Y'okay. We're back from Nashville, safe and sound. First off, I'd like to thank everyone that came out and supported TORC Press. We appreciate it, big time. Secondly, I'd like to thank my cousin Katie for putting us up (and putting up with us) for a couple of nights. A free place to sleep certainly helps a lot. Also, we got to play with our nephew Jack, so good times all around.

We had a good, solid show. The Con was in a new venue, so there was really no telling how things were going to go, but Saturday went really well, and Sunday was good enough, so no complaints here. I'm noticing a continuing and disturbing trend at these shows though. There's fewer and fewer Small Press Creators at every show I go to. I'm beginning to believe that perhaps we're becoming an endangered species. I tell you one thing, when I finally go extinct, I'm gonna be like that damn T-Rex at the end of the second "Jurassic Park" movie. You'll see me smashing around a Con throwing comics at people and making horrible howling noises while overpaid actors try to load me onto a boat that will take me off to an island with all the other Small Press guys and gals.

Anyway, thanks to the show, I've got a possible line on a couple of other midwest shows (which I need to look into this evening). I also need to add some more content to the main site at www.torcpress.com. But, before I can do too much of anything, I need to get caught up on my deadline for the week, considering I was in Nashville on Sunday, I didn't have my usual Sunday to get ahead on my deadlines. So I'm already behind this week. Huzzah!

New book goes online on October 4th. I'm trying to decide which project to focus on this week. I'm gonna pick up work on HFSAC 9 when October starts. As usual, I have more ideas than I know what to do with. The endless joy and terror of being the Bizarre Human Comix Machine.

Going Down Nashville Way

Right-o. Just a few hours of sawmilling and then it's off to Nashville to crash at my cousin Katie's for a few days while we work the newly remastered Nashville Comicon. It's Saturday the 25th from 10 to 5 and Sunday the 26th from 11 to 4. We'll be there with our limitless arsenal of comics, doing our thing. Wish us luck!

Whoops, almost forgot, details on the show can be found at: http://www.comiccitytn.com/Nashville_Comic_Con.php.

Pre-Nashville Ramblings

Welp, it's Monday. Whattawegot?

The Nashville Comicon is this upcoming weekend. I'll be there hawking my goods. Details can be found at www.comiccitytn.com.

I'm halfway through my work quota for the week already, which is good considering that I won't be around on Friday or Saturday. I've got a lot of irons in the fire, but I don't feel completely overwhelmed like I did back in the days of the Kaleidoscope.

Having said that, I'm currently toying with the idea of (gasp) hiring another artist so I can produce even more comics. I know no one actually reads these stupid blogs, but if there happens to be any unpublished artists out there looking for work and don't mind working on the cheap, hit me up at cactusfnjoe@hotmail.com. Why not?

I wonder if I've still got free HBO?

Nashville and Other New Stuff

Right-o. Last night's DOP show went great, and I'd like to thank everyone that came out to support the Brotherman in Charleston. Rock on!

Next up, we've got the Nashville Comicon this next weekend. It's September 25-26. Details can be found at http://www.comiccitytn.com/Nashville_Comic_Con.php. I'll be bringing the mini-sketches with me, and they'll be free with purchase.

Also, we've got a new bio up on the bio page. "Gulatta!"'s King Dark and his feathered pal, TuLo TooCan have got an entry up which can be found at http://www.torcpress.com/kingdark.html. Find out more about the world's most powerful vigilante. He can hit you with the awesome weight of gravity itself! BAM!

I didn't get near enough sleep last night.

The DOP Live Tonight!

Right-o. No real TORC Press news to bug everyone with today (although, once again, we've added some new content to the website at www.torcpress.com, and we'll be at the Nashville Comicon next weekend). Instead I'll just mention that my brother's one man band, The Dr. Orphyus Project, will be performing live at Friend's and Co. in Charleston, IL tonight. The show starts at 9pm, and according to the flyer, Altered Existence and Mahgniffe Heathens will also be playing. Should be fun. Bro will be rocking a set similar to his Summer Tour set, which includes new videos from our comic book/CD combo project, Death Nouveau Episode 2 (which, if you don't have a copy yet, can be acquired at http://www.torcpress.com/store.html). Me excited to get my metal on.

