Libre Tenebrae

THE SIXSMITHS in "Nepotism"

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 08:22:42 GMT

Thursday strip is up!

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

Click for your weekly dose of household Satanism.

-- JF

KAGEMONO #2 @ indycomicreview.com

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 12:02:28 GMT

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

THE SIXSMITHS in "Male Pride"

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:22:55 GMT

New strip is up:

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

-- JF

Supanova Report

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 08:04:44 GMT

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

Reviews

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 04:34:08 GMT

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

Thanks

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 12:44:55 GMT

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

THE SIXSMITHS

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 00:45:55 GMT

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

Quick Reminder

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 04:55:03 GMT

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

Comics Industry Essay

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 05:02:42 GMT

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

Comix Reviews

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 04:57:47 GMT

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

THE SIXSMITHS in "Dragons"

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 23:47:16 GMT

Clicky here, ye wicked; ye sinners:

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

-- JF

The black stuff

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 09:53:58 GMT

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

TERMINATOR: SALVATION

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 23:11:48 GMT

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.

Like the film makers, I don't really know where to begin. Contains spoilers.

Wow, it's sunny for a nuclear winter. And that radiaoactive fallout seems to hav
Sam Worthington: It's kind of cool to see another Aussie actor crack the big time. Like Anna Paquin and Hugh Jackman, he is good at looking intensely troubled but unable to sustain an American accent. I'm pretty sure he can't sing and dance, though.
If you are putting a human brain in a Terminator chassis, why in the name of fuck would you also include a human heart? Other than for the purposes of metaphor, I mean.
Skynet needs to upgrade the firmware that controsl the machines' targetting systems, Jesus Christ.
The 'machine killing signal' was a/ stupid and b/ obviously a trap.
Skynet needs to rationalize it's versioning system for the Terminators.
*John Connor is the Rush Limbaugh of post apocalypse America.
"Did my brother make it?" would have had a bit more weight if we could actually remember who he was. That sequence is so incoherent the only character that made any impression at all was the R. Lee Ermy CO. That's probably why the surviving brother forgot about it so quickly.
Man, the MATRIX sequels had better characters than this, and they were shite.
Not sure if the resistance or the machines are stupider in this film, but I I have a feeling it's the collective IQ of the screenwriters that should be called into question.
If the machines can jack directly into the network, why does Skynet need to build brightly-lit computer labs with swanky monitors and human interfaces?
Why is Skynet incapable of hooking its Terminators up to some kind of wireless network?
Why does John Connor, upon freeing the prisoners, tell them repeatedly to "get to the transport" when he arrived on a motorcycle?

-- JF

THE SIXSMITHS in "Satanster"

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 00:10:39 GMT

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 SIXSMITHS in "Cocker Spaniel" (part 2/2)

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 01:48:10 GMT

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

SUPANOVA

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 02:49:07 GMT

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

THE SIXSMITHS in "Cocker Spaniel" (part 1/2)

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 23:15:15 GMT

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

KAGEMONO #1 @ Indycomicsreview.com

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 23:59:52 GMT

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

Mouthing Off

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 05:24:34 GMT

I have been making a big effort not to write about politics on this blog lately, but I'm hearing some shit that is so stupid that I just have to pass comment.

GLOBAL WARMING ISN'T PROPAGANDA, IT'S YEAR 9 PHYSICS.
Let's ignore all the politics and interest groups and even the statistics showing melting polar icecaps and rising temperatures and even the scientific arguments abotu carbon dioxide: there are more people on this planet using more and more electricity every day and regardless of fuel source, every way that we have of creating electricity generates the same common by product: heat. That electricity is used to power lights and computers and cars and factories and air conditioing units, and they generate heat as well. Every energy transformation causes leakage, and in our domestic world that leakage is almost always thermal. Global warming is elementary physics.

THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION IS A THEORY. THE THEORY OF CREATION IS A MYTH.
The theory of evolution is based on scientific principle. Creationism, on the other hand, is religious dogma--moreover, it's religious dogma specific to only two or three Western religions--which makes it, by definition, myth to anybody who doesn't adhere to one of those religions. Myth and theory are not the same thing and they should not be treated the same way. If Judeo-Christian myth is going to be taught in science class then so should all the other religious cosmologies... and it shouldn't be called 'Science', it should be called 'Mythology'.

YOU CANNOT CALL YOURSELF A RIGHT-TO-LIFER IF YOU KILL PEOPLE WHO DISAGREE WITH YOU.
No further explanation required.

Any questions?

-- JF

The World Where I Live

Fri, 29 May 2009 06:37:59 GMT

A lot of people have recently asked me if I am still living in Australia.

Well, yeah. I do.

You've probably also heard me talk about the massive drought that we are suffering, and I know I've told a number of people overseas to refer to the MAD MAX movies if they want to see what it's like where I live. I know that most of my regularblog readers live in the States and I try to keep that in mind when I write, but sometimes I forget that most of you have no idea what Melbourne looks like. So here are some photos of m street. Sorry, stalkers (that's you, Smodie); my apartment is off the main street and you can't see it in any of these photos

Here are some photos of my street. Because of the climate here, everything greens up from just the tiniest bit of rain. It's late in autumn now, but Australian native plants keep their foliage through the winter.

We are starved for water, but it's a long way from being a desert wasteland populated by leatherclad biker mutant freaks...

Ok, I lied to you. There is at least one leather-mutant who lives in my street.

Hokay?

Hokay.

-- JF

kaboom

Thu, 28 May 2009 05:33:59 GMT

THE SIXSMITHS in "Husbandly Duties"

Wed, 27 May 2009 23:04:57 GMT

Today in The Sixsmiths we take a look at marital problems, Satanist style.

You vil klik mit zer maus:

http://www.thesixsmiths.com/wordpress/?p=160

-- JF

McBlack Cover Logo

Sun, 24 May 2009 05:30:39 GMT

Lads and lasses,

I'm looking for some feedback abotu the cover logo for my graphic novel McBLACK. I have it down to three candidates, love to hear which you prefer:


Wood Stamp MC	Wood Stamp UC	Gypsiero

The logos are out of the box fonts that I have stretched a bit in Illustrator, which is about as far as my graphic design skills go. Cover art is by Ron Salas, artist on the upcoming Image series EXISTENCE 2.0.

7 WTF Military Weapons They Actually Built

Fri, 22 May 2009 12:18:54 GMT

I'm the chairman of the bored today. Don't know why. But this awesome article on cracked.com entertained me for about 10 minutes:

http://www.cracked.com/article_17366_p2.html

Featuring some genuine What the Fuck? weapons of minimal destruction that were actually built (although most of these did not, ahem, make it into service), including a Russian tank with screws instead of treads, a German helicopter with ramjets on its rotors, and a Vespa with a sodding great artillery piece instead of a seat.

And you thought Warren Ellis had some crazy ideas...

-- JF

THE SIXSMITHS in "Enemies"

Thu, 21 May 2009 00:36:59 GMT

In today's Sixsmiths, Ralf Sixsmith goes for a job interview.

Click go the mice, people:

http://www.thesixsmiths.com/wordpress/?p=156