Find out more about Global Freezing here on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays or at ComicsByEgg.com.

When a knock down fight between Wonder Woman and Giganta suddenly shifts into a pair of women engaged in girl talk about dating and having brunch, that tends to put a smile on your face and makes you want to read more. That’s what Gail Simone’s writing will do to you. She is one of those special writers, like Grant Morrison, who, at their best, take super-heroes as the jumping off point for something unexpected and fun. If only Megan Fox were to read what’s going on with Wonder Woman lately, she might not think she’s so lame.

Let’s take a look at a true flash point in comics: Gail Simone taking over the writing helm of Wonder Woman. It has been and remains an excellent run. This is a particularly good time to start reading Wonder Woman during Simone’s historic take on the mighty Amazon. I jumped into the last story arc, “The War Killers,” and it took a little adjusting to all the Greek mythos but thanks to Simone’s pacing and the eye-popping art of Aaron Lopresti and Matt Ryan, I got hooked. Given that Simone has been writing this title since 2007, I was impressed with how the story still feels fresh. And then to go back and read the opening arc, “The Circle,” I was pleased to find the starting points of an epic saga.

I think that’s the best way to put it: a sweeping epic saga. When Simone took over as writer at Issue Fourteen, people took notice, including The New York Times. The hook may have been that we were finally getting an ongoing woman writer for Wonder Woman but it was also simply the fact that is was Gail Simone. Like, say, Joss Whedon, fans could rely on Simone for distinctive character-driven stories. It’s interesting to note the struggle that Whedon had in attempting to script a viable Wonder Woman movie. It seemed to him that there simply wasn’t much there to work with. Apparently, Simone found what worked but then went about forging new ground.

Simone was willing to get her hands dirty and till the very soil of Diana’s origins which had been left undeveloped. Since all the Amazon women on Paradise Island have foresaken men, they have also foresaken ever experiencing the birth of new Amazons from within their own ranks. They all feel a maternal instinct but resist it. Until, one day, the queen, Hippolyta, creates a child, Diana, from clay and magic. Allowing this “dragon” to trespass this Garden of Eden, sets off a fanatical backlash putting the lives of Hippolyta and Diana in danger. But, most importantly, for the long term, it anchors Diana’s indentity and gives readers and future writers more to work with.

Wonder Woman is a woman to be reckoned with. Mercedes Lackey expresses that eloquently in her introduction to Wonder Woman: The Circle. She points out that, since the Greeks, there’s always been a fascination and fear of the Powerful Woman. That goes a long way in explaining why writers have steadily marginalized Wonder Woman over the last sixty years. I think it’s safe to say that Wonder Woman, as powerful and iconic a figure as Batman and Superman, had not been working up to her potential. Much like Spider-Man, even more so, Wonder Woman was in bad need of a relaunch. That effort was underway starting with the question, “Who is Wonder Woman?” and ended with a botched attempt to answer it. And along came Gail Simone and she has been making things so much better, probably paving the way for an awesome Wonder Woman movie someday.

Wonder Woman is a case of Simone pumping fresh blood into characters and stories just like she’s done with Birds of Prey and Secret Six. If Wonder Woman is capable of taking down whole armies, then Simone figures she can handle the complexities of a sexual relationship. Wonder Woman can also reason as well as she can fight and turn a whole pack of raging gorillas into her own personal entourage. And, with the lasso of truth, she can turn the most evil Nazi into a crying child.

When the time comes, if the rumors of his taking over are true, Grant Morrison will be inheriting a revitalized and relevant Wonder Woman. It looks like that will be happening once Wonder Woman gets renumbered to #600 and a new kick off is set in motion. For now, enjoy what remains of Simone’s run. Wonder Woman #40 starts a new arc, “The Crows,” and comes out January 27. And if you need a pitch for Wonder Woman, then these now famous lines by Gail Simone will serve that purpose: “When you need to stop an asteroid, you get Superman. When you need to solve a mystery, you call Batman. But when you need to end a war, you get Wonder Woman.”

“While only two graphic novel publishers, Viz and Boom! Studios, had stand-alone booths, almost every major publisher featured graphic novels prominently in their display…”: Brigid Alverson attended an American Library Association show, and wandered around checking out the comics for kids offerings. Sons of Liberty, which Alverson says is set just before the American revolution and features “two runaway slaves with ninja-like powers” sounds interesting.

