jasonfranks

Clicky here:

http://www.thesixsmiths.com/wordpress/?p=224

I am off to Japan tomorrow and I don't know if I will be able to blog the SIXSMITHS links in a timely fashion, but the next story has been scheduled to run at 9am every Thursday, same as always. It's a three parter called 'Pestilence' and it's probably my favourite to date, so please remember to check it out!

-- JF

 
Gentle readers, I just want to take a moment to apologize for my recent lack of bloggery. In between my new office hours and my impending trip to Japan (Friday) I have been flat out trying to get everything organized, there simply hasn't been any time to keep up Livejournal, much less update it.

Marc and I are powering ahead on the SIXSMITHS graphic novel and I have now prepped the webcomic so that the next four installments will update on time. I will try to post some travel stories while I am on the road, but it's looking like quite a hectic trip right now. I will be taking my laptop with me and I do have some deadlines that I need to work towards; we'll see if I can't squeeze in a few posts while I am at it.

Cheers!

-- JF

 
Thursday strip is up!

http://www.thesixsmiths.com/wordpress/?p=221

Click for your weekly dose of household Satanism.

-- JF

KAGEMONO #2 was just reviewed at indycomicreview.com.

Four stars from reviewer Alex Haas. 

"It's the believability of these characters and situations that truly offers the scare factor.  These are people you might have met, regardless of the fantastic nature of the setting.  There is something very creepy in their humanity, which is the factor most often dropped in horror writing."

Still available from Blackglass Presss or from a variety of Melbourne comic shops, of course.

-- JF

 New strip is up:

http://www.thesixsmiths.com/wordpress/?p=217

-- JF

Hey all,

This is gonna be pretty barebones, I'm afraid, owing to fatigue and illness.

I went to Supanova over the weekend. Under the monicker of th eMelbourne Indie Scum, I shared a table with Brendan Halyday (left) and Matt Emery (right):


(Photo courtesy of Matt Emery)

The show seemed bigger and better-attended than the Melbourne show, full of cosplay crazies, fanboys, gamers and the usual TV show fandom. Guests included Dave Gibbons, Tim Sale, juggler Richard Hatch, Kiwi Karl Urban, cigar-smoking Dirk Benedict and some generic hot-girl-with-bodyguards from, I think, TWILIGHT. The air was thick  with excitement and the literal stink of every strain of geekdom united for two brief days under a single roof.

Saturday was pretty slow for sales. Matt was the star of our table and he sold buckets of timeless classics ONE DAY I WILL KILL YOU, GAY GAY KILL KILL, SALLYFUCKSHORSES, MANFIGHTERS, and his latest collection, GUZUMO COMICS. I put most of my own effort into moving the SIXSMITHS promotional minicomics.  Of the other stuff, ROBOTS ARE PEOPLE 2.0 proved again to be the most popular, followed by the KAGEMONOs and ONE MORE BULLET. Brendan concentrated on moving the preview for his upcoming GRAPHIC NARRATIVE book.

It was good nice to meet some fo the various and sundry Australian indie creators. Colin Wilson stopped by, and so did Rhys McDonald. I finally got to meet Nic Hunter and he gave me some copies of his new book, YAMBA STRAIGHTS,  to sell. Nic and I had a good, if short chat about movies and our big new project and that was a real highlight.

Saturday night we found ourselves in the Homebush Bay Brewery  under the Novotel, across the road from Supanova, drinking with Rhys McDonald . The discussion ranged across a variety of geek topics, including DR WHO, Y THE LAST MAN, and THE WIRE. Brendan and Rhys got into a deep discussion about inking which went way over my head. Drinking by himself,  not a couple of meters away, was Scott Stapp, lead singer of the band Creed. You can see his funny inbred-looking face next to the guy with the yellow scarf and behind Rhys's head in the photo below. (Rhys is in the white shirt, flexing up). 



