• Wow, you know you haven’t updated in awhile when Firefox’s cache can’t remember your site’s URL. Anyhow, apologies for the vanishing act. I’d love to say I’ve been incredibly busy but that would be a lie. Busy? Sure. But not so busy I couldn’t have typed a few things here over the past two weeks. So, to make up for my laziness, let’s do some catching up, shall we?

• The outline for my first episode of SUPERNATURAL has been approved by the show’s executive producers, and the studio. Hopefully the network will give it the thumbs up early next week, and I can start working on the script. I’m really excited about this story, and would love to drop a few details here (or at least some juicy hints), but if I do I’m pretty sure Bob Singer will beat the crap out of me, so I’ll stay mum for now.

• Erech has sent me the bulk of the DESCENT pages, and this weekend I’m going to go through and do dialogue placement for the letterer. I know I’ve said it before, but I’m very happy with the way this book has turned out, and how Erech has improved as an artist over the course of the 3(!) years it’s taken him to draw it. I’m really excited to see how the book is received when it comes out, probably in early 2009.

• After waffling back and forth, it looks like I will be attending Comic-Con in San Diego this year, but for (in my best mid-80s WWF announcer voice): One Day Only! Between the day job, losing out on the Hotel Room Sweepstakes, and my unwillingness to fight Saturday crowds, I’ll only be at the con on Sunday. I’ll be taking the train down from LA that morning, and riding back around 9pm that night, which, I’m hoping, will give me enough time to at least say hello to all my friends/co-workers who I only see once a year in San Diego, and pick up a stack of comics (I’ve slacked on keeping up with stuff since the move west). There’s a small chance I’ll sign briefly at the DDP booth, and a slightly larger chance I’ll be at the Supernatural panel, but most likely I’ll just be wandering the con floor. So if you know me and want to meet up/grab lunch/complain about the comic book industry (my current favorite passtime!) drop me an e-mail and we’ll set something up.

• Reminder: Sal will be at the Wizard World Chicago Con this weekend with limited print run copies of Atomika #8 and #9, so, if you’re going, track him down a grab a set.

• Tomorrow I’m having lunch with Darran Hurlbut, my talented collaborator on BAD MEN, and I’m hoping we can set down a schedule that will see that graphic novel finished before the end of the year. That might be a bit of a stretch given that Darran’s still doing video game design work to pay the bills, but I’m keeping hope alive.

• It looks like Boussourir and I will be collaborating on a new project together, most likely a follow up to Vaistron. When, what and where you’ll be able to see it is still being sorted out, but stay tuned for more news on that front.

• Finally, now that things have settled a bit with the new gig, I’m hoping I can make good on my major comic book goal for this year: getting more creator owned work in print. Aside from the aforementioned projects, I have three I’m really focused on: my historical epic CRUSADE (which stalled due to a combination of my move and some artist issues), ILLIUM (my long time dream project which I’m dying to get re-started), and another book that would be gasp superheroic, a first for me. Hopefully one, maybe two, of those will shake out over the coming months. Fingers crossed.

• Just got back from seeing The Incredible Hulk which I actually thought was pretty good. Of course I went in with lowered expectations, and I like to see things get smashed, so your mileage may vary. Tim Roth and the movie’s director were at the theater to introduce the flick though, which was sort of cool.

• I officially joined the WGA today, I expect my picket sign and copy of Written By magazine in the mail any day now.

• This weekend’s writing project: nuthin’. I may actually have to leave the apartment. Horror.

• Comic Book Resources has posted a preview of Atomika #9, the comic won’t hit shelves until the fall (when most [if not all] of the maxi-series will be finished), but Mercury has done a limited print run for the con season. Copies will be available at this weekend’s MoCCA show, Comic-Con International in San Diego and Wizard World Chicago, so track Sal down and pick up an issue or two. And speaking of Sal, his most recent appearance on Comic Geek Speak was a classic, check it out.

• This weekend’s writing project: War of the Twins #3.

• The script for Starless Night #2 (aka the thing I should have been writing last weekend, instead of heading back to Utah) is done and submitted. 10 page fight scenes FTW!

• Reviews of the Vaistron trade paperback are starting to pop up here and there, my favorite so far comes from Graig Kent at Rackraids.com who writes (among other things):

Vaistron is, yes, extreme, and there are moments that are visually or verbally toying with bad taste, but what could have been a simple sight-gag gross-out is actually a farcical and highly enjoyable sci-fi romp in the vein of Pat Mills and Kevin O’Neill’s Marshal Law.

• Finally, I want to mention a very cool blog being written by my friend Adam Sacks. Adam moved to Malaysia for a few months to oversee an animation project, and is chronicling his adventures here, it’s a great, interesting read.

• Today is my 30th birthday, a big one. I know that because pretty much everyone I talked to today said some variation of “30, huh? That’s a big one,” in that knowing, “you’re not young any more, slugger” tone of voice. But, you know what? I’m okay with being 30. I think I’m in a decent place professionally, personally, and as a writer. Some things could be better, true, but more, I think, could be worse. And, looking back, I’ve had a pretty productive decade, with something like 200 comics in print, well north of 100,000 script pages under my belt, and a lot of lessons learned about, well, everything.

