As you have probably noticed the comics related activity on RevSF has been pretty much negligible to nonexistent over the last few months. This has been mainly due to the fact that I’ve been snowed under with that most seductive of writing gigs – paying work.

And it looks like things are going to continue that way for the foreseeable future. With the upcoming GOD SHOP comic for Tokyopop and the James Bond book for Hermes Press, I’m just not going to have the time to give the role of being comics editor at RevSF the time and attention it deserves.

So, with Joe’s agreement and blessing, I’ve decided that I should pass on the torch.

The new recipient of the esteemed title of “Comics Editor” is my good buddy from Arizona , Jay Willson.

Although Jay now works in IT, in a past life he was the Art Director of Another Rainbow Publishing, the publisher (at that time) of the CARL BARKS LIBRARY, MICKEY MOUSE IN COLOR and the Carl Barks and Frank Frazetta lithograph series. He ha also been a staff illustrator for the ARIZONA REPUBLIC newspaper, and had illustrations appear in various science fiction and horror books and calendars. Jay’s also done some writing for various Internet sites, BACKISSUE and ALTER EGO magazines from TwoMorrows Publishing, plus he’s a regular contributor to the COMICOPIA APA….

…. And he knows comics.

As for me, although I’m passing on the comics role, I’ll still be around, joining the ranks of Rick, Mark, and Jayme, as an “editor-at-large.” I intend to finish off the Comics of 1986 series, as well as providing reviews, posting to this blog and maybe even contributing a few other articles along the way.

So please join me in welcoming Jay to the RevSF staff.

Occasional RevSF contributor, Paul Benjamin and I made our "debut" in the DC Universe this week in the pages of Shadowpact #20; by providing the names for two shadow-golems courtesy of our good friend, and Shadowpact scribe, Matt Sturges.

Thanks, Matt – I think…

Forbes have just published this year’s list of the wealthiest fictional characters and biggest fictional companies. Not surprisingly the genre crowd figure prominently on both lists.

The Top 15 fictional earners are:
1. Scrooge McDuck
2. Ming The Merciless
3. Richie Rich
4. Mom
5. Jed Clampett
6. C. Montgomery Burns
7. Carter Pewterschmidt
8. Bruce Wayne
9. Thurston Howell III
10. Tony Stark
11. Fake Steve Jobs
12. Gomez Addams
13. Willy Wonka
14. Lucius Malfoy
15. Princess Peach

While the biggest fictional companies are:
1. CHOAM
2. Acme Corp.
3. Sirius Cybernetics Corp.
4. MomCorp
5. Rich Industries
6. Soylent Corp.
7. The Very Big Corp. of America
8. Frobozz Magic Co.
9. Warbucks Industries
10. Tyrell Corp.
11. Wayne Enterprises
12. Virtucon
13. Globex
14. Umbrella Corp.
15. Wonka Industries
16. Stark Industries
17. Clampett Oil
18. Oceanic Airlines
19. Yoyodyne Propulsion
20. Cyberdyne Systems Corp.
21. d’Anconia Copper
22. Gringotts
23. Oscorp
24. Nakatomi Trading Corp.
25. Spacely Space Sprockets

Links to Forbes profiles and wealth estimates can be found here.

It’s been an 007 kinda week..

Late last week I received an email from my editor at Titan Books yesterday that started "Are you interested in writing…"

The answer was an instinctive "Yes" before I even finished the sentence.

A quick exchange of emails followed and I am now scheduled to write my third feature article for the Titan Books James Bond album series.

Deadline is mid-January, with the book, James Bond 007: Paradise Plot scheduled for later in 2008.

Then over the weekend the signed contracts (and more importantly the advance check) arrived, for my latest book project.

The Illustrated 007 is the working title of the new book to be published by the fine folks at Hermes Press. We aim to get it in the bookstores by November 2008.

The book will build and greatly expand on the recent articles I’ve done for the Titan Books reprint albums and Back Issue magazine. The fully illustrated book will chronicle the story behind Bond’s comics adventures around the world, from British newspaper strips, to original stories produced for markets such as Sweden and Chile, to Japanese manga, and of course the various American series and movie adaptations.

I’ll also be taking a look at the various Bond spoofs, 007’s influence on comics art in general, and hopefully lining up interviews with some of the creators who have added to Bond’s story over the years.

Deadlines are tight if we are to get this done in time to catch the wave from the next Bond movie, so for the next few months I’ll be spending most of my time with immersed in a world of gadgets, girls and guns.

Sometimes I’m amazed at the things people will put themselves through just for our entertainment.

Take for instance the good folks over at Progressive Boink who must have suffered through every version of comic book hell to compile this post presenting The 40 Worst Rob Liefeld Drawings.

Accompanying each of these artistic masterpieces is insightful commentary such as this…

Case in point #40 on the list

… and we can now formally announce God Shop – Debuting online in 2008 from Tokyopop, co-written by my eldest daughter, Meggan, and myself.

Imagine that you could “rent” the powers of a god for a day, what powers would you want and what would you do with them? Would you use them for the good of others, or to make your own life better?

Well far away at the edge of the universe is a special store that let’s you do just that – rent the powers of the gods – the GOD SHOP.

All you need to do is find the special “token” that lies somewhere on your world. Once you find it you will be transported to the GOD SHOP and asked a simple question. Depending on your answer you will be allowed to enter through one of two doors. No matter which door you pass through, you will be given the powers of a GOD, but be careful what you wish for, and how you answer that question.

And of course there are rules to follow – there are always rules – especially when it comes to something like messing around with divine powers. Break those rules at your peril.

We’ll be posting updates as the project progresses, so stay tuned for more.

My Robert E. Howard geek meter just went off the scale…

Just when you think that acceptance of the graphic novel as mainstream literature, and teenagers going mad for manga has finally taken comics mainstream – things like THIS happen.

I didn’t have too many expectations for WizardWorld Texas going in, but it turned out to be a great road trip and one of the most fun convention experiences to date. The crowd seemed even smaller this year, but there was a much more positive buzz around the place than I’d experienced over the last two years. From talking to a few retailer friends, sales were up, and so was traffic in the Artist’s Alley area. At least one friend had sold all his sample books he’d bought with him by the middle of Saturday afternoon.

I’ll be writing up a more detailed article on the convention for Comicopia at some point, but personal highlights included:

– The road trip – four hours each way with four writers constantly bouncing story ideas off each other.
– Getting to meet a few more artists whose work I admired, and discovering a few who I hadn’t been aware of before.
– Getting invited to the DC Comics dinner and getting to hear some behind the scenes stuff and appreciate why certain decisions were made.
– The moment when the metaphorical light bulb went off above every writers’ head at the the dinner table in response to something DC’s executive editor Dan DiDio said about writing iconic comics characters.
– Seeing Matt Sturge’s face when we discovered a radio controlled K-9, and mine when he offered to buy me a radio-controlled Dalek.
– Dan Wickline’s work-shop on writing licensed characters.
– The moment at the end of the road trip when we realized that we needed to keep the creative energy flowing.

A post on the excellent downthetubes blog reports that Hellboy director Guillermo del Toro has signed on to write and adapt a big screen version of the 1960s British fantasy/action drama The Champions.

The Champions was one of my all time favorite genre shows –

While The Champions has been available on DVD in the UK for a while it has yet to get a US release. Hopefully this news may doing something to resolve that…