One of the highlights for me, of course, was POPGUN 4 winning the 2011 Harvey Award for Best Anthology!

Adam and me, still in shock over the Harvey win.

I’ve been working on the POPGUN books since volume 1. It was my break into comics, which had always been a dream, so I can’t thank Mark Andrew Smith and Joe Keatinge enough for the opportunity. Like all of the POPGUN books, POPGUN 4 was a labor of love. A very time consuming and sometimes difficult and worrisome labor of love, but there was always love. We all did it for the love of comics!

Co-editing with Anthony Wu and Adam was a great collaboration, assembling a collection of stories that none of us would’ve put together individually. Thomas Mauer and Jeff Powell did amazing work on the production edits/design, and the book wouldn’t exist without them. Those guys… yep, those are good guys.

And the contributors! We were able to assemble an amazing lineup of talent, and I want to thank all of them!

So, thank you… Alison Acton, Attila Adorjany, Amanda Becker, Michael Birkhofer, John Bivens, Elliot Blake, David Brenion, Shana Brenion, Jeffrey Brown, Lars Brown, Antonio Campo, Dominique Carrier, Jim Charalampidis, David Collinson, Bill Crabtree, Dave Curd, Michelle Davies, Vito Delsante, Todd Dezago, Michael Dialynas, Jeik Dion, Becky Dreistadt, Alex Eckman-Lawn, Nick Edwards, Paolo Ferrante, Jess Fink, Joe Flood, Fonografiks, Elizabeth Genco, Frank Gibson, Vassilis Gogtzilas, Nils Hamm, Mike Houlihan, Alice Hunt, Meg Hunt, Jason Ibarra, Fernanda Jaber, Jock, Andrea Kalfas, Janet Kim, Nikos Koutsis, Erik Larsen, Erwin Ledford, Stuart Livingston, Maximo V. Lorenzo, Robert Love, Adam Lucas, Manoel Magalhães, John Malloy, Fell Martins, Derek McCulloch, Michael Meier, MJ, Chris Moreno, Wayne Nichols, Ralph Niese, JM Ken Niimura, Kieran Oats, Anthony Peruzzo, Elton Pruitt, Stephanie Ramirez, Darren Rawlings, Stephen Reedy, Andy Ristaino, Salgood Sam, Eric Sandhop, Matteo Scalera, Thomas Scioli, Brandon Seifert, Jonathan Silvestre, Frank Stockton, Nick Tapalansky, Ben Templesmith, Jeremy Tinder, Mike Toris, Osmarco Valladão, David Walker, Angie Wang, Matthew Weldon, Anna Wieszczyk, Brian Winkeler, Michael Woods, K.I. Zachopoulos, Alexis Ziritt!

Big thanks, of course, to Image Comics, for publishing four giant POPGUN books so far… wow! They all obviously love comics, too, and it’s much appreciated.

In the end, it was an honor to be nominated and a huge, delightful surprise to win. My hope is a few folks who normally wouldn’t have read the book will now check out POPGUN 4.

And now… time to make MORE comics!

I’d like to thank all the amazing contributors (on all 4 volumes) and the editorial and production team of the book past and present (Adam! Anthony! Thomas! Jeff! Steven! Tim! Dylan! Mark! Joe!) , as well as the swell folks at Image Comics. Wow. POPGUN 4 is DONE… DONE DONE DONE. 512 pages of awesome wrapped in a beautiful cover for only 30 bucks.

Almost 2000 pages of POPGUN since 2007. Whew!

Okay, time to party tonight… Hope you all enjoy the book!

– D.J.

Just a quick reminder that POPGUN 4 from the fine folks at Image Comics hits shelves this Wednesday! Please stop by your Local Comic Shop and pick up a copy…

Also, if you’re in NY, Hanley’s is having a signing on Wed. from 6 to 8.

And, if you’re in LA, Meltdown Comics is having a release party on Wed. from 7 to 10.

Aaaaand if you’re in Oklahoma City, New World comics is having a release party on Friday, Feb 26.

Such good times! We’re really proud if this big beast that is POPGUN 4. Can’t wait for it to be unleashed! Hope you all like it…

Your pal,
D.J.

