With Wellington behind and me safely ensconced in my hotel, I met with Jason Brice of Comics Bulletin for a great tour of the city as well the surrounding hillside and down and around a lovely volcano. We stopped at a very nice restaurant situated atop the volcano allowing most incredible views, and we both had a meat pie lunch, an inexpensive but tasty (and very fattening, I'm told) delicacy I first came across in Australia and really came to like. They are sort of like very small pot pies but are made with all manner of different meats, veggies, etc.

Labels: Christchurch

The Wellington leg of the Armageddon Pulp Expo ended last night but the fun was just beginning. Once I knew I was going to New Zealand one of the things I most definitely wanted to do was visit the WETA Workshop. Their work on Lord Of The Rings was so incredible and I think is still the state of the art several years later. Surely nobody has so fully realized a CGI character as well as they did with Gollum. And he was only a small part of the whole. The entire world WETA created for Middle Earth was and remains mind-staggering. It's so much the reason why Noel and I still watch the extended version of the trilogy, back to back, every few months. I'm one of those people who love watching the extras on DVDs and the disks had many extras on the WETA Workshop that I had to see for myself.

Although I was attending Armageddon in New Zealand it was Daniel Zachariou who puts on the Supanova conventions in Australia who facilitated my being able to visit the workshop. Olivia Darling of WETA set it up with long-time designer Daniel Falconer to show us around. Among the many things Daniel designed for LOTR was much of the Elfen world. Fellow comic book pro Nicola Scott, actress Tracy Scoggins and her mom Lillian joined me on the trip.

There's not much I can show you or talk about. Aside from the lobby area, photos were not permitted and we had to sign non-disclosure agreements not to reveal anything we saw. So don’t ask; I ain't saying anything, but...wow.

Daniel brought us into the conference room to meet with WETA founder Richard Taylor who, despite being incredibly busy, talked at length to us about WETA's history, how it was set up, the various projects they did, etc. The conference room itself was filled with much of their work, designs, and a few meaningless objects like all the Oscars they've won. He then showed us a film about WETA before heading off to help set up his son’s birthday party which was going to be taking place at the Workshop later that afternoon. But his mom who was there for the party stayed with us awhile longer and accompanied us on the tour and wound up giving us a lot of inside info we might not have heard otherwise. Don't worry; our lips are sealed.

It's hard to describe the workshop itself. It's crammed with full sized statues, designs, deathmasks, swords, weapons, chainmail, trains, etc. from their various movies, TV shows or just studies. I've been to a number of SFX studios but this one is truly an all-in-one place for just about everything, from fabrication to manufacture, etc.

The tour lasted a bit more than an hour. We also met with artist/designer Greg Broadmore who created Doctor Grordbort's Contrapulatronic Dingus Directory, an incredible hard cover catalogue of weapons, doo-dads and comics that was published through Dark Horse. Even more importantly for me Greg also designed those incredible solid-steel retro rayguns that you see at Comicon and drool over, or least I have ever since they were first made public a few years back. Greg very kindly gave me a signed edition of Doctor Grordbort’s with a special accompanying illustration. If you see his book at a convention or can order it through the mail, do so. It is beautiful.

In about a month a WETA store will be opening down the block from the Workshop. It seems that although nobody can go into the workshop itself without an invite, it is still on the tour route. WETA is a big deal in Wellington and deservedly so. They'll be opening the shop for the tourists and it will be filled with WETA merchandise.

Olivia kindly gave us WETA hats and we bought some other stuff as well. We then signed their special visitor's book. Daniel asked me to send him some photos of the robot masks I make to adorn the page, which I'll do when I get home, and the rest of us headed off for lunch at the WETA restaurant. The fried Orc burger was delicious.

That afternoon I visited the Wellington museum and got ready to leave the city Tuesday morning.

Most of us were going to Christchurch for the second of the two Armageddon conventions, but as we had a week between cons we all went our separate ways. Many flew down to Christchurch but I elected to take the three-hour ferry ride from Wellington to Picton and I was absolutely delighted I did.

The sea was overcast and the incredible New Zealand mountains were shrouded in fog. I think those flying missed out on a great trip.

