Happy Birthday, Kimmy!

In addition to it being my very talented little sister Kim's birthday, this date marks the twentieth anniversary of the publication of my first original book, DANGER FUNNIES ONE. Published by the incredible Do-it-yourself creative team of Joe Monks and Joseph Michael Linsner in 1992, DANGER FUNNIES was my first attempt at writing and illustrating a Romance comic, in a moment when the genre had mostly fallen out of favor with the public. Monks long ago encouraged me to call it a "self-published book," but I've always been grateful to "the two Joes," who with their popular CRY FOR DAWN imprint, helped me find a way to get my peculiar cartoons out into the marketplace. Ten years after leaving Marvel Comics, I was finally confident enough creatively to complete a personal project and "leap into the fray"... and I haven't looked back since. So, in celebration, (feel free to throw confetti if you like, eggs if you dislike) I present to you the entire project absolutely FREE for your reading and downloading pleasure. (Click each image to enlarge!)






















And there you have it! The front cover photo was taken by the celebrated childrens book author Nina Crews and the back cover was graced by an image by another friend, the muralist Cruzy Ferreiera. The first story received a bit of notoriety and praise for the male character getting naked before the female protagonist did, the second tale featured a poem by Dr. Maya Angelou that I paid for the rights to publish out of my own slacker pockets and the last tale is unapologetically self-indulgent moaning. DANGER FUNNIES ONE was an odd thing to be making during the rise of Image comics, and I don't know if it's ever found its place, but I'm glad to have made it and I'm grateful for all that's come since.
We celebrated the release with a series of parties in Greenwich Village, all of the original art pages on display in a couple of popular bars and cafes, featuring live vocal performances by Kim Tooks and the a capella group Vision... and a good time was had by all!


And here's the lovely visage of one of my favorite people in the world, immortalized by another of my favorite people in the world.

Save me some cake!
Lance Tooks

LINKS:

Nina Crews website

Joe Monks website

Joseph Michael Linsner website

PS...

Check out what they're saying about AFRICAN-AMERICAN CLASSICS at Amazon.com! Order now!

I figured they'd catch up to Tooks eventually...

I mean, I should've known that the authorities would get wise to his antics sooner or later, after a lifetime of misdemeanor thespianism and felonious cartoonery! So here I stand before you, finally convicted for my bohemian lifestyle. Where do I begin?

Well, for starters... I've been (Choke!) acting again despite previous claims to the contrary, (Click HERE) in a couple of small capers (petty crimes against Art, I swear) here in Madrid. I've managed a brief cameo in director Violeta Brana-Lafourcade's new film short, "La Dulce Voz", which will be finished very soon... then I went on to appear in another TNT Spain commercial for director Jose Skaf, promoting J. J. Abrams' recent American TV series, "Alcatraz"... which should serve as a flimsy enough alibi for the photo above. I'm conspiring now to shoot another film with Skaf in a few weeks... more news about that, and the other bits, another day.

I was interviewed by the usual suspects at the terrific Black Tribbles webcast and you can listen in on us by clicking HERE... I sing like a canary about the wonderful Graphic Novel Anthology "African-American Classics" and babble on about my 30-Plus year Rap-Sheet as an Artistic repeat offender. (I figured it would be easier than going door-to-door to warn the neighbors.)

"African American-Classics" has been the talk of the town, getting great reviews and making a genuine Black History Month spectacle of herself! Check out the Facebook page HERE, and if you haven't got your copy, order now from Amazon or the GraphicClassics.com webpage! You won't be sorry, I swear... and you know you can trust me!

From my cell I've also been concocting a pair of mindblowing new Graphic Novels simultaneously. They've been in the planning stage for a loooong time and I'll be finally unleashing them onto an innocent public before the end of this year! I'm glad to be able to talk a bit about them now... let me know what you think!

I've long been an admirer of Dr. John Polidori's horror tale, "The Vampyre," and after having completed an adaptation of his close personal friend Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's "The Mortal Immortal" for the upcoming comics anthology "The Graphic Canon," I've decided it's time to give his spooky tale a try. I've attached a couple of images of the work in progress, and I'm having an electric time piecing it all together, as Dr. Frankenstein might say! (By the way... Two other upcoming Tooks adaptations are of W. Somerset Maugham's "Rain" for the same Graphic Canon Three volume series, and a revised version of Robert Louis Stevenson's "The Bottle Imp," for Graphic Classics' new Stevenson volume. Both due in 2012!

And most thrilling of all, I'm writing and drawing my first original Graphic Novel since my "Lucifer's Garden of Verses" series! I've posted a couple of images over the past year without saying what they're for, but it's time to let this cat out of the bag... it's called "Thug Midwife," and tells the story of a young thug who, upon his release from prison, decides it's time to stop taking life out of this world and to start bringing it in... so he becomes a midwife! I've attached an unfinished version of the cover (sans his very unusual tattoo) and a couple of images depicting the thug and midwife parts of the protagonist's nature.

I've been doing a huge amount of research for this project... strangely enough, the midwife part of the story's been a breeze... all I had to do was deliver a baby! But the thug part's tougher, I can't honestly admit that I've ever been one, although I have played one on TV!
Best, Lance

(PS... Check out my brilliant friend Gwyneth Box and her amazing blog about all things poetic! She very kindly posted another sketch of mine HERE! Someone's gotta stop me before I draw again!)