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Crossing Boarders #5 by Andrew Goletz – Lotta Mocca

Published Thu, 07 Apr 2011 08:00:07 -0500

Andrew Goletz writes for Bleeding Cool.

I'm going to take a one column break from retelling the history of my self-published comic The Gathering to talk about some current GrayHaven goings on that I'm really excited about.

MOCCA FEST

First off, this weekend we're going to be at MoCCA Fest in New York City. Saturday, April 9^th and Sunday, April 10^th from 11am to 6pm we'll be appearing at Table K-16. Along with Art Director Aaron Bir and writer Doug Hahner, I will be manning the GrayHaven Comics booth. I have it on good authority that many of the writers and artists who contributed to the first several volumes will be popping by to say hello like Jeff Burandt, Ray Goldfield, and Len Wallace. Len and Jeff will also have their own table at I2. We'll have copies of all three issues on sale so stop by, say hello, get your books signed and find out from the source what GrayHaven Comics and The Gathering are all about.

MoCCA is our first con of the season and I'm really excited to be a part of the indie centric crowd. As much fun as NYCC is, the crowd typically isn't there looking for small press work so I'm looking forward to getting a chance to talk to current and future fans and perhaps eventual new contributors as well.

Also, we will have lots of candy.

MoCCA Fest is at the Lexington Avenue Armory at 68 Lexington Avenue (between 25^th and 26^th Streets)

THE GATHERING VOLUME 3: HEROES

Debuting this week at MoCCA and on sale via our website the week after is the third issue of the Gathering. This issue is very special for several reasons. Not only is it double sized with nearly 70 pages of material for only 4 dollars but for the first time our creators are able to tell longer stories and break away from the two page limits of the first couple of issues.

A big triumph of the book was also getting all of it turned around one month's time. Staying consistent and having the book come out on a regular basis was going to be a big challenge and as you'll learn from future columns we weren't always successful with it. It's my intent to have five volumes come out this year. Technically it may be six since our second issue was delayed but to turn around a double sized issue in one month was a major accomplishment for us. I think the book looks absolutely fantastic and the additional page count has given our contributors a great chance to flex their muscles, creatively. I don't know when we'll get around to publishing a book this size again but the longer form stories is something we're definitely going to continue doing.

The Gathering: Heroes will go on sale the 2^nd week of April through our website.

WEB COMICS

This week sees the debut of GrayHaven's four original web comics. At best for the near future The Gathering is going to be on a bi monthly schedule but there are so many creative people involved with some great ideas that I just couldn't wait for future issues to showcase their work. The web comics are a way for some creators to tell ongoing stories outside of The Gathering banner. For the next 26 weeks each of the different comics will update on their respective days, telling a complete self-contained story in the end.

I've been fortunate enough to see a lot of the chapters ahead of time and these guys are doing some really great work. I hope you check them out and give them a read. Whether the web comics continue beyond the initial six month experiment is going to be up to the fans and their support.

Our first four ongoing titles, creative teams and their schedules are as follows:

KID ROBO by Marc Deschamps and Chris Chamberlin on Mondays

DEcomPRESSIONism by John M Coker on Tuesdays

DARING SPECULATIVE! STORIES FROM THE OUTER FRONTIER by Matthew Brown on Wednesdays

AOI SAYONARA by Kent Holle on Thursdays

All the comics can be found at www.grayhavencomics.com

The Gathering is an ongoing, self-published anthology from GrayHaven Comics with each issue covering a particular theme. Volume 1 was Hope. Volume 2 was Despair. And Volume 3 is Heroes. The goal of The Gathering is to give new writers and artists a chance to have their work published and tell some pretty damn good stories while doing it. We also get some help from friends who are already pros like Gail Simone (Secret Six, Birds of Prey) and Len Wallace (Love Buzz) and Sterling Gates (Supergirl, World's Finest)

Please check out www.grayhavencomics.com for the latest news regarding GHC and The Gathering. You can also follow us on twitter at http://twitter.com/GatheringComic and click on our Facebook fan page GrayHaven Comics/

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