News

I'll be at ICON this weekend! Be sure to stop by and say "hello" if you're in the area. I know I've said this before, but ICON was the first convention I ever attended and, in the long run, is the reason I'm doing conventions today. This good old-fashioned science fiction & fantasy convention holds a special place in my heart so I'll likely be in an extra good mood if you come to see me.

Some great comic books came out yesterday.

Power Girl continues to be one of my favorite titles. It proves you can tell an entertaining superhero story without the heaviness of personal tragedy or crushing inner turmoil. Not to mention I absolutely adore Amanda Conner's artwork.

I'm a sucker for fictional creation myths. The one in Brutal Legend was one of my favorites in video games, and this month's Green Lantern blew me away in explaining the creation of the Emotional Spectrum in relation to Earth and life beginning here. Not to mention I absolutely adore anything color-coded and themed. Blame Voltron.

Deadpool cracks me up. Daniel Way is the best Deadpool writer going these days and I never want him to leave the helm of this title. Hit-Monkey (he's an assassin that's a monkey!) should be a lame concept, but in his hands it works well. Highly recommended.

Orc Stain continues to fascinate me in its own weird, bizarre way. James Stokoe's mean, nasty, dick-obsessed orcs are hardly admirable but One-Eye (the main character) does what he must to survive in the mean, nasty, dick-obsessed world. I especially enjoyed the anguish of the soda can and the "Fist of the North Star" moment, only with a hammer and a... well, guess. This is a unique read and I recommend giving it a look.

That's all from me for now.
Rock on, geek out, and see you at ICON!

My best friend and I have often bonded over the years discussing whether it's better to be a "boob guy" or an "ass man." This is not how we define our relationships with women, mind you, but just the stupid stuff guys like me and my buddy like to talk about every now and again... effectively making us a boob and an ass.

Don't forget I'll be at ICON this weekend! Going to be a good time and I can't wait to be surrounded by an old fashioned sci-fi/fantasy crowd again.

I've been spouting more and more political stuff down here in the news box lately, but I've been trying to cut back. Unfortunately it's impossible to avoid the heated debate over U.S. Healthcare Reform if you even glance at the news lately. I have my opinions on the matter, but they are not as solid as my stance on equal rights, so I will not go into a discussion about it here until I've formed a more concrete position.

This Washington Post article about the Reform Bill has been very helpful, however. It simply states what's going into the Bill without any opinions or debate. It's just the facts so I can form my own opinion. If only more of the major news was like that.

That's all from me for now.
Rock on!

Thanks to everyone who came out to hear me speak at VERICON this past weekend. I had a great time and I hope those of you who were there found me, Dorothy and Randall informative and hopefully entertaining.

I'm disappointed that both Randall and I had our theories about Dorothy's motorcycle helmet disproven but I'm crossing my fingers that he'll let me in on his top-secret underwater exploits. I'm dying to meet Aquaman.

Ahem. That's enough with the inside jokes.

I hit the road again this weekend, where I'll be returning to ICON to make mischief and cause trouble. I'll be talking on lots of panels and selling merchandise in the dealer's room, so be sure to stop by and say "hi" if you're in the area of one of my favorite conventions of the year!

That's all from me for now.
Rock on.

Nimmel has referred to himself as "The Phoenix" before. This is just the first time he's received an official review of it.

I know things are different nowadays with screen names, gamer tags and other such things, but when I was growing up we did not get to choose our own nicknames. You got them and they stuck whether you liked it or not. For my part, I did not decide one day that everyone would start calling me "Mookie." It was slapped on me in high school by my best friend for no other reason than there were too many "Mikes" around. It's stuck with me ever since.

Don't forget that I'll be speaking at VERICON on Saturday! I won't, however, be selling any merchandise there. I'm only scheduled to speak on the webcomics panel and do a signing immediately afterward. Still, feel free to say "hello" if you see me looking terribly out-of-place (a.k.a. dumb) in Harvard's hallowed halls.

For those of you interested in my other creative endeavors, I've posted some more examples of my amateur photography. These photographs are not work safe so mind where you view them. There is also a lot of fake blood. Surprise, surprise.

That's all from me for now.
Rock on and have a nice weekend!

Yesterday was St. Patrick's Day and here in the Boston area that's a big deal. I live in a particularly "college student thick" area of the city. Combine those two elements and you get the inspiration for Katya's dialogue in today's comic.

Some great comic books came out yesterday, but I'm only going to talk about one of them because it made me so freaking happy.

The Brave & The Bold #32, which features Aquaman and The Demon teaming up this month, tells the Aquaman story I have been waiting years to see.

Aquaman is showcased as the only thing keeping a horde of Lovecraftian monsters at bay deep beneath the waves. He has to team up with The Demon for the magical part of sealing them away, but most of the issue is just Aquaman kicking a ton of ass. The scene where he mentally bitch-slaps and dominates the mind of a creature whose brain is so alien and unfathomable that a normal brain cannot handle it was my favorite.

J. Michael Straczynski basically spent an entire issue saying, "Guys, Aquaman is a f*cking badass." Jesus Saiz captured the underrated majesty of the King of the Seas in every single panel. This was one hell of an issue and I strongly recommend picking it up.

That's all from me for now.
Rock on and geek out!

Man. I just hate awkward silences.
Don't you?








Yep.








...rock on.

This was how the day after my thirtieth birthday was spent. The slow recollection of how much of an ass you made out of yourself the night before is just the salt on the wound that is a hangover.

Getting drunk is not as fun as they make it out to be in the movies. Blech.

Remember, I'll be speaking at VERICON this weekend.

Getting back on track with Dominic Deegan Vol. 5: THE WAR IN HELL.

I fell behind sending out this month's Donation Wallpaper over the weekend, but I should get caught up with that today.

That's all from me for now.
Rock on.

Hey gang! Don't forget that I'll be one of the speakers at VERICON this weekend, so be sure to stop by if you're in the area!

Today's comic was originally going to be Nimmel's slow, comical descent into inebriation, but this scene came to me at the last minute and I decided to go ahead with this instead.

The first thing my girlfriend said when she saw today's comic was, "Honey, this is too similar to your thirtieth birthday." I'm glad she caught on to that because this is almost exactly what my thirtieth birthday was like, minus the naked werewolves. I had far too much vodka, vomited my brains out and passed out on the sofa with a bucket next to my head. It was an unpleasant end to an otherwise amazing birthday.

But I was fortunate because I had a "guard dog" that night. I had several, actually, and this strip is my little tribute to them. You all know who you are. Thanks again for taking care of me that night.

Oh, and I'm sorry for throwing up on your shoes that night, honey. Aheh.

That's all from me for now.
Rock on.

Vodka! Vodka! Vodka! HEY!

I must say that I do not recommend vodka as a cure for melancholy. I tried that once, many years ago. It only made me feel worse. Then again, I think Nikolai's record so far has shown that he's not the wisest of werewolves.

I'm looking forward to working on Monday's update.
Tee hee.

That's all from me for now.
Rock on, and have a nice weekend!

March's Donation Wallpaper is up for your approval. If you can't see it just Refresh your browser. That ought to do the trick.

Today's strip was originally going to have much more angst. I'm glad that I decided against that, as I find this outcome far more amusing.

It was a slow week for new comic books yesterday, but a couple are worth mentioning.

Red Robin remains one of the most enjoyable titles I've been reading lately. The action is fast and the mood is relatively light, making this a fun read. It's refreshing to see that one can do battle with shadowy assassins and ruthless killers without being bogged down by all that dark and brooding stuff.

The Mystic Hands of Doctor Strange (in glorious black and white!) was everything I love about the Sorcerer Supreme. Mystic stories inspired by the classic tales of the good doctor hearken back to the Stan Lee and Steve Ditko days, which were great. My only problem is that it's a one-shot issue, so I won't see another one of these next month. Oh well.

That's all from me for now.
Rock on and geek out.

I tried various, elaborate cold and snow themed puns for today's punchline, but the wordier I got the less it seemed to work. I decided to keep things simple in the end, and I think it worked better.

March's Donation Wallpaper will be up later today.

I'm working to have Dominic Deegan Volume 5: THE WAR IN HELL out by May, June at the latest. I had meant to have it out by the end of 2009 but various things prevented that from happening. With any luck a May / June release for The War In Hell will happen without such things getting in the way.

Otherwise, it's another slow news day. I like these pleasantly uneventful days.

That's all from me for now.
Rock on.

For those of you who didn't quite get the joke, "A Nimmel House" is a reference to the classic college movie "Animal House." Hm. Maybe it would've been clearer if I'd spelled it "A-Nimmel House" instead. Yeah. Maybe I'll change that sometime today.

Some time today or tomorrow I should have March's Donation Wallpaper up for your approval.

It's a slow news day today, so instead of trying to fill the news box up with something marginally interesting about my personal life, I'll just keep things brief.

That's all from me for now.
Rock on.

Something interesting happened to me last week that I simply could not ignore. Something that directly affected this storyline, albeit in a relatively insignificant way.

Multiple readers from different locations e-mailed me with a suggestion for the name of this story about Nimmel in college... and they all came up with the same pun. Whether they all conspired to do this or if this was just a cosmic coincidence I'll likely never know, but the title they suggested was just so damn funny that I couldn't help but make it the official title of this arc.

The title of this college story is, thanks to you, my readers, "A Nimmel House."

I love you guys so damn much.

That's all from me for now.
Rock on.

Drawing that face-shove was probably more satisfying for me than it ought to have been. Still, a party's not a party without a proper fight. At least in a werewolf's case.

I received an e-mail from a reader yesterday asking me some very good questions about the Winter Archipelago and my use of Russian naming schemes. I figured it was a good excuse to have today's news post be about where I draw inspiration for the werewolves' homeland.

Basically I just took upper New England, filled it with naked werewolves and decided to use whatever cool Russian names I could think up at the time. I'm well aware that I'm likely butchering any proper Russian naming traditions, but I'm firmly sticking by my "whatever sounds the coolest" policy here.

I apologize if you were expecting something more profound.

That's all from me for now.
Rock on and have a nice weekend!

I think every heterosexual male has faced a tough choice like Nikolai's today, at least to some degree... and every boob-loving man will tell you that it really is a tough call to make.

Otherwise it was a pretty slow week for comic books yesterday, at least for me. There were a couple that stood out, for good and bad, and here's what I had to think about these choice picks.

JLA: Cry For Justice came to an end and, after reading the series as a whole, was very disappointing. I felt like it started going in one direction at the beginning, took several wide turns, changed focus entirely, and ended with a conclusion so out of left field that it felt like it was just a setup for another storyline. All in all, I'm sorry I spent my money on this series and do not recommend it to anyone.

Deadpool has been seeing a lot of exposure lately, arguably too much, but I've been consistently enjoying the Deadpool Team-Up series, mainly because he only seems to team up with the most obscure Z-list characters of the Marvel Universe. I didn't even know there was a character called IT! The Living Colossus until yesterday, but Deadpool's team-up with IT! The Living Colossus was enjoyable, quick and funny. This is admittedly a great series and I recommend it for a light, fun read.

Girl Comics No. 1 was a decent read. I just wish it had a title other than "Girl Comics."

JSA: All-Stars is the best team book I'm reading nowadays. Now that Magog is gone (thank GOD) the team actually seems to be getting along, which makes for a less infuriating read.

Savage She-Hulks was decent, if only because I'm relieved the original She-Hulk wasn't really choked to death like a chump in a six page backup story a few months ago. I think writing all those orcs has given me a new affinity for strong, green women, too.

That's all from me for now.
Rock on and geek out.