Thursday, July 24, 2008
Comic-Crap
So, our first day at Comic-Con is winding to a close.
It sucked.
We had a meeting scheduled with a couple of editors at DC. Nothing earth-shaking, but we have an idea we think they'll like and we were also going to talk about where we can focus our pitching and our efforts to best be able to get more work and do more for DC. It was a noon meeting.
So to make sure that we were able to have breakfast, then do the (usually) 2 hour drive to San Diego and get here with plenty of time, we woke up this morning at 6, were out the door at 7, and had filled the gas tank, gotten breakfast and made it onto the freeway ten minutes before 8.
We cruised along for an hour, having about 50 miles to go at 10 minutes to 9. Absolutely perfect, so perfect we hoped we'd get there early enough to pick up our badges before the meeting and still have some time to spare.
Yeah, right.
Because that was when all traffic came to a halt. We'd seen a couple of warnings earlier - traffic accident at Los Pulgas. That was all it said. So we figured it might delay us for a 1/2 hour and we'd still have plenty of time to spare. But when we finally got to the traffic we realized just how massive an understatement the warning was.
Calling it a "traffic accident" was a bit like calling the Civil War a "domestic dispute."
It took us 4 1/2 hours to cover the next 10 miles. No joke.
There were no exits between when the slowdown started and the site of the accident. So we couldn't even exit, get on the freeway going back North, and find an alternate route.
We just had to sit and wait.
And not be able to use the bathroom. Or get a drink of water.
Our new (well, new for us, we bought it used) car has an external temperature sensor that displays on the dashboard. When moving along briskly, the temp was always between 70 and 78 degrees. When crawling along at 1-3 miles per hour, it was between 105-115. I'm sure a lot of that was heat being absorbed by and given off by the freeway. But it was also about that time that the sun (previously hidden behind some clouds) started to blaze. I now have one arm (my window arm) that is red like the St. Louis baseball uniform caps.
So we had to reschedule that meeting. Luckily, we'll still get to meet the editors, but they're only available at a time we were going to sign at Seven Seas on Sunday morning. Then, we were stuck in traffic so long after that, we had to cancel our 1:30 signing at Oni.
So our busy day, the day that was going to kick off a nice and busy con, started with a 6 hour drive, and two canceled appointments.
Then, when we finally get to the accident that basically shut down the Interstate - an accident we'd been cursing about, because it apparently happened at 5am and hadn't been cleared at 2pm - we see just how horrific it must have been. A truck jack-knifed and absolutely crushed a minivan. Both had clearly burst into flames, and the truck looked to have exploded. The foliage on the side of the 5 had been scorched away. There was no way anyone in the accident could have survived, at least not from what we saw (we haven't had the courage to look it up and see if anyone did). We felt so petty that we'd been so cranky.
But guilt doesn't make the bad mood from crankiness go away. It just makes it a different kind of bad mood.
Then we get to the hotel, and due to a screwup of my own making, wind up paying $25 more per night than we'd originally planned. Not a big deal, but just a nice little screw-you from the vacation gods.
We went to the Seven Seas booth to give a very cool gift to Jason DeAngelis. It was a gift we put together last night while packing, and we were pretty psyched to get it to him. When first we stopped by he was in a meeting. The next two times we stopped by, he wasn't there. And the fourth time... another meeting.
Now, just like the $25 a day, us not getting him his gift is hardly a major crisis, but it was just another disappointment in a day full of them.
The other thing about today is that it was CROWDED. The con usually is. But Thursday tends to be the light day. Today it felt like a Saturday in there. Neither Christie nor I are particularly good with large crowds. When we're enjoying the con, the large groups of people getting in our way, shoving us, and living in their own little bubbles vaguely annoy us and the annoyance builds until the end of the day when we are mercifully able to go back to the hotel. But when we've had a bad day already, it's like we need to leave the minute we set foot in there. "Oh, nice costume. Now die, please."
And then, we finally do our only signing of the day - what would have been our second Oni signing. A couple of friends stopped by, which was cool, but until 3 minutes before we left, no one came to get anything signed. When you spend an hour and a half at a signing and get one person who wants you to sign, it's depressing. When she doesn't even buy your book but just has you sign her autograph book (and I'm still not sure she knew who we were), it's all the moreso.
