First time author Rob Rogers drops by for a quick chat about his debut novel "Devil's Cape".

RR: Devil's Cape is a superhero thriller set in the fictional city of Devil's Cape, Louisiana. A masked pirate calling himself St. Diable founded the city in 1727 and his influence is felt even in the 21st century. Devil's Cape occupies the same space that Slidell, Louisiana, occupies in the real world, but sprawling farther, a sister city to New Orleans, but darker and more corrupt. Its streets are twisted in unexpected directions and its architecture is heavily influenced by the pirates who created it--decorated with gaudy, unmatched trimmings (the pirates' bounty); fortified against attack and surveillance; filled with secrets.

Beyond the city itself, there are three main heroes in the book:

Jason Kale is a television crime reporter and an outcast from the powerful Kalodimos crime family. When he and his twin brother Julian were babies, their father baptized both children in water containing threads from the Golden Fleece, hoping to give them an edge to keep them from being drawn into the "family business." That baptism ultimately gave both boys the abilities of the Argonauts of Greek myth, including Heracles' strength, Idmon's visions, and the Boreals' power of flight. Jason has used his abilities rarely, but has distanced himself from the rest of the family, particularly from his corrupt Uncle Costas, one of the top lieutenants of the Robber Baron the crime lord of Devil's Cape. But Julian has begun to use his powers in their uncle's service as a masked criminal called Scion. As the story progresses, Jason realizes he needs to take action and becomes the hero Argonaut, a role that puts further him at odds with the rest of his family.

As a teenager, Cain Ducett was a violent gang leader and drug dealer. He attacked the wrong person and ended up cursed as a result, finding himself transforming into a hideous winged, clawed creature. When he returned to normal, the experience jarred him into changing his life. Today he's a respected psychiatrist and has written his previous metamorphosis off as a hallucination. Events in the book, including the escape of a homicidal superpowered patient of his called Rusalka, force him to reevaluate his interpretation of his past. As he begins to transform again and adopts the identity of the mew superhero Bedlam, Cain struggles to keep his emotions under control.

Kate Brauer is the inheritor of a legacy. Her father was the third superhero to call himself Doctor Camelot. He wore high-tech powered armor that allowed him to fly, enhanced his strength, and included a number of nonlethal weapons. One of the premier heroes of Vanguard City, a gleaming metropolis in Connecticut, he was murdered decades ago by a group of super-powered carnival freaks called the Cirque d'Obscurité. When his killers turn up in Devil's Cape, Kate travels to the city and brings her father's armor with her. A brilliant engineer in her own right, Kate adapts and improves the armor, making it stronger and faster and vastly increasing the capabilities of its communication and sensor systems. As the new Doctor Camelot, she resolves to stop the Cirque d'Obscurité, no matter how dangerous that might be.

I've touched on the villains above: the Robber Baron, the Cirque d'Obscurité, Rusalka, and Scion. They're all important to the development of the story.

MC: I've seen Devil's Cape described as Southern Gothic meets Heroes. Do you think that's an accurate description?

RR: Ah, marketing copy. I'd say it's a fair description. There's certainly a Southern element to the setting and many of the characters, with an appropriate mentality and themes that often pop up in Southern writing, such as the importance of history, reconciling love for home with an understanding of that home's darker moments, and family, of course. And as far as Heroes goes, both my book and the TV show feature superheroics in settings that feel real, exploring what it might be like to live in a world where such strange and wonderful things happen.

MC: In the world you've created you have super heroes and super villains, with advanced technology and supernatural abilities but set in a realistic setting. Why did you decide to go this route? And do you think there's an audience for this type of novel?

RR: I think that Devil's Cape is kind of a meeting ground for people who like to read thrillers and people who like to read comic books. I wanted to explore a genre I love--superheroes--in the medium of prose. I definitely think there's an audience for this type of novel.

MC: Devil's Cape is a fictitious sister city to New Orleans. What are the advantages in going with a created setting rather than a real one?

RR: You get to make up cool stuff! Creating a city of my own let me build on familiar elements--the real-life setting of Louisiana, a New Orleans flavor, etc.,--while adding in other things that worked for my story, such as the strong pirate influence on the city and the historical elements of the various people who have lived there over the years. It's nice being able to part with reality a bit--making the streets run the way I need them to and developing neighborhoods and infrastructures to meet the needs of the story. Of course, once I've created an element, I need to be consistent about it. Here's a tip for anyone trying the same thing: Develop the map early on. Creating a map later in the process and trying to match it to all of your descriptions can be a huge undertaking.

MC: This is your first novel. Can you talk about what this process has been like for you?

RR: After the initial submission for the Wizards of the Coast open call, the primary challenge for me was time. The underlying idea of the call for submissions was that although you were submitting three chapters and an outline for the initial review, you were expected to have the full manuscript available if you made it to the next step. Well, I have a full-time job and two kids and just didn't have the time and energy to pour into completing the book just in case. So when Peter Archer of Wizards' book department contacted me and told me that Wizards liked the submission and wanted to see the whole manuscript, I was simultaneously elated and terrified. I was expected to provide a complete book within 10 days! Wizards was kind enough to extend that to five weeks, but even that was a very, very tight turnaround time, especially since I was in the middle of a huge project at work and couldn't just drop things. My wife and sons were a great support, giving me a lot of extra time on nights and weekends to work on the manuscript, and thanks to a really great team at work, I was able to squeeze in a couple of short-notice vacation days to help get that first draft wrapped up.

I didn't know it for a while, but the book almost died shortly after I sent it off. Peter Archer, the editor at Wizards of the Coast who had liked the submission and who had been my contact there, left the company. I had no way of knowing this, so it seemed to me that Wizards had just decided to pass on the book. I sent Peter a couple of e-mails, which of course never reached him, and assumed that I had been rejected. But about four or five months after I'd sent the completed draft in, I got an e-mail from Phil Athans, senior managing editor at Wizards of the Coast. Phil had been clearing out Peter's office and came across my manuscript--I'd had it printed in Renton, Washington, where Wizards of the Coast is based, and delivered by courier because I was so close to the wire on my deadline. It was in a box and had been stamped "Paid in Full" by the courier and for quite a while Phil thought that that was the title of the book. Phil nearly pitched the manuscript, but he decided to read at least a little bit to see what he thought, and he liked it. His e-mail to me got the book back on the track to being published. After that, there was a lot of revision work to be done. After I sent off the book, I kind of made a mental list of things I'd like to develop further if I ever got the opportunity. My editors at Wizards had their own list of suggestions (and honestly there was a lot of overlap there--we saw eye to eye on nearly everything) and so I went through more drafts of the book, getting it ready for publication.

I guess the most surprising thing for me was the way revising the book often worked in fits and starts. I'd work on it very intensely for weeks, then have a long period where I kind of held off, waiting to see what Wizards thought of the changes. It was a good process, though, and coming back at it fresh always helped me make it better.

MC: What's the response been towards Devil's Cape?

