Buffal-arrgghh!!

Buffalo wings are probably my favorite food on the planet. They're my choice for my "last meal before dying". So I'm always on the look out for great wings (recommendations always welcome!) and tend to order them of the menu of whatever new restaurant/bar/pub I visit. I also have the bad habit to being attracted to any kind of "buffalo style" snack foods I find in supermarkets, like chips and cheeses, and these are usually ALWAYS disappointing. But today's find takes the cake for crappiest buffalo style flavored product ever...



I can't even begin to describe the taste of these bite-sized bits of barf it was so revolting. It's not chicken. It's not buffalo sauce. They're a just a jumbled mess of processed who-knows-what with some kind of unidentifiable heat/spice added that instantly makes you want to spit it out if you put one in your mouth.

It's too bad too because as far as mass market, packaged jerkys go, Jack Links usually does a good job, like with their Prime Rib Tender Cuts. But I recommend avoiding these buffalo "chicken" ones at all costs! Trust me on this.

Merry Christmas!

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Jubilee Sneak Peak

A quick couple cropped panels of Jubilee, illustrated by the amazing team of Mike Choi and Sonia Oback, from the story Jim McCann and I wrote for Nation X #2!

Just To Be Sure

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Mobile Test

Trying out the new eBlogging app from my iPhone.




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Three Alternate Ideas for Turkey Leftovers

If you're tired of turkey sandwiches on Black Friday, here are three quick ideas for more "international" ways to cook up your leftovers...

1. Break up nice chunks of turkey by hand and fry them in a pan with Korean kimchi. I personally prefer using cabbage kimchi, cut into bite-size pieces with scissors. Serve over rice.

2. Shred the leftover turkey and mix it with shredded pepperjack cheese and minced garlic. Stuff into whole cubanelle peppers after removing just the tops. I use a grapefruit spoon. Let them then sit in the fridge for a few hours to harden. Take out and grill or bake till the peppers blister and the cheese melts.

3. Fry bite-sized cubes of turkey with olive oil, diced onion and chopped garlic. In a separate pan, heat some dry white wine then add in heavy cream and a few pinches of coarse black pepper. Reduce till it thickens into a sauce. Add in the turkey you fried. Then mix in penne al dente and saute it all on low heat for a couple minutes.

Anyone got any other simple, original ideas? Please share.

Beer Me

Whenever I travel I do my best to try as many of the local culinary customs as I can. And that includes beer. I make it a point to drink the best local beers and microbrews I can at the bars and pubs of whatever city I'm in. But it recently dawned on me that whenever I come back to NYC, I always fall back into old habits and order my usual pints of Bass or Magic Hat. Which is a shame as New York boasts a pletora of amazing local breweries! So I've started consciously adapting my drink orders to sample as many local NY beer offerings as I can when out and about here in my hometown these days.

This week's recommended brews of choice are Ithaca Apricot Wheat and Allagash White, both enjoyed at the Fat Cat on Christopher St.

Correction: I just discovered I was misinformed and Allagash is actually brewed in Portland, ME.

Toronto, Here I Come!

This year, for the first time, I'll be throwing one of my Chesterfest bashes here in Toronto, Chesterfest North! Here's a look at the invite, featuring me and the lovely ladies of Canada's own Alpha Flight, illustrated by the insanely talent Adrian Alphona!

FanExpo Toronto Schedule

Here's where I'll be, what I'll be doing and where you'll find me this weekend...

Friday, August 28

Dark Reign Panel – 6 to 7PM, Room 714

Pint of C.B. – My Annual Breaking into Comics Panel – 7 to 8PM, Room 714

Signing at the Marvel Booth (#538) – 8 to 9PM, bring comics!

Saturday, August 29

Cup O’ Joe Panel – 4 to 5PM, Room 716

Signing at the Marvel Booth (#538) – 5 to 6PM, bring more comics!

Sunday, August 30

Signing at the Marvel Booth (#538) – 12:00 to 1:00PM, bring even more comics! And water. And Tylenol with codeine. (Do they still sell it over-the-counter in Canada?

