Robert Venditti's Blog, page 3
January 4, 2012
Sneaky Peeking: Cover for The Sea of Monsters
Hyperion has released the cover for The Sea of Monsters, the second installment in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians graphic novel adaptations:
Written by me, and with art by Attila Futaki and colors by Tamás Gáspár, the book is slated for release in early 2013. Attila just finished penciling the scene where Percy and Annabeth encounter the Sirens, and he did an amazing job as usual. The Sirens didn't make it onto the cover, but many of Greek mythology's other iconic monsters did. Can you name them all?
January 1, 2012
A Very Good Year
The Homeland Directive ended the year on a high note, making it on to several lists highlighting the best comics and graphics novels of 2011, including USA Today, Library Journal, School Library Journal, Complex, and CNN. Thanks go out to everyone who thought to include the book among their selections. I'm truly honored.
There are more than a few things in store for 2012. I wrote 296 pages of comics last year, and not one of them has been published yet. So stay tuned for announcements about new stories set in the world of The Surrogates, the next two installments of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians graphic novel adaptations, and my first-ever ongoing monthly comic book series.
Happy New Year!
October 17, 2011
A Slew of Reviews
It's been three months since The Homeland Directive arrived in stores, and it's been the same span of time since I posted anything to this blog. What can I say? Launching a new book eats up a lot of time. Happily, it wasn't all in vain, and there have been a number of positive things written about the book. If you haven't read it yet, maybe one of these fine folks can convince you:
Think Progress (interview)
Robot 6 (interview)
**Bonus! Rick Marshall at IFC.com thinks The Homeland Directive should be adapted into a film.
July 13, 2011
The Homeland Directive in Stores!
Today is the day my new graphic novel with Mike Huddleston arrives in comic book shops everywhere (and maybe regular bookstores, too—it's hard to know what their shipping schedules are).
Helping us get the word out, the pop culture website PopMatters is doing more than its fair share of heavy lifting. It posted a glowing review of the book yesterday, and today it posted the first installment of a three-part interview with me. All told, this will be the longest interview I've ever done in print. Here's hoping I don't run out of intelligent things to say.
June 23, 2011
Robot 6 Review
Over at Comic Book Resources, Graeme McMillan from the Robot 6 blog has some high praise for The Homeland Directive and Mike Huddleston specifically. I know I speak from a position of bias, but I couldn't agree more. In an email dated February 19, 2010, Mike asked if I was okay with the direction he was taking the art in. Here's my response:
"It's completely unlike anything I've ever seen, and in a good way. Sometimes I feel weird doing mainstream books for Top Shelf, but the way you're handling the art makes it feel the way a mainstream book from Top Shelf should. It's energetic, eclectic, experimental, but all still within the confines of what the story needs, so it doesn't look out of place. So yeah, I'm happy."
Here's hoping the rest of the comics community agrees.
May 10, 2011
The Homeland Directive is here! (kinda)
The FedEx driver has delivered the advance copies of The Homeland Directive, which will constitute the only known copies in the free world until the bulk shipment arrives stateside from the printer. I've already endured the nail-biting experience of reading the entire book for the first time in all of its no-turning-back-now printedness, and I'm pleased to report that all of the pages are present, in order, and right side up. Mike Huddleston's art looks even better on paper, so I'm excited to hear what the reading public thinks of our collaboration.
Unless the reading public has negative things to say, in which case I prefer that they keep them to themselves.
May 3, 2011
Comic Buzz Review
A nice review of The Homeland Directive has come in, this time from Comic Buzz.
In case anyone is wondering, I'm currently on front-door watch, waiting for the FedEx driver to drop off the advance copies from the printer . . .
April 28, 2011
Comics Vox Review
The indie comics website Comics Vox has posted a review and a preview of The Homeland Directive. Paragraphs four and five of the review offer a good summation of what I'd like readers to take away from the story, and the 6-page preview shows off the unique approach Mike Huddleston took with the art. Advance copies should only be about a week or so away, with the book probably hitting stores in early June.
April 20, 2011
A Sad Passing
Today brings the tragic news that yesterday, April 19, writer Jeanne Leiby was killed in a car accident in Louisiana at the age of 46.
Jeanne was one of my creative writing instructors at the University of Central Florida, and, as my thesis advisor, she guided me through the writing of what was at the time the largest work of prose I'd ever written. She was one of those twice-talented people who could not only do (I highly recommend her collection of short stories, Downriver), but also teach. Anyone who has ever had a truly good teacher—and I believe all of us have had at least one—knows what I mean.
Beyond that, for me Jeanne was one of those people who Eddie Campbell might describe as being "at the crossroads," meaning she appeared at just the right time in my life to nudge me along the correct path to my future. My short story "Dads," originally submitted as one of my assignments in her workshop class, was my first work of fiction to see publication. Had that domino not tipped over, I might never have mustered the confidence to pursue a writer's life.
At the time of her passing, Jeanne was editor-in-chief of The Southern Review, one of the most respected literary journals in the country. I found out only two days ago that I would be attending the American Library Association's annual conference in June, which just so happens to take place in New Orleans this year. New Orleans being a short trip from the home base of The Southern Review in Baton Rouge, I'd hoped Jeanne might be at ALA as well, and I intended to drop her a line and arrange for us to get together. We'd exchanged emails over the decade since I left UCF, but we hadn't seen each other. It saddens me to know that we never will. I'll remember Jeanne not just for her own accomplishments, but for the way she encouraged and championed others. She will always be missed.
For a good example of the kind of person Jeanne was, in her own words, go here.
March 30, 2011
You Never Know Who Might Be Reading
It was a little over one year ago that I wrote a blog post about the impending cancelation of NASA's space shuttle program. Having grown up in South Florida and lived a short distance from Cape Canaveral for a few years, the space program and the shuttle orbiter have always been near and dear to me. As part of the post, I included images of my grandfather's membership card for Pan American World Airways' "First Moon Flights" Club, an ambitious and, hindsight being what it is, overly optimistic initiative that reserved seats on the airline's would-be commercial space flights.
Pan Am went bankrupt decades ago, so nothing ever came of Grandpa's reserved status as member #1463. Nothing, that is, until this past January, when I was contacted by the Director of Photography for Condé Nast Traveller (I didn't misspell that—it's the UK edition of the magazine, spelled with two Ls). The magazine was planning an article on the recent advancements in commercial space flight being pioneered by Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic. As part of the article, they wanted to include a brief history of previous commercial space flight endeavors. I assume it was a little googling that led them to my blog post, and now Grandpa's card, his name clearly visible, appears on page 145 of the April issue (currently on the stands in the US and the UK).
Maybe Grandpa never made it into space, but I know he's looking down—if there was ever somebody who deserved to go up and not down, it's him—at the open magazine on my desk and smiling. Not only is his name in print, not only has his membership card been added to the body of research on the subject, but Condé Nast Publications also paid my family ₤100 for the rights to print the images. At the current exchange rate, that translates to a 2671% return on his 6-cent investment for the first class stamp he used to mail Pan Am his request letter in 1969.
Always savvy with his money, I'm betting Grandpa appreciates that last bit the most.
