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  • 9/11: The Box

    I was in New York City on 11 September 2001. My wife and I had stopped in to visit family on our way moving to Prague from Los Angeles. From the balcony of my family’s flat, you could see the World Trade Center in the distance. It literally towered over all of New York.

    I woke up before the attacks. The most I could think of was the Yankee game from the night before, rained out after we had waited in the stands for several hours. That left the sky an almost unreal color of blue, the kind that only exists in the upper reaches of the stratosphere, but which rain seems to somehow wash down to Earth to soak into your cornea and blanket your retina for a few hours, before the sun finally burns it all away.

    It was, in every way, in shattering contrast to the unreality of the events that followed. Newscasters watched the first building burn and could only speculate on some incalculable navigational error. Even after the second building burst into flame and one of the towers actually fell, I could still only process: “My God. The NYC skyline will never look the same, with only one of the towers left.”

    As a kid in New York, watching them built, you didn’t think of them as the “World Trade Center”; that would have been boring. You thought of them as the “Twin Towers”, and never considered that one could ever exist, even for a scant 30 minutes, without the other. And sure enough, like conjoined twins codependent on some vital organ or artery in the national consciousness, they did not.

    And yet, even then, looking through the scar of the skyline into the empty space where the buildings had anchored the island, the event still remained almost unthinkable. It wasn’t until small, nearly microscopic aspects began to aggregate that the scope of it all came into focus; like a photograph sharpened by the details that your eyes can see but a lens cannot.

    When I lived in Europe for five years, I realized it was these details that underlined your sense of cultural dislocation—the shapes of keyholes and doorknobs, for instance—rather than the broad strokes of language and history. The broad strokes merely bent the direction of the tracks; but it was a small stone that could actually derail the train.

    The days that followed became filled with these unanticipated moments, the kind you can’t prepare for, like turning a corner on the street to find a spontaneous, random candlelight vigil, total strangers who came together without planning just so they could spend a few moments in each other’s company.

    Both the city’s Red Cross and the local firehouse stood right downstairs from my family’s flat. We watched throughout the day as the line to donate blood at the Red Cross snaked around the block. But when we finally went down to join the line, they turned us away–no room for any more stock, and nobody had survived anyway.

    We passed the firehouse a few days later, and saw the entire block shut down by a dune of flowers that cascaded out the station doors and into the street. We saw that officials had posted two letters in the glass case outside: The first, from the city fire commissioner, requested the names of the firefighters who had died. The second, from the firehouse captain, refused to designate his men as dead; he would record them only as “missing, still on duty at the scene,” followed by a list of more than half of the men who had been under his command.

    A few days later, my wife and I took a walk in Central Park to escape the relentless coverage on TV. We were relieved to smell the barbecues that you’d normally see on a late summer day, as if people had finally returned to the normality of their lives.

    Except, after a few minutes, we realized that there weren’t any barbecues; it was the smell of the wreckage at Ground Zero, still burning, drifting up to blanket the entire island. You couldn’t even breathe without a constant reminder of the attacks.

    One memory stands out. In the weeks after the towers fell, every square foot of fence in New York was conscripted by flyers from family members searching helplessly for their loved ones. Each carried virtually the same message: Have you seen this person? Worked on the 99th floor. Worked on the 101st floor. Worked on the 97th floor. Over and over again—all pictures of smiling, photocopied faces; all ghosts, all gone.

    Along these fences, people would sometimes leave artwork, mementos, origami cranes, and stuffed animals pinned with sealed, secret envelopes. One man walked by with his young daughter, showing her the keepsakes that others had left behind. She asked the kind of question that people overwhelmed by massive tragedy never take the time to consider: What will happen to all of these things?

    The man didn’t really expect the question, and didn’t really have an answer. He told his daughter that someone would eventually come by and put all of it in a box.

    And then the girl asked, in that kind of innocence reserved only for children: “What do they do with the box?”

    What do we do with the box.

    I’ve been asking myself that same question now, every year, on the anniversary of the attacks. I had a friend once burst into tears from a simple question like “how’s work”, because she held a job at an investment firm and knew dozens of people who died that day. When I see an electric blue sky, the kind that exists only after it rains the night before, I still think about airplanes exploding.

    All that only serves to remind me of just how utterly stupid I must have been to worry about a Yankees game from the night before; or how, even as a thousand people were crushed into grey concrete dust, I could still only think about the New York City skyline. Even now, writing about it, I still feel ashamed, really.

    Upcoming STAR TREK: TNG Ghosts, Captain’s Log, and more!

    idw_logo2With the San Diego Comic-Con finally wrapped, I thought I’d fill in some blanks on the upcoming line of Star Trek comics (DS9, Excelsior, TNG) that I hinted about last week.

    IDW Publishing didn’t make any major Trek announcements at the show, to avoid burying its news under an industry avalanche of convention updates, and has instead used a strategy of bookending the event (before and after) with most of its series-related press releases. So, expect formal confirmation on the entire line of these projects sometime this week.

    First up, however, is the new Next Generation title I referenced shortly before the convention: a back-to-basics five-part series called Ghosts, targeted at hardcore Trek traditionalists, after a number of TNG stories (Mirror Images, Last Generation, Countdown) navigated the franchise into largely uncharted regions.

    StarTrek_TNG_TitleLogoSet during the Next Generation series proper, Ghosts will unfold as a classic tale of the Enterprise caught in the middle between two warring factions on a planet that intends to join the Federation; but, there’ll be a twist in style, rather than story, featuring a plot patterned after a CSI-genre procedural show, giving it a fresh tone not widely before used in Trek storytelling. (By coincidence, IDW previously published CSI comics, some of the best-selling titles of its early company history, including one series set at the San Diego Comic-Con.)

    zander

    Alexander "Zander" Cannon, writer on the new TNG: Ghosts series. (Photo hat/tip to Todd Klein.)

    Handling script duties on Ghosts will be noted indie artist and writer Alexander (“Zander”) Cannon, perhaps best known as one of the pencillers on the Alan Moore book Top 10 and its spinoff title Smax–both published by Wildstorm during current Trek editor Scott Dunbier’s tenure there as editor-in-chief. Cannon himself won’t actually draw the title, however, since his particular style doesn’t necessarily lend itself to the likeness work generally expected by CBS/Paramount and Trek fans.

