Thank you Mr. Larsen....

Yes, thank you Mr. Larsen, for at least having the decency to reply. Ok, so it was a pretty standard "thanks, but no thanks" email, but it was still nice to have an email from Image Comics waiting in my inbox for me this evening. So, Image have passed on the Young Gods ongoing series. I'm not exactly surprised. Now that I've decided to bring in a penciller, I'm far more excited about the book than I ever was when I was doing the CG art. I've had to remind myself that I only ever started using the CG art in the first place because I can't pencil well enough myself, and I wasn't in a position to find a good, reliable penciller to take on the book. Now I'm fairly confident that we'll be able to find someone to pencil it that I'll be happy with, which will make the project about a million times stronger. Couple that with the support that we'll hopefully be getting from Visionary, and I'm confident that I'll finally see my creation in print.

Maybe some long time readers of this blog will be wondering why it wasn't right for us to take The Young Gods to Visionary waaaay back when we first talked about it, but it is right now. Well, simply put, Visionary suggested that we do pretty much exactly what we're doing now...create a one-shot to introduce the series. The problem was that back then, I simply had no idea what to do with a Young Gods one-shot. I didn't have a single idea. The story that Derek and I had put together simply had to be told over six issues. There was no way we could have squeezed it down into one over-sized issue, or even just told part of the story. So, the first step was to actually develop an idea for a one-shot that came naturally...that wasn't forced. Indeed, the concept for the one-shot was as un-forced as is humanly possible. It seemed to coalesce from the ether into my mind in such a way that once it was actually sitting there, in my head, fully formed...it just seemed so obvious. In retrospect, telling the story of how everyone involved gets to where they are at the start of #1, doing it as a sort of homage to/pastiche of Giant Size X-Men #1, and deviding it into chapters inspired by tracks from the Young Gods album by the Little Angels...well...it just all seems so obvious now.

The second step was a fairly big one - it was the realisation and the acceptance that the book will be far stronger if I'm not doing the art. While the CG stuff can look great (go look at my portfolio at Visionary to see some great Silver Surfer pages) it does limit us severely. There are some things that simply cannot be done with the technology that I have to hand. Ultimately, the last thing I want to do with a book like The Young Gods is put limits on it, in any way, shape or form. I'd love to still ink and colour it, but...we'll see.

Okay, in other news, I've just hooked up with Orang Utan Comics to act as Consulative Editor on their forthcomign anthology title, Eleventh Hour. This is mainly an act of pity on my part as Orang Utan founder, Pete Rogers, sadly "can't physically eat." Joking aside, I'm actually spending what little spare time I have right now looking over artists submissions for Pete and doing my best Simon Cowell impersonation. If there are any artists out there interested in gettign involved in this exciting new small press project, click here to find out more and check out my logo design for the book.

Lastly, just a quick update to the "Published Work" section to the right of this column. I've just had confirmation from Chuck Satterlee that all of the pin-ups I coloured for him for Of Bitter Souls have been included in the trade paperback. Both the Of Bitter Souls and Smoke & Mirror TPBs are out this month from Markosia. So, take note, Ian Sharman completists, let the arguments begin as to which is technically my first published work!

Oh, and lastly, lastly...the pic is from the first page of the #2 of The Young Gods that never happened (that's before Derek came onboard and we started all over again...I guess now we're starting all over again, again!). It shows Nyssa and Alyssa waiting for Malak in a private room at the Bohemia Club.

Comments welcome, as always. (I've just noticed that this is my 99th post!).