NIGHT OF THE 80'S UNDEAD: Cover time!

Did you know of my many comic book projects in development, I've been working on a new limited series to graphic novel format concept called NIGHT OF THE 80'S UNDEAD? My little story about how at the climax of the cold war, in the mid 1980's, Russia devised a last ditch subversive effort to strike at our capitalist way of life by contaminating the supply of high end Colombian cocaine with a deadly zombie-like virus?? And the story is centered around a group of young teens at a big Hollywood party that happens to be ground zero?!? If you've been following this blog, or any of my other activities, or seen me at shows over the last year, I'm sure you do do do, you da da da, as I've been teasing looks at the production since last year's San Diego Comic-Con (where we had a five page preview/teaser as part of a special flip book - pictured on the side here).

Then last October we had a special full preview of the first issue at ZomBcon (naturally), showcasing the first 14 pages of the book, along with a section showing my scripts and the artists thumbnails for the final 7 pages (along with some other extras). Which we still have a few copies remaining of the limited pressing.

If all of this is news to you, I suggest you click the first link above, or the Night of the 80's Undead tag below to catch up on everything I've posted, but aside from the concept I've outlined here, the other key component to the project is the artist I've teamed up with to bring it to life, Bill McKay. I'm not drawing this book myself, but I have found someone very talented, and well suited to the story to help me with the art chores on the book. And I think you'll agree, he's doing a (to keep things appropriately 80's here) like totally radical job man!!!!

On that note, with con season fast approaching, I wanted to do something special to continue to promote the book, so I'm just finishing the setup of a new limited edition version of the first issue, a special "pencil edition" of the first full book. As I said, Not80'sU is to be a story told in 3 parts, or a limited series if you will, in standard comic book form, and while that first issue is complete on Bill's part, there remains a bit more that I need to do with the coloring and lettering (as I'm managing every other aspect of the book but the pencils), and more again before we'll be ready to officially start releasing it (in this day and age, I'm not sure whether the 3 issues will be offered for full distribution, or just sold on a more direct basis, with full release of the collected book, I'm leaning towards full distribution for both though, we'll see). Which all leads me back to our special pencil edition that's being created to offer at shows, starting next week with Wondercon Anaheim.

The pencil edition, unlike the previous previews, is actually the first full/complete first issue of the book, with the only difference being in comparison to the finished version, is that it is 100% comprised of the amazing original pencil art created by Bill! Since I'm doing colors straight from his pencils, as I often like to skip inks, because I much prefer pencil art, but also because Bill just really does nice detailed pencils (and when you see the book, I think you'll agree).

So, with the show right around the corner, I thought I should drop by here and start showing off some of the book, starting with... the cover!

Over the next couple days, I'll be posting each step in the process of the cover creation, kicking off today, with Bill's roughs from my idea for a new cover (we'd previously toyed with a couple images I'd created focusing on more thematic elements of the concept, the two covers at the start of the post). This new idea, as you can see above, is more story centric, depicting our main character, Sarah, in a detailed action pose. If it looks a bit familiar, it should, as it's an homage to the original Rambo poster (it also somewhat resembles another 80's classic, the image of Ripley from the movie Aliens, bonus!)!

So there you have it, a kick ass girl, 80's style, coke zombies, carnage, and a giant M-60 machine gun. Just a taste of what lurks beneath the cover, all in one 80's action send up! ...well, at least that's what you'll see once we get further along in the cover process...

Tune in tomorrow for a look at Bill's finished pencils for the cover!

And stay tuned for details on the book, and how you can pick it up!!