Bill and Ted's Vol 1/Bizarro World to ship tomorrow
Well, that pretty much says it all right there. We received our comp copies of both books yesterday, and both are listed on Diamond's ship list. SO those waiting for the first Bill and Ted's collection and the second Bizarro hardcover will find them at their local comic shop tomorrow. Unless, of course, you shop at a hole that didn't order them.

Bizarro looks really, really nice. There's some beautiful artwork in there, Dave Cooper's being the standout from what I'm seeing. I didn't have a chance to read much of the book, only a strip or three, but it seems more focused, more sure of itself, I think the creators knew what the deal was this time around and the lack of a book-end sequence helps move things along more smoothly. Can't vouch for the scripts, it looks like you have a few of the "mundane aspects of a superthero life" bit here and there, a couple of old-school Mad-type bits (pretty much the stuff I worked on, actually, duh), a few short hits, and a lot of approaches that seem thought-out than the first volume. Less stuff that looks as if it could have been run in a regular DC comic. I'd say give this one a shot, if nothing else it's a nice portfolio of artwork in a nice package with nice production values and coloring. Nice!

Bill and Ted's looks pretty solid for a 13-year old book by a then-amateur with a scratchy pencil line. The gray tones vary throughout the book, owing to the various folks who worked on it, it gets a bit dark in places, look of the original series. The original books suffered from poor coloring and printing technology, and I think this edition is more appealing than the pamphlets. I hope you folks agree, and I hope some of you out there who have never read these early comics of mine give them a shot, I think there's some fun stuff in there for kids and adults.

No word from SLG on the status of the second volume, but as soon as I hear anything, I'll let you know.

Otherwise, if anyone caught the superhero episode of Filter I appeared on last night, you were "treated" to yours truly uttering some inanities about Guantanamo, penis enlargement devices, Glock 9's, "more fun in my pants" and one or two other Noel Coward-like sound bites. Oh, boy. It's very weird to see yourself on television. It was neat to see one of the guys from Giant Robot interviewed. There's a chance more segments from my interview will be chopped up and sprinkled into other shows, they asked a variety of questions for use in a number of episodes, so...if I hear anything, I'll let you know. I have been asked to do another interview when G4/Tech TV's back in NYC for another round, so who knows.

And now the latest HOF UPDATE:

I've started a two-page Milk and Cheese strip for Negative Burn #1, entitled "Milk and Cheese Break Out". It's one of those M&C strips with absolutely no social significance or commentary. Mostly. It's dumb and I hope you love it.

The Simpsons tie-in book that I'm contributing scripts to is part of the "Simpsons Library of Wisdom" line from HarperCollins. So far they've releases books centered around Bart and Homer, this one will be about one of the supporting characters. Take a wild guess. Bongo is doing the guts, and I thank Bill Morrison for ringing me up for the job.

Last Friday I sent Mad a number of pitches for various strips, articles and gag panels. I also sent a batch of gag strips to Nickelodeon. Fingers crossed.

I finally figured out the back cover to Dork #11, duh, it was a no brainer in some ways, so I can start that when I find the time. I also have a few more things roughed out for the issue, and have amassed some more springboards and gags. It looks as if Dork #11 will definitely be all short bits as I originally planned -- gag panels, Fun strips, short strips and one-pagers. It's a lot fo work for a book that will very likely read faster than my usual issues, but that's the way it goes. I wavered on the format because with the lag between issues I thought people might be disappointed by an all-gag issue with no real "meat" strip-wise, but it's something I want to do, and if folks don't dig it they don't dig it. I'm trying to worry less about what people might think or expect and just have as much fun with this particular issue as I can.

The second script for the "Dirty Harry" strip running in maxim U.K. should be finished soon. so I'll have that to tackle pretty soon. The first episode should be in the issue hitting stands later this month.

And I'm also working on my Adult Swim script again. The Mighty Joe Young on my back that refuses to go away. Ugh ugh ugh.

FUN!: Exhumed Films in New Jersey has updated their site and have listed their upcoming screenings for the next few months. I'm going to try to make the "versus" triple feature, myself. This is some fun stuff to go to, folks, revival houses are dying, seeing oddball films in a real vintage theater than doesn't have twenty screens of crap is a thing of the past, I suggest you give this a try if you live in the tri-state area and enjoy horror and monster flicks. They have a door prize drawing, show trailers and often show shorts, and it really is a lot of fun. The guys who run this aremn't doing it for money, which is a good thing, because like small press comics, there really ain't none. Anyway, here's the schedule link:

ExhumedSchedule

That's about it this time around. Emily is doing great, btw, we took her in for her one month "wellness" doctor visit and she's healthy, growing, and behaving like a champ even when she gets a shot. Her father cries more when he gets the needle. Oh, it's true. We're doing okay, we can't get anyone to come out and look at the damned garage, we need sleep, we need more time to get things done, and Pixel needs to go back to the vet as he's not gaining enough weight and we're thinking he might need his medication dosage amped up a bit. Things are incredibly hectic but more or less very positive and we're just trying to stay on top of everything as new parents and old freelancers.