"Up Jumped the Devil" Update!

Things are really heating up in Onyx City.

As many of you who frequent my little thread of the World Wide Web know, for sometime now I've been trying to get Up Jumped the Devil off the ground since Robert "Hollywood" Swinton agreed to let me do my take on his hitman/jazz trumpeteer Big 'Fro Brown.

Up Jumped the Devil started out as a twelve page featurette to be squeezed into some publication down the line. My friend Joe Fuentes of Black Iris Comics was originally slated to handle the inks (Joe's colors can be seen on the picture posted above). But UJtD has since gotten bigger than the both of us. Joe has had to relocate to another town so, in order to give him a chance to get things together, I decided to ink it myself.

But, the more I toyed with the story, the more I came to the realization that I couldn't just leave it at twelve pages. After a few more emails to and from Hollywood, it was decided to expand it to a full twenty-four pages. But the good news doesn't stop there! I managed to wrangle in a few of my good friends to help out.

As it stands now, UJtD is going to be a two part story.

Part One, Sweet, Black Angel will be inksticated by the one and only Bill Wilkison! I've wanted to work with the Inkslinger for a long time and was thrilled when he agreed to it. Here's an unrelated sample of his inks on my scribbles. You can check out more of the Billster's work at his very own website.

Part Two, Down on the Killin' Floor will not only feature the inking skills of Mr. Satyr himself, Mike Indovina, but Mike's own pulp-style hero Chimera. On a lark, I asked Mike if I could use Chimera for the story and he was thrilled, so I decided to push my luck and ask if I could use a 1970's-style version of Chimera. Both he and Hollywood were okay with the idea. Check out Mike's website to see what he's been up to.

I would still like to have Joe's colors grace the cover, but haven't heard much from him lately. Joe, if you're out there, give me a shout.
Keep it here for more news.