Franks will be at the Free Comicbook Day Zine Fair at the Konokuniya bookstore in Sydney with a limited edition SIXSMITHS minicomic! 12 pages, including a chapter from the graphic novel, two short strips, and a recipe for Egg-Free Satan Cookies.  

Other creators present include Chris Sequeira, Chewie Chan, Marcelo Baez, and Komala Singh.

Stop by and check it out!

Free Comic Book Day http://www.freecomicbookday.com/ @ Kinokuniya Bookstore Sydney 

Date: Saturday, May 2, 2009

Time: 10:00am – 7:00pm (Zine Fair 11am – 4pm)

Location:

Kinokuniya BookstoreLevel 2, The Galeries Victoria, 500 George Street (opposite QVB)

Sydney, Australia

Phone:92627996

See you Sydney-side!

–JF

Franks will be exhibiting at Supanova Sydney, Australia’s best known comics and pop culture show on June 26th-28th, at the Melbourne Indie Scum table (booth c1).  He will have all kinds of cool stuff for sale:  including SIXSMITHS ashcans containing a chapter fop the GN that will not be published on the website, 3rd Blade minicomics by J. Marc,  and all kinds of additional comics wonderment. 

Also at the table will be Matt “Guzumo“ Emery and the Brendan Halyday.

Look for him under the Blackglass banner.

THE SIXSMITHS, an original graphic novel by J. Marc Schmidt and Jason Franks–

–coming in 2010 from Slave Labor Graphics; publishers of

LENORE

and

JOHNNY THE HOMICIDAL MANIAC.

The graphic novel is comprised mostly of new material, but you will be able to continue to enjoy the webstrip without reading the book (and vice versa).

– JF

Hello,  evil children,

Today is  Wednesday the 9th of September,  2009, or 09/09/09. Turn that over and we have a very special day indead. Wednesday has nine letters in it, and so does September. That’s a whole lot of nines.

Here at the theSixsmiths.com, of course, we don’t belive in any such superstitious nonsense: the Dark Lord does not confine his workings to the arbitrary wheel of the Christian calendar.

However, if the minions of His Dread Majesty were to take some initiative and wreak deviltry in His Unholy Name, the King of Lies might yet look favourably upon them.

Just saying, is all.

Happy ninth!

– JF

I have been fielding a lot of questions about this, so I thought I would take a moment to talk about the Sixsmiths graphic novel, which is coming out from SLG around May or June next year.

The book is about the same characters and situations, but it will contain almost entirely new material. It’s structured like a novel: fifteen chapters of between five and sixteen pages each, for a total of 140-150 pages. Some of the material presented on here on the website may or may not appear in the interstices between chapters, but the book will, by-and-large, but altogether new material. Marc and I planned this from the outset and these webstrips do fit into a certain period within the book’s continuity, but readers should be able to appreciate the webcomic and the graphic novel separately.

I hope that clarifies things for everyone. Rest assured, we will keep you informed about when the book will be out and how to order it.

Hail Satan!

– Jason Franks

THE SIXMITHS #1 is coming out in July from SLG Publishing:

This is a 24 page collection of 1-2 page SIXSMITHS stories remastered from the webcomic plus an exclusive 2-pager, all for the hefty price of $1.00 USD. Stories are  by J. Marc Schmidt, J. Marc, Jen Breach and Jason Franks.

The book will be available from Diamond (order code 978-1-59362-197-1), shipping in July. J. Marc and Franks will be flogging it in from the SLG pavilion at San Diego Comicon.

One of the big influences on The Sixsmiths, Ronnie James Dio, passed away yesterday. Dio was a huge figure in the heavy metal movement. I want to share my first experience of Dio. If you grew up in Australia at the same time I did, and watched a lot of afternoon ABC TV in the 70s and 80s, you probably saw a trippy animated music video of a frog singing a Beatles-esque song to various woodland creatures. That frog was Dio. The clip was played by the ABC, along with a couple of Mike Oldfield videos, to fill up empty space at the end of an hour, and they played it often. It was no doubt an influence on me. RIP.

– JMS

Reviews are coming in for The Sixsmiths #1, which was in stores last week.

Indie Jones of Ain’t It Cool News:
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/46020

Andrea Speed of Comixtreme:
http://www.comixtreme.com/content.php?302-The-Sixsmiths-Summer-One-Shot-Advance-Review

Australian ‘dark fiction’ review site Scaryminds:
http://www.scaryminds.com/reviews/2010/comic024.php

Retailer Ralph Mathieu’s Ich Liebe Comics blog:
http://ichliebecomics.blogspot.com/2010/08/some-great-alternative-comics.html

The new SIXSMITHS original graphic novel by J. Marc Schmidt and Jason Franks has now been solicited in Previews for October release:

THE SIXSMITHS are a family of suburban Satanists who’ve fallen prey to the global recession. Now their life is in turmoil: Ralf needs to find a new job; the twins, Cain and Lilith, need to survive the public school system; Annie needs to keep them all sane and under budget. Meanwhile, their estranged elder daughter Jezabelle is having her own crisis of the faith. Will the Devil rise to smite their enemies, or will he damn them with hellfire and wrath?

Diamond Code: AUG100733
ISBN 10: 1593622023
ISBN 13: 978-1593622022

You can order from your local comic store using the Diamond code, or in any good bookstore using the ISBN. Or, you can preorder from Amazon.com.

Published by Slave Labor Graphics, the book is a 168 page trade paperback, black and white interiors, colour cover, retailing for $12.95 USD.

The book contains all new material, structured into chapters, rather than gag strips, but featuring the same characters and situations in continuity with the webcomic.

Franks and Schmidt have put two and a half years of blood, sweat and tears* into this book in order to create the very finest Satanic family drama ever published in comic format–now it’s up to you to propagate the Devil’s dark gospel.

Cheerio!

*Not their own blood, sweat and tears, of course–the Devil prefers the sacrifice of innocents.