For San Diego Comic Con International 2008.

(And by "The" I mean "My")

Panels:

Thursday, July 24th:
5:30 to 6:30 - Dark Castle: Rocknrolla (Whiteout will be discussed; the poster shall be unveiled, and a release date given). Hall H.
6:00 to 7:00 - DC Nation. Room 6A.

Friday, July 25th:
6:00 to 7:00 - Final Crisis Management. Room 6A.

Saturday, July 26th:
12:45 to 2:00 - DC: A Guide to Your Universe. Room 6B.
5:00 to 6:00 - Oni Press Panelmonium 2008! Room 3.
5:45 to 7:15 - Gays in Comics Panel: 21 and Legal! Room 6A.

Scheduled Signings

Thursday, July 24th:
3:00 to 4:30 - DC Comics Booth.

Friday, July 25th:
11:00 to 12:00 - Bantam Booth (we'll be giving out copies of Patriot Acts!)
1:30 to 2:50 - Oni Press Booth.
3:30 to 4:30 - DC Comics Booth.

Saturday, July 26th:
10:30 to 11:30 - Oni Press Booth.
11:30 to 12:30 - DC Comics Booth.

Sunday, July 27th:
10:00 to 11:30 - DC Comics Booth.




You will note that there are, already, several conflicts, mostly amongst panels. If you are looking for me in Location A and I am not there, the odds are very good that I'm en route from Location B, or trapped in Location C. I will be updating the blog at the show -- no, not from the floor, I'm not nearly obsessive enough to manage that -- and will note any changes in the schedule.

Couple other things to note. First, wherever and whenever I am signing, it's perfectly acceptable to bring works from other publishers that I've written for my signature. This may seem obvious to some of you, but I've met more than one person at a show who has feared causing offense by bringing, say, Oni books for me to sign while I'm sitting at DC, or copies of the novels, or whatever; don't be, it's not a problem.

Second, July 27th is Nicola Scott's birthday. If you see her, wish her a happy birthday. I want nothing so much as to see her unable to take a step in the convention hall without people wishing her the best of the day. *cackles gleefully*

Third, on Friday at 3:30, there's a spotlight panel on Geoff Johns. Geoff is not only incredibly talented, not only a good friend, and not only a terribly nice guy, but he's a wealth of information about the process of writing. I doubt I'll be able to attend myself, as I've a signing conflict, but if you do go, and you have questions for him, try asking him about writing, and not whether or not Wally is faster than Barry or whatnot. He is, most definitely, a writer people can learn quite a lot from.

Fourth, I'm trying to get a signing in with the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. In addition, the plan is to deliver both a signed copy of the new The Question: The Five Books of Blood hardcover, along with one of the only remaining copies of the Montoya Journal, to the fund for auction. Those of you hoping to hold a copy of the journal in your sweaty little palms, here's your chance!

Fifth, Matthew Southworth (and follow the link, by the way, and give Matthew's music a listen; I think it's quite good) and I will have some promotional material for Stumptown on hand at the show, in the form of an 8-page introductory short. As currently planned, some copies will come with bonus gimmick. Wait and see. There'll also be an -- in my opinion -- very cool promo poster at the booth, designed by mercuryeric and Matthew that is, in my opinion, a triumph of PI geekdom. I'm actually hoping we can run off a slew of them for sale.

Although I am not listed on -- as far as I know -- any of the SDCC information, I will be attending the show.

Schedule is TBA at this point. I expect to be signing at Oni and DC, but dates and times are still being coordinated. I'm confirmed for a signing at the Bantam booth on Friday, where we'll be giving away copies of Patriot Acts. As for panels, I suspect I'll be at the Dark Castle one on Thursday, and perhaps the DC Nation panel, also on Thursday, as well as a handful of others. I am confirmed for the Gays in Comics panel on Saturday at 5:45.

I should add, at this point, that the lack of information confirming that I'll be at the show is my own damn fault and no one else's. I never got it together to actually register, so it's not like anyone had a reason to believe I'd be attending.

Oh the irony.


Now for some musing...

Andrew and Xtie departed this morning, beginning their long drive back to the Land of Sun and Smog. As ever, their departure leaves all of us here vaguely out of sorts. As jonlaw can well attest, it sucks when hearty and longstanding friendships are separated by distance.

nealbailey asked if I get postpartum after finishing a novel, and I hedged on the answer. It's a problematic analogy for me, to equate the act of giving birth to the act of writing a novel, though the romance of "the act of creation" makes it a logical enough comparison, I suppose. But to answer the question more honestly than I did the last time, yes, I do. It's a combination of emotions, I think, mostly underscored by fatigue. It may be the same for many authors, or for all of them, or for none, I don't know, but the process is a...consuming one, that may be the best way to put it. I'm always reminded of a Conan Doyle line -- which I am about to butcher, as I'm too tired to be bothered to actually look it up -- where Watson remarks that Holmes looks a little rough around the edges (yes, yes, cocaine will do that, as you were), and the Great Detective's reply is something along the lines of, "I confess I have been using myself rather too freely of late."

