I am honored to announce that Gay City 5: Ghosts in Gaslight, Monsters in Steam has been nominated for a Lambda Literary Award. My lupanoid story, “Alexander’s Wrath," which takes place in the same universe as my forthcoming comic, appears in this anthology.
The Lambda Literary Awards, according to their website, “nurtures, celebrates, and preserves LGBT literature through programs that honor excellence, promote visibility, and encourage development of emerging writers.” Ghosts in Gaslight, Monsters in Steam has been nominated with 9 other worthy competitors in the LGBT Anthology category. 2014 marks the 26th annual Lambda Literary awards, and past nominees and winners include Alison Bechdel (for Are You My Mother? A Comic Memoir), Jeanette Winterson (for Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?), Justin Hall (for editing No Straight Lines: Four Decades of Queer Comics, and David Levithan (for Every Day) …and seriously, that’s only from 2013. I can’t tell you how amazing it is to have a project I’m involved in be listed among such great company. The winners will be announced during the Lambda Literary Awards Ceremony on June 2, 2014. Keep your fingers crossed! The next issue of The Outbreak is now available! In “The Hunter,” you’ll follow Elizabeth Wyndham through snowy and darkening woods on the edge of town. She’s hunting for a lupanoid, one that she wounded but didn’t tranquilize. The longer she goes without finding and removing this bleeding beast, the more likely it is that other lupanoids will smell the blood and attack, much too close to the neighborhood on the edge of the forest. Will Elizabeth find the lupe’ in time? Or will darkness close around her before she makes it out of the woods? Like the previous “Monster at the Institute” series, Michael Neno penciled, inked, colored, and lettered all 71 panels of this single-issue comic. In addition, Bryant Alvarez created the cover/background image. (I did all the writing and formatting.) Michael Neno is offering some of the original inked panels for sale at his website. Go get one before your favorite is gone! The action in “The Hunter” takes place before the action in “Monster at the Institute,” although they make sense in either order. If this is your first time reading The Outbreak, I suggest starting with “The Hunter” first.
I designed “The Hunter” for viewing online with Prezi, which allows you to float over the background from one panel to the next, zoom in for a better look, and navigate through the comic. (Try it out with our short tutorial.) However, I recently discovered that Prezi is not viewable on most Android devices, which sucks. So I’ve added a panel-by-panel PDF version as well. You’ll miss some of the interactive fun with the PDF, but you should be able to view the comic easily now on your phone or tablet. So go check it out! And let me know what you think! In anticipation The Outbreak's next series, I’ve released PDF versions of all six issues of the previous series, “Monster at the Institute.” These are panel-by-panel PDFs--not full page layouts--intended mostly to help people who don’t have devices compatible with Prezi. You should be able to view the PDF version on your phone or tablet now, or even print “Monster at the Institute” and pin it to your bedroom wall. Or bathroom. Or whatever you want. (If you still have trouble with the PDF, please let me know in the comments!)
Each PDF is available on its issue page, but here are some convenient links: Issue 1 , Issue 2, Issue 3, Issue 4, Issue 5, and Issue 6. The next series of The Outbreak, “The Hunter,” is scheduled to launch on Tuesday, January 13. This one will be offered in a particularly cool Prezi format as well as a panel-by-panel PDF. More information on this single-issue one shot coming soon! Get ready! The next series of The Outbreak is almost done! Michael Neno, whose art you’ll recognize form the first series, “Monster at the Institute,” as well as a bunch of other stuff I’m not involved in, is finishing up the last panels, and I hope to get it posted on this site before the end of October. “The Hunter” is a much shorter story, but it has just as much exciting lupanoid action! And I think you’re going to love Elizabeth…
Oh, and don’t forget that the ORIGINAL art from “Monster at the Institute” is available for purchase on Michael’s website! It’s here, you guys! The concluding issue of “Monster at the Institute.” What happens to the monster? Does Dr. Sullivan make it home safely? What about Theo? Read Issue 6 to find out!
I hope you all have has as much fun with this project as I have. To my knowledge, there aren’t any other online comics using the Prezi platform, and I’d love to hear what you all thought of it. What worked? What didn’t? What technically worked but was too annoying to be worth dealing with? What was so amazing that you just had to call your mom to tell her about it? As a reminder, all of these comics are absolutely free, if you want them to be. While I appreciate and humbly thank those who have chosen to contribute money, this is a pay-what-you-want system. And if what you want is $0, then that’s totally fine. Also, I have no plans to take these issues offline any time soon, so check back in frequently to see what’s up! Michael Neno has been sending me pencils and completed panels for the next (much shorter) story, and I’ll have more information about that on this blog as it gets closer. But for now, click through and enjoy the entire first series of The Outbreak, “Monster at the Institute!” Issue #5 of The Outbreak, the next-to-last issue of “Monster at the Institute” is online now for your viewing pleasure! This issue begins the action-packed climax I promised you earlier. And it’s the longest issue yet! There’s blood and guts, so hopefully that makes up for all the bookishness of the previous issue. #lupanoidguts. Make it a thing!
