Todt Hill, Pages 1 & 2

Posted by KevinColden on Sunday, August 6 2006 at 11:59 pm

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Category: Todt Hill

Welcome to the Chemistry Set.

Posted by Vito Delsante on Sunday, August 6 2006 at 7:40 pm

It’s a cliche to say that this is a labor of love…it is, but that’s almost beside the point. What this is…what the Chemistry Set is…is a labor of talent. In a similar fashion to the Legion of Doom, the Chemistry Set is “banded together from the remote reaches of the (comic creating) galaxy” with one single objective:

To entertain with sequential artwork.

We have brothers and sisters that are far too talented for their own good doing a similar experiment on another site. We have cousins doing this on their own sites. We have friends that have been doing this for years.

So what makes the Chemistry Set so special?

First, the artists. Every day, you will be exposed to an artist that you may not have heard of, or maybe you’ve heard of them, but you haven’t had the opportunity to catch their work. The artists here have worked for years in the industry and medium and have yet to crack the fanboy consciousness, but they are all well on their way(s). These artists have so much talent coming out of their pores that once the first week is done, and the gauntlet has been thrown down, each one of them will try to outdo the other. They are that good…and that competitive. They will send you back to your home page or your blog with a 1000 words or less and you’ll be extolling their talents for years to come because all of them…ALL OF THEM…will blow your mind(s). You may come to find that you’ll have a favorite, but waiting a week for the next installment is too long, so we’ll see you back here tomorrow and the next day and the next. While the writers are the ones who birthed this movement, the artists…let’s make no mistake here…without the five artists (more when you see Vulture Gulch), there’d be nothing but text.

Speaking of the writers, of whom I am one of…I am honored to call every one of them a friend. And, as is done in the hip hop industry, when you get the opportunity to do something big, you bring your boys (and girl) with you. The Chemistry Set is not unlike the Junior M.A.F.I.A. in that respect. Further, the writers here are all one of a kind and bring something unique to the table. We have a Xeric winner (two, if you include Daniel), a noted comics journalist, a retailer, a writer who writes about writing, and a self publisher. Performance artists, singer/songwriters, folks that generally like to embarrass themselves in public (maybe that’s just me)…all of us, special in our own ways. Remember the first time you heard “Criminal Minded” by BDP or “Rock Box” by Run DMC…remember when you thought hip hop and rap was just a fad? Remember where you were when you heard “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and you knew…you KNEW…that rock music had changed forever?

We do.

Finally the stories. Well, they speak for themselves. So stop reading this and clicky click on on today’s feature.

Thank you for coming by. All of us appreciate the time spent here and we will do our best to keep you coming back for more.

-Vito Delsante
an idea guy

***
Special Thanks: Dean Haspiel, ACT-I-VATE, DE-ACT-I-VATE, Damon Hurd, Heidi MacDonald, Jen Contino, Warren Ellis, The Engine, Matt Brady, Benjamin Ong Pang Kean

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Category: Chemistry Set Announcements

What is ‘Scheherazade’?

Posted by ChrisArrant on Sunday, August 6 2006 at 12:59 pm

SCHEHERAZADE is a modern urban tapestry woven from old magic and old stories. It’s a sheltered young woman in a house without windows, peeling back the blinders and throwing open the shutters. It’s the tale of a dying man and his last victim, whose stories just might help him find the redemption he craves.

“SCHEHERAZADE will be a series of shorts held together by a tale of a young storyteller and her captor,” says Genco. “The format allows me free reign with some of my favorite toys within the context of a bigger story. I’ve always been a big nerd for comics anthologies but I know it’s tough to make them work in print. SCHEHERAZADE is my chance to do an anthology my way, with lots of creative collaboration and no restrictions.”

Elizabeth Genco keeps one foot in the Northeastern woods and the other in Brooklyn, New York, where she pours her love of myth, magic, old school horror and esoterica into comics and stories. She is the author of WEIRD SISTER, RED, and PORTRAITS OF TWENTY-TWO KEYS, all of which are available through Streetfables, a small press that she runs with her husband, Leland Purvis.
Elizabeth is a member of the Endicott Studio, a collective of artists who work extensively with myth and folklore, and contributes regularly to their blog. For more, visit http://www.elizabethgenco.com.

