Okay, I'm Back (Now Where Have We Heard That Before?)

Yeah, I know. I promised I'd blog on a regular basis, swore it actually, and since it's been a month since my last blog, I obviously (though unwittingly) lied and now I'm probably going to go directly to Hell when I die, and I won't pass GO, and I won't collect $200, and I'll probably wind up sharing a one-room twelfth-floor walk-up apartment with Dick Cheney or someone even more despicable, who'll probably eat nothing but steamed cabbage and fart a lot, and the apartment's one teeny tiny little window will probably face in the wrong direction and it won't even have a good view of the fiery sulphur pits of the Seventh Circle and I'll...oh, look! A Butterfly!

I'm sorry. Where was I?

Oh, right. I'm back.

Truth to tell, I started to write up a nifty blog entry right after I got home from the San Diego Comic-Con, but that entire week was so unspeakably wonderful and so utterly overwhelming that I just couldn't figure out where to start. I mean, seriously.

First, on the day before the Con, the good folks at WB Online Games finally announce that the Watchmen video game will be coming out around the same time as the blockbuster movie next March and that I'm the lucky sonuvagun who got to write the thing. Finally, after all those weeks of obligatory silence, I can tell the world what I've been doing for the past six months. I still can't talk details, but the game is gonna be cool. Trust me. Have I ever lied to you? I mean, aside from saying I was gonna blog regularly?

Then, on Thursday, the first actual day of the Con, the absurdly-handsome Hugh Jackman makes an unannounced appearance at the Fox Panel to show the trailer for the new Wolverine feature coming next May, and makes it a point, in front of 6500 people, to call me out and then jump down from the stage to shake my hand, telling all and sundry that this was the hand that had given him a career, leading to photos of the two of us together that appeared in nearly all the entertainment blogs and magazines. I mean, Jeez Louise, how the heck do you top that?

Well, I guess you top it the following night at the Annual Eisner Awards when I actually heaqr my name called to come on up and accept one of the blessed thingies and suddenly find myself inducted into the Eisner Hall of Fame. Seriously, that's just wrong. I haven't been in this business anywhere near long enough to have made that kind of mark, and to find myself in such stellar company as those who've won the honor in the past? Clearly, I've got to be dreaming.

And that, Gentle Readers, is why I haven't blogged at all during the past month. Apparently, I've been having one hell of a dream and I really don't want to wake up.

You'll just have to forgive my snoring.

It's an Honor Just to be Nominated

Wow. Imagine my surprise when I awoke this past weekend to discover that I have been nominated for my first ever Eisner Award. The Eisner Awards are, I suppose, the comics industry equivalent to the Motion Picture Academy's Oscar, and they are given out each year at the San Diego Comic-Con, which will be held this year from July 23-27. If you're planning to go to the Con, you have to register online (admissions are no longer sold at the door) and you can find out everything you need to know about that here.

What fascinates (and, I must admit, terrifies) me most about my nomination is that I'm nominated for the Hall of Fame, which either means that I'm being recognized for my considerable body of work over the years, or my career is officially over. I'm frankly not sure which.

By what may or may not be an odd coincidence, my 40th anniversary as a professional writer is this Friday, March 28th. Four decades ago on that date, I sold my first story to DC's House of Mystery title, a still-(thankfully)-unpublished little opus called "The Final Day of Nicholas Toombs."

Now I don't really expect to win the award, mind you. My considerable competition in the category this year includes classic Golden Age artist Matt Baker, legendary Green Lantern and Flash writer John Broome, Blackhawk artist Reed Crandall, Katzenjammer Kids creator Rudolph Dirks, Doom Patrol and Deadman writer/creator Arnold Drake, Terry and the Pirates illustrator George Evans, writer/artist of the newspaper strip David Crane (and the man who drew the cover to Detective Comics #1, fer pete's sake) Creig Flessel, EC artist "Ghastly" Graham Ingels, Vigilante artist Mort Meskin, Miss Fury creator/artist Tarpe Mills, The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers own Gilbert Shelton, Marvel master artist George Tuska, longtime Superman editor Mort Weisinger, and Conan the Barbarian's own Barry Windsor-Smith. Not a bad company to be counted among, I must admit.

If you're a comics professional or retailer and are interested in voting for the award, the polls are open until April 18th, and voting can be done online by clicking here. Regardless of the outcome, I truly am thrilled to have been thought of and remembered. Thanks to all who nominated me.

See ya at the Awards ceremony in July. I'll be the one with the silly grin pasted on my face.