Short

Just got back from the barber shop. Went in for a quick early summer cut, and I have to say, it may be the only buzz I have to get all summer. I asked the guy to go short, but he went way shorter than I expected. Damn! Usually he goes in and takes one pass and I have to tell him to go a little shorter, but this time he went right for the scalp on the first go-around. It's tough for me to judge in the mirror too as I have to keep my glasses off when he cuts or I would have stopped him. Oh, well... at least I got my 18 bucks worth!

I used to get my hair cut four times a year, my "quarterly cut" as my buddy Chris G. used to say. I've been going bi-monthly these days, trying to keep up the clean cut appearence at conventions and family gatherings. But the way this guy chopped me this time, I may be good all the way through Toronto Con come Memorial Day!

The Magic of Guru eFX

The final version of the Sienkiewicz X-Men Fairy Tales page I posted earlier this month, courtesy of the color cowboy himself, Lee Duhig!

Good Grub in Charlotte, NC?

Alright, time to put the power of the internet to the test!

I'm heading down to Charlotte, North Carolina for Heroes Con this weekend. I hear it's an amazing convention and it should be a lot of fun!! I'm looking forward to seeing anyone else on this list who's heading down there.

Now for me, trips to conventions are about two things... comics and FOOD!! As you can tell by looking at the size of me, I love to eat and there's nothing I like more than chowing down at local eateries wherever I travel. I've gotten pretty good over the years, knowing where to get the best cheesesteaks in Philly, fish tacos in San Diego and hot dogs in Chicago. However, this is my first trip to Heroes Con and I need your help!

Where do I go to get good grub in Charlotte?!

Bear in mind, I'm not a classy guy. I don't need recommendations for five star restaurants. I want to know where the down home, off the beaten path, greasy spoon joints are. I wanna eat where the locals eat. And I eat anything, so don't hold back. Grease, spice and calories do not scare me!

I assume BBQ is gonna be on the menu. I've heard all about these amazing NC mustard based sauces. Which place does it best? What else do you think I would enjoy? What do I have to try before I head back to NYC?

Hook me up, folks!!

It Ain't Tone

I was up at Marvel today and finally got to see Kei Kobayashi's pages for X-Men Fairy Tales 4 that just came in. OH MY GOD! My jaw dropped! They are absolutely amazing!! I can honestly say that there is no artist working in comics today that does what he does, stylistically and/or technically. I have no idea how he gets ink to do what it does on his pages. The line weights and layering are one thing, but he creates these fine textures and gradients that even some of the artists in the office couldn't figure out. If there's one book that ever deserved a black and white version, it's this one.

I'll share pages as soon as we have scans.

Lost in Love

I've been on an Air Supply kick recently. I have no idea why.

Yes, it's acceptable to make fun of me for this.

This Week's Comics

A bunch of people have e-mailed over asking if I still read as many comics as I used to given that I haven't posted about comics here in a bit. The answer is "Yes", I read just as much now as I always have. So before you start asking what I've been digging recently, here's what I picked up today, in no particular order...

Ultimates 2 11
Astonishing X-Men 15
New Avengers 20
Eternals 1
Ex Machina 21
Tag 1
Conan 29
The Portent 3
Star Wars Legacy 1
Star Wars Rebellion 3
Noble Causes 21
Iron Man 9
Nova 3
All Star Superman 4
Shadowpact 2
Flash 1
Superman/Batman 27
Robin 151
Casanova 1
Captain America 19
Uncanny X-Men 474
Uncanny X-Men Annual
Wolverine Origins 3
Justice 6
Haunt of Horror 2
Girls 14
Fear Agent TPB
52 Week 7
BLAME! Vol. 4
Naruto Vol. 10
Monster Vol. 3

Me at MOCCA

The Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art is proud to announce it's slate of Summer 2006 Courses. This will include a seires of Friday night seminars, the first one being:

EVERYTHING YOU WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT WORKING IN COMICS
(BUT WERE AFRAID TO ASK, UNTIL NOW)
Instructor: C.B. Cebulski
Class Limit: 40
Pre-Requisites: None
Fee: $10
Friday Night, 7:00 9:30
July 28th
One Night Seminar

Join C.B. Cebulski for this no holds barred question and answer session about making it in the field as an artist or writer. Cebulski's work has been featured in New Mangaverse, X-Men Unlimited, Spider-Man Unlimited and the X-Men Fairy Tales series from Marvel. Having worked as a translator, editor, coordinator, consultant, agent, recruiter, licensor and publisher in the Japanese, European and American comic book markets for the past decade, he's finally discovering what life on the other side of the desk is like as he takes on the role of freelance writer. He'll also be launching a few creator-owned comic series through Image this fall. Refreshments will be served prior to and after the session.

