Hello, Saturday night!
Whoa. Been a minute since I've been here. Give me a second to let my eyes adjust, yeah? Take in my surroundings. Who brought the beanbag chair? Weird.
So, hello, I'm Aaron Conaway—in the case that you stumbled upon this post late at night, maybe deep in your cups, or accidentally misthumbed your phone while swiping—and I create things. Stories, mostly. Sometimes attached to images painted by insanely talented cartoonists, other times coated with a mixed media scenario of my design.
I'm the creator of The Timberhaven Chronicles and The Michael Gideon Collection, both of which you can discover elsewhere on my site or wherever you shop for books online.
Okay, now that that's out of the way for any newbies, hello, everyone else! It's been far too long since I've updated on what's coming down the line from me, I know, partly due to life's ups and downs, partly due to the secrecy of certain projects, but also due to my being busy working on it all.
So, let's get started:
Darkmoon Comics founder Brandon Calloway has invited me to join his creative team! Brandon has big plans for Darkmoon Comics, and I'm honored he's asked me to take on a character at this, the unfolding of his universe.
And a comic from Darkmoon Comics is no joke. Coming in at sixty pages a book, Brandon plans to have each feel like you've watched a feature-length film by the story's end.
When Brandon presented some books I might write, I looked at the options and asked, "What are you thinking with Prometheus?"
"I've just always dug the character from mythology," Brandon said. Then he followed up with the question that any good founder and EIC of a comic company would ask one of their writers: "What would you do with Prometheus?"
Brandon dug my pitch, and here we are.
And what's in my Prometheus stew, you might be asking? Well, it will have a dash of Gaiman's Sandman mixed with the original The Highlander flick for a base. Then, spiced with Fincher's SE7EN and Kerouac's And The Hippos Were Boiled In Their Tanks and just the smallest pinch of DC's Underworld Unleashed.
Anyhow, I'll update you with news as it happens.
Check Darkmooncomics.com for more information about the universe in general!
Giant-Size '63 Fan Project
Out of the minds of the Cartoonist Kayfabe Ringside Seats community and being put together by William Hoffknecht and 100% Comics, my best friend and frequent collaborator Daniel Moler and I jumped at the chance to do our take on Hypernaut!
Per our group page:
". . . a fan continuation of the Image 1963 series by Alan Moore, Steve Bissette, and Rick Veitch.
The original 1963 series was a tribute and love letter to silver age Marvel superheroes like Spider-Man, Thor, X-Men, and Fantastic Four. There were big plans at the time to use the 1963 titles to do various crossovers and reimaging of other Image creator-owned characters in a silver-age setting. Due to various issues with creators, titles, and delays the 1963 series never made it past 6 issues and a handful of ashcan previews.
Today we announce a new comics project: Giant-Size '63! This is a fan-led project produced by fans and members of the Cartoonist Kayfabe Ringside Seats community as a labor of love to reimagine the characters of '63 for a new generation of fans. This is an unofficial, fan-led project that will study the original works by the "Affable Alan Moore," "Roarin' Rick Veitch," "Sturdy Steve Bissette," "Dashin' Dave Gibbons," "Jaunty John Totleben," "Joltin' John Workman," "Dandy Don Simpson," and "Musty Marvin Kilroy."
I'll give more news on this as soon as I've got it.
NVCC News
NVCC, or New Vision Comics Collective, is the comic book universe I've co-created with Daniel Moler, stemming from our shared childhood daydreams with Jason Thrasher. In case you didn't hear.
Also? We'll be at Planet Comicon in April! Just look for us in Artist Alley under New Vision Comics Collective so that you can buy, debuting at the con:
Not Final Cover Image
The longest collaboration Daniel and I have had to date, Vision Tales #1! Along with a ton of other stuff we'll have on hand to sell, sign, and with which you may otherwise fall in love. Also, there's a contest! Go here and get the details, but the gist is, if you play your cards right, you could win a con-exclusive, only one in existence, piece of comic collaboration between Daniel and me!
Also, though I do not promise anything, I hope to have Harrowed Earth #2 ready to go by con time as well. This brilliant cover by Jeremy Bohannon of Bombcast Studios has waited long enough to see the light of day!
The Timberhaven Chronicles
And speaking of not making promises—I feel like I'm taking on the role of an apologist George R.R. Martin with this one—I hope nobody thinks I've forgotten about young Juniper and Jake as they try their best to save Timberhaven from the Monsters In the Park; because I haven't. Not only do I love those characters, but I owe Timberhaven readers a narrative debt, a long time overdue. Plus, this beautiful wrap-around cover by Sage Tribe Art needs holding in person!
YouTube Work
Last but not least, my YouTube channel will soon be blowing up again.
Season Two of Drinks Around the Table will kick off in the new year with an even wider array of creatives sitting down with me to talk shop. (I've got some openings still available if this sounds like something you'd like to join.)
Daniel Moler and I (See? Frequent collaborator.) are trying out a new weekly segment that we'll sometimes film together on my channel, sometimes on his, Psychonaut Sessions, and sometimes individually. I won't name it here, but its inaugural episode will likely drop before the end of November!
The live stream, Drinks Around the Table: Game Night! will return with a new series, First to Fifteen. It's a trivia face-off where two teams will go up against each other, each betting that they'll know more about their pick within a given topic than their opponents will know about their own. It could be books, flicks, shows, etc. The winning team is, you guessed it, the first team to score fifteen points. However, it won't be quite that straightforward. I've got a few twists and turns lined up along the way. First up, The Goonies Vs The Princess Bride! Look for it this summer.
Plus, I'll have a couple more episodes of Digital Campfire and a few more book trailers for you. So with that and everything listed above, you're going to be flooded with fun and exciting creative content by this time next year.
Hope you enjoy,
A.C.