The Official Website of Matt Krizan

Exciting news! (Well, for me at least.) Ronin Illustrated #4 featuring Touched is now available for sale online at ComiXPress. So everybody click on over and buy twenty copies.

Okay, ten.

Five?

One?

Please?

And, as promised (see, I actually do keep my promises sometimes), here are the very cool sketches I got at the con in Chicago:

Lucifer by Ryan Kelly

Catatomic by Colin McK

Tim Hunter by Peter Gross

Jaeger by Carla Speed McNeil

John Constantine by Andy Bennett

Tara Chace by Mike Norton

Daredevil by Michael Gaydos

And Batman by Michael Lark

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

Wizard World Chicago: Year Two

So another fun time was had at the convention this year. I managed to drag two of my buddies along with me this time. Well, one went willingly; the other we needed to drag kicking and screaming. But he had a good time, yes he did.

The con started out kind of poorly as, for some reason, I couldn't receive calls on my cell phone. They just went directly to my voice mail. I figured, at least I can still retrieve the messages and call those guys back.

But then my altar-ego Stupid Matt® reared his ugly head.

We're waiting in line to get in, and there I am playing with the phone, trying to get it to work, and I manage to lock it so that now none of the keys work. This isn't a problem if you know the code to unlock it. Unfortunately, I don't know the code. So now I can't do anything with the damn phone. As my one friend put it, "So basically it's a paperweight."

So I have to borrow my friend's phone, call information to get the number to Verizon so I can call them and say, "Uh, yeah, hi. I just did something really stupid..." Luckily, they were able to help, and I was able to unlock the phone.

I do have to say, though, it was a bit disconcerting whenever I got a voice mail. I kept the phone on vibrate in my front pants pocket, and invariably I'd be standing there talking to someone, mid-sentence, and my pants start vibrating. (I was also told it was rather disconcerting to witness this as I would suddenly stop talking to look down at my crotch.)

Phone hijinx aside, it was a great show. Bought a ton of stuff, so much in fact that the strap on my duffel bag broke as I was trying to lug it in the house; got a bunch of really cool sketches (which I'll post here if I can get my stupid scanner to work); and bought an original page of art from an issue of Lucifer from Ryan Kelly and Peter Gross. Met and talked to a lot of great people, which, like last year, was one of the highlights of the show. I'm not even gonna try to name them all, because there's a lot and I'm sure I'll forget people.

But the most exciting part of the weekend for me was the debut of Ronin Illustrated #4 (along with a ton of other fine Ronin books) featuring Touched by yours truly. It's great to finally see this one in print. The book's not available on ComiXPress' website yet, but I'll make sure to update everyone when it is.

Tuesday, August 9, 2005

Odds and Ends

See? Told you it would be sooner than four months.

So what's new? Well, the Motor City Con was last weekend, and all I can say is...it's a good thing this thing only comes around every six months or so. I dropped a ton of cash, mostly at the half-off trade booths, but I also picked up a bunch of G.I. Joe and Batman back issues from the dollar boxes. I'd spent the weeks leading up to the con reading through the foot tall stack of unread trades I'd had laying around. I'd pretty much got through them all, but now the pile is back up there. Plenty of good stuff to look forward to though.

Had a nice chat with Jason Moser, he of Genome Studios. He had some exciting Ellium news which, hopefully, if things go well, I might be able to be a part of. More on that later.

Game six of Pistons-Pacers series is tonight. Here's hoping the Pistons will be able to put the Pacers away. I suppose it depends on which Pistons team shows up--the one from Games four and five, or the bunch of yo-yos from Game three and the second half of Game two. Game three was just painful to watch, and the end, with Tayshaun Prince tossing two passes out of bounds, had me cursing incoherently...much to the dismay, I'm sure, of my downstairs neighbor.

