Monitor Duty by Randy Lander "Shameless Hype" It's been a while since I've written Monitor Duty, and here I am using it as an excuse to hype my own stuff. At any rate, this installment of Monitor Duty is less about the industry as a whole and more about my tiny part in it, specifically the part where I have written a comic-book story that will be published in a little more than a week's time. It is called "System Failures" and it is a 16-page story that takes place within a larger, 40-page comic called After The Facts. A little history, first of all: A couple friends of mine whom I met on the Strangers in Paradise mailing list (same place I met my wife, sort of) were planning, even as early as the last San Diego Con, to put together a booth for the next Con. One of them is the web-designer for creators including Judd Winick and Terry Moore, the other runs a webcomic named Stickley and Jones. M. Robert Turnage, the gent who runs (and writes and draws) Stickley and Jones, decided to do a comic to sell at the booth. He invited me onboard to do a prose story if I was interested, and I decided to try and find an artist and do a comic contribution instead. My manager at Dragon's Lair and friend David Farabee being that artist, who agreed to give up his spare weekends for the period of a few months and draw the book. Dave and I went back and forth over ideas, thinking about doing something sort of funny and cute, which lends itself well to a short story format and to our particular sensibilities. My first story, "Another Perfect Wedding" in Love in Tights #2, was that kind of story, mostly a vehicle for some gags. But we decided we wanted to do something a little different, and settled on an EC-style story about two men aboard an exploratory/scout starship who are confronted with personal conflicts when something goes wrong on the mission. That story started out as "Unnamed Story for Rob," morphed into "Unnamed Story for After the Facts" and finally became "System Failures." On this page, I've included a couple of images to give you a sample of Dave's artwork. If you click on the panels, you will get a larger image that will show you the entire page that the panel is taken from (or most of the page, in the case of the first image.) I was very pleased with Dave's work on this book, even moreso when you consider that it is his first sequential art in quite some time. The comic-book will be available for purchase in San Diego at the Maida.net/Stickley and Jones booth (#3637) as soon as we get it back from the printers, which should be by Friday and may be before then. We will almost certainly (99% chance) have it for Saturday at the latest. If you're interested, stop by the booth and pick up a copy. Dave and I will be happy to sign it, and so will Rob, as he contributed the other 24-page story and of course the impetus that got all of this rolling. Currently, my booth schedule stands at: Thursday: 1:00 - 2:00 and 4:30 - 5:30/6:00 Friday: 2:00 - 3:00 and 5:00 - 6:00 Saturday: 11:30 - 12:30, 2:15 - 3:15 and 6:00 - 7:00 These times are subject to change, and of course I'll also be spending some time at the booth at various other times during the Con, but these should be some of the best times to find me. And if you want to talk reviews, or comics, or anything else of that nature, at the booth, I'd certainly be up for it. After all, that's what San Diego's all about. I tend to be pretty busy and mobile in San Diego, so it will be interesting to be tied down to a booth from time to time so that people can find me. Email Randy Lander comments about this column, or discuss it on the Fourth Rail message board.