2010 is the year of the Trade

Howdy all! I am wandering through, having been rather negligent of updating for some time. We got the trade edition of Eleison off to the printer, which is exciting (that's the cover spread below). The book is very cool, includes the first six issues, and has a sketch gallery full of character and creature drawings. There is also new artwork included in the trade that was not included in the original issues. We have a new printer and we are excited about that as well (we had a lot of trouble in the past with the local printers, which is sad because you try to keep the work in the community, but it just wasn't working out). We're confident our new choice to shop the work out of state will have fabulous results.

And with the trade in hand, we're off to ComicCon later in July. Sadly we did not have time to get the werewolves onto the plate this year, but they will follow soon and you can see the promotional poster, which is pretty darn awesome.

Right now it's all i can do to try to wrap my brain around overhauling the website (it sorely needs it). If I can get this overhauled before ComicCon, that would be ideal, but don't anybody hold their breath.

Eleison no. 6

The sixth installment of the Eleison series has all but gone to press and we are excited to reveal the cover here. This forthcoming issue, titled "Truth", continues the story from issue no. 5.

Despite all appearances to the contrary, we're actually ahead of schedule getting the book to the press before heading out to San Diego. I think last year we were working on it literally about three days before the start of ComicCon. While we will only be bringing one new book to the convention this year (and a lot of original artwork that will be sold), this year's issue is definitely a quality book not to be missed (there were so many excellent full-page pictures, it was difficult to choose a cover!).

With the success of our webcomic, The Orchard, (launched at Webcomics Nation in January), we are rethinking some of our strategies with the Eleison series. No decisions have been made yet, but there may be changes in format next year and/or possibly a trade collection of the first issues of the series. We will be hopefully updating more regularly as we develop some new ideas.

Thanks for stopping in!

Eleison No. 5

It's always exciting to see a new book come off the press and this year's Eleison is looking pretty fabulous if I may say so myself. There was a brief moment, heading into the summer that I didn't think we were going to be able to pull off both Jack and Eleison this year, but, as always, we hitched out boots and waded through. This issue's got some fun new creatures and characters ~ a new baddie from the legion of Decimus Quintilus prominent among them. It's also the first story line that focuses more on the Fish Clan of than on the white settlement, so there's a nice contrast of locale here.

I feel like I have been away from this cast for too long! It was a real joy writing again for Father Jean-Marithé Baptiste, his affable hulking friend Horsewash, and even revisiting the angry and embittered Light Feather. You also get to meet Horsewash's family in this one.

This is part one of a two-part storyline, so expect a cliff-hanger ending (literally!).

Comic Con 2006 / thank you, Dave Baxter at Broken Frontier ~ !

The reviews are coming in for Eleison as we prepare to head out to Comic Con 2006 and this one is outrageously amazing (we are so pleased)!

Broken Frontier's reviewer Dave Baxter says:

Eleison (which means "mercy" in Greek), is an astonishing first book by a talented new duo. They’ve been lurking around the internet and comic con borders since late 2003, and it’s high time they were given a greater exposure to comicdom at large. Their gorgeously wrought, inspired story of a French-Native American penitent with uniquely western occult powers waging battle with a centurion-demon Hell-fiend with a small, rabbit-headed kid weighing him down…well…it’s by far the most unique composite of dark fantasy elements I’ve come across in a western comic book in years and years and years. Add to this a boatload of honest talent and I’m looking at the brother-sister creative team-up of the decade (though I suppose that may not be saying as much as I want it to).

Click the link to read the whole review!

This is very exciting!

Don't forget you can order online now just by clicking the link to your right!

Eleison ~ origins

Here There be Monsters Press is proud to present its first print serial:

Eleison ~ the epic battle
between good and evil
premiered July 14, 2005
at the San Diego Comic Con.

Synopsis: Father Marithé swore poverty, chastity, and obedience, but that wasn't always so. His new vow: make right what has gone wrong by hunting down 101 demons unleashed on earth by his own disobedience. In a wilderness between native superstition and the supernatural forces of the western world, he has his work cut out for him. Not to mention that rabbit-headed child of his ~ quite the distraction when trying to vanquish evil.

Some Background on this Project: Christmas, 2003. As if it had never occurred to us before, during the annual two week visit home, my brother and I colluded to "make a comic". I had arrived without a story ~ without even an idea ~ and we commenced to dive in headfirst with no plot, all the wrong materials and media, and a character who was variously referred to as "Pim" and/or "our Lord" due to the unfortunate circumstance of my initial conceptual drawing looking a bit too much like Jesus. The concept was sort of Dances with Wolves meets Solomon Kane.

Needless to say, like almost all of our "let's make a comic" projects before it, by the end of two weeks we realized that gouache doesn't do well on cardstock, that what we were calling "Slaine" (say it like you're talking about the raunchiest heavy metal band ever: Slaine!), still had no title, that I can't draw (let alone count how many fingers are on the human hand), and that try as we might to just do it "quick and fun" it was neither quick nor fun at times due to the frustration of warping board, bad artwork, and a complete lack of a plotline. At the end of two weeks we had five pages of a comic of which only two were completed and an underpainted "cover" which had necesitated a rather involved photo-shoot of my brother with the Archangel Michael drawn on his back with a Flair pen.

Recovering from all this took a few months. We set aside the project to attend other things, hoping a plot (and a name for the main character) would come. It did.

Easter, 2004. By the time the next big holy day rolled around, we had it all: not only one name for the main character, but two: his Christian name as well as his Indian name (Nimbaabaa Waabooz ~ which means Father Rabbit in the language of the Anishinaabe). Everything fell into place: a title (Eleison which means "mercy" in Greek), and lastly, a plot involving the Legion of Decimus Quintilius, Shiloh the rabbit-headed baby, and one hundred other creatures from the depths.