Updated my blog earler this week with my wrap-up of the Z Graphic Novels: http://budrogers.com/

Check out our Easter comic, The Thieves from Community Comics. Read it online for free!
Story by Ben Avery with art by Paolo Libunao:

7 Seconds and a Dead Fish (c) 2008 Jesse Hamm

I’m happy to announce that Community Comics has been able to place Jesse Hamm’s inspirational indy comic, 7 Seconds and a Dead Fish, at WOWIO -- and it’s available for FREE!

7 Seconds and a Dead Fish tells the story of a young man as he tenaciously clings to his faith when the religious system he has been brought up in has turned its message to merely speak to the tenets of the government. Jesse’s excellent black and white artwork captures the bleak landscape and atmosphere of the story, while his expressive style imbues the protagonist with strength and hope. It’s a small press classic that exemplifies intelligent inspirational comics.

We at Community Comics have recently entered into an agreement with WOWIO to present our material on their site for free downloading. WOWIO books are free because sponsors pay authors and publishers on your behalf. It’s a win-win scenario. You do need to register with WOWIO before downloading any material, but the process is very easy.

We currently have 2 titles available:

Legends

Story and art by Sherwin Schwartzrock.

Legends presents the story of “Korah’s Rebellion” from Numbers 16 in a very dynamic manner. Witness the mighty power of God in action when tensions arise in the wilderness as Moses is openly confronted by opposing clans.

Legends also includes the back-up story “Good News” by Ben Avery and Sherwin Schwartzrock,

The Thieves

Story by Ben Avery with art by Paolo Libunao

The Thieves is a look at the greatest story ever told, but told with a twist, focusing on the men who were hung on either side of Jesus.

Three bandits find themselves in over their heads when a robbery turns into the murder of an important Roman citizen. Suddenly, everything spins out of control as one faces losing his family, another faces losing his freedom, and all three face losing their lives at the hands of the Romans. It's a story of love and hate, revenge and redemption, hopelessness and hope.

Please feel free to bookmark our Publisher’s Page so you can check back from time to time. We will be adding more of our Community Comics titles as well as some very exiting titles from other Christian creators.

Welcome to Holsom is the featured comic preview of the week at www.ZGraphicNovels.com. Welcome to Holsom was written by Craig Schutt with art by Steven Butler and Jeff Albrecht. Check it out at http://www.zgraphicnovels.com/exclusives/

And you can find more Holsom goodness (including ordering information for sets of the comics) at: www.WelcometoHolsom.com

And please take a few minutes to answer the survey that will follow the comic. Zondervan is very interested in getting feedback from fans of this type of material.

Tomo Volume 1: I Was an Eighth-Grade Ninja has just been awarded the Bronze Award in the Comics and Graphic Novel category of the Moonbeam Children's Books Awards.

The Moonbeam Awards (www.moonbeamawards.com) are designed to honor the year's best children’s books, authors and illustrators, and to bring increased recognition to exemplary children’s books and their creators. Their ambition is to support children's book publishing and to promote childhood literacy and life-long reading.

One of the more significant aspects of Tomo's placement is that these awards are not CBA related, but draw from the large pool of mainstream material. There is a separate category for Religious works, but the Comics and Graphic Novels category is completely open.

Congratulations go to Andrew Simmons, Ariel Padilla, Tom Bancroft and Rob Corley of Funnypages Productions for producing such an excellent book. It's a pleasure to work with them.

Read more about Tomo here: www.zgraphicnovels.com/series/tomo.php

Community Comics’ Chosen Mortals is the featured comic preview of the week at www.ZGraphicNovels.com. This preview features two stories from the Gospel accounts, and is written by Ben Avery with art by Darren Brady and Sherwin Schwartzrock.

Check it out at http://www.zgraphicnovels.com/exclusives/

And please take a few minutes to answer the survey that will follow the comic. Zondervan is very interested in getting feedback from fans of this type of material.

One of my favorite Christian comics out there is the featured comic of the week at www.ZGraphicNovels.com, Faith: Warrior Princess by Layne Toth, Chris Yambar and Levi Krause.

Check it out at http://www.zgraphicnovels.com/exclusives/

And if you really like it, we have copies available at Community Comics: http://www.communitycomics.com/cc_partners_fwp.html

Kathleen Webb’s comic Elysium Dreams is the featured comic preview of the week at www.ZGraphicNovels.com.

Please head right on over to check out Kathleen's comic and take a few minutes to answer the survey that will follow the comic. Zondervan is very interested in getting feedback from comics fans.

PowerMark Comics are now available for free download on Wowio at: http://www.wowio.com./users/product.asp?BookId=1632

©2007 PowerMark Comcs

PowerMark is Captain Mark Chen, a professional soldier who joined the Alliance at the age of 17. He became the youngest officer ever to lead an Alpha force unit in the ongoing battle against Leviathan, a force of evil led by the Diviner who’s goal is to establish a new world, one that will be free from individual thought or expression. Protecting an orphanage from an attack by Leviathan, he was wounded in combat. Presently, Mark has been commissioned by the International Christian Coalition (I.C.C.) to lead a mission to create Virtual Reality Episodes (VRE) of the stories of the Bible. With his crew of kids and some really cool gadgets, PowerMark leads one of the most important missions ever…drawing youth back to faith in God and His Word!

PowerMark is written by Steve Benintendi with art by Steven Butler.

The first third of Royden Lepp's story David: The Shepherd's Songis the featured comic preview of the week at www.ZGraphicNovels.com.

