Rocketeer!

The IDW solicitations for April have been released…

Which means I can finally talk about this!

My first work for IDW sees Colin Wilson and I take on a legend in the Rocketeer, edited by Scott Dunbier. Colin has done a stunning job with our short story in Rocketeer Adventures 2 and his work in this book is beautifully colored by superstar colorist, Dave Stewart.

As if this wasn’t enough, I’m really honored to share the writing cover credits with Paul Dini and Walter Simonson.

With so many of our Australian friends – the likes of Ben Templesmith, Tristan Jones, Shane McCarthy and Ashley Wood all published by IDW, the publisher is almost a second home for Australian creators. Colin and I are just happy to come crash on the couch for a bit.

Paul Dini, Walter Simonson, Tom Taylor (w) * John Paul Leon, Bill Morrison, Colin Wilson (a) * Darwyn Cooke, Dave Stevens (c)

The second star-studded issue of Rocketeer Adventures streaks into the skies with three high-flying tales of derring do! We start with a story on a grim battle field and race to save a soldiers life. Next up Is a jealous Cliff keeping an eye on Betty in his own inimitable way. Last is a run-in with a Hollywood icon in danger! Another 25 pages of gorgeous art and stories—and all for the price of a regular 22 page book!

FC * 32 pages * $3.99

*Variant covers:
Black & White Darwyn Cooke cover!

Bullet points:
* Each issue features 25 pages of stories and art!
* Featuring a pin-up from J. Scott Campbell!

Star Wars: Blood Ties ‘Boba Fett is Dead’ is Solicited with stunning variant cover

Seriously. It’s good to be a comic book writer.
As if having Chris Scalf’s covers and interiors on this book wasn’t incredible enough, Star Wars: Blood Ties ‘Boba Fett is Dead’ was solicited today with this striking variant cover from David Palumbo. Add this to these two covers already released from Chris Scalf and, for once, I’d be happy if this series WAS judged by its covers.

Tell your local comic store to order now for April. You’ll be glad you did.

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STAR WARS: BLOOD TIES—BOBA FETT IS DEAD #1 (of 4)
Tom Taylor (W), Chris Scalf (A/Cover), and David Palumbo (Variant cover)
On sale Apr 25
FC, 40 pages
$3.50
Miniseries
The news spreads from one end of the galaxy to the other like wildfire: Boba Fett, the galaxy’s most feared bounty hunter, is dead.
But when members of the team that killed Fett are themselves picked off one by one, Connor Freeman—the son of one of Jango Fett’s clones—gets pulled into the action in a most unexpected way!
• Writer Tom Taylor brings Blood Ties back with Boba Fett!
• Interiors and covers by Chris Scalf!

The Example Goes Digital for 99 Cents!

The comic that started my career, The Example, is now available as a digital download!

For just 99 cents you can have Colin Wilson and my first collaboration for your iPad, iPhone, Android or whatever you use, through Graphicly.

Not convinced to part with your hard-earned 99 cents? Read what the critics have to say…

“This book should be used in writing classes everywhere, and should be the primary example (no pun intended) for aspiring comic writers to reference when trying to learn how to write dramatic and compelling dialogue.” – Newsarama “

“Brief Cases, late trains, and small talk add up to what is probably the best comic of the year! Taylor and Wilson collaborate to create one of the most tension filled comics I have ever read.” – The Outhouse.com

“…as effing good as the accolades suggest.” – Broken Frontier

“Like Watchmen, it uses a simple 9 panel grid on almost every page, but you won’t even notice. I mean, this is just two people talking at an empty suburban space, yet you’ll be lost in the world it creates.” – Comic Book Jesus

The Example has also recently been optioned and filmed. Set photos and info right here.

Darth Vader on the cover to ‘Star Wars: Blood Ties – Boba Fett is Dead’ #3

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I’ve now seen this in a few places on the intertubes, so I figure it’s safe to post here.

Darth Vader is squeezing your heart with the force on the cover of Star Wars: Blood Ties – Boba Fett is Dead #3.

The time-lapse video of this cover being made by Chris Scalf can be viewed right here. It’s well worth a watch. Chris Scalf’s time-lapse videos are a kind of magic.

As brilliant as this cover is, I have to say the cover to issue #2 is my favorite. I can’t wait until people get a look at that one.

Nominated for the ‘Stan Lee Excelsior Award’

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“The Stan Lee Excelsior Award is an exciting new book award for graphic novels and manga – where kids aged 11-16 choose the winner by rating each book as they read it!”

I received this in an email earlier this week from the organizer of the Stan Lee Excelsior Award.

“I am pleased to inform you that STAR WARS: BLOOD TIES has been nominated for the final shortlist of eight titles and, as such, will be winging its way into over 60 secondary school libraries across the UK!”

Forbidden Planet and Comic Book Resources started reporting it overnight and I thought this was a good note from CBR.

“Here’s what’s interesting about this shortlist: It reflects what tweens and teens are actually reading, as opposed to what the adult gatekeepers think they should be reading.”

I’ve also been invited to the Awards Ceremony in Sheffield next year. I don’t think I’ll be able to make that… but it’s very nice to be invited.

I think this is a fantastic initiative.

“The overall goal of this scheme is to encourage reading amongst teenagers. However, its secondary target is to raise the profile of graphic novels and manga amongst school librarians and teachers. This storytelling medium has been a largely underused resource within education for many years. The Stan Lee Excelsior Award attempts to highlight some of the amazing books that are out there - books that fully deserve to be in our school libraries alongside regular fiction!”

Using Graphic Novels to promote literacy is an absolute no-brainer. Providing subject matter that young people actually find engaging, obviously encourages reading. This was in my thoughts during the creation of The Deep: Here be Dragons and I’ve had a number of parents let me know that they’ve bought this book to encourage reading skills in their children.

Thank you to everyone involved in this Award. Star Wars: Blood Ties is a book that Chris Scalf and I are very proud of, and we’re both very happy to see it’s inclusion in such a worthwhile program.

Boba Fett and literacy. What a combination.

You can get Star Wars: Blood Ties through Amazon right here. And you can check out the Stan Lee Excelsior Award Nominees here – ‘Nuff said.

And here’s a picture of me and Stan from the Lucasfilm party in San Diego earlier this year.

The West Wing – A Special Fine Art Friday

Emily K Smith recently came and stayed with us during a weekend of comic book launches and fun (we saved her from a terrible backpacker’s in the city). While she was here, I introduced her to the greatest TV show ever produced, The West Wing.

For her birthday this week, (Happy Birthday, Em) she sent ME a present.
This picture of C.J. Cregg (Allison Janney) playing Croquet with a flamingo (her secret service name).

The piece is titled, ‘Allison in Wonderland’… because Em is clever.

Two Books. Two Galaxies. Two Epic Space Battles Come to an Explosive End.

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Two epic battles have been raging in the pages of Star Wars: Invasion – Revelations and DCUO Legends: The Brainiac – Sinestro Corps War, and both come to a climactic end this week. Two wars. Two Galaxies. Two books. Two publishers. One big week.

These two story arcs probably contain my largest ever fictional body count.

DC Universe Online Legends #17

Hal Jordan is seriously conflicted as he and the Green Lantern Corps arrive at Korugar to “contain” the war between Sinestro’s Yellow Lanterns and Brainiac–but can they save the planet of innocents caught in the crossfire? And how desperate could things possibly get that would see Hal team up with Sinestro for one final battle?!

Star Wars: Invasion—Revelations #5

Writer: Tom Taylor
Artist: Colin Wilson
Colorist: Wes Dzioba
Cover Artist: Chris Scalf
Release: November 16, 2011
32 pages, issue 5 of 5

Queen Nina and Princess Kaye have successfully rescued the refugees from the Battle of Shramar, but the Yuuzhan Vong invaders may still have another win for their tally. Or is there another revelation in store? Meanwhile, on Coruscant, Jedi-in-training Finn Galfridian finds that in trying to prevent an assassination, he may be complicit in one! The next revelation may be about Finn’s new mentor!

