Unknown Soldier (DC/Vertigo) by Joshua Dysart and Alberto Ponticelli

I wanted to post a piece of Unknown Soldier fan art that I drew, but I haven’t quite finished tweaking it yet, so a demand that you read the books will have to suffice. The Unknown Soldier is a new series that takes the title and premise of an old DC series and transplants it into modern-day Uganda.

The Unknown Soldier was an old DC character that I don’t really know much about. From what I understand, the soldier’s real identity was never revealed. In Joshua Dysart and Alberto Ponticelli’s new series, we know exactlywho the soldier is right from the first issue. Dr. Moses Lwanga, a Ugandan born and American educated doctor, returns with his wife (also a Ugandan and a doctor) to their native land as part of a third world medical program that I don’t recall the name of off the top of my head. After killing a child soldier with his bare hands and having his face severely damaged, Moses starts hearing another voice inside of his head. The first story arc, which lasted six issues and was called “Haunted House”, deals with Moses’ slow transformation into the Unknown Soldier.

Despite being a giant history nerd, I know pretty much nothing about Uganda. Dysart clearly anticipated this, and included a condensed history of Uganda (with a focus on the events that led to the civil war which the story is set in). Along with the history is a glossary of terms used in the book that would be awkward to explain in-story. This is great, because it adds some really helpful context to the story without bogging it down. Dysart also maintains a blog that adds more background information about Uganda and the chaos in Africa in general. It’s good stuff, I recommend it. Check it out at unknownsoldiercomic.com.

Ponticelli’s art is perfect for this book. There’s a certain rugged surrealness to it. My favourite detail is that the AK–47s look huge and scary. Especially in the hands of the child soldiers, where they look even bigger. The guns look like they’ll send the kid flying with their recoil, which just makes the whole situation seem even more scary and insane.

A trade paperback collecting the first six issues of Unknown Solider should be on the way within the next few months, based on typical comic release schedules. Check it out, it’s one of the best books on the shelves right now.

I’ve now made my first appearance on the Comic Book Resources site, which you can read here. Stephanie Chan (colourist on Tarot: Witch of the Black Rose and I think some other stuff) made the rounds of Happy Harbor’s FCBD festivities and wrote about it, including some of the pictures she took. She also took a bunch of pictures of our hour-long journey from HHv1 across the street to Dan Schneider’s truck. Yes, it should have been a thirty second walk from the inside of the store to the truck, but having to herd drunk folks slowed things down quite a bit.

Also, new comic later today. Yay!

Free Comic Book Day was yesterday, and it was glorious. And very, very long. I was at Happy Harbor Volume 2 from 10 AM – 6 PM, then arrived at Volume 1 at 6:30 for Happy Harbor’s 10th birthday party. In all I spent about 14 hours at Happy Harbor Volumes 1 and 2. Things were pretty rad all around.

Sketches – I did a lot of ’em. I’m guesstimating around fifteen. My first request was for a Simpsons character, but I didn’t really get any more instruction than that, so I drew Homer Simpson in a Green Lantern costume, since I had just spent a good five minutes bitching about never getting to draw the Green Lantern at these things. Other sketches included Batman, Juggernaut, Darkseid (who I’d never drawn before, but was really, really fun), a couple of portraits (I hate drawing portraits, although one of a dude as a Vancouver Canuck was fun), Hellboy, a knight, GIR, Bender, and some other ones that I can’t recall off the top of my head.

Dan Schneider – I spent most of the day hanging out with Dan Schneider and Melanie Harvey at HHv2. I’ve done FCBD with Dan a couple of times now, and it’s always some good clean fun (disclaimer: the fun was good but not really clean, as the number of horrible jokes we managed to cram into eight hours was… mind-hurting). The result of a weird Facebook conversation meant that Dan was determined that our store be deemed the one where the “cool kids” were at. So he created a contest. And a championship belt (which was an old toy WWF Tag Team Title belt with aviator sunglasses, cigarettes, chewing tobacco, and a Happy Harbor logo made out of Play-Doh). He attempted to use a gumball machine to sway the results of the contest (which he was determined to cheat to win, despite cheating being basically the entirety of the rules).

