Zipper Club local fliers!

I've devised another great way that you, gentled reader, can help Brenda and I on our road to making The Zipper Club a sooner reality. The ongoing promotion of our IndieGoGo campaign has entered it's final two weeks and I'm working like the devil to try and see us through to victory.

FLYERS!

That's right, folks! We're about to take it old school, posting up a ton of fliers in any business or gathering place that'll allow us to spread the word, and the best part is, I'm making PDF copies available right here, to everyone who might feel like giving a hand to us! I'm doing two versions of the flyer, one with a special message to patrons of my hometown in Louisville Kentucky, and another copy to be posted up anywhere that people can speak and/or read English!

Print off one copy, print off a dozen, print them off until your printer runs out of ink and hit the streets of your town on our behalf! Anywhere that might allow you to tack one up on their walls for a couple weeks! Each flyer comes complete with a pair of bar codes you can scan with your cell phone to make things nice and convenient for passers by. One code leads to our IGG page, the other to our new and growing Facebook fan page. Post them at comic shops, coffee shops, college community boards, children's hospitals, etc. If you can think of a place, I encourage you to print out a copy, take it there, and ask. Worse comes to worse, they'll just say no!

All Over Flyer

Louisville-centric flyer

But that's not the best part!

If and when you get one posted up, get a picture of yourself taken, standing next to it and link us to the picture with your name and the location that was kind enough to let you post it on The Zipper Club Facebook page, or @ me with it on Twitter @LenNWallace. By the end of the campaign, the person who posts up the most fliers and sends us pictures will get a special treat courtesy of Brenda and I. (Haven't decided what yet, but probably some kind of weird piece of original jam art between the two of us...?)

You don't need to be a donor to the project to participate in this endeavor, either. Money can be tight these days and the effort of helping us out from wherever you are is big enough in my book to deserve it's own reward... Although I will say, if you can donate, even a dollar, it'd help tremendously.

Again, and from the bottom of my heart, thank you for your support, past, present, and future. I just know we're going to make this book happen in a big, big way!

Thanks,
Len N. Wallace

Crowd Funding 101 – A Course For The Not-So-Technologically Inclined

So, I’ve gotten a few emails from people who dig what we’re doing, but have no idea for one reason or another how to donate to The Zipper Club through IndieGoGo. At first, this concept was pretty baffling to me, because it’s become as easy as second nature to me now, and I use these kind of sites all the time. Then I remembered I’m a dude who sits around, burning out his retinas on a screen all day. Not everyone is like me, so what follows is a very simple crowdfunding tutorial for any donors out there who may have been confused about how to give to our project, or even any other one down the line that might strike their fancy.

As much as I’d love to take your personal checks and cold hard cash, alas, there’s a system in place and for us to take all of the money we need to pay for printing this thing that we’ve pulled in so far from all of our donors, we need to meet our goal on the site. If our level doesn’t read $4,000 or higher by May 14^th, 2013, all the money goes back to the individuals that donated to the project and Brenda and I go back to the ol’ drawing board. (We still fully plan on producing the book with or without the money from this campaign, but getting it paid for with these donations will save us a lot of time, headache and our own personal funds.) Plus, going by our perks list, you get some pretty cool Zipper Club memorabilia that you wouldn’t be able to obtain anywhere else. Plus, after the campaign goes on and we (hopefully) get funded, everyone who donated will get updates with all sorts of behind the scenes goodies for the project on our journey to see it in print. In short, we know asking you for your hard earned is somewhat of a tall order we don’t take that lightly. Helping crowdfund projects like The Zipper Club through IndieGoGo and Kickstarter are a fun and rewarding experience that gives you a chance to take part in the creation of all forms of new and wonderful art. I’ve donated to a number of different crowdfunding campaigns in the past on both websites over the years and love doing it.

The bottom line though, is that we can’t do this without you, so without further ado, here are instructions for how to donate to our cause…

How to donate to an IndieGoGo campaign:

1 - Find the campaign you want to donate to. (For purposes of the same shameless self-promotion I’ve become known for, we’ll say maaaaaybe for my book, The Zipper Club.)

2 - Cruise through the campaign’s information for any information on it and see if it raises any concerns for you. (IE: Where your money is going, when you’ll receive your donor rewards, etc.) If you have questions or concerns not answered on the page, hit the "Contact" button on the IGG page to take your questions directly to the person running the page and they should answer.

3 - Now comes the “fun” part. In order to donate to a campaign, you’ll need two things. A membership to IndieGoGo (http://www.indiegogo.com) and a membership to a website called Paypal (http://www.paypal.com). 