Sigh.
To top it all off, something I ate did not sit right, so we missed out on a big Oni dinner tonight. Lots of writers and artists who we're friends with, who we only get to see once a year, all treated to dinner by Oni and Oni's film producer partner. I'm not great with 25 people dinners, but it was something I would have wanted to do nonetheless, because if you get in the right seat, you can focus on a couple of people, have a good time, and get a little time in with everyone else. But when your stomach hurts, that's a sure ticket to sitting in the corner, talking to no one and ruining the night for your wife. So we (wisely, I think, but still unfortunately) opted out.
So now we're in our hotel room, hiding from the world.
I want a do-over.
I hope to get one tomorrow.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Tomatoes... we're back and we're pissed off!
So tomorrow (Thursday that is, as I haven't gone to bed yet so it may be construed as the day after tomorrow by some perspectives), we head down to the con. Christina's already posted our schedule - see a couple of posts below. We look forward to seeing any of you who can make it.
But before we head down there and do the flurry of signings, handful of meetings and one panel, we have one more milestone ahead.
Today (Wednesday, that is) is the official launch of our new weekly manga series, The Ninja Diaries.
It will run weekly in Metromix, and then be collected online. The first 4 pages will debut in today's issue, and all pages will be collected online at
Metromix.com... they're
up now.
We're very proud of this... for many reasons.
As an opportunity, it is amazing. Metromix prints 100,000 issues weekly, and there's a really good chance that collected pages from this may find their way into the Los Angeles Times(!). In fact, if you go to the times
website today, you'll see that we made the front page of their site - 2/3 of the way down, right in the center. That kicks all kinds of ass.
As a collaboration, it's been fun. Jason DeAngelis at Seven Seas has been more involved in developing this than he was in Amazing Agent Luna and Destiny's Hand. But we're doing the writing, and it's felt very much like ours... just with a nice touch of Jason, too. The collaborative nature of it has been outstanding.
And as a story, we're very excited by it. We look forward to writing each page, and when you can do that, you're at the great part of writing for a living.
We've got meetings at the con, which hopefully may lead to work down the line. We'll be promoting 2 new books at Oni, and hyping the final volumes of Luna and Destiny's Hand.
But for us, the story of the con will be Ninja Diaries.
Check it out. We hope you enjoy it. Free copies of this week's Metromix will be available at the Seven Seas booth. Come by and we'll talk ad nauseum about this one, and sign your copy too.
We hope you enjoy it... because ninja don't do disappointment.
(Long story... stick with us, you'll get the joke)
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Too Cool For Words...
So I was perusing the internet (as that's what one does on the internet) and I found this:
the most amazing thing everBut in all fairness to my husband, I shall post this on his behalf.
almost as cool
Friday, July 18, 2008
Preparing For The Madness
It's that time of year again. Once a year (whether we need it or not), we make the trek to San Diego for Comic Con.
And even though attendance promises to be over 100,000, we should be (relatively) easy to find at either the Oni Press Booth (#1834-1837) or the Seven Seas booth (#2649). So, to that end, I give you our 2008 Comic Con schedule.
THURSDAY
1:30 p.m.-2:50 p.m. Oni Press
4:30 p.m.-5:50 p.m. Oni Press
FRIDAY
12:00 p.m.-1:20 p.m. Oni Press
2:15 p.m.-3:15 p.m. Seven Seas
4:30 p.m.-5:50 p.m. Oni Press
SATURDAY
10:30 a.m.-11:50 a.m. Oni Press
12:00 p.m.-1:00 p.m. Seven Seas
1:30 p.m.-2:50 p.m. Oni Press
5:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m. the Oni Press panel (room TBA)
SUNDAY
11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. Seven Seas
12:00 p.m.-1:20 p.m. Oni Press
We will be eagerly promoting our new Metromix Ninja saga "The Ninja Diaries" which will have just debuted on July 23rd! We urge everyone to check it out (it's free!)
We'll also be happily talking up the final volume of Amazing Agent Luna due out the end of this year, the final volume of Destiny's Hand due out early 2009 and two new exciting projects from Oni Press (All Saints Day and Bad Medicine) also due 2009.