Sunday was a better-than-average day for con sales, but not good enough to make up for Saturday's dire performance. I had some good conversations with Tim McEwen (GREENER PASTURES), Chris Sequeira (SHERLOCK HOLMES: DARK DETECTIVE and MARVEL ADVENTURES), Komala Singh, Kylie Utz, Chewie Chan (MARVEL ADVENTURES), HAYDEN FRYER (BILLY DEMON LAYER)  and Jan Scherpenhuizen (TWILIGHT AGE). I also, briefly, got to meet Michael Michalandos (GREENER PASTURES). Apparently Chris Wahl was around, but I didn't see him. Marcelo Baez (DIABLA)  came by the table while I was away and unfortunately I missed him.

Sorry for the less-than-entertaining summary, dear readers. Rhys McDonald's far more entertaining writeup is here, as well as a veritable flickrload of photos:

http://www.the-plastic-age.com/?p=969

-- JF

 Two more Blackglass Press books reviewed at Indycomicreview.com:

HARD WORDS gets 3 stars:  and ROBOTS ARE PEOPLE #2 gets 4 stars.

Both are still available from http://www.blackglasspress.com.

-- JF

 
Hey, thanks for the kind words everyone.

I'm just back from Supanova after 6 days on the road and I'm not only exhausted but I seem to be running a fever. I need about fifty hours rest before normal service resumes.

Cheers,

-- JF

 
Coming in 2010 from Slave Labor Graphics, publishers of LENORE and JOHNNY THE HOMICIDAL MANIAC:

THE SIXSMITHS, an original graphic novel by Jason Franks and J. Marc Schmidt.

New strip today is called "Antichrist".

Off to Sydney for Supanova, I'll be back next week!

-- JF

 
I am headin off to Sydney for Supanova tomorrow. Once I leave  I will not be around until Tuesday next week. If you are in Sydney please come and say hello! Look for me at the Melbourne Indie Scum table with Matt Emery and Brendan Halyday. I will be selling Blackglass books, Sixsmiths preview ashcans, and later in the show I will also have copies of the ungodly-talented Nic Hunter's brand new book, YAMBA STRAIGHTS. I don't bite; that's what the leather mask is for. Look for us under the Blackglass banner.

Tomorrow: a new Sixmiths strip and, with luck, some excellent news. 

--JF

An essay that I wrote for the Australian Horror Writer's Association about the comics industry:

CREATING A GRAPHIC NOVEL: A PRIMER FOR AUSTRALIAN WRITERS

-- JF

 
SEAGUY VOL 2
I liked the first SEAGUY book. It didn't exactly make sense int he real world, but its own internal logic was rock solid, the storytelling was flawless and it had really interesting things to say about my old bugbear, the Hero's Journey and the structure of myth. Volume 2 picks up right where volume 1 left off and, while its rewards are a bit skimpier, it's just as much fun as the first one.  I find that I prefer Grant Morrison's miniseries to his bigger works. Grant, at his best, is a viciously clever and alarmingly sharp. At his worst he is self-indulgent, pretentious and repetitive. I love WE3 and  THE FILTH. ANIMAL MAN is interesting, but I think  he refined the ideas he presented there a lot better as he went along. THE INVISIBLES, dare I say it, is occasionally a work of genius but more often than-not get diluted into nonsense that I can only ascribe to a lack of discipline.

SEAGUY, I guess, is meant to be disposable pop superhero metafiction: something only Grant might conceive of, let alone manage to sell to a big publisher--twice. Great stuff. You need to read it.

LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLMEN: CENTURY 1910
The first non-DC volume of Alan Moore and Kev O'Neill's synthesis of pulp heroes from the ages into new stories. This one feels a bit redundant, though. Moore showed us what happens to most of these characters into the second half of the 20th century; booting them back to 1910 for connective-tissue story tying them back to the second miniseries feela  bit pointless. I'm not sure what the plan is--are Top Shelf going to publish more volumes of this quickly? This one seems all setup and minimal payoff. This book is a 'musical' in parts, working in Mack the Knife  from the Three Penny Opera. 

CAPTAIN AMERICA: THEATRE OF WAR
I admit, I picked this up because the art is by John McCrea. Paul Jenkins is a good writer, but I wouldn't have picked this one up just for him. And... man. I read the first few pages and I had to skim the rest and stare at the pretty pictures, this was so uninteresting.  I was at first a bit amazed to see John McCrea working so close to the house Marvel style--and the the inker changes three times through the book, and by the end of the story (I think inked by Victor Olazaba) the McCrea whose work I lknow and love is a lot more evident: thicker, more organic lines and syrupy-looking blacks. Not recommended.