Just a reminder (or news, to anyone stumbling across this post), ALL issues of The Outbreak are free and available all the time. So relax! Enjoy! With frequency! For those interested, here’s a summary of Chapter 4 (Issue #4): Dr. Sullivan has been reading Dr. Fenimore’s published studies. He writes in his journals about Dr. Fenimore’s research into human evolution, which has stalled. He speculates that humans can only continue to evolve if they have a real, worthy predator again, such as the lupanoids. Enjoy issue #5! I hope you’re still enjoying The Outbreak as much as President Obama is!
OK, maybe he was reading Where the Wild Things Are, but I’m sure that’s probably just because he doesn’t know about “Monster at the Institute” yet! Chapter 4, which posted earlier today, is a pretty short one in which Dr. Sullivan learns a little more about Dr. Fenimore’s research agenda. We’re approaching the action-packed conclusion in Chapter 5, so stay tuned! For those who like such things, here’s a summary of Chapter 3 (Issue 3): Dr. Sullivan speaks to Theo, who runs the small animal center, while storing two hedgehogs and a rat he captured with the help of the Confrontation. Theo explains that Dr. Fenimore has been requesting many live lupanoids lately, but that Theo has to take dead, cut-up lupanoids back to the incinerator. Dr. Sullivan goes with Theo to collect lupanoids and is admitted by Ivan into the laboratory. He sees two autopsy tables with various tools built into the ceiling. On one of the tables, he sees a very old man--Dr. Fenimore, but much aged recently. When he calls to the old man, he is choked by the smell again, and Ivan asks him to leave. Outside the lab, he looks into Theo’s cart and sees parts of lupanoids in various states of dissection. Theo takes them back to the incinerator. Continue on to Issue 4 here! On March 6, I read a three short chapters from my in-process novel, The Rescue, at Paging Columbus. Hannah Stephenson was kind enough to provide video snippet (and to invite me in the first place), so if you didn’t make the reading, here’s your chance to catch up! In the story, Leonora, who can hear and communicate with ghosts, runs an antique store where she builds her family from the haunted items she collects. The 7-minute video below includes two of chapters I read at Paging Columbus, each describing how one of the main ghosts died (the third chapter had a little too much background noise to hear clearly on the video). Enjoy! Thanks again to Hannah and to the wonderful Paging Columbus audience! Wow! I’ve been so busy this week, I’ve failed to post anything I intended this week! Well, I’ll get to it later. The important, just-can’t-wait news at the moment is that Issue #3 of The Outbreak, “Monster at the Institute,” is online!
Thank you again to everyone who has given kind words, advice, and donations so far! I’m really excited by the response. I’ll have some more stuff lined up for Free Comic Book Day (May 3), so stay tuned. Chapter 3 of “Monster at the Institute” is the longest yet—30 panels—and it finally takes into the midst of Dr. Fenimore’s mysterious lab. What’s happening in there? And what has happened to Dr. Fenimore? Only one way to find out… For those interested, here’s a summary of Issue #2. Eventually, I might add these to the issue webpages, but no promises. Issue #2 Summary: Dr. Sullivan goes down to the biology department and looks through the slit in the large metal door covering Dr. Fenimore’s laboratory. He sees Dr. Fenimore’s assistant, Ivan, walking with dissecting tools. After Dr. Sullivan’s knock, Ivan opens the door, which seems to involve many locks. Ivan tells Dr. Sullivan that Dr. Fenimore is unavailable, and before he can insist, Dr. Sullivan is overcome by a terrible smell. He also hears an inhuman howl from the laboratory. Ivan closes the door before he recovers, leaving Dr. Sullivan staring at the closed door. So what did you think of the debut issue of The Outbreak?
This next issue is just a little longer, which I hope you’ll enjoy. In Chapter Two of “Monster at the Institute,” Dr. Sullivan gets his first glimpse into Dr. Feminore’s laboratory… It’s posted right here this very moment, so go check it out! Although the first issue will continue to stay on the site indefinitely, I’ve included a brief summary of “Monster at the Institute,” Chapter One, below. Enjoy! Issue #1 Summary: Patrick Sullivan, a chemist at the Institute for Co-Existence, writes in the journal he keeps for posterity. His recent experiments to discover the origins of the lupanoids have failed, and he is feeling down about it. He mentions that several of his chemistry colleagues have not done any better, although one is collaborating with the biology department. Despite how uncomfortable the biology department makes him, he decides to approach one of the biologists, Dr. Fenimore, to discuss collaboration. |
Categories
All
Read my reviews onArchives
February 2023
|