8-Opus in France

Here's the cover to the first issue of "Strange", featuring 8-Opus, which will be published in January in France. It's going to feature a serialized reprinting in full-color of the 8-Opus "Prologue" graphic novel.

This cover is the first new piece of 8-Opus art that's been published since 2004. The character 8-Opus is holding in his hand there is Mikros, a superhero who appeared in the original "Strange" comic magazine of the 70's and 80's. The old "Strange" was an anthology that featured a lot of the Marvel and DC superheroes, and also some homegrown heroes, like Mikros, for the French comics market.

This issue has a new Mikros adventure, and an interview with his creator, Jean Mitton. Comics fans stateside who aren't familiar with his work should definitely check out his "Death of the Silver Surfer" comic. It's never been translated into English (as far as I know) but the pictures tell the story beautifully.

Also in "Strange" is a story by the King himself, Jack Kirby. The story's called "Galaxy Green." It has been printed before in The Kirby Collector, but this is the first time it will appear in color. I always feel very honored whenever my artwork appears in the same book as Kirby's.

New 8-Opus Page

I'm currently scanning in a bunch of 8-Opus pages. I was in the middle of the next 8-Opus graphic novel, just before I started work on Gødland. I've been so busy, I haven't had time to finish it, so it's been about two years since the last 8-Opus comic came out.

This was going to be a big 200-some page epic. I have about 80-some pages of it done, so I decided I'm going to put it out in smaller 50-page chunks instead. Trying to finish a huge graphic novel's worth of material is just too daunting. A 50 page book is way more manageable.

The good part is that I've found a printer who can do color at a reasonable price, so the next 8-Opus comic is going to be the first one ever in full-color (at least the first one in America, since the French translation of the 8-Opus "Prologue" graphic novel will be out next month).

This new story picks up where the "Doomed Battalion" GN left off. Here's a page from it. I'll post a couple more in the coming days.