I thought my fellow artist friends might want to check out Jean-Baptiste's new gallery detailing the progression of the cover of Clockwerx volume 1. It is really cool. As I stated on my facebook page, we are lucky to have him as our artist and compatriot on Clockwerx.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=79121&id=43556458689&ref=nf

If this link doesn't work, I will ask if I can post some of the pics here on my LJ.

We finished our Lite (99 cent) version of our app and put it up. It has a kind of holiday theme, but it was inspired by a certain zombies in a mall movie some of you may have seen. It is my favorite level visually and Rain's holiday music will get stuck in your head for days. If you are looking for some late holiday fun, only want to spend 99cents on an app, or if you just want to smash zombies in a mall after dealing with holiday crowds, this is the way to do it.

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=300756425&mt=8

So the first game I have worked on as lead designer (and sound designer, production worker, and sometimes producer)is finally available for download on the iTunes App store!!!

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=299230440&mt=8
http://www.aim4thebrain.com/

This is a really cool day! We had an awesome team on this, and I am really proud of everyone. My good friend Phil was lead programmer and he really rocked it out. Phil (and Ken Cobb) gave me my first job in the games industry back in 1996 and we have been great friends sense then. Billy G. really rocked the art out! He is great friend, as well as the drummer and visionary behind all of our Deserts of Mars flyers ( http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/album.php?aid=48205&id=27708592553&ref=mf ). His studio ( http://www.perfectdorkstudios.com/ ) is doing some really cool stuff! Rain (my amazing wife!) did some really cool tracks that make the game even better.

It's our first iPod game (hopefully one of many) and I am super psyched. If you are a fan of zombies, whack-a-mole style arcade games, or just want to see cool zombie art, we have you covered if you have an iPod Touch or iPhone!

Hope you dig it!!!

Whoa! After years of waiting, the book actually exists!!

http://www.amazon.fr/Clockwerx-1-Gen%C3%A8se-Jean-Baptiste-Hostache/dp/2731619333/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1227367562&sr=8-1

People are ordering it, reviewing it, etc. super awesome!!
It is a bit bittersweet though.
1)The first printing of the cover is a misprint (names spelled wrong and the colors are not final). It will be fixed in the reprints, so the first ones my become collector's items! Humanoids has been very cool about the cover mistake, and the rest of the volume is all good.
correct art can be seen here:

http://www.objectible.net/forum/showthread.php?p=914023

2)Jason and I aren't doing the rewrites to condense the book from 2 to 3 volumes. (long story on that one!)

On a positive note, Jean-Baptiste's art is phenomenal, and he is a super great guy. We are hoping to work together on future projects. That would be cool.

We are hoping that books 1 and 2 do well enough that Devil's Due puts it out in the US.

I'm excited!! It has been a long journey to get here! We started this project in 1999 as a screenplay, and signed on for the book in 2001 or 2002 (I have to check on when that was exactly). Humanoids stuck with us and we stuck with them, and we lucked out in getting Jean-Baptiste. I'm proud of the team and I have high hopes for book 2!

Rock on!!

Awesome!

My awesome friend Hiro (one of the coolest friends I met in college, and we still stay in touch) just sent me an email updating me that he saw our books in ebook format. It's kind of cool. I have no idea how well they are doing, but it's still neat to see. I need to check and see what other books are up there and if their names are changed at all. Sigh, I wish my Japanese wasn't so crappy.

Not sure why the name is "The Deceptions". What an odd choice. It's still neat though.
Check it out!

--------------------------
Just found out that TP is promoting "Global Manga" in this major manga
downloading website called "ebookJapan".
...And, guess what I bumped into.
"Psy-Comm" !

http://www.ebookjapan.jp/entamap/title.asp?titleid=9044&genreid=28025

Though its title has been changed to "The Deceptions", the credits are
all listed properly with names in Katakana as "Jeison Hendaason",
"Toni Sarubaggio", "Sheen Gurenjaa", and "Ramanda Karumaga" ;)
Vol.1 and Vol. 2 are uploaded for JPY 420 (around US$4) each.
----------------------
Thanks again to Hiro!!

As an aside.. Maybe it is just the call of badly translated Fist of the North Star packages and other literal translations, but I think the google translations of the synopsis are interesting in their own ways. I think the translator messes up mine and Shane's names though.

