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I know Red Sonja: Blue (hereafter referred to as RSB) just a single-issue comic book and not the Mars landing, but as it’s still a project that fills me with childish glee, I hope you, dear reader, will indulge me a bit further.

One of the hardest things about being a writer is the gap of time between when one finishes a piece of writing (releasing it to the publisher as edited and complete), and when the damn book actually comes out. At best, it’s a matter of months. Sometimes it’s a year or more. Months or a year between your finishing something and when you have the slightest idea whether anyone will actually LIKE it.

Those months, if my mother will excuse the language, are FUCKING MISERABLE, full of nail-biting and muscle-knotting bouts of anxiety and self-doubt. Did I get it right? Will people like it? Will they get what I was trying to do? Will they think it’s as kickass cool as I do?

You never know, and the waiting can kill you. Not just because the sales numbers and reviews can make or break your career (though they can), but because you released a piece of art in the world, and whether you admit it or not, a lot of your self-esteem is tied into what people think of it.

So it was with RSB. I am a life-long comic fan, and I have talked shit with my friends about many a poorly-written book over the years. How would mine hold up in a debate amongst overeducated, judgmental, middle-age hipsters, like me and my friends? Further, how will it appeal to my fiction readers, who never read a comic in their life and picked this up just to be supportive or completeist? Good lord, what is my mom going to say?

But the first set of reviews are in, and my heart it returning to a normal rate. People seem to like the book. There are some really nice things said by hardcore fans on on the Dynamite Red Sonja: Blue message board.

Also Blair Marnell, clearly a long-time comic reader who is unfamiliar with my prose work, writes an amazing review on Crave Online.

Then there’s Niall Alexander, who is one of my fantasy readers and longtime followers of my blog, who has only recently returned to the comic shop after a long absence.  You can read Niall’s excellent review on his blog, The Speculative Scotsman. He has some interesting theories as to why the project has morphed a bit over the last year. He also brilliantly lowers the tone of all reviews everywhere by managing to tie in the subject of queefing, something my agent assures me he could happily have gone to his grave knowing nothing about.

Dude.

Posted on June 24, 2011 at 11:08 pm by PeatB
Filed under Craft, Musings, Red Sonja, Reviews, Sales, Writing
Comments Off on Red Sonja: Blue Reviews

When I was very young, my mother threw me a birthday party. We invited all my friends and classmates. We decorated the basement with streamers and balloons, and there were colorful party hats, cups and plates for juice and cake. I looked adorable in my little suit and tie.

Then the blizzard hit, and no one came.

No one.

I sat there as the minutes past the appointed time slipped by, knowing in my head that it was the weather, but in my heart, feeling so unloved and unwanted that I wished the Earth would open up and swallow me.

My mom pulled it out in the end, getting neighbors to come over and provide a semblance of a party, people to sing and share cake, etc., but that dawning sense of horror stayed with me. I have thrown many many parties since, and to this day, I still have a minor panic attack just beforehand, convinced that no one will come.

I feel that way about the contests on this blog, too. Feel like I will be left sitting in my suit, tie, and party hat, realizing that no one loves me.

And then you people amaze me. Again and again.

The first entry in the Cosplay Contest arrived today, 14 images from Birte the Flying Dragon in Germany bringing joy to my inbox. I haven’t blogged about this yet, but Birte and her mother got up at 3am to drive from Germany to Epinal, France, so Birte could attend my noon panel and show me the beautiful music she composed (some unfinished samples here), inspired by The Desert Spear. She gave me sheet music and played the compositions on her laptop for me and we sat and talked for an hour. Then she and her mother turned around and drove all the way home.

It was amazing. Birte is 19 and incredibly talented. She draws, plays and writes music, and acts. A true Renaissance woman.  She is also beautiful, as you will see:

Hello Peat,

I thought I’d try out for the awesome competition myself.

