Teaser: "Said the Pilgrim to the Duke!"

Here is a teaser for "Said the Pilgrim to the Duke." I'm sorry its taking so long to work on these pages. You know how one needs to make money as opposed to just leaking it from every orifice? Well it turns out that I, like anyone else need money. So we have two options, send me money, or food, or wait longer for the story. I'd prefer the money option, but I suppose that is just an illusion. So anyways, long story short here is a teaser image:

Currently My Favorite Blog....

So recently while posting on our blog here at Wyatt Earp Etc, I came across this blog, http://mustachesofthenineteenthcentury.blogspot.com/, recommended by none other than google. Man do I love google...and mustaches. Its half the reason I started drawing Wyatt Earp. So thank you google. And thank you mustache blog. Thank you.

Justin Talks Wide Format

This is Justin again. I meant to post this circa last week, but I am having eight kinds of computer trouble.

Anywho: The horizontal format.

For obvious reasons, it's one of the first things that people notice looking at the book, and I like to think it helps it stand out from the crowd. The orientation also allows for visually arresting "Sunday comics" style superwidescreen layouts you don't see very often in comic books. We've gotten some very positive feedback from pros about the innovative and stylish way Josh has been putting together these pages. People really seem to dig the possibilities.

The problem, of course, is everyone on the business side of things says horizontal is a no-go. Which we completely understand; I imagine retailers hate having to try and shelve a book that works in the completely opposite direction of everything else on the rack.

We're looking to compromise. So here are the options we're faced with:

1.) Re-edit/redraw our pages so that everything fits as a vertical format, side-stapled, all-around standard comic. Perhaps the least attractive choice, as it loses everything of the widescreen effect, and it would be the most work (or at least it would be work for Josh; I'd really just have to e-mail him and ask "Are the pages done YET?" and then go back to playing Spider Solitaire).

2.) Re-edit/redraw so that the comic is still vertical format and side-stapled, but you have to turn the comic on its side to read it, rather like the way a wall calendar hangs. It would shelve normally but still allow us to lay out individual pages in a vertical format. The comic would lose the ability to do superwidescreen spreads, but it's not too terrible a compromise. People seemed to like when John Byrne did it in that old issue of Fantastic Four...

3.) Make the book a squarebound collection of 100+ pages rather than a 24ish-page "floppy." A wide format book that can be put in a bookshelf instead of on a rack, from what we gather, isn't as much of a hassle for retailers. It's the same format as, say, a Calvin & Hobbes collection, and since our comic is less a single story than a collection of shorter strips, it's somewhat appropriate. On the other hand, it comes with a higher price point.

--Justin

oops, the Mirror Universe Affair

So today while I was working on "...said the Pilgrim to the Duke" pages I realized that I had already started the "Mirror Universe Affair" quite a while ago and never came back to it. Because that story is actually not in the first collection I won't be finishing it for a little while yet but I thought I could upload the cover in case anyone was curious or interested. In the meantime.... I'll be wearing my fingers down to the bone working on this John Wayne yarn. See you soon. Toodles.

The quest (or: "The writer says hello")

At the bottom, this post'll say "Posted by Josh," but that is, in fact, a dirty lie. This is actually Justin, the writer of this project, posting for the first time.

The Adventures of Wyatt Earp in 2999 is a project Josh and I -- two old friends in the Xavier-Magneto mould -- are trying to get off the ground. An imaginative adventure comic starring Western heroes in a science-fiction milieu, two wandering souls trapped in a future whose inhabitants based their entire culture and technology on sci-fi television and movies. Fast-paced stories done quickly -- between four and twelve pages -- with maximum compression allowing us to hit the reader with one idea after the other, and multiple stories in every issue. Just like good-ol'-fashioned adventure comics used to be (which is the reason for the groovy "yellowed paper" effect Josh has added to the digital pages) but with a modern polish.

At least, that's the idea. And this blog is the chronicling of our quest to get this book made.

We've been shopping the book around, and there's been some interest, which is insanely encouraging for two guys trying to crack into the business. Self-publishing is an option, but having an established publisher behind us obviously would make everything 800% easier and help put the book into more people's hands.

There is one sticky wicket we've come across in our attempts, however: horizontal format. I'll talk about that in my next post.

Fallcon 2007

What a fun con and what a great spot. First thing when I showed up Saturday morning they escorted me to my table right in front of the front doors... how did I get that spot? Someone up there likes wyatt earp apparently. Lots of sales and even a few sketches later it was sunday night. Wyatt Earp found himself in 2999 and that found itself in print for the first time. I hope everyone that bought the book loved it and everyone else who stopped to read it felt the same.

The will to devour...

SO these pages got a bit rushed but here they are. Plus you can see them in print if you bought the book.

The Will to Devour

I know I promised man eating pies. Here you go. Its only the cover. I should have the pages finished soon. (Soon is most likely code for "a long time")

St.Paul Minneapolis Fallcon

Alright, I just got the confirmation notice today in the mail. Somehow I magically got a booth for fallcon. Come by and give a look see. October 6th and 7th...2007.

http://www.mncba.com/

the Pilot PT2

The Pilot

The first story of Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday...

Lions, Tigers, and Bears, OH MY!

In the upcoming adventures of Wyatt Earp Doc and Wyatt will find themselves facing many foes. Everything from man eating pies to psychic space sharks, mirror universe dopplegangers to killer snowmen and voodoo priestesses, Evil "Pilgrim" and "Duke" clones to super evolved escaped zoo animals, and if those weren't enough they still have the Pelican, an evil power hungry corporation, tailing them around the universe. Can you imagine fighting a kirby-esque remnant of the last age, sent to clean the universe of all refuse? Or how about a search for ancient ammunition in a dead city. Come back for all the fun. Josh

Blog Business

It seems to me like everyday I'm reading someones blog on something or other. I think now would be as reasonable a time as any to start a blog for myself. I won't be sharing my thoughts or world views here... at least I hope not. What I do hope to share here are the pages of my new comic as I get them done. As of yet I'm not entirely sure how often this blog will get updated or even if anyone will read it but I do plan to share this story with everyone. As for the story here goes...

Wyatt Earp is a knight of the Old West, a man with his own strict code of honor and a clearly defined sense of right and wrong. Now living in a future he understands but will never truly belong to, he travels the universe in his flying saucer—the Paradox—dispensing justice wherever he deems necessary.

Doc Holliday was cloned in 2999 by The Pelican, a mildly evil corporation elected to loose control of the universe. But due to a DNA instability, only Doc’s head survived. To compensate, the scientists who revived him created a giant metal body that his head can attach to, which also doubles as a small spacecraft. Doc Holliday is as true and devoted a friend as any you will ever meet, but he lacks Wyatt’s moral altruism and is regarded throughout the universe as a scoundrel with a good heart. Doc’s primary motivations are sensual delights and having a good time, both of which are severely hampered by his present condition.

Reunited in a distant century, they rekindle their friendship and explore the conventions of science-fiction together as outsiders playing by their own rules, bound by a common love of absurd adventure.