mystifying oracle

Hey, This Still Works

2007-08-31T16:52:00.000-07:00

But if you have me linked here, I'm using my main site, PARKERSPACE.com for the blog now. So please update if you have a minute. And while you've got that template cracked open, you might as well change THEINTERMAN.COM to .NET (assuming you linked to my book's site at some point). Because I didn't get the notice that it was expiring and Bam! I lost the dot com. So come on over to the main site and poke around, have some lemonade.

Update Those Links!

2007-02-19T08:58:00.000-08:00

"Please." If you haven't checked in here in a few days, I've moved the blog over to my main website, PARKERSPACE. It's something like 73% more nifty, according to studies. And if you have absolutely nothing else to write about and want to post an entry on your own blog, you could do me a solid and mention the move. We'll all be happier over there.

So Long, Fare-well, Auf Wedersehen-Good-byyee...

2007-02-15T08:14:00.000-08:00

That Von Trapp Family number is dedicated to the beloved Mystifying Oracle, which we now must leave to drift around at the mercy of the internet tide, until it's buried in the sediment forever. As promised, I'm finally folding the blog into my main website, PARKERSPACE.com so the site will actually be updated frequently again. Though I knew a blog was a keen thing to have three years ago, (just two years behind everyone else!) I didn't realize it would emerge victorious as the web paradigm. But it has, and thanks to Steven Gettis's steely resolve at beating a WordPress theme silly, I now have a hybrid home site and weblog. You'll remember him from his massive collection of literary figures drawn by comics luminaries. Which is the most revealing site online about cartoonists, because you can tell who reads and who doesn't.

I know what a pain it is to make changes to the blogroll, but I hope you'll do it for me- I've had Parkerspace for seven years now, so it's really unlikely the blog will make another rail hop. And those of you who have been nice enough to link both sites can trim it to one. I'm finally actually using the visual metaphor appropriate for the name, with old science book art that portrayed the future as it was supposed to turn out. Soon I'll have the covers column at left clickable for the respective publisher pages, and some of the other categories will be live within a week or so. That's how Mystifying Oracle (named for my lap-drawing Ouija board, see very first post) will live on, as the Newsletter you can join the mailing list for. Maybe I'll get up the gumption to write the "About" section tomorrow, and try to use it to trick people into filling in my Wikipedia entry for me.

Those of you who have switched locations- should I do referrer posts for a while?

Stinky Cheese Templates

2007-02-08T11:04:00.000-08:00

Finally, we have official corroboration on a phenomena that has vexed my drawing friends and I for a decade. For me this began at Artamus Studios years ago whenever Chuck Wojtkiewicz would break out his set of ellipses and circle templates (which he kindly lent me all the time!) and the room would fill with a cheese smell. We puzzled over this many a day.

Flash forward to the present and Mercury Studio (with no S!) when Steve Lieber broke out his fairly new set of ALVIN templates. Wham! The smell is back. Much speculation ensues again. Finally Steve decided to write the Alvin company and ask them.

And they answered! Go read the correspondence at the Mercury Blog. "We know this is not a prank."

Fantastic Five

2007-02-06T14:33:00.000-08:00

Time to talk Spidey and the Fantastic Four.Yep. And I ain't a-stoppin' there. This one's with Dave Richards who did such a great job on the Agents of Atlas articles at COMIC BOOK RESOURCES.

Karl, Victorious

2007-01-25T08:12:00.000-08:00

It's official, the comics reading public loves KARL, the chill AIM agent. Unfortunately I also had a cameo by him in the upcoming Sons of the Serpent storyline, but it got cut because the Adventures books are so anti-continuity, even their own. Keeping up the Adventures line focus, the best place to turn to now (for my stories anyway) is Warren Peace Sings The Blues, where blogger Matt Brady (the one that isn't the Newsarama potentate) gives a play by play of some of the Adventures Fantastic Four stories and wraps up with "A Not So Beautiful Mind". Thanks for picking some of the most fun bits, Matt, your check is on the way.

Mental Organism Designed Only to SELL OUT!

2007-01-24T08:17:00.000-08:00

I don't know if it will actually make one of those little comics press releases, but I've just heard that Marvel Adventures Avengers #9, known to you as the ALL MODOC issue is completely sold out. Now I usually make fun of those announcements because generally publishers have print runs based on the orders, so they should all sell out. But for the news to come back in so fast I think, means retailers have been trying to lay hands on more. Which for the Marvel Adventures line is big news! While the books do well out in the world of Target and Walmart (and Fred Meyer here in Portland) it's been a gradual acceptance in the Direct Market. It took about a year to convince readers we weren't the Marvel Age line and that we weren't doing simplified retellings of stories in a manga-esque style. Some of you early adopters embraced the books right away and have been a great help in getting the word out on the line. I'm pretty excited about our Avengers book for 2007- thanks to Juan Santacruz I think #12, the Ego The Living Playah (or whatever I called it) story may rival this Modoc story for attention, and after that the four issue arc teams me with the man who made Agents of Atlas work, Leonard Kirk! So let's badger some retailers and go back to press...

Shout Outs Galore

2007-01-18T08:50:00.000-08:00

Tim O'Shea and I talked about comics for SilverBulletComicBooks, and he gave me the chance to talk about people other than myself! SEE as I blab about creators like:
Steve Lieber
Tomm Coker
Jeff Smith
Leonard Kirk
Mike Wieringo
Gail Simone
Eddie Campbell
Alex Toth
Sandy Jarrell
Carla Speed McNeil
Paul Tobin
Colleen Coover
Leland Purvis
Yep, we talk trash about others all the livelong day!

While You're Out...

2007-01-17T13:41:00.000-08:00

MARVEL ADVENTURES: THE AVENGERS #9 and X-MEN FIRST CLASS #6. I'm just sayin'.

It's Here! It's Here!

2007-01-10T11:27:00.000-08:00

Go to your store, and get some closure! Report back if you like.

The insidious Mr. Lao has a message and a preview of the final issue of AGENTS OF ATLAS over at NEWSARAMA right now! Get it, get it, and get it.

Tomorrow!

2007-01-09T00:43:00.000-08:00

It comes to an end tomorrow. In the meantime you can preview the first three pages here. I'll be fidgeting...

Marvel Organisms Designed Only for Coolness

2007-01-02T10:32:00.000-08:00

The time has come. All will become MODOC. Click the link to read a few pages from the story at NEWSARAMA.

Walk-In Reviews

2006-12-28T17:12:00.000-08:00

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.

G-Pod

2006-12-27T07:32:00.000-08:00

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.

A Very Special Christmas Message

2006-12-24T09:27:00.000-08:00

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...

Have a First Class Christmas

2006-12-22T13:00:00.000-08:00

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!

PREVIEW the WALK-IN

2006-12-20T11:05:00.000-08:00

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!

WALK-IN To Your Comics Shop...

2006-12-19T12:36:00.000-08:00

...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.

George Bailey Was Right

2006-12-18T06:31:00.000-08:00

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!

Sputter-Sput-- That Violates The Prime Directive!

2006-12-14T22:51:00.000-08:00

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.

MY Bruce Campbell Casting

2006-12-13T13:51:00.000-08:00

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...

Friend My Bad Self

2006-12-11T15:52:00.000-08:00

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.

Read 5 Yet?

2006-12-07T07:11:00.000-08:00

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!

PULSE Talks X-Men First Class

2006-12-04T08:59:00.000-08:00

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?

Uh... Oops

2006-12-04T08:27:00.000-08:00

PARTS UNKNOWN Show!

2006-12-01T10:28:00.000-08:00

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.

