Richie Rich Vol 3

Richie Rich Vol. 3 is available in the current Diamond Comics catalog, for comics going on sale in January. Ask your comics shop and give them the ordering code OCT110789, or use comiXology to add it to your pull list!

Eisner Nominee seal

Two bits of good news for me and Scratch9 came down earlier this month.

First up, the book got nominated in four categories in the  29th annual Comics Buyer’s Guide Fan Awards!

The comic is up for “Favorite Comic Book or Mini Series” and “Favorite Story”. Jason Kruse is up for “Favorite Cover Artist.” And I’m nominated for “Favorite Writer.” Cool!

Lets hope some of the fans vote for us.

Right after that we learned that we’ve been nominated for a Will Eisner Comic Industry Award! We got a nod in the “Best Publication for Kids” category along with five other great comics.

Such an amazing honor! I would be nice to win one of them, but it really is a thrill just to be nominated.

Scratch9 TPB Cover

The Scratch9 collected trade paper back edition is due in stores in about a month. Have you ordered yours yet?

If not, we’ve got three easy paths to the Scratch9 TPB hookup!

1. Your local comics shop. They’re still your best bet for procuring of feline funnybook. Just be sure to help ‘em help you by providing ordering code #JAN11 0929.
2. Mail order from me. You can get an autographed edition from the Scratch9 online store.
3. Mail order from Amazon. Click here to order from Amazon.

Meet Agent of D.A.N.G.E.R.

That’s right. I’m an Agent of D.A.N.G.E.R. That’s the name of our little think tank/writers studio. We’ll be generating family-friendly books, comics and stories from our secret clubhouse at the bottom of an undisclosed body of water.

My first two AoD titles are. All Robots Must Die and Adventure-O-Matic! Hit AgentOfDanger.com for more info. For now, here is some preliminary artwork from both:

ADVENTURE-O-MATIC

ALL ROBOTS MUST DIE

RICHIE RICH - Free Comic Book Day Edition

Well, I’m not actually rich. Nor am I the famous star of funnybooks and film Richie Rich. But I am writing for Kizoic’s upcoming Richie Rich comics. Click the thumbnail for the official promo image.

Here’s the press release…

Part James Bond, Jr., and part Indiana Jones with Donald Trump’s bank account, Richie Rich® is an altruistic adventurer who travels the world helping the less fortunate, and now he has a creative team to back him up.

“Ape Entertainment is extremely pleased with the writers and artists who have come forward to bring Richie Rich back to comics,” states founder and co-publisher David Hedgecock. “We have action. We have adventure. We have humor. And best of all, we have everyone’s favorite characters, from Cadbury to Irona to Dollar.”

Today, Ape Entertainment and Classic Media announced the creative teams on the new Richie Rich series that will reimagine the classic cartoon and comic book character. Artists include Tina Francisco, Jack Lawrence, Armando Zanker, James Silvani, Iwan Nazif, and more! Writers include Tom DeFalco, Bill Williams, Buddy Scalera, Brent E. Erwin, Jason M. Burns, Matt Anderson, Rob Worley, and more!

For fans of the original Harvey Comics series, the creative team of Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colon revisit the characters they helped to make famous, returning with two, all-new stories!

Richie Rich #1 will arrive in stores in May 2011.

For more information on Ape Comics, visit www.apecomics.com.

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HEIR TO FIRE: ZEPHYR MESA – Ryan Morales and the town of Gila Flats are still reeling from the events of the first book. Having harnessed his fire abilities he’s dispatched the spider invaders that threatened to snatch the citizens of his town. Now something new trespasses on his home,  this time not from under the earth, but from high in the sky. Ryan must travel to Zephyr Mesa to confront these new visitors who may just hold the secrets of his lost heritage and the key to his destiny as the Heir to Fire!

For more information about the HEIR TO FIRE series visit http://www.heirtofire.com.

For more information about the new line of ACTIONOPOLIS books visit http://www.actionopolis.com.

ACTIONOPOLIS: When Adventure Is Your Destination!

I have to say, this is the first time in a decade plus of writing Comics2Film where I’ve switched my answer from “nah” to “mmmmmaybe.”

Raju, who is covering the Toronto International Film Festival and it’s superhero entries Super and Griff the Invisible,  was pointing to the weak box office generated by Kick-Ass and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World as the latest evidence.

Scott Pilgrim Gets Knocked Out

While I wouldn’t call Kick-Ass a failure of any kind, I’d definitely score Scott Pilgrim in the “bitter disappointment” column. And I mean that only in terms of the lack of reception for what is one of the liveliest, most enjoyable films of the year so far.

But as I told Raju, you can expand the window all the way back to the end of 2008 and what we have is now a fairly long string of comic book movie duds. That’s the time frame when Punisher: War Zone became the third failed attempt by Marvel to launch their film-friendly vigilante.  Hot on the heels of that was Frank Miller’s under-appreciated The Spirit, which was too weird for the average moviegoer and too Frank Miller for fans of Will Eisner’s classic comic.

Then came 2009, and with it: Watchmen. Zack Snyder’s equally gallant  and foolish attempt to bring the ground-breaking graphic novel to the big screen fell far short of the massive hype and anticipation that preceded it. 2009′s other comic book movies? Astro Boy, Whiteout, Dragonball Evolution and Surrogates.

It’s a pretty sad year for the comic book movie when the sole winner is the lackluster X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

This year? Throw  Jonah Hex and The Losers on the compost heap along with the aforementioned indie darlings. Marvel wins again with Iron Man 2, a box-office titan, however unworthy of the original.

So is it the end for comic book movies? Mmmmmaybe, but nah. It’s a slump.

The mysterious shunning of Scott Pilgrim aside, Hollywood might do better to look beyond superhero fare to other comics that are out there. It could be that we’re having our fill of heroic action adventure but I think it’s more about quality than any trends.

If Green Lantern and Thor are great movies, then people will embrace them.

Check out the Toronto Star article for commentary from myself along with Cameron Stewart and Mark Askwith.

Check it out!

Actionopolis is the book like featuring high-octane, high-adventure prose fiction by a myriad of talented writers from comics, film, video games and the like. The company initially published seven well-received books, including my Heir to Fire: Gila Flats novel, which was illustrated by Mike Dubisch.

Now they’re back with a new wave of 16 new books for the Amazon Kindle platform. The new books include my long-awaited Legend of Tigerfist: Enter the Tiger as well as the sequel Heir to Fire: Zephyr Mesa.

You might be saying, “b-bu-but I love Actionopolis books, but I don’t have an Amazon Kindle reader.”

Well, did you know that Kindle books can now be read on your Mac, PC, iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, Blackberry or Android device as well as the Kindle reader? Just download the right app for your device!

Broken Frontier (and other sites) has the complete scoop.

Visit Actionopolis.com and start reading!

If you’re interested in the new comic Scratch9, I’d ask you to click onward to Scratch9.com for the most complete and up-to-date info about that comic, including upcoming store appearances and ordering info!

Otherwise, you’ve come to the right place!