But wanted to let you know the first batch of The Utopian #1 has been received and I’ve sent out all the pre-ordered, hand-signed copies today. Here’s what my home studio looked like last night:

Thanks to everyone who pre-ordered the title (which helped pay for the initial print run and supporting materials). If you missed the pre-order, no worries: Visit the “Buy” page, where you can still order the deluxe and standard editions of issue one directly from IndyPlanet. If you want to get signed copies, you’ll need to track me down at a convention. Like maybe the Vegas Valley Comic Book Festival on Nov. 7 or Emerald City Comic-Con on March 13 and 14, 2009.

Of course, if you’d prefer to just nix the shipping nonsense and pick one up at your favorite comic shop, please click the image below, print out the coupon and put it in the hands of your local shop owner:

Thank you for your support. Stop back next Wednesday for the start of Part 007, “Odyssey.”

I couldn’t help myself. Sorry.

After some careful consideration (as careful as “hey, f*ck it, let’s do it” can be), I’ve decided to change the posting schedule of The Utopian to both accommodate my ability to produce the best quality webcomic possible and the requests of readers who may have been confused by the presentation of two pages on one day spread across two days of posts.

I’m not going to elaborate more on the technical reason behind the second part of that explanation, but I will say this: You’ll still be getting two pages a week of The Utopian, but you’ll get one page on Wednesday and one on Friday. I’m tweaking the way each page is laid out into order to make the last panel of each its own “cliffhanger” type ending, but otherwise, the only change is the scheduling. I think it makes more sense, rather than being forced to make a self-contained scene out of every two page grouping, and it also spreads out your enjoyment (and my site traffic) across the week.

So check back on Wednesday morning for page 021 of The Utopian saga, and Friday morning for page 022. They’re both going to be pretty awesome, if I do say so myself. Make it easy on yourself and SUBSCRIBE.

If you are a comics fan of any reasonable tastes, then you likely are familiar with The Invincible Super-Blog, Chris Sims’ awfully awesome blog about, um, comics. He is also one of the forces behind Action Age Comics, and the writer of the recent three-part Action Age web series, The Chronicles of Solomon Stone.

Because I really had a lot of time to fill while vacationing at the girlfriend’s parents’ house in the middle of Michigan, I did a sketch of Solomon, his lady friend Minxy Flatbush and, um, Tyrannosaurus Hex. Yeah.

Well, more than a month later, I finally got around to finishing the sketch with some digital inking and coloring. And now, you get to suffer with it while I stall working on this week’s installment of The Utopian.

I don’t know how many people actually bother reading these blog posts that are buried beneath the fold of the actual comic display here, but I’m going to pretend SOMEONE is reading this anyway.

The Utopian is going to find itself collected for print twice this year courtesy of Pop! Goes the Icon, and I’m looking for a few good artists to provide the cover artwork. I’ll be providing the conceptual layout; said artist(s) will provide the finished badassery.

One version will be a 16-page sampler (covering parts 001 and 002) that will be distributed exclusively at San Diego Comic-Con in July. The other is the actual No. 1 issue of the print comic, collecting 32 pages of story plus extras such as sketches, character designs and other unpublished work. That will debut at the Vegas Valley Comic Book Festival in November, and will be available for purchase on the web and stores thereafter.

If you are, or know, an artist who might be interested in illustrating the cover for one or both of these books, drop me an e-mail. There is financial incentive, though it will probably be just enough for a nice dinner at Applebee’s. ‘Nuff said.