    At least some covers for the book will be handled by the inestimable Joe Corroney, probably the best cover artist I worked with during my entire time at IDW, and who has delivered some insanely memorable Trek images; his previous TNG work includes covers for Intelligence Gathering and The Space Between, along with a stellar piece of work (no pun intended) for my own Last Generation #3. The first issue of Ghosts should hit the stands sometime around November (or thereabouts) this year.

    ds9logoLikewise, speaking of artists, IDW has settled on a top-flight painter for its upcoming Deep Space Nine series, and one whose work has graced the covers of IDW’s Trek line already, meaning that it now has the primary creative team in place. Because of the production time involved, I suspect that interior pages won’t be full paints, however; though we’ll likely see painted coverwork for the full run of the series. I can’t disclose the name of the artist just yet (in fact, IDW probably will do so before I do)–but I can say that fans of IDW titles won’t be disappointed.

    the_last_generation_issue_4_cover

    Sulu in command of the Excelsior, from Star Trek: The Last Generation.

    Meanwhile, for the IDW Sulu-Excelsior story that I previously mentioned, the comic will likely be part of a larger, much more ambitious effort involving numerous creative teams, showcasing a wide array of ships and the characters who command them, in a series tentatively titled Captain’s Log.

    Expect it to start to appear near the end of this year or in early 2010, and to follow the same style and format of the two successful Alien Spotlight series. On the down side, that may mean the Sulu Excelsior story will appear only as a one-shot; on the plus side, it means we’ll see stories featuring characters like Jellico, Enterprise-C Captain Rachel Garrett (Yes! Last Generation strikes again!), and…maybe even–dare I say it??–a William Riker spotlight aboard the U.S.S. Titan.

    rachelgarrett

    Rachel Garrett, captain of the Enterprise-C.

    (That last one’s just more hope than guess; but it sure would be a great way to test the waters for a Titan series.)

    IDW has already begun hiring writers for the series, including some who’ve written for Trek comics before, along with some who’ll be new to the franchise, so it’ll be a great mix for readers of tested talent and new voices.

    Which, finally, leads us to: Some of the speculation I previewed in my last Trek comics post, on some additional projects we might see from IDW in the immediate future. What follows represent purely educated guesses based on my experience as the Trek comics editor and my time in the comics biz; but I’d bet that they’ve all got more than a fairly good running chance of making it through the gate.

    For certain, expect more Alien Spotlights, at least two or three more to fill out what will be an upcoming collected edition; and, as for omnibus books, look for more of those as well, including new additions to the Star Trek Archives series, possibly showcasing individual characters and races, or collecting classic runs like Marvel’s excellent Starfleet Academy series or selections from the varied Wildstorm Voyager titles.

    wrathofkhanidw(An omnibus wrangling all of the TOS movie adaptations throughout the years, including the recently published Wrath of Khan, has already been announced, and will likely appear at about the same time the new film’s DVD hits store shelves.)

    And, as it has done in the past, IDW will almost certainly consider releasing electronic versions of the collections on the iPhone; the success of Countdown, which actually sold more downloaded editions than print copies, has prompted IDW to create its own in-house digital publishing initiative, and the Trek titles represent a natural and obvious way to exploit that.

    Along those same lines, IDW will continue to exploit the resounding success of the Star Trek film with a range of additional projects, which will likely mean a deluxe reprint of the Countdown series (to follow the special gold-foil edition from the San Diego Comic-Con), again released to coincide with the movie’s DVD.

    What format that might take is probably still up in the air; a limited-edition hardcover collection would seem the most likely, similar to other hardback editions IDW has used to showcase its other top-selling comics of past years (for example, Angel: After the Fall).

    ghosts

    Joe Corroney's cover for issue #1 of Star Trek: Ghosts, on display at the San Diego Comic-Con. (Just a lo-rez thumbnail here, until officially released by IDW.)

    IDW might also decide for an even more rarified premium edition for the upcoming holiday season, when the DVD is slated for release, and collect the “nuTrek“-inspired titles it has produced–including Countdown, Nero and possibly Spock: Reflections–into one massive, oversized hardcover edition (priced at $75-$100), much as it has done for its Transformers efforts and for celebrated Trek writer Peter David’s Fallen Angel series. Either way, however, one of those format collections remains an all-but-moral-certainty.

    As a coda to all of this, let me ultimately raise one more entirely speculative notion: For years, IDW built its business model around miniseries it later collected into trade paperbacks for the mainstream book market. But, as the economy has shifted, so has IDW’s business strategy, and now company president Ted Adams–always one willing to make bold, intuitive adjustments–has authorized open-ended, ongoing series for many of its top licenses, including Angel, GI Joe, Dr. Who and Transformers. Given all of that, and the current notoriety of the Star Trek franchise, can a new, ongoing Trek series from IDW be far behind?

    Stay tuned…


    Related posts:

    STAR TREK: A sequel to Countdown…

    StarTrek_TNG_TitleLogoIn all this recent comic book talk about Deep Space Nine, Sulu’s Excelsior and the film’s nuTrek timeline, a number of people have asked me: Wither Next Generation? (Though, ok, they didn’t say “wither”.)

    Keep in mind that I haven’t written or edited for IDW for some months now; but people seem to think that since the last two books I worked on (as well as the last two NextGen series published) had titles like “Countdown” and “Last Generation”, and that IDW hasn’t yet announced any new NextGen series to follow them, that the company intends to let its TNG license…well, whither.

    countdown-tpbSo, let’s put a full stop and reverse thrusters on that one. IDW will not be abandoning the TNG license. It will almost certainly unveil a TNG project at the San Diego Comic-Con, and even if it doesn’t, it will eventually announce a Countdown sequel (set in the TNG timeline, after Spock and Nero’s departure) sometime thereafter.

    (Yes, I know; it would be a sequel to a prequel. Or, more specifically, a sequel to a prequel of a movie that itself was an alternate prequel, to a TV show with a history set in the future, and which had a new timeline that starts after a different prequel TV series, but now this new comics series would actually be the furthest in the future of any other Trek Prime storytelling. Got that? Oy caramba. Okay…let’s not call it a sequel or a prequel, but an equal.)

    idw_logo2Anyway, keep in mind that Next Generation is one of the flagship Star Trek franchises, has produced some of the top-selling IDW Trek books, and the absence of any official announcement likely has to do with a number of coinciding factors (the release of the new film, a change of personnel in the IDW Trek editor position, holding off until after the San Diego convention, etc., etc.).

    As for a Countdown sequel, to be written by Mike Johnson and Tim Jones, it seems a moral certainty given that sales of the book have far exceeded any Trek title ever published by IDW; I don’t want to betray any confidences of what I’ve been told about such a project, but what I will do is correct the impression that it will be called “Gateway to the Apocalypse”.

    stctngig1This confusion is understandable, considering that at the end of Countdown, Nero and Spock pass through the gateway of a black hole that, well…threatens the apocalypse. But “Gateway to the Apocalypse” is actually the English translation of the German title (Tor Zur Apokalypse) for a different Next Generation book, also drawn by David Messina; and likewise one that I edited, which in the United States carried the name “Intelligence Gathering”.

    Apparently, the phrase “intelligence gathering” doesn’t imply the same meaning in German as it does in English (or, perhaps, doesn’t have any meaning at all), so German publisher CrossCult bequeathed it a new (and, admittedly, somewhat coincidental) title. This actually isn’t uncommon, when an American title for a film, comic, novel, etc. fails to translate correctly.

    Whatever its eventual title, keep in mind that discussions for a Countdown sequel would only be in its earliest stages at the moment; and I also imagine that to retain the same creative team, it would not hit store shelves until at least mid-2010–the inestimably talented David Messina will wrap the already-announced Nero miniseries first (August to November), followed by the official Star Trek movie adaptation running from January to June (including deleted/missing scenes from the original film script that I read up at Orci & Kurtzman’s office last year—no spoilers here, so don’t ask, but fans will not be disappointed).

    StarTrek_Apokalypse_SC

    David Messina's new cover for the softbound edition of Tor Zur Apokalypse (Intelligence Gathering).

    David remains one of the most consistent and reliable artists an editor could ever hope to work with, but there’s no chance he’d be able to carry two titles a month and still deliver the quality fans have grown to expect.

    At the same time, however, IDW has begun adopting what amounts to a “house style” for its Trek books, in orbit around Messina’s studio, with artists like Elena Casagrande and Federica Manfredi, assistants to Messina who can deliver very nearly spot-on resemblances of his work. (Take a look at Elena’s excellent work on the Orions Alien Spotlight issue, then compare it to Messina’s art on his Gorn book from the same series.)

    Federica has collaborated with him on Nero, while Elena will once again team with the Tipton brothers to deliver the Q Spotlight in August—all told, a vast majority of upcoming issues dominated by the Messina studio’s signature style.

    StarTrek_Apokalypse_HC

    The cover for the special-edition hardbound edition of Tor Zur Apokalypse.

    Which, similarly, returns us to the question of more TNG. Look for more Alien Spotlight titles, expectedly with a TNG angle, to be announced either at the San Diego convention or immediately thereafter (IDW has been “bookending” the show with its announcements to avoid them getting completely obscured by news from the convention). It will have already published spotlights showcasing Klingons, Tribbles and The Q, and will need at least two (probably three) more to fill out the collected edition, so these should begin to appear in the final three months of the year.

    IDW will also announce a number of other projects set to hit the shelves in December—again, at least one TNG related—when two of its series will have wrapped a third concluded the month before, so I’ll offer up some informed speculation on what exactly they might be next time around.

    UPDATE: Mike Johnson and Tim Jones (shall we call them J&J? It would seem appropriate) have confirmed their plans for a Countdown sequel, in an interview over at TrekMovie.com. Follow the link to check out all of the details.


    Related posts:

    SDCC 2008 Revisited III

    With the San Diego Comic-Con coming up July 22-26, I thought I’d revisit some of my previous posts about the show from last year–specifically, the problems that have surfaced since the industry’s seminal convention has transformed into a jovian mecca of all things pop culture. Convention organizers–which include some of my good friends here in San Diego–have labored all year to address some of the issues, so let’s see next week how things work out.


    Ted Adams and The Big Question

    Ted Adams, president of IDW Publishing and my recently former signer-of-checks, has triggered a whirlwind of commentary by going public with his doubts about whether IDW will attend the San Diego Comic-Con next year. The question is significant not only because the SDCC is the biggest game in town—and by town I mean the planet—but also because IDW is likewise based here in town—and by town I mean San Diego.

    Ted’s comments should come as no surprise to people who know him—during my tenure at IDW, I found him to not only have vision about the direction of the company, but also a pragmatism about how to get there. And, more than anything else, a willingness to try new ideas, challenge conventional thinking and follow through without a whole lot of second-guessing or tremors in his resolve.

    Really, a much nicer guy than this

    Tom Spurgeon: Really, a much nicer guy than this

    In his interview with Tom Spurgeon from The Comics Reporter, Ted deftly sidesteps the question of whether the convention has bloated Tetsuo-like beyond recognition (ranted about by me at length below), and instead focuses Jedi-like on the most obvious question: As a comic book publisher, what, really, is the point of going?

    IDW Prex Ted Adams

    Ted’s a businessman by training and trade—an MBA from Notre Dame and short-teeth cut during the heydays of Eclipse—and he openly raises a bottom-line issue that goes unanswered every year as the elephant wanders through the room. Companies can generate a decent amount of revenue at the convention by selling backstock and such; that’s why companies began producing “convention editions” of their big titles. But it’s all just tater tots compared to what a mid-sized publisher might net on a weekly basis anyway, and for a whole lot less chaos and aggravation. And, Q4T, it doesn’t even distantly resemble what attending the show costs in raw dollars.

    There’s also expense beyond the raw expense, which surfaces as Ted’s primary concern. The amount of man-hours required to adequately prepare for the show, as well as the epic days worked during the show itself, wreak havoc on any company caged by monthly deadlines. It’s challenging enough hitting deadlines every month even without a convention lumbering like Godzilla toward the San Diego coastline; and when the gargantuan’s shadow finally makes landfall, keeping things on track becomes utter madness.

    It’s bad enough that your creators are unavoidably expected to miss a week’s work by attending; but when an entire office misses a week—not to mention most of the weeks in preparation—the effects become devastating. For most con-goers, the show ends on Sunday; for comics companies, it ends several weeks later, when they compound their exhaustion with several weeks worth of extra effort to catch back up.

    There is, to be certain, an unquantifiable amount of goodwill generated with the fans by staffing a booth and shaking hands face-to-face at the SDCC. The convention also lends itself to all sorts of business deals as one of the few places the entire industry converges inside the same four walls each year. And an extraordinary amount of industry press devotes itself to the con, making it a choice venue for announcing major new projects, such as IDW’s press conference with Darwin Cooke that cut the ribbon on news coverage at the Preview Night this year.

    IDW Special Projects Editor Scott Dunbier.

    But those press announcements can be issued anytime, and generally earn the same—or, really, maybe more—industry attention when they don’t coincide with the con. (By way of example—and perhaps in testing the waters— IDW announced its presidential biographies well before the show, and received mainstream media coverage at CNN and the New York Times.) Major announcements at the SDCC risk getting lost in the crowd—no pun intended—and companies often find themselves nursing the secrecy of such projects for no other reason than they intended to announce them at the show. And, of course, there’s always the pressure of generating big projects for the substance of such announcement, lest a company appear embarrassingly inadequate by their absence.

