In talking about what I was doing, I completely forgot to mention that George Perez and I have a four page story in TEEN TITANS #50, on sale today. It was supposed to be set and handled as if it took place in "our time." So, whatchu think? And next Wednesday the new issue of NIGHTWING hits the stands. Yay!

Labels: Teen Titans #50

Work and meetings have been taking up most of my time. Finished the first issue of a new comic. Can't wait for it to be announced so I can talk about it. It's a complex plot with lots of twists and turns and set ups for future issues, yet I think it stands on its own, too. This is the book I mentioned earlier; I was having trouble working out the plot because I believe you need to set up your series style in that first issue and that takes serious decision making. I also needed to move information along naturally rather than simply have someone tell someone else what was going on. I think I found the way to do it. We'll see.

Meetings have taken me all over LA, and almost all of them required teleconferencing around the country, and indeed, the world. I love teleconferencing; it allows for a more personal approach to a meeting than just a simple phone call. So far all the meetings have gone well.

Had time only to see one movie, WAR, which I would recommend to anyone once they've had their second frontal lobotomy. I like the stars, but God, the movie was dumb. It was also 90 minutes so you know it was probably edited to death. If they thought that would help the film to make some glimmer of sense, it didn't. Or if it did, God help what the original cut was like.

I've got a few graphic novels in the works, a prose novel and some other stuff I still can't talk about. I'm also preparing for another trip overseas. Work has been better than ever and I am incredibly delighted. I tend to be best when busy. I guess it comes under the rule of "If you want something done, give it to a busy person." Now that I've got the work, I've got to do it. Can't wait.

Labels: Work as usual

I'm sad to report that Disney Adventures Magazine is coming to an end after 17 years. I was one of the very first hires on DA way back when, as editor of the comics section. Michael Lynton, now president of Sony Pictures, was the publisher. He was also a dyed-in-the-wool comics fan. The magazine pretty quickly found a huge readership, over a million copies per month, which it still has even now. According to this ARTICLE the cancellation seems to be because of a change in publishing strategy rather than pure sales.

Disney is a company which does a lot of focus group testing, and in all the early tests 90% of the kids interviewed said the comics section was their favorite part of the magazine. This proved to me that kids still love comics and would buy them if we gave them what they were interested in reading and also made it easily accessible. It took nearly a decade for manga to prove that theory right. I still believe comics should be a mass market medium instead of a niche business, but it's going to take a great business plan as well as good books to prove that.

On occasion I'd pick up a copy at the checkout stand and look through it. I loved working on the magazine and frankly I'd never have left if after 4 1/2 years Disney hadn't decided to consolidate all publishing in New York. I'm sorry to see it go, but DA leaves as it arrived; the best-selling comic magazine in the country.

Labels: Disney Adventures

I've been trying to plot my way through this one part of the new book I'm working on for two weeks. I've actually scripted the first 11 pages. I know where the end is supposed to be. It's all been laid out. I know how to get there. I just haven't figured out how the information that leads to the main character getting there can be given to accomplish what needs to be done. I know there are some writers who would just say "The hero overhears it" but I can't do that. To me, stories have to have a progression of logic. Without it the entire house of cards falls. I know I'll figure it out. It might require rewriting everything, but I know it will come. Stories block themselves because something is wrong. It's just a matter of figuring out what that wrong thing is. I'm just hoping by putting the problem into print here I'll force my mind to work on it even more. Guess I'll go back to playing BioShock and hope it comes no later than tomorrow.

Tomorrow. When I head back to the dentist for the first time in God knows how many years. Hmmm. Maybe a dentist could tell him? Maybe while his teeth are being drilled he could...

Sigh. Searching for Plasmids is so easier than writing.

Labels: Writing is harder than playing BioShock

Labels: busybusybusy

Last night was sort of weird, but as my friend Steve says, it's a good time if you get a story out of it. And though this is not a great story, it is a story nonetheless. As I've mentioned before, the TV Academy often hosts special nights for various TV shows. They usually feature most of the cast as well as the creative heads behind the show; creator, writers, Exec. Producers, etc. During Emmy season, which seems to extend from September to August, they also host events which are not theirs, but put on by TV shows that are trying to get an Emmy nomination or, later, the award itself. These are not put on by the Academy but they usually take place in the Academy auditorium. Which is where the problem began.

The event - which was a night on the TV show Boston Legal, was supposed to start at 7PM, so at 6:20 I picked up my friend Steve and we headed off to the Academy. That's where these events are always held. We got there only to see almost nobody in line. We pulled up to the guard gate and asked about the Boston Legal talk. He was completely confused. He showed me his calendar and there was no Boston Legal anywhere on it. Tonight they were showing a movie in the auditorium, the latest Lindsey Lohan thriller. I believe it's called "I Know Who Killed My Career." I'm told she learns the answer when she happens to look into a mirror. At any rate we pull away and start making phone calls. I was positive the talk was tonight. We figured out it must be somewhere else. The first calls we both make aren't answered; nobody is home. They're probably at the Boston Legal function which is supposed to begin in about 20 minutes.

Finally, Steve calls a number and gets the wife of the person he was calling only to learn that it was indeed at the TV Academy. I was vindicated. So we hightail it back only to find out that indeed, "I Know Who Murdered My Hopes & Dreams" was playing. Not Boston Legal. we make more phone calls and discover the event was actually taking place at the Writer's Guild theater. In Beverly Hills. Over the mountains and through the woods. Nowhere near. And it begins now in 10 minutes. I hadn't bothered to read the location event, just the date and time.

