Derek McCulloch's Blog

Image Comics has posted a 21-page preview of Displaced Persons.  Click here to check it out!  And be sure to tell your local comic shop you want to see it - the Diamond Order Code is JUN140499, and the last day for orders is Monday, July 14!

The first review of Displaced Persons Is up - check it out! "...a mind-bending generational noir...you have to read it more than once."

Displaced Persons artist Anthony Peruzzo has kindly put together this pre-order form, the very thing to help you ensure you get your copy of this monumental OGN promptly at its August release.  Just print the form, fill it out, and turn it in to you local comics shop!

 

Image Comics' solicitations for August 2014 have hit Diamond Previews, and the Displaced Persons OGN is among them!  Our Item Code is JUN140499.  Contact your retailer today to reserve your copy!

Well, that was an awfully short period of teasing...but Image Comics has officially announced the upcoming publication of Displaced Persons, my long-long overdue graphic novel about San Francisco in the 20th century, drawn by the almost offensively talented Anthony Peruzzo.

I started working on Displaced Persons in the late 90s. I finished the script in mid-2007. And now here, at many longs last, it���s finally coming out. It may be the comics script I���ve written that I���m happiest with, and Anthony has done phenomenal work translating it to the page. You should drop whatever you���re doing and go, right now, before you forget, to your local comics shop, and tell them to order this book for you. Or, if you don���t want to go to all the effort of standing up, just click on the Amazon link in the panel on the right and pre-order.

I expect I'll be posting more stuff here about the project in the coming months, so keep coming back for news!

If you were looking at the Image Comics website and/or social media this past week, you might have seen this and this and this.  One blogger did a little poking about and figured out this.  If you've been following my career plod over the years, you might have already figured out a little bit more.  Keep watching the Image page and this page.  More announcements will be coming.

Pleased and proud to see Gone to Amerikay making some Best-of lists for the previous year.  I already mentioned our appearance on School Library Journal's list of Best Adult Books for Teens.  Since then, GTA showed up on CBR, in Greg Burgas' list of the Best Comics of 2012, and this blogger picked GTA as THE best comic of 2012.  Thanks to everybody who's been so kind in their estimation of our little book.

* As often seems to be the case, my "New Stuff" is pretty old -- but I was still quite proud a month or two back when School Library Journal included Gone to Amerikay on their list of the Best Adult Books for Teens for 2012.

* I found this out completely by accident last month - apparently there's a Spanish edition of Gone to Amerikay coming out in February. Unless I'm completely forgetting something, this is the first time my work's been translated into another language, and I'm thrilled and a little disoriented by it.

* And domestically, the paperback edition of Gone to Amerikay will be released this summer. It's already up on Amazon for pre-release orders, so if you were waiting for the soft cover version, here it is.

* And speaking of Gone to Amerikay, which is all I seem to be doing -- I've resurrected a page of notes I wrote for the original release and posted them on a page here. It's a discussion of the historical characters who form the background for the 1870 and 1960 segments of Gone to Amerikay.

Stagger Lee shot Billy on Christmas night, and over on my Facebook page I'll be discussing a different version of the song every day for the month of December.  Go look!

It was quite a first week for our little book.  The launch party in New York was a great success, with good company, good music, good food, and a good bit of money raised for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.  In its first week of release, Gone to Amerikay got great reviews, great responses from fans, and cracked the Diamond top 50 Graphic Novels list for the month of March.  Some highlights are below.

* Ain't It Cool News gave Gone to Amerikay what can only be described as a rave review.

* Page 45 kind of liked it too.

* Vertigo editor Karen Berger posted some of Colleen's unpublished sample art (a piece I'd completely forgotten existed) and my historical notes (which got cut from the book for space).

* We got a great plug in the Pogues forum!

* Comics Bulletin, the site of GTA's very first review, ran interviews with both Colleen and me.

* CBLDF ran an article about the book launch, with many photos.  Photographer Paul Flannelly has put up a page of photos from the event as well..

* Ten lucky winners got free copies of Gone to Amerikay from Goodreads.  Congratulations to them!  Hope you all like the book.

* The Irish Sunday Times ran a big article on GTA!

* Largehearted Boy ran a "Book Notes" column by me.  This is where an author describes a "soundtrack" for their book.  In my case, I discussed all the songs that are quoted in Gone to Amerikay, and select versions of each for your listening pleasure.

* I did a podcast interview with Comic Geek Speak.

* A store in Northampton, MA, is doing a book club night for GTA on April 26!

* And, last, there was an article about the GTA book launch in The Irish Echo.

I think that's everything.  And if it isn't everything, it's enough for now!