Atlas 5 Preview

2006-12-01T10:01:00.000-08:00

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.

RingoRama

2006-11-29T09:08:00.000-08:00

Over to the Newsarama, there's an excerpt of Todd DeZago interviewing his oft-collaborator Mike Wieringo from the new Modern Masters magazine. Mike's memories are dead-on, because I can remember him being freaked out and working round the clock to make his deadlines on The Flash. That reminds me that I meant to use this blog to also recount some fun (or at least, entertaining) details from those Artamus Studio days. Maybe I'll wait until the melding of this blog into the main Parkerspace.com website though, since I may lose a lot of old postings. Everybody pick up that magazine!

Major (Atlas) Spoilers

2006-11-28T10:12:00.000-08:00

"...M-11 The Human Robot sets out to melt the ice encasing Namora, as the rest of the team realizes that they’ve set off the alarm. And since Namor has proven that Atlanteans always respond without drama, the alarm had to be a swarm of forty-ton giant rock crabs. Heh. You have to love a book where a talking gorilla fighting a crab isn’t even the highlight."

I just saw thisreview of Agents of Atlas as a whole by Matthew Peterson. I think he gets across well all the stuff we were shooting for in this miniseries, so if you've just heard about it and want to hear more about how it all works, please read it. I love the 3-D Man on the milk carton at the beginning.

Look In

2006-11-24T12:57:00.000-08:00

Loyal poster Zack sent me this link to the Look In archives of 70's shows in 'picture strip' form. Which makes Buck Rogers seem a lot more exciting than it was- I'm pretty sure Dr. Theopolis orders someone to be put to death in there. There's neat dynamic stuff with the spaceships and the Wilma Deering at the top of the pages looks like Mort Drucker drew her. I haven't had a chance to go through the other stuff yet, but there's Six Million Dollar Man and some Gerry Anderson stuff in there too. Thanks Zack.

3rd Act Storms

2006-11-22T14:33:00.000-08:00

I know you're all racing out of your respective workplaces at top speed now to go make food, so I won't provide any more blog content than anyone else is at the moment- which is none! But I was just thinking about how many Disney animated features have their climactic scene in a rainstorm that just blew up outta nowhere. These occur to me at the moment:
Snow White
Sleeping Beauty (I think)
Beauty and the Beast
The Little Mermaid
The Jungle Book

And I'm thinking 101 Dalmatians, but I'm not sure. Any occur to you?

XFC 3, Go and See

2006-11-15T11:26:00.000-08:00

That's right, the issue with Chaz Xavier pimprollin' out to you is in stores today. You can pick up some sadbastard mutants if you want, but our little X-Hippy Love In is waiting for you when you need that boost afterwards. As Bobby Drake says: "X!!!!!!"

Incredulousness

2006-11-13T09:54:00.000-08:00

First, I want to put up this cool Darwyn Cooke Criterion cover thats making the rounds thanks to Chris Butcher talking about it. I wish DC would ask Darwyn to do lots of their covers in addition to giving him his own anthology ala the Solo book.

Now I want to see if I can contribute to a meme since when tagged I usually do nothing. He didn't mean to start one, but over at Chris' Invincible Super-Blog during Halloween, Chris made a great note of The Incredulous Bystander.

"Often seen while someone is "crashin' thru," he's a guy who is freaking out so hard at what he's seeing that he cannot believe it. "

A demon with a cape, no less! I love these people who remind us that we're seeing something fantastic. The other day while wrapping up a Sons of the Serpent story for Marvel Adventures: Avengers, I was looking through their first appearance in an Essentials volume. I couldn't stop reading these two panels where nothing in particular is happening except Vision is buzzing off and everyone on the street is losing their stool. Because if it was established by Kirby or Lee, then you know Roy Thomas took it as Mosaic Law.

It's actually kind of appropriate for them to freak out at someone walking into the sidewalk, but I don't know why Soul Brother on the right (who earlier in the scene is demanding that Vision pick a side in the Race War) thinks he needs to be stopped. And the spazzin' guy up in foreground is mostly struck by how grim he looks. The next panel, I think, gets to what's really bothering the incredulous bystanders.

Ultimately, Vision just didn't acknowledge them, and they can't live with that- much less understand a character who doesn't scream out everything he sees around himself. Did that foreground guy try to punt Vision's head and went through, or is he just the most off-balanced man ever? This doesn't really need to be a meme, I just had nowhere to duplicate this scene in my story so I had to get it out of my system here. But WHY?? WHY!!???

More Hank Palahniuk

2006-11-10T10:31:00.000-08:00

In case you didn't see the link down in his comments, Jesse Hamm has more Dennis the Menace/Fight Club mashups. Love 'em.

And Now, A Message To The Republican Party From Spider-Man.

2006-11-09T00:09:00.000-08:00

And please my conservative friends, that's not a dig at you or any of the rank n' file, just at the evil overlords who usurped your party long ago. And he's a Spidercrat, which transcends party lines. Still this is the first time in a long while I've been able to follow political news without my stomach acid eating through me and five more floors of the ship's decks.

In other equally odd developments, Jill and I got to go out and watch a moving picture show at a theatre. It was The Prestige, which reaffirms the long suspected truth that magicians are horrible people. It's well worth watching, and it stars Wolverine, Batman, and Alfred. It's directed by Memento. Oh, and Major Tom plays Tessla! A great looking film, and though I did have a qualm with it, I'll do the ultimate SPOILER failsafe, and say that thought in the Comments...

Dennis Durden

2006-11-08T12:51:00.000-08:00

Or Tyler the Menace, whichever, please go look at what Jesse Hamm has done. He has mashed up DENNIS THE MENACE and FIGHT CLUB. Essentially Dennis and Joey are Brad Pitt and Ed Norton. Genius.

Vote Up On It

2006-11-07T10:41:00.000-08:00

And when you cast that vote, consider it in terms of the superheroes, as laid out by Dave's Long Box. I dare you to find fault with his reasoning on the affiliations of the costumed.

PROCESS: How To Draw Like Leonard Kirk

2006-11-06T00:11:00.000-08:00

Let's just take a Monday morning to consider that pencil fiend Leonard Kirk. First, the Wizard Roundtable gave AGENTS OF ATLAS some love, and their favorite line of Book 4 is actually one LEONARD suggested to put in!

WIZARD UNIVERSE

Then Ray at Silver Bullet Comic Books rightly hailed Leonard for giving the returning Namora a very majestic bearing.

SBC REVIEW

And if you really want a look inside his head, Leonard just spoke to Jen Contino at the Pulse, and you see those sweet pencils in all their glory. By the way, go leave some comments there if you're registered.

KIRK AT THE PULSE

Now I'd like to say a little something about collaboration and how something like Agents of Atlas works. Because you could get the highest paid artists in comics to work on your projects, people reserved for the biggest titles, but you can't make them be into it. And from day one, Leonard and I have essentially been running around like some Rosy Grier/Ray Milland Two-Headed Man with this book, very much on the same page and just having a blast with the subject matter. It's a lot of over-the-top stuff, but what makes it work is the subtle approach.

I used to get scripts from other writers to draw, and I'm in a studio full of artists and I see the kinds of things other writers call for. "SPLASH- Hero X is standing there in front of the group. And he is PISSED." After I re-attach my jaw from the giant yawn that just induced, I wonder how someone could waste a splash page on a character looking pissed, and then I think of the things I ask of artists I work with. Then I thank the Young Ancient One for Leonard who doesn't bat an eye at requests like the next panel descriptions. He goes the extra mile- here's page 11 from Book 3, where the gang go to the diner, and thanks to Bob Grayson, psychic holograms make them look not as unusual as they normally do. In fact, you get to see what Gorilla Man Ken Hale would look like as a normal man, but look at how he staged it. I described this...

