If I was a Nintendo character...

...this is what I would look like!


Created by my friends down under at Torus Games. Thanks, guys!!

Newsarama XFT Interview

Matt, Ben and the fine folks over at Newsarama have posted an interview I did with them about my upcoming X-Men Fairy Tales series for Marvel. They also have some beautiful preview pages showcasing Sana's amazing work from issue one. Please head over and check it out!

http://www.newsarama.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1913163

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance

In the new issue of Game Informer magazine, issue 157 with Red Steel on the cover, there's a six page article debuting the new video game I've been hard at work on with Raven and Activision, MARVEL: Ultimate Alliance. I've been serving as a story consultant and it's been a blast! While it uses the same engine that the X-Men Legends games were based on, Ultimate Alliance stars the entire Marvel Universe cast of characters and takes action/RPG gaming to a level you will not believe! The story's pretty awesome and the graphics are simply incredible. The article features all kinds of concept art, screenshots and designs, so please be sure to check it out. And it even name checks yours truly, although miscredited as an editor still. :)

1up.com has also picked up on the news:

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3149663

Box From Japan

Just got a new box of goodies from Japan thanks to Aki. Lots of AWESOME stuff this month!

The new S Magazine, one of the best issues in a while in my opinion, with a Masamune Shirow interview and an amazing Kei Kobayashi piece. One of his best yet!

Three new comics by Ryusuke Hanamoto, one of my new favorites

The new issue of Champion RED with the first part of the new Witchblade manga

Sho-u Tajima's new artbook, Girls on Light Velocity. Everyone needs a copy of this!

The fifth issue of Robot

The new Ultimate Spider-Man gashapon from Kaiyodo, which are amazing! Mark Bagley's artwork brought to sculpted life!

And the incredible new Range Murata artbook, formcode

A perfect way to spend a rainy day!

Hate My Writing Sometimes

Sometimes your writing comes back and smacks you in the face and I hate when that happens.

I usually hold on to my scripts until the last minute and reread and tweak them endlessly. I want them to be perfect when I turn them in. And once I've handed them in and they're sent to an artist, I like to forget about them for while. But only for a little while. There's a satisfaciton that comes along once you've finished a script; a weight is lifted off your shoulders after hitting send on the e-mail to your editor. It's always such a great feeling.

Then there're days like today where I feel they've come back to haunt me.

I read two of my new books today and I hate some of what I wrote. Specifically, I'm talking about New Mangaverse 4 and X-Men Fairy Tales 1. It all sounds so good in your head when you're envisioning it and typing it. The dialogue flows, the characters move, you hit all the right beats. But it's never the same when it's illustrated and printed. Now don't get me wrong, I could not be happier with the art Tommy and Sana did on these books. They LOOK great! I'm worried I failed in the scripting department though. I think some of the dialogue in Mangaverse falls a bit flat. The jokes don't play as well as they should. And in XFT, I think I wrote it a bit too formally. I tried to make it more of a serious fairy tale, a cautionary tale, but I think I made thr narrative voice too stiff. I went it and did some rewrites today as we had time, but I still don't know if it comes off as naturally as I hoped it would.

Some writers I know could care less about the final product. They turn in the script, cash their check and never worry about it again. I can't do that. I'm more hands on. I want to be a part of every step of the creative process. Everything needs to be perfect. Yes, I'm probably my harshest critic, but I can't help beat myself up month after month when I know I could have done a better job... at least in my mind.

I know, I know... Suck it up, Cebulski!

On Sale 4/19

New Mangaverse 4, the penultimate issue of my five part Marvel mini-series goes on sale this Wednesday. I'm actually pretty happy with this issue, and Tommy's art kicked ass this month! Please check it out.

Now on My Space

Chesterfest is also now on My Space.

http://www.myspace.com/chesterfest

Not sure exactly what I even doing there yet, but I hear it helps for promotion and networking.

I have six friends already. Yay!

Weekend TV

No real reviews to post, but I always enjoy seeing the lovely Lindsay Lohan and thought this week's episode of Saturday Night Live was better than usual. Journey to the Disney Vault cracked me up. I thought Laser Cats could have been fuinnier though.

And the J.J. Abrams produced/Dana Stevens created What About Brian started yesterday as well. And as I'm a sucker for romance stories of any kind, this show was right up my alley! I actually really enjoyed it.

New Otomo Project

And I just mentioned Katsuhiro Otomo yesterday...

Well, it seems he's got a new project coming up, one called Freedom Project actually. It's part of a Nissin CUP NOODLE advertising campaign and the preview is online here: http://freedom-project.jp/

You can get a little info on it, download some wallpaper, check out a 15 second animated commercial, and follow the countdown clock to the launch. The countdown is in seconds, but if my math is right, it looks like Freedom Project will start in about in a little over a week.

Thanks for pinting this out, Aki!

Enjoy, folks!

World Premiere

Marvel has given me the OK to debut some art from X-Men Fairy Tales #3 here online. Thanks, Jimmy Mac!

First off, the cover...

Like most writers, I keep a list of "dream artists" who I would love to work with one day. Renowned French illustrator Claire Wendling's name sits firmly in the my top three. So I could not be happier to announce that Claire will be bringing her artistic grace to our cover this issue:


I believe this might even be her American comics debut...

A heartfelt thanks to my friend Olivier Jalabert for helping make this happen! I owe you, brother!

Katsuhiro Otomo... I'm coming for you next!

And speaking of manga artists, the issue's intertiors will be illustrated by one of the most talented and accliamed artists currently working in Japan, Kei Kobayashi! Kei was my partner-in-crime on the masterful Medusa story in the I (Heart) Marvel special that received rave reviews, and he's going to top himself on this story. See for yourself:


X-Men Fairy Tales #3 is on sale in July and available for pre-order in the upcoming Diamond Previews catalog!

A New Career?

I took apart my Mac this weekend to replace the keyboard. Not much work really, but I'm amazed that their laptop keyboards are one simple removable piece. If this comic writing career ever dries up I guess I can always go work for Apple tech support now. :)

I had to replace it as I wore away over half the letters on the keys, as you can see. I could still type as I've come to instinctively learn where the letters are, which I guess is how most normal people type. No, I never took typing in high school so this is all new to me. Still, there were too many mistakes happening as I couldn't tell 'E' from 'R' as I looked down and it was becoming time-consuming going back and fixing every line of script. So Apple hooked me up with a new one for free and now I'm good to go!

Gotta love Mac!!

On Sale This Week, 4/5