Adam Boorman brings SCHEHERAZADE to life.
Born: 11/11/81
Lives: Perth, Western Australia, place of long hot summers and beautiful beaches
Hates: the heat, the sun, and beaches; wishes it would snow.
Likes: cashew nuts, painting, drawing, photography, films and music.
Website: http://boorman.livejournal.com

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Category: Scheherazade

1 Way Ticket is ALL THE RAGE

Posted by ChrisArrant on Sunday, August 6 2006 at 6:14 am


New artwork and sketches on tomorrow’s debuting webcomic 1 Way Ticket by myself and Daniel Warner is available in this week’s edition of All The Rage at SilverBulletComicBooks.com. link

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Category: 1 Way Ticket, Publicity

What is ‘Vulture Gulch’ and ‘Other Stories’?

Posted by ChrisArrant on Saturday, August 5 2006 at 10:11 am

New Mexico – 1875. Dr. Clem Cooper has the busy job of undertaker in Vulture Gulch, a raucous Wild West town, and with a personality that’s part Lt. Columbo and part John Constantine, he’s a burr in the saddle of the bad guys who come looking for trouble. Throw in sexy outlaw Molly Hill and her gang, and you’ve got a recipe for excitement!
Vulture Gulch is a straight-up Western that provides a modern take on the classic genre elements without eye-winking anachronisms or supernatural window-dressing. Saddle up!

Tuesdays at THE CHEMISTRY SET will be a little different than the other days. While the other creators are hatching ongoing stories with regular teams, Dougan will be presenting a series of shorter stories with a rotating cast of amazing collaborators. The primary focus will be Vulture Gulch, including stories from Eric Kim (Love As A Foreign Language), Christine Norrie (Cheat, Hopeless Savages), and Michel Fiffe of Act-I-Vate.

In addition, readers can look forward to romance, comedy, noir - you name it – including a spellbinding story drawn by recent SVA graduate Hyeondo Park (DE-ACT-I-VATE). Dougan regards THE CHEMISTRY SET as an opportunity to work with terrific collaborators and to tell shorter stories that might not find a home elsewhere.

Jim Dougan (writer) is a comics writer best known (if he’s known at all) for Crazy Papers, his comedy graphic novella drawn by Danielle Corsetto (Girls With Slingshots) and self-published under his Chatterbox Comix imprint. Like many other residents of Washington, DC, he is overeducated, works in a field at least peripherally related to the U.S. government, has a passion for DC United soccer, and a fondness for Ethiopian and Vietnamese cuisine. His amazing wife Rachel keeps him honest. For more, visit his blog while waiting for his upcoming website at www.chatterboxcomix.com.

Eric Kim (artist) was born in 1977 and learned to love drawing under coffee tables. He would eventually combine this love of drawing with his lifelong love of comics to create a super-ultimate-love that would rock the heavens. Eric attended Sheridan College, graduating from the Art Fundamentals program, the Interpretive Illustration program, and the Computer Animation post-graduate program. He began his career in visual effects, and has an IMDB entry for the two films he worked on: Hypercube: Cube 2 (coincidentally a hit in Korea, from what he understands), and Blizzard. Eric’s other credits include the TV show Veritas, and some storyboard work for some visual effects shots. A chance meeting with J. Torres in 2003 at the Toronto Comics Arts Festival led to their collaboration on Oni Press’s Love As A Foriegn Language and Eric’s involvement in the world of comics. He has been grateful ever since for getting a chance to express his super-ultimate-love. For more, visit www.inkskratch.com.

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Category: Vulture Gulch and Other Stories

What is ‘Stuck’?

