Carla Speed McNeil

New episodes of Finder run in eight-page installments in the magazine anthology Dark Horse Presents (new storyline beginning October 2015). Also available on-line at digital.darkhorse.com. Preview of the next storyline here.

Finder is a long-running science fiction drama. Self-published for over a decade, now published by Dark Horse Comics. Dark Horse has republished eight of the self-published graphic novels as two lovely Libraries, each of which can reasonably be read alone. They follow various main characters, including a young girl whose first love is a book, a college girl majoring in The Art, which, when capitalized, makes her more like a geisha than Banksy, and a wandering pathfinder with one foot in another world.

All collected editions of Finder contain extensive footnotes by the author, which expand upon the ideas and comment on their origins. 

Some notable story arcs are:

Sin Eater  Jaeger, a wandering pathfinder, reconnects with an old army buddy only to discover that the old friend appears to be dangerously crazy-- and may always have been. (read excerpt)

Talisman  A young girl meets her first love: a book. (read excerpt)

Dream Sequence  Magri White is having a nervous breakdown, which threatens the meticulously-imagined fantasy world that he creates for the benefit of millions of visitors. (read excerpt)

Voice  Rachel Grosvenor has one chance to cement her place in her society's ruling class: by winning a beauty pageant. (read excerpt)

3rd World  Wandering pathfinder Jaeger is used to living off the books-- until he finds what seems to be the job that was made for him. (read excerpt)

I like to use the phrase "aboriginal SF" to describe Finder.

‘Ab origine’ is a pre-Roman term meaning ‘original inhabitants.’ It means, essentially, someone who’s been in a place since the earliest time. It generally refers to people who lived close to the earth, or whose ancestors did. People travel, people settle; people look at each other and embrace or else fight. People see kin; people see enemies. Push and shove over territory may not be as old as the hills, but it is as old as King Of The Mountain. Aboriginal science fiction deals with alien societies. Finder’s aliens are all one family, but their coming to understand that isn’t going to come easily.

From the press release:

Alex De Campi, Carla Speed McNeil, and Jenn Manley Lee team up for a pre-college field trip gone wrong

Bestselling writer Alex de Campi (Smoke/Ashes, Grindhouse), Carla Speed McNeil (Finder), and Jenn Manley Lee (Dicebox) team up for No Mercy, coming from Image Comics this Spring 2015.

“This book takes one of my all-time favourite genres—teen drama—and lenses it through the relentless eye of someone like Sam Peckinpah,” said De Campi. “And Carla Speed McNeil draws the best teenagers on Earth: FACT. We have eight issues of constant reversals, total surprises, and Very Bad Things in store. Also, emoji. Lots and lots of emoji.”

It was just a trip, before college. Build schools in a Central American village; get to know some of the other freshmen. What could go wrong? After tragedy strikes, these once-privileged American teens must find their way home in a cruel landscape that at best doesn't like them, and at worst actively wants to kill them. No phones. No passports. No mercy.

McNeil added: "Anybody watching me work on this book would think I'd lost my mind. I cackle over the ghastly fate of one character, cheer for another one, and get deadly silent over a third. I'm having my fun drawing [REDACTED], coyote attacks, compound fractures, and extremely rude sign language. Something for everybody."

The series is set to launch from Image Comics in 2015.

Part Dark Horse's "Silver" Free Comic Book Day Offering for 2015, Sisters – featuring Ty Lee and Toph– is a new Avatar: The Last Airbender story written by Award-winning New York Times Best Seller Gene Luen Yang, illustrated by yours truly, colors by Jenn Manley Lee.

Lives intersect in the most unexpected ways when teenagers Anne and Lewis cross paths at an estate sale in sleepy Failin, Oregon. Failin was once a thriving logging community. Now the town’s businesses are crumbling, its citizens bitter and disaffected. Anne and Lewis refuse to succumb to the fate of the older generation as they discover—together—the secrets of their hometown and their own families. Written by Sara Ryan, drawn by me.

Read an excerpt from the book here.

“This is the best graphic novel I’ve read all year.  Superbly observed, exquisitely drawn, with a sharp bite and a real human pulse.  Magnificent.” — Warren Ellis

LA Times Book Prize Winner

Publishers Weekly starred review

TIME Top 10 Graphic Novels and Comics of 2013

USA Today Best of 2013 Comics and Graphic Novels

Comic Book Resources Top 100 Comics of 2013, #14

PASTE Magazine Ten Best Comics of 2013

iBooks Best of 2013 Comics & Graphic Novels (warning: link will try to open the iTunes store)

Robot 6 Favorite Comics of 2013

Cover and end piece illustrations done for a premium edition of the Smut Peddler 2014 Anthology, featuring the Smut Peddler mascot Dinah Might.

One of THE most successful Kickstarters of 2014.

I wrote and drew (with tones by Karate McDanger) a short story in the first Smut Peddler also.

A ten-page story that will appear in Sensation Comics titled "Both Ends of the Leash." Written and drawn by me, colored by Jenn Manley Lee. I hope to release a "footnoted" process version on my Patreon account at some point, with permission from DC Comics.

Some thoughts I had on this endlessly fascinating superhero: Hidden Agendas