Luke! Luke!
Chapter 149: New Book! New Contest! New York Comic Con! New s!
NYCC Recap!
New(ish) Book Announcement!
A Movie Club Contest!
Mailbox- Are We Making These Movies Or Not?!
Mixtape- A Guide Of When To Dress Sexy!
Hi!
It’s been almost a week so I guess I should do my NYCC recap email. But first, a confession. I posted my “con-schedule” last week and a lot of people had thoughts on it. I’m sad to say now, on the record, it wasn’t real. I have tried Kix before. They aren’t the cereal I want them to be.
But also, I did actually have stuff to do. I was plenty busy with meetings and meals and hanging out with old friends and plotting with editors. But that shit is less funny to post about than saying I’m just taking naps. So, with another NYCC in the books, I can say this one was a roaring success. I announced a new book (more on that in a bit), worked on a new pitch with an editor, saw lots of friends, ate at Veselka 5 times in 7 days, and was only in the Javits Center for an hour and a half. I also hung out with a whopping 14 people (that I know of) who got Covid at the show and managed to walk away with nothing more than a new appreciation for masks and fresh air. And I saw both Hugh Jackman and Tom Hardy on the street nowhere near the con. You’ll be pleased to hear they are both quite handsome actually.
Some other highlights include-
Hearing from Tyler Boss pretty much sold out of almost everything on Thursday and that the response from everyone on WHAT’S THE FURTHEST PLACE FROM HERE? was overwhelming. Thank you all.
Similar, but less meaningful, having many people tell me how much they are enjoying IDEAS DON’T BLEED. Thanks for listening.
Making Chip Zdarsky, Al Ewing, Gerry Duggan, Ram V., Caspar Wijngaard, Lee Garbett, and Nick Spencer all go eat with me at my favorite restaurant, miles from the con, because I’m a tyrant and I don’t let other people pick where I eat!
Getting to make a food delivery to a British comic writer pal stranded in NYC because he was too sick to fly home. In addition to getting a tremendous amount of enjoyment of curating a “greatest hits care package,” I probably saved his life. So now, like Chewbacca before him, he owes me a Wookiee Life Debt.
Getting a really wonderful gift from Alex Paknadel because when he told me 2 months ago what day his flight was getting in I said “That’s my birthday,” which is what I say that whenever someone says any day. But Alex is kind and trusting, so he brought me “birthday” gifts. I now owe him meals in perpetuity.
Going to visit a Charles Soule’s house with Gerry Duggan, riding up in the elevator with one of Charles’s elderly neighbors who said they didn’t know him, hearing Gerry say “Well you should come with us,” and then making panicked eye contact with Gerry as she said “Okay!” and walked right into his apartment.
Getting to walk the Highline with Ed Brisson even though it was so crowded it was like we were in line for a ride at Disneyworld, but in this case the ride is “Looking for a nice place to sit in Chelsea and not finding it.”
Seeing many of my favorite editors like Ben Abernathy, Jake Thomas, Jordan White, Wil Moss, and Ashcan Press’s own Rachel Pinnelas, who I made sign my copy of her new comic!
Stopping in to the amazing 3 Worlds / 3 Moons creative summit and watching those creative titans do their thing. Turns out “their thing” is mostly making fun of me.
Making like 40 people come to a bar that seemed chill, only for us all to get thrown out as soon as everyone got there.
Running into one of my writing heroes and having him clown me in the absolute best way.
Leaving a really fun party at someone’s house so they could go to bed, then running into Ryan Stegman downstairs and telling him to go on up, only to receive a very grumpy text message from him 10 minutes later. Suck it, Stegman.
Seeing so many more people I love and care about absolutely crushing it. Comics remain neat as fuck.
A fun time. Let’s do it again next year. Well, not me. But everyone else should.
Even though my presence at the con was minimal, I did stop in for an hour on Thursday. Just long enough to join Ben Abernathy, Tate Brombal, Werther Dell’edera, Clay Mann, Seth Mann, Tirso Cons, and Tom Taylor to announce the return of DC’S ELSEWORLDS!
I am a huge fan of Elseworlds books, and titles like KINGDOM COME, RED SON, GOTHAM BY GASLIGHT, RED RAIN, THE NAIL, and BATMAN YEAR 100 are some of my favorite comics that DC ever published. So getting to have one of the relaunch titles is a huge honor and I couldn’t be more excited. Ben and the team have put together a jaw-dropping slate of books that should get even the most jaded comic fan excited. You can read about them all here.
But what did we announce?
YES! So excited to be returning to the world of vampires and superheroes with… wait… that’s not me. Let me try this again.
Getting to have one of the launch titles is a huge honor and I couldn’t be more excited. But what did we announce?
DC VS VAMPIRES: WORLD WAR V!
Yes! The feeding frenzy continues next year when myself and longtime collaborator Otto Schmidt return to the vampire world in the Elseworlds title: DC VS. VAMPIRES: WORLD WAR V. So excited to be returning to the (else)world of vampires and superheroes with Otto and our fearless editor Ben Abernathy!
I can’t say too much yet, but I can say that it takes place after the original series, where Supergirl’s plan to bring back the sun was too little too late. So now as we enter a new ice age, humans and vampires both struggle to survive and find themselves in a literal and figurative cold war. But returning heroes, battles for the vampire throne, and a mysterious child threaten to heat things back up.
It’s one of the biggest, craziest things I’ve ever written and if you haven’t read DC VS VAMPIRES or DC VS VAMPIRES: ALL OUT WAR you still have some time to catch up before the battle begins. They are available in 4 (!) lovely hardcovers.
(And much love to my buddies Jed, Pepe, and Leinil. I can’t wait to see what they do with their vampire war over across the aisle. And I’m only a little jealous of their catch phrase “Who will bite it?”)
For the month of October, my goal has been to watch 31 spooky movies. I am not doing well in this goal. But I thought I’d open it up to you all and make it a little fun. So we’re going to make this a little contest.
I am looking for suggestions on good horror movies to watch for the rest of the month. That’s really it. I will post what I’ve watched below so you get a sense of where my head is at. If I pick your suggestion, I will mail you a spooky prize (actual spookiness TBD). You can either comment below or email me your suggestions if you’re feeling shy.
The one rule- don’t be obvious. If you’re going to suggest stuff like HALLOWEEN, THE SHINING, RINGU, THE CONJURING, or SCREAM, don’t. I have a pretty decent knowledge of the classics and the less than classic but popular newer stuff. I’m looking for weird underground movies, obscure foreign films, older below the radar stuff, great indie horror, true cult classics, stuff like that.
So far this month I’ve watched-
SISTER, SISTER (1987. Dir: Condon)
HOUSE (1977. Dir: Obayashi)
THE RITUAL (2017. Dir: Bruckner)
RENFIELD (2023. Dir: McKay)
THE RAPTURE (1991. Dir: Tolkin)
ONE CUT OF THE DEAD (2019. Dir: Ueda)
IN FABRIC (2019. Dir: Strickland)
PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK (1975. Dir: Weir)
MOTHER! (2017. Dir: Aronofsky)
RAVENOUS (LES AFFAMÉS) (2017. Dir: Aubert)
WEREWOLVES WITHIN (2021. Dir: Ruben)
JACOB’S LADDER (1990. Dir: Lyne)
Some of these are rewatches. Some of these are only borderline horror movies. Now go forth, make suggestions, and maybe you’ll win some stuff.
Extra points if I watch it and it’s good. Just tricking me into watching bad movies will only get you so far.
Time for another trip to the old mailbox. Let’s see what weirdness you all have brought me this week.
Friendly reader Casey asks the following-
“Any updates on the Four kids walk into a bank or We can never go home movies? I want to watch them!”
Hey Casey, thanks for the question. I do have some updates. Some good, some less good. But that’s how it goes, I guess.
We’ll start with 4 KIDS. I can’t really talk about the movie right now too much. All I can say is we have a great script, a great director, great producers and studio partners, and a great actor attached… If actors weren’t striking. Like all things Hollywood, until the big Studios decide to play nice with the people who actually make the stuff they sell, we can’t do anything. The project is essentially frozen. But hopefully SAG get their demands met, everyone gets to go back to work, and we make our weird little movie.
As for WE CAN NEVER GO HOME, there is good news and bad news.
Good news- it was never going to be a movie. We optioned it for TV. So the fact that the movie isn’t happening is okay, because it was never happening.
Bad news- it’s not happening as a TV show either. Well this is actually more of a good news/bad news/good news thing maybe? Or maybe a good news/bad news/good news/bad news thing? Let’s break it down.
Good- Under our option with (redacted) Studio, they put together a pilot script!
Bad- The screenplay drifted pretty far from what I think made people care about the book.
Good- This happens a lot because they pay the bills and they make the stuff, so they are going to steer it towards the thing they think is the most makeable!
Bad- They didn’t think their new screenplay was makeable.
Good/Bad- They didn’t renew our option so we got the rights back!
Good- New parties were interested and we optioned it to (redacted) Studio for TV!
Bad- They never even got a script together and let the option lapse.
Good- We have the rights back! Again!
So there you have it. Some good news, some bad news. And also kinda no news at all. But you can always reread the books, Casey!
If you got a question you know what to do-
This has been in my head all week. No idea why. Now it’s in your head.
And that’s it for me.
Stay safe. Take care of each other. Want to make a We Can Never Go Home TV show? Call me…
NYC 10/22/23
Wow getting a SKTCHD ZINE from the seventh most famous Alaskan in comics didn’t even make the list. I see how it is. AND IT WAS MY BIRTHDAY TOO.
On Hulu, check out NO ONE WILL SAVE YOU - it's intense!!! And pretty much no doalogue(!?), so the subtitles are hilarious.