_Sorry I'm a little late this year. Last year,i presented a listing of some geeky movies to watch: http://www.joesergi.net/2/post/2011/2/gung-hay-fat-choy-have-yourself-a-geeky-chinese-new-year.html

This year, I was in Disneyland for the Lunar New Year Celebration.  Not surprisingly, they had an entire area of the park, near it's a small world, dedicated to the Year of the Dragon.  Here are some photos:

And since it is the year of the dragon.  See how many of these you comic book dragon's you can remember:

Are you interested in making comics? Do you want break in to the industry?  If so, Andy Schmidt and Comics Experience is offering a chance for unprecedented access 140 characters at a time.  Tonight, January 4, 2010, starting at 8pm is the first ever Tweetup for making comics.  Join Andy Schmidt (Former Editor Marvel Editor, Former Senior IDW Editor, Current Hasbro Muckety Muck), Chris Sotomayor ("Soto"--coloring God), and Robert Atkins (Artist for Marvel, IDW and a whole bunch of other things I can’t remember).

I know each of these guys and each one of them have an enormous amount of great information. In fact, I hosted a panel with them at the CGS Supershow called, interestingly enough “Breaking Into Comics with Andy Schmidt.” You can listen to that here:

Or you can ask them your own questions tonight, at 8pm. Just use the hashtag #CMXEXP in all your questions or comments!

Here's an example:

@Sotocolor Why are you so awesome? #CMXEXP

Starting at 8pm Eastern Time, just begin tweeting your questions to any of the Comics Experience instructors:

@ComicExperience -- Andy Schmidt

@SotoColor -- Chris "Soto" Sotomayor

@RobertAtkinsArt -- Robert Atkins

Have fun and enjoy!

In his latest move to take over the Universe, Andy Schmidt has teamed with iFanbiy to create the Making Comics Podcast.

Here are the details from an email I recieved.
 -------------------------------------
 NEW PODCAST WITH ANDY &
IFANBOY!!!
 -------------------------------------
We're happy to announce a new collaboration with iFanboy-- the
"Making Comics Podcast with Andy Schmidt," hosted by Josh
  Flanagan!
 
Each week, Andy and Josh will be discussing all aspects of
breaking in and making comics! As Josh himself put it over on
iFanboy:
 
"Whether you’re a writer, artist, writer/artist, colorist, or
just someone who appreciates the craft, we hope there will be something for you,
and if your dream is to make comics, that you find yourself one step closer to
it.
 
The first show is live now, and available on the regular iFanboy
podcast feed. We’ll have a new 10-15 minute show every week. Episode #1 is
'Start Writing.'"

So, get it onto your mobile device -- or check it out on the web
right here:

 http://ifanboy.com/podcasts/making-comics-podcast-1-start-writing/

For some reason (perhaps it is because of space restrictions), Universal Studios does not add new attractions to its Orlando Theme park. Instead, they replace existing attractions with new ones.  As a result, despite its short lifespan (the park opened on June 7, 1990), Universal Studios has a rather lengthy list of extinct attractions.  Kongfrontation begat The Mummy; Ghostbuster begat Twister; Psycho begat Shrek; Back to the Future begat the Simpsons; Earthquake begat Disaster; and I can't remember all the things that have been where the now-closed Jimmy Neutron rocket is. Well, last week, Universal announced another great attraction that will be added to the list of permanent closures.  The announcement was short.

Jaws The Final Voyage

On January 2, 2012, one of Universal Studios' most iconic rides is heading out to sea for the last time. In order to make room for an exciting new attraction, Captain Jake's Amity Boat Tours is closing and we invite you to come celebrate with one final ride of JAWS®.

Come relive your favorite memories and get ready to scream as the Great White Shark takes its last bite.