“After all, through their collective electronic whining and nagging, the fangirls have earned those very books”: Writing for Comics Waiting Room, Vincent S. Moore decries the lack of black super-characters in Big Two comics at the moment, and suggests that perhaps the recent attention given to comics featuring superheroines and/or created by women are coming at the expense of comics featuring black men.  I’m sure the same fangirls he mentions whining and nagging will fact check and fight back against his column in the days to come, so I won’t bother doing so here (The statement that “the number of books featuring lead characters of color is zero” is demonstrably untrue though). It is true that both Marvel and DC have a lot of great black super-characters that they could be putting to better use (Surely a Black Lightning or Steel monthly wouldn’t make any less sense than a Magog one, or an Icon/Static any less sense than a The Web/Hangman one, for example).

“This is a VERY GOOD Image comic about orcs and stealing and penises and conquest”: Jog recently reviewed some recent comics for The Savage Critics, including James Stokoe’s new Image series Orc Stain #1. It’s a dynamite review of a dynamite comic, and well worth a look if you haven’t sampled the book for yourself yet (or if, like me, you struggled to try and capture what you liked about it so much in writing, and felt you fell short).

This needs to stop: Among the April-shipping comics DC announced yesterday is an 80-page collection of Blackest Night background material that they’ve decided to entitle Blackest Night: Director’s Cut, despite the fact that there is no “director,” it’s not a different “cut” of the Blackest Night (in fact, it doesn’t even sound like it’s comics) and is therefore in no way even metaphorically comparable to the director’s cut of a film. Come on DC, just because Marvel does something stupid doesn’t mean you have to do it too! You’re far too old to succumb to peer pressure like this.

The business of selling content rather than Cracker Jack prizes: Last Thursday, Marvel editor Tom Brevoort defended his company’s crazy we’ll-take-returns-from-retailers-but-only-if-they’re-our-competitor’s-books-and-we’ll-pay-you-in-a-variant scheme on Twitter, noting that “we’re in the business of selling content rather than Cracker Jack prizes.” It was an odd statement given that Marvel’s plan was to respond to a perceived glut of comics purchased just to get Cracker Jack prizes by offering not content, but one more variant cover (Variant covers usually being, like the plastic Lantern rings, things retailers need to order a certain number of comics in order to get). Yesterday Marvel released their solicitations for their April books. Because that content vs. Cracker Jack statement was still rattling around my skull, I got out a pen and some paper and made some hash marks. Unless I miscounted (which is rather likely), Marvel is publishing 43 comics with at least one varaint cover of some kind in April. Twenty-one of those are “Iron Man by Design” variants. Siege #4 will have four different variants (for five covers total), and both Ultimate Comics Avengers 2 #1 and Invincible Iron Man #25 will have three variants, one of which will be a “Foilogram” variant. Hmm… Foilogram. Sounds like something you might find in a box of…well, you know where I’m going with this.

Remember back when it seemed like Stan Lee was the only person “presenting” comics stories? This week’s New Comic Day releases features all sorts of people “presenting” comics. Bluewater Production, the publisher most famous for celebrity bio comics, will have William Shatner Presents Tek War #5, Vincent Price Presents #14 and Roger Corman Presents Black Scorpion #2 on shelves this week.

What are some of the other publishers presenting for your possible consumption? Let’s take a look, after the jump.

(more…)

If you like what you’ve read so far (c’mon, how can you not?) totally check out more super cute comics at:www.sosuperduper.com!

(Click the image above for a larger version of the strip.)

WORLD OF HURT – The Thrill-Seekers – Episode 23: “Tell The Truth, Shame The Devil – Part 3”

One of my goals with the depiction of Alicia Patterson was to make her attractive, but relatable.  I wanted her to be the girl next door.  I think this strip underscores some of what I had been setting up before.  She’s a sharp, hard-working young woman with a lot on the ball.  Unfortunately, she had a run of misfortune, and Duke hopes to exploit this for his own, malicious gain.

New strips of WORLD OF HURT – The Internet’s #1 Blaxploitation Webcomic are posted every Wednesday at www.worldofhurtonline.com.

- JEP

Once again, the fine folks at Mattel answer five questions from us, and you. So, with an image of the currently shipping DC Universe Classics Wave 11 above, let’s go.