We may even talk up a project due out in the fall of this year, but we have to check with the publisher first to see if it's okay. (How's that for mystery?)
So come find us, say hi, and make the madness all worth while.
EDIT: Our schedule has now been updated to include our Seven Seas signings!
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Ninja Warriors!
Hey all,
Remember the manga we said we were gonna write for
Metromix?
Well, it's called Ninja Diaries. It's part romantic comedy, part ninja adventure. We won't spoil too much, but it's about a kunoichi (female ninja) sent to Los Angeles to find a lost legendary ninja in the most unlikely place.
We have fun both showing our love for Los Angeles, and skewering it a tiny bit. Plus, as chronicled in an earlier post, we both love ninja (especially Christina).
It's a weekly manga (one page a week, except for the first week) that debuts in the July 23rd issue of Metromix (in which we'll be the cover story and will get 3, maybe 4, pages to get the story rolling).
And to celebrate, Metromix is having a launch party at Secret Headquarters, a comic shop people have been hyping to us for years. We've been told this place is awesome, so we're pretty excited to check it out.
The launch party is on Thursday, July 17th at 8pm. You have to rsvp to rsvpla@metromix.com.
But if you're interested in Ninja Diaries, or in a fun weekly manga by us, or in ninja in general (especially those who are sent to Los Angeles on fun fish-out-of-water missions!) then check out Ninja Diaries in Metromix (the back 'issues' will be posted on metromix.com starting in a few weeks and also occasionally collected - ulp - in the Los Angeles Times). And check out the launch party at Secret Headquarters.
Hope to see you there!
Or not see you, if you happen to be a ninja.
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Crimes, Misdemeanors and Baseball
We're wrapping up our vacation on the Oregon Coast with the Rucka/Van Meter clan. One thing that's happened over the last year is that Dashiell Rucka has become a baseball fan. She's 5 years old and watches League Of Their Own over and over again (skipping the "boring" parts so she can just watch the baseball action) and lists her favorite teams as the Chicago Cubs and the Rockford Peaches (see the afore-mentioned film to understand that second choice).
Now, anyone who knows me knows that baseball is in my blood. I love the game, even though (in this day and age) I really shouldn't. I love the New York Yankees, even though (in this day and age) that's almost impossible.
I can't quite let my love of the great game go. But these are terrible times for baseball. The excesses of the recent (read: steroid) era are coming crashing down on the sport. Whether it's home run records, or multi-Cy-Young wins, everything is tainted. And the arrogant denials of the Roger Clemenses and Barry Bondses of the baseball world compound the problem. They cheated, they lied, and when caught, they actually get angry at the fans and the media for finally waking up and realizing that cheating the National Pastime might (gasp) have been wrong.
It's like a bully who took your lunch money and pretended to be your friend getting angry at you when you finally say "enough." Sure, you could (and should) have realized how wrong it was before. But the actual wrongdoing was theirs, not yours. But Barry and Roger don't get that. They think they get to act indignant.
Which brings me to today's news.
This may not seem like a crime or a misdemeanor to some. But it's a high crime, treason even, for me.
Mike Mussina is 39 years old. He's been an All-Star before. He's won 261 games in his career, and has a career ERA (earned run average for you non-fans, which measures about how many runs he'd give up in an average 9 inning game) of 3.70.
And he did all of this during the steroid era without a whiff of scandal.
He's a smart pitcher, one who has always brought thought and strategy to the mound with him. Hell, he even fields his position well (he's a 5 time Gold Glove winner).
And last year, his ERA ballooned to over 5. And the Yankee faithful turned on him. He was too old. His fastball had no gas left (partially true as he lost about 5 mph on his fastball, which was never a blazing one to begin with). Generally a healthy pitcher who'd give you a whole season's worth of work, he'd finally started to succumb to injuries, and the Yankee fans decided the old man should be run out of town.
This season started and he had a pretty bad spring, and started off pretty poorly for his first few starts. And again, the "faithful" wanted the Yankees to cut him loose.
Then an amazing thing happened.
Mike Mussina showed us what a man of 39, with no steroid or HGH enhancements to boost his fastball past the 39-year-old range, can do when he pitches smart. He locates his pitches. He changes pitch speeds. He fools hitters into bad swings, and while he'll sometimes dance in and out of trouble, he has for the most part been dominant.
