2011: Year in Review

Hey gang,

Now that I've finally processed the pounds of turkey and pumpkin pie in my system from our Thanksgiving feast, I thought I'd take a pause to reflect on 2011 from my perspective.

This time last year I was considering whether I wanted to take my talents and experience toward doing public speaking to church and christian youth oriented groups about Eye Witness and my decade long journey with it, or focus more on creating new artwork and working primarily on the comic/pop culture convention circuit...which would still allow me to promote and sell EW to those it was designed for (mainly the unchurched and skeptical comic fan out there).  After much deliberation on this, I went with the latter!

So...what this the right decision for me?  Hmmmmm....

I speak with a lot of young aspiring writers, artists and self-publisher's at my appearances and through my various pages on the web and get a lot of questions in regards to the financial viability of creating your own comics and graphic novels.  Truth be told, like any indy creative endeavor (film making, music recording, fine art, novel writing etc....) creating and publishing comics/gn's is a risky endeavor where there is no guarantee of financial bounty...or for that matter, breaking even.  If one decides to go down this creative path, it must be with a clear understanding that this is something you feel compelled to do, a project you feel passionate about and that you have funding in place you can afford to do without (kind of like how my Dad always told me to approach going to Las Vegas..."don't gamble what you can't afford to lose").  In other words, it should something you'd do 24/7, even if no one ever paid you for doing it!

In most cases if you're approaching the comic/gn publishing industry from an indy perspective with the belief that your creative properties going to make you rich, (or just maybe financially independent) then you're setting yourself up for a rude awakening.  Is there precedent to the contrary?  Sure... Jeff Smith (Bone), Todd MacFarlane (Spawn), Dave Sim (Cerebus) to name a few...but when you look at the shear number of indy comics that have come and gone each and every year for the last couple decades, these are truly close to "one-in-a-million" scenarios! Am I sharing this because I'm trying to keep young talent from even trying?  Absolutely not!  I'm merely sharing what is (from a financial perspective) the reality of what you're taking on when you go down the self-publishing route. 

If you have a burning desire to tell a story in comic/gn form, then sometimes self publishing is your only, and best, option (especially with the rise of digital publishing...but that's another topic all together).  But just go into it with a firm grasp on what your goals are.  For me with Eye Witness, it wasn't about the financial return I might make (though everyone who heard about the concept I was undertaking or saw the advance artwork assured me I was going to sell millions of copies....I kid you not).  It was about my fulfilling what I saw as a divine directive for my creative talents.  I was extremely passionate about this project and set down the path to create the book (then the series) no matter how much it costs me, or how much I received in return.  My main payoff was determined by how many people I would touch with the story!

I was fortunate that the Lord was at the helm of this particular endeavor and more times than I'd like to admit, He helped keep food on my table and money in our bank account.  But for the better part of a decade I slaved feverishly to complete what became something of an epic (400+ fully illustrated pages) while basically earning enough for the publishing to pay for itself.

Getting back to my original point (in a real round about fashion)...I decided I needed to create a model where I could continue to share Eye Witness with people (since most people still are unaware of it, despite my efforts) while earning extra income from other creative work I was producing.  And since, my target audience for Eye Witness was mainly the unchurched it just made more sense that I should continue to have a presence at comic/pop culture events, rather than "preach to choir", so to speak, by limiting my self to only Christian events and churches.

So yes, this was the right decision for me!  In 2011, it has allowed me to create a decent income from sales of my prints/posters and landing of commissions and contract assignments, while still being able to not only sell Eye Witness, but also continue to inspire and counsel other writers and artists I meet that likewise feel compelled to use their talents in the service of the Lord, but just don't know how to do it.

Will I one day travel down the other path and begin to speak with young believers about my mission with Eye Witness?  That's always possible and like I've operated pretty much for the last decade...I'm leaving that in God's hands.  He'll let me know when it's time to change gears!

Hope to see many of you all again in 2012.  I've have a bunch new comic and pulp culture inspired prints and posters to share (like this one):

RJ Luedke
http://www.bobtheartist.com/

Working a Graphic Novel System

I have a lot of people who have asked me over the years why it takes so long for books in the Eye Witness series to be published, (about 24 months). The answer is quite simple...because I perform most of the work myself.

For those of you not familiar with the way larger comic/graphic novel publishing companies work, think of companies like Marvel and DC like an auto assembly line...where each person on the line has their job to do and does it in order. This creates a very efficient system if your goal is to publish books from concept to shelve as quickly as possible and is critical for juggling multiple sequential titles and keeping them on schedule.

Example: The writer writes an outline or fully developed script; that goes to the penciler, who does the pencil illustrations from the script; that goes to an inker (or for you fans of Kevin Smith...a tracer) who inks over the pencils; that goes to the colorist who takes the black and white line art and makes it pop in full color; that goes to the letterist, who now adds the dialog, narration, thought balloons and any special sound effects; that goes to the editor, (or multiple layers of editors) who does all the things editors do...who then may refer it back to any of the previous people in the chain to make corrections and/or additions; and then it goes to the printer. Granted this is just a basic outline of the structure and depending on what company you will work for, it will deviate...but you get the idea.

This kind of process guarantees that everyone in the chain can be working on something simultaneously to insure the book is produced in the most time efficient way possible.