Now, to be honest, I can't remember the last time I went on Jaws. It certainly wasn't an attraction that I had to go on each time I was in Universal Studios.  But still, I took comfort in the fact that it was there. And perhaps took it for granted. I will say that the Amity area, which features games of skill and chance in a boardwalk setting was one of my favorite places in Universal Studios Orlando. I will miss going there with my daughter, where we faced off with water guns to see who could pop the balloon first. But, i look forward to what will be coming to the space. (Perhaps it will be the Florida version of the new Transformers ride that is opening in California next year).  Still, I do wish universal would have given me more than 3 weeks notice that Jaws is closing.  I would have liked an opportunity to say goodbye to Bruce, Sheriff Brody, Captain Jake, and Skipper Billy, Sharkey and the rest of the broadcasters at Amity's WJWS13 (The Station that Bites). And if you got any of those references, then you will probably miss the attraction as well.

_So, in honor of this closing, I provide a little bit of history about the attraction (statistics are from Wikipedia, so take them for what they are ;-).

• The original attraction at was inspired by the scene on the Backlot Tour in Universal Studios Hollywood (I have not heard that this is closing).
• The ride was designed by MCA/Universal Planning and Development, in association with Ride and Show Engineering, which designed the original tour scene. (Steven Speilberg, director of Jaws was a creative consultant).
• the ride opened on June 7, 1990.
• Because of technical problems when it first opened, the ride had to be evacuated almost daily and the ride was closed for repair from August 1990 through the Spring of 1993.  During that time, Universal hired the Totally Fun Company to create a new version of almost the entire ride (They also sued Ride and Show Engineering).
•  The ride was then officially re-opened by Roy Scheider, Lorraine Gray and Steven Spielberg in Spring of 1993.
• The ride was closed again in 2004 after several hurricanes that struck Central Florida.  The rife was not damaged, rather the cost of petroleum went up and the ride's pyrotechnical effects became too expensive). 
• The ride finally reopened in December 2005 and was run "seasonal" until February 2007. then, as a result of numerous guest requests, Jaws became a full time attraction in 2007.
• The attraction was further refurbished in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011.
• The attraction's queue holds a maximum of 1,000 guests for up to 90 minutes.
• Over 2,000 miles (3,200 km) of electrical wire are used throughout the attraction.
• The ride track is approximately 1,140 feet (350 m) in length and features a total of three track switches; two near the unload dock to take tour boats in and out of the boat storage siding, and one near the load dock to take tour boats in and out of the boat maintenance building.
• The tour boats travel through the attraction at an average speed of approximately 2 knots.
• The total ride time is approximately 5 minutes.
• The attraction's Theoretical Hourly Ride Capacity is listed at a maximum of 2,500 guests per hour.
• Amity Harbor covers an area of roughly 7 acres (2.8 ha) and holds approximately 5,000,000 U.S. gallons (19,000,000 L) of water.
• The shark animatronics move through the water at speeds of up to 20 feet (6.1 m) per second and thrust with the power equal to that of a Boeing 737 aircraft at takeoff.
• Jaws appears seven times throughout the attraction; five times on the port side of the tour boat and twice on the starboard side.

And now, let's take our final ride on Jaws:

Happy Halloween!

In honor of this amazing holiday, where people can dress as their favorite characters, people wear amazing costumes and attractive women wear skin tight scant clothing . . . wait a minute that’s  not Halloween, that’s Comic Con. 

This is Halloween, where ghouls and goblins come out and I get to scare the bejeezies out of the neighborhood kids. In honor of this holiday, I thought I would highlight some of my favorite Halloween/Horror comic stories. Of course, I’m not including the Walking Dead.  A great series--yes. But, given the popularity of the television show, I thought it was too easy (in the same vein I avoided the obvious EC horror series like Tales from the Crypt).  That being said, if you haven’t read Walking Dead, what the heck are you waiting for? It is, by far, one of the greatest comics ever written!

But, I digress, so now I present some of my favorite stories:

Batman the Long Halloween, Issue 1

Ok, this one is a kind of a no brainer.  This year long series started with a bang on Halloween with a murder and kept you guessing all year as to who the mysterious killer name Holiday was.  I have admit, I never would have guessed it was . . . . but that would be telling. Stil;l, this Jeff Loeb/Tim Sale teaming was the first of many and still considered by some to be the best. The story takes place right after Batman Year One and serves as a transition from Batman fighting common criminals to the zany rouges gallery we all know and love. It is available almost everywhere in trade.

