Some changes before the big announcement

Hey everyone. If you've been wondering why I haven't been posting with much frequency it's because I've been spending a considerable amount of time on the project that will be officially announced on Wednesday. Not just the comic series, but the ARG (alternate reality game)/contest I've been creating to promote it. Or, to put in another way, you know you are in deep when you are spending more time creating blogs etc. for your ficitional characters than for yourself.

In the meantime, I thought I might point out some changes to the blog.

First, I've updated the links and pictures to my published works. You'll notice that both Teen Titans: Spotlight and Batman: Two-Face/Scarecrow: Year One are collected editions of both those mini-series that will be out in March and May respectively. You can order them on Amazon, although I'd prefer if you purchased them at your local comic shop. On a selfish level, it means my sales numbers will be higher. With the economy the way it is, I'd also rather you help a small business than a large one. Plus, you'll get the books a week or more earlier that way.

I've also started to link to SOME of my friends' and collaborators' blogs. If you are one or the other and would like a link, e-mail me or comment on this thread. This is by no means an exhaustive list, it's just a start.

At some point, I'd like to do longer pieces on or with people I worked with - interviews, guest blog posts - whatever they'd like.

In the meantime, I thought I'd introduce you briefly to the first batch:

Paul Azaceta is the artist and co-creator of Grounded, and has since gone on to do work such as Daredevil, Foolkiller and the upcoming Punisher Noir for Marvel, as well as Hellboy BRPD: 1946 for Dark Horse and Potter's Field for Boom! He's doing the covers for my new project and I couldn't be happier to have him aboard.

Jason Badower was the artist on my first Heroes webcomic, "Blackout", featuring Suresh. It's not only in Volume 2 of the Heroes Hardcover, it was reprinted as a 2008 San Diego Comic-Con exclusive (of which I only have one copy). He's got a fantastic, photorealistic, painterly style that he does entirely on the computer.

My friend Jen Grunwald, otherwise known as the "hottest girl in comics", is a Special Editions editor at Marvel Comics. She's very cool, even when she drops names of all the famous comic book creators she knows.

Valerie D'Orazio, aka "Occasional Superheroine", is the writer of one of my favorite comic blogs. It's often labeled as a feminist blog, which to some extent it is (she is the President of The Friends of Lulu, the premiere women's organization in comics), but that label is kind of reductive. She covers anything worth covering in comics, is incredibly prescient as far as where the industry is going and is a hell of a writer.

Salgood Sam is the artist who illustrated/co-created my contribution to Tori Amos' Comic Book Tattoo collection, "Upside Down", a graphic adaptation of the song of the same name. He does a great deal of really inspired creator owned work as well.

Finally (for today), if you don't know who Mark Waid is, you probably haven't read comics in the past twenty years. Generally, skipping the last 20 years of comics might not be the worst thing in the world, but during some of the dark times in the 90s Mark helped re-invent heroic fiction, whether it was his legendary Flash Run, the groundbreak Kingdom Come, or...the list is long, but chances are if you haven't read anything by him, you've read something that wouldn't exist without him. He's now the editor-in-chief at BOOM! Studios, the publisher of my next work. He's the best editor I've worked with bar none, and he's also served as a mentor to me.

I've had the privilege of working with other great artist, writers, creators etc. who I hope to introduce you to soon. Chances are if you like my work, you'll probably like the worked of those who I linked to.

In about 6 hours or so I'll be headed to NY for, among other things, The New York Comic Con. I'm going to be sharing a table with artist Paul Azaceta (GROUNDED, FOOLKILLER, BPRD: 1946) in Artist's Alley, Table L7. Hopefully, FEARLESS artist PJ Holden and co-writer Dave Roth will be hanging around the table as well.

As always, I'm happy to talk to anyone, sign anything, and I'll be selling my Image Books. If you want my DC works signed, you're probably going to have to bring your own copies of TWO-FACE: YEAR ONE, CYBORG and SUPERGIRL #16. And if you happen to have San Diego's limited edition HEROES comic from last year, you can be the first to have me sign a copy.\\ If I'm not at my table, I'm likely just taking a walking around break, or doing a signing for Comic Book Tattoo (the hugely successful Tori Amos anthology I contributed a short story for).

But the real treat will be getting a sketch from Paul Azaceta, who does kickass - well, everything, but particularly Daredevil. And you'll never see him more excited if you ask him to draw Darkhawk.

Looking forward to seeing old friends and making new ones.

My favorite interview so far

Although I'm not promoting anything (yet), my good friend Mike Le (pictured above) conducted what I think is the best interview I've ever done. Not just because he asked really insightful questions about the comics medium and my writing process. But also because he somehow got me to talk about my embarassing Bar Mitzvah memories, the best strip clubs in LA, and why going to to Tijuana during the San Diego Comic Con would be a bad, bad idea for me.

In addition to being a friend, and the best wingman in LA, he is VP of HQ Entertainment (Tyrese's production company), an accomplished screenwriter, and the creator of the must-read web comic "Don't Forget to Validate Your Parking". It's about the trial and travails of being an assistant in Hollywood, but you don't need to be an industry insider to appreciate it's absurd humor.

Doing interviews with my many talented friends and collaborators has been something I've been thinking of doing here when it's a slow news day/week/month for me. What do you guys think?