Comic Book Resources

Strangeways: The Thirsty - Page 115

Art by Gervasio and Jok. Written by Matt Maxwell.

No comments, no bon mots. Just me frantically trying to keep up. See you on Wednesday.

Strangeways: The Thirsty - Page 114

Kids before cowboys and vampires...or something like that. Apologies for the delay.

Art by Gervasio and Jok, who are on time more than I am.

Back on Monday. If I make it that long.

Strangeways: The Thirsty - Page 113

Looks like 113 was pretty unlucky for the Engineer.

Art by Gervasio and Jok. Written by Matt Maxwell

And might not be so healthy for Joachim, either.

Big things afoot at Strangeways central, some of them even involving cowboys and vampires. Some involving a bunch of stuff that'll get me shot if I talk about, so there's just stuff and we'll leave it at that.

See you back here Wednesday for more cryptic proclamations. And vampires.

Strangeways: The Thirsty - Page 112

And for those of you who are concerned about the ethical treatment of comic book creators, please note that the artists are the first people to get paid on any of my projects. The writer and letterer? Well...eventually.

Art by Gervasio and Jok. Written (and lettered) by Matt Maxwell

Wish I could afford a real letterer...

Back next week with what's likely to be a big KABOOM.

Update to add: My interview at CBR went live as of an hour ago. Check it out.

Strangeways: The Thirsty - Page 111

Week three of rain here at Strangeways Central. I'm beginning to tire of it. I know, folks from Portland and Seattle are mocking my weakness right now.

Anyways, here's today's page.

Art by Gervasio and Jok. Written by Matt Maxwell.

Another page going up Wednesday, assuming my house hasn't floated away by then. Living at the bottom of a big hill in rainy season ain't no fun.

Strangeways: The Thirsty - Page 110

Stay tuned for information about an upcoming STRANGEWAYS-related appearance. Or just read the page. Up to you.

Art by Gervasio and Jok. Written by Matt Maxwell.

Looks like someone went and rung the dinner bell, it does.

Okay, this Saturday, the 23rd, I'll be appearing at the Grand Re-Opening of Bizarro World comics in Davis, CA. I'll be signing books, and will have preview books for THE THIRSTY (which contain all of Chapter 1, some art pages from the upcoming "Red Hands" and MURDER MOON art as well) and trying to bedazzle anyone who'll give me ten seconds to do so. Oh, and world famous Five Minute Stories, too. Here's the info:

Bizarro World

223 E St.

Davis CA 95616

530-759-9490

www.bizarroworld.net

Looks like things kick off at about 6:30. Plenty of time to drive in from out of town and enjoy the lovely weather we have in the Sacramento/Davis area this time of year.

That's a joke, kids. It's been 40 degrees and raining since Saturday, with no sign of abating. Hopefully it'll cheer up by then.

See y'all next week.

Strangeways: The Thirsty - Page 109

Feels kinda out of place to be running such frivolity on MLK Day, but there you have it.

Art by Gervasio and Jok. Written by Matt Maxwell.

So, I guess they better get to that shed, huh? Wonder what's in there. Maybe we get to find out on Wednesday.

Strangeways: The Thirsty - Page 108

Art by Gervasio and Jok. Written by Matt Maxwell

Today's post will be pithy observation-free. Seek your pith elsewhere.

Strangeways: The Thirsty - Page 107

If'n you forgot where we left off before the holidays, here's the last page. Collins and company are trapped under a water tower in Drytown, sunlight fading to storm clouds and vampires up and looking for a taste.

And here's today's page.

Art by Gervasio and Jok. Written by Matt Maxwell

A new page is up Wednesday.

Trying to figure out when my one-year anniversary over here at Robot 6 is. Bet it's coming up pretty soon. Can ya believe it?

Strangeways teaser: "Red Hands"

Strangeways

Matt Maxwell, writer of the comic Strangeways that we've been serializing here all year, provides a bit of glimpse into the past and future of the series with this teaser image from a story called "Red Hands."

Matt explains the image:

From the final chapter of The Thirsty, which tells the tale of Raphael Guzman de Medina,also known as the terror of Drytown and Cedar Creek. "Red Hands" tells the story of how he went from being a simple merchant's son to a monster, driven by his own thirsts and his inability to keep them in check.

Oh, and in Strangeways, vampires don't run from the church. Instead, they burn churches down.

Look for "Red Hands" to begin after the fifth chapter of "The Thirsty" wraps up this spring.

The art is by Luis Guragna, better known as the main artist from Strangeways: Murder Moon, from Matt Maxwell's script. Get caught up on Strangeways right here.

Strangeways - Winter Solstice (4)

Last time I try to write a serial story as its being published, I swear.

Part 1 is here, part 2 is here, part 3 is here.

Happy New Year everyone! Gosh, new years. Why does this stick in my mind? It’s on the tip of my tongue, but I can’t name it…

—

Screaming not in pain or agony or fear, but in something like release, the Stag dropped to his knees from a dead run. It fell like an avalanche, a torrent in midsummer. The ground itself shook as the stag’s chest heaved and rattled. Collins blade was dug deep into the beast’s neck, but the thought of releasing it was anathema. Better that he fall with the Stag and make sure that the deed was done than to miss even an instant of it, or worse, to think that the Stag could somehow escape.

