I was going to hold off on this until Wednesday night (or Preview Night for those SDCC-bound), but after 1) talking to James Lucas, and 2) seeing Matthew's inks for Stumptown #1, I'm rather impatient. Add to that a large amount of pure geek-joy at the work Matthew and mercuryeric did, and I'm feeling in a sharing mood.

Besides, I haven't posted a graphic in a while. Beware, the file's a little on the big side, and you'll want to make with the clicky-clicky to zoom in and get all the detail.

( Here's the promo poster we'll be giving out at the con. )

We'll have about 200-250 of them to hand out on Saturday.

Those of you who've been following this blog for a while may recall me soliciting the names of fictional PIs about a year or so back. Now you know why.

Thanks to everyone for their considerable help in compiling the list.

Edited to add:

In the interest of full disclosure, I stole this idea shamelessly from ( this )

Jim Rockford being the patron saint of all modern-day PIs, as far as I'm concerned.

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.

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.