From "Off to see the Wizard" to "The way to San Jose"...

I got back from Emerald City Con yesterday morning where I had a wonderful time. The is a very well show, with great attendees and an amazing hotel. I met some very passionate fans. Thanks to both Zenescope and Top Cow for allowing me to hang out at the booths.

Now before I unpacked, I started getting calls and what not about this weekend coming up...

So now I'm going to the San Jose Super-con. I'll be set up in artist alley (either at my own table or on Tone's lap) and will have copies of Sinbad 0 for only $1. So if you are in the area, come on by and say hi.

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I am impressed.

Couldn't get over to the theater until this afternoon, but I plunked my money down for IRON MAN and was completely satisfied.

Robert Downey Jr. was superb. Funny when needed, serious when called for. He was charismatic and larger than life. The perfect Tony Stark.

The armor was perfect.

Jeff Bridges as Obidiah Stane was great.

There was enough geek moments for comic fans but not so much that non-reader get lost.

And the two cameos... loved them.

Go ahead and put my ticket aside for Iron Man II, I'll be there.

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Announcements

Figured it was time to make a few announcements... nothing earth shattering.

1) 1001 ARABIAN NIGHTS: THE ADVENTURES OF SINBAD 0 is now in stores. It actually came out on the 23rd, but I didn't get to the shop that day and I thought it was due out this week. This book is $.99 and gives you an 11-page introduction story drawn by Gus Vasquez and then a preview of issue one drawn by regular series artist Paolo Pantalena. So pick it up now if you haven't.

2) This weekend, being Free Comic Book Day, I will be signing at Dark Delicasies in Burbank with two good friends Steve Niles and David Hartman. For any of you who haven't seen the clip, go to You Tube and put in the names Wickline, Niles and Hartman then watch... we'll probably be the exact same way at the signing as we were in the video.

3) Next weekend, May 10th & 11th, I will be at the Emerald City Con in Seattle. This is my first trip to the Pacific Northwest and I'm really looking forward to it. I will be floating between the Zenescope booth, Top Cow and possibly Cellar Door Publishing. If you are in the area, come on by.

4) And I am please to announce that Tyler Dranguet has become my assistant. She will be helping me with copy editing, promotion, conventions, keeping me on schedule and basically telling me when an idea really sucks. Hopefully she'll remind me to update this blog more often.

So its back to work for me. Hope all is well for you guys.

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Why so many movies are bad...

Just a free form thought here engendered by a conversation with my wife last night.

Why so many bad movies are being made... technology is the cause. In the 1970s, when I was a kid, there was a 6 screen theater at the mall and a 2 screen drive in not to far away. The big release of the week probably got 2 screens at the most... so on average there was a space for 5 or 6 movies. Once a movie left the theater, it could be sold to the networks a few years later. That was the only way to really make money on movies. So if a movie was made, it had to be good to make any money.

Now we have DVDs, 20 screen multiplexes, premium channels, pay per view, downloadable movies, etc. The demand for content is at an all-time high. I have no idea how many hours of entertainment is necessary to fill all the time slots, but it has to be huge.

Think about the difference between a McDonald’s Hamburger and one at a high end restaurant. You can create one burger in 20 minutes and it be great or you can create 20 burgers in 5 minutes and they be edible.

We are still getting the rare 20 minute burger, but we have to search through the quickies to find them. Its not the studios faults, the writers faults or anyone else.. its technology.

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Order now.... operators are standing by....

Its 8:15 am on Friday March 14th. I leave for Wizard LA at 9 am and I just got an email from Raven my editor at Zenescope asking if I had posted anything about ordering issue 0 of Sinbad on my blog yet since orders are just about due in...

So here we go.

ORDER THIS BOOK! TODAY! CALL YOUR RETAILER AND TELL THEM YOU WANT THIS BOOK!

It’s only 99 Cents!!!!!!

Please order 1001 Arabian Nights: The Adventures of Sinbad 0 from Zenescope Entertainment. (you can order issue 1 at the same time)

Okay... shameless promotion over. See you all this weekend at the show.

