New Mangaverse: Rings of Fate

My first Marvel project was officially announced today, New Mangaverse: The Rings of Fate, a five issue mini-series with Tommy Ohtsuka starting in January 2006!



You can read a brief article about it here: http://www.marvel.com/company/showarticle.htm?id=141

Marvel's full January solcitiations can be found here: http://www.newsarama.com/marvelnew/Jan06/Jan05solicits.html

Chicago Bound

I'll be heading to Chicago later this week for The Reactor convention, which is a great show that tries to blend Japanese and Western pop culture into a wonderful weekend event. You can check out their site at www.thereactor.org. It's being held at this place called "the purple hotel", and whenever they mentioned it to me I thought was a nickname for it... but it actually is The Purple Hotel! Me, Takeshi Miyazawa, Rivkah, Felipe Smith, Skottie Young, Mark Robinson and a lot lot of other cool folk will be hanging out, so for anyone in the Chicago area, please feel free to stop by. I don't have a confirmed schedule yet, but it looks like I'll be doing at least two panels:

SATURDAY: 3 PM -> Future of Manga in America
A guest round-table panel with C.B Cebulski, Takeshi Miyazawa, Melly Curphy, Rivkah and Felipe Smith discussing the future of Manga in America. Q & A with opinions and comments exchanged between guests and con-goers.

SUNDAY: 10 AM -> Comics World With Takeshi and C.B.
A colloboration panel with long-time friends and colleagues C.B. and Takeshi, discussing anything anyone would like to talk about.

Also, on Thursday night, I hear we'll be at a place called Hogs and Honeys downtown where they'll be buying me shots trying to get me to ride the mechanical bull. I held out last year, but will I be able to do it again this year?!

TV Thoughts

I read this this morning and it kinda shocked me: "NBC giving a full-season pickup to its fantasy-mystery drama series Surface."

I was sure this show was getting the axe. I stopped watching 10 minutes in to episode 2 and never looked back. I had high hopes for it but was utterly disappointed. So while I'm at it, here's some other musing on the current TV slate...

New Shows

Invasion - I went to a panel and saw the first episode in San Diego. It was some of the worst writing and acting I'd ever seen. I do not know how this show get by. I continue to laugh at the ads.

Threshold - Gave up after two episodes.

My Name Is Earl - A new favorite. Hillbilly humor with heart.

Prison Break - I'm a loyal viewer. You have to suspend reality a bit while you watch it but it keeps you on the edge of your seat.

How I Met Your Mother - Fun stuff. Doogie rocks!

Rome - Really enjoying this. It just keeps getting better ever week.

Extras - Wasn't too into it but kept watching as Ricky Gervais cracks me up. This last ep with Sam Jackson was hilarious though. I'll keep watching.


Returning Shows

Medium - This is Mutsumi's show and Patricia Arquette should not have won the Emmy, but season two has actually been a vast improvement over season one.

Law and Order - I miss Jerry Orbach, but Dennis Farina's doing a good job. My least favorite of the three L&O series, but it's the original and still solid so it continues to be a must watch for me.

L&O: Criminal Intent - Detective Goran is one of my favorite TV characters ever, so when D'Onoforio went on break I didn't think I'd keep watching, but Chris Noth and Annabelle Sciorra are doing a great job.

L&O: SVU - Moving a bit away from the actual crimes and focusing more of the characters these last few eps, but the acting is just so damn good!

Desperate Housewives - Still enjoying the twists and turns on this one. I continue to hate Edie and Bree is better than ever.

Grey's Anatomy - Fell in love with this the first season and it just gets better IMO.

Curb Your Enthusiasm - This season's episodes have been some of the funniest yet. Larry David kills.

CSI - Haven't watched CSI since season one (except for the QT ep) but I've enjoyed what I've seen so far.

Boston Legal - I miss some of the old cast members but David E, Kelley still keeps this fun.

And then there are my MTV/VH1 addictions, Breaking Bonaduce, Laguna Beach, Sweet Sixteen and Best Week Ever. You can laugh but you know you're watching too!

Sunday Night Lotto

As Mutsumi says I'm neglecting Lotto on the blog again, here's a new pic of the eternal sleeper...

I Can't Believe I'm Admiting This

We watched A Lot Like Love last night... and I actually enjoyed it.

I can't stand Ashton Kutcher. And my brother has a huge thing for Amanda Peet that I just don't get. So you think I'd hate this one, right? But they actually had some decent chemistry between them! Trust me, I'm as surprised as anyone. Now I wouldn't recommend it as a 'Must See DVD', but given some of the other cheesy, romantic crap we've seen flooding theaters recently (Reese Witherspoon as a ghost?!), this was definitely a cut above the rest. I have to say, even the writing wasn't that bad.

Predictable, yes, but more witty and original than it had any right to be. ALLL becomes another of my guilty pleasures.

Now stop laughing at me!

Under The Influence

Over on The Engine, Warren Ellis recently asked who readers felt were the five biggest influences on them as creators. I took this to mean the people who influenced me to want to BECOME a creator; the talents whose work actually set me on the path to wanting to pursue a career as a writer. So after spending too much time thinking about it, below are the five people I posted as my response to the question.