Posted by ChrisArrant on Saturday, August 5 2006 at 10:10 am

A story of tragedy and the human condition, set on one car of New York City’s N Train. Each chapter focuses on an individual passenger and his or her respective “Last Night.” Told in a similar fashion to TV’s Lost, Stuck is a story that has resonance and relevance in today’s post 9/11 world. The story begins with bartender, Eric Pitzer, and his search for a new job. When the train gets stuck on the Manhattan Bridge, Eric’s only concern is that he’ll miss his interview appointment.

That will be the least of his worries.

“Vito threw two choices at me,” says Williams, (No Dead Time, SPB: Rise!). “Both were really great concepts. It was hard to choose but I knew I wanted to sign on. We’ve got a pretty strong group of contributors and I can’t wait to see what they all come up with.”

Vito Delsante (writer), while new to the comics industry, has already worked on two comic book icons: Batman in Batman Adventures (DC) and Wolverine in X-men Unlimited (Marvel). He has also written a Johnny Bravo story for Cartoon Network Block Party and Scooby Doo (DC Comics). He is currently working with artist Mike Lilly (Nightwing, Vampirella) on The Mercury Chronicles, a creator-owned homage to the Golden Age of Comic and is developing many more creator-owned concepts with other artists. He is still hard at work on his novel, Swimsuit Calendar, which is currently in active development as a motion picture. For more, visit www.sinstudiosonline.com.

Tom Williams (artist) is a freelancer/creator based out of Columbus, Ohio. Tom holds a BFA in Visual Communications from the Columbus College of Art and Design. While freelancing, he’s been self-publishing here and there. In 2002 He was awarded the Day Prize for best self-published comic (awarded by Dave Sim). Credits include No Dead Time (Oni Press), S.P.B.:Rise!, and various anthologies including Panel. For more, visit www.opencrashcomics.com.

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Category: Stuck

What is ‘Todt Hill’?

Posted by ChrisArrant on Friday, August 4 2006 at 9:12 pm

Yesterday, Mike and Gil Tompkins, newly arrived on the isolated island of Todt Hill, found a secret map and alongside a zombie mechanic, a Mafia princess and the smallest pirate in the world are out to find a treasure that will heal their community and reunite them with the rest of America.

Neil Kleid (writer) is the Xeric-Award winning cartoonist of Ninety Candles, a graphic novella about life, death, legacy and comics, & Brownsville, a graphic novel about the Jewish mafia with Jake Allen for NBM Publishing. He moved to NYC from his hometown of Oak Park, MI, and created minicomics and cartoons for anthologies and magazines, Neil has written for Marvel Comics, Image Comics, NBM, Slave Labor Graphics, Alternative Comics and Puffin Graphics. In his day job as a graphic designer, Neil’s worked on campaigns for Comedy Central and Miramax Films and his work has appeared in Variety and the New York Times. For more, visit www.rantcomics.com.
Kevin Colden (artist) has been writing and drawing comics for most of his life, professionally since 2001. He lives in New York City, and spends his time away from the drawing board making films and TV shows. Someday he will be worth a million dollars. For more, visit www.kevincolden.com.

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Category: Todt Hill

What is ‘1 Way Ticket’?

Posted by ChrisArrant on Friday, August 4 2006 at 8:39 pm

If you have ever carved a band logo into a desk, If you decided what instrument to play based on what was needed to make a band with your friends, if you know who would be in the ‘Special Thanks’ liner notes of your debut album, if you have ever closed your eyes and imagined yourself surrounded by thousands of screaming fans — 1 Way Ticket is the one for you.

“Depicting music in comics is a huge challenge,” says Warner, Xeric Award Winner and Creator of Slave Labor Graphics series Cocopiazo. “You usually see some musical notes, or lyrics written in wavy lines—it’s all very flaccid. Chris and I decided we needed something more visceral. What we came up with has sharp emotional claws. I’m eager to see how readers will respond.”

In addition to the weekly updating webcomic, Chris and Dan will be using a public workblog at 1wt_liner_notes.livejournal.com.

