Taking a moment to dish on some of the comics out there keeping me warm this holiday season while I’m hard at work on new issues of The Sire, the Sire App, and our daily web comic stream that’s coming soon!

Amazing Spider-Man

Dan Slott is making me jealous. No really, for years I lay dormant waiting for my chance to fix Marvel’s flagship title. Obviously, with The Sire there are nods to Superman, but my real bread n’ butter fave has always been ASM. And here comes Dan Slott pumping out bi-monthly the kind of comic I’d not only want to read, but the kind I would WRITE too. Yeah, kind of jealous. I dig Guiseppe Camuncoli (moreso I’d say than Humberto Ramos whose best work was Crimson a few years back anyway) but not so much with Klaus Janson’s inks on top. Don’t get me wrong, big fan of Janson, but his work is a little too gritty on top of Camuncoli’s smooth line work for my liking. Still, not enough to distract any attention away from the storyline involving one of Spidey’s old time foes The Vulture. It was buzz that got me into the book and buzz that I happily pass along to anyone reading.

X-Factor

The only consistently good X-book out there. Don’t get me wrong, there have been parts of Guillen’s Uncanny run recently that felt like X-men, but not since Morrison or Whedon has someone hit what makes a good mutant team book as much as Peter David. And he’s been doing it for a long time.

The Sire

No, I’m not reviewing my own book, just dropping some knowledge on why the darn thing has been so late! So, way back in 2008 I had a Sire Annual commissioned and drawn. But by the time I was going to release it in late 2008, I’d already started work on Image Comics’s M-Theory as colorist. That stint was followed by my own creator owned comic Descendant. Then 2010 came and i was BURNT out (my secret identity is as a web designer as well and business had boomed) So by the time I was ready to relaunch the Sire in 2011 I felt I needed to beef up the story. So the annual became issue #8 and a new #7 needed to be written. I was working toward completing it in the fall of this year when, once again I took stock and realized the story wasn’t set up right. The opening battle sequence (drawn beautifully by Michael Bencic) revealed a plot point that I didn’t want to OPEN the new arc. (Catch it now because those pages are coming down soon.) I invariably had to go BACK to the drawing board yet again. Which is where I’m at now. 6 pages shy of finishing. Simultaneously, our books have been up at Graphicly.com for some time now and getting a great response. We’ve also been working on The Sire app as well which promises some cool features. Plus working on a few new pitches as well that will blow you away. Soooooo, i’ve got some excuses, lol. But seriously, hang tight. The best is yet to come. Viva la 2012! -Mike