31 Days of Dracula | All-Action Classics (2008)

Ben Caldwell’s version of Dracula may just be my favorite representation yet. He strikes just the right balance between seductive and menacing. I’ve never seen anyone pull that off before. As we've seen this month, the Count is usually either horrendous and disfigured or he’s dapper and handsome. Caldwell’s design with its switch-thin frame and terrible, crooked teeth leans toward the horrendous, but Dracula’s body language conveys a confident, powerful, compelling presence. Caldwell’s Dracula can seduce, but it’s a seduction based on the vampire’s awful will rather than romance.

The lettering in All-Action Classics: Dracula helps with this image too. The tails on Dracula’s word balloons don’t point straight at him like everyone else’s in the book. They curl and wind, suggesting a silky, hypnotic voice.

Seriously, if you consider yourself a fan of the character and Bram Stoker's novel, do yourself a favor and check out this version.

Wonder Woman hates cephalopods

I know I've shared this piece by the awesome Ben Caldwell before (probably a couple of times), but I don't remember if it's been an Official Everyone Hates Cephalopods entry. Even if it has, I'm making it one again because I love it so. Thanks once more to Ben for giving it to me.

Wonder Woman hates cephalopods. (Thanks, Ben Caldwell!)

I mentioned yesterday that Ben Caldwell gave me a really cool birthday gift at Comic-Con. This is it: Wonder Woman chopping the hell out of a cephalopod. Thanks again, Ben! It's almost as awesome as you are.

So, Mike, how was Comic-Con?

It was really awesome! We (Diane, David, and I) went with some friends of ours and stayed the whole week at a beach house near Mission Bay, about 20 minutes northeast of the convention center, so it was a few days of relaxing on the beach in southern California followed by a few days of insane convention chaos. Jolting, but totally fun.

Saturday

We flew in on Saturday and explored the area around our place, which was full of excellent restaurants and of course, the beach.



It was David's first time seeing the Pacific Ocean and my first time actually getting wet in it. I forget if Diane had been there before or not, but I don't think so. We took our first dip that night after getting some excellent Greek food at Arslan's Gyros. It's a great restaurant with a lot of atmosphere and an extremely friendly and helpful staff.

Writing is Hard: Get your dress dirty

Photo by Michelle Kennedy.

The only reason you need to follow Ben Caldwell's blog is the art he puts up there, but lately he's been doing some great process posts too. A lot of them are about design and visual storytelling, but last week he talked about some things that apply to writing too. In discussing creative block, he said:

start drawing/writing whatever is giving you trouble, without trying to make it good. even if you throw away everything you just did, at least you'll have done SOMETHING, and at least clarified certain things you DON'T want to have. it's always easier to fix something that exists, than worry about something that doesn't. also, no one ever accomplished something by not doing it.

if you're working on a script or drawing and unsure how to get past a certain point, then save a copy of whatever you're doing, then go ahead and finish it however the hell you want. follow your ideas through to their logical conclusion, because this can help you see if perhaps you were asking yourself the wrong questions in the first place -- which is the best way to get the wrong answers.

Writer Angela Booth describes this as "making mud."

Writing is creative work, not typing. [...] I look on my first drafts of all writing as making mud -- making a mess. You've got to get some words written so you know what you're thinking about a topic, and you can't know until you write it.

I love that analogy and it's helped me a lot with Kill All Monsters. I'm not as obsessed about turning in a perfect draft to James (my editor), because I know that it's just the material that I'm building the actual story with. I also love what Ben adds to that point: that the process of creating mud and playing in it is also educational. It's the creative equivalent of Edison's famous statement about knowing a thousand ways not to build a lightbulb.

Basically, it's about fearlessness. It's a cheap kind of fearlessness, because it doesn't even require showing your practice stuff to anyone else, but it's still important. Every creator either admits to struggling with doubts about his or her work, or is a big fat liar. So anything that helps deal with that fear - however small - is valuable.

EXCLUSIVE(ish?): Ben Caldwell's Atlantean war machines

It's probably obvious by now that I'm a big fan of Ben Caldwell's work. From his All-Action Classics comics (especially Dracula!) to his Wonder Woman story for Wednesday Comics to his recent re-release of The Dare Detectives, I can't get enough of his energetic, imaginative, animated style. So I got very excited when he emailed me this concept art for a new story he's working on in addition to his other gigs.

As Ben explained it, it's "about a superhero from Atlantis. This is how the Atlanteans depict two of their ancient war machines. Like everything else I do, it would involve violence-prone girls and lost civilizations and secret societies with super-weapons. Thought you might enjoy them." He knows me well.

Anyway, I thought you might enjoy them too, so I asked if I could share them and Ben said, "Sure!" Like I said, Ben's working on this around other projects, so there's no planned completion date or anything, but it's yet another awesome comic to look forward to.

Ben Caldwell continues to be Awesome

I've been a fan of Ben Caldwell's stuff since I discovered it in All-Action Dracula last year. He's also got a love for Wonder Woman that I can relate to. He did the Wonder Woman story for Wednesday Comics and created that cool pitch for a manga-inspired Wonder Woman comic that everyone wishes would become real.

But more than a Ben Caldwell Wonder Woman comic, I'd love to read these creator-owned ideas he's working on for next year. There's a new Dare Detectives book in the works featuring tiki zombies and kissing. Interestingly enough, I like both of those things.

But he also wants to do more manga-type stuff featuring "larger than life superheroines and crazy international intrigue" where "anything could totally happen so you better just smile and go with it." He also drops the phrase, "time-traveling cyber-crocodile jetbike." Publishers, I would like a new Ben Caldwell book every week for at least the next five years. Please get on that.