A Short Story by Jess Smart Smiley 4-5 minute read Aberdeen Gray was convinced she was cursed. She claimed that her eyes were made blind by her husband—“The Conjurer” she called him—because she refused the “singularly ugly and frightful” portrait he had gifted his bride for their wedding. Young Frederick was shocked by Aberdeen’s response,…
Make It What It Needs To Be Ever since I realized that my newest comic is actually supposed to be a novel (surprise!), this has been my motto: make it what it needs to be. I’ve been drawing Jack Tinn and the Aquanauts for almost an entire year and just realized two weeks ago that the story is actually…
2012 marks thirty years of the Life, the Universe and Everything (or LTUE) symposium on science fiction and fantasy. Every year, for the past thirty years, science fiction and fantasy authors, artists and filmmakers have gathered together at LTUE to share their love of the genres, and to run workshops, forums and presentations on creating…
Just three days left to win your own copy of my short story in comics form, A Map in the Dirt! All you have to do is leave a comment on any post between now and October 31. I’ll pick a comment at random and the winner will receive a copy of A Map in the Dirt.…
For anyone that’s been following my novel-in-the-works, I have exciting news: I’VE FINISHED MY ROUGH DRAFT! Hooray! Three months of writing, 232 pages typed, and 127,000 words written. Phew! Since finishing, I’ve been drawing like crazy, and planning out my next projects, trying to get my mind off of my novel, so that I can…
Craig Thompson’s long-awaited Habibi comes out this September from Pantheon. The book has been six years in the making and Craig has been kind enough to take bits of time away from writing and drawing to give us fans a look at what he’s been up to on his blog. Today Craig launched HabibiBook.com, a…
Cartoonist Bill Alger is developing a new graphic novel for kids called Homeboy, and has started a blog to record his process and ideas over the next year. “Homeboy is a kid who runs away from home, then wakes up the next morning to discover that a tiny version of his family’s home has become…
Emily Carroll does it again with her new comic, The Prince & The Sea. As with most of her work, it’s a quick, but inspiring and rewarding read. The Prince & The Sea is a dark fantasy romance following the love between a prince and a mermaid. The storybook artwork and narrative work perfectly with…
Cygnus is a journal of speculative fiction headed by writer, editor and epic beard-grower, Casey Winters. The journal (which is listed on Duotrope’s Digest) will feature six to nine short stories, as well as speculative works of art (arguably, anyone could look at my pictures and speculate as to whether or not it is really…