Seven Strange Stories

Seven Strange Stories is a collection of graphic short stories that I wrote. It features the work of five amazing artists: Tuhin Giri, Brice Hall, BC Holmes, Rina Rozsas, and Christopher Yao. Rina Rozsas also created the cover art, and Victor Chan designed the book.

This is my first collection of comic book stories. It’s 128 pages, with a full colour cover and black-and-white interior. It’s an independent production, and I’m handling all of the orders (via PayPal) and shipping myself.

If you have any questions about the book, please contact me. You can also find my book at Page & Panel: The TCAF Shop, Silver Snail, and Another Story Book Shop.

Here are the seven stories in my book.

The Tale of the Eyeball Tree

Following a family tragedy, a surreal object washes ashore and offers companionship to a young orphan. Art by Brice Hall.

The Monster Artist

A troubled child develops uncanny artistic abilities that promise horror and hope. Art by Rina Rozsas.

The Skagway Homunculus

During the Yukon gold rush, a Chinese demon possesses a desperate father. Art by BC Holmes.

Silent Scream, part one

On a desolate planet, Buster Keaton faces off with a xenomorph. Art by Brice Hall.

The Octopus Thief

After a deep-sea diver steals his treasure and murders his love, an octopus demands vengeance. Art by Tuhin Giri.

Silent Scream, part two

Can Harpo Marx help Buster Keaton defeat the alien? Art by Brice Hall.

My Beloved Monster

An insightful feline helps a lovelorn man with a monstrous secret. Art by Rina Rozsas.

The Floating Girl

With the help of her hacker-rabbit, a woman who has never touched the ground discovers her life is not as it seemed. Art by Christopher Yao.

Current projects

Winter 2016: After Seven Strange Stories, the next personal project is a graphic novel I wrote with Daniel Reynolds, called Genghis Con. We’re working with the artist Christopher Peterson. It’s about a guilt-ridden grifter who seeks redemption for herself and justice for her sister by taking part in a win-or-die rally race.

As a freelance writer, I’m also working on several comic book projects with Joe Books, including a comic book series that’s tied into an upcoming TV show, two cinestory books for animated films, and a collection of comic strips. I’ll post more about these projects as they progress.

Past projects

I worked with Brice Hall on a story called, “The Tale of the Eyeball Tree.” It was published in the Toronto Comics Anthology Vol. 1, which is available here.

For Volume 2 of the Toronto Comics Anthology, I worked with Rina Rozsas on a story called, “The Monster Artist.” The book is available here.

I wrote stories that appeared in Holmes Incorporated #3 and #4. Issue #3 is available for free here.

For issue #4, I was thrilled and honoured to have my story drawn by the great Ty Templeton. The full story is on his website.

Before we worked on “The Tale of the Eyeball Tree,” Brice Hall and I created a “Buster Keaton meets Alien” story for Sam Noir‘s magazine, Heady Mental.

I wrote a story that appeared in Cerebus: Low Society, with artwork by Dyl Klöepfer. Here’s a description of the project on A Moment of Cerebus. The book is available on Amazon.com.

Current projects

Winter 2016: I’m working on several freelance projects and a novel.

Past projects

Here’s my book of poems.

Kirkus Reviews reviewed it here:

Ho’s debut collection of poems touches on the universal themes of childhood, the passage of time and memories of place.

 

This three-part collection of poems moves back and forth on a timeline between adulthood and past memory, tying the poems together with recurrent household images and a voice of irony and hope.

 

The author uses images involving animals, from crows to cats to kitchen insects, in several poems, inviting readers to explore the delicate perspective of a nonhuman species. For example, in the poem “Memory Place,” Ho describes a shotgun’s “[t]rigger clicking…with the easy tension of our cat / When she leaps from the roof to go walking.”

 

Later in the same poem, the speaker leaps off a pier into icy New Year’s Eve water, “[u]nder the watchful black eyes of a rooftop cat.” Ho wields these feline images precisely, creating a sense of objectivity, as well as innocence, in a poem that hints at suicide with violent images—knuckles, cheekbones, shotguns and broken mirrors.

 

Ho frequently intensifies poems by juxtaposing everyday images, contrasting soft with hard and light with dark. The theme of alcoholism saturates all three sections, as well, but it’s blended with the humor of adult life, from visits to tattoo parlors to strolls through Pacific cities.

 

The author uses concrete images loaded with metaphors while treading lightly on the topic of substance abuse. In “Walking in Seattle,” Ho describes a “blurred fragment” of a mother’s finger filling a photograph and “parallel lines in the concrete / underfoot like tightrope wires.”

 

Ho’s subtle sensibilities with rhyme and alliteration are evident as he delicately portrays the innocence of the poem’s young speaker: “my flat paddle / steps in cheap sneakers, the tune / my brother hums from some cartoon.”

 

A rich collection of poetic images from a debut author.

Here are the books I’ve written for Sterling Publishing over the years. Most are now out of print but still available (for cheap!) online.

Alternate cover:

Another alternate cover:

I’m a writer, editor and communications professional with more than 20 years of experience in a wide variety of fields in the public and private sectors. Visit LinkedIn for more information. Follow me on Twitter: @oliverho.

I’ve published more than 12 books for children through Sterling Publishing, and my work has appeared in many print and online publications, including Carousel, Descant, The New Quarterly, and PopMatters. My media-related work includes back-to-back roles as the Front Page Editor at MSN Canada and Yahoo! Canada. I’ve published a collection of poems, and written stories that have been published in the comic book anthologies Holmes Incorporated, Cerebus: Low Society, and the Toronto Comic Anthology Volume 1 and Volume 2.

Since 2009, I’ve worked at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). My roles have included being a writer, editor and online development consultant in the Public Affairs department, and the Manager of Communications for the I-Care Project. Currently, I’m an Editor in the Education department.