Post-Traumatic Tech Disorder

… hops onto the shelves today. This issue concludes the story arc, so if you’ve been holding out in order to read the entire storyline, now’s your chance. If you haven’t heard of Task Force 1 before, it’s a military science fiction book created by Image founder Jim Valentino (and written by me) that takes place a generation after 9/11 where elite military soldiers get wired up with advanced tech to become living weapons with one mission… bring terror to the terrorists. You can check out previews, a trailer, and links to interviews here.

It’s available at good comic retail shops near you. Not sure where that is? Check out the Comic Shop Locator Service (or just call 1-888-COMIC-BOOK).

Tags: military, science fiction, Task Force 1, Image Comics, Shadowline, Jim Valentino

Been buried with projects lately–a high profile project at the day job, working on recoding a few websites (including this one… look for a new site here by the end of the year or earlier depending on my schedule and with that, lots of content will get updated and be easier for me to update overall), and well, read below.

• Brat-halla is moving over to Graphic Smash this week. We’ll still post over at Quick Stop Entertainment for the next few weeks to allow people to transition over, but after that, we’ll be primarily posting over at Graphic Smash. The move is mostly for the convenience of the readers… a bit easier to navigate the archives (and one less click to get to the larger, easier to read version of the comic). You can still follow the Brat-halla blog to keep track of updates to the comic. This week also marks our 150th episode of the comic… that’s 150 straight weeks without missing an update. I’m still wrapping up some of the aesthetics of the Brat-halla comic section over at Graphic Smash, but it’s all functional (with all 149 of the previous episodes already loaded into their archives).

You can check out the new site here.

• NaNoWriMo! What’s that? It’s the National Novel Writing Month, which kicks off November 1st. Why am I mentioning it? Because I’ve decided to take one of these hundreds of plots sitting in my “thought bucket” and turn it into a novel next month. And I’m challenging any writers out there that have been sitting on some good ideas to jump in and join the fun. Even if you’re nervous about it, check out the NaNoWriMo website… you’ll see you’re not alone (and that helps a lot). So, next week’s motto… “Get it done.”

• My day job requires a lot of travel (about 75-100%), so I tend to be away from home (and often in a new city) every week. Well, thanks to Dethroner (via Lifehacker), one aspect of travel just got a lot easier. This should help with my upcoming trip to New Jersey (and maybe Phoenix after that).

• Castlevania animated film? Having played the game a lot when I was younger, that definitely sounds like it has potential. Written by Warren Ellis? It definitely goes on my “keep an eye out for” list.

• Jim Valentino’s Task Force 1 #4 hits shelves tomorrow (if the shipping list is correct). This issue wraps up the first story arc.

Tags: Brat-halla, NaNoWriMo, novel, writing, webcomic, happy hour, Castlevania, Warren Ellis, Task Force 1

Dragon’s Lair is having its 20th Anniversary bash this weekend and celebrating with some creator signings at all three of its stores. If anyone’s in the Austin or San Antonio area, pop on by one of the Dragon’s Lair stores and say, “Hi!”

Here’s the signing schedule:

AUSTIN SCHEDULE
10-12 Josh Howard/Kristian/Terry Moore/Matt Sturges
1-3 Gail Simone/Scott Kurtz/Jeffery Stevenson
5-7 Cameron Stewart/Chip Zdarsky

SAN ANTONIO SCHEDULE
10-12 Cameron Stewart/Chip Zdarsky
2-4 Josh Howard/Kristian/Matt Sturges
5-7 Gail Simone/Scott Kurtz/Jeffery Stevenson

ROUND ROCK SCHEDULE
10-12 Gail Simone/Scott Kurtz/Jeffery Stevenson
2-4 Cameron Stewart/Chip Zdarsky
6-8 Josh Howard/Kristian/Matt Sturges

It should be a lot of fun (especially with putting that much comedy and sarcastic wit in one room), so don’t miss out.

Tags: comic, signing, dragon’s lair, Gail Simone, Scott Kurtz, Terry Moore, Matt Sturges, Josh Howard, Cameron Stewart, Chip Zdarsky

A question about… well, I’m not quite sure…

Okay, so let me give you a little back story on this situation to lead into my question, so you’ll have all the information available. I went to this conference last year in October, I think. No, it was definitely October because I remember talking with someone at the bar at the conference about shopping for a costume the week before I went because I was going to a friend’s party where the theme was “Classic Fashion Disasters.”

Read the rest of the article here.

Tags: The Creative Adviser, advice column, breaking in, screenwriting, filmmaking

Chicago, technically, and I’ll be here for a couple more weeks (but I get to fly home for the weekend). But things have kept me from the blog… coding (and in some cases, recoding) 5 websites (yes, five!), working on the comics/webcomics, writing another screenplay, working on some columns, and working on some pitches.

But, I’d rather be out here commenting on The Mutant Chronicles, the CNN Exchange, and the short film/commercial director brought on board to direct the Halo movie. Give me another couple weeks, and I should be able to get back into a regular blogging groove.

Until then… beware the olives.

Tags: mutant chronicles, cnn, Halo, Blomkamp, gamasutra, sci-fi wire

In this issue, the team gets drunk, blows up a tree, gets gassed, blows up an old military building, gets a bad head trip, blows up a… you get the idea… Well, you would if it all happened in that order. Join us for the killing, the conspiracies, and the crayon drawings.

Check out the preview to Task Force 1 #2 over at Image Comics!

Tags: comic, military, science fiction, task force 1, Image Comics, Jim Valentino, Shadowline, sniper, EOD, HALO

1. Driving up into the parking garage at the hotel and into a wall of smoke where firefighters are dousing a flaming mini-van.
2. Hearing tales of my little girl at home opening up both ends of a fruit snacks bag to wear them on her forearms like Wonder Woman’s bracers.
3. Venture Brothers.
4. Having a team come together for a project I’m co-creating/co-writing.
5. Planet Karen
6. The artery clogging, but ever-so-satisfying Monte Crisco sandwich.

Tags: fire, wonder woman, venture brothers, webcomic, sandwich

A question about writing TV spec samples…

Why can’t I write a TV spec sample using my favorite TV show that’s been canceled? I just don’t see why it has to be a current show.

Marcie Ross, Sunnydale, CA

Dear Marcie,

Some might think it’s just a big network conspiracy to make sure aspiring TV writers watch every episode of as many current shows as possible while also investing in DVD collections of those same shows. But there’s actually a method to the madness. It’s a means of letting execs see a little variety in the specs that pile up on their desk week-after-week… year-after-year.

Especially after they’ve read a gazillion variations of this spec script…

Read the rest of the article here…

Looks like The Pulse has the the early list of this year’s Eisner winners.

Congrats to Scott Kurtz (Digital Comic), Bill Willingham (Best Serialized Story … Fables) and Zeus Comics (Will Eisner Spirit of Comics Retailer Award). And I want to point out one of the other retailer finalists, Austin Books… both of those retailers are great, and I’m sorry Austin Books was nominated two years in a row without getting the award (I hope you get it next year, Brad).

This trailer almost felt right. The visual style feels more in line with the comic books I remember reading in my youth, but I doubt the story will be as dark and violent as the original comics (you’ll see what I mean when you see the trailer). But I do like that CGI a lot more than I did the costumes of the earlier movies.

Tags: comic – movie trailer – TMNT – CGI