There's a french fry in my fingers

TWO HBN 2 REVIEWS

2008-02-25T21:11:00.000-08:00

Great reviews. Not sure if it's helping. Thanks to these reviewers, though.

comicsbulletin says Hero by Night is an answer to my prayers.

comixtreme says As superhero stories go, it’s hard to get more classic than this.

STATE OF THE UNION

2008-02-23T18:59:00.000-08:00

Hero By Night came out last Wednesday. Quietly. The few responses we did get were pretty great, and there was even a mention at CBR and made the Read Pile. Mentions here and there, but not yet the official reviews of Issue 1. Shame. It's a better issue. There's also an interview with me in the back.

We're working on Issue 3 right of HBN right now. Upon seeing it drawn, we realized there was a scene that could have been better, so it was nice to be in the position to rewrite it, redraw it, and and even move it to the front of the issue for impact. It could have stayed, but being able to do this on the fly just makes the issue that much better. I've written six issues of HBN now, I guess one questionable scene isn't too bad :)

I just got a pretty nice job. I can't say what it is, it'd tip off people to something before the official announcment. I'm extremely lucky to have landed it. So there'll be a big announcement from me here pretty soon about it. Big for me, anyway.

Planet of the Dinosaurs in right now at a company who is interested, and there could be an offer soon. It's a really good company. It really only officially went there, and I'm going to hold onto submitting anyone else and see if things work out with them first.

Death is in the last stages. Actually, the Dillinger end of it is beyond it. I'm just waiting for an e-mail and again there will be an announcement.

TV Dinner Assassinations is kicking ass. I'm not in a hurry to publish it yet. While I concentrate on other things, we just keep getting ahead on it. It's one of those things that I feel like I'll publish myself if I have to. I'm considering leaving it black and white. There's just a great vibe to it.

I'm concentrating on the project in paragraph 3 this weekend though, all three of you will see what it is when they announce it :)

HBN NEWS

2008-02-07T16:17:00.000-08:00

* Issue 2 is on the stands next Wednesday, but my comps came today and I'm super proud. It took two issues to get our stride. The issue's a throwdown with a giant fucking monkey. It's unapologetic super hero insanity!

*There will be an issue for Free Comic Book Day

* Issue 4 starts a new arc and will be 99 cents to get the word out. Big event!

* It will be the cover of the Pittsburgh comicon pre-con mailer. That's a lot of fucking copies with its picture on.

* I just heard the issue 2 reorders were relatively large.

* Issue 3 in Previews now.

So if you're bitching there's no fun in comics anymore, pick up DJ Coffman's insane creation (co-written and scripted by me) and try one issue. It's humor, action, mega-super-prime in your face fun.

Best dramatic scene of the year?

2008-02-02T19:02:00.001-08:00

Atomic Romance named this scene from Star Trek: Vulcans as best dramatic moment of the year. Cool.

HBN Reviews from Broken Frontier, Comixtreme, and Silver Bullet

2008-01-12T18:10:00.001-08:00

Aside from some scattered praise, three major review sites have looked at the book. And the cool thing is that everyone is catching on to what we're trying to do with the book. The words all-ages, saturday morning cartoon, and fun keep popping up. Anyway . . .

Broken Frontier praises it HERE.

Comixtreme gives it 4 out of 5 HERE.

And Silver Bullet gives it 4 1/2 out of 5 HERE.

HBN Issue 2

2008-01-09T07:57:00.000-08:00

DJ put up a page from HBN 2, so I thought I'd throw it around. The sky on this page is amazing. Hits in February and features an old-school battle across the whole city. This book, is fun, fun, fun.

TV Dinner Assassination Art is done for Issue 1

2007-12-23T14:15:00.000-08:00

And today the last pencilled and inked page of TV Dinner Assassination Issue 1 was turned in. Just waiting on the cover and the lettering and then it goes out to publishers.

As I've said before, this book is kind of special to me because of all the things I'm dong -- the Death books, Planet of the Dinosaurs, Hero By Night, Star Trek -- this is probably closest to my VOICE; it's probably the best type of thing that I do, so I guess we will see how it turns out.

And also let me take a second to say that Noel Tuazon is one of the best and most professional artists I've ever worked with. His work comes alive, and it comes in timely. I'm going to work with this guy as long as he'll let me.

Oh, and a disclaimer, that page I'm showing is not the last page.

TWO MORE STAR TREK REVIEWS COME IN

2007-12-22T21:53:00.000-08:00

And they're both pretty great. Big thanks to the awesome artist on Vulcans Josep Maria Beroy for pointing out this first one at fistfullofcomics, and I dug up this podcast at Alternate Reality talking about the book. That latter one is at about 55:30 into the podcast. I really couldn't be happier with the things they say about the book and it makes me happy that so many Trek fans are enjoying the book. And it's great listening to that podcast and hearing people say things about the book that make me believe I communicated exactly what I wanted to communicate with it. These plus the A+ review at trekweb have me smiling.

Strange thing is that this book first came out I thought the reviews and reaction were going to be mixed becasue there was one negative review and one positive review, and the negative reviewer had posted a couple other places. But as these trickle in it's just good review after good review and good fan reaction after more good fan reaction. I've seen a couple places now where people have said something to the effect that "It's the best IDW Star Trek book" or "It's one of the best Star Trek books I've read" and while I try not to take that stuff so seriously it's just really nice to know that -- like I said before -- that Star Trek people are happy with the book. That people are out there enjoying it. It was just damn scary writing this issue with Trek's vocal/awesome fan base.

