charles paul wilson is the stuff of legend~!

okay...

it is a proven fact that, as we grow older, time moves faster. i always thought it had something to do with school; when i was in school, time seemed to ooze by like molasses, time was slowed to a glacial trudge. this effect permeated everything and everything took forever...
lately, however there has been a quickening, and time flits by like an elusive butterfly. summer's that used to seem endless go by in a flash. days, weeks, months are here and gone before we know it. to some this might sound like a complaint.
it's not! i'm saying that i just can't wait until next month!
we are a few days less than a month away from the debut of The PERHAPANAUTS: DANGER DOWN UNDER! no.1!!! And I can't wait for you to see it!
I've been having some very heated email conversations with some very vocal Perhapa-Fans about posting some Preview Pages from the Ashcan; some people are very Spoiler Sensitive.
And I can respect that-I love surprises and I don't want anything or anyone tipping on something I'm looking forward to.
So if you are just DYING for a chance to see a few early pages from the new series, head on over to our "Tales from the Perhaps" section--see the link above?--and you can get an eyeful of what we're talking about. If not, hang in there, Perhapa-Pals--we're less than a month away!

what i CAN show you--'cause the solicit for issue 3 is just a few days away--is the awesome variant cover we have for that issue!
as you can tell, craig and i wanted very much for the new series to sport a wide variety of cool covers from some of our favorite artists in the industry. Issue one features a beautiful variant cover by Jim Starlin and Terry Austin, 2 bears a gorgeous Joe Staton piece...and we have a lot more where that came from...!
Danger Down Under! no. 3 proudly displays a variant from the incredibly talented CHARLES PAUL WILSON III, artist/designer of Th3rd World's awesome graphic, THE STUFF OF LEGEND!
if you're not yet reading this book, you are in for a treat! written by mike raicht and brian smith, TSOL is a rich and compelling fairytale chronicling the adventures of a group of toys out to rescue their kidnapped boy. charming, powerful, thrilling, you will not be disappointed by this book. order one for yourself and some extras as gifts; it's that good.

and, of course, it's gorgeously illustrated by charles, who's lush pencils sing in sepia and bring this very unique world to life. wonderful stuff and i couldn't wait to meet the guy.

                                                                  he looks like this.

a really nice guy, charles is also the kind of artist who just loves to draw, can't get enough, always playing and experimenting and, in doing so, has tapped into another, equally enchanting style, channeling original winnie-the-pooh artist e.h. shepard in a series of fun, comic-based pieces that have been circulating around the 'net for months!

so, of course, when i cornered charles to hopefully, possibly, if you have time, sir, could you, would you please draw us a cover...he smiled and said no problem, he'd love to. and he did.
i told him the story and a week or so later, he sent us this.
and craig and i danced.

some of these lower characters might not be familiar to you yet, but they will be...
thanks so much, charles!

that's it for now!
it's my birthday!
smell ya later!
 todd