I am finally catching up on my to do list and realized that I forgot to post this last year.  Last October, at the 2010 New York Comic Con, I was awarded the HALLER for  Best Writer by the ComicBook Artist Guild for my story, "The Return of Power Boy." 

Thank you to everyone that voted for me and CAG for nominating me. There was some stiff competition for the award from some amazing and talented writers and I am honored to have received the award.

I am putting together a full video for the Awards show, but here is the Best Writer award and acceptance speech.

This is the portion of the PowerPoint I was discussing in my speech (I was also a presenter.)

The story can be read here (for free) or purchased in hard copy as part of Issue Ten of A Thousand Faces: The Quarterly Journal of Superhuman Fiction through the Amazon link below.

I also had the privilege of presenting Andy Schmidt with The Comic Industry award for his achievements in fostering the creation of comics through his work at Marvel, IDW, and Comics Experience.  That presentation  can be found here.

Formerly known as the CAG awards, in 2010, the awards were renamed the HALLER awards in memory of the passing of former CAG member and friend Rusty Haller. Here is a scan of the Award.

Over the Christmas holiday break, I had the chance to talk to about Sky Girl and writing in general on Ric Croxton's Ric's Comics.

Here is the official description:

Ric's Comics Episode 45: Joe Sergi's Sky Girl Bruce Rosenberger, Tommy Hancock and Art Sippo join me as we talk to Joe Sergi about his novel Sky Girl. Be sure and listen towards the end of the show when Joe offers his books in a contest. It's simple, just send me your best superheroine name to win a book.

The podcast can be found at http://www.firstcomicsnews.com/?p=18476

Check it out.

As I put the finishing touches on Sky Girl and the Superheroic Adventures (thank you Kari and Kaycee for the reads), the first novel in the series was reviewed by the All Pulp Fiction Site.

The review can be found here.

Thanks to the guys at All Pulp for getting me.

I saw the original Tron for the first time this week.  Now, before you tell me that I need to hand in my geek card, it turned out I read the novelization in the fifth grade (my first novelization as I recall) and actually owned a copy of the DVD (I bought it in the early 90s) that was still in the shrink wrap.  I found the movie to be rather slow, and confusingly over complicated and simplistic at the same time, but still enjoyable.  I am not going to comment on the special effects since that wouldn't be fair to the movie as it is three decades old.  I will say that Jeff Bridges was fun as Flynn, although I found him mighty comfortable and accepting of his new surroundings.  All in all, the movie, like the Disney's other sci fi foray, Black Hole, is a worthy addition to my collection.

But, the quality of the original Tron is not what this discussion is about.  Several years ago, a sequel to the movie was announced at San Diego ComicCon and the fans went crazy.  Since then, there I have attended three ComicCons and three Tron panels.  I went to Tron parties and met the cast (I don't expect that they will remember me as I'm sure Olivia Wilde meets a lot incoherent people that sound like blathering idiots when they try to talk to her).  The film went from Tron 2 to Tr2n to Tron 2.0 to Tron Legacy and from 2D to 3D.   Disney World repainted a monorail and the company added an ElecTronica party to their theme parks.  There is also a Tron encore to the World of Color show at Disney's California adventure. Not to mention more low and high end merchandise than you can shake an identity disk at.  Disney even offerred a free preview last month that "sold out" in minutes (I couldn't get a ticket and was disheartened to hear the theater by me was empty with no shows.). It is clear that, regardless how the film does, Tron (and Tron Legacy) will be firmly entrenched in our pop culture subconscious.  

 But, is it a good movie?     

I wanted to find out before getting tainted by other reviews. So,  I trekked out into the snow to see the 12:01 3D IMAX show (I should note that before the movie, there was a disclaimer about how some of the scenes were shot in 2D, but I didn't notice the difference.)  The theater audience was a respectable size given the weather.  (Apparently a record breaking crowd saw the film.)

The lights dimmed. There was cheers for the Pirates 4 trailer, (to my disappointment) groans for the Thor trailer, and just general confusion and head scratching about The Eagle and Mars Needs Moms.

But, is Tron Legacy any good?

