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OUTRÉ #1 - RESPONSIBILITY
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Outland finner du på Mercur-senteret i Nordre gate i Trondheim. Her finner du noe for enhver smak og alder. Er det første gang du tenker å kjøpe deg en tegneserie siden de gamle Tex Miller, X-9, Donald eller Conan-bladene kan både jeg og de hjelpsomme bak disken bistå med utsøkte tips!
Velkommen!
Our four creative teams are working very hard these days, and the stories that are to be featured in our first issue are nearing completion. And since we're more than eager to show you what we have in store for you on the 4th of May we want to give you an exclusive preview this week.
Below you'll find not one, but
Nope, this isn’t a post about writing. No graphic novel. No screenplay. Nope, I’ve travelled into the world of interior design and redid our bathroom and our stairs.
I’d give you all the handy tips and what we did and how we did it and all that jazz, if only I could articulate it in English. I can’t. I don’t think I know the correct words. So I’ll just let the images do most of the talking.
The Bathroom
It looked alright as it was. Apart from the light puke-yellow paint and the slightly dated wood paneling (which you can’t see because I took the photos after we tore it off. See, I’m good at documenting things for an interior design blog. Hire me. Or not.) Behind the paneling, the 80s shone with all its splendor.
Applying more crowbar.
The sponge-blue 80s. I was born in a decade of classiness and elegance, no doubt.
Applying even more crowbar.
That was it. Job done. Pretty happy with the result. My favourite detail are the tiles above the pipes. You can just about see your reflection in them as you bend down to wash your face straight in the fountain from the pipes. Handy.
My girl though didn’t particularly enjoy that. Said she needed more Zen. So I brought it.
I thought she’d be happy now, but it turned out she actually wanted a sink as well. Spoiled, eh? I gave her two.
Finally, I thought. But had to think again. She even wanted a mirror. Again, I gave her two.
“And she saw that it was good and gave it Zen.”
- Genesis #0
Turned out pretty lovely and Zen-y, don’t you think?
(Thanks to good help from Stian and Ola Erik. I’m not going to take all the credit!)
The Stairs
My scripts were calling from upstairs. Lamentations, abuse. But I had not forsaken them, I just had one more job to do. The stairs.
Not enough drama. Not enough tension. The stairs needed blackness. Total blackness.
This is the last time I’m using masking tape while painting. More mess than protection. (Hey, what do you know? A handy tip!)
I had sent my girl and the kids off for a holiday and they were strictly forbidden to return until today. The birthday present remained a surprise, and put a big smile on her face as she walked through the door. Just on the nick of time for the paint to dry and the tape to be removed.
There’s still a mess after the tape, so I’ll have to go over with some white to blot out the black stains. But that’s after I’ve finished a screenplay or two.
More on those next time.
Have a lovely holiday!
- Magnus
We're deep in production with our initial issue and all our artists are pulling out some terrific pages. Outré is materialising, step by step, and we can't wait for the 4th of May to arrive, when we will give it to you, completely free!
Four diverse stories all dealing with the theme «responsibility», four diverse styles and four terrific artists.
February is a bastard. It’s cold and short. Well, the cold bit is great for those of us who need to sit inside and write. But the loss of three days. Not so good. Still, I’ve managed to keep on track with my schedule. And on top of writing I went down to London for a brief visit, to friends and the London Super Comic Con (which you can read about here).
Apart from that this last month has mainly been devoted to my screenwriting endeavors, and in March I will finally see not just one, but hopefully two feature screenplays finished. For what is a writer if he or she doesn’t have anything finished?
By finished, we never mean finished as in «never touching this fine-chiseled diamond ever again, because it’s perfect!», but finished enough for us to be happy with the draft, and hopefully make a producer, director or agent excited in return.
Right now, my co-writer Robert and I are putting the finishing (there’s that word again!) touches on our thriller, about a prison teacher who’s trying to track down a missing inmate. It’s a story about the individual versus society, and if we can sacrifice individual freedom for the good of society. It’s about memories, about what makes us who we are. And, after my grandmother started loosing hers, I’m more sure than ever that memories are the most precious thing we have as human beings.
