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!

And, obviously, we wouldn’t have had a book to put together without the following amazingly talented creators who let us print their awesome comics in the book! Thanks so much and congrats to… (deep breath)…

Alison Acton, Joshua Agerstrand, Laura Allred, Anjin Anhut, Kris Anka, Amanda Becker, Peter Bergting, Patricio Betteo, Danilo Beyruth, Sam Bosma, Dan Brereton, Olaf Brill, Dennis Brown, Antonio Campo, Dominique Carrier, Celor, Jim Charalampidis, Bobby Clark, Ryan Cody, Dave Collinson, Dave Curd, Tim Daniel, Mike Dawson, Ben DeRosa, Michael Dialynas, JEIK Dion, Juan Doe, Becky Dreistadt, Nathan Edmondson, Ulises Farinas, Ray Fawkes, Gary Fields, Frank Gibson, Vassilis Gogtzilas, Zac Gorman, George Gousis, Paul Grist, Scott Hallett, Jason Hanley, David Hopkins, Jason Ibarra, Joëlle Jones, Janet Kim, Nic Klein, Peter Krause, Edward Kwong, Erik Larsen, Robbie Lawrence, Johann “Ullcer” Leroux, Maximo V. Lorenzo, Thomas Mauer, Dylan McCrae of SatteliteSoda.com, Derek McCulloch, Sam McKenzie, Tara McPherson, Alberto Mielgo, Robb Mommaerts, Paul Montgomery, Chris Moreno, Matt Moylan, Ralph Niese, Anthony Nixon, Josh Parpan, Jeff Powell, Isam Prado, Justin Randall, Stephen Reedy, Jamie S. Rich, Rachelle Rosenberg, David Rubin, Matteo Scalera, Douglas E. Sherwood, Guillaume Singelin, Eric Skillman, ericstephenson, Alisa Stern, Amy Stern, Chris Stevens, Frank Stockton, Andre Szymanowicz, Gregory Titus, Ron Turner, Christian Ward, Daniel Warner, Connor Willumsen, Brian Winkeler, Michael Woods, Derek Yu, K.I. Zachopoulos, Tonci Zonji, Jim Zubkavich — way to go, team!

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.

POPGUN, VOL. 4 OGN
featuring JOCK, JEFFERY BROWN, ERIK LARSEN, TOM SCIOLI, JM KEN NIIMURA, FRANK STOCKTON, JESSICA FINK, SALGOOD SAM, MATTEO SCALERA, CHRIS MORENO, MARK ANDREW SMITH, DEREK MCCULLOCH, JEREMY TINDER, ELIZABETH GENCO and more!
edited by D.J. KIRKBRIDE, ANTHONY WU & ADAM P. KNAVE
cover BEN TEMPLESMITH
FEBRUARY 10
512 PAGES / FC
$29.99

POPGUN is back with another eclectic collection of established fan favorite creators and rising stars coming together for a new edition of the Harvey Award-winning graphic mix tape! From high-octane action to heart-tugging drama to laugh-out-loud comedy, this collection has comics you’ll love: over 500 full color pages of them!

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!

Really? No, not really. I’ve never really seen those shows. I should watch them. Especially The Wire from what I hear and read.

Then what, then? The films of John Waters speak to me? No. Not at all. (Though Pecker has lots of funny moments.)

No, no, the reason I’m flying to that harbor town is the 2009 Baltimore Comic Con!

Yay!

I’ll be rocking the POPGUN table with Sir Adam P. Knave at the sure to be amazing Image Comics booth! It’s sure to be a hoot.

Also looking forward to checking out the Harvey Awards. POPGUN vol. 2 is nominated for Best Anthology, which is swell! Vol. 1 won last year… can we do two in a row? I dunno. But it’s an honor to be nominated!

Not looking forward to the travel there from here in Hell A. It’ll be a complicated affair that I’ll no doubt be writing about in a later blog posting. Look for it, my two readers. (Hi, Mom! Hi, other person!)

Ah, comics. Good times.

See ya’ in Baltimore!

Every volume of POPGUN, we invite some of the best and brightest creators in the business. It’s amazing to have the chance to read so many darn good stories and often discover new (to me, anyway) talent.

The tough part comes when, even at nearly 500 pages available for the book, we have too much goodness! An embarrassment of riches, sure, but… ah, what goes in? And what… darn it… just can’t fit???

I keep hoping for some secret formula, but I guess it just ain’t gonna happen. Time for bullets to be bitten, debating with my co-editors (Anthony Wu and Adam P. Knave), and hoping for the best.

One thing we’re all already sure of though: POPGUN 4 is going to be awesome. It’s not scheduled to be released until January (tentatively), so it’s going to be a long wait, but it’ll be worth it. So much goodness. The books keep getting heavier and heavier. Not metaphorically. Literally. One could develop a weight training program around them.

After stretching, start off with the 448 pages of POPGUN 1. Do that until it gets easier, and then you need to challenge the muscles more. That’s when it’s time to bump it up to the 472 pages of POPGUN 2 and 3. You should be getting comfortable with those by January, which will be right around the time to increase your weight to POPGUN 4, which will be… well, we’re not 100% sure on the exact page count yet. Gotta decide. Get the “okay” on the exact page increase — but it will be BIGGER.

Okay, enough bloggy distractions. I need to get back to this crazy (and exciting) POPGUN 4 story list…