Hello! My Name Is...

That's right! The Virginian Pilot was kind enough to take a special interest in the book over the course of the last several months, and the fruits of those hours of interviewing me, my friends, artists, and family have come out to being a very extensive piece on myself, Love Buzz, and my life leading up to this point. Among the many other reasons to read the article, I think the fact that they reveal my real name isn't really Leonard Norman Wallace is enough to get people curious. ;)

Rather than spoil it and ruin all of Victoria's hard work, I'll just shut up and let you get to reading the full article at the link below.

Len N. Wallace reveals beginnings of his graphic novel

Meanwhile, I've got a screenplay to get back to work on with a due date of mid-August, but more on that later.

Stay tuned, boners!

Information Dump!

What? You expect a guy like me to have a post title with the word "Dump" and be mature about it?

C'moooooon!

Anyway, a couple months have passed since I last posted anything of substance here, and I could name off any of the thousand fucking reasons for that, but the cardinal rule of any comic maker worth his salt is "Show, don't tell", so for those of you who like making your little mouses (mice? Is it still that way for computers?) go clicky-click, have I got a blog entry for you!

First off, I know I posted a blog about this right before I went to this thing, but my first ever book signing experience at ACME Comics in Greensboro, NC went off without a hitch.

Click here to get a look at more pics from ACME Comics' MARCH MADNESS signing event on my Flickr!

Next up, not even a month later, I was off to Chicago to sign at the Oni booth with Michelle and Dave in tow. It was a real milestone, as it was our first ever experience actually being in the same physical place together. It was a great feeling to finally have the whole team (minus Mauer, sadly) together for once.

Click here to get a look at more pics from C2E2 on my Flickr!

And last, not least, but most recent, (this past weekend to be exact) Free Comic Book Day brought me back to my hometown of Louisville KY for the first time since the end of 2009 to do a signing with Love Buzz 'sketchbook' artist Dave Tuney at Comic Book World. We even brought my girlfriend!


Click here to get a look at more pics from FCBD on my Flickr!

Also was informed that my recent interview with Paul Aponte went live on their "Indie Spotlight" podcast at their Ideology Of Madness website. Listen to Paul and myself jaw on for a good half-hour about Love Buzz and what other projects I've got coming down the line very soon at the link below. A very fun interview to say the least!

Love Buzz on Funnybooks with Aron and Paulie!

Also, while the gang and I were at C2E2, we did a brief interview with Pants from ComicGeekSpeak just as things were closing down at the show for day two. It's only about five minutes, but it's one of those rare occasions where you'll get to hear me, Michelle, and Dave stutter and "Umm..." our way through a conversation after an exhausting day on the killing floors. 

Team Love Buzz on ComicGeekSpeak! (Look for us at the 59:26 marker!)

My buddy Tony Fleecs, in an effort to blow through his commitments to do hundreds of sketchcards he had commissioned last year after offering them for three bucks a pop, finally sent me one of the ones I'd commissioned. Anyone who's not checked out his auto-bio comic "In My Lifetime" is doing themselves a great disservice. I've said it before, I'll say it again and again until I'm blue in the face,  it's the funniest 32 pages you'll ever read in one sitting. Here's his interpretation of Love Buzz's Maggie Gunther.

That's it for now, I guess. Next week though, come back for a the first part of a long series that will chronicle once and for all, the long, drawn out battle Michelle, Dave, and myself have gone through to put Love Buzz out over the last eight years!

Goodnight, My Darling

Lots of developments since last I updated, and I fully intend to get on top of them soon, but for now, I've gotten permission to show off one big thing I've been sitting on for a while.

We'll just cap this quick entry off with a big, foreboding "COMING SOON..." followed by a winky face.

COMING SOON... ;)

March Madness Has Spread To My Kidneys!!!!

Long night. Very tiresome, trying to whip together a pitch for what could be my biggest project to date. My first epic. Unfortunately, that's about all I can say for now, but stay tuned.

Anyway, if you're reading this and live in or around the Greensboro North Carolina area, I urge you to stop in at ACME Comics for their March Madness event, where myself and other comic creators Sean McKeever (The Waiting Place, Teen Titans, and a shitload of other stuff for Marvel) and Chris Scweizer (Crogan's Vengence and Crogan's March from Oni Press) will be signing comics all day Saturday from opening til close.

I'm excited. It's my first real book signing and I'm doing it with one of my all-time favorite comic creators. I've gushed about McKeever a lot in the past, because of how his book influenced my writing Love Buzz for the comic format, so sitting down next to him and trying to act like I'm not completely nerding out is going to be difficult. Also can't wait to pick up and read Schwizer's books. I've heard amazing things about them.

A couple months back when we were scheduling this signing, Matt Fair, an ACME employee who has single handedly sold 25 copies of Love Buzz so far asked me to do an interview to promote the event. I've gotta say, it's one of the most in depth ones I've ever done. He asked all the right questions. Click here to read it!

Anyway, if you're in or close by the area on Saturday, stop in and say 'hi'! I'll report back by Monday with a rundown of how the signing goes, but I'm going to go ahead and predict it's going to go like gangbusters. If you can't make it out there, I feel sorry for you. It's gonna be a blast!

Now though... On to beauty sleep!

Coming Down The Pipes In 2010

New title currently being pitched...



Coming in 2010.