My three favourite characters are Leesha, Rojer and Renna (in that order!). You wrote in your blog yourself, that we could choose up to 3 characters, but did NOT limit the number of photos! So beware: You’ll get 14 of them from me!

The only problem with the pictures: I neither have red, nor black nor brown hair. My hair is blond (not as Rojer; I’m wearing a wig for that one). Just imagine my hair the colour it needs to be to fit the character 😉

Ok. Now:

All the pictures are labled, so you can roughly tell what it shows.

All the Renna pictures were taken in the forest at midsummer night and it was almost pitch black, so some of them might not be very sharp. They all show Renna fighting demons in the forest; the scene described in Desert Spear, with Arlen watching her:

The Rojer pictures show him with his beloved violin; the way I love him, showing different emotions as he makes his mezmerising music.

The Leesha pictures show her at different ages. One, when she is still 13, on her way to help Bruna, with the whole village talking about her “sin”. The second one shows an older version of her, though still young, gathering herbs. The plant she’s holding in her hands is St. John’s wort. It is used to cure depressions (very important with demons rising from the ground every night!).

There are also “picture-medleys”. They show all the characters at night for one: Most important, I found were their emotions, showing how well they cope with the threat: Rojer plays his music, standing up to the night, though you can clearly see that he is afraid; Leesha stands upright, facing the night, but still she is a bit worried and very alert; Renna is crouching like a cat about to attack, waiting for the right moment, with nothing but the lust of revenge in her eyes.

The Leesha-medley shows different sides of her: The angry little beautiful girl, the beautiful woman, the herb gatherer, getting a fright, standing above everything.

The medley with Rojer and Leesha show their relationship: Rojer being the jogleur he is, still longing to be with Leesha, hiding his feelings behind a jolly mask, and Leesha, regarding him as something similar to a little brother, worried because she knows how he feels about her, still happy to have him around.

OK. I hope what I wrote is not to crambled to understand. I tried to keep it all as short as possible… guess that didn’t work…

Still. I hope you like the pictures. It took me three days to get it all right and it wasn’t an easy choice which ones were the best!

Birte

PVB Contest Rule Note: When I said the limit was three characters, I meant three standing in the same picture all at once. Feel free to enter as many times in as many costumes as you please!

Posted on June 24, 2011 at 12:31 am by PeatB
Filed under Contests, Cosplay, Craft, Desert Spear, Fan Art, Fans, Germany, Warded Art, Warded Man
13 Comments »

Get out your sewing kits, ward your spears, and call your local henna tattooist, because it’s summer, the weather is gorgeous, and it’s time for another contest!

This one is a doozy; months in the planning. I meant to start it last week, but found out at the literal last minute that Red Sonja: Blue was coming out two weeks ahead of schedule, and needed to scramble to make sure it had my full support.

It’s been a rough couple of weeks. I had fairly major surgery on my shoulder to correct a whole mess of problems, and while it went well, I have been in a sling/harness for weeks, with no release in sight. Starting physical therapy soon.

But you know what would cheer me up? A contest.

Ever since receiving cosplay entries in the Warding Contest, as well as people sending in Halloween costume shots and real live tattoos, I have wanted to do a Demon Cycle cosplay contest. check out some of the amazing things people have done:

Like the Homemade Hero Contest, this one has the potential to be a fair amount of effort, so I didn’t want to do it without a kickass grand prize, and some awesome runner up prizes. Signed books are nice, but if you really want one of those, there are other online options to buy one, or you can just order a signed bookplate or got to one of my signings.

Not so here. The grand prize is one of a kind, and even the first and second prizes are custom-made limited edition exclusives not available elsewhere. We’ll get to that in a bit.

Contest rules:

1) Dress up as your favorite character from the Demon Cycle books (or the one you most look like).

a) All characters great and small accepted, including demons and animals like Twilight Dancer.

b) Photos of multiple characters accepted (three maximum), but they must be extra awesome if you are going for the grand prize, as it will increase the expense and difficulty (more on that in a moment).

c) Red Sonja entries also accepted, but only in blue fur! (Not that I have anything against chainmail bikinis… lord no).