Marvel Your Universe Panel – 3 to 4PM, Room 714

Mondo Marvel Panel, 4 to 5PM, Room 717

When I'm not in any of these places, you should be able to find me either at the Marvel booth or at my Artists Alley table.

See you this weekend!

'Nuff Said

CBC at SDCC 2009

Here's where you'll find me the rest of the week:

WEDNESDAY, JULY 22nd
7:30PM - 8:30PM: Signing @ the Marvel Booth
Later in the evening: Probably at the TweetUp, then over at the Hyatt later.

THURSDAY, JULY 23rd
11:30AM - 12:30PM: My First Secret Twitter Portfolio Review (Follow @cbcebulski for details)
1:00PM - 2:00PM: Mondo Marvel Panel @ Room 6DE
3:30PM - 4:300PM: The Breaking Into Marvel Panel @ Room 6DE
5:00PM - 6:00PM: Signing @ the Marvel Booth
Later in the evening: Some parties, probably at the Hyatt again later.

FRIDAY, JULY 24th
11:00PM - Noon: X-Men Panel @ Room 6DE
12:00PM - 1:00PM: Game Show @ the Marvel Booth
2:00PM - 3:00PM: Cup 'O Joe Panel @ Room 6BCF
4:00PM - 5:00PM: My Second Secret Twitter Review (follow @cbcebulski for details)
Later in the evening: A couple parties, probably at the Hyatt later.

SATURDAY, JULY 25th
11:300PM - 12:30PM: Dark Reign Panel @ Room 6A
1:30PM - 2:30PM: My Third Secret Twitter Review (follow @cbcebulski for details)
4:00PM - 5:00PM: The Comic Experience Panel @ TBD
Later in the evening: Several parties, probably at the Hyatt later.

SUNDAY, JULY 26th
Noon - 1:00PM: My Last Secret Twitter Review (follow @cbcebulski for details)
2:00PM - 3:00PM: Game Show @ the Marvel Booth
3:00PM - 4:00PM: Signing @ the Marvel Booth

Marvel Signing Schedule

The most important times circled in red!

My Omnivore Hundred

The Very Good Taste Blog have something they call The Omnivore's 100 and someone sent it to me to check out, so I figured I'd play along. Below is their list of 100 things that they think every good omnivore should have tried at least once in their life. Bolded are all the items I’ve eaten. Let's see how many I've tried...

C.B.'s Omnivore’s Hundred:

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

So it looks like I'm 79 out of 100. Wow. Living in Japan helped out on a large part of the list though.

I've of course had clam chowder, but never from a sour dough bowl.
I've had absinthe but not the one listed here.
Don't even know what clotted cream tea is.
Not crazy enough to try a scotch bonnet raw.
Not sure what Kaolin is either.
Currywurst I've been dying to eat and will do so in Berlin in October.
And you ain't never getting me to smoke a cigar. So that's out.
Same with tomoatoes. No way.
Everything else, I just haven't had the chance to taste yet, but am looking forward to!

All in all, not too shabby!

Japanese Manga Stamps

We received a box today covered in the the Japanese Postal Service's new stamps celebrating "The 50th Anniversary of Japanese Weekly Comic Books for Boys". Pretty damn cool! Since someone went through the trouble of carefully applying the all the stamps around the shipping labels by hand, we naturally assumed the box was for me, sent by one of my otaku friends in Japan. Wrong. It was for Mutsumi, which cracked me up. Guess Kobe's postal meters were busted last week, or they were really pushing these stamps!

So, how many different manga series can you identify here?

Heroes Con Schedule

I'll be at Heroes Con this weekend, June 19th - 21st, in Charlotte, NC. You'll probably be able to find me at table #711 in Artists Alley most of the time, where I'll be selling, signing and reviewing portfolios, but taking breaks to attend the following panels:

FRIDAY, June 19th, 1:00pm-2:00pm, Room 217BCD

MARVEL: Pint o' C.B.
He’s one of the most recognized persons in the comic industry, at the center of many things Marvel. He’s C.B. Cebulski, Writer and Marvel Talent Liaison, and he’s joined by the top writers in the industry to take on all questions and drop a few surprise announcements! Join Brian Michael Bendis (ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN), Matt Fraction (INVINCIBLE IRON MAN), Ed Brubaker (CAPTAIN AMERICA), Mark Waid (AMAZING SPIDER-MAN) and more!

