Crossposted from Murder Book.

If you have no interest in reading my long-winded intro to Murder Book, feel free to just click on the image above and read Catching Up.

So, basically Murder Book is a site for me to flex my writing muscles. I’ll be writing a bunch of short stories, generally crime, and will be bringing in different artists to give them life.

Rather than adopting some sort of regular update schedule of one or two pages a week, I’ve opted to instead only post stories as they’re complete. The upside is that readers, like you, won’t have to wait to get the entire story. The downside is that the site will likely only update once every four to six weeks. That said, I hope to find enough artists interested in participating in the project that I might be able to make the updates somewhat more frequent.

First up, is Catching Up with future superstar Simon Roy. Dude is currently up for a much deserved Joe Shuster award nomination in the best cartoonist category. Of course, he’s also the guy behind Jan’s Atomic Heart and is currently working on his own project Dead Lands. You can check out more of his work on his blog.

With any luck, there will be another story with art by Simon coming up in the not too distant future (I just need to finish up the script).

If you like the story and want to find more of my writing, might I recommend Acts Of Violence: An Anthology of Crime Comics? In the book, I have a 21 page story called The Orchard. The art is by the immensely talented Damian Couceiro. You can read 4 sample pages from The Orchard, as well as samples from the other three stories in the book right here. Should you be so inclined as to buy a copy of the book, you can get one from your local comic shop as of June 3rd, or buy one from the online New Reliable Press shop.

Regardless, I’d love to hear feedback on the stories that I’ll be posting.

Just got back from Emerald City Comicon where Acts of Violence made its official debut. I am exhausted from the trip, but super excited to have the book out and to have had the chance to flog it to new readers. Sales of the book were well beyond my highest expectations and the reaction has been great.

For more news on the book, including preview pages, check out the Acts of Violence website.

More news about getting the book into comic shops to come. In the meantime, just salivate over the beautiful cover artwork by Fiona Staples.

Just looking for an excuse to post on the newly redesigned site. I find if I keep the same design for any length of time, I start to get restless. Thankfully with wordpress, it’s pretty easy to find a new theme and adapt it to my own needs.

Also: a teaser panel from The Orchard. Hope to have more substantial Acts of Violence news to post next Monday.

2009 was a real up and down year for me in terms of lettering work. I finally got to work on an Image title (Sky Pirates of Neo Terra). I worked with book publisher Douglas & McIntyre lettering Red: A Haida Manga (shown above), which is a really cool piece of work, where each individual page fits together into one massive piece of artwork.

On the downside, comic publishers seemed to be hit hard by the economic downturn and those who’d published a lot in the past either dialed back their publications schedules or stopped publishing entirely. My fingers are crossed that publishers who had a rough go of 2009 will be able to bounce back in 2010.

In the coming weeks, I will have pages from the crime anthology Acts of Violence posted for your previewing pleasure. The book, which is being co-published by myself, Kevin Leeson, Todd Ireland, Dino Caruso and Chad Boudreau, contains four stories, each ranging from 20 to 38 pages. My contribution, The Orchard, runs 21 pages. The book is complete and just about ready to go out to the printers. Assuming no major catastrophes, the book should be back in our hands just in time for Emerald City Comic Convention.

Also, sometime in late March/early April, I’ll be updating this site to also include short comics that I’ve written.

Hey! Hey! My first Image comic came out this week. Check it out!

SKY PIRATES OF NEO TERRA #1 (of 5)

story JOSH WAGNER, art & cover CAMILLA D’ERRICO

32 PAGES, FC, $2.99

“SKY PIRATES OF NEO TERRA”
In Neo Terra, a world of forgotten technology and natural magic, reckless young glide-wing pilot, Billy Boom Boom, must outwit the Pirate King to stop him from ushering in a new Dark Age. CAMILLA D’ERRICO, (Burn, Nightmares and Fairy Tales) pencils this high adventure mini-series about loyalty, friendship, and what it means to be a true hero. Based on the Nintendo DS game “The Sky Pirates of Neo Terra”.

This book has been a lot of fun to work on and is a great read to boot! It’s been a blast working with such a talented crew.