Sharing the Love

Let me start by going on record about something: I love Valentine’s Day. I know, it’s a manufactured holiday targeted to brainwash consumers into overpaying for flowers and heart-shaped chocolates. So what. I think any day that encourages us to find our inner romantic and pamper the ones we love is A-Okay in my book.

On the subject of love, My Dead Girlfriend continues to be showered by it in ways I could have never predicted.

It felt like Ain’t It Cool News had changed its name to Ain’t It Cool Wight yesterday. Not only did they give me a beautiful review for Action Comics, but they also ran an in-depth analysis of MDG as their AICN Anime Valentine’s Day Special.

“More honest than a rote high concept meet-cute romance, My Dead Girlfriend is the right comic for Valentine’s Day regardless of whether you're in love, out of love, or somewhere in-between.”

There’s a new interview with me over at Wizard Magazine Online, along with an excerpt from the first chapter of My Dead Girlfriend.

Meg Cabot, the prolific princess of young adult literature, featured MDG in her blog as her pick for the perfect Valentine’s Day present! She’s even giving away five autographed copies to the first fans that can email her the correct answer to a trivia question from my book.

Augie De Blieck gave MDG a great write up in his Pipeline column over at Comic Book Resources:

“It's genuinely hard to believe that this is Wight's debut comic. (He's done short bits here and there, but this is his major debut, in my opinion.) His storytelling and his art style are so strong out of the gate, you'd almost think he's been doing this for years.”

Brian K. Vaughan, the critically acclaimed author of such books as Y: The Last Man, Runaways, and Ex Machina, picked MDG as one of his top five comics for the week of February 14th!

"MY DEAD GIRLFRIEND: You may know award-winning artist Eric Wight's work from THE ESCAPIST or episodes of THE O.C. (he 'ghosted' all the art for Seth Cohen), but he's never looked better than in his new book from Tokyopop."

I want to send some VD love to my chums Allan Heinberg, Geoff Johns, and Brad Meltzer for also plugging MDG in their myspace blogs. Their support has been incredible throughout the entire process of making MDG, and I consider myself extremely lucky to have friends whose hearts are as big as their talent.

Don't forget, today is the final day to get your entries in at the Whedonesque Valentine's Day Contest. Hurry up and write that story before it's too late!

One last little note -- a very, very special thank you goes out to my good friend and savior Rob Feldman, who built the original blog for me and was able to get things up and running again today while I retighten all the nuts and bolts. When Rob’s not bailing my ass out, he’s busy creating The Hyrde and Dr. Shroud.


Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day Massacre

Love the new miminal look of my site? Yeah, for some odd reason blogger decided to DELETE MY ENTIRE TEMPLATE. Now I have to rewrite the entire code. Cause I don't have anything else on my plate.

Oh, and all links to previous posts aren't working anymore either. So hang in there, I'm trying to get the site back up and running as fast as I can, and if I manage to not spontaneously combust, I'll be back later today with my intended Valentine's Day post for My Dead Girlfriend.

Have I mentioned how much I hate "new blogger?"

Action on Valentine's Day

Today is Valentine’s Day, and I know you are probably expecting a big post from me about that other book I have in stores. Which I will be doing, but I first wanted to take a moment to reflect on the response to my contribution to Action Comics Annual #10. Action came out last week, but since I was in NY for a signing appearance and researching my next book, I didn’t have a chance to talk about it until now. If you recall, back on 12/14 I mentioned that I had been working on a story that centered around the reintroduction of a classic DC Comics character named Mon-el. It’s pretty remarkable that in less than two months, the comic is already on the shelves.

Just as I was wrapping up My Dead Girlfriend, I got a call from my good pal Geoff Johns, writer extraordinaire and easily the nicest guy in comics. Geoff and I have wanted to work on something together for a while, so when he called me to see if he would be interested in drawing a story for his Action annual with Mr. Richard Donner, how could I say no?? Of course the timing couldn’t have been worse, and I wound up giving my editors at DC a few gray hairs trying to get the book to the printer on time, but we managed to pull it off and I think the entire annual turned out beautifully. A very, very special thank you goes to Lee Loughridge, who masterfully colored my story in a remarkably short amount of time.

The response to my work in the annual has been fantastic, and to have it be hitting at the same time as My Dead Girlfriend is like finding money on the ground. Here are just a few of the highlights:

“One thing animators bring to comics is a really clear idea of how to economically tell a story with sequential images. I loved the heavy brush look to his inking and texturing. [Wight's] a real find and should be a keeper for DC.”

- Ain’t It Cool News

“Wight’s indie-realistic style added an extra special something.”

- Newsarama

“The Mon-El story in particular was just as touching as it was well drawn by Eric Wight.”

- Wizard Magazine

“The first thing that caught my eye about this story was the artwork.”

- Silver Bullet Comics

“In terms of art this book is top notch...Wight continues to impress with his pencils.”

- Comics Nexus

“The Mon-El story pulled all the right strings”

- Comic Book Resources

So if you haven’t picked it up yet, give Action Comics Annual #10 a whirl. It’s Geoff at his best and teaming with Donner is a stroke of genius. It also features the work of Art Adams, my pal Rags Morales, Gary Frank, Phil Jimenez, Tony Daniel, and one of my personal hereos, Joe Kubert.

An Affair to Remember

A reminder that I am appearing tomorrow (Wednesday, Feb 7^th) at:

Jim Hanley’s Universe
4 West 33rd St.
New York, NY 10001
(off 5th Ave. - opposite the Empire State Building)

I’ll be signing copies of MY DEAD GIRLFRIEND, ACTION COMICS ANNUAL #10, and whatever else you guys throw at me. I’m scheduled to sign from 4-6pm, but since it’s an odd time will probably hang around a little longer. If you are in the NY area, drop by and say hi!

My buddy Whitney Matheson over at USA Today went way above and beyond the call of duty and not only featured an exclusive preview of MY DEAD GIRLFRIEND in her Pop Candy blog, but even on the front page of USAToday.com!

She had this to say about MDG:

“My Dead Girlfriend is a funny, twisted and sweet tale that's intended for young adults but is just as good (if not better) than any "adult" fiction I've read lately.”

I also have an interview with Troy Brownfield over at Newsarama.com which includes another sneak peek at MY DEAD GIRLFRIEND you won’t find anywhere else.

Word on the street is that MDG has begun to ship from online retailers like Amazon.com, and is available at most bookstores.

WIGHT-A-RAMA

In their "Best Shots" review column, Newsarama.com had this to say about MY DEAD GIRLFRIEND:

You have to love a book with a horror theme that notes on its cover that creator Eric Wight was the “Ghost Artist from The O.C..” If that wonderful pun weren’t intentional, then they shouldn’t tell. In fact, wink-and-nod gallows humor is on glorious display in the first volume of this new series from Wight, which centers around a young man with an intrusive, albeit dead, family and a miserable school life.

The charm of Wight’s book is how easily he melds teenage conventions and horror tropes. Finney Bleak comes from a long line of people who often die hilariously ridiculous deaths and continue to cheerfully hang out at the family home. He attends Mephisto Prep, where he is essentially the “Marilyn”; that is, he’s the only normal kid in a school full of vampires, werewolves, witches, bubble-helmet sporting lagoon creatures, and more. To compound this problem, Finney has a sharp wit, which, as we (okay, I) all know, will get you in trouble with the wrong crowd.

Clearly, as the name indicates, there is a romantic angle to the overall plot. I don’t want to spoil it, so I’ll sum up by saying that it’s sweet without being saccharine and cute without being overbearingly so. The potential for a romantic triangle is deftly handled, and really, all of the plot mechanics are just fun.

If you’re only familiar with Wight due to The O.C. or Batman Beyond or his more traditional comics work, you’re probably going to be in for a nice surprise. He’s a strong writer, and his graphic sense is well-suited to the “digest” size. Wight also gives us some swell extras, including several pin-ups by a murderer’s row of great artists (including the likes of Allred), as well as some design sketches. And if there isn’t a plush version of Mookie the pet gargoyle in the future, that will be a crime. If you’ve wondered about a title that’s the perfect meeting ground for the manga faithful and mainstream readers, there aren’t many places where you could do better.

MY DEAD GIRLFRIEND Roundup

With only a week to go until the release of My Dead Girlfriend, things are starting to happen at a break-neck pace. Here's a brief summary of the latest exciting news:

• Tokyopop.com has released a preview of the first two chapters of my book. You have to sign up to read them, but it's totally free.

• In their glowing review of MDG, Publishers Weekly had this to say about me:

"Wight has an uncanny knack for capturing the ferocity of teenage emotions in both ink and words."

• I'll be appearing at Jim Hanley's Universe on Wednesday, February 7th from 4-6pm to celebrate the release of MDG and my contribution to Action Comics Annual.
  

• Whedonesque.com has launched a contest to promote MDG. Submit your most mortifying Valentine's Day horror story to win fabulous MDG related prizes!
  

More great news to follow soon. Stay tuned!