Throwback: Monsters Art Preview

"Nightmare on Puppet Boulevard" Page 2 - Art: Christopher Tupa - Words: Chris Brimmage

"Why the Forest Lay Bare" Page 2 - Art: Neil Dutton - Words: Will a.k.a Tecknic

"Cryptic" Page 1 - Art: Adam Masterman - Words: Nellie Wigal & Jerry A.

"Sanguine Snow" Panels 1 & 2 from Page 1 - Art: Brad Pascual - Words: Troy Stith

Since I've never given the complete lowdown on what Throwback: Monsters truly is on here, I'll go ahead and insert that information here. As some of you may know, I'm the writing mod over at PencilJack and every couple of weeks or so I run a new writing contest (something I inherited when I became the writing mod), which isn't for any kind of prize (usually) but instead a learning and bragging rights kind of competition. The contests usually range from 4-6 pages and have a general theme set by me, making it a great place for beginners and veterans alike to practice their script writing skills. Since I've been running these contests, I've noticed a lot of great writers showing up and producing great short scripts for the contests, not to mention that I always see great new artistic talent floating around PJ and other comic creation forums. That's when the idea struck me that I needed to showcase some of these talented creators, thus Throwback: Monsters was born.

I turned Writing Contest 42 (follow this link to check out the original PJ post) into something larger than any other PJ writing contest had ever been, it would have a real prize this time and that prize would be publication (as I'll be publishing Throwback myself.) The PJ writers took notice and responded with some great entries, which were whiddled down by public voting for the five open spots in the anthology (the sixth slot was already taken by Brad Pascual and I.) Then we moved onto the artist hunt which yielded some fantastic artists with a wide variety of styles that seemed to match up with the scripts perfectly. Of course, there are a lot of details that happened between all of these rapid successions in the progress of Throwback, but I won't bore you with those.

Needless to say, besides Neil Dutton's page (which appeared on PJ), this is the first glimpse of some of the artwork appearing in Throwback: Monsters. There will be more to come, but we'll be keeping a lot under wraps until we get closer to release.

Let us know what you think.

What I'll be picking up today

Wild Card

Even though there are only a couple of titles that make my 'must have' list this week, I am excited about City of Dust #5 and The Umbrella Academy #4. Both titles have been solid from the beginning and CoD #5 will wrap up Steve Niles futuristic monster story. My wild card Incredible Hercules #126 pick is derived from the fact that I've been wanting to pick up this title for a while and this double sized origin issue seems to be a great place to jump in.

What are you picking up today?

"American McGee's Grimm" Mini-Slug

I took part in the Comics Bulletin mini-slugfest for Dwight MacPherson and Grant Bond's adaptation of "American McGee's Grimm" (IDW) that comes out in April.

Iron Gent

Here is Iron Gent, the first collab that Bryan (artist for Frank Zombie P.I.) and I worked on together. It was based off the first sketch that Bryan drew up for fun and called it "Iron Man's late cousin", which prompted me to write up a shorty for the fun retro version of Iron Man played by Ted Stark.

Frank Zombie P.I. Page 1

I just received this first page of Frank Zombie P.I. from Bryan E. Warner (fellow PencilJack brethren, that I collaborated on Iron Gent with, which I'll post on here as well.) I figured I'd share this page with all of you. I'll probably post a few more pages on here as they come in.

Groom Lake #1 Review

Here is my Groom Lake #1 review that's on Comics Bulletin.

Throwback Anthology

I'm also happy to announce that we have all of the artists now for the Throwback: Monsters the anthology I'm putting together. We've got some great talent on the project and the early artwork I've seen so far is fantastic. I'm really looking forward to getting this anthology together. I'll be posting some teaser pages of it as it gets closer to the release. Until now enjoy the TBD cover that Brad Pascual has whipped up.

Frank Zombie P.I.

Here are some early versions from the Frank Zombie P.I. project that Bryan E. Warner and I are working on. The first script is written and Bryan is getting ready to start drawing it up. Hope to have some preview pages to share soon.

Groom Lake #1

Thanks to Matthew McLean over at Comics Bulletin, I got the chance to get an early peek at this new Chris Ryall and Ben Templesmith IDW collaboration. The review should be up soon, so be on the lookout for the link or stop by CB.

Penciljack Writing Contest

If you're just starting out writing comics or always looking for practice to keep your skills sharp, you should make your way over to the Penciljack writing contests I head up. This time the theme is machinery.

I hadn't had time to enter one for a while but I was able to get an entry in this time. So make some time and get a script in.