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Posted by:

khwan

Date:

July 17th, 2008 4:34 PM

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KHWAN-My Comic Is Here (VERY LIMITED PREVIEW EDITION)

Bulletin:

It is announcement time-I just got copies of my comic book in!

While some people here know about it-I never made an official announcement before. But I have been working on a comic book for the last two years.

This is not EXACTLY the book I have been working on, but it's a companion to that book.

Let me explain: my REAL book is called "KHWAN:Thai-Ger". Frank Cho described it as "a semi-autobiographical story of this hot look chic in Thailand who turns into a cat-like creature who fights crime with the help of a baby elephant...all with a Buddhist twist". OK, that will work for now.

Its the kind of book that I would want to read. Its the kind of book that I wish they made more of. Its Carl Barks-but with cute Asian girls instead of ducks.

Its also LONG. I want to give people value for their money. The first issue is 130 pages long. Its like a graphic novel. And the plan is to release these issues every 6-8 months. No, not manga...it is a comic book.

The artist to the book is a Filipino artist named "Ziggy". The covers are painted by Michael Calandra (http://www.calandrastudio.com/) who is best known for his covers to Heavy Metal Magazine.

Along with the main story, each book was going to have 1 or 2 short stories by my artist friends (Dean Yeagle & Steve Rude have promised future stories)

Everything was going along fine, slow but fine, and then late last year some real world problems happened...divorce, a nervous breakdown, homelessness, a job at a toxic waste factory, clinical depression (and the drugs that go with it)...and those were just Ziggy's.

He quit. Then wanted to come back. Then quit again. Then MAYBE wants to come back.

Meanwhile, I have been talking to another Filipino artist and an artist from Brazil who want to do the book if Ziggy does not continue. Another artist, a well-known artist who hasn't done any comic book artwork (by his choice) since the 1990's wants to do a six-issue mini series as his return to comics. So I have a few options right now.

But also right now, I have 130 pages of artwork from the first book that need to be lettered (I do my own lettering). Well, they are already lettered, I am in the process of re-lettering because I found a new font that I like much better.

But I also have no patience to wait!

So, I decided to do a small 32-page comic book just for fun. I gathered up three of the short stories that I had originally planned on using in the main book and made a book called "Tales Calculated to Drive You...KHWAN". And had 369 copies printed (yup, this is a very limited edition). Michael Calandra painted an exclusive cover for it.

And the book is wonderful (if I do say so myself!). What started as a joke now looks and reads like a really funny, well written and well drawn comic book. Without even trying, the three stories inside have the flavor of the original MAD comic books. Two of them are drawn by Ziggy and the third is by Anthony Carpenter (www.carpenterart.tripod.com)

This book turned out to be so nice, I am planning on doing one of these collections every year! And Anthony Carpenter has agreed to do one story in each of them (and as you can see by the artwork sample above (the 2nd one), his artwork is gorgous!

WHEW. I hope I didn't brag too much? Seriously, I am very happy with how the book turned out. It's really something that I am proud of. The artwork is great, but more importantly, the stories are good. They're funny, but they also have something to say (I hope).

Unfortunately, my original plans for selling it at the San Diego Con has fallen through. A friend of mine was suppose to have a table (sharing with a friend of his), but now tells me he won't have a table. Maybe I should post time I stand outside of convention and stand on box and sell copies of my book. I can yell: Comic book for sale! Comic Book for sale!

KHWAN
www.khwan.com
www.pinupheaven.com

P.S. I will post images in a gallery from Comic Space front page.

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