Colossians- Progress Report

For years now, since the start of Megazeen, my emphasis in doing comics has been to promote and assist other artists. I believe that's my calling even, it's where God wants me to be. I get excited when artists start out in Megazeen and then branch into other areas. I started offering Megazeen print services for the sole purpose of providing inexpensive printing for my friends. I revamped Christiancomics.net so they'd have a place to meet and grow. And we still do Megazeen to find and push new artists to new limits. It's not a pat on the back I'm giving myself by any stretch, and I certainly know that I have not done a perfect job with any of these things.

I guess that's why it's been weird, for me, even a little self-indulgent, to actually be working on my own pet project in the background. And it has taken a long time to get this ball rolling, with all of the above taking place. But finally, unless something goes seriously wrong, Colossians will finally come out this year.

Thankfully, it has not been a solo effort- the very best Megazeen has to offer have been lending a huge helping hand to make the first issue a success. The inks are complete, the colors are halfway done and the lettering is underway.

I'm not going to be one of those guys (I hope) that adds yet another plug to his blog every other day about the same old project. I'm still to busy for that. I'm also not going to be one of those guys to drop those taunting little "we've got a big announcement we just can't talk about" blurbs that rarely materialize into anything. As Colossians draws closer to completion I'll keep you involved. I will be shopping for a publisher- if that materializes I'll let you know, otherwise I'm sticking VERY proudly with self-publishing.

Anyways, for those that have been dropping a line wondering what's happening, here's a page of interior art- drawn by Kneon Transitt, inked by me, colored by Mark Melton. In this scene, a group of alien thugs are finding out the hard way what it means to take on the Manx.

Button Up!

The very first Megazeen buttons- I just love stuff like this. Can't wait to show them off at the shows this year. The two designs selected are Joshua Warren's classic Megazeen logo and the cover art for the Colossians ashcan from 2005. More to come!

Megazeen: The Sci-Fi Issue

Here's the Jeff Slemons cover. It's Slem-tastic!

This should be out by the first week in February.

Stop drooling on your keyboard.

Fight the System!!!

So here we are in a new year and I've made two resolutions that I intend to keep, and about twelve others that I already broke so why list them here.

One is to get Megazeen back on a quarterly schedule. The Megazeen Sci-Fi issue will appear this winter, the One-Page issue this spring, an as-yet-undetermined issue for summer and hopefully a Christmas issue by the end of year. That's the plan.

The other is that I will NOT purchase a Marvel or DC comic book this year.

That second one is a lot easier to keep. Frankly, I've barely bought any comics that weren't in a dollar box in many months. Especially regarding the Big Two, the price has discouraged me, the slapped-together artwork looks too often like it's done on a conveyor belt, and the quality of the storylines fails to amuse me. This coming from a collector of over 30 years with well over 5000 books. Wake up guys.

That said, I have become far more convicted about the growing indy lines. There is some really hot stuff out there, made by guys that do it for the love of the medium, not the almighty dollar. So, if I can throw them some of my almighty dollars, instead of Marvel and Deceased, I'll feel a whole lot better and I'll buy them a hamburger.

So whilst in my favorite haunt (New Moon Comics) I picked up a handful of indies at Victoria's recommendation. Good calls all around. I'm going to continue sampling the world of indies and undergrounds this year in earnest, and reviewing what I like. If you have any recommendations please leave them in the comments.

First up is ABYSS from Red 5 Comics, by Rubio and Marangon, the guys that brought us Troops and Tag and Bink. Here's the skinny (as Victoria sold it to me): Imagine your rich dad died and you've inherited everything. Then you find out that your dad was Batman. Then you find out he was really Doctor Doom. This is a pure FUN comic, not too heady or goofy, made for comic fans BY comic fans, and it's great to see these guys doing well. The art and dialogue are simple yet clever, and they WORK. After years of Marvel and Diseased, it's hard for me to invest in another universe, but this is so worthwhile.

Musings at 39- Diversity

Recently I've been working with a guy, Joshua Warren. Despite many differences in opinion, differences in doctrine, and differences in creativity, we actually make a very good team. The evidence can be seen in the results of the revamp of the Megazeen site.

Joshua resides in Taiwan, but through the magic that is the worldwide web I've connected to him from the USA. Geographically, we live about as far away from each other as possible. Doctrinally, we disagree on rather important issues like heaven & hell. Our opinions on the 9/11 attacks have driven us to virtual message board fisticuffs.

To me, these are pretty important differences. They go beyond "Preferences" and push into "Principles" on many levels. See my entry on the subject.