The resistance war DISEPUSHONZU-deception (1) Jason Henderson, Tony Granger Shane SARUVAJJIO
War, it was the ultimate TV show. The near future, the world is to manage the corporation for the state of war, even in a state of confusion, in order to earn the ratings plan was to run only on TV shows. Stars of the best fighters in the war coverage, the super-power "Psychic command"?? Aka "Cy-com". Ried mark in the history of the Cy-com and should be the best young fighters. But the tragedy of the past and marks a chance encounter with the enemy, made his life suspected initiate everything. Marked by its ability to predict looked at the battlefield of the future ...? SF Psychic ultimate action!

Book2
Com EREKUTOROMEDIA rhinoceros in the country is called the most powerful superstar in the name of Mark would have to leave the refugee determination as to follow the path of escape. To go with her former Cy-com enemy, Snow! EREKUTOROMEDIA try to cope with the situation and send all the assassins. Among them is a good friend of mine, David was an image of comrades! Through the pursuit of the assassin, to visit the countries involved in the plot, while Ichiro Mark, "Wild Land" was the aim. SF Psychic serious action, rapid deployment of shock!

I am totally fascinated with abandoned towns and cities and the like, and this really got my creative juices flowing. The article is kind of a pain to navigate, but there are some super cool photos.

http://weburbanist.com/2008/10/19/ghost-town-abandoned-city-examples-images/

I was so mad when they used Centralia for the Silent Hill movie, as I was formulating a pitch for a story set there. Kudos to the writer for finding the perfect US town for Silent Hill though.

Once again Alan (gothamajp) put me on to some new features. So, I thought I would test it out...



I was looking over the comments. This one made me kinda smile:

"good but needs an emo other than that its grate
KITE666"

I thought Mark was angsty enough... :)

Finally finished putting up the Feb. gig on the site.
http://www.youtube.com/user/DesertsofMars

It was the first time I was playing with my new bass (I really dig it).
The crowd was great and it was fun. I wish we had a couple of our recent gigs taped.
I might put some older videos up in the near future, but I have to do editing to cut the video up into songs.
Rock on!

So we have a fan page now...

http://www.new.facebook.com/pages/Deserts-of-Mars/27708592553?ref=mf

For my artist friends, most (if not all) of Billy's awesome flyer work is up. The characters there will be in comics and other media as soon as we can get that out there.

I should be posting videos soon since I have the new Deserts of Mars Youtube channel.

http://www.youtube.com/user/DesertsofMars

I hope that I can get all the video from our Feb. show up there soon. I have a long weekend and I am going to try to get some odds and ends like that done and out of the way.

Rock on!
-TS

Thanks to the awesome Alan Porter (local writer and all around super cool guy) we have a link to Psy-Comm in Turkish. We found out about it in our last royalty report, but the publisher that was listed came up as a Russian publisher when I tried to google it. A month or two ago, I found out it was actually Turkish and not Russian. Alan got a friend to search around, and here it is!

http://www.alfakitap.net/index.php?p=show&pid=82772&k_id=408&kn=408


Neato! I wish I could read reviews, or maybe I don't even want to. I tried to find a page for Psy-Comm in Croatia (Coming soon I hope), and I used an online translator. On this forum, from what I could tell, it seemed like I had stumbled across another debate on whether our books are any good since they are from the US. I can't be positive, since online translators are pretty bad, but if it was such a debate,jeez.....

Sigh, and now my main computer here at home has started randomly shutting down. I'm double backing stuff up and hoping to not take it into a shop. I love computers and at the same time, I think I have an EMP pulse that makes them hate me or something. :( I need this computer to start work on a new project that requires lots of horsepower like this machine has. GRRR...

Oh yeah, plug for Alan:
http://godshopmanga.com/
http://alanjporter.com

Damn it rocks! I'm not a big cover tunes guy, but this would be one I wouldn't mind doing.

I forgot to post this earlier, Hope to see some friends for some great coffee and conversation!

Media Advisory

Areas of Interest: Books, Features, Calendars

The Writers' League of Texas Presents

Beyond the Strip:
Inside the World of Comics, Manga, & Graphic Novels

Date: Thursday, Aug. 21

Time: 7:30 pm

Location: Spiderhouse, 2908 Fruth, Austin

Admission: Free

For more information: Contact the Writers' League of Texas,
512-499-8914 or wlt@writersleague.org

One of the hottest areas in publishing is comics, graphic novels, and manga. Paul Benjamin heads up a panel of writers and artists in the field to offer an insider's look at the popular art form and the creative process. Panelists include Scott Kolins, Alan Porter, Tony Salvaggio, and Matt Sturges, and "Geeks With Books" columnist Rick Klaw will moderate.