Indy publishers, like myself, are more equated to the old world concept of "hand made automakers," where each car is meticulously worked on till it's totally constructed and another one is not started till the first one is completed. There are many reasons why this second type of system is used in publishing, but most I'd guess deal with either lack of production capital or just a desire to be a part of every facet of a book's production. For me, it's a little of both. But needless to say, I can only be working on one aspect of the book at a time before going on to the next.

Neither system is "the right" way to create comics or graphic novels, but they are just systems used to achieve a common goal and utilized based upon the needs and goals of the particular creators or publisher. Just like in the film industry there are "studio" pictures (with large budgets and hundreds if not thousands of people working on them) and there are "indy" films (which are the vision of one man...or a handful of dedicated professionals that are driven by their creative juices rather than a paycheck). Think about for a moment the number of people needed to produce a movie like Watchman, versed the number needed to produce a film like Juno or Good Will Hunting. Neither is the right way to make a movie (though I'm sure you'd get a lot of heated discussion on that point) but both are used based upon the size of the project, it's projected budget, it's level of financing and it's potential for box office.

Here's a outline of what it takes for me (time wise) to construct one of the Eye Witness graphic novels (of approximately 100 pages):

1. Construction of original draft of the script (developed from out outline)...1-2 months.

2. Illustrations (that is, the penciled and inked images...which in a 100 page book will number approximately 600 individual frames. During this process on many pages I will be revising the script based upon the space I am creating on the pages)...10-13 months

3. Coloring (assuming I'm doing all that work myself...done with Photoshop on my computer)...1-2 months.

4. Lettering (where I basically will do a third draft of the script....done with Illustrator)...1 month.

5. Editing and pre-press production (creation of the final cover, back cover and non-story related pages)...1 month

6. Advanced marketing of the book to distributors, retailers and the media...2 months

So as you can see in this breakdown, to get the books to the shelves of your local comic or book store (and in the warehouse of online retailers) takes anywhere from 16-20 months...and that's not counting any of the marketing and personal appearances that then take place once the book is released (which I've typically dedicated 6 months to)...and assuming I can keep to a regular full time production schedule with no disruptions due to personal or family reasons...which has never happened yet!

Could I speed up this process by bringing in people to help pencil, ink, color or letter the book? Absolutely! But this series for me is very personal...kind of my personal quest if you will...and though it is both physically and mentally taxing, I enjoy and prefer to stay on top of all areas of it's projection...a sentiment you will see quite often among indy film-makers also. This is my baby!

R. J. Luedke
http://www.headpress.info/

Honk If you Love Jesus!

A letter from my grandma....

Dear Grandson:

Just the other day I went up to my local Christian book store and saw a 'Honk if you love Jesus' bumper sticker. I was feeling particularly sassy that day because I had just come from a thrilling choir performance, followed by a thunderous prayer meeting. So, I bought the sticker and put it on my bumper.

Boy, am I glad I did; what an uplifting experience that followed. I was stopped at a red light at a busy intersection, just lost in thought about the Lord and how good he is, and I didn't notice that the light had changed. It is a good thing someone else loves Jesus because if he hadn't honked, I'd never have noticed. I found that lots of people love Jesus!

While I was sitting there, the guy behind started honking like crazy, and then he leaned out of his window and screamed, 'For the love of God!' 'Go! Go! Go! Jesus Christ, GO!' What an exuberant cheerleader he was for Jesus! Everyone started honking! I just leaned out my window and started waving and smiling at all those loving people. I even honked my horn a few times to share in the love!

There must have been a man from Florida back there because I heard him yelling something about a sunny beach.

I saw another guy waving in a funny way with only his middle finger stuck up in the air. I asked my young teenage grandson in the back seat what that meant. He said it was probably a Hawaiian good luck sign or something. Well, I have never met anyone from Hawaii, so I leaned out the window and gave him the good luck sign right back. My grandson burst out laughing. Why, even he was enjoying this religious experience!!

A couple of the people were so caught up in the joy of the moment that they got out of their cars and started walking towards me. I bet they wanted to pray or ask what church I attended, but this is when I noticed the light had changed. So, grinning, I waved at all my brothers and sisters, and drove on through the intersection. I noticed that I was the only car that got through the intersection before the light changed again and felt kind of sad that I had to leave them after all the love we had shared. So I slowed the car down, leaned out the window and gave them all the Hawaiian good luck sign one last time as I drove away.

Praise the Lord for such wonderful folks!!

Will write again soon, Love, Grandma*

*for the sake of clarity and disclosure...This was sent this by a dear friend over the web and just had to share it!

Rise of The Apostle Finalist for Nat'l Book Award

ForeWord Magazine, just announced that the third book in Robert James Luedke's, Eye Witness series...Rise of the Apostle....is a finalist in the catgory of Graphic Novels in the 2008 Book of the Year Awards.

This is the second industry honor to come to Luedke's Rise of the Apostle...which has already won The 2008 National Best Book Award (for Graphic Novels), sponsored by USABookNews.com.





More than 1,400 books were entered in 61 categories for FOREWORD MAGAZINE'S annual book awards. These were narrowed to 668 finalists from 376 publishers. These books represent some of the best work coming from today's independent press community!

The winners will be determined by a panel of librarians and booksellers, selected from FOREWORD'S readership. Gold, Silver, and Bronze winners, as well as Editor's Choice Prizes for Fiction and Nonfiction will be announced at a special program at BookExpo America at the Javits Center in New York City on May 29, 2009. The winners of the two Editor's Choice Prizes will be awarded $1,500 each. The ceremony is open to all BEA attendees.