Every mountain inlet brought me back to some of those LOTR scenes, and the low hanging clouds just made everything even more dramatic.

I was met in Picton by Jason Brice. Jason runs the comicsbulletin.com website and several years ago, when it was called Silverbulletcomics I wrote my "What Th--?" column for him. They're the same columns you can now find on this site. Jason took a few days off work to show me around the South and West Island. The trip from Picton to Christchurch took about three hours or so by car. On our way down we picked up some lobsters from a local lobster stand and brought them down to Jason and his wife Beryl's house for an incredible lobster dinner.

It's Wednesday here in New Zealand, Tuesday in the States. New Zealand is one day plus 5 hours apart from Los Angeles. The day doesn't matter to me but 5 hours makes it easy to figure out when I can call home. For example, it's 9:48 AM as I write this and it's 2:48PM back home. And speaking of the time, I have to end this now. Jason is picking me up at 10AM and island touring begins.
More as I can.

Labels: Weta and More

I have taken Qantas Airlines several times and they've always been great, but this trip to New Zealand was a little disappointing. Noel and I arrived at the terminal many hours early. The people at check-in were all wonderful and because I showed up early I managed to get myself an aisle exit row seat. I am nearly 6 foot two and have long legs that makes regular airline seats extremely uncomfortable. I cannot imagine how a few of my friends (hi, Ian) who tower over me can travel in anything less that super 1st class. At any rate, the folk at the counter were as always great. Noel and I then had a leisurely dinner. Noel went back home as I headed for the gate listed on my ticket.

There were a number of people waiting there, all heading for Aukland, NZ, which is where you land before switching over to the domestic flight to Wellington, my destination. At some point I realized nobody was showing up at the counter and it was time for us to board the plane. I checked with a few people to make sure this was the right gate, and they, too, were heading to Aukland. One of the women I asked got worried as well and went off to check. Like my trip two weeks back to Dayton where United changed gates three times without telling anyone, Qantas had indeed changed the gate without a word of warning.

We all shlepped to the new gate only to discover the flight had been delayed two hours. That is okay. These things happened, although many of the people who ran to the new gate were still not happy about the unmentioned gate change and expressed it to the people behind the counter. I didn't say anything because several others already had. At any rate, a little more than two hours later we boarded the plane and promptly sat there for another hour. We were all told that there would be Qantas people in Aukland who would tell us where to go for connecting flights and that re were all going to be automatically rebooked to the next flight out. That sounded fine.

I got on the plane, tried to sleep or at least rest but the inevitable crying baby who decided waking and wailing hours were between 11PM and dawn, did his best to make sure I couldn't. So I watched a bunch of movies. The hard part there was Quantas was doing a Heath Ledger film festival in honor of the actor and they were playing all his previous movies. I have to admit I really loved Ledger's films; A Knight's Tale is one of Noel and my guilty pleasures. I have seen a lot of footage of his Joker work and it is brilliant, but I could not bring myself to watch those films now. I wanted fluff and the memories of his tragic death would be too strong. So I watched Enchanted (which was great), 28 Dresses (okay, it is a chick movie, but it was fun) and The Mist, which although spooky as all get out was a collection of every horror movie cliche ever done. Between movies I read the book I brought along, World War Z, which is a first person chronicle of the Zombie war. It was recommended by my friend, Bob Skir (who won't know I called him out here since I don't think he reads this) and Bob was right; it is great.

96 or so hours later we landed in Aurkland. I entered the terminal looking for the Qantas people to tell me what to do next.

Crickets.

I looked around some more.

More crickets.

Nobody. I searched out a Quantas person and they said we needed to collect our baggage, go through customs and then the people would be there to tell us what new flights we were booked on to Wellington. So I got my luggage, went through customs and guess what?

Crickets.

Nobody was there. I made my way through the terminal carrying my very heavy bags (well, pushing the cart they were on is more accurate) and finally, after a long while, found a Qantas person who said I needed to go to some other place and then someone would be there to tell me what to do next. You know what comes next.

Crickets. And more crickets.