Check it out at http://www.zgraphicnovels.com/exclusives/

And if you really like it, we have copies of the graphic novel available at Community Comics: http://www.communitycomics.com/comics_david.html

Being in the midst of hurricane season, I was reminded of the Disaster Relief benefit comic we put together several years ago in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Tempest.

Tempest is the story of an artist, a normal man who writes stories of heroics and tragedy. But surrounded by news of tragedy and disaster, confronted with his own limitations, and facing the lifting veil of innocence, he is forced to ask some difficult questions, starting with, "What can I do ... I'm just one man ..." It’s a story of hope in the face of pain; beauty in the face of evil; strength in the face of solitary weakness.

Tempest was one of the more personal projects that Ben Avery, Sherwin Schwartzrock and I worked on, and we were blessed to work with a phenomenal group of artists who contributed their time and talents to this story such as:
* Randy Green (Witchblade, Emma Frost)
* Javier Saltares (David's Mighty Men, Ghost Rider, Wolverine, GI Joe)
* Sherwin Schwartzrock (ArmorQuest, Deal with the Devil)
* Sergio Cariello (The Lone Ranger, Son of Samson, Sojourn, Batman)
* Mike Worley (Bongo Comics artist, caricaturist)
* Tom Bancroft (Big Idea, Disney, Opposite Forces)
* Phil Hester (Ant Man, Nightwing, Green Arrow, The Wretch)
* Mario Ruiz (Samson, Testament)
* Gary Shipman (Pakkins' Land, Amazing True Life Stories)
* Darren Brady (Handel’s Messiah, HeroTV)
* Tim Kane (Supercrazy TNT Blast)
* Jesse Hamm (Good as Lily, Bitten Apple, Savage Daisies)
* Nate Watson (Blue Water Productions)
* Gary Martin (The Moth, Nexus)

Copies of Tempest are still available - either in printed form or as digital downloads.
* In print from Community Comics for $3.50 plus S & H.
* As free digital download from Wowio.
(Will require signing up with Wowio - but you’ll get access to many free books and comics - it’s a pretty good deal.)

All proceeds from the sale of Tempest or received from the Wowio downloads (and we do receive payments for each download) will be donated to the Disaster Relief efforts of the Salvation Army. The need is always there and so is the Salvation Army.

I'd like to point everyone over to the excellent web comic, Rabbi Encounters.

Rabbi Encounters (c) 2007 Rob Woodrum

In Rabbi Encounters, Rob Woodrum updates the encounters Jesus had with people throughout the Gospel accounts in a very effective manner. This works so much better than a straight "what if Jesus came today" approach; those tend to raise many more questions than they answer. The main focus in Rabbi Encounters is how the people are affected by their encounters with the Rabbi. In the stories to date, we have seen encounters with an Army commander, a man suffering from AIDS, a woman at the laundromat, and a diminutive thug named Zack. Rob's presentation of these familiar stories is very fresh and unique and provides a springboard for self-reflection as we see modern applications to these encounters.

Each week Zondervan is previewing a new comic on the "Exclusives" page of theire website and this week it's HeroTV's turn in the spotlight.

The comic can be downloaded at: http://www.zgraphicnovels.com/exclusives/

HeroTV #1 is the first part in a three-part story arc focusing on the villain of HeroTV: CAPES, Professor Gravitron. The story is by Ben Avery and Jeremy Zehr, with art by Darren Brady, Chuck Von Schaaf, Jonathan Koelsch, Sherwin Schwartzrock and yours truly.

Check out the comic and please take a few moments to complete the survey that follows the comic. It will help guide future projects for the Z Graphic Novel line.

Just in case you all didn't know, the Z Graphic Novel site has been up and running since the first of the month.

I could go on about this and the line, but for now, I'll just let this do the talking:

Lisa Hutchinson has a new site totally dedicated to her excellent manga series, Shelter of Wings.

Head on over to www.ShelterOfWings.com and check it out.

Here's a sample of Lisa'a beautiful artwork:

Shelter of Wings (c) 2007 Brethren Entertainment

Artwork (c) 2007 Lisa Hutchinson

I just wanted to pop on and comment how great it is to see something like this from the CCAS.

I first got started with the CCAS around 1992 or so - that's when I first heard about their APAzine, Alpha-Omega. I joined up as quickly as I could. I was privileged to be able to serve on the CCAS Board of Directors throughout the 90s and witnessed the growth of the convention outreach at the San Diego Convention through Ralph Miley and Don Ensign, as well as the outreach into other conventions by George Macas. It was also great to participate in some of their collaborative projects such as The A-O Challenge, Proverbs and Parables and New Visions.

The CCAS and Alpha-Omega served as an invaluable training ground form my later work in comics.

Several years ago, Ben Avery, Sherwin Schwartzrock, Darren Brady and I formed our virtual studio, Community Comics ( www.CommunityComics.com ). Through Community Comics we self-published a couple of titles (HeroTV, Chosen Mortals, and Handel’s Messiah) and produced several other titles such as ArmorQuest, David’s Mighty Men, David: The Shepherd’s Song and Tempest for Alias Enterprises (these are available at our website).

I’m currently working as the managing editor for Zondervan’s line of graphic novels ( www.ZGraphicNovels.com ) as well as organizing a couple of other projects for Community Comics and doing a bit of freelance artwork here and there.

All this is my round about way of saying thank you to the CCAS. I may not be able to pitch in directly as much as I’d like to, but I continue to carry on the CCAS mission with everything I do.