Now that this is up on the DC Comics site, I guess I can let the cat out of the bag. BRAVE AND THE BOLD #26, scheduled to appear in comic book stores on August 19th teams up DC's supernatural agent of punishment; the Spectre with Milestone Media's immortal weirdness magnet; David Kim aka Xombi, although he never actually goes by that name.
Not only was this a great project for me to write because the story is illustrated by Scott Hampton and the cover is by Mike Kaluta, two of my favorite artists, but it was a chance for me to bring back the character I'm best known for after a twelve year absence. XOMBI ran 22 issues between 1994 and 1996 with an additional Hanukkah special illustrated by Guy Davis which has never seen print and was critically acclaimed, and well received by many comic book professionals including Neil Gaiman, Mike Mignola, Alan Moore and Harlan Ellison. It was not widely received by the general comic book reader though it did develop a devout following of intelligent readers. When the book was cancelled I NEVER thought I would be writing it again, especially after so much time had passed.
Out of all the work I've done, XOMBI is the thing I'm asked about more than anything else, even now. With that in mind, it gives me great pleasure to actually have some news to tell people regarding this series.
Of course the next question will be, what's next for XOMBI? Will there be more?
I can't say.
The best thing to help insure that there's more is to visit your comic book store and reserve a copy now, so that they know there is interest and order more for their store. After you've read it let DC know you want more, especially Dan Didio. Tell your friends to read it too. Spread the word. If you make enough noise and let me know what you did, there could be a prize in it for you.
I've no idea who Xombi is -- but I'm about to find out. What I mainly wanted to comment on was your disliking of the phrase "...have your cake and eat it, too." Matt and I were just talking about that two days ago! You most certainly can have your cake AND eat it. All the time. That's how cake works. The problem is that you want more cake. So, it should be something like "You always want to have your cake, eat it, and then have a new cake waiting on your kitchen counter!" Which would indeed be a high set of expectations to uphold.
ReplyDeleteDamn... am I glad.. I have the whole wombie series (twice ^^) and I sure be glad to see it in trade forms... i've been doing posts in my french comic forum to praise teh serie and i'll do a bit too to make people buy that issue...
ReplyDeletethat's a stand alone right ? (I'll of course buy though I have forsaken singles many years ago)
cheers
JB
Thank you, JB for the support. Please send me the links to the pertinent posts and I'll put them up here as well.
ReplyDeleteThe issue is a stand alone single issue story. Like the "0" issue of the original XOMBI series, it's meant as an introductory issue to the character and has some material that will fit into continuity, should XOMBI be picked up again in the future. Also like the "0" issue, having it is not necessary to following XOMBI as a whole. The art is by Scott Hampton, though, so it would be hard to pass up.
Hi ! Here's a link for a post in french from the comics book forum I moderate, it's a bit old and rash but well it was many years, I'll 'up' it with the news of TB&TB.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.buzzcomics.net/showthread.php?t=20598
And there is a post I made in my blog about culture and art.
http://softpowers.blogspot.com/2009/06/brave-and-bold-26.html
Sadly the number of people reading that post and then also buying it because will probably -added up - give a new definition to the void but hey.. can't hurt trying !
Looking forward that issue.
Cheers
JB in paris
http://softpowers.blogspot.com/
I remember once comparing your work on Xombi to "Kenny on South Park, as written by Alan Moore".
ReplyDeleteStill applies.
Has it been 12 years already??
ReplyDeleteDamn!
Really looking forward to this. If they hadn't picked the Metal Men already, it would have been neat to see you do a Xombi backup in Giffen's new Doom Patrol.
Wow! I just read the "Infinite Crisis" (Final Crisis?) that had David Kim in it. I'm embarrassed to admit I did not make the connection between the character and the Vertigo series I used to collect.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure what lead me to think of Xombi tonight, but I'm glad I did. I'm also glad to see the character is going to be making another appearance soon.
I really did enjoy Xombi, and I'm sure that I still have those comics somewhere in the shed. I'll be looking forward to Brave and the Bold #26. It would be neat for it to be the start of a new era for the character.