Panel 1/ Waitress is pouring coffee into Jimmy's cup. We probably only see her arm, and part of her body. Everyone looks like normal people, sitting in a rounded booth. Gorilla Man, as Ken, has taken his plate of overeasy eggs on toast. After this panel we see them as they are.

GORILLA MAN/KEN: Prices went up since ‘59. I’ll get the bill.

WAITRESS: Here, hon.

JIMMY: Thank you, ma'am.

And Leonard comes back with this.

See the extra thinking he's putting in there? Even though he looks human, Ken is still moving like a gorilla! It's such a nice subtle bit when even drawing a convincing breakfast table is pretty tough. I wouldn't even complain that he made all the eggs sunny-side up! Now here's the part of the page I love the most. Again, my babble:

Panel 2/ Bob has a plate of scrambled eggs.

JIMMY: Okay, now that M-11 isn't around... Ken. How did he ....

GORILLA MAN: I'm out in the forest on a recon mission for SHIELD and bam! The robot's standing there!
2: I'm like, hey, where have you been?

Panel 3/ Bob pours milk on his plate. Gorilla Man is stiffening up and making a blank-eyed imitation of a robot.

GORILLA MAN: Then M-11 is all: "JIMMY WOO IS IN CRITICAL CONDITION AT SHIELD MOJAVE BASE. REQUEST GORILLA MAN'S ASSISTANCE IN RETRIEVAL WHEN YOU ARE BROUGHT IN FOR QUESTIONING.

Then...

Now think about what he pulled off there: A GORILLA DOING AN IMITATION OF A ROBOT. I don't think I can stress that enough- most people can't give you a passable gorilla, much less a gorilla imitating an android. This series has just been hundreds of panels like that which make me giddy to open my Kirk emails. Every couple of weeks I thank editor Mark Paniccia for asking Leonard to draw this series. Thanks to him our team is so well defined that readers already have a strong sense of each's character, and the group dynamics aren't cliche. They feel like real people you might know, and it's made this project one of the most enjoyable of my career. Now the gasbagging about me and how I great I am will resume, but for today, I wanted to salute Leonard Kirk- watch him carefully.

WHAT IF...I Needed Glasses?

2006-11-03T10:10:00.000-08:00

Yow, my backside's a-burnin' from some of the heat vision of readers who have found out who I implicated as the real culprit of AVENGERS DISASSEMBLED! If you'd like to know and don't have the latest WHAT IF by me and Aaron Lopresti, you have a fair chance to figure it out. Hope you honed your skillz on all those Where's Waldo books years ago...

SPOILERS!!

Okay, the real menace is actually somewhere on the cover. Study the Scarlet Witch and then look at each of the floating characters, and you'll probably figure it out. Or you can just read the story and reverse engineer it.

In other developments this week, I cold got me some specs. I finally realized that maybe my eyes were more tired than even they should be after a day of work, and an eye exam revealed that I've had astigmatism for who knows how long. I was really not prepared for how weird the world would become while my eyes are adjusting to the prescription. As I left the optical store I felt like I was walking below the sidewalk, and my laptop computer looked more like a trapezoid. It's starting to come together now, and it's like I've put on 3D glasses- I didn't realize how flat I was seeing the world. I got away with decades of unaided scoping, so it's my turn. Well played, Father Time- this round goes to you. And well, all subsequent rounds...

Boo Part 2

2006-11-02T16:05:00.000-08:00

Halloween's all over now, but here was my jack o' lantern.

And here's the rake-hand ghost that got much scarier once it was dark. Now, has everyone picked up ATLAS 4?

NAMORA RETURNS

2006-11-01T07:31:00.000-08:00

Yep, she's back in action in AGENTS OF ATLAS #4 today. Her daughter is dead, but she's back in a big way- spread the word, please. If you want heroes fighting every kind of bad guy imaginable, you're going to want to pick it up.

Hope everyone had a great Halloween- I was going to put up some pictures of ours, but I can't find the camera at the moment. Maybe after I stumble across a triple Americano I'll have the focus to realize where that device is. It was really cool to have so many trick or treaters here in our new neighborhood. My theory? Kids like candy.

Bookadamonth!

2006-10-27T14:33:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I haven't posted all week. Them crazy, crazy deadlines, and getting dangerously close to artists needing things to draw. But this was nice- on my birthday, the new Wizard came out and they gave Agents of Atlas Book of the Month! That's not too shabby at all. And on the same day, I turned in the script for issue #6. Sniff. Fingers crossed we'll get to do more of this book.

Regular posting returns next week.

Oh Yeah.

2006-10-17T11:26:00.000-07:00

Solicitations are up now for Marvel Adventures #9, which will probably go down as the pinnacle in the careers of me, Cameron Stewart, and Juan Santacruz. If you don't usually pick up the book, just tell your friendly local retailer that EVERYONE BECOMES MODOK!!!

XFC #1 Sells Out; Squirrel Goes Free

2006-10-05T08:44:00.000-07:00

I'm not implying there's a connection, but both happened on the same day. For the past few days a scratching and chirping had been coming from one of the upstairs walls like something was trying to BREAK INTO THIS WORLD. It became clear that the squirrel inside wasn't going back and forth, but had fallen down between studs and couldn't climb out. I had no choice but to cut into the sheetrock, and then the little gremlin ran into the bathroom. Jill was worried that he hadn't eaten for days (besides our house, of course) and gave him food. He slept in her slipper that night. The next day I bought a cage trap because he was getting too comfortable in the bathroom, and took him over to the big cemetary on Stark, full of big trees. He was understandably annoyed with being in the trap, but seemed fairly pleased by his new home. Of course, that's me, anthropormorphizing. I spent some time on a ladder nailing wire mesh over the luxury nest his family had made in the eave on the side of the house.

Oh, and X-Men: First Class is sold out from Diamond!

ATLAS 3 Tomorrow!

2006-10-03T14:22:00.000-07:00

And Dave Richards and I talk about the series midway through at COMIC BOOK RESOURCES.

The Parker Tapes

2006-10-02T08:47:00.000-07:00

Got a long drive on the main road out there, lineman for the county? Need to listen to people talk comics while you search in the sun for another overload? Then listen to me talking with WORD BALLOON's John Siuntres, recorded a week ago. I don't remember what we discussed now, but it was fun. I'm not going to listen to it because I can't stand how goofy I sound next to Mr. Radio Siuntres, but you might like it. It's like his Bendis Tapes series, without all the actual interesting content or information on Marvel's future plans!

...I hear you singing in the wires... I can hear you through the whine...

Silver Bulleteer

2006-09-28T09:55:00.000-07:00

At this point I wouldn't foist another interview on you, but looking through it, I appear to have slipped up and said things with actual content. Probably because Silver Bullet Comics owner Alan Davis started this with me a couple months ago, and Mitch Montgomery came in and finished it, and somewhere along the way I started writing as if we were just having an honest discussion, which I almost never do. That happened with the Comics Reporter piece too. Don't worry, I promise for the rest of the year to release only carefully-spun sound bites. For you Southerners, this starts off very North Carolina centric.

MM: Is there a danger of comics becoming too self-reflective, or is this a natural progression?

JP: There’s always a danger of comics becoming too self-reflective, and I think that hurt us, when stories from the 1970s and 80s fed upon their own histories too much. I think the key is keeping it cyclical instead of linear. Focus on good plots with characters that you plan to keep intact for decades, save drastic character changes for rare cases or for characters that aren’t meant to be archetypes.

I wish people would quit putting hundreds of spins on origins that have been done well already. Batman, I’ll pull out just because I mentioned him earlier. Worry about showing Batman solve a really confounding mystery; don’t show me the Waynes getting shot every week. I swear if I never see the Waynes die in Crime Alley again I’ll be just fine.

And that's not at Silver Bullet ComicBOOKS, it's at Silver Bullet COMICS, which are two different sites. I know, it's maddening.

Too Much Opera-Man Coffee!

2006-09-22T08:15:00.000-07:00

Shannon Wheeler is the world's greatest promoter and this weekend the Too Much Coffee Man Opera opens. It must be seen.

When: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Sept. 22-23 and Sept. 29-30

Where: Portland Center for the Performing Arts,

1111 S.W. Broadway, Brunish Hall, 503-248-4335

Cost: $24.50-$30.25; also available though Ticketmaster (503-790-2787), subject to service charges

ATLAS AUDIO!

2006-09-19T08:39:00.000-07:00

If Agents of Atlas gets behind, you can blame Leonard Kirk running around living it up with his Federation buddies. Yes, the two men who donated parts of their real and fictional names to create the man in the middle. You can get more details on this meeting at Leonard's blog. And special thanks to Photoshop for allowing me to desaturate Shatner's shirt some so it doesn't scorch your monitor with it's magenta field.

Proprietor and Comics Pimp James Sime sent me a link to this ISOTOPE page where some talented participants do podcast theatre for comic books. If you click on the Agents of Atlas link, you can hear them act the scene from the extremely pulpy flashback from issue one. It's hilarious. Here's the scene they're doing, for the full senses effect.

X-Men This Week

2006-09-18T09:38:00.000-07:00

And I talked with Sam Moyerman over at BROKEN FRONTIER about it. The miniseries that starts Wednesday.

And thanks to Greg McElhatton, now I purchase extra freeze-dried fruit to kick in when Kellogg's Fruit Harvest decides to forego its name halfway down the box. But then Allie got into the strawberries yesterday and just ate them all, so it's back to the store later. Do they make peach bits too?

Return to the Patcave

2006-09-14T08:09:00.000-07:00

Another DRAGONCON in Atlanta has come and gone, and I would be remiss in my duties if I didn't link to Pat Sun's photo album of the show as if I'd spent the weekend collecting cosplayahs. Go enjoy!

Agents of LEONARD

2006-09-11T08:46:00.000-07:00

NEWSARAMA has an interview with The Atlas Foundation's premiere artist Leonard Kirk today! This was done at the Toronto Comic Book Expo last week. Leonard comes off better than I do in live interviews. I'm now so chicken I email the answers while sitting at the table with the interviewer. He has some good stuff to say about our series that he spends so much time drawing in his underground lair.

Wizard Proclaimeth

2006-09-09T08:05:00.000-07:00

Right-on. AGENTS OF ATLAS #2 made book of the week with the Wizard Round Table. I like the way they talk about it, and love Ryan Penagos' quote:

"That might be the first time that any writer handled the hot button issue of gorillas sh--ting in UFOs. And he nailed it. That scene is gold."

Just one note- Jimmy Woo is not a clone, he's had major cellular repair. Go read the discussion, they provide some panels that aren't in the preview images.

Out-of-Character Lawgiver Says...

2006-09-07T08:14:00.000-07:00

Y'all know that there AGENTS OF ATLAS #2 is out today! Now get on down there to the Piggly Wiggly or whereever they sell funnybooks and don'tcha pay no nevermind to them crossovers and such. The only one you want got my boy Gorilla Man on the cover, livin' hard! Go on, now!

More Media, and RIP Steve Irwin

2006-09-04T09:19:00.000-07:00

N'gowa. For those of you who still turn on your computer on Labor Day, I subject you to two more articles prominently featuring ME. I know it seems like I barely make it through a day without mass media coverage, but from my perspective, it's a correction, a balance shift from a period of my career in which no one talked about me, a time that I call "the 90's."

First, my local paper The Oregonian talks about the Marvel Romance books where we do a Tiger Lily and redialogue already funny stories.

Then PDX Magazine briefly examines all of Portland trying to figure out why cartoonists keep coming here- what does it all mean? What can be done about it? It's a pdf document, so skip to page 38. Bendis opens with a good quote, Steve Lieber presents pure conjecture as fact, and I keep making statements that suggest I think everyone in the world is stupid. Good piece.

I just got up a while ago and heard on NPR that Steve Irwin died from a run-in with a Stingray. He'll be missed, he was very entertaining and informative. His gung-ho, hands-on approach to nature shows really revitalized them, and made things like Animal Planet possible. There's no getting around the fact that a huge draw was the audience wanting to see if one of the animal encounters would go wrong, and I'm sure there will be a bunch of gasbags saying he had it coming, making a living this way. Those people always pop out of the woodwork when somebody who's done something interesting dies. I think it's a shame for him to die as young as 44, but at least he died out in nature, doing what he did. He was an adventurer, and he was killed on an adventure.

Two for One!

2006-09-01T15:42:00.000-07:00

If I had my way, the one-man hype machine that I am, my interviews would be spread out instead of posting on the same day. But, I think we've established long ago that I do not get my way. But Jen Contino and Dave Richards did ask me good questions about two different books, so I can't complain. Learn more about...

WHAT IF: AVENGERS DISASSEMBLED at COMIC BOOK RESOURCES!
AGENTS OF ATLAS at THE PULSE!

Kubert Activism

2006-08-31T10:11:00.000-07:00

Since I don't have any world shaking things to expound upon today like the overuse of high-fructose corn syrup as a sweetener or my latest Marvel book, I'll pass on this open letter that Joe Kubert has sent out. The end source of the petition seems more specific than most email petitions (which are largely useless because they're not acceptable as political petitions) and maybe the Polish museum will heed these things more than we do. Here's Joe, laying it out for you...

from the desk of
JOE KUBERT

August 30, 2006

Dear colleague:

I don't usually get involved in international controversies. But I am
outraged by the refusal of the Polish government to return artwork
belonging to a fellow-cartoonist and Auschwitz survivor, Mrs. Dina
Babbitt. And I am writing to ask you to join me in protesting this
injustice.

Deported to Auschwitz as a teenager, Mrs. Babbitt's life was spared by
the infamous war criminal, Dr. Josef Mengele, after he saw a mural of
Snow White that she had painted on the wall of the children's barracks
to soothe the children in their final hours. He then compelled her to
paint portraits of Gypsies upon whom he was performing his barbaric
"experiments."

After the war, Mrs. Babbitt relocated to California, where she worked as
an animator for Warner Brothers and Jay Ward Productions. Among other
things, she illustrated such characters as Wile E. Coyote, Cap'n Crunch,
and Tweety Bird for many years.

Some years ago, unbeknownst to Mrs. Babbitt, eight of the paintings she
did at Auschwitz resurfaced and were acquired by the Auschwitz-Birkenau
State Museum, a Polish government institution on the site of the former
death camp. Mrs. Babbitt visited the museum and verified that they are
hers (they are even signed "Dina 1944"), but the Poles refused to give
them back, claiming they are legally the property of the museum.

Four years ago, when I wrote the book "Yossel," about a teenage
cartoonist whose life was spared by the Nazis because they were amused
by his drawings, I did not know that there had been a real-life case
that bore similarities to my book. I was stunned to learn of Mrs.
Babbitt, and even more stunned by the Polish government's position.

Together with officials of The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust
Studies, an organization with which I have been active, I have prepared
a petition to the Polish authorities. It is intended to be signed
specifically by cartoonists, animators, and comic book artists. Adam,
Andy, and I are very much hoping that you will join us.

