There’s only one of these.

But I did use yet another discussed variant cover for the faded background art on this page. If you look close you’ll see it’s the black and white version of the Hiatus piece we put up, and I’d by lying if I said we were done with that yet. You’ll see that again, most likely as a convention print in the near future. Goes great with the one we already have featuring the dinosaur cover to issue 7!

Last issue we quoted Charles Darwin, and this time I picked George Orwell, for a number of reasons. As this story plays out you’re going to see that while every story has two sides and rarely do they even meet in the middle, sometimes just being involved is bad enough.

And this would be V2! This cover was done a LONG time ago, back when we first had the little inklings of what we wanted to do long term. We knew we were going to rock the whole Glitch story line in some way, but we hadn’t really formulated exactly how it would all work out. Harold, as he often does, got inspired by all the back and forth plot talk and sent me the cover, and it was AWESOME! So then as time went by and changes were made here and there the Power Struggle story line started forming and the whole island stuff came out and suddenly it seemed like not the best choice, so he decided to go with something different.

For me, I dig the hell out of it to this day, which is why I’m showing it off. We don’t do many variant covers, but on something like this, it’s gotta get out there and get seen.

And…we’re baaaaack! Woo! That’s right folks after roughly four and a half months worth of well spent hiatus, we’re back with a bang! As you may have noted I didn’t accomplish the regular updates I wanted to, primarily because the same things that had me behind with the scripts in the first place were keeping me jammed up in general! I wouldn’t have made it as long as I did without the ability to automate the updates and such on the site, because from November 1st on I was running on fumes to put it lightly.

But now, we’re getting our groove back! The script for issue 8 is done (But you kinda knew that, huh?) and the scripts for issues 9 and 10 are about 50% complete right now. Both of those scripts will be done well before we wrap art on issue 8 so there will be no lag time between issues at all, Harold can just burn right into it like the madman he is. Beyond that, the scripts for issues 11-13 have been in the can for months, and after that…who knows. I might see about picking up another guest writer, but I might also be itching to get back to the story again by then, it’s hard to say. Either way, we’re going to keep things running smoothly no matter what we have to do.

FYI, for the moment we’ll have our updates dialed back to one day a week. It’s not permanent by any means, but I’d rather have once a week updates now than to wait till we’ve got the buffer back to good. Once we get good and ahead again, we’ll go back to our regularly scheduled twice a week.

So anyway, here’s the cover for issue #8! It’s the primary cover, and the one you’ll see if you oder the digital download edition or the Indyplanet single issue. But you did see that “V1″ up there didn’t you? More on that next week.

Doesn’t look good for our girl, does it? heh. You’ll have to read it to find out!

So the big question is, when are we posting again, right? The big answer is May 1st! That’s right, the very first day of May will see us return to at least once a week pages. When we get things built back up to where they should be I’ll adjust things accordingly and we’ll go back to rocking Tuesdays and Thursdays just like always. So hang in there people, we’re just a couple weeks away from being back on track!

There are firsts you never forget, no matter how long you live, or how many other things you encounter. Your first kiss, the first time you really rode a bike without training wheels and no help from your dad, your first car, and of course your first real girlfriend. One of those unforgettable firsts was the movie Heavy Metal. It was the first time I really felt moved by art on a level I really couldn’t quite comprehend. I’d seen a great deal of art before that of course, I mean come on I started reading comics at the tender age of 4 years old! But they were always “funny books”, you know? No one took them serious. I loved the stories, but it wasn’t like they were going to be hanging in the Louvre or anything. And then my cousin stunk me into the drive-in to see Heavy Metal.

When I got done with that movie, I never looked at another comic the same way again. I started digging up back issues of the Heavy Metal magazine, and suddenly came to the conclusion that the art I’d seen in the movie was only scratching the surface of what could be had from the artist known as Moebius. Pick any comic fan from my generation and tell them Jean Giraud was going to be at a convention and you had a better than average chance of getting a blank stare in return. But tell them Jean Giraud was Moebius and the light bulbs started going off in droves. His work was visionary regardless of the era, but taken in context with the time in which he produced it, there are few works that even come close. It’s visceral, it’s real, and almost gritty enough to touch in 2 dimensions. What I loved the most about it was you never left a piece of his art without feeling something, it just had that way about it. To call the guy a master artist would be something on the order of a colossal understatement.

