Wednesday Previews

This time around I'd like to show off some pages from Noble Causes #39, our penultimate issue. We're doing something a little different this time around, with half the story taking place in the present day and half the story taking place back in the 1950s.

The present-day stuff is pencilled and inked by Yildiray Cinar and colored by Jacob Baake (our usual team), but the flashback stuff is pencilled by Yildiray and inked and colored Ralph Niese, who has a great retro style. I don't have any colors from this issue to show off yet, but here are pages from both the present day and flashback sequences.

Digitally Speaking

My friends at Marvel Comics made me the subject of this week's Digital Comics Creator Spotlight, where each week a different creator takes a look back at a Marvel project that's currently part of Marvel's digital library.

This week, I talk about Captain Universe.

Now Hear This

I recently spoke with Bob and John of the Comic Book Page podcast. The main subject of our discussion was the upcoming Dynamo 5 #0, a special 99 cent jump-on point, designed to be attractive to new readers. You can listen to the podcast here.

RIP: Noble Causes

Last night I finished the first draft of the script for the final issue of Noble Causes. I pitched the book in December 2000, and received the green light from Jim Valentino just days before Christmas that year. It was the best Christmas present I've ever received. The script for the very first issue is dated 03-21-01, so I've been writing the book fairly consistently for over 7 years. That's a pretty significant chunk of time.

Due to the soap opera nature of the book, there was never any "planned ending," like you see in other books like 100 Bullets or Y - The Last Man. Our last issue will bring some closure to some events, but I warn you -- it remains true to its soap opera roots, and the last page will likely provoke some pretty extreme reactions.

It's been a crazy 7+ years, and I don't think it's even begun to set in that I won't be writing these characters each month anymore. But I accept that this is my doing. I chose to end the book, since I was starting to feel like I had less and less to say about the Noble family. But that doesn't mean I won't miss it.

Fortunately, most of the characters will remain available for guest appearances in Dynamo 5, if I ever want to take them off the shelf again. I'm sure that will happen, but I'll probably keep my distance for awhile, just to cleanse the palate.

Wednesday Previews

It's that time again ... time to show off some artwork from my upcoming books.

First off is a page from Gemini #4, drawn by Jon Sommariva and featuring our new colorist, Edward Bola (who could easily become a super-villain if he started going by E.Bola -- thanks to Jon Sommariva for that one!).



Next we've got a page from the upcoming Dynamo 5 #0, a great place to jump aboard the book if you haven't already. This one's by the usual team of Mahmud A. Asrar and Ron Riley.



And lastly is another page from Noble Causes #38, on sale soon. This one's by Yildiray Cinar and Jacob Baake.

I'm doing Witchblade

Er ... you know what I mean.

Image's February solicitations just came out, and it was announced that I'm writing the first-ever Witchblade Annual. It's a standard-length, stand-alone story featuring Sara and Gleason and, well ... I'll just let the solicitation copy take over from here. Suffice to say, I had a fantastic time working on this character, and with the guys at Top Cow.

-Witchblade Annual 2009
(W) Jay Faerber (A) Eric Basaldua (Cov) Sami Basri, Eric Basaldua

Presenting the first Witchblade Annual issue ever, complete with a new, original self-contained story by writer Jay Faerber (Pilot Season: Urban Myths, Noble Causes) and artist Eric Basaldua (Witchblade/Devi, Ultimate Fantastic Four). Includes a second bonus story!

Beautiful women all over the city are killing men they don't even know, and then claiming they don't even remember the events. When Sara and partner Gleason are assigned to investigate the case, they're thrown head first into the dangerous and deadly world of…plastic surgery?

Cover A – Sami Basri
Cover B – Eric Basaldua

Full Color 32 pages $2.99 annual

iFanboy's Image spotlight

The guys at iFanboy consistently put out one of the best comic book podcasts available, and they frequently devote time to Image Comics. That is especially apparent in the following half-hour video podcast:

Clearly, I'm an Idiot

In an earlier post, I got the release dates wrong on both Gemini #3 and Dynamo 5 #18. Gemini #3 actually came out this week, on November 5th, and Dynamo 5 #18 should be out on November 19th. It's been done for awhile, but we held it to better stagger the releases, rather than have issues #17 and #18 ship right next to each other.