Aberrant Press

I’ve been spending the last week writing a slew of posts about what is going on with DC Comics and the Before Watchmen books they are publishing. Before I could get around to finalizing and posting those, this happened. Click that link. It will detail how Marvel Comics not only legally won the rights to a character they didn’t create, but that the creator now has to pay them $17,000 in legal fees.

This post I had put on Erik Larsen’s link to the story sums up my feelings (edited slightly for this blog):

While legally their right to seek payback on their legal fees, I’d say that $17,000 for full legal ownership of a character they have made millions off of would have been enough of a bargain. Dick move, sirs. As someone who typically spends about $3,000 a year on comics, I just did the math and have decided to spend $17,000 less on Marvel Comics over the next eight years (even though this will initially hurt current creators more than the company). I think others should do likewise… Can we do a benefit book for him or something? A Kickstarter campaign?

Recently, while driving around with some people in my truck, I instituted a new rule: anyone who doesn’t like a song on the radio can essentially veto it, regardless of the opinions of others. They are only allowed to do this once in a 24-hour period to keep things from turning into a pissing contest. The first to take advantage of this was dismayed when couldn’t find anything else on the radio that might better fit his sensibilities.

Tonight, while working on a new book, the same guy was over helping to keep me on task. I had Pandora radio on and we were hit with a Willie Nelson song. He asked if he was allowed to use a veto, and I obliged. As I pressed the button to skip to the next song, he declared “I hate Willie Nelson!” Maybe he was asking for it… The very next song was another song by Willie Nelson entitled “Little Old Fashioned Karma”.

I commented that someone there must be some alien presence watching us for their entertainment.

Here’s a little old fashioned karma for you all…

Posted a few more products in the store. Desert Rose and Disposable Graffiti. That counts as being productive on the site, right? Well, if not, here is something I haven’t posted for a long time: the old-school trailer for the Desert Rose short film. The DVD for it will be the next thing I post up here, along with another short film we did entitled Nero Plays the Fiddle.

I’ve had a lot of people asking for updates on Super lately (and rightly so), and I really do apologize for not rendering them in a more timely fashion. The simple answer in regards to progress on the book is that there is progress, but the complicated answer is that it has been very slow-going. Up until this point I’ve held off on updates in the hope of showing you guys a slew of new pages that only Gilbert and myself had ever laid eyes upon previously, but I’m tired of waiting to show you finished work and I surely don’t want you to get tired of waiting, either.

Progress-wise, what we have is this: a lot of what is called the “flat color” on the book has been done. “Flat color” is basically a fill-in of the colors that will be used on a page. For example, coloring a shirt green. The shirt hasn’t had any effects added to it yet, but at this point it does have its base color. And that is how many of the pages are. This is actually a big step as far as the coloring process goes because it is the more tedious and usually more time-consuming part. It’s just not the sort of thing you usually want to show people because it is still not the finished product. Meanwhile, our colorist keeps getting pulled away to do work for Marvel Comics. It’s hard to get mad at a guy when that is his excuse for not working on your book. So right now we’re trying to be patient and explore our options for maybe bringing extra help on board.

In the meantime, here’s a little something to whet your beaks with. These are basically the next two pages in the story; the first pages of part two of the book. First, this is the text I had written for Gilbert back in the day. In the next update, I’ll show you what his pencil work looks like…

Thanks, as always, for your support and I can’t wait to get this book in your hands!

So it looks like the problem fixed itself. I guess changes to the site just need to be given appropriate time to take effect. This is what I get for pouring as little focus into web design as I can… That said, I’m going to get all our other stuff on here in the very near future and then get to the important task of a visual overhaul for the site.

In the meantime, here is a video of artist Jason Pearson doing a sketch: