Zub Tales

Heading to the Toronto Comic Arts Festival here in downtown Toronto. If you can, come down and say hello! I’ll be in the Hacienda lounge where all the discussion panels are being held. It’s also where the booze is… so stop by! If you’re coming by subway, the TCAF show is right around the corner from Bathurst Station. Easy access, free admission… you have no excuse not to be there if you’re in Toronto.

One of the card game projects is finally approaching some semblance of light at the end of tunnel. While finishing off assigning that stuff, managing other projects and all the comic marketing madness I was able to slip in time to do two little spot illos for Dungeon Magazine:

Art behind the cut here

The second part in a series of articles about the creation of the new Exalted comic series is now up at Newsarama:

The Publishing Gauntlet- Part Two

Please give it a read and comment if you can. Pass the link along to friends and other interested parties.

Thanks!

For the first time since around 1999, I’m changing my avatar all over the internet. A little caricature doodle I did of myself tonight turned out sharp and I think it’ll make a fine replacement for the old pouty kid with an aviator cap one:

Gal was 150% correct about Star Wars Episode III. Cornflake and her both told me that Star Wars fans were abused housewives coming back time and time again for another beating because they had deluded themselves that “it would get better this time, honestly.” That this movie would suck just as bad as the first two and that I was a fool.

They were right. The movie was a hair better than the absolute donkey shit that was Matrix Revolutions.

There’s about 15 minutes of really impressive fight scenes surrounded by 2 plus hours of absolute garbage. Every actor in this film is beyond cardboard. I wasn’t expecting deep and meaningful, but seriously, every person who opens their mouth spews something embarrassing. Ewan MacGregor is the only person who retains a shred of personality and even he’s scuba diving in crap for the majority of the film.

I couldn’t help but feel like I was watching Star Wars fan fiction with a hundred million dollar budget. It was that terrible. The prequel trilogy is three for three on the shit-o-meter.

Whenever I go see a film I have a simple intelligence criterion. I think of myself as someone with average intelligence. If I see something in the moment as I watch a film and dozens of people involved in writing, directing and editing the film didn’t see how stupid something was after months of pouring over each scene, then they could be morons. This film made me feel like a genius.

Spoilers and Bitching Here

Thanks to everyone who e-mailed me congrats on the series or posted good things on the various forums.

The first part in a series of articles all about the creation of the comic series is up now at Newsarama:

The Publishing Gauntlet- Part One

Please give it a read and comment if you can. I’m nervously excited as all this stuff gets rolling.

2 am and I’m having trouble sleeping. I hit a really good stride of getting things done and when I wake up the week will go into overdrive. It’s my 29th birthday on Wednesday and today’s the day we announce the Exalted comic book.

Yeah. You heard me.

The Exalted comic book. The one coming out from Udon spearheaded by a crazy guy named Zub.

The insane project I’ve had to keep a secret since last summer as we negotiated the contract, put together the team and worked our fingers to the bone to put together an awesome summer preview issue before the first full issue comes out this Fall.

Man, it felt good to finally be able to type that. You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to post that.

Even though the press release goes out today and the convention-exclusive zero issue is headed off to the printer, it doesn’t even feel real. Good times and bad as we got this crazy thing moving and now I don’t even know how to describe it. Every step of the way on this book has been a whirlwind.

Exalted fans, comic fans, RPG fans, fantasy fans, anime fans… this book has so much potential and I don’t want to see it squandered. In the current market no comic is a sure thing and fantasy in particular has had a hard go of it. The creative team has put their all into this and it’s my job to help make it a success. It’s amazing and terrifying at the same time.

I felt the same kind of fear when I launched Makeshift Miracle, only now I’ve got a half dozen other people on my little plane as we run it towards the cliff edge to see if it will fly. Instead of just worrying about me, myself and I… I’ve got these other creative people and two companies on board wishing, stressing, dreaming and working with me to see if we can soar.

This week is going to be all about letting people know. Like a broken record I’ll be sending out press releases and talking to websites about interviews and exposure. Getting the word out and showing just enough of the artwork to get people on board without tipping my hand completely. Trying to do the self-promotion dance without coming on too strong. Nothing like a bit of pressure to find out what you’re made of. I won’t mind if you help me spread the word or shake your media contacts where appropriate… 🙂

I’ll be posting up little tidbits on my livejournal every so often so the people who follow along here can see this project come together and watch how it all plays out. I’ll try to post links to interviews or pics when they pop up. Besides the new Exalted comic forum, the Zub livejournal will sort of be like Exalted comic HQ…. man, that’s a scary thought.

