Exciting! Yes, for those of you who do not know me personally -- and for those of you who do and have not stayed in touch for a while -- I finally deleted the OLD unchecked email address on my previously inaccurately named CONTACT page.

Rock on, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette!

Today the above-mentioned Pittsburgh newspaper published an article on me and my book UNDERTOWN. And when I saw the title in print, I was humbled and awed:

"Comics Writer a Manga Master."

To be fair, as proud as I am with the success of Undertown, I feel like I'm still a ways off from joining the true manga masters like Otomo, Toriyama, and the mighty Tezuka.

But nice articles like this make me feel that I'm at least on the right path...

Labels: interview, manga, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Tokyopop, Undertown

The Undertown PR machine marches on! Check out the rather in-depth interview over at Comic Book Resources.

Labels: comic book resources, interview, Jake Myler, manga, Tokyopop, Undertown

Having finished the script for Undertown Book Two, I find myself in a period of story development -- I'm working on the extended pitch for the manga series after Undertown, and I'm also fleshing out Undertown Book Three. This leaves me without a script to write on a day-to-day basis. And I think I'm going to try to schedule my time differently in the future.

I find that there's comfort and stability in cranking out a bunch of pages every day. It's much harder to feel the progress when you're writing a huge ream of notes for an upcoming project. As glad as I am that I finished Undertown Book Two when I did, if I had already been working on the outline for the next project, it would have been much easier to jump right into another script.

I've said it before, but momentum is one of the big keys to successful writing output.

Labels: writers' tips

Here's a pic of Cizaine the Otter, from OHAKO, a member of my Undertown Explorers fan club/clan. He wrote: "After reading Undertown, I created my own Furman, Cizaine the Otter: Pearl fisherman and Naval warrior!"



Thanks, Ohako!

A lot of folks wrote up the news about Undertown getting syndicated in the Sunday comics, but Katherine Dacey's article on PopCultureShock is the most thoroughly researched and well written.

There's a lot of insight about the newspaper deal from Tokyopop's Jeremy Ross, and some interesting bits from my beloved editor Paul "all the girls love me" Morrissey.

Labels: manga, newspaper strip, Paul Morrissey, Tokyopop, Undertown

This is some big news ... it deserves press release formatting! (though I've found that a "Jim Pascoe release" is really a super-cool wrestling move)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

JIM PASCOE'S UNDERTOWN GETS SYNDICATED
Breakout Manga Fills TOKYOPOP Slot in Over 50 Newspapers

LOS ANGELES -- January 3, 2008 -- If the first name that comes to mind when you think of Sunday comic strips is Peanuts, you haven't been tuned into the manga revolution that has been drawing kids back to the funny pages.

Jim Pascoe announced today that his original English-language manga UNDERTOWN will be the new property running in TOKYOPOP's syndicated slot starting this Sunday, January 6, 2008. Since 2005, TOKYOPOP has provided a rotating selection of manga to Universal Press Syndicate, which distributes comics and columns globally to newspapers.

Over 50 papers plan to carry Undertown, including the Los Angeles Time, Denver Post, Vancouver Sun and Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Created and written by Jim Pascoe, Undertown is the story of Sama, a boy on the verge of 'tweenhood, who knows that the answer to saving his father lies in a strange world under his bed. Pascoe paired with Jake Myler, whose unusually grand, audacious style complimented Pascoe's dark mindscapes. The two collaborated for 14 months on the coming-of-age fiction fantasy.

"I wanted to create family fare ... but with an edge," Pascoe said. "My long-standing experience in noir fiction combined with my passion for creating content for 'tweens led me to a magical place."

Scholastic Books agreed. Late last year the publisher of Harry Potter bought the rights to produce their own edition of Undertown, set at a lower price point specifically for their book club.

"Undertown is unique from our past newspaper offerings in that we plan to run the story from volume one, unedited," said Jeremy Ross, Director of New Product Development for TOKYOPOP. "We are looking to this property to take our newspaper presence to the next level.

The timing of this launch has a lot of meaning for Pascoe. Two years ago his father -- like the father in Undertown -- was put on the list to get a heart transplant.

"Last week was the two-year anniversary of my father's successful transplant surgery," Pascoe said, "and the syndicated strip appears in papers the day before his 61th birthday. I believe in magic and miracles, and I hope that readers can experience some of this wonder in Undertown every Sunday."

Labels: comics tokyopop, newspaper strip, syndication, Undertown