Seriously, it is, at least according to Eric Newsom, keeper of all things Question at VicSage.Com. He's posting all sorts of interesting stuff about the character, detailing her creation by Mitch Brian (to whom I shall forever be indebted) in Batman: The Animated Series and chronicling her evolution in comics. I'm posting this late Monday in my corner of the world, and he's already put up the Tuesday content, including a script-to-page feature, showing my script for CB:FBOB #3 alongside Matthew Clark's pencils. That's just the tip of the iceberg -- the amount of content he's lined up is impressive as hell.

Definitely, definitely worth checking out, and I urge folks to take a look.

I'm slogging through the final phases of the first draft of Kodiak VII. End of the tunnel in sight; will be finished in the next couple of days, barring catastrophic incident. This means that I'll be finishing while attending Wizard World Chicago this coming weekend. You see me Thursday or Friday, there's a chance I'll look like a haunted man; you catch me Saturday, odds are I'll be chipper to the point of hysteria. Consider yourself warned.

The other thing this augers is that I'll get back to this here blog a bit more frequently, something I've actually been quite eager to do. Not sure I'll be making any more sense than I have, but there you go.

Let me know if any of y'all are going to be at the show this weekend!

There's an interview with me up at Newsarama right now about the next thing with my name on it that'll be coming out from DC, Final Crisis: Revelations. Look for a companion interview with the amazing Philip Tan, as well. If you've seen any of his art, then you'll understand why I'm willing to use the word "amazing" to describe it.

So we have an official announcement, now, of at least one of the things I'm working on, Final Crisis: Revelation, five issues of 30 pages each, Crispus Allen and Renee Montoya sharing pages again, though each of them in a much-altered form. The Spectre and The Question. Has to go down in history as one of the all-time oddest team-ups ever, which is probably one of the reasons why I'm enjoying writing it so much. First issue is out in August, I believe, so yes, it's a wait, but I think it'll be well-worth it.

( Here's a little taste of what Philip's doing. )

While we're on the topic, the ancillary material for the The Question: The Five Books of Blood hardcover that's coming out in June was finalized on Monday; we've included some six pages in the back about the Montoya Journal, including images of a couple of the props that didn't make the final cut for inclusion. I've written some commentary about the journal, the process, the ideas behind it, and the like. For those of you who were intrigued by that particular flight of fancy, it's definitely Value Added Content.

I promised a couple of posts back to explain the quiet that has descended here... and it's going to be relatively quiet for another month or so as I finish the draft of the tentatively-entitled new Kodiak novel, The Walking Dead. That's priority right now, and until I get out of the Very Dark Place that is this novel, I'm not going to have a whole lot I want to share, or even will feel like talking about, I suspect.

A week from today, on the 24th, mercuryeric and I will be doing a live chat at the ComicBloc Foum, starting at 9pm Eastern, 6pm Pacific. I expect it'll last 90 minutes or so, but it may run longer. If you're not registered at the 'Bloc, I believe you'll have to be to participate, but I could be wrong, as I've yet to actually do a chat there.

And then there's The Blue Religion, a new short-story collection edited by the blazingly-talented Michael Connelly, including shorts by the man himself, Laurie R. King, Alafair Burke, and many others. I'm one of the others, and the short is entitled "Contact and Cover." Fans of A Fistful of Rain might want to check this out, as the story is told by Tracy Hoffman, and gives a little insight into what her life on the job was like before making detective.

( Here's the cover for the collection. )

Finally, an unsolicited endorsement. Find E. Benjamin Skinner's book A Crime So Monstrous: Face-to-Face With Modern-Day Slavery.

Buy this book.

Read this book.

Read the parts that make your heart break. Read the parts that make your eyes burn. Read the parts that twist your stomach.

Read this book.

Then find someone else, and make them read this book.

And while they're reading it, get to work, and any way you can, in any of the ways that Skinner suggests, join this fight.

Which means this bitch of a ride is half over. It has not been a good week.

But the end of it will certainly be better than its start, for two immediate reasons.

First -- The last issue of The Crime Bible: The Five Books of Blood, "The Parable of the Faceless," comes out tomorrow. I'm very happy with the issue for a number of reasons, but in particular, Manuel Garcia did a fantastic job on the art, and where he was allowed to ink himself, the work is, in my opinion, outstanding. Timing on this is good, as I'm just about finished with the first issue of "the next thing" that the Question is appearing in, and the progression from CB into this new project is a good one.

And because I like the cover so much, I'm sharing it again:

So that's the first thing.

The second thing is that on Saturday myself, JVM, and Matthew Clark will be heading up to Lacey, WA, to join Eric Trautmann (mercuryeric and Brandon Jerwa (sd6) celebrate the grand opening of Olympic Cards and Comics' new home, which, conveniently, is just across the street from its old home. The new address is 4230 Pacific Avenue, in Lacey, just north of Olympia. Honestly, OCC is one of the best comic stores I've ever had the pleasure to spend inordinate amounts of money in, and if you're even remotely close to the area, I urge you to come by. We'll be signing, and I have it on reliable authority that there may be a grand-opening freebie for the first 100 or so who make it in. Ribbon cutting is scheduled for noon.