Chris Arrant (writer) is a freelance writer of comics, books, magazines and websites. He is the writer of the 2006 comic anthology Four Stories, and has written for Publisher’s Weekly, TOKYOPOP.com, Newsarama.com and more. For more, visit www.chrisarrant.com.
Daniel Warner (artist) a.k.a. The Hudson Mangler a.k.a. Mistuh D is the next big thing in comics. That’s a fact, Jack. Past Credits: Xeric Winner and Creator of SLG series COCOPIAZO. For more, visit www.danielwarner.net.

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Category: 1 Way Ticket

Inaugural Press Release - 8.2.06

Posted by ChrisArrant on Wednesday, August 2 2006 at 10:02 am

PRESS RELEASE

THE CHEMISTRY SET is a collective of writers and artists, including several Xeric Award winners, pooling their talent to provide readers with free weekly comics at the website www.chemsetcomics.com starting Monday, August 7. The stories will be in a variety of genres, including fantasy, thriller, Western, and straight-up adventure, and the collaborators aim to provide something for everybody.

Each of the collaborative teams will debut their comic on the August 7 launch date, following up quickly with additional pages throughout the first week, before moving to their regular page-per-week release schedule. “We want to get our hooks in you and not let go!” says CHEMISTRY SET member Chris Arrant (FOUR STORIES).
The idea for THE CHEMISTRY SET was born with Vito Delsante (BATMAN ADVENTURES, FALLOUT). “The Chemistry Set came from two separate conversations; one with Neil Kleid (BROWNSVILLE, NINETY CANDLES) and one with Chris Arrant,” says Delsante. “We all seemed to want that grassroots kind of ‘back to our roots’ movement that Dean Haspiel and the ACT-I-VATE crew have, but the three of us are all writers. So we decided to focus on the collaboration…the CHEMISTRY, so to speak, between an artist and a writer.” Before long, Delsante had recruited the rest of the SET.
So why webcomics? Simple economics. As several SET members can attest, print self-publishing is expensive, and its reach is limited, as compared to the internet. “Webcomics are the future of the serial comic, and I believe they will eventually supplant the ‘floppy’,” says SET member Kevin Colden (HOUSE OF TWELVE, TRUE PORN 2). “Of course, it may be some time before computers become small enough to make for convenient bathroom reading.”
No matter what you read or where you choose to read it, THE CHEMISTRY SET will provide something to your taste. For more information about each of the stories and their creators, look no further:
THE CHEMISTRY SET: FIVE DAYS OF FREE COMICS
MONDAY: STUCK (Vito Delsante and Tom Williams) A story of tragedy and the human condition, set on one car of New York City’s N Train. Each chapter focuses on an individual passenger and his or her respective “Last Night.” Told in a similar fashion to TV’s Lost, STUCK is a story that has resonance and relevance in today’s post 9/11 world.
“Vito threw two choices at me,” says Williams, (NO DEAD TIME, SPB:RISE!). “Both were really great concepts. It was hard to choose but I knew I wanted to sign on. We’ve got a pretty strong group of contributors and I can’t wait to see what they all come up with.”
TUESDAY: VULTURE GULCH and OTHER STORIES (Jim Dougan and others) New Mexico – 1875. Dr. Clem Cooper has the busy job of undertaker in Vulture Gulch, a raucous Wild West town, and with a personality that’s part Lt. Columbo and part John Constantine, he’s a burr in the saddle of the bad guys who come looking for trouble. Throw in sexy outlaw Molly Hill and her gang, and you’ve got a recipe for excitement!
“I’m an anomaly among the SET,” says Dougan (CRAZY PAPERS). “The others are hatching ongoing stories, while I’m presenting a series of shorter stories with a variety of amazing collaborators. The primary focus will be VULTURE GULCH, including stories from Eric Kim (LOVE AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE), Christine Norrie (CHEAT, HOPELESS SAVAGES), and Michel Fiffe (ACT-I-VATE). But that’s not all! In addition to VG, you can also look forward to romance, comedy, noir - you name it – including a spellbinding story drawn by recent SVA graduate Hyeondo Park (DE-ACT-I-VATE). THE CHEMISTRY SET is an opportunity for me to work with terrific collaborators and to tell shorter stories that might not find a home elsewhere.”
