Checking in

Well, I've been back from San Diego since Sunday... but Monday I had to take my Father to the emergency room after he passed out twice trying to make it in from the truck. It was extremely hot out but that wasn't the cause. After five days in the hospital and running every test they could think of (including 2 MRIs), they kicked him loose last night believing he was having a bad reaction to one of his medications. I visited with him this morning and he was definitely doing better so I'm holding out hope that the doctors were right.

The hospital itself was one of the biggest cluster fucks in history. I took them from 2:30 pm till 1:30 am to get my father checked into an actual room... my father is 70 years old and they had him sitting in a wheelchair in the emergency waiting area for that long. Also, the airconditioning wasn't working. So everyone in the place was sweating like crazy. And getting a wheelchair just to get him in the place was an ordeal. I had to basically keep kicking on the door until an orderly came out and gave me a chair to go get him myself. And then they wouldn't let me take the chair out of their tiny parking lot to the church parking lot next door where my mom had to park... in between the two, 3-feet of dirt. I basically carried my dad from the van to the chair. And when I went to visit him the next day... the power in the hospital was out. Still no A/C and now they were running on back-up power..

And to top it all off, no one was telling my mom what was going on. My mom finally camped out in his room for 8 hours waiting for his doctors so she could get some answers. I am very pleased my dad is home and seems to be getting better... but I couldn't be more disgusted by Whittier Hospital and its staff.

I'll be back in a day or two with a con-report and news on new projects... just don't feel like getting into all of that right now.

Wrath of Con!

I’m sure many people have used that pun. But I always find it funny.

For those of you who are headed to the ‘nerd prom’ as Warren Ellis calls it… I will be attending Wed – Sun but don’t expect to see me much on Sunday as I will probably sleep in, check out and head home before the show opens unless someone just has to meet with me that day. (And then they have to ask my wife’s permission first)

Places where you can find me:

Wednesday I have no scheduled events. I will just be walking the floor and checking in with folks.

Thursday I am doing a panel: Digital Webbing – 5 Years later 11:00 to 12:00 in room 1B. I don’t know how many people remember that I had a five-page story in the second issue of Digital Webbing Presents, but its nice to be included in the panel.

Thursday night I will be attending the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund party at the Westgate Hotel from 7:30 till 11:00 (well, probably not until 11, but I’ll be there a good while).

Friday I’m doing another panel: IDW Publishing – Ideas and Designs 2006 1:30 to 2:30 in room 4. We should be announcing the next 30 Days mini (or I’m going to look very funny sitting up there saying nothing).

Saturday I have no scheduled events but I’m probably going to sit in on the Image panel.

The rest of the time when I’m not meeting with people, I’ll be wandering the floor looking for good sketchbooks and maybe some original art. Also… I’m going to be looking for an artist or two for some upcoming projects.

Hope to see everyone there.

For those of you who can’t make it to the show; I will post a follow up with all the news announced pertaining to my writing and hopefully some pics depending if my wife will be so kind as to take them.

I’ll be posting again regularly next week.

Dan

What’s in the bag?

Going to try something new this week and if it works out I’ll probably start doing it regularly. Since I get to the comic store pretty early on Wednesdays, I figure I can do a quick read through my purchases and comment on the initial reaction. I tend to buy quite a bit of stuff each week so there should be plenty to talk about.

This is what I got today, 7/12/2006, and some quick thoughts.

*** Be warned, there is a good chance a spoiler may slip through. ***

52 #10 – This has been the top of my reading list each week and today is no different. We get to see more of Clark Kent, Black Adam and Booster Gold plus more of Supernova. Decent story this week but I keep coming back to the odd feeling that the Booster we see now is not the Booster pre-Infinite Crisis. But I’m starting to get the feeling that Supernova is the original Booster. The idea of it being Superboy is just too obvious. We’ll see.

Superman #654 – The debut of Busiek and Pacheco as the regular creative team is helped by a decent single-issue story. There is enough plot threads dropped here to make the issue important but it’s a good jumping on point for new or returning readers. And the cover is very eye-catching.

