"This is my sister.

She’s the latest Big Thing everybody wants a piece of.

She’s the sexy tomboy you’re all in love with.

She’s arrogant, spoiled, and selfish.

She could kill every living thing on Earth in one afternoon…

And she’s going to save the world, whether you like it or not."

La Muse is the new project I mentioned last time out. The more framiliar I get with the concept, the more I like it and more excited I am to be working on it. Rather than try to sum it up for you, I'll let Adi Tantimedh, the writer, sum it up in his own words:

"Susan La Muse is a sexy, fun-loving political activist for the environment, human rights and an end to poverty. She is also an alien. When her extraordinary abilities are accidentally caught on video, she suddenly finds herself the biggest celebrity in the world Her straight-laced sister Libby is desperate to keep the world from finding out they're aliens, and becomes her agent to keep her wild hedonistic ways under control. But Susan has other ideas... She realizes that she can use her celebrity to not only campaign to save the world and help disadvantaged people, but she can actually go all out to save the world when corrupt governments and big businesses are slow to change their ways. Thus, Libby can only try to preserve Susan's image and reputation, even as her sister's increasingly outrageous acts make her a target for assassination for everyone from governments, corporations, right-wing zealots and terrorists... ...and from a member of her own alien species."

I'll post progress reports and let you know how things develop. And expect the above design to be available soon on T-shirts for those interested. La Muse will run 220 pages, and be available in a print edition after the serialization completes on the Big Head Press website. I think you'll like it - I know I will.

It's been a hectic couple of weeks, lots in development.
And so I forgot to post as promised when the Jesus Saves! T-shirt arrived.

The order was placed on Friday evening. On Monday, confirmation of the order shipping arrived by email, and on Wednesday the shirt itself arrived. Good to see they handle the processing nice and quickly. Faster, I suspect, had it not been the weekend when the order went in.

The printing is as good as I'd hoped. There are two different types of printing available - a heat transfer and a direct print. The heat transfer provides more vibrant color detail, but does so by heat-bonding a plastic film to the shirt. This makes the shirt less comfortable, and it cracks with washing. I have another shirt with some of my work on it done in that method, and I'm less than thrilled with it overall.

The direct print method I chose to use embeds dyes directly in the fabric. It's much softer and more comfortable, and the colors are still rich and vibrant. After a dozen washings, there's been no noticable fade. I'm quite pleased with the quality. Fine detail might not transfer as well, but I take that into account when creating the design for the shirt.

All in all, I give the printing that cherished rating of "doesn't suck". (The artwork I leave for you to rate)

And, of course, CafePress itself gives a money back guarantee if you're not satisfied with any product. So I'm happy, and I'll be expanding the line now that I've had a first hand look at the results.

Meanwhile....

In addition to the upcoming work you'll be seeing here (first up - short tales from Pu Song Ling, the Historian Of The Strange), I'll be starting a new project with Big Head Press.
More on that next time, but I'll tell you now that Adi Tantimedh is scripting what looks to be a great fun concept, and the pencils and inks of Hugo Petrus look dynamite. I'm going to have fun painting colors for them. But then, I've usually been quite lucky in getting projects I quite enjoy.

Work is underway now, and the story will begin serialization on the Big Head Press website in January.