ForeWord's Book of the Year Awards program was designed to discover distinctive books across a number of genres. The list of finalists is searchable by category, publisher, title, and author.

About FOREWORD MAGAZINE:

ForeWord affects the choices of booksellers and librarians across the country who weekly advise millions what to read. Their typical publication reaches an audience of 20,000. Foreword also put the magazine in the hands of agents and editors at larger houses who are looking for leads to bring into their fold from the independent press sector. All told, readership is about 85% librarians, 12% bookstores, 3% publishing professionals…and of course, parents.

Other Finalists for the Graphic Novel catagory:

Cleburne by Justin Murphy (Rampart Press)

Good and Evil by Michael Pearl (No Greater Joy Ministries)

Gunnerkrigg by Tom Siddell (Archaia Studios)

No Girls Allowed by Susan Hughes (Kids Can Press)

1000 Years of Manga by Brigitte Koyana-Richard (Flammarion)

The Clockwork Girl by Sean O'Reilly & Kevin Hanna (Arcana Studios)

The Grand Inquisitor by John Zmirak (The Crossroad Publishing Co.)

The Spirit: A Pop-Up Graphic Novel by Will Eisner (Insight Editions)

Congratulations to all these wonderful creators for their nominations, as any these books are worthy of winning an award. We advise any fans of graphic novels, comics and manga to check out as many of these as you can!

...And The Future of Communication, Is?

I ran across a wonderful article by Readthespirit.com editor, David Crumm, entitled, "The Shape of Things to Come is...Well...Spiritual." The article is based upon David's impressions of information presented at the recently held, "The Tools of Change Conference, 2009", held in New York City. The Conference was attended by people from all around the world involved in the booktrade, publishing, magazines, journalism and marketing.

Some of the Headlines that caught my attention, were that coming soon to a major corporation near you, will be the creation of a new job title, called: Social Community Facilitator. This will be the person responsible for the companies presence on online communities, (I.E. facebook, twitter etc...), who will be separte from the marketing department and be more attuned to the concept of community, as made popular in the Christian church.

Another revelation from the conference is, that the furture of getting our daily fix of information, (is which is slowly moving away from our daily newspaper and weekly magazine subscription), is not going to be from our home computers or laptops, but rather through our cell phones or hand held devices. Book and newspapers publishers in the far-east are already using technology to deliver their content directly to the consumer through these tools.

This is just one part of a four-part series (links provided) and quite lengthy, but worth the read if your interested in the future of the media.

Go to The Future of Communication.

R.J. Luedke
headpress.info

Explaining the Graphic Novel

As someone who is out there in the media and bookstore trenches, attempting to explain to people who didn't grow up reading graphic novels (or comics, or manga) what exactly they are, I think I've developed an explanation that I think helps make better sense of the whole conversation and if you're a fan of the format...could help to better explain it to someone who may not yet be familiar with it.

For many years now, literary critics, book reviewers and pseudo-intellectual bloggers have been pondering the graphic novel and where it fits into...or even if it fits into...serious discussion about literature.

Here's a current example of this kind of discussion, (by journalist Seth Sommerfeld for the online Gonzaga Bulletin), which is typically created for those who might new to the medium, by those who are vaguely familiar with it. Usually these kind of Graphic Novel 101 pieces, involves invoking one or more of the works that everyone knows since they have been successfully developed into other mediums, (Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, the upcoming Watchmen, 300, Sin City etc...). Within this competent piece, Sommerfeld restates the stock answer to the question, what is a graphic novel? "A graphic novel is a book-length comic. Everything one would expect in a traditional novel is present, they just happen to add illustrations to correspond with the story."

While much of that is indeed true, (and for the purposes of discloser...I've used a version of this explanation myself in interviews), I've grown to feel that much of that description is not only too simplistic, but just plain out and out misguided. First of all, what he's explaining here, is more akin to an illustrated novel, which adds illustrations every few pages or chapters, that "correspond with the story," and help flesh out the look of the characters for the reader. With a graphic novel, the illustrations don't just add to the story, they are integral to it. Ask anyone who's spent significant time reading or purchasing graphic novels (or comics) and more often then not, their buying decisions are based upon the artist (or art team), rather than the writer. There are exceptions of course, (Neil Gaimen, Alan Moore, Frank Miller to name a few), but typically if the art does not appeal to the reader he might as well be reading a novel (no pun intended)!

You see, when you break it down, a graphic novel is much closer in structure to the format of a screen play, than it is a novel. While you may find some GN authors who write their "scripts" similar to a novel outline, you find a greater majority create a document that looks and reads very much like a screenplay. This is because the creation of a graphic novel parallels the developmental course of a screenplay, more so than a novel.

With a novel you have the writer and then the editor (or team of editors) who help craft the story into a marketable form. But as far as the foundation of the story goes, (the creation of the characters, their descriptions, the settings, the mood), unless there is a ghost writer involved, the writer is the sole person responsible for the creation and vision of the work and he gets the lion share of the credit (not to mention the royalties).

