jasonfranks

KAGEMONO: TOOTH AND CLAW, the biggest and baddest Blackglass book ever, is now available for purchase through the online store. 10 stories at 84 pages by 14 creators from 5 different countries (or 6 if you count me as a Jaapie). 

Purchase multiple copies today!

I'll soon have it available through amazon.com and Melbourne-local comic shops, and I will be selling the book at Armageddon this weekend.

Cheers,

-- JF

 

KAGEMONO: TOOTH AND CLAW is now complete and at the printer. (Yes that is a new cover).Fingers crossed, it should be available for purchase at Armageddon this weekend.
 

And don't forget the book launch on Thursday the 22nd of October 2009 at Loop Bar, Meyers Place, Melbourne 3000, Victoria, Australia.

Be sure to buy multiple copies!
 

-- JF

​

 Ladies and gents,

We have a bit of a book launch event coming up and you are all invited:

Blackglass Press, Milk Shadow Studios and Guzumo Comics are hosting party to launch their new books: KAGEMONO vol 2., YUCK! #2, THE GARBAGE TRUCK FAILURES, and EVERYTHING ENDS IN TEARS.

If you like comics, words, pictures, horror movies, music,  humour, or just some plain old fashioned drinking then this is the event for you!

Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=147449494267&ref=nf

http://www.blackglasspress.com
http://www.milkshadowstudios.com
http://www.guzumocomics.com

Your hosts: Jason Franks, James Andre & Matt Emery
Date: Thursday, 22 October 2009
Time: 19:30 - 21:30
Location:
Loop Bar
23 Meyers Place
Melbourne, 3000

-- JF

The new Blackglass Press KAGEMONO horror anthology is shaping up nicely; should be ready for print next month. The book will be an 84 page trade paperback featuring a cover by Nicholas Hunter and work by 12 indie creators:

"Trauma Ward", 8pp, by Percival Constantine and Carl Yonder "Yum yum, it's the end!", 5pp, by James Andres and Luke Pickett "The Devil's Vintner", 12pp, by Jason Franks and Renan L'Hopsum "Conspicuous Consumption", 6pp, by Justin Jordan and Yuriko Sekine "The Smart Toilet", 6pp, by Dino Caruso and Jeff Womack "Blood and Shadow", 8pp, by Jason Franks and Yuriko Sekine "Seen and Heard", 8pp, by Jason Franks and Carlen Lavigne "Chalx", 10pp, by Jason Franks and Brendan Halyday "Pretty Bird", 10pp, by Jason Franks and Richard Butler "Skin", 10pp, by Jason Franks and Nicholas Hunter

Werewolves, bad medicine, a cubano gangster under a curse, vampires, hoodoo blues, malicious ghosts, a closet that grants wishes, a chocolate apolcaypse, the world's smartest toilet, and necrophilia. Enough blood, cutlery,  viscera, depleted rounds and megalomaniacal laughter to choke a horse with a large and... somewhat unusual... apetite. 

Previews and ordering information to come in the following weeks.

Peace, love and head explosions, baby,

-- 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

 
Last night a friend asked me what the main project I was working on was, and I didn't have an answer--it varies from week to week. In the process of explaining this I became a bit startled by how buried I am in writing projects. Here's a quick rundown:

Prose:
Just submitted the reformatted Bloody BLOODY WATERS, with newly streamlined chapter 13. It's looking nice and svelte at 100,000 words.

FAERIE APOCALYPSE: Back onto that next month. The last chapter needs a new draft to bring it in line with the current state of affairs and then probably one more quick proofing before it's ready to submit.

Gotta knock out a new story, about 7000 words, for BADASS FAERIES 3. Not sure if Stevo is coing to cowrite or not this time. I've got the concept and the direction nailed down and I'll probably start next month.

Another novella I'll  be starting soon as I get details from the editor. 

XDA ZAI is backburnered until all fo the above are out of the way, although I did produce a short story for an anthology submission that will probably become a chapter last month. Can't wait to get back onto ithis.

Comics:
KAGEMONO is coming along nicely; I have about 60 pages in hand. Three more stories are in progress and the book will go to print once I have them.

MCBLACK: Dave is inking. All of the drawing is done on my end, I'm just doing final cleanup on the last 12 pages... fixing backgrounds or small details. 

THE SIXSMITHS: Cooking along. Look for the site to launch on the 30th, right about when we expect to brace the publisher. I'll be at Kinokuniya bookstore in Sydney on Free Comicbook Day (May 2nd) promoting the project.

DEUCE: is currently in Nic's hands. Don't have a deadline as yet, but I'm hoping I'll have some pages to show around at Supanova in June.

CERBERUS: Project with Tom Bonin that I've been keeping close to my chest. I just finished the first draft of #2. Tom will start drawing some sample pages soon as he gets caught up with his other obligations.

