PUT A LITTLE JIMMY IN YOUR SACK FOR THE HOLIDAYS
by Jimmy Palmiotti
(Photo by Seth Kushner)

This is going to be the place I come to ramble on and on about everything and anything going down around casa Palmiotti. As you all probably know, I can be a shameless self-promoter…you really have to be these days. My attitude with the books I work on is no one cares for them more than me [except for Justin and Amanda], so I have to go out and make some noise now and again…which leads us to this blog. By the time you finish reading this, some part of you will feel violated, and I apologize for that in advance. I personally don’t think my day-to-day activities are all that interesting. Example:

[Today Amanda and I worked on Power Girl, I went to the comic store and bought a Hellboy comic, had some lunch with Brandon Peterson, met with the roofers and talked about what needs to be done to the frame because of the new roof they put on. Worked some more, pulled some oranges from my tree in the back yard and ate one, got a call from a neighbor that said her husbands kidney transplant went well so far, went to dinner with a friend and her brother, came back, watched 30 rock and then got to work on this. See? ]

So what the plan is here is to hit you with highlights, ideas and strange stuff now and again that will make your few minutes reading this more interesting.

So, first up some gift suggestions that make my holiday better, AKA as shameless promotion.

JONAH HEX TRADE BOOKS.

These make great gifts for anyone in your family that thinks comics are for kids, likes westerns, used to read Jonah Hex in the 70’s but since then has grown up, gotten married and had 4 kids and thinks they have no time for this kind of crap in their lives and last, for anyone that might read comics but never has given the book a try. I recommend you hustle down to your local comic shop and pick some up. If they don’t have them or can’t order in time, I also know they are available on amazon.com…but honestly, I would much rather you support the local guys on this.

Ps: No D.C. Continuity needed here. Just pick them up and read. And for all those people worrying that the book will be cancelled, keep worrying. Every single sale matters at this point.

DEADSPACE: DOWNFALL
This is a 74 minute animated film that Justin gray and I wrote the screenplay to that is the prequel to the E.A.games release Deadspace. Honestly, it looks great, is probably the single most violent thing ever and has a main character that resembles painkiller jane and it stands alone as a film…you really don’t have to know anything about the game. Yeah, we wrote it that way because …well…not everyone plays videogames. I cant say the same…I got 3 different platforms in my living room as we speak. Anyway, it’s a great gift and even looks better on blu-ray. There are some jaw dropping moments in there…and some cool extras on the disc as well. Available on Amazon and a number of other places.

MORTAL KOMBAT VS THE D.C.U

Justin and I wrote this game with the Midway crew and made sure to make it the most fun humanly possible, so please give it a shot. There is nothing more fun than playing as your favorite DC characters…or Mortal Kombat characters and there is a pretty cool story spine that exists to keep you busy for a while. A friend of mine bought this game because he hates Superman, so all he does is play the characters and have them kick Superman’s ass. Hey, I could give a shit what you do; all I know is that it’s entertaining and at my house we have created a drinking game that goes with it. Don’t ask…just play.

PUNISHER OMNIBUS

I highly recommend this brick of Garth Ennis joy. Included between the covers are 1,136 pages of classic comics by the best Punisher writer ever. I personally had the pleasure of inking Steve Dillon on over a dozen of the stories in there and even got to write the introduction. When I look at this book, I think about all the fun Joe and I had at Marvel Knights and how I became great friends with Steve and Garth since. Highly recommended for anyone who enjoys life and wants to kill others that gets in their way. Did I mention it weighs seven and a half pounds?

ASSORTED STUFF: I got a play station 3 and with it, the chance to check out some fliks on Blu-ray. Being the Italian I am, I got the Godfather collection, which has been re-mastered, and it looks great. O.k., the first two do…as long as I live, the third movie will probably not make it into the player. I also picked up The Fifth Element, which looks amazing. I am a big Luc Besson fan, so it was a must have. That said…

Saw Transporter 3. It was not good. It moved, but it was the weakest of the three and there really is no reason to run to see this. It just had too much jump cut action that didn’t fit together at all. That said, I also saw TAKEN, also produced by Luc Besson, and it got my vote for the best Punisher movie not featuring the Punisher ever. Trust me, it’s a simple and brilliantly executed film about a girl that is kidnapped in France and the father that goes after the kidnappers. Remember the cool scene where Mel Gibson turns the tables on the kidnappers in Ransom? O.k., now imagine that scene, add a dozen deaths and guns and times it by 20. Yeah…it’s that good.