With a graphic novel, you still start with the writer (and also most likely an editor) to craft the story into a usable form. But from that point, the progress of the work will veer into the direction of what happens with a screenplay. With a GN script, the writer is responsible for pointing out what is taking place not only in each scene, but on each page of the scene and depending how they work, sometimes in each individual frame within that page.* With some exceptions when a graphic novel script is completed, it then goes to an artist (some times one person, sometimes a team of people) who take the script and break it down into layouts based upon the descriptions in the script; then pencil illustrations are done; then fully inked renderings are created from these illustrations; and then (in some cases) fully colored-painted artwork. In that case the writer of the script is closer in definition to the writer of a screenplay, since this is the basis on which to total presentation is built. The penciler, inker and colorist (sometimes all the same person) are akin to the cinematographer, director of photography, casting director and director...in that what the writer has indicated in the script, is now translated through their eyes onto the page. The process then comes full circle as the words are then added to the artwork, to create a whole that is now much greater then the sum of it's parts.

So unlike most novels, graphic novels are the result of the vision of more than one person (unless of course you work like me with Eyewitness...actively involved on almost every level). And like movies the final appearance of a graphic novel, can drastically deviate from the original story as envisioned by the writer in his script...because after all, we all visualize a bit differently. How many times have you read a good novel and had a real solid visual image of what a character looked like (based upon the writer's description) only to have him/her look dramatically different on film. That's similar to the impact that a casting director has on a screenplay and/or your pencil artist has on a graphic novel.

Now, when you have one person who is not only the writer, but also the artist and editor of a GN project, you have what could be related to in the world of cinema, as an indy film...one that is driven by the creative vision of one man who not only writes the screenplay, but is also director and cinematographer...rather than an ensemble cast of participants.

So the next time you hear someone trying to talk down graphic novels, because as a literary form, they do not adhere to the basic tenets and accepted practices of a prose novel, politely correct them, that graphic novels are more closely related to movies than they are novels, (which is why they are so easily adapted to that format, since a lot of the work of the director, cinematographer and director of photography has already been done), and so should be judged accordingly! You'll not only most likely "smack down" a literary snob, but you'll sound darned prolific doing it!

Robert James Luedke
Author and Illustrator
http://www.headpress.info/


*There are basically two different formats most GN writers work in...the Marvel Style and Full Script. Peter David, in his seminal work, Writing for Comics, explains it this way, "In the Marvel Style, (Made popular by industry icon, Stan Lee), the story is presented in a general manner , like a short story written in present tense. It includes some, but not necessarily all, dialog and gives the artist much latitude in how he visually paces the story. Once the artwork is done, the writer then scripts the story, adding dialogue, captions and sound effects. When you write in full script, you're telling the artist everything that's going to be on the page...how you want it framed, at what angle, what's in the background, what's the character's expressions, where are their hands...by their side or in their pocket, what's the weather like, etc..."

Awards for Christian Based Entertainment

Since entering the realm of what I guess is known as, "Christian entertainment," six years ago, with the publication of my first graphic novel, Eye Witness: A Fictional Tale of Absolute Truth, I wondered aloud....why weren't there any organizations which attempted to throw a spotlight on all the wonderful ways Christian comic book & graphic novel creators are honoring the kingdom, (as well as the people involved in many other forms of diverse entertainment)? Wouldn't that sort of thing be instrumental to helping expose many more people to this creative output who may not know about these kind of works currently?

Sure, there is the annual Christianity Today book awards, but their categories seem far to limited and restrictive to cover the broad nature of what's being published outside of standard prose only books...and they focus specifically on published works, not the entire spectrum of entertainment. Outreach Magazine seems like a natural to tackle this type of thing (since this is all about creativity in sharing the Gospel and/or the Biblical narrative), but likewise they just focus annually on a very narrow handful of publishing only categories, in their, Resources of the Year Awards.

A few weeks ago, I was approached by a gentlemen at a DFW area business to business networking group, (Professional Business Networking), who was one of the founding fathers of an annual awards contest/show, that though originally conceived to honor only those who've made a mark in world of Christian Music, had now expanded it to cover the wider spectrum of the diverse nature of "Christian Entertainment."

Now in their second year, The Christian Entertainment Awards, are now featuring awards in the categories of: Commercials, Film, Journalism, Literature, Live Entertainment, Music, Online (websites), Radio, Stage and TV. Within each of these main categories are subcategories. For example, within the Literature category, are sub-categories, including: Biography/Autobiography, children's books, fiction, non-fiction, poetry and graphic novels (which include comic books).

As with most awards contests (outside the major ones), there is a nominal fee to have your work considered, but the good news here is, that the fees go to the parent non-profit charity dedicated toward building a Christian Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

Here's a link to an overview about the awards and the charity.

Another unique wrinkle to these awards are, that anything published (in the case of graphic novels and/or comics) since Jan. 1, 2008 through the final deadline of May 31, 2009, is eligible for the 2009 awards. You can submit your works anytime up to that deadline. Each month an independent panel of judges will select a Gold Medal Award Winners from that month's submissions. The Gold award will be given to any entry the judges believe deserve special recognition within their category. There is no limit to the amount of Gold Award winners the judges can name, but to qualify the big prize, The Platinum Award, (what the judges consider the very best of all entries within each category), you must be named a Gold Award Winner, first.

This not only gives the publishers and creators a chance for multiple exposures and publicity on their exemplary titles, (since the Gold Award can be given out anytime between now and September 2009), but adds prestige and credibility to their works, to boot, through being named an award-winner!

The Platinum Award winners will be announced on September 1, 2009 and I believe there will be a ceremony at the 2009 Christian Music Hall of Fame awards, on Nov. 14th, 2009.