The Cryptics – This is the surprise of the week. Not known for his humor, Steve Niles has crafted a collection of short and funny stories based on elementary school versions of classic horror monsters. The stories are really cute, charming and funny. But what really brings it home is the art of Ben Roman. He is able to bring the whimsical style he used on I Love Halloween to this very different book. A lot of fun for your money here.

Green Lantern #12 – Hal and Guy go to rescue a bunch of Green Lanterns that were believed to be dead only to find that the Cyborg Superman has teamed up with the Manhunters… and it gets worse from there. I was unsure of the return of Jordan when it was announced, but this has quickly become one of my favorite books for both the writing and the art.

Snake Woman #1 – The second titles from the new Virgin Comics and I have to say I was really surprised. Not surprised at how good or bad it was, but surprised at what the book appeared to be. When I picked up Devi last week, it looked, felt and read like a Top Cow comic. Everything about it had that Top Cow house style to it. So this week when I picked up Snake Woman I was quite surprised that it didn’t look anything like a Top Cow book. It looked like an IDW book. The art by Michael Gaydos could just have easily been Nick Stakal or Kody Chamberlain. And the cover could have been Ashley Wood easily. Perhaps that’s Virgin’s plan, make a book like each of the other publishers to try and pull from their customer base.

The next three books I picked up because of a connection of some sort to the artist involved.

UTF #2 – Many of you know that Tone Rodriguez is one of my best friends… in or outside of the industry… so of course I buy the books he does. In this case, his art is the reason to buy this book. The story doesn’t do much for me, the coloring is ‘hit or miss’ and the cover stock is identical to the interior page stock. I want to recommend this book, but I can only do that if you are a fan of Tone’s work… because he does some beautiful work here.

The Next #1 – The artist, Dietrich Smith, is a buddy and he’s jumped in on an upcoming project… so I’m biased that I like his work. But trying to read this is odd. Like someone took notes during their drug trip. I’m curious as hell to see where this thing is going… I may not like it, but I want to know.

10th Muse #11 – I haven’t been reading this book and I know nothing about it so I’m not going to comment on the story. The artist, Weshoyot Alvitre, is an acquaintance on MySpace so I picked it up to see her work. I have to be honest; I don’t think she is ready for this book. I think she has a lot of raw talent but needs more practice. She is currently penciling and inking which may be part of the problem… too much too soon. Some of the panels and pages are strong and have a Trent Kaniuga feel to them while others look rushed and amateurish. She can convey a lot of emotion in her work but it’s not consistent through the pages. I’ll be curious to see how she progresses from here.

Now over to Trades and Graphic Novels; these are too big to read quickly so I’ll just mention what I got and a thought or two.

Down – I love Warren Ellis’ writing and Tony Harris’ art so I’m really looking forward to this book. The negative here for me is Top Cow padded the book by throwing two issues of Tales of the Witchblade in that Ellis did a long time ago. I would rather them focus on just Down and give us a cheaper book.

Bomb Queen: Woman of Mass Destruction – I didn’t get into this series until it was halfway through, but what I saw of it was a riot and the art is top notch. Looking forward to reading the whole thing now.

Nick Fury, Agent of Shield – These are the old Jim Steranko issues. I just haven’t read them in a long time and with him going to Comic-Con this year, the urge to see them again got me to buy it.

Snow White and the Seven Excuses

There’s a reason why women still where white at weddings, because in this day and age no one is buying the whole ‘virginal’ thing. It the signaling of a transformation. Now that the happy couple are married, the bride has transformed from the ‘single-do-anything-to-get-the-guy’ phase to the ‘Snow White’ phase. All the amazing and fun things that she used to do before the wedding are gone. And I’m not just talking about letting you hang out with the boys… I mean more of HER hanging out with the BOYS.

Yes, all those extra little sexual things she would do have now been taken off the menu like the changing of the blue-plate special. You’ve just gone from an all-you-can-eat buffet to Thanksgiving at the in-laws and only the traditional meal will do. And you will only sit down to the table at the expected time. What does this mean? Well, besides losing all the ‘added features’ from the single woman collection you also lose something else near and dear to man’s heart.

