Merry Christmas, 2020!

 I've been waiting to spill the news about a couple fun projects I've been involved in, and it looks like now is the time! Ho, ho, hoo-ray!

Just found out that InDELLible's  All-New Popular Comics #4 is on sale at Amazon right this very moment! This album-sized, 70 page, FULL COLOR anthology features TWO stories written by yours truly and penciled by my pal, the late, great Donnie Page! First is "The Owl and the Pantherman!" This one stars the famed Public Domain creature of the night superhero at his battling best! If you dig this one, we really must take our collective hats off to inker/finisher John Gentil who literally saved this story from oblivion by inking the whole story from PHOTOGRAPHS Donnie had sent me as he drew it. Haltacolor did an amazing job enhancing Donnie and John's art with their colors and lettering. The second story in the ish, "King of the Hill" might sound familiar to those of you who grabbed a copy of Diversions #1--that's because it's the same story, except this time Mort Todd's incredible colors are in full view! Ho, ho, hoo-whooooo! You can order your copy of All-New Popular Comics #4 (aka PopCom #4) directly from Amazon by clicking right here!

Art by Donnie Page and John Gentile/colors and lettering by Haltacolor

Oh, and the fine folks at InDELLible have issue #5 of PopCom almost completed--and I have a story in there, too, illustrated by the sure-to-be-artistic-superstar--Truman Vasco! It's another classic Public Domain character, The Voice in "Lucky Dog!"

And speaking of classic, public domain heroes, I did a brand new Green Mask tale for my pal Mark Davis' Golden Era #2! Once again, I was fortunate to be paired with another uber-talented buddy on the art-end, David Johnson Jr.! Ho, ho, hoo-hah! It's on sale NOW at IndyPlanet! Click here and get your copy!

Cover art by Ken Johnston

Oh, and don't let all of that make you think for uno momento that things are slowing down on Diversions! Here's a taste of ish #4...

Cover art by Steven Butler and Mort Todd

Night Spider art by JW Erwin

U.S. Flag art by Donnie Page and John Gentil

Ho, ho, have a holly, jolly Christmas, everyone!

New Diversions and InDELLible!

Hey, I'm back with another update! 

First off, I sent Diversions #3 to Ka-Blam! for printing, so it should go up for sale on IndyPlanet some time in October (I hope). I'll be uploading it to DriveThru Comics around the time it goes live on IndyPlanet. I'm very proud of our first theme issue, "Crime Busters!" Brand new tales of Night Spider (art by JW Erwin) and Midnight Stranger (art by Joe Koz), plus an edited/corrected reprinting of Black Rose. 

And over at InDELLible, I have two  stories, both drawn by my late friend Donnie Page coming out in All New Popular Comics #5, which should go on sale in the next few weeks on Amazon. The "King of the Hill" story from Diversions #1 will be published in full color (inks by Ken McFarlane; lettering and color supplied by Mort Todd) in that issue, and a 12 page Owl story we worked on will debut in the issue. It will be in color as well. (Inks by John Gentil, lettering and colors by Kevin Scott Halter.)

I'll keep you posted on the "when" for both these books as soon as I get concrete info. 

Pax!

Summer Is Heating Up!

It's new update time! Are...you...ready...?

First up, did you catch Will Lill's Free Comic Book Day preview of Ash-Aman in the FCBD Fun Adventure Comics! 2018 edition? If not, get thee to DriveThru Comics and download it now! (Sports and exclusive cover by the incredible Russ Martin, don'tcha know!)

Ash-Aman's official debut is only a few weeks away in Fun Adventure Comics! #7, and honest to Irving, you don't wanna miss it! It's the most truly 1970s-style cosmic I've had worked on yet, and Russ' art and co-plotting is gonna blow your mind!

Over at Surprising Comics (which is now an imprint of Lucky Comics!), we're still waiting for Depthon #1 (with THREE underwater adventures written by Bronze Age Aquaman scribe supreme Steve Skeates) and Surprising Universe#2 to get their finishing touches, but here's something to keep your interest piqued:  another sample page from my Donnie Page illoed Depthon story and another page from my Unbeatable Brick story with art by Josepth Graves and Donald Willman...

Speaking of Unbeatable Brick, JW Erwin is still rocking the pencils and inks on our two-part shocker (slated for Surprising Universe issues 4 and 5). Here's his cover art and mock-up for ish #5 (though it could appear on #4--we'll see)...

JW and I are still hard at work on the Night Spider mini-series, and believe you me, this is another comic that's gonna blow your socks off! Here are some more of JW's design pages...

