Monday Media Blitz - Aftermath

So at 8:45 this morning I was on Louisville news morning show Fox in the Morning for several minutes. I was so nervous I thought I was going to puke in my lap, but it was a very pleasant experience. Everyone on the staff had read issue #1 and told me they liked it a lot. The producer and hosts Barry Bernson and Candyce Clifft were just beyond gracious. Another big thanks to them for having me on and promoting the comic!

You can click here to view streaming video of the segment. I grabbed it on my Tivo and I'll eventually figure out how to get it on to my server as a permanent Flash video, but that will be a few weeks off, I'm afraid. The end of the segment featured the cover for Suburban Tribe #2, which you can see to your left and click on for a larger version.

Also, today's strip is #700, so excuse me while I go buy a Twinkie and put a birthday candle in it to celebrate. Feel free to do the same.

Catching Up

Let's start off with this Flash video of my inking process. All of the cool kids are doing this, so I thought I would be a lemming too. This video will eventually have a permanent home in the Creating Comics section, which I will be rewriting from scratch at some point since my process has changed so much. Flash Player/plug-in 8 (or even better, 9) is required to view this:

Heroes Con 06
Heroes con went well. I got to meet several pros and hear them speak about publishing, self-publishing and the craft of writing. Due to my work schedule, we were only able to drive 8 hours on Saturday, check into a hotel, eat, sleep, go to the con on Sunday (the slowest day), then leave at 4pm so that we could make the 8 hour drive back before the wee hours of Monday morning arrived. Downtown Charlotte was very nice. Clean and modern, with what seemed like an active nightlife.

Other than that, I'm not sure what I was thinking, driving 16 hours round-trip for a 4-hour convention circuit. I am so bad at meeting comics pros (who were all just very pleasant) that it's like I'm having an out-of-body experience while I watch a bomb detonate in slow motion. I think I'm better off just hiding behind my website and letting the work speak for itself.

Superman Returns
With all that was going on, last night was my first chance to finally see Superman Returns. And even then, it was a close one, since Wordplay came to town and my wife, the crossword puzzle nut enthusiast, made with the puppy-dog eyes. But I cruelly stood my ground (we're going to see Wordplay tonight) and we splurged for the IMAX 3D showing of Supes.

I thought the 3D technology was damn near perfect, and it added a great deal to the Airplane and Boat crash sequences. No question that this incarnation of 3D is here to stay. That being said, I don't think that the movie as a whole gained anything extra with 3D sequences. All we really need is a good story for a movie to suck us in.

Which brings us to the movie itself. I thought it was excellent. The character of Superman is in desperate need of modernization. Since DC comics seems so unwilling, I'm glad that the filmmakers had the guts to do the job. And what I'm talking about is the addition of Lois' son, which was nothing less than a stroke of genius. Superman has no real flaws (I consider kryptonite to be a gimmick), but if you give Lois a son and a fiancee who is a really good man, as well as a likeable character, Superman has to eat a shit sandwich just like any other joe sixpack in a similar situation. (Why didn't James Marsden have this much to when he was Cyclops?)

The action sequences were real white-knucklers, and Brandon Routh gave us a strong-but-silent-type version of Superman laced with mannerisms that were an homage to Christopher Reeve. I liked that they made no attempt to retell the origin story, that they basically used the final scenes of Superman II as the launching point for this. The third act was especially pleasing. The movie didn't take the easy way out. They told us that life is hard for everyone, even if you're Superman. I can't wait to see this again.

Fun tidbit: Did anyone notice that the publication date for Lois' Pulitzer-winning article ("Why the World Doesn't Need A Superman") was February 13?