Blog@Newsarama: What’s the process for deciding on the version of the particular representation of a character in the DCUC line? For example, Batman and Nightwing had fairly iconic looks, but Robin was the most recent version of his costume. Is this based on market research, internal debate, etc.?

Mattel: Factors like this, many times, tend to be lead by the Four Horsemen. DC and Warner Brothers will give input into a character line up, but the final decision on exact look tends to fall with the sculptors.

Blog@Newsarama: It seems like most of the big teams in the DCU have gotten some kind of representation in DCUC, including the JLA, the JSA, the Titans, the Doom Patrol, and the Metal Men. What’s the outlook like for the Outsiders and the Legion of Super-Heroes?

Mattel: Both are in the works!

Blog@Newsarama: Previously, you conducted a fan poll that resulted in the inclusion of The Question in the DCUC line. Would you ever consider conducting a fan poll to determine a Collect and Connect figure?

Mattel: It’s a possibility, but right now the plan is to stick with a slot in the 6” scale for the fan’s choice. A lot of times the Collect and Connect figure has a greater connection to other characters in a wave, so it is a bit harder to coordinate this with a fan’s choice.

Blog@Newsarama: What’s the status on vehicles or playsets for the 3 3/4″ line?

Mattel: Several fan websites have run polls asking about interest in vehicles but they found that less than 100 people vote in each. Until we see a greater interest from the fan base, it’s hard to justify the necessary design and development but that’s not to say that we wouldn’t love to have to them if enough fans are interested.

Blog@Newsarama: The Public Enemies wave built off of one the DC Universe DVD releases. Was that a one-time experiement, or will you continue to do waves that tie in with the DVDs?

Mattel: While it’s something that we might do for future DVD releases, it will require further discussion.

Comments? Thoughts? Questions for the next round? Hit it all below!

[Image via Entertainment Earth]

“I realized that the best thing I could do in my life is probably create the class that I didn’t get to take when I was in college in Cleveland”: Here’s a nice profile of Brian Michael Bendis’ other gig, teaching a workshop about writing comics at Portland State University.

“The character is an international super-spy and violent government agent who is forced into working with two women agents who are really his illegitimate daughters”: High concept! That’s from a Western Mail article about Howard Chaykin’s Noble comic, which features footballer, actor and Juggernaut Vinnie Jones’ likeness.

Suggestion: If Raimi and Maguire are out and Spider-Man 4 is kaput, how about instead or rebooting the franchise (Please don’t make me sit through a two-hour origin story again!), they simply do a film version of Spider-Man: The Musical? Win/win, people!

Of possible interest: This Wall Street Journal article, “The Death of the Slush Pile,” should be of interest to any aspiring writers out there, no matter what the medium is (the focus is on books and screenplays though). A sidebar published with the story gets some “do’s and don’ts” from producers, editors and publishers, and Esquire EIC David Granger relates this anecdote: “A writer I know wasn’t able to get treatments read so he started rendering them as comic books.” Nooooooo! Don’t do that! Sure, it might help someone at a studio somewhere to take notice, but won’t anyone think of the poor comic book critics who have to read a movie script that’s been turned into a comic book miniseries? Those are never very good, and there have been a lot of them this past decade…

Johnny Ryan reviews…uh…: Well, just click the link if you want. Maybe not safe for work, as there are some swears.

“After typing Puritan in the last sentence, I typed ‘Pilgrim porn’ into Google Image…”: Abhay discusses webcomics. Yes, it is an awesome piece.

Find out more about Global Freezing here on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays or at ComicsByEgg.com.

Dear DC,

I can imagine Marvel’s “Blackest Night for The Siege variant cover exchange” press release didn’t sit too well with you folks at 1700 Broadway. All the same, I bet you’ve probably thought it over, sent out a few interoffice emails, and maybe called a meeting or two to discuss how you would respond to it, and in the end, decided to take the proverbial high road. That’s a commendable stance, and one you can’t be faulted for taking. But I for one would like to say a few words on behalf of taking the low road.