But then again, who knows, maybe the tide will turn again :)

HBN and Star Trek reactions

2007-12-21T21:36:00.000-08:00

First HBN review is in and it's great. 4 1/2 out of 5 bullets. Check it out here.

“Overall, I am very excited about the return of Hero By Night. Coffman has the opportunity to bring some creative ideas to the table, as evidenced by the introduction and conclusion of this issue, and expand and introduced characters that could not be covered in the mini-series. I think this is definitely a great series to follow that has a level of realism in the writing and some fantastic artwork to really bring it all together.”

Some Star Trek discussion started on the Bendis Board and when people found out I'd written the book there were some nice things aid.

From NaughTibbitz
This was one of the best Star Trek books I've ever read -- it really felt like a lost episode from the series that would have come from the original pilot.

From Captain Bloodclot
I loved this book. In fact, I'm loving everything IDW is doing with the star trek franchise. The andorian book was also great. Klingons: Blood Will Tell was fantastic. The year four books started out only a little better than average but the recent "studio planet" episode was a brilliant study in self-reflexivity-- I liked the way it dramatized the way the show was treated by the network. It kind of echoed Serenity in that regard (which is, at the end of the day, a story about forcing people to see something that they don;t want to see).

From Chris McCarver
I loved the shit out of this

WEDNESDAY

2007-12-12T17:38:00.001-08:00

DINOSAUR IN YOUR FACE

2007-11-16T09:25:00.000-08:00

We redid the first five pages of Dinos and I'm bat-shit crazy over the results. The book's fallen into place. Astronauts, laser guns, dinoaurs, 1950s russian paranoia, and no apologies.

MORE ON STAR TREK

2007-11-13T18:14:00.000-08:00

Reaction is starting to trickle in. There's a nice review here from PatBorg. The book gets an A-.

And then there's a negative review here. It's by 8of5, the same person who did the post below, and seems to post a lot of places. He couldn't get beyond one of the setups of the book, though he seems to think that setup is about racism amid starfleet and the early Enterprise rather than it being about Spock's difficult mixture into the crew and them not knowing how to deal with him -- whether it's because he's a vulcan or not.

And my comp copies came from IDW. It was a nice surprise to find all four covers in there. Thanks IDW!

TODAY

2007-11-07T09:08:00.001-08:00

And it feels official now. My first criticism from a Star Trek fan before the book has even come out. From 8of5 on the IDW boards:

. . . it's an outdated interpretation of that era, Spock being such an oddity may fit if only earlier TOS existed and Spock was the only alien in Starfleet we ever knew. But that stopped being the case a long time ago, later TOS and subsequent series established there is nothing odd about living along side aliens by the 23rd century. Canon (and even more so in non-canon) Trek now makes it clear Humans have had formal relations with the Vulcans for two centuries prior to the setting of this comic. And assuming Starfleet was formed on, or shortly after, the formation of the Federation there will be Vulcans there with close and regular contact with Humans throughout the hierarchy of Starfleet for at good century preceding. And frankly by that time there are far more alien aliens known to, and part of, the Federation than the Vulcans. Even if Spock was say the first Vulcan to go to Earth's Academy rather than studying at the Vulcan Science Academy, and even if it was uncommon for ships to feature mixed species crew, its still silly for a crew (from a more civilised accepting future Human race) to have such a problem with something that by then really isn't that odd. Incidentally the Early Voyages comics established a crewperson under Pike called Nano, who served on the Enterprise from before Spock had transferred aboard. His species, the Lirin, are actually not all that different to the Vulcans, the crew managed not to be a bunch of xenophobes towards him. Or if they ever were managed to grow up before the time Spock came along.

TV Dinner Assassinations

2007-10-19T08:51:00.000-07:00

So, here's a quick, quick look at a page from TV Dinner Assassinations. I'm not going to say what this one is about yet, but we're going to have a look at a page -- page 6 actually -- but we're going to start from scratch. So where does anything start but with inspiration, right? To get things rolling I searched the internet for some strange pictures that related to images I had in my head so as to inspire me, and one of the ones related to a page you're going to see was this.

So, next we'll have a look at a character design of a character that's going to appear on the page 6 -- all of this done before any page layouts were done but obviously after the first script was finished. I basically sent a couple pages of descriptions of the characters to the artist (Noel Tuazon) and he sent me back some stuff. Basically, all of his first passes at the characters were used. The only I said to Noel on this was to make the glasses bigger.

So we agree on what this character looks like and it's time to lay things, do thumb nails, whatever -- I've heard different artists call different parts of the process different things. I go in, tighten up the script and on a page like this try to give specific shots. I don't do that on all pages, but sometimes there's a specific effect I'm looking for, like on here. And Noel comes back with . . .

They layout is perfect, so I tell Noel, go ahead. Go crazy, and next I get back the finished pencilled and inked page.

Again, the page comes back and it looks great. Time to bring in the colors -- courtesy of JM Ringuet. So JM and I talk, I send him some stuff from the web that might be what I want, and basically, we start to mess around with it. This is the stage we're in now, still tweaking, but here's a look at our attempts.

And there you have your first look at

Haven't been keeping up with reviews.

2007-09-30T19:05:00.000-07:00

I found a review from Cellblock over at Withersin Magazine on DATMWWND. It's a very nice review. Thanks a lot!

This comic book is one of the most amazing pieces of work I have read in some time. . .