I guess that depends on what you are looking for.

Tron Legacy tells the story of Sam Flynn's search for his father, Kevin Flynn (the star of the original Tron), who vanished 20 years ago.  Sam search brings him into the world of the Gird, a visually stunning computerized world.

Given that the Tron movies deal with the world within a world concept, in many ways you might be tempted to compare it to the Matrix or Inception.  If that is your benchmark, you will be disappointed as the story has been done before and script is exposition heavy at times and there are needless characters that are introduced, but never followed up on (like that uncredited character played by Cillian Murphy that ties back pretty directly to the first movie and I thought would be a major player in this one).  But, if you are looking for a fun otherworldly scifi tale that has beautiful special effects and great action, Tron Legacy will not disappoint.  To put it another way, to see if I liked a movie, the criteria I set for myself when I see these midnight showings is whether I fall asleep or check my watch.  I did neither during the two hour movie. The action scenes are well done, the characters fun, and the plot, while filled with logic leaps and some holes, is a good enough Macguffin to support the movie.  Olivia Wilde's performance (and the costume department) has ensured that, should I ever meet her again,  I will be equally incoherent and twice as blathering.

I also should give a nod out to Daft Punk for the score.  I was so impressed with their music that I stopped on the way home and picked up the soundtrack (huzzah for the 24 hour Walmarts of the world).  I can best describe the score as having a Hans Zimmer Inception quality but done electronically. 

So, in summary, while I doubt Tron Legacy will go down in history as a great thinker's movie and not spark debates about reality, it is certainly worth seeing on the big screen (especially if you wear those goofy IMAX glasses and watch it in 3D.)   

Edit: I received three emails since this went live asking if you need to see the original Tron to enjoy the sequel.  You do not.  In fact, in some ways, it would have been better if I didn't just see the original Tron because some things from the original film are ignored (like the character of Dumont, played by the late Barnard Hughes, who was integral to the plot of the original Tron yet not even mentioned in Tron Legacy).  PS: thanks for the emails, it means someone is actually reading it :-)

Last night, we had our monthly Comics Experience book club meeting.  This month's book was Chew by John Layman and Rob Guillory.  Chew tells the story of Tony Chu, a cibopathic detective that solves food related crimes in a world where chicken is outlawed. (A cibopath is someone who gets psychic impression from the things he eats.).

As always, the discussions were interesting and insightful.  Rob Anderson used a power point to perform an in depth analysis of issue 3, which involved the introduction of a saboscribe (a person who can write about food so well that the reader can taste it) and potential love interest for Chu.  Others commented on the use of narrative, white space and lettering to convey the story.  My tongue-in-cheek presentation on whether cibopaths are real follows below. 

As an added bonus, we were joined by both Layman and Guillory, who talked about the book and their careers.   As a starving independent comic creator, I found some of the discussions about the business side of the industry to be insightful and fascinating.   We talked about everything from working with Image to marketing to dealing with Hollywood (the book is being looked at being adapted into a television show).  As usual, Andy Schmidt was able to add to the discussions with unique perspectives gained from his time at Marvel, IDW and through his own, creator owned book, 5 Days to Die.  In short, the story surrounding the green-lighting of Chew and the perseverance of the self-professed jaded Layman and Guillory to get their cannibal bird flu book picked up is one that gives hope to this creator. 

Both Five Days to Die and Chew are must reads.  The links to these books are below, if you are thinking about buying them, please use the link.

The next book is Captain America, Winter Soldier.  Information about the Comics Experience Book Club can be found here.  If you are interested in working on comics, they also have a lot of great courses from writing, to drawing to lettering to coloring to production.  The list of newly announced courses can be found at comicsexperience.com.

I should also mention that John Layman is presenting a class on "The Secret to Pitching Comics" this Saturday for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.  (I'm actually driving down for the day from Northern Virginia.)  He is an engaging speaker with a lot of to offer.  Information can be found here.

Here is my slide show on "Cibopath: real or fake." (I should note that the word "cibopath" is pronounced as both chee-bo-path and see-bo-path, depending on Layman's mood. 