(more…)

‘Rama readers, let me pull back the curtain over at Newsarama HQ, to an online chat Troy and I had a few days back on January 13, just after Peter Saarsgaard was cast as Hector Hammond:

TROY BROWNFIELD: You on this one?
DAVID PEPOSE: Sure, will do!
TROY BROWNFIELD: Cool.
TROY BROWNFIELD: I expect Sinestro soon.
DAVID PEPOSE: If it’s not Hugh Laurie, I will be so upset.
TROY BROWNFIELD: He’s perfect.
DAVID PEPOSE: So they’ll probably pick Mark Strong or something.

Three days later, via MTV:

“In fact, we’re in negotiations with Mark Strong to play Sinestro… He’s not only a wonderful actor, but he looks like Sinestro,” [Green Lantern director Martin Campbell] added. “If you look up old pictures of Sinestro, he’s very like him. The Jackie Earle Haley thing, somebody told me about it this morning; I had never heard it before in my life.”

Boy, I hate being right.

The Sherlock Holmes villain is apparently in talks to play Hal Jordan’s One True Nemesis, and while you guys know I am all about giving all things comic-related a chance before I weigh in, after the news of this casting I can’t help but feel skeptical over this opening film. As movies like The Dark Knight and X-Men and Spider-Man 2 have taught us, a strong superhero film needs a strong supervillain, and after seeing Strong be a complete Holme-wrecker in the recent Robert Downey Jr. film, it’s not exactly filling me with hope. Indeed, based on Strong’s past performances, I’m concerned that Sinestro — currently a three-dimensional, charismatic antihero by Geoff Johns and Peter Tomasi in the comics — is going to be something straight out of central casting.

As I said about the Jackie Earle Haley rumor awhile back, Mark Strong’s inclusion feels less like a strong actor/character fit, and more of weird fantasy-casting/fan-pandering based on the fact that Strong has done a couple of genre flicks (the aforementioned Holmes, Stardust, the upcoming film Kick-Ass) and can grow a goatee. If the directors can’t take the casting seriously and actually focus on the acting past broad archetypes and shallow resemblances, how can anyone take these movies seriously? If you’re looking at a cast full of pretty Gen-X stars, look no further than the Ben Affleck/Jennifer Garner/Colin Farrell movie Daredevil — and remember how well that all turned out.

Then again, maybe I’m just upset that Hugh Laurie isn’t in the running after all. While I try to fend off this strange red ring that is floating outside my window and calling my name, take a little bit of solace in the fact that Campbell also noted that Kilowog, Tomar-Re, and Abin Sur are all set to be in the film.

The Life and Times of Martha Washington in the Twenty-First Century
Written by Frank Miller
Illustrated by Dave Gibbons

Colored by Robin Smith and Angus McKie
Published by Dark Horse Comics

There’s a strange irony in this massive, back-breakingly heavy tome of a book coming out when Frank Miller’s star, in the comic book community anyway, seems to be at an all-time low. I mean, this book is huge, and incredibly expensive, and it drops during a time when Frank’s name seems to inspire a torrent of bitter bile.

As you may have read, or at least guessed since I bought this thing, I don’t share the sentiment of the current Frank Miller backlash crowd. In truth, All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder may be my favorite Batman comic ever; I think Frank’s doing something very interesting, exploring the humanizing influence of young Dick Grayson on not only Batman, but all the world’s greatest heroes. Also, I halfway believe that, despite frequent narration by Batman himself, the extreme behavior is reflective of a ten-year-old boy’s vantagepoint. Dark Knight Strikes Again, I will agree with the majority, was a misfire, a collection of intriguing ideas that pulled in too many directions, scattershot with cross-purposes. But nobody’s perfect.

Anyway, The Life and Times of Martha Washington in the Twenty-First Century, that’s what we’re discussing, right? In 1990, Frank Miller and Dave Gibbons, hot off the successes of Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen, respectively, decided to collaborate. The result: Give Me Liberty, a miniseries chronicling the splintering of America under the weight of corporate interests, black and white politics, and miles-wide economic gulfs, all told through the eyes of a willful, spirited young black woman named Martha Washington, who rises from the ghetto to prominence in the PAX Peacekeeping force. Several short stories and sequel series followed, leading up to 2007’s one-off comic, Martha Washington Dies, in which, well … she’s born on the first page of Give Me Liberty, and the circle completes on the penultimate page of Dies.