MY FIRST ONGOING SERIES IS IN PREVIEWS

2007-09-28T17:56:00.001-07:00

Alright. It's not MY series, like the title of this blog implies, but it is my first writing for an ongoing. Hero By Night #1 is in Previews on page 319 Spotlighted and from Platinum. This is of course DJ Coffman's baby. It won the Comic Book Challenge, and now it's an ongoing and I'm co-writing and doing scripting duties for the book. And it's really strange, cool animal to know that as long as they'll have me and as long as the book lasts I can bite me teeth into a book every other month. It's very different from my creator-owned stuff that's a mini series or OGN -- or my work for hire that are one-shots -- in that, well, it's ongoing, and you can succeed, fail, and know there's a new coming out in two months -- that every two months you'll be telling a new adventure -- and how much fun it is to play with the structure and pacing and just plain writing of an ongoing. As for the book itself, it's a blast. It is unapologetically an all-ages super-hero book. It's action and adventure and as much crazy shit as we can throw in there. The canvas on this his huge and we're throwing paint all over it. And the one thing I've tried to do with this book is make it FUN. DJ has all these wonderful ideas and I've arranged them, throw in my parts, and hopefully made a sharp, fun ride with the book. Buy it, read it, give it to your kids, then get the next one. Think Invincible, think Spider-Man, and if you dig those books you'll dig this.

Well, while we're on the subject, I'm going to use this time to update where my other projects are. Soooo, next to come out, scheduled for October is . . .

Star Trek Alien Spotlight Vulcans. Like I said, it should come out in October and it's officially my next book to hit shelves. This was great. I actually took over for Remender on this book and had a crazy dealine and I think I delivered. Writing licenses is cool, you just have to kind of go with the current on it while doing your own thing. I took the best part of what I found in Remender's pitch and I fleshed it out and made it mine; I'm sure I'll hear what the fans of this franchinse think.

So next is

Death And The Man Who Would Not Die Issue 2 is coming. If you're a fan of the book, I'm sorry for the wait, and I can't explain things anymore than to say that some things need to be sorted out. The second issue is done, so once things find their place there will be a huge announcment and it will hit. Please trust me when I say that when this series is over it will be better than Dillinger and (I believe) something really special to read.

Other than that, Planet Of The Dinosaurs and the TV Dinner Assassinations are moving forward. Those are in full-on development right now. I'm perhaps maybe kind of hard to explain dipping my foot into one of the two big sandboxes in the industry, and if anything comes out of it, I'll pass it on. But my foot's in there - I hope they don't kick it out.

JP out for now

COMING

2007-09-25T10:19:00.001-07:00

Nothing more than a rough page from a series of layouts, but I'm more excited about it than anything else.

If you're going to do something, do it with style.

2007-09-13T08:49:00.001-07:00

from shortnews.com

Man Builds Guillotine, Uses it to Commit Suicide

Michigan: A 41-year-old Detroit man has committed suicide by decapitating himself with a guillotine he built. His body was found by people who worked at a nearby shopping centre.
Police found receipts for materials used by the man in the construction of the machine. The 6-foot-high guillotine, complete with a swing arm, was bolted to a tree in a wooded area.
"I can't even tell you how long it must have taken him to construct. This man obviously was very determined to end his life," said Allen Park Deputy Police Chief Dale Covert.

TV DINNER ASSASSINATIONS

2007-09-09T21:43:00.001-07:00

Some art from an upcoming project that seems to be developing. Art by the awesome Noel Tuazon.

IN PREVIEWS THIS MONTH

2007-08-30T11:01:00.000-07:00

Looks like Angel: Masks is being reoffered in Previews this month. So that's cool. It's from IDW, and I have the last story in it that hits on how Lindsey and Eve met. Yeah! That's right! I contributed to a big moment in the Angel universe! Woo hoo! Anyway, I really like how it turned it out, though a lot of people complained about Lindsey's likeness (hey! I didn't draw it!). So, anyway, it's in the IDW section if you missed it the first time. Star Trek last month, Angel this month, and next month . . . that would be telling. Gosh, I feel like I'm actually working in this industry.

STAR TREK STUFF

2007-08-29T17:43:00.000-07:00

Well, I've seen Star Trek pages pencilled and colored and they look great. No, I'm not just saying that because I'm on the book, I was genuinely surprised by how good the shit looked. When it comes to work for hire, you usually turn in your script and hope for the best, but this far surpassed my expectations. It has me in a good mood.

Got a lot done today. Polished 50 some page of an upcoming OGN, rewrote a scene for Hero By Night that had been bugging me, cleaned my kitchen, my bathroom (both were big cleans and not just a tidy up), spent hours with my kids including taking them to the comic shop and buying them some heroclix and a Justice League comic to go with my Punks and Previews. Yeah, that's right, my buddy Josh Fialkov's Punks came out today and everyone should check it out. Anyway, I feel like I got a lot done today and now I've still got a few hours to work on some things.

LYING IN THE GUTTERS MENTIONS HERO BY NIGHT ONGOING, THEN TAKES THE OBLIGATORY SHOT AT PLATINUM

2007-08-28T08:27:00.000-07:00

Rich Johnston's Lying in the Gutters had a note about the upcoming, ongoing Hero By Night book that I'm cowriting.

"D.J. Coffman's "Hero By Night" is going to become an ongoing series from Platinum Studios."

See, isn't that sweet? What's that? Oh, I see, it was just so he could make the following point.

There are still eighty or more projects sold to Platinum that are still waiting for the treatment that the publisher's literature promised. "Getting your story produced, even if it never advances beyond comics form, is a commitment we're willing to make... we are also willing to finance the publication of a comic (up to eighty-eight pages of material in a single comic or as a limited series), to acquire the property." Sadly such assurances weren't in the actual contracts. Still, it's only a few more years until the rights purchased for $1000 revert - at which point the market gets flooded! So come on, Mike Strang, chin up!

Now, Lying In The Gutters is a rumor column, so I get it -- there would be no mention of the ongoing if there wasn't some controversial point to be made. It's usually the nature of the column, though I should mention the column is sometimes split between rumor and some excellent traditional journalism. And I should mention that I am a fan of the column, and that unless I'm out of town at a con or in a position that I can't read the column, I religiously go to CBR and indulge myself on Mondays with it. Rich seems great, the column is great, howeverrrrrrr . . .

This comes from Rich (obviously), and I seem to remember that when all the Speakeasy stuff was happening, he was defending them to the end. As that ship was sinking, Rich was on the deck with his bucket trying to get as much water out as he could. As he slung arrows in every other direction, he was next to the Speakeasy soldiers holding up a shield (too many metaphors, I know). Anyway, why was Rich doing this?

Because he had a book with them.

Now, I know the argument that some will make is the difference between Speakeasy and other publishers that have had fingers pointed at them by Rich or anyone (*cough* Dreamwave *cough*) is that Speakeasy was good people and they were always upfront and their problems had more to do with getting in over their head rather than, say, any malicious attempt at misinformation or general shady behavior -- but you can't tell me that Rich wouldn't have at least leveled some aim at Speakeasy's mismanagement of their company and the ending result which was lots and lots of creators not getting their books published and be stranded out in the market without a paddle after they spent time, money and love on their creations. The best thing Rich could have done in that circumstance was not say anything, because while his book was still being published other creators were being told theirs would not be. So, when Rich points a finger like this, makes a comment like this, I always remember the Speakeasy fall and how easy it is to forgive the sins of those we have a vested interest in or have and interest in us, and how easy it is to accuse those whom we do not.

Platinum has never been anything but outstanding in its behavior to DJ Coffman and (recently) myself, so that's what my opinion of them stands on.

MORE DEATH AND THE MAN WHO WOULD NOT DIE IS A COMING

2007-08-27T10:21:00.000-07:00

Promise. Second issue is done, waiting, and we're just sorting some things out.

BIG NEWS 2 of 3

2007-08-26T22:57:00.000-07:00

So, big news two of three is that I'll be cowriting the new Hero By Night Ongoing series from Platinum/Image/Top Cow. (I think all three companies have their logo on it; if I'm wrong, the Image or Top Cow police can come and get me.) So, DJ mentined on his blog about it so I'll just throw it out there as well. This book is SOOOOO much fun. First of all, if you don't know what it is, DJ Coffman (my old partner in crime) over at yirmumah.net won the Platinum Comic Book Challenge last year with his Hero By Night idea and got a four-issue limited. Well, critically and fan-wise the book had done great, and now it's getting its own ongoing. Basically, it's about a kid who finds a hidden lair in the basement of a building he runs, and in it is all the old stuff of a super hero from the forties and fifties, Hero By Night, including his ring which can give powers to anyone who wears it. It's old school meets new school unapologetic super hero and pulp fun. The best part of it is that the canvas is HUGE, and within it there are all these things that can be done and we're throwing as much into it as we can. DJ doesn't need a cowriter as anyone who's read the first mini knows, however this is going to take some of the weight off his duties since he pencils and inks it too. The book should play right into some of my strenghts that aren't in Death. Matter of fact, it's the polar opposite of Death, and that means I get to let loose a little with some snappy dialogue and light super hero fun -- though the book will get serious in places. It's also an ongoing, my first, and that means, for as long as they'll have me, I'll be trying out my chops long-term. There will be much more about this later; I just wanted to throw this little tidbit as a start for right now.

The se7en story never published

2007-08-21T22:35:00.000-07:00

A little while ago, I was asked to pitch se7en -- the Zenscope book based on the Fincher/Freeman/Pitt movie. The book was basically a prequel -- though I think some stories may take simultaneously -- of stories about John Doe or his victims or whatever could fit into the context of the movie. Of course, there was seven of them, each by a different creative team and telling a self-contained story.

So, for you people with a short attention span, I was asked to pitch. Now, to my credit or to my detriment -- only history may tell -- I was a bit ambitious with this. I pitched an Envy story that didn’t take place that close (in time) to the movie, wasn’t a horrific tale that assaulted the limits of the senses, but was instead a small story about two little boys, one of them John Doe, and the horrific psychological damage they could do to each other.

I didn’t get the job. Perhaps because it wasn’t what they wanted; perhaps because David Mack decided to do it (hey, if you’re going to lose a job, at least lose it with come class). It’s cool though, that’s the ropes, no big deal, and I love they considered me for the pitch.

My point is I kept the story about two little boys. Thankfully, the format of the story and the idea are so general it only lended itself to se7en and doesn’t have to be a se7en story. So now it’s just a story about two little boys -- though when it’s all said and done you’ll be able to pick out the pieces that make it fit into the premise.

So I kept the story about two little boys and tonight, after a rough day, I decided to put my work for hire aside and revisit it in prose form. I just needed a break, but I still wanted to write, so I broke this out.

