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Had to cancel on attending Heroes Con. Scheduling conflict that couldn’t be resolved. Will be attending next year. My sincere apologies to anyone inconvenienced, disappointed, or otherwise annoyed by this.

Will be attending WizardWorld Chicago, primarily to participate in the premiere of Gotham Knight and the subsequent ensuing publicity onslaught. Will also be singing and dancing as required at various panels, and, I expect, be signing at various signing-like locations. Hoping to get together with the Around Comics crew, as Chicago is their stomping grounds.

Will be speaking at Nunzio DeFilippis’ class Monday night. Looking forward to it. Geoff spoke to the class a couple weeks back, and apparently had a grand time. I intend to do the same.

Finished two scripts in the past week, but it’s been kinda a hang-fire on the novel for the last three. Had gone through various contortions about a narrative decision, had committed to it, then, on second, third, and eighth reconsideration…reconsidered it. It was not as good an idea as I thought it was going to be. Good that I caught it before committing 30K words in its pursuit. Not good in that I have now written myself into a narrative hole that is deep, dark, and apparently lacking in any hand-holds to use to climb out. Suspect I will be able to manufacture a rope from something (hair, spiderwebs, very small rocks, a duck) in the next week, which should put me on track to complete the draft before the end of June, which only puts me six weeks later than I said I would be, which, given my recent record on delivery, isn’t that bad, frankly (though still not something I’m proud of).

Venture Brothers returns tomorrow.

And even though I shouldn’t, I’m showing you all this inked cover element for FC:R #2, pencils by Philip Tan, inks by Jonathan Glapion. DC can yell at me to take it down later.

This is a nerdgasm post, be warned.

When asked at a convention, regarding Checkmate, if Brock Samson was a Rook, my response was that Brock Samson was ALL the Rooks.

The Venture Brothers are returning, and it’s been too long a wait for me. James Lucas pointed me to AstroBase Go!

There are t-shirts!

The story about McLaren and Ferrari has been well-covered since it broke, but Mark Seal at the Wired blog has posted a fascinating and detailed story about the whole affair.

Great story fodder, if nothing else, and an excellent read.

Finishing the last script of the DD arc with Brubaker. It’s been fun, and I think this last issue is going to close out the story very well. Have to say, it’s been a hoot working with the two of them again.

Couple other points of interest. As has been reported multiple places elsewhere, I wrote one of the pieces of the soon-to-be-released Gotham Knight animated DVD. I did an interview last week through WB about the project, and a nicely cleaned-up version (meaning one where I don’t ramble like a bum) went up today on SuperHeroHype.com, for those of you who might have an interest. Thanks to lithera for pointing it out.

Blair Butler has some very nice things to say about Queen & Country: Definitive Edition – Volume 2 which came out a short while back. You can watch her saying this very nice things below the cut.

Just picked this up off of kali921‘s blog.

Rory Root has died.

Rory, for those of us in the industry who knew him, was a tremendous advocate not just of the retail end of the business, but of the art of comics, as well.

Here’s a Rory Root story:

Before my grandmother of blessed memory passed away, she was dragged, by my parents, to a WonderCon, back when these were held in Oakland. This was maybe my second or third year in. My grandmother was not an easy person to get along with. She remembered leaving Poland and living on the Lower East Side; she still bore the scars from having to leave her friends and family and move to The West with my grandfather after they were married.

She was not a fan of comics, due mostly, I think, out of ignorance.

At the WonderCon in question, Jen guided my mom and grandmother to Rory at the Comic Relief booth. Rory proceeded to charm them both, and did such a fine job at it that he hand-sold my grandmother on, yes, Will Eisner.

Needless to say, it worked.

I’m going to miss him. The industry is going to miss him.

So, Emerald City went very well, indeed. As always, a great show, lots of wonderful people, and a chance to reconnect with folks that I haven’t seen in a while. The fans, as always, were uniformly pleasant and excited — there seems to be a lot of anticipation for the “Gotham Central reunion” that’ll be the four issues of Daredevil I’m doing with Ed and Michael.

On a business end it went well, too, though, again, I’m embargoed on what I can, and can’t, talk about. Looks like a new project got locked down, which is good. Most likely that’ll see print in early ’09, maybe February. I have to admit that I’m getting a little frustrated about not being able to share the things I’m working on. Only a few more months until several of the cats I’ve been hoarding get to leave their respective bags.

Of the many highlights for me, though, was finally getting to meet Philip Tan in person. Up until now, we’ve been communicating on the phone and via email, so it was great to finally be face-to-face. He confirmed my worst suspicions: not only is he frighteningly talented, it turns out he’s really, really, really nice. He’s also incredibly enthusiastic, which is even better — when the artist is charged up about the project, it’s infectious. Philip was also kind enough to do the first sketch in my new “Question-themed” sketchbook. I think it came out pretty damn well.

I know, I know, four posts in a single day, this is out of the ordinary even for me.

The Wired “Underwire Blog” has posted this about the upcoming Gotham Knight anime direct-to-DVD broohaha. I wrote one of the stories, as I mentioned before.

Incidentally, when I was in Calgary, I got a chance to catch up with Bruce Timm, who worked on the project. He said very nice things about my script. I’m kinda proud of that.

Today’s Winning Headline:

Great Tits Cope Well With Warming.

From the BBC.

I’m actually not certain what the release date is for the mass market edition of Patriot Acts, but my agent forwarded the cover today. It’s a subtle variation on the original hardcover version. I like it.

Take a look below the cut.

Headed up to Seattle tomorrow for the Emerald City ComicCon. I’ll be at a table with Jen and mercuryeric. I’ll have some books to sell, stories to tell, and if it goes well, all will be swell.

I’m very sorry about that last sentence, and I beg your immediate forgiveness.

There’s a DC Nation panel on Saturday, from 1 to 2 pm in “Panel Room A,” which I suspect I’ll be asked to sit on. Dan DiDio is out for the show this year, so if nothing else, he’ll be endlessly entertaining as he frustrates fans. As for my part, I’ve actually got no idea if I’ll be up there, because just about everything I’m doing for DC is still under information embargo at the moment, which inevitably leads to me repeating, over and over again, “I can’t answer that.” So maybe I’ll be the one who’s endlessly frustrating.

Oni Press will be well-represented at the show, as well, and Sunday from 11 to 12, again in “Panel Room A,” they’ll be having their Quiz Show. Apparently, I’m on that as well, along with Scott Pilgrim creator Bryan Lee O’Malley, and Jennfer Van Meter, who, for those of you who still haven’t figured it out, is the same Jen from Paragraph One, above. Bryan’s very talented wife, Hope Larson, will be at the show, as well.

I like this show; Jim Demonakos has done a terrific job with it, and it’s one of my favorite of the circuit, one of the few I actually get excited about attending every year. The Portland Crowd tends to be pretty thick in attendance, as well, including most — if not all — of the Periscope Studio crew. I’ll also get to see Matthew Southworth, which is great, because Stumptown is inching its way ever-closer to a release; we’re hoping for the first issue in September.

Work is continuing apace. The novel has reached a crossroads. Should know which direction I’m taking it in the next two days, and once that’s decided, then it’s just a matter of typing the draft as fast as I can. I’m running about two weeks behind (according to my personal schedule), and I’m eager to make it up, as other work (primarily comics works) is back-burnered for the time being.

Philip Tan — who will also be at the show this weekend! — is continuing to deliver amazing pages on FC:R. I get leery of posting stuff without permission, but if you’ve checked out his blog, you can see some of his work-in-progress.