As mentioned in another thread, after being announced by IDW, my new ongoing series is COLD WAR, recounting the adventures of a former MI6 agent who now accepts the occasional "contract" from his former bosses in Her Majesty's Secret Service. Of course, Swann knows that if it gets to the point his former bosses feel they need his help, the ship must have really hit the sand!

Altho set in the early days of the Cold War, this is NOT going to be a history book. I am playing quite freely with the order in which things happened in the real world. And I will not be tying Swann's exploits to any specific year or sequence of years. Those with an awareness of the history of this period may spot a few landmarks -- one in most particular plays an important part as a sub-thread to my overall tale -- but no reason to start checking the History Channel in order to be able to follow what's going on in this series!

Here's a sneekpeek at Page One:

(In case you're wondering, none of those appearing on that page are Swann!)

So can you give us a broader hint as to the genre JB? Is it pure spy/thriller type stuff or something a bit more quirky?

I'll of course be buying it whatever.

Beautiful! Love the details in the architecture. 

You're still "the one to beat" and always will be to me!   

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Wait and see.

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Very recently. This may be the shortest "gestation period" of any book I have worked on.

Sound great ! I especially always loved spy stories (hey, why use a former Mi6 guy if it's not gonna have secrets, and murders, and spys, and hideout, and sexy spy-women ??)

JB, can we expect to see this in 2011 ?

Outstanding!

JB, are you going try to come at this project from a different point artistically, because of the story's cold war era time frame?

Great sneek peak and happy to see another series by JB.

VERY HAPPY!!:)

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Swann went thru a number of name changes. Originally, I was going to call him "Mark Stagg", after a friend of my Dad's when I was a kid, whose name I thought was very cool. I mentioned this to a friend, tho, and he immediately said "Sounds like a porn star." Ugh! Time's change.

So I played around with a number of other names, and finally came upon "Swann". Then it seemed a natural to name him Michael, as a nod to the musical comedy team of Michael Flanders and Donald Swann, who played such an important role in shaping my brain when I was growing up.

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Four, then four more, then four more, then four more. . . . .

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First thing you may notice is NO BLACK GUTTERS. Also, a much more "conventional" panel layout.

Trying here to invoke without actually imitating the "feel" of a 1950s comic. We've even been contemplating an overall hue to the pages that will suggest age in a subtle but hopefully effective way.

Plans at present, by the way, for a black & white "alternate" edition of the first issue, as well as the regular color version.

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I think it's scheduled for September. Before the end of the year, anyway.

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East Berlin. So grateful to the Russians, for not embarking upon the massive rebuilding campaign that happened in the West. SO much more fun drawing blasted and battered buildings!

Oh -- and in case any of you might be concerned that some of these elaborate backgrounds will disappear under balloons and captions, the opening sequence of the issue is "silent", save for one identifying caption in the first panel.

I thought that might be more fun than "translating" all that Russian and German!!