I'll be seeing Star Wars this Saturday. (There was no way in hell I was going to be there at midnight last night. I'm looking forward to it, but I'm not looking that forward to it.) I watched the first two again over the last couple of weeks just to get in the spirit of things. They're both enjoyable overall (the first one could have an hour-and-a-half of paint drying and still be enjoyable so long as it finished with the Darth Maul lightsaber fight), although I couldn't stop laughing at the painfully bad dialogue and the way Anakin would leer psychotically at Padme in the second one. I am kind of excited for this one, though. Based on the previews and the reviews so far, it's shaping up to be a good one. I'll post my thoughts later.

Thursday, May 19, 2005

I'm Still Alive

Yes, really, although you wouldn't know it from the lack of updates for the past almost-four months. Blame a combination of work and my own laziness. But now that April 15 has come and gone and I've apparently found some motivation somewhere, I plan on posting more often. I've got some ideas for things to do with this site that'll hopefully make it more interesting for folks and get people to come back regularly. No, I don't mean porn.

Speaking of porn, in my report from the Wizard World Chicago Comic Con last August, I made the mistake of mentioning the names of two female porn stars whose tables were across the aisle from the Ronin Studios table. I say mistake because since then I've been getting constant traffic from people who've searched for the names of these two vixens and have come to my site, no doubt hoping to find naked pictures with which to...um, entertain themselves. So to those poor, wayward wankers, let me express my deepest apologies for not being able to entertain you properly.

Now, moving on...Ronin Illustrated #4, the anthology in which Touched will be appearing has been sent to the printer and should be available for purchase online from ComiXPress sometime next month. (I mentioned previously that the story would be in issue #5, but between then and now it got bumped up into #4, in case anyone has actually been paying attention.)

As far as the charity anthology in which Interface will be appearing, it has found a home with a new publisher. Unfortunately, the powers that be are keeping the name of said publisher under wraps for the time being. The book is still slated for release this summer, though, and I will let everyone know more as soon as I find out.

I've got a couple more projects in the works--a funny, little webcomic and some more Ellium stuff--but it's still early in the game, and there's not much to say yet. So keep checking back.

In other news, it's playoff time and the Pistons are back at it, playing great and looking like they're ready to repeat. I got the firm's tickets to the game Tuesday, and, man, what an incredible atmosphere. Great game. The crowd was totally into it. And, no, I didn't see the idiot that pegged Iverson in the head with a quarter. (I actually wasn't even aware that there was any kind of incident, didn't see any sort of commotion at all. I didn't even know about it until the next day when a coworker mentioned it.) I will say this, though, the person who invented those Thunder Stix needs to be shot...repeatedly. Try having four teenaged boys banging the damn things together a foot from your ears again and again for the better part of two hours and see how happy your head is.

Well, there's plenty more I could say--it's been four months, after all--but it's late, and I want to read some comics before I go to bed. So, with that, I bid you good night...

...and I promise it won't be another four months 'til the next time.

Thursday, April 28, 2005

Going Behind The Curtain

One of the coolest things about writing comics is that first time you get a page of art back from the artist. It's amazing to see what started as just words on paper (or a computer screen) come to life as actual pictures. For the most part (with really only one major exception), I've been pretty fortunate in that I've been able to work with some talented folks who've done a good job of "getting inside my head" so that the finished product hasn't been too far off from what I pictured it would be. Seeing a story go from the script to the finished page has been a fascinating experience (I think), and I thought it'd be kind of neat to show a little bit of what that's like.

So take a look below to see how the first page of Touched came to life.

First the pencils...

Then the inks...

And, finally, the letters...

Pretty cool, huh?

Click here to read the rest of the story.

Tuesday, January 4, 2004

Teaser

Here's a little promo ad for the charity anthology in which Interface will be appearing...

Kinda cool to see my name up there (yes, I do know it's spelled wrong) with the likes of Robert Kirkman, Phil Hester, and Greg Horn.

As for the latest news on the anthology...well, it was pulled from the initial publisher due to inaction on the publisher's part, and is now being looked at by another company. Apparently things are moving along well, and a formal announcement is expected soon. Look for the book in time for next summer's convention season.