He has 11 wins this year going into the All-Star break and an ERA lower than his (already impressive) lifetime average.
He is as successful as he's ever been, at an increased age, with decreased velocity.
(At this point, I must also note with some sadness, that many Yankee fans don't even appreciate this - they think the time is right to trade him, while his value is high. They talk about his 'inevitable' comedown, when they should just be impressed)
For a sport reeling from the revelations about the actions some players have taken to defy age and normal physical limits, he is a GREAT story. For a team that has Jason Giambi and Andy Pettitte each playing out a personal mea-culpa-post-performance-enhancing-drugs rehab tour of shame (as well as the perennially stellar but asinine Alex Rodriguez), he is a GREAT figure.
For an All-Star Game that is being played for the last time at Yankee Stadium (which should never have been designated for the scrap heap simply to build a similar, less historic stadium with more luxury boxes), he is a perfect pick to add to the many young studs in the American League's pitching staff.
But he's left off the list.
What does it say for this sport that the man who shows us the virtues of embracing your age, playing smart, and playing clean is left off the last All-Star Game in the Stadium he's made his home for the last 8 years?
It says baseball is all about young studs and power arms.
And when those power arms get old?
Well, I guess there will be new performance enhancing drugs to help those aging stars maintain their velocity and stats. Because clearly, if they shift to the Mussina method - pitch smart, act your age - baseball will ignore them.
As I said, a crime.
I have no illusions that Mike Mussina will read this blog. But in the fantasy world where he does: Mike, I tip my cap to you. You're an All-Star in my book, and I hope the Yankees re-sign you so that you can get to career win 300 in pinstripes and retire a Yankee (and wear a Yankee cap into the Hall of Fame, where you already belong).
You are an
inspiration baseball needs right now. And, typically, the sport has failed to grasp that.
(Author's confession. I also like Mike Mussina because when
he pitches from the stretch, he bends way down low and when he comes up, he looks a bit like a vampire. Very cool)
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Work & Play
Nunzio and I just finished a first draft of our film script Paradise Springs. It really is like giving birth to a baby. Okay, having never been pregnant I can't really make that statement. But there's such a high that comes with something like that.
2008 has been a weird year. It was supposed to be an amazing year. We had sold a TV movie, the strike ended, we had a film script to work on and then life kinda went on hold. As many have heard, I had surgery back in February. Sure it was going to disrupt life a bit, but not for long, right?
Well, it was for long. And that TV movie? That's on hold until the network decides what their future holds. And Paradise Springs... well we were trying to write it, but every time we went forward, it didn't click for us, and progress was hard to come by. And before we knew it, it was summer and the year was almost half over.
At the beginning of June, we sat up and took stock. We knew we were going out of town at the end of the month and we knew we had a truckload to get done before then. So we started going to the gym again regularly and we hunkered down with Paradise Springs, finding some solutions and pushing past our initial stumbling blocks. Meanwhile, we got the Metromix opportunity and raced to get a story and pages approved as quickly as possible. As we said before, first pages come out July 23rd!
Then somewhere in the writing of Paradise Springs, we discovered plot problems and circularity and things we just hadn't forseen in the plotting. So somewhere around Page 112, Nunzio says to me "we need to take an axe to this script and gut the second act." My eyes went wide... The panic grew in my stomach. "But, but... we have to turn it in in a week, " I sputtered. But my husband, the master plotter, started chopping away and damn if he wasn't right. Before I knew it we were back on track. And today... first draft!
[Of course now, we take the obligatory few days off, and then we read it to see if it makes any sense. Or sucks.]
Meanwhile, an editor at Marvel approached us about pitching an Aunt May story for Spiderman. Our agent called today about doing a possible manga based on a videogame. And we're getting ready to start work on the first issue of Bad Medicine.
I am so excited about heading to Oregon this Friday. Every year we rent a house on the Oregon coast with our friends and their kids for 4th of July. I love kicking back and relaxing. But I realize now relaxing is never as much fun as when you've just finished doing good hard work.
I look forward to the vacation. And I look forward to getting back to work on the many projects we seem to have floating in the air.
2008 may be a good year yet.
