Thanks again for stopping by.

Now for the bad news. This is the last FCHS strip we will be posting, but it’s all for a good reason. Rachel and I got an offer to publish an FCHS comic and we’ve accepted! Who is the publisher? Well, that will remain a secret for the time being as we still have to work out some particulars. One thing of note is that when FCHS returns next year as a comic, what you see then will not be what you’ve seen here. Yep, we’re going to change some things, start a little earlier in the school year, and fill in all that backstory that you (and we) didn’t know existed. This is a fantastic opportunity and we both hope you will all still encourage and follow us in this new endeavor.

It’s funny. When we started this webstrip, I wanted to go 52 weeks straight (actually, we would have gone past 52). 33 straight weeks is not a bad way to go out. It equals out to 11 pages, which is half of a typical comic, so we did a real good job. Credit where it’s due…Rachel, having never done much in the way of comics, really stepped it up and really knocked it out of the park. As I said to the publisher, if not for her, I don’t think we would have gotten the offer. Not bad for a kid with no formal art training, huh?

So, before we get teary, thanks for following a very personal story. We’ll see you back at FCHS in comic shops next year!

-Vito Delsante (the writer) and Rachel Freire (the artist)

PS - If YOU want to be a part of the new comic, we WILL be utilizing a letters page. Email us at vito at incogvito dot com or rachel at rvfreire dot com with your letters! Send your letters in NOW!

It looks like we’ve got a lot more readers hitting the site today than usual, so welcome to the Chemistry Set!

Once you’re done seeing what all the hubbub was about with Jim Dougan’s story, “How I Lost My Shit at the Apple Store”, I’d like to encourage you to peruse the site and see what else we’ve got to offer! Complete stories are in the right-hand nav, under “Catch-Up Pages.”

Some of the regular features on the site are:

• Andrew Drilon’s genre-defying Kare-Kare Komiks;
• Dwight MacPherson’s two supernatural tales, The Surreal Adventures of Edgar Allan Poo and Kid Houdini;
• Andrew Foley’s corporate satire The Holiday Men;
• my series Styx Taxi, about NYC’s only taxi service for the dead;
• Elizabeth Genco’s dark fantasy tales, like Yes, Mother and Scheherazade;
• Vito Delsante’s nostalgic high-school strip FCHS;
• Tony Lee’s noir/superhero strip The Gloom;
• and Jim Dougan’s non-IT-oriented work, like Come the Dawn and Rest Stop.

THE PULSE’s Jennifer Contino talks to a roundtable of ChemSet creators about the upcoming NO FORMULA anthology. (Hint, hint: it’s in the June PREVIEWS, Diamond Order Code JUN083849).

http://www.comicon.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php/ubb/get_topic/f/36/t/007248.html

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 29, 2008

WEBCOMICS COLLECTIVE ‘THE CHEMISTRY SET’ JUMPS TO BOOKSHELVES IN AUGUST WITH DESPERADO’S ‘NO FORMULA’

August 2008 marks the print debut of the webcomics collective The Chemistry Set in an anthology collection from Desperado Publishing entitled ‘NO FORMULA: STORIES FROM THE CHEMISTRY SET, VOL.1′ (Diamond Order Code JUN083849), just in time for the Set’s two-year anniversary. “There’s no better way to celebrate our Terrible Twos than with a big release like this,” said Jim Dougan, an original ChemSetter approached by Desperado publisher Joe Pruett to edit the anthology. “The only problem was choosing from among the literally hundreds of pages of great comics we’ve got on the site. Joe wanted only self-contained stories, though, so while that unfortunately left out a lot of great stuff, it helped me narrow it down. Are these the best 120 pages of comics ever to appear at the ChemSet? No. Are they the 120 pages that fit together best as a book? I think so.”

NO FORMULA will feature 12 stories from the two-year history of the ChemSet, in both black-and-white and color, all under a gorgeous color cover by Hyeondo Park. The story contents, most of which can be previewed online at www.chemsetcomics.com, are:

“The System” by Tony Goins and Tom Williams

“Night’s Plutonian Shore” by Neil Kleid and jamesmith3

“Rest Stop” by Jim Dougan, Dean Haspiel and Michel Fiffe

“Red” by Elizabeth Genco and Kevin Colden

“Snowblind” by Chris Arrant and Jessica Hickman

“The Legend of Caraboy” by Andrew Drilon

“Yes, Mother” by Elizabeth Genco and Sami Makkonen

“I’m Madly in Love” by Vito Delsante and Michel Fiffe

“Grinwit” by Andrew Drilon

“Dinner Date #9″ by Steven Goldman and Rami Efal

“Come the Dawn” by Jim Dougan and Hyeondo Park

“Rosa” by Steven Goldman and Rami Efal

“Joe Pruett has been an extraordinary supporter of the ChemSet virtually since its inception, and NO FORMULA is just an outgrowth of that,” said Dougan. “At least half a dozen issues of NEGATIVE BURN have featured ChemSetters, and in July we’ve got the graphic novel BLUE (Diamond order code MAY083778) coming from Elizabeth [Genco] and Sami [Makkonen], who also have a short story together in NO FORMULA. The relationship with Desperado is something we’re thankful for, and hope will continue to grow (thus the perhaps-optimistic ‘Vol.1′ in the title). For that to happen, folks need to go out and buy the books, though – so please pre-order your copies!”