    Moreover, the business deals that go handshake-in-handshake at the con could just as easily be scored whether a company sustains an floor presence or not—IDW hangs its hat in San Diego, after all, and it’s easy enough for the company’s execs to climb into a Prius and roll down the highway to the show. They’d probably even have more opportunity for such meets, liberated from the hassle of having to run a booth and prepare for it all ahead of time.

    he back half of the IDW booth at the SDCC. Hat Flickr to my Micronauts pal Ben Templesmith.

    The back half of the IDW booth at the SDCC. Hat Flickr to my Micronauts pal Ben Templesmith.

    And, in the context of fan relations, the convention offers less opportunity than you might expect. The SDCC has become as much a trade show as it is a fan expo, and while the upper half of a comics company cultivates business opportunities, the lower half struggles to keep its feet as it navigates roller-coaster logistics like selling books, hosting panels, coordinating signings, connecting with company creators, catching up with colleagues at other publishers—and, oh yes, shaking hands with fans all at the same time.

    A recurring meme on the reaction message boards to Ted’s comments is that the company owes it to fans who demonstrate their loyalty by spending money on IDW books every month. And, while every company is smart to value this kind of devotion rather than denigrate it, the fact is that this point of view is inherently counterintuitive:

    Presser with Darwyn Cooke at the IDW booth.

    Presser with Darwyn Cooke at the IDW booth.

    The company owes its fans great comic books in exchange for their money, not great handshakes. A company earns loyalty by delivering quality product, not delivering quality press conferences. A publisher rewards devotion by filling its pages with great stories, not by staffing a booth at a convention. And, when staffing the convention actually interferes with producing great comics, it doesn’t seem like such a complicated or controversial decision to choose one over the other.

    Or, to put it another way, consider: when books ship aggravatingly late, both the fans and retailers feel justifiably disrespected. But because of the publication cycle of comics, the books delayed by a major operation like the San Diego convention won’t hit the stands for several months. If IDW were to ship its entire line of October books in November, would the fans and retailers simply shrug, “That’s okay—they were at the San Diego Comic-Con back in July”?

    It’s an astute business assessment by Ted that recusing his company from the SDCC won’t have any measurable impact on goodwill with the fans. What Ted didn’t really discuss in detail, and what some seem to have overlooked completely in their peremptory complaints, is that IDW has already begun diminishing its convention presence throughout this entire year.

    Discounting industry trade shows—which really are business investments to attend–IDW officially appeared at only one major convention during the entire 2008 season: WonderCon, back in February, and that was likely because its convention pricing is integrated with the San Diego Comic-Con itself, which administers the convention up in San Francisco.

    For example, IDW had no formal presence at all this year at the exponentially expanding New York Comic Con, which by coincidence resembles what the San Diego convention used to be. I happened to be there myself, as an individual, since I was coincidentally in Manhattan visiting family that week. Everyone I ran into at the show asked where IDW was; and yet…nobody who was there, as far as I can tell, stopped buying their books over it.

    In fact, Marvel Comics, the industry’s largest company, opted out of the San Diego show literally for years, without any appreciable effect on its sales. It’s true that with Hollywood so ravenous for comics-related revenue nowadays that a major like Marvel or DC can no longer skip the convention; and much smaller publishers—too many to mention—really do get a boost in stature and profile by making their mark on the convention floor.

    But for a mid-range publisher like IDW, which can’t ameliorate the expense as easily as Marvel, or generate as much direct benefit as a small press operation enjoys from the exposure, it really does become an open question about whether attending is worth all of the time, effort, care and feeding.

    The San Diego Convention Center.

    The San Diego Convention Center.

    And yet… and yet…

    It’s the San Diego Comic Con. There’s a legendary quality about it that can’t easily be calculated. Derek Jeter doesn’t get any extra points on his batting average by taking swings at the All-Star Game—but there he is, every year. San Diego is, in every way, the Big Show, and for a notable comic book company—especially one based in San Diego—to simply skip it begins to border on the unthinkable.

    Even Ted himself, who built his company on taking risks, challenging the unthinkable and executing insightful decisions without regard for industry pressures, seemed reluctant to finally pull the trigger, framing his discussion in the context of raising the question without the certainty of conclusively answering it. He’s a comics fan as much as a business executive, and from Eclipse to Wildstorm to IDW, he’s been with the industry rodeo since back when it barely owned a horse.

    IDW Publishing, back in the day. Ted, standing.

    IDW Publishing, back in the day. Ted, standing.

    I don’t know if, as some have suggested, that Ted’s public airing of his concerns was his way of quietly echoing dissatisfaction with this year’s overall convention operation, respectful that organizers are likewise here in San Diego and have enjoyed a solid relationship with him for many years. The truth is, though, I really don’t think that’s the case.

    In my time at IDW, I never knew Ted to be anything but a straight- talker, up-front beyond any chance of it becoming a fault. If he says that IDW might not attend the show because he just can’t justify it as a business expense, then that’s what he’s really thinking about.

    And by raising that question publicly before actually making a decision, he’s looking to invite public discussion about something that most companies would never even have considered. He makes some attractively sensible points; in the time between this year’s convention and next, the industry and the SDCC would do well to consider how best to address them.

    In my much-more-insignificant view, however, I see such questions as an oblique reflection of the other concerns that have surfaced about the corporatization of the show. If the convention was really for the industry’s consumers, would it even be a question whether a publisher would staff a booth?

    But when the convention becomes just as much—if not moreso—about the big-ticket TV and film exhibitors, then a company like IDW will start to wonder whether it’s just as well to stay at home and focus on their funnybooks.

    Star Trek: EXCELSIOR!

    In my post a few days ago about DS9 comics, I hinted at another upcoming Star Trek miniseries planned by IDW–one featuring Captain Sulu, in command of the Excelsior. A number of people have asked me for details, so here’s just a bit more on what I think will be one of the best Trek titles of the year.

    First, let me say that I’ve always thought Sulu was the coolest cat in space. Yes, yes, I know–Kirk’s a maverick, Kirk’s a badass, Kirk nails all the green chicks, blah blah blah. It’s easy to act tough and get the girl when you sit in the big chair. But Sulu can whup your ass with a fencing sword. Sulu can fly attack choppers.  Sulu’s the Lando Calrissian of the Enterprise.

    the_last_generation_issue_4_cover

    Sulu and the Excelsior, from Star Trek: The Last Generation.

    So it should come as no surprise to the people who know me that I made Sulu a major character in The Last Generation, inspired by his awesome but all-too-brief appearance in the Star Trek VI film. There had been initial talks shortly after that movie (official? unofficial? who knows) of bringing TOS back to the small screen with a Sulu-Excelsior series, but alas those plans never came to pass. I think Takei would have rocked ass as a TV show captain.

    So, like the Star Trek Archives and a number of other projects (Alien Spotlight II, The Wrath of Khan adaptation, etc.), a Sulu-Excelsior series had been one that I kept waiting in the wings at IDW, but could never quite manage to get onto the schedule. Credit current Trek editor Scott Dunbier for finally green-lighting the project and giving Sulu his moment in the spotlight.

    It’s also a fairly elegant way for IDW to solve the problem of sustaining  the TOS brand at the same time that it exploits the nuTrek timeline popularized by the hit movie; it would likely have simply been too confusing to have Chris Pine running around as Kirk in one title and Shatner doing his Shatner in another, both at the same time. Publishing a TOS-era story with a major character commanding a familiar ship, and one the fans have been beating the drum to see, deftly sidesteps the Kirk question without appearing to shuffle the character off to the sidelines.

    Rich_Johnston

    Rich Johnston.

    Moreover, the Sulu storyline was one of the most popular facets of Last Generation–sales for the last three issues each went up from one issue to the next, which almost never happens for a miniseries–so I think it’s a project that’s going to chart particularly well.

    On the creative side, Scott has hired the exceptionally talented Rich Johnston to write the series. Rich has probably been best known as the Matt Drudge of the comics biz, through his controversial and popular industry news and rumor column “Lying in the Gutters”, and was even immortalized by IDW a few years back in a CSI miniseries by making him the victim of a murder set at a comic book convention. (OK, so, maybe “immortalized” is the wrong turn of phrase, but you get the idea.)

    Rich has since transformed his weekly column–at the time the longest-running of its kind on the Internets–into a full daily website of comics biz info, BleedingCool.com, and most recently authored the wicked satire Watchmensch, parodying both the recent film and the comics industry in general. (Ironically, IDW also published its own Watchmen parody at the same time. Rich’s, I have to acknowledge, was better.) Rich has also already written a new Dr. Who book for IDW, Room With A Deja View, on stands this month–so check it out if you’d like to see a sample of his SF-TV license writing.

    Forged_in_Fire

    One of the Excelsior novels from Pocket Books, by M & M.

    For Last Generation, I populated the Excelsior with a fairly exotic mix of characters, including Tuvok from Voyager, Rachel Garrett from the Enterprise-C and even Sulu’s grandson Hiromi, whose sole Star Trek existence until then had been a reference in the Voyager novel Pathways. Expect to see a different cast with faces more familiar in the new Excelsior series, such as Janice Rand, who served on Excelsior as communications officer by the time of her appearance in Trek VI and the Sulu-Voyager episode Flashback. (The old DC comics series placed Rand in the slot of Sulu’s first officer, but that likely won’t be the case with the IDW series.)

    It remains an open question whether the new series will make use of other characters like Chekov and Chapel–key characters in the Excelsior novels published by Pocket Books and written by Mike Martin and Andy Mangels–or whether the comics series intends to follow that continuity at all. As I mentioned previously in the DS9 post, IDW (quite correctly) looks first and foremost to follow its own creative path, so I wouldn’t be surprised if readers encounter a different take on the storyline.

    There’s no promotional artwork released yet for the new series, so let me leave you with perhaps the most ass-kicking Excelsior panel ever to be published in comics, from my Last Gen cohorts Gordon Purcell on pencils, inker Bob Almond and colors by Mario Boon. If this doesn’t get you excited for a Sulu-Excelsior title, then you need to reroute auxillary power to life support.

    Star Trek TNG Last Generation 01-12


    Related posts:

    SDCC 2008 Revisited II

    With the San Diego Comic-Con coming up July 22-26, I thought I’d revisit some of my previous posts about the show from last year–specifically, the problems that have surfaced since the industry’s seminal convention has transformed into a jovian mecca of all things pop culture. Convention organizers–which include some of my good friends here in San Diego–have labored all year to address some of the issues, so let’s see next week how things work out.


    SDCC: Fix You

    I’ve heard from a couple of friends who agreed with my assessment of the SDCC this year (and yeah, a few who didn’t), but one of them made the point that if I don’t offer solutions, then I’m really just part of the problem. True, that; so, as one of the 125,000 smartest people in the room last week, here’s a couple of suggestions on what to fix and how to fix it—all meticulously culled from my zero years of experience at running 125,000-person conventions.

    The hours-long wait in line at Hall H.

    The hours-long wait in line at Hall H.

    1. The panel attendance system has become scarily dysfunctional. People camping out in rooms all day, squatting through panels they don’t care about, while waiting for the one that they do; massive lines snaking from outside a door where a notice hangs that the room has hit capacity, while people can’t get into the panels that they came to the show to see…it’s all just the opposite of what the SDCC and its educational mission statement is supposed to be about.

    The convention needs a policy of clearing the rooms between panels—at least, for the ones that have a line waiting—which means probably shaving five or ten minutes off smaller events and adding fifteen minutes between larger ones, so that the RahXephon fans can empty out before the Sergio Aragones fans file in.

    Though it’s just my personal view—take it for what that is—I’d much rather lose five minutes off a panel, or lose one of the mega-panels each day, than not be able to get into them at all. After all: do we really need to sit through five extra minutes of questions about how I-love-your- work-so-much and don’t-you-remember-me-from-the-’92-show?

    Clydene Nee, with Artist Alley fave Wendy Pini.

    Clydene Nee, with Artist Alley fave Wendy Pini.

    2. Both Artists’ Alley and the dealer’s section of the convention floor need to be girded against gentrification by the massive movie/TV/video game megalopolises. Granted, and for sure, those booths draw tremendous crowds, but they also each plant a massive footprint on the show floor. Thanks to fire codes and the thickening crowds of recent years, the convention has been forced to widen the pedestrian aisles, meaning fewer booths overall and less real estate for mainstay traditional dealers.

    Artists’ Alley, meanwhile, has suffered through drastic amputation of its designated space. In 2007, my old IDW pal Clydene Nee, who coordinates Artist’s Alley for the convention, had no choice but to redact the number of tables by nearly a third as a consequence of various attendance concerns. This year managed to hold off the Persians without any losses, but unless organizers take specific action, the situation isn’t going to get any better by itself. As the saying goes, nobody’s going to be handing back land to the Indians.

    While it’s true that this would taper booth size for a few major exhibitors—or even the loss of one along the way—is that really such a major problem? Sure, those booths remain popular—probably a bit too much, for truth; but, when fans can’t meet their favorite creators, and creators can’t display and promote their work, and dealers can’t get space to sell their stock, all just so another video game company can hype its new releases… can you really call it a comic book convention anymore?

    Nope--not Woodstock.

    Nope--not Woodstock.

    3. Along those same lines: if the convention intends showcase the movie studio and video game acropolises—and, on balance, I believe it should—the convention floor requires a more sensible layout, mirroring the continuum of fan interests. I know it’s tempting to simply plant the big booths at the center like a palace at the heart of a European city; but that approach simply shoulders the peasants off into the fields.

    Artists’ Alley, where it has traditionally remained, currently resides in a back corner of the show floor. But with the acropolis complex anchored nearby, attracting their hives of fans, con-goers who want to wander the Alley have to persevere through the kind of human congestion usually reserved only for New York City rush hour subway platforms.

    The convention has succeeded beyond wildest expectations because it thoughtfully cultivated interests from all corners and capillaries of fandom; but it needs a floor plan that more sensibly exploits that diversity. Artists’ Alley should be within Batarang-reach of the Indie Pavilion; which should encourage an aqueduct of traffic to the dealer’s area; and so on. There remains a trace of this idea right now—probably a fading echo from the intent of many years lapsed—but it’s left the convention floor with irrational arrangements like locating the D&D tabletop RPG dealers next to the Xbox video game RPG exhibitors.

    4. Convention organizers have signaled for many years the eventuality of relocating to a larger venue, such in Anaheim or Los Angeles, to accommodate the escalating crowds (witness the decision to gradually molt the words “San Diego” from its name, toward re-branding the event as “Comic-Con International”). But I think this simply feeds the addiction of attendance, rather than treating the syndrome of it.

    Four-day pass-holders now receive access to Preview Night, and this year became so heavily attended that it resembled actual convention-proper days of years past; it’s clear that the convention can sustain the interest of another full day. The event’s accretion disc doesn’t need to ensnare more uncommitted fans, it needs to take the fans that it already has and then spread them out over more days.

    More aggressively targeted programming could attract different types on fans on different days, thinning the daily crowds to levels acceptable by human rights organizations without reducing the overall access to the show. The truth of it is that the convention has already become a week-long commitment for most fans, retailers and exhibitors; adding a day, with more targeted programming, would simply make all five of them run that much smoother.

    The Convention Center. Already big enough, yeah?

    The Convention Center. Already big enough, yeah?

    But what about the need for added dealer space? And Artists’ Alley tables? Didn’t you just grind your teeth about their rapidly diminishing real estate? Well, sure. But remember that the waves of crowds are part of what’s been eroding their coastlines, when organizers had to cut their space to widen the aisles and accommodate those crowds. Surely there exists some sort of balance in how to maximize the benefit for both of them.

    And yes, I am indeed aware that adding an extra day would raise the rent that the show pays for the convention center without increasing the revenue collected from a fixed amount of attendees. But with the Convention Center and the city economy faced with the prospect of losing the SDCC entirely, I can only imagine that some element of negotiation might be in the cards.

    5. And, finally, might I recommend that the convention agree to dedicate an entire day’s worth of programming to showcasing my work, projects and professional history. That’s guaranteed to empty the entire building for a couple of hours at the very least.

    STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE Comics!

    ds9logo

    Back when I edited Star Trek for IDW, I put together a proposal for a series of reprint collections that I called Star Trek Archives, culling the best stories from 40+ years of Trek comic books  and re-releasing them in a deluxe format. Most of the comics in the “Trek oevre” appeared prior to the current industry trend of omnibus editions, so most had never been republished, and entire series–like some great titles from the second Marvel run of “Paramount Comics”–were at risk of falling into total obscurity.

    I pitched an entire range of collections, not just “Best of Star Trek” but editions that focused on creators, characters, storylines and even villains. The project would also create the opportunity to collect special issues that had been scattered across the years, such as film adaptations, as well as dig through a few older, scandalously forgotten series to give them new life.

    Star_Trek_Archives_vol01_BestOfPeterDavidcvr_largeI had wanted to put more Trek books on the shelves to coincide with the new film–the reason the Archives began appearing near the end of 2008, to coincide with the movie’s original December release date–but it would also let us tip our hats to some of the marquee Trek creators whose work had appeared throughout the years; such as fan-favorite Peter David, writer/creator of the Fallen Angel series I edited for IDW, and John Byrne, whom IDW recruited to do the first-ever Trek series of his long, iconic career after he tested the waters in the Alien Spotlight series.

    And so, in October 2008, fans began seeing Archive editions like The Best of Peter David, with stories that Peter and I hand-picked from his DC Comics run, as well as The Best of Gary Seven, to go along with  Byrne’s IDW series showcasing the character, which would see its own collected volume hitting the stands at around the same time. Readers also received The Best of the Borg–a favorite of mine, obviously–collecting both Marvel and DC issues but which had the good fortune to feature cover art from the Borg Alien Spotlight I had written for IDW.

    Star_Trek_Archives_vol02_BestOfTheBorg_largeSome of the collections I developed for the Archives series eventually became the roster for the spinoff Omnibus line that IDW now publishes, including the entire reprinted run of the gloriously bizarre first Marvel series, along with its later Star Trek: Early Voyages title that recounted some exceptionally well-crafted tales of Captain Pike. It also included a Trek Movie collection, to feature a new Wrath of Kahn adaptation that Risa Kessler of Paramount and I had conspired to schedule for quite some time as the only TOS film–thanks to a quirk in Trek licensing history–that never received proper comics treatment.

    The_Last_Generation_issue_4_variant_cover

    Last Generation #4, by Gordon Purcell, which featured Sulu in command of the Excelsior.

    It’s been tremendously gratifying to watch those projects come to pass, first under my successor Andy Schmidt and now with the talented leadership of Scott Dunbier, along with other projects I originally developed plans for at IDW, such as the second Alien Spotlight series showcasing the Klingons, Tribbles and the Q, or the upcoming Captain Sulu miniseries, featuring his command of the Excelsior. (Did I just mention a new Sulu-Excelsior series to be published by IDW? Why, yes I did…)

    But though these are good reasons one and all to launch the Star Trek Archives, even that conceals my true motive for the project, and for recruiting my already busy IDW cohort Clydene Nee (of San Diego Comic-Con fame) to help me out. The true reason that I conceived, pitched, negotiated and developed the entire Archives project is:

    I wanted to publish Deep Space Nine.

    The problem with DS9 has always been that, as has been widely discussed, IDW’s initial Trek license covered only TOS and TNG, with simply an option to pick up ancillary series like DS9, Voyager or Enterprise. And, just like with the TV ratings, comic sales for spinoff series have always been the bastard stepchild of the flagship franchises. So the question becomes: If you have only a handful of Trek titles available on the schedule, will you slot them with Kirk and Picard, or with Sisko and Kira, when you know one is likely to make reliably less money than the others?