We have pitched this project to several producers and a few directors, and some of them were keen to read the script. It’s a good start, but still a million miles away from a shooting day. But it all starts small. Just ask Jack with the beans.
On top of the thriller I’m working on a sci-fi, a pure sci-fi that doesn’t veer into horror at the end (I’m looking at you Sunshine*), or end up being involuntarily silly (those Mars films). Or completely flawed with perfect production values (Prometheus). I’m trying to add many elements, story-wise and tonally, that I haven’t seen much in sci-fi films. But the tone is reminiscent of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Reads like an indie, with the scope of a blockbuster. But its no $200 mill movie.
I’ve already written a short version to test the story and the world. Micro-gravity, claustrophobia, space station layout, the character journey, the ending. It all needs to fit nicely together, and the nice thing about a feature is that you have room to explore aspects you cannot in a short film/teleplay. The short version is actually in the hands of an up-and-coming director who I admire, so fingers crossed it’ll move somewhere.
I hope to finish up a good feature draft of the sci-fi before March is done with me. This is another project I’ve pitched around and it has a lot of interest from producers and directors. It’s a tough story to pull off, so the script needs to shine, but I’m confident some of the industry people will find it both refreshing and bold. Again, I hope to grab the up-and-coming director with this version of the script, as well.
After these two scripts are «out there» I’ll be focusing on my animation scripts again. My insect noir screenplay is already done and just needs a trim and tune-up. The family adventure project needs some heavy lifting, though, so that’ll come last.
I already have a few ideas for future screenplays, as well, but I’m not going to put more on my schedule at the moment. On top of these projects I have my comic writing, which now consists of about 4 – 5 projects. My role as editor for Outré takes up some hours a week, and we’ve got a bathroom that needs to be refurbished. Yeah, I know. Funny thing that real life stuff. Sometimes, in my witching/writing hours, I’m so deep in a fictitious world I’ve created that I forget the real one.
But I’m pretty sure that’ll change come summer. When my son is born.
* For the record, Sunshine is one of my favourites within the genre.
With a silver pen in my pocket, I’m sitting by gate number 34 at the (first) airport, on my way down to London and this year’s London Super Comic Con. LSCC entered the stage with smashing success last year with a sky-high attendance, a lot of happy fans – and a lot of happy retailers, indie creators and artists. Last year was a great weekend all around.
23rd & 24th of February @ the Excel Center
They had Stan Lee (Mr. Marvel himself) last year, which did help a lot. This year there are no big players just like Lee, but I think those fans that came to the convention last year to see Stan will come again this year due to the great atmosphere last time.
LSCC focuses on comic books, art and graphic novels, and doesn’t mix in all the games and movie stuff, which you see at more commercial cons. One of the key moments for its success, I believe. I’m mainly going down to meet old and new friends and network, but I’ll also be signing at the Markosia booth (in the middle of the floor) from 14:00 to 15:00 on Saturday. The signing is for my horror graphic novel The Vessel of Terror. Had a great time signing last year, and hope to see even more folks stop by this time. Even if it’ll be just one new fan, it makes the world for an indie creator like me.
The Vessel of Terror. Art & lettering by Dave Acosta. Colours by Goran Kostadinoski.
All the information you’ll need you can find on the LSCC website.
Hope to see you there!
- Magnus
Alex Elykov put in all the hard work to bring Outré its first cover artwork. We've now finished it up with a logo and all. A terrific cover which we believe stands out and shows a (terrifyingly) ambiguous spin on the theme: responsibility.
Issue one launches universe-wide the 4th of May. We've still got a lot of work ahead of us to finalize…
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Another Wednesday is here and we feel it's time again to plug some free comics. This week we want to direct your attention to indie artist extraordinaire Benjamin Marra and his imprint Traditional Comics.
Marra is the man behind titles such as Night Business, Lincoln Washington: Free Man, Gangsta Rap Posse and The Incredibly Fantastic Adventures of Maureen Dowd…
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Another Wednesday, another update from the Outré. This last week we've seen both lovely pages coming in for our initial issue (set to launch in May) and a few submissions to our 3rd issue (already!), launching in 2014.
Ronald Montgomery's story about the dog Ludmila is illustrated by the always terrific Jim Giar. They've got the excellent…