The Life and Times compiles it all, every single short story, and pretty close to all of the pin-ups, advert artwork and whatever preliminary illustrations Dave Gibbons still had handy. The result is 600+ pages, over-sized, hardcover, slipcase, and it’s just amazing to behold. I got a workout reading this thing.

Now, I’m a reader at heart and not much interested in these indulgent oversize book-objects. My personal library remains, happily, Absolute-free, in line with my preference for small, portable (but high in page count) volumes that I can read on a bus, or at least without needing to shift my entire self when I go from the top of a page to the bottom. The Martha Washington collection, however, came in only size, and with my Amazon.com discount in hand, I decided to take the plunge. (And it’s Miller and Gibbons; I wouldn’t make this sort of exception for just anything!)

I have significantly more understanding of why people like these oversize volumes now. There are still very few comic artists I’d like to see in this format, but the humongous pages showcase Dave Gibbons’ prowess beautifully. The book is packed with full-page and two-page spreads, and the scope of the work is literally jaw-dropping. Colorists Robin Smith and Angie McKie make every page to pop, exploding into the reader’s eyes and mind, and Gibbons is such a perfect illustrator. His layouts allow pristine visual storytelling, and his page compositions provide all the important details in a clear, naturalistic style, without a hint of the unnecessary clutter that mars many other artists’ pages. His future world breathes palpably, and the characters designs showcase Gibbons’ excellent ability to capture the range of humanity.

Frank Miller is a bombastic writer, a longtime exerciser of terse, hardboiled, extremely stylized dialogue, and Martha Washington shows his love of that old pulp. In Martha’s world, you’re either good or evil, or just plain inept, which is perhaps the worst option, yet there’s a sense that people are good and well meaning throughout Martha’s hundred-year journey. Each installment pits Martha against greater and greater odds, and her leadership becomes more and more vital to the future of mankind’s freedom. Sure, she survives a seemingly impossible number of aircraft crashes, explosions and puncture wounds, but it’s that dogged relentlessness, taken to ludicrous degrees, that makes Miller’s heroine so fun to read about.

The political and cultural backdrop adds some context, but it’s really just spice for a series of heart-racing, full-speed adventure stories, pitting one resourceful, hardheaded girl against the ultimate government conspiracy, the second American Civil War and ultimately, a world-controlling A.I. It’s relentless, and a whole lot of fun. The omnibus collection has commentary from Dave Gibbons on each story, plus a few asides from Frank Miller. The short stories that appeared in Dark Horse Presents are presented in full color and their original black and white versions. It’s a great story, and a great package. The Life and Times of Martha Washington in the Twenty-First Century has shown at least one reader that there is (some) merit in books that are a huge pain to read or handle.

With mega events such as Blackest Night, Avengers: Disassemble, Secret Invasion, etc always having an effect on books, Marvel’s current big event is no different. Calling Siege a shake-up is an understatement because as it reaches it’s conclusion in April, Marvel will be cancelling all four of their Avengers books.

New Avengers
Mighty Avengers
Dark Avengers
Avengers: The Initiative

That’s right. Some of the biggest Marvel books out there are scheduled for a drastic overhaul in just a few short months, so let the guessing games begin on what will happen now.

So, ‘Rama readers, what are your thoughts on this? I know that Dark Avengers was never supposed to last long, but do you think it will just go back to a singular Avengers title, or just a revamp on the other Avengers books?

[Source: IGN]

Find out more about Global Freezing here on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays or at ComicsByEgg.com.

(Click the image above for a larger version of the strip.)

WORLD OF HURT – The Thrill-Seekers – Episode 22: “Tell The Truth, Shame The Devil – Part 2”

I apologize for posting this one a little late, but rest assured, I haven’t forgotten about you.

This strip represents the first time we see Alicia Patterson alive.  This episode almost reminded me of a classic EC Comics strip, as text-heavy as it is.  Nonetheless, I’m pleased with the narration.  One of my favorite images of the series is the malevolent, scheming expression on The Duke’s face.  You can almost see the gears grinding in his head, and what he’s concocting definitely ain’t pretty.

New strips of WORLD OF HURT – The Internet’s #1 Blaxploitation Webcomic are posted every Wednesday at www.worldofhurtonline.com.

- JEP

Just when you thought it was safe to travel across the multiverse…

Marvel has announced that they will take another bite out of the undead market, with Fred Van Lente and Kano taking on Marvel Zombies 5!