WEDNESDAY: 1 WAY TICKET (Chris Arrant and Dan Warner) If you have ever carved a band logo into a desk, If you decided what instrument to play based on what was needed to make a band with your friends, if you know who would be in the ‘Special Thanks’ liner notes of your debut album, if you have ever closed your eyes and imagined yourself surrounded by thousands of screaming fans — this one’s for you.
“Depicting music in comics is a huge challenge,” says Warner, Xeric Award Winner and Creator of Slave Labor Graphics series COCOPIAZO. “You usually see some musical notes, or lyrics written in wavy lines—it’s all very flaccid. Chris and I decided we needed something more visceral. What we came up with has sharp emotional claws. I’m eager to see how readers will respond.”
THURSDAY: SCHEHERAZADE (Elizabeth Genco and Adam Boorman) A modern urban tapestry woven from old magic and old stories. It’s a sheltered young woman in a house without windows, peeling back the blinders and throwing open the shutters. It’s the tale of a dying man and his last victim, whose stories just might help him find the redemption he craves
Says Genco: “The basic idea for SCHEHERAZADE hit me like the proverbial ton of bricks from my subconscious, shortly after my husband Leland [Purvis] began posting his stuff on ACT-I-VATE. The next bricks had Boorman’s name all over them. I knew I had to make it happen somehow, if Adam was up for it. Then Vito teased me at an ACT-I-VATE party about ’something’ he wanted to get me in on, and, well… that whole bricks thing? Not an accident.”
FRIDAY: TODT HILL (Neil Kleid and Kevin Colden)
Todt Hill is a tale of ancient treasure, insular societies, immortal greed and the infinite possibilities of youth. Yesterday, Mike and Gil Tompkins, newly arrived on the isolated island of Todt Hill, found a secret map and alongside a zombie mechanic, a Mafia princess and the smallest pirate in the world. They are out to find a treasure that will heal their community and reunite them with the rest of America.
Says Kleid: “Ever since the initial PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN flick hit me on the back of the skull and made me yearn for a yarn of adventure and high seas, I knew I would one day write TODT HILL. A weekend visit to my wife’s hometown of Staten Island only confirmed set of place when we tooled through a patchwork community easily set adrift in the waters near the New York/New Jersey mainland if only someone removed the bridges. When Vito cornered me in a darkened pub on a night dedicated to serialized webcomics and laid out a grand plan to tell ongoing collaborative comics and asked if I had anything brewing, I immediately flashed on the tale of Todt Hill, hidden Peruvian treasure, Corporate Pirates, Mafia shakedowns and a child’s quest for adventure and excitement.”
–
So check out www.chemsetcomics.com on August 7 and join the experiment!
–
For more information on the creators:
MONDAY: STUCK
Vito Delsante
http://www.sinstudiosonline.com
vito.delsante@gmail.com
Tom Williams
http://www.opencrashcomics.com
t_bill23@hotmail.com
TUESDAY: VULTURE GULCH and other stories
Jim Dougan
http://chatterbox-dc.livejournal.com
chatterbox.comix@gmail.com
WEDNESDAY: 1 WAY TICKET
Chris Arrant
http://www.chrisarrant.com
chris@chrisarrant.com

Daniel Warner

http://www.danielwarner.net

dan@danielwarner.net
THURSDAY: SCHEHERAZADE
Elizabeth Genco
http://www.elizabethgenco.com
elizabeth.genco@gmail.com
Adam Boorman
http://boorman.livejournal.com.
FRIDAY: TODT HILL
Neil Kleid
http://www.rantcomics.com
neilkleid@gmail.com
Kevin Colden
http://www.kevincolden.com
kevin@kevincolden.com

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Category: Publicity

THE CHEMISTRY SET is a collective of comic creators, exploring what happens when they throw their talents together in the cause of fresh, new, unexpected work. Sometimes we get beautiful synthesis. Sometimes we get explosions. But in every case, we get new comics, delivered every day by talented up-and-coming creators, including three Xeric Award winners.


Always free, and just for you.


Be part of the experiment here on THE CHEMISTRY SET.