SATURDAY, June 20th, 2:00pm-3:00pm, Room 217BCD

MARVEL: DARK REIGN
He lost, they won. They are the new Masters of the Marvel Universe, and they are NOT nice people. The villains finally have their day, now hear from the folks pulling the strings what happens next. This panel will have the announcement of the next big chapter in Marvel history, so be there for it! Featuring Brian Michael Bendis (DARK AVENGERS, NEW AVENGERS), Matt Fraction (Dark Avengers/X-Men), Jonathan Hickman (SECRET WARRIORS), editor Jeanine Schaefer and Talent Liason C.B. Cebulski.

SUNDAY, June 21st, 3:00pm-4:00pm, Room 217BCD

MARVEL: X-MEN
They thought they’d found a home, a safe haven. They’re about to find out how wrong they were! The world the X-Men built is about to come crashing down, and we have their personal wrecking crew right here to take on your questions, including Matt Fraction (UNCANNY X-MEN) and C.B. Cebulski (X-INFERNUS).

Hope to see you all there!

Breaking Into The Big Two

A few weeks back I made a comment on Twitter about being able to count on my hand the number of artists who broke into comics with their first gig at Marvel or DC. While I made this comment in reference to the number of people who have done so during my time at Marvel, over the past 8 years, the always enterprising Eddy Choi decided to research things a little farther back and sent me over the following list, reprinted with Eddy's permission:

"Hey CB, your recent tweet, "I can count on one hand the number of creators I know who had their 1st writing or art gig on a Marvel or DC book with no prior experience." got me thinking. I used to hunt down back-issues of a creator's first work as a kind of "rookie comic," so I wanted to see how many creators I could find who started at DC or Marvel and here's what I got:

Jason Aaron - Wolverine #75
Chris Bachalo - Sandman #12
Travis Charest - Showcase '93 #3
Jim Cheung - Justice League Task Force #26
Darwyn Cooke - New Talent Showcase #19
Marko Djurdjevic - X-Men: First Class #1
Ron Garney - G.I. Joe #110
Gene Ha - Green Lantern #36
James Jean - Fables #1
Geoff Johns - DCU Heroes Secret Files and Origins #1
Joe Kelly - Fantastic Four 2099 #5
Adam Kubert - Secret Society of Super-Villains #13
Andy Kubert - Savage She-Hulk #20
Jeph Loeb - Challengers of the Unknown #1
Joe Madureira - Marvel Comics Presents #87
George Perez - Astonishing Tales #25
Whilce Portacio - Alien Legion #6
Paolo Rivera - Marvel Double Shot #2
John Romita Jr. - Amazing Spider-Man #146
Jim Shooter - Adventure Comics #346
Marc Silvestri - House of Mystery #292
Walt Simonson - Weird War Tales #10
Chris Sprouse - War of the Gods #1
J. Michael Straczynski - Teen Titans Spotlight
Brian K. Vaughan - Tales From the Age of Apocalypse #2

Btw, one of the first guys to come to mind was Stephen Platt. I still remember when he did Moon Knight #55 and it was such a splash for an unknown guy to be so popular right off the bat. I found out later that he did a cover for an independent company earlier in the year, so I didn't include him in the above list, but I'm sure there are plenty of guys like that who just got one little thing published somewhere before getting their first storytelling work.

Another example is Olivier Coipel who got a single character published in Resident Evil Magazine #3 through WildStorm and then years later, he drew Legion of Super-Heroes #122. Techincally, his first work is Resident Evil, but like Platt, I could see where some would say his first work is actually LoSH, b/c I don't think he really used that previous piece to land work at DC."