8:16 AM - 2 Comments - 1 Kudos - Add Comment

This Weekend in Los Angeles

2008 UNUSUAL SUSPECTS FOR 2008!..:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

It's a goal! It's a year! It's a floor wax AND a dessert topping!

LOS ANGELES, CA (March 10, 2008) – It's 2008, duh. And The Hero Initiative, the charity dedicated to helping older comic creators in medical or financial need, is looking to sell 2008 copies of The Unusual Suspects, Dan Wickline's crazy-cool graphic novel sensation of '07! And we're gonna make it sooooo easy to pick one up, you'd have to be damn Unusual NOT to!

The $12.99, 100-page graphic novel is being knocked down to a mere $5 at select locations! You can get your $5 copy at The Hero Initiative Booth at Wizard World Los Angeles (March 14-16) and Unusual Suspects artists Tone Rodriguez, writer Dan Wickline, and cover artist Mike Mayhew will all be will be on-hand to autograph copies at the Hero booth!

If you dig on that Interweb, you can order yours for a mere $5 at www.AtomicComics.com. Just click on the "Official Store of the Hero Initiative" banner! If you want the up-close and personal feel, Los Angeles' famed Golden Apple will also slide ya one at $5 a pop. And BEST of all…

EVERYONE who buys a copy will be entered into a sweepstakes where the winner will get a 3 day/2 night trip to Los Angeles (coach air and hotel) where you'll ALSO receive a $200 shopping spree at Golden Apple AND lunch and a tour of Top Cow Productions' brand-spankin' new palatial offices!

And can you dig this? You can help our men and women in camouflage as well! For every 10 copies purchased, Hero will donate one copy to a military reading project, Operation Book Drop, so that troops in Iraq can satisfy their comic jones!

"If you're into aircraft, I can tell you the books will be sent in C-17s to Kuwait, then forwarded in Chinooks to the respective units that will be enjoying them," said Afghanistan vet and current Florida Army National Guard Sergeant Shirley D. Rincón, who is also a Hero volunteer. "But regardless of how they get there, they'll be a much-appreciated little slice of home. Take it from someone who's been over there."

"This is a much better plan than my original idea of trying to convince the world they should buy the book because I was the illegitimate love child of Alan Moore and Warren Ellis. Though I do have Alan's hair and Warren's eyes," said Dan Wickline.

"Top Cow is proud to have published such a fine anthology as The Unusual Suspects, and we're excited to participe in this drive to benefit The Hero Initiative," said Mel Caylo, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Top Cow Productions. "We're especially looking forward to having…er…hosting the sweepstakes winner for lunch and a tour of our new digs! Cannibals? Where?"

For more information on the Orlando MegaCon, please visit www.MegaConvention.com

For more information on Wizard World Los Angeles, please visit www.WizardWorld.com

About Top Cow Productions Inc.
Top Cow (http://topcow.com) was founded in December of 1992 by artist Marc Silvestri, who also co-founded Image Comics earlier that same year. Top Cow currently publishes its line of comic books in 21 languages in over 55 different countries. The company has launched 20 franchises (18 original and two licensed) in the industry's Top 10, seven at 1, a feat accomplished by no other publisher in the last two decades. Its flagship franchise, Witchblade, was TNT's 1 original film of 2000 and the first American property to be fully adapted in Japan as an original anime and manga by Studio GONZO in 2006. Top Cow's other flagship property, The Darkness, was developed into a major next-generation video game release by Starbreeze and 2K Games and achieved sell-out and Platinum sales status. Wanted, an Eisner-nominated miniseries published by Top Cow from 2003-2005, is currently in production as a major motion picture from Universal Pictures starring Angelina Jolie, James McAvoy, and Morgan Freeman and slated for release June 27, 2008. Virtually all of Top Cow's other properties are in development as feature films, live-action television, animation or video games. Top Cow has also successfully licensed and merchandised its franchises into toys, statues, clothing, lithographs, puppets, posters, magnets, shot glasses, lighters, lunch pails, wall scrolls, mouse pads, die-cast cars, calendars, Christmas ornaments, Halloween masks, trading cards, standees, video games, and role playing games.