The roller coaster summer begins today. The safety bar has me locked in and my stomach’s just starting to lurch as the coaster drops. Dizzy, euphoric and a little scared. I hope I make it through the loop-dee-loops without throwing up.

Okay, got to sleep now.

Crazy cover linework by Chris Stevens:

The press release

Woke up and my stomach is now merely irritable rather than “ready to kill”. I’m quite groggy.

Browsing the usual internet jumble and I’m amazed, though I really shouldn’t be. The anonymity of the web means, as always, people can just post whatever they want without any filters whatsoever. It sometimes amazes me but usually just makes me shake my head. In many ways I’m glad that I decided to have a bit more of a “public face” on the internet. It makes me accountable for what I say and reminds me to think before I type instead of just issuing forth the first thing that hits the keyboard. I just do my best to imagine what the conversation would go like “in person” and work from there. It’s shocking how much more civil my posts become at that point. This morning I stopped myself from commenting three or four times already on various websites thanks to that wonderful filter.

The rest of the weekend looks like it will be a bit more social and relaxing, assuming my stomach behaves. Next week I start the project-equivalent of an epic song and dance that should prove quite interesting.

I don’t believe in Friday the 13th bad luck and all that. But today just got frustrating.

Worked my butt off for the past week and buggered up my sleep schedule something fierce. Now this evening I’d intended on heading downtown for a nice meal and then meeting up with friends for Kung Fu Fridays (a local movie theatre showing kick ass Kung Fu cinema). Cool plan, feeling good. I finish up dinner and soon after my stomach decides it’s going to be an unruly bastard. Mix that with a sharp cold wind smacking me in the face down Queen Street and my head started throbbing to boot.

Stumbled off the subway and am now home and in that terrible state of my stomach staying calm for 15 minutes and then tearing me open for the next 10 or so. Rinse and repeat. It’s like my body is punishing me for finally managing to find some free time.

Three days of brutal messed up sleep schedule has taken its toll. When I’m supposed to sleep I’ve been toiling over a dozen things in my brain and when I’m awake I’ve been a working robot. I napped twice during the middle of the day yesterday and floated through the interactions between naps, making the whole day feel 4 times as long and 4 times as surreal.

At one point I had a dream about Gal and I looking after baby chickens in the back seat of a car. Gal had some sort of makeshift chicken fence/barrier between the back and front seats to make sure the chicks didn’t get into the front. I think she was spreading chicken feed over the seats at one point. My brain is goo…

In the midst of the haze, I finalized work scheduling and the artists handed in the last of the line art for one of the card games. The sheer amount of shit to do at this point is barbaric and yet it’s somehow all getting finished and finished well. Productivity has become zen. Kind of funny, especially when my head’s all spaced out.

Free Comic Book Day was a brief break from the insanity. Hung out with Scott and chatted comics biz, saw Keen again, bumped shoulders with Attila and Ramon and bought the first Conan hardback with Frezetta-esque amazing artwork by Cary Nord. A good day.

Gal painted up a card image a few days ago that made me go ‘Damn!’. Totally professional finish on it with energy and confidence. The padawan is gonna kick the master’s ass unless I get my rear in gear. Sometimes it feels like I’m a teacher, not an artist…

Watched ‘The Triplettes of Belleville’ while munching on pizza yesterday. Even if I wasn’t in a sleep-assed haze that movie would’ve been ultra surreal. Amazing animation set over the a strangely paced story. Good, but hard to wrap my brain around.

Okay… maybe sleep, maybe food… maybe I don’t know.

PS: Oh God, it’s becoming clear to me now… this is how my boss Erik gets through every week.

As we head into con season once again and the Toronto Comicon is done… I present, with a mix of excitement and fear… the shows I’m attending this summer:

June 30-July 3: Origins – Columbus, Ohio
July 13-17: San Diego Comic Con – San Diego, California
Aug 18-21: Gen Con Indy – Indianapolis, Indiana
Aug 26-28: Canadian National Comic Expo – Toronto, Ontario
Sept 2-5: Dragon*Con – Atlanta, Georgia

Also, possibly at
May 27-29: Toronto Comics Arts Festival – Toronto, Ontario and
Aug 5-7: WizardWorld Chicago – Chicago, Illinois

So, a few more weeks to actually get things done before cons, weddings, deadlines and general insanity take hold.