White Thanksgiving

Here's a look at what we woke up to on Thursday morning out at my parents' place in Connecticut...

Yes, We're Big Losers

Wanna know why?

Well, we went out and bought two copies of TV Guide last week so we would have two sets of 3-D glasses so we could both watch the special 3-D episode of MEDIUM. Now if that wasn't bad enough, after the show, we thought it would be funny to try and get Lotto and Clyde to wear the glasses...

I Feel Old

I made the trek out to Queens for a party last weekend despite the fact that usually every night in Queens ends poorly for me. I get there after a nice gyro from Pizza Palace in Astoria, grab a beer, and settle in for this little shindig. The evening's going well until the topic of video games comes up after few people bust out their Nintendo DS Gameboys and start playing Mario Cart wirelessly. Of course I try to direct the conversation more towards classic games, which I feel more comfortable talking about. Naturally, Dig Dug comes up and I was about to get into my groove, until one Marvel assistant editor (who shall remain nameless) asks "What's Dig Dug?!" At first I thought he was joking, but it quickly became all too apparent that he, and a few other people there, had honestly never heard of the game before. Turns out it had been created before they were born.

I felt my bones creak as I grabbed my cane and hobbled home to change my Depends.

Mangaverse #2

Thought I'd share the newly colored cover to issue two by Tommy Ohtsuka and Guru eFX...

GGGGRRRRRRRRR

This would piss me of...

"According to the Hollywood Reporter, the producers of ABC's Lost planning to shoot 20 mini-episodes of original content each lasting several minutes long that will play exclusively on mobile phones sometime early next year. No word which carrier will air the hit series."

I hate cell phones to begin with! So to watch my favorite show I'd have to buy a high-priced new phone and then subscribe to some ridiculous service? No thanks! Sure, they'll most likely be on the DVDs, but it's the principal that bothers me. Even selling the content on iTunes would be better than this lunacy!

(Sorry about the rant, Damon!)

BKV Agrees!

Perfectly timed with my post about nothing but bad Mexican food in NYC, Brian K. Vaughan backs up my claim in the new issue of Runaways. Having tasted a local burrito, Gert proclaims, "For a town that supposedly has so many good restaurants, their Mexican food is a crime against humanity."

"AI" Is In The Air This February

Comic solicitations for February 2006 just hit and Marvel announced my new one-shot, Marvel Ai. It's part of their I (Heart) Marvel romance event, just in time for Valentine's Day.

I (HEART) MARVEL: MARVEL AI
Written by C.B. CEBULSKI
Penciled by KEI KOBAYASHI, TOMOKO TANIGUCHI & ATSUKO MORI
Cover by GEZ FRY
Marvel puts the theory of "love is an international language" to the test this issue, as three Japanese illustrators bring their craft to our I (Heart) Marvel event. Tomoko Taniguchi lends her shojo stylings to the Scarlet Witch as she shares the truths about what it's like being in love with a "robot". Kei Kobayashi lends his graphic flair to a touching tale about Medusa and the complications of being married to a man who can never open his mouth. And in the third installment, Atsuko Mori takes a tongue-in-cheek peek into a superhero love triangle as Black Widow and Elektra duke it out over Daredevil's affections.
32 PGS./T+ SUGGESTED FOR TEENS AND UP ...$2.99

Here's an early version of the cover...




It's been a blast working on this book and I'm pleased as hell with the scripts. And to give you a quick rundown on the artists...

Tomoko Taniguchi is not only an old friend, but one of the most prolific shojo manga artists out there. You may know her work from titles like Princess, Prince, Aquarium and Spellbound. And now I finally get the chance to work with her!

Kei Kobayashi is someone whose work many people may not know. You can check out his site at http://www.no-k.net/ He takes Japanese line and brush work to a new level, combining influence from Sienkewicz and Toppi for something totally unique and original.

Atsuko Mori has been recruited to bring her wonderful bounce to Daredevil, Black Widow and Elektra. You can see some of her work at http://freett.com/ftc27/dive/dive.html. It's in Japanese, but if you scroll down you can find the galleries.

And it will all be colored by Chesterfest regular poster Christina Strain. You rock, CeeCee!

I Dream Of...

I've been longing for tacos for over a week, so Mutsumi and I finally hooked it up last night with a homemade Mexican feast. I still find that good Mexican's the one food it's hard to get here in NYC. But last night's meal all stemmed from a dream I had. You see, last week I dreamt that my friend Mark Paniccia was lamenting leaving California and we were commiserating over teh fact there were no good Mexican joints or taquerias on the East Coast. But he'd heard rumor of an authentic place out in Jersey and drove me, Mike Marts and someone else there where we found this amazing buffet of Mexican food and fix-it-yourself tacos. I woke up craving Mexican.

