Beasts of Burden #1 in July Previews -- A Call to Arms!
I've been remiss in blogging as of late, chalk it up to being overwhelmed, away on a short vacation, getting sunburned on a short vacation, a few family occasions, twitter being the lazy person's blog, and having a lot of work to deal with. Some of which has not come together as smoothly as I would have liked. No, not the Yo Gabba Gabba! scripts, they went fine. Rather quickly, actually, because Sarah is a whiz. The DC thing went well, short and so far sweet. Finished up a Mad spot illo, not too many hitches there. The Beasts #4 script..uh, well, that hasn't worked out so nicely. Because I am a dizz. But it should be done in the next few days, and I think it's shaping up well. Fingers crossed.

Anyway, the reason I've called you all here is because Beasts of Burden #1 has been solicited by Dark Horse, and is scheduled for release on September 16th. The project made the cover of the latest Previews, as I'd mentioned a while back, which is available at comic shops, as well as online, and we're on page 22 of the catalog, in the Dark Horse section, in black and white and painted color, for everyone who cares to, uh..see.



For those of you who pre-order your comics, or who shop at a local comic shop that is reluctant to order anything not from the the big two publishers, Beast of Burden #1's item code is JUL09 0015.

Here's the Diamond Previews page featuring the book. Here's a look at the Previews cover featuring a Mike Mignola quote that I think we paid him fifteen bucks for or something...and which now I can't find a link to for some reason. Whatever. It's out there, somewhere.

Here's the link to the listing on the DHC page, where you can pre-orde the book through Things From Another World.

And hey, I stumbled across our most excellent editor Scott Allie calling for folks to chime in for the first issue letter column. I think it involves a preview of the first issue or something. Or you can write in based on the four short stories if you've read them. I dunno. Here's the link to find out what the deal is: the link to find out what the deal is.



I do know what the deal on the comic is: It's $2.99 for 23 pages of story and art (the first issue is 23 pages, the others are 22), wonderfully painted by the talented and popular Jill Thompson (Scary Godmother, Magic Trixie, Sandman et al).  Dogs and cats versus the supernatural. Come on, that sounds okay, doesn't it? It's at least half as good as a kid bitten by a spider who gets superpowers and can't make money even though he invents all this great stuff and sews a costume all in one night. Don't you think? Well, okay, maybe not, but it's still okay in my book. And it's only three bucks! Three lousy bucks. Cripes, you people, really, don't tell me about the economy, I don't want to hear that jive talk. Just take it out of your mom's bag, or your dad's wallet. Bring some beer bottles in for redemption. Roll the town drunk. Busk. Do something. Hell, my daughter has three bucks, and she's only four. Don't give me any excuses this September. Please. I beg of you.

Anyway, the interesting thing is we'll be doing some interviews, supposedly, with some of those comic book websites that pretty much have ignored Jill and I since they began. And we might do some signings around the time the first issue hits, although that's all still in the planning stages. I don't do that many interviews with the daily-updated sites with banner ads, nor do I do many signings, so I find this interesting, even if you guys don't. So there.

Convention-wise, I'll be doing the Baltimore Con in October (along with the rest of the HOF) in support of the series, and Jill will be at the big carnival in a few weeks, that of course being the San Diego Comic Con. Dark Horse will be setting up as usual, so please stop by the booth and see if they have any promotional material or previews of the series. If not, ask them why not, then throw something at someone and run. One of those annoying Stormtroopers will possibly jack you up, but it might be worth it for the funny story you can tell the other guys in stir that evening.

Oh, I forgot,  DHC will also be at the Baltimore show, unless they get pelted so badly with objects at SDCC they're injured out. Maybe you shouldn't throw anything at anyone. Except Klingons. God. Klingons.


Oh, here's another thing I wanted to mention: Those of you who read the first four short stories featuring these characters in the Dark Horse Books of Hauntings, Witchcraft, The Dead and Monsters already know what to expect. Hopefully you liked them and will give the regular series a shot. Those of you who haven't read the earlier material, have no fear, you don't need to in order to understand and enjoy the mini-series. Or even hate the mini-series, for that matter. And if all goes according to plan, you may have a shot at reading some of the short stories in a convenient, non-piratical way fairly soon. Fingers crossed. I believe nothing until it happens, and then, as with the Star Wars Holiday Special, I often still don't believe it.

I don't know what constitutes solid sales for DHC, or for the Direct Market, these days, but I hope we hit the mark so we can do some more stories after the first mini-series wraps up. We have plans, oy, such  plans. But we'll see what happens. For now, we've got four nifty self-contained issues coming out, starting this September, and worth it for the beautiful art alone, in my humble opinion. 

So, everyone got it now? Beasts of Burden #1. Four issues. Me and Jill Thompson. Dark Horse Comics. September 16th.

If you can find it, I think you'll enjoy it.  
 
Honest.