About Golden Apple Comics

Golden Apple Comics has been the premier comic book & pop culture store in Los Angeles for over 28 years.  Stan Lee performed the ribbon cutting ceremony on our new location in November 2006, next door to Gallery 1988.   Always cutting edge & proactive in the community, Golden Apple views this as a great opportunity to attract new readers to our thriving industry.  Golden Apple has been has always been the place in LA of anything groundbreaking in the comic world. Golden Apple Comics, a landmark in the comic book industry, has a new address, but the same pivotal grasp on the marketplace.

About The Hero Initiative

The Hero Initiative is the first-ever federally chartered not-for-profit corporation dedicated strictly to helping comic book creators in need.  Hero creates a financial safety net for yesterdays' creators who may need emergency medical aid, financial support for essentials of life, and an avenue back into paying work.  It's a chance for all of us to give back something to the people who have given us so much enjoyment.  For more information, visit www.HeroInitiative.org or call 310-909-7809.

For more information, contact:

Janine Bielski

310-909-7809

HeroInitiative@aol.com

www.HeroInitiative.org

8:29 AM - 1 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

Here I go yapping again...

I got interviewed for the new Sinbad series I'm doing for Zenescope.

Follow this link for the interview and a few preview pages Interview

And here's one of the covers for issue one by Talent Caldwell.

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Conceptual Grace

Six years ago, I got a chance to see a new comic called 30 Days of Night. The writing and the art were great… but what really stood out was the basic concept. A small town where the sun doesn't rise for a long period of time is overrun with vampires. Its one of those concepts that you smack your head and say 'why didn't I think of that'. Having become friends with Steve Niles around the same time led to me getting a chance to expand on the concept as well.

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About a year ago, I was in Arizona doing a signing at the re-opening of one of the Atomic Comics stores and grabbed a graphic novel off the shelf to read over a cup of tea. The book a grabbed was Global Frequency by Warren Ellis. The basic concept is an organization made up of the best at any subject or skill that can be called on at times of crisis. The book was made up of short stories, each consisting of new characters with only the controlling agents the same. I devoured the stories in the trade and tracked down the second one. That's where it ended.

With the way Warren Ellis communicates on the internet, its pretty well known that a pilot episode was made for Global Frequency but it was never aired. It stared Michelle Forbes, Aimee Garcia and Josh Hopkins. I was able to track down a low quality copy of the pilot and watched it for the first time tonight. It was obvious that television would change some of the basic concepts. There would be regular characters instead of just revolving new ones, etc. Overall the pilot was smart, fast paced and was better than 90% of the drudge I see on network television now. The only reason I can think of why it wasn't picked up was its too intelligent for the general populace.

Watching it made me long to see more Global Frequency comics. Maybe someday soon Warren will bring Miranda Zero back into the light or pass her on to other writers to see what they could do. He could simply call them up and say 'You are on the Global Frequency'… I know it's a call I would love to get.

Currently reading : Global Frequency Vol. 1: Planet Ablaze By Warren Ellis Release date: 01 February, 2004

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Reality Check

I made a new friend recently. She's intelligent, funny and we can talk about anything. She lives in the mid-west, roughly 1500 miles from my home in sunny California. We met in an on-line game and started chatting through instant messenger. We chat while I write scripts and she works on her labs. When you work from home, having someone to talk to during the day is something you miss… instant messenger is about the only way you can have water cooler talk, talk about the latest Colbert Report or the crazy things Mike did on Dirty Jobs. I find myself looking forward to seeing her name come on-line.

