The rumors about my starting an independent comic collective...are true.

...But the details are still up in the air as of yet. Recent drops of readership at our favorite comic site, counterbalanced against the wishes of some of us wanting to launch our own print series (I'm obviously not talking about myself, here, I'm already in print) have made a number of us put our heads together and bring up serious concerns about our survival.


I did mention to Kurt Sasso last Thursday that I would be looking at ways of "giving back" in seeking out a number of talented unknowns to launch some anthologies and to give some of them exposure with my upcoming House of the Muses #6. That issue will be a tie-in between the past and the present as Dika learns in-depth what those nightmares of blood, fire and steel were all about. The setting will be the same era as the Age of Bronze Graphic Novel Series by Eric Shanower. No, he will NOT be involved in this issue, but I've had the concept rolling around in my head for it since 1987 and when Roy Duncan sent me a copy of one of the books in the series a couple of months ago, there was a very audible CLICK inside my head on what direction I wanted to take it.

Because I am still building my credibility as a published artist worldwide, I am thinking it would be a super opportunity to get the best of the best up and coming artists, and showcase their talents in House of the Muses #6. Then I do want to take that collective of artists and do the anthology, the idea of which is based on The Thieves World series, originally the creation of Lynn Abbey and Robert Asprin.

What the theme of the anthology will be is still undecided; I have had a science fiction series on the backburner for awhile, but I'm open to discussing the theme with our collective artists and deciding which direction we want to take.

I'll be setting up the pencils for House of the Muses #6 in June, and will be sounding the clarion call to collaborators to compete in what can only be called Webcomic Idol 2009 (I've already been informed that name has been taken so I'll have to come up with something else XD). I'm setting the bar, and I look forward to seeing where we go from here. The world is a wide-open place, and a collective of talent really CAN survive.