George Lucas - who set my imagination alight
Jim Morrison - who taught me the power of words
Chris Claremont - who started my comic book addiction
John Hughes - who brought "my reality" into ficiton
Haruki Murakami - who made me love reading again

Ah, Albuquerque

I just downloaded a blast from the past, the classic New Order album Substance. Yes, a lot of these songs have become much more popular over time thanks to Adam Sandler movie soundtracks and bad punk remakes, but this is a truly amazing collection of music. Takes me back to my teens when I spent a little time in New Mexico and had the time of my life. Ah, the good old days... but for anyone who hasn't listened to this album in a while, I highly recommend you pop it into your player of choice and enjoy the electonica of old!

20 Years in the Making?!

I'd heard somewhere that Final Fantasy: Advent Children had finally come out here on DVD here, so I went to Amazon to check it out and hopefully order a copy. Here's what it said:

Final Fantasy VII - Advent Children (2005)

Availability: This item will be released on December 31, 2025. You may order it now and we will ship it to you when it arrives.

Will I still want to see this when I'm 54?

Marvel Tease Two

As traffic here seems to be way up thanks to the Newsarama article, I think it's time for a second tease of my upcoming Marvel project...

"Just When I Think I'm Out..."

An interview about my "return to comics" is now up over at Newarama...

http://www.newsarama.com/cebulski/Return/CebulskiReturn.htm

Blog Spam?

Does anyone know how to stop this? It's driving me crazy!!

Always Get The Girl!

Don't Elisa Dushku and I make the perfect couple?!

Clyde Gallery

Long overdue Clyde pics...

I Must Tease

So my first Marvel project got approved and we have an artist attached...

Ad of the Week

Combining two of my food favorites, sushi and Swedish Fish... Brilliant!

Empty Theaters

One thing I love about working freelance and setting my own hours is that I can go to the movies whenever I want. I usually go to the first showings of the day during the week, around noon here in NYC, when most normal people are in work and all the kids are in school. The theaters are usually empty with only a handful of people at these shows. It's quiet, no one talks, no cell phones go off, no laser pointers, no screaming babies. I love the fact that I can get a row all to myself anywhere I want and sit there and take in the cinemeatic experience with no distractions. It's the only way to fly!

I saw SERENITY yesterday and I loved it. It had some very surprising moments, but I won't spoil anything. There were a few things I didn't like, but when 95% of the movie was excellent, why bitch about little, nitpicky things, right? Please go see this film, support Joss, and spend your $10 in support of this amazing but underrated sci-fi gem.

Back in Blogging Action!

It starts today. Daily updates are back! I promise. I'll try and keep this blog as interesting and informative as I can (which I guess all depends on how interesting and informative you find the crap I post here) but it may just be a dumb link or picture from time to time. But there'll be something here for you to see and read on a regular basis.

Wizard World Boston was fun. The show itself was kind of slow which was just fine with me as it meant I had more time to hang out and chat with friends and do some long overdue back issue shopping. I picked up a bunch of old Marvel Fanfare issues for a buck a piece which are just awesome. Issues 34-37, featuring a Charles Vess Warriors Three story, are just amazing. Issue 34 also has a Mignola Marvel villains pin-up section in the back that kicks ass. I'm still not having any luck finding Power pack 46 though.

The con was held at the Bayside Expo Center which is outside of Boston and where there's really not much to do. So one night, instead of going into Boston, we went over to an all-night bowling alley and bowled our asses off. The evening got off to kind of a funny start though as I ripped my jeans wide open on my first toss. Took a little convincing when I got home to make Mutsumi believe it really happened at a bowling alley.

I was also able to get a lot of thinking done on the bus rides up and back and jotted down a lot of good ideas, all of which I hope will bear fruit someday. So all in all, the weekend trip, while uneventful compared to other cons, was a friendly, low-key, creative excursion that was well worth taking.

Oh, and I got to meet Elisa Dushku, the new love of my life, but I'll be posting more about that later!

Star Wars Always Makes Me Smile

How great would it be if this was an actual picture taken during the filming/promotion of Empire Strikes Back?

Yes, I Live

Yeah, I suck. It's been like what, two weeks since I posted here? Sorry.

Things these past ten days have been crazy. I was asked to attend Marvel'e editorial retreat, which was a lot of fun but takes up a lot of time. A number of other creators flew in for it as well, so the evenings were full of dinners and drinking. Mark Millar himself has like three parties. I think I must have eaten with Mutsumi only once or twice the whole time. (Sorry, honey.) Then, with any free time I had, I was trying my best to keep up with e-mail, polish two proposals, and finish a few scripts. Yeeeessh! I feel like I need to sleep for a week.

I'm off to Wizard World Boston tomorrow, but promise regular posting and plenty of pictures starting next week. Oh, and a Limonciello update, as that's moving along...

Introspective

Everything I've been writing recently has been straight-up fiction. So tonight, when I sat down to write an autobiographical short story, it felt a little weird to be writing about myself again. It was a comic script too, so I had to describe what was going on with me in each scene, bascially explaining in detail what I was doing panel-to-panel. I was looking at myself in my minds-eye as a comic book character. So while writing things like "I take a step toward Jesse, who sits on the steps, a concerned look on my face." made me feel a little odd, describing my clothes and emotions and actions took a lot out of me as I was basically reliving this moment from my past for someone else to illustrate and eventually share with other people in comic book format.