To have your name added to the petition, please send an email to the
Wyman Institute's director, Dr. Rafael Medoff, at: rafaelmedoff
@aol.com.

With thanks in advance for your support,

Sincerely,

Joe Kubert,
President
Joe Kubert School of Cartoon
& Graphic Art, Inc.
37 Myrtle Avenue
Dover, NJ 07801

Look Upon These X-Men...

2006-08-28T09:57:00.000-07:00

Ye mighty, and behold. A preview at PopCulture Shock. To all those who told me when I was a little boy that I'd never be able to live my dream of having the X-Men fight a rose bush, I say FIE!

Sorry Little Guy

2006-08-24T09:14:00.000-07:00

But we're an 8-planet solar system now.

Hey, Spidey, that's way out of line. In some solar systems, Pluto would have Jupiter-like status! Also you may have seen the Marvel solicits go up the other day, and among them is the RETURN OF NAMORA in AGENTS OF ATLAS #4. For some reason they keep making faded jpegs that don't show off the nice solid blacks Tomm Coker uses, so I just adjusted levels and made a new image that you can spread around. I'd like to somehow make an event out of her return, she's been gone for quite a while and she will be rounding out the team nicely as heavy hitter. Here's your oceanic image for the day...

Damn You, BerryBurst Cheerios

2006-08-23T08:16:00.000-07:00

General Mills and I differ wildly on what amount of freeze-dried fruit a "burst" is, I'll say that. Sure, we're still out of the dark ages when Raisin Bran could get by with putting four raisins in a whole box, but not by much.

Still not going 3-D, but...

2006-08-21T10:02:00.000-07:00

...I have to admit, with only legos to express himself, David Oakes makes a compelling argument for 3D Man's inclusion on the Agents of Atlas team.

Preview ATLAS 2

2006-08-16T00:15:00.000-07:00

There's a hefty (yet blurry) preview of AGENTS OF ATLAS #2 making the rounds, so look it over, decide to order it, and call your local retailer. Please. My favorite is this one at Comics Continuum, because it gives us an AOA book written by Justin and Jimmy, with art by Linser. As of when I posted anyway, maybe it will be corrected later.

You may even want to go snag some avatar icons from agentsofatlas.com, which will be continually adding promotional stuff and info. This is the best Tomm Coker cover ever.

MASTERS OF EVIL

2006-08-15T14:08:00.001-07:00

Silver Bullet Comicbooks has a pretty neat setup for previewing books. Click the link and you can see a few pages from tomorrow's MARVEL ADVENTURES AVENGERS #4. I can't believe I can't find any art from it on my computer. Anyway, you're going to want this one, because it's totally Airwolf, as you'll see from the first page.

Interview Week Wraps Up...

2006-08-11T14:26:00.000-07:00

...with me talking to Caleb Mozzocco at the new site BamKapow. I don't think for a minute anyone's going to read what he asks me though, once they look to the side and see the link to half-naked girls wearin' Supergirl outfits.

...and his costume upsets my tummy.

2006-08-09T13:52:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Steve Lieber for rounding up the latest batch of Atlas love- it really gets me psyched as I write the last couple of issues. Here's some:

Ain't It Cool News|Comix Experience | Wally Whateley | Newsarama | Lex Luthor | Barbelith | Jack Ketch | Signalbleed | Broken Frontier | Scoop | Big Monkey Comics | Well Red Press | The X-Axis | Actifforum | Dadiceguy | Leave Your Spandex

Also I told Jon in Iowa City I'd address the non-presence of 3D-Man in Agents of Atlas as a sort of FAQ when readers ask that question. So when you see people wondering aloud online, feel free to repost this if you want.

As for 3D... the What If #9 story was such a neat premise that has been touched upon a few times that it offers a good path for us to connect to Marvel's past. That's something we really wanted to do, since Marvel doesn't make use of its pre-'60's history much beyond The Invaders. But 3D Man is a completely retconned character who didn't exist before the 70's, and it's confusing to suggest that he was one like Marvel Boy, Venus, Namora and others that Everett, Maneely, Kirby and the Timely/Atlas creators worked on. He was more or less shoehorned in the What If story to be a counterpart for Captain America, and since we're following what was established since (that this team was never called The Avengers), there's no need for that.
I think some people should be happy because this frees up the character to be used on its own somewhere else. Though my suggestion to anyone would be- and I'll do this myself if it ends up being me- change what his abilities are all about. Because being "3x whatever" is hard to quantify in a useful way. Listeners to This American Life may have already heard of this particular dilemma on their Superpowers episode. The segment has Jonathan Morris of the Ape Law/ Gone and Forgotten website. Listening to him may put it in perspective a bit.
But a talking gorilla with machine guns? Makes perfect sense.

The Comics Reporter

2006-08-07T07:56:00.000-07:00

I had a good talk with Tom Spurgeon at THE COMICS REPORTER for the Sunday Magazine. As a veteran interviewer going back to the best years of The Comics Journal, Tom was able to make me give straight answers instead of the usual snakeoil I sell everybody. Read how I compare comics people to the Amish!

Atlas Avatars!

2006-08-03T13:29:00.000-07:00

Spread 'em around, please. Thanks to intern Eric for laboring in the Photoshop mines!

And heck, before someone else does it without trying to match the font...

YESTERDAY!

2006-08-03T01:24:00.001-07:00

This is pretty incredible. In just the first day out, Agents of Atlas reviews have started coming in, and the rest of the creative team and I are overwhelmed. Thanks all of you who have helped get the word out on this book. Here are some of the reviews so far:

UPDATE: More reviews!

Silver Bullet Comicbooks

Big Monkey Comics

Stumblebum Studios

Dave Van Domelen

Velocity Comics

Comics Nexus

Paperback Reader

Dewey's Comics

Wizard

Comics Should Be Good

Comic Bloc has collected postings into an Atlas Forum.

And if you want to read an earlier adventure with the Agents, there's a serial story running at the Temple of Atlas weblog. Go to the index at right and start from the beginning!

TODAY!

2006-08-02T01:50:00.000-07:00

AGENTS OF ATLAS #1! Don't wait for the trade, go get it NOW! People who follow my Adventures work be aware that it's rated T1 for 13 and up. That's because Gorilla Man has a potty mouth and Venus keeps misplacing her clothes. Now, let's go clear off those shelves so retailers can reorder more!

THIS WEEK!

2006-07-31T14:51:00.000-07:00

I don't think I ever posted THIS LINK, which will give a preview of the first pages from the first AGENTS OF ATLAS. Courtesty the fine folks at Graham Crackers Comics. Some who have seen early versions of this preview came away thinking that the story takes place in the 50's (and that it will be full of Nazis saying "Schvein", but that's really just the first few pages), but it all mostly happens here in good ol' 2006. Wednesday! In your local comic shop, I hope!

Get Ready...

2006-07-28T14:04:00.000-07:00

Sorry I gave no follow up to San Diego, it's just a blur of people to me now. My last real recollection is me up on the Mondo Marvel panel not being clever enough because I was out of steam. I should have pointed out how Gorilla Man is twice as good as Punisher because he can hold double the machine guns. Rob Liefeld kept distracting me by messing with the Onslaught figure who's arm kept falling off. I just referred to Onslaught as a "who", so I must still not be recovered. Next week is going to be me pushing AGENTS OF ATLAS harder than ever because it's coming to stores Wednesday. We need to get in there and clean those shops out so it gets reordered fast! Come on everybody, let's all knuckle down and get to work!

