Zub Tales

I can’t properly explain to you how happy I am to finally be able to post up this first page of the new Makeshift Miracle.

In late 2010 Erik Ko, the head of UDON, showed me samples from an artist named Shun Hong Chan. The sensitivity in his line work and beautiful soft colour tones blew me away. It had a wonderful emotional quality. Erik knew his artwork would be right up my alley.

“Wouldn’t this guy be perfect for a story like Makeshift Miracle?” he said.

Absolutely. I’d always talked about writing another story that pulled together my love of manga along with modern supernatural fables like Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series. Those influences fuelled Makeshift back in 2001 and they’re near and dear to me.

“I mean, we could even do a new Makeshift if you wanted. Makeshift 2.0, something like that.”

I chuckled at the sound of “2.0” but couldn’t get the idea out of my head. When I originally wrapped up Makeshift in 2003 there was a lot left unexplored. I had a ton of other ideas, ways to expand it and delve into secondary characters and the nature of dreams. The idea of rekindling that sounded like a great opportunity. On top of that, over the past 8 years I’ve learned a lot about writing, pacing and dialogue.

The half-joke turned into a real conversation. If Erik was willing to give it the go ahead, we’d rebuild Makeshift from the ground up with Shun on art. As soon as his first character design sketches started coming in, I knew we were on to something special.

Throughout 2011 I’ve had to keep this quiet and barely anyone, even my close friends and family, saw any artwork or knew that this new story was going to be announced. I think part of the reason I kept it so secret was that couldn’t believe it was actually happening.

But now, today, here we are.

Needless to say, I’m thrilled with how it’s all developing and can’t wait to show you it all. I hope that as you follow along with our story the characters come to mean as much to you as they do to me.

Click on the page art to head to the new site

Teaser 4 is up at the website. A press release with all the details should be going out tomorrow.

Teaser 3 went up on the site this morning.

Teaser 2 went up on the site this morning.

Three journal posts in one day… yowza.

Anyways, without anyone noticing, an old website of mine went through a bit of a revamp and this teaser page was posted up…

More details soon. All I can say right now is that this has been in the works for a while.

In the midst of everything else going on (and starting next week there will be even more, details on that later) I started a night course at Seneca. As part of my Professional Development for the College I’m taking a Japanese language course.

I’m nervous and excited about it. Japan and Japanese culture is obviously near and dear to me, but the idea of learning a new language (beyond the limited amount of Japanese slang/simple speech I already know) is intimidating. The only other language I attempted to learn was the basic French taught to all Canadian students, and it was one the lowest marks I ever earned in school. The instructors were unengaging and I had no desire to try and improve in it. Now I’m older and wiser, but it’s still nerve wracking.

If I have time I’ll type up some of my notes from the class, both as interesting blog fodder and as a way for me to help memorize new material as I learn it.

LESSON 1: Introductions/Basic Information

Hajimemashite.
Watashi wa Zub desu.
Yoroshiku onegaishimasu.

Nice to meet you.
I’m Zub.
I look forward to working with you. (Not an exact translation. It’s a very cultural term.)

—

If I was introducing someone else I would say

Kochira wa _name_-san desu.
This person is _name_.

You add –san to the name as an honorific, but never for yourself or introducing your family.

If I wanted to add a bit more detail about myself or the person, I could say

Zub wa Seneka no sensei desu.
Zub is a professor from Seneca College.

The ‘no’ is possessive, so whatever noun is in front of the ‘no’ is possessed by the latter noun. In this case it’s “Seneca” and “professor”.

You have to put the ‘wa’ or ‘no’ in there. You can’t stack two nouns one after another without them.

—

You can swap in all kinds of stuff.

Watashi wa Toronto no Zub desu.
I’m Zub from Toronto.

or

Watashi wa Kanada-jin no gakusei desu.
I’m a Canadian student.

For countries, you just say the name of the country and add “jin” to it to denote “people of” that same place.

Examples:
Amerika = USA
Chugoku = China
Doitsu = Germany
Furansu = France
Igirisu = England
Kanada = Canada
Kankoku = Korea
Nihon = Japan
Osutoraria = Austrailia
Tai = Tailand

—

If I want to make any of the above a question, I just have to add “ka” to the end of the sentence. For example

Kochira wa Kanada-jin desu ka?
Is that person from Canada?

or

Kochira wa Toronto no Zub desu ka?
Is Zub from Toronto?

To which I could answer.

Hai, Toronto desu.
Yes, Toronto.

or

Iie, Toronto dewa arimasen.
No, not Toronto.

or

Iie, Oshawa desu.
No, from Oshawa.

