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.

UNTHINKABLE #3 and San Diego Comic-Con 2009

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. Unthinkable, and all the hoopla surrounding it, has taken up most of my time. So much so that I forgot to announce the release of UNTHINKABLE #3, which is IN STORES NOW. (See Paul Azaceta's cover above).

(I also forgot to mention that my TWO-FACE: YEAR ONE mini-series is now collected in trade along with Scarecrow Year One Bruce Jones and Sean Murphy - my unpublished Teen Titans artist. The collection is entitled Batman: Two-Face/Scarecrow Year One and is also In STORES NOW

The script for Issue #3, you remember, is what got me detained by the TSA. boingboing picked up on the story, as did Heidi MacDonald's The Beat blog on Publisher's Weekly, and as a result I've been bombarded with media requests.

But as unpleasant as it was being hassled by airport security, I'd rather focus on the issue itself. I think Issue #3 is the best issue yet. BOOM! Editor in Chief and comics writing legend said he felt it's the issue where I really found the characters voices and "hit my groove", and critics so far seem to agree.

It features an incredibly intense opening, the death of a major character, and a great twist at the end. And oh yeah - the terror scenarios deal with religious extremists of various faiths trying to bring about the Apocalypse in Israel.

I just finished what I hope is the final draft of Issue 5, and the art in Issue 4 is almost completely done. Artist Julian Totino Tedesco continues to blow me away as I throw more and more seemingly impossible things for him to draw.



I also wanted to take this opportunity to mention that I'm going to be at San Diego Comic-Con every day and night, including previews. For the first time in the past few years, I won't have my own table. However, I'll still be happy to sign any of my work - Unthinkable, Batman: Two-Face Year One, Grounded, Fearless, Hazed, Supergirl, Cyborg, Heroes etc. Or just chat about comics.

The best place to find me is by the BOOM! Studios booth, #2543. I'll be hanging by there the most, and if I'm not there, one of the many nice people at the booth should be able to get a hold of me. Twitter is also not a bad idea - @ me or send me a DM. My twitter account is http://twitter.com/marksable and my Twitter name is, well, marksable. I'm clever like that.

Hope to see you all there, and thanks so much to those of you who are helping make Unthinkable a hit!

Two-Face: Year One out this Wednesday, my dad, and where I'll be in San Diego

Above is Mark Chiarello's awesome cover to the first issue of Two-Face: Year One, which is finally out in stores this Wednesday. It's 48 pages, prestige format, with art by Jesus Saiz and Jeremey Haun, inks by Jimmie Palmiotti and lettering by my friend, and great comic creator in his own right, Sal Cipriano. It's a deeper exploration of Harvey Dent (for those of you who don't read comics, Aaron Eckhart's character in the wonderful Dark Knight), as much a hard boiled crime story as a Batman superhero tale. And I'm more proud of the writing on this as just about anything I've ever done.

It occurs to me as I write this, that despite the many interviews I've done for this book, I don't think I've talked about how much my dad was an influence on this project. Like Harvey Dent, my father is a former prosecutor (Federal, not state), and a lifelong civil servant who remained honest despite the sea of corruption that often categorized the REAL Gotham, New York City. Unlike Harvey, my father never crossed over to the dark side, but he did provide me with a plethora of stories about cops, lawyers and mobsters that found their way into this project. When you read the joke about a cop being assigned a two-thousand year old murder case, that's my dad and his humor right there. Although I may not have followed in his footsteps (I have ga law degree but have never practiced law), he's still my hero.

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As for San Diego, I'll be at Comic-Con this whole weekend. I'll be at the Image table, primarily, either signing my own books - Grounded, Fearless and Hazed, or signing Comic Book Tattoo with my fellow contributors to that Tori Amos anthology. Of course, I'm happy to sign Two-Face, Cyborg and Supergirl, my DC projects to date, or the award-nominated Image anthologies Popgun and 24/7 Volume 2.

(note - if you're reading this, and are looking for a particular issue of Grounded or Fearless, let me know and I can make sure to bring it).

EDIT: Signing (and sketching) with me will be Grounded's Paul Azaceta, Hazed's Robbi Rodriguez, and Fearless co-writer Dave Roth (Dave probably won't sketch).

Also, evidently there is a special edition Heroes comic for the con that features my two-part Suresh story from last year. Not only will I be happy to sign that, but if anyone can snag me a copy I'll happy to pay you for one and throw in some free stuff as well.