San Diego Rest Of Weekend

Luggage arrived! And with it, my special folder, full of sample pages. I used it to pitch Penny and Aggie, Burgerzone, The Verge, The Alchemists and Rip and Teri to various publishers Thursday-Friday.

(This blog hasn't shared The Alchemists with you yet. That will change.)

I missed most of my panel wishlist.

Panel highlights: Got to see GoComics lay out a strategy; these guys essentially own American mobile comics right now. Scott McCloud's family, normally a well-oiled machine, gave a thoroughly chaotic travelogue of their yearlong 50-state tour, but we all loved them anyway. Warren Ellis downed four Red Bulls and a small bottle of some alcoholic energy drink called Sparx during his two-hour talk, then lit a cigarette in open defiance of con rules. Best panel I attended: easily Scott Kurtz and Robert Khoo's "Create A Comic And A Marketing Plan" exercise.

Had dinners with Tokyopop, ComicMix, the McClouds and company. Missed: dinner with David Willis and friends, Stu Levy's birthday party.

Saw: too many good people to list here, and I will only forget someone and feel horrible. I have a lot of post-con catching up to do.

Probably should have stopped by the Dumbrella table or panel. I've had a difficult time with one of the Dumbrellans lately, but Comic-Con is an occasion to forget, or at least smooth over, such differences. As it was, I felt awkward and unsure of my welcome there. No offense intended, fellas.

Weirdest thing that happened all weekend: I ran into Frederik Hautain (my superior at Broken Frontier) by happenstance... twice. Neither of us had seen a picture of the other, and the first time we shared an elevator, neither knowing who the other was.

That's my con experience. Gary Tyrrell outdid himself with Comic-Con coverage this year, so if you want more info, you know where to go.

Finished!

"Verge" done.

Tomorrow, I will be releasing 100 haiku on this site over a period of eight hours. Pretty much because I feel like it.

On the Verge with The Verge

Nine outline points to go; got sidetracked into two long but fruitful discussions with old colleagues, now invited to a housewarming and forced to procure food for myself. Will return and finish outline late this evening. This, I vow.

Finishing "Verge" Outline

I'm super late on this, so I'm spending the next few hours on it. A brief snippet for your amusement:

6. Time slows almost to a stop. Zylo still seems capable of conversing with his Body, and uses that to try to get a handle on the situation while the bullet hovers inches from his face. Short answer: the same cybernetics that Zylo has been using to interact with his body and the Ultranet are now in emergency overdrive, allowing him to think at electronic speed.

7. But thinking is not the same as moving-- the fastest he could move would not be fast enough. Zylo is reminded, and we learn, that human speech is no longer a purely physical process: since anyone or anything worth talking to has electronic communicators, speech has become more like chat, complete with elaborate emoticons and other extra features. This gives Zylo a ray of hope: he can't escape the bullet, but maybe he can talk to something that can save him...

"The Verge"

This is a project that I've been putting together with the unbelievably talented Sam Romero (click to see more of his work) and pitching to the publishers of graphic novels. Hope for the best for us!







Again, that's Sam Romero!