New iPod not edible apparently

1. Music capacity is based on 4 minutes per song and 128Kbps AAC encoding.
2. Do not eat iPod shuffle.
3. Rechargeable batteries have a limited number of charge cycles and may eventually need to be replaced. Battery life and number of charge cycles vary by use and settings. See www.apple.com/batteries for more information.
4. Some computers require either the optional iPod shuffle Dock or a USB cable extender (sold separately).

Jeff

25 O'Clock

We've got a full plot now for "25 O'Clock", which we have tentatively decided will be the first story in the new Progressions minicomics, which will be coming out early this year.

"25 O'Clock" is a New Year's Eve story, in which Henry Anton and Pam Sage recount their adventures on the eve of Minerva City's bicentennial. It will be 16 pages, black and white and grey tones.

Stephen is working on the dialogue now, and I've been pacing it out into panel layouts, working out what to show and what angles to use and so on. There are some fun techniques in this story which make it a bit more complex than some of our others. Still, it fits in the same vein as "Skyline" from the minicomic, it's that kind of adventure.

The current plan is to finish "Dance Dance Resolution" first, then begin work on "25 O'Clock" and "1001 Vicious Blows", finishing those up during January and February. Then "25 O'Clock" will be the first minicomic we do in 2005, and we'd like to find a different venue to publish "Vicious Blows".

Once "Resolution", "25" and "Vicious" are complete, I'll begin work on Academy Angel, the first book of the Anton/Sage Mysteries, which will also be serialized in the minicomic and website.

Jeff

You say you want a resolution...

Our latest project is "Dance Dance Resolution", a 10-page black-and-white story for the Ronin Studios Tsunami Relief Anthology:

"Karmachand High School's queen of cool Pam Sage is having a bad day… and it's about to get worse! Strutting her stuff at Big Lou's Pop Nite, Pam finds herself confronted with one social disaster after another until her quest for dancefloor dominance sees her confront an old school rival in a deadly dancefloor duel! Can Pam throw the right shapes to prove her point? One thing's for sure - she needs some Dance Dance Resolution!"

We wanted to do something for the Anthology, but we didn't feel right about doing something maudlin or emotional. The majority of our Progressions work is designed to be light entertainment, so we decided on something fun and breezy, with cute girls in sexy costumes. We figured it's the least we can do.

In other news:

I've broken down Stephen's script for "1001 Vicious Blows" into 16 pages and designed the panel layouts, but won't start working on that until after "Resolution" is done. We aren't holding ourselves to a tight deadline on "Vicious Blows", I'll be doing it simultaneously with getting started on Academy Angel as well.

Unfortunately my Wacom tablet pen is broken now, and it could be a week or more before I get the replacement. I do all my art digitally so I am basically restricted to doing sketches and designs until it's replaced. Argh!

Jeff

RIP Will Eisner

"[C]omic legend Will Eisner died Monday evening, due to complications from heart surgery performed on December 22nd. Eisner had undergone quadruple bypass surgery, and was last reported to be recovering well.

Eisner was 87 years old, and was still actively working. His latest graphic novel, The Plot is due to be released later this year by W.W. Norton."

http://www.newsarama.com/pages/Eisner.htm

In the 80's when I started reading CEREBUS, the one guy who Dave Sim seemed to respect the most was Will Eisner. Sim told a story about meeting him at a convention and addressing him as "Mr. Eisner." Eisner told him that the only people who call him that are people who owe him money.

Sim responded that considering how much everyone in comics owes Eisner, that was perfectly appropriate.

When I moved to Paris in 1989 I started collecting Kitchen Sink reprints of THE SPIRIT comic. I was just getting out of superheroes at the time, and to see the techniques and storytelling styles that Eisner used in those comics from the 40's opened my eyes as much as anything I'd seen.

His graphic novels A CONTRACT WITH GOD, TO THE HEART OF THE STORM and (my personal favorite) DROPSIE AVENUE show an incredible gift for evoking emotions, combining the best talents of an actor and a director with a true talent for creating a story.

He was one of the greats.

Jeff