Up Jumped the Devil!

It's been almost a year in the makin', but it's finally startin' to take shape. I'm a firm believer in when it's right, it's right and boppers, it's right right now! What the hell am I talkin' about, you ask?

Almost a year ago, while attending SPACE in Columbus, Ohio, while on the lookout for indy books, I came across the table of Robert "Hollywood" Swinton and snatched up a copy of his latest comic "Blow." There were other books I picked up that were pretty cool, like "Sgt. Death," probably the angriest war comic I've ever read, and Craig Bogart's "The Ineffables" , but there was something about "Blow," particularly it's main character, a jazz trumpeteer/fix-it-man named Big 'Fro Brown.

A few weeks passed and I emailed Hollywood like a shameless fanboy, praising the book and asking him if he'd mind if I did a few pin-ups of Big 'Fro. He was gracious enough to let me. I did a few of them, including a Shaft-esque tribute, one of which can be seen here, with colors provided by Mr. Mad Skills Joe Fuentes.

I decided to press my luck and ask him if I could draw a Big 'Fro story and he surprisingly gave me free reign. The result was a twelve page featurette called "Up Jumped the Devil," but the more I played with the script, the more it begged to be a full twenty-four page story, so the featurette was retitled "Sweet Black Angel," and dubbed part one of "Up Jumped the Devil," with part two being titled "Down on the Killin' Floor." Confused? Wait, there's more.

I've also managed to reign in the skills of four other incomperable individuals to assist in the book. Joe Fuentes will be handling the colors or gray tones for the cover, depending on how we want the cover to look. Bill "Inkslinger" Wilkison, a visual racontuer in his own right, will be handling the inks to part one. You can see Bill's work over my pencils to your left. Part two will not only feature the inking prowess of Mike Indovina, a man not afraid to use actual India ink and actual brushes, but his masked mysteryman the Chimera as well. Finishing up this quartet of talent, "Up Jumped the Devil" will be lettered by self-proclaimed luddite Nik "Rennaisance Man" Havert of Pickle Press. I tell you what, with friends like these guys, who could call this work?

So keep it here, boppers, for all the latest news. Check back periodically so you've got something really cool to discuss around the water cooler while all the other losers are talking about what happened on "Lost." And don't forget to tell your friends and leave us your comments.

Peace!