Brain Swarm

Right-o. Added a bio entry for Bad Jack to the main site last night. It can be viewed at http://www.torcpress.com/badjack.html. If the idea of an undead superhero who can slice off people's faces sounds like a good idea, then after reading the entry, feel free to swing by the TORC Press online store and pick up some copies of "SDF: Pulp". Why not?

One of the tricky parts about being a Bizarre Human Comix Machine is trying to figure out a regular publishing schedule. I have changed my publishing schedule, like, twenty times this year. I've made at least five or six rough drafts of next year's publishing schedule. The problem is that I'm constantly having an influx of new ideas, while constantly retooling and reworking old ideas, and the end result is a massive cranial traffic jam. In addition, nowadays I spend a fair amount of time intentionally trying to come up with concepts that will either attract people's attention or sell well so I can make some decent scratch. The clock is ticking away on the sawmill, and our hero desperately needs to find his way to the Promised Land or face a fate worse than death: Working full time in some crummy factory in his 40s. I can still do my wild and crazy stuff (in fact, one might argue that's what sets me apart from everyone else), I just need to find a profitable format. (A rabid, regular readership wouldn't hurt, but that's something I can't control, and if you can't control it, why bother worrying about it?)

Anyway, long story short, I had intended to finish the 9th issue of the Hot Fudge Sundae Adventure Club by the end of the month. Unfortunately, I've been thinking about some stuff, and I've realized that if I want to complete a couple of projects within a set time frame, I'm going to need to take a little longer break from the Fudgeheads. As a result, I'm pushing the deadline on HFSAC 9 back until either October or November while I get my ducks in a row.

The good news is that HFSAC 9 will be coming out eventually. The story is written, half the pencils are done, and I've got a few pages inked. It'll start a new 3 issue story arc (that was the other reason I'm postponing the issue, I didn't want to start a new arc and then leave it dangling) that'll feature all sorts of wild new stuff.

Kirby did three major books throughout the 60s: Fantastic Four, Thor, and Captain America. If HFSAC is my FF, then what will be my Thor and Cap? Hmmmm....

New Website Stuff

Welp, despite the fact that I have the computer skills of your average mongoose, I spent a small portion of my weekend tinkering with my website, www.torcpress.com. There's two new additions to the site. First off, there's a one page preview of Death Nouveau: Episode 2 Baroque Western. It's the "Hell Scene" from Page/Track 10, and is one of my most favorite little bits of art I've done ever. You can view it at http://www.torcpress.com/previewpage1.html, and if you happen to dig it and wanna throw a little scratch our way, there's a link to the store just below the art. Yes, I went there.

Secondly, on the advice of my Unofficial Business Manager (what up, Boolah!) I'm going to be slowly but surely adding a Cast section to the main site that will contain information on the central TORCverse crew. Obviously, the first (and currently only) entry is about Cactus Joe the Clown and Pengy Penguin. All of which can be viewed at
http://www.torcpress.com/clownnpenguin.html. I like how colorful and simplistic the image is, myself.

Anyway, if there's anything that needs brought to my attention, please e-mail me about it, or drop a comment on the blog. Thanks.

Other than that, I'm currently working on the 9th issue of the Hot Fudge Sundae Adventure Club. It's half penciled, and I'm up to page 6 on the inks. I've got one book at the Printers, one book ready to go to the Printers (a book that hopefully several people will be happy to see), and our next book goes up for sale the first week of October. Also working on a long form project, just scripted another interesting project (which I'll probably start work on in October), and I had something of a breakthrough on a project that I almost scrapped. So, yeah, no reason for me to get bored right now.

