Back to work…

I’ve actually gotten an awful lot of work done this week, so I thought I’d share it with you. In addition to the new chapter of Lost in Silver (the book is almost over, so those of you who told me you’re waiting for the end to read it all at once, get ready), I’ve gotten many, many pages written of my newest project, still untitled. I can’t say exactly how much, however, because it’s all been written longhand, during moments I’ve managed to steal during the day. I don’t know why, but I often find I work better if I do my first draft longhand.

Also longhand, I’ve done work on A Long November and Other Stories. I’ve written an introduction for the eBook, as well as notes on each of the nine stories it will contain. It was actually a lot of fun to write, it was like visiting old friends again. (That reminds me — if my sister is reading, I still want to do that Bixby series some day. He shows up in the Christmas stories and I miss those characters, damn it.)

And finally, I’ve been reviewing up a storm. Here are the reviews I’ve tossed out there since the last time I updated you guys:

• Astro City: The Dark Age Book Three #4
• Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam #6
• Fables #87
  
• Final Crisis Aftermath: Ink #3
• Hack/Slash #24
• The Muppet Show: The Treasure of Peg Leg Wilson #1
• North 40 #2
• Power Girl #4
  
• The Red Circle: Inferno #1
• Secret Six #12
  
• Superman #690
• Superman Annual #14
  
• Superman Secret Files 2009
• Superman/Batman #63
  
• Wednesday Comics #3
• Done In One Reviews for July 25: In which I review Archie #599, Atomic Robo: Shadow From Beyond Time #3, Cars: The Rookie #4, Doctor Who: Room With a Deja View #1, Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash: The Nightmare Warriors #2, G.I. Joe #7, Gemini #4, The Spirit #31 & Tiny Titans #18
• Done in One Reviews for August 1: In which I review Batman: The Brave and the Bold #7, Jack of Fables #36, Last Days of Animal Man #3, The Lone Ranger #17 & Toy Story: Mysterious Stranger #3
• Done in One Reviews for August 8: In which I review Chew #3, Dynamo 5 #23, Finding Nemo: Reef Rescue #2, House of Mystery #16, Jonah Hex #46, The Mighty #7, Muppet Robin Hood #3 & The Spirit #32
• Done in One Reviews for August 15: In which I review G.I. Joe #8, G-Man: Cape Crisis #1, Love and Capes #11, PS 238 #40, Toy Story: Mysterious Stranger #4 & The Walking Dead #64
• Done in One Reviews for August 22: In which I review Archie #600, Atomic Robo: Shadow From Beyond Time #4, Doctor Who #2, Jack of Fables #37, Monsters Inc.: Laugh Factory #1, The Stand: American Nightmares #5, Tiny Titans #19 & Zorro #15

Look to the skies…

Oh, I wish I were in San Diego…

One of these years, Erin and I are going to make it to the San Diego Comicon. Yeah, it’s huge. It’s grown so big that it’s barely fun anymore. It’s hardly still even about comic books. But it’s still the biggest Geek mecca there is, where comics and movies and television and videogames and cosplayers and artists and filmmakers and people who got lost on the way to a Padres game collide. And yes, every year when the convention begins, I sit here, absorb the news as it leaks into the internet, and wish I was there.

But since I’m still in Ama this weekend, I thought I’d just fire off a few of the interesting tidbits that I’ve heard announced from all over thus far.