This event is open to the media.

Media Contact: Cyndi Hughes, Executive Director, 512-499-8914 or
Cyndi@writersleague.org



About the Panelists:

Paul Benjamin is a writer, editor, and video game producer whose Tokyopop manga series, Pantheon High, debuted at New York Comic Con 2007. Paul has developed comics-to-film projects for Hollywood, produced video games, edited graphic novels for Humanoids/DC Comics, and is currently writing Marvel Adventures Hulk. He's also producing video games for Austin-based Amaze Entertainment.

Tony Salvaggio has been an almost life-long fan of anime and manga. He has worked as an artist, animator, and designer in the video games industry. He is currently co-writing Psy-Comm (an original graphic novel series for Tokyopop) as well as the anime/manga influenced story "Clockwerx" (for Humanoids Publishing). As a freelance journalist, Tony has penned the column "Calling Manga Island" for Comic Book Resources, and worked on various video game and manga related writing projects. When he isn't playing with his band Deserts of Mars, he regularly hosts movies and events related to martial arts, sci-fi, and horror from the East in Austin. He is fueled by music, coffee, Big Red, video games, and his passion for all things anime and manga is only excelled by his quest to become King of the Monsters.

Alan Porter, writer and pop-culture historian, writes about comics as well as writing a few himself. His current project is God Shop for Tokyopop (coming later this year), and his book on the history of James Bond in comics will be in stores in October. He also writes promotional comic books for a variety of companies.

Matt Sturges writes several books for DC Comics, including House of Mystery, Blue Beetle, and the Eisner-nominated Jack of Fables (with Bill Willingham). His first novel, Midwinter, will be published by Pyr Books in 2009. Matthew lives in Austin with his wife and their two daughters.

Scott Kolins was raised in central Wisconsin. After high school and one year of college, Scott attended the prestigious Joe Kubert School of Cartoon Art and Graphic Design and has studied art and the craft of comics under: Dennis Jensen, Bart Sears & Kim DeMulder. He has been a freelance artist for 18 years working with: Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Malibu Comics, Dark Horse Comics, Image Comics, Valiant Entertainment, Wizard Entertainment, Random House Publishing & Lucas film. For the past five years Scott has been under contract to either DC Comics or Marvel Comics and has worked regularly on titles such as: The Flash, The Avengers, Green Lantern, Superman-Batman, Wonder Woman, Marvel Team-Up, Thor, and Omega Flight. He is currently under Exclusive Contract with DC Comics working on Final Crisis: Rogues Revenge and will next join the Superman team for their next story in Action Comics. Scott moved to Austin two years ago with his wife Kim, three children, and dog.


# # #

The Writers' League of Texas is a nonprofit professional organization whose primary purpose is to provide a forum for information, support, and sharing among writers, to help its 1,500 members throughout the United States improve and market their writing skills, and to promote the interests of writers and the writing community. Among the League's signature initiatives are the annual Writers' League of Texas Agents and Editors Conference, Poetry Out Loud, Project WISE, and the Sul Ross Writing Academy, along with ongoing workshops and classes. For more, visit the League's Web site at www.writersleague.org

We're now in the online catalog on Humanoid's French site.

http://www.humano.com/catalogue/fiche/id/35519

Super sweet!!
Man, I really need to fast track my part of book 3!
Hopefully we can get published by Devil's Due eventually. I'm crossing my fingers that Clockwerx is well received.

Well, according to my sources, a couple of booksellers, and even Amazon.fr, Clockwerx should be out in France in October. (Friends in Europe take note!)

http://www.amazon.fr/Clockwerx-T01-Henderson-Salvaggio/dp/2731619333/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1218600035&sr=8-1

I guess it got pushed back from this month after all. After working on the book off and on since 2000-2001, I suppose I can wait a couple of months extra. Jean Baptiste is working on book 2 and it is looking super cool so far. Hopefully we can finish it all up by the end of next year. I haven't heard if Clockwerx is supposed to be part of the Devil's Due deal, but I am keeping my fingers crossed. In the meantime here is some cool art that JB did for fun. I am really in love with how he drew Molly Vane (our main female protagonist and the main engineer for the Clocks. She is also from Texas, although I don't know if that comes up in the first story arc) She rocks!