When a man wakes up in the morning; often times it’s in stages with the lower parts of the anatomy rising first. Yes, many men wake with remembrances of camp as they notice the pup tent just down the way. Many men like to do certain exercises in the morning to work out the sudden ‘stiffness’ but what you will learn as a married man is that Snow White is not Sleeping Beauty and roused with a kiss… quite the contrary, Snow White not only doesn’t like excitement in the wee hours of the morning and but she has brought along her seven dwarfs to help her:

Dopey – this one is subtle and exasperating. You start by hinting amorous desires but she doesn’t catch them. You mention a romp around the sheets and she thinks you mean jogging in a dry cleaners. Ever move is countered with a lack of understanding until the desire is wrested from your weary body.

Grumpy – this one is fairly self-explanatory. The simplest touch or gentle caress will be met with the over-exaggerated roll over and blanket tug. Persistence will find angry grunts, the addition of curse words and the possible loss of wandering fingers.

Sleepy – here, no matter how you try, she just won’t wake up enough to begin cupid’s little game. She didn’t sleep well the night before and wants a few minutes more. There is nothing you can do at this point; not even tapping her on the cheek with something hard and stiff will do any good.

Sneezy – you’re poor wife has awoke with a runny nose because of those horrible sinus problems… yet you have an ailment of your own that needs attending and biologically you find no connection where one would prevent the other. But stating that you have no intention of going anywhere near her nose will not help the cause.

Bashful – here she responds to your advances by telling you all the reasons you should not want what you want. She’s gained weight, her hair is a mess, he breath is horrible, she hasn’t shaved her legs, she needs a tan, etc, etc, etc. No matter how many times you tell he she looks beautiful, she will not relent. And I seriously advise to NEVER tell your wife that your penis has no eyes and doesn’t care what she looks like… this will lead to divorce court.

Happy – this one is rare and only used in the extreme cases. Your wife wakes up and springs out of bed, singing gleefully as birds fly down and land on her finger. It’s like you’ve turned the crank on the jack-in-the-box and the clown has sprung forward. Once she is out of the bed your cause is lost.

Doc – the final one and the most used is Doc. This is where she cranks out a list of ailments going on with her at the very moment. ‘My back is sore’, ‘I have a headache’, ‘I’m retaining water’, ‘my skin is dry’, ‘I might be getting the flu’, and ‘leprosy runs in my family’… suddenly she’s a board certified expert in all things medical and the prognosis isn’t good for your morning wood.

Yes, as a married man you can say good-bye to breakfast-time boogie. You might as well go and flush your thoughts of romance right down the toilet. For you may have proposed to the love of your life… but you have married Snow White and the fairy tale is over.

*** I hope everyone will take the above in the humorous tone that it was intended and enjoy it for its entertainment value. I am a happily married man and this in no way is meant to reflect on anyone including my wife… but then again, my wife was wearing jeans and a blue sweater when we got married.

The Rubber Band

With the recent release of DC Showcase Presents: The Elongated Man, I noticed a few very interesting things that could easily tie the three major stretching heroes together. And it all started with Jack Cole and India Rubber.

In 1941 Jack Cole was given the task of creating a new character for Police Comics #1. As the story goes, Cole was fascinated by the properties of India Rubber and wanted to call his hero India Rubber Man. A forward thinking editor suggested that instead of India Rubber, they should use the name of this newly found material, plastic. From there Plastic Man was born. Eventually Quality Comics was bought out by DC Comics and their stable of characters along with Plastic Man moved over but Plastic Man was no longer published.

In April of 1960, The Flash #112 appeared on newsstands with a new supporting character, a costumed hero with the ability to stretch to ‘infinite lengths’ called Elongated Man. In the telling of Elongated Man’s origin, it is said that young Ralph Dinby became obsessed with the stretching ability of a circus sideshow act called… India Rubber Man. Ralph then spent most of his youth trying to track down the secret of his stretching ability as well as finding five other men called India Rubber Man. Ralph made the connection finally that all of them were drinking a special soda called Gingold that contained the juice of a rare fruit (I couldn’t make this stuff up folks). Using the Gingold Ralph found he too could stretch and immediately became a costumed hero (like you do).

