The undead have as much use as the dead. My Dad was kind enough to mail me a cow’s skull that he came across in a field. At least that’s where he said he found it.

Often when I was younger I’d wander into the woods for hours and would eventually come upon a grisly horror of emaciated cow or horse parts. Your senses come alive when viewing death, alone, in the wilderness. Sometimes the animals would just die of old age or maybe from starvation as a woodchuck hole would break an animal’s leg and they would not be discovered until it was too late. Or coy dogs (which were wild feral animals that ran around in packs like coyotes or wolves tearing down slow prey) would cross their paths and instinctively rip them apart eating very little and leaving the rest for crows and flies.

So why do I bring all this up? I don’t know…but like I said the dead have their use either as a metaphor or as an adornment for creative endeavors. Such as…

Happy Holidays.

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When I wrote THINGS UNDONE I had no idea it would become a film.

And it still hasn’t but the more I see romance and horror mixing the more it makes sense. Then again, it’s hard to imagine two zombies making out…or is it?

If there was ever a chance for something so ripe to go so wrong it would be the zombie-love-romance story. It would be messy, just like real life but moreso. Maybe I should have put more of that in there…the destruction of two people based on the proximity of their lives to each other, both rotting from outside in, until their hearts didn’t recognize each other. Their only chance at normalcy and regaining their humanity is to leave one another. Naw, that’d be too easy.

Regardless I wrote a more personal story one that deals with life’s expectations steamrollering over one’s life. It’s funny some reviewers who read the book think the main character is “narcissistic” because he’s reflecting on a life that is destroying him in ways he can’t understand. That giving 110% of your soul to a company that can’t get it’s shit together is probably not the most sound thing a young 20-something should do. The rewards of insomnia, depression, shitty pay, and being over-worked cloud any reasonable judgment to guide one’s life. But I digress…

I guess not everybody can be clear-headed thinkers without a care in the world. Life is messy at every age, and sometimes you can take it too seriously. That’s what THINGS UNDONE is about, taking it too seriously forgetting that being 20 only happens once.

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Personally I don’t care much about any of it…except maybe the “look back” part. I like to take stock of what I did with my time and what I accomplished and what things I have left undone.

Usually it’s a good feeling that I didn’t waste my time on the planet doing things like: waiting in line, playing video games, waiting in line, stuck in traffic, waiting in more lines and jury duty. Well that last one is always a good chance to relax, draw people and then answer honestly when the prosecuting lawyer asks, “Out of anyone in the court, people of the jury, who would you want to be right now?”

I answered, “The defendent” while most answer the “Judge, because he has all the power.” They ask me why I would pick the defendent, and I think isn’t it obvious, it’s a more creative position to be in with all that adrenaline and emotion running through your bones. My reply is, “Because I’m an artist and it might be useful to me someday.”

That always gets people off the hook.

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Sacramento News & Review said:

“Want to see a zombie? Look inside your self. In short, White has turned horror graphic novels back on their heads by pointing out exactly who is the monster in this tale. Very well done.”

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Here’s a review of THINGS UNDONE that was recently brought to my attention.

I had a dream last night that Werner Herzog had hired me for a film he was doing. I was over at a friend’s house discussing why we couldn’t start our film in the North Atlantic Ocean, because we didn’t have shark fins and we’d probably die of hypothermia. Werner happen to be there at the moment for some reason.

It wasn’t clear whether I was going to be his Production Designer, Art Director, Actor or all three. We were immediately flying to Germany…or was it an Asian country? At any rate the whole production crew were going to live in one big house during the entire shoot.

I remember having to share a room with several other people, and started thinking about my wife back in the states. For whatever reason I couldn’t find my cell found which made it worse.

We were all in a main room discussing what the project direction was going to be when Werner decided to get a group photo of us. There was a guy there filming a “behind-the-scenes” documentary from Werner’s film company as well.

So we group around this massive couch, and Werner sets up an old bakelight radio and it starts playing some German Opera or something. “We should have a little music for this,” he says in his easy comforting manner.

“Besides, the look on your faces make me out to be Charon or something.”

There’s these little girls playing on a shelf right next to him. The shelf was covered with Chinese porcelain tea services and they started to rattle and shimmy under their weight. He pays them no mind. But my focus is on them and he wants everyone to focus into the 4 x 5 camera he’s working with. I could feel the tension building.

Then out of the blue he picks up a tea-cup a small one at first and points to me,  “I want you to sob at the drop of this tea cup. No, wait let me get a larger one so you can really cry.” I look at him and say, “I’ll try, how long do I have?”

“Now.” All eyes were on me, and I couldn’t quite drop-in to the scene fast enough. The cup didn’t break the first time either, so that didn’t help, especially when he said, “Wait, start over.”

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That’s right, we use big words here because that’s what Terry likes–literate people to read literary works of art. The entire catalog of NBM books will make your head spin dizzy with thoughtful and provoking looks at life and the people living them. So do yourself a favor and make your holiday shopping that much easier…I mean hell they’re having a sale right now on Eurotica…you know…for the kids!

THINGS UNDONE and NORTH COUNTRY still available from NBM. They make great gifts.

A nice review here of North Country awaits you.

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You may wonder why I have two sites, but once you see them you can see how all of that work on one site would make an Art Director crazy. Eventually some day I’d like to focus my energy in a smaller area of work. But for now I’m living two lives.

For those who have an interest in such things there’s a video interview with me at A.P.E. 2009. The audio is unfortunately quite rough, but hey…I’m rough around the edges myself. :\

Shout out to my friend Allen Freeman who did the impromptu Q&A. We go way back to my early days in Small Press publishing ca. 1985.

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P.S. THINGS UNDONE is my latest book. It fits nicely in stockings.

Our books THINGS UNDONE which is garnering steady praise and Ted’s THE YEAR OF LOVING DANGEROUSLY will rock your socks at this weekends ALTERNATIVE PRESS EXPO in San Francisco.

We’ll be there all weekend to serve you the finest selection of the latest graphic novels from NBM Publishing. Do yourself a favor, don’t let the nice weather fool you come by and check us out at booth #328.

You’ll be so happy you won’t even be able walk.

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I do believe this is the last bit of ephemera from the development of my new book THINGS UNDONE.

When Terry had me rework the cover he really pushed me towards the simple easy-to-read imagery. I don’t always agree with him, but I have to respect the fact that he’s been doing this longer than I have. Of course this one didn’t make the cut. I’m not even sure I showed it as the character showed no real emotion. I don’t think paranoia is an emotion?

Speaking of emotion…how about a terrible segue? I’ll be in the city of brotherly love this coming weekend…no not Philadelphia…though that city is a part of my story. SAN FRANCISCO will be host to the Alternative Press Expo this coming weekend. It’s one of my favorite shows really. It’s all about comic book goodness. Stop by say hi and buy this little seasonal tale of existential zombie awareness!:)

You’ll be glad you did.

While you’re at it…I have a facebook account…like all the cool kids. Get to know me:  Check it yo! I love it when the over 30 crowd tries to get realz with the kidz…that’s okay…hide your eyes, click away quickly.

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You might like THINGS UNDONE. Ultimately it’s why I created the story about 20-something Rick Watts, a video game artist whose burnt himself out. He’s literally worked himself to death.

What happens when we lose our passion for life while we have most everything we could want in front of us?

“Zombie un-life as an existential crisis”- Bill Sherman of Blogcritics I think put it best.

These were the very first cover attempts I came up with.

From day one I felt like the characters could be strong and iconic. More-so I was hoping that people would identify with them if not physically then emotionally. And really that’s the kind of zombie world I prefer.

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