RR: I don't have any sales figures yet, or anything like that, but people I've talked to about the book or who have written about the book have generally been very positive. Superhero fans certainly seem to enjoy it, but I've also been very pleased with the number of people who don't particularly like superheroes, but who have ended up really enjoying the book because of the characters and action and setting. I just want to spread the word about it--I hope that once someone picks it up and reads a few pages, it will stand on its own merits.

MC: What's next for you Rob?

RR: I'm working on a sequel to Devil's Cape. I'm kicking around a couple of other ideas, but that sequel's my main goal.

Larry Young, the Chief Visionary, Creative Engine, and Marketing Guru for AiT/Planet Lar has got himself some enthusiasm, and isn't exactly shy about sharing it.

This week Larry's talking steampunk...

No, love I love Blade Runner, and I love the steampunk aesthetic. I love Noeland Collins, who combined the two, and made a steampunk version of Deckard's PKD; you remember... the gun from the film with the two triggers?

Now check this brass and wood baby out:

Someday, there's going to be a really good steampunk movie, and this aesthetic will be everywhere. Some guys are already making Jules Verne's lightsaber...

...and fashioning a proper case for a Mac mini:

I wonder if it's too early to get a top hat and goggles for Halloween...?

Heroes Aren't Hard To Find, the premier comic book shop in Charlotte, NC and host of this month's Heroes Convention has also been host to something new and different recently: The Heroes Discussion Group. Basically a book group for graphic novel fans, the Heroes Discussion Group meets once a month at the Heroes store to discuss the ins and outs of a selected graphic novel. So far they've analyzed books such as League of Extraordindary Gentlemen, All-Star Superman and Batman Year One.

The Discussion group is the brainchild of Heroes Creative Director Dustin Harbin and longtime customer Andy Mansell, who runs the discussions (a skill he has honed in recent years by moderating various creator panels at Heroes Con).

RBN's Rich Barrett recently spoke with Andy and Dustin about the Discussion Group and how they make it happen.

ANDY MANSELL: This was an idea rumbling around in Dustin's mind for a while. I was always complaining on Wednesday-- New Releases day, that I didn't have enough time to talk about books that really got my blood up. The staff would be trying to sort thousands of new books, assist dozens of customers and half-listen to me frothing at the mouth.

So an idea was born.

I was thrilled that Dustin asked me to moderate. I have always enjoyed the opportunities that Heroes has provided me by letting me run panels at the last three Heroes Cons.

So Dustin thought I would be a natural.

RBN: When you think about book groups, you generally think of people getting together in someone's living room, drinking tea, discussing Jane Austen or John Steinbeck. What did you picture when you started thinking about this book group for comics? How have the first few meetings turned out in comparison to what you planned it to be?



AM: I disagree with you about the vision of book groups you mentioned. When we have had book groups we have met in local watering holes. A few potent potables make for looser lips. The first one was tricky because I still did not know what I was doing. I was so heck bent on throwing out all my theories regarding League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, it became more of a lecture than a discussion group. I worked too hard to try to impress; a tough pill to swallow. However, the last hour really got things going in the right direction.

Fortunately, I took the lessons learned from the first meeting and it turned the next two All Star Superman and Batman Year One into marvelous discussions.

RBN: That's interesting. I noticed at the meeting that I had the pleasure of being present for – the Batman Year One discussion– that you came in with a pile of handwritten notes. You obviously put a lot of work into preparing for these discussions. A lot of people running one of these things might just show up and hope for the discussion to play out naturally but it's really helpful having you generate the talking points to keep the conversation interesting. Walk us through how you prepared for the Batman Year One discussion and what you learned from the previous discussions that helped make this one more interactive?

AM: OKAY--

I read the book 4 times.
Once for pleasure.
Once for themes/structure/narrative.
Once for the art and hidden gems comic or movie allusions.
One last time to finalize the ideas and see what I missed.
I write up all my notes twice and put them into categories. Then, I create at least 10 topics with -- and MOST importantly-- a LEADING question or two for each topic.
I also give myself reminders such as: find the person(s) who did not like the book or does not like superheroes-- and use them as the litmus or devil's advocate.
Another reminder-- if a participant is shy or nervous, I make a point to compliment them for their point.
Another reminder-- no one is wrong; get inside everyone's shoes.
I really write that at the top of every page.

RBN: For the first discussion you chose an Alan Moore book, then Grant Morrison followed by Frank Miller. Obviously you started by hitting all the big names. Talk about how you go about choosing the books.

AM: We fought it out for a few weeks to try to find the right book-- we wanted one that could generate a lot of discussion, so we settled on LoEG.

After that, we spend the last 15 minutes of the discussion time selecting the next book-- we go around the circle twice giving recommendations. Then we put them on the blog and let the conversation and voting begin.

RBN: How do you guys go about promoting this event each month?

DUSTIN HARBIN: The last four months or so we've been trying to dial up the idea of a monthly schedule, i.e., Manga Night, the Discussion Group, and any other events that month, and printing little flyers to give out to customers. The convention kinda screwed that up, just because it's such a vast black hole for time and energy, but we're getting slowly back on track now. And of course we talk it up on our blog, and in our weekly newsletter, the Heroes Hotline. Besides that, we actively push it in the store to people we think we'd like to talk to--for instance, yourself Rich. It's CRIMINAL that you've only been to one! My dream is to get a really great mix of people each month, male, female, young, old, talking about whatever. We're nearing the 10-15 person a month mark, but I'd like to get up around 15-20 ideally, especially since everyone can't come every month.

RBN: Yeah I wish I had been able to make the first few and now, having been to one and enjoyed it thoroughly, I wish there was almost a back issue system for the meetings so that I could go back and review what I missed.

What books would you love to discuss in the future?

AM: I still believe the three best books for discussion would be Ice Haven, Fun Home and Ordinary Victories...
My absolute dream discussion would be if we could get everyone to read Schulz and Peanuts - 1 volume of Peanuts from the late 60s and then Peanuts 2000 (the final year). Then throw in the recent Comics Journal-- the responses to the biography. Now that would be a awesome!!

DH: Well, my tastes are a little different. I would really REALLY love to dig into some challenging stuff, especially highly visible stuff like David B.'s Epileptic or Sammy Harkham's The Poor Sailor. Those are both just pure comic books, saturated with goodness. They're pretty advanced, though, and might be harder for some regular superhero readers to dive right into. Also From Hell, although we'd need a whole weekend to talk about that one. Maybe a Discussion Group retreat?

RBN: Are there any books that you think would not make for a good discussion? What is the criteria that makes a book worthy?

AM: Originally, I would have given the criteria as clarity of vision and consistency of execution. To me the two keys to art, but now in retrospect... it is the story and the characters that are the key. The plot has to grab and challenge. You have to identify or be polarized by the characters.

Here is the best example I can give: Little Lulu - One of my favorites - comic art at it's zenith. We could discuss the pacing, the set up and pacing of the humor, but it would only work as part of a larger discussion-- say comparing Stanley/Tripp to Barks. In order to have a solid discussion, the readers need something to hang their hat on.