STORE SIGNING
Phil Noto and I will be doing a 1 hour signing at GOLDEN APPLE COMICS in Los Angeles from 5 to 6 pm on Wednesday the 10th . Phil is in town for his art show and I am in town to get tossed around like a ping -pong ball between studios and producers and to really just meet up with some old friends. We figured it would be a fun thing to do and we love the leibowitz family. Come by if you are in the area and say hi…should be a fun time and I know a few special guests are going to come by.

PET PEEVE: A lot of press is spent on directors talking about how they would like to direct certain comic book movies…well; I got advice to these directors. When you want a gig that involves a property that has been around since, well, the one I am thinking about, the 70’s, try not to go public with the knowledge that you want to “direct it” but you have no idea what the character is about. It just makes you look like you really are not interested. Honestly, when I get offered the chance at working on something that I know nothing about, I have this thing called the internet that I go to and do some research, even buy some books about it so when I am asked to speak about it, I can come off as educated to the people that are fans of the property and the producers that are going to maybe decide whether to hire you or not. At least fake some respect before you make noise about it. I will never understand how anyone thinks its cool to tell the press that “I never read the comic” or “I knew nothing about the character” Guess what folks, it’s not cool and you come off as uniformed and push the real fans away. It’s why people loved Kevin Smith and it’s why I had all the respect for Kristanna Loken on Painkiller Jane when she told me she went out and picked up all the comics before taking on the part. Live and learn already that the so-called “geeks” are deciding what’s being made in Hollywood these days.

First rule of cool: if you are worried about appearing cool… guess what? You have never been.

COMIC STORE IN BROOKLYN.
I once in a while shop in a comic store called Brooklyn Monster Factory. Small and very cool shop located in the park slope section. They have been great to all the customers and, well, they asked me if I could lend a hand to send some business their way. Here is a letter from the two brothers that own the shop and I am reprinting it to maybe inspire the locals to drop by and show some love.

First of all we would like to thank all of those reading this that shop @ and support our store. We appreciate it very much and we are glad to bring you your comics each week. That being said, however, the BMF is in some bad shape and has been for some time. Our lease is up at the end of January ‘09 and as of now, it is pretty doubtful that we will be able to renew it. Hard times have hit the USA indeed and if someone needs to cut back on something, comic books, toys, t-shirts and DVDs are probably the first thing to go. We would absolutely hate to close the store we love so much, opening it has been a dream come true for my brother and I and we have put a lot of work into it. So please, if you can, come in and support our shop as soon as you can.

Thanks again and we hope to see you soon.

BROOKLYN MONSTER FACTORY
493 7th AVE

I have to say that a lot of stores are feeling it of late, that’s why all my holiday shopping is going to be done in comic stores this year. I’ll keep my holiday shoplifting to Wal-Mart.

BROKEN CAN BE FIXED.
And last…nothing to do with comics, but more to do with my house. In the past 6 months, I have put a completely new roof on it. Cost a fortune, but it was needed because of some major leaks. Speaking of leaks, my bathroom toilet bowl had a slow leak that, given the right amount of time, took out the ceiling below and dropped it on my car. Well, Amanda got to design a new bathroom out of it. Honestly…I got to cool down with the spending on home repairs. That all said, twice a year we have heating and air conditioner guys come in and check the system. Yesterday they came in, told me that the Freon was low in my system and that I might have a leak. I asked them if they could fix the leak and all they did is try to sell me a brand new system for the next 45 minutes that cost around 5 grand. Again, after the sales pitch I asked them if they could fix the leak and they gave me a song and dance and I asked them to leave. Bottom line, I will never call this company again for the rest of my life, and they lost a customer, and even worse, my recommending them to anyone. The thing is working fine and I am going to get someone to check the hose for a leak next week. It’s just insane these days that no one fixes anything anymore. This disposable society needs to take a break and use what it has before tossing it aside for something new. This goes for cars, anything mechanical, clothing and especially people.

I do believe it’s not my fault the automakers are losing money and need billions to stay in business…so why do I have to pay for it? Really…take that money, bring some industry that makes sense and is not obsolete back to the states and spend a fraction of that money on the poor people that work for these greedy companies. I know there is so much more to all of this…but it’s got to stop. Maybe they can all get jobs making bicycles? Anyway, that’s why I am going to simply fix my heater, not replace it and wait out its demise.

Ok…talk soon.

JIMMY PALMIOTTI

Come on, you know Jimmy Palmiotti!  A writer, inker, and editor with an armada of credits to his name, Jimmy presently co-writes Jonah Hex with Justin Gray and will be working on Power Girl with Amanda Conner.  All three of them worked on the new Terra mini for DC Comics; issue #3 just hit the stands last week.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 8th, 2008 at 10:00 am and is filed under Creators, Listen to Jimmy Palmiotti, News & Views. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.