Uncanny X-Men 159 and 160

These was a tie because both of these stories are amazing Claremont was truly on the top of his x-men writing at this time and the art in 159 was done by Bill Sienkiewicz (on pencils with Bob Wiacek on inks). Sienkiewicz would later go on and do some of my favorite work on New Mutants (and Moon Knight, who's werewolf by night issues almost made this list).

Of course, the X-men did recently had another great vampire event called “Curse of the Mutants” as they faced off against Dracula’s son. But, the crossover wasn’t really scary (apologies to Jubilee) and these earlier issue has earned a place in my nostalgic heart.

The second story is the origin of my Favorite New Mutant, Magik. Although it was only featured in one panel, this story would later be expanded in the Magik--Storm and Illyana limited series, which was also pretty creepy. Especially when you consider what the series implied that S'ym did to Illyana when she was younger.

Ultimately, I guess the story in this issue culminated in the Inferno crossover in the 90s (which was only scary when you consider how many books you had to buy to keep up with that crossover).

Action Comics Annual 1

You know I have to have a Superman story and surprisingly, there aren’t that many to choose from. I almost went with the Satanus/Blaze storyline from the 90s where Superman is used as a pawn in a fight between two demons (and resulted in the death of Jerry White), but  I think I’m going to have to go with Action Comics Annual 1.  This Annual (set after Crisis and featuring an early team-up between the new Batman and Superman) has some great storytelling by John Byrne and beautiful pictures from Art Adams.  They story features a Batman and Superman story as they face off against a town of vampires.  It isn’t really a team-up book, since they are only together for the last few pages.

Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends #1

In this adaptation of the Saturday morning cartoon, the Spider Friends (Firestar, Iceman and Spider-Man) face off against the Green Goblin on Halloween.  I still watch these with my daughter.  I had forgotten how many inside jokes there are for mighty Marvel fans (an example can be found in the costumes at the Halloween dance). And who didn’t love Firestar? This series was short lived (one issue), but it is still a fun memory. I even bought my daughter the limited edition action figures. (And it warms my heart when she says, "Spider-Friends--Go for it!")

Batgirl #14

This issue features a great Supergirl/Batgirl (Stephanie Brown) team-up as they face 13 Draculas. (Not the real one).  Bryan Q. miller did an amazing job with this series (which ended far to soon to pave the way for the new 52) and this issue is a great example of how much fun this series was. I know that we will never see this version of Supergirl again (which is a crime), but now that Barbara Gordon has regained her legs and the Batgirl mantle,  I wonder what happened to Stephanie (and her predecessor Cassandra) in the New 52 anyway. Maybe she'll return as the Spoiler. But, I digress.

Locke and Key

I’m not going to pick one issue of this amazing series.  If you like horror, you really need to read this series. If you work at Fox, you really need to green light the pilot, which was awesome. If you are Stephen King, you should be really proud of your son, the apple didn’t fall far from the tree.  Joe Hill tells amazingly intense character driven horror and Gabriel Rodriguez' art is so detailed it is scary. We also reviewed this in our Comics Experience book club (with both Hill and Rodrigues in attendance), but I guess I never wrote about it, whoops, sorry about that.

Echoes

This is a recent trade from Image by Joshua Hale Fialkov (he also wrote Essec County and currently does I Campire and Frankenstein for the DC New 52) and art by Rashan Ekedal. Oh my goodness this book is creepy. I'm not sure what I can say about this other than to advise you not to read it before you go to bed. It is truly disturbing. I should also mention that Josh is a really nice guy and not anywhere as near scary as his writing. We met him on our most recent Comics Experience Book Club call.

The Pack #1

I was lucky enough to get an advanced peak at this series through the Comics Experience Workshop.  The Pack is a great old fashioned Werewolf book told with in a modern setting.  Mike Raicht’s storytelling is top notch! (I actually like this better than his other book, Stuff of Legend—blasphemy, I know).  The book features horror art by Daniel Faccilongo. The Pack is part murder mystery, part Breakfast Club.  Issue 1 just came out this month, so you still have a chance to pick it up and get on the ground floor of this book.