    But, again, like the TV show, DS9 has nothing if not an insanely dedicated and loyal following, and was easily the most consistently, heavily-requested Trek franchise among IDW’s readers whenever we’d ask what they wanted next. If I could test the waters for a DS9 series–some way to gauge fan support, without a full commitment to the schedule and the license–I’d find out if we could still make the Deep Space Nine numbers work.

    ST-Archives-Vol4new-cvrAnd thus: Star Trek Archives: The Best of DS9.

    I had known the guys from Malibu Comics, the original DS9 publisher, from way, way back in the day, when I worked as a founding writer for Wizard Magazine, and I thought they had produced some great DS9 stuff–it had even featured art by Gordon Purcell, now one of my artists on Trek at IDW, and who would go on to pencil my series Star Trek: The Last Generation. It also featured standout scripts by Mike W. Barr, who had written Trek for virtually every publisher to hold the license (minus the early Gold Key), and who I had met back during his Ultraverse days.

    All of which represents an extremely lengthy and self-indulgent preamble to the news that, after years of discussion and massive fan requests–dating back to the days of my predecessor Dan Taylor in the Trek editor’s seat–it looks like IDW will now finally pick up the Deep Space Nine license.

    Keep in mind, however, that like all projects not yet officially announced, this could all be the result of inside information gone frighteningly haywire, that there are infinite possible outcomes in an infinite universe, and as the saying goes, it’s not canon until it’s canon.

    idw_logo2But, take note, IDW has played it extremely close to the vest about its upcoming  Trek lineup, apart from a nuTrek movie tie-in slot, the finale of John Byrne’s Romulans saga and an occasional Alien Spotlight one-shot scattered sporadically across the schedule. The runaway success of the film has propelled Trek back into the pop culture stratosphere, and IDW will be coordinating its upcoming schedule to reflect that.

    I can’t say whether the DS9 Archives played a decisive role in this development, or if it’s simply the fact that the nuTrek franchise has momentarily sidelines Shatner-era TOS titles; perhaps a combination of the two, along with IDW’s longstanding posture of soliciting reader input and being responsive to what fans want. In that respect, it’s got one of the best reputations in the business.

    So, what shape will new DS9 comics ultimately take? I’m speaking now from personal experience as the Trek editor and my years in the comics biz, and not from any additional inside info; but I would speculate that they will not interface with the DS9 Relaunch novels from Pocket Books. IDW has always been quite independent in its Trek storytelling, and I would expect that it will pursue its own creative path without the obligation to proactively incorporate the prose-novel efforts.

    Avatar,_Book_One_coverIDW will probably do what it can to avoid actively contradicting such stories, but keep in mind that both producing comics and novels remains acutely work-intensive, and it’s difficult enough already to keep in mind 168 episodes of the TV series, let alone what happens on every page of every novel that Pocket Books has ever published. Add to that the fact that Senior Editor Marco Palmieri has been laid off from Pocket without replacement and Paramount recently lost the encyclopaedic knowledge of  Trek guru Paula Block, and you can start to imagine the difficulties involved.

    That said, it seems unlikely that IDW would examine the post-TV era anyway–major characters exited for parts unknown during the series finale, and it would be counterintuitive for IDW to pay license for those characters,  only to not make use of them; moreover, Pocket has already re-examined their fates, so retreading such recently familiar ground would only invite unnecessary comparison.

    Instead, what you’ll probably see, much as IDW has done for TOS and TNG, are stories set during the arc of the TV show; perhaps the Dominion War–by far and away DS9’s most popular contribution to Trek lore–and, more specifically, stories that feature Worf’s presence on the station, since that would allow IDW to integrally market a major TNG character and remedy concerns that a DS9 series might not sell as well.

    comiconIDW will most likely unveil its DS9 plans at the San Diego Comic-Con next week–so, if the universe unfolds as it should, you would begin seeing new DS9 comics by either the end of this year or early 2010. I’m led to believe that a writer has already been hired, with an interior artist to follow shortly (if not already); and, if it is indeed slated for a Comic-Con announcement, then promotional artwork will already have been produced, so we may see the first new DS9 images even before the end of this month.

    I’ve moved up and on to other companies and projects since IDW, but even still, it’s the one announcement I’m going to be paying closest attention to at the show next week.

    Now about that Sulu series…


    Related posts:

    SDCC 2008 Revisited I

    With the San Diego Comic-Con coming up July 22-26, I thought I’d revisit some of my previous posts about the show from last year–specifically, the problems that have surfaced since the industry’s seminal convention has transformed into a jovian mecca of all things pop culture. Convention organizers–which include some of my good friends here in San Diego–have labored all year to address some of the issues, so let’s see next week how things work out.


    [rant] San Diego Comic-Con [/rant]

    My first San Diego convention: 1991. It’s what convinced me to move to San Diego the first time. Well, not the convention specifically, but it’s why I took a trip to San Diego—and once here, no, you don’t want to leave.

    The convention itself was easily the best time I ever had at a comic-con—interesting panels, an army of dealers, creators at company booths free to talk and sign and generally make you feel great about being a geek.

    So, what the hell happened?

    The truth is: We did.

    The Comic-Con this year: a madhouse. 125,000 sold-out tickets, all pre-show. Giant, sprawling, Acropolis-like movie studio pavilions, regarding each attendee as a walking future movie ticket. Floor aisles so packed that you had to plan a strategy for navigating a bathroom trip.

    Actual comic book dealers? Shunted off to the side. Artist Alley? Crammed in the corner behind the film studio Acropolis, like a snarl of rush-hour traffic between you and your favorite comic book shop.

    Small picture, big crowd.

    Small picture, big crowd.

    Massive crowds at booths waiting for autographs. Panels with hours-long lines snaking through the halls, so distant that people near the back had no idea the room was already full. (In fact, it had hit capacity several panels earlier; squatters would Twitter and text their way through panels on Alex Toth or whatever just so that they could have a seat for Naruto three hours later—which, of course, kept the Toth fans stranded in the hall.)

    Even those crack-of-dawners who trudged bleary-eyed to the Convention Center hours early for a morning panel found themselves staring at a line of dead-of-nighters who had camped out on the concrete—ambivalent to the fact that they had actually paid for hotel rooms (and showers).

    Even Preview Night, once reserved for con-going professionals, opened its doors this year to four-day pass-holders, inspiring crowds that seemed larger than the actual convention days I first attended back in ’91.

    Okay, enough of the familiar complaints. Anyone who was there, you’ve heard them already. For four days straight.

