Vampires, Rock n' Roll, and Pixie Trix Comix

I’m excited to post about my next comics work hitting later this year from Pixie Trix Comix. They are the 56-page graphic novella Zii and the Troublemakers, which picks up where the webseries Ménage à 3  leaves off, and a one-shot titled Eerie Cuties: Sisters, which features three new stories set in the world of Eerie Cuties. These comics were funded in the latest Pixie Trix Comix Kickstarter, which you can check out here.

My talent writer/artist pal, Gisèle Lagacé of Pixie Trix Comix, invited me to participate in her latest Kickstarter, and without hesitation, I jumped at the opportunity.

Gisèle and I first met through work at Archie Comics. My dream project I was trying to get off the ground was a Josie and the Pussycats series with Gisèle as the artist. It was not meant to be, however, what came out of it I’m even more excited about.

Knowing that I was itching to tell a story about a band on the road, she thought maybe I’d be interested in telling the story of Zii going on tour with her band, the Troublemakers, and she was right! She asked for 24-28 pages and I gave her 56 to draw, so I guess you could say it was a terrible itch and I scratched it real hard!

From the pages of Gisele’s recently concluded web comic Ménage à 3 co-written with David Lumsdon, one of the lead characters, Zii, has spun-off into her own one-shot, Zii and the Troublemakers, to pick up where her story leads while she’s out on the road with her band.

Newcomers are more than welcome, as this story draws on the history of the characters, but won’t be confusing for first-time readers. All you need to know is a rock trio and their manager are three months into their cross-Canada tour and tensions come to a head at their latest stop in Vancouver. That is a city that I’ve grown to know  and love over the years and I wanted the band to be out of their familiar surroundings of Montreal, but to be in a place I knew well so that the city itself would feel like another character in the story. I can promise, there will be sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll, in this special one-shot starring Zii and co-starring more fan-favorite Ma3 characters.

In addition to getting the opportunity to dip my toe into the world of Ménage à 3 and play with those characters, I did the same with the cast of Eerie Cuties, another web series from Pixie Trix Comix starring a couple of teenaged vampire sisters.

In fact, this one-shot titled Eerie Cuties: Sisters focuses on Layla and Nina and explores a few of the things that bond these sisters like addictive gaming, family reunions, and dating, as well as what drives each other crazy about the other. I love vampire stories and want to tell more of them, so this was a really fun way to play with familiar horror tropes while putting it through the Eerie Cuties filter. I love Layla and Nina’s dynamic and so when Gisele said she wanted stories that put a spotlight on the sisters, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I drew a little inspiration from the relationship of Raina Telgemeier in her graphic novel Sisters, hence the subtitle, so it should appeal to that audience, but with a Hotel Transylvania bent to it.

This was a lot of fun for me to work on, and I’m excited to work with Gisèle again on more Pixie Trix Comix in the future! We already have another one-shot planned out for 2021, so stay tuned…

Heavy Metal, re-teaming with Ralf Singh, and dinos

After a long hiatus, I’m updating this blog. Been meaning to for some time, but I can think of no better reason than to mark the occasion of my re-teaming with artist Ralf Singh for a short comic story in the latest issue of Heavy Metal Magazine (issue #299 on sale now).

Ralf and I first collaborated back in 2015 with the publication of Narcopolis: Continuum, a 4-part mini-series published through Heavy Metal, which makes this reunion that much cooler. This time around, Ralf and I have some new collaborators with Cristian Docolomansky on inks and letters, whose inks I got to see in person and are beautiful, and Ilaria Fella joining us on colors, whose amazing work I was familiar with through Ralf and am lucky enough to be working with her for the first time here.

Originally this story was intended to be included in an anthology for Megadeth with each comic inspired by a song of theirs from the album Death by Design. I was invited to submit a pitch by editor Hannah Means-Shannon and jumped at the opportunity. Unfortunately, even though it made it past the first round of editors, it was ultimately passed on by Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine for being too “political and visually outrageous,” which to me are selling points!

But the good news is you can still read the story that was inspired by a Megadeth song about the end of the world featuring eye-popping T-Rex dinosaurs illustrated by Ralf. When we discussed the project and what he wanted to draw, Ralf had one request. He wanted to draw a T-Rex. And naturally, I wanted to see him draw one, so using that as a springboard we came up with this tale of WWIII and what that would look like with a prehistoric bent to it.

Ralf and I have never stopped working together since our initial partnership and are already mapping out our next epic storyline that we want to tell next, but until the time is right to share more about that project, we hope you’ll enjoy our latest team-up effort, dipping our toes back into the world of sci-fi.

What else can I say about this experience except that it gave me a way better appreciation for the work comic book letterers do. I wanted to learn the craft of lettering comics for myself, and challenge myself to letter a short comic story that I wrote, just to see if I could do it, and see how it could improve my craft as a writer. I got plenty of tips from my longtime letterer, Taylor Esposito (who you should totally look up and hire for your next comic), who really helped me to improve my lettering over a short span of time. Ultimately, my first stab at it was not up to industry standards, and thankfully Cristian jumped in and saved me and the rest of the team from looking like complete amateurs, as he’s just as skilled at lettering as he is at inking.

If you want to check out the story digitally, you can find it here, otherwise I encourage people to order it from their local comic shop and arrange to pick it up, if it’s safe and you’re able to.

