· announcements

Big (totally dated) Announcement – I’m Writing Jem and The Holograms!

December 29, 2014 in announcements, badass | 2 comments

I hope you don’t get your “Kelly Thompson” news from this blog which I have become just terrible at updating…if so you’re getting this COMPLETELY AWESOME news nearly a month late. But better late than never, yes?

So, I am indeed writing the new IDW comic book JEM AND THE HOLOGRAMS, that launches in March (March 18th specifically).

Even better news, the absolutely phenomenal Ross Campbell (and also my good friend) will be doing the book with me – covers and interiors. This is an ongoing book and Ross will be with me for the first arc. And if the book is the big success we expect it to be, he’ll be back for the 3rd arc as well. So buy buy buy so we can do more more more!

The above image is the first cover to the first issue by Ross Campbell. Here we also have art for the four “classic Jem” covers by Amy Mebberson and the subscription cover by Sara Richard – all for issue #1

And THIS is the sparkly PREVIEWS cover that has Ross’s cover art on the back cover (and includes SPARKLY TEXT…it’s amazing) which is out this week. Previews has all the details on the special variants (you can even get a box set) and the necessary codes to give to your shop.

You can’t really see the sparkles in my crappy photo, but I assure you they are there, and they are magnificent.

We’ve also had some great interviews and articles go up: two pieces on io9, and at The Extraordinary League of Cosplay, as well as our first (of several forthcoming) podcast interviews – on my very own 3 Chicks Review Comics, Comics Alliance, The Mary Sue, Comics Alliance, The Mary Sue, CBR, Newsarama, The Nerdist, Bleeding Cool, and of course IDW Publishing.

And THIS is your look at cover #2 featuring Ross Campbell’s redesigned MISFITS. So cool.

Also, if you’ve been missing out on all this awesomeness…your best options are to follow me on twitter (@79Semifinalist) and/or on my tumblr (1979 Semi-Finalist) which are more regularly updated these days than the blog!

Tags: IDW, IDW Publishing, Jem, Jem and The Holograms, ross campbell, The Misfits

Sometimes Things Go Awesome…

July 17, 2013 in announcements, awesomeness, badassery, comics, writing | 2 comments

I’ve been super stressed out lately (I can’t say why, it will all come out soon enough…probably) so some awesome little surprises yesterday made it all seem worth it.

First, fellow blogger Keith Silva named me in Comics Bulletin’s “10 Of Our Favorite Comics Critics”

Pretty shocking to be in such great company – and thank you Keith so much!

And then, more bizarrely, and possibly not what I think it is, but I’m running with it anyway, Google Alerts gave me a heads up to this review of Red Sonja #1 on Newsarama.

In the review the writer refers to “she has no head” syndrome – check it out:

So…yeah, I’m sure you guys get how huge that is. The idea that you’ve made enough of an impact that others are picking up on it and using it as a definition…well, it warmed the cockles of my cold dead heart, it did.

Tags: comics!, things made of awesome

2012 Wrap Up!

December 31, 2012 in announcements, awards!, awesomeness, books, lists, The Girl Who Would Be King, the novel, writing | Permalink

Image from THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE KING hardcover illustrated edition. Illustration by Stephanie Hans

So I already gave you guys some DC Drunk Solicits to help ring in the New Year (look for Marvel to show up on January 1st – it’s the way to start the year off right! Or at least help you nurse that hangover).

I also already gave you my comics Best and Worsts for 2012 over on She Has No Head!

And I promised to stop ignoring the blog…so what else is there to say?

Well, I’d love to give some love to all those people that have been so supportive of TGWWBK over the past months. First and foremost to those awesome folks that gave me awards. You people rock especially hard:

James Whatley over at WhatleyDude says THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE KING is one of the three best books he read this year. YES!

James and Brandon over at the awesome Comics! The Blog give THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE KING “Best Novel Our Friend Published”

And Seeley James gives THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE KING “Most Innovative Thriller for 2012”

All high praise indeed…even if I was possibly the only nominee in James and Brandon’s category! 😉

You can check out excerpts from all sorts of reviews on the updated TGWWBK website, including perhaps my favorite quote ever “… Lola is a hungry conqueror, claiming her title by force and seeking out further fortune like a would-be Ghengis Kahn in a catsuit.” (courtesy of January Hooper on Amazon).

