Famine

Keeping with the horsemen, let us now take a look at Famine. Surprise, surprise, he's eating a sandwich.


Famine comes in a little later in the story, and I think Raf did this in an attempt to stay true to the order in which the Horsemen come originally. You start with Pestilence, move on to War, complicate things further with Famine, and wrap it up with Death. He never has confirmed that he's that clever, and I didn't ask. Never give the writer an ego boost. It's almost as bad as giving the artist one.



Which reminds me...In Raf's last entry chronicling the long and winding process that has led up to this book being made, he deliberately left out the part where I came in! Blast you, Raf! So I'm hoping that I make the cut next time. Although if you really want to know how Raf and I met, you could read the foreword he did in my Beardo collection, priced modestly at 14.95! Pluggy plug plug!

THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD TO HELL...

Herein lies a brief history of THE APOCALYPSE PLAN for anyone what wants to know...

I wanted to do a story about Revelations, from the Bible. I envisioned it as a western. I pitched it to Gentleman Joe Gentile, publisher of Moonstone comics. He said no. So I repitched it as a corporate thriller. He said yes. My artist was to be Chaz Truog, who has drawn such fine, fine comics as Animal Man, Chiaroscuro, and Geronimo. Chaz did some character sketches. I loved 'em. And then he couldn't do the book.

When I finished the script, which was co-edited by Lori G and Garrett Anderson, it happened to coincide with some other titles that were pitched to Moonstone that had a similar bent. Joe asked me if I would consider throwing TAP into that ring in order to create an 'event', a series of titles that all revolved a similar theme. I passed. Not because I'm all hoity-toity like that, and better than anyone, but I didn't want to have to change one iota of my story to make it fit into the other titles' mythos. I asked if I could shop my script around. Joe gave his blessing, cause he cool like that.

Along the way, I went through a revolving doors of possible artists, all great, all too busy to do anything beyond some character work... sigh...

And then along comes Aaron Kuder.

I found Aaron through the PencilJack forum, which I frequent, and loved his work. I asked him to collaborate with me on the book, and he agreed, silly bugger! His character work was great, and we were off and running. Oh, except I didn't have a publisher yet...

Enter Narwain.

I can't remember how I hooked up with this Italian publishing house, but we seemed to gel right away, and they loved the script. I told them I had an artist attached. Contracts were written and signed, schedules were agreed on, and we were up and running!

And then... and then... and then...

Everything went to hell.

Aaron, phenomenally talented as he is, just couldn't work with the schedule that Narwain demanded; this was to be, as far as I know, his first major project. Of course he wanted it done right. Of course Narwain wanted it done fast. Deadlines were blown, blah blah blah and Aaron was taken off the book, much to my chagrin.

A new artist was chosen, the incredibly talented Roberto Castro, who did a quick tryout page that blew me away.

Off and running again!

And then... and then... and then...

Narwain closed its doors. And the Apocalypse Plan died a quiet death... I didn't speak to anyone involved with the book again.

Until I met Dan Dougherty.

But listen, that's a story for another day. What I really want to do now is pimp out Aaron Kuder (who goes by the nom de pencil and ink Dancing Door Guy). I've kept tabs on his work over the last few years, and he's gotten soooo much better (and was great to begin with!)!

So this is a call out to anyone who wants a gifted artist to do work for them. Aaron is great and to prove it, I submit Exhibit A: http://dancingdoorguy.deviantart.com/gallery/

You will see, among all the other real purty pieces, the original cover to TAP issue 1.

One day, I'd like to work with Aaron again. If he'll have me. He's just that good... You'd better hurry if you want to beat me to the punch!

War.

Here is one of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse Plan, War.



I modeled him after my brother, who is a pretty big dude. Minus the scarring.



Working on page 57 as we speak. Give us some love, Fans of the Apocalypse!

TAP UPDATE

As of... rightnow... Dan has handed in page 56 of TAP, and I've just completed lettering page 33. I'm catching up, I think! Our goal is to have copies of the book available for Wizard World Chicago in August. This may not be the official release, since there will be a number of tweaks necessary to make the book as cool as we want it to be, and that will take time. Even better for you cool-collectible junkies out there, though, is that we will have a 'convention-only' copy for sale! Be the first on your block to get a copy of THE APOCALYPSE PLAN, and watch your friends drool, and your clergy cringe!

And I wanted to mention that Dan's new book, ROTTEN is now available at discerning and classy comic shops everywhere! I didn't write it, but it's still a good book! Run to your local store and pick one up right away!

Theda.

Here we have another one of our main characters, Theda.


Without a shadow of a doubt, she proves to Abaddon quickly that there's a lot more to her than her delicate appearance suggests.




Her presence alongside our hero will push him further towards the truth behind this hostile takeover, but are either of them ready for it?