And now, Jean Giraud has moved on from this world, hopefully for a better one, where crazy bus-sized birds carry riders aloft to cities in the clouds, and pistol packing Wild West heroes are alive and well. Fair winds and following seas, sir. You will without a doubt be missed.

Who is she and how does she fit into the Dynagirl story? Well, I can tell you part of that. Beverly is  a voodoo witch woman that our girl will be running into very shortly, as in within the confines of issue 8. She’s definitely connected to the island, and why it is the way it is, and she most likely knows WAY more than she’s willing to tell. As to further details, you’re gonna have to wait for the story to unfold, but suffice it to say we’re banging away at this baby post haste! Do we have an ETA for the book to return? Not yet. But pages are coming in daily, and that’s certainly good news! Hang in there, because it won’t be long now!

The script for Dynagirl #8 that Harold has been patiently waiting on is done. It’s in edits now, and should be ready for his amazing pencils in the next couple of weeks, give or take. Now that might seem like an anti-climax of sorts, but I’ll follow it up by saying not just issue 8 is written, but also issue 9! That’s right folks, this arc is done! We’ve already got issues 10-12 in the can waiting on me to wrap this arc so once we start back with the art in earnest, you’re going to see yet another long string of updates giving you some Dynagirl action on a regular basis.

In addition, we’ll have some little extras here and there to tide you over. I’ll be starting to tease the new art a bit as pages come in, and we’ve got plans for some new fun things that we’ve never really dabbled in before, so you’re going to start seeing a lot more activity going on around here in the coming weeks.

To kick that off…here’s a promo piece Harold and Splash worked up for the Dynagirl extra content section of the trade.

Hang in there folks, we’re about to rock your world!

*sigh*

Well, here we are. As much as I hate to say it, it’s break time. This one falls directly on me, because quite frankly I’ve fallen WAY behind on a number of fronts and it finally caught up to me. I had a couple of routes I might have gone, from running a fill in issue, to all sorts of other radical measures, but in the end I figured it would be better for the team as a whole if we just take a break here, get refreshed, get back ahead of this thing, and come back strong. So that’s what we’re doing. Have no fear that this is the precursor to some disassembly of the whole thing, because that’s not the case at all. It’s just a matter of a guy having too much on his plate at one time and falling way behind.

For the faithful long time readers of Dynagirl, you have my most sincere apologies. You guys keep up going each and every week, and we appreciate each and every one of you. To the folks just coming on board, hang out, get all caught up, and get ready for issue 8, because it’s coming very shortly.

In the mean time, I’ll update here twice a week or so, show off some new art or sketch book stuff when it’s available, and generally keep folks up to date on our progress, both on the web comic and as a studio, because part of the reason this thing got behind was other projects tugging at me, and we think you guys will really dig those as well.

And don’t forget, we’re still updating twice a week as we put the entire Fallen Justice series up over at Comic Related! That’s right, for those that somehow missed it you can read the story that started it all, where Dynagirl first appeared, in its entirety. You can also order the trade paperback version here if you’re so inclined. Even if you’ve bought the trade you might want to check out the web edition because it comes with annotations that aren’t available anywhere else. I’m basically breaking things down, giving little behind the scenes stuff, all kinds of cool little things as something extra.

Thanks, to everyone who has hung with us for the last two years! It was a great run that we’re very proud of, and we’re looking forward to starting our next extended run very shortly. More updates as we get em folks! Till then, have a great Christmas and a happy New Year!

Ouch. Not only does she get completely hammered out of a tree by someone she seems to know from the past, but then this chick stands over her and gloats! Rough! This, by the way, is Glitch. And as you might have already deduced, she’s not very nice! More about her coming very shortly!

And that’s a wrap on issue 7 kids! Crazy how fast time has flown, huh? See you Thursday!

Issue 7 ends this week folks! I can’t believe we’re there already. Crazy. Stay tuned. We’ve got some stuff to talk about later this week.