The Future is Now

Okay, okay, so I know I promised to blog more often and I've been doing a terrible job of it, but I really have been busy, and I've been a little depressed, and I haven't had anything of lasting value to add to anything anybody else has been blogging, so I haven't blogged and I'm sorry.

So there.

There is, however, a pretty good reason for this particular post. Today, Wednesday March 28th, is New Comics Day across most of the country. And if you rush right out to your local comics shop, you might still be able to find one of the reasons I've been so busy.

It's Futurama #30 from the wonderful folks at Bongo Comics. It's my first regular straight-out humor story in Heaven knows how many years and I'm actually pretty proud of it.

When the brave-beyond-all-reason Bill Morrison first asked me to write for Bongo, I was pretty firmly convinced Simpsons creator Matt Groening had clearly whacked Bill upside the head a few too many times with the Insanity Stick. Still, never one to shirk a challenge (or a chance to work with a terrific editor), I nervously accepted the opportunity, and I'm here to tell you how happy I am that I did. It's nice to have a chance to flex a different creative muscle for a change, and to have the work well-received by the person who was foolish enough to offer it to you in the first place. It was a lot more work than I'd first imagined it would be, but as the late, great actor and director Sir Donald Wolfit reportedly said, "Writing Wolverine is easy, comedy is hard."

The issue is called "Fry and the Double-Bag, Must-Have Item" and the comics collectors among you can probably guess where the story goes from there.

I should also mention that I wrote next month's Simpsons Comics #129 as well, but I'll remind you of that when we get closer to release time. Over the weekend, I finished my second Simpsons script, and am already hard at work on the next one, so this may be the start of something big. We shall see.

Anyway, should you happen to pick up Futurama #30 at a comics shop near you, I really would appreciate it if you'd drop me a line and let me know what you thought of it.

Frankly, I need all the encouragement I can get.

I'm Off to See the Wizard

Despite all rumors to the contrary, I'm not dead, just really busy at the moment, dealing with some family matters and the adventures of getting and activating my new Palm Pilot, which I promise I'll bore you with soon. However, it dawned on me that I should let any and all of you in the Southern California area know that I'll be a guest this weekend at WizardWorld LA, which is being held downtown at the LA Convention Center. I'm not sure yet if I'll be able to make it there on Friday, but I'll definitely be there all day Saturday and most of the day Sunday. I've no idea which, if any, panels they'll have me on, but they have given me a table to sit at, so I'll be around to sign autographs and the like. All you have to do is find me. For more details, click here.

Hope to see you there. I'll be the person who looks sort'a like me.

So How Exactly Do You Make Fire Again?

I dropped and broke my beloved Tungsten/T3 Palm Pilot on the kitchen floor Sunday afternoon, and was instantaneously transported back to the Stone Age. I had not fully realized just how dependent on that gizmo I had become until I lost it. It contained my Rolodex, my calendar, a bunch of cool recipes, my MP3 player, my Vindigo for checking on movie times and such, and a thousand or so lists I had made over the years including, for example, my DVD collection, various lists of books and comics and the like I need to fill in runs, and Ghod alone knows what else.

Now I think I may have mentioned way back in my very first post that the Tungsten 3 became obsolete about 37 seconds after my darling wife bought it for me for Christmas a few years ago. It's been a bitch-and-three-quarters trying to get accessories for it. But I don't care. It was mine and I loved it. I don't think I'm going to be able to have it repaired, so first thing this morning, I'm gonna have to go out and start hunting for its replacement. I need something that will allow me to import all my old files into the new machine, as well as whatever nifty improvements may have been added over the last several years. I don't think I want a Treo, since I'm not sure adding a phone won't subtract some of the things I already like.

This should be quite the adventure since, as I've mentioned repeatedly, I'm the King of the Luddite people.

If I'm not back by Wednesday, kindly send out a search party.