According to the head honcho of Humanoids, we're still on track!

http://www.newsarama.com/comics/080801-HumanoidsDDP.html

From the article:
NRAMA: Can you and/or someone in charge of publishing provide me with an update on the following titles, whether or not they've been published in France, release dates, and any other relevant info?
*Snip
NRAMA: Jason Henderson and Tony Salvaggio's Clockwerx.

FG: First book to be published in French in August, illustrated by French genius Hostache.
Snip*

I will second that Jean-Baptiste is a genius. I think this is one where I am in awe so much I hope the story still holds up. I think it does, but man... wow!

Jason and I started working on book 3, but I have been crazy busy and I need to finish my parts.

Hopefully in the next few days I will have a Psy-Comm update as well.

In the meantime, I have lots of irons in the fire with outside of work stuff.
DoM is going well. We are starting to record again and hopefully that will go quickly. We played a last minute show last Friday (we never got the email telling us we were supposed to headline, until the day before). It went pretty well and we got some new fans I think. It was a blast (thanks Trophy's http://www.myspace.com/trophystx ). We want to rock there again soon.

Hope all is well for everyone.
-TS

Benjamin did an awesome job, and the result was a really cool column. There are some great quotes and insights from various creators. One of my favorite is M. Alice Legrow's comment about the stupid OEL arguments:
"I kinda wish people would get this worked up over the definition of a clementine over a tangelo. Get some good fruit-related arguments going there.”

http://www.newsarama.com/comics/080624-Tokyopop1.html

If you drop by here Benjamin, thanks for spreading the word and letting us creators have our say. That is way cool.

--BTW You have to be logged in now to see comments if you are interested. Unfortunately the first entry doesn't have much to do with the article and is typical of just "I think Tokyopop sucks" *sigh* gotta love the internet.

I talked to Lillian and Bryce today and the push for online only is there. Everyone was cool about stuff, and they answered my questions. We're still holding out for way to publish our books in print, but the details aren't available yet. There are still some opportunities that could happen (Bryce rocks for pushing these where he can). Our new editor will be Lillian (who is cool, I've talked to her multiple times in the past and she always rocks). It's still a bitter pill right now, but we are trying to make the best of it. Having been through some truly nasty layoffs in the gaming biz, I can empathize with many of the people there. People have posted elsewhere "Why aren't we outraged?!" I guess right now, I am just trying to concentrate on what I can change, and stay positive. Being cool headed and objective will go further in the long run. I think I have a pretty good handle on things now, and we have a plan to get things sorted out. I wish the Borders stuff wouldn't have happened. That really threw a monkey wrench into the works.
In the meantime, I'm pushing forward with other things, other outlets, other projects. I'm writing some new Manga Island articles, but I am trying to line things up and get a few written for a backlog in case some craziness happens (it has been a really really rough week outside of comics for me. Some super suckiness has happened that I am trying to fix up.. sigh..)
I'm also trying to go to SDCC since lots of people I want to meet will be there this year (and possibly some business stuff as well). I'll post if that happens.
Yikes it's super late. I can't sleep much because of all the craziness. I guess I will go watch some old school anime and let the magic of 80s cell art lull me to sleep.

So, no official word yet on the fate of Psy-Comm. I'm not sure why not... It's either going to go the way of lilrivkah (going digital only) or bettinamarie (not continuing the series). So far, it looks like digital only, I think there are several others that may go this route as well, but we are just waiting to hear our fate.
It's a scary, potentially disappointing and just plain weird time here. I'm continuing to push forward with Clockwerx and re-starting "Calling Manga Island". I have a couple of cons to go to with Paul Benjamin and Jason, but I don't know quite what to tell people who ask for book 2 yet. I really wish there was a way to at least print to order the pre-orders, or do some kind of print run for people who have stuck with us and dig the book. Just this week, the son of one of my co-workers picked up the book and didn't want to stop reading it. He liked it so much, he was checking out my website and even my resume. I write because I loved reading so much, and I want to spread the kind of stories I always dug. I'm hoping to keep on trucking with that. I'll keep things posted here. In the meantime, here's the cover art I've been showing at cons lately, as a preview.



Interesting, there was a penciled version a while back with a little destroyed teddy bear on the ground. I guess that didn't read right in the colors. Either way, I still think Ramanda, and Jeremy [inks] and Chi [tones], did an awesome job on the book. I hope people get to see their work! I don't want to jinx things, but together with Bryce we had a great team going on. I hope we get to do more comics again at some point.

I was just thumbing through some art for book 3 and I came across this character design. It is pretty cool. Some Wild Lander Psy-Comms. NEAT! I have the cover art too. I will post it sometime soon.