And finally, as I mentioned earlier in this post, Donnie Page knocked it out of the park (as he always does) with his Depthon pencils. Soon after he finished work on that story, Donnie learned that he has Stage 4 Prostate Cancer that has spread to multiple organs. Donnie has set up a FaceBook Donations page where you can contribute to help him with his medical expenses as he fights his cancer like the super-hero he is. As soon as we learned of Donnie's situation, a whole bunch of his pals from InDELLible Comics, Surprising Comics, Lucky Comics and Charlton Neo pow-wowed on the best way to help our uber-talented buddy...so naturally t'was decided to do a benefit comic featuring Donnie's own work, as well as art and stories from some of his favorite comicbook folk. I can't go into a lot of detail here, but Colnk Adink, Jim Ludwig, Mark Davis, Stephen Butler, and many others are putting together a sure-to-be-awesome benefit called Donnie's Pages! Stay tuned for details, but I can tell you that it's gonna feature at least two tales that Donnie and I have collaborated on: "King of the Hill" (thanks to Charlton Neo publisher Mort Todd for coloring and lettering it--as well as letting us use the story prior to it being published in an upcoming Charlton Neo mag)...

...and Donnie's own creation, U.S. Flag and Liberty Ladd! Get this: the page below (as well as the whole U.S. Flag story) is brand new, astoundingly penciled by Donnie as he takes his meds and prepares for chemo. I TOLD you Donnie's a super-hero!

Remember, you don't have to wait until Donnie's Pages comes out--you can help him RIGHT NOW by following the FaceBook Donations link. Thanks in advance for your generous help!

Kragor, Midnight Stranger, Unbeatable Brick, and Fantastic Giants Are A'Comin'!

Along with last month's announcements, there's even more excitement in the pipeline! Ready? Set? Go!!

First up, Will Lill Comics publisher Warren Montgomery  has announced that Midnight Stranger part 3 will appear in Fun Adventure Comics #3 in June, then Kragor will be cover-featured in Fun Adventure Comics #4 in July! Happy summer!!

Next, Surprising Comics publisher Mark Davis has thrown caution to the wind and granted Unbeatable Brick his VERY OWN COMIC once Surprising Universe finishes its three issue run. UB artist supreme David Johnson Jr. will continue drawing the series, and he's even created a new villain for the premiere ish! I LOVE writing Unbeatable Brick and I sure hope y'all dig it! Just to hold you over, here's David's in-your-face cover rough for UB's turn on the cover of Surprising Universe #3!

And last, but certainly not least..in fact, this is pretty big! And do I ever mean BIG! My online pal Steven Butler (yeah, THAT Steven Butler) and I are gonna work together (along with co-creator/inker/colorist/editor/honcho Mort Todd--yeah, THAT Mort Todd) on a brand spanking feature for Charlton Neo/Pix-C bringing back that grand old name, Fantastic Giants! Besides bringing back the name the name, we're also re-imagining Son of Vulcan into something totally exciting and new--Robogod Vulkan! But wait, the title is Fantastic Giants, plural, right? Right! Steven has also created a new gi-normous creature with roots in Charlton-past, Kongorr! And me? I get to put in lots of words! The plan is to run Fantastic Giants on online Pix-C and when it's finished, Charlton Neo will collect and publish the entire 30 page epic in it's own print-mag!

Yep, exciting times for yers trooly! I sure hope you join me for the ride!

The Sound of Opening Doors...

A very happy and excited Writer of Comics is coming at you tonight. This week, I've had two projects accepted by two different professional publishers! Tuesday I got word from The Creeps publisher Rich Sala that he'd be interested in using a five page horror story of mine. When it will appear and who'll be drawing it are pending, but when I find out I'll sure let y'all know! Also, I've been in contact with Roger McKenzie of Charlton Neo and Pix-C about a western strip for Pix-C since Sunday. He's been super-supportive (thanks, Rog!) and tonight, wham! Rog sent me a message saying Paul Kupperberg wanted to see more and that it was time to start looking for an artist. To say I'm a bit excited is like saying Stan Lee is kinda popular!

The point of this post isn't really to brag (well, okay, maybe a little), but to throw the doors open for any of my pals, gals, and/or Groove-ophiles who might interested in drawing a cool new western strip for Pix-C! I'm gonna post my pitch and first week's script (each "week" on Pix-C is a standard comicbook page, btw), and if you wanna try out to draw a cool western and be part of the newest, hottest movement in comicdom (Charlton Neo/Pix-C, duh!), send samples to submissions@morttodd.com. Make sure you mention they're for Guns N Rosa in the subject line. I'm sure Rog and Paul have some artist samples on hand, but hey, maybe YOU are the best fit for...GUNS N ROSA!