It's Just Lines on a Page, Dude...

Out Wednesday May 20 at finer comics peddling establishments -- NYX: No Way Home the premier hardcover. Offered in both handsome LCS-friendly edition and plucky mass-market edition (pictured below).

Strange, how flipping through this handsome volume, I don't feel at all what I felt flipping through the individual issues as they came out. That is, I don't feel like I'm being bayonetted in the side with each flip. Instead, enough time has passed that it just looks like comics to me.

The title of this blog post is something our resident studio zen master has been known to utter, particularly when I get worked up over the minutia of knuckle-structure, or some other such thing. Flipping through this volume, it's obvious he's right.

The Final Countdown...

Well kids, this is it. The final issue of NYX: No Way Home hits stands today.

What a bizarre little rodeo it's been. If I could do it over, I'd probably do, oh... everything differently, but that's the beauty of monthly comics: no looking back, only forward, soldier, onward and upward. There really is no better type of work to kickstart evolution when you're too self satisfied and/or too caught up in your own bullshit.

To celebrate the occasion, my co-conspiritor Marjorie Liu is blogging short "look back" interviews all this week with various members of the creative team. Today happens to be my turn. If you were ever curious about my cats (and why wouldn't you be?) you can finally satisfy yourself by clicking on over there.

What's next for your humble narrator, you ask? You mean other than going outside and talking to other human beings for a change? Right now I'm working on a new D&D book, a piece for the Darkstalkers Tribute Book out in a few months, and the first of what looks like a new regular cover gig. More in this space when They let me talk about it.

Also NYX: No Way Home will be collected in a hardcover edition, which is royalty, er, I mean royally amazing!

Up next: My NYC Travelogue!

Shazap!

So under the gun...

That's where I've been, under a big, black, heavy gun.

While doing a bit of, um, research today I stumbled across this video review for NYX #1, so I thought I'd throw it up here so there'd be something this month.

This guy says some really nice things about Marjorie, and about Joe Q, and, well, everyone but me...

But who has time to be bitter when you're wrestling guns?



Also: Best song ever. For now.



Also also: Redecorated.

A note on the scarf...

So I received a letter from an NYX reader with an unusual question today. He was kind enough to let me post his email, along with my answer, which will hopefully serve to allay any similar concerns anyone out there may have.

The email:

Hello Kalman,

I just picked up the latest issue of NYX, in which you were the artist, and was a little concerned to see Kiden wearing a keffiyah, a show of solidarity with Palestinian terrorism. Was this your intention or is this a misunderstanding?

I look forward to hearing back from you
-Dan

And my response:

Hey Dan,

Thanks for picking up the book, and for writing.

There is absolutely no political agenda at work here. Whatever the keffiyah may mean to Palestinians, or to you, or to Israelis etc., it's undeniable that here in North America it has become a ubiquitous fashion item among urban teen hipsters. I'm not really able to speak for said hipsters, but I'm certain 99% of them are against terrorism of any kind, Palestinian or otherwise. As am I, for the record.

My decision to dress Kiden in this scarf, simply boils down to the fact that she is an urban teen hipster, and I made her fashion choices reflect her time and her subculture. It's pretty safe to say that if asked, Kiden would have no sympathy for terrorism in any form. Furthermore, she, like most urban teen hipsters, would probably be unaware and unconcerned with the issues of the Middle East, and probably equally unaware of the origins of, what to her and her peers, is an apolitical fashion accessory.

All the best,
-Kalman

And there you have it.

This is the day, this is the hour...

This is it kids! Out this Wednesday August 6th at your LCS (as the nerdvine calls it -- see how I did that?), NYX: No Way Home #1.

Pick it up, give it a flip, let me know how you like it.

You saw it here first...!

...unless you didn't.

Presenting the lovely variant cover for NYX #1 by the equally lovely and talented Jo Chen...

*Drool* Yet another excellent reason to buy this book, people.

In other news I'll be at the Paradise Toronto Comicon this coming weekend of July 12th and 13th. It's being held at the Holiday Inn on the corner of King and Peter St. Come by, say hi, and thumb through an issue+ of yet unseen NYX art.

NYX preview art

At last! Huzzah! W00t w00t!








All right, all right. I know I promised you art here first and then got scooped by Newsarama, but look there's art here now. All of the art from that interview, in fact. Which, incidentally, seems to have vanished off the Newsarama servers, at least for today.
But you gotta cut me some slack, because the reason I haven't been posting, is that I've been drawing, and really, you'd rather have me doing that, wouldn't you?

So here I am working hard to save you clicks. And if you did click over there and find nothing but red X's where the art should be, well I sincerely apologize on behalf of Newsarama.

But we're still friends, right?

More NYX Press, this time with art...

A whole new interview about NYX, with pretty much everyone involved in it but me (not bitter, just sayin'), just went up at newsarama.com. Check it here.

The best part is that they posted like 6 pages along with it. That last one I handed in just yesterday...

Some NYX Press...

IGN has posted a brief roundtable interview with the whole NYX 2.0 gang. Check it here.

No new art there though.

Just sayin'.

For that you're going to have to keep on coming back here.

NYX in NYC

So I'm back from New York in one piece (mostly).

It was announced Friday at the Mondo Marvel panel that there is a new NYX series slated for August release, and that I'm doing it. The preview page above was colored by the magnificent John Rauch, who will be coloring the entire series, and the writer is Marjorie Liu, a paranormal romance author new to comics. You can find out more about these fine folks under the collaborators heading.

I'm a good chunk into issue 1, and I'm finding the nuts and bolts of this project to be satisfying in a way that none of my previous work-for-hire has been. I guess I just find cute, hip teenage girls more fun to draw than angry men punching each other. Who knew?

The whole studio went down, and we even arranged a few days on either side of the show to spend some time in New York. Last year we did the usual con hit-and-run thing, hardly left the vicinity of the Javitz, and came home asking ourselves if we'd even been to New York.

Some highlights of awesome from the trip:

• Porter airlines- Upstart commuter airline flying out of downtown Toronto. We decided to give it a try. No $50 cab ride to the sticks, no line ups, no bullshit, complementary wi-fi and continental breakfast in the lounge, as well as fantastic graphic design. A++
  
• Clement Sauve's Pantheon City Pencils- I could have spent all three days just staring at them.
  
• Drinking with Kwanza- I could elaborate here, but it's very simple really, Dude introduced us to some fantastic people, and some fantastic bars.
• Galaxy Rangers out on DVD- We never got this in Canada, but every visit to the states I made sure to catch an episode. Now I can have them all.