Thrilled to reveal that artist Takeshi Miyazawa and I are signing at the Beguiling comic book shop in Toronto on September 15 from 5 to 7 pm! Full details here.
Tak and I have collaborated on a million projects, from co-creating Amadeus Cho (now the new Hulk!) way back in 2005 to working together on “Code Monkey Save World,” “The Princess Who Saved Herself,” and the soon-to-be-published “ABC Disgusting.”
The Beguiling will have copies of both “Code Monkey Save World” and “The Princess Who Saved Herself” for sale.
Today the final issue of my run on Dynamite’s TUROK DINOSAUR HUNTER hits stores. It’s been a great experience working on the book for twelve issues and I wanted to publicly thank the folks at Dynamite for pulling me on board and letting me run wild.
When editor Nate Cosby called me up over a year ago to discuss TUROK, I tried to say no. I had a pretty full schedule and didn’t want to overcommit. But I’d loved working with Nate when he was the Assistant Editor on the Hulk and Hercules books I wrote at Marvel. And I’d had a great time working with Dynamite when I wrote the BATTLESTAR GALACTICA series for them a few years back.
But what made it impossible for me to say no was the chance to write a comic book series starring a Native American hero.
During my entire creative career, I’ve talked about the importance of representation and done my best to cast my films and comics diversely. Now here I was with what might be a one-in-a-thousand offer — getting paid to write an ongoing comic book series starring a Native American hero.
As an added bonus, Turok fights dinosaurs.
And the incredible bow on the box was that Nate and Dynamite and the licensors totally supported the big crazy idea I threw at them — that the story would be set in 1210 AD and would follow Turok as he took on invading Crusaders who used dinosaurs as biological weapons to assault his tribe on the shores of pre-Columbian Manhattan. Our second story arc followed Turok west as he faced the pterodactyl-riding daughter of Genghis Khan and the Mongol invasion of the New World. And our last story, co-written with the great Paul Tobin, featured Turok heading to England and inspiring the legend of Robin Hood.
So huge thanks to Nate and everyone at Dynamite and all of the incredible artists who worked on the book, including Mirko Colak, Takeshi Miyazaki, Cory Smith, Stephen Downey, Felipe Cunha, and Lee Ferguson.
And here are a few of my favorite moments from the series.
From TUROK #2. Pencils by Mirko Colak. Check out who gets the “foreign language” brackets in the dialogue.
I wanted to be sure that we saw the world entirely from Turok’s eyes. So letterer Marshall Dillon rendered Turok’s (and all of the Native Americans’) dialogue normally. But we put brackets around the Crusaders’ dialogue to indicate they’re speaking a foreign language. A huge part of diversity is normalizing and humanizing people from different backgrounds. This little lettering trick felt like a good way to almost subconsciously impress the idea on every reader that we are Turok and Turok is us.
From TUROK #5. Pencils by Takeshi Miyazawa. Cahokia was a real pre-Columbian Native American city in what’s now southern Illinois.
I loved having the chance to work the city of Cahokia into our second arc – first, because it’s an insanely cool part of history, and second, because it shows the diversity of historical Native American experiences.
From TUROK #2. Pencils by Mirko Colak.
Similarly, I loved the opportunity to depict a range of spirituality and differences in belief among the Native Americans in the story. As an Asian American, my teeth get set on edge whenever folks make supposedly positive generalizations about some aspect of some mythical, monolithic Asian culture. There’s a huge amount of variety within any community or culture. I wanted to reflect that in every issue of TUROK.
From TUROK #10. Pencils by Felipe Cunha.
My schedule got a little tight as we approached the last story arc of the book, so we pulled on Paul Tobin to co-write. Paul really did the huge lions share of the work on these last four issues — and I couldn’t be happier about it. I had the initial idea of Turok heading to England and becoming the basis for the legend of Robin Hood. But Paul ran with it and pulled in details and nuances I would never have come up with on my own. Case in point: the insane scene above, in which a man fights to kill a bird with only his teeth. Paul assures me this was an actual source of entertainment in the faires of the day.
Spectacular Mirko Colak art from TUROK #3.
And, finally, dinosaurs. With feathers. Just feast your eyes on this incredible Mirko Colak splash from the end of issue #3. Imagine getting pages like this in your email for a year.
TUROK, you were a blast. Thanks so much for everything.
If you ever dreamed of a story in which a Native American inspires the legend of Robin Hood in a 13th Century England overrun with dinosaurs, TUROK #9-12 are for you. Written by Paul Tobin and yours truly, with art by Felipe Cunha, Ruairi Coleman, Stephen Downey, Lee Ferguson, and more.
“Action Comics” #36, written by yours truly with art by Aaron Kuder and colors by Wil Quintana, launches the gloriously creepy new “Horrorville” storyline. Ever wonder how horror would work in a Superman story? Here’s your answer! Check out the lettered preview at the Onion’s AV Club.