• Gary Oldman, Commissioner Jim Gordon in the two most recent Batman movies, says that filming of the third movie is going to take place next year with the movie to be released in 2011. This is awesome news, although a little surprising considering that Christopher Nolan, the director, hasn’t ckpblicly stated that he’s signed the deal to make it yet. I don’t think anyone doubted that he would, he just hasn’t.
• The second season of the highly-awesome Batman: The Brave and the Bold cartoon series will feature a lot more characters from across the DC Universe, and two very special guest-stars. Julie Newmar, Catwoman from the old Adam West TV show, will make an appearance as Bruce Wayne’s mother, Martha. And Neil Patrick Harris, who is awesome in virtually everything, will appear in a musical episode of the show. That’s just sweet.
• Disney’s Tron 2, or Tr2n, has been renamed Tron: Legacy. I love the original movie, and I’m glad they’re doing a sequel instead of a remake. The new movie will apparently focus on Sam Flynn, son of Jeff Bridges‘ character from the original movie, searching for his missing father who disappeared mysteriously 20 years ago.
• Also from Disney, Robert Zemeckis — director of the upcoming Jim Carrey A Christmas Carol, has hinted that there may be a sequel to his classic film Who Framed Roger Rabbit? This gets me a bit nervous. Although he says the 2D characters from the original would remain 2D, he also hinted that there would be 3D animated characters as well, and so far, I’ve been disappointed in his 3D efforts. While there were some visual treats in both The Polar Express and Beowulf, Zemeckis has a real “Uncanny Valley” problem that he’s yet to overcome. Maybe A Christmas Carol will change my mind.
• Still from Disney, Boom! Studios has announced a few more products based on their new license to the classic characters. They had already announced the return of Mickey Mouse and Friends and Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories. Now they’ve confirmed those two titles will be joined by Donald Duck and Friends and Uncle Scrooge, as well as a hardcover edition of the epic Don Rosa story The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck. If you never read this story before, do it. Do it as soon as this book comes out. It’s one of the finest comic book stories of all time.
• Just a wee bit of Blackest Night news, Geoff Johns has announced that he’ll be writing a Blackest Night: Flash miniseries starting in December, with art by his oft-time collaborator Scott Kolins. I’m glad to hear this — these two work really well together.

That’s really it so far. Two more days — well, two and a half, the day’s not over in San Diego — and I’ll be anxiously watching every bit of news.

What I’m Reading: Blackest Night #0

Since I’ve more or less decided to review all the chapters of Blackest Night here at Evertime Realms, I went back and pulled out the zero issue released in may for Free Comic Book Day. Produced by the same creative team — Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis — that will handle the regular miniseries, this issue takes place just after the Green Lantern #43 I reviewed the other day.

Hal Jordan is joined by his best friend, Barry Allen. Both the Green Lantern and the Flash are heroes who have come back from death, a feat that has been accomplished by a lot of people across the DC Universe. Today, though, they ponder those who haven’t come back from death’s door, and perhaps more importantly, why they did.

One of the central themes that Johns says will be explored in Blackest Night is the question of why so many superheroes seem to be able to cheat death again and again, and this issue sets up that theme nicely. It’s also a good focus on Hal and Barry as friends. Their own friendship is explored, as is their relationships to certain fallen heroes that we know will show their faces as Black Lanterns. (At this point at least five different Black Lanterns have been confirmed through solicitations and the like, but I won’t mention them here). Basically, the point of this book is to show the readers the chessboard. It reminds us where all the pieces are, who is in play and who isn’t, and gets us ready for the main event.

The book also features a series of pages drawn by Green Lantern artist Doug Mahnke. Each spread features a different one of the eight corps and points out the key players in each one. For those who may not have been reading the last two years of the two Green Lantern titles (more the fool you), it’ll get you up to speed quickly.

So that’s it. The prologues have been read, the players are all in place, and the Blackest Night is about to be unleashed. More than any time in my life of reading comics, I just can’t wait for Wednesday.

RATING: 7/10

Since we all do have to wait for Wednesday, though, how about you take a look at some of the other reviews I’ve written lately over at Comixtreme?

• Astro City: The Dark Age Book Three #3
• Final Crisis Aftermath: Ink #2
• Gotham City Sirens #1
• Incredibles: Family Matters #2
• Incredibles: Family Matters #3
• Literals #3
• The Muppet Show #4
• Secret Six #11
• Superman #689
• Done-In-One Reviews for June 27, 2009-In which I review The Actress and the Bishop #1, Batman: The Brave and the Bold #6, Buck Rogers #1, Cars: The Rookie #3, Dynamo 5 #22, Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash: The Nightmare Warriors #1, The Last Days of Animal Man #2, Perhapanauts #6, PVP #42, The Spirit #30, Star Wars: Legacy #37 and Zorro #14
• Done-In-One Reviews for July 4, 2009-In which I review Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight #26, Chew #2, Finding Nemo: Reef Rescue #1, Greek Street #1, Irredeemable #4, Jonah Hex #45, The Mighty #6, Muppet Robin Hood #2, and Toy Story: Mysterious Stranger #2
• Done-In-One Reviews for July 11, 2009-In which I review Archie’s Double Digest #200, House of Mystery #15, The Stand: American Nightmares #4 and The Unwritten #4