Why am I trapped in my apartment? Well, I suppose I’m not technically. First there was the crazy LA rain that made me want to just stay in, and now that it’s sunny again, I’ve been feeling under the weather and figure I should take it easy and let my body heal via drinking beverages with vitamin C instead of alcohol, getting decent sleep, and just generally taking it easy. I predict by tomorrow I’ll be feeling back to normal… at least I hope so. Right now I’m so antsy and bored that it’s making my skin itch. Ack! Just… TRAPPED.

Like I said, I’ve managed to be somewhat productive. Edited a big chunk of this crazy Mark Smith and James Stokoe graphic novel called SULLIVAN’S SLUGGERS. Pages 35 to 71… it somehow took me almost half the day, and I still fear I missed a punctuation or spelling error somewhere. It’s coming along nicely, though. I also worked on getting the POPGUN 4 word out. That’s fun, though this whole “pimping” role doesn’t come naturally to me, but hopefully it’s working. And in the writing department, which is where I hope to end up on a more permanent basis, I had some good conversations with my frequent co-writer, Adam P. Knave, on a new project too early to name, for which he found a great artist (also too early to name). Good times! And I got some great feedback on the SOULLESS, MAN WITHOUT A SOUL pitch I’m working on with artist Anjin Anhut… gotta get my revision writing on for that one.

That’s some work, right? And it’s good to keep busy. And I know I need to get even busier. The one problem I have with this writing and editing work that I am doing is that it, as of yet, does not pay the bills. And after the rough economy resulting in day job work layoffs last year and an ill-advised decision to go into freelance post-production that has resulted in no jobs for the past, holy crap, five months, I really need regular paying work.

Ideally, this would come from the comic book work I’m doing. Maybe one day it will. Either way, I’ll keep writing comics (and short stories, essays, maybe I’ll finally get my novel on soon) as long as I can because I really love it and apparently need to do it to feel worth a damn for some reason. But, in that practical bitch called “reality,” I also have to start earning some cold, hard cash.

Once again, I begin to question my Fine Arts degree from a rural Ohio college – or at least how I’ve used this degree (which is, not at all). A friend of mine double-majored in Chemistry and Biology. He’s now a scientist! He makes good money and wears a lab coat to work! If, even with this poofy Fine Arts degree I earned, I still need a day job and will just write on the side, well… maybe I should’ve gotten a more practical degree. I mean, I could write on the side while making a living as a lab coat-wearing scientist! Why didn’t 18-year-old me think of that, because, honestly, never have I gotten a job as a result of my degree… Of course, I no longer paint, act, and have forgotten most of the art history I learned. Hm. I had fun in college and met lots of cool people and learned a lot, but the main point is to help one get a career going… but writing isn’t like most careers, is it? I don’t know. I’m babbling and still feeling antsy despite trying to distract myself with the writing of this blog.

Okay, now my shut in mind is just wandering, and I’m babbling. Maybe I should wear a lab coat when I write. That way I’d at least feel important, you know? Kinda like a… WORD SCIENTIST! Yes!

BEST ALL-AGES COMIC
“The New Brighton Archeological Society” (Image)
“New Brighton” readers get the best of two worlds in a story that’s fun to read on its own and a comic that can be shared with readers of any age — whether they can read it themselves or have it read to them. In fact, it feels like Mark Andrew Smith and Matthew Weldon have all the ingredients for success in “New Brighton”: a spunky group of kids with lots of free time, a wild world ripe for exploration, fantastic creatures culled from various faerie tales, and dangers that manage to be scary without being truly terrifying. It’s the sort of book we’re quite certain we’d love when we were little, but get a kick out of reading now, too.
- Rick Marshall

Take their word for it and snag yourself a copy! It makes the perfect Christmas gift!

Then, on Sunday, Mr. Templesmith posted a very cool blog showing his process in the creation of this gorgeous eye candy! It’s an interesting read filled with some great images showing the development of this image. Wonderful stuff.

