I’ve been getting a lot of questions about THE SIXTH GUN hardcover edition. Well, I’m happy to announce that the Deluxe Hardcover edition of Volume 1 has now been solicited. This beautiful mammoth edition collects the first 11 issues of the series!

From the solicit….

During the darkest days of the Civil War, wicked cutthroats came into possession of six pistols of otherworldly power. In time, the Sixth Gun. the most dangerous of the weapons, vanished. When the gun surfaces in the hands of an innocent girl, dark forces reawaken.

Vile men thought long dead set their sights on retrieving the gun and killing the girl. Only Drake Sinclair, a gunfighter with a shadowy past, stands in their way. But the guns have a power… and a destiny… more terrifying than anyone imagines.

Collecting the first 11 issues of the critically-acclaimed comic book series.

]]> http://www.cullenbunn.com/2013/05/18/the-sixth-gun-hardcover-coming-in-october/feed/ 0 http://www.cullenbunn.com/2013/05/09/a-sixth-gun-update/ http://www.cullenbunn.com/2013/05/09/a-sixth-gun-update/#comments Fri, 10 May 2013 01:32:39 +0000 cullenbunn http://www.cullenbunn.com/?p=3871

The past few months have been pretty crazy, haven’t they? And the last week has been the nuttiest of all for me as I waited to hear whether or not NBC would green-light a television series based on THE SIXTH GUN. Well, as you may know if you follow me on Twitter, NBC has decided to pass on the show.

I don’t know everything that goes into such a decision. Hell, I’m just a poor country boy who likes to write comic books. If you’re one to read the comments sections of various “news” sites, you’ll see lots of opinions on the subject, most of which postulated by people who know even less about how Hollywood works than I do. The bottom line, the network made the decision they felt was best for them.

I’ll admit, it was a little bit of a surprise. I’ve seen things like this fall apart time and time again, so I try not to get my hopes up. I was doing pretty well with that, too. But then I started seeing footage from the pilot. I started talking to the folks involved in making the show. I visited the set, met the cast, director, and crew. I held both the Fourth Gun and the Sixth Gun in my hands, by God! And it started to feel very, very real. When I first arrived on set, I walked into the Emerald Palace (the brothel Missy Hume owns) and came face to face with a bunch of cowboys and saloon girls… and as far as I was concerned the show was already going full speed ahead. The pilot had a great script. Buzz was good (as it should have been because it was pretty terrific) and everyone involved was pretty optimistic.

So… yeah… I was taken aback and pretty disappointed.

People who know me realize I get depressed about things like this pretty easily. I tend to be crushed by bad news. But I actually took this remarkably well. It might have been because I was surrounded by my amigos, the Disheveled Dilettantes, when the news rolled in. It might have been the delicious margarita I was enjoying.  It might have been that I didn’t fully believe what I was hearing.

But what it really boils down to is this: I’m still doing a job that I never thought I’d be able to do. I write comic books for a living! More than that, I still get to focus on writing THE SIXTH GUN comic series. I just finished scripting issue 35, and there are 15 issues to go before the series reaches its conclusion.

And–let’s face it–a book I wrote got the attention of Carlton Cuse, someone I greatly admire. I got the chance to speak to Carlton Cuse about BRISCO COUNTY JR, LOST, and the freakin’ SIXTH GUN!

That’s pretty amazing for the aforementioned poor country boy.

The buzz about a pilot got a few more people to pick up the book. That’s a check for the “win” column. And I think we’ll continue to gather new readers to the fold. Those of you who love the book, keep spreading the word. If you haven’t tried the book, you can read the first issue here without spending a dime. And you can buy the trades at your local comic shop or on Amazon.

I’m very thankful to Oni Press, Closed on Mondays, Carlton Cuse, Ryan Condall, Jeffrey Reiner, the cast, the crew, and all the others who brought me along on this adventure! One thing I’ll say: everyone involved in making the show actually read and loved the book, and it was obvious in the amazing pilot they put together.