One more example: you can look at a Rothko all day, but sit in a group and try discussing one painting. You wouldn't get too far without putting it in context of movements, the times, his contemporaries..etc.

Our next book will be Jeff Smith's Monster Society of Evil-- I do not believe this book works as well as I thought upon first reading... This will make a very challenging and exciting discussion.

DH: I would point out right away that our next book is NOT actually Shazam; we decided to go with Sandman Volume 4: Season of Mists instead, mainly because a) it's been requested a LOT, and b) oddly, because neither Andy nor myself particularly like it, which will pose an interesting challenge, and maybe make for even more interesting discussion. I'd rather read and talk about Shazam, but probably more because I'm a big Jeff Smith fan than out of any love for that book. I suspect there's not much to talk about.

RBN: What's the setting and atmosphere like for the discussion? How interactive does the discussion usually get?

AM: Best questions ever! We meet in the store, in the back where it is cool, the chairs are close to each other and uncomfortable. You have to sit up and listen.

If I had my choice I would have it in a local watering hole-- a wee bit of the wet loosens the lips-- but this goes against the feel and the attitude of Heroes Aren't Hard to Find.

I try to sit at the head across from everyone so I can make eye contact with everyone. It really works.

The group is getting more interactive every week. Some of it is a comfort level, most of it is because I am finally figuring out how to do it.

The first meeting was a lecture, the last two have been pure discussion

RBN: Do you have any advice for other stores that would like to start a venture like this?

DH: I would say to just dive right in--that's what we did. I can't overstate how great Andy is at this stuff, so maybe step one is to find an Andy. Step two is to make sure no one is left out or minimalized, so it's a real discussion and not just a couple of people talking. Even when someone comes up with some really oddball left-field observations, we try to welcome all opinions. It also helps that we vote each month on what the next topic will be--I think that helps the group members feel invested in the group's focus and direction.

AM: Start simple.
If your first book Maggots or Screw Style-- it may very well put off a lot of the readers.

Build slowly-- get people involved.

Invite an opposed opinion or two. Some of our best conversation came from one reader who loved Superman but hated All Star and we had at least two participants for Batman Year One that do not read superhero books at all.

Offer water.

Best of all-- have an artist in the group--Andy Smith took about 15 minutes and showed us all the storytelling tricks Mazzuchelli used on Batman Year One. We were dazzled!!!

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More information about The Heroes Discussion Group can be found at the excellent Heroes Online Blog. Photos from each event were taken by Dustin Harbin and can be viewed here.

Anyone in the Charlotte area should check out these lively and informative discussions. The events are monthly and are hosted at the Heroes Aren't Hard To Find store. Look for info on the next event at http://the-heroesonline-blog.blogspot.com/

Charles Stross takes the cyberpunk genre and flips it on it's head. Accelerando follows three generations of the Macx clan as they effectively become post human. You have people with amazing implants, lobsters uploaded onto the internet, alien high speed internet routers in deep space and floating cities on gas giants. It's an idea a minute book with some very interesting characters and settings. It's like Neuromancer on steroids.

Julian's Pick of the Week:Hellboy 2: The Golden Army
This summer looks like it will be the summer for comic book movies. Iron Man blew away expectations and The Hulk has gotten very positive response. This week we get another treat as Guillermo Del Toro brings Hellboy to the big screen once more. From what I've seen so far, I'm very excited and looking forward to the movie. I trust Del Toro and I think he's one of the few filmmakers that views his work on a comic book movie not as another job, but as a true labor of love. Not only that, this is most probably the last Del Toro movie we'll see in a couple of years (unless the rumored Dr. Strange happens, but that's highly doubtful) until we finally get to see The Hobbit on screen as made by the mad genius that gave us Pan's Labyrinth.

Erin's Pick of the Week:Text Messaging

I think that most of the people I know use it and love it. I mean, what other device lets you sneakily have entire conversations while you're, in theory, working? How else can you nag from afar, tell secrets without fear of being overheard, ask for on-the-spot analysis of a situation? That's right. Text messaging. Smaller than a computer screen, typically funnier than lengthier conversations due to brevity, portable, easily able to be slid into a pocket should you, perhaps, supposedly be doing other things. How else would I wake up to the cryptic message "panda pants"?

Rich's Pick of the Week:Criminal Vol 3 Dead And Dying TP

I mean, you really should be reading Criminal in floppies to get the interesting guest-written articles on the love of crime films with the beautiful Sean Philips paintings accompanying them. But I can't blame you if you're a trade person - it's generally the way to go - and you won't be disappointed in the latest Criminal volume from Philips and Ed Brubaker. This is a short one, collecting just three issues but they're probably the best three issues of the series so far. The three stories are each done-in-ones but interconnected in the most twisted and interesting ways.

Larry's Pick of the Week:Boomsday, by Christopher Buckley:

RNB e-i-c Mike Collins and I were talking about how I just don't have time to read fiction anymore. My thought was that after producing same all day, the last thing I wanted to do was relax with something made-up, so I'd been reading histories and biographies and such. A day or so after our conversation, it occurred to me that after spending all day producing some fiction for folks to enjoy, I would very much appreciate it if Carl Hiassan or Christopher Buckley sat down and read something of mine.

So I picked up Boomsday, another in Buckley's long line of solid base hits. His style? Pleasing. His observations? Spot-on. This one's about what happens when a blogger accidentally hits on how to make Social Security last through the upcoming retirement of the Baby Boomers: "Voluntary Transitioning," offering tax breaks and incentives to folks who kill themselves at age 70, thereby removing themselves from the rolls. The appeal of this plot is that the deal isn't presented as anything other than a joke to get people talking... the bulk of the novel has the main characters dealing with a crazed and put-upon electorate who take the joke seriously.

An eminently satisfying read, all thanks to Mike Collins.

Larry Young, the Chief Visionary, Creative Engine, and Marketing Guru for AiT/Planet Lar has got himself some enthusiasm, and isn't exactly shy about sharing it.

This week Larry's talking about storytelling.

So, I gots me some enthusiasm.

And in 1995, I got to meet the King Harald and Queen Sonja of Norway.

Sybase, the computer software company which shared its laboratory space with the biotech firm I was then working for, had leased nine Norwegian-made electric vehicles for their programmers to use around town.The idea, back then, thirteen years before the North Pole melted away, was to lessen carbon monoxide pollution by eliminating cold starts of hundreds of vehicles in the mad dash to get errands done during the problematic lunch hour.

As I was walking over to the Emery Bay Public Market to play some mind-clearing pinball at lunch time, I wandered in to the media event surrounding Sybase's use of these vehicles. There were several limos, large black Town Cars, mobile satellite news vans, and the compulsory jack-booted California Highway Patrol. Jauntily approaching one of these mirror-shaded representatives of the local constabulary, I quite innocently inquired as to the nature of all the brouhaha.