The good news is, starting both accounts are free in and of themselves. The reason for the dual memberships are as follows.  IndieGoGo is a site that sends and receives its money through Paypal, which is basically an online resource for you to pay for goods and services online. You can pay for orders through almost any online shop you can think of, quickly and easily via Paypal. Starting an account there is pretty simple and the best explanation for it can be found at the link below.

http://www.ask.com/question/how-to-start-a-paypal-account

4 - After you’ve got your Paypal account set up, you can also use it to pay for any large number of goods for sale on all sorts of different websites throughout the internet. (eBay, Half.com, Overstock.com, etc.) It’s the world’s most popular way to send money online, so mark my words, it’s something you could definitely get a lot more use out of down the road.

5 - Once you’ve got your Paypal account made and secured, head back to the IndieGoGo page that you want to donate to, click on the according price level/perk that you’d like to have shipped to you, and then it will take you through asking you to log into your Paypal account. Once you’re logged in, it’ll ask you to confirm your donation and the amount. Press “Pay” and everything’s done.

Hope that helps!

The Zipper Club is BACK!

So, we're running two weeks strong into our IndieGoGo campaign to fund and expand our first run of short stories for The Zipper Club into it's own full 40 page graphic novel and we've had some pretty incredible donors popping up so far as we stand two-thirds of the way from our goal with plenty of time to spare and plenty of wicked perks yet to be grabbed, including personalized sketches, personalized comic strips that put you in your own three panel Zipper Club adventure, and spots where your name and/or likeness can be used in next year's Zipper Club story!

So, to help encourage more buzz on the book and the story itself, I wanted to share a little something with everyone. Here's an introductory preview in the form of our first two page short story from Grayhaven Comics' THE GATHERING #2. Our first Zipper Club short story!

The Zipper Club is a personal project to me, as a life-long survivor of a congenital heart defect and as someone who has counseled a camp for children like myself and the ones I write about in The Zipper Club for many years. The campaign is to fund a print-run for our book so that we can not just have copies to sell to you fine folk, but also a few to donate to kids growing up with these heart problems who might really need it. Plus, a percentage of any profits Brenda and I make on the project will go to the American Heart Association to help further research in the fight to stamp out all forms of heart diseases.

Join the fun and donate to the cause here: 

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/welcome-to-the-zipper-club

STRAIGHT TO THE HEART

In honor of Creator Owned Comic Day, I figured I'd share another fun little short story I did in the past. A couple years back, I was on a big kick and wrote a rash of off-beat romance comic short stories for an anthology I was hoping to put together, called "Less Than Three". (And kudos if you get the reference.)

One of the few stories that ended up getting fully produced was illustrated by an artist named Brian Defferding, whose work I had become aware of through his own creator-owned comic, School: A Ghost Story. Brian's horrific painted style seemed like an interesting fit for a little horror/love story I called 'Straight To The Heart'. One of the few instances to see Brian's great work in full color.

Hope you enjoy!

THE BUZZ(ES) THAT ALMOST WAS(ES) – PART I

A long time ago, I promised myself once LOVE BUZZ was published, I would find the time to write down the story behind the story. For all I know, the journey in getting the book made might very well be more interesting than the book itself. It's officially been 10 years now, since I first conceived the project and set out to make it tangible, and now here I sit, ready to lay bare for all you budding comic makers out there, the hardships and triumphs of getting published in this fickle industry. From starry eyed beginnings to that triumphant yet punch drunk moment when you finally hold the first copy of your blood, sweat, and tears in your hands and everything in between, this is the story of LOVE BUZZ. The journey that myself, Michelle, Dave, Thomas, and a slew of other people who joined and encouraged us along the way as we forged on over the eight year period to it's completion. It's a long story, which I will break up into six parts along the coming weeks. A nice little companion piece we'll be sharing along the way, with the help of Tim Simmons and the Comic Book Script Archive is the original script I wrote for LOVE BUZZ dating back to 2004. This original draft, clocking in at very nearly 300 pages, includes numerous things that were cut from the book that finally saw print from Oni Press. Needless to say, we cut a significant bit of story out of the final product to get it down to the 184 page mark. I consider sharing the original scripts to be a gift to other young writers out there, to help them appreciate the importance of the editorial process. 

We'll start our story with the same words that have begun so many others before it...

IN THE BEGINNING…


I first conceived of LOVE BUZZ as a long haired young rascal who looked something like this...

