Category: Manga-Comics

#1 New York Times bestseller!

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A whole bunch of stuff to announce this month, thanks to Halloween. I’m currently working on “Odd Thomas” vol3, and at the end of this month, I’m heading off to Turkey for the Turkish International Book Fair, due to the Turkish version of “The Dreaming”. It’s going to be a fun trip and I’m looking forward to seeing some of the sights of Istanbul, as well as visiting some of the schools there for workshops and talks.

Then, onto the two Halloween-themed books I have that’s already out:

 

Odd Is On Our SideThe Dreaming - Omnibus

 

The first book is the next Odd Thomas book, “Odd Is On Our Side”, which came out the 5th October and is #1 on the New York Times Bestsellers list! Does that mean I can now use NYT #1 bestselling as a tagline? Fame by association. Conversely, when the first book “In Odd We Trust” came out, the NYT graphic novel list didn’t even yet exist.

 

#1 NYT Bestseller

 

Also, “The Dreaming: Perfect Collection”, which is all three volumes of “The Dreaming” series (plus a short story) combined into one big brick of a book. “The Dreaming” series was what got me the Odd Thomas job, so if you want to see what the fuss is about, then the “Perfect Collection” is a good investment.

 
 

More about “Odd Is On Our Side”
“Odd Thomas” is a series of books by the best-selling suspense author Dean Koontz, and centers around a psychic fry book who sees dead people. Odd is one of Dean’s most popular characters, thus prompting a few graphic novel prequels (with a few more in the works). The books are a mix of action, mystery and humour, and are suitable for all ages.

I’ve got to thank Dean Koontz for his wonderful characters, and Fred Van Lente for being such a fantastic script writer. This was my first time drawing to someone else’s script (second time was “Boy’s Book of Positive Quotations”), and you can’t ask for a better script than the one Fred penned. I also want to thank my toner Dee DuPuy, who is a way better toner than myself. And ofcourse my editor Betsy, agent Judy and Del Rey for making this book happen.

 

Panel from In Odd We Trust

From the first page of "Odd Is On Our Side", where Odd sits outside his house


 
 

More about “The Dreaming: Perfect Collection”
“The Dreaming” is a 3-volume horror-mystery series set in the Australian bush, about a series of student disappearances in a remote private boarding school. The series ran from 2004-2007, and this 2010 omnibus is a collection of all three volumes (plus a short story) into a single book. The series is suitable for teens aged 13 and up, and there’s no objectionable material in it (not even any gore).

You can read more about this series at my site. A movie’s in the works too.

 

Panel from "The Dreaming" Omnibus

From the short story, Millie's nephew.

Halloween Horror: Elevator

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Hi folks, I’m now back in Australia and back at work.

There’s going to be a slew of things happening this Halloween (a month-and-a-half away), and Bento Comics is going to make something especially for Halloween this year. So here’s a short horror story I started years ago, which I only got motivated enough to finish recently. It’s about… elevators, of all things.

The first 3-4 pages of the story was originally one of those “true stories” you read in magazines, where people write in about their “spooky experiences”. It seems that a fair amount of spooky experiences happen to firemen late at night. I’m guessing that among firemen who deal with people supposedly trapped in elevators, this one is a bit of an urban legend. The rest of it, however, is completely made up by me.

E-book in .epub format available at the site too. Look on the right hand side of the page for a link.

 
 

Elevator

Click to read on BentoComics.com

Odd Thomas: More

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Hi all! I’m currently living in Hong Kong (will be here for about 3 months), settling in and entertaining friends. I’ve got some news to announce nevertheless, and some picture to show. Lord knows, I’d like to start posting regularly on this LJ again, and here I am trying to get into the swing of things.

 
 

Odd Thomas 3: You may have read that there’s going to two more Odd Thomas books in this ICv2 report, and that I’ll be doing book number 3. Book number 2 “Odd Is On Our Side” will be out this Halloween, so I’ll be starting on book 3 in early August. Book 4 will be done by the talented Ikari Studio, and it’s just as well because I originally had to turn down book 4 because of an

 
 

Art I did for a short film: I did some art for a short student film at NIDA in Sydney, and while the concept is quite interesting, unfortunately the sci-fi nature of the story means that funding is limited and my part of the work can’t be completed (due to lack of funds). Still, I thought I’ll show you the art. These are just rough colour works, done in about 30 mins.

 

Movie girl - 1
This was my first design for a samurai sword-wielding young girl in a post-apocalyptic setting.

 

Movie girl - 2
But it turns out the director was looking more for something like this.

 

BentoComics.com – Princess Zelda

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Ah, the last story in this series. It happens to be a short story I did for a video-game anthology, based on Princess Zelda from the “Legend of Zelda” Nintendo Gaming series. Now, as a fan tribute it’s good fun, but because I don’t own this property, I’m just going to put it up on Bento Comics and let people read it (but not print it).

Rundown: Bento Comics is a new website that permits users to read and compile their own short story anthologies. It then prints the book at a printing company called Lulu, and delivers the personalised book to your door. A new publishing model, if you will.

Short Story of the Week: A short story seen from the perspective of Princess Zelda, and the wishes she makes to the Goddesses of Hyrule.

E-book: None, I’m afraid. It’s not my own property, so no e-book.

 
 

Princess Zelda
Click here to read on Bentocomics.com!

 
 

Well, this concludes my pick of short stories from the “Queenie Chan Archive” back on my website. It’s good to be back on my LiveJournal again, so I hope to be able to continue my weekly streak of posting something up. I’ve been working on a bunch of interesting things since the second Odd Thomas book ended, so watch this space for interesting developments.