This week I started on inks for chapters 3-4 of Small Shen, and also finished my short story for our Bento Comics Peter Pan anthology (which I’ll talk about in a few weeks). I’m also going to Adelaide Comic-Con as a guest om the 30th March – 1st April, but this post is entirely dedicated to what’s happening next week, which is…
This is the third Odd Thomas book I’ve done, titled “House of Odd” and it’s coming out next Tuesday on the 20th March, 2012 (I posted some art from this a while back). This book was drawn in 2011, and like the other two books, In Odd We Trust and the #1 New York Times seller Odd Is On Our Side, it focuses on the adventures of psychic fry-cook Odd Thomas, star of Dean Koontz‘s best-selling prose novel series of the same name. This book is adapted from a script by Dean and Landry Q. Walker, and I thank the both of them for their fine work!
NB.I also got to thank Lala of Review Carnival, and Allen of Jazma Online for their interviews of me! Lala’s is a general interview, whereas Allen’s deals specifically with House of Odd!
- For North American Readers: You can buy it here off Amazon.com
- For International Readers: You can buy it here off BookDepository.com, which has free international shipping.
What’s the Story?
The story of House of Odd once again has Odd and Stormy trying to solve a supernatural disturbance, but this time it’s a disturbance with a difference! It occurs at the site of a supposedly haunted house, which has just been bought and renovated by Nedra Nolan, a friend of Ozzie Boone. Ozzie recommended Odd to Nedra as the resident ghost-busters of Pico Mundo, but Nedra isn’t impressed – she’s an ex-Hollywood producer who instead hires her own (and therefore competing) band of ghostbusters to figure the house out. However, neither Odd nor the ghostbusters are prepared for what will actually happen in the house…
Odd Thomas is a psychic fry-cook who can see dead people, who lives in the Californian town of Pico Mundo. Accompanied by his ass-kicking, gun-toting girlfriend Stormy, he often tries to help the forlorn spirits he encounters by finding their murderers. This involves getting into a fair bit of danger. Luckily, Odd has many (living) friends, many of them quite odd themselves, who help him in his quest. It’s a rather charming, off-beat take on the supernatural, with moments of action and suspense, as Odd finds himslf the target of some truly nasty people as he tries to uncover their nefarious deeds.
Here I Show Off Some…
I’ve got to end this with a picture of something Dean sent me for my work… signed, numbered, first-edition copies of the first 4 Odd Thomas prose novels!! It was so kind of Dean to make this generous gesture, so in return I sent him back some original pages from House of Odd. Mind you, I’ve never owned any first edition books before, and had no idea that they were so big. They’re beautifully-printed, leather-bound and the size of a Britannica volume. Here’s some pictures to share with the Internet. No doubt this is worth a lot!!
The red book is “Brother Odd”. It has the prettiest cover design!!
The lightening bolt one is “Odd Hours”. The green one is “Odd Thomas”, the silver “Forever Odd”, and the other red one is “Brother Odd”.
The inside covers of these first-edition books are beautifully illustrated, as are the chapter openings. In “Brother Odd”, all the text on the pages were in the shape of a church window. I thought it was a real nice touch!
There’s only 300 of each of these in th world!! (Well, 500 of “Odd Thomas”, 300 of the rest)
This was actually sent to me in December 2011, but I thought I’d save it until “House of Odd” came out to show the world. So here it is!!
I just received my copy of House of Odd. The artwork is absolutely stellar. This is by far the best of the Odd Thomas mangas. I really hope that we see more of Odd in manga form in the future. The books that Dean sent you look amazing! I might pick some up myself…
Thanks, Justin. I really appreciate you saying that. 😀
I hope we can see more manga-style Odd too (in the future)… you never know!
And yeah, I wonder where you can actually buy these 1st edition books… I’ve never seen them in bookstores, so maybe you have to “know people”? O_O
Wow, those are stunning. I’m so jealous! Love the Green Moon Lanes scorecard and ads, how cute! Just ordered House of Odd from my bookstore and I can’t wait to read it!
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed the photoes. Hope you’ll enjoy “House of Odd” too!
Most are sold out, but you can still find them on Ebay. I think you’ve really captured the humor of the Odd series very well. Here’s to hoping that the movie can do that. (It does look pretty good with all the pics and info I’ve gleamed from Google.) One of my favorite parts in House of Odd is that little detail of Elvis really getting his groove on when Odd is looking out the window of the haunted mansion. This book really cracked me up.
Link to other Koontz lettered/numbered books:http://charnelhouse.com/cart/index.php?main_page=page&id=3
Oh wow, looks like there’s an entire industry of these first edition books out there! I’m surprised by just how many there are! :O
And I’m looking forward to the movie too… I really do agree about the importance of humour in the Odd Thomas series. That was what made me like the books so much in the first place – you can’t understate the importance of the ‘tone’ of the writing. Hope the movie comes out soon. 🙂