As some of you know, I had shoulder surgery earlier this month. That means I’ve been out of work for eight days now. Eight days is a long time to sit around and do nothing – and I still have a long recovery time ahead of me. I do have a couple writing jobs, but those are looking to start in two weeks or so. So I decided to make myself a project.

Like editing an anthology.

It can’t be too hard, right?

I was not prepared for how much work this was going to be. Sure, I’ve only written a total of ten pages for this project. But I feel exhausted every time my phone buzzes to tell me I have a new email. I started this anthology just three days ago, and I am so overwhelmed by the response I’ve gotten. I mean that both ways – positively overwhelmed and, well, actually overwhelmed.

Thus far, I’ve assembled a pretty great team. I have some really – I mean mind blowingly why-are-you-doing-unpaid-projects – talented artists, and I’ve made sure to make room for a couple novice artists. This book will be a good spectrum of talent, which is what I honestly wanted when I first considered doing this.

What’s the anthology about? Oh, I’m glad you asked.

Imagine your parents were super heroes.

Now imagine that you’re given the chance to be a hero, too. You just have to pick your power.

That’s where the idea of “Trial Run” came from. Jon’s parents are the superheroes Tremor and Zephyr – heroes with the power of earth quakes and super speed. When he turned 18, he was given a special tea that allowed him to have a different super power every day for one week until he decided on what power will make him a hero.

I will be honest. I originally considered making it a daily pill that Jon and his parents took each morning – like a daily multivitamin. But in the efforts of keeping this kid friendly and fun for all ages, I’m just advocating tea drinking. It’s not as good as coffee, but I hear the stuff is good for you.

Now, as I said, I’ve been at this for three days now. Most of the scripts are complete – because I was writing while I was recruiting, and those I recruited are insanely amazing – and artists are hard at work doing whatever they do in order to make pretty things happen. I’m not an artist – for all I know they drool on paper and it’s beautiful. Like fall asleep at the desk, drool, comic. Boom. Done.

At this point, we have enough material for a 60 – 65 page trade paperback. I’m thinking about opening it up to one or two additional artists and writers, just to round out the super powers we’re playing with. It’s already too big to be just a saddle stitch comic, so we might as well go big or go home on this. (Though I always advocate going big and going home.)

Exciting points for me:

Due to how quickly this anthology is progressing, this will be the first publication by Arledge Comics – the first cover with my logo on it.

This is my first time editing an anthology – though not my first time writing for one.

This will feature a comic I lettered. I’ve been playing with lettering, but this will be my first actual lettered comic.

And that’s enough of an update for now. While writing this, I did decide I want to round out the team just a little bit. So if you’re interested in contributing, just get in contact with me. There’s still tons of potential material we haven’t touched yet.

And THAT is enough of an update for now.

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