More Self-Serving Crap

I've been running around too much to be clever, so here are a few quick promo links.

I'm writing this year's PUNISHER X-MAS SPECIAL for Marvel Knights. It's probably the darkest comic I've ever written, but...heh heh... I gave him a "naughty" list. Art is by CP Smith, who did such an amazing job on our issue of WOLVERINE earlier this year.

And I've got a story in POSTCARDS, a fascinating anthology of short comics pieces all written around genuine, old-time postcards with weird messages on them. I was fortunate enough to snag Michael Gaydos (ALIAS) as my collaborator, and to all of our delight, he did the whole thing in a really striking greywash style. You can see his first page here .

Click and then tell me what you think!

Let's Coin Some New Nicknames For Marijuana

Here's mine:

Freedom Spinach

Leave yours in Comments.

Sugar Bush Squirrel 2007 Calendars Are Ready!!!

Not To Be Outdone...

Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez was a passenger in a private plane that overran a runway Friday in Burbank, Calif., just two days after pitcher Cory Lidle was killed in a plane accident in Manhattan.

A-Rod's private jet overruns runway; Rodriguez unharmed
Newsday

Kingdom Come Again

Kingdom Come, the forthcoming album by Jay-Z, drew inspiration from Kingdom Come, the smash graphic novel written by the Monster Force's own Mark Waid, engineer Young Guru told XXLmag.com.

The best thing that I can tell you that there’s a song called ‘Kingdom Come’ on the album, which is the title of the album. The way that record came about was from a good friend of mine from college, Lance Williams, he’s one of those dudes that can memorize, he knows how many mics every album ever got. We’re both comic book guys and we’re talking about Kingdom Come which is a comic book that came out about Superman. He was just like, ‘Isn’t it weird where hip-hop is at right now, it’s like Kingdom Come and Jay needs to be like Superman.’ I was like, ‘You’re right.’ I hadn’t read Kingdom Come in so long so I went out and bought it and read it. And I’m like ‘Oh shit! It’s parallel, it’s crazy.’ So I’m telling Jay the idea, I gave him the book and he got it. That’s why I love that song because one of the things that Superman doesn’t realize in the comic book is, not only how ill he is as a superhero but his influence on inspiring the rest of his peers that are superheroes. So when Superman jets and says, ‘Y’all shittin’ on me, y’all want the niggas that’s gon’ kill the people and I don’t kill my enemies, I catch ‘em and, cool y’all deal with ‘em. I’m good.” Wonder Woman comes and she’s like “It ain’t just you doing what you do but Green Lantern ain’t doing his thing no more, The Flash ain’t doing his thing, you’re the leader, you inspire them to keep going and doing what they do.” That’s where the parallel comes in. And Jay can take an idea and incorporate it into a song better than anybody that I know and when he finally vocalized it, I felt it was exactly what I was thinking about.

That doesn't sound entirely accurate to me. Let's check it against my copy of the script:

KINGDOM COME
By Mark Waid

PAGE ONE

PANEL ONE
Angle on Superman, flying over Metropolis.

SUPERMAN: Y'all shittin' on me, y'all want the niggas that's gon' kill the people and I don't kill my enemies, I catch 'em and, cool y'all deal with 'em.

SUPERMAN: I'm good.

FROM OFF: It ain't just you doing what you do --

PANEL TWO
Superman turns to see Wonder Woman arrowing toward him.

WONDER WOMAN: -- but Green Lantern ain't doing his thing no more, The Flash ain't doing his thing, you're the leader, you inspire them to keep going and doing what they do!

OK, my mistake.

US Prisons Using Dogs Against Inmates

A new report from Human Rights Watch reveals that five U.S. state prison systems — Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa, South Dakota, and Utah — authorize the use of large unmuzzled dogs to terrify and even attack prisoners to extract them from their cells. According to Human Rights Watch, no other country in the world authorizes the use of dogs to attack prisoners who will not voluntarily leave their cells.

Abu Ghraib at Home
Democracy Now

Yankee Pitcher Cory Lidle Crashes Plane Into NYC Building

Unbelievable. I know you're all expecting something ghoulish from me, so here goes. If you go to WFAN.com right now, before they take it down, you'll find a Real Player file of a Monday interview with Lidle. Mike and the Mad Dog had been ragging on the pitcher for publicly implying his manager cost them the series, and he called in, upset.

"It's Always Night, Or We Wouldn't Need Light."

That's a quote from Thelonious Monk, whose birthday is today. Columbia University's WKCR is playing his music 'til (heh) 'Round Midnight. Don't let their pointy-headed pipe-sucking four-eyed tweed-jacket elbow-patch weird-beard four-eyed ivory-tower blowhard DJs put you off this guy's music. [Via Metafilter]

On second listen, don't go. Professor Poindexter McEgghead won't stop talking. You can sample some Monk mp3s here. Maybe it's stealing, but you can tell the judge that the dateless big-brains at Columbia University drove you to it.

Promote-O-Rama

This Wednesday: EARTHLIGHT, an original graphic novel by me and Chris Schons, hits comic shops. It tells the tale of 15-year-old Damon Cole, a newcomer to Earth's first moon colony, where his father is chief administrator and his mother is assigned to run the colony's first organized school. The colony is a dangerous place, vulnerable both to deadly accidents and to threats of terrorist attack -- which amplifies the usual teenage pressures until they explode violently.

Depending on my audience, I tend to describe EARTHLIGHT as as "Degrassi on the moon," "an updated Heinlein juvenile" or "a futuristic Afterschool Special with a really nasty twist." I'm very, very proud of it, and Chris's work brings both the characters and the tech vividly to life. You can read the first chapter here; more info here .

Also out this week: FIRESTORM THE NUCLEAR MAN #30, featuring Part Three of "In My Father's House." Twists and turns leading up to a big revelation, courtesy of me, Jamal Igle, Steve Sadowski, and Keith Champagne.

And finally: Jamal and I will be attending ICAF, the International Comic Arts Festival, this coming Saturday. We're doing a panel at 1:30 PM on the creation and production of a mainstream comic book, right before Phil Jimenez and Denny O'Neil speak about comics and politics. It's at the Library of Congress in Washington D.C., it's open to the public, and it's free. Other weekend attractions include an evening with Jules Feiffer and a variety of academic papers on various comics-related subjects. More info at the link.

As always, for longer, wordier versions of these notices, you can sign up for my email newsletter at stuartcomics at mindspring.com . I promise no spam, no passing your address along, and no Mark Foley-style midnight emails. In the Monster Force, pages are treated with respect (before being consumed for nourishment, of course).

That Dirty Bastard

"Foley is trying to bring booze into disrepute..."

Just how low can a man go?