I’ve also started up a TGWWBK Fan Art Page which already has some gorgeous submissions (submit directly to me at: 1979semifinalist[at]gmail[dot]com) to get yours up on the website.

Of course there’s also the store, where you can buy limited edition hardcovers, all sorts of swag, limited edition prints, and even the mysterious “blue envelope.” If you prefer the ease of Amazon you can buy a digital version there, or a paperback edition there. You can also get the paperback version on Lulu (I actually think it’s a bit superior in quality to the Amazon version even though the thumbnail on Lulu is really blown out and saturated for some reason).

OH, and TGWWBK finally has a Facebook page. Please check it out and like/follow/whatever to keep up with all the news that’s fit to print…er…type.

What else? I’m still writing for Lit Reactor, doing reviews for CBR, and of course doing She Has No Head! for CSBG. 3 Chicks is still ongoing of course (in fact, our big “end of the year” episode full of bests and worsts will go up on Monday). I’ve also picked up another freelance gig doing comics reviews for Publishers Weekly, so I’m a busy busy girl. There has been some development on my first comic book mini-series (Heart In A Box) but nothing solid yet. Cross ’em if you got ’em!

Perhaps most important and relevant for 2012 is that I got a new agent and I feel really lucky that I was able to leave an agent and also get a new one within the same year. My new agent is amazing and I’m working on revisions to my new book (unrelated to TGWWBK) now, so stay tuned for development there. I’m still out of work, but I feel like the universe is actually taking pretty good care of me right now…thanks in large part to all of you. SO THANK YOU.

So I’m off to eat a bunch of cheese and crackers and probably some fruit, and drink far too much Veuve as I ring in the New Year, so Happy New Year to you all and here’s to an even better 2013 – for all of us!

May all of our days in 2013 be filled with the three C’s. COMICS. CAKE. & CHAMPAGNE. Gods, wouldn’t that be AMAZING?

Tags: Bonnie Braverman, comics cake and champagne, comics!, Lola LeFever, The Girl Who Would Be King, veuve

The Triumphant Return of 1979 Semi-Finalist?

December 30, 2012 in announcements, apologies, drunk cover solicits in three sentences or less | 1 comment

So, apologies are in order for how dark the blog has been. There has been a ton going on for me, both good and bad, though in general I have to say that December was a hell of a good month – as I got all the Kickstarter packages out (a herculean task), picked up a wonderful new agent, got back great notes for my new book (unrelated to TGWWBK), have had strong sales for TGWWBK both via Amazon (etc.) and on my own store, have gotten AMAZING feedback on TGWWBK (and what comes next – hint hint!), and have not completely run out of money to live!

BONUS!

Still, I’ve been painfully neglecting the blog, at a time when I SHOULD be doing just the opposite. SO, with that said, expect more posts. I’m going to get back to cross posting my work here so that those of you who subscribe to the feed but aren’t on twitter can follow me more easily throughout the web and I’m doing my best to generate new 1979 content as well. To start us off I’m planning on getting completely hammered tonight and doing ~~a double dose of~~ Marvel and DC Drunk Cover solicits, which I’ll roll out over the next ~~few~~ two days. So, thanks for hanging in there, and hopefully you will be rewarded with lots of fun posts and maybe some other interesting tidbits in the coming weeks and months!

xo

Kelly

Tags: comics!, The Girl Who Would Be King

Heads up for maintenance…!

August 21, 2012 in 1979 semi-finalist, announcements | Permalink

Just a heads up to let all of you know that I’m in the process of porting the blog over to my website (hopefully exciting things are coming!) so if you experience any weirdness in the next few days, that’s probably why and will hopefully be temporary.

Thanks as always for reading…stick around for cool new stuff coming soon!
– Kelly

Things about things!

April 12, 2012 in announcements, awesomeness, books, comics, lit reactor, publishing | Permalink

Big news this week, as the book Chicks Dig Comics, which I was lucky enough to be a part of, released this week.

You can buy it online at Amazon & B&N and it should be available in some comic book stores as well.

