LOVE BUZZ - Read The First 22 Pages Online TOTALLY FREE!

Wanna read the first two chapters of Love Buzz absolutely free? Tired of hearing me talk about this book so much for so long and having nothing to show for it? Well, today's your lucky day! The first 22 pages are available to read now at OniPress.com! The book is on track to be in stores I'm pretty sure by the 11th or the 18th of November, unless something goes horribly wrong.

So, what are you waiting for? Click here and get to readin'!

Live From My House, IT'S SATURDAY NIGHT!

Got a visitor over for the weekend, or possibly longer in the form of my buddy Rich Caldwell who needed a place to crash for a little bit. The majority of our time has been spent sitting on our individual laptops working on comic shit. We're boring. We know.

But I'm on a roll, lately. Tonight, I cranked out 30 rough pages of script in one day. Won't beat my record of 45 in one day back in '03, but it's the best I've done in about as long. I swear to God, having Love Buzz all but completely off my plate has been the most freeing thing ever.

On the LB front though, Oni has informed me that they'll be printing up a batch of ashcans for the first couple chapters of Love Buzz, for Dave Tuney and myself to drag along with us to the Nashville Comic and Horror Festival, where our buddy Jay Leisten hooked us up with a free table. If you're going to be in the area drop by and say "Hey!" We'll be the ones looking horribly out of place, trying to peddle romance comics to the horror and death crowd! It should at very least, be hilarious!

A Look At What's To Come...

A page from THE BEST OF YOU, THE BEST OF ME



Written by Len N. Wallace
Art by Aaron Bir

Coming in 2010.

The Age When Rock Stars Die...

Another year older, another year closer to being old enough to shout down timid senators at Town Hall meetings. Today, I turn 27. The year where it becomes more apparent that you've past the point of no return towards 30. I joke a lot about feeling like an old man, but that's mainly just because of what a curmudgeon I've been from a way younger age than most, as well as the fact that in the words of Abe Simpson, "I used to be 'with it', but then they changed what 'it' was, and now what's 'it' seems weird and scary to me."

The excitement of birthdays kinda fade with age and after so many years and so much distance from being a kid, the thing just kinda becomes another day. I literally didn't realize my birthday was coming up until maybe a week ago. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. Every year that notches up is another year I was never expected to live past my own life expectancy. Kinda puts it into an interesting perspective when you're born to having doctors tell your parents that there's a strong possibility you probably won't live past your first week alive, and then later that you won't see past eight years old. My life and my perception of mortality have been pretty skewed after growing up most of my life knowing that to this day, there's a small piece of earth in a cemetery somewhere in Georgia, between my grandmother and grandfather that's been meant for me for almost as long as I've lived, but thanks to fate (and probably more than a few advances in medical science) I'm still alive and healthier than anyone ever expected I'd be.

I know if you're reading this, you're probably taking this entire tirade as something extremely morbid, and y'know? Maybe it is, but the feeling in me right now is anything but. I have my moments of ill feelings about life in general, but lately, I'm finding less and less to complain about... Okay, that's a lie. The news has been pissing me off, the Republicans have been whining on and on like an increasingly disturbing bunch of racist babies, and summer television has been terrible as usual, and the comic industry has been going nuts, but I digress. It's 2 in the morning at present, and while my birthday is technically past, I can't help but feeling that while life ain't quite the grandest, it's heading towards something that I can finally be truly proud of. Love Buzz is finished and on schedule for a release very soon, I've got a couple of other projects quickly progressing, and I'm feeling like a real writer again for the first time in forever, after an embarrassingly long creative lull period.

But now I'm back. I'm feeling better and more invigorated about this asinine career choice of mine, and luckily the world is giving my poisoned pen more than enough ammunition to keep me fighting another day. Ever maintaining my own special blend of optimistic pessimism. I'm living to spite the rules of death another day, and I'll still be here when there's nothing left but the roaches and crickets out of my own sheer stubbornness.

People Say I Live In The Past...

Not true, but I do tend to dwell from time to time. Just came to a realization yesterday.