Toth Book Heads Up

2006-07-24T23:35:00.000-07:00

While the Toth Doodle Book turned out very nice, it looks like a batch of misbound copies made it into these initial shipments. The printer is pulling those out now. If you've gotten a copy with 24 pages repeating, I'll see that your copy is replaced with the real thing! You can send the cover (or just a chunk of it in an envelope) to:

OCTOPUS PRESS
1634 NE 49TH AVE.
PORTLAND, OR 97213

My apologies for the inconvenience, and those will be replaced as soon as possible.

COMICON SATURDAY:TRIBUTE PANEL

2006-07-23T09:22:00.000-07:00

As packed as the place is, I'm able to cross the floor easier this year simply because I'm close to the door and can walk outside to the other end of the center and walk back in. I did that when going to chat with Mark Schultz, Dave Johnson, Aaron Lopresti and others. Piles of trash are building up in the middle aisle of the room to add to the traffic chaos. I met some great people associated with Alex Toth like Disney animator Tom DeRozier, who shares my worship of Milt Kahl as well.

That evening was the Toth tribute panel moderated by David Armstrong, and it went as well as you could hope. Not too much of people proclaiming their connection with The Herculoids. Irwin Hasen was a laugh riot, talking about Alex at 16. John Hitchcock got to tell some terrific stories like Toth chasing a speeder down the freeway. Paul Power described Alex's time in Australia as boss of his group of animators on Superfriends, and Mike Royer told of Toth meeting Al Williamson. Sculptor/animator Ruben Procopio filled in other bits of Alex's life and I think the audience got a good shared view of the man this way. What I was most grateful for was that Toth's son Eric and daughter Dana sat on the panel and told some of what their dad was like at home. How he'd drag them to the model airplane store constantly, and shoot hundreds of pictures of any common object lying around the house that interested him visually. I couldn't help but feel for them as this reminded me of last year when my dad died. Then suddenly lots of people are coming up to you telling you things about your own father you didn't know and you're still putting together a big picture of just who this person was. I talked quite a bit with his other son Damon, and was happy to hear that Alex got to see his youngest granddaughter who was born just in time. There's no getting around the fact that a tribute like this is essentially a funeral service, and it was a very good one, full of poignant moments and laughter. Tothfans Webmaster Jeff Rose got a lot of pictures that will no doubt be on the website soon, and maybe there'll be a way to hear the audio of the panel.

Back at the hotel I thought of how hungry I was and how everyone was probably filling the Hyatt bars now. As I sat on my bed trying to decide whether to eat or go to the bars, I passed out. Now it's morning, and time to go back into the monster. If the show keeps growing like this, the only option I see for it is to spill out into the city itself like Angouleme. I'm being serious about that.

COMICON FRIDAY:THE EAGLE HAS LANDED

2006-07-22T08:47:00.000-07:00

So for the past few days the Toth book was sitting in the Montreal airport, along with a few other books nervous publishers were hoping to have for the show. I spent a good chunk of the morning writing WHAT IF? and then called down to see if Fed Ex had come by. Why yes, of course they have. You have four boxes. !!! Could no one call me with this trivia? Maybe the Omni is more concerned with the amenities for actor Jason Statham who I saw in the lobby yesterday, wearing a suit I would have to take out a loan to buy. Anyway I bolted down there and grabbed two of the boxes and went to the Convention Center. Fortunately Mercury Studio intern Rich Ellis was nearby to take one of the heavy boxes once I got there.

It was nice to see people with pre-disappointed faces lift their eyebrows with that "Ah- it's actually here," look. I believe the first customer was John McCrea. It moved briskly from that point, and John Hitchcock (THE Dear John of the title) came back and sat for most of the day to meet people. I don't have adequate signage, so I'm often holding the book over my head to give folks a view.

I may mention more highlights at the center since it seems to have wifi. Line I actually said to some obnoxious young guy: "You're not big on the social skills, are you?" The Hyatt bars were very, very busy Friday night, and as a result it all escapes me now. Later...

COMICON: THURSDAY

2006-07-20T18:12:00.001-07:00

You can just call it "Another Day Without Toth Books" for me. It looks like I'm not going to be breaking even with this trip, because I just checked and the books have JUST NOW left Quebec. Great.

Having nothing, I stayed in my room this morning and did the final lettering touch-ups on AGENTS OF ATLAS #2. Then I got to the Center in time to sign at the Marvel booth for an hour. Sat next to Joe Quesada, Tom DeFalco and Paul Jenkins while an undending line of people came by to get signatures on a promotional freebie. I kept signing on Marko Djurdjevic's excellent first cover of X-MEN FIRST CLASS, giving Bobby an icy word balloon that shouted my name. Afterward I cruised up to Artist Alley and saw AGENTS artist Leonard Kirk, who floored me with a bunch of brilliant layouts for issue 3. After that it was time for the outing of the day, the DC/MARVEL Charity Softball Game for ACTOR.

All the players for DC had matching orange shirts with numbers, very efficient. We had a choice of a few Marvel brand shirts, most were black with either a Punisher skull or a Venom spider. I opted for one of the few Fantastic Four "4" shirts, because I wanted to reflect the hot sun as much as possible. On the bus ride over ACTOR/Top Cow's Jim McLaughlin broke down the rules for us and told us to "carb up" with several boxes of animal crackers. I don't know that shortening bread is the best sports energy snack, but we ate them. When I played softball with the cartoonists in Chapel Hill years ago, I usually pitched, so I'm not a pro at playing the bases. Fortunately Mark McKenna (1st base) and John Romita Jr. (Shortstop) coached me a bit about how to play 2nd. I got off a good hit to a Jann Jones (who just got promoted at DC) pitch the first time up, but I still was caught out. Later some DC staffer I tagged out started running again for some reason, confusing everybody. My next time at bat I got on 2nd, and I forget who knocked me in. Mark Waid got on first by the skin of his teeth in the last inning and worked his way home.

We ended up winning something like 26 to 8 so we didn't finish beyond six innings. Which everyone was fine with, because it just kept getting hotter out at Balboa Park. I got to talk a lot to PLANET HULK writer Greg Pak and a lot of people I didn't know yet, so that was nice. Since I had absolutely nothing to sell all day, playing softball was really the best thing I could have done or I would have just hung around sulking about losing money. Everyone had a lot of fun. The best of part of the game was near the end when Esad Ribic got up to bat again. A big Croatian who really doesn't know much about baseball or any similar sport, Esad cut an impressive pose, shirtless and smoking. Then he got off a pretty good hit which brought some of our guys in, but he himself was tagged out because he didn't know he needed to run to first, he just kept watching where the ball went. That was pretty awesome.

Now I think I'm going to take an unprecedented nap and get up and write later. I really can't imagine those books making it here tomorrow either at this point, so I guess I'll just let go of that idea. I believe I am going to be sore tomorrow, too.

COMICON: PREVIEW NIGHT

2006-07-20T00:49:00.000-07:00

What the heck, I'll blog this con since I have all this wifi coursing through the hotel room. So. If you live in Portland, Comicon actually begins at PDX airport. Upon reaching my gate I found Linda Medley also (Castle) waiting for the same plane. She told me the best Gary Groth story about how Fantagraphics came to publish her work, but I feel it's not my story to tell and get credit for, so ask her sometime. You can ask her at the Fanta booth almost every day if you're at the show, she's always signing at the end of the day.

Then we see Paul Guinan and Anina Bennett, and illustrator Lee Moyer. Everyone begins the comics talk thousands of miles away from the Convention Center. I board the plane and see Paul and Anina again, smugly sitting in first class. I make a face.

