a bit of a new song

a friend asked for a bit of music for a trailer he wants to create for his recently released photography book. i had a few things around not quite finished, so i played around with one in Ableton Live 5, the coolest sequencer around (all the cool kids are using it) and glitched it up. almost all of it is one drum loop sequenced in Reason and then treated in different ways. check it out...

here's the song

local

Had a bit of a reunion of sorts this week. I did a pinup for the upcoming Oni series LOCAL. i did a book with the writer, Brian Wood back in 2001 called COUSCOUS EXPRESS (frankly the best turkish scooter mafia book you're likely to find). It was really the stepping stone for where i am today. So of course i'd agree to do a pinup.

what's a "spoiiler" ?

its days like this i really dislike the internet. I remember a time not too long ago when you could go to a movie and not know about an upcoming blockbuster until you saw the attached trailer. thanks to the internet people know too much and those with a little bit of knowledge are dangerous. where they can hide behind clever aliases and not feel accountable for what they say. their journalistic integrity so high, they can't bother to run spellcheck. they're the kids who sneak a peek at everybody's christmas presents and ruin the surprise for everyone. it makes me sad and angry all at once.

you(you know who you are)suck.

remix1

southland remix

starting next week, i'll start posting pages from Southland Tales, but the thing is they'll be comprised of random panels of my choosing hence the remix moniker.

ignatz nomination

cool. it looks as if my current mini-series THE SURROGATES has been nominated for the Ignatz award in "oustanding debut nominees" if you're not already reading it, here's some fine testimonials...

"Good science fiction is hard to come by, but Venditti's blend of technology, crime drama and social commentary makes for the most original sci-fi mythology in years. The Surrogates should satisfy your post-'Matrix' itch. Accept no substitutes!" -- Jake Rossen, Wizard

"I wouldn't be pushing the filmic correlation so strongly if I wasn't wholly convinced that this book is bound for the silver screen, and soon – I wouldn't even be surprised if it had already been optioned on the strength of the first issue alone." -- Gary Butler, Rue Morgue

"A classic sci-fi tale, in a similar vein to William Gibson or Harlan Ellison." -- Hilary Goldstein, IGN

"First-time comic writer Venditti flexes considerable storytelling muscle here, displaying a kind of storytelling confidence usually only seen in veterans like Moore and Gaiman. . The Surrogates #1 is a thoroughly impressive foray into the mainstream for Top Shelf, an engaging exercise both in idea-driven science fiction and confident storytelling." – Dave Howlett, Buzzscope

"This comic is a damn fine debut issue. . The Surrogates could easily be a blockbuster movie -- and one well worth seeing at that." -- Eliot Johnson, Broken Frontier.

holidays dont exist for freelancers

boooooo. A lovely labor day weekend spent working. actually pretty much every weekend involves working...name of the game and all that. worked on the aforementioned film festival poster all 3 days and still didn't finish it. the version posted here is "in progress."

i was going to do a "how to" and drag readers through the process. honestly i dont know how i did this one. Its a lot of give and take with me. put stuff in, take stuff out. i was always fascinated by those "how to paint in oils" or whatever books. it always seemed so easy. no questioning of color choice, design etc. just a simple step by step.

either those books have all the problems edited out or i'm making things difficult on myself.

"the rising" no more

i'm no longer going to use the title "The Rising" for my zombie graphic novel. When i named it awhile back, i had no knowledge of the Brian Keene novel. It seems its gaining popularity and just to avoid confusion and for my work to stand on its own i'm ditching the title. Its kind of a shame. the rising title worked two-fold. one, obviously for the living dead and two, for the main characters gain in celebrity.

Don't know exactly what i'm going to call it yet. i'm kicking around a few ideas. i'm tentatively putting it on the publishing schedule for oct 2006. i have to make a decision on that by years end if that's going to work. we'll see. It'll be manga sized like JULIUS was. i'll be posting the first few pages here soonish. to give you an idea of the books tone the tagline i came up with reads...

"UNDEAD...ITS THE NEW LIVING."

ayyaz asks...

"I was curious about something. For Southland Tales you mention that you're working off screenplays... So Richard wrote screenplays instead of "comic scripts"(if there's such a thing)?. I guess more importantly, how are you used to working? What does the artist usually get, since i'm assuming it's not screenplays. Am I right to assume that the ST prequel comics were entirely scripted out as screenplays, and then left up to the artists to interpret as you mentioned before?"

Richard wrote the first book as a screenplay, i haven't seen any of the others yet so i don't know there. There are quite a few places online and in print to see what comic scripts look like. Screenplays are mostly alike in their presentation, but depending on how comics writers work it varies greatly. Some write page breakdowns with temp dialogue and then write final dialogue based on the art. some write very detailed scripts describing what every panel should be (in film terms, its like a screenplay and shot list all in one). The big difference between screenplay and comic script is the delineation of pacing. How much information is covered page to page. comics storytelling gets complicated fast and i could sit around all day talking about it. here, how about i show you. there was an article recently where the writer of a book of mine called Surrogates talks about process. it has script to final art analysis and commentary from the writer on the process. Rob is one of the more detail oriented writers, which provides less freedom but also makes my job easier...so its a tradeoff. the pages featured are mimed so its 100 percent visual storytelling. the hardest kind i think.

http://www.comicfoundry.com/modules/wfsection/article.php?articleid=122

i've also been asked a couple times about where to find my books for purchase online. Amazon seems to have copies of COUSCOUS EXPRESS, JULIUS and SHOT CALLERZ available. SURROGATES is currently being released comic book style and is readily available through publisher Top Shelf's site(link is over on the right).
If you have a comic store nearby inquire there. All these books are in print and easily available.

questions answered

Gunji asked a few interesting questions in a previous post...

Q:Did you and the illustrators (I'm assuming there are more?) for the other novels work closely with Richard or get photoshoots or something?

A: No photoshoots. Richard went over what he was looking for early on. i'm drawing the actors in spirit, as doing exact likenesses brings in other people to approve and disapprove. We're keeping it simple. You could say i'm drawing the characters who resemble certain actors.

Q:Or do the novels take place so long before the movie that it's not really a concern?

A:i don't think that's really a concern, no, but the project has revealed certain situations. Despite all the freedom i have in interpreting Richards script, it also has to fit in the big picture. Its his vision, and i have to stay true to that. Having said that i get to put in little bits of myself in it too. Its sort of organic. Things change in the screenplay affecting what i do or have done in the comic. its not a perfect process. Concepts change, props change, actors change. You just have to roll with punches and forge ahead.

Q:Or is every illustrator coming up with his/her own unique style so it's totally different every time?

A: I honestly don't know.

If anyone has questions about anything really and they don't have a blogger account to post them, they can certainly email them to me and i'll answer them here as best i can.