Sandman #8

While some would argue that picking Sandman is as obvious as Walking Dead, I’ll risk it.  In this issue we meet Death, dreams older sibling. Throughout the issue, we follow death as she makes her rounds, collecting the dead.  But, Gaiman takes a completely different track with her by making her an adorable cute little Goth girl.  Instead of a grim reaper, Gaiman, a master storyteller, makes Death into a hopeful chipper soul--someone who you want to meet at the end of your life. I almost put the Death mini-series on this list, but this issue sums up the character.  the story can be found in Preludes and Nocturnes, the first Sandman trade. We reviewed it for Comics Experience Book Club, which can be found here. I have mentioned Comics Experience so many times in this article, I feel like i should be charging them by the link. Of course, it could just be a testament to how great they are in getting creators to meet.

Don’t Be Afraid and Great Zombies in History

You really didn’t think I wouldn’t get through this list without plugging my own books.  For shame.

First up, Don't be Afraid. All people have one thing in common, hiding deep within their hearts – fear. The feeling of pure fright can be paralyzing and often maddening. Join your host, the evil clown known as Mr. Scratch as he presents five tales that examine all levels of horror. From the gripping terror of a racing mind to fanged monsters in the night, all manners of fear dwell in these stories.

And check out the trailer to Don't be afraid.

Next up, Great Zombies in History:

From ancient Greece, to early America, and out to the edge of space, GREAT ZOMBIES IN HISTORY, the anthology series from ELEVATOR PITCH PRESS, tells the secret history of the undead. See how Samurai, Vikings, Spartans and even Teddy Roosevelt dealt with the zombie horde.

Great Zombies in History -- those who do not learn from history are doomed to be EATEN!

I hope this list brought back some memories or gave you something to read.  There were a lot of things that just missed my list (like the Demon Bear saga or Frankenstein meeting the original X-Men) Plus, I’m sure I missed a whole bunch of stories (Buffy and Angel come to mind).
I guess there is always next year.

What is your favorite story?

Happy Halloween!

I am appearing at the 2nd annual CELEBRATE THE BOOK festival in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Not only will I be signing my older books (Sky Girl, Zombies, Armed and Fabulous, etc.), but I will also have copies of Don't be Afraid and Iconic 2 , which both debuted at this year's New York ComicCon.

If that is not enough, some guy named DAVID BALDACCI, (Absolute Power, The Camel Club, Split Second, Saving Faith, The Christmas Train, and a whole bunch of stuff I forgot) will be the keynote speaker. ;-)

The festival will be held:

Saturday, October 22, 2011 Carlisle Expo Center 
100 K Street
Carlisle, Pa 17013
9  am to 4 pm
(doors open at 8:30) $5 admission for adults
  Children 12 & under free

More information can be found at http://www.celebratethebook.org/

But, the event is described as:

"The Friends of Bosler Memorial Library are proud to present the 2nd annual CELEBRATE THE BOOK festival.

Our mission is to bring together writers and readers and to promote and celebrate books, reading, literacy, and literary culture.

Children’s writers & illustrators, local historians, and book resellers will have booths, plus we will have exciting and interesting programs, storyteller & illustrator stage performances, and activity centers aimed at children and all adults. Don’t miss this unique experience."

Elevator Pitch Press debuted Don't be Afraid at New York ComicCon (with a creepy cover byDarick Robertson & Richard P. Clark) and Rich Johnston at Bleeding Cool News was great enough to spotlight it.  The spotlight can be found at http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/10/14/nycc-debut-don%E2%80%99t-be-afraid/

In addition to stories by Dan Rivera,  Joshua Osborne, Justin Heggs, and Eric Drumm and interior art by Randy Valiente, Cecilia Latella,Jonathan Zajdman, and Marc Jameson, the issue features my story, The Belt (with Amazing Art by Dafu Yu and incomparable lettering by E.T. Dollman.). The story is basically Open Water in space.  Plus, the tale features, Jefferson Frank, who won an auction at George Mason law School to have his name included in the book.

Here is some of Dafu's incredible art: