Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Rift Raiders, Kickstart and San Diego Comic-Con



I'm proud to finally be able to announce RIFT RAIDERS, my newest graphic novel with UNTHINKABLE artist Julian Totino Tedesco.

Described as GOONIES meets TIME BANDITS, Rift Raiders is the story of three orphaned teens who learn they're not orphans at all. Their parents have been hidden throughout time. A strange man offers to help them save his parents if they travel through to time retrieve mystical artifacts for him. But what is his REAL agenda?

In terms of tone, it's pretty close to GROUNDED. Meaning a smart, funny action adventure story accessible to a younger age group but equally as rewarding for older readers.

As great as Julian was on Unthinkable, he's even better on Grounded. It's a less crowded book, and I tried to step out of the way to let his artwork shine. His art is the real star of the book.

The book is 100% complete, and will be shipping as an 88 page OGN in October around the time of New York Comic-Con.

RIFT RAIDERS will be published by Kickstart Comics, a new publisher I'm pretty excited about because, among other things, they'll be distributing books beyond the direct market. In other words, not only will they be in comic book specialty stores, they will also be everywhere form Walmart to Best Buy with exclusive shelf-space. In another post I'll talk about why I think that's good for the comics industry, but I'm about to leave for San Diego Comic-Con.

Speaking of which, I will be in San Diego for Comic-Con. I don't have a table, and I won't be doing any signings or panels. I'll mostly be taking meetings and walking around. I'm still happy to sign things, do interviews, podcasts etc. The best way to reach me is probably Twitter (@marksable - easy).

Again, sorry for the brevity, but prepping for the con is always fraught with panic. I promise I'll be back to speak about RIFT RAIDERS and more soon.