—

Getting a bit more complex, you could give people choices.

Zub wa Kanada-jin desu ka, Amerika-jin desu ka?
Is Zub a Canadian or American?

and answer it

Kanada-jin desu.
Canadian.

—

We also covered the first 20 hiragana (letters) of Japanese writing. If I get a chance I’ll post those practice sheets up later on. Memorizing those symbols and relating them to the corresponding sounds is going to be tough!

Wish me luck!

My work schedule has been so crazy, when there is a bit of time to socialize, we try and make the most of it…

My friend Andrew is from the UK and had never experienced the North American “Saturday Morning cartoons and cereal” tradition, so we threw a theme party over the weekend.

PJ’s cereal, cartoons and a bit of booze. It was amazing.

This week I finally had a chance to pop down and visit Little Island Comics, a kids-only comic shop that recently opened in Toronto on Bathurst Street, just south of Bloor.

In an economy where you hear about stores closing and markets shrinking, it’s amazing and encouraging to see such a wonderful shop that’s focused on building a new generation of comic readers.

From the outside you can see the appealing logo and colourful array of books they have on hand.

Easy to reach shelves have a wide array of picture books, comics and manga, including classics like Asterix and Tin Tin.

Feature titles on display include offerings by local talent, like Ray Fawkes and Kean Soo.

Some wonderful ‘board books’, including new board comics for Yo Gabba Gabba published by Oni Press.

Their manga selections are well vetted and include quite a few UDON titles, especially the Manga For Kids line.

Nice feature display of the Little Endless book by Jill Thompson.

Certain shelves are also themed in fun ways, like this mouse-centric section.

They even have a classic spinner rack lined up with kids comics.

All in all, Little Island is a great boutique shop catering to kids, parents and librarians. Their future plans for signings and workshops mixed with a solid push forward helping librarians and teachers use comics in schools is the exact kind of thinking the comic market needs in this day and age. There are tons of readers out there who would love comics, there just needs to be clear outlets where they can sample and enjoy.

I’m hopeful that Little Island opens a lot of peoples’ eyes to the potential for comics in the mainstream and shows that innovative quality retailing can build a loyal customer base.

When my next kid-centric comic title is released I know where I want to throw the launch party. 🙂

Fan Expo Canada has come and gone in a flash. This year, with UDON set up at both Fan Expo and PAX simultaneously alongside my own Skullkickers promotion stuff at the Image booth, it seemed even more insane than usual. My deepest thanks to Stacy, Chris, the rest of the UDON crew and the Image Comics folks for helping to make the weekend so amazing.

Edwin came up for the show as well. It was his first time to Canada and I felt a bit bad that we didn’t have more time to explore the city. He seemed to have a great time so I don’t think it will be his last Canadian expedition. We chatted about the future of Skullkickers and I’m more excited than ever about working with him on the third story arc and, hopefully, even more beyond that.

Charles Soule (27, Strongman), Kurtis Wiebe (Green Wake, the Intrepids) and I ran a panel on Saturday focused on writing and pitching creator-owned comics and it went over really well. The room was packed and I met a lot of folks afterwords who came by the Image booth to let us know how informative and entertaining they found the presentation. With a bit of luck I’m hoping the three of us can do a similar panel for New York Comicon in October.

Otherwise, business was good and the social/networking aspect of the show was top notch. The kinds of conversations and breakthroughs I was hoping to get at San Diego Comicon seemed to materialize in Toronto instead, which was a great way to cap off the summer convention season. I’m excited and hopeful about the rest of 2011 and potential for the new year.

Stacy’s upstairs clacking away on work stuff and I just finished a proposal for a new project I have my fingers crossed for. It was a busy weekend, but there’s no time to rest as we push onwards this week to the goals ahead.

Volume 2 arrives in November! Please pre-order and support our hard work!

—

SKULLKICKERS VOL. 2: FIVE FUNERALS AND A BUCKET OF BLOOD TP

story JIM ZUB
art EDWIN HUANG & MISTY COATS
cover EDWIN HUANG & ESPEN GRUNDETJERN
NOVEMBER 16
144 PAGES / FC
$16.99

ISBN-10: 1607064421
ISBN-13: 978-1607064428
Diamond Order Code: SEP110431

The second SKULLKICKERS adventure is a wondrous tornado of action-adventure: a den of thieves, a city of danger, nobility, stupidity, plant monsters, dinner parties and bloodthirsty faerie folk. Jump on board to see why Ain’t It Cool News says “Everyone who loves comics should buy SKULLKICKERS.”

Collects SKULLKICKERS #6-11

Click here to order from B&N:

Click here to order from Amazon: