Idiot Heroes and Villians

I recently began work on The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Superheroes and Villains, Illustrated. This is another “how to draw” book for IDW Publishing, in the vein of the manga books I worked on with Tomoko Taniguchi. This time around, though, the equally talented Yair Herrera joins me to bring my notes to life and provide the real meat of the book.

Because we don’t have the rights to use any established heroes in this book, I get to come up with a whole new slate of characters for Yair to draw. For me, this is tons of fun. Look for the book sometime in 2008.

House Hunting

On Friday, we accepted an offer on our house! Now we just have to find a new one. (The contingency offer we had on another place this summer expired at the end of August, so now we’re free to look around again.)

We don’t ask for much. It just has to have four or more bedrooms, be in good shape, a great neighborhood, have wonderful schools, and not cost a mint. Despite that long list of demands, we have a handful of promising leads, and we’ve been cruising through houses all weekend. Wish us luck!

ARGs Against Cancer

Via my pal James Wallis comes a note from Adrian Hon (James’s partner at the wailing-new Six to Start) about a project dedicated to concocting a brand-new Alternate Reality Game designed to raise money for cancer research. You can find out all the details at LetsChangeTheGame.org.

In short, they’re asking for 500-word game concepts. They’ll pick the best and give the design team £1,000 of seed money. It’s a worthy cause, and there’s a lot of fun to be had. If you have the time and inclination, please give it a crack!
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Happy October

Fall is on the way, although you might not know it around here yet. Still, October’s started now, which means Halloween, that horrific holiday, is just around the corner. On that note, a friend of mine dropped me an interesting link for something called Fighting the Dead.

At the moment, there’s not much to see, just creepy sounds and images, but it’s a start. A little poking around brings you to an affiliated page that features a countdown until “network service restored.” That should be sometime in the wee hours of October 4 or 5, depending on where you reside.

The Boys of September

Last night, I hit my first Major League Baseball game in years. For his birthday, Bill Bodden wanted to see the Brewers take on the Cardinals in the last desperate stretch of this year’s pennant race, and he invited John Kovalic, Jim Lowder, and me to join him.

We met up at Adventures in Gaming and carpooled down to the game. Jim knew of a great, free parking spot, an easy walk from the stadium, and we made it in plenty of time. Sadly, the Brewers’ pitching staff dissolved into a lukewarm puddle in the 8th inning, and they lost the game. They’re still in the race, but at two games behind the Cubs with only a few games left, it’s an uphill battle. Despite that, they’ve done better this year than most people expected, and I’m proud to call them my hometown team.

On the return trip to the car, we had to walk back through a chilly, dew-soaked graveyard filled with white stones casting stark shadows in the brilliant light of the full, silver moon. Being who we were, our chatter ran the gamut from fresh-risen zombies to a resource-management game in which players compete to have the best monument in the cemetery.

Blood Bowl: The Omnibus

My first advance copy of Blood Bowl: The Omnibus showed up in my mail this afternoon. It is a thing of beauty: 768-pages of Dark (Humor) Fantasy Football goodness–each of the first three Blood Bowl novels–stuffed under a single cover.

If you have those books already, you’re set, except for a short introduction I wrote for this volume. If not, though, there’s no better way to jump into the deep end of this series.

You can find this massive book on shelves in November, just in time for your Thanksgiving football feast. It’s sure to whet your appetite for Rumble in the Jungle, , the fourth book in the series, due out before the end of the year.

It’s a real kick to see the books collected in a volume that rivals any Harry Potter book for length. Every time I look at the thing, I can’t stop grinning.

Sicko

On Sunday, my wife and I went to see Michael Moore‘s new film, Sicko. Going to school at the University of Michigan, I’ve followed Moore’s career since Roger and Me. I don’t always agree with his points (although he often has good ones) or how he drives them home (I don’t think his stunts are as effective as letting others make his points for him), but I appreciate him standing up for what he thinks is right and for asking questions.

For Sicko, I stand squarely in the choir to which the film preaches. The health-care industry in America is a disturbing, embarrassing, life-threatening mess. I could throw stats and anecdotes at you to back up that point, but Sicko does an excellent job of it. If you’re interested in the issue (and how many Americans aren’t ever worried about health care these days?), make a point of seeing it. In Rock County, it’s playing at the Wildwood Movies 10 for the rest of the week, by special arrangement with DR!VEN.