An Ode To The Boss Lady

As the news has rather quietly begun to spread around the industry, I just heard last night that one of my first good friends in comics, Jen Contino has quit her job running after over eight years of running Comicon.com's comic news feed, The Pulse.

According to the article by Heidi MacDonald at The Beat...

"Only the other day, a thread on Comicon.com asked Has Jen Contino left THE PULSE? noting that the prolific writer of Comicon’s Pulse newssite had been missing in action on the site, Facebook, and Twitter for quite a while. An email to Comicon.com’s owner Rick Veitch confirmed that Contino and the Pulse had indeed parted ways. In an email, Veitch blamed the tight economy for internet advertising for the move, as some advertisers had failed to pay their bills, and advertising for the site could no longer support Contino’s salary. He added that a statement was forthcoming.

Contino launched the Pulse in July 2002 — along with this writer, to make full disclosure. It was also the first home of this very blog, and the only reason it’s called the Beat is because Veitch thought it would be a good fit for the name The Pulse.

In 2002 Newsarama (which had recently left Comicon) and CBR were the only sites covering comics news, and the Pulse initially broke out of the gate as one of the leading news sites in the comics news field, with in-depth coverage of the exciting Jemas years at Marvel, the Miracleman trial and other big stories of the time. However, as the internet, the comics internet, and Nerdtopia grew and grew and big media moved into the space, it was pretty obvious that the Pulse was dropping off many people’s radar — their stories had ceased to get linked to or quoted much, with a few exceptions.

The problems at The Pulse reflect some of the problems in the wider economy and internet. It’s notable that one of Comicon/the Pulse’s biggest advertisers was formerly Gemstone, the publishing arm of Steve Geppi’s Diamond empire. Gemstone itself has had a lot of financial problems and debts, as has Geppi, although it is not believed they directly affect Diamond’s financials. However, the idea that Gemstone wasn’t paying their bills for an internet advertising campaign just adds to the picture of troubling times for all.

As for Contino, she has confirmed she is no longer working at the Pulse, but had no further comment."

A similar article can be found by Rich Johnston at BleedingCool.com

This really sucks on a personal level for me to hear. Jen Contino is and has been a very upstanding lady, as well as one of my very first real supporters within the comics industry as I've struggled to break in. We've not talked as much as we used too in the last few months and while I've noticed the content of The Pulse slipping, I don't really think that can be blamed on Jen so much. Up until the recent stopping point, she'd kept a pretty steady stream of content on the site. I don't want to speculate on why or how things came to this, with Jen being owed so much back pay because while I have my theories, I don't want to stir up trouble for anyone on pure theory. I've followed Jen and her site since back before I even knew her personally back in the early '00's. As much as sites like Newsarama, CBR, and Bleeding Cool have risen to prominence today, Jen was running her site extremely well for a very, very long period of time without pandering and shilling too much for the big two. She even had Warren Ellis writing columns for her at one point or another. She clearly knows what she's doing. Even in the latter days of The Pulse, she worked pretty hard to keep the ship afloat and was a big supporter of indie, small press, and up and coming comic guys like myself.

Back around '06 or '07, Jen and I got to know each other and she began showing an interest in my book Love Buzz, (Now published by Oni Press after all these years. *plug plug*) and she asked me if I was interested in running a column for the site to interview other indie and small press creators and give their work a bigger forum to show off on. Through that column, I made a lot of the friends and buisness contacts I've made to get me to where I am now, and I owe it all to Jen. If not for her support, I'd have most likely given up on comics years ago and gotten a "real" job. I'll forever be in her debt and I know she'll eventually land on her feet in whatever she does from here. I just wish like hell there was something I could do to for her that would come anywhere near repaying for her support.

She's a tough lady though. I know she'll land on her feet.

Two Fourty Three!

Looks like we broke Diamond's top 300 at #243!

http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/16619.html

Not too shabby for a trio of nobodies (and Mauer).

New Year, Same Ol' Lovin'!

HA!

Look what I found in the back of the latest issue of Greg Rucka's latest issue of "Stumptown"...



I love you, Oni... So, so much! XD

In other Love Buzz related news, our friends at Graphic Policy have named the book their pick for "Graphic Novel Of The Year" for 2009, where they said (among other things)...


"This was a graphic novel I could relate to. It had me reflect on loves that have come and gone, it made me think at an emotional level. How many comic books made you do that this year?

This graphic novel was not just the surprise of the year, but also think it’s the sleeper comic of the year. It also helps we gave the graphic novel our first perfect 10 ever."



Also, after exchanging many, many emails with an enthusiastic new fan who's sold nearly 20 copies of the book off his own personal recommendations at ACME Comics, I wanted to help out the shop and do something special for them. His name is Matt Fair and because of his love for the book, we're proud to announce that I'm going to be part of ACME's annual "March Madness" event on the 13th of the month for a big, fat signing! I'm going to be sitting next to the likes of Chris Schweizer (Crogan's Vengeance), Ben Towle (Midnight Sun), and one of my heroes, Sean McKeever. (The Waiting Place)

To prepare for the signing, Matt prepared a bunch of questions for me to answer over the holidays. I gotta say, this kid just seemed to ask all the right questions to keep me rambling on until my fingers felt like falling off.

Read the entire, extensive interview here!

Man, it's just gotten kinda amazing to watch how everything is taking off from the sidelines like this.