Happy Birthday Ray Bradbury!

Today, one of our greatest living authors, Ray Bradbury, turns 87. Celebrate by reading some of Ray's great stories. It's also the perfect way to get ready for the upcoming Halloween season. I can't imagine the holiday without him.

Homemade Nosferatu

This is the beginning of a work in progress. This is the mostly completed papier-mache head to what will be a five foot tall Nosferatu for a store window display for Halloween. I'd like to build him taller, but the window height is only five feet, and the point is for him to be seen. He will also have hair, and the eyes will glow red. I'll be tweaking the paint a bit as well.

Detective Comics #835

DETECTIVE COMICS #835 goes on sale today, featuring part 1 of my 2-part story "Absolute Terror" with art by Tom Mandrake.

I will be signing today from 2PM - 5ish at Vault of Midnight for anyone who is in the Ann Arbor, Michigan area and would like to drop by.

I'll be signing comics next Wednesday

If you're not tied up next Wednesday, and live in the Ann Arbor, Michigan area, please stop by Vault of Midnight where I'll be signing copies of DETECTIVE #835, and whatever else they have available. I'll be there starting at 2:00 pm and for at least the next few hours.

100 Days Until Halloween

Only 100 days left until Halloween! It seems like a lot, but it will be here before you know it. I've already started making preparations and have begun construction on some suitably spooky creatures to inhabit my front yard on Halloween.

I also promise even more treats here, than I provided last year, for this coming October's month long celebration of my favorite holiday, which will once again cross-over with some of my favorite sites. Don't miss out. Costume required.

The Foundation #2

Here's the cover to THE FOUNDATION issue #2 by Chee.

This issue can be pre-ordered at your local comic book store, and, I believe, will be available in September.

Detective #836 Available for Pre-Order

Here's the cover art by Simone Bianchi for DETECTIVE COMICS #836, part 2 of "Absolute Terror" written by me, with amazing artwork by Tom Mandrake, and featuring the improved, nastier Scarecrow.

Back from G-Fest

I'm back from G-Fest, and once again inundated with work. I'll post another update soon.

In the meantime, here are some pictures I took at G-Fest. I wrote the names of all the model makers and costume makers down on a piece of paper, which, of course, I can't find. If you know who made any of the great stuff shown here let me know.













Looking at all of this great vinyl made me wish I had a Bill Gates sized salary.



Need More? My son, Dash, has posted a couple of Godzilla drawings he did, over on his blog.

Harry Potter

The final Harry Potter book comes out in 20 days. To find out how you can possibly win this original 11" x 14" collage I created, contact the Shaman Drum Bookshop.

Scooby-Doo meets Godzilla

It's almost certainly too late to win, but the recent issue of G-Fan includes a giveaway where the prize is signed copies of some "Scooby-Doo" comics I wrote which were chock full of Godzilla references. It's on the same page that has a photo of my son with his collection of kaiju, and one of my collages.

G-Fan #80 can be had at most comic book stores, or via the G-Fan website. it's also a great source of information on all things Godzilla related.

Speaking of Godzilla, my son and I will be attending G-Fest in Chicago at the Crowne Plaza O'Hare this coming weekend. Maybe you'll see us there.

FOUNDATION news

From yesterday's Hollywood Reporter...

June 27, 2007
Paramount Pictures has pre-emptively picked up the rights to "The Foundation," an upcoming comic book to be published by Boom! Studios. Boom founders Andrew Cosby and Ross Richie will serve as producers.

Written by John Rozum and drawn by Kody Chamberlain, the five-issue miniseries uses the prophesies of Nostradamus as its backdrop. In the tale, Nostradamus' books of foreshadowing made him a rich man, and he took his riches and created a foundation to prevent the prophesies from happening. The comic focuses on the secret team in the present day who uses the prophet's published and unpublished works to predict threats to the world.

There is no writer attached.

Dan Levine and Elizabeth Raposo will oversee for the studio.

"Foundation" is the third title that Boom has set up. The 18-month-old company has the action-thriller comic "Talent" and the horror comic "Tag" both set up at Universal that Cosby, who also co-created Sci Fi Channel's "Eureka," and Richie are producing with Marc Platt.

