As I am about to discuss my recent experience as a guest of Emerald City ComiCon, I feel the use of my pretentious scary author icon is warranted. Your mileage may vary.

Day One was great, with few hiccups. It was especially nice to see David, who graciously brought me an almond muffin and french fries, since apparently, I am not comic writer-ly enough to merit food from the show staff. (That was a common complaint from some of my friends at the show; there were clearly some issues with feeding us creator types.)

Always nice to see friends (the family Rucka-Van Meter, the Jerwas, Steve Lieber, Matthew Clark, Tom Peyer, Neal Bailey, Josh Ortega, and a bunch of other folks I'm too con-addled to mention). Got to see Elicia (who, in terms of pure sarcasm, can kill a man at 50 paces, and that's awesome) and her "fella."

Also saw my former coworker, Alicia, who gave me the run down on what happened to my old group at Microsoft--short version: it took Microsoft less than two years to utterly dismantle what took eight years of backbreaking labor to build.

I was flying solo on Day One, but on Day Two, Gabi and several of the OCC crew (Frank and Annj) showed up to help me out, and Michelle arrived and provided conversation and moral support all day; too long since we saw you, lady. Had a nice long chat with Nicole and Chris, who I didn't recognize at first in my "hours of meeting complete strangers" haze. Michelle stopped by, with husband Bill in tow, and that's always supremely keen. Spoke briefly with Rodney, who seems like a swell guy.

After Day Two ended, the whole bunch of us went to the Dragonfish Café where I dined on an excellent chili-glazed chicken breast on a bed of spicy peanut noodles, which would normally not appeal to me, but damn if it wasn't delicious.

I was particularly surprised by how many people stopped by with copies of my old Perfect Dark series; that was probably the biggest surprise of the show, second only to the fact that on two occasions people thought I was Tim Truman. Heh.

Good weekend; my thanks to everyone who stopped by.

• 12:13 Where are my hordes of minions? Note to self: acquire minions. #
• 12:17 I have apparently disappointed a conventiongoer by stubbornly failing to be Tim Truman. Weird. #
• 12:38 Saw an EXCELLENT Lobster Johnson costume. Very groovy. #
• 13:37 Best part of signing @ a con; people being disappointed that I'm not the artist. Heh. #
• 13:42 So, I just signed someone's leather jacket. Heh. I iz a rawkstar. #
• 14:01 Apparently, on iFanboy vidcasts, I am something of a mystery. Like a Yeti. #
• 14:39 Just comped a Checkmate to a young lady who has no money. Because you can't leave a con without a comic, dammit. #
• 14:57 Yup. Getting punchy now. #
• 15:26 I have partaken of an almond muffin. You all may live. #
• 15:51 Okay. The Skrull costumes I just saw kick major ass. #
• 16:50 Show. Winding down. Tired now. Yay1 #
• 18:01 Show floor closed for the day. Woohoo! #
• 10:26 Day 2 begins. With coffee AND mineral water being spilled on the comics I had sorta meant to sell. Poop. #
• 10:28 Correwction: day began by Jerwa waking me up. He is surprisingly gentle. Heh. #

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• 10:28 First sale @ ECCC. Woohooo! #
• 10:49 Heh. Just met Dan DiDio. #
• 11:19 Minor lull, but back to signing lots of Checkmate. Yay, Emerald City ComiCon! #

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• 16:07 Grrr. Amazon order filled with research books for Vertigo project is now 8 days late. Not optimal. #

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Okay, so, I'm a late-adopter (still reeling from the horrorshow that was MySpace), but I finally caved and am now on Facebook.

Not sure why. But, well, there it is.

Matt McVay, who did the really nice video about our store opening, has done an excellent vidcast about FCBD, and it was nice to see him give some love to some other really excellent local stores--Comic Book Ink in Tacoma, and Danger Room Comics in Olympia (both run by friends of ours).

McVay apparently puts the whole thing together himself, I've learned, which makes me REALLY like his work. He's a good local news guy, with some serious skillz.

Enjoy!

-E

It's that time of year again, and for the first time, I'm a guest of Emerald City ComiCon, on the 10th and 11th (this weekend).

Please do stop by, get something signed, or ask questions, or whatever. I'm easy to get along with.

(Most days, anyway.)

It's unclear to me where I'm located on the show floor, though I'm assured I'll be seated near one of my two regular co-conspirators, Greg Rucka or Brandon Jerwa. So, if you can find one of them, you'll find me.

Emerald City is one of my favorite shows as an attendee—very comic-focused, and friendly, and well-run, so if you've never been to a comic show, this is a good "starter" con. The guest list has grown steadily each year, and is now a pretty powerhouse lineup.

I'm there both days, so maybe I'll see you there. Yes. You. No, not that guy, but you. You know who I'm talkin' to.

Not a full review, but nice nonetheless, is "The Stack" on Checkmate #25.

Review is about 7:40 into the video.

Neat!

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Today is Wednesday: new comics day. Tell me of your comics. What was good? What was bad? What made you want to "squee" with delight? What made you want to howl like a rhesus monkey with electric nipple clamps?

Because, well, I'm curious.

• 13:49 Okay. Today is shaping up to be a pretty good day. #

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• 00:05 Quote of the day: "In movies, I would be Predator." #

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• 15:01 Oh God. Oh God. Revised Vertigo pitch sent. Oh God I might end up on a vertigo book. HHHHAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGH!! #

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Just a heads-up: tomorrow is the best day of the year. A day in which, in participating comic stores (including, naturally, Olympic Cards & Comics, at it's new location of 4230 Pacific Avenue, Lacey, WA 98503) hand to you free comic books just for walking in the door.

We're open from 10 am 'til midnight, and there's free comics to be given away (including a pretty good Hellboy issue), door prizes, and some special guests.

Joining us at noon-12:30 for guests Greg Rucka, Jen Van Meter, and Brandon Jerwa; I'll be scrawling illegibly on Checkmate issues, as well.


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In other news: midnight showing of Iron Man last night.

Eric's capsule review: Superb. Possibly the best comic book movie I've seen. Captures the spirit of the comics quite effectively, great SFX, good supporting cast, I even liked Gwyneth Paltrow, which I could not have predicted.

Stay through the credits to the very end, by the way.

• 17:53 Helping a friend break down a short comic story is really, really entertaining. #

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• 17:56 Testing tweet with new phone... #

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So, it appears that Diamond has sold out of it's initial order for Checkmate #25. I expect DC has a small reserve that it'll release, but this is the first time in a long while we haven't been able to re-order current issues of Checkmate.

Interesting. I wonder, given how the month-to-month numbers on the book continue to drop, if this is "normal" for a final issue for a creative team.

Hm.

Last evening was the Checkmate wrap-up chat on Comic Bloc, and it was absolutely wonderful. Many thanks to all those who attended; it was a complete joy. I was especially pleased that so many friends and family popped in, too. (Thanks to Gabi, Josh, Jerwa!)

Lot of fun. We must do this again sometime.

In the interim, IGN REALLY liked Checkmate #25, to a degree I am both pleased and startled by. Wow.

• 13:42 There's something disconcertingly good about listening to Everclear cover the theme to "Land of the Lost." I think this means I'm sick. #

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Colleague, co-conspirator, and all-around swell guy Brandon Jerwa hosts a regular interview column over on Comics Waiting Room (which I commend to your attention).

This week, he totally classes the joint up by interviewing me.

Brandon runs a pretty good interview, and the conversation focuses quite a bit on subjects outside of comics, and best of all, he didn't ask me -- not even once -- about Halo. Bonus points for that. :)

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Reminder: join us Thursday evening, at 6 pm Pacific Time, 9 pm Eastern Standard, on Comic Bloc.com (in their forum chat room), for a live chat with both Greg Rucka and myself, as we celebrate the release of our final issue of the regular Checkmate comic.

It'll be fun. Dude, you should totally come.

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Over in those selfsame forums, Greg let slip that we are teaming up again to script one of the upcoming Final Crisis tie-ins, titled Resist.

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A couple other projects, with the aforementioned Mr. Jerwa, seem to be moving along, and I hope to be able to talk about 'em here in the next few weeks. Keep your fingers crossed for us.

One of them is a fairly serious piece, and it's going to be positively brutal to write; to be honest, I think it may be the most challenging thing I've ever attempted. It's good to have a friend along for the ride.

• 12:26 AGAIN with the freakin' snow? Awakened at 5 am by snow sliding off the roof peak onto the garage, which sounded an awful lot like gunfire. #

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...time for some more whoring myself upcoming "appearance" info.

A week from now, Thursday the 24th, Greg Rucka and I will be doing a live chat on the ComicBloc forums (presumably in the chat room tool on that site, which is excellent and you should totally sign up and go there frequently, by the way) in wistful celebration of the release of our final issue of Checkmate. The chat begins at 9 pm Eastern, 6 pm Pacific Time.

Did I mention that Checkmate #25 comes out next week, too?

I didn't?

Well, then.

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Forward movement on another potential DC project has been made recently, as well, and I hope to be able to mention the specifics of that reasonably soon.

It's a cool story, and I'm very excited about it.

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If you're a Seattle-area Checkmate fan, you may also wish to stop by the upcoming Emerald City ComiCon, as it is a great convention (possibly my favorite, in fact), and both Greg and I will be there. Stop by!