For more information, visit their FAQ page, or send an email to: admin@ceawards.org

Personally, I think this kind of thing is a long overdue and it can only help develop more and better public appreciation of our works. I hope all my brother and sister creators help support this idea, by entering their books, graphic novels and comics in this inaugural season.

Hey...who knows, you might even get some TV exposure, as the CEAwards people are currently in negotiations with several cable networks to broadcast the awards ceremonies!

R.J. Luedke

http://www.headpress.info/

Where are those Christian Comics?

I recently ran across a blog posting dealing with the frustration a college-age Christian reader of graphic novels has over the lack of spiritual and/or Christian based books and comics on the shelves (http://knightword.wordpress.com/2008/10/24/chrisitan-super-heroes/#comment-54). My thoughts are as follows (which if you've met me at a convention...you've probably heard me talk about at length. It's Bob's economics of the comic industry 101):

I share your frustration on this issue, my brother. As someone who has been creating a Christian based graphic novel series since 2002, I've ran across many of what I call "Closet Christian Creators" in the industry, who commend me for taking a stand for Christ in what I am doing. Many also tell me they'd love to do likewise, or have a story they've wanted to create for years, but that there is just not an outlet (I.E. a publisher) for them to bring it to market. In fact one writer (who shall remain nameless) who was the creator of one of our more high-profile and more "demonic characters", is among that group.

You've got to remember that most people working in comics are not like movie or TV directors and/or actors....who make enough through their trade to be financially independent. Most are working stiffs who rely on their monthy assignments to pay their car payments and mortgages... like most of America. And so this doesn't give them the opportunity to take months to years to underwrite creating their spiriutal or Kingdom honoring project. Sorry to say but it's just simple economics. That's why now most of what is being created comes from either very small press publishers, who only publish a title or two a year, or the creators themselves through self-publishing.

Part of my goal through the Eye Witness series, has been to create enough attention and buzz within the comic and book trade to demonstate both to the retailers and publishing community that the paring of spirituality and comics/gn's can work, does have a massive willing audience and will sell if given a quality product. Once that is established and the money is flowing through the system...so to speak, then you'll be amazed at how many books/stories you'll see roll out. But the good news-bads news scenerio will then be...will they be published for the right reasons once the big-boys are involved, that is to say will the spirit which drives many to follow this path, be corrupted by an industry who's bottom line is the bottom line, rather than outreach. Just some food for thought.

If you, like the original poster are new to the genre, checkout my 3 Eye Witness graphic novels...which combine an American style Biblical adaptation...with a modern day action-thriller, at: www.headpress.info

bob-

RIP Michael Turner

I was blown away this morning by hearing of the passing of one of the comic field's truly nice guys and huge artistic talents....Michael Turner.

After doing some digging I found out the some of the details:
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Artist Michael Turner has died after a long battle with cancer. He was 37. Aspen Comics’ Vince Hernandez told CBR News Saturday morning that Turner passed away Friday night at 10:42 Pacific Time at Santa Monica Hospital in California.

The news spread quickly at Wizard World Chicago, during what would have otherwise been a riotous night at the hotel bar, the mood suddenly turned somber with remembrances of Turner from friends and acquaintances. A minute of silence will be observed during Wizard World Chicago Saturday afternoon.

Turner is an artist best known for his work on books like “Witchblade,” where he got his start in comics, moving on to titles such as “Black Panther,” “Superman/Batman” and his very own creator owned series “Fathom” and “Soulfire” through his publishing company Aspen Comics. A prolific artist, he’s done work for both DC Comics and Marvel Comics, and has provided covers to some of the best-known comics published in the last ten years, including Brad Meltzer’s “Identity Crisis.”

In 2000, Turner was diagnosed with cancer -- chondrosarcoma in the right pelvis, which resulted in his loosing his hip, 40% of his pelvis and three pounds of bone. What followed was 9 months of radiation. The cancer has gone into remission and returned multiple times since he was first diagnosed.

For anyone who’s met Turner, they’re likely to tell you what a genuinely nice guy he was and how his spirit for life was higher than anyone else they had ever met. Oddly, my path crossed with Turner’s numerous times. We both live in Los Angeles, and on at least five different occasions we would run into each other at clubs or special events around the city. He seemed like the kind of guy who was up for anything and had a great sense of adventure, especially as evidenced by his love and excellence at water-skiing and martial arts.

Turner’s fight with cancer was truly inspirational. He fought it with dignity and grace.
More details concerning Turner’s passing are forthcoming.

Those wishing to send their condolences to Michael Turner's family are encouraged to send them to:
Aspen MLT, Inc.
C/O Michael Turner
5855 Green Valley Circle, Suite 111
Culver City, CA, 90230

Aspen Comics also encourages anyone wishing to make a charitable donation in Turner’s name can do so to his requested charities, The American Cancer Society or The Make-A-Wish Foundation
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The entire article can be viewed at: Comic Book Resources (CBR)....http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=16988
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On a personal note, I first met Michael at a convention in Tulsa back in the mid-90's, when I was promoting my Template series...and we we kicked butt in a game of hotel-bar-trivia one night! Michael was just beginnings to shake up the industry with his work on Witchblade at that time.

Over the years I saw him almost annually at most major events around Texas, (and of course San Diego) and he always seemed to be very supportive of the indy and small press creators who would approach him for insight, advice or comments on their artwork and never took a "holier-than-thou" attitude because of his success.

