build a long-form comic story from scratch. Really good stuff, especially to someone like me, who's way more comfortable in the "3-minute pop-song" end of comics.

Look, Ma! I'm Writin'!

I've had a pretty decent week, productivity-wise, having nailed down the plot for the final issue of the Muppet Show: On the Road story arc, finished writing the first issue, completely scripted the second issue, started writing the third, and written the first three weeks of the re-started Mugwhump the Great strip. And I've drawn stuff-all!

I've discovered something -- I get cross and irritable when I write all day. I don't know if it's the act of writing so much as the fact of not drawing that's doing it. I know I can't take holidays without climbing the walls after a day or two unless I have something to draw, so I suspect it's related. That said, writing is such an immersive experience that it almost hurts to be interrupted, and I suspect that has something to do with it as well. I normally just write in the early mornings, when being interrupted isn't an issue, but the Muppet scripts were way behind and I needed to catch up.

Anyway. Almost caught up. Then it'll just be back to early mornings for a bit, drawing the rest of the day, and my family will like me again. As much as they usually do, anyway.



It lives! Dean Haspiel with the ACT-I-VATE PRIMER. With Mugwhump starting up again soon, it's impeccable timing.

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

Please Me, Tease Me

Running a bit behind this week, so this entry is a get-in, get-out-as-fast-as-I-can one. Here's a teaser image from an upcoming Mugwhump story for something called the Act-i-Vate Primer, which is pretty much what the title says it is - a print introduction to the work of various Act-i-Vate cartoonists. One for the Mugwhump fans who might be getting itchy during the hiatus. My story consists of six densely-packed (twelve-panel) pages showing events before the current strip began.

I got an e-mail this morning informing me that The Muppet Show Comic Book #1 is going for some larcenous price on Amazon right now. Please wait for the book collection, folks! The whole collectors' market is a cesspool of poisonous idiocy and I would encourage people not to spend stupid amounts of money on something you'll be able to pick up in book form in a couple of months. I don't draw these things to be put in bags and ignored. They're there to be read. Sorry to get all cross and irritable, but really.

Preee-sentinggg... MUGWHUMP THE GREAT!

Today I'm beginning a brand-new web strip, and if you're wondering why all you can see on my website is Fred the Clown, that's because the new strip is making its debut at Act-i-Vate.com. It's called Mugwhump the Great, and for the handful of you who have come to rely upon the Hotel Fred's WebComicsNation-powered RSS feeds and syndication features (whatever they are -- speaking as somebody who doesn't have a mobile phone and fondly remembers the old wooden computers), fret not! For Mugwhump will appear at the HotelFred.com with a one-week delay starting September 9th, a contrivance developed to satisfy Act-i-Vate's requirement for exclusive content (although you can already read the older Mugwhump material here). The black-and-white approach is the result of a conscious decision on my part to separate my personal work from my work-for-hire stuff, which these days is invariably computer-coloured. I thought it was time to draw a line in the sand somewhere and, for aesthetic, economic and scheduling reasons, colour seemed as good a place as any.

In other words, I'm expecting never to make any money from this and to have to print the damn thing myself eventually. Just like old times!

For a short engagement...

Fred the Clown is back with all-new content on the Hotel Fred website. Strictly a temporary arrangement, a four-week posting while I get the new strip, Mugwhump the Great, ready to go on Act-i-Vate.com... but hopefully a welcome return for those who have been requesting the big doofus nonetheless. It feels good to be back in the saddle.

And what is this Mugwhump the Great of which you speak, I hear you cry? Well, it's sort of a continuation of a story I did about a decade ago, which recently saw print for the first time in the Comics Journal (and which you can read for free online here). There'll be a slow start with a few gag strips before we launch into a longer plotline about a mysterious new manager taking over the Palace of Varieties and introducing his own macabre artistes. What's it all about? And what does Billy Woodentop have to do with it? All will be revealed, once I've actually finished plotting the damn thing. It's coming together, but plotting is a process I'm not yet entirely at home with. It's like giving birth to a watermelon at the moment.