Oh, due to the glory of this being spur of the moment, the internet, and me not feeling like spell checking or editing it tonight, you get it in raw form, write out of my head and hands.

It’s told in three parts, and here is the first.

THE ALLEY
PART 1
By
James Patrick

I hated when my mother licked her fingers and wiped my face. As if it the gross feeling of a moist finger leaving a wet trail across my skin wasn’t enough, she always rubbed and pressed like she was trying to scrape a couple centimeters off my cheek bone. And didn‘t the red mark that it left look far worse than any dirt that might have been there? To this day, I don’t think they’ve located the gene that prompts this barbaric behavior, only that it occurs among all mothers among all races and cultures. Of course, I was only ten at the time and not yet mature enough to make such clever conclusions, so I merely thought she did it for the same reason she did everything else that I didn’t agree with: just to piss me off.

I wrinkled my face and narrowed my eyes to show her my displeasure, but she only pressed harder.

“Ow.”

“Stop complaining. I’m not going to have you looking like the rest of this place.” she said.

When she was that close I could see the lines on her face. She had less of them then, but more stress. My father worked some shitty job that involved a press and every day she feared he’d end up like the other workers who lost fingers or arms. Or worse, she’d end up like the widows. Most men who had jobs with such hazards, like miners and astronauts, were at least compensated in pay. The low-end factory worker killer job was all my dad could get though, and that meant my mother had to add to the psychological wear by working herself. Working between cleaning and laundry and before we she cooked dinner at home. She did this at the school cafeteria. My school cafeteria. But of course I didn’t see it as her busting her ass the only hours she could, but as an invasion of territory that was sure to end up torpedoing what few social dignities I had.

She finished wiping my face and I moved away before she could spot more dirt near my ear or my neck. I went to the couch, dug out some school books and pretended to do homework while I really drew pictures of a nefarious variety. It was a successful maneuver in that I appeared to be too busy to have to talk or engage my mother for the rest of the night. She instead did her second load of dishes. Maybe or seventh or eighth if counting the ones she did at the cafeteria in the afternoon.

And that was the biggest indignity. Not the actual doing of the dishes, but because there was a small window above the sink at which she had no choice but to occasionally and accidentally look out.

The window gave us an unobstructed look across the alley, at a brick apartment house it, and into any number of the nine windows that belonged to the family that not only lived directly across from us, but also on the level above and below it. And as my father used to say, if the distance from one side of that alley to the other had been measured in status, we would have only been able to see across it with a telescope. I later came to realize that this had something to do with our side of the alley officially being downtown, and that side of the alley the official start of the North End of town and what was once very desirable addresses. Of course, as the poor crept northward and pushed all stages of classes with it, most of the well-to-do families had moved. Why exactly that family did not, I’m not sure, but guessed it had something to do with them owning the building they lived in or perhaps some emotional attachment to it, holding on and hoping to hold the line and have the enemy retreat like some hardened Civil War general. Their space was certainly up for sale now, though, they just hadn’t yet sold nor moved.
She tried not to stare. She did. But it was especially hard for her to stop herself when they got new things. Televisions, new furniture once a year, paintings that hanged on the wall and were bought in galleries and not the corner.

Because I was a son of a bitch, or maybe because I was ten -- it’s really hard to tell now -- I sometimes would catch her looking over there and, just to rub it in, just to get back at her for rubbing my face with her wet finger, ask what she was looking at. She’s always denied she was watching and would say “just daydreaming.” She wasn’t entirely lying of course. I’m sure she did daydream of having the TV’s and furniture and cars. Not that she wanted it for herself. She just wanted to give it to us, to be able to give her husband and son what she thought they deserved but which the unfair bitch that was life wouldn’t allow.

That night the bitch had them receiving a new dishwasher -- a dishwasher that kept the trophy wife’s hands free of blisters and pruning. Two large men who were about to be tipped very well had brought it up the steps on a dolly and installed it while the trophy wife read a magazine on her suede couch. I know this because when I heard the clinging of the dishes stop, but the water keep running, I knew my mother had gone into one of her stares and I went into the bathroom and looked out its window to see that night’s lure was.

I returned the couch, pretended to do a bit more homework, then when it wasn’t so suspicious, I struck.

“What are you looking at?”

My mother turned her head, realized she had been doing it again, turned off the water and said,

“Just my itinerary for tomorrow.“ There was a few moments of her hurting inside and she finally realized the time.

“You should get to brushing your teeth and changing for bed.“.

I gave a sigh but listened. Not because I was a good kid but because if my Dad came home for his break and found me up on the back side of nine he’d have beat my ass. I did my bedtime my routine, avoided my mom’s kiss and by 9:30 that night I was asleep and unaware that in a few short hours I would be having one of the more memorable nights of my life.

R.I.P. RINGO

2007-08-17T11:04:00.000-07:00

It's strange

2007-08-14T17:50:00.000-07:00

It's strange. There's this thing I'm working on, and it's strange. Every time I type a heading for it, everytime I make a folder with the company or property name -- it's just strange that i'm officially creating folders and files and it's not something I'm taking down in hopes of a future day. It's strange that I'm writing those things down as actual work. Yup. Definitely strange.

SO BIG NEWS ONE OF THREE IS . . .