And the POPGUN 4 site (courtesy of web guru Tim Daniels) is live! On it is a complete list of our wonderful contributors (including Jeffrey Brown, Jock, Erik Larsen, Thomas Scioli, and nearly 80 more talented folks) plus FIVE FULL COMICS FROM POPGUN 4 — FOR FREE!

POPGUN 4, a full color 512 page behemoth of a comic anthology, will hit shelves courtesy of Image Comics on 02/10/2010. Ask for it at your local comic shop or bookstore to order it! The Diamond order code will appear along with a snazzy solicit in the December issue of PREVIEWS!

I’ll be posting more on this as we get closer to the release date. All of  Team Popgun is very excited! If you’re a fan of previous volumes, this one is the biggest and best yet, so please help us spread the word!

Hooray for comics!

“You looking for Erik Larsen’s signature? Well, you know, he’s contributed to every volume of POPGUN, sooo…”

“Rob Liefeld once told me POPGUN was awesome, sooo…”

“If we sell out of these, we can hang out and walk the floor for the rest of the con. It’s what Jim Valentino would want… c’mon!”

(Photo by Branwyn Bigglestone)

“Because… William Shatner told me to?”

“That’s in D.C. — an hour from the convention.”

“Craptastic.” (Drink!)

Muh-effin’ Priceline! And, well, muh-effin’ me for just buying a ticket based upon price but not double-checking the cities, though, to be fair, I requested LA to Baltimore — I figured the Shat would get it! (Yes, I imagine William Shatner manning all requests at Priceline headquarters.)

So, the battle to figure out how to get to the convention after landing in D.C. began. I was getting in at midnight, and the Amtrak didn’t run again until 3:15 AM, so I’d have to hang out at the train station for around three hours, which I immediately began trying to convince myself would be a worthwhile experience because: taxis were too expensive; it’d cost twice my initial ticket price to change the flight at that point; and the last time I hitchhiked, I lost a kidney (and my dignity… but not my hope — that would go later). So, yeah, I decided to go with Amtrak. That meant I’d arrive in Baltimore around 4:30 AM. Then have to get to the hotel from Penn Station. Excitement!

Indeed, the seeds were planted for fretting, but I just pressed on. Then almost missed my flight out of LAX due to bad traffic and more of my poor planning. Yikes! Anyway, I did make it (just), and the flight there was swell, save for the gut rot given to me by the $25 turkey cold cut sandwich I bought due to extreme hunger. How does that happen? It was turkey and lettuce! Curious.

Anyway, after arriving at Dulles, it became clear getting to Union station for the Amtrak was going to be an ordeal… so I lazied up and went to the Super Shuttle. They weren’t sure if they’d have a shuttle running, but heaven smiled upon me, and they graciously decided to take my 90 bucks to drive me to my hotel in Baltimore… after dropping off eight other people all over Maryland. It was like that episode of Arrested Development — you know, when Tobias met his future acting coach, Carl Weathers, on the Super Shuttle? Everyone on that shuttle bonded, though. The soldier on leave from Iraq, the Texan mom and son in town for the gay pride parade, the NASA scientist, the Baltimore historian — the whole gang. This bonding was mostly from fear of the driver’s texting and GPS address entering while driving. Some close calls, folks. And close sitting. Bonding. Touching? None that I initiated.

I was the last one to be dropped off… at about 4 AM. Yeah, got there the same time I would’ve if I’d taken the Amtrak. Lessons.

The stalwart Adam P. Knave let me into the fancy Hyatt hotel, and we proceeded to chat and giggle and pillow fight, getting to sleep around, I dunno, 6 AM? Next day: the con! On two hours of sleep! Yay!

(to be continued because I need to do other stuff right now…)

http://www.westhollywoodbookfair.org/schedule/comicsscifihorror-scene/

4:00pm-5:00pm
OFF THE BEATEN PATH: INDIE CREATORS & THEIR CRAFT
Jordan Crane (Clouds Above and Uptight)
D.J. Kirkbride (Popgun)
Ed Laroche (Almighty)
Joe Matt (Peep Show)
Kiyoshi Nakazawa (Drunken Master)
Moderator: Darren Clavadetscher
Location: Comics, SciFi & Beyond Pavilion
Signings: Skylight Books booth