While we're waiting to see what 2007 holds for us all, I guess we could be reading reviews of the first issue of WALK-IN from Virgin Comics.

Broken Frontier

Comic List

Comic Pants

And this one I appreciate even though they think I drew the book instead of wrote it. IGN.com

If you find any you think I might like (that's code for All Positive!) pass them on, because with the common word "walk" in our title and the touchy word "virgin" in the publisher's name, it's kind of hard for me to find things that are actually relevant.

You know, it was worth participating in the Leave Your Spandex Christmas Roundtable just to have Manolis Vamvounis mock up a Gorilla Man iPod ad.

It was December 24th on Hollis Ave after dark
When I see a man chilling with his dog in the park
I approached very slowly with my heart full of fear
Looked at his dog, oh my God, an illin' reindeer
But then I was illin' because the man had a beard
And a bag full of goodies, 12 o'clock had neared
So I turned my head a second and the man had gone
But he must have dropped his wallet smack down on the lawn

I picket the wallet up then I took a pause
Took out the license and it cold said "Santa Claus"
A million dollars in it, cold hundreds of G's
Enough to buy a boat and matching car with ease
But I'd never steal from Santa, cause that ain't right
So I was going home to mail it back to him that night
But when I got home I bugged, cause under the tree
Was a letter from Santa and the dough's for me

It's Christmas time in Hollis Queens
Mom's cooking chicken and collard greens
Rice and stuffing, macaroni and cheese
And Santa put gifts under Christmas trees
Decorate the house with lights at night
Snow's on the ground, snow white so bright
In the fireplace is the yule log
Beneath the mistle toe as we drink egg nog
The rhymes that you hear are the rhymes of Darryl's
But each and every year we bust Chrsitmas carols

Rhymes so loud and proud you hear it
It's Christmas time and we got the spirit
Jack Frost chillin, the orchids out
And that's what Christmas is all about
The time is now, the place is here
And the whole wide world is filled with cheer

My name's D.M.C. with the mic in my hand
And I'm chilling and coolin' just like a snowman
So open your eyes, lend us an ear
We want to say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

-CHRISTMAS IN HOLLIS, 1987

Aw heck, now I have to see the video...

Having a good day, and then saw this very welcome review of X-Men First Class at Silver Bullet Comicbooks. And I'm temporarily caught up on deadlines, and have tickets for that steam train I posted about earlier! I hope you all have a great time with your families and friends this weekend and we can all read lots of reviews of 2006 as a year next week. Later!

Virgin is really puttin' it out there, so along with other books, there's several pages from the book WALK-IN over at NEWSARAMA. Of fuzzy quality so don't rub your eyes or clean your glasses trying to make them clearer. That's a preview for ya. Should be in stores today!

...and see if they have the title I'm working on from Virgin Comics with Dave Stewart (yes, of the Eurythmics!). Both he and I are talking about it now over at NEWSARAMA. C'mon, it's got octopi and strippers in it. C'mon.

Train whistles ARE one of the greatest sounds in the world, and he meant Steam Train whistles. The 700 here has been chugging around Portland during the holidays and something about that long build of water vapor tones hits a hard to access spot in my brain. It's aural time travel. Fingers crossed I can get ahead on work this week so I can drag my family down to Oaks Park and ride one of the excursions. One of you brainiacs out there hurry up and figure out a new power source that will involve us using steam to motor around again!

A new Star Trek animated series on the web? Hmm, I wonder if Trek fans will have any opinions about that? You can read the piece talking with mastermind Dave Rossi at Trekmovie.com. Oh and look, it appears I designed the early pitch pieces.


Seriously though, I don't know how any of this is coming along, so don't ask me. There's no show yet, and I can't hire you. I did my bits back in the summer. Scanning through the comments you can see some folks enraged that it might be anything other than the talky yawnfests that have brought the franchise to it's current state of stasis. I can vouch for Rossi's love of the ST mythos though, and his ideas to create a show with a pulse sound very entertaining to me. And of course all that art is very preliminary and may not resemble anything that ends up happening. Carry on.

Yeah yeah, everyone has some role they want Campbell to play, but none make as much intuitive sense as THE NEW JIM ROCKFORD. That's right, I said it. Hmm... who would play Angel...

Okay, I wouldn't be a very useful part of the comics blog hive-mind if I didn't run over and start a ComicsSpace account, now would I? I've avoided MySpace like the Black Death, but this creation of the mysterious "Josh" narrows it down to something useful. At least for a lot of the comics industry folks I've seen on there, this could function as a far less annoying connector than Linked In, that naggy cross-referencing eternal job search that makes you pass on referrals through people who don't know or have nothing to do with them. Maybe I can use it get the word out on projects too, like I don't shill on every website already. I do wish we could use another term like "Homies!" instead of friend, even though many people I've seen on it are actual friends. So "Homey" me because I'm far too lazy to track you down.

Just thought I'd see if everyone's gotten Agents of Atlas #5 yet. It's in stores- go ahead and pick it up, I'll wait. Also wanted to finally try the embedded video thing, so if my website revamp ever happens I'll be clear on how to YouTube every movie trailer mix that comes along. But first I'll practice with the video I never get tired of, "Little Superstar"... Dance, Li'l Superstar, dance!

That's right, all the X-Men are wearing Cyclops visors! Jen at The Pulse talks with me about the original X-Men and the follow-up miniseries. Go read, and post if'n you're registered with Comicon. And no, I don't know what that previous post's image is all about. What previous post?

Hey, people in the Southeastern United States, 'specially around North Carolina- the annual Parts Unknown show is happening! It's going to be great because legend Angelo Torres is going to be able to make it this time. And moderner legends like Mike Wieringo, Scott Hampton and Casey Jones will be in mad attendance as well. Limit 5 books per signing, please (that's my rule, not theirs). And I know John Hitchcock will have copies of the Alex Toth Doodle Book there, so you might as well get one of those. TOMORROW.

My man Uatu has the first few pages of next week's Agents of Atlas up. Monday I may drop an extra preview image from the issue that will make readers' heads explode. Can't wait to hear what you think of it.