His kindness and compassionate nature, not to mention his incredible artistic talent, will sorely be missed.

R.J. Luedke
www.HeadPress.info

Scribes of the World, Take Heart!

Here's another one of those stories from a writer who's made it big that can help prop up the spirits of all us writers (or wanna-be writers) who are still waiting for their big break.

Stephenie Meyers, ( http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/), the Phoenix mother of 3 kids, whose Twight series (about Vampires and Werewolves...so take heart Sue Dent/http://www.shoutlife.com/profile_view.cfm?uid=2236...LOL), has become a bonafied hit among teen and young adult readers, has sold over 5.5 millions copies in 28 countries. Last month she was named one of the 100 Most Influencial People of 2008, by Time Magazine.

Her original idea for the characters in Twilight came in a dream back in 2003. Her sister encouraged her to submit the idea to publishers. A year later, after being rejected by nine agents, the story was discoverd in a "slush pile" of unsolicited manuscripts at Writer's House (the Literary agency responsible for Nora Roberts, Neil Gaiman among others/http://www.writershouse.com/content/independent.asp ).

Four years later, Meyers has been dubbed "the next J.K. Rowling", as her Twilight is now being developed for the big screen. The final book in the series, Breaking Dawn, will release this August with a first printing of 2.5 million copies.

The moral of the story?...don't give up on your manuscript, just because it may have been brushed aside by a publishing house or agent or two, or nine! Of course this may not happen for you, like it happened for Ms. Meyers, but if you don't believe it can, who will?
(source: Edward Nawotka/Dallas Morning News).

bob luedke
inspried writer of graphic novels
www.headpress.info

Is Thomas Nelson Moving away from the CBA?

A very interesting article was brought to my attention this morning from fellow author, Sue Dent, (www.shoutlife.com/suedent), that Thomas Nelson had gone on the record with the trade publication, PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, that they are not a publisher of Christian Fiction!

Wow...that would be news to the publishing world indeed. Before going any further, read the entire article to understand the context: http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6530751.html?industryid=47140

Now that your back ....Let me explain what I think this all means, from a position of one who's been in these Graphic Novel publishing trenches.

Thomas Nelson (http://www.thomasnelson.com/) is indeed a company that people look to for quality "Christian based Fiction" (which I define as stories that go anywhere from overtly Biblical, to those with spiritual or Christian principles or ideas at their core), but a company who is now attempting to make headway into the GRAPHIC NOVEL MARKETPLACE, which is not so friendly to Christian based works (partly due to a bias created by years of persecution from the politically Christian Right, over freedom of speech issues with the product...among other issues).

With their upcoming line of GN's they are attempting to parlay the success they've found with their prose fiction (re: Dekker's works) to their GN lines...which is you read the orginal article talks about that 70% of their prose fiction sales come from outside of the CBA, while only 50% of their current GN sales are outside of the CBA (re: Dekker's trilogy and Serenity).

For those of you who are not in the know, GN's represent the largest catagory of growth in Publishing over the past few years in the USA. Outside of the USA it represents the top catagory of publishing worldwide and now we in the states are catching up in sales, beause the US book market is finally understanding that ANY KIND OF STORY can be told in this format, not just kids stuff or superhero's, but serious literary works of all genres.

So far the CBA has been kind of resistent to the GN format for a number of reasons, (a. don't really understand the format or it's potential to attract teens into their stores... and b. don't really understand how to display and market it, etc....). So TN, is being proactive to all book retailers by making this statement. They are in essence announcing...HEY, we're not just publishing illustrated Bible adaptations or tracts...this is serious fiction here FOR ALL BOOK RETAILERS, not just the CBA! But that does indeed kind of put them in a rocky place where their membership with the CBA is concerned. But, in the big economic picture they realize there is much more money to be made outside the CBA then their is inside. They just have to have a internal sitdown, I'd guess and decide what kind of publishing house they really want to be!

Footnote: We here at Head Press Publishing have been traveling down this Christian Graphic Novel path and clearing the brush for these larger publishers to follow. Through the publication of the AWARD WINNING Eye Witness graphic novel series, (which premiered in August of 2002), we have experienced and worked through many of the same barriers to our product in both the CBA and secular book trade that TN now is attempting to overcome. As they are finding, given the format, it creates challenges that are unique and quite different from prose only works.

But unlike TN, (or other very large publishing concerns), our bottom line goal with Eye Witness is not to generate the most income possible, but rather to impact the most people with the story of the Gospel shared within it who may not hear about it otherwise. Now don't get confused and think we're socialists (LOL)....if the books sell big-time and generate a healthy profit, we won't complain, but on the other hand that is not what spurred us to create this work, that would just be a nice benefit.

And when all is said and done, staying centered on that goal is what will keep the series on track through it's conclusion (all four books of the tetralogy published)!

Bob Luedke
http://www.headpress.info/

WARNING: AOL DICARDING LONGTIME CUSTOMERS

I discovered last evening that my AOL account, (of almost 12 years) had been arbitrarily terminated. I say arbitrarily, since I cannot find out why this even occured or do ANYTHING about it.