How cool it is to sometimes still be able to get beyond these things, to get some awesome work done and have a great supportive friend to count on. Even if I disagree with him on a number of important subjects, passionately, I still covet his friendship and admire his skills.

Call me crazy, but I have this theory. I believe that there will be pre-trib and post-trib believers in heaven. I believe that there will be Catholics and Pentecostals and Baptists and Episcopalians in heaven. I believe there will be democrats and republicans in heaven. I believe there will be rockers with long hair and neatly dressed pipe organists in heaven.

Anyway, who am I to cut them off now? And why would I want to? If I wanted to only hang with those that agree with me and think like me, I'd start the First Church of Joe, membership of one, and call it quits. Pass the Kool Aid.

Talking with and conversing with Joshua doesn't change my principles. It has led to a few lively discussions for sure. And it has produced results. And it's made me a friend.

At 39 I am valuing friendships far more than I have ever in my lifetime, and appreciating the diversity. Far be it from me to allow differences in opinion, doctrine and geography to interfere.

What is dis 'Megazeen' you speak of?

Megazeen is an independent, raw anthology founded in early 2002 by Joseph Crossett and me. The idea behind the book was to create a Christian comic that WE would want to read. It would not be the traditional "safe" fare that Christian comics were traditionally known for, which was either extremely kid-friendly or in-your-face and down-your-throat evangelism. We were tired of people telling us what faith-based entertainment SHOULD be. We didn't want a book that the forty-year-old moms at the Christian bookstores would look through. Our book would be raw, entertaining, funny, even controversial at times, geared toward regular comic book readers, loser kids, kids on the fence. Gone would be the sappy cliche's and dardee dar endings we'd become accustomed to. And from that came our first slogan, "Christian comics without the cheese."
This, of course, ticked some people off.
Were we implying that Christian comics were cheesy? Yup. Were we implying that Christian comics should be geared toward the Beavis and Butthead generation more than the church youth group? Yup.
The hate mail was almost immediate. Even before the first issue debuted.
And it was all from Christians.
It surprised us- but from that came our second slogan. "If you're not ticking someone off, chances are you're not doing it right."
Megazeen has become, in many ways, instrumental in the ongoing success of Christian comics in general. More on that later.
I'm going to be updating the main website shortly, with a page devoted to each issue we did. It will show some clips from the book, some of the stories behind the scenes, even some of the bitter internal feuds we had as we disagreed about content more than once. We even managed to tick each other off!
As we wrap up production on our 14th and 15th regular issues, it's pretty amazing looking back to see where we came from- but looking ahead, there's no end to this series.

Viva la Megazeen, la comica sans fromage!

Megazeen of FAILURE

The Megazeen of Failure (our 13th regular issue) contains some of the best comics I've ever seen in an issue of MZ. Tom Hall, longtime contributor, took the reins as editor for this issue and recruited some of the most amazing talent we have access to.
You like MANGA? Psycho Ann always delivers. Parody? Jeff Slemons hits it with Mad Magazine-esque accuracy. Minimalist? Uncle Schlomo returns with a bible adaptation from I Samuel. The list goes on with Dean Rankine, Keith Stone, Jamie Cosley, Kneon Transitt- all very consistent artists, and their work in this book is no exception. Top it off with the Dan Barlowe wraparound cover and you've got a heck of a book. This Megazeen's got EVERYTHING.
Except, apparantly, readers.
Other than the name of this issue, which may have turned out to be a self-fulfilling prophecy saleswise, I don't get it. I really don't.
(Now I know, this is the part of the show where the smug among you will be sitting back in your chair, cross your arms and say, "HA!" Those Megazeeners, those trouble makers, those hooligans. Serves 'em right. Not that you've ever read an issue or anything to see what we're all about. We don't MAKE Megazeen for you, you judgmental little twerp. Not that you're not entitled to your opinion, but your opinion doesn't count for much if you're not a reader. It would be like me reviewing the new Sandy Patti album. I'm not impressed, but I'm not her audience. She's out to entertain Christians. I'm not. But...I digress...)
Guys... here's the story. Tom contacted specific artists and told them, "The theme is failure, do something that deals with that issue." There's not one of us that hasn't failed at something (probably TODAY in fact), not one of that hasn't been disappointed in the failure of something, and plenty of examples in the Bible that deal with failure. It's a topic that should be confronted.
Credit to Tom who weeded out the trash, like artists who intentionally drew a bad piece and called it a failure. What made the book is spot-on one of the best anthologies out there. Funny, creepy, thought-provoking, edgy.
People keep asking me "When is the 'One-Page' book coming out? The answer is, well, when I sell enough Failure books to pay for the printing. That's what we call 'non-profit.'
Buy it. http://www.christiancomics.net/cart/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=77