Letter to Retailers

Back in December, I was asked by Dynamite if I’d like to write a letter to the comic shop retailers in support of Army of Darkness/Bubba Ho-Tep (issue 1 on sale 2/13) and I jumped at the chance. Reaching out directly to these key industry influencers is crucial to getting your comic out in front of as many potential new readers as possible and so I hope my letter convinced a buyer or two to order a few more copies.

Here’s what I wrote:

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Listen up you primitive screw—er, I mean… Dear Retailers,

First off, to the person(s) reading this, thank you for serving our industry well on the front lines. I’ve lived in many places over the years and I love seeking out and getting to know my local comic shops, so I know how hard you’re all working to spread the good word and get our books in customers’ hands. Thank you!

Let’s talk Bruce Campbell.

If you’re anything like me, the square-jawed B-lister has played a significant role in your pop culture consumption over the years. And he’s the reason this comic book crossover exists.

ARMY OF DARKNESS/BUBBA HO-TEP is a celebration of two of Campbell’s most famous onscreen characters – Ashley “Ash” Williams and Elvis Aaron Presley. Two Kings portrayed with charisma and humanity and heart. And let’s be honest, in this particular case it’s probably a bloody heart getting hacked up by a chainsaw, or worse…

Army of Darkness was my first introduction to the Evil Dead franchise. Bruce Campbell’s portrayal of Ash grabbed hold of me and I was an insta-fan. I eventually worked my way backwards through the film series (an odd order but it works) and I still believe Army of Darkness to be Campbell’s greatest performance as Ash. He is at the height of his powers here, dropping some of Ash’s most quotable lines. It’s this evolution of Ash which has kept the Army of Darkness comics so popular for so long after all these year. Fans can’t get enough of Ash’s latest, most outlandish crossovers, and I could not be more honored to add to the immense tapestry that has become an Army of Darkness comic book staple.

But what to cross AOD over with that it hasn’t already been paired up with?  

Enter Elvis! I never got a chance to see Bubba Ho-Tep in theaters, but I bought the DVD sight unseen. It. Was. Weird. But in an unforgettable, “I have to watch that again to try and understand what I just saw” way. Underneath its bizarre surface, Bubba Ho-Tep was complex and thought provoking. But most of all, it was a joy to see Campbell show us a different side of him, while also going head-to-head with the undead. It only made sense to shelve this DVD with the other Campbell movies, as it felt like a companion piece. So what I’m saying is the idea for this more or less comes down to how I organize my DVD collection. I’ve been dreaming about doing this crossover for a few years now, and I never thought I would get the opportunity to make it a reality but here we are!

In ARMY OF DARKNESS/BUBBA HO-TEP we find Ash, who is getting closer in age to when Elvis supposedly checked out. Based on a rumor that Elvis is still alive and kicking mummy ass, Ash heads to East Texas to seek out his hero’s wisdom. But where Ash goes, trouble isn’t far behind, and it’ll take his and the King’s powers combined to thwart a re-animated Bubba Ho-Tep, now possessed by the Evil Force! What follows is a road trippin’, time hoppin’ journey that’ll spit Ash out into ‘70s Vegas (and that’s just issue one)!

Not only will this yarn we’re spinning give fans the ultimate team up of Ash and Elvis, but here’s the cherry on top: I have the stupid luck of being paired with a dream team of artists to try and make sense of the madness. Vincenzo Federici bringing his kinetic energy on line art and is absolutely killing it (and all Bubba’s victims), turning up the volume on every fight scene while managing to fit Ash’s chin into every panel! He’s joined on art duties by Michele Monte, whose eye-popping yet moody colors perfectly set the tone for each scene, plus everyone’s favorite letterer Taylor Esposito, bringing his distinct Ghost Glyph stylings.  

What more can I say except this is gonna be one groovy crossover that should excite your regulars as well as new fans alike! I hope you love the selection of covers as much as I do, including some iconic imagery from Carlos Gomez, Tom Mandrake, Robert Hack, Diego Galindo, and Emma Kubert.

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2019

Just when it felt like 2018 was never going to end, here we are in 2019! Far fewer flying cars than we were anticipating, but we made it all the same.

As this is the first blog on my new site, I’ll keep it brief since we’re just getting to know each other. My hope for this blog is that along with the occasional update on my latest projects or general think pieces, I can eventually provide worthwhile content and advice to anyone trying to break into writing for comics pulling from my own experience and naive mistakes made along the way. There’s a LOT I wish I knew when I was first starting out that I had to learn the hard way. And hey, I’m still learning new tricks along the way and I hope to never stop!

As far as what’s on the horizon for me in 2019, I am very excited about all the new projects I’m working on, starting with my very first crossover series launching in February from Dynamite and IDW Publishing — ARMY OF DARKNESS/BUBBA HO-TEP

As a longtime fan of Bruce Campbell’s work, I’m very excited and honored to help bring two of his most iconic roles (Ash and Elvis, respectively) together for the first time! This is a love letter to Campbell fans everywhere, so I hope we can live up to expectations of what a first meeting between these should be like. It’s gonna be groovy!

I promised brevity (unless you’re not into the whole brevity thing) so signing off and hope to see you in 2019!

—Scott