ONCE MORE AROUND THE SUN
Happy New Year everyone! It’s been a while since I’ve written a newsletter, but what better time to return to it than at the beginning of a new planetary revolution.
2022 was a memorable year for me. After two and a half years in Honolulu, my wife and I returned to Chicago and moved into a vintage 1926 home. Of course, we arrived just in time to get hit by a massive snowstorm. But despite that chilly “welcome home, assholes” reception from the Midwest Winter, we’ve settled into our new house over the last year and are very much enjoying our lovely neighborhood and the excitement of the city. Our cat Zoso also approves. With long hallways for running, stairs for parkouring and a sunroom that gives him front row access to Critters 2 Kill TV, he has never been happier.
Since we moved some stuff has happened, so I think I’ll do a list. Everyone loves year-end lists, right? Right. So, here are a few 2022 Highlights of Me!
HOMEOWNER – Yes, I know I mentioned this above, but I live in a HOUSE! It has a yard and a garage, and other house things! It’s way too big for two people and a cat… even a giant Siberian monstrosity of a cat.
FUCKING METAL – Hawaii is completely devoid of heavy music, even when there wasn’t a Covid pandemic. But back in Chicago I attended 9 shows and traveled to Baltimore for Maryland Death Fest (MDF)! My black heart is happy once more.
CON ARTIST – I did conventions again! I fraxxed up Fan Expo Chicago with the great Maria Wolf. Slaughtered C2E2 with my buddy and artist extraordinaire on BTH, Jason Muhr. Defaced Dragon Con with one of my best friends in the world, Dan Willner of Spandex Splinters, who hand carves pop culture characters out of wood. And pummeled a comics panel at Chicago’s prestigious Printers Row Lit Fest with Barbaric writer Michael Moreci.
Maria Wolf and me about to watch Alien at our Fan Expo Chicago table. METALHEADS ANNIVERSARY – I celebrated my 4th year as a host on the Metalheads Podcast. When I hit year 5 I’m hoping I get a commemorative skull pen.
I SAW THE SIGN – I did my 8th signing at the mighty Other Realms in Honolulu just before I moved. Miss everyone at the store! First signing back in Chicago was at my favorite shop, Challengers Comics + Conversation, I celebrated Free Comic Book Day by doing a signing at the awesome Dark Tower Comics with writer Tim Seeley, and last but not least, I scribbled my name on books at the fabulous Bucket o’ Blood Books and Records.
HITCHED FOR 11 YEARS – My love and I celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary. It’s not a landmark occasion like 10 or 20 years I guess, but 11 is my favorite number. Also, yay for love!
INFECTED – My wife and I got the Covid after 2 years of expertly dodging it. That sucked. No yays for that.
COLUMNIST – I was asked to write a metal column for one of my favorite metal sites, Heaviest of Art! If all goes well, the first one will drop in Spring/early Summer.
SWEET TALKER – I did 16 interviews (podcasts + print) in 2022. Definitely a record.
TATTED UP – I finally got the forearm tattoo I’ve wanted for a while. Thank you Siren Sam of Tattoolicious for my amazing Fire Sorceress!
WROTE NEW COMICS – See the PROJECTS section below for all the super vague details on some books I’m working on!
GRILL YOUR DARLINGS – I bought a Kamado Joe grill and it’s amazing. Nothing like cooking over fired charcoal in a ceramic egg, friends. I grill all the things now.
BLOWING THE HORN
Okay, let’s talk about BY THE HORNS! If you’re reading this, you are probably familiar with my ongoing sci-fi/fantasy series, published by Scout Comics. But if not, here’s a quick primer.
IN SHOPS
BY THE HORNS: Dark Earth #6 (AKA BTH #14) is in comic shops now. Holy shit, we have 14 issues out! Hard to believe the book is already in double digits and we’re about to go well beyond that. In fact, before BY THE HORNS: Dark Earth concludes this year, we will take the prize as the longest running Scout series ever. Currently, Solar Flare stands atop the podium with 18 issues.
