I just finally had a chance to finish Weird Fishes, the new graphic novel by Jamaica Dyer. I guess you could call her a classmate or colleague of sorts, in that we both had books come out from SLG around the same time.

The book Weird Fishes reminded me the most of, at least in the experience of reading it, was Nate Powell’s It Disappears. This is not to say the books are similar at all in style, tone or substance.

It Disappears was my first exposure to Powell’s comics. While I immediately recognized the talent and uniqueness represented in his flowing, contrast-heavy art, I also saw the book as an early step. The storytelling was opaque in a good way, but it also left room for growth. Powell’s amazing Swallow Me Whole is the realization of that potential.

Back to Weird Fishes. It’s the story of, to be brief, a weird boy and weirder girl, their relationships with each other, themselves and the outside world. It’s dreamy and funny and just plain weird.

The art is, as with Powell, so unique and impressive that the book is worth buying for that alone. Dyer’s characters are full of motion and life. Every face conveys emotion, subtle or overt depending on the scene. Her use of watercolors and mixed media is skillfully messy, and the one downside of this collection is that the interiors aren’t in color.

As a storyteller, Dyer is still growing, and you can see that development as Weird Fishes progresses. It’s exciting to imagine the things she’ll be creating in the years to come as her mastery of the medium becomes more complete. For now, I’m more than content to enjoy Weird Fishes, a beautiful book on its own.

You can buy Weird Fishes online at the SLG Web site.

The literary journal at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln (my alma mater) just announced that it is accepting submissions of “graphic literature,” as good a term as any for comics.

Those of you working on shorter comics projects are highly encouraged to send your stories in to the Plains Song Review. Submission guidelines are available here.

It’s really cool to see this happen, and I can only imagine we’ll see more lit journals following in the footsteps of Plains Song Review and the Virginia Quarterly Review, which has consistently published comics for a while now.

For those in the Atlanta area, you’ll have a couple of chances to get a signed copy of Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer! (And to hang out with me.)

• On Thursday, 11/12, at 7:30 p.m. we’ll be having an Atlanta book-release party at Manuel’s Tavern. I’ll have copies of the book and my 3-foot-tall Pinocchio puppet. I may have some art from Nebraska #2 to show as well.
• On Friday, 11/13, at 4 p.m., I’m doing a signing at Little Shop of Stories in Decatur, Ga. (just outside Atlanta). It’s a great store, so make a point to stop by Friday or whenever you’re in the area!

Dusty and I are just starting to figure out our plans for signings, conventions, etc. for 2010. We’ll be posting a slate of events in the coming months. For the moment, we’re both hard at work on the sequel. Hoping to get Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer 2 to our fans maybe as soon as winter, 2010.

Over at MTV’s Splash Page comics blog, Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer was recently listed in an Adapt This feature, calling for the titans of Hollywood to make a movie out of the graphic novel by myself and Dustin Higgins.

I certainly wouldn’t mind seeing Pinocchio killing the undead on the big screen. How about you?

So, let’s pretend the titans of Hollywood care what the fans have to think. What do you say, would it work better animated or live-action? (Caleb Goellner writes in the Adapt This article to incorporate both.) Who would you cast for the various roles? Which director would you put in charge?

Post your suggestions in the comments.

Side note: Apologies for the slow updates. On the positive side, I’m hard at work at the PVS sequel and have three other very exciting projects coming along.

One of those days of weird confluences. It’s comics great Steve Ditko’s birthday, and, unrelated, today’s Slate content includes a lengthy examination of Ayn Rand.

Rand, of course, is the author of books such as Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead. But of important note is her establishment of objectivism, which has led her to become a heroic figure to some conservatives … and Ditko. Rand, the article explains, escaped from a Russia controlled by Bolsheviks and spent her life espousing hatred toward non-elites. Johann Hari writes of Rand’s influence in America:

In a country where almost everyone believes—wrongly, on the whole—that they are self-made, perhaps it is easier to have contempt for people who didn’t make much of themselves. And Rand taps into something deeper still. The founding myth of America is that the nation was built out of nothing, using only reason and willpower.

Interestingly, Rand pushed for the removal of government control while creating a life for herself in which she controlled and dominated all those in her inner circle. In essence, she became that which she opposed.

Rand’s influence on Ditko is well known but no particularly well understood, as far as I’ve read. This is in part because Ditko is rarely seen or heard from. His pursuit of objectivism seems to have coincided with his departure from being a major creator in comics, and the one fault I recall from the otherwise worthwhile Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko is that connection wasn’t fully explored.

After some delay, my debut graphic novel with artist Dustin Higgins — Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer — is on sale today. Just in time for Halloween.

You can buy it through our publisher, SLG Publishing, at Amazon, or at your local comic book retailer.

For me, this day is the culmination of about eight years of work. It was that long ago that I decided to write books for a living. Pinocchio was the third book I finished and the first to be published.

It seems like it should be a big day, or that I should celebrate. While I’m very happy to have a book in stores, I feel more than anything that what I’ve learned from this experience is just how difficult it is to build a career as an author and how much more work lies ahead. In addition to a Pinocchio sequel, I have a handful of other projects in the works that I think will be a lot of fun.

Quickly, a word of thanks to those who helped make this project a reality: Dan and Jennifer at SLG, Todd Dezago, Ross and Mark at Boom!, Rob and Andy at Top Shelf, my awesomely talented collaborator Dustin, my family, and of course my wife, Amy, who makes it all worthwhile.

The Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer “What Lie Would You Tell?” contest winners have been selected by myself and artist Dustin Higgins. The winners are:

Matt Jackson, who lied, “Come with me if you want to live.” His play on bad action movie dialogue earns him an original page of artwork and a signed copy of the book.

Runners up, who will each receive signed copies of the book, were…

Dave Puskas: “This is going to hurt me a lot more than it’s going to hurt you.”

Mike Rende: “I did not catch a case of termites from that cute nutcracker Geppetto just carved.”

Thanks again to everyone who entered! And remember, the book hits shelves Oct. 28, less than a week away!

Surprising as this may be, I’m not a big vampire guy and have to admit to never reading an Anne Rice book. All the same, I’m honored to be a member of a vampire literature panel at the Vampire Film Festival this weekend in New Orleans.

The festival, which features short films, a costume ball and lots more craziness, will be held primarily at the Zeitgeist. It’s been held in Los Angeles in years past and this is the inaugural festival in its new Big Easy home.

If you live in the area and want to come, I’m sure it won’t disappoint. Also, you can be the first kid on your block with a copy of Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer, as I’ll be bringing some copies to sell.

Also, many thanks to Catherine Karp, a writer and organizer of the panel, who recently posted a big interview with me on her Suburban Vampire site.

Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer -- on sale Oct. 28

The new Publishers Weekly Comics Week has a review of the upcoming graphic novel by myself and Dustin Higgins, Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer. The reviewer really enjoyed the book:

This enjoyable reworking of Carlo Collodi’s classic tale drops the magically animated puppet into a horror movie plot. … Jensen’s script is clever, full of irreverent irony. But the highlight of the book is Higgins’s b&w art that offers page after page of amazement. Swirling, whirling, jittery, skittery, the story dances gracefully from grin to grimace and back again.

Full disclosure: I previously wrote for PWCW. That said, I don’t know any of the reviews staff and have no idea who reviewed the book.

Oh, and check out PW’s The Beat, where Heidi posts a couple photos of yours truly from Baltimore Comic-Con.

In other news, just got confirmation that Diamond is getting PVS to shops in time for an Oct. 28 release.

Aside from a customs SNAFU (don’t ask) preventing me from having copies of Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer at Baltimore Comic-Con and SPX over the past few weeks, I had a great time at both shows. Well, there was that whole SPX Freezing Sunday that left me with a wicked cold, but other than that, I had a great Maryland double-dip.

SPX is one of my favorite conventions after a couple visits. There are so many talented mini-comics creators that come, it’s impossible not to be blown away by the diversely creative books available. I still haven’t made it through the huge stack I brought home, but the Center for Cartoon Studies crew in particular had amazing stuff.

I also had a chance to chat with Joshua Cotter and get a copy of his new Driven By Lemons. If you’re interested in the more experimental side of comics, that’s a book you can’t miss. I also picked up the latest issue of The Comics Journal (#299), which has a must-read interview with Josh and a story on the failure of the Someday Funnies. It’s the best piece of comics journalism I’ve ever read.

Then I was able to chat with Josh Neufeld about comics and journalism. He’s working on a nonfiction comic about journalism now, and I couldn’t be more excited for that.

I did have PVS T-shirts and original art at Baltimore, so I guess I was one rung closer to being a real comics creator. A ton of people came by the booth, hoping the book was available, only to leave with broken hearts. It was great seeing the response, though. One kid said, “That’s a bangin’ ass idea!” I’ll count that as a compliment.

And people really loved the Pinocchio puppet my uncle made (see above). People either called it “awesome” or “creepy.” Or both.

I also got to talk to Scott Adsit (Pete from 30 Rock) again and see his incredible League of Extraordinary Gentlemen sketchbook. Seriously, it’s a sight to behold.