Derek McCulloch is an award-winning writer of
graphic novels and other stuff. Check this site regularly for news on
upcoming projects and appearances.
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New Stuff:
Mission Comics Signing and PUG Reviews
This Saturday, August 21,
Mission Comics in San Francisco will host me, Greg Espinoza, and Shepherd Hendrix in a signing for PUG. And just in time for that, we've had three great reviews of the book pop up:
Ain't It Cool News (scroll way way down to the "Cheap Shots" section): "A modern classic...this is definitely one not to miss."
ComicBookCollectorsBlog: "9.4 out of 10."
iFanboy: "Really impressive...It feels a bit like we've unearthed some gem from the past that was made 40 years ago, but just never published. 4 Stars."
Pug! Comicon!
Tomorrow is also the first day - or Preview Night, rather - of Comicon, which will always be San Diego Con to me. I will be at the Image booth (#2729) from Wednesday night through Sunday afternoon, sitting next to Jimmie Robinson, my esteemed collaborator on T. Runt! and "The Last Bus Home," from Image's Spearmint anthology. I will have a big stack of PUGs in front of me, along with copies of Stagger Lee, T. Runt!, and Stories of a Callow Youth, and will be more than happy to sell them, sign them, whatever you want. If I'm away from the table, you can look for Greg Espinoza, PUG artist, at space FF-12 in artists' alley. He'll have copies of PUG too. AND, if you can't find Greg, go look for the Iron Giant, Shepherd Hendrix, at the Viking Warrior booth, #2204. Shep is not only the Eisner-nominated artist of Stagger Lee, he also did an art assist on PUG. He won't have any copies of PUG with him, but he's a nice guy, so you should let him tell you all about his new book, Reconcilers. But if Shep's not there, just head back to the Image booth and hang out with Jimmie. Everybody should hang out with Jimmie at least once during Comicon.
Oh - I forgot to update about our release party last week at Comic Relief. It went splendidly, thank you. We sold out our stack of PUGs and also sold out the store's stock of Stagger Lee and T. Runt!. If you're in the East Bay, stop by Comic Relief and remind them to reorder everything!
I think I'm going to take a stab at liveblogging for Comicon. I probably won't put the updates on this site, but if you want to see if I really follow through on this, check the
Stagger Lee blog starting tomorrow evening.
Pug Release Update, Pug Release Party
Here I am once more a day late and a dollar short with the
announcements. But I hope not TOO late -
After inevitable but
unavoidable delays, PUG will be hitting stores on July 21. But we're
still having a release party the week before that. The official PUG
release party for PUG will be this coming Wednesday, July 14, from 4 to 7
p.m. at Comic Relief, 2026 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, CA. Greg
Espinoza and I will both be there, signing a limited number of copies of
the book. Come early, bring friends, and tell everyone you know about
it!
More info here.
Pug Release, Stagger Lee Reaches a Milestone, and I Find a New Career
One of the benefits of forgetting to update my site regularly is that whenever I finally get around to doing it, there's always a lot of news....
* PUG: Pug has printed and has begun its slow journey by ship to distribution channels and retail outlets near you. It's currently scheduled to hit stores on July 14. I received my advance copy yesterday and couldn't be happier. See
here if you don't believe me.
* STAGGER LEE: Also this week, I received my first royalty check for Stagger Lee. As I said at the time, "Seven years from conception to publication, four years after that to profit -- it's a crazy get slightly ahead really really slowly scheme!"
* MUSICAL THEATRE: Musical whuh? Yes, graphic novels to stage musicals is not a typical career path, but that seems to be the one I'm on. I'm co-writing the book for a musical to be produced off-Broadway in about a year and a half. This is a very exciting opportunity and I'm working with people of great renown. More details to come as they become revealable.
First Pug Review
Jason Sacks of Comics Bulletin has written the first review of PUG, and
it's a very positive one. Check it out
here.
Pug Odds and Pods
In case it had escaped your notice, PUG was resolicited and can
be found on page 185 of the April Diamond catalog. The book is
finished, done, ready to go, no chance of further delay (at least not on
our end). It should be in stores at the end of June/start of July. I
don't know the exact ship date yet, but will update when I do.
A
little bit of buzz has already commenced for the book. Rich Watson
talks the book up here
and there's a podcast interview with Derek and Greg here (our
interview starts at about 28:40).
Here are the awesome back jacket
quotes we have so far:
“PUG is the sweet, sad fable of a fall—not only the
fall of
a once-mighty boxer, but of a half-remembered America, a vanished
underworld, a
certain class of thug and loser and dreamer, in the twilight of the
1950s—all
told with subtlety and grace and a clear fondness for urban texture.”
--Gerard Jones, Men of
Tomorrow - Geeks, Gangsters and
the Birth of the Comic Book; The
Trouble With Girls
"PUG Is GREAT!!!! I was hooked
from the first page. I
loved the lingo, I raced to the end: good, solid payoff. The plot
appears
not complex, then delivers a LOT of story. The pages zipped by!"
-- Michael Wm. Kaluta, Starstruck, The Shadow
"Derek
McCulloch has an unmatched talent for capturing character voice
and nuance. I 'hear' dialogue and inflection as I read, much as I would
while reading a well-written play. Greg Espinoza's graphics are clear
and simple, but convey great depths of character. Pug is beautifully
crafted and moving."
-- Colleen Doran, A Distant Soil.
PopGun #4 Out on Wednesday!
Hey! PopGun 4 hits stores this Wednesday! It features "Harshing the
Mellow" by me & Anthony Peruzzo -- actually my favourite thing I've
done for PopGun so far. Go buy!
http://www.popguncomics.com/.
Fractured Fables, Pug, and a new prose book!
So much news, so much time spent not delivering it.
First thing: Silverline books, the publisher of T. Runt!, will be publishing Fractured Fables, an anthology of goofy takes on classic fairy tales. Anthony Peruzzo and I have contributed "Raponsel," the first page of which is reproduced in the link above. I'm not sure of the publication date for the full Fractured Fables anthology, but an excerpt of the book will be Image's "Gold" release for Free Comic Book Day, which falls this year on May 1st. "Raponsel" is one of the stories that was selected for inclusion in the FCBD edition--along with a cover by Mike and Laura Allred and stories by Bryan Talbot, Doug
TenNapel, Ted McKeever, Camilla d'Errico, Christian Ward, and Alexander
Grecian.
Second thing: I am happy to report that at least one of my long-delayed "next" graphic novels is nearing completion. Artwork for Pug is done. We're doing a little production work and expect to have the book in stores also for Free Comic Book Day. (This one's not free, though.)
Third thing: If you've been waiting impatiently for the chance to read prose stories I wrote a long time ago, your moment is at hand!
Stories from a Callow Youth is now available in print-on-demand from CreateSpace, a division of Amazon. Thrill to the pulse-poundingly narrow worldview of a 20-something man who, when asked what he did with his time, honestly replied, "Mostly, I drink, I shoot pool, I play a little cards."
iFanboy Pug Review
ComicBookCollectorsBlog Pug Review
Ain't It Cool News Pug Review (scroll down to "Cheap Shots" section)
iFanboy Pug Preview
Comics Bulletin Review of Pug.
Pacifica Tribune T. Runt! Article
Interview with Derek up on Newsarama.
Interview with Derek and Shep up on The Pulse.
Interview with Derek up on Comics Bulletin 
