Skullkickers #18 on sale now!

Any time a new issue of Skullkickers hits the stands is cause for celebration, but today is cause for extra-special-super celebration. Why? Because Skullkickers #18, “Son of Tavern Tales” includes a story written by ME.

Entitled “Dues or DIE!”, Chief Skullkicker himself, Jim Zub, described the story as being “about union rules and special songs,” so it’s pretty much exactly like the second season of The Wire. But it’s actually even BETTER than The Wire because it’s drawn by the incredible Ivan Anaya, with colors by the equally amazing Owen Gieni.

That’s a panel from the story itself up above (with lettering by the aforementioned and multi-talented Jim Zub), but you should check out the entire issue, especially seeing as it contains a murderer’s row of independent comics talent, including: John Layman, Rob Guillory, Justin Jordan, Tradd Moore, Blair Butler, Enrique Rivera (of “Living with Edo” “fame”), J. Torres, Alberto Alburquerque, Charles Soule and Michael Mayne.

Wander down to your local comic shop and request, nay, DEMAND a copy. Or just direct your browser over to Comixology and buy your comic book there, as if we were living in some kind of crazy future where all content was made available digitally.

I won the Skullkickers Tavern Tales Contest!

Jim Zubkavich, A.K.A. Jim Zub, A.K.A. that guy who makes awesome action-humor-fantasy comics at Image just announced it on Twitter this morning, so I’m finally free to talk about it: I won the Skullkickers Tavern Tales Contest!

I submitted my story idea, “Dues or DIE!” about three months ago, right after I first heard about it, again, via Zub’s Twitter. There were a bunch of other writing submissions – more than 250, in fact – but thankfully, Zub saw something in mine, which means that I’m being teamed with a Tavern Tales Contest-winning artist for six-page story based on my idea in September’s Skullkickers #18. It’s one of the series’ regular anthology issues, meaning I get to rub shoulders with some more established writers, who are just as excited as I am to get their hands on Baldy and Shorty. Handling art duties on “Dues or DIE!” is the incredibly talented Ivan Anaya – rest assured that if you haven’t heard of this guy yet, you’ll be hearing a lot about him in the very near future. He’s that damn good.

Skullkickers is one of my must-buy titles each month, so I’m thrilled to have a chance to play around in that particular sandbox. For those unfamiliar, Skullkickers follows the adventures of two, erm, “Skullkickers,” violent drink-loving mercenaries fighting, stabbing, slicing and shooting their way through a tabletop RPG-influenced fantasy landscape. If you like adventure, fantasy, pretty art, a few laughs or even just want to see what I’m yammering on about, you could do a lot worse than picking up some copies from your local comic shop. Or, you can even buy them digitally through Comixology – the series’ zero issue is a free download so you don’t really have any excuse not to try it out.

Keep your eyes peeled for more deetz, and make sure to head over to Skullkickers Headquarters to check out the art submission that won Ivan the gig.

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