My first job as a filing clerk for an insurance firm had eventually yielded me the thousand dollars I would need to buy myself a top of the line (for it's time) digital video camera, as a couple of high school buddies of mine and I sat up a few late nights on weekends, coming up with ideas for short films and features we mostly never got around to producing. These late night gatherings did however inspire me to go off and write a trio of never produced scripts that still sit in the bottom of a drawer somewhere in my house. My first finished work, MIND IS A ROLLING THUNDER, a title I will freely admit that even I don't know what it's supposed to mean, but used because it sounded cool at the time, LEADERS AND FOLLOWERS, a concept I some day look forward to revisiting, about two rival high school "know-it-alls" seeking to rig an election for Class President with their own Manchurian Candidates, and finally, a script called LOVE BUZZ, which share's only two things in common with the book that's in stores now. The title, and the name of it's main character, Norm Raymer.


The original LOVE BUZZ was a story written by a guy who'd known nothing about love, and had only been out on maybe two dates with a girl who ended up getting tired of him and moving onto another guy. Convinced that my first time getting dumped was the end of the world, I began to set pen to paper writing Love Buzz. This first version had Norm getting dumped by a very different version of Maggie Gunther, who went off to date some dude with a Motorcycle, while leaving Norm to ponder what comes next, until he met a girl named Christina who was something else all together more special. The first LOVE BUZZ was written by a man with no experience in the realm of love. Regardless, I showed it to a few friends, who all said they really enjoyed it, including the girl who would become the basis for Maggie in the final incarnations of LOVE BUZZ, and the reinforcement from them kept me going and wanting to write.


Despite my film making dreams dying early, what was done was done. I had officially spent the last two years of my high school career dicking around in class, writing stories and movies that never got made and making wreckage of my GPA. Despite the fact that those things I had written are things that I can now look back and cringe upon, the writing bug had bitten me hard and there was no going back for me. Not everyone figures out what they want to do with the rest of their lives at the age of 16, but I had. I didn't know where I would go from there, but I knew that by sheer determination and refusal to quit, I could get there. My on again, off again relationships with the girl I based Maggie upon stayed rocky for some time, which is all pretty well documented within the book itself, so I'll just skip the back story on that and tell you if you haven't already, to go buy LOVE BUZZ right now off Amazon. 


So, doing a movie was out, at least for the moment. As much as I love reading prose, the idea of writing something as elaborate as a book made my testicles retract up into my body, so that was out. Plus, I had already spent so many months writing the ever bulging screenplay for LOVE BUZZ, which had grown well over the 90 to 120 page limit of most rom-com scripts and by all measures was still growing. It was around this time that I had gotten back into reading comic books in a big way after an several year hiatus, in which I had discovered that girls thought guys who read comics were dorky and unkissable. (Thank God THAT’S not the case anymore, amIright?)

     My realms of comic reading had broadened considerably as I discovered there was more beyond the cape and tights set. Books like Craig Thompson's BLANKETS, Chynna Clugston's BLUE MONDAY and particularly Sean McKeever, Mike Norton, and the Brothers Fraim’s THE WAITING PLACE had begun to made a great cases for a bold format change and new direction for LOVE BUZZ. I had begun to doubt that I could find an artist crazy enough to commit to drawing an almost 300 page book for me, but that’s fine. I took some cartooning classes as a kid. How hard could it possibly be?

     Remember what I was saying about “a healthy dose of self-delusion”?

     Yeah…

     TO BE CONTINUED…

WELCOME TO THE ZIPPER CLUB!

I'm very gracious and proud to bring everyone a peek at the next big thing from me at the moment. It's starting out small, but after multiple talks with the publisher, I hope people will check it out, because as time passes, I feel it could become something very big. 


"Growing up different can be difficult. Growing up like Cliffy Goldfarb or any of the other 1 in every 120 kids in the world born with a congenital heart defect can be harder. Living a life of rules and physical limitations is the norm for these children, making it harder for them to live a life most would consider 'normal'. A life limited of sports, climbing, and the overall rambunctiousness of being a kid like Cliffy can make you feel like the odd one out.

The summer after his first heart transplant, Cliffy's mother sends her nervous young son off to Camp Bravehearts. A place that's unlike any other summer camp, where kids with other varying conditions like Cliffy can be together to compare 'war wounds', and realize that maybe being 'normal' isn't all it's cracked up to be."

THE ZIPPER CLUB

Written by Len N. Wallace

Illustrated by Brenda Liz López

Brought to you bi-monthly and ongoing in the pages of...

It's a story very close to my heart literally, as a grown adult who has lived his whole life with a congenital heart defect, and was given a very small life expectancy when I grew up. Camp Bravehearts is a real place that I've had the pleasure of counseling for over 14 years of my life now. While the Camp Bravehearts in the comic is a little more fictionalized than the real one, the feelings and emotions that come from the comics are very real. When GATHERING publisher Andrew Goletz asked me if I wanted to contribute something all-age appropriate to his new independent anthology series, I spent a couple weeks racking my brain to come up with an idea, until I came up with this idea. This is the most important story I never realized I wanted to tell.