Stay tuned!

Thursday, December 23, 2004

New Story!

As promised, I finally have a real, live update for you. (As opposed to a real, dead update.)

Discerning readers may have noticed over in the Stories section that Touched had been "Coming soon!" for some time now. Well, I'm happy to announce that it's "Coming soon!" no longer. While it's tentatively scheduled to appear in Spring, 2005 in issue 5 of Ronin Illustrated from Ronin Studios, you can find the entire story--with art by Clay McCormack and Yad M. Mui and letters by Steph St. Laurent--right here. So, please, click on over and give it a read, and feel free to drop me a line and let me know what you think.

Tuesday, December 14, 2004

Slow Going

Public Speaking

So I had the opportunity to speak yesterday to the Comics & Sequential Art Club at Plymouth-Canton High School (at which a good friend of mine teaches Social Studies). I talked about my admittedly limited experience in writing comics and how I got the opportunity to write the stuff you see over in the Stories section of this site, and generally did my best to not bore them to tears. I think I succeeded. No one fled the room sobbing, screaming, "I can't take it anymore! Make him stop!" So that's good.

The interesting thing about the club is that it's predominately made up of girls, which, considering we're talking about comics, is rather unusual. It's a good thing, though. Maybe that means we can eventually get away from the image of the stereotypical comic fan as that forty-year-old white guy living in his parents' basement.

One can dream, can't one?

Wednesday, December 1, 2004

It's Here!

Ellium: Hybrid hits finer comic stores everywhere today! Woohoo! Everyone run out and buy five copies! If your store doesn't have the book, you can ask your retailer to order a copy for you (Previews Code SEP042352 F). And here's yet another reminder that you can also purchase the book online at Mile High Comics. Head on over to the Stories section of this site to check out a five-page preview of Loyalties, my contribution to this fine graphic novel.
(End shameless self-promotion.)

And lest I forget, today is a very important day for an entirely different reason...'tis my step-dad's birthday! So Happy Birthday, G.F.! Love you.

Wednesday, November 24, 2004

People Are Something Else

A friend of mine and I went and saw National Treasure last night. Being that it was opening night, the theatre was completely packed. The movie was enjoyable, but what made the evening memorable was the woman sitting two seats away from me.

She was one of those people.

You know, the kind who feels the need to discuss the movie with their companion in an overly loud whisper. It was pretty clear this was the first time she'd been to the movies in years. She actually found amusing the little bit at the beginning when the cell phone from the audience scares away the herd of buffalo being hunted by the starving Native Americans (which frankly is only vaguely amusing the first time you see it). It was also pretty clear that this woman was completely clueless as to the effect she was having on those around her.

Now, what prevented this from being an awful experience, what pushed it so far beyond annoying as to be absolutely, laughably rediculous, was the woman's habit of saying, "Hmmm" at any remotely revealing moment.

Nicholas Cage finds a brick with the Masonic symbol on it.

"Hmmm."

Nicholas Cage uses invisible ink to find out a pass-code.

"Hmmm."

Nicholas Cage takes a dump and the automatic flush doesn't work.

"Hmmm."

Okay, so that last one didn't really happen, but you get the idea. By the end, there, it was all my friend and I could do to keep from busting out laughing each time she did it.

People. Gotta love 'em.

Saturday, November 20, 2004

Getting Caught Up

Okay, well, it's been a while and to all two of my regular readers (Hi, mom!), I apologize. So let's see, what's been going on...

Well, I guess the biggest news is that I received my copies of Hybrid this weekend, so it's official. I'm a published writer. I'm pretty excited, as you can probably imagine. I'll be getting out copies to everyone who ordered one from me. If you haven't ordered one yet, and you'd like to, shoot me an e-mail. I have extras. And, as a reminder, you can order a copy online here.