AWARDS
Speaking of prizes, last year BY THE HORNS was featured on several Best Comics of 2021 lists and the current arc, BY THE HORNS: Dark Earth is now receiving similar recognition for 2022. We won a 2022 ICE Award for Exceptional Ongoing Series from Comic Book Yeti AND we just won 5 awards from Your Friendly Neighborhood Comic Show, including Series of the Year! We’re also nominated for a REMMI Award for Best Indie Series by the WE HAVE ISSUES Podcast. Winners are going to be announced this weekend I think. Craziness!
It’s truly amazing to receive these kinds of accolades for our little book. When I first started creating comics, I hoped maybe my friends would kinda like them, and my Mama might hug me and tell me she was proud of me. Those things happened, but I never expected strangers to tell me a comic I wrote is their favorite book. Really amazed and appreciative of that.
FRENCH HORNS
Last year, French publisher Komics Initiative released a hardcover edition of BTH: The Wind Rises, collecting the 1st eight issues for a new audience overseas. The book is absolutely gorgeous even though no one I know can read it. There are already plans to put out a HC for BTH: Dark Earth collecting all 12 issues.
OUTLOOK
I’ve been asked a few times how many issues we have planned for Dark Earth. It will be 12 total, so we’re halfway there. We’re currently taking a little break between issues 6 and 7 to get a few more issues completed. We work pretty fast, but a few factors ate up some time in our schedule for Dark Earth. Jason and his wife had a baby! And then his family suffered several unexpected deaths. :-( Soon after, everyone on Team BTH got Covid. A few days ago, our colorist Steve Canon and his wife had a baby! So, life stuff like that sometimes catches us off guard and pushes things back a little. But that said, we’re still putting out books at a consistent pace and the wait between chapters won’t be long. BTH will return with issue #7 in March and we plan to be monthly through #12.
UPCOMING
I should mention that BY THE HORNS: Dark Earth #7 is a special issue because it's the most collaborative comic Jason and I have ever done. J had an idea for a travel issue with some amazing scenes and I figured out a way to stitch them into a story. The result is something we're really proud of. Jason and Steve outdid themselves on the art, bringing the continent of Yalastra to vibrant, magical life. And it’s a tale for anyone out there who’s felt low, lost or alone in this world.
You can pre-order the book at your local comic shop right now. Final day for ordering is February 6, so be sure to let your store know you want it before that date. Here are the order codes:
Diamond: JAN231801 | Lunar: 0123SC281
And here’s the glorious cover by Jason and Steve.
We’re all having a blast working on this book. I have the series planned out as four mini-series. Should be around 36-40 issues when it’s all said and done.
Thanks to all of you out there who continue to pick up BTH and spread the word. Whether you’re a reader, retailer, comic news site or podcast, we really appreciate the support and kind words.
DEVELOPING STORIES
One of the questions I’m typically asked is “Hey Markisan, are you working on other comics?” The answer is yes. A lot of them. Here’s a rundown of a select few. No, I can’t tell you every book I’m doing. Sheesh.
PROJECT: MUSPELHEIM – I wrote a 60-page first issue (graphic novella?) of a mech series at the end of 2021. It’s the first time a publisher asked me to write something specifically for them. So, it has a home and I own the story. We also have a great artist on the project now and he finally started working on pages in December! Project: Muspelheim has some of the best and most intimate character stuff I’ve ever done, big twists and it’s full of thunderous, monstrous battles. I grew up watching Robotech, so this is a bit of a nod to that animated series, but also completely unique. The publisher for it is small but I really like the people there and they have been growing steadily in various markets, which is great. Hopefully Project: Muspelheim will get on the schedule this year. It will be a Kickstarter book first. When that happens I’ll let you know on the socials. Now that the art is underway, I’m planning to get back into writing new issues soon. I feel very connected to the lead character and I’ve missed her terribly.
PROJECT: MADRE GRANDE – This is a hyper-kinetic, action/fugitive sci-fi story that I’ve been tinkering with for a while. It’s bizarre and fun, and chock full of hardcore, innovative fight pages and weird ass aliens. But it also has a big thumping heart to it that I honestly didn’t expect when I created it. I wrote a killer pitch to send to publishers and now I’ve finished writing the 1st issue, which clocks in at 40 pages. But more importantly, I found a great artist and co-creator for the series… or more accurately, he found me! My new friend Ignacio Di Meglio and I are detonating this book to life. He’s done a killer 1st issue cover and a metal AF logo for the series and now he’s working on pages. One of the best parts about collaborating with Ignacio (aside from him being a passionate, affable fellow and all-around good egg) is that he draws a ton of killer designs. Getting the perfect look down for the cast of characters and environments in Project: Madre Grande is hugely important because we want them to look unique and instantly recognizable.