Click here to get your copy of THE GATHERING #2, featuring our first installment of THE ZIPPER CLUB, as well as stories by Jeffrey Burandt (Americans UK), Brian Koschak (Star Wars: The Clone Wars), Gail Simone, (Birds of Prey, Secret Six) and many, many more talented creators. 


I encourage everyone to check out what Brenda and I are doing here, because it's something we're both very proud of. A very personal story from myself, as well as a chance to work with an artist I've been crazy about, and trying my damnedest to work with more and more in the last several years.


Best of all, this is only the beginning!

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.

One Hand Shakes The Other

Now the holidays are over and I'm a little less stressed about the world in general, (only marginally, though) so I figure it's time for another blog entry, anyway... Here's some fun little Love Buzz related goodies I've gotten from some friends over the last couple weeks.



My good buddy Joe Eisma drew this one after finally grabbing and reading a copy of the book. For those who don't know him, Joe is fast becoming one of the most sought after artists in indie and small press comics for his work with guys like Jason M. Burns, Jay Faerber, and soon his new book "Morning Glories" with writer Nick Spencer. Joe and I have been pretty good friends for a couple years now, and we're hoping to do some work together in the next year or two, but we've just gotta wait for our schedules to both clear up. Joe puts up very well with me and all my whoring and vulgarity, and for that I am appreciative. In fact, you can listen to me hijacking Joe's full episode appearance on Fanboy Radio HERE!

Another friend of mine, as well as a frequent collaborator of Joe's is Jason M. Burns. This guy has written more comics in the last couple years than you can shake a stick at, and I've been supporting his work from the very beginning, illustrated from the below picture of me reading Jason's first book, "The Expendable One".



A couple days ago, he sent me this in return...



I love you guys!

Maggie Claus

The book is out now! Go buy a copy of the book Ain't It Cool called "one of the most honest and true interpretations of young love and the horrific labyrinth of emotions that we all must navigate at some point in our lives as we mature into adulthood." and Graphic Policy called "one of the best graphic novels of the year"!

Twit Wit - Conversations With My Landlord...

It's been a while since I've updated this damn blog, and yet, my presence on Twitter is a big time consumer, so I figured a new segment might be a good way to kill two girls with one cup, so to speak. :P This segment, I'm going to call "Twit Wit" and try to do once weekly, just posting and recounting any and all highlights from my entertaining, and incredibly nerdy pastime. Anyway, a little preface is required to our first installment...



I've had some shitty landlords in my time, and while I'll say this guy's not the worst, he's most certainly the laziest. He cheaped out on everything he put in the house, bought our dishwasher used from some shady place, and it's broken three times, and he's still refused to get a new one. He just sends some dumb oaf over to poke at it until it works again, then a month or two later, it breaks down. We've asked him to take care of numerous things around our house in the last couple of months that have been problems since we moved into the place, and while he's recently started fixing a couple things we've been really bitching about, my bedroom door is still swelled up in the door frame, to where I can't fully close it. Now, I like to sleep naked, and I have roommates. Just because my door is always cracked open doesn't mean I should have to give up my rights to sleep in the raw, but for the sake of my roommates, I always feel at least a slight twinge of guilt. Not enough to stop mind you, but still... Been asking him to fix that fucking door since we moved in, and I've gotten nothing.

The worst part though, is every time he comes over, he's always got some kind of nit-pick about the way we keep house, and he's never hesitant to turn his thin little nose up and make "suggestions" about what we need to be doing to keep the place in order. I've about had it with the condesention and now I'm just having fun with him. Here's a conversation I just had with my snobby assed prick of a landlord when he came to pick up this week's rent check, as recounted through my Twitter page.

Quote:
Landlord: "Thanks for the check, and can y'all rake your leaves when it stops raining?"

@LenNWallace *smiling thru hateful eyes* "Sure thing, and can you fix my bedroom door that I've asked you about since I moved in?"

Landlord: "Oh sure, I'll get right on that, and they'll be back to finish your yard sometime next week"

@LenNWallace: *smiling thru even more hateful eyes* "Thanks! Oh, and my book's coming out next week! I'd appreciate if you bought a copy!

Landlord: *dismissive, nervous chuckle* "Heh... Remind me next week."

@LenNWallace *creepy ominous tone as he turns and walks away* "Oh, I will... Be seeing you!"

The idea for the Love Buzz plug was Joe Eisma's brilliant idea, and I think it worked pretty well, so big props to him.

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.