I’m not all that great at keeping up with announcements, am I? Oh well.

Let’s see… done and up and coming:

Leland handed off 120 pages to Simon & Schuster, the first of his two books for them. I don’t know if I’m allowed to reveal the title yet, so I won’t. But it’s cool!

I finished and handed in a story for the forthcoming Tori Amos anthology from Image. Not only is this a surreal, giddy honor for my inner fangirl (the impact of Tori’s music on my work and psyche can’t be understated, really), the story will be rendered by Carla Speed McNeil.

Oh yeah - and I got to do one of my favorite songs ever. Someone pinch me.

I also handed in a story for an as-yet-unannounced (I think) anthology for SMITH magazine. The artist is a bitchin’ talented newcomer whose work is just perfect for it. The story is a bit of a departure for me in that it’s 100% autobio, something I never would have done without being asked. It required me to dig deep into some very embarrassing writing from 17 some-odd years ago. And yet, I thought it would be a lark! Seriously!

Also, being 100% autobio, it has no shapeshifters in it - which, the way things have been going for yours truly, is a departure.

Also? I now have some serious respect for good autobio.

What else? I haven’t announced every ish of WEIRD TALES that has hit the stands, but the magazine is lookin’ great. Check out the blog and pick up some back issues. Current ish, 347, is out now. Next ish will have a grand 85th anniversary wrap-up, 85 WEIRDEST STORYTELLERS OF THE PAST 85 YEARS, which I’ll be working on. Not to be missed.

Lastly, that’s a new self-portrait from Leland up there, in case it wasn’t bleepin’ obvious. (Which it may not be!)

Leland has started posting Chapter 3 of Vulcan & Vishnu over on ACT-I-VATE. And I’ve just created new navigational pages to match!

There’s also a plain HTML page.

New to V&V? Catch up on previous chapters:

Remember, you can always get around using the sidebar to the left, too.

Lastly, a new installment of V&V will go live this week, most likely.

Nobody tells me anything. Here are more pix of ACT-I-VATEers, including one of Leland standing in front of the montage I was talking about a minute ago:

Click on thru to see the rest of them… there are some amazing pix of the rest of the creators. Then check out this post for yet even more, including my favorite pictures ever of two of Streetfables’ bestest friends, the husband& wife team Kevin Colden & Miss Lasko-Gross of RED fame.

Woo! Leland just posted the last of Vulcan & Vishnu Ch 2 over at ACT-I-VATE.

In honor of this stupendous occasion, I’ve updated the archive page so you guys can actually, oh, I don’t know, read it all in one place.

Chapter 1
Chapter 2

Catch a glorious V&V montage (complete with watercolor) live and in person at MoCCA’s ACT-I-VATE exhibit. Read about our adventures at the opening and get links to pictures here.

“Chapter 3 begins tonight!” - lp

“Cooling” is a short story I wrote last year about a girl arsonist gone awry by a hot, strapping water elemental. Illustrations by Leland:

Check out the rest of that masthead! Then read the stuff in the issue because it’s great.

Very, very proud of this one.

Endicott Studio’s Journal of Mythic Arts Summer 2007

Hey, everyone!

A deep and hearty thank you to everyone who has come on by and spread the V&V love over the past few weeks. We have been really floored with all the comments. Positive feedback is fuel for the creative heart, so thanks. The strip is pretty awesome, yeah?

In addition to the thank you, here are a couple of things we wanted to share:

First off, go go Gadget ACT-I-VATE! Them cats n’ kittens snagged some insanely great AP coverage that went live today. The whole piece just shines, but of course I get a special glow in my cockles reading Leland namechecked as a “veteran” and seeing his stuff in the gallery. And there’s a little nod to my own crowd of webcomics ruffians, the Chemistry Set. Do check it out.

The next bit ‘o news concerns one of our favorite people, artist and superpeach Rami Efal. Rami is another ACT-I-VATE member and worked with my pal Steven Goldman on STYX TAXI and sweet Lady above, do I ever hope to get lucky enough to work with him someday. Not only does he rock the sequentials back n’ forth, he’s an amazing painter, too. And now you can check ‘em out yourself! Rami says:

Through the past two years I have been drawing and paintings to local jazz and blues music spanning Tel Aviv, Tokyo and New York City. Starting March 15th through April 11th 2007, these paintings and drawings will be on display at the Park Slope Tea Lounge in Brooklyn. Come and enjoy a cup of tea or a glass of red wine and view the works. Artwork is for sale and 50% of proceeds will go to Children International in support of impoverished children and those affected by recent floods in central Asia.
A reception will be announced so stay tuned!

Tea Lounge Park Slope @ 837 Union Street, between 6th and 7th Avenues, Brooklyn, NY. Subway: R to Union Street; 2,3 to Grand Army Plaza

It would seem that Leland’s Vulcan & Vishnu was StumbledUpon, so to speak, and now it’s all over the place.

And now, we’re almost out of bandwith for the month.

60 some-odd gigs burned through in a few days.

I had to take it down, unfortunately. This kills me, but our hosting provider has confirmed that they will disable our account if we go over, and I’m not having that. Of course, we may have already gone over.

Time for Photobucket or some other image hosting service. Please bear with us while we get it in gear and order.

Chapter 2 of Leland’s ACT-I-VATE comic, Vulcan & Vishnu, is here. (You can also find it in the sidebar, along with chapter 1).

Leland has a lovely deal with First Second in the offing.

Hooray!

Some of you may be aware that Leland is a part of the Livejournal webcomic collective ACT-I-VATE. ACT-I-VATE features fresh (and totally free!) webcomic content every day from the likes of Dean Haspiel, Dan Goldman, and Chip Zdarsky, among others.

I’ve just created a page on this site for Leland’s ACT-I-VATE comic, Vulcan & Vishnu. It’s listed under “Our Work” on the left, or you can check it out right here.

(Vulcan & Vishnu can also be found on Flickr here.)