Jason Franks's Blog, page 38

THE SIXSMITHS

The Sixsmiths are a family of suburban Satanists who've fallen prey to the global recession. Now their life is in turmoil: Ralf needs to find a new job; the twins, Cain and Lilith, need to survive the public school system; Annie needs to keep them all sane and under budget. Meanwhile, their estranged elder daughter Jezabelle is having her own crisis of the faith. Will the Devil rise to smite their enemies, or will he damn them with hellfire and wrath?

Original Graphic Novel written by Jason Franks and illustrated by J. Marc Schmidt. Published by SLG Publishing. Available from Amazon.com, or order it in any comic or book store.

Diamond Code: AUG100733 * ISBN 13: 978-1593622022

Dicks Anthology Review-From the Tomb

FROM THE TOMB review of the Dicks Anthology.

I was fortunate enough to write one of the stories based around Tom Bonin's DICKS characters for this book, which was absolutetly a ton of fun. Other writers involved are the excellent James Andres, the magnificent Tom Taylor, and the incredible Jen Breach. All stories are illustrated by the astounding Tom Bonin. 

My piece is called "Singapore", based on the Tom Waits song.

Read all about it here:

http://fromthetomb.wordpress.com/2011/08/27/dicks-anthology-review/

Justin Jordan's THE STRANGE TALENT OF LUTHER STRODE

I interviewed Justin " librarygorilla " Jordan about his new Image series, the Strange Talent of Luther Strode, for Tastes Like Comics.

Check it out over here:

http://www.tasteslikecomics.com/2011/08/creator-owned-spotlight-the-strange-talent-of-luther-strode/

Bin Working

I bin working, folks.

You've surely seen my news about Terra Magazine.

I should have something else to announce soon--much smaller and long delayed, but cool nonetheless.

I have, meanwhile, been working on a lot of stuff. I'm probably three quarters ofthe way through the penultimate chapter of my new novel, XDA ZAI. This is still the first draft, so we're a long way of from being submission ready... but I'm writing chapter 10 now and there's one more to go.

Also, as you might expect from my recent Attitude Adjustment post, I've been drawing. A lot. In the past couple of weeks I've cranked out about 12 pencilled pages for the new McBlack graphic novel, which I think is a record for me--and not only that, but these are the best pages I've ever drawn. I have been using a new process I that I started using earlier this year for the McBlack One Shot and that, combined with the (ludicrously expensive) new Strathmore 500 paper stock I've been using has me cranking pages that are cleaner and sharper than ever before at a much improved rate. I'll do a post about my new art process soon--I've added some more steps which has really reduced the degree of difficulty for me dramatically.  

Another lesson I learned doing the one shot is that I'm still a terrible inker. I think this is primarily due to impatience, but regardless, I probably will not be doing it anymore. 

Also, I have done a couple more interviews for the excellent comics website Tastes Like Comics, so look out for those.

Stay wrong,

-- JF

The Sixmiths take Hornsby

J. Marc and his comics gets a bit of coverage in his local paper, the Hornsby Advocate. The Sixsmiths is the focus of the article.

http://hornsby-advocate.whereilive.com.au/news/story/quirky-story-hits-a-chord/

TERRA MAGAZINE DEBUTS IN 2012 FROM BLACK HOUSE COMICS

AVAILABLE IN NEWSAGENTS THROUGHOUT AUSTRALIA

Terra Magazine is a new triannual comics magazine featuring work from more than a dozen of Australia's best writers and artists, including: Tom Bonin, Ben Michael Byrne, Michal Dutkiewicz, Jason Franks, Jason Fischer, Greg Gates, Nicholas Hunter, Leigh Kuilboer, Bruce Mutard, Luke Pickett, Jason Paulos, Harry Purnell, Jan Scherpenhuizen, Christopher Sequeira and Yuriko Sekine.

Terra will feature serialized stories in a variety of genres: science fiction, crime, fantasy, horror and historical drama. The opening line-up includes:

Kensuke, a samurai fantasy drama.

Gourmand Go, a twisted space opera.

Tusk, an illustrated prose feature about a world dominated by a race of telepathic elephants.

The Catamorph, in which two police detectives run afoul of ancient Egyptian magic.

Shadowmancy, the story of the son of a bad seed sorceror's quest for power.

Gun Smoke Bud, a yakuza crime/suspense story.

Ben Byrne's Tales, a humorous and gruesome look at a dystopian future populated by cyborg lunatics and run by an out-of-control military complex.

Terra Magazine will be distributed to newsstands throughout Australia by Gordon and Gotch. The magazine is published by Black House Comics and edited by Jason Franks.

For more information about Terra Magazine please go to: http://www.terramagazine.com.au

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Cover for TERRA #1

New news…

... any frigging day now.

Tomorrow, with any luck.

In the meantime: looks like McBlack is about to get a second printing. For those of you who are going to the Graphic festival at the Sydney Opera House this weekend (even though Robert Crumb has dropped out), McBlack should be available from the Kinokuniya booth, and I would not be surprised if they have copies of The Sixsmiths as well.

It's going well over here, folks.

-- JF

Von Allan's STARGAZER

 
I interviewed Eric Von Allan for Tastes Like Comics.

He talks about his new book, STARGAZER, the comics business, and his place in the universe in general. Check it out:

http://www.tasteslikecomics.com/2011/08/creator-owned-spotlight-stargazer/

This is the first interview in a series I'm doing for TLC looking at new creator-owned books. More to come!

Attitude Adjustment

 
I was talking to a comics artist that I don't know very well the other day about art supplies and right after he thanked me for my advice I told him that I had no business advising him--I'm not really an artist, I'm a writer. 

I do this all the time. I'm confident in my writing, but any time I talk about drawing I undercut myself. It's true, I'm not a wonderful artist... but people keep asking me to draw for them. Some of them are even strangers. Some people seek me out at conventions and ask me for commissions, even though I don't advertise or offer them. And, you know, the GN that I penciled myself is one of my most popular items. I'm starting to see that it's insulting to the people who like my work to continue to behave like this. There's absolutely no reason that I can't be an artist as well as a writer.

So, yeah. I'm an artist, and I'm not the worst there is. And I'm gonna keep on drawing until somebody slaps the pencil out of my hand.

-- JF

Dragon Up Your Arse

Yes, that is a motherfucking dragon.




McBlack One Shot, in full colour. Written by Jason Franks, art by Mike Athey, Tom Bonin and Trevor Wood. Colours by Luke Pickett. Wraparound cover art by Electric  Rhys Donald.