Out with Old...In with New

Yikes...another year has passed. Figured I'd post my last blog for the year 'cause I'm not sure when I'll get to the next one. Still early in the day on New Year's Eve but I'll probably post at the last minute as I'm waiting for some potential news that might be interesting. If it doesn't come in time, ah well....just catch it next time. New Year's Eve is changing at the Reed household. It used to be a big deal for the kids but now they got friends who are much cooler than parents, of course. Just part of watching grow up but at least they'll always have the memories. But now with the kids outta the way, Jenny and I can start planning accordingly. New Year's Eve is our wedding anniversary and we really didn't do much because we had the kids. I remember one year I surprised Jenny with a show and an overnight at a ritzy hotel but although she enjoyed it, she was still disappointed about missing the evening with the kids. Well, now we won't have that problem. I did a couple of interviews the last couple of days. One is at Jazma Online which is already posted and the second was with Jennifer Contino for The Pulse over at Comicon.com. Both are geared around the original graphic novel coming out in January, A MURDER OF SCARECROWS. One frequent question interviewers use is "what's next?". It's a valid question, of course, but sometimes not so easy to answer. I have a couple of collections forthcoming...a third Saint Germaine trade that will include some all new material. A collection of Sinergy, the journey through Hell series I did with different artists drawing each level, and then an all new graphic novel which will combine comic art with text pieces called SUBVERSIVES. (cover by Ken Meyer Jr. to the left). It's a hodge-podge of stories about traitors, spies, renegades, etc. I'm not exactly sure when it will be out but I still have to finish writing some of it but the art is pretty much finished. I think it'll be a fun book and hopefully, it'll do well as I'd like to venture into that territory a bit more. My primary focus for 2009 is to finish the novels I'm immersed in. Novels are a lot of work but I'm finding the more time I spend in them, the more it just sucks you in. I have a feeling that I may continue with novels afterwards, but I can't really determine that until I get these done. As for comics, I have a mystery that I want to do as an original graphic novel and Desperado wants another Deadworld story---whether serialized or as an original graphic novel is yet to be determined. But beyond that, I don't really have much configured for comics or graphic novels. I'm not burned out or anything but there's so much other stuff I want to do. I have the possibility of doing some science books which will likely feature some illustrations and a publisher is talking with me about doing an Evolution book in graphic novel format. That would be good as Evolution is one of the classes that I teach at the community college. I really enjoy that class and hopefully, most of my students enjoy it after they go through the course. I have to tell you, many of the students come into the class with reservations, mostly fueled by mis-information about what Evolution is. I do get offended when someone says "you don't believe in that crap, do you?"...because 1) yes, I do and 2) that is a tremendous lack of respect for what someone else believes in (although technically, one does not "believe" in evolution, just accepts the facts). I mean, if someone says God Bless You to me, should I ask them if they really believe in that crap? A little courtesy sure could go a long way. Except the Middle East, of course, as that will never change until the religious zealots who control the masses over there lose their power. Having a lot of Muslim students at one of the colleges I teach at, I find that a lot of people keep forgetting that it isn't all of Islam that is fanatical, only a very small group...about the same percentage as the wacko fundies here. So, I'm not sure what 2009 will hold as far as my writing goes. The comics market is becoming less and less a factor in my decisions and looking at the convention schedule, I'm now leaning towards skipping just about all of them. I also find myself looking much less at the message boards that deal with comics and usually only hit them once a week and often times, once I hit the first 2-3 of them,(first ones I go to are Comic Related and the Panel and Pixel) I get bored and don't bother with the rest. I used to look at Newsarama but really, how many different stories can they do on superheroes. And if you've been around long enough, it just gets repetitive. The creator names change and I'm sure they're passionate about what they're doing but it really just doesn' t matter because in a few years time, they'll be back at the same point. Maybe not exactly the same but similar enough. For some odd reason, I just have the feeling that for me, this is going to be a big year...maybe just a transition of sorts, but whatever, I just hope I come out of it better than going in and since I'm feeling pretty good about things right now, that would be really something. I hope the best for the New Year for everyone.