2007-08-13T21:08:00.000-07:00

The Star Trek book I'm writing is Star Trek Aliens Spotlight: Vulcans. It's in Previews now, from IDW, page 313, and it ships in October.. That's one of the covers above, which I assume I an show since it's in Previews. There's also a killer Spock cover, but I'm not sure that's game for being seen yet. And yes, there are two more definite announcements coming. One involving DJ Coffman's Hero By Night and the other involving Death.

In Chicago news, the con was awesome. The main reason I went up went better than I could have ever expected. It was rather surreal. And yikes, I drove nine hours Sunday and only stopped for 10 minutes. It was a good time. I hung with my partner in crime DJ Coffman, who hooked me up majorly. he's a superstar at these things now, btw. I also hung with Jason Embry and the rest of the Platinum crew. I got to talk with Chris Ryall, my sometimes boss and the person who gave me my first paycheck in this industry.

That's all for now, have to get busy on . . . . nevermind :)

Off To Chicago

2007-08-09T02:10:00.000-07:00

Off to Chicago. But not before turning in my Star Trek script and helping TWO friends with TWO different movie pitches. One was a synopsis, one was an outline. I think one was for Paramount and on was for Time Warner. I never worry about those things though -- for every hundred pitches I know that only couple make it. If they go, good. If they don't, they don't. Now I have to focus in on my Chi meetings, one in particular. I'd be lying if I said I was going to Chi for anything other than this one meeting, so I hope it goes well. That would suck, wouldn't it? Driving eight hours and spending gas and hote and food and whatever for basically thirty minutes and having it go in the crapper? I don't mind all the work that goes into it, that's part of the job, but it's funny to think of everything revolving around about thirty minutes than having me bomb it because of something stupid like. I could just see me myself pulling a George Castanza and getting caught looking at the cleaveage of the wife of the guy I'm supposed to meet or something. Ah well, I've set up other meetings for the weekend, too, and sometimes things come out of the unlikely places. Be back in a couple days unless I get pinned between two semis and die from massive interal injuries. Cheers!

Rewatched Two Comic Movies -- One held up, one didn't.

2007-08-06T07:39:00.000-07:00

The first movie I watched was 300. I really, really enjoyed this movie the first time I saw it. Up on the big screen, all its vibrance and sound. But upon a second viewing it didn't hold my attention. I still think it's a good movie, but it doesn't have the layers that make it rewatchable. What you see is what you get with it. Bravo for its visuals and sound, but the performances and dialogue didn't hold well at all.

And then I caught V for Vendetta again. For maybe the sixth or seventh time. And this movie, partially because of the source material, partially because of the amazing performances in it, and partially because of confidence with which this movie was written and directed -- this movie seems to get better everytime I see it. Yes, is strays from the source material, yes it loses a couple points for bullet time knives and rain drops and everyone wearing the masks in the end, but in the end this movie always strikes a cord with me. Especially when Evey is held captive, when the dective talks about his "feeling", when V kills the woman doctor, and every time Hugo speaks. If the cinematography was a little more artsy, and they dropped a couple scenes, the movie could very well have crossed into classic ground for me.

Sidenote, when V was being made, I thought it'd be the worst comic book movie ever made.

Oh, and a note on Chicago. I'll still be attending, but I'm definitely not getting a table. Another rush job has come out, something that needs done by a week from tomorrow. So basically, I'll be attending Chicago for the meetings, then going to my hotel and banging this thing out. Incidetnally, it's almost the first pay work I've ever turned down because of being busy. It's nice, but I completely expect a dry spell to follow this down pour.

Some stuff coming up . . . and I need to chill the fuck out.

2007-08-01T22:55:00.000-07:00

First off, I wanted to tell the three people reading this that I'll be in Chicago for the con the 9th through the 12th. Not sure on a table yet, but I have an important meeting up there so I'm going. I set up my living arrangements today. So I'll be there, in some capacity.

Okay, some other things . . . and one of those is that I'm doing an issue of Star Trek for IDW, though I can't give the specifics of it yet. That cover is not the book, but it's spiffy so I threw it up there. Yeah, that's right, first Angel, now Star Trek. Every once in awhile I pinch myself for being able to contribute so little bit to these universes I've grown up on.

Also, I will be involved with DJ Coffman's Hero By Night, but again I can't get into specifics yet. All I'll say about this project is that I'm very, very happy with what I've been producing for this. Seems to be right within my default writing area, whatever that means.

So you would think all of this keeps me so busy I don't have time to think about things, right? No. Just the opposite. I find I'm putting a large amount of pressure on myself over one of these things and I need to chill the fuck out, stop fixating, and just do what I do. Writers out there probably know what I'm talking about, but every once in a while some thing comes a long and you feel like you have justify it, prove something, and then you end up fixating on it. Maybe it makes better work. Maybe it doesn't. Ugh. If I'm coming off as ungrateful, then sorry, it's just to a point where it's nearly consuming my thoughts and I felt the need to purge it here. That's what blog's are for, I guess.

So, back to work.

THIS IS WHY I SHOULDN'T PROMISE THINGS!

2007-07-29T17:35:00.001-07:00

Well, after saying I was going to do a week of Crackurz strips, something major came up and I had pretty much no time other than to eat, sleep, and do this thing. I've just now gotten to a place I'm comfortable with this other thing so that I can at least post. Basically, it comes down to a writing job that opened up and needed done quickly. Very quickly. And it involved research, including the tracking down and buying of some DVDs, watching of said DVDs, and of course the writing itself. Luckily I was ahead on the other job I recently started and this just slipped right in. I hope to announce both of these jobs soon, but if you look around really, really hard, there might be a clue to one of them.

