Arvid @ reddit, Sonja Time
A little late notice (aheh), but I'll be on "IAMA" on reddit in a half-hour, talkin' and jawin' about Red Sonja. I'll be lurking all day.
Direct link to the reddit post right here.
Thanks to comixology for putting it all together. They're doing a Red Sonja sale right now, check it out!
Out: Dejah Thoris #3 and Queen Sonja #16
The first installment of my latest Queen Sonja arc is out in the wild. The return of Thulsa Doom! I wrote this exactly a year ago, so weird people only get to read it now. Edgar Salazar is the artist, and he's just great – I wish he had his own Web site. Page 8 is my favorite thing about this issue, when Thulsa makes a big discovery. Potentially a spoiler, so click on the deliberately vague thumbnail below to check it out. If you dare.
Also out this week: Dejah Thoris #3. This one seems to be really burnin' up the stands; thanks to everyone who gives it such rave reviews! Plus, two of my favorite covers by Joe Jusko and Paul Renaud so far.
Carlos keeps slaying the interiors – page 4 is my favorite from this issue. Also a little bit of a spoiler, another "big reveal", heh...
Blizzarvid
It's weird. I'll write a couple of issues over six months or so, and then they all hit the stands at the same time. For some reason. This is one of those months.
Dejah Thoris #2 came out yesterday. Carlos Rafael is doing a bang-up job on the art, and what a terrific chap! I managed to track him down through email, which made my month. The great Paul Renaud is blowing me away with his front covers for this series.
Next week it's Queen Sonja #16 (I think, I hope), and Warlord of Mars #6. Joe Jusko is doing amazing wrap-around front covers for Warlord. Every single one is a fresco on the Sistine Chapel of my heart. I love the Lynda Carter look he gives Dejah.
Sales of all the above are really strong. Reviews are great. What can I say? For the first time in my "professional" life, I feel like I'm on top of the tiger. I am so grateful to Joe and Nicky at Dynamite for pulling together so many fantastic cover artists, for committing so fully to Mars. No wonder they're burning up the market share. They were smart enough to hire me!
Calling Carlos
One of the best things about writing comics is the many fantastic artists I get to work with. Case in point: Dynamite paired me with Carlos Rafael for the Dejah Thoris series debuting in March.
Just saw the first batch of pages for Issue 1, and they look absolutely stunning. Carlos's drawing of Valian, a character from the series, is exactly how I imagined him. It's rare for an artist's version of a character to match my mental image so perfectly.
I can't actually share these pages, of course, or Dynamite would hunt me down and eviscerate me with a sugar spoon sharpened to a dull edge on dog poop-smeared concrete. But I can show Carlos's concepts for some of the main characters. Click for bigger versions, sort of NSFW:
I love his take on Dejah Thoris. Carlos is from Brazil, and to me Dejah looks very Brazilian. His Mors Kajak and Tardos Mors, Dejah's father and grandfather, are equally Brazilliant, like they're ready to jump into a cage with Wanderlei Silva (as soon as they both get haircuts).
I've been trying to hunt Carlos down, but I haven't had any success, aside from the link above (here it is again) to a little bio page and some of his art. So all I know about him, aside from his prodigious talent, is that he looks kind of like Lyoto Machida, and he lives in Rio.
I did find a video of Carlos, in which he speaks entirely in Portuguese. One can only guess at the torrent of wisdom spilling from his mouth.
And that's all I know, sadly. Sometimes – a lot of times – artists working in far-flung hemispheres will work through a studio that acts as a sole intermediary between the publisher and the artist. That's the case for Carlos, it seems.
Carlos! If you're reading this, know you've got a fan for life in me. It's an honor and a pleasure to work on Dejah Thoris with such a talented chap. I only hope your studio realizes what a gem they have. Either way, you're going to be a great success.
I’m Dynamite!
The second issue of my adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs's Mars novels hits stores today. It's only $1, same as Issue 1. Things from Another World is selling them both for 80 cents a piece. That's far less than the cost of your favorite premium caffeinated beverage from from Starbucks™, and ZERO CALORIES.
Can you afford not to buy them? At the very worst, you can use the paper as inexpensive kindling, or packaging. But you won't want to. You'll want to build a gigantic, hermetically sealed underground vault and store these issues there for your great grandchildren.
And I'm back for more Queen Sonja – a new five-issue story arc by moi debuts in January. The return of Thulsa Doom! I really love the front cover for the first issue; Fabiano Neves is the artist. You just can't beat Brazil when it comes to heavy metal music, no-holds-barred fighting and comics. Really happy with how this series is shaping up.
Arvid Nelson (me!) is a comic book writer, responsible for Rex Mundi and Zero Killer, among other things. I live in Northampton, Massachusetts with my lovely wife. more...Coming Up
- Feb. 15: Dejah Thoris #10