Friday & Saturday: Bergen Street, Midtown & Beer...

Still recovering but huge thanks to everyone who came out to see McCool and I for the CHOKER events! Things went amazingly well, lots of people & we basically sold out of every proper copy we had.

Next up, "A Comic Shop" in Orlando on tuesday!

Bergen Street Comics was friday night, fantastically laid out store and Tom and Amy ran a great show!

Here's all of us, as well as Tiger and Socko from Comic Book Jones who also helped out and were from our Wednesday launch.



Before the night kicked off.



What we started out with.



What we ended up with. If I remember right these 3 also went before we left the store.



Also signed a bunch of WE WILL BURY YOU from Brea and Zane Grant which also just came out. I did the cover! If you want some zombie fun, check it out.

Here's some other stuff we did...





SATURDAY:



Midtown comics was also awesome. We sold out of all copies BUT they were among the lucky ones who also got the dud/bad print early copies and some of them are pretty reasonable quality, so they had us sign them all and make them available. So if you can't find a copy, they still have some, signed!



As my Space Squid religion grows...I get gifts!



After that, guess where we went...

















Noooooo comment.

Comic Book Jones, CHOKER sells out & my new online store...

Have a brief moment to update the blog between stuff...

The CHOKER tour kicked off over in New York on Staten Island with the awesome blokes at Comic Book Jones...all the while I was apparently receiving emails saying CHOKER has basically sold out already and is now on back order with the distributor...so if you want a copy better get in quick! We'll see if we can reprint it. I may do a new cover if there's time on the road. McCool and I are well chuffed.

Not only that but my new ONLINE STORE at Templesmitharts.com went live on wednesday. For now there's only CHOKER cover original art up mostly...but coming are many interior pages, Wormwood and Hoxford art, prints, books and a ton of other exclusive merchandise stuff I'll be doing up.

Last but not least, the final Wormwood ( for now ) issue goes live with Sony on the PSP!



Thanks hugely to all who came out to CBJ to see Ben McCool and I. Fantastic night, sold out of all the in store copies of the book and a bunch more!



Yet another great Wormwood tattoo. More Wormwood *IS* in the works btw...



Live band!



Rodney Ramos decides to improve the canned American toilet water.



I commandeer the store.



The next morning. Awesome snow.



On the ferry back to NYC, the city shrouded in the snowy mess.

More Wormwood on the Sony PSP

Got to admit, I think my stuff scrubs up ok if you're viewing it on a screen!




More WORMWOOD:GENTLEMAN CORPSE went up on their Playstation store just now, so if you've got the ability, you might want to check out the often hard to find physically books, all in one place for a lot cheaper than real world copies! So far, Wormy has been a rather consistent best seller over there too, so huge thanks for checking it out.

And if you dig Wormwood, another similar but more scifi book I've done, with writer extraordinaire Chris Ryall, GROOM LAKE is also up there. With luck, a few more books will make it soonish too.

So...What's Up With Choker #1?

Long story short, if you have a copy right now, you kinda technically shouldn't. If you do, the Almighty Space Squid has truly favoured you basically. They could be collectors items?

However, you might notice, it's a bit wrinkly and...odd. The book,at first coming out on the 10th, then being pushed back to the 24th, then ended up looking like it was actually going to happen on the 10th ( the book was done plenty in advance! ) but as luck would have it, a problem at the printer meant a bad water/ink mix, thus the copies looked a bit crappy and Image wisely decided to have them pulped and a reprint was in order. That was going to push it back a further week...but since the 24th ( 2 weeks ) was already on the cards, it's simply gone back to that date! Thing is, some copies already made it out there, though all parties have been advised to ditch the dud copies and wait for replacements, as I understand it. The *REAL* copies have been pushed back to the 24th, it's official release date. With a little luck and a few offerings to The Great Space Squid, shiny nice new proper copies will be on the shelf and in hot little hands by then.

Still not sure if it's going to be worth it? Here's a bunch of early reviews, from people who already managed to get a copy. I tried finding a bad one, honest. If you do, let me know. Fairs fair, all opinions are valid:

Allthiscrap.com

"The art is kick-ass. Story is okay, but has potential. The true test: Will this stay on my pull list? You bet!" 7.2/10

CraveOnline.com

"I was delighted to find that not only was Templesmith's work on Choker #1 supremely satisfying, but McCool's characters wrapped their fingers around me so tightly that, excuse the pun, I thought I'd choke."