All courses take place in the MocCA Gallery, 594 Broadway, Suite 401, New York, NY 10012.

For more info, or to register, either stop by the MoCCA Gallery or, e-mail Matt. Murray at info@moccany.org, with Summer Education in the subject field.

Dragon Watching

Unable to prowl the outdoors like country cats, the extent of Clyde and Lotto's hunting is usually limited to 99 cent toy mice that Mutsumi and I toss around the apartment for them to chase. However, they also spend countless hours perched in the windows, staring outside at all the birds that fly by and taunt them. Chirps, hoots and the flutter of wings often alert them to the birds' presence and they bound into the windows, tails wagging with their full meow on. But today, they both started going crazy staring out the living room window, but as far as we could see there was nothing out there... until closer inspection. As it first caught our eyes, it was like a big black streak that just zoomed by, but then the shape came back and hovered there in place. Both Mutsumi and I had to get up to see what it was as it was clearly not a bird. And just as we did, it landed on our air conditioner... the biggest dragonfly I had ever seen! It was about the size of a pigeon! I shit you not. The thing was enormous! The cats both lunged forward scaring it back into flight, but it continued to hover around the window driving them nuts. I wish I'd gotten a picture of this thing as it was out of control! I didn't know they could get that big! Now I'll keep watching the news for reports of mutant dragonflies terrorizing kids in Central Park.

Finally Feels Like Summer

We have not had to use our air conditioner yet this year. The temperature really hasn't creeped up that high so far. Nights have been comfortable with just the windows open. Until this weekend. Temps and humidity climbed come Friday and it was time to crank up the AC. However, as both Mutsumi and I are sick, her with her throat and me with my chest, sleeping in the cold was not the best idea. So we sweated it out uncomfortably last night. Uggghhh!! :(

In with the New and Old

Since you can't go anywhere these days without hearing "Crazy", Mutsumi had me download the Gnarls Barkley album. After a few listenings, I can't say I'm all that into it, but I'll give it a few more spins. Truth be told, new music and me don't really mix all that well these days. However, I love the fact they do all their promo photos as famous onscreen duos and their MTV Movie Awards appearence decked out as Star Wars characters was awesome!

I did also download a handful of older Bon Jovi tracks I was missing and they still ROCK!!!

Cost Perception

I have no idea why I'm going to share this...

I'm a creature of habit. When I find something I like, I stick with it. This is especially true when it comes to personal hygiene. I use the same brands of deodorant, shampoo, toothpaste, shaving cream, razors, whatever... for as long as I can remember. The only time I change is when the product I like is discontinued, and then I just find something similar and use that for as long as can be. Speed Stick and Noxema have been making money off me for decades. But this actually has nothing really to do with my story...

The other day I'm in my local Price Wise and I remember I need shampoo. These days I'm using Herbal Essences. (It used to be Salon Selectives until they stopped making that, then Fructis until they discontinued the kind I liked.) So I walk in, see my shampoo and grab it; $3.49 for their Fruit Fusions blend of mandarin, starfruit and papaya. But as I turn to the register, a bottle of Bed Head's TIGI shampoo catches my eye. You see, Mutsumi bought a bottle of this stuff on sale a while back and I really dug it once she convinced me to try it. The problem is the stuff is like $10.00 for a small bottle and I refuse to pay much that for shampoo.

As we're leaving I turn to Mutsumi and tell her "One day, if we ever get rich, I'm gonna start using TIGI." She turns to me with a confused look on her face and simply asks "You'll pay $20 for a round of beers for you and your buddies that lasts you all of 15 minutes but won't pay $10 for a bottle of shampoo that will last you a month?!" And that got me thinking...

So for the last few days, whenever I've spent money, I've put it in terms of bottles of TIGI. I was late meeting a friend for dinner and took a cab instead of the subway and that cost me about 2 bottles of TIGI. That dinner cost me 5 bottles of TIGI. I went out with the boys on Thursday night and dropped about 6 bottles of TIGI on pints and whiskey. Spent 4 bottles of TIGI at Whole Foods on steaks and swordfish. We went to Cold Stone Creamery and spent a little over one bottle of TIGI on two ice cream cones, fer chrissakes! So as dumb as it sounds, it's made me put a lot of my spending into perspective. One simple question about one bottle of overpriced shampoo has made me look at the way I drop my hard-earned cash. Weird, huh? But what's weirder is that while mentally I can still justify spending the money on fine dining and boozing, I still can't see myself spending it on hair care.