Wow! That's a pretty damn impressive list. Thanks for compiling it and sharing, Eddy. And couple artists I can add off the top of my head are...

Skottie Young - Iceman #3
Adrian Alphona - Runaways #3 (although it may technically be an Exiles pinup in X-Men Unlimited.)

But I know there are probably a few more that I'm blanking on now. Anyone care to play along and try to add to the list?

Update from Mark Waid: "Not to undercut your point, which is FAR more applicable today than it was in the two-horse-town days of the '70s and early '80s, but, yeah...my first published gig was Action Comics #572, Oct 1985."

Too Cute Not To Film

Caught this on my camera yesterday afternoon, these two active little kittens were having a playful Sunday here on Broadway in NYC as they waited for the right person to come along and adopt them...

Supermarket Signage

This sign always cracks me up and makes the ride up in Fairway's elevator that much more bearable...

Another Post-Con Image

And sometimes when you meet an artist at a portfolio review you'll make an off-hand comment about a Marvel character you think would look cool illustrated in that artist's style. Say, like... Venom. Then you open up an e-mail weeks later and find a kick-ass piece of art like this...

Caricatures

Yes, sometimes the artists whose portfolios I review at the various cons I travel to like to follow up with an image commemorating our meeting...




And while I greatly appreciate them all, some can be more flattering than others. :)

Star Wars meets Wall*E

My buddy Agent_M just posted this and it's so damn cool I had to steal it to share...

Battle of the P.I.s

By now, I'm sure most people who visit this blog have seen the HAN SOLO P.I. video that's been making the rounds on the net. Well, here's something else that crossed my desk that you may not have seen yet, a side-by-side comparison with the original Magnum P.I. opening...



Snagging the Indiana Jones role away from Tom Selleck wasn't enough for Harrison Ford, was it? He needs to go after his most notable character as well?

Obama in Barcelona

One of the coolest but strangest exhibits of the convention will certainly be the one centered around Barack Obama, where various Spanish artists painted their artistic interpretations of our new President on a large mural that will be displayed all weekend...

The Inner Workings of a Comic Con

David Macho took me over to check out the con center and the show floor layout while they were still setting up earlier. Here are a few quick snapshots I took as the exhibitors all scramble to get ready for the masses tomorrow...

Hola from Barcelona!

Our flight to Barcelona left on time and arrived an hour early. How often does that happen these days?! Go Delta! The mood in the plane was great too as the pilot announced right before take-off that Barcelona had beaten Manchester United 2 to 0 in the Championship League soccer finals. Sorry, Brits!



As we got in early, before 8AM, our rooms weren't ready so we went out for some coffee and pastry, but I ended up having a jamon serrano sandwich, which is always the first thing everyone should eat on arrival in Spain! When we finally did check in we got a room with a view of the Plaza Espanya, which Mutsumi requested as she read on a Japanese blog was the way to go, and they weren't kidding...


Our hotel is right next to the old bullfighting arena, which is now being renovated into a shopping mall that will also house the world's largest collection of rock n' roll memoribilia.


See the clock on the hotel? Our room is all the way to the right of it.

And last time we were here, we discovered this great little Spanish brasserie that served simple yet amazing food, and since it wasn't too far of a walk, we headed over for our first official beers in Barcelona! Cheers!!

Claire Wendling Sky Doll

OK, OK... I hear you. Ever since I tweeted I got news about what Claire Wendling's working on next, people have been constantly asking me for an update on what that project is. Unfortunately for you, I'm not going to break confidences and spill the beans. But to help feed your Claire addictions, I'm happy to post this cover she did that not many of you may have seen. The talented Miss Wendling did this piece for Barbara Canepa and Alessandro Barbucci for a special edition slipcase that shipped when Sky Doll 3 was released in France years ago. Simply amazing, ain't she?!

Move Over Moleskine...