As I see yet another cheesy  Christmas movie is on the Family Channel and Lifetime.  Let us take a moment to honor the unsung hero of the holiday season--the theme episode. We all know that every television show has a very special holiday episode: Fonzie fixed the Cunningham’s tree and Alex P. Keaton repented his right wing republican ways for one day, and Glee has their episode next week. But, The Holiday episode on Sci Fi and Fantasy shows are tricky business.  Due to the genre specific nature of Sci Fi and Fantasy TV, it is very hard to shoehorn the spirit of the season when many take place in space or the past or involve demons.

 So, grab your eggnog and we will reminisce some of my favorites.

The Star Wars Holiday Special

The prize, of course goes to The Star Wars Holiday Special.  And you thought Jar Jar Binks was George Lucas’ most embarrassing moment.  This story featured a visit to Kashyyk, Chewbacca’s home planet. It is Life Day (a holiday analogous to Christmas). Chewbacca is on his way home to see his family (Mallatobuck, Lumpawarrump, and Attichitcuk) to celebrate the holiday, accompanied by his friend, Han Solo.   The first five minutes are in wookie. But, what follows more amazing: is a hodge podge of musical numbers (Diahann Carroll, Jefferson Starship, and Bea Arthur), a cross dressing  Harvey Keitel (as a futuristic  Julia Childes), and a cartoon (with, as far as I know, the first appearance of Boba Fett).  Lucas has been reported as saying, "If I had the time and a sledgehammer, I would track down every copy of that show and smash it."  So, let’s see a clip of an admittedly stoned Carrie Fisher singing “Life Day” to the Star Wars  theme. 

 
Smallville: Lexmas

Okay, don’t groan.  This one is serious.  Smallville gets a bad rap, but sometimes it gets it right 9and wrong).  This episode is an example of both.  In Lexmas, Lex Luthior is shot, he falls into a coma and is visited by the ghost of his mother, who shows him what his life could be like if he frees himself from his father. Meanwhile, Clark helps deliver Christmas presents.  The bad of course, is the hackneyed plot idea of that ambiguous Santa Claus that Clark is helping to deliver presents—it has been done to death.  But, what is great is the end of the episode, which takes the hackneyed Dickens tale and gives it a unique spin.

Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman

Before there was a Smallville on the CW (nee CW), ABC aired Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.  As the title implies, the show focused more on the Man and less on the Super.  They had a few holiday episode, but two notable episodes stick out in my memory.  The first occurred in the First Season.  Seasons Greetings featured A toymaker (Sherman Hemsley, who is reunited with Isabel Sanford) invents a pheromone that makes adults act like greedy children. (Atomic Rats!) .  The highlight was the quiet moment when Clark and Lois share a tender moment holding hands as they watch some carolers.  In the Fourth Season, they aired “'Twas The Night Before Mxymas”, which featured a still funny Howie, Mandel as Mr. Mxyzptlk, an imp from the fifth dimension, who does a Groundhog Day-like- thing to Christmas Eve to make people lose hope.  Of course, they don’t and Clark says “No Deal.”   The full episode is available here. And Seasons Greetings is below.

The X-Files

In “How the Ghosts Stole Christmas” On Christmas Eve, Mulder and Scully go ghost-hunting in a supposedly haunted house full of Christmas spirit. On Christmas Eve, Mulder and Scully go ghost-hunting in a supposedly haunted house full of Christmas spirit. 

Here is a really crappy video clip.

  And a fun video

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Although famous for it’s Halloween Episodes (and a great Thanksgiving Episode), Christmas came to Buffy in Season  Three.  In Amends, it's Christmas time in Sunnydale and like Scrooge, Angel  is being haunted by the ghosts of his past victims, namely Jenny Calendar.  I should also note that this episode also his episode introduces us to a new formidable foe known as The First, who will later play into the final season.

Here is a crappy quality  video of the end:

And I remember entering this:

Justice League/JLU “Comfort and Joy”

In this episode of the animated Cartoon Network series, the Justice Leaguers go their separate ways to celebrate the holiday season. After saving a distant planet, the League returns in time for Christmas. Clark and J'onn visit Smallville for a Kent family Christmas, Green Lantern and Hawkgirl have a snowball fight and visit an alien bar while comparing holiday traditions, and the Flash and Ultra-Humanite have a season's fight and are forced to ally together to save orphans' toys.