Edited to complete the list of those in attendance.

Solicits came out today for DC's May books. If'n you're the kind what's interested in this kind of thing, you can find them posted at Newsarama. If you scroll WAAAAY down, you'll find the listing for Checkmate #26. And you will note that it is written by Bruce Jones, and that it is illustrated by Manuel Garcia (who, incidentally, did a fantastic job with the art on Five Books of Blood #5, which is out tomorrow).

All of this is a bass-ackwards way of confirming for all and sundry -- those of you that care, that is -- that, yes, Checkmate #25 is the last issue for Joe Bennet, mercuryeric, and myself.

So as there's no confusion about this, I was not removed from the book. I decided that #25 would be my final issue on the title at least a year ago, and informed DC Editorial of my decision shortly thereafter. Since then, I've tried to arrange things such that my departure would leave the book in as strong a position as possible, and headed in the direction I thought best. Ultimately, however, the choice on who takes over the book is DC's, and not mine.

Mine and Eric's final arc will be "Castling," beginning with issue #23 and ending with issue #25. We think it's some of the best work we've done on the title, and, hey, it finally -- finally! -- reveals the identity of the Rooks! I firmly believe we're going out strong, and I hope you'll all continue to read it, and that you'll share our opinion if you do.

Minor hype.

First off, I'm going to be in Las Vegas next Saturday, the 26th, at the Sahara West Library, from 11am to 5pm, for Comics Fest. Looks to be a fairly small gathering, with panels and opportunities for discussion.

If you're in the area, please stop by. I'm packing my signing pens!!

And in the interest of continuing to pimp Crime Bible, a nice page from the upcoming Issue 4, "The Lesson of Murder." It's been something of a challenge for me, trying to pick a piece to preview, here, because there's an element of mystery to the issue in question, and I don't want to spoil anything for those who actually, y'know, like to be surprised.

So instead I offer this -- Renee and Tot. For those fans of Denny's run, please note that Tot is both in his bathrobe, and armed with a cup of coffee. Art and inks by Diego Olmos.

(I'd actually wanted to do a riff in 52 with Tot complaining about the lack of good java to be found in Nanda Parbat.)

Here ya go! Enjoy!

Releasing a comic in the window between Christmas and New Year's is always met with a resounding, even deafening, silence. Not like people have other things to do than hit their LCS, after all.

But with that in mind, a little reminder that Crime Bible #3 came out on Thursday here in the U.S., with art by Matthew Clark, and another gorgeous Page 1 courtesy of mercuryeric and Steve Lieber.

Cover to the issue, again by Van Fleet, ( behind the cut. )

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that is the mysterious Batwoman in free-fall with the Question, there.

At $227.50!

Whoever you are, o ye with a very geek-chic handle, you have done a good deed, indeed.

Four hours, 30 minutes left.

And, uh...that thing about the adult content filtering? I think I did that myself, when I was fiddling with the new theme.

Heh.

Back to scribbling.

The Montoya Journal has just over a day left to go on eBay, and last I checked, had climbed to $177.50. All you snipers out there might want to stand ready. As stated before, all proceeds from the auction go to The Hero Initiative.

And yes, that IS a lot of money, but then again, it's for a very good cause.

On the Other Updates front, work continues apace, or, at the least, is beginning to do so with something resembling a pace, which is a grand improvement. There've been several bumps the past week, and the next week will be very telling as a result, and may cast the die for several future works upcoming. Yes, that's vague, I know.

I think...

...I think I've cracked it...

...finally...

...after months literally struggling with a structural problem in a Story That Shall Remain Nameless, I think I've finally cracked it.

The relief I feel is tangible.

To celebrate, I share the following, which those of you who care have probably already seen, but if you haven't, well, here you go. Warner Brothers has apparently begun releasing still images from Whiteout. I reproduce two here for your amusement. One of them I was actually on set for.

First, the delectable Ms. Beckinsale, who manages to remain delectable while wearing ECW. this may explain why she earns seven figures a film.

This looks to have been taken on the set for ASB.

Second shot, from the Russian Cargo Plane interior, with Kate, Gabriel Macht, and Columbus Short.

This one I was on-set for. Or more precisely, I was upstairs in the production offices while they were shooting this sequence. Of all the sets Steve and I visited while in Montreal, it was this set that probably blew us away the most. The details were mind-boggling. The whole set was about fifteen feet off the deck of the sound stage, and canted at an insanely bizarre angle, to simulate the plane first having crashed, and then having sunk beneath the ice. The angle of the interior was such that you had to be extremely careful of your footing -- a lot of the ice effects for the interior were created using a gelatin-like substance, and between that, gravity, and the attention to detail, you quite literally ended up slipping and sliding around the interior.

Rumors online seem to put the release of the film in fall of '08 now. I can neither confirm nor deny this; I simply don't know. Makes sense to me if it is true, though. At least Whiteout won't get eaten alive by this.

Auction update. At last glance, the mysterious Montoya journal was going for $157.50! That is, to me, extremely cool. Hopefully it'll pull down a nice donation for the Hero Initiative.

We now return to your regularly schedule blogs.