…boldly going forward, ’cause we can’t find reverse.
Okay, I’m referencing a cult 1987 single by “The Firm” there, so if you have no idea what I’m on about, please feel free to ignore me. Or else go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCARADb9asE and have a pleasant if mildly hallucinogenic experience.
In the meantime, this is me. Mike Carey. And I’ll be your guest blogger for the next three Fridays, bringing you chat, news, pop quizzes and blatant viral advertising in a myriad (from the Greek : “more than two”) shades and varieties while you click at random hoping to find the reviews thread.
For those of you who don’t know me from a smoking crater, I’m a writer. Of comic books mostly, but I’ve also written some novels (my first supernatural thriller, The Devil You Know, gets its US release on 10th July) and screenplays. It was the Vertigo fantasy series Lucifer that gave me my mainstream debut about ten years ago, and more recently I started to write X-Men, which caused a lot of people to move me from the “smoking crater” folder into the “could be a comics writer – check discreetly while maintaining eye contact” folder.
Right now I’m a driven man, writing X-Men and Ultimate Fantastic Four for Marvel, Crossing Midnight for Vertigo and Voodoo Child for Virgin. I’ve also got two books coming out for DC’s new Minx imprint – Re-Gifters and Confessions of a Blabbermouth – along with the Ultimate Vision miniseries and the aforementioned novel. I keep busy, basically: neurosis is my friend. When I’m not writing, I’m checking my watch and flexing my fingers in rhythmical typing motions.
I think it was the Minx books more than anything else that got me this guest blogging spot. DC are very keen to spread the good news on their new OGN line, which is no surprise given that they’ve got the likes of Cecil Castellucci, Andi Watson and Aaron Alexovich writing for it. (Oh, and my fifteen-year-old daughter, but that’s another story that we’ll get to later.) So they called up JK Parkin at Newsarama, reminded him about certain pictures and a place where some bodies are buried, and a gold-edged invitation arrived in due course.
So the idea, as I understand it, is that I sit here and say nice things about my publishers, my editors, my artists and the global eco-system.
Or we could play stupid games.
Next up, this week’s caption competition…
June 15th, 2007 at 8:44 am
Welcome aboard, Mike.
Nothing in comics I’m looking forward to right now more than X-Men 200. And not a whole lot in new hardcovers coming out this summer I’m more interested in than The Devil You Know. I ALMOST got it off of amazon.uk but I held off.
I have no idea how you manage to be so prolific and cover such a broad range of material, but hey, I’m glad you do.
June 15th, 2007 at 9:06 am
Mike, I don’t know if you know much about librarians and library review journals, but Re-Gifters just received a starred review in Booklist, the review journal for American Library Association. I didn’t write that review, but one of my friends, longtime comics fan/teen librarian Francisca Goldsmith (in Berkeley, CA) wrote it. Getting a starred review in Booklist is an amazing thing. A graphic novel getting a starred review in Booklist is extremely rare. She loved it. So do I. It’s a quintessential YA story with lots of heart, some angst, martial arts action, and a little romance – just about perfect. And the combo of your writing and Derek Kirk Kim’s art is wonderful.
June 15th, 2007 at 9:55 am
Thanks, Matt. The army of robot duplicates helps a lot. Well, that and the fact that I’m not good at sitting still.
Kat, that’s very cool – thanks for letting me know, and please thank Francisca from me too. Re-Gifters sits right up there with My Faith in Frankie as one of the things I’m proudest of having written.
June 15th, 2007 at 12:38 pm
I thought you meant the Jimmy Page Firm and was shocked!
June 15th, 2007 at 1:19 pm
No, this Firm was basically just a music producer and a bunch of his mates. But I’m still fond of Star-Trekkin’. I like the way it melts down at the end and you hear McCoy say “It’s worse than that, it’s physics, Jim…”