Hype and Random Notes

Right-o. Let's see what we've got this gloomy Saturday morning.

In the hype department, we've got two new books out, "Death Nouveau Episode 2: Baroque Western" and "SDF: Pulp #4". DNE 2 is a comic book/CD combo that's a surreal sci-fi/western/horror story tale of revenge. We're really proud of it. SDF:P 4 is your typical issue of Pulp, in that it's crazy and jam packed with so much crazy craziness that there's no more room for further crazy. You can check em out at http://www.torcpress.com/store.html.

For some reason, Myspace won't upload the cover of SDF: P 4. Not sure what's up with that.

Fall is intruding on Summer much quicker than usual. I've actually been wearing my flannel to work in the morning, and I'm wearing a hooded sweatshirt as I type this. I've also experienced a mild version of season change sickness already, as I've been having headaches, mild nausea, and my tongue tastes like sandpaper. Not surprisingly, the allergies have gone berzerk as well. If the damn weather would pick a temperature and stabilize I'll be fine.

Never got around to yammering about it, but I've caught both "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" and "Machete" recently. Both have a lot of great Novelty value (and I do so love novelty). Pilgrim is ambitious, riotous, funny, weird, and quite a lot of fun. Easily the most underrated film of the year. My only complaint about the movie was that I really didn't think Ramona Flowers was worth all the effort. "Machete" was cool. It was at its best when it was just Machete violently butchering his way through hordes of faceless thugs, and it kinda gets bogged down in the whole Immigration thing. I've always liked the Iconic nature of the heroes in a Rodriguez film. This one's got all sorts of those kinda characters, from the shotgun toting Padre to the murderous Nun (played somewhat ironically by Lindsay Lohan no less) to the One Eyed Revolutionary She-Devil, they're like superheroes or action figures or characters out of bizarre novel. I dig that.

Comix Reviews:

"Baltimore: the Plague Ships" #2: We get some background on the mysterious Lord Baltimore, there's some stuff set in an alternate WWI (nice change of pace from the usual WWII stuff), and there's some cool stuff with Vampires that look like Giant Vampire Bats. This series is a-okay so far.

"B.P.R.D.: Hell on Earth-New World" #2: Kind of a filler issue. Kate has sleep deprivation, Johann and Panya bicker, and Abe hangs out in the woods with the long lost Daimyo. It's funny, just the other day I was wondering what happened to that guy. Stuff will happen next issue.

"Hellboy: The Storm" #3: Hellboy decides to ignore his destiny...again. He runs afoul of one of the Devils (I can't remember which one is which) and gives the Babba Yagga a receipt. Also, the worst thing that could possibly happen happens. I love Hellboy.

"Meta 4" #2: Hey, it's the new Ted McKeever series. But I missed issue 1. Damnit. Anyway, it's McKeever, so it's odd and makes little sense. There's a gun toting aviator chick, an amnesiac astronaut, and a buff, bald, female tattoo artist who can't talk. So, yeah. I'm in.

"Batman" #702: Basically this is a flashback to Batman's trial by death during "Final Crisis". Not much new, but the prose is cool, and the concept that Darkseid's bullet is the "Primordial Bullet" is pure Morrison.

"Batman & Robin" #14: Everything goes straight to Hell. The Joker turns the tables on Robin, Black Mask unveils his master plan, Batman is betrayed, and Professor Pyg gets really, really, really freaky. Kinda hard to follow, but still pretty darn awesome. I can't wait for this series to wrap up so I can re-read the whole thing.

"THB: Comics from Mars" #2: This is a comic that Paul Pope released as an exclusive at the Baltimore Comicon. The publisher, AdHouse Books, was selling leftover copies on their website. If you're a die hard Pope fan like I am, then you might wanna get over to AdHouse's website before they sell out. Anyway, this book is a lovely little bit of novelty featuring an auto-bio story, a bizarre space story, an odd take on Tom and Jerry, some random stuff, and, most importantly, an installment of Pope's surreal superhero story, the Masked Karimba. Glad I ordered it. Trying to fight the urge to steal liberally from this book, which is what happens every time I read a Paul Pope anything. The dude is just too good.