NO FORMULA is found on page 256 of the June PREVIEWS (for comics shipping in August) - conveniently right next to the short order form.

Official Solicitation Text:

Haunting. Humorous. Harrowing. Those are just some of the words to describe the short stories compiled in this inaugural collection from the international comics collective the Chemistry Set. Founded in 2006, the Chemistry Set has served as the breeding ground for tomorrow’s comic all-stars and includes three Xeric Award winners. Combining talents from America, Australia, Europe and Asia, their chemistry together is seen in stories that range from the heartfelt to the horrifying, from the mythological to the macabre.

NO FORMULA: STORIES FROM THE CHEMISTRY SET, VOL.1
Color / B&W, 120 pp. 6in x. 9in.
Price: $16.99
Diamond Order Code: JUN083849
ISBN-10: 1935002090
ISBN-13: 978-1935002093

–
For further information, please contact Jim Dougan at chatterbox.comix@gmail.com

www.chemsetcomics.com
www.desperadopublishing.com

My friendly local retailer tells me that May 27 is the cutoff date for May orders. So if you haven’t yet pre-ordered BLUE, now’s the time. :)

You can see previews online at The Beat, Stainless Steel Droppings, and (of course) at Newsarama.

Oh yeah! Pages are also available on the BLUE blog, here.

The order code is MAY083778. Here’s the real cover:

hugs & snuggles,
Elizabeth & Sami

TODAY, May 14, marks my first work on a major title (a true franchise title).  SUPERMAN #676 is in stores NOW!

Over on zee Facebook, I started a group called “Help Sell Out SUPERMAN #676.”  The point of it is to create awareness among the comic book buying/reading public and also, to send a statement to DC and, you know, maybe help me get some more work up there :).  If you’re on Facebook, please join the group and add me to your friends.  This is a true grass roots movement, and I need everyone’s help.  If you’re already in the group, thanks!  To get to the group, just click the cover image above.

I really appreciate the help.  If we all mobilize, we can make a real difference in this industry.  Let’s show them what we can do.

Titans Together!

Tonight in NYC, I’m doing a signing at Jim Hanley’s Universe with Joe Kubert, among others.  I hope you’ll stop by!

Not to these digs at the moment, unfortunately, but to your favorite comics shop in July! Look for our first graphic novel, BLUE, in the May ish of PREVIEWS, courtesy of Desperado.

We’re going to be doing a lot of promo for this book. We’ll be here, there and everywhere, but the center of it all will be the new BLUE blog:

http://bluecomics.blogspot.com

Sketches, stories, backstage passes, dancing girls, and popcorn will all be posted on the blog at some point or another. So add it to your readers, please and thanks.

I’m wigglin’! I’m wigglin’!

This month, COME THE DAWN’s Hyeondo Park and I and our new romance/adventure comic SAM & LILAH are entrants in Zuda Comics’ online competition. For those of you new to the Zuda thing, each month the editors at Zuda (a part of world-famous DC Comics – you know, Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman) select 10 comics that folks can go online to read, vote for, favorite, hug, kiss, you name it. The comic receiving the most votes wins the competition, along with a contract, and continues its story on the Zuda site for the next year.

Hyeondo and I would be eternally indebted to you if you would be so kind as to head on over, check out the comic, and if you be so inclined, vote for us, leave a comment, and add us to your favorites. You *do* have to be a registered Zuda user to vote, comment, and favorite (it’s an easy process), but it won’t cost you anything but your time.

Please click the banner below:

Vote for LOVE!

Vote for ADVENTURE!

Vote for CUPCAKES!

Vote for SAM & LILAH!

Many thanks,
Jim D. and Hyeondo P.

SAM & LILAH ’08: LOVE WE CAN BELIEVE IN

Tom Williams and I, the creators of “Styx Taxi: Federico,” are hitting our respective hometown indie cons of kickassery this weekend!

Tom Williams will be exhibiting at SPACE (Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo) in Columbus, OH, this Saturday and Sunday (with afterparty at Momo2 on Saturday night):

At roughly the same time, I’ll be exhibiting at STAPLE!, Austin’s own Independent Media Expo — with my friends Paul Maybury (AQUA LEUNG, PARTY BEAR) and Nikki Cook (DOG’S DAY END, THE WINGS OF JUANO DIOZ) — this Saturday, from 11AM ’til 6 or so at the Monarch Events Center! The special guest this year is Brian Wood, the pre-party is Friday 8PM-11PM at Austin Books, and the afterparty + live art show is 10PM-2AM Saturday night at Red’s Scoot Inn (4th St @ Navasota)!

If you’re in either city, drop by and share the love!

For your consideration:

Ripped from the pages of The Chemistry Set! These books should be coming out in the next few months or so (actual release dates are a bit squishy, I’m afraid):

NEGATIVE BURN #16 (Diamond Code: OCT073437)

Featuring THE GENTLEMAN by Jim Dougan and Umberto Torricelli


Cover by Jordan Raskin

NEGATIVE BURN #17 (Diamond Code: NOV073494)
Featuring OSCAR CHAVEZ, MACHISMO MONITOR by Jim Dougan and Roger Langridge

Cover by Dean Haspiel and Kat Roberts

Ask your local comic shop retailer to save you one, won’t you please? Like I’ve said before: why read something for free on the internet when you can pay for it?

And yes! For the three of you who’ve been wondering, I will have new comics on the ChemSet in 2008. I promise (or threaten, depending on your point of view…)