Once in San Diego I taxi over to the Omni where my roommate Jim Ottaviani has already checked in, and left me a present: a GT Labs baseball cap, with the logo I designed. Perfect, because I have to play in the charity softball game tomorrow and I didn't bring a cap. I make the mistake of looking at the room rate for our ritzy digs right across from the Convention Center. I take a deep breath- oh, the price I heard Jim quote was per person, not per night. I'd originally thought we might be generous to the absent Steve Lieber who chose to stay home and meet his deadlines, and let him off the hook with his share of the room. No way.

Over at the show I get my Exhibitor badge which allows me to take up to 1 life per day without penalty, and mainly not get pushed out of the room by high pressure water at the day's end. I say hi to all my neighbors at Cold Cut's Indy Island (under the palm tree, 1901! Can't miss it!). There's Redd Skull owner Kelly Dowd, and there's Earth 2 Comics' Carr D'Angelo. Hey, Krypto writer Jesse McCann is already here. Over at the DC booth, the enormous DC booth, Newsarama's Matt Brady and edgy writer Greg Rucka are laughing it up. Kurt Busiek comes up and gives me a Cimmerian-style greeting (kind of a grunt, really).

People are already asking about the Toth Book, and all I can do is make goofy shrugging gestures. I've heard they'll arrive at my hotel Thursday morning, so I'll try to appease the FedEx Gods and curry their favor. Not a lot of point in me walking back into the building until I have them. And while I'm here, I have to finish an upcoming issue of WHAT IF? that Aaron Lopresti will be drawing. Especially since he's here and can give me reproving looks until he has the script. I know he is too, because I saw Terry Dodson and he said so, just before that same intercom woman from the past 10 years came on to amuse and delight us all with her message of "LEAVE."

Drew Johnson and David Hahn (arm still in sling from stunt-biking) are also checking out the latest displays, like the giant snake mouth tunnel promoting Snakes On A Plane, which just can't be as fun as its concept-in-a-name, because such things never are.

Before I pass out for the night, I thought I'd throw in a convention tip that I didn't see anyone mention. Every year, if you're set up at a table, you'll eventually be approached by someone with a DV camera who's "making a documentary." You'll spend 30 minutes talking to said person, and then never see where that footage went. Send these folks away unless you want to use the opportunity to practice your pitch skills. I haven't seen one of these people yet, but they'll be there. Oh yes.

G'night, talk to you tomorrow.

PARKERCON

2006-07-18T16:42:00.000-07:00

That's right, it's all about me. I look forward to meeting all 90,000 of my fans over the next few days. But hey, go give the movies and games producers a little of your time too please, we don't want them to feel left out. Anyways, you can find me:

COLDCUT INDY ISLAND- BOOTH 1901- UNDER PALM TREE

Most of the time, except for when I'm signing at

MARVEL - BOOTH #4315
Thursday, July 20, 12:00 am to 1:00 pm
Sunday, July 23, 2:00 am to 3:00 pm

Possibly briefly at the

MONDO MARVEL PANEL
Sunday, July 23
11:30 – 12:30
Room 6B

THURSDAY- MARVEL VS. DC SOFTBALL GAME FOR ACTOR
(In Japan it's known as DC vs. Marvel)

At MORLEY FIELD in BALBOA PARK
(which is news to me, I thought it was on Coronado)

And if you squint, you might just see me at

VIRGIN - BOOTH 1803

as well! Remember, once you're there- you're there! See you soon.

TOTH BOOK. INDY ISLAND. 1901

2006-07-17T08:29:00.000-07:00

Hey, you can see a few more pages from Dear John: The Alex Toth Doodlebook over at THE PULSE. And if you're going to Comicon International in San Diego this week, look for the Cold Cut Indy Island palm tree as you walk in. There you'll see me waving at you, with a big stack of the books if everything goes right. And Cold Cut takes credit cards! Tomorrow I'll post my schedule for the show and leave it up the rest of the week in case you want to plan out your travel path during Comicon. Many people do now, we just have no choice. I hear the show will be offering guides and search parties soon.

Toth Book. Nerves.

2006-07-13T09:03:00.000-07:00

It's close to the wire, and the printer may actually have Alex Toth Doodlebooks for me to sell next week at San Diego Comicon. I'll give you an update shortly, and also let you know my show schedule in case you're going to be there. I will likely not have time go get lunch so don't ask, even if you were going to pay. Sorry, this show is so stressful I have to get started stressing a full week in advance or I won't be able to fit all the stress time in.

Broken Frontier Interview

2006-07-10T09:12:00.000-07:00

Hey, Fletch Adams and I talk about Agents of Atlas, Marvel Adventures books, and X-Men over at BROKEN FRONTIER today. This one's pretty good, go read it please.

I wanted to talk about SUPERMAN RETURNS but haven't had time yet. Brian Hibbs of Comix Experience in San Francisco really echoed closely my feelings on the movie at his Savage Critic site. I loved all of the effects and action scenes, Superman fighting crime. But I'm just mystified (hence this blog's name) at some of the story choices, mainly Lois' kid and new boyfriend. I'm glad they didn't make Cyclops a jerk (I can't remember his name, but he's Cyclops) because that's too easy and never makes sense, but his presence automatically makes him the underdog because he's compared to freaking SUPERMAN. So when he does something nice or heroic, it counts way more than Superman does it. Also Routh isn't given many lines, so a lot of what he does do is fly around staring creepily at people. I don't think the new relationship offered any interesting opportunities, instead saddling the characters with continuity baggage they won't want later. It feels like the kind of mistake that would be made in comics after the 300th book and everyone's out of ideas, honestly. The movie is still very entertaining, but it did remind me of all the humanity that Christopher Reeve brought to the role. Routh probably can too if they'll simply give him something to say.

I've recently read some books I want to talk about as well, maybe later this week. Okay, you're free to go.

The Wizard of Atlas

2006-07-06T14:59:00.000-07:00

Hey, did I mention that Wizard article? I just want an excuse to put up Coker's Marvel Boy cover. Ground control to Major Tomm...

Heroes Pix

2006-07-05T14:55:00.000-07:00

That was supposed to sound like "Hero Clix". Anyway, once again I have to live vicarously through Pat Sun, who documented the living S out of Heroes Con last weekend. He's a menace with that camera. Good shots, like our friends Heidi and Colleen enjoying some beverage that may have come from those mysterious mason jars on the table. What IS that stuff?

Leaky Kirk

2006-06-30T10:21:00.000-07:00

Leonard "Lookame! I'm a genius!" Kirk has put some more AGENTS OF ATLAS art up at his blog for all to see. Thankfully he's chopped up the panels a bit so people can't piece together the story and thus have things spoiled for them.

Boy is it already Friday? When you spend half the week in airport terminals, you really lose track of time. If you didn't know AmericaWest and US Airways have merged, you might want to consider that before booking a flight with them, and all the confusion such a thing causes. Maybe after summer they'll have their act together.

I hope many of you are going to Shelton Drum's HEROES convention this weekend, it's going to be some show. And I'd like to hear reports from it if there are any. I leave you a "fitting" tribute to Alex Toth by David Oakes, HERE. And if you don't know David's insane hobby, then you'll get what I meant by "fitting" when you click over there.

Monday Avenging

2006-06-26T07:56:00.000-07:00

MARVEL ADVENTURES: THE AVENGERS #2 is on shelves now, with a story I could only call "The Leader Has A Big Head." Honestly, that was just a placeholder title until I thought of the real one, but everyone thought it was fine so it stayed. There's a review at Silver Bullet Comicbooks up that you can read until you make it to the comics shop.