And let’s not forget this goodie from Batman and the Animated Series.

 Xena

Finally, we have the Warrior Princess.  This one was creative since it is hard to have a Christmas Episode that takes place before the Birth of Christ.  But, in “A Solstice Carol" Xena and Gabrielle try to bring the warmth and spirit of the holiday season to a cold-hearted king who has outlawed the annual winter-solstice celebration.

And the song (This was before their Musical Episodes):

That’s all.  I know I skipped a whole bunch, including Dr. Who and MST2K, who have annual episodes (although I see the Dr. Who one in July).

Add you favorites in the comments section.

 Happy Holidays

Joe

In America, it’s that time of year where everyone sits in enormous amounts of traffic to over eat turkey and then fall asleep in front of the television set.  But, it is also a time to think about all those things you are thankful for.  It’s obvious to say that you are thankful for family, friends, good health and professional accomplishments.  So, instead, and in the theme of this website, I would like to go through what make Joe's Cup of Geek runneth over.   In no particular order, they are:

George Lucas 

I know he gets a lot of crap for ruining Star Wars, but let’s face it.  It’s his to ruin.  He created it.  I loved the original trilogy growing up and now I get to share my love of Star Wars with my daughter, who watches The Clone Wars.  Without Lucas, I would not have this bonding time with her.

Walt Disney

From movies, to TV to theme parks (to comics now), Disney has the most influence on my pop culture existence.  And while his famous quote says, "It all started with a mouse", in truth, it all started with man: Walt Disney.  In fact, I would guess without Mr. Disney, I would have 65% less to talk about.  (Of course, I would guess a lot of people would think that may be a good idea.).  He also is the embodiment of the persistent dreamer.  Whenever I reach a challenge, I just think about how Mr. Disney spent most of his life teetering on the edge of failure.  Despite this, he never gave up on his dreams.  Can we do any less?

Andy Schmidt’s Comics Experience 

I have gushed in many an interview about how great the classes are at Comics Experience.  So far, I have taken basic writing, advanced writing, and the hyper-technical lettering and production classes, (which I will review if I ever listen to the last class).  These classes have not only helped me to grow as a writer and a creator, but also created some great (and hopefully lasting) friendships with my classmates.  Best of all, with the addition of the creator’s workshop/book of the month club, I get to experience that Comics Experience camaraderic goodness twice a month.  In addition, in the book club, I get to read great books and discuss them with like minds and also talk to the creators behind the books.  (I mean, how cool was it to talk about Walking Dead with Robert Kirkman.)  Plus, their forum is a great place for creators to challenge themselves without fear of rejection.  For this, I am thankful.

I'm also thankful for being able to present Andy with the 2010 Haller award for Outstanding Contribution to the Comics industry.

Sky Girl and Jason

No, this isn’t a shameless promotion for Sky Girl and the Superheroic Legacy (you do have your copy right?)  Instead, I am thankful for these characters and this book because through them I have had the opportunity to meet so many great people during the book tour.  Whether it be scifi cons, comic cons, or book festivals, people were so friendly and open to learn about me and my book.  I’ve also had the pleasure of hearing from people who have read the book.  From the email from boy in San Francisco who said he was more shaken by MechApe than his recent Earthquake to the letter from the girl from Coxsacki Elementary who drew me a picture of Sky Girl, to the 40 year old man in Minnesota that compiled the list of comic book Easter eggs in the book, it really warms my heart that people would take the time to read my little story about a superheroine and her geeky best friend. So, thank you.

Inside the Magic, Comic Geek Speak, Radio KAL and far too many podcasts to mention

I travel a lot. I travel for my real job and when I don’t travel for real work, I’m on the road promoting my books at festivals and shows.  If it were not for these wonderful podcasts, I think I would go out of my mind (or at least off of the road).  Ricky Brigante keeps me in the loop on Disney, Steve Younis and Neil Bailey keep me up to date on Superman, and the CGS geeks are practically family.  I look forward to talking to them at shows.  In fact, I would never have started writing if it weren’t for CGS and their welcoming forums.  CGS also gave me the opportunity to moderate a panel with Walt and Louise Simonson, who are not only some of my favorite creators, but two of the greatest people in comics.  These podcasters don’t make money off of their show, but do it for the love of the subject matter.  A love that I share.  Thanks.

