New for 7-14-02

ITEM! Second issue has landed! Mike finished the artwork for issue 2 just in time for us to make some issues available at WizardWorld Chicago this year. We shared a table with Out in Comics and spent the weekend being silly, checking out the attractive comic book geeks and selling comics. In addition to the new #2, issue #1 has been reprinted with a new cover treatment. I'm putting the issues in a submission package that I'm submitting to Diamond for possible inclusion in PREVIEWS. If this goes through, then I'll be sending Captain Kinetic to press and publicizing the book nationally. (!) Wish me luck! I'll be posting images from the Con (as well as redesigning this page a bit) in the very near future.

ITEM! Komikwerks has begun publishing Captain Kinetic episodes, and they're up to episode 2! Head on over to the Komikwerks Captain Kinetic page to read the saga of Captain Kinetic in full, glorious color!

Click on the PayPal link below to buy the second issue!

New for 4-7-02

ITEM! Now that the first issue is in the can, focus is shifting to getting the second one done in time to publish for Comic Con International in San Diego. The second issue promises a lot more action, a lot more culture clash, and a surprise ending that turns a superhero cliche on it's ear. Watch for me (and maybe Mike, if he can escape from work for a while) on the convention floor.

ITEM! The good folks at Komikwerks will be publishing the full-color adventures of Captain Kinetic online! Contracts are being drawn up and sent, so watch for an announcement of the first episode soon.

New for 2-15-02

Captain Kinetic #1 Back CoverITEM! Well, it's been a long time coming, but the first issue of Captain Kinetic is DONE! I just got back from a trip to San Francisco where I attended the Alternative Press Expo as a creator for the first time and sold copies of the debut issue. I had a really great time; the book was well-received (I sold out of all the issues I prepared for the event!) and I'm already hard at work getting more scripts done and art assignments made. I have a gallery of images posted here on my rather poky auxilliary server. (Click the image to the right to download a PDF of the back cover comic strip!)

ITEM! The first issue is now for sale! The 28-page black-and-white edition sold at APE is $3 a copy plus a dollar to ship it to U.S. addresses. (If you're outside the U.S., shipping costs vary by country.) You can either send a check or money order to me (Charles "zan" Christensen, 596 W Hawthorne, #209, Chicago, IL 60657) or you can use PayPal. Just click the link below!

New for 8-6-01

ITEM! The ashcan preview book (see the link below!) was a big hit at the San Diego Con. So much so that a full size B&W preview of the first issue is being assembled for Wizard World this month.

ITEM! I put out a call on DigitalWebbing for artists to collaborate on an anthology book of shorter Captain Kinetic stories, and the response has been phenomenal! I sent out the first story treatment and job offer today.

Captain Kinetic is about a superhero from the forties—a comic book legend who hasn't been seen in over fifty years—returning to present-day Chicago and trying to pick up where he left off. As he tries to fit back into society, he deals with a nosy reporter who doesn't think he's being honest about his identity, a radical-left terrorist who's ready to destroy society to save it, and an assortment of his past comrades-at-arms, now in their golden years.

Captain Kinetic is equal parts humor, homage, and adventure. It isn't a Golden Age nostalgia trip, but it's not a savage deconstruction, either. It's an attempt to look into the mind of a hero and follow him on his journey from the past into the future. It's about letting go of ideas whose usefulness has ended. It's about standing firm for ideas whose virtue is timeless. It's about choosing one's own path. It's about right and wrong.

The series is written by zan and pencilled by Mike Franzese. The first issue is being inked by Mark "Ingy" Ingraham. The first issue is nearly complete, and pages for the second (inked by Mike) are starting to roll in, as well. We haven't hooked up with a publisher yet, so we're not sure when the first issue will come out. While you wait in anticipation, you can download a 12 page preview by clicking the link below!