Polly and Handgraves on Myspace!!

If you happen to have a Myspace account, be sure to befriend Polly and Handgreaves by clicking on the link below. And be certain to tell your friends about it:

The Adventures of Polly and Handgraves comes to Facebook!!

Have a Facebook account? If not create one and join my brand new Polly and Handgraves page by clicking on the link below:

From there you can keep up with any future Polly and Handgraves tales, facts and places which inspired their stories as well as places you can pick up there current adventure A Sinister Aura!!

Polly and Handgraves casting call...

Not a real casting call, mind you. It was actually sparked by one of the questions asked on Alterna Comics new Creators Page. If I were to do a movie based on my books, who would play the part. The only question I was completely sure of was Polly and Handgraves. I would cast Oona Chaplin as Polly and Rupert Everett as Handgraves. With the Ditty Bops song Nosy Neighbor as the title track.

Bid on Polly and Handgraves

To celebrate the release of my latest graphic novel The Adventures of Polly and Handgraves: A Sinister Aura this April, I have currently posted a copy of the book on E-Bay!! The winning bidder of the auction will receive a copy of the book SIGNED PERSONALLY to them as well as some Polly and Handgraves art.

To start bidding, click on the banner below:

Polly and Handgraves out this month!!

I'm still working on the second story and my hopes is for it to become a series. But in the meantime, you can purchase your copy by clicking on the cover.

Written and Illustrated by BRET M. HERHOLZ graytones by Rori Shapiro Lettered and edited by Peter Simeti

Loosely based on a true crime that occurred in Spencer, Massachusetts in 1889, "A Sinister Aura" is a mystery story in the tradition of Agatha Christie, brought to you by Spencer, MA native Bret M. Herholz (Diary of the Black Widow).

Heavy rains force Polly Plum and her valet Montgolfier Handgraves to seek lodging in a small town on their way back to Worcester, Massachusetts. Soon Polly discovers she has arrived on the night of young socialite Lionel Hampstead's apparent suicide. Guided by troubled dreams and haunted by Hampstead's spectre, Polly and Handgraves soon discover that there's something sinister lurking in the past of Hampstead himself and his bride to be, Ivy Proust.

Polly and Handgraves

Richard Caldwell also wrote a really nice review for Polly and Handgraves as well. For those Spencerites out there, this is the graphic novel I wrote loosely based on the Hammond/Prouty Murder in 1899. It will be available in print next month. Read the review by clicking on the link below:

Polly and Handgraves design

I just finished up coloring the new Polly and Handgraves image this morning and started putting it on t-shirts. I will probably continue doing that later on today.

I'm planning on starting an image based on The Spaghetti Strand Murder in a couple days in between continuing work on the Sherlock Holmes graphic novel.

Polly and Handgraves available for download

The Adventures of Polly and Handgraves: A Sinister Aura is available for download. Get yours at:

http://www.wowio.com/users/product.asp?BookId=5177

The book itself will be available in the Fall. So, stay tuned!!

Polly and Handgraves cover

I am very pleased to show everyone the cover for The Adventures of Polly and Handgraves: A Sinister Aura!!

More progress on Polly and Handgraves

Here's the first two pages of Polly and Handgraves lettered by Alterna Comics editor and chief Peter Simeti.

As much as I liked the old typewriter text for the lettering, I ultimately decided against it. I wanted to denote that this story is different from my past graphic novels and comic stories. So, I decided to go with the standard comic book lettering as opposed to something somewhat artsy fartsy.

The book itself should be out in the Fall sometime. And this coming after several years of research and gathering reference material for the story. I even used my room at the Bishopsgate Inn out in East Haddam as reference for the inn Polly and Handgraves stay in as well as Ryders Tavern out in Charlton as the exterior for the Inn. Getting the book together itself has been several months in the making. I started penciling and inking the pages last Fall and it's taken quite a while since then for everything to come together.

With all that said, I am so happy with the progress of the book and that Polly and Handgraves will finally see the light of day.

Polly and Handgraves pages

Here's a sneak peek at three of the pages from Polly and Handgraves. I just got the pages back from Rori over the weekend and they've been scanned and sent off to my publisher.

It should be noted that most of the wording in the newspaper article was taken from the true crime this story was based on. I really must thank the Spencer Library for supplying me with old newspaper articles and other printed information on the case.

Progress on Polly and Handgraves

I just got the pages back from Rori yesterday all grayscaled. And they look absolutely fantastic!! It gives my ole pen and ink work a different look that is really suitable for this particular story.

For those of you who have been following my work (or not), unlike a great deal of my previous projects this isn't satire or a comedy. It's a straight-forward murder mystery.

But with that said, there's my usual dry sense of humor in the writing. Humor just feels natural to me. I can be completely dark and serious. How silly is that.

But I wanted to take a brave stab at a proper murder mystery with a pair of amateur sleuths solving a very muddy and muddled case.

I'm keeping the plot pretty much a secret for the time being. Although, I have told a few close friends what's going down and what it's based upon.

But I will say this. If you were born in Spencer, Massachusetts you should be very intrigued by the case. Both Worcester and Spencer are the backdrop for this particular tale.

I'm hoping to have everything scanned and special effects added before I head out to the Pub Scrawl tonight. So, I can send it all out to my publisher bright and squirrely tomorrow night.

So, stay tuned!!

Cover for Polly and Handgraves

I've been getting adventurous with Photoshop of late. After doing the cover for The Spaghetti Strand Murder in browns, I wanted to do the cover for Polly and Handgraves in blues:



The clouds in the background are a first for me as well. I did the using the lasso tool.

I was inspired by the Kino Video rerelease of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari:



The film's director Robert Wiene had originally colored the film itself in different colored sepia tones. Kino and the Bundesarchiv-Filmarchiv of Germany had taken the original 35mm prints and restored it with the original sepia tones and if you ever get the chance to watch it, the results are amazing!!

But that was the look I was trying to do when I was creating the cover for Polly and Handgraves

A sneak peek at Polly and Handgraves

Here's lettered versions of a couple pages from an upcoming project The Adventures of Polly and Handgraves: A Sinister Aura. I'm planning on having them in the upcoming issue of the Undercoverfish Anthology Detours as an eight page preview. After that it will appear as a graphic novel. Which I'm hoping to have finished before the end of the Summer.

The final version of the pages are being done in grayscale by Rori Shapiro. And should look fantastic!!

Coming soon!! The Adventures of Polly and Handgraves!!

Well, after several months of research, gathering of reference material scripting, penciling, inking and now Rori working dilligently on grayscale as we speak, here's a promo for my upcoming graphic novel:



Unlike the Black Widow, this will be a straightforward murder/mystery (of course it will have my usual dry sense of humor) featuring Polly Plum and her valet Montgolfier Handgraves. And the murder takes place right here in Worcester County.

At the moment, I'm waiting to get the pages back from Rori. Once I have, I will be adding dialogue to it and then it will be ready to submit.

So, stay tuned...