HyperGeek

"Choker #1 is incredibly strong debut issue that will hook you for the entire series" 5 stars

BattleMouth.com

"McCool has a serious talent for keeping you on the edge of your seat and entertained, and Templesmith’s art will blow your mind all over the insides of your skull."

New Wormwood Work In Progress...

To make up for not posting new things for a bit ( Thanks to the lost but now found cat saga ) Here' s a slew of work in progress shots on a new Wormwood image destined for the upcoming WORMWOOD DEVIANT EDITION HARDCOVER VOLUME 2 coming in March or April I do believe!

Lost Kitty: FOUND

Found the little bugger. Cheers all for such a great response. Greatly appreciated.

A ComicBook Orange give CHOKER some love

Episode 5.3 – Antony Johnston & Choker
If you can't see the video, checkout their main site.

"Choker is a science fiction noir about a retired detective, in a world where biotech crime runs rampant, who is called back by the police to solve one more crime. Shades of Blade Runner? Sure, but that's not a bad thing, not when its done this well.

Ben McCool makes the concept his own, elegantly introducing all the elements without boring exposition. Special attention should be given to McCool's rich dialogue; not since cable TV's Deadwood has such an enjoyable mix of vocabulary and cursing come together.

Templesmith once again knocks it out of the park in the art department. He has long mastered illustrating horrible people enjoying doing horrible things to each other. But he also delivers on the quieter moments that round out even the roughest characters with bittersweet cores. Rich coloring completes the package, adding an extra emotional charge to the scenes.

Choker kicks off to a promising start with issue #1 coming out this week. We give it 4.5 Oranges out of 5."


Cheers guys!

Singularity 7

An old classic Singularity 7 cover I whacked up on ebay the other day. Done when I started adding inks to the work...

CHOKER #1 is THIS WEEK- Or MAYBE NOT

I have just learned that the release date of Ben McCool and Ben Templesmith’s Choker #1 has been brought forward from its original released date of February 24th, 2010, to February 10th, 2010. That’s this coming Wednesday, so don’t forget to keep an eye out for it when you hit the store this week.

Yup, Hypergeek.com has it right.

Due to several reasons, CHOKER issue 1 is actually going to come out THIS WEEK on the 10th Feb, instead of the previously thought 24th.

Yep, for the first time in a long time, a comic book is actually going to ship early.

To celebrate, this here is a dedicated limited run variant cover for Larry's Comics, over in Boston! Don't think it's been seen yet.


*edited to say, CHOKER #1 may not actually be out this week. Or, potentially, at least not on the west coast. Or, who really knows. I can only guess what Diamond are actually doing to the books at this point. I hope when you eventually get a copy there's not too many pages suck together?

GI Joe: Baroness Cover

One of the covers for the GI Joe Origins #12 book I did with Marc Andreyko. Actually, this one wasn't ever meant to be a cover, just a mess around piece. Kinda funny how much rage & bile I can bring out in some traditionalist fans, unused to more stylized art. You'd swear I beat up their grandmothers or something, the way a few have taken it. Reminds me just how much of a lightening rod I can be to the hardcores. Interesting stuff to me. Personally, I've had a lot more feedback than usual and all of it positive on the book myself. Was fun to do something a little different and change things up a little. Never been a fan of standing still. I'm hearing the book is selling out in a bunch of places.

Just been thinking about such things lately. A twitter convo the other night, where apparently an artist gave up their craft because of lots of negative criticisms saddened me greatly. No one should stop doing what they love because of other's negativity. We're not all going to be Da Vinci, but that's life really. I got used to some rather personal attacks at times...about my art style and look, long ago. Since then, those people either dropped off or converted and many more decided to dig my work, meaning I can keep assaulting your eyes with my filthy stuff, for which I'll always be insanely grateful! Cheers to all who picked up the Origins book and dug it.


You know, I have no idea why the gun sight is upside down either. I swear it was that way on the ref I used at the time but it still makes no sense.

The Raven: Before and After

Before and after. And yup, put it up on ebay the other day if anyone really wants it.