CRACKURZ DAY 1

2007-07-17T11:49:00.000-07:00

Okay, I wanted to do this before but couldn't get the images right. Don't ask. Anyway, here they are, the Crackurz strips that would have been submitted had we finished the 20 or so needed. But DJ's schedule became super busy and we never finished nor submitted them, so I'm going to run the seven of them here for the next seven weekdays. Here's the first one. I call it Alpha Single Unit Strip Prime Monstrosity Mega Mother Day In The Life Of Crackurz Birds Super, which is actually longer than the strip. After these run, I'll probably do the 20 or so Soda Strips which ran at KEVIN SMITH's (big enough?) Movie Poops Shoot when I did content for them. And then there will be more conent, maybe some pages from crackurz comics. I'll decide when I get there. Anyway, ON WITH IT!

AINT IT COOL NEWS DOES MAJOR DEATH COVERAGE

2007-07-16T22:12:00.000-07:00

Humphree Lee interviewed me and reviewed Death And The Man Who Would Not Die for Ain't It Cool News' comic's column. I can't thank him enough. The interview is cool and revealing, and the review is great. This actually came out a couple weeks ago during my blogging sabatical, but it really deserves its own entry. Seeing my name in the Ain't It Cool news headlines was just another really, really awesome moment in my career. I go there all the time, read the news, reviews, whatever, and it was just super geek-out mode seeing that . Some days I just really feel lucky: getting to add a story to the Angel universe, getting e-mails from people I've admired, seeing a book I wrote in a store thousands of miles away from your house, and things like this. So, insightful interview, great review, and preview pages. Head on over to AICN. Here's a snippet.

And speaking of the narrative, the tone in THE MAN WHO WOULD NOT DIE is very appropriate. Very gritty and aggressive, you can almost hear the captions and dialogue being spoken to you through clenched teeth. It plays along very nice with the pacing of the story as it unfolds and puts you at home with the setting given you're familiar with these types of stories to begin with.

New Dillinger Review From Amish Otaku

2007-07-16T05:17:00.000-07:00

Great, great Dillinger review from Andrew over at Amish Otaku. He picked it up in Philly. I've known Andrew for some time, even did some content for one of his other websites. Everyone should check the site out. Starting with the Dillinger review of course. Again, I'm going to archive all the reviews soon, as well as break some big news. Though I can't say anything yet. *cough* writing regular series *cough*. And here's a snippet from the new review.

"Death Comes to Dillinger is a great book. It’s a great-looking book. It’s got a great story. It’s got moments of fantastic dialogue, and it even has some iconic images that just capture your attention and stay with you."

Shoot me in the head. I need to update more.

2007-07-14T18:44:00.000-07:00

Seriously. A lot's happened since the last update. Death And The Man Who Would Not Die came out to some pretty stellar reviews. I'll post links to all of them here shortly. For now though, I just wanted to get my feet wet and get back into the swing of things. And stay tuned, 'cause there's a big news coming, a bunch of it. Here's the latest review to get things started. It's from Nathan Meunier at Randomville Comics. He gives it it 41/2 "R"s out of 5. Read it Here. And here's a snippet.

James Patrick’s gripping story just starts to fire up as the first installment
draws to a close. After reading issue #1 of DMWWND, newcomers will likely be
spurred to pick up a copy of the first series while waiting for the next chapter
to come out. Se7enhead’s artistic style is elegant and jarring at the same time,
as earthy tones blend with washes of reds and yellows. It goes so well with the
subject matter that by the end you half expect to be picking sand out of your
teeth. Or lead for that matter.

TWO BOOKS IN PREVIEWS THIS MONTH

2007-02-21T15:28:00.000-08:00

Death And The Man Who Would Not Die is in Previews TODAY. Page 327, it's Spotlighted, order # SPOT MAR07 3687. I'm very, very proud of this book and I hope everyone checks it out. It is, of course, the Death Comes To Dillinger sequel, and if you liked that book you'll like this x 10.

Here's a snippet from the press release: Creator James Patrick says "Death And The Man Who Would Not Die picks up where Death Comes To Dillinger left off, the repercussions making things very difficult for Death in the sequel. To make matters worse, someone has stolen something very important from Death, something he'll do almost anything to get back."

Also this month, IDW is resoliciting Angel: Masks, which I had a story in. I take on Lindsey in it, and get the honor of showing how he met Eve.

OF COURSE THERE'S A T-REX

2007-01-12T09:09:00.000-08:00

From the upcoming Planet of the Dinosaurs. Still in early in the process, but more details to come. Drawn by Christopher Steininger, colored by JM Ringuet (who else colors my stuff?) Hopefully in a comic shop near you soon.

DEATH AND THE MAN WHO WOULD NOT DIE

2007-01-11T19:31:00.000-08:00

Well, here's the cover to the Death Comes To Dillinger sequel. It's called Death And The Man Who Would Not Die. Think that title was long? It was Death, The Kansas Killer, and The Man Who Wouldn't Die, but it was changed due to marketing purposes. Anyway, it comes out in May, is a four-issue mini from Me, se7enhedd, JM Ringuet, and is published by Silent Devil. So, enjoy. Cover by se7enhedd.

The Dead Tree

2006-12-10T10:22:00.000-08:00

Upcoming page from Death, The Kansas Killer, And The Man Who Won't Die. We'll just call it The Dead Tree. Drawn by se7enhedd, colored by JM Ringuet.