Collins fell atop it, radiant and golden for an instant before he slid to the ground and rolled. Grass rock and earth crushed him, burying and leaden.

But he would not yield the blade.

Continue Reading »

Strangeways - Winter Solstice (3)

Merry post-Christmas, everybody! Busy weeks here at the Maxwell ranch. Trying to write while the kids pound on their new discombobulators and aim their transmogrifiers at the family dog in an effort to make him "even cooler". It's kinda distracting.

Here's part 3 of the STRANGEWAYS Christmas special. Part 1 is here and Part 2 is right here. Looks like Part 4 will drop this Wednesday, no matter how hard I try to wrap it up today.

--

The stag was no longer merely glowing, but blazing now. Golden light poured from its hide, not reflected from the dying sun but a sun in and of itself. Collins might have marveled at the sight of it, but there was no room for marvel in his heart now. It was something that hovered between love and lust and survival, a need without a name. And all of that was focused on the stag now, keeping only two steps ahead of the ravening hounds at his heels.

Though now they were less hounds than they were swarming clouds, the stormfront whipped by winds and chill with licks of greenish lightning raking and twisting, illuminating teeth and jaws in their afterlight. Their howls were now the howls of the gale through the trees, their snapping teeth was the seething rain and driving snow, their coats sooty black as the depth of the darkest and longest night of the year.

Continue Reading »

Strangeways - Winter Solstice (2)

Part 2 of our Strangeways Christmas story, or as close as I can make myself write, anyways.

If'n you missed Part 1, it's right here.

Looks like this'll run to three parts as much as I wanted to avoid that. I won't promise that anything will go up on Friday, so it appears that there'll be Strangeways-related content next week, for those of you who can't bear to tear yourselves away from the intarwebs over what should be a vacation.

Merry Christmas to all of you, and a belated Solstice greetings to those of you of the pagan persuasion (hint: I'm not). I'd throw Chanukah in there, but I'm weeks late for that, aren't I? I am. Weeks late.

---

The hounds came first. But these, these were unlike any hounds Collins had seen before. Coal black and trailing dust behind them from tattered and shaggy hair, all lank and muscle stretched in pursuit. Their jaws were open in howls and growls as they rolled across the grassland, hot on the trail of the stag in long strides. Their eyes glittered green, a trick of the light somehow. No dogs had eyes that color, nothing did. They glowed, ember bright and hot.

Collins waited. They didn’t seem to be interested in him at all, fixated on their prey as only a dog can be. In their passing, they felt like a group of racehorses pounding the ground, dirt and grass ripped and flying. At their closest there was no doubting, their eyes were as flame. It was no trick that could be played out to the dusk.

The horn rang again over the bell of the dogs’ howls, cleanly slicing through the din. Then too, the hunting party broke the treeline. There were only two of them, both astride magnificent horses. Power roared from the beasts’ legs. Looking at them, Collins knew that he was looking at the horses that his grandfathers spoke of reverently, around whom everyday horses would only seem a disappointment, a pale shadow.

Continue Reading »

Strangeways - Winter Solstice (1)

No comics this week. Only stories without pictures.

Part 2 drops Wednesday. Hoping it'll be wrapped up then, but it may not yet be so.

STRANGEWAYS – WINTER SOLSTICE

The crescent moon hung low, sickle-silver and cutting. Collins stopped and watched it a moment, though if he’d had any sense at all, he’d have pressed on. The cold outside was nothing to joke about, and while it wasn’t the bone-gnawing chill of the Georgia swamps he’d once trudged through, it had fingers that found every popped seam and tear in his clothes. But still, there was a real beauty in that sky, all purple and red velvet as the sun went down. He got the feeling that the moon wasn’t so much following the sun so much as it was chasing, sharp edge hungry.

The horse chuffed once and swished his head back and forth, impatient. It occurred to Collins that he didn’t even have a name for this one.

“What you want, hoss? You tired of standing in the cold?” He patted the horse’s neck and waited for a reply. “All right then, let’s us move on a bit.” Collins gently spurred him on and down the rolling hill.

Where not smothered in snow, the grass was long and stringy like a dead man’s hair, pushed listlessly in the chill breeze. The last of the sunlight laid out a tarnished gold glow that was not warm in and of itself. If anything it only served to remind Collins how cold it actually was. Up ahead, the grassland gave way to a tangle of spreading oak and scattered granite boulders like giant knucklebones dug out of the soil.

Wind through the trees hummed and rustled, and something else. What was that sound?

“The hell?” Collins muttered. “Is that a, a horn?”

Continue Reading »

Strangeways: The Thirsty - Page 106

Art by Gervasio and Jok. Written by Matt Maxwell

I hope they got more bullets than I think they got.

There will not be pages next week. Instead, there will be a serialized short story from the Strangeways. And, like the rest of the universe, I'll be taking a break between Christmas and New Years.

Yeah, I know I'm a stinker making ya wait, but when have I ever denied my stinkiness?

Don't answer that...