I really enjoy the design stage of creating a comic because all the options and possibilities just lead to more designs and more ideas, not just for the looks of the characters, but for the actual story. As a writer, I love being able to inspire an artist with my yarns, but it’s even better when the art inspires me to think of something new to put into our tale. Ignacio and I have that chemistry. I love talking to him and creating this world together, so I’m so glad he messaged me out of the blue one day just to tell me he loves BY THE HORNS. I can't wait to show this book off and watch Ignacio blow up. I feel like this book will bring out the best in him. I suspect we’ll be pitching this series to comic book companies soon-ish. Right now he’s working on an original, all-ages werewolf GN with ultra cool writer Brian Hawkins for Mad Cave Studios that I’m excited to read. Be sure to follow Ignacio on Twitter and Instagram to see some behind the scenes on that.
PROJECT: MERCURY ORGAN – This is a love story in space filtered through my weird sci-fi, metal action brain. It’s not like anything else out there. The pitch doc for publishers is done. I’ve written the first issue, although I just thought of something cool that I want to add so I’ll probably go back and revise it. I don’t have an artist for this one yet, although I know the art style I’d like for the book. I’m not very good at hiring artists cold. I really like getting to know someone and their art before working with them. To me, comics is a partnership. I value having a connection with people I create books with and working closely with them to craft something special. This is the main reason I don’t have more comic books in the wild right now. And this story in particular feels like it needs an artistic intimacy between creators to work. I let one of my comic friends read the pitch and she loved it. She even started trying to find me artists. Her words, and I quote: “Its wonderful. It was such a great read and a brilliant idea. Okay now I really want you to find an artist bc I wanna read this story very badly ahaha.”
PROJECT: APOCALYPSE PAW – I’m gonna write a hyper violent, fang murder of a comic book for one of my favorite artists who pitched me her story idea. We went out and had beer and wings, and talked about this book for hours. This is the artist’s baby and she’s been working on it for years, with notebooks full of story concepts, scenes and tons of character sketches. As luck would have it, I was tinkering with a book in the same vein, so I brought a lot of awesome ideas to the table too. It was weirdly cool, like merging two weapons together to forge an ultimate battle sword. I already wrote issue 1 in my head, so I’ll be getting it down on paper soon. This project will likely be a slow burn, as the artist in question is very much in demand right now and has a big project on the blocks. I hope to get a few scripts done for this one before the year ends, so we’re ready to go when she gets some free time.
PROJECT: WASTE POLES – I have this idea for a comic strip series that I think I want to put up on Web Toon. Well, I guess it’s more than an idea because I’ve written 6 episodes of it so far. It’s the first pure comedy series I’ve done. All my books have humor in them, but this is more along the lines of Get Fuzzy in space. I like Web Toons because I can experiment with that vertical scroll format. I’ve always dug the idea of writing situational gags and I think Project: Waste Poles is pretty good. I guess we’ll see if anyone agrees! I gotta get an artist for this and then the plan to get 26 episodes in the can before launching it as a bi-weekly series. Each ep is self-contained, but there will be a bit of an ongoing story to it. Really just doing this one for fun.
PROJECT: YULE BEAST – I got invited to do a 10-page holiday horror story for an anthology. The script isn’t due for a couple months but I already wrote it and I have a fabulous artist to bring it to life who’s worked on animated series for Adult Swim, Netflix and Amazon. The book will go up on Kickstarter in the Fall I believe.
MAKE MINE METAL
If you follow me on the socials, you know my blood is made of pure liquid metal at this point. I’m pretty sure my cat Zoso and I listen to more heavy metal than any other creatures on the planet. Spinning records has almost become a second job for me. And also for kitty, because his first job is being fucking adorable.
The Metalheads Podcast boys and I got to raise middle-aged man hell together in Baltimore at the phenomenal Maryland Death Fest (MDF) by drinking supernatural sums of beer and devil horn hugging each other as much as possible. We also recorded another 12 incredibly fun podcasts. Crazy to say this, but I’ve been on the show for 40+ episodes now!