    But here’s one complaint that I never thought I’d have:

    This was the first year when, God damn it, I didn’t have any fun. The convention, overall, had become just one long, unfolding hassle.

    And, as I said: It’s all our fault.

    For years, as comics fans, we wanted legitimacy from the mainstream media. We wanted out of the ghetto. We wanted to be regarded as a respected form of entertainment. We wanted Hollywood to take notice.

    And, now, it has.

    Batman: The Dark Knight is ass-kicking its way through all sales records. Iron Man scored a massive box office. Wanted far outstripped expectations. (Did most people even know it was a comic?) And even the Hulk and Hellboy II, despite less spectacular earnings than Tony Stark and Bruce Wayne (billionaires, what do you expect), still delivered blockbuster numbers at the box office.

    The Watchmen trailer alone, stitched to the Batman film, moved 200,000 new units of the graphic novel in just two weeks. And that’s only for this year—and not counting other genre films that cater to fan interest.

    Movin' On Up.

    So, we wanted out of the small town. We wanted life in the big city. We wanted to Move On Up. And, now that we’re there up in the big leagues, in a big- de-luxe-apartment-in-the- sky-hy-with-our-fish-not-frying- in-the-kitchen… well, we can’t stand the noise, or the crowds, or the fact that we can’t ever find a good goddamn parking spot.

    (Well, OK, we did find one: Preview Night, top of the auxiliary parking deck, 90 minutes to get out after the show closed.)

    It reminds me of the early days of the Internet, when just by chance I happened to be one of those cyberchists with a modem and a laptop (1.2K baud—rocking the bandwidth). I was subscribed to an online service featuring various interest groups, like comics, SF, and D&D. The early days of online communities, and you actually got to know the people you would BB with, to the point that some of them are still among my closest friends today.

    Creators as well: Gaiman was there, PAD was there, Richard Pini as well as people who had no major professional credits at the time but would later become well-known among comics or SF fans like Keith DeCandido. It even led to some of my earliest professional genre credits with TSR and Wizard.

    And among the fans, we all wanted people to take notice. So that roommates wouldn’t wonder what the hell we were doing on the computer all the time. (No, not porn—this was before the days of jpegs.) So that our girlfriends wouldn’t wonder why we needed a hotel room where the phone had a jack you could disconnect. (Yes, some of us had girlfriends.) But most importantly, so that people could see what an awesomely good time you could have communicating with other people from the four corners of the Earth.

    Not Alan Moore.

    Footprint culprit: Not Alan Moore.

    And then, of course, people found out. And, suddenly, you had douchebags and trolls and spammers and junk mail and Anna Kournikova viruses and grandparents who would email you that frikkin’ story about the footprints on the beach for the 500th time. (Yes, Gram, I get it: It was Jesus.)

    And, just as suddenly, you couldn’t really hang out anymore and just chill with your friends and pretty much know everybody who might swing by. There’s a reason that a secret clubhouse is supposed to be secret— but we had talked about Fight Club too much, and finally fucked it up for good.

    I went to the Comic-Con every year that I lived in San Diego, and most years that I lived up in L.A., before finally moving to Europe in 2001. I watched it grow every year, excited at all the new attention it started to receive, like a douchebag myself at not seeing where all of it was heading. But, I suppose, nobody could really have predicted it would go this far. That it would get this big, that things would go this bad. Which, when it does, is how it always is.

    I do have faith, however, that things won’t stay this bad. Maybe the movie execs, having gnawed the bones clean of every comics option possible, will flap over to video game conventions or some other darkened corner of Hell. Maybe film studios will realize that screening four minutes of shitty Spirit footage will not make fans line up at the box office the way that they lined up at the convention panel, even with Frank Miller’s name at the top.

    Maybe comics fans will rise up and stand their ground against the invading army of gamers and anime cosplayers and washed up old TV actors looking to sell autographed pictures from their two seasons on Facts of Life for $20 apiece, but who have never heard of Alex Toth or Wanted or Wizard.

    300 was a comic book before it was a movie, my friend: This is Sparta, and we want our convention back.

    LAST GENERATION Original Artwork for sale!

    last-generation-logoHeya! Just wanted to post a note that my buddy and inker extraordinaire, Bob Almond, whose work made Star Trek: The Last Generation look so incredibly polished, has put original artwork pages up for sale online for the entire miniseries.

    almond_bob

    Bob Almond

    If you’re a collector of original comic book art, or just want a cool-as-Kahn Star Trek collectible, you should definitely check it out. Bob makes regular convention appearances where you can pick up his Last Gen pages and stuff from other titles  (Marvel Comics, etc.), but a number of spankin’ pages from the Trek series have already sold, so you might want to look into it now before all the best ones are gone.

    Bob’s so notable in the industry that he runs the Inkwell Awards (the comics biz’s premiere awards for inking work), so I was incredibly lucky to have him rock my world on The Last Generation. He’s also about as nice a guy as you’re likely to meet, so if you do run into him at a show, chat him up and he’ll tell you a couple of cool stories.

    There are a number of great pieces still up for grabs, but I’ve reproduced a few of my favorites from the series below. Click on the link above to go to the Comic Art House site, which handles sale of Bob’s work.

    STTLG0020405-col

    STTLG00106-col

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    STTLG00318-col

    STTLG00502-3-col

    STAR TREK: THE LAST GENERATION collection out now!

    last-generation-logoJust wanted to make quick mention that the collected edition of Star Trek: The Last Generation hits the stores today! The individual issues sold out in a lot of locations, so if you missed a chapter or just want to have a cool ominibus edition of the entire story, you can pick it up now. It was written to be a single continuous story arc, so reading it in one sitting is definitely the way to go.

    Let me take the opportunity to give a special shout-out to Gordon Purcell, who turned in some devastatingly awesome art for the series, along with his inking cohorts Bob Almond and Terry Pallot and colorist Mario Boon.

    The collected edition also features the entire cover gallery for the series, including works by X-Factor veteran Pablo Raimondi, G.I. Joe penciller Robert Atkins, colorist John Hunt, cover artist extraordinaire Joe Corroney, stunning painted illustrations from my pal J.K. Woodward and even piece from Gordon himself.

    You’ll also find the X-Men #141 tribute cover that J.K. delivered for the first issue’s limited edition, as well as Nick Runge’s cool-as-hell homage to the movie poster for Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, on which events from the series are based.

    You can of course find it at your favorite Friendly Neighborhood Comics Shop, but it’s also on the shelves in bookstores around the country as well as online from Amazon.

    STAR TREK: THE LAST GENERATION Collected Edition.

    STAR TREK: THE LAST GENERATION Collected Edition.