AFTER THE SHOWERS CAME FLOWERS

As I've mentioned elsewhere, I've started officially writing the second volume of Spell Checkers, and as of yesterday, am already up to page 22. It's enough now to have a solid grasp on it, and I think I may pull back and try to do an actual outline of sorts. I am not a big outliner, but I had actually written a fairly detailed summary of the first volume when I pitched the book, and it worked pretty well when I sat down and finished the script--which, now that I think of it, since I wrote the first "issue" before anything else, it means I started with 22 pages of script and then outlined the rest. Weird. Don't change what works!

By the way, Spell Checkers, Volume 1 is already on Amazon for preorder, though they haven't posted the cover yet. Nico is pretty far into it and on a steady course to finish, so this book is really rolling. We're in early talks to go with Oni to this show in Chicago and debut the book there. Hopefully all three of us: Nico, myself, and Joëlle.

In other comics news, Megan Levens is currently inking an eight-page story I wrote a while ago called "Two Wheels, Two Feet." The story was written once on a lark, based on an idea I had after spotting some interesting graffiti, and earlier this year I showed it to Len Wallace when he told me he was putting together an anthology of romance comics. At one point, Tally was going to draw it, but she got her own story accepted into the anthology.

Then I met Megan. Or I met her again, as it were.

It was at Comic Con on Saturday. She was lurking around the Oni table looking at my books at the same time I was lurking around the Oni table waiting for someone to look at my books. When I moved in for the hard sell, however, she noted that we had met before. She said I had come to her school, the Savannah College of Art in Design, in 2004 and reviewed her portfolio.

I braced myself. "Was I nice to you?"

"Yes," she said. "As a matter of fact, you were the one person who looked me in the face and told me I would draw comics someday, no question."

Intrigued, I pulled her aside and asked to see her work again. From the first page, it was obvious why I had been so enthusiastic. I immediately thought of "Two Wheels" and asked her if I could send her a script. Plus, you know, I hate to be wrong, and this way I can prove I knew what I was talking about all along.

Here are some sample pencils that will make that title self-explanatory:

To use a cheap comparison, her work makes me think of Adrian Tomine drawing 1950s Romance comics.

No word yet on when the book will be out. I'll post here once there is more news.

**

In other news, expect a big movie review post tomorrow. I hadn't banked a lot of reviews before last Friday, and since a couple of movies are coming out today and a couple this Friday, I decided to do one big post for the whole shebang. If you are curious if any of the movies in theaters now were reviewed by me, you can always check here. You'll also see what DVDs I am currently assigned, though it won't tell you that the epic The Human Condition is taking all of my time right now, as that's for my Criterion blog.

Current Soundtrack: Pink Floyd, Echoes

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All text (c) 2009 Jamie S. Rich