If you venture into the tubes today, that is:
http://www.downthetubes.net

…you’ll find a feature on the upcoming Spider-Man & Captain Britain v the Fury strip by Jon, John, John, and me. Story appears in issue 133 (on sale 20th April) of the British newsstand title Spectacular Spider-Man. Which is nice. The Fury is once again listed as an Alan Moore creation. Ah, so, once again, there’s no pressure then. Mind you there is no truth to the rumour that if you sheared Alan Moore you’d find underneath someone who looks a lot like me. Not even a rumour, really. Something I just made up on the spot…

…I’ll get my coat.

That’s it all done and dusted. The final preparations have been made. I will be attending the New York Convention at the Jacob K. Javits Centre on the 24th – 26th February. I’m due to arrive at midday on the Friday. My arrival no doubt marked by a spectacular fanfare of helium-filled balloons and performing mime artists. Father time will snatch back those 5 hours time difference from Scotland to the USA when I depart the following Tuesday evening to arrive back on Wednesday morning. So is this what it’s like travelling on the Tardis, only a little slower?

The deadline for my script polish for Otogi Zoshi was yesterday. I’d finished the job on Sunday, it was just a formality, or so you’d think so. Thing is I had to come home early from work having caught one of these bugs, which leaves you feeling like John Hurt just before l’il Bo alien burst out of his chest and ordered its breakfast. No question had to crash out in bed. The barest movement had my head and stomach scream out in perfect terrible unison. Only for me to wake around midnight with something of a temperature and my tummy doing somersaults. Ran briskly to the toilet and promptly puked my guts out into the sink. Constituency-wise the puke was pretty thick, so there I was with the tap running, having to pick out big chunks from the sinkhole to let the water run through. The carnage over I sat however groggily on the edge of the bath and thought, I’ve never went over a deadline before and I ain’t gonna start now. Like Clint Eastwood (the puker with no name) I crawled on all fours into my room and switched on my PC. I chewed on a couple of Cherry Menthol Airwaves to try and get rid of the acid taste in my mouth. I attached my script to an e-mail and sent off the script to those dear people in Tokyopop. Result! Ye cannae beat it.

Congelidum Cremum is Latin for ice-cream, by the way.

Out now from Panini/Marvel UK, Spectacular Spider-Man #128 by Jon Haward and m’self where our eponymous hero teams up with the Dynamic Defenders. ‘The Defenders’ was one comic I can genuinely say I loved reading as a wee boy. And wasn’t I the reverential fanboy when I met Steve Englehart, one of the original writers on the series, last summer in San Diego. So it just made sense on a cosmic scale to beg, plead, and bellow for the chance to put them in the mag. Dr Strange, Sub-Mariner, the Hulk, and Silver Surfer, I hope I was as true to that memory as I could’ve been. The Hulk typically gets all the best lines.

Nabbed the page from Big Jon’s website, where it's at:
http://www.jonhawardart.com

'Ello peeps. When I'm not searching t'internet for my latest Russian bride, I occasionally post some missive or other on a discussion group. So I may as well inflict my latest on you lot:

"One thing that particularly stood out was the statement that to be professional you have to make a living from it ['it' being working in comics]. I've recently worked for DC, Tokyopop, and Panini/Marvel UK, but I can assure you I am some way from earning a living from it. While I do earn money from this glorified 'hobby' of mine it worked out, last tax year, as less than a fifth of my earnings from my 'real' job. To be honest the people I know who make a living from it - especially the writers - are particularly few and far between. And the majority of this small bunch are either always skint and/or don't earn their crust from writing for comics exclusively alone. But of course the ones that do earn a good living are so busy and so in demand and so under pressure they use the blood from their ears as ink. Such is the way of all things I suppose."

Ok, you can all go back to watching 'The 6th Day' on Channel 5. Man, that Arnie can act. I love that 'big eye' expression of his like a hamster has just wandered up somewhere it shouldn't have...

January is one of those slow dour months innit? Unloved by even the most pleasant of souls. January also means I'm working to deadline. I'm doing a script rewrite on the first volume of Otogi Zoshi for Tokyopop. The story revolves around a little rich girl Hikaru disguising herself as a boy to fight bandits. Yes, it's Manga, and it's such an endearing, bitter sweet story I've taken something of a shine to it.

By script rewrite I mean taking the translated script and sorting it out, embellishing it, where it needs sorting. Injecting a more natural feel to the dialogue. E.g., changing a line such as "I am a lobster" to "I'm a lobster, you dig?"...

Anyway the biggest thing I've had to bend my brain over is reading the original volume right to left (not the other way, which folks around here have kind of grown used to). I am getting the hang of it, but initially it did feel like someone had gone and changed the laws of physics on me.

To this day, it has never left me, I will never forget the first time I saw a Sontaran warrior. He took off his helmet to reveal a potato head. A feckin' potato head! I freaked; I bawled my little pre-pubescent eyes out. Have never quite been the same since.

Dr Who memories # 57