“Turok: Dinosaur Hunter” #9, co-written by Paul Tobin and me, also launches a new story. Our Native American hero heads to England, where King John reveals his true face! Art by Lee Ferguson, Ruairi Coleman, and Stephen Downey. Check out the preview at Dynamite.com.
I’m doing a signing with the great Fred Van Lente at JHU Comic Books in NYC this Saturday, October 25, from 5 to 6 pm!
The event is at 32 E. 32nd Street, NY, NY 10016. And yes, they will have copies of “Make Comics Like the Pros,” the how-to book co-written by Fred and me!
It’s all part of JHU’s awesome Halloween ComicFest.
Yep, I’ve got three books out this week! Collect ’em all!
“Batman/Superman” #15 wraps up our mystically-induced-amnesia story with Batman teaming up with… Lois Lane!
“Storm” #4 shows how a goddess grieves when Ororo learns her lover Wolverine is dead. Geeked Out Nation calls it a “wonderful story.”
“Turok” #8 features the final showdown between our Native American, dinosaur-hunting hero and Genghis Khan in North American in 1210 A.D. Unleash the Fanboy calls it “utterly gripping.”
“Pak has introduced a set of characters in this Gold Key revamp that are absolutely mesmerizing…. Aiding and abetting this is, of course, the excellent art of Takeshi Miyazawa. Can this artist draw dinos or not? And those closeup facial expressions that have become such a signature part of this series already are handled deftly while the storytelling never suffers.” — Cosmic Book News
TUROK #6, written by yours truly with gorgeous art by Takeshi Miyazawa, hits stores today! It’s the second installment of the story of Turok’s adventure with Altani, pteranodon-riding daughter of Genghis Khan. On the fence? You can read TUROK #5, the entire first issue of the storyline, FOR FREE right here!
Happy Independence Day! Which also happens to be a great day to buy some indie comics written by yours truly!
Today you can buy the first four issues of my TUROK: DINOSAUR HUNTER book, drawn by the great Mirko Colak, for just 99 cents a pop at Comixology! Check it out here.
You can also get all four issues of CODE MONKEY SAVE WORLD, brilliantly illustrated by Takeshi Miyazawa, as part of the $24.99 Monkeybrain Independent’s Day Bundle at Comixology, which also includes indie hits like BANDETTE, KINSKI, and D4VE. Check it out!
If all you want is CODE MONKEY SAVE WORLD (or any of the other individual Monkeybrain books), you can get them for 1/2 off by entering the code “INDIE” at checkout. Details here!
I’m pretty darn proud of both TUROK and CODE MONKEY SAVE WORLD. Get TUROK if you want to see a Native American in 1210 AD deal with the arrival of Crusaders who use dinosaurs as weapons of war. And read CMSW if you want to see a monkey and a supervillain team up in a story based on the songs of internet superstar musician Jonathan Coulton.
Big, fun stuff to write — I hope ya enjoy reading it!
In the last couple of weeks, I’ve been interviewed a bunch of times by different cool folks about different projects. Here are some excerpts and links – feel free to check ’em out!
Storm herself (as cosplayed awesomely by Janel McClain, above) interviewed me at the Special Edition NYC comic con for Word of the Nerd.
I talk a lot about the use of history in MAGNETO TESTAMENT, questions of Native American representation in TUROK, and compare Superman and Storm in this interview for Weekly Comic Book Review.
Here’s podcast I did with Ryan and Ben for Marvel.com about the upcoming STORM series.
Comic Attack asked me fun questions about Amadeus Cho.
Dynamic Forces asked me about the new STORM book – and I spill a little about the possible importance of Hank McCoy.
Unleash the Fanboy asked me about Storm, Hercules, the gay romance in X-TREME X-MEN, and what I’d do if I weren’t writing comics. Here’s an excerpt:
You’re trying to learn about and understand people from all different backgrounds and places and tell stories that connect in some way and help people … When we’re writing, we’re struggling to understand the world, you know what I’m saying, and sharing that experience will hopefully help other people as they’re making those same kinds of efforts. This sounds a little silly but because you don’t want to overplay what we do in creating pop culture, but there’s a way that stories bring people together, you know what I mean? That’s what makes us human. Storytelling is probably the most intensely human thing that we do. It’s something maybe that humans do that nobody else does.
UPDATE – the book actually comes out THIS week, on Wednesday, June 25! Please do check it out!
The latest issue of TUROK: DINOSAUR HUNTER hits stores this Wednesday! Wherein our Native American hero heads West and meets Altani, the pteranodon-riding daughter of Genghis Khan and the vanguard of the Mongol invasion of the Americas in 1210 AD!
Read on for a lettered five page preview — and ask your local retailer to hold a copy for you today!
Writer of over 500 comic books, including PLANET HULK, MECH CADET YU, FIREFLY, and DARTH VADER