Julius Schwartz, the amazing DC editor who shaped most of the DC universe we know today later admitted that had he known that Plastic Man was available to him, he would have used him instead. This in a way tells us that Elongated Man was created as DC’s version of Plastic Man (even though they now owned him).

Now the Elongated Man appeared twice in 1960, but the interesting part is that two times in his first appearance his powers are referred to in an interesting way. Iris West interviewing him says “stretching himself to FANTASTIC lengths” (and the look on her face tells you she curious just stretch he could be). Two pages later Barry Allen says “stretch himself so FANTASTICALLY”. In his second appearance one of his acts is referred to as “the FANTASTIC performance”. I think you might see where I’m going.

Stan Lee tells the story of how the publisher of Timely comics went golfing with the publisher of DC comics and heard about the sales figures for the Justice League. He then returned and told Stan to make a superhero group. Now I’m not suggesting anything… but less than a year after the Elongated Man’s fantastic debut, the Fantastic Four appeared with the stretching Mr. Fantastic.

The similarities between Mr. Fantastic and the Elongated Man don’t just end there. They both are open about their real identities. They are both constantly with their wives. And they are both known for their intelligence. Was Stan reading the Flash when it came time to create his super team? The world will never know… and really, it doesn’t matter because we’ve gotten to enjoy the adventures of Plastic Man, The Elongated Man and Mr. Fantastic for over 40 years. That’s what I call stretching a good idea.

Raid Fire Friday

There is a hidden addiction in the world that is only getting worse. Coffee. A person can be an asshole and explain it away with ‘I haven’t had my coffee yet’. You can’t go a mile without seeing a coffee house and you go to iHop they give you your own thermos. How long before Coffee Anonymous begins?

The Borders by my house is closing tomorrow because the management of the mall wanted them out. Borders to me is a destination store, a place people go to and then wander the mall. Not a lot of those out there. Can’t see the logic to that at all. And the result is I lose the one place I can go write besides my house.

I watched some of Rock Star: Supernova and have to say that it’s pretty good. It’s like American Idol with good music and talented singers.

I’ve spoken before of my like of Craig Ferguson’s show. I realized that besides his monolog being unscripted, so are his interviews. What you end up with is finding out the real personalities of his guests instead of just the hype for the latest movie or CD.

It’s less than two weeks away from the Comic-Con International. An event that gathers together over 80,000 people who can name comic characters that have not appeared in any movie or television show.

A friend of mine has started a website called “shootapet.com”… she’s getting into doing pet photography, but I can’t help think of it as a odd way of killing off unwanted dogs and cats.

Having gone to see Superman this week, I think Brandon Routh did a good job as Superman/Clark Kent and Kevin Spacey did a great job as Gene Hackman.

When I was younger, I always wished we had a pool and spa. Now I have one and I hardly ever use it. That’s a pretty big example of losing interest in a toy.

I have come to believe that sales of DVDs are greater than VHS tapes not because of the add features or the lack of having to rewind… but rather because they are smaller and take up less space.

One of the things in my loft that was left over when I moved in was a ship in a bottle. I wonder who was the first person to think ‘you know, this ship here would look much better if it was in that bottle over there.’

A good example of companies lowering their quality of product to increase repeat sales is fan companies. I have a fan that is 15 years old and keeps chugging away. I have another fan I bought two months ago and it already died.

I’m looking at Batmobile image and I keep wondering why would you make a car that stand out so damn much if you’re trying to be ‘stealthy’?

Take a moment and stare directly into the eyes of a cat and then say ‘I know your plan and it will not succeed’. The cat will immediately turn away and leave the room to communicate with other cats. I’ve tested this theory over 45 times with different cats each time.

So what was so bad about Latin that people stopped using it?

I saw an interview with Richard Dryfus today where he said that the movie they wanted to shoot for Jaws would have been completely different if the mechanical shark would have worked from the beginning. Happy accident?

Over the next two weeks I will be preparing for Comic-Con so I have no idea how regular my postings will be, but I will do my best. Have a good weekend everyone.