Reviews ‘n Stuff

Tomorrow, my girlfriend Erin comes in for one of our visits, and I can’t wait. We’re actually going to have a lot going on, beginning tomorrow with going to see The Floating Palace at the Bayou Playhouse (reportedly an excellent play that my sister, Heather, happens to be in). Next weekend, we’re travelling to Florida with my family for my cousin Lauren’s wedding. In-between… well, we’re gonna do stuff with my friends, stuff with just us… we’re gonna do stuff. In other words, I’ve got no idea what we’ll be doing all week. But it doesn’t matter, because we’ll be together.

Writing Life

Yesterday I finished a new short story for the eMuse Summer Madness contest. I’ve been telling you guys for some time now how awesome the work of J.C. Hutchins is, so I had to get involved when I heard about a writing contest centering on his upcoming novel Personal Effects: Dark Art. It’s just a quickie, really, something that popped into my head and I worked out really fast, but it was fun to take on a different story. I’ve also been hard at work on two things connected to Project Rebirth, and I’m getting more and more excited about it. Yeah. Still cryptic. Yeah, I know.

Reviews

I’ve also been firing away on the reviews over at Comixtreme.com. Here are some recent ones I’ve turned out:

• Astro City: The Dark Age Book Three #2 — Charles Williams seeks his lost brother
• Final Crisis Aftermath: Ink #1 — Can the Tattooed Man become a hero?
• Hack/Slash #22 — Mind Killer Part Two
• Jack of Fables #34 — The Great Fables Crossover Part Five
• The Literals #2 — The Great Fables Crossover Part Six
• The Muppet Show #3 — Gonzo’s story
• Secret Six #10 — Depths Part One
• Superman #688 — Mon-El’s power loss explained
• Superman/Batman #60 — Mash-Up Part One
• Trinity #52 — The year-long epic comes to a close!
• Done-in-One Reviews for May 30, 2009 — In which I review Batman: The Brave and the Bold #5; Ender’s Shadow: Battle School #5; Futurama Comics #43; The Last Days of Animal Man #1; Muppet Robin Hood #1; The Spirit #28; The Stand: American Nightmares #3 and Star Wars: Legacy #36
• Done-in-One Reviews for June 6, 2009 — In which I review Archie #596; Atomic Robo: Shadow From Beyond Time #2; Batman in Barcelona: Dragon’s Knight #1; Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Tales of the Vampires #1; Chew #1; House of Mystery #14; Jonah Hex #44; The Mighty #5 and PS238 #39

2 in 1 Showcase Episode 121: The Infinity Gauntlet

We’re getting into another classic comic discussion, friends, this week looking at perhaps the greatest Marvel crossover of all time: The Infinity Gauntlet. The boys look at the roots of Thanos’s story, through the epic series and its crossovers, and at the books that spun out after the series was over. Was this a crossover so good that it ruined crossovers for us since then? In the picks this week, Chase picks Planet Skaar Prologue, Blake loved Wonder Woman #32, and Mike was into Brave and the Bold #23. This week’s graphic novel: Silver Surfer: The Rebirth of Thanos. Write us with comments, suggestions, picks of the week, “Ask Chase Anything” questions, or anything else at Showcase@Comixtreme.com!

2 in 1 Showcase Episode 121: The Infinity Gauntlet
Inside This Episode:

PLUS:With Blake having technical issues, Chase goes it alone for the first post-season Week in Geek! Listen up for talk about the rumored Buffy the Vampire Slayer remake, the fan-made Green Lantern trailer starring Nathan Fillion, and more!

Week in Geek #22: Chase Flies Solo