Supanova Expo Brisbane!

Yes.  I’m a guest of Supanova this weekend in Brisbane. It will be huge. Val Kilmer is also a guest, as is Christopher Lloyd.

We’ll be doing a launch of The Deep: Here Be Dragons in the wrestling ring on the Saturday at 3pm.  Neil Kaplan is launching it.  He was Optimus Prime. You want it. Optimus says so.

I’m supposed to be packing as I have to leave on a plane in not enough hours time and I’m supposed to sleep a bit first.  So I’ll get back to that.

If you’re in Brisbane. You should come to this!

Revealed! Green Lantern On The Cover Of DCUO Legends 17

Yes. Doug Mahnke’s cover to DC Universe Online Legends #17 is this good.

I’ve just seen this is up over on DC’s site, so I figure I can now share it here. Gaze at it!

And the good reviews for issue #16 are coming in.

“Writer Tom Taylor – a playwright from Australia who’s been doing some Star Wars comics for Dark Horse and took a turn at The Authority – does excellent work with the main Green Lantern characters, particularly Guy Gardner, who is positively gleeful at the idea of watching Sinestro and Brainiac stomp the **** out of each other. The dialogue is generally excellent, particularly Guy’s. Taylor takes what should be work-for-hire on a loss-leading marketing ploy and infuses it with moral questions. About the nature of only following orders. The morality of taking no stand in the face of genocide. The law of unintended circumstances.”

And Bruno Redondo, who I chatted to this morning (I love Skype) is also coming in for much deserved love…

“I was also pleasantly surprised by Bruno Redondo’s art… It’s fairly straight-ahead comic pencils – clean lines, nothing too stylized to scare off any videogame nerd who might be buying their first comic – but he does pretty dynamic action and good facial expressions, which are key to a character like Guy Gardner and to the emotional beats Taylor builds into the story.” - Crisis on Infinite Midlives

“The reader is subjected to a brutal scene of violence as Sinestro gets his face smashed in. Tom Taylor underlines the scene with witty prose. He also puts us in the driver’s seat for the victim. For that moment, the audience sees things from Sinestro’s point of view. A war in space unfolds with ships, hulking skull faced warriors, and dozens of black and gold suited aliens blasting away at each other. The forces of Brainiac and the Sinestro are at war. I really liked this issue overall. It had beautiful artwork and an engaging story that provoked emotion, thought, and plain enjoyment. I give it five out of five metal bikinis and looked forward to the second part of The Brainiac-Sinestro Corps War.” - Roqoo Depot

A big thanks to everyone who has taken the time to tweet, message and email their reaction to this first issue.  I had a great time creating these two issues with Bruno and Ben Abernathy and it always means a lot to read some kind words. Cheers!

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This Week: ‘The Brainiac – Sinestro Corps War’ Begins

“In space, no one can hear—
—the dull thud of my brain smacking against the inside of my fractured skull.” – Sinestro

And so begins DC Universe Online #16, the first of my two-part ‘Brainiac/Sinestro Corps War’ story available this week in print and digital download. Despite writing The Authority for almost a year, which should also be available for digital download soon, this is my first work in the actual DC universe, and starting out with Green Lantern was a bit of a dream gig. The next character I’ve written (not announced yet) is also a dream gig.

I really hope everyone checks out this book this week. Bruno Redondo absolutely blew me away with his art and he managed to capture the moments of action, humour, violence and pain perfectly. This is a Green Lantern sample piece from Bruno’s blog.  Thanks to Ben Abernathy for bringing me on board for this one. Looking forward to much more!

IGN has also posted the exclusive news of the next issue right here.  Will share Doug Mahnke’s cover art for #17 when I can – it’s all kinds of awesome.