So, that is my list.

What are you thankful for?

Saw this on SciFiwire or Blastr (or whatever they call it now) and it was awesome.

Enjoy How it Should Have Ended: Terminator.  Find more movies and tv show endings at  http://www.howitshouldhaveended.com/

Comic fans know all about this great series from Robert Kirkman.  Now, the rest of the world can experience the story when it is adapted for television.

Here is the official description.

Police officer Rick Grimes wakes from a coma to find the world ravaged by a zombie apocalypse. Nearby, a small group struggles to stay alive as 'the dead' stalk them. Can Rick and the group survive the zombies and each other in this horrific new reality? The Walking Dead is a survival adventure series from the director of The Shawshank Redemption and the producer of The Terminator.

I think this has the possibility to be the next big critical hit at next year's Emmies and hope it isn't hurt by the subject matter (like BSG and Buffy were).

The Trailer for the show is below:

The first episode airs this Halloween at 10pm EST.  Grab your candy, dim the lights and see if you can figure who the title really refers to.  You can even pledge to watch the show here.

If you are interested in the comic, we did the first volume as part of our Comics Experience Book Club (along with Mr. Kirkman, himself).  A description of the event can be found here.

If you want to buy the books, they are available in trade (softcover), hardcover, and omnibus sizes.  I linked the 13 available trades (since they are the cheapest) below.

I haven't posted in a review in a while, so when I was cleaning out my closet and found this game, I thought I wold take a moment to talk about it.  I got the Marvel Scene-it from daughter for Christmas one year. My wife reluctantly agreed to play. While I enjoyed the game immensely, she was rather bored and only knew answers for the most basic questions about the movies. Yes, I let her win.

Some observations:

Unlike other editions of Scene-it, the clips usually have very little to do with the question. For example, they played the costume montage from Spider-man and then ask what is the significance of Spider-Man 252. First, this shows the level of difficulty for the non-comic fan. Second, the link between the question (which involved the first appearance of the black costume) and the clip  was not as related as I would have expected.  You did know the answer right?  

The game pieces are icons (FF symbol, Cap shield, Thor helmet, X Symbol, spider symbol) I thought they would be characters. Each game space has the picture of a character or a scene from a marvel comic, but they are so small and light, you can't tell what they are. I did like that start is called "origin."

The first time I played, there were an enormous amount of Blade questions (especially, which actors played which part) I think, if you get this game, you should shuffle the question cards. It actually became a running joke, that my wife was able to answer any question that involved an actor by saying "Wasn't in he/she in one of those Blade movies?"

A non-comic fan cannot play this game. This is unlike other Scene-It games (like TV for example) where the questions and clips are geared for both experts and novices. However, a Marvel Comic Fan will enjoy this game. It is not too hard, but not too easy. And I enjoyed watching the clips.

As a final rant, I'm not sure why they could not have done a comics Scene-It (with at least Marvel and DC). I know Peter has suggested the legalities of this would be difficult, but not insurmountable. Look at other editions of Scene-It. the Movie ones contain clips from every movie studio, the Television one contains clips from all networks and production companies, the James Bond one contains clips from Never Say Never and the original Peter Sellers Casino Royale (the only non-Broccolli made Bond Movies). The way I see it, Scene it is almost an advertisement. You watch the clip and then say, "Wow, that was a great ------, I should go buy that DVD." I don't know why they couldn't have made a game that incorporated the Marvel properties, with movies like Ghost World, HellBoy, TV shows like WitchBlade and Spawn, and all the various DC properties. OK rant over.

The good: As a comic fanboy, I really liked this game.
The Bad: As a noncomic fan, my wife hated it.
The Ugly: They wasted some great art by fading it on the board.

The game is available at the link below.