After a long while I found a Qantas person who told me I needed to change terminals and that I should take a bus to the new one. As weird as it sounds, I was lucky; people I spoke to later told me they couldn't find anyone so they walked to the new terminal which was very, very, very far away.

I got to the domestic terminal and guess what? Right. More crickets.


Finally, I decided to just go to the ticket booking counter. I asked which line I was needed to be on and a woman behind the counter pointed me to the line next to hers. I went through it and the guy took my bags then told me I needed to go to the woman's counter to get my new pass. Please note these two lines were three feet apart. I get back to the woman and she gives me the ticket and says she doubts I can get to the flight on time but I should try; if not they’ll rebook me.

I am afeared for my life.

I go through the new check in line to the plane only to discover that although I am now four hours later, I am pretty much on the same Aukland to Wellington plane I was originally assigned to which, as luck would have it, was itself two hours late (I originally had a two hour wait between flights). So despite being incredibly late I got in only a little bit later than I would have.

The flights were all good, but I do wish airline personnel, who already make you feel like a Chippendale dancer who has to strip in order to go through the check-in line could at least be there to help you as they say they will. There seems to be a lack of courtesy on all airlines these days, but I had never before now seen that on Quantas which has always been above and beyond. It is sad.


At any rate, I am in Wellington now. My limo driver told me about a few sights I should definitely see, so although I was exhausted from lack of sleep, I showered, changed clothes and made my way to the cable car just two blocks from the hotel which took me to a high peak where you can see much of the city.

Labels: Botanical Gardens, etc., Wellington

Okay, that title is a stretch, but I'm on my way to New Zealand and my mind isn't on coming up with great puns, not that the great can ever accurately modify the word pun.

I'm looking forward to the trip, as I often do, with mixed emotions. I look forward to being in New Zealand, going to the cons, meeting lots of folk and touring the area with Comic Bulletin's own Jason Brice. I'm also looking forward to a few surprises that I'll let people know about after they happen. This is all good. The mixed emotion part is that of course Noel isn't joining me on this trip. But we do take full advantage of Mac's iChat to video conference our talks from all over the globe. First thing I usually do is pick up the computer and give her a visual tour of the hotel and whatever sights can be seen from its windows. We try to talk this way every day. If we can't, we use Skype which greatly reduces international phone costs.

A trip always means one thing: approvals on many assignments which have been piling up for weeks finally happen. It's like when you're at a restaurant waiting for your food to arrive. The one thing that will guarantee it coming now is deciding to go to the bathroom. So naturally I got the approval on another regular comic assignment, a movie assignment and a few others as well. Fortunately, most won't demand me doing any major work while I'm gone, but of course in my quieter hours I'll probably be working on them anyway, if only to get ahead for when I get back home.

I will keep up with my regular shows using my amazing Slingbox which will let me see everything I record on my home TiVo. So I'll be up to date on all of the Daily Show and Colbert Reports if not Battlestar Galactica, American Idol and others. Mostly of course I'll be out touring as much of the country as I can. And from everything I've seen in the movies, and from what I've heard from friends who have been there, NZ is just amazing.

I will upload to this site some of the best photos I take, and when I get home I may add in some of the movies as well. While on the plane home, I use iMovie to edit my photos and movies into a comprehensible short piece that hopefully won't bore too many people. I know most people aren't into seeing other people's vacation photos but at least this way it's done as entertainingly as possible.

Lately I've been destroying what little is left of my mind trying to get through some of the final levels of Portal, one of the five games in The Orange Box. Even when I have trouble getting to the next level, usually I can figure out what it is I'm supposed to do, but in this level I can't even come up with an idea. I know I can always cheat and read a walkthrough, but maybe a few days away will give me a new perspective on the game and I'll solve it seconds after I boot it up again. If not, cheating may start to sound like a good alternative.