Yeah, I dream a lot. And I usually remember most of what I dream about once I wake up. I'm one of those people who sleeps with a pad and pen by their bed and jot everything down. A lot of good (and plenty of wacky) story ideas have come from my dreams. I have notebooks filled with the stuff. Such is the blessing of an overactive dreamer, I guess. Common in all writers?

Last week I had this weird one where Andy Schmidt and Nick Lowe became auxilliary firefighters just so they could score free beer and sausage at the NYFD social functions. When they were accused of this, they flew in Brian Bendis to sign copies of Ultimate Spider-Man for kids at a charity fund raiser at a firemen's festival. I told you it gets weird...

I usually always dream in color, but once I had this incredible animated dream. I woke amazed!

And then there was the time I was eating fries with gravy at a diner with Jim Morrsion and James Dean. I even wrote down the entire conversation when I came to that morning. I have to dig it up!

Another Embarrassing Revelation

The second season of Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County has just ended. I'm sad.

Yes, I was a fan of the show. (And I know a lot of you were too, but just won't admit it.) At first I thought it was pure cheese and couldn't stand the kids. I originally tuned in out of the pure desire to laugh at these punk kids and their "horrible" lives, but then it grew on me. Kristin, Jessica, Jason and the crew started to remind me of a lot of the stuff that happened to me in high school and had me reflecting back on shit I went through. It's always good to reminisce and the show actually got some of my memories bubbling, as dumb as that sounds. Different coast, different generation, but the similarities were there, be it in the relationships or friendships. Something clicked and it helped me with some writing actually...

But never fear, there's more Laguna Beach on the way. Two new shows starting actually!

The first is Laguna Beach Season Three, which stays in the same high school but now follows Lauren's sister and her friends. They aired the preview yesterday and it looks like a "real-life" version of West Side Story with rich girl gangs. It's all about the popular white shirt girls vs. the gothy black shirt chicks. Ooohhhh... Looks a little more ethnically diverse this time as well. Some of the girls who stayed in Laguna Beach, like Jessica and Alex, look like they'll be appearing too.

The second show is called The Hills and follows the post-high school adventures of Lauren, who was one of my least favorite characters on the show. But as she's a real person, can she be considered a 'character'? She moves to L.A., moves into a Melrose Place apartment with a ditzy blonde roommate, goes to fashion school, hobnobs at all the Hollywood hotspots, and gets an internship at Teen Vogue. Gee, I bet MTV and daddy's money didn't have anything to do with that! I'll tune in for a bit to see how she does, but this one looks more staged than any "reality show" yet.

And you better bet I'll be posting reviews!

How Old Were You?

Here's a link to a new British ad that asks celebrities how old they were when they lost their virginity. Pretty interesting, funny and revealing. Little Rachel Bilson, not so innocent...

http://www.devilducky.com/media/26383/

A New Day Has Dawned

Well, I did it. After seven months of broken promises and excuses, I finally went and joined a gym!



Healthy living, here I come!

Celebrity Sightings of the Day

Mutsumi spotted Richard Belzer, Law and Order: SVU's Detective John Munch, having brunch at French Roast on Broadway.

We also passed by the premiere of Walk The Line at the Beacon Theater later and spotted Joaquim Pheonix being interviewed. About a minute after that, when we were further down the street, we heard the crowd erupt into cheer, so Reese Witherspoon must have just arrived.

Like Strawberry Quik...

For years now, I've been looking for the Butch Vig remix of House of Pain's song Shamrocks and Shenanegins. I'm not the biggest fan of the band, but this is one of the greatest remixed songs EVER! Carries a lot of memories for me as well.

So you figure with all the MP3s and music downloads that're available to us over the internet these days, this would have been easy, right? Wrong. It was like an episode of the Twilight Zone for a while there where I thought I was the only person who remembered this song and it had been erased from the collective conscious of the rest of the Earth. Then my buddy Steve Pakula and I were out at the Dead Poet last week and Meredith, our new favorite bartender, actually played it off her iPod! Needless to say, I freaked. The beers and Jamison in me only helped increase the levels of my excitement! The song did exist! I was no longer alone!

Turns out Steve had it on his iPod too and when he got home (and sobered up) he was kind enough to e-mail the MP3 over to me. Now I can listen to "Boom Sha Lak Lak Boom" over and over to my heart's content.

"Is it Erica Boyer or Marcia Brady?"

I just want to know why?

Even though I hated it, SAW made over $100 million worldwide and I can totally see why they made a sequel. SAW II is on its way to take in over $100 million domestically, so I'm sure there'll be a SAW III. It's when a movie sucks AND does poorly at the box office that I question the logic of doing a sequel. And when that sequel bombs, why not let the franchise just die instead on wasting money on what's sure to be a disastrous third part? Case in point:

Constantin Film and Davis Film announcing plans to produce a third big screen installment in the Resident Evil franchise titled Resident Evil: Afterlife, following the heroine's battles to save humanity from the Undead, a race of human clones.