Ty Templeton – I got my Exterminators Volume 4 and 5 trade paperbacks signed by comics veteran Ty Templeton. In more awesome news, he remembered that I gave him a copy of Rent-A-Thug: First Offence last time he was in town and proceeded to go on a several minute long rant about how much he enjoyed reading it and showing it to his comic industry friends in Toronto. He then convinced the other special guest, Laurie B., that she HAD to buy a copy and read it, then told me that I should start getting my stuff in front of editors ASAP. Sweet!

Ed & Red – Ed the Sock and Liana K filmed an episode of their new show (not sure what it’s called) in front of the live audience at the HH birthday party. They interviewed Eisner award winner Steve Rolston, and superstars Gail Simone, Fiona Staples, and Ty Templeton, as well as the tangentially comic-related roller derby girls (who had been dressed like super heroines and villainesses). It was interesting seeing the show be filmed. I expected there to be a lot of pauses and stuff that would obviously be edited out, but it was actually pretty witty and flowed well for the most part. Ed was also smacked so hard with an Ugly Doll that his cigar broke off (for those who are unaware, Ed is a sock puppet. There’s a cigar stitched to the mouth of the puppet). The funnier part was Liana having to go find it because Ed’s puppeteer couldn’t reach it without coming out from behind the couch that was concealing him from the camera. I think the most impressive part was that instead of a stage the couch was supported by comic long boxes. Seriously. Not sure if there were books in ’em or not, but it managed to hold up Ed, Liana, and five derby girls simultaenously, which probably makes it the best-constructed stage made out of long-boxes in the history of mankind.

Nick Johnson – I talked to Nick Johnson, who came up from Calgary with a bunch of other artist types, for quite a while at the birthday party. Fun fact: I have his permission to harangue him mercilessly come May to finish the Rent-A-Thug guest strip he asked me to write for him in October. Discussion of an animated GIF of me shanking him also came up in a related discussion.

I think that’s it for FCBD stories… for now.

This Saturday, May 2nd, is Free Comic Book Day 2009! I’ll be at Happy Harbor Comics Volume 2 doing sketches for folks who donate to the Food Bank! Also sketching it up with me will be Dan Schneider and Melanie Harvey, who are both rad. Also at V2 will be special guests Ty Templeton and Laurie B. I’ve met Ty before, and he’s got a lot of stories from his years in the comic industry trenches that he’s always willing to share. Laurie B is an animator in Calgary and one of the creators of A Monk’s Tale, one of the best-produced independent comics I’ve ever seen. Other Happy Harbor locations will feature guest appearances by such comics superstars as Gail Simone, Steve Rolston, and Fiona Staples, as well as TVs Ed the Sock and Liana K., who are both hilarious.

Also, if you come on down and say hi be on the lookout for Libro Libre!, the book that I put together with a bunch of other local comickers to give away on FCBD. I masterminded the whole thing. And by masterminded I mean I suggested we put a book together for FCBD and Rudi Gunther did all the actual work, because he’s awesome. Chris Peterson also knocked the cover out of the park, check it out:

(c) Chris, 2009

So come pick up a copy and hang out with all of us comic geeks. You nerd.

I added a new illustration to the gallery, inspired by the movie Leatherheads. It’s the first thing I’ve drawn in almost a week, actually. Starting last Saturday, I didn’t leave my house at all for four days while I was writing my last paper of the semester. Now I find myself rocking the academic equivalent of  a playoff beard. Except instead of trying to win a championship, I’m trying to survive the end-semester paper rush and final exams. It’s the kind of playoffs nobody actually wants to be in. Anyway, old-timey football violence.