'Tis the season...flu season, that is. Yep, came down with a bug about two weeks ago and felt worse than I have in a long, long time. I wound up going to see a doctor about a week later when, having thought I was over it, my sore throat returned. Now, what you have to understand is, I haven't been to see a doctor for an illness in something like fifteen years. So that should tell you something. Turns out it wasn't strep throat like I feared, and everything seems to be fine now.

So the election has come and gone, and the less said about the results, the better.

I got rejected...twice. Short comics story submissions I sent to Digital Webbing and Western Tales of Terror were turned down, the former because the publisher is taking the anthology in a different direction and the latter because the story was too similar to others they had. (Mine did make it in the door past the submissions editor, who helped me out and had kind things to say about it, so that's encouraging at least.)

What else? Well, I saw the stage production of The Full Monty at the Fisher Theatre on Saturday. I liked the movie a lot, and the play--which was reset in Buffalo, NY--kept the basic plot and added some of its own details. While I thought it started out slow, it was very funny and I enjoyed it quite a bit, the highlights being the songs "Big, Black Man" and the one where they endeavor to help their friend commit suicide using, among other things, a big ass rock. The friend who accompanied me was a bit disappointed that you couldn't see the actors dangly bits at the end. (Bright lights shone from behind them so that they were just silhouettes.) I, myself, was not.

Movies: Weekend before last we--and I guess I should point out that by 'we' I mean the four or five of us regulars who get together for Movie Night on Sundays at the Emagine theater in Novi--saw Ray, the Ray Charles biography. Jamie Foxx did an excellent job, and the movie made me want to go and listen to some Ray Charles records, so I guess that means I must have liked it.

Last night's movie was After The Sunset, starring Salma Hayek. What? There were other people in this movie? Huh, didn't notice them. Seriously though, it actually was a decent movie, moreso for the interaction between Pierce Brosnan and Woody Harrelson then for the actual storyline. It appears to have garnered some poor reviews, but it was definitely worth seeing. And not just because Salma Hayek spent most of time in a bikini. Although that helped.

Oh, and by the way, the Lions suck.

Monday, November 15, 2004

Football and Movies and Movies About Football

Well how 'bout them Lions? They finally woke up and took it to the Giants in the second half. Four wins already, and it's not even November. And 3-0 on the road! It's like they're the Bizarro Lions. Go figure.

Saw Friday Night Lights on Sunday and have to say I enjoyed it more than I expected I would. Pretty moving in parts and the action really built upon itself, getting ya all fired up. I did notice a couple of inconsistencies in the football action, like the announcers announcing that it's third down while the scoreboard reads 2nd and 14.

I'm told I'm paying way too close attention to the movie.

Finally, on Saturday, a buddy of mine and I rented a movie to make fun of, MST3K-style. The movie? Phase IV starring Dean Cain and Brian Bosworth. If that doesn't set your Stinker Sense 'a tingling then I don't know what will. And, yes, it was bad. Not the best bad movie we've watched (Cold Vengeance--in which there was no actual vengeance, cold or otherwise--can claim that title), nor the worst--The Highwayman starring Jason Priestley as a thug named Breakfast. Yeah.

Tuesday, October 26, 2004

Ronin For Sale

The first issue of Ronin Illustrated, the flagship anthology from Ronin Studios, is now available for purchase online at ComiXPress, here and here. (The book was originally printed as a flipbook that featured both covers on each individual issue.)

Featuring the gritty crime-noir Shylock by Shane Welker and part one of the fantastical mystery of Senshi by Diana Thirring, the book has everything from war and death to a superheroine with a...special...power and, oh, yeah, a taint-munching monkey.

So, please, check it out.

And hopefully someday soon you'll be seeing (and buying, of course) a future issue of RI featuring a story from yours truly.

Thursday, October 21, 2004

Touched For Sale And Sketches, Too

Wizard World Chicago: Year Two

Odds and Ends

I'm Still Alive

Going Behind The Curtain

Teaser

New Story!

Slow Going

Public Speaking

It's Here!

People Are Something Else

Getting Caught Up

Football and Movies and Movies About Football

Ronin For Sale

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