Writer-Artist Karl Kesel Provides Promising Update For Successful Kickstarter Section Zero 1959! Jerry Ordway Joins Tom Grummett and Kesel On Book!
Here’s the latest updates.
May Update (May 6, 2021)
Yeah, I didn’t send out an Update in April. I kept waiting to have something cool to show you, and nothing was getting to that point. Which made me very worried I wasn’t going to be able to wrap this book by year’s end, like I promised, and like we all want.
So I brought in help.
SECTION ZERO 1959 is very special to me on many levels, so giving up any part of it is very difficult. But getting it done is important, too. More important, in fact, if I can maintain the book’s integrity and quality— if not actually improve it— by handing off some of the responsibilities.
At it’s core, SZ59 is a love letter to the CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN when it was pencilled by Jack Kirby and (mostly) inked by Wally Wood, and was the absolute epitome of the “anything goes” Adventure Team Comic.
Tom clearly has the Kirby dynamics down cold, but I’ll be the first to admit I’m no modern-day Wally Wood.
But you know who is?
Jerry Ordway.
And Jerry— a great artists and very generous man— has agreed to come in and help with inking. Not the whole book, but a good chunk.
Tom is busy drawing new pages now— the only reason I can’t show you any is that he’s in the wilds of Canada fighting off wolverines and Wendigos, and can’t get to a scanner right now. But as soon as he makes his way back to civilization— battered and bloodied, I’m sure— and sends me those pages, I’ll send them to Jerry.
And show them to you.
SZ59 wraps by the end of the year. You have my word on that.
KK
JUNE UPDATE: My Way, Tom’s Way, Ordway (June 9, 2021)
A Few Weeks Ago…
…I asked Jerry Ordway to send me a quick photo of whatever SECTION ZERO 1959 page he was working on, to share with you. He sent this:
Then life got in my way, and I didn’t have time to share that image with you! And in the meantime— Jerry has inked 7 of the 8 pages of this story! (Entitled THE THING FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE, as you can see from the script in the photo.)
Here’s the finished first page:
If you’ve read the first SECTION ZERO graphic novel, you’ll recognize the young lady on this page as Munro— a troublesome lass wearing a sealskin coat and not much else. Rest assured, she’s up to her old tricks again.
Unfortunately, I can’t show you any other pages in this story because: Spoilers!
I’ll be getting these inks in colorist Bill Crabtree’s hands ASAP. I’m aiming by this time next month to have a PDF of the story ready to share with you.
We continue moving forward with having this book finished by the end of the year. Knock on (Wally) wood. (Or, in this case, Jerry Ordway– who’s about as close to Woody as you can get these days!)
Stay safe. be well. Talk soon…
KK
The project was successfully backed in March of 2019 and more on this project here.
So, hoping I’ll have this book in my hands by Christmans 2021 just under 3 years from when I backed the project; I’m not upset as these things happen and I remain excited to read this book.