"The King and Queen of Norway are here," replied the cop, not so nearly as clipped-sounding as you might think. He was sort of bored.

Just then, The King and Queen burst out of one of the buildings in a frenetic dance of "I'm late for something, and I've very busy, you see," surrounded by huge, hairy, humorless men all dressed like Ellwood Blues.

The King looked straight at me, presumably because I was the only one in a five mile radius wearing jeans and a T-shirt, and thereby looking mighty out of place.

"Hi, Mr. and Mrs. King and Queen!" I yelled.

After one of them there "pregnant pauses" you hear so much about nowadays, wherein I started to become convinced one of those Norse Secret Service-equivalent guys or one of the CHP or possibly even an over-enthusiastic news reporteer was going to wrestle me to the ground... said King and Queen broadly smiled and both gave me big waves and got into their fossil fuel-burning limo and sped away into the fog-enshrouded late afternoon.

I, for my part, scored very well on the "Theatre of Magic" pinball game I played immediately afterwards.

What does all this have to do with anything?

Nothing.

But me, I gots me some enthusiasm for storytelling, and that's one of mine.

Come see me at booth #2001 if you're down at San Diego this year, and I'll tell you another one.

No, it wasn't until I was 16 and a friend of mine, after hearing me riff like so many other overly old 16 year olds about the wit (not) and wonder (lacking) of my opposite numbers. It couldn't be that they were young, I was dating four years older. (Umm, in their defense, I was about two grades more advanced than I should've been. It wasn't that bad, was it? Girls mature faster?) It couldn't be that they were stupid, I was dating engineers. No, the difference had to be more fundamental.

"You're all just dumb."

"Don't I know it, honey. Hey, I have this cd you should go buy."

So, the next day, I made it a point to stroll a few blocks down to the local indie record store and pick up a used copy of Exile In Guyville. The first thing I noticed was that she couldn't really sing. Okay. The next thing I noticed was that the groove was pretty simple. It wasn't anything especially special. So I was pretty surprised when it ended and I hit play again. I'd caught just a little something in the lyrics I could identify with. This was not what I expected from the girl on the cover of the "Supernova" cassingle, but we could work with this.

I'd like to say that I tempered my discovery with some prudence, but, let's face it, I was a pretty brash little thing to begin with and Exile In Guyville became my sourcebook for life as a teenage girl. I knew about "Glory". Surprisingly, I also knew about "Canary", having dating a very definite WASP-y type. In fact, the summer I discovered Liz, I was still dating him. Just not, umm, exclusively. I figured Liz would understand. Girls these days, they do what they have to. They grow up too fast.

The mythology behind the album is a little murky. Rumor has it that it's a response to Exile In Main Street, which I can see, but Ms. Phair has gone on record as saying it's a direct response to the Chicago indie-scene and one member of it in particular. Whatever. It's a common language. I identified with "Divorce Song", having never gone through it (neither had she) but understanding what a miserable breakup can feel like. I hummed "Explain It To Me" under my breath whenever something was being said that I just didn't understand. We can ask all day long and the answers weren't always forthcoming. I put "Mesmerizing" on cds for boys I wanted to think I was intriguing and "Flower" on cds for boys that I just wanted to shock into wanting me and put "Shatter" on the first cd I made for my now-husband.

Oh, yes, most of us have sold out. All the Liz girls I've known, we've gotten our boyfriends and ended up in the suburbs. But what happens to the Liz boys? The aforementioned husband was one of them. Unfortunately, living with someone who can really, truly understand the Exile experience, having loved and lost and fucked her way through a few years (oh, don't purse your lips like that, we've all had "those" years) might have ruined it for him. He now leaves the room when I play this cd, claiming it makes him "nervous".

I've always wondered what he means by that but maybe it doesn't bear introspection.

Mike's Pick of the Week:Astonishing X-Men #25

Warren Ellis and Simone Bianchi take the helm of the stand along X title with a new homebase(San Francisco), a new team and an entirely new storyline. Ellis alone would have been enough to tempt me. Ellis and Bianchi on an X-Men book? Sold.

Julian's Pick of the Week:Video Games Live

I had heard of Video Games Live before but missed their concerts in the city in the summer of 2005 and early 2008. Enter Future Shop (the canadian Best Buy) and their new, giant shop in downtown Toronto, who sponsored a free, outdoors VGL concert. This one I didn't miss and by God, I'm glad I didn't. I expected a short, entertaining affair with some nostalgia mixed up. Instead of that, I got to enjoy a three-hour burst of creativity and talent, MCed by VGL creator Tommy Tallarico (who did a great job at getting the audience involved and excited and even joined the orchestra for the last few pieces playing electric guitar.)

The concert was exciting, the audience went nuts at just the right moments and, as if that wasn't enough, Martin "The Video Game Pianist" Leung is currently touring with VGL and was a big part of the event.

I loved Video Games Live, I am very glad I got to see them this time and I really hope I get to see it again at some point. Check out their tour dates and see if they're coming to a concert hall near you. I promise you, it's worth it.

Erin's Pick of the Week: The FBI

Stltoday.com, the website of the Post Dispatch is currently reporting that the FBI is on the lookout for an armed and dangerous man that's actually managed to kill eight people through western Illinois and the St. Louis metro area since Sunday. So we love the FBI. Go FBI.

Rich's Pick of the Week:The Sword Volume #1 by the Luna Bros.

I've only read the first issue of the Luna Bros. latest series but it was a pretty brutal beginning that sets up would could be a pretty compelling revenge story. It's about a young paralyzed girl named Dara who sees her family murdered in front of her by a group of mysterious strangers who claim to be seeking a sword that Dara's father supposedly posseses. It seems like a horrible case of mistaken identity until Dara, the only survivor of the bloodbath that claims her parents and sister, finds the sword itself. It's got a lot of Kill Bill to it which isn't a bad thing but mixes in a little bit of the supernatural, which also isn't too bad.

Larry's Pick of the Week: The Tunguska Event

On June 30, 1908, just after seven in the morning, a man sitting on the front porch of a trading post at Vanavara in Siberia is hurled from his chair and the heat will be so intense he will feel as though his shirt is on fire. That's how the Tunguska event felt 40 miles from ground zero. So this week's pick is the anniversary of the explosion and fireball of the only entry of a large meteoroid we have in the modern era with eyewitnesses.

When I hopped on the internet this morning the last thing I expected to see was that Michael Turner had lost his long battle with cancer. I have been a fan of Michael's work for a long time and aside from that having met him a few times I can also add that he is one of the nicest comic pro's I've ever met.

My ever indulging wife went with me to Wizard World Philadelphia's first show several years back. We wandered around the various booths and I was like a little kid, gleefully walking from one section to the next. We found the Aspen comics booth and my wife asked me who the tall, good looking guy was. I told her I wasn't sure and we made our way over to the huge books filled with Michael's original art for what I guess had to have been Batman/Superman. So as we're flipping through the pages the very same tall, good looking guy walks over and starts to talk with us. About the show, the area...after a few minutes my wife asks him his name and he introduces himself as Michael Turner. Now to my wife, that means nothing, so she and he just continued chatting away. We probably talked to him for close to half an hour.

