Dark Horse Presents # 32 online for FREE!

This is the official home for the Dark Horse Presents two pager featuring
Beanish and Dreamishness on the Secret Path of Something More.

For the record....I call this story "First Steps."
(Well....sometimes I call it "First Leap" too. )

Tell you what, I'll let you, the members of the Leguminati,
decide what it should be called and I'll go along with it.

A year and a half ago, after the posting of the first MDHP story in Issue #14,
there wasn't any Beanworld product in print or for sale.

This time at the end of the story there is a handy-dandy link
that leads you to all the current Beanworld product Dark Horse has for sale.

All things leguminous are moving along....
not as fast as any of us want....
but moving along just the same!

"? and !" is online. Become a Beanworld MySpace friend!

So!

The little 8 page romp through the Beanworld is up online as part of MDHP Issue 14.

The story "? and !" is a bit of a teaser as it lays down a more than a few few hints and clues to trends that will become increasingly important in the unfolding continuity of future Beanworld stories.

Some of it directly leads into the Beanworld Color Holiday Special (that at the moment seems to be titled "Every Cutie Deserves a Toy.")

Other notions will unfold in next years 250 page original black and white graphic novel "Remember Here When You Are There." And even a couple more seeds that will sprout in the following graphic novel.

The Beanworld MySpace page is up and running!

Last Friday, I woke up from sleep and slapped my forehead and said " (Expletive deleted)! The Beanworld MDHP story is going up next week. I need a MySpace page FAST!"

To my rescue came my pal, Jeff "JahFurry" Newelt, and his able designer, Maja. I think they made a totally wahoolazuma effort getting it together on incredibly short notice. We will be tinkering with it constantly in the days and weeks to come but I encourage all leguminous fans to become Beanworld's friend over at MySpace today!

Now?
I gotta back to the the drawing board...well the electronic tablet...well I gotta get back to BEANWORLD!

Can it be? Is it possible? Is this the return of Tuesday's Tantalizing Teaser?

This is a panel from the upcoming MySpace Dark Horse Presents eight page story. It'll go up next month.

There has been alot of discussion about the use of color in Beanworld, a project that was born and raised in black and white. Plus, there has been the anxiety that new color stuff might be as over rendered as the Asylum story oh so many years ago.

Well, fear not!

First of all I'm doing the coloring myself. And I'm following a rule of thumb that is quite simple: Color nothing in any fashion that is more rendered than something in the Sunday funnies.
No coloring that is any more complicated then Doonesbury or Mutts. Simple, striking colors with the occasional fade here and there.

Plus, for you artistes out there...I'm keeping my color palette so simple that I'm rarely even mixing three colors together. Most of my colors are solids (100 M/100 Y-Proffy's shoes) or single tints (50/C-Boom'r Beans) or a combination of a solid color and a tint (100Y/50 C-Bean green).

Very antiquated sort of thinking but I really want the color stories to have that same sort of old-fashioned-but-new-fangled-look that almost all of my work seems to exude.

Larry Marder's Beanworld returns for a whole new generation!

So said the official email from Dark Horse. Here is a transcript of the PR release:

Dark Horse Comics proudly announces the arrival of a most peculiar graphic novel experience -- Larry Marder's Beanworld!

Beanworld has captivated readers from grade school to grad school since its first publication as a series of comic books in the 1980s. Starting in early 2009, Dark Horse will present Beanworld as a series of affordable graphic novels collecting all existing Beanworld stories, with new material to follow in the same format, beginning with the all new graphic novel Remember Here When You Are There! To whet the appetite of new and loyal fans alike, Dark Horse will also release an all new Beanworld webcomic this Fall, with a full color Beanworld comic book to follow in time for the holidays!

Series creator Larry Marder explains, "Beanworld is about the affinity of life. It's like A Bugs Life meets Mutts, as told by Dr. Seuss & Joseph Campbell. It's a weird fantasy dimension that operates under its own rules and laws, but also reflects deep truths about our world in doing so. All the characters, whether they are friends or adversaries, understand that ultimately they depend on each other for survival. Beanworld isn't a place, it's a process, and I can't wait to share that process with a new generation of readers!"

"I couldn't be happier to welcome Larry Marder's wonderful stories home here at Dark Horse! I've always felt this is where they belonged, and I'm thrilled to be bringing them to today's readers," says Dark Horse President, Mike Richardson.

"Wahoolazuma! Larry Marder's personal Look-See Show is back on the boards! Beanworld is simply a joyous experience," said editor Diana Schutz, "total eye-candy, and it's good for you, too!"

"When Beanworld was first published, many people said it was ahead of its time," Marder says. "Looking at today's world raised on Pixar, Cartoon Network, and manga, I think it's fair to say that Beanworld's time has come. I'm looking forward to working closely with the team at Dark Horse to introduce the Beanworld to this comics-literate world!"

Look for Beanworld adventures, new and old, in the coming year!

So that is the news!

Beanworld is totally rebooting. It's not an archival project. It's being presented to a new generation in a modern format--a series of affordable graphic novels.

There is going to be a free online comic on MySpace Dark Horse Presents in the autumn.

And there is more!

A real live, full color Beanworld comic book in time for the holidays!

And in 2009--the graphic novel we've all been waiting for (yes me too!): Remember here when you are there!"