The true test will be next month when my Herbal Essence runs out and I have to go back to Price Wise for shampoo. Will I be able to shell out the cash for the damn TIGI?! Stay tuned, I guess...

Call of the Wild

I feel almost guilty posting these...

We had the camera out and were taking pictures inside the apartment the other day when Lotto and Clyde started "playing". At first it was a little harmless rolling and tumbling, but then Clyde got a little rough. We were able to turn and snap a few quick clicks before I had to jump in and break them up. It was Animal Kingdom right here on the Upper West Side...

Lazy Saturday

I'm home sick today. It sucks as I was supposed to head up to my buddy Mike Marts' house for a little summer BBQ action, but my chest is killing me and I'm coughing up a storm. Mutsumi's sick too with a terrible sore throat and headache, so we're both down for the count. She's been resting in bed while I've parked myself on the couch to watch the World Cup.

First off, I just noticed each World Cup game has its own custom balls. If you look closely, each ball has the names of the two teams playing that specific match. Pretty awesome!

In the first match today, Ghana upset the Czech Republic 2 to 1. It was a great game that Ghana clearly deserved to win as they outplayed the Czechs right from the kick off. This game actually took me back to my old CPM days as I had two friends there, Karel from the Czech Republic and Freddy from Ghana, who were both big soccer fans. Karl's up in Boston these days and Freddy's back in Ghana, but I'm 100% sure they were watching the game. Would have been a blast two watch it with them together. But I'm sure Freddy's partying it up at the moment, celebrating the victory, while Karel's crying in his beer. Sorry, big guy!

Old CPM memories also surfaced in the second match, the USA vs. Italy, as I kept thinking about my old pal Valerio, who's now back in Italy. Depsite all the time he spent in the States, I'm positive Val was rooting for his home team, but shitty officiating kind of ruined that match, which ended in a tie. Oh, well...

Time to go read some comics now...

Phoenix Anime Fest

BLAME! creator Tsutomu Nihei and I will be guests at the Phoenix Anime Fest on December 1-3 later this year.

http://www.phoenixanimefest.com/

Sweden Wins!!

They just beat Paraguay 1-0!!

Soccer was always my sport and I am loving the World Cup!!

The Test of Time

As some of you may know, I'm currently writing an autobiographical anthology about the misspent adventures of my youth. The first issue of Wonderlost, a 64 page tell-all of teenage romance, hits stores in October/November. I'll be talking more about the project and posting art and more details as we get closer to the release date.

To put me in the mood for writing these stories, I've downloaded a lot of old albums I was listening too back in the day, from 1985 to1989, most of which I still own but are on cassette tape down in the basement of my parents home. It's amazing how some albums stand the test of time and others don't.

U2's War and Live At Red Rocks are still musical masterpieces.

Depeche Mode's early singles from 81-85 don't hold up so well. What the hell I was thinking listening to some of these tracks?! Black Celebration still kicks ass though.

Jury's still out on Yaz's Upstairs at Eric's. Some of the songs still make me emtional and bring up lost memories. Others make me cringe!

Newly Inspired!

Well, I'm thinking about getting back into the blogging game again! I had a little crisis of faith (more on that some other day) in mid-April and that's why my blogging kind of slowed to a near halt over the past few months, with only a few random self-promotional posts appearing here and there. However, I feel like I have to get back on the wagon again. And credit where credit is due, I have Tom Brevoort to thank for my newfound inspriation. He just started his Blah Blah Blog over on marvel.com and has been posting like a madman. All his posts have been enjoyable and enlightening and he's encouarged me to start talking again. (But only after I finish my scripts for him!) Thanks, Tom!

So my babbling starts again! Updates on work and life, reviews, quotes, recipes, drunken rants, whatever... it will all be back!

Spread the word!

XFT 2 On The Way!

X-Men Fairy Tales 2, featuring the incredible art of Kyle Baker, goes on sale Wednesday, June 21st. This issue looks at the relationship of Professor X and Magneto as told through the African folktale of "The Friendship of the Tortoise and the Eagle". Issue one sold out, so be sure to reserve your copy today!



Visit http://csls.diamondcomics.com/ to find the shop nearest you.

I just got in Sienkiewicz pages...

...and had to share! This is a scene from X-Men Fairy Tales #4, where our blind "prince" discovers a raven-haired "sleeping beauty"!