Calling AOL's customer service number, I got to jump through the usual hopes, having to talk to the customer service department which is outsourced to some far-off land, where many times you cannot even understand the operators due to their heavy accents, (no racism intended here Time Warner, but if you are dealing with English speaking customers it behoves you to have support people that can fluently speak the language). Then I was told my account was terminated by something called a "MESH TEAM"...and that the reason for this action would not (could not) be discussed by anyone in customer service. If I wanted answers my only option was to "write a letter" to this Mesh Team at AOL's Dulles, VA address. WRITE A LETTER?!

Besides the obvious irony of having to attempt to communicate with this corporate giant, the slowest, most technologically ancient of methods, when it's focus is speeding communications and the flow of information...I find it particularly disturbing that this is how they choose to deal with customers that have been loyal to them for so long. It's obvious this method is meant to totally cut off any option on the part of the long term AOL customer to discuss this action, or for that matter, see if it is even justified in any way!

SO USE THIS AS A CAUTIONARY TALE....do not sign up for AOL, or if you are already a subscriber, I would take steps to begin transferring your data, address book and any mailing lists to a new provider, since scanning the web I find this behavior of terminating of long term accounts by this MESH TEAM, with no explaination proveded (even if you do choose to write them), seems to be happening at an alarming rate all over the country. This unethical action by AOL has locked me out of over a decade of my contact information, and allows me no recourse or action to retrive it at this point! Having been a client of AOL for so long I stopped making hard-copy duplicates of contact information long ago, since I had total confidence in their service.

So if you have been trying to contact me through any of my normal email channels and have gotten it returned, please resend the information through the "CONTACT US" page on our website: www.headpress.info ....and I will respond through a new email address.

I apologize for any inconvience this may have on the hundreds of people we communicate with monthly, but hope my sharing this information helps other people abandon the AOL ship, figurativly speaking, before this happens to them.

If you have a good referal for a email, group mailing provider, feel free to pass it on to me. I've been locked into AOL so long, truth be told, I don't know what's all out there.

Bob Luedke
Head Press Publishing

RJ Luedke Featured Arist at Urban Arts Festival

Author and illustrator of the award winning Eye Witness graphic novel series, Robert James Luedke, be a participating artist in the latest live arts event sponsored by ArtLoveMagic (www.artlovemagic.com) in conjunction with the Urban Arts Festival of Dallas....(for full details visit: http://www.urbanartsfest.com/aspotlight.html) ... On Friday night Sept 7th at the Jannette Kennedy Gallery:

(Google Map: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=1409+S+Lamar+St,+Dallas,+Texas+75215&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=34.038806,82.265625&ie=UTF8&ll=32.767844,-96.795666&spn=0.008823,0.020084&z=16&iwloc=addr&om=1).

Robert will be working live inking pages from the upcoming Eye Witness: Rise of the Apostle, (see: www.headpress.info ...for sample pages), along with selling some T-shirts (both mine and some from LifeCoBrands... http://www.lifecobrands.com ), copies of EW 1 & 2 along with talking about drawing, inking, comics and publishing graphic novels with anyone who is interested.

On Saturday, Sept 8th, Robert will be a part of a panel on the comic arts and self-publishing during the Urban Arts Festival (see their website for full details).

If you reside in and/or around DFW, stop in and say hi and explore all the wonderful things happening in the world of arts around Dallas/Fort Worth.

For further details visit: www.artlovemagic.com

Eye Witness Book Three in production

When I was creating the first Eye Witness book, (A Fictional Tale of Absolute Truth), from 2002-2004, I believed that this one project was the answer to God’s calling for my talents. Retell the Passion story of Jesus, in a relevant, accessible and entertaining way and will hopefully reach a lot of people with the story who might not really delve into it otherwise.

Shortly after publication of this book in 2004, when I was marketing it at conventions, churches and bookstores, I learned that this wasn’t enough. People wanted more. They wanted to know the outcome of this event, which was one of the most relevant in man’s history. People wanted, (needed it seemed), to be able to better understand the effect Jesus’ life-death-resurrection had on the world and his contemporaries, both friend and foe alike. Though to the mature Christian the answers may seems all very elementary, to those who are not yet believers (or skeptics) these answers may be missing or the answers they have heard, confusing to them...and after all that is the kind of person I am writing for.

The more I had people ask me when the next book was coming out, the more I began to ponder this and it all became very clear to me…I wasn’t through yet! Here was one of the world’s greatest action-adventure stories ever written, just waiting in the wings for someone to do a contemporary adaptation of. I am referring to of course…the book of Acts. This book of the Bible contained the answer to most asked question for non-believers…how did this one week two thousand years ago end up affecting the lives of so many people, even today? Thus was born the Eye Witness Trilogy!

I share all this exposition, because it’s that time again gang, when I embark on the most time consuming portion in the creation of one of the Eye Witness graphic novels….the illustration process. Since December 2006, I have been busy writing my screenplay, (I call it a screen-play, because creating a working script for a graphic novel for me, is more in line with that format, than it is to say writing a manuscript for a novel), for the third and final chapter in the Eye Witness saga….Eye Witness: Destiny Road.

For the next approximately 15 months, (depending on life’s diversions), I will be sequestered to my studio creating this, the largest of the Eye Witness books. At over 160+ pages, it will involve close to 1000 individual illustrations. At an average of about 8 hours a day of work, six days a week, that means I am beginning what will be about 3000+ hours of work to complete the trilogy. I don’t share this for any other reason, but to educate those of you out there in the blog-reading audience who may not understand or appreciate what it takes to produce a graphic novel this size.

