Hello from David Mack :)
July 24 2003,01:25

Hi friends!
It is good to see you all enjoying yourselves here!  I apologize for taking so long to post on this board. I've been way busy with work and travel.  But I hope to post a bit more regularly now.  I saw Poison IV at Heroes and San Diego Con, and she reminded me about this messsage board.  Thanks, Poison.

I really appreciate all of the kind posts at the beginning of the forum.

Currently I've been working on the new Echo story that will be in the DD series (51-55).  And I've been working on the brand new Kabuki series that will ship right after that.  And I've been working on the Kabuki film.

I'm looking forward to seeing how the creator interviews on the DD DVD turned out.  I hear it is already available in Europe.  They filmed for about four hours at my home studio, and I am curious to see how much it is cut down to and what they kept in and what they cut out.

I also post at the Kabuki messageboard at wfcomics.com.  Had a great time at San Diego and posted a digest of it at that board.  I'll try to get into the habit of posting here as well (It had been a while and I had to track down the e-mail that mentioned what my password to the board was).

Besides NohTV.com my girlfriend is working on a new site at davidmack.net.

Thanks for your patiences, your interest and your kind regards.
Best,
David Mack

Thanks! Glad to hear that.  Here is the update from the San Diego Con that I posted on my Kabuki board at wfcomics.com.  I'll post it here for you too.  Here is:

Back from San Diego Comicon!

Wow! This was the best San Diego Con ever! Tons of stuff happened everyday.

I had such a great time there with my friends. The MOB booth (Mack, Oeming, Bendis) was there with Andy Lee and Anh Tran also set up at our Powers & Kabuki tables. We had a great time at our MOB panel (and Angelina Jolie and Halle Berry’s panels didn’t even cut into the turnout that much J)

Hundreds of brand new Kabuki readers picked up Kabuki trades for the first time.
Each day was a whirlwind of adventure.

I talked with Quentin Tarentino. I had a fascinating Frank Miller & Will Eisner experience.
Bill Sienkiewicz stopped by the table and gave me a wealth of kind words and encouragement and we had a great talk.
Had a great time at the Eisner Ceremony. Brian Bendis won 2 more Eisners and I was honored to hear how many times he acknowledged me in his speeches!

Did some charity sketching for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.
Saw thousands of long time Kabuki fans (I must have the coolest, hippest, smartest, artiest readers at the whole con). I got a lot of comments about how my section of the booth always has the most women and coolest artists hanging out!

I was asked to do a story with Alan Moore. Anh Tran sold tons of her hand made BunnyZ. Toy developers were constantly interested and discussed possibilities with her. Giant Robot Magazine (which I have read since the beginning) took an interest in her creatures and is now selling them in their Los Angeles Giant Robot store.

She gave one to Craig Thompson cause she loved his book Good Bye Chunky Rice. He said he was a big fan of Kabuki. We read his new book called BLANKETS on the plane ride home and it was amazing. My favorite recent comic. Buy it from Top Shelf Comics and tell them you heard it here. It is by far, my favorite recent read. My fave book pick of the show.

The MOB crew and I had a great Image dinner. Had a Great Amano dinner. Jeff Amano, Brandon Amano and the lovely Mandy Amano and Claire Beckett who work for Beckett Entertainment (they publish the Terminator comic of which Anh Tran is the main character, and they are publishing RUULE in NOV for which I did the covers.

Bendis and I had some good meetings with Quesada in his hotel Suite. Lots of news to update you on in the future.

The SCARAB ACTION FIGURES ARE AMAZING!!! There was a Diamond Select party to promote the new Scarab Action Figure (Diamond Select will be making all the new Kabuki figures, starting with Scarab) and they gave out free Scarab action figures to the first 100 retailers. Andy and I went there to get our figures and sat at the table and played with them with the other retailers. Retailers Brian DePadro of Classic Comics in Atlanta, Lee of Lee’s Comics in Mountain View and San Mateo, Joe Ferrara and Dotti of Atlantis Fantasy World in Santa Cruz, and Bill and Sharon Liebowitz of Golden Apple in LA enjoyed our antics!!!
Seriously, these figures are amazing with WAY more articulation and playability that the previous Kabuki figure. And Andy and I were amazed at how much we could take the figures apart and re-arrange them in new ways. We disturbed all the other guests with this talent.

The WIZ KIDS booth had the Kabuki HERO CLIX on display. They come in the Indy Hero Clix and are: Kabuki, Scarab, Tigerlily, and Siamese. Five Kabuki characters to start with. And I think they also have Akemi and Keiko as a sort of secret chaser figures to follow up.

I saw Jubal Faircloth from this board. He and his friend drove from Ky to SD for the con! What a road trip. Saw lots of other readers from this board like Michael Goodman.

I saw a lot of my readers that I met in Australia! And many of my friends and readers from France!

Talked with Josh Middleton and mentioned that he was spoke of well on this board. Talked to Kent Williams. Ash Wood stopped by. Greg Spalenka. John Woo’s company asked me to do some stuff with them.

Did tons of interviews. And lots of other stuff I can’t remember. I’ll have to follow this up with it as it comes back to me.

Lots of cool stuff going on that I will continue to update you with. Was a great con, with a great energy from the readers and the creators I associate myself with.

David

PS, I still need to tell you about my POE experience from a while back. Do any of you listen to the singer POE? If so, remind me to tell you about our Kabuki encounter with her.

Well....  I'm glad you asked.

I currently have six collected Kabuki stories in hardcover and trade paperback.  They are:

vol 1 Kabuki: Circle of Blood (280p)
vol 2 Kabuki: Dreams (128p)
vol 3 Kabuki: Masks of the Noh (128p)
vol 4 Kabuki: Skin Deep (128p)
vol 5 Kabuki: Metamorphosis (280p)
vol 6 Kabuki: Scarab (256p)

Each of the books fits into continuity and builds on the previous story, but each also acts as a self contained story.  And each of them purposely have a completey different art style, art medium, story tone, and storytelling rythm than the others.  Each book is like a different era in the character's life, so I want each to have it's own atmosphere.  And you should be able to start with any of them and get a sense of the story.  Though, hopefully that issue will hook you and make you want to read all of the others stories.

My favorite is Metamorphosis (vol 5).  I like to think that I improve as I go, so I believe this marks my most evolved story and art in the Kabuki series.  Though many people site Circle of Blood as their favorite.  Dreams also has a lot of esperimental and mixed media art styles.  Dreams collects my very first ever painted comic book work.

Go to Davidmack.net to find sample pages from each book and a synopsis and description of each volume.

I'd love to hear from any other Kabuki readers on this board as to which Kabuki volumes are your favorite and why.

As for my Daredevil work,  I took over writing DD after the Kevin Smith story.  I wrote 6 issues with Joe Qusada drawing them.  It is collected in paperback and hardcover.  The story is called Parts of a Hole.  It introduces the Echo character that my upcoming DD arc will spotlight.

I also painted 4 issues of DD with Brian Bendis writing.  And I did lots of DD covers and all the covers of Alias.

Please let me know what you think when you get a chance to check out my Kabuki books.

Warmest regards,
David