madman, jersey gods and dancing

March sees a couple of new comics with work by Darwyn. Madman Atomic Comics #14 has a story by J. Bone and Darwyn with a variant chase cover by Darwyn as well. Here's the cover image:


and the Jersey Gods, a new series from Image Comics, debuts its first issue in February with a spiffy Mike Allred cover and follows it up with this one by Darwyn on the second issue coming in March:

It's a fun and funny comic book series. The writer, Glenn Brunswick, gave retailers a preview of the first issue and it was very good. More info can be found at the Jersey Gods blog: http://jerseygods.blogspot.com/

now to tangentially spin out of control and bore you with my thoughts, I was reading Dirty Money, one of the latest Parker novels, and I started to wonder about the life of Parker during his "Charles Willis" days. After making a score, Parker would retire to some posh resort in Florida or the like and live the good life. I tried to imagine him enjoying his time off from his "real job" and couldn't quite picture it. No wonder it wasn't dwelt upon in the novels by Richard Stark (the pseudonym used by Donald Westlake). Still it made me wonder about dancing. Must be because I was listening to the Duffy album "Rockferry" and the track "Stop" came on. Listening to it, I could imagine Claire or some other femme fatale making her way across the room at the resort club and talking to Parker until he conceded a dance. Give it a listen and I think you'll find it difficult not to at least tap your toes along to it.

Darwyn is still exploring the sunny wilderness of the southern states and won't be at the New York comic-con this February. I'll try to let you know when and where he'll be appearing during the convention season. I'll be at the NY con, likely with some copies of his Retroactive artbook tucked under my arm, too!

old stuff (hopefully new to you)

good day, folks,

I was going through some old photos and found a couple I thought I'd like to share.
First up is Kirk MacLeod. He works for the UN in the Development
and Training section and as you might imagine, has to travel a lot
in his work. He often brings his comics with him and sent me this wonderful photo.


Kirk wrote: "Check it out - the Spirit in Darfur, Sudan.
I ended up giving the issue to the kids in the photo - they loved it.
If you guys could pass this on to Darwyn that would be very cool.

Cheers,
Kirk"

this is Darwyn with Steve McNiven in Halifax at the wonderful Henry House pub after an event with my comic shop.



and a couple of sketches from Free Comic Book Day



that's it for now - I'll be back next week. This weekend I have to finish the Previews orderbook and watch "The Outfit" - almost a Parker movie, starring Robert Duvall and Joe Don Baker (of Mitchell fame!). It's supposed to be pretty good with many scenes taken straight from the Stark books. I hope you all have a great weekend and spend some time with some good comic books.

Slam Bradley

Here's a new one by Darwyn. Remember, kids, smoking is bad for you!



for more information on Slam Bradley, read comic books - or check his wikipedia entry.

some new stuff for the new year

hi, folks,

Darwyn passed along a couple of nice bits for me to share.
First up is the poster he did for Megacon. Megacon is a comic book convention that takes place in Orlando, Florida. Darwyn is one of the guests along with Amanda Conner, Jimmy Palmiotti, Steve McNiven, George Perez, William Stout and many others. For more info, click here






Next up is the cover to the first volume adapting Richard Stark's "The Hunter" into comics form. It is being published by IDW in July of this year. More info on the Parker adaptations can be found here




Richard Stark was one of several pseudonyms used by Donald Westlake, considered one of the most successful and versatile mystery writers in the United States. Mr. Westlake died on New Year's Eve at the age of 75. "Don Westlake was not a fancy stylist, crafting gorgeous sentences and setting them out like petits fours on a gilt platter. He got to the point. His characters had problems, and you found out what they were right away. Then they went about solving those problems, generally in the most direct way possible, which was not always a legal way, but so what. In his comedies, the result was an escalating concatenation of disaster, though with a happy ending at last; in his darker thrillers, especially the influential novels he wrote about the single-named thief Parker under the pseudonym Richard Stark, the result was brutal, ruthless, unemotional, professional. Blood was shed because blood needed to be shed. Parker was good at his job, and his job sometimes required him to kill people, so he did. Did you have a problem with that?" - Charles Ardai, Westlake's UK publisher writing in the Guardian. (Full article here)