Archive for the ‘comics’ Category

« Older Entries

DICKS: “Singapore”

Monday, June 21st, 2010

Over the weekend, Tom Bonin released the latest installment of DICKS, his awesome occult adventure buddy pulp comic.

Tom’s book has been one of my absolute favourite local  comics since I moved back to Australia in 2007. There are six or seven issues so far, a one shot and a couple of miniseries, and now the latest book is an anthology of short stories in which a variety of local writers get a crack at Tom’s characters. Jen Breach (Sawbones), James Andre (James Andre), Tom Taylor (Star Wars: Invasion and The Authority) and I have each written a story, which Mesr Bonin has lavishly illustrated in his usual arse-kicking noir style.

It was an absolute pleasure working with Tom on this and I’m honoured that he let me play with his toys in the 10 for 10 pages.  Mine is called “Singapore”, inspired by the Tom Waits song.

Tom’s website si currently being renovated, but you can check out his work here: http://www.comicspace.com/tombonin/ and here: http://tombonin.blogspot.com/.

The book is not available online yet, but if you email Tom he’ll get you a copy.

– JF

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in comics, news | No Comments »

ONE MORE BULLET reviewed at Scaryminds

Friday, May 7th, 2010
More love from Scaryminds.com. This time, they've reviewed my oldest published comic,  ONE MORE BULLET. The title story is the first serious bit of comics work I ever attempted. It's the first time I worked with J. Marc. It's also the piece that has, I think, received more play than anything else I've ever written, somehow even receiving a mention in the Jerusalem Post's weekly magazine, Kol Ha'Ir. The Kol Ha'Ir article was basically the somehow even getting an article about the "Top 10 Jewish Comic Stories That Aren't MAUS". Probably the first and last time I'll ever see my name alongside the likes of B. Krigstein and Osamu Tezuka. I'm hoping to reprint the story later this year. The scaryminds review is here: http://www.scaryminds.com/reviews/2010/comic019.php Follow this link to read the story on the Blackglass Press website: http://www.blackglasspress.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=17&category_id=6&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=2 (Then click on the cover thumbnail and navigate through using the lightbox widget). -- JF

Posted in comics, news | No Comments »

McBLACK

Monday, April 12th, 2010
The paperback of my first graphic novel, McBLACK, will first become available at Melbourne Supanova on the 16th. I've been working on this bastard for five years now. Written and penciled by me, inked by Dave Gutierrez, cover by Ron Salas, 72 pages of sequential art plus a pinup and an illustrated song, the "Ballad of McBlack". It's 10 bucks, and it'll soon be available from the Blackglass Press webstore and from other sites. 
cover thumbnail 
In addition, I will be serializing the book online at www.mcblack.com, updating Monday-Wednesday-Friday. You have no excuse not to check it out--it's free!

Lock and load,

-- JF
 

Tags: , ,
Posted in comics | Comments Off

KAGEMONO #2 reviewed at Scaryminds

Friday, April 9th, 2010
Scaryminds.com continues their Blackglass reviewfest with KAGEMONO #2, which they have given 9 stars:

"Kagemono #2 was just the right dose for an over wise rain drenched and miserable day; yes we do get them in Oz folks. I was once again highly impressed with Jason Franks writing, noted the deeper thoughts a number of the stories addressed, and grooved along to the artwork. There's something subversive about Kagemono that kept me humming to Mr Franks' beat."

Full review is here: http://www.scaryminds.com/reviews/2010/comic016.php

-- JF

Tags: ,
Posted in comics | Comments Off

Rockstar Horror

Sunday, March 28th, 2010

Another nice review up on scaryminds.com, this time a bit of a blast from the past with ROCKSTAR PIZZA (2006):

http://www.scaryminds.com/reviews/2010/comic014.php

Eight stars--that makes me feel good. The reviewer has a lot of nice things to say, and he's even charitable to my own artwork (I was so unhappy with that story that I stopped drawing for years after finishing it), but what impressed me was this:

"While the only story in the collection that can be considered pure horror is Peas, each of the other three have a dark underpinning recognisable as a denizen of the dark genre forest. Jason Franks, as a writer, presents a world view in rockstar Pizza where there is no safe underpinning and where at any moment the floor might give way, spinning things into a vortex of chaos and unexpected outcomes."

That is a really nice encapsulation of my attitude to storytelling. In the books I did prior to KAGEMONO I didn't give any thought to genre. I did not, in my head, make any genre distinctions when I was writing them, I just wrote the stories I wanted to. After the third one came out and I got tired of hearing "What's the theme?" and "These stories are all different," that I decided to focus KAGEMONO on horror stories.

Ask me twice and I'll tell you that everything I write is, in one respect or another, a horror story.

Scaryminds placed a large order on the Blackglass website a few weeks ago and they are working their way through it, so expect a couple more of these in the weeks to come.  Also, if you are a fan of horror or dark fiction and you're interested in what's going on in Australia and New Zealand, please take some time to explore the site: they have great coverage of books and movies as well as comics. 

Cheers,

-- JF

Tags: , ,
Posted in comics | Comments Off

« Older Entries
KD