i09 lists Orbiter among the top SF graphic novels guaranteed to get you hooked for life. Warren Ellis wrote it, and I drew it.

If you are interested in picking up a copy of this fine tome, try to get the first printing. Far better quality paper.

JK Rowling donates 10 million pounds to new multiple sclerosis research center.

The world-famous children’s writer made the generous donation in memory of her mother Anne, who suffered from the degenerative condition and died in 1990 at the age of 45.

Can the iPad Save Spider-Man?

Single issues regularly topped a million in sales during the Depression; last year, the top 300 comics sold in the United States combined added up to less than 75 million copies. Hard-core collectors may still flock to dedicated comic shops, but even the comic-book movie craze hasn’t drawn mainstream fans to the oft-impenetrably serialized monthlies. And while more sophisticated, complex graphic novels have charged into bookstores, it still can’t compare to the widespread accessibility comics enjoyed during their old newsstand days.

Does Peter Parker Have a Moral Responsibility to be Spider-Man?

If we were consequentialists and thought that the rightness and wrongness of actions depends entirely on the good or bad outcomes produced, we would believe that Peter is morally obligated to be Spider-Man, at least on the assumption that being a superhero produces more overall good than being a good scientist, boyfriend, etc. As appealing as consequentialism might seem at first blush, it’s riddled with problems.

Jane Austen had punctuation issues.

“Austen hardly punctuates at all, so what you get is a much more urgent form of language, which becomes more restrained when it is edited,” he said.

“There tends to be an awful lot of clauses and sub-clauses. There is the odd comma, but they aren’t always in the most rational places. There are no paragraphs.”

I used to get a ten-point deduction for every comma splice.

Jane Austen and her homies fight it out.

For the many people who have inquired about the graphic novel collections.

The Image Comics collections are:

Volume 1: The Gathering (collects A Distant Soil #1-13, 240 pages, Image Comics, June 1999, ISBN 1887279512)

Volume 2: The Ascendant (collects A Distant Soil #13-25, 240 pages, Image Comics, November 1998, ISBN 1582400180)

Volume 3: The Aria (collects A Distant Soil #26-31, 164 pages, Image Comics, July 2001, ISBN 1582402019)

Volume 4: The Coda (collects A Distant Soil #32-38, 184 pages, Image Comics, softcover, March 2006, ISBN 158240478X, hardcover, November 2005, ISBN 1582405255)

The online comic is currently in the middle of issue 25, which ends at Volume II.

I am working on the final volume of A Distant Soil called Requiem. It’s going to take awhile to complete. YES, I will finish the series in print, in comics form, and it will be collected in a graphic novel edition from Image Comics. YES, I will serialize it online as well. I hope those of you who enjoy the book online will support it by also picking up a GN collection. If not, you have my sincere thanks for coming to my official website, and supporting me via my advertisers.

Issue #39 of A Distant Soil will be out from Image Comics early next year. No, really.

I have several major projects for other publishers on my plate right now, including multiple graphic novels for Vertigo, one with Warren Ellis, Gone to Amerikay with Derek McCulloch, and a graphic novel with Barry Lyga for Houghton Mifflin. The Barry Lyga book is due in a little over a month, so I am on lockdown.

Gone to Amerikay is due in March of next year, and then I should be finished with the Warren Ellis GN in June of 2011. I also have some random smaller works in play as well.

This may sound like a lot – and it is – but it is not impossible to fit in time for A Distant Soil in there, particularly after early October.

I announced that I would be going to live and work in Washington DC for several months this fall to pursue some of my creator rights advocate duties, but I’ve bowed out. I’ve sunk so much time and effort into activism, I need to do my own work for awhile. Congress can pass bad laws without me. I’ve probably devoted more than 6 months of full time effort to activism over the last few years, and that is an expensive investment, in more ways than one.

My work output lately has been excellent. I have not been this productive in years. I went through a terrific slump for awhile, which I guess had to do with the excess of advocacy, health issues and stress. But whatever the bad mojo is, it is gone. If I always worked this way, I’d be finished with everything on my plate right now.

I had a discussion with my beloveds about my farming duties, and all agree I need to cut back. WAY back, so my time is not eaten up by digging up grubs when I need to draw. So, next year there will be a lot less farm labor for me. Can’t say as I’m going to weep about that or anything.

My kitchen duties are rescinded: everyone loves my cooking. No one likes the mess I make.

Lots more time for me to draw. Which is fine by everybody.

I am going to step away from the computer and grab more of the Great Drawing Goodness while it is here. And hope it lasts and lasts and lasts.

The Facebook fan page is here.