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Last week we were chatting, and she got a phone call. Her father was in a car crash and rushed to the hospital. It was the sheriff on the phone. I couldn't imagine getting that call. I would be racing out the door and driving like a mad man to the hospital. And if I was at an office, and my co-worker got that call, I would jump up and offer to drive them. Go with them to the hospital, try to be supportive and see what I could do to help. But 1500 miles away… the extent of what I could do was leave instant messenger up as much as possible over the next few days to be there if she needed to talk. I'm a "fix things" kind of guy and I could do nothing.

Her father is improving now and my thoughts are still with her.

This got me to think about the nature of friendships and how the internet has changed it. Before I got married, I would have friends over all the time, go to their house, grab dinner, go to the movies, etc. It's been over a month since I've seen a friend in person, and that was Tone at the Phoenix Comic Con. I have dinner this week with another friend but I haven't seen her in months. The rest of my friends have spread out across the nation. I spend a good amount of time talking with people that I've never met in person and the odds are that I never will meet, but the add to my life. Does that diminish the friendships I have with those people? Are they only real if I can hug them, shake their hand or pat them on the back?

It used to be that social interaction was based on your place of work, a weekly poker game, a bowling league, clubs, etc… but now, at least for me, it seems that most of my social interaction comes through a DSL line.

9:34 AM - 5 Comments - 8 Kudos - Add Comment

A quick update....
Current mood: exhausted

Its 7:30 AM on Monday, January 28, 2008 and I am exhausted. Friday night I stayed up until Midnight, and then got up at 2 AM Saturday morning so I could leave by 3 AM and drive to Phoenix. Reached the convention center at 10 AM as they opened (for those keeping track – 5 hour drive, plus stopping at hotel to check in and a 1 hour time change). Spent the day at the show then hung out with friends till 1 AM and it was after 2 AM before I finally crashed out. Got up at 6 AM cause I can't sleep long in hotels, had breakfast and back at the show by 9 AM where I stayed until 3 PM when it was back into the truck and back on the road to drive through a storm. I was home by 8:30 PM, but didn't crash out until almost Midnight… so I'm a little tired.

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Been getting some pokes about not updating my blog and website frequently enough. Looking at them now, I pretty much just dropped the ball in 2007. I did signings I forgot to announce, books were released with no mention… I would fire myself if I could. So now 2008 rolls around and I don't even post that I'm going to be at the Phoenix Con. Well, 2007 I can say was a blur of a year. Between doing a lot of projects there was also the caring for and eventual passing of my mother-in-law, which took up a large chunk of the year.

This isn't the point where I promise to update the blog, a certain number of days a week… I'm not going to kid myself and think I'm suddenly going to be less busy. But I am going to try to at least keep it up to date and announce the important things.

Since I didn't do a 'state of the union' address either… just to give you a quick heads up and what is and may be going on. I've finished up the fourth issue of STEVE NILES' STRANGE CASES and David is turning out pages like a madman. That will wrap up the book for now, but I'm hoping to sit down with Steve in the next few days and see what we might do with it next. Also, I have a new project I'm doing with Steve and Mike Mayhew over at Shadowline… but that has yet to be announced.

In what might be the longest titled book I ever work on, 1001 ARABIAN NIGHTS: THE ADVENTURES OF SINBAD is in full motion with the preview issue slated for April (pretty sure about that) and four scripts in the can. I am having an absolute blast writing this and the guys at Zenescope seem to be digging it as well.

I have a couple other projects that are starting to move forward slowly or are just waiting for final approval. I'm hoping to have some more things to announce shortly.

As for conventions, I'm going to try and do Wonder Con, but its awfully close and I haven't even begun looking into it. I will be at Wizard World LA, my first trip to Emerald City Con and of course Comic-Con International (San Diego). There is also a 90% chance I will do the insanity run with Tone Rodriguez to Wizard World Texas once again. Though I think this year Wizard should sponsor our drive and we can put those metal signs on the side of my truck for the drive out.

If there is anything I didn't cover… let me know.

Currently listening : Them VS. You VS. Me By Finger Eleven Release date: 06 March, 2007

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