“What I’ve tried to do ever since they gave me the Zombies assignment was to do something different every time,” Van Lente told Marvel.com. “Folks who read [MARVEL ZOMBIES 4] know that at the end Jack Russell, Werewolf by Night, was infested with the zombie virus. Morbius the Living Vampire wants to cure his friend and in order to do that he needs to somehow figure out a way to unlock a cure for zombie-ism. He recruits his old pal Machine Man from MARVEL ZOMBIES 3, who is back and is again the star of the series, and sends him across the multiverse to take samples from different kinds of zombies.”

That, my friends, is the way to get ahead in comics. Or some other kind of severed limb. The book is due out this April.

Zenescope Entertainment is looking for applicants for their Girl of the Month 2010 contest!

The grand prize winner of the contest will get a trip for two to the Comic Con International in San Diego in 2011, and will take part in signing issues at the booth.

Meanwhile, each monthly winner will appear in Zenescope’s upcoming comics, and will receive a $100 gift certificate to Blue Gryphon Comics.

Want to know more? Check out the rules and regulations over at www.zenescope.com. Meanwhile, voting begins February 3 to determine Zenescope’s Girl of the Year for 2009!

First Rorschach, then the Human Target… and now Sinestro?

HitFlix is reporting that former Bad News Bear Jackie Earle Haley is Warner Bros’ “only” choice for the role of Sinestro in the upcoming Green Lantern film.

While there’s still a lot of rumor going around, Sinestro is really the final character that fans are desperately needing to know about. (Or at least me, I want to see Hugh Laurie play the role, stat.) But something about Haley… I dunno, he almost feels overexposed at this point.

But then again, this comes down to a personal pet peeve in terms of fantasy superhero casting — at this point, it feels like people are probably saying Jackie Earle Haley not because of his very strong acting chops but because (A) he’s been in other genre works, and (B) because he has a goatee. That said, HitFlix is saying that it’s possible Sinestro doesn’t even play a huge role in the first film — which already is slated to have Hector Hammond and Legion as the villains — so maybe he will have time to grow on me.

The film is due out in 2011.

Wednesday the Orlando Sentinel ran a nice little profile on George Perez, whom we know best for his incredible comic book work over the last few decades, in which he specialized in detailed, character-packed panels and some of the most attractively drawn rubble, but he’s better known around the Moonlight Players Warehouse Theatre as the artist who draws the covers of their programs, helps design sets and plays supporting roles in their productions.

The focus of the article was on Perez’s work with the theater, where he’ll be playing Jacob and another character in a production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Check out that photo of a clean-shaven Perez in a chariot). Near the end of the piece, writer Christine Cole mentioned that Perez, “is working on a graphic novel and special projects for DC Comics, including one for the 30th anniversary of the Teen Titans in 2010.”

And what might that be? DC’s Source blog revealed the answer today: The long under-discussion original graphic novel Teen Titans: Games with Marv Wolfman. More details, and a picture, on the front page.

The House of Mouse has a new production chief — one that could have an impact on Marvel’s new TV and film options.

Sean Bailey, who produced the upcoming film “Tron: Legacy,” has replaced Oren Aviv, who resigned from the company abruptly last week. According to Variety, Bailey, who has ties with stars like Ben Affleck, Chris Moore, and McG, was brought on board for the multi-platform friendliness of his upcoming project, and believes he could do more of the same.

Here’s one particular quote that perked my ears up a little bit:

For TV, Idealogy set up, at ABC, “The Unlimited,” about a Texas basketball coach who discovers his recently deceased father was one of the world’s most brilliant minds and that he’s inherited the genius.

While discussing “The Unlimited,” Bailey said, “I’ve always admired superhero origin stories. This is something like that, only a little more grounded.”

Now, why am I telling you all this? While Marvel Studios’ Kevin Feige is spearheading the company’s Avengers-related offerings, there’s the question of television properties (like potentially a new Spider-Man television series, after Spectacular Spider-Man was put in limbo), as well as new heroes and teams (Doctor Strange? The Black Panther? Namor the Submariner?), and having a cape-friendly guy in charge of production could do a lot towards green-lighting these projects. Here’s a question — what sort of project would you like to have Bailey tackle first?