Bleeding Neon

J. Caleb Mozzocco, who used to review comics for the Las Vegas Weekly and still contributes to websites such as Newsarama on occasion, posted a review of Omega Comics Presents #2 on his blog yesterday, and … it wasn’t bad. He was fair and tried to find something good in each story, even noting that any review is somewhat colored by the reviewer’s own tastes.

Most surprisingly to me, Mozzocco had nice things to say about the second chapter of my serial thriller, “OMEGA.” No, really:

Omega, by PJ Perez, is a thriller about a terrorist [g]roup taking over the Hoover Dam with high school students taken hostage. Their plan is to blow up the dam, but one of the kids has some sort of strange power that saves them. It’s just a chapter of a longer story, but it has a clear beginning, middle and end, and Perez is subtle enough with the storytelling that it creates a mood of intrigue. The character designs are strong and well-rendered, but as solid as any individual panel was, the art seemed a bit stiff to me…and the computer-lettering left a lot to be desired.

Subtle storytelling? Strong character designs? I swear, I did not slip him a fiver with his review copy. I agree the art is a bit stiff. Something that was a problem with the first chapter, too. Something I’m gonna try really hard to fix with the third chapter. But, you know, what’s better? Well-rendered by stiff? Or poorly rendered but loose like that crappy webcomic I put out every week? (Don’t answer that.)

If you’re intrigued and haven’t gotten a copy yet, go ahead and fix that now. Yep.

It’s been a busy week. Last Friday, I attended the opening reception of “Unnatural History” at the Springs Preserve, immediately followed by a reception at the Arts Factory celebrating the 10th anniversary/vow renewal of my friends KC and Ryan. Saturday night was the Psychedelic Furs and She Wants Revenge concert at the House of Blues (after spending the day hosting a 1-year-old’s birthday party), and then Sunday night my band, As Yet Unbroken, played to a mostly-empty room at Boomers Bar.

That was not a bad thing, actually. The show on Sunday night was slated to feature four bands, two local and two from California. We showed up an hour early (9 p.m.) as instructed, met the lovely and helpful bartender/booker Tammy, and waited for the sound guy/doorman to show up. He never did. Instead, the bands (only three of us, the fourth slated act was mis-scheduled or double-booked or something) loaded out and set-up the P.A., and yours truly ended up playing sound guy all night. By the time we played (around 11:45 p.m.), it was just Tammy and about 5 or 6 of our friends/wives/etc. in the bar watching us — which was fine. It was like hanging out in a friend’s pimped-out basement jamming. A good warm-up show for the main attraction …

This Friday, at the Aruba Hotel, As Yet Unbroken will return to the Las Vegas N.O.I.S.E. Project to rock the big room. It’s free and open to all you motherlovers over 21, and we’ll be bringing our A game (or at least our B game). In addition, there are other bands, a communal drum circle, live sculpting and much more artsy nonsense. So you have no excuses. Unless you have to work. Or are in the hospital. Or on bed rest. But otherwise, get a babysitter and get your ass downtown, where we will proceed to rock it silly.

Oh, you should also get to the AYU website and vote on our next cover song. By June 30. Yep.

Oh, HI. I know it’s been quiet up here in Awesome City. It’s only because I’ve been slaving away at various projects to foist upon your delicate senses in varying ways. A brief rundown, because lists are fun:

• My band, As Yet Unbroken, has been breaking in our new guitarist, Peter Stauber, and we’ll be making our revived debut at Boomers Bar this Sunday night at about 10 p.m. We’re playing with a bunch of random bands, none of which play in the same style, so it’ll be like a mini-Lollapalooza. If that doesn’t sell it for you, I don’t know what will. Call in sick on Monday and come rock with us. It’s only $5, and allegedly, we get some of that money.
• I’m editing and publishing a one-off comic book anthology for the Vegas Valley Comic Book Festival called “Tales from the Boneyard.” It features all Vegas-spawned creators and will be awesome. But it also has meant spending the last month assembling the talent, setting deadlines, creating sponsorship proposals (this is a nonprofit fundraiser for the Library District), attending meetings and working on my own contribution to the compilation, an eight-page tale about a girl and a robot. If, by chance, you’d like to sponsor this endeavor, drop me an e-mail and I’ll drop you a sponsorship packet.
• I finished painting my terrible entry into the LVSK8 IV skate deck art show. It’s called “Powered by Love,” and all I will say for now is that with its existence, I have created a new genre of art called “sci-fi folk art.” If you’re so inclined to see it, along with dozens of other decorated skate decks much nicer than mine, you should come to Place Gallery (1054 S. Maint St.) next Friday, July 2. I’ll be there from 6 p.m. until probably 8 p.m.-ish.
• Speaking of art, because of demand from one or two people, I’ve created an online store where you can buy prints and postcards and stuff. Why not?
• Been trying to get way ahead on the usual workload, blazing through updates of The Utopian webcomic and deadlines for various publications. A new HRH cover story came out this past week, but I’ll slather you in the details once its digital edition goes online.

