I hope everyone’s been enjoy­ing the work of Zak Kin­sella on Zoroaster In Aethiopia. Expect to see two more pages from Zak this month, as well as new art from Jonathan Wyke, a tal­ented British artist (and antiques col­lec­tor from my under­stand­ing) who fur­nishes Zoroaster’s world with real­is­tic set­tings and styles. Such as these:

Next Sat­ur­day is the Kinzie Cor­ri­dor Art Walk, for which I will be IN CHICAGO to sup­port my good friend Patrick Mor­ris­sey. He  will be occu­py­ing the Ful­ton Street Col­lec­tive as his own pri­vate gallery for an after­noon. Join us, won’t you? For more infor­ma­tion, visit their web­site.

Octo­ber 10th 2009  |  12 p.m. – 8 p.m.  |

2010 W. Car­roll Ave  Chicago, IL 60612  |  312 . 829 . 2787

Also, you can expect a very short lit­tle comic from me and Patrick in the near future, as soon as I get around to dig­i­tally manip­u­lat­ing the thing. It’s enti­tled “We Are Pilots” and  here’s a tease:

57 years ago this day Jack Par­sons died as a result of an explosion.

Today, much of his life and work remain as much of a mys­tery as his death. Most, though hardly all, of the pub­licly avail­able infor­ma­tion about Jack is second-hand knowl­edge, hearsay, and spec­u­la­tion. Like­wise, there is still a great deal of mis­in­for­ma­tion and mis­con­cep­tion sur­round­ing not only Jack, but the so-called occult prac­tices in which he engaged.

In the process of writ­ing “The Mar­vel” I strug­gled to only use infor­ma­tion which was cor­rob­o­rated by a num­ber of sources. Still, I did fill in a lot of the blanks myself, and over­all, while based on his­tor­i­cal doc­u­ments, it is pri­mar­ily a work of fic­tion. Our goal in cre­at­ing the book was not to aggran­dize the life of a Lib­er­tar­ian Lib­er­tine, but to spread the ideas expressed in Jack’s own writ­ings and the impact of the work he did in the world. I’m telling you this because the very last page of “The Mar­vel” is fin­ished. Robin and I are proud of the work we’ve created.

We’ve been wait­ing for the right moment to make the fol­low­ing announcement:

It’s with a great deal of hap­pi­ness that I am announc­ing today, on the anniver­sary of JP’s depar­ture from this world, that the com­plete graphic novel “The Mar­vel” will be released by Cel­lar Door Pub­lish­ing.

While the pages of “The Mar­vel” will still be avail­able online at webcomicsnation.com, there is much of the story that will only be pub­lished in the graphic novel. This includes new art­work by Robin Simon, and dozens of new pages of nar­ra­tive which tie together Jack’s last days and his early life.

Cel­lar Door Pub­lish­ing is a com­pany that spe­cial­izes in the pub­li­ca­tion of high-quality illus­trated lit­er­a­ture and graphic nov­els. We’ve cho­sen to work with them because of their com­mit­ment to qual­ity prod­uct, such as the award-winning graphic novel “Min­is­ter Jade” by Steve Bia­lik. The unique approach of pub­lisher Jade Dodge is a refresh­ing and encour­ag­ing one in this comic indus­try, and her sup­port and cre­ative direc­tion on this project have been invaluable.

While this is not an offi­cial press release, and no solic­i­ta­tion date has yet been set, I felt that now was the right time to announce our partnership.

Keep check­ing back for more details and be sure to fol­low “The Mar­vel” online, with updates every day this week!

Here’s a sneak-peek of the pro­to­type cover for the print edi­tion of the comic (be sure to click on the thumb­nail to enlarge):

Today is my last day as a res­i­dent of the glo­ri­ous city of Chicago. It’s been an amaz­ing and event­ful three or so years, but it’s time to turn in my CTA pass and dust off my driver’s license. I’m headed to more sim­ple plea­sures and syl­van sur­round­ings to seek who knows what des­tiny. For­tune favors the bold!

I’ll be back for the Comic Cons and the sum­mer fes­ti­vals, but I’ll return as a vis­i­tor. No place I’ve lived has such an allure for me, and such good friends to wel­come me back.

Since I may not have steady inter­net access for the next cou­ple of days, I want to remind you that Side: B hits stores this Wednesday.

There are also new comics up today at http://webcomicsnation.com/rscarbonneau

Now a day of pack­ing, clean­ing, and dri­ving awaits.

Farewell to my neigh­bor­hood, Rogers Park, which has treated me very well, all things con­sid­ered.

Fri­day night Mandy and I had the plea­sure to party with the tal­ented artists of the Ful­ton Street Col­lec­tive.

Invited by my good friend Patrick Mor­ris­sey, who pimped out his stu­dio space for the event, we rocked it until about 4 am. I met some cool peo­ple and enjoyed some cul­ture for a minute. If you ever have the chance to attend one of their open houses, I strongly rec­om­mend it.

Some pic­tures of the “time” as well as Patrick’s art­work are below. More pics on my face­book page (link to the right).

Thanks to Patrick and the col­lec­tive for such a bomb time.

Yes­ter­day I uploaded a new page of The Mar­vel as well as Zoroaster.

And HEY! I am inter­viewed by Richard Cald­well at comicnews.info

I’m adding a new page on the left there to archive inter­views and news. Clev­erly titled “Inter­views and News.”

Enjoy!

Both “The Mar­vel” and “Zoroaster” are new today!

If you haven’t checked out my inter­view at alterati.com you can still down­load it here.

The “G-spot” is a great fringe cul­ture pod­cast, and I really hope you con­tinue lis­ten­ing to it, not just for my inter­view. Joseph Math­eny is a won­der­ful inter­roga­tor inter­viewer, and a really cool guy. His ques­tions are insight­ful, and he showed a real enthu­si­asm for Jack’s story, and an appre­ci­a­tion for the comic.

I also want to remind you that Side:B  The Music Lover’s Comic Anthol­ogy is still avail­able for pre­order in this month’s Dia­mond Previews.

I’m still look­ing for fill-in artists for “Zoroaster.” I’ve got some great artists lined up with whom it is my plea­sure to work. But there are many facets to this story, and your vision could be a part of it.

Email me for details at richard@rscarbonneau.com

And if you’re vis­it­ing from the gspot, thanks for stop­ping by!

Finally, Sekhet-Maat Lodge of the O.T.O. in Port­land is using Robin’s art from “The Mar­vel” on their web­site as well as on hand outs pro­mot­ing their Gnos­tic Mass. You can view the image on their web­site here.

I’m on this week’s Alterati G-Spot pod­cast! Give a lis­ten and share your thoughts. More on this when I’m not stranded at work…

http://www.alterati.com/blog/?p=2230

Today marks the return of updates (for a lit­tle while any­how) of The Mar­vel, as well as a new page of Zoroaster in Aethiopia!
From the blurb I posted under “Zoroaster:”

This first install­ment fea­tures art by Ser­gio Car­rera, best known cur­rently for his work on “After the Cape 2″ but from whom you’ll be see­ing a lot more in the future.

There will be other artists as well bring­ing the tale to life. Will you be one of them?

If you are inter­ested in help­ing cre­ate this vision, you can email me sam­ples of your work at r.s.carbonneau [at] gmail.com

The oblig­a­tion would be no more than 5 or 6 pages of your fin­ished art.