When we walked away from the Aspen booth I told my wife who he was and she said nice to see he wasn't just a talented artist but also a good guy. Now I wouldn't presume to say I have any more knowledge of Michael personally than that but I feel comfortable in saying that I found him to be charming, down to earth and just a nice guy.

I think comic books lost one of their brighter stars yesterday. And more importantly they lost one of their nicer people. Rest easy Michael. You will most definitely be missed.

From Julian:

I met Michael Turner several times during the Wizard World Chicago and Toronto Fan Expo. I liked some of his work. Never loved it, never disliked it but I'll say one thing: the man was a class act. He was one of the nicest, most humble and down to Earth people you'd meet at a con. He always made time to talk to fans, remembered people that he had met at previous cons and always had a smile on his face.

After the con was done for the day at a Toronto Fan Expo some friends and I went to grab a drink at a nearby pub and after a while we saw Turner and the Aspen crowd come in. A friend and I came up to him to say hi and ended up talking to him for a while. The friend that was with me is a very talented artist, for whom Turner was an inspiration that made him go back to art after leaving it for a while. Turner asked if he could see my friend's sketchbook and they sat down at the bar going through it, with Turner giving compliments, advice and criticism. Even some of his friends seemed annoyed the he was spending yet more time talking to fans and when they came up to him he just replied "Not now. I'm looking at a sketchbook."

Love or hate his art, one thing that no one can deny is that he was a really, really nice guy. He will be very missed.

Condolences to Michael's family can be sent to:

Aspen MLT, Inc.
C/O Michael Turner
5855 Green Valley Circle, Suite 111
Culver City, CA, 90230

Larry Young, the Chief Visionary, Creative Engine, and Marketing Guru for AiT/Planet Lar has got himself some enthusiasm, and isn't exactly shy about sharing it.

This week? Deadlines and clip shows...

I am under some wicked deadline pressure right now, trying to get stuff done before we leave for San Diego, and one of the first things to go is Fun Stuff in My Free Time. I can't read, watch a little TV, zone out at the beach, nothing. I have to work, I have to watch the kid, I have to eat, I have to sleep. So I almost missed sending in something as my enthusiasm for cool stuff was a little low.

I started thinking about what TV shows do when deadline pressures get to them, and I realized: clip show! You know, the one where the main character gets knocked unconscious and his friends all try to help him out of his coma by going over their past adventures. So you only have to write a little framing sequence that takes a day or so to shoot, and you fill in the rest of the hour with clips from the shows that explains the adventure.

Last fall, I told two funny stories you may have missed, featuring a subject I never broach and one I talk about every year at convention season. "So, remember that time Larry was rapping about a sequel to The Big Lebowski..."

My father-in-law and I were talking about THE BIG LEBOWSKI this weekend (I was wearing my MEDINA SOD bowling shirt and he recognized it right away), and I basically outlined what I would do with the next one, of course titled THE LITTLE LEBOWSKI, where Little Dude, now about 17, is a surfer/gofer for Da Fino and gets swept up into a missing persons case. Maude, his mother, has told him "your father died in childbirth," so Little Dude is surprised to get five grand in cash, two fake passports, and a dime bag of really good Thai stick in the mail one day. Turns out the missing person he's looking for is his own father, The Dude.

And there are people who don't want The Dude to be found...

Basically, I'd 2010 it. You can't out-trip the original, so do an adventure.

"...and then there was the time he started telling us about how to pitch to him at San Diego..."

Early days we used to get a lot of sci-fi pitches, but now our backlist is so broad and the common thread is basically that there is no common thread to what we publish, thematically, so we get a nice broad scope of stuff sent to us. Even though I don't make a secret of the fact that I don't want any pitches.

The thing that sort of drives me nuts isn't so much the kind of pitch as how people pitch. There was this poor bastard at San Diego last year who showed me his idea. Had a good title, the artist was standing right there, good stuff, so I ask him what it's about.

He could not tell me. He started off, "Well, OK, see, it starts off... well this'll be all backstory see..."

OK, I interrupt him. It's Sunday afternoon, I lost my voice on Thursday, this all looks good, just tell me what it's about. I'm tired and I haven't left this booth and my wife isn't here and if it wasn't for Ash no one would have talked to the other-media guys and I'm overloaded and I sort of don't care about your book. BUT. I am not so far away from your side of the table that I don't remember what it's like to dream comic book dreams and this art is decent and I sort of dig where you're going already so just tell me the plot.

And he just sort of freezes up.

OK, I dig it, I'm an acquired taste and am all big and scary and crazy and you read on the Internet that I'm a douchebag and you're starting to agree with the guy who said it, I get it, I'm sorry. You've seen STAR WARS, yeah?

"Of course," he says.

What's it about? I say.

And he tells me in about 45 seconds, beginning, middle, and end.

Awesome, I'd publish that, I say. Now do that for your story.

"Well, OK, see, it starts off... well, this'll be all backstory see..."

ARRRGGGH

I kept trying to tell him, of course it's all richly layered and deeply felt and emotionally resonant and whatnot. I wouldn't even be talking to him if I didn't see something in it. Just tell me the TV Guide blurb version of your story, so I get the gist and if it sounds good we'll talk at length later.

And he just couldn't do it.

I hope the guy gets his act together, because it's a good idea, but shy of completing the whole thing and sending it to me to read it, I'm not sure I'll be able to get out of him what it's actually about.

If you are reading this and recognize yourself, Anonymous Joe, rest assured I have all the materials you gave me, and when I get a minute, I'll email you to see how you're doing. Hope I didn't scare you away from comics.

But if I did with my coarse gruffness it's just as well as you couldn't have taken what message board people would have said about your stuff.

Toronto Noir
Edited by Janine Armin and Nathaniel G. Moore

This book is the latest addition to Akashic Books' localized-Noir series, which include books such as Brooklyn Noir, Detroit Noir and Paris Noir, among many others.
As you may have guessed by now, the line consists of anthologies of noir stories that share one thing in common: the city in which every story in each particular book takes place. When the Toronto book was announced, I couldn't resist getting it out of curiosity from reading m mystery stories (a genre that I had left behind long ago) set in a very familiar location.
As it usually happens with anthologies, the stories vary wildly between hit and miss; which caused me to be a bit disappointed with the book at one point, since the stories are ordered in such a way that all the stories that weren't to my liking are one right after another. These stories suffered from a few different things but three seemed to be repeated offenses: some were too simplistic, by-the-numbers mystery. The kind of which any mystery fan has read a million while waiting for a flight. Others seemed to be missing the last few pages of the story. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for ambiguous endings to stories, allowing the reader to decide what happened... but there is such a thing as too open-ended: it doesn't take you to a point where the character faces a dilemma and ends right before a decision is made, it seems to end about ten pages before that point. The third and probably most annoying offense would be the writer really, really wanting you to know the story takes place in Toronto, taking the name-dropping of diners, restaurants shops and blurbs about them to a level where it's just too distracting.
Now, I mentioned that all the stories I didn't enjoy were clustered together; the other side of that coin means that all the stories I did enjoy also followed one another. And there are plenty of stories that I enjoyed in the book. Stories that were entertaining (Brianna South,) stories with a (broken) heart (The Emancipation of Christine Alpert, Tom) and just plain good old-fashioned mystery/crime/noir (Can't Buy Me Love, A Taste of Honey, A Bout of Regret, among others.) The good in this book easily outweighs the bad and does a great job at telling compelling stories and embedding them in the fabric of Toronto (without getting to the point where it seems a bit too eager to do so.)