2) Take lots of digital pictures striking dynamic poses. Make sure they have decent resolution and lighting to show off your work to best effect.

3) Pick the best pictures and send to contest@www.petervbrett.com by August 1, 2011, six weeks from today. You will retain rights to all pictures, with the understanding that I will be posting them on here on the blog and twitterface.

a) It is not required, but you are encouraged to submit a note about what you envision your characters are doing in your cosplay/photoshoot.  This can be a fan-created scenario or a reenactment from the novels to help give context for the grand prize.

Speaking of which…

Grand Prize:

A print & digital file of an original custom digital painting by Lauren K. Cannon (AKA Navate) inspired by the character(s) in the winning entry, WITH THE WINNER’S FACE(S) PAINTED IN.

So lets say you dress up as Abban the khaffit, and win the grand prize. Based on your winning photo, Lauren will paint a custom commission of Abban, using photos of your face to put you in the picture, possibly surrounded by demons lurking in the shadows…

Same goes if you want to pose with your friend or lovah as Arlen and Leesha rolling around in the mud, like Zaboo did for Codex and Fawkes that time on The Guild.

You probably already know who Lauren K. Cannon is, but in case you’ve been living in Antarctica for the last few years, she is not only the designer of the wards you see plastered all over my work. She did the cover/interior art for The Great Bazaar and Brayan’s Gold, as well as the homepage art for this site. You can see more of Lauren’s work on her website, her Deviant Art Page, and her sketch blog. Some samples of Lauren’s awesomeness:

First Prize

Winners will get custom warded silver necklaces from Fotini Designs:

You may recall the fabulous Fotini as the maker of these gorgeous items:

Second Prize

Winners will get warded dice to play Succor, the game Arlen, Renna and Beni play in the hayloft of Harl’s farm in the beginning of The Warded Man.

Samples of these limited edition, custom items will be posted when they are ready.

Third Prize

Winners will get signed books and bookplates.

Go forth and cosplay!

Posted on June 19, 2011 at 1:53 pm by PeatB
Filed under Australia, Bookplate, Brayan's Gold, Contests, Craft, Czech, Daylight War, Desert Spear, Events, Fan Art, Fans, France, Germany, Great Bazaar, Poland, Portugal, Red Sonja, Warded Art, Warded Man
19 Comments »

I went around to all the comic shops in NYC on Wednesday (or as it is known in nerd circles, “new comic book day”), looking for copies of Red Sonja: Blue. I myself had not yet seen the final product even digitally, much less held it in my hands. I was eager to see it on shelves, and pick up copies for myself and a friend while I wait for my author samples (currently at my agent’s office).

Sadly, I was a bit disappointed. The first four shops I visited were sold out before I got there. On one hand, that is awesome, because it means my loving readers were out in force snatching them up, but on the other hand… dammit! I wanted one! And it was a shame, because it meant a lot of other people who would have bought it missed out. It’s a sad fact that comic shops, which often operate on tight profit margins, are very conservative in their ordering, lest they end up with too much unsold stock. Someone should have warned them about the amazing wave of Warded Fans coming their way.

I did eventually get my copies and sign 26 more at the Midtown Comics flagship store on 40th and 7th, just off Times Sq. As I mentioned in my last post, that is my store, and the owners had my back. I signed four more at Forbidden Planet by Union Sq.

Hopefully the shops have all had time to reorder, and after I go to the doc and get my stitches out tomorrow, I will try to stop in and sign a few more. If you missed out, don’t give up! If your local store was sold out, please ask them to order more, or order online!

The stellar artist for RSB is the amazing Walter Geovani. He is a Brazilian artist who has been working with Dynamite Comics for four years doing their flagship Red Sonja book and others.

I used to have half-assed dreams of being a comic book artist, and still love art and am fascinated with the process, so I couldn’t resist asking him a few questions. Walter was happy to answer for the Peephole:

P: You work incredibly fast, especially considering how much detail is in your work. Your turnaround time for Red Sonja: Blue was even more impressive because I hear you were ill at the time. What can you tell us about your creative process from the receipt of the script to submission of completed pencils? How much preliminary work do you do before starting the actual pages? Do you have samples of sketches or thumbnails?

W: When I receive a script, I read it once, and then I read it again, sketching shot by shot at the side of each panel (on the script). After that, I make the layouts for the whole issue and send them to the editor. The layout is the most important part of a the page, in my opinion. When they’re approved, I start on the pages. For the pages, I sketch on a bristol paper, A3 size, drawing a thousand lines, erasing and fixing (it’s not a clean work) and then, using a light box, I draw over it with very tight pencils. I sometimes take pics of myself to draw poses and expressions. Even for Red Sonja sexiest poses:

The reason I made Red Sonja: Blue so fast is that I didn’t stop one day to rest until I had all of the issue done. Yes, I got ill for two weeks in the beginning of the issue, but when I got better and started to work again, I didn’t stop. And the other (and main) reason, is my wife. Without her help and support, I really couldn’t have finished the book.

P: What sort of materials do you work with? How much of your work is done by hand, and how much on the computer? What art programs do you use?

W: I use pencils and mechanical pencil 2.0 and 0.5 Leads HB, B, 2B, 3B and 6B. It’s all by hand. I’m traditional. I’m a dinosaur hehe.

My wife then uses Photoshop to clean the pages and make the pencils darker.

P: Your pencils have the look and feel of inked work, and I notice you receive full art credit on your books, meaning the pencils go directly to color without inking. This is a very different process than the standard I grew up with where two artists, penciler and inker, worked as a team. What can you tell us about this? Has the use of computers made this easier, or do you think this is just a benefit of your particular style?

W: When I started with Dynamite, I thought: “Oh my God, how can I draw without an inker!?” It took me a while until I got used to it. Just on Red Sonja: Wrath of the Gods I found a way to make my pencils look like inks.

I have to make very tight pencils and then my wife fills the blacks, scans the page, cleans it and gets the pencil lines darker. It looks like it’s inked. But I don’t like to call it “digital inks”.

Without my wife, that would not be possible.

P: She sounds like an amazing partner (note: Walter’s beautiful wife, not wanting to steal the spotlight, declined to have her name or picture included with the interview). How did you feel about this project? Was it different from other Sonja books you’ve done? Could you tell it was my first comic book script?

W: What I have to say about this book is what I said to everybody I know: “I was tired of drawing Red Sonja, but working on RS: Blue, I fell in love with the character again.”

I worked with five different writers since I did my first issue and I had fun with all of them. Every one with his style. In this issue, I could draw Sonja in funny situations, which I never did before. I always drew her serious, rarely smiling. And it was very fun to draw her this way. I love it.

When I read the script I didn’t believe that this was your first comic book script. I thought you were going to put 10 panels each page, because I had a bad experience with a writer who had never written a comic book. But it was easy and fun to draw, and it’s the kind of story I like to read. Congratulations, you did a great job! I hope you keep writing comic books and I hope we work together again soon.

P: I hope so too. I requested you specifically by name when I first started the project and had a fabulous time working with you on this book. I’m hoping it sells well enough to justify my filling the next three Sonja books in my Dynamite contract with more “blue” stories with you. In the meantime, what upcoming projects are you working on?

W: I´m doing some covers and I’ll work on Red Sonja #61. You can check it out here: http://geek-news.mtv.com/2011/04/28/mtv-geek-exclusive-first-look-red-sonja-61/

P: Thank you, Walter, for the interview.

You can find more of Walter’s work on Deviant art, follow him on Twitter, friend him on Facebook, and he has his own blog here.

Here are the amazing initial character sketches Walter did based on the scans of the old 80’s Sonja books I sent him. I was very specific about the look I wanted, and he friggin’ nailed it!

Walter’s Deviant Art page has some great comparisons of his finished pencils and the final art with colors by Ivan Nunes. it really shows how much depth is added in the digital coloring process, it’s an art in and of itself (click to enlarge):

If you read the book, I would love to hear what people think. You can comment here on the blog, on my Sonja forum, or on the Dynamite Red Sonja: Blue message boards.

Posted on June 17, 2011 at 12:25 am by PeatB
Filed under Craft, Interviews, Red Sonja, Writing
2 Comments »

Tomorrow, June 15, 2011, is launch day! Whoohoo!

If thou lovest me, thou wilt hie to thine local comic shop and pick up a copy of Red Sonja: Blue. You can see both covers (50% by Walter Geovani and 50% by Mel Rubi) and preview the first five pages over at Comic Book Resources.

Even if you have never read a comic book in your life, I encourage you to give it a try. You don’t need to know anything about Red Sonja going in, and it’s a complete story in 30 pages. Plus, it’s full of gorgeous art!

My first comic book! I can’t tell you how inordinately happy I am to have this happen. Making comic books was my dream job when I was a kid. It’s like getting to be an astronaut, or an Old West sheriff. Just thinking about it fills me with glee.

Red Sonja: Blue is a nod to the Red Sonja *I* grew up with, the 80’s book by Louise Simonson and Mary Wilshire. In the 70’s, 00’s, and today, we know Sonja by her trademark chainmail bikini, but in my comic heyday, she wore a very different blue fur number (left). It is an homage to the Sonja I loved as a kid, but with the hard edge the book had in the 70’s and today.

And I love the result. Honestly I do. It was a team effort, and everyone came through, from the amazing Walter Geovani art to Ivan Nunes’ vivid and evocative colors, not to mention the fantastic lettering by Marshall Dillion, all overseen by Editor Joe Rybant. I pressed pretty hard to get artist Walter Geovani, and wrote the script with his art in mind. He didn’t disappoint, and nailed the look I wanted for Sonja right off.

I had so much fun writing this book. It’s full of jokes, but I think it also delivers an emotional punch.

Here’s the official blurb:

Peter V. Brett, New York Times bestselling author of the Demon Cycle, takes the reins for this special issue, teaming up with fan favorite artist Walter Geovani to take Red Sonja back to her barbarian roots-and the She-Devil isn’t going without a fight! When an unfortunate encounter with a demon deprives her of her trademark chainmail bikini, Sonja is forced to don a familiar blue fur tunic for the remainder of this adventure. Brett brings a mix of deft characterization, wry humor, and hard action to this one-shot homage to the Sonja legacy, honoring longtime fans while offering the perfect self-contained story for new readers.

In addition to the CBR preview, here are some samples of the fantastic colored Walter Geovani art showing off the new look. These have yet to have dialogue and narration boxes inserted by the letterer:

If you’re a New Yorker and not normally a comics reader, I recommend going to Midtown Comics. There are a lot of really great comics stores in NYC (I know, I’ve been to just about every one), but I’ve been going to the brick and mortar Midtown Comics flagship store on 40th St. and Seventh Avenue since the day it opened in 1997. I was immediately impressed with their efficiency, knowledge, and friendly, welcoming attitude towards customers. I recommended it to all my friends, and was there, usually with a group of friends on our lunch break, every Wednesday for new comics day for over ten years, and still go there about twice a month. Another great option is Jim Hanley’s Universe by the Empire State Building.

If you don’t have a local comics shop, or live outside the US, you can order online at www.midtowncomics.com. They have a great mail order business as well, and you can order books with domestic and international shipping. You can also try Comixology.

Posted on June 14, 2011 at 4:32 pm by PeatB
Filed under Events, Pimpage, Red Sonja, Sales, Writing
7 Comments »