Japanese theaters always sell cool little bobbles and trinkets for fans to buy after they see a movie they like. I always wish we could get a lot of it here. As I helped out my buddy Aki and Paramount Japan with a few Iron Man issues last year, they hooked me up with a lot of the awesome IM keychains, pens and folders they produced for theaters there. Now Watchmen just open in Japan this past weekend and Aki shot me over a pic of one of the goodies they're selling... a reproduction of Rorschach's notebook!

Perfect For Trips To Hoth - Updated

Who needs a Tauntaun to keep you warm when you have R2-D2?!

A friend of mine was cleaning off her camera phone yesterday and sent me this pic, which I may have talked about but don't think I've ever posted an image of. My friend John Paretti's awesome wife hand-knitted me this incredible R2-D2 hat this past winter. I love how it's really subtle in its design, where if you didn't know, you might not even realize it's R2's head on mine.


Think it will clash with my Boba Fett hoodie?

Update: The hat was knitted for me by Sarah Paretti who you can follow on Twitter at http://twitter.com/sairyknits, and to download the pattern, please visit Carissa Knits.

On Sale This Week - A Pleasant Surprise!

I had no idea that the Spider-Man: Legend of the Spider-Clan - Elemental Evil one-shot that Skottie Young and I did together has now been collected in the new SPIDER-MAN: SPIDER-WOMEN DIGEST TPB, on sale today!


SPIDER-MAN: SPIDER-WOMEN DIGEST TPB
COVER BY: RON LIM
WRITER: TOM DEFALCO
C.B. CEBULSKI
PAUL TOBIN
PENCILS: RON LIM
SKOTTIE YOUNG
COLLEEN COOVER
THE STORY:
A heaping helping of timeless tales of Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man! First, MARY JANE takes center stage as she teams up with She-Hulk, Hellcat, Marvel Girl and some other lovely ladies to take on The Enchantress! Next, see what happens when an old television program that features SPIDER-MAN and ARAÑA (with guest appearances by SPIDER-HAM and the SPIDER-MOBILE) returns to haunt SPIDER-GIRL! Plus, Peter Parker — a.k.a. Spider-Man — is the last survivor of the secret ninja group known as the Spider-Clan... or so he thought. But when Peter is attacked at the gravesite of his Uncle Ben, he goes on a quest to learn the truth behind his origins — and he won’t like what he learns! Collecting material from KING-SIZE SPIDER-MAN SUMMER SPECIAL #1, SPIDER-MAN FAMILY #1, AMAZING SPIDER-MAN MAGAZINE, SPIDER-MAN FAMILY FEATURING SPIDER-CLAN #1. Rated A …$9.99

Proof...

...you don't need artistic talent to work in comics. Writers should never draw!




Would you believe someone tried to sell that Red Sonja sketch card for $100 on eBay?!

Personality Goes A Long Way

Retweeting some of my own posts as everyone else seems to be doing it too. :) Edited and expanded a bit here though to clarify and correct my shitty Twitter spelling and grammar...

Talked with a writer today who's been getting some buzz in the indy world & trying to break into the Big Two (Marvel & DC Comics). Thought I'd share a little.

One critical "x-factor" that rarely comes up when talking about breaking in (to comics) but is extremely important is personality.

It's of the utmost importance, especially for writers, that you're able to get along with your editor, mainly, but also with other creators.

Comics is a very collaborative medium. Especially with the Big Two, where we're all playing in a shared universe with numerous characters.

Editors talk to their writers in great detail, often several times a week, and they need to have an instant bond and shared sense of trust.

An editor has to feel comfortable when hiring a writer, no matter how good he or she is, and know they're going to get along....

...both professionally AND personally. Proving you're going to be easy to work with is almost as important as turning in a great pitch.

A Real Giant Robot

To help celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the hit Japanese sci-fi anime series GUNDAM, they've begun constructing a life-size Gundam robot in Odaiba in Tokyo. Scheduled for completion on July 11th, the finished model will stand 18 meters tall and be open to the public. Some early production shots...






I'm not even a big Gundam fan but I think that's pretty damn cool! All the more reason to possibly head over to Tokyo this summer.

You can find more images and information, in Japanese, here: http://gundam.info/topic/2542