"One Piece" Chapters 561-564: The War between the Whitebeard Pirates and the Navy continues. Luffy has the bad luck of having to fight Hawkeye Mihawk, the World's Greatest Swordsman. Luffy finds a rather ridiculous method of not getting cut up. Meanwhile, Whitebeard is betrayed in the worst possible way, and the Navy springs their trap. The only thing that sucks about this comic is that I've gotta wait another month before the next installment. Kahhhhhnnnn!!!!!

New TV starts soon. Looking forward to "Boardwalk Empire" and the return of Steve Buschemi.

I should start working on stuff.

SDF: Pulp Issue 4 Now Available

"SDF: Pulp #4" is now available from TORC Press. It's 8 Pages of Mature Readers comics in Black and White and Grey with a Painted cover for $1.50 plus $1.00 S&H. You can find it for sale over at www.torcpress.com/store.html. Just scroll on down to the bottom of the store. Or, if you're not into online stuff, you can send a check or money order for the book to: TORC Press, c/o Joseph Morris, 330 S 5th St SW, Clay City, IL 62824.

Hm. I appear to have jumped the gun. Never actually said what the book is about. Anyway, like every issue of Pulp, there's two strips inside. In the opening strip, Cactus Joe and Pengy continue the hunt for the villainous Vlad. This time out, they've found themselves stuck (once again) in an underground cave with an army of zombies swarming them. Also, we see the origin of the Clown's mystic whip, and there's a brief cameo by Secret Soldier. Also, also, the one page back up strip this issue introduces us to the nightmarish Vlad himself.

The second strip this issue features our old friend Bad Jack and the conclusion of his fight with the faux Dr. Dendull. Lots of violence and craziness. It's good stuff.

While you're at it, if you haven't checked it out yet, Death Nouveau: Episode 2 Baroque Western is also available. It's a comic book/CD combo that's really cool.

Video Joseph

So, I was Googling myself this morning (tee-hee), and I bumbled across this interview I did at the Chicago Comicon. It's only a couple of minutes long, and can be viewed here: http://www.bleedingcool.com/2010/08/19/creator-videos-from-wizard-world-chicago/ . I come across as something of a robot, but Bro is charming and personable. We also manage to hype The Hot Fudge Sundae Adventure Club and Death Nouveau Ep 2.

Speaking of Death Nouveau Episode 2: Baroque Western, if you haven't checked it out, you really should. It's the best Comic book/ CD Sci-fi/horror/Spaghetti Western/Metal thing that will come out all year. Guaranteed. You can check it out at www.torcpress.com/store.html.

Our next book comes out on Monday. I am the Bizarre Human Comix Machine.

Death Nouveau Episode 2

First off, if you haven't checked it out yet, we've got an excellent new book/CD combo available called "Death Nouveau Episode 2: Baroque Western". It's a great read and a great listen, and features all sorts of cool stuff, like shoot outs and train robberies and glimpses into Hell. You can find the book at http://www.torcpress.com/store.html. It's right there on top.

Other than that, we're currently up to our ears in stuff here in TORCville. TORC Press will be out in force at the Nashville Comicon on September 25 and 26. We'll be doing our usual thing, namely standing up for hours on end, talking to anybody that'll listen, and selling comics. You know how we roll.

I've got a handful of new books to unveil over the next couple of months.

Work has begun on issue 9 of the "Hot Fudge Sundae Adventure Club". I'm also working on a couple of long term projects. I would like to unveil one of them in October (conveniently in time for TORC Press's Eleven Year Anniversary), while the other will hopefully be done in time for SPACE next year. Hopefully.

Speaking of SPACE, I signed up for next year's show last night. I did it all online, so here's hoping it all worked out right.