Labels: New Zealand

Wildly Popular 'Iron Man' Trailer To Be Adapted Into Full-Length Film

Labels: Iron Man

Diebold Accidentally Leaks Results Of 2008 Election Early

Labels: Election 2008

This coming Wednesday I take off for New Zealand and the Armageddon Expo convention. I'll actually be going to both of Armageddon's NZ Expos, the first in Wellington and the second in Christchurch. Please note I will not be going to the Auckland show. I've never been to New Zealand, but like everyone else, I've see the country's incredible scenery in the Lord of the Rings movies and I can't wait to see it in person as I have a week of touring between the two cons. But speaking of the cons, if you live anywhere in New Zealand, or even in Australia and don't mind puddle jumping over, please come by. I'll be at my table during most of the con, autographing books and hopefully chatting to one and all. Interestingly, two of the actresses who are also coming to the con have played characters I've created. Tracey Scoggins played Cat Grant on the Lois & Clark TV show a few seasons back, and Hynden Walch was the voice of Starfire on the Teen Titans cartoon show.

Labels: Armageddon Pulp Expo

There is a very nice interview with me on the Wild River Review. You can find it by clicking HERE.

Labels: Wild River Review

I'm back from Dayton. The con was a lot of fun, so thanks Jesse and Billy. Lots of folk came by the table for book signings and talk. I love the talk part since signing my name over and over again can get boring; I already know my name and signing it won't help me remember it any more than I already do. Folk do have problems sometimes asking questions so I have to draw it out of them. But I know everyone wants to ask one thing (usually, what is the secret plan I had to bring back Barry Allen. Answer: check the Q&A section of this website).

The trip to Dayton takes longer than one expects because there's a stopover, in my case in Chicago. Since weather around the country is pretty bad these days, the plane into Chicago to Dayton was late getting there. While I waited they changed the gate three different times but never bothered to announce it. If I hadn't been checking the boards every so often to see how much longer the flight would be delayed I would not have know it.

Anyway, I left L.A. at about 9:00AM and when I finally did arrive in Dayton it was about 10:30 PM. But for me it was still 7:30 (time differences). I had a late dinner in terms of Dayton time but right on time for my still on LA time body. Got to the hotel about an hour or so later and because it was still early for me, I watched Saturday Night Live, which, as always, is only periodically humorous. One bit of advice; I really like Christopher Walken, but can't he remember any of the dialog or does he always have to have his eyes on the TelePrompter just off to the side? It was very distracting.

The con itself, as I said, was great fun and dinner that night at a local place - I forget its name - was perfect. The only problem I had was the morning flight out of Dayton back to Chicago was at 6AM which meant I had to get up at 4AM. Yikes. But thank you everyone for making the time a great one. Dayton fans are really great comic fans and that little town surprisingly has 7 shops, all of which seem to be doing well.

Slept most of the way home and was a vegetable all day. Had a great night's sleep and am back to normal today and ready for work.

My friend Craig Miller pointed me to the top ten photos taken by the Hubble Telescope and they have to be seen to be believed. See all ten photos HERE.

The picture to your left is the Hourglass Nebula, 8,000 light years away, and it has a pinched-in-the-middle look because the winds that shape it are weaker at the centre

Labels: Hubble Telescope Photos.

DC Special, Raven #2 comes out today. I'm extremely happy with the story. Although I know it's a matter of some fan controversy, I also love the art. I hope Titans fans can look past their first reaction, read the story and then realize how good the art is for the story I'm doing. It is different and it's very far away from what George Perez and I did, but I think it's a story that can appeal to many folk beyond the regular comic readers. I'm hoping the Titans cartoon fans can enjoy it as well as fans of manga, too. If comics are to continue to thrive we need to bring in many different groups. Beyond what I believe is a solid story, I centered the story on emotion as well as moments of characterization. It's very different from the kind of writing I normally do but as I say I'm extremely happy with it.

Also, if you live in the San Fernando Valley here in L.A. I'll be doing a signing tonight at the Golden Apple on Reseda Blvd. between 4 PM and 7PM. C'mon by.

Labels: Raven #2

I've been busy making up for lost flu time and getting a jump not only on my Dayton convention but for my upcoming trip to New Zealand in a few weeks. Blogging may slow down (unless I hit an 'I'm bored' patch) as I slog through all the work that needs to be done in time.

Labels: busybusybusy