Holmesians out there should feel free to provide chapter and verse, as required.

Regardless, that line has always resonated for me, even if I can't quote it. It's how I feel every time I finish a novel.

The rush to vacation following completion, the company of good friends and good times, postponed but did not defeat the effect. And it's catching up with me, and tonight I'm finding myself listless and out of sorts, edging up to grumpy but not quite committing to the relationship as yet. In a few more days this will pass. It has nothing to do with anxiety about the work itself, at least, not this time; my editor read and returned comments via email on the ms within, I shit you not, 24 hours of receipt, which is a record for her, at least in the confines of our relationship. As always, her notes -- brief as they were -- were spot on; in fact, her notes were exactly the ones I'd made to myself to address in the revision. Well, except for one, but she never likes it when someone cries in my novels. She genuinely seems to like the book, which is always a good thing, and, more to the point, I believe her when she says she does; after nine novels with her, I can tell when she's struggling to find something kind to say to me.

Depression may be another word for it, I suppose. The desire to do nothing for a few days, to simply read a book, or play a video game, or sleep late, all things that, for one reason or another, I cannot do at this time. To indulge myself. But there are scripts that need writing (as of this moment, actually, there are five of them, with three so close to deadline they can look down its shirt), and many editors who have been both patient and understanding as I've told them that they would have to wait until the book was finished. Well, it's finished, and they're due their due.


An unrelated question: anyone I know from that Green and Pleasant planning on attending San Diego? And if so, would you be willing to act as courier for me? I promise, it's nothing that'll get you sent down to Gitmo. Honest.

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. )

Saw Southworth and his terrific lady, Michelle. The Stumptown pages are really cooking. I feel bad for the workload we've put him under; you do work-for-hire, you're already dealing with established characters, for the most part, reference readily available. Matthew's got to invent everything from scratch, and especially with the first couple issues, that means designing and detailing not only the regular cast, but also all of the regular sets. He's got an attention to detail that's terrific, and that I think will serve the book very well, indeed. He, James Lucas, and I, got to talk a little bit, and we're pushing back the launch to October. Better that we have everything ready than to rush it, we agreed, and frankly, none of us wants the book coming out with the delays I caused on Queen & Country. Flip-side is that Matthew and I are going to try to work on an eight-pager for distribution at San Diego, along with some other promotional material.

And I got to see Lieber's art for issue one of Whiteout: Night, though only briefly. The irony in having to go to a con in Seattle to see what he's been working on didn't escape either of us, but we're both so damn busy here, we barely have a chance to connect. We've resolved to change that. So I suppose I ought to call him, huh? I'm always amazed looking at Steve's work; there's such an effortlessness to his detail and character, and I know he puts hours in to make it appear so, but the effect is striking.

I'm grinding away on three different scripts this week, trying to get them all squared away before returning to the novel. Had a come-to-Jesus with my editor and agent last week, after sending off the first 35K words or so, and my editor was effusive (though she's yet to receive pages from me an say "this is utter crap", so I take it with a grain of salt). Looks like we're on the right track. I'd rather have sent the whole manuscript, to be frank, but as I was toying with a somewhat radical (or at least, from Bantam's end, unexpected) change in style, both David and I felt Kate needed fair warning. Turns out it was a wise move, but she's for it, which makes moving forward easier. I'll resume the keyboard punching in earnest early next week, I suspect, once research for this new section is completed.

And now...work.

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.

I have to remember that people actually read this thing. Not seeing you folks, it's easy to forget that there's a whole lot of eyes that find these words that I never know about.

Let the record show the following, then:

I am not suffering from health-related issues; I am not leaving comics forever; I am not launching a bloody and prolonged vendetta against those who done me wrong (at least, not yet).

I'm just not exclusive to DC any longer, and my reasons for the decision are many, varied, and in some cases, quite complicated. And in other cases, very, very simple. Are there things that could have transpired to have changed my decision? Absolutely. But -- remembering all of your eyes on this -- these are things that I don't feel should, or need to, be aired in a public forum. That is, to me, unprofessional, and despite my many failings at aspiring to be such, I'm still going to make that effort.

It is now the end of 2007. I have been exclusive to DC since, roughly, my daughter was born, in the summer of 2003. That's four and a half years carrying water for one company alone, to the exclusion of many other projects and opportunities.

There are things I want to do, and I want to be proud of them when they hit the stands. Where I do that work, what that work will be, remains to be seen. But at the end of the day, that's all that this is about -- I want to be in a position to do the work I am passionate about, and to do it well, in the manner I wish to do it.

I want to thank everyone who offered such generous comments; I was sincerely surprised by the amount of attention the announcement brought. The support and kindness is truly appreciated.

Now get back to work. That's what I'm gonna do.

Well, after I take this quiz:

Which Chow Yun Fat Are You?