Keep in mind, just because NBC passed on the project doesn’t mean it is dead in the water. As Oni’s top dog Joe Nozemack said:

“NBC has passed on picking up THE SIXTH GUN  pilot for series. Universal Television, where we have our first look deal and who are our partners on the pilot, are still very much behind the property and series. In the coming weeks we’ll be exploring all the other possible homes and outlets for THE SIXTH GUN.  So just like General Hume, we’re not dead yet.”

And as Drake Sinclair said:

“The end of the world can’t stop me.”

 There’s a passionate, motivated group of people who still want to see this thing happen.

Stay tuned.

Some amazingly talented people have been sharing their love of THE SIXTH GUN lately, and I couldn’t be more thrilled and thankful. Editor and producer Adam Condal has put together a pretty awesome trailer for THE SIXTH GUN, and I simply had to share. Hope you dig it!

SIXTH GUN TRAILER from Adam Condal on Vimeo.

It’s been a long strange road thus far, but it’s only going to get stranger (at least for me) from here! As reported on Deadline.com, NBC has ordered a pilot for THE SIXTH GUN. That means that in the weeks to come, we’ll be learning more about the director and actors. The pilot will be shot in the coming months!   LOST veteran Carlton Cuse is producing. Ryan Condal wrote the pilot. Eric Gitter and Andy Borne of Closed on Mondays, the sister company of Oni Press, are executive producing.

Stay tuned for more information!

If you haven’t read THE SIXTH GUN, now is the time! You can read the very first issue of the series for free here.

…And it made my freakin’ day! Actor Joe Lewis put together an amazing Drake Sinclair cosplay. Definitely the highlight of the convention for me!

For the next couple of days, you can grab the first 23 issues of The Sixth Gun on ComiXology for less than a buck each! This is a great time to catch up on the series on the cheap… or grab yourself a nice digital version of the book to complement your hard copies!

And as always the first issue is free!

The sale doesn’t last long, so get over there now!

I’ve long joked that The Sixth Gun is the Dungeons and Dragons comic book Dungeons and Dragons players wish they could read. I wholeheartedly believe that the book is ripe for role-playing game adaptation. At the very least, I think it could serve as an excellent source of inspiration for fantasy gamers. Today, I discovered a series of Armchair Gamer articles focused on using The Sixth Gun as a resource for a fantasy RPG. The articles have been around for a while. I’m not sure how I missed them. But if you’re a gamer… or you know a gamer who should be reading comics… they are pretty interesting.

Inspiration: 6th Gun

Mining the 6th Gun: The Strange and the Familiar

Mining the 6th Gun: Weapons of Dark Purpose

Mining the 6th Gun: Monstrous Men

Mining the 6th Gun: Friends and Posses

Many aspiring writers and artists ask me how I put together a comic script–how I format the script, how much description do I put on the page, how much the final product varies from the original script. I think one of the best ways to describe my scripts is to share them. (In fact, I wrote my first comic books after reading some of Greg Rucka’s scripts.) I’m working on putting together a script book, but in the meantime I’ll post some of them here!

To start things off, I’m posting the complete script to The Sixth Gun #1. My format has changed a little bit over the years, but this is still a pretty good representation of how I tackle a script.  If you have that issue, you’re ready to compare the script to the finished product. If you don’t have that issue (shame on you!) you can download it for free (and legally) from ComiXology. While you’re there, buy some of the other issues.

Here’s the script:

Sixth Gun Issue 1
(.doc format)

I hope this is helpful for you! If you’re an artist interested in putting together sample pages based on this script, I’d love to see what you do! If you’re a writer, please let me know if this proved useful for you! For more about my process, check out the “plot to script” post i did a few weeks back!

A new issue of The Sixth Gun (#19) hit the shelves today, and that means it’s time for a new behind-the-scenes look at the series courtesy of Multiversity Comics! Make sure to read the issue before checking out this interview! There are spoilers ahead!

You can read the interview HERE.

A new year! And a few new things you might have missed around the web!

• Monster Librarian has chosen Crooked Hills as one of the top reads for kids of 2012. They went so far as to give the book special recognition as being reviewed highly by more than one of their reviewers.
• Broken Frontier has unveiled the winners of the Broken Frontier Awards for 2012, and I’ve been selected as the Best Writer (independent) for The Sixth Gun.