Rated X

2006-06-22T14:16:00.000-07:00

How ironic that today as I'm flying coach- Extreme Coach, I might add- Wizard has an interview with me about X-Men: First Class. I'm never answering interviews by phone again. I sound like I should have a slingshot in my pocket and a propeller beanie on my head. I say everything but "Dude." Still, the interviewer is a great guy and sounds like a grownup himself, at least.

Damn Right.

2006-06-21T00:18:00.000-07:00

The name is GORILLA MAN. Cover of Agents of Atlas Issue 2, by Tomm Coker.

Like a Quinn-Martin Production

2006-06-20T00:11:00.000-07:00

Over at All the Rage/Silver Bullet Comicbooks there looks to be some color previews of those Leonard Kirk AGENTS OF ATLAS pages. She's not mentioned, but the colorist on the book is the unmatched Michelle Madsen, who were very happy to land. She knows her stuff!

THE SIXTH AGENT

2006-06-16T16:33:00.000-07:00

Over at Comic Book Resources, the identity of the Golden Age character we're bringing back is revealed! Thanks to Dave Richards for all the work on that feature. Whew.

Some Post

2006-06-14T23:49:00.000-07:00

Did any books of mine come out yesterday? I feel like I haven't talked about myself in hours!

WOO!

2006-06-12T22:07:00.000-07:00

Remember that ongoing AGENTS OF ATLAS feature at COMIC BOOK RESOURCES? Course you do. Today's penultimate bit focuses on Jimmy Woo, because you shouldn't forget that Jimmy is an active team member. So, we dragged it out a week- Friday you'll get that mystery member the betting pool has been working overtime on. Mystery Golden Age Character. Hmmm.

I Can't Shut Up

2006-06-09T07:53:00.000-07:00

Sorry! If someone asks me about projects I'm writing, I talk about them! I can't help it! Such as over at NEWSARAMA, where currently you can find me and Chris Arrant discussing X-MEN FIRST CLASS (or as I like to call it, Happy X-Men or X-Men: The Salad Days).

There's a big profile on our WESTERN LEGENDS book, with lots of previews. More Coker art! And you can see this incredible Red Wolf story my pal Karl Kesel did with artist Carmine De Giandomenico. Also that smartypants Fred Van Lente (Action Philosophers) and an artist called "Homs" have a Fort Rango story. This is a very solid book throughout, you can't go wrong. Unless you hate Western stuff, of course.

Al Wiseman The Menace

2006-06-06T07:34:00.000-07:00

I meant to mention this after I found it through The Comics Reporter- Bill Alger has devoted a blog to one of my favorite cartoonists, Al Wiseman. Even as a tiny child I could tell Wiseman's work from the other artists on the Dennis the Menace comicbooks, though I didn't know who drew it. I probably didn't even acknowledge that someone did draw them, I just knew certain books had the "Good Dennis". His work is so full of life, clean and well designed it just blows all the muddled art you've seen in modern comics out of your mind. And when I work on material where I can get away with it, I try to channel Wiseman's influence as much as possible. Obviously the greatest disciple of him is Jaime Hernandez. What's great is that you can still find those Dennis comics easily at shows, often in quarter bins (comics used to be popular, and they made a lot of them at Fawcett!). The travel specials like Dennis the Menace in Mexico often turn up intact because they're BIG. Go look at the blog, which features a lot of work I never knew about- what a great service, I hope he has time to keep it up.

Toth Obit in LA Times

2006-06-04T12:44:00.000-07:00

The LA Times has a very nice obituary on Alex Toth today. Good work.

THE BOY FROM ANOTHER PLANET

2006-06-03T12:11:00.000-07:00

That is, MARVEL BOY. The AGENTS OF ATLAS profile on him is up at COMIC BOOK RESOURCES now. Put on your wristbands and zip on over there.

Of Course I'm Jean Grey

2006-06-03T00:28:00.000-07:00

You Are Jean Grey

Although your fate is often unknown, you always seem to survive (even after death).
Your mind is your greatest weapon, literally!

Powers: telepathy and telekinesis, the ability to project thoughts into the mind of others, communication with animals

Which of the X-Men Are You?

What I don't get is the one where you click who you find sexy- I select Jean. So Jean is just hooked on herself? Whatever, I'm really powerful. And HOT.

X-MEN First Class All The Way

2006-06-02T13:47:00.000-07:00

Well dang, it seems I'm writing an X-Men book. That's a link to me talking about it with Jen at THE PULSE.

And hey, MARVEL ADVENTURES FANTASTIC FOUR got nominated for a Harvey!

Also, sometime today the Marvel Boy profile should go up at Comic Book Resources, but nothing so far.

Toth Book in the News

2006-05-30T07:52:00.000-07:00

Benjamin Ong Pang Kean asked me some questions about the Alex Toth Doodle Book this weekend after Alex died, so there's some more thoughts on the man and his work over at NEWSARAMA. There's also some thoughts from John Hitchcock and a few more pages from the book. I believe Rich Johnston will have a bit from me too at Lying in the Gutters, I'll update to add that link if so. It's a little strange being in a position to speak about Alex when I didn't know him better than anyone else, usually less so. But I guess that's part of being a publisher of someone's work. I try to deflect attention to John as much as possible, but as he was a good friend to Alex, he's understandably less talkative to journalists at the moment. If a tribute panel on Toth comes together for Comicon International, hopefully he'll be a big part of it as he some great anecdotes to tell.

UPDATE: Here's the latest Lying in the Gutters column, and if you scroll way down you can see more pages from the book.

Alex Toth, Thanks For Everything

2006-05-27T21:49:00.000-07:00

According to John Hitchcock, Alex Toth passed away this morning at around 7 am. I had braced myself for the eventuality weeks back when he went into the hospital, but I'm a ridiculous optimist. When he pulled through and sent word out that he was on the mend, I got my hopes up that he would live to see the book Hitchcock and Billy Ingram worked so hard on. I was taking pleasure at the thought of sending him a box right away- I even daydreamed about catching a flight down to L.A. and delivering them myself. But at least we can take some solace that the guys sent Alex a galley and he approved of how they did it.

I'm so grateful that Jeff Rose took it upon himself a few years ago to create the Tothfans website. He coded it himself, filled it with all the great content he could find and hosted it on a server in his basement-- and that effort has brought people together from all over the world in appreciation of one the giants of the medium. That site and it's Toth Page of the Day brought the work alive for all new fans in addition to making old ones happy. And when Alex was hospitalized, the avalanche of mail he got was thanks to the community built by Tothfans. I can't imagine anything more rewarding for a creator near the end than to be able to read so many heartfelt thanks and tributes directly. From what I hear, it meant everything.

I'll write more this week after I've had time to collect my thoughts.

THE HUMAN ROBOT

2006-05-26T14:59:00.000-07:00

Remember that ONGOING FEATURE AT COMIC BOOK RESOURCES ON AGENTS OF ATLAS? Of course you do. Well now they have the one up that has an interview with series artist Leonard Kirk! And I provide notes on the most enigmatic character of AOA, The Human Robot. Who officially has a name now after several decades. We call him M-11. If you can't figure why, just read the column!

Pitch In! We Need Marvel Boy!

2006-05-25T08:12:00.000-07:00

Do YOU have an impressive Golden Age collection that includes old Timely/Atlas issues of ASTONISHING (featuring Marvel Boy) or MARVEL BOY (featuring Marvel Boy)? What I'm getting at is that we- and by "we", I mean cover artist Tomm Coker- need 600 dpi scans of any good cover images from the original appearances of Marvel Boy to incorporate into an issue of AGENTS OF ATLAS. If the comics are beat up, that doesn't necessarily rule them out. If you think you or someone you know can help, click the Channel Parker link in the bottom of my sidebar and let me know soon. We'll get Spider-Man to visit your house or something!