Straight from the Booth to the Bar

Wizard World Philly was a lot of fun, though I have to admit, I felt kind of useless at the Marvel signing booth. Oooh, look, there's Mark Brooks, let's get him to draw a Skrull for me. Oooh, Joe Q., let's have him sketch a Spidey. Oooh, look, there's that Polish guy who's writing Cable, let's have him... uh, oh. Not that I didn't have fun talking to everyone and signing issues, but I felt like I wasn't exactly doing my part. I need to find a portable typewriter, so for the next signing, I'll be able to write a scene for somebody, right on the spot.

PAGE ONE, Panel Three
Cable aims a giant Liefeld-ian gun at Swierczy's head.

5 CABLE: No pressure or anything.

Though I did have two fans ask for something called a "writer's sketch," which had to be explained to me. Basically, it's when you ask a writer, who can't draw, to draw something; hilarity ensues. So I drew a fairly miserable Moon Knight, which in retrospect, looked something from a pre-teen book about female anatomy. I also drew a Cable, which was a little better, even though the fan mistook the metal arm for his shoulder padding. Ah, well.

Anyway, there was some news announced at the con: namely, a King-Size Cable that's coming out this September. It's 44-page one-shot actionfest told from Bishop's point of view. The art is by the amazing Ken Lashley (check out his Bishop above), and you can read more about it here at Wizard or Newsarama.

Speaking of Newsarama, that site's Steve Ekstrom posted a very cool review of Severance Package yesterday morning. Check it out.

And in other fun comics news, I'm happy this is finally public: my buddy Brian Keene will be doing a Marvel MAX Devil Slayer mini-series. I love Keene's horror novels; I can't wait to see what he does in the MAX universe.

I'm spending most of my day writing, but tonight is the kick-off of Peter Rozovsky's Noir at the Bar series, the first one featuring... me. There's a short item about it in today's Philadelphia Inquirer. What's not mentioned: the special guests, namely Poe Boy, who will be grilling me, and his lovely bride Kate, who will be reading the first chapter of Severance. (I've come to realize that I suck at reading my own stuff out loud, so I'm enlisting help wherever I go.) Hope to see some of you there.