My piece called “I am Sisyphus and I am Happy” is about how I came to comics, how I came to writing about comics, and specifically how She Has No Head! came to be. It’s a deeply personal piece, and I hope you all enjoy it. I am sandwiched in there with SO MANY amazing ladies including Gail Simone, Marjorie Liu, Amanda Conner, Carla Speed McNeil, Jen Van Meter, Colleen Doran, Jill Thompson, Jill Pantozzi, and of course, my partner in crime, SUE. And that’s just the beginning…there are plenty of other great female contributors as well as a few fantastic gents like Greg Rucka, Terry Moore, and Mark Waid.

Huge thanks to Sigrid Ellis and Lynn M. Thomas for letting me part of such a great book

I also have a new piece up at Lit Reactor that is the continued story of my path toward publication. Retweets, likes, and comments are (as always) much appreciated!

Thanks everyone for all the support!

Tags: comics!, she has no head!, things made of awesome

Lit Reactor

February 27, 2012 in announcements, comic reviews, comics, comics news, lit reactor, writing | 5 comments

So, I’ve begun writing columns for Lit Reactor, a really great site for writers (and readers) that’s full of wonderful columns, as well as resources for writers. I’ll be primarily writing about comics, tag teaming it with another columnist. However, I’ll also be writing a series of essays about my experiences with my novel and getting an agent, so for those of you interested in that aspect of my work, those pieces might be something a little different.

My first piece, titled 10 Graphic Novels For The Literary Minded went up today, so check it out now. Next week will see the first installment of my essay about publication (or lack thereof!). So follow Lit Reactor on twitter, and keep your eyes peeled for my pieces.

Thanks everyone!

Tags: comics!, lit reactor

New Novel…COMPLETE!

December 7, 2011 in announcements, NaNoWriMo, writing | 11 comments

Woo!

So I told you guys I would check back in and let you know when I hit “the end” and last night, that very good thing happened.

It happened a good 10,000 words later than I wanted it to happen, but it happened notheless.

Final word count for this FINISHED draft is 119,431.

I’m going to need a week or two to clean it up, correct inconsistencies, and do some general “prettying up”…but otherwise it’s going out to my writing group and a handful of wonderful betas in the next couple weeks. Thanks again to all of you that were so supportive while I powered through this thing in a month. It was awesome…though I admit I am CRAZY EXHAUSTED with the mental capacity of a box of hair.

As a fun experiment, I decided to pull together a collage of all the images I posted over the last month that I drew some inspiration from for the book. In the end, it’s only 29 images because one was throwing everything off and seemed redundant anyway, so I deleted it. Anyway…here it is. Hopefully any of you interested will get the opportunity to read this book someday…thanks again!

Tags: novels

Shiny New Projects!

August 11, 2011 in announcements, art, books, comics, The Girl Who Would Be King, the jilted league, writing | 1 comment

So now that I’ve finally gotten The Girl Who Would Be King back out to my agent and have settled in for the inevitable “long wait” that is a natural but sometimes frustrating part of the process, I can finally get back to work on NEW work…which is always really fun.

This is my favorite part of the process, when everything is shiny and new. I suspect that’s true for most creators – whether building houses, or writing novels.

On deck right now are two YA novels I’m very excited about. They’re both very different and I’m having trouble deciding which one to push forward…but that my friends, is a great problem to have.

Anyway, I just wanted to let all of you know that one of the projects I’m deciding between is this one, which some of you so kindly offered encouraging feedback on a few months ago. I did in fact decide to push forward with it as a novel, and thus, below, meet Tessa and ‘The Black Dove’ (that’s the name of her axe).

Tessa and "The Black Dove"

The other YA novel it’s up against has been in my head for more than 12 years, though it originally was going to be a comic book in my mind, it has since turned into a great concept for a novel series. I love the characters and the concept, but I confess that the world building (which is major) frightens me a bit. Still, here’s a peek at an old sketch of the main character Berkeley:

Berkeley 'Berks' Grey

Also in the pipeline, though always more complicated since I’m not enough of an artist (these days especially) to draw my own comics, is a comics mini-series/OGN I’m prepping to pitch. And here’s an old sketch of that character. Her name is Emma Elliot and she doesn’t have a badass weapon, but she DOES have a very disturbing magic box. Which is…not a euphemism. Oh god…stop thinking bad things! You’re all bad and you need a time out. Go to your corners!