Starting with this entry I will attempt to let you, the reader, come along for the ride as I am developing this book and see behind the scenes in the process and watch all the prat-falls that can occur along the way. So make sure to visit the blog regularly to see what I am up to and even sneak a peek at some of the artwork as it unfolds.

Robert James Luedke
Head Press Publishing
www.Headpress.info

A Rose by Any Other Name...

Here's a fun little quiz to share with your friends and family.

What do all these classic pieces of literature have in common?

The Arabian Nights
The Diary of Anne Frank
Black Beauty
Call of the Wild
The Bible
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Doctor Zhivago
All Quiet on the Western Front
Fahrenheit 451
Lady Chatterley's Lover
Tropic of Cancer
Ulysses
and Harry Potter

---The answer is that they have all been targets of censorship by a group, government (including the USA) or religious organizations. And when you consider that Fahrenheit 451, (written by the sci-fi pioneer Ray Bradbury), was about censorship and book burning…it's the most ironical of the list!

Censorship is defined as: The removal from public viewing, or the prevention of circulation of information, where it is felt best by some controlling group or body that others should not be allowed to access the information, which is being censored.

Typically censorship is undertaken by governments or by an established body (religious or mass media). By it's very nature censorship recognizes that there is some person or body of persons that can determine for the majority of a society what information or forms of entertainment it should have access to. In the seminal work dealing with loss of freedoms, (including censorship), 1984 by George Orwell, the term was coined "Big Brother" to describe these people or groups who would be making these types of decisions for us.

Censorship is generally found in societies whose freedoms of speech are repressed, (communist countries and/or dictatorships) or are leaning in the direction, but it also thrives ironically in bastions of freedom, like the United States, where groups can and do use fear and ignorance as the motivating factor in their drive for censorship.

Case in point: The children's book The Higher Power of Lucky, by Susan Patron. This book just received the coveted, Newbery Award for children's literature…which is basically the equivalent of receiving an endorsement by Oprah, within literary circles, with book buyers and librarians. So needless to say, there are people out there that feel this is a pretty powerful and effective piece of literature designed for children (whom the author says is the 9-12 age group). That is, all but a couple librarians, who have taken to the blog-waves to share their discontent over the fact that the author uses the word "scrotum" in the book and are making it their mission to alert other librarians and parents, all over the country about this terrible occurrence and encouraging them to have the book removed from the shelves…. before it too late, (you know…that time when we'd have to discuss with our kids what a scrotum is).

For those of you who may not be familiar with the term, (and you can admit it…I had to think it over for a few seconds ma'self), it is defined by Webster as, "the pouch of skin containing the testicles." And if you don't know what they are…sorry you're going to have to look that one up for yourself!

One of the librarians in question stated on her blog, "The word scrotum does not often occur in polite conversation or children's literature for that matter." Dana Nilsson, a librarian in Durango Colorado writes, "This book included what I call a Howard-Stern shock treatment just to see how far they could push the envelope." A Howard-Stern type shock-treatment? Let's see, how many more descriptive and disgusting names can I think of, that Stern would use on his show before resorting to the official medical term of scrotum to describe this part of the male anatomy? Okay, so Dana doesn't get out much!

Another one of the blogger librarians write, "I don't want to start an issue about censorship, but you won't find men's genitalia in quality literature." And there it is gang! We (the offended librarians) feel in our judgment that any description of the male genitalia (which sounds like your discussing some sort of single celled creature discovered under a microscope… but I digress), is inappropriate, even if it's done using only the specific medical terminology to do so…but that's not censorship! A rose by any other name, my friends, would still smell as sweet. One of the common threads of all censorship is that the censor will usually claim what he is doing is not censorship…they're just trying to help us out by keeping harmful information and words away from us and our children. Aren't we lucky?

What they are doing with their 21st century styles cyber-assault on this highly decorated book, is exactly what censorship has become in this information-highway-age we now find ourselves. But you want to know what really makes this whole thing even more ridiculous? The use of the word scrotum, (it's actually kind of fun to say, try it...scrotum, scrotum, scrotum, scrotum, scrotum…. there, got that out of my system), it's not even used to describe any man or boy anatomy in the story. It's about a dog that got bit in the scrotum by a snake, (which was actually a true anecdote the author was sharing).

Ah-ha…now it all makes sense to me now! The librarians in question were protecting our children against possibly reading about dog genitalia in a children's book.

So how does a free society deal with this kind of garbage? By doing the same things they are doing…voicing our opinions against anyone telling you or your children what books are appropriate for you or your children to read. That's not their job. They select from the thousands of books that come out every few months and make choices based upon, marketing to them by publishers and distributors, critical reviews, (in publications like Publishers Weekly and Forward Magazine) and watch book awards lists to see what books have been deemed by those who have proven to be experts in culling out books of note from the masses published.

Their job is not to make reading judgments for their patrons based on their subjective personal tastes…like does a book have or have not words describing male canine genitalia included…(ha, ha, ha…sorry I can't even write that without chuckling). So, let you local librarian know, you'd prefer they just concentrate on making books available and let the parents or teachers make the call on what their children will or will not read. Heaven forbid a parent or teacher would have to engage their children in a conversation about what a scrotum is!

Their next target of the cyber-librarian assassins…a book about the little kitty's uvula getting caught in the mouse trap...discuss!

Robert Luedke
Head Press Publishing
http://www.headpress.info/

copyright R.J. Luedke 2007