Mike's Pick of the Week: Ultimates 3 #4

Yes I know it's in vogue to bash anything Jeph Loeb does for Marvel. But I don't care. It's loud, dumb fun with the return of one of my favorite artists ever in Joe Madureira on pencils. Yes it's different than the equally delayed Millar/Hitch run but this one is more my speed. In a move I expect my fellow cohorts on RBN to disown me for I will also throw in as a bonus pick Jeph Loeb's Hulk #4. Another loud, dumb, fun book. Yes I like Jeph Loeb, there I said it.

Larry's Pick of the Week:Salt bagels
Lightly topped with salt crystals, salt bagels are the perfect breakfast. You can eat them alone, even. It's like having a soft pretzel to start your day. Mmmmm, salt bagels.

Julian's Pick of the Week:Toronto's Gay Pride Parade.
Just like every year, this weekend will conclude the Gay Pride week with the annual parade, in a celebration of openness, diversity and acceptance. Pride week and the parade bring around one million people to the city from all over the country and abroad. Personally, I think it's a great occassion to go out, see and meet different people and put in your two cents, support-wise for gay rights. Or you may just go and get drunk, whatever rocks your boat, as long as - in one way or another - you're contributing to wider acceptance (your own or someone else's) of anyone regardless of sexual orientation.

Erin's Pick of the Week:Liz Phair, Exile in Guyville
Some of you out there might say an indie-label reissue of this hipster classic is silly and that we don't need to know who Liz is singing these songs to. You might say that perhaps this anniversary cashing in is just the death throes of a generation's hipness. You might even say that Dave Matthews' introduction to the bonus dvd is clear proof that it's not relevant. But some of you might say that a reissue with a dvd is a pretty rad idea and that you love this cd and that you always knew Dave Matthews was hella cool. I'm definitely in the latter camp. Watch RBN for a personal essay reflecting on Exile later this week but, in the meantime, go buy the album with the bonus materials. Understand that this will satisfy you.

Rich's Picks of the Week:Umbrella Academy Apocalypse Suite TP
Probably the best superhero comic of the past year gets a chance to pick up some new readers as the 6 issue series is collected in this trade paperback edition. Written by My Chemical Romance singer Gerard Way (yeah I know, but seriously, the dude can write comics) and illustrated by Brazillian wonder twin Gabriel Ba, this story about a disfunctional set of grown-up superhero siblings created by a mad scientist and bad dad is like a cross between The Royal Tenenbaums and The Incredibles.

Goodbye - The third volume of Drawn & Quarterly's reprints of Yoshihiro Tatsumi's life's work could be the darkest and strangest yet with stories originally published in the early '70's that deal with Hiroshima, prosititution during WWII and foot fetishism. As with the first two volumes, this handsome hardcover is designed by famed indie comics creator and major Tatsumi fan Adrian Tomine.

Larry Young, the Chief Visionary, Creative Engine, and Marketing Guru for AiT/Planet Lar has got himself some enthusiasm, and isn't exactly shy about sharing it.

This week? STAR TREK.

Anyone who's ever come over to the house or had a beer with me somewhere or talked to me at a con or has traded emails with me knows I love STAR TREK. I'm all O.V. about TOS; loved the TNG. I know what those access tunnels they're always crawling through are called and I know who they're named after. I know as many words in Marc Okrand's Klingon as I do in French, and I'll bust out "magnatomic adhesion area" if you think you're all that in an old-school tête étêté with me about the show.

Noted scamp Rich Johnston even scored a picture of me twenty-nine years ago dressed up in a handmade Starfleet uniform and Vulcan ears (which were a lot harder to get in rural Vermont in 1979 that you might imagine) standing in line opening night for STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE. I saw it eight or nine times before I realized it wasn't even that good of a movie.

I even wrote a special for MTV shot of the bridge of the Enterprise-D. So I have a little ST cred, and I'm a little snobby about the ancillary stories, the paperbacks, the comics, what-have-you. Jeez, I don't even like VOYAGER and I barely watched ENTERPRISE.

But as I guy who trims his sideburns into Academy points (or, for that matter, even knows that the pointed sideburns that everyone wears in the future are even CALLED "Academy points") once a year when he shaves off his Riker-esque beard... take it from me:

I love IDW's STAR TREK line.

Now, some of the alien anthology books are sort of placeholders, and the NEW FRONTIER story "Turnaround" (about a former member of the crew with godlike powers and the crew of a timeship after him) seems a little too close to "For the Time Being" from PROOF OF CONCEPT for me to really enjoy it as a fan. But David Messina's art on the Next Gen characters is just great, and I make sure to read all the ones he works on.

But the one that's really doing it for me lately is John Byrne's ASSIGNMENT: EARTH.

Like most STAR TREK fans, I love that episode, and after I saw THE ROOKIES get introduced on S.W.A.T., I realized what a "back-door pilot" was. Who wouldn't have wanted to see Robert Lansing and Teri Garr cavorting across late 60s television screens?

Seems as though ol' JB has been thinking the same thing all these years, and has gotten Ted Adams to open the purse strings, because we're in the middle of what's been touted as the spin-off that didn't get made. And can I tell you?

It's awesome.

I know I'm breaking an unwritten rule of mine by even talking about comics here, because, you know, one assumes that if I write and letter and produce and publish comics, chances are very high I got some enthusiasm for the form, yeah? So taking time away from work and play to write up a quick column about comics I like seems a little water's-wet.

But dang if I don't have to say thanks to IDW and CBS and Big John for putting out this comic. Robert Lansing looks like Robert Lansing, Teri Garr looks like... well, a blonde John Byrne girl, but, still. He gets the clothes right and the cadence of the characters, and it's in service of a story you actually care about what happens. The first issue, about a Soviet spy sent to sabotage a US bomb test is a sort of by-the-numbers thing (which actually works for the time, as you'd imagine this'd be the sort of story that'd be told on network TV in the late 60s)... and yet ends so brutally, I sort of couldn't believe what I was reading.

The second issue FORREST GUMPs the ASSIGNMENT: EARTH characters back to the Enterprise for the events of the ST ep "Tomorrow is Yesterday," which, due to the peculiarities of time travel, happens after "Assignment: Earth" for Seven and Roberta, but before "Assignment: Earth" for the Enterprise crew.