That wasn’t so hard, was it? See, all you have to do is get me started and I just type like a madman. More soon on new comics, shows and convention appearances. If you’re interested.

A few months ago, someone suggested on Twitter — or I did, not sure which — that I should get a table at Las Vegas’ monthly art walk, First Friday, from which to sell comics and stuff. So without really putting too much thought into it, I contacted the powers-that-be at Whirlygig (the non-profit that runs First Friday), and before I knew it, I was booked for May’s event. At the time, I told Cindy Funkhouser from Whirlygig that I’d be selling prints and sketches too … except at the time I had no prints or sketches.

I know, right?

Well … I kind of got my sh*t together. As most of you know, I work almost exclusively digitally when I do any illustration, so I don’t really have any original art, and I don’t have many sketches that aren’t 15 years old (something that really deserves a blog post unto its own). But I conjured up a few new-ish items for you kids to possibly enjoy. So if you find yourself at First Friday this week (that’s May 7, assuming you’re not waiting in line to see one of the first showings of Iron Man 2), look for me on the sidewalk outside the Funk House (corner of Casino Center and Colorado) with the following items:

This is actually one of the sketches I drew while manning a table at Emerald City Comicon in March. The original is just black Sharpie on paper. After I got back home, I got some good feedback on it, so I decided to digitally color it and make it into a print. So I’ll have 100 of these available, as well as the original piece if anyone wants it.

This piece — clever, ain’t it? — was made for my good friend Daniella, who is, of course, a knitting diva. I got a limit run of prints made — 10? — so if you want it, this is the time.

I’ll have 10 each of these postcards at First Friday. They’re from a series of celebrity/newsmaker digital art I debuted at my old Pop! Goes the Icon blog called “Newsicons.” I dunno, I think they’re kinda cool.

And of course, the whole reason I’m doing this in the first place: Comics. I’ll have copies of all three issues of The Utopian shown above (that last one DEBUTS this week … and I haven’t received the shipment yet, so I sure hope I’ll have it!), as well as the first issue of Omega Comics Presents, which features a new, nine-page story from yours truly. I’ll be doing bulk discounts if you want to get caught up on this stuff.

There you have it. I hope you’ll at least swing by between 6 and 10 on Friday to say “hi.” I’ll also take requests for sketches, though I can’t guarantee they’ll be any good.

I’m back. Didja miss me?

Of course you didn’t. I’m sure between Twitter and Facebook and whatever else you kids use to do the cyberstalking these days, it feels like you can’t get rid of me. It’s OK, I understand the feeling. I can’t get rid of me either.

So Emerald City Comicon. It was fun. For the most part. I didn’t sell nearly as much as I’d have liked to — mainly, the goal was to push the first issue of the new anthology series I’m publishing, Omega Comics Presents. But people at the show seemed much more interested in having their stacks of comics signed by Big Name Creator X, or buying Wow That’s Neat-O art, not investing $3.50 into an unknown comic anthology by unknown creators from an unknown publisher.

But once I got over the depression of that on the first day of the convention, I simply learned to enjoy the time in Seattle, both at the show and outside of it, meeting new and old friends, walking around a beautiful city in gorgeous weather, and doing the working vacation thing. I could spill more, but that’s all I have the energy (or time) to say about it. For some reason, I’ve been kinda drained since getting back to Vegas, part of which I think is the kick-off of the annual Trees and Plants Assault Pj’s Sinus Cavities event, which has already caused my eyes to puff, my throat to clench and my body to go limp.

While I was up in the Pacific Northwest, two new reviews of Omega Comics Presents #1 hit the interwebs. The first is from a weird little horror-themed website that may or may not be called “Count Gore De Vol’s Tomb of Dark Delights.” It’s focused mostly on John Dimes’ tale in the debut issue, as John has one foot firmly in the horror fiction world, but overall, the, er, Count calls the comic “an entertaining first entry in what promises to be a very satisfying series.” Works for me!

More visibly was our review on Comic Book Resources’ “Comics Should be Good” blog. It’s a thorough, and I think fair, dissection of the issue. While the writer, Greg Burgas, doesn’t love everything (and in an anthology, I guess that’s the point), he does admit “there’s room for improvement,” and that “the fun of comics comes through rather well.” On the subject of my specific contribution, the first chapter of espionage-action serial “OMEGA,” Greg is critical but objective, and more importantly, the story was set up well “enough to be intriguing,” and I’m OK with that. I know the art’s not great, nor even my best, but so long as the story is told well, that’s all that really matters to me. But he did write that I have “talent, certainly, but [need] work on fluidity and nuance.” Which is all true. And kind of him to say. It would have been easy enough to outright say “the story’s OK, the art sucks,” but he didn’t, and the thing is, this is a starting point, and the only way to go is up. And believe me, the second issue of OCP – from cover to cover — is gonna rock peoples’ worlds. Or so I TELL YOU.

Anyway, the next week or so will be spent trying to get back into the swing of things, despite questionable physical and mental discombobulation. I need to get back to work on a number of projects, back to the gym, back to housework (bleh) and just, um, back. Like the Beatles.