ROK Comic creator Mike Colbert - despite juggling his work behind the scenes on My Name is Earl and home life as a new dad ("My baby is 3.5 months old and I'm amazed I'm able to get this e-mail off to you," he tells us) - reports he's busy with several comics projects.
ROK Comics strip Crazy Mary is now available on www.wowio.com for free download (US only) with the four-issue story The Hunt for Dano Corvair being coloured now with an eye on a July release, also on wowio.
"Federico Zumel (Crazy Mary - Chase) did the pencils," syas Mike, "Larry Brown is colouring, Nathan Kroll is inking and E.T. Dollman is lettering."
"I've also written a story for William Blankenship's comic series Special Edition, he reveals. The story is called "Spak Daxler: Hero of the Ages!" and it's a big dumb superhero fight with a giant mutant cybernetic lizard and all that implies. William has the pages inked and is heading into the coloring stage now. Release is TBD."
"I sold a story to Darkslinger Comics for their series Ghost Assassin called "Unfinished Business". An artist is being chosen now."
In more Crazy Mary-related news, artist J.K. Woodward, who drew the first two stories and Fallen Angel, will see his Marvel debut, X-Men Origins - Beast released as a collection in September. "Yours truly rocks a cameo in it as a jock who teases Hank McCoy," says Mike.
As for season four of My Name is Earl, Mike tells us "So far, we've had Seth Green and Jerry Van Dyke as guest stars, made Randy a cheerleader and blown up Pigsquatch!"
Los Angeles-based features and comics author Michael (Mike) Colbert is the creator of the critically-acclaimed SF comic Crazy Mary, one of several strips not only appearing on ROK Comcs but also being translated into Chinese for ROK Comics China. He says his first memory is seeing Star Wars and his writing influences include Warren Ellis, Grant Morrison, and Douglas Adams.
Crazy Mary, which has been drawn by artists that include Edawrd (X-Men) Woodward, prung almost fully formed in 1999 and was infused with pre-millennium tension, a fascination with the subjective nature of reality, and big explosions.
Questions compiled by David Hailwood
How did you discover Rok Comics?
John was my editor at Babylon 5 Magazinewhen we caught up last year he was looking for content and thus Crazy Mary found itself on ROK Comics.
How do you feel about digital comics over Print based comics?
I think it's a great idea and cell phone monkeys need to figure it the hell out.
What's your greatest achievement in the comics field?
The first collection ofCrazy Mary stories, Trinity (so far)
What projects (both Rok Comics and non Rok Comics related) are you working on at the moment?
Non ROK work includes a ten-page story for "Ghost Assassin", Spak Daxler - Hero of the Ages for a comic series called Special Edition. That's the creation of a talented artist called William Blankenship, a series of interconnected stories -- everything from Skyfaring Pirates, to Troll detectives, to big dumb superhero battles. Spak Daxler is the big dumb superhero battle story - Spak and his team of governmentt funded superheroes fight a giant cybernetic lizard. It was great nutty fun and I hope to do more.
Be consistent with the quality and quantity of the work. People are fickle and need their fix regularly. (By the way, I'm appallingly bad at taking my own advice).
ROK Comics creator Mike Colbert has just been interviewed by Comic Brew, revealing his new plans for Crazy Mary and other projects.
Talking about why he writes comics, Mike says it all comes down to "a pathological need to get this stuff out of my head!"
"Seriously," he continues, "There's a rush that you feel when you got a story coming out through a keyboard and that you are nailing it. There seems to be a channeling thing, you're not creating it it's coming through you. Some stories need to be written and you are the device for it to break into this world.
"Mary is a case like that. She has set me straight when there are things I want her to do and she doesn't want to, it's weird. I don't write Crazy Mary everyday, but there is hardly a day where I don't think about her or find myself grabbing bits of life to put in a CM story."
Digital Webbing Presents has released Trinity, the first print collection of Crazy Mary short stories, in the United States, stories which are also available worldwide for mobile users via ROK Comics thanks to the enthusiastic support of the character's creator, Mike Colbert.
Trinity collect the first three shorts that have appeared over the last few years in Digital Webbing Presents.
• Trail of Tears features haunting art by critically acclaimed illustrator JK Woodward and "was the story that started it all," says Mike. "Mary uses her special sight to track down a kidnapped girl".
• In Coffee and Dream, also drawn by Woodward, Mary gets a message from one of her "Special Three", as Mike calls the 'ghosts' that haunt the bounty hunter, telling her "everyone in the coffee shop she's in is about to die, unless she can figure out how to save them."
• Chase features art by Federico Zumel. Following a lead from the coffee shop encounter; Mary finds herself on the wrong end of a high speed/high altitude car chase.
The cover for the collection is by JK Woodward and the book also features a cover gallery of alternate and special edition covers.
The comic is available through smarter comic book stores and can also be ordered on-line through www.digitalwebbing.com and by contacting Michael Colbert at logos728@yahoo.com
And of course, if you want Crazy Mary everywhere you go Mike reminds us "you can get these stories and more for your cell phone through www.rokcomics.com!" (Trail of Tears and Coffee and Dream are available in mobile format now and the strip is one of the first creator-owned strips to have been selected by ROK's partners in China and Pakistan for inclusion on the customised ROK Comics sites for those countries).
Thanks for the plug, Mike - we're more than happy to reciprocate by plugging the book!
Just back from the San Diego Comic Convention where he has been busy promoting Crazy Mary, available via ROK Comics, creator Michael Colbert tells me the first print version of the story will be released in the US in November through Digital Webbing Presents.
Around the same time, Dimestore Productions is releasing an anthology of comic stories which includes another of Mike's stories, Krane, and Imperium Comics is looking at another short he wrote (with all the art already done) called Golem for their Trailer Park of Terror title.
Most importantly, says Mike, "I just bought a 12 inch tall radio controlled talking Dalek at comicon and I chase my dog around with it!" It's always good to have a hobby!
Acclaimed comic Crazy Mary has joined the ranks of a growing number of indpendently-created comics on ROK Comics.
Crazy Mary is a cyberpunk action series about a bounty hunter, Mary, who can see a twisted supernatural universe that overlays and interacts with our own. Mary uses this ability along with her military training to compete in the intense world of “freelancers” a blanket term applied to Bounty Hunters, Bodyguards, Detectives, Assassins, and any other folks who get their hands dirty.
Crazy Mary combines elements of SF, Action and Horror and delivers a heroine perfect for the new millennium on the new millennium’s hottest platform.
Crazy Mary is created and written by Michael Colbert and art by critically praised painter J.K. Woodward (Peter David’s Fallen Angel, Marvel’s X-Men Mythos: Beast).
A free sample promo and serialized episodes are now available for download through www.rokcomics.com.
Crazy Mary also exists in analog form through Digital Webbing Presents as an on-going series, starting in November 2007.