Trust me, that sentence made sense to a STAR TREK fan.

First time novelist and all around good guy David J. Williams stops by RBN to discuss his debut novel The Mirrored Heavens, a blending of military science fiction, political intrigue and kick ass action.

DW: Plus it meant I had no life. There's a lot of geopolitical and military data up on my website, www.autumnrain2110.com, but here's a quick glossary of terms:

The United States: The western superpower.

The Eurasian Coalition: The eastern superpower.

The Second Cold War: what the superpowers have been locked in since the middle of the 21st century.

The Zone: The future internet. Which has been divided along geopolitical lines to forestall viral incursions; i.e., there's no more world wide net. There's an Eastern net and a Western net, with totally separate operating protocols and hardware.

Runners: Espionage agents/cover operatives. There are two types:

Mechs: Short for mechanic, i.e., assassin. They kick down doors and smash in heads.

Razors: Hackers. Razors and mechs tend to work in pairs; what they don't tend to do, though, is trust each other.

The Mountain: The future New York.

The Commands: What the U.S. armed forces are divided into. As of 2110, there are five: Space, Info, Navy, Army and CounterIntelligence. And by the way, they hate each other.

Praetorians: The military/intelligence infrastructure that protects the U.S. president.

The Throne: Intel slang for the U.S. president.

The Elevator: the space elevator that's the joint construction of the superpowers and the living symbol of the détente that they've embarked upon. Until it gets blasted from the sky by. . .

Autumn Rain: The mysterious terrorist group that nukes the Elevator and that makes no demands whatsoever—but instead threatens the superpowers with total destruction. The race is on to stop the Rain before they can strike again . .

RBN: Talk a little bit about the major characters in The Mirrored Heavens, Claire Haskell, Jason Marlowe, The Operative, Spencer...

DW: Haskell: Razor. Works for CICom. (CounterIntelligenceCommand)

Marlowe: Mech. Works for CICom. He and Haskell used to be romantically linked, but they discover early in the book that their handlers are #$# with their memories, so . . it's complicated.

Carson (aka the Operative): Mech. Praetorian assigned to search for Autumn Rain base(s) on the Moon.

Lynx: Razor. Praetorian. Paired with Carson. No love lost between them.

Spencer: Razor. Works for the Priam Combine, a gang of Euro data thieves. He's infiltrated a U.S. defense contractor, and is living the paranoid life when someone shows up on his doorstep . .

Linehan: Mech. Blackmails Spencer into smuggling him out of the country. Claims he has vital data on Autumn Rain, but Spencer's wondering if all he's got is a big mouth (and the ability to kick serious ass).

Control: Spencer's AI handler, sequestered in an unmarked data tank in New York, and less than thrilled to hear about Linehan . . .

RBN: A lot of your characters are augmented in one way or another, either for electronic intrusion such as wirelessly connecting to The Zone in their heads or combat enhancement. Did you just let your imagination run wild or did you try to base a lot of their internal gear in reality?

DW: Both. On the wireless-brain interface, for example: there's no question that this is where it's all going, that ultimately the Web is going to get right inside us. The real question is the extent to which such mechanisms end up being vulnerable to abuse by governments, etc. (Obviously, in THE MIRRORED HEAVENS, that vulnerability is near total.)

RBN:Right from the get go the book has three fast paced storylines running with one over the top action scene after another, like the spaceplane crash landing in Hong Kong. Were you trying to outdo yourself constantly?

DW: Absolutely. The story-lines took over. They got very competitive with one another. Plus, they knew if they could step it up enough, they could take this all the way.

RBN: As a first time author can you talk a bit about the process for writing The Mirrored Heavens? Was it a difficult process?

DW: It was exhilarating and terrifying and I thought I'd never pull it off. There was endless toggling back and forth among plot, characters, and the world itself. This went on for years. And years. And years.

RBN: How did working in videogames help you with writing the book, if at all?

DW: With videogames, you're a participant. I wanted to try to recreate that experience in narrative. Part of this involved my resolution to make the book deliver combat scenes crazier than any you've ever seen. And part of it was more subtle: it became a play around what we know vs. what we don't. Specifically, the characters in the different plot-threads have different information. Sometimes they lack information. Sometimes their information conflicts. Meaning the reader isn't given easy answers—and they have to get involved if they want to keep up.

RBN: One of the most sexy tech items in Mirrored Heavens is the power armor both Marlowe and the Operative wear throughout. Where did that come from?

DW: From the realization that science fiction without powered armor is like beef stew without the beef.

RBN: I want to delve into the plot a bit if we can. It's pretty obvious early on that things might not be quite what they seem. What was it like layering the different levels in the story, figuring out all the twists and turns?

DW: I owe a big debt to John LeCarre, frankly: I've always loved his books for their twists—and for the twists piled upon twists. But building up that kind of intricate plot is a function of the world one creates. In THE MIRRORED HEAVENS, you've got two superpowers, each of which is divided into scores of factions. And then there's those who want nothing better than to seriously damage one or both of those superpowers. So the opportunity for intricate plots and backstabs is almost limitless.

RBN: You've decided to forgo chapter breaks and instead use character icons to differentiate between sections of the book. Why did you go that route?

DW:To make the book move faster. Chapters are borrrrrrring.

(Though the person who came up with those cool icons was my editor, Juliet Ulman. Who rules.)

RBN:. The Mirrored Heavens ends on a pretty stark note. I understand that this is just the first part of a trilogy. Can you talk about books two and three and when readers might expect them?

DW: Well, this is probably a good point to assure your readers that they'll get narrative payoff at the end of THE MIRRORED HEAVENS. It ends with a bang, not a cliffhanger. But it definitely leaves the door open for more to come. As to what happens next: all I'll say is that LEVIATHAN'S PROGENY will make the first book look like a particularly civilized tea-party.

RBN: And here's a silly one...
Who wins in a fight between Linehan, the Operative and Marlowe?

DW: That's a tough one. If I was a betting man, I'd probably go with Linehan, because he's the champ at fighting dirty.

RBN: What's next for you Dave?

DW:Well, across the next several days, I'm publishing my legendary, never-before-seen essay "Notes Toward a Theory of Space-Centric Warfare" on my website: www.autumnrain2110.com. If you want to understand the nuts n' bolts of strategy/warfare in the 22nd century, you won't want to miss it.

