Back From SDCC
July 17th, 2012

I'm back home from San Diego Comic-Con and I had a blast. A huge thank you to all my friends at Image Comics, Fantagraphics and Bolt City Productions, where I signed books and chatted with friends old and new. Here are a couple of pictures.

From left to right: Dave Roman, Me, Johane Matte, John Green and Raina Telgemeier having a hell of a time at the Boltcity Productions booth.

Signing at the Fantagraphics booth and chatting about comics with two Fez wearing chaps.


San Diego Comic-Con Signing Schedule
July 9th, 2012

I will be signing "The Saga of Rex" for Image Comics, and "Young Romance: The Best of Simon & Kirby's Romance Comics" for Fantagraphics.

I'll have some other goodies with me but if you plan to visit and have a request for other items or books (see ordering page from my website) you'd like me to bring (and dedicate), send me an email (gagneint@aol.com) before the end of Wednesday, 11th, and I'll do my best to bring it for you.

Hope to see you there!


ZED: A Cosmic Tale
July 3rd, 2012

I just wrapped up ZED: A Cosmic Tale, a 280-page graphic novel.

I self-published 10 issues of ZED in comic book form over the course of 11 years, and for the past five months, I’ve reworked, redrawn, re-scripted and expanded the whole series into a proper graphic-novel.

I sent the files today to digital print on demand service, Ka-Blam.com, so that I could get a nice mock-up of the book to send Image Comics.

Image did a good job publishing The Saga of Rex and I’m hoping they will be publishing ZED: A Cosmic Tale as well.

Now that the graphic novel is completed, I feel a little bit like ZED, on the last page of the story (see below).

Xeko: Back From the Brink
June 14th, 2012

In early 2005, I met Amy Tucker at the Emerald City Comic-Con. She pitched an idea to me about a game where you would teach kids (and adults) about ecology and endangered species: a trading card game with a social conscience. The whole thing revolved around a made-up mythology called Xeko (pronounced zeekoh). I loved the concept and immediately decided to collaborate on the project.

Since that first meeting, I've designed many of the aspects of the game including setting a visual style, doing a huge number of illustrations for the cards (with additional art from Travis & Jordan Kotzebue, Edward Pun and a few others), as well as designing several of the games components (icons, borders, box and packaging elements, etc...).

A couple of years ago, Xeko fell into financial hardship and it seemed like the game was going to go the same way as the animals it was trying to bring attention to: extinction. But thanks to Amy's relentless determination, Xeko is about to be making a comeback in a new digital form. To help realize her dream of bringing back Xeko from the brink, Amy has launched a Kickstarter campaign. Follow this link to find out more about the project and the campaign to revive it.

I recently dug up some never published Xeko illustrations I did shortly before the financial turmoil and added them to my Xeko art page (top row). I also still have some original Starter Kits, Booster Packs left (scroll to the bottom), as well as an art book of my Xeko illustrations if anyone is interested.


Win a Free Copy of ITSP
June 10th, 2012

For those who haven't tried ITSP on Xbox, here's your chance to do it for free:

Shadow Planet Productions and Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet are proud to be included in Xbox's Exclusive Prometheus content alongside some great alien-themed games! To celebrate, we are giving away 20 codes for a free copy of Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet on Xbox Live! To enter, follow @ShadowPlanet and retweet the message below:

RT to win a free copy of @ShadowPlanet in honor of the #Xbox @PrometheusMovie Alien-Game promo! Details: http://bit.ly/Nnwb7V #ITSPContest

One entry per person.  You must retweet before midnight pst June 14th.  The winners will be chosen at random on June 15th.

Upcoming Workshop in Montreal
May 24th, 2012

I've been busy putting together a full day workshop I'll be giving at Elite 2012: The Annual Convention in Animation, Visual Effects and Video Games which will take place at Centre NAD in Montreal, Canada, from May 23rd to June 1st. I essentially intend to present and discuss the whole process of my experience working on Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet from the origination of the idea all the way to getting the game completed and released. Should be lots of fun. I wish my partner Joe Olson, who co-created the game, could be there with me, but unfortunately, his schedule won't permit.

My workshop will take place on Monday, May 28th. Furthermore, on June 1st, I will be part of Indie Camp, a one-day workshop hosted by Jason Della Rocca and five guest speakers, that will cover the ins and outs of succeeding in the business of games, with a focus on indie developers.


Interview @ Reminisc3.com
May 14th, 2012

Check out this recent interview with Joe and I discussing ITSP.

BAFTA Arrives!
May 12th, 2012

I finally received my BAFTA in the mail. The British Academy awarded us two statuettes, one for Joe and one for me. So cool... and so heavy too!