UNGENRED: Status unchanged. I will probably write one more short for this, but the material I already have is, I think, sufficient to complete the book. 

-- JF

I've been fairly quiet on LJ lately, but there's a lot going on. Here's a bit of an update on the main stuff that's underway:

KAGEMONO 
The 2009 book is logistically the biggest project I've worked on and it needs constant tending, but it's coming along well. Most of the artists are producing pages and I even have the cover underway before the last minute, for the first time in history.  This is also logistically the biggest project I have put together. Don't have a final pagecount yet, but it's going to be in the 70-90 page range. I'm not sure what to call this one, since it combines what was going to be the #3 and #4 issues (and then some) and I'm changing the format. Perhaps it will get a subtitle instead of a number. Not sure if this is it for Kagemono or not, but if it does continue it will be come an annual book. 

DEUCE
Should ramp this up in a month or so, once Nic finishes his obligations for Kagemono.

MCBLACK
I'm going through the last issue fixing problems in the pencils. At this point I've rethought and redrawn two entire pages and there's probably one more that needs similar treatment. I'm still way ahead of the inker, so I don't feel like I'm farting around too much. After 3 years I am quite keen to get the bloody thing out.

UNGENRED
Pencils for my story are finished, Cory Laub will do the inks. Renan just needs to put the greywashes on his triptych story.  That leaves one last story outstanding, which  J. Marc will be drawing.

THE SIXSMITHS
Marc is also working away drawing THE SIXSMITHS. It's coming along nicely and we'll be pitching it soon. I hope to launch the website simultaneously; more details ont he project when that occurs.

FAERIE APOCALYPSE
Making progress, but it's painful and slow. Final polishing is never fun, and this project in particular requires every bit of attention I can throw at it. I'm still in the third chapter, which has always been the longest and most complex part of the book.

And... some more stuff, some of which it's too early to talk about and some of which it's too late. But I think that's enough for thispresent moment.

I hope that's not too many plates int he air, but any way you spin it, it looks like I'll have a pretty big output this year.

-- JF

I haven't said much about KAGEMONO since #2 shipped last year, but I have been beavering away at this project  ever since and I have a lot more of in the works for 2009. And when I say a lot more, I mean a lot more.

At the moment there are 10 stories underway for the book. 5 different writers and 9 different artists, at least 80 pages of material... and, while it's still early to call it, I think  there's a good chance that number will rise.

I don't have a hard deadline at this point but I am hoping the first half of the year. These things are usually down to the wire, so I'm not yet willing to say what will and what will not be int he book at this point, but right now it's looking like a bit of a monster.

I think we're going to see a format change, too. My original intention was to publish 3 or 4 issues of KAGEMONO total, but with so much material I think I'm going to put it out as a trade. That means the book can be listed with Amazon and through various other internet outlets, and I will probably make an ebook version available as well (given the increased price point).

And there's something else: I was as gloomy as everybody else when Diamond raised its sales thresholds, but now that Haven and the smaller distributors have stepped up it actually feels as if the Direct Market has opened up to micropublishers like me. Diamond has raised their benchmarks twice since I've started publishing, and they wouldn't consider my work even before that... but now, I believe, there's a real possibility that my anthology books can available to the DM. 

-- JF

Lettered artwork for a 'Shadowmancy', a six page horror story that will run in Kagemono #1. Art is by the frankly amazing Nicholas Hunter.


( Shadowmancy pages 2-6 )

Seems like it's been ages since I put out a new book, although it's right about a year.  In any case, pages are coming in and I will be officially announcing two new Blackglass books when I launch the new version of the website.

I have previously mentioned the books in passing, so, unofficially, this is what they are:

ROBOTS ARE PEOPLE 2.0, a science fiction anthology with the theme of robots and artificial intelligence. RAP2.0 is edited by Greg Vondruska, and it's in many ways a continuation of his ROBOTS ARE PEOPLE, TOO book from last year. Contributors are Greg V, Lou Copeland, Mace Markham, Dan Boyd, Jason Maranto, Fran Matera, Gary Culler and myself.

KAGEMONO #1, a series of horror anthologies, edited and primarily written by myself. We're going everywhere here, folks, every subgenre, every type of horror: outer space, killer elves, ghosts, evil sorcerors, werewolves, the weird wild west, j-horror, santeria, the Outback, pop music... nothing is too nasty or too bleak or too disgustingly funny. I haven't quite settled the lineup for the first issue, but there should be a second issue to follow it fairly smartly. Artists and guest writers include, but are not limited to: J. Marc Schmidt, Justin Jordan, Nathan Wiedemer, Yuriko Sekine,  Luke Pickett, Nick Hunter, Colin Wells, Tom Bonin, Andrew Fulton, Cory Laub and myself.

Cheers,

-- JF