She'd have turned 25 two days ago. It's mind blowing how fucking fast the time creeps up.

One More Time, With Feeling

Are you there, Blogoverse? It's me, Leonard.

I know it's been a while since we last spoke, and while I promise I have a reason, (although most of them aren't very good) I've been saving a slew of new news for you until it was a little more ready to come out. As you may or may not have noticed, the month of June has come and gone, and if you've been looking for it, you will have noticed that Love Buzz has been nowhere to be found on shelves. Sadly, these things happen with comics. Michelle had some issues with her family as she was closing out the art on the last couple chapters of the book, and we had to pull it for a while until her dad got better and she could rock it strong.

And rock it she certainly has. Just got the last pages a couple weeks ago, and they're gorgeous. The visuals in this book are like she reached into my brain and pulled out every image and put them on the paper. This girl is on her way to becoming a master of this craft and I owe her huge.

Just got word a couple days ago. Love Buzz is now completely in the can and other than a little bit of lettering left over, is good to go. Oni has posted a release date of 11/11, (make a wish!) and Michelle, Dave, Tom, and myself couldn't be more excited to finally be done with it and have it out there for everyone to see and love. Here's a look at the full page solicit from the latest edition of the Previews catalog.



Additionally, that big image in there IS our final cover, although we are still tinkering with the logo. Please, bask in it's glory.

Additionally, a brief segment of me promoting the book, way back on our first round of solicitation on Fanboy Radio's Indie Show. There are a few other creators on there, but you can find yours truly at the 37:35 mark.

Fanboy Radio #507 - March Indie Show Open Lines

Listen to the whole show, if you will. They plug a lot of great indie creators, including Mike Dawson, whose graphic novel ode to Freddie Mercury, Freddie & Me was one of my favorite reads last year.

Naturally, this is exciting news for all of us, and while I don't have a lot else to plug on this, or any other projects, I should have a little more to announce very soon.

Stay tuned. I promise to update a little more frequently.

Chronicles Of Nom-nia - Vol. 1: Chicken Burger & Sweet Potato Fries

Cooked something a bit different for my mom tonight for Mother's Day while I'm on my new health kick. A bit of a different take on the American classic



Chicken burgers and sweet potato fries.

Usually, chicken burgers end up terrible, because they typically dry out when you cook them. My solution? Pack the meat to the gills with different vegetables!

What I used...

1 lb ground chicken
1/2 purple onion (finely chopped)
1 red bell pepper (finely chopped)
2 jalapeno peppers (very finely chopped)
a small jar of artichoke hearts (finely chopped)
a small can of black olives (ditto)
1 egg
1/5 cup of bread crumbs

and spice as desired with...
salt
cracked pepper
cumin
paprika
chili powder
oregono
extra virgin olive oil

Chop up all the vegetables, toss them all together in a pan and simmer them for a few minutes to make sure they mix their flavors together. In the meantime, throw the chicken into a bowl and mix it with the egg, bread crumbs and other spices, so that they start to bind together. Once you can smell the mix of the vegetables together, then throw the whole mix in with the chicken and mix it all up until everything is evenly distributed. Find a small bowl or something to give the burgers the kind of shape and size you want, then put some tin foil or plastic rap down into the bowl and form your burgers. Wrap them in the foil and let them all sit for about 15 minutes so they can firm up and won't fall apart in the pan. (Or throw them in the freezer if you made too many. I ended up making double this amount, and am now stuck with 8 more burgers in my freezer.)

By the time they're formed, they should look something like this pre-cooked.


Then you cook them on the stove, preferably in a cast iron skillet with a little olive oil and serve with whatever you want. I went with wheat buns, spinach, tomatoes, light mayo, and mustard.

As for the fries, they're a bit more straightforward. Cut up a couple sweet potatoes into french fry like strips, throw them in a glass baking pan, coat them with olive oil and whatever spices you like.

I went with...

Salt
Cracked pepper
Chili powder
Garlic powder

Bake @ 400 degrees for about half an hour, then serve the whole thing. It's so delicious. I'm kinda stoked I made way too many. Into the freezer, to be nom-ed another day!