Charlie Huston's Joe Pitt Casebooks
Crime and mystery writer Charlie Huston has created a twisted netherworld Manhattan that coexists right alongside the one I work in every day. The streets are the same as are the seedy bars and pizza places, but in Joe Pitt's world there are also vampyres. Now normally vampires or in this case vampyres aren't something I go in for but Joe Pitt is just too good of a character to pass up on. Pitt is infected with something called the vyrus which requires blood to sustain before it eats him alive. There are some positives though, the vyrus makes Joe stronger and faster than a normal human and able to take ungodly amounts of damage. The negative reaction to sunlight is still there but these vampyres can and do go outside during the daylight, they just use protection.. But what you get is a noir fairytale with tough guy Pitt caught between the Society, a politicly correct commune where everyone is A OK to the mafia style Coalition who rules most of Manhattan. It makes for some fun reading. Rounding out the supporting cast is Evie, Joe's love interest who is HIV positive who Joe could cure in an instant as the vyrus destroys anything harmful to the host, to the Enclave who are a cult like group that live in a fortress in the meat packing district where the train in a bone breaking martial art and prepare for a savior to be able to walk into the daylight.

These books won't be for everyone. They are bleak and they are ultra violent. But if you like alternate takes on seemingly played out ideas, give this noir vampyre series a shot.

Larry's Pick of the Week:

JOIN ME by Danny Wallace.

Subtitled "The True Story of How One Man Started a Cult... by accident," journalist Danny Wallace placed an ad in a small London newspaper as a bit of a goof. JOIN ME, it said, with contact info. Asked for a recent photo, just to prove your were a person. No other info.

Just, you know, as a lark. To see what would happen.

And then. From all over the world. People did. They had no idea what they were joining, and yet, that sort of didn't matter. Equal parts of hope and humor, inspiration and despair, good deeds and bad curry, imagine a book written by Monty Python about that one time when they found themselves in control of an army of believers, who were looking to them for inspiration.

It goes from a joke, to... well:

"His Royal Highness applauds the initiative taken to establish Join Me and is thrilled that so many good deeds have been done as a result... The prince of Wales congratulates all Joinees for their good deeds so far and has asked me to send his very best wishes for future acts of kindness." The Office of Prince Charles

http://www.join-me.co.uk/

Julian's Pick of the Week:

Summer '08 is looking like the best moment to be a comic book nerd. Starting with 2000's X-Men, Hollywood started paying attention to the medium in a way it never did before. Sure, there were the Superman and Batman franchises but those seemed to be the exception and definitely not the rule (as Steel, Supergirl, Tank Girl and many others proved.) Now, this summer we have got one of the best superhero movies ever made in Iron Man, a big budget Hulk reboot and two upcoming (and excellent-looking) others: Hellboy II - The Golden Army and The Dark Knight, along with another one that should have been a comic book (specially if it had been produced by John Arcudi and Doug Mahnke) in Hancock.

If those weren't enough, Hellboy II is Guillermo Del Toro latest effort. Guillermo "MY NEXT MOVIE IS THE HOBBIT" Del Toro, which I'd assume played a part (along with his good-beyond-words Pan's Labyrinth) in getting him into the director's chair to direct the story of Bilbo Baggins.

It's a good time to be a nerd, particularly a comic book nerd.

Erin's Pick of the Week:

Raymond K. Feist's Riftwar Saga: I know I might be letting my nerd show, but this fantasy series is not to be missed. Complete with magicians, invasions from other worlds, monsters, sleeping princesses and zombies, Feist's Riftwar books take us to the world of Midkemia and focus primarily on the Kingdom of the Isles with visits to the planet Kelawar. We're introduced to this world in Magician: Apprentice and Magician: Master, the story of a young boy discovering his magical abilities between being kidnapped by aliens and fighting a war at, like, fourteen. The story continues with a focus on the Kingdom's royal family in Silverthorn (see: sleeping princess) and A Darkness at Sethanon, which features lots of creepy zombies. And who doesn't love creepy zombies? An oldie, but a goodie, I'm going to recommend this to any lovers of High Adventure out there.

Ash's Pick of the Week:

Ash is off in sunny Orlando this week, but were he here, he'd be extolling the virtues of Primavera's ProSight application. As an Enterprise Portfolio Management solution, ProSight is easily and infinitely customizable to your company's portfolio management needs. Prioritization is a snap with customizable investor maps, "what-if" scenario building and constraint analysis, and Primavera supports integration with key enterprise solutions like MS Project Server. ProSight is fully customizable out of the box, but Primavera also supplies "Fast Track" configurations, allowing organizations to leverage industry best practices for the foundation of their configuration, and then tweak to meet their individual needs.

Rich's Pick of the Week:

Y The Last Man Vol 10 Whys And Wherefores TP. This is it, trade-waiters. The conclusion to Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra's excellent post-apocalyptic sci-fi epic about Yorick Brown, the last man on earth, is finally collected in this new trade paperback. I've been avoiding spoilers for the last few months ever since the final issue was released and hopefully I can avoid them for a couple of more days before I have a chance to read this. I'm currently re-reading volumes 1-9 to lead myself in to this final volume.

Larry Young, the Chief Visionary, Creative Engine, and Marketing Guru for AiT/Planet Lar has got himself some enthusiasm, and isn't exactly shy about sharing it.

With gas prices skyrocketing across the US Larry's talking alternative means of transportation this week.

When I first got to San Francisco, one of my pals sold me an old Yamaha Riva he had, and I put almost 30,000 miles on it in 13 years. Man, I loved that old piece of junk. Seventy miles a gallon, two bucks to fill up the tank, fifty bucks a year in insurance; park wherever you want. And since San Francisco is a two-wheel-friendly town with better weather than most places, you can use it all year long.

Near the end there it was spending more time in the shop than on the road, so I ended up getting a Derbi Boulevard:

And I rode that all around until the baby came and I had to swap over to the CRV. But every once in awhile, I go up to the store or have to head somewhere where I don't feel like finding a spot to park the car, so I get on the ol' scooter and scoot from here to there. But I find myself driving a lot more carefully, and stopping at four way intersections like a little old lady instead of rolling through with a "Sunset Stop" like everyone else out here in the Avenues, because my baby needs his Daddy.

So Mimi was getting the boy bundled up to go to Day Care and head off to Adobe, and I strapped him in his seat in the back of the Scion and asked her, "Hey, you have your phone, yeah?" Mimi's got a lot of stuff going on and even though she needs that thing to get through the day, she often forgets it. "Yes, I have my phone," she said, and she split for work.

I walked upstairs to get some breakfast before I finish up lettering Dugout, and sure enough, there's her phone, sitting on the table.

Well, I can't call her and tell her to come back and get it, what with her phone being in the kitchen instead of with her. I can call Sofiya's and tell them to tell her to come back and get her phone, but she'll be late for a work meeting. I can get in the car and chase her down, but I'll never catch up to her with all the morning traffic.

But then I remember that I gots me some enthusiasm for my old faithful scooter, who's just waiting in the garage for me to take 'im out for this sort of family emergency. So I fire up the engine and go up Rivera until I cross Sunset, take a right at the first stop sign and head up Santiago, missing all the lights and signs and the crazy traffic on Taraval. I get there right as Mimi is ringing Sofiya's doorbell.

"What are you doing?" she laughed.

"Forget something?"

"No... oh."

So I gave her her phone and waved goodbye, and the Boulevard and I went home. Where he sits in the garage, waiting until the next time we can go out and play.