Scooby-Doo #121

Ahoy! In comic book stores now is pirate-themed SCOOBY-DOO #121, which contains a short 2-page story about the Kraken, written by yours truly. This may also, very likely, be the final Scooby-Doo story written by yours truly.

Update #2

Available for pre-order is the first part of my 2-part story for Detective Comics "Absolute Terror." This is the first opportunity I've had to write Batman and it was a lot of fun, primarily because I was given the opportunity to take one of the classic Bat-villains and give him a major overhaul (I hate the word "reimagine"). My intention was to take the second-tier bat-villain, the Scarecrow and transform him into a character to rival even the Joker in sheer ruthlessness and unpredictability. I'm hoping to get to go even further with the character in the future.

Tom Mandrake did the artwork, and I'm dying to see it. I can't think of an artist more suitable to the story, and oddly, he's never had the opportunity to draw the Scarecrow before.

The cover art is by Simone Bianchi.

The story appears in Detective Comics #835 and #836. The first issue will be available at your local comic book store on August 1.

Update #1

Here's the cover by Paul Azaceta for the first issue of THE FOUNDATION published by Boom! Studios. It's a 5-issue series which I'm writing from a concept created by Kody Chamberlain and interior art by Chee.

The solicitation describes it thus:

History shows that in the 1500s, Nostradamus' three volumes of prophesies were best-sellers, making him a rich man. But what the world doesn't know is he took his vast treasure trove of riches and invested them in creating a foundation to prevent his prophesies from occurring. This secret team still functions today, using Nostradamus' published and unpublished tomes to predict threats to worldwide security! In the vein of The X-Files, but with a 24-like spin!



The first issue was slated to appear later this month (next week, I think) but just to keep you up to date, that's not going to happen. I just turned in the script for this issue on Monday, and I'm guessing that Chee hasn't drawn a single panel yet. Of course, this doesn't mean that you can't still pre-order it through your local comic book store.

Star Wars 30th Anniversary Special - part 31

One last post for the month long celebration of 30 years of "Star Wars."

Over the years I've come into many "Star Wars" posters from the original trilogy movies. Aside from the actual movie posters including 2 copies of the "Revenge of the Jedi" posters (both of which I sold, stupidly thinking I actually had a third that I'd planned to keep. >sigh<) some of them were pull-out posters from magazines such as the staple of the Scholastic Book Club of the 1970s -- "Dynamite" magazine (see bottom image), others were commercially available in stores, or given out as premiums. The first four below were originally offered from Burger Chef. Thankfully, since there was no Burger Chef in my region, they were later offered from Burger King, which was where I obtained mine. They have some of my favorite "Star wars" graphics of all time, though I have no idea who painted them. The character posters, as well as the Hildebrandt take on the movie poster were all available in stores. There was also a Luke Skywalker poster which I never had for some reason.

This group of posters represents what was on my wall all at one time around 1978. Either the Darth Vader (with airbrushed lightsaber, including the handle) or the Hildebrandt poster fell from my wall and landed in my guinea pig's cage, where it was promptly devoured while I was at school. Hopefully i still have the others stored away.

I apologize about the quality of the images, but they're the best I can find right now.











This was a lot of fun, and I thank everyone for stopping by, whether you posted comments or not, and thank you kindly for popping over to see my kids artwork (which they've been posting diligently for the past week). The comments left boosted their artistic egos.

Extra thanks to Todd Franklin for spurring me into participating in an online celebration of thirty years of "Star Wars." If you haven't checked out his own exemplary month long trip back to the summer of 1977, then you should head over there right now. I can't wait to see what you have in store for Halloween, Todd.

Extra thanks also to Stephen for hooking me up with some "Star Wars" figures based on Ralph McQuarrie's pre-production artwork, at this years "Star Wars" Celebration IV, where Stephen got to hobnob with the stars of "Star Wars."

Starting tomorrow, a couple of updates followed by a period of much less frequent posts due to the ever increasing pressure of various deadlines.

May the Force Be With You!

Star Wars 30th Anniversary Special - part 30

As "Star Wars" month winds to a close, I wanted to offer up some hands on fun.

Heres a bunch of "Star Wars" coloring book pages to print out and color.