Nanowrimo and My Comic Book Projects

I'm writing comic scripts for Nanowrimo. Here is what I've been working on.

Zephyr & Reginald: Minions For Hire in The Womens Issue: This will be issue 4 of our full-length comic. It's a superhero comedy that tells the seldom-told tale of the villains' henchmen. This issue features a variety of romantic plotlines. A superheroine decides that minion Reginald is her boyfriend (he remains blissfully unaware of this), while Zephyr is afraid that another of the Legion of Girls might have developed a romantic interest in him! But could there possibly be romance in store for Doctor Despot? Also, the minions attend a supervillains convention. The smell of love is in the air in Issue #4, and it's making everyone giddy! Or is that the smell of chloroform? To be illustrated by my lovely wife, Gynn Stella Silva. Probably won't be released until 2010, but Issue #3 ("Giant Spider!") will be out in the Spring of 2009.  

Kaeli & Rebecca in Reflections: Kaeli & Rebecca is a magical fantasy story about two adventurers on a quest to defeat an evil undead wizard, and it's also the story about how two people with different outlooks on life and death can learn from each other and stand together for what is right. In their first full-length comic, Kaeli and Rebecca encounter their evil twins from the Mirror Dimension. But is an evil twin really always evil? A different kind of doppleganger story. Artist Katrina Joyner will be illustrating this one. To be released sometime in 2009.

The Hearth: A fantasy-setting soap opera comic strip. Tells the story of a young barmaid in a small village, and the stranger who comes to town. Illustrated by Gynn Stella Silva. The Hearth appears in my print zine, Caravan. Might either publish it online or compile it once enough strips have been done (there are 15 finished so far).  

Net-Think: Title is subject change. This a new idea. It's my concept for a webcomic that could be done with minimal art. Only two characters: An unnamed computer user, and a self-aware sentient internet (basically dialogle balloons coming from the computer). This isn't necessarily going to be super-groundbreaking, but it will be a chance for me to do jokes that are in my head about technology, politics, geekdom, etc. The artwork will get reused each time. My friend Joe McGlone has offered to draw the initial pics. I've only got four scripts so far, so I might abandon this if it looks like I don't have enough good ideas. If I do move forward with it, it'll be a webcomic.  

Stone: A low-magic fantasy story about a warrior woman who, well, who looks the part. You know, instead of looking like a lingeree model like every other female warrior in fantasy comics does. Stone is a military/political fantasy story about the retaking of a kingdom from an unjust ruler. I think the tagline is gonna be "A Heroine You Can Believe In". It's a project very dear to my heart, and I'm still looking for the right artist to draw it. No release date. It will be a six-issue series, with the possibility of further stories to come.

Those are the comics I'm working on as part of my 50,000 words in November. I have several other comics projects in the works:

Orcish Love Story: An Irish love ballad adapted to orcs. I'm in the process of working things out with an artist (Silvercat) for this minicomic. Will hopefully be published in early 2009.

Perils of Picorna: A manga style fantasy comic about a young priestess who investigates a mystery that leads to, well, much imperilment. This is girl-powered manga meets religious intrigue on the set of a 1930s-style cliffhanger serial. I'm co-writing this with Amy Kaczmarowski and Sarah Bowman is doing the art. We'll be releasing a 12-page preview book in early 2009 and a full-length issue a few months after that. It will be a six-issue series, with the possibility of additional series to follow.

Knifeclaw Company: A science fiction epic written and drawn by my wife, Gynn Stella Silva. Will be a webcomic and then compiled into a series of 64-page graphic novels. I'm co-editing and doing a little bit of writing. Gynn is currently writing scripts for the second volume of this as her nano project. We hope to have the webcomic online sometime in 2009.

Michael's Story: Another one that I'm just onboard as an editor. Laura Cushing is writing and C.R. "SpiderTeo" Teodoro is illustrating this drama series about a young musician. We'll have a minicomic out in early 2009, to be followed by a full-length comic. This will be an ongoing series of short stories.

Two Trolls: This was a webcomic idea that I have played around with. It's another "same art every time" comic. The characters are a pair of trolls on guard duty. I wrote a couple of scripts, and then found myself running low on good ideas so I put it aside. I might still do something with it if I get some more inspiration. If so, it might get added to the nano lineup above. No idea on artist, but I have a couple of people who could do it.

Akashik: This is Katrina Joyner's webcomic project, with the collections published in regular comic format. I've joined their crew as a dialogue writer. My stuff is not yet online, but will be arriving eventually. You can find the webcomic here. So there you have it. I'm really hoping to see many of these projects come to fruition in the coming year. Now back to scripting!