If you like heavy music, give the podcast a listen. I was a fan of the show before I was invited to be on it because I loved the chemistry of the hosts and the format of the show. I went on as a guest and they just kept inviting me back! We interview musicians and bands, chat with fans in the metal community, talk about the latest releases, count down Top 5 lists, pit two albums against each other in a Metal Thunderdome and drink a lot of beer. We just released our Top 25 Metal Albums of 2022 podcast. We also put out an official podcast Top 25 list. You can check all this out at our website.
But most importantly, I published MY TOP 25 METAL ALBUMS OF 2022 LIST on my website! I wrote an introduction, then counted down my favorites. Each album gets a spotlight with cover art, my thoughts on the LP and Bandcamp links to the albums for your listening pleasure. Click on the image below to read and spin.
UNSOLICITED ADVICE
I get asked about making comics a lot more than I thought I would. Many creators seem to love giving advice and opinions to people, but it’s not something I do on the fly. Even though I’ve been writing comics for a few years now, it always feels a bit vainglorious to suddenly “impart my wisdom” or something. But if anyone asks me directly I do always try and give the best advice I can.
All that said, I am writing this newsletter and it’s mostly about me, which seems pretty vain if I think about it… LOL. Screw it, I’ll jump out of my comfort box and end this tome with a tip based on my experience. Hopefully it’s something you find helpful.
DON’T GET DISCOURAGED IF YOUR COMIC BOOK PITCH IS REJECTED BY A PUBLISHER.
Last year I sent two pitches to a publisher who asked me for them. I was really excited that they were interested in me and my stories, so I got them out right away. And then… they passed on both of my ideas. I was a little shocked because those pitches are really good. They are very well written, unique and exciting. A couple of my friends in the industry read them and love them.
This also happened with BY THE HORNS. Scout was always my first choice for BTH and they greenlit the series pretty fast, but Jason and I still pitched it to three other companies. BTH got rejected by two and the third one didn’t even bother sending a response.
Rejection happens a lot. A great book may not be the right fit for a publisher. Maybe they already have something in the pipeline that’s in the same wheelhouse as your pitch. Maybe your pitch is too weird for a publisher who has their eye on TV and movie adaptions. Maybe the editors are just looking for something different. So on and so on. The point is that there are a myriad of reasons why your comic might not find a home at a publisher. A lot of the time a rejection doesn’t have anything to do with the quality of your story or your pitch. I humbly submit BTH as proof of that.
I know rejection can be incredibly disappointing, but keep your head up and keep trying. If you can’t find a publisher to take a chance on your book, remember that you can always self-publish. Today, crowdfunding is actually the go-to option for a lot of accomplished creators because they keep control of their property, they can actually make money on their creation and they aren’t subject to unanticipated horrors, like a publisher going bankrupt while owing creators thousands of dollars. If your Kickstarter or Indiegogo is a success, your book may also find a second life in the retail market. Many publishers are actively on the hunt for crowdfunded books to re-publish.
Would it be awesome to have your comic published at a place like Image, Boom , Dark Horse, Scout, etc.? Of course. But just remember it isn’t a death sentence for your book or your comics career if it doesn’t get picked up. You do not have to wait for permission from a publisher to get your comic out in the world. They don’t determine your fate. You do.
FIND ME IN 2023
Right now I’ve only committed to one comic book convention in 2023 - C2E2 in Chicago. Jason and I have a table in Artist Alley and we’ll share more details on the show and where we’ll be located on social media as the date gets closer.
There’s a 90% chance I’ll be at Dragon Con where I’ll hang with my buddy Dan again. I won’t be there officially as a vendor, but there will be BTH books for sale. I’m also strongly considering NYCC this year. I’d go there as a professional, which means I won’t table, but I’ll be around. I may do signings if my publishers go to the show and have places set up for that. Of course, if you see me on the floor and want something signed, I’m happy to do it.
You can find out more about me and my various projects at www.markisan.com.
Looking for my books? You can find them here: https://skullfracturestore.ecwid.com
For social media and other news visit my Linktree.
Alright, it’s time to get back to writing more BY THE HORNS. I hope you all have a fantastic 2023 adventure filled with love, laughs and a rolling truckload of great comics. Hope we see each other on the way to 2024.
– Markisan
January 10, 2023