INCOGNITO
Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips continue to make the exact kind of comics I want to read. This fourth issue of INCOGNITO is a terrific and this right now is the only book I go looking for as the issues come out. I don't think it's as strong as CRIMINAL, Brubaker and Phillips' other current (ongoing) project, but it's still the most interesting thing coming out of mainstream comics right now. 

BATTLEFIELDS: TANKIES #2
Gath Ennis and Carlos Ezquerra doing war comics; not a tough sell any way you stretch it. Terrific, no-bullshit, meticuolously-researched blood-and-guts war comics served with lashings of grim humor. Fantastic work by two of the absolute best in top form. 

-- JF

Clicky here, ye wicked; ye sinners:

http://www.thesixsmiths.com/wordpress/?p=186

-- JF

  

Things are quiet right now. I've been working away slowly ans teadily on a few things... some short scripts, the novella gig, lettering Sixsmiths pages... but I have nothing to show just yet.

I'm drawing my own story for Tango #9 this year. I've laid out 3/4 of the first page so far--3/4 because I've run out of 11x17" Bristol board and all I have left is a couple of pads of 11x14". The advertising industry went digital in this past decade and you now absolutely can not get Bristol board anywhere in Australia. Nobody imports it, no shops sell it.... and the American retailers who sell it online won't ship to Australia. I will probably ask sevenredblurs  to pony express some to me, but that will take weeks and I need to start this story now if it's gonna be done in time, so  will be piecing it together. But, let's face it, I was gonna have to piece the pages together anyway; I almost never manage to get eveyr panel on a page right first time and there are always redraws and fixes applied later.

I am actually planning on inking this story myself, too, which I am excited about even though I know it's a bad idea doomed to failure. Worst comes to the worst, I'll find a ringer or even submit the pencils direct--the added grit will probably serve this story well.

I will post some pencils and probably also some inks, when I get to that, so you can all watch me embarass myself.

Meanwhile, I need to go buy some new brushes. 

-- JF

 
Well folks, I wasn't expecting a good movie, I was expectign something on a part with T3...  but wow, SALVATION was a whole lot stupider than I could have expected.
( Bullets below the cut )

 
This week's strip written by our special guest Jen Breach:

http://www.thesixsmiths.com/wordpress/?p=181

Jen is best known for writing SAWBONES, illustrated by Trev Wood. SAWBONES is perhaps the webcomics to come out of Australia; you should all go and check it immediately. 

-- JF

 
The shocking conclusion of "Cocker Spaniel".

http://www.thesixsmiths.com/wordpress/?p=173

Make sure you tune in on for our regular Thursday episode, featuring a surprise guest writer!

-- JF

 
I will be exhibiting at Supanova Sydney, Australia's best known comics and pop culture show on June 26th-28th at the Melbourne Indie Scum table (booth c1). 

I will have all kinds of cool stuff for sale: Blackglass Press comics, including KAGEMONO, some of JMarc's 3RD BLADE minicomics, SIXSMITHS ashcans containing a chapter fop the GN that will not be published on the website.  I'll also have a big pile of MCBLACK pages for all you eager motherfuckers to look at. 

I'm sharing the space with the incorrigible Matt "Guzumo" Emery and the even-less-corrigible Brendan "Black Heart" Halyday. 

If you're in town come by and say hello! Look for me under the Blackglass banner. 

-- JF

 
This week's SIXSMITHS is up!

http://www.thesixsmiths.com/wordpress/?p=162

It's part 1 of a 2 parter--we will be running the second page next Tuesday, so next week you will get 2 pages of wickedness and evil the Sixsmiths way. 

Live wrong and prosper,

-- JF

Alex at Indycomicsreview.com has given us a four star rating for KAGEMONO #1.

http://speak.indycomicreview.com:42180/Default.aspx?tabname=Kagemono%201

I'm well pleased; I feel like Alex really got what we were going for in the book.

You can, of course, pick up a copy from http://www.blackglasspress.com... or at least read a couple of the stories for free. 

-- JF