Hello! In case you didn’t hear, Vanguard announced on Friday that we have a lead actor signed on for Emo Boy! He is Lucas Cruikshank, known from the youtube series Fred. The Hollywood Reporter commented on it here. Jaime King will also be in the movie playing Emo Boy’s english teacher. There’s just nothing bad about that ever.

I think it’s a really cool move. I know of a few other people Vanguard were looking at that would have also been great, and in all honesty I had never heard of Lucas Cruikshank. Apparently it’s an age gap, under a certain age and he’s like the beatles.

Some people point to his lack of experience but from what I hear, he’s good. Kyle Newman knows his acting coach and Kyle and Vanguard were both really impressed when they seperately met him. I think he has a good look, obviously has his fan base and I’m just really curious now what they’ll do with the character. There’s a LOT there for him to do in this movie so if Lucas can act, he’s going to be doing a whole lot of it!

When Emo Boy was first announced by SLG as a comic there was a TON of “OMG emo so gay” and “haha so late” and homophobia and vitriol and yada yada. It was depressing because I wasn’t trying to cash in on some term or glorify emo or anything, I just thought it was a funny idea. I loved comics and always wanted to make one and that was the idea that got me a comic book. I’m a bit more used to it now, how the internet works, in that everyone has an opinion and no one knows what they’re talking about. It’s going on again in most places that have comments enabled, homophobia, hatred, creepiness, none of the people commenting have read the comic or know who I am or what Emo Boy is, they just know the word emo and apparently feel the need to express themselves on that bit. It’s usually ignorant and disheartening. The worst part is that most of them aren’t anywhere near the intended audience. The people that will be seeing the movie are more positive. That said, I think a lot of these people WILL like the movie once there’s footage and trailers and reviews and they see what the movie actually is. I am immensely proud of how the script came out, I think it’s creative, different from what’s out there, funny, and really fleshed out from what I started with the comic.

When the comic actually came out, I got really nice emails, I had fans who put it on their top 5 comics for each month; there were reviewers that were fans and pushed the comic. Most of the ignorance that came out at the announcement hushed, in fact the worst comments I generally got from people who actually read it were “Emo, well, that’s not for me.” Hopefully that’ll be the case again.

Anyway I didn’t mean to rant that much but that makes up for my lack of updates. Hopefully things will keep moving and Emo Boy will be filming really soon.

Wish I could have been at comic con, sounds like it was fun! Hopefully next year. Also: Ninja turtle pin up coming soon.

My goodness it’s already been 3 days since my last post! It’s hard to write about new projects when they’re not really off the ground. I’m not sure if it’s proper to talk about ideas you haven’t signed any contracts on.

That said, taking a little break from art even though I’d much rather be drawing lately. Trying to finish up a second proposal but really dragging my feet on it. I even think it could be good and I’ll have enjoyed writing it but somehow my mind keeps looking for anything else to do. This happens with some projects, and not with others. Right now my muse keeps jumping to another idea I started almost a decade ago, and it’s taken a myriad of shapes in those years, from a manga short, to a light comedy, to a lengthier opus, and now it’s more of a dark sci-fi superhero comic. A far, far ways from where it started, but this latest version feels full of life and I’m really wanting to follow it down it’s path and see where it’s taking me.

The problem is, I actually have places I can go, editors lined up for the book proposal and the sci-fi superhero thing, I don’t know what to do with it, or where to take it, or how much time it would eat up and if I could expect to go anywhere with it.

That’s what’s going on in my brain, anyway. Trying desperately to focus on this proposal. Meanwhile I’ve just about finished the Dark Tower book 3, another thing that’s crying for my time!

Don’t forget Emo Boy at comicon this week, Saturday the 24th, if you’re there, please check out the panel, I’m very curious what Kyle and Vanguard will be saying about it! Hopefully next year we’ll be further along and I can visit, too. If not for Emo Boy, than maybe for Happyface which will have hit bookstores.

I think I need to go back to Stephen King-land. Book tomorrow.

If you’re going to be at comic-con on Saturday the 25th, you should definitely go to this!

Comic-con – Saturday programming

4:30-5:30 Vanguard Films: Emo Boy— Vanguard Films will announce its slate of new projects including Emo Boy, the big screen adaptation of Stephen Emond’s SLG graphic novel, with a special Q&A with the movie’s director, Kyle Newman (Fanboys). Other projects to be announced include Illegal Aliens, a new graphic novel/movie franchise being produced by Vanguard and Platinum Comics, and Alien Band, an animated feature set to go into production in the fall of 2009. A preview will also be shown from Vanguard’s upcoming film Space Chimps 3D. Room 10