So we begin the trip, hightail it over Deep Canyon, and pull into the Writer's Guild parking lot at about 7:25. We figure we've missed a bit of it but we'd catch what we could. We run down to the Guild theater only to see a long line waiting to get in. We weren't late. They were. We made it. We wait a few minutes and then a perky blond from the Guild - or whatever - walks down the line and looks at the end of it and says it's doubtful that we'll get in. The theater is filling up but as there was food and drink beforehand not everyone is inside yet so they don't have a head count. If we want to we can wait but the odds are against us. Several people leave. We wait. Not happy but deciding we'll just head for dinner. Oh, well.

A few minutes later the same woman comes by and issues a one word command. "Stay!" She then leaves. Since we're mostly writers in TV we're actually better than my dog, LD, at taking commands like that. So we stay. A few minutes pass and she comes back and says we can't go inside the auditorium, but they've set up monitors so we can watch from the lobby. And besides, there's plenty of food for us in the meantime. So we're happy.

We enter. Steve and I grab some food, and I notice that they are still trying to get the final stragglers to their seats. I motion to Steve and we slip in, even though we're not supposed to. I guess LD's view of commands rubbed off on me more than I realized. The people who we joined started to move down the aisles. I saw two seats in the back. Hesitantly, I said, "Are those taken?" The people said no, so Steve and I took them. The Guild theater isn't big and no seats are that bad. Somehow, against all odds, we were there. We didn't believe it, but we were.

The event began way late with about ten minutes of great clips from the past season, the season that is up for the Emmy, which was, of course, the purpose of the night. To convince us, who vote, that their show should be getting the statue. Most of the clips were hysterically funny but there were a few very serious moments as well. Boston Legal moves back and forth from serious drama to high comedy, and it is a show I like an awful lot.

After the clips we saw some highlights from the coming season. The films portion of the night ended and the cast was brought in. Everyone was there from William Shatner to their new recruit, John Larroquette. Arianna Huffington of the Huffington Post was the moderator. And between a poorly placed microphone on her and her accent, it was hard to make out what she was saying. It was obvious she loved the show but unfortunately she felt the need to talk about herself for a bit when the evening was not about her but the show. Eventually the questions started and the cast and David Kelley, the show's creator, answered. There were also questions taken from the audience; handed in on index cards. Arianna had problems trying to make sense out of one question when somebody called out that she needed to move her microphone so she could be heard. She did and read the question again word for word from the card. After she did I said to Steve I can now hear it but it still doesn't make any sense. The woman sitting in front of me turned and said Yeah.

Some nights you get great questions asked. This was not one of those nights. With arguably, the best pedigree cast on all of TV, there were no serious questions about what they do. There were some political questions to David Kelley, and a few questions to the cast, but nothing that would make you remember the evening, if you didn't have to go through the Los Angeles version of hell itself to get there. The rapport between Spader and Shatner was evident here as well as on the tube, and Shatner was funny, appropriately so, but the question part wasn't nearly as good as I've seen done in the past.

Not a great evening, but I got a story out of it, so I guess it was still worthwhile.

Note: If you want to read about some of the questions and answers asked, CLICK HERE.

Labels: Boston Legal

Note to all West Coast folk. Leave your homes tonight and look up and to the north east. The PERSEID METEOR SHOWER is coming and tonight and is starting about 11:00PM.

Labels: Perseid Meteor Shower

Note to Noel. We got a defective dog. LD only has ONE nose. Apparently some dogs have MORE.

Okay, I can understand a meteor making its way through the vastness of space and by sheer luck (good or bad I dunno) crashing on Earth. I can understand any two bodies in space somehow hitting each other. But FOUR GALAXIES CRASHING INTO EACH OTHER?

Labels: Crashing galaxies

Krypton was supposed to be a huge planet, but another exoplanet has just been discovered that is 70% larger than Jupiter. WOW!

Nothing much to report. Last week was quiet, mostly recovering from San Diego and getting back to work, mainly avoiding getting back to work, but I can't do that any more as I have to begin a new title, start work on a graphic novel and novel, and begin a few more things as well.

I did watch a bunch of pilots. A month or two back I saw a whole slew of pilots, mostly shows that made the grade and will be on in September or mid-season. There were a few great ones like The Sarah Conner Chronicles, Pushing Daisies, and Back To You, the new Kelsey Grammer, Patricia Heaton, Fred Willard comedy that actually was funny. My next favorite is Chuck which is both fun and quirky in the good way. Journeyman isn't great but interesting and watchable. For awhile at least. Reapers was also fun. Some others need work - and will go unmentioned - because tweaks are being made and it's unfair to rate something before it's completely done. I've also continued watching pilots, some of which didn't make the cut. At least I don't think they did. Among the funniest I saw was something called Lipshitz Saves The World. Probably the most surreal show I've seen this side of Pushing Daisies. All I will say - since you really have to see if to believe it - is that the show basically comes down' to the devil fighting Leslie Nielsen. No. I don't mean Leslie Neilsen playing a character. I mean it's him as himself. Leslie Neilsen is playing Leslie Neilsen. And he recites dialog from Airplane throughout it. Don't ask. It's funny, though. I've seen a lot more that I can't remember, but as I continue to watch them if something really special rears its head I'll give a mention.

In the meantime some of the summer shows have been incredible. Damages is easily the best followed closely behind by Mad Men which I'm enjoying a lot but needs to pick up steam. Haven't caught Saving Grace yet but it's on my TiVo so I will in the next few days. As always, I love Psych and Dead Zone and find Monk enjoyably watchable if not ridiculous. I am so pleased that on the USA network it's the 1970s again, only with spunk. But History Detectives, as always, is my favorite.

Back to work. I'll blog as I can.

Labels: Pilots

Labels: Nightwing mini-toys, Starfire