I just realized that the movie is really going to happen, that it will be in theaters on Friday, this Friday, that there's no way it's not going to happen, and that this is all real and true and not some figment of my hyper-active and overly-stressed imagination.

Whiteout.

As a movie.

Whiteoutasamovie.

White.Out.As.A.Movie.

I'm, uh...I was on the damn SET for three weeks, and I'm still having trouble believing this.

I think Steve is dealing with this much better than I. He, at least, seems to have a plan to capitalize on it (if you're in the LA area, go see him when he's signing at Earth-2!).

The website is being updated with all current information as it comes out.

Me, I'm just...

...I'm gonna get back to work, here...still have Chace bleeding out and all, need to attend to that or she could be in real trouble, soon....

The Whiteout trailer -- the official one! -- is now online. Those with interest, please examine below the cut.

( Whiteout trailer! )

And then there's this preview of Detective Comice #855, on sale a week from today. Spoiler warnings if you don't want the ending of #854 ruined!

SDCC starts in earnest for me tomorrow, with The Day from Hell. I am guaranteed to make only one of my scheduled events on time, that being the first one, the Superman panel with myself, James Robinson, Sterling Gates, Geoff Johns, Matt Idelson, and others, at 11:45 am, in room 6DE.

As others pointed out in my previous schedule post, I neglected to include A Darker Shade of Ink, discussing noir and crime comics, at 2pm tomorrow, in room 5AB. Thank you to those who pointed out the omission.

Let the wild rumpus begin!

There's a Whiteout trailer that's apparently making the rounds at the moment. It is not the official movie trailer, but rather the teaser that WB put together for San Diego the year before last. It's not bad, but it's not the trailer.

I have been told that, if you want to see the Official Whiteout Trailer, it will be shown before Orphan when the film is released.

More information as it comes to me.

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.

My brother sent me this link this morning. Disappointing, but, I suppose, not surprising. Thing is, I've been a fan of the Lonely Planet guides for years now, ever since I realized that the chances of me actually getting down to the Ice while researching the first Whiteout were pretty much nil. They had the only guidebook on Antarctica that I ever found.

Ever since then, I've relied on their titles pretty heavily to provide broad secondary research for the many travels of Atticus, Chace, and others.

Another reminder of the need to practice due-diligence, I suppose. Gonna have to read this guy's book, I think....

Edited to add: Accusations refuted, though I'd think that's to be expected.

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.

The Crime Bible: Five Books of Blood (or, as it should've been called, The Question) sees the first issue on stands tomorrow. I'm excited about it, frankly, and I'm looking forward to it finally seeing the light of day. I really do hope people will enjoy it. My personal feeling is that page 1, courtesy of these two guys, sells the series itself, but I confess to a vicious bias.

(As far as Lieber and Whiteout III goes, I've been remiss; he's still waiting on the complete issue one, and that's because I decided, for some unholy reason, that this time, y'know, I'd actually try to write a real-honest-to-God mystery, and it turns out those are 1) hard, and 2) require more preparation than I'd at first thought. Hopefully, I will make him happy by delivering by Thursday, which will put me one month behind schedule. This is not, incidentally, behavior of which I am proud.)

The last week of silence was due, in part, to several things. Bride took a much-needed sabbatical, which left me at home with the kids. Normally, this would not have been a problem, except we're in the Autumnal Sick Season here in Portland, and children, as some of you may already know, double as very effective petri dishes. Dash started the festivities with a sore throat that blossomed into a fever of 102 on Thursday, keeping her home, and then, not to be out done, her older brother decided to raise, and entered the running with a 102.8. At the same time, Trautmann came down to work on Secret Project, which I was utterly unable to assist with, as I was trying to tend to the kids.

Oh, did I mention this was the week my parents decided to come up for a visit?

Both kids have recovered, Jen is back, Trautmann has a new Leopard and, of course, I am now feeling the first unmistakable twinges of a sore throat. If all goes according to schedule, I should be incoherent (well, even more incoherent) by Thursday. And yes, I recognize that's also the day I'm hoping to deliver the script to Steve. It's called denial, and I'll thank you all not to ruin it.

Finished Crime Bible issue 5 today. Checkmate pages tomorrow. Whiteout pages to follow.

I feel much better now, thank you for asking. :D

Been fighting a cold/sinus general misery for about a week now. It's almost gone, and I'm hoping tomorrow will see my head clear enough to do some, I dunno, writing, maybe?

This is the problem with getting ill. The work backs up like...well, like water in my basement office, actually. I've got an angry Spaniard in Barcelona (and doesn't that sound like a straight line?) waiting for me to deliver scripts that he can, in turn, hand to the artists he represents. I've got Steve waiting on the first script for Whiteout III, and he's exhibiting the patience of a saint. That's its own thing, frankly; been so long since I wrote that world, and, despite myself, I'm second-guessing every other word I put down, rewriting and rewriting and reworking to a level that is, frankly, uncharacteristic, even for me. JLu's patience is about at an end, I think, but I've got a lucky reprieve for a few more days on delivery to Oni, it seems, as he and Randy Jarrell (scroll down a bit here) are off to SPX this weekend. So tomorrow, I resume the assault, once more scrap everything I've written, and start again. The ideas are there. It's getting them to come out write/right that's giving me the migraines. And, frankly, writing for Steve has become somewhat daunting to me, because I really want to give him work that's worth the enormous effort I know he's going to put into it. It's an elevating effect, and ideally will lead to a better final product, but I'm putting a lot of pressure on myself for this project as a result, and, thus far, it's leading to pages that no one is seeing but me.

Not to bitch or anything, of course.

Far as the fun land of Whiteout: The Movie goes...no news worth speaking of. But Lieber found the following image online, fan-created, and we both got a kick out of it, so I thought I'd share it here. No idea who created it, but they certainly know the PhotoshopFu.

Thanks to everyone who offered advice, sympathy, and encouragement. And for you bastards out there who gave up with derisive laughter, yeah, I'm coming for you.

Today's better, not because I have an office back -- I don't -- but because it's not yesterday. The water's been cleaned up, the plumbing problem has been addressed for the time being, and the basement does not smell like fecal matter. So all in all, I guess, nothing to complain about.

So back to work today, making myself feel cold and iceblind while working Whiteout III, which, after consultation with Steve, may undergo a subtitle change before publication. I'm still debating with myself, but we met on Tuesday to talk about the project and what I was writing and going to write, and, as he so often does, he tossed out a great idea that was so good, in fact, I found myself playing with a whole new thematic element.

I get asked, quite frequently, what the biggest differences are between writing novels and writing comics. I've answered the question so often at this point, it's almost rote. In a nutshell, it's the level of collaboration that makes the biggest difference, and working with Steve is a terrific example of that. I can tell him what I'm thinking of doing, the ideas I'm toying with, and simply by the nature of the project, he'll hear those ideas in a visual way, and in turn, inspire me so that I go back to the keyboard with better ideas, better ways of accomplishing the story we're trying to tell. That's just not something I get with the novels; the novels live in a world of one, but the comics, they live, minimum, in a world of two. Sometimes that can go horribly wrong, if you're not on the same page as the person you're working with.

But when it goes right? When it goes right, you create something that is more than the sum of its parts, and that is truly exciting, and can be incredibly inspiring.

Second part of my ongoing interview with Eric Newsom has gone up on VicSage.com. This one has preview art! We were scheduled for part-I-Don't-Know last night, but I was just too bushed after the day to actually manage it. We're rescheduling for this weekend.

And as far as Crime Bible goes, Mister Newsom also forwarded me this link, and I have to say, I agree with the sentiment behidn the post. Something to consider, at least.