Unvbelievable! What are they thinking?! Guess it really is all about the DVD sales.

Well, at least we get more Milla...

Happy Monday!

A Clyde pic to start your week off right!

I'm Pathetic

I've always had my video gaming under control. I play games but don't get addicted to them. I can easily stop and turn off any game at any time. Until now.

I think it was Smitty who e-mailed me over that there was a Namco Museum 50th Anniversary collection out for XBox. And lo and behold, there is. And I now own it. And it's sucking me dry.

I make no bones about the fact I'm a Dig Dug junkie. I used to compete in a "tournament" every fall, on the original stand up machine. I was the champ for three years running. And now that I have it at home, I can't stop playing! Arrggghh!! This wasn't supposed to happen! I've got to get rid of this thing! The reason I can't put it down is because I can't even break 100,000 on this system! It's the damn controller! I need a joystick not some dumb four-way thumb button!

Mutsumi can start playing X-Men Legends again while my blister heals...

Saw SAW

As we're intrigued by the trailer for SAW II, Mutsumi and I rented the first SAW this weekend as we'd never seen it. Doing this fortunately saved us from wasting $20 at the theaters on the sequel as SAW was one of the worst movies I've seen in a long time! The set-up and plot had promise, but in the spirit of brutal honesty, I have to say that Cary Elwes gave one of the most pathetic, unengaging, plastic, painful-to-watch acting performances ever captured on film in the last 30 years! This guy cannot act his way out a paper bag. Totally ruined this movie, making it laughable at times, and I will question ever going to see anything he's ever in. Don't believe the hype on this one. If you haven't already SAW, don't waste your time.

Laughing to the Bank

From Variety...

"A funny thing's happening at Paramount -- new studio president Gail Berman wants to boost its output of comedies.
"Comedy, comedy, comedy, comedy," Berman responded Tuesday when asked what kind of projects she's seeking. "I love comedies."

To that end, Berman told Daily Variety Paramount has greenlit a sequel to MTV's 2003 "Jackass the Movie," which was the studio's most profitable film that year, with a gross of $65 million; the film cost less than $5 million. The aim's to get "Jackass II" into theaters during the 2006 holiday season."

This is good news as most of the movie treatments I have are comedies, which I've always been told are harder to sell as Hollywood is still fixated to horror/suspense/thrillers. Looks like the times are a changing though! Thank you Wedding Crashers and 40 Year Old Vrigin!

Just Do It

I don't wear Nike sneakers, but their simple tagline still sneaks into my life. It really is one of the best marketing slogans ever when you think about it. Anyway, yesterday, I just did it.

I've been putting off writing two short 12-16 page scripts for a few months now. The artists aren't ready, so I just kept waiting. I had the stories written in my head and all I had to do was sit down and type them out, but for some reason, I just couldn't make myself do it. As more paying freelance work kept coming in, I kept making excuses that the money came first. Trouble was, I was in love with both short stories and constantly thought about them. Why couldn't I write them?

Looking at my schedule, it's gradually been filling up, which is a good thing. So I knew if I didn't write these two stories soon, I would never have the time. I had to do it. I wanted to do it. I had to get over the mental block. So yesterday I put everything else aside and started writing. And wrote and wrote and wrote. I finished the first 15 page script around and sent it off to the artist around 3PM. The second one was 14 pages and wrapped around 1:30AM. I'd done it! Wow! It felt good too!

Head down, imagination open, fingers flying... Hopefully I can be this productive everyday!

Two Comics You Must Read!

I realized I haven't recommended any comics recently, so I thought I'd talk about two new "must haves" for any collection...

BLACKSAD by Juan Diaz Canales and Guarnido
This one should be on everyone's radar already as it's been getting much-deserved hype for a while now, but as I had the French editions, I never read it in English. I was over at Skottie's in Chicago and saw he had the English versions from iBooks and made a mental note to pick them up. Simply awesome, awesome stuff! An engaging hard-boiled detective story where all the characters are animals with some of the most amazing art you'll ever see! Who knew animals could be so expressive?



MBQ by Felipe Smith
I've known Felipe for years and have always been amazed by his enthusiasm and single-minded desire to break into comics. Well, he's done it and done it with a bang. MBQ is a riot! And it's unlike anything else you'll find on the stands today. It's a semi-autobiographical story about a wannabe comic artist in L.A. and the eclectic cast of characters that surround him as he tries to live his life and get into the comic biz. It's a great hardcore slice-of-life comic, a little on the mature side, that more people should be reading! http://www.felipesmith.com

Happy Birthday, João Lemos

Everyone's favorite SHIKI artist becomes a year older today! Happy Birthday, João!