2006-12-09T18:56:00.000-08:00

Here's a look at a very nice page from the upcoming Planet Of The Dinosaurs. Art by the wonderful Christopher Steininger. More to come!

George Clooney's Pig Has Died.

2006-12-04T19:53:00.000-08:00

X-MEN 3 VS SUPERMAN RETURNS! Which isn't as bad?

2006-12-04T12:37:00.000-08:00

The debate has raged, been beaten into the ground, but yesterday, my own internal dilemma with it had to be settled when I was put on the spot. Sick, home from work, my wife was going to the store and asked if I wanted anything. What better than a DVD, and since I had every DVD that I pretty much HAD to own, I realized that Superman Returns or X-men 3 were good choices for a sick day. I had to choose.

So, which movie did I like better? And, priding myself in my tastes, did I indeed like the better movie?

Money to be spent, hours of my time to be occupied, I was honest with myself and said X-men 3. There it was: I like X-men 3 better.

My name is James Patrick and I liked X-men 3 better than Superman Returns.

Why the shame? Because there is no way I should like a Ratner flick over a Singer flick.

So what gives X-men 3 the edge? It doesn't meander. It doesn't lose itself. Even though it has too many ideas, there aren't too many scenes for those ideas. It says what it has to say, has some really good scenes, and it's done. The opening scene with little Jean Grey, Magneto attacking the convoy, Magneto at the Golden Gate Bridge, Kitty and Juggernaut in the final attack are all very enjoyable sequences paced throughout the movie and the rest of the scenes aren't terrible. And, well, Ian McKellen (sp?) just absolutely makes the movie for me.

On the other hand, Superman Returns just completely loses itself after the first 30 minutes. Those opening 30 or so minutes are damn near perfect, feel right, are tense, but then doesn't know where to go from there. Everyone who doesn't like the film seems to say it's because he doesn't hit anyone after that, that he's battle land masses, but that's not it at all. The movie had great sets, decent characters, solid scenes, but a terrible structure after that. Nothing holds its parts togeter and they don't add up to anything. At some point it goes back and forth with Superman saving and being saved all while the audience knows none of the characters are really in danger. And it's all done in a visually uninteristing place. It's just . . . boring. God, it just becomes so boring to me. I wanted to love it. If the rest of the film had even come close to its opening, it'd have been a triumph.

In the end, X-men 3 doesn't aspire to be much, but does exactly what it intends to do. Not drop the ball. Superman wants to be a classic but is way too thin.

I'm so ashamed.

PRETTY BIG DAY FOR LITTLE OLE ME

2006-10-25T13:22:00.000-07:00

First up is Angel: Masks. It's in stores today. I have a Lindsey story in it, which doesn't mean shit if you don't watch Buffy or Angel. Writing an Angel or Buffy story was like a dream come true, so today's a pretty big deal because of that alone. Go to your comic shop and grab it, and it may even be available in bookstores. And then . . .

There's Death Comes To DIllinger Collected in Previews. This of course is the collection of my first widely released and critically acclaimed :) book. It's order number NOV06 3844, it's spotlighted, and gets much attention on pages 314 and 315 of the Previews catalogue. It's got extra scenes and art as well.

Planet Terror trailer will kick your kittens ass.

2006-10-11T15:17:00.000-07:00

This is just a crazy good trailer which does funny things to my nether regions. Check it out.
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/30358

The emotional state of a writer.

2006-10-10T20:55:00.000-07:00

I think the title and picture says enough that I don't need to spell it out. It's something all, or at least most, writers go through; it's something a person just has to deal with at times and put their head down and get through it. Not to take the highs too high or the lows too low. Easier said than done.

Planet of the Dinosaurs!

2006-10-07T09:57:00.000-07:00

So, in an effort to keep updating my blog until I get a handle on its "identity", here's a look at a project that's probably going to come out next year and be my other creator-owned book along with Death, The Kansas Killer, And The Man Who Wouldn't Die. It mashes together iconic 50s sci-fi and the polictics of the time. Bubble helmets and laser rifles meet McCarthyism. Early response to the promo has been great, but has also revealed people are getting the wrong opinion of it. They think it's a "fun" book. And, since it's not, we'll be tweaking the promos a bit. We'll keep the retro, but lose the cheese. Thoughts?

My name is James Patrick and I write comic books.

2006-10-04T20:59:00.000-07:00

I'm going to try and get this things started as simply as possible. So, my name is James Patrick and I write comic books. I started out writing a book called Crackurz ("hillarious" -- Wizard Comics Magazine). For awhile, I worked at Kevin Smith's Movie Poop Shoot and did a strip called Soda (Bush strip came in third in a national cartooning contest). Out of that strip came my second comic Lionxor (best humor title of 2004 -- comixtreme.com). I helped write a TV show called Independent Axis. This year, I realeased Death Comes To Dillinger ("absolutely marvellous" -- Warren Ellis), and also wrote a story for the Buffy The Vampire Slayer spinoff Angel from IDW. Next year, I plan on having the sequel to Death Comes To Dillinger and a new book called Planet Of The Dinosaurs and doing more work for hire. Over the years I've also written for the Yirmumah strip at Yirmumah.net, have done columns for sequentialtart.com, popimage and others, have done work for hire in comics for companies like SSScomics and Strhess Productions, and contributed to five out of the seven acclaimed Hero Happy Hours that have been released by Dan Taylor. There's probably more, and I'll probably just end up moving this to a biography area, but this should get me started.