Bluesman Book Three
Rob Vollmar, writer, Pablo Callejo, artist
NBM

SYNOPSIS
The third and final part of the Bluesman story finds 1920’s blues guitarist Lem Taylor still on the run for a triple-homicide he did not commit. An unexpected alliance eventually takes him to Little Rock, Arkansas, where he hopes to find help. Meanwhile, the lawman on his trail must also contend with the family of the murdered white man, hungry for revenge at any cost.

QUOTABLE
Rob Vollmar at Newsarama:
“…Lem Taylor, the story’s protagonist, is a morally conflicted individual who is torn between the faith of his upbringing and the relative freedoms of the secular world. Couched in more narrow terms, he is only equipped to do two things, preach and play music. He has lost his faith in God, so he turns to the other to provide him not only with the means of subsistence but also a sense of actuation. What makes the story compelling, I hope, is taking Lem, a very gentle sort of person, and throwing him into the literary lion’s den to get at that total sense of lack of personal security that threatened every black person in America during the Jim Crow period.”

SAMPLE REVIEW
“…The book’s got a great feel for the time and culture – Vollmar peppers the piece with documentary quotes for context – without any of it feeling borrowed from anything but (vaguely) various legends of the blues. Strong characters, good dialogue, a confident and measured pace, and a story you haven’t seen before. Callejo’s art is more impressionistic than naturalistic – the thick lines sometimes look more like woodcut than pencil & ink art, which isn’t a bad thing – for striking effect. I’m eager to see the second volume now; in the meantime, buy this one.” – Steven Grant, Comic Book Resources (on Book One)

ABOUT ROB VOLLMAR (from the Bluesman website)
Rob is a longtime comics critic (for such websites as Silver Bullet Comic Books, Comic Book Galaxy and Ninth Art, and for The Comics Journal, the magazine of record for the comics industry) and manager of ATOMIK POP!, a pop culture store that specializes in comics, manga, anime, and Hello Kitty merchandise in Norman, Oklahoma. He has also worked as a professional musician and still plays shows with two groups, one backing-up singer Shelly Phelps, and the other a reunited effort with his band from high school, Brother Tentacle.

Both of Rob’s published graphic novels have been with the same artist, Pablo G. Callejo. Their first book, The Castaways, was released in English by Absence of Ink in 2002 and in Spanish by Dude Comix in 2003, just after it was nominated for an Eisner in the Best Single-Issue/One-Shot category. Their latest effort, Bluesman, was serialized beginning in 2004 in French by Akileos Comics, in February 2005 by Absence of Ink, and, most recently, in Spanish by the esteemed De Ponent in Spain.

Rob also lectures on comics and manga and assists librarians curious about the potential for comics to reach out to the teen audience. In 2003, he did a series of for Young Adult readers in the OKC metro library system and in 2004, he did the same for the Pioneer Library System that services Norman and outlying towns. He recently was invited to deliver a speech to the Oklahoma Librarians Association at their State Convention on the history of comics and censorship.

ABOUT PABLO CALLEJO (from the Bluesman website)
Pablo G. Callejo was born in León, Spain, in 1967. When asked about his artwork, Pablo says he can’t remember when he started to draw. But he has taken it easy, since he didn’t try to get published until he was 32.

Pablo now lives in Madrid, where he draws for publishers in France, Spain and the U.S.

LINKS
Rob Vollmar’s MySpace blog
Bluesman website
NBM