Heading into the new decade, I’m pretty well established in my comic book career, and have been very fortunate to have some good luck in Hollywood, which has lead to a cool job writing for a TV show I really enjoy. I think I’m getting better as a writer (sometimes more slowly than I’d like, but still…), I’m finding more avenues to get my own comic book work in print, and some opportunities in film and video game scripting have started to reveal themselves. If I had one complaint, it would be that since I moved to LA I haven’t had much of a social life, but I’m sure that’ll change as I get to know more people. In the meantime, I’ve got deadlines to meet, episodes to break, and cupcakes to eat. Like I said, things could be worse…

• This site was offline for the last few days because some idiot (me) let the URL expire, but we’re back now. So brace yourselves for a whole nother year of boring updates and infrequent art dumps! Let the excitement begin!

• The script for my Kung Fu Panda short has been finalized and turned in. Overall, I think the story came together fairly well, though if I never have to type the word “Noodleympics” again it’ll be too soon.

• Debating whether to fly back to Utah over the long weekend. I probably shouldn’t, since I have a D&D script due Monday, but it would be a chance to celebrate my 30th birthday (which technically isn’t until Tuesday, but still…) with the family and some old friends.

• Two weeks into my Supernatural Experience and things are going pretty smoothly I feel. I’m still climbing the TV learning curve, but think I’m slowly starting to get the hang of things. After freelancing for the last 5 years, being in a writer’s room is a change of pace, but it’s been a lot of fun so far.

• I received my copies of the Vaistron TPB this week and they look great! SLG did an amazing job with the whole package, I’m really happy with it and think everyone should buy a copy. In the world.

• This weekend’s writing project: Noodlefest! An 8 page Kung Fu Panda short for DreamWorks Tales Magazine.

• 20 pages yesterday, 20 more today (with a break in the middle to watch the Jazz beat the Lakers in overtime) and War of the Twins #2 is done, proofed and submitted. Good times.

• My first week at Supernatural is in the books, and so far so good. I’m learning a lot, and really enjoying the whole experience. And I haven’t been fired yet, which is a nice surprise.

• This weekend’s writing project: War of the Twins #2. Back to the elf mines!

• First day at the Supernatural office today. Cool place, great people, but most importantly: free Junior Mints. I’ve finally made it!

• The script for Starless Night #1 is finished and submitted. Tomorrow: GTA IV!

• Yesterday: Finished up and submitted my “epic” 13 page story for DreamWorks Tales Magazine.

• Today: Read many scripts.

• Tomorrow: Start working on the first issue of the new Starless Night adaptation, which should take me through the weekend.

I got the okay to talk about this last night at a celebratory dinner with Loflin, our agent Greg, his stalwart assistant Mark, and their significant others, so here it is: Starting next month, I’ll be joining the writing staff of the CW series Supernatural.

This doesn’t mean I’ll be leaving comics. I plan to keep working on Atomika, Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance and DreamWorks Tales Magazine, and hope to get a few more of my own things (like Descent and Bad Men) in print this year as well. But, obviously, this job marks a new direction for me career-wise, one that I’m really excited about. I think it will be a lot of fun, and I’m fully confident that, teamed with Loflin, we’re going to be able to tell some really kick ass stories.

So how did this happen? Well, there’s a Long Version and a Short Version of that story. The Short Version is: last summer Loflin and I wrote a pilot, it got us a TV agent, after the WGA strike our agent started getting us meetings, 6 weeks ago I moved to LA, last Thursday we got the offer to write on Supernatural, five days later the deal was closed, on May 1st we’re going in to set up our office, and on May 5th the work begins.

I may write up the Long Version in a future post. I’ve learned a lot from reading a number of blogs–tvinthewoods, Seriocity, aspiringtvwriter, Kung Fu Monkey, and What It’s Like–written by people who have been very candid about their experiences in the TV business, and I’d like to repay the favor by putting an account of my own television adventure online. I’m not sure anyone would learn anything from it, but you never know. It might at least give a few people hope. I mean, if this can happen to a guy who writes elf comics for a living, it can definitely happen to you.

For now though, I’ve got scripts to read, DVDs to watch, and ideas to polish, not to mention deadlines to meet. So wish me luck, watch Supernatural (it’s a great show), and check back here to see how it all plays out.

• Got the start date for my new gig today (the previously mentioned “big news”–which I’m still not sure if I can talk about in detail): May 5th. In between now and I then I have to finish three comic book scripts (one D&D, two for DreamWorks Tales), write up my first batch of ideas to pitch the new boss, watch 44 hours or so of research material, and read a bunch of scripts. Chances of me actually leaving my apartment for the next 17 days? Slim. Very slim.

• Finished off and submitted War of the Twins #1, a decent start to the new adaptation, I feel.

• Next up: it sort of depends, but probably one of the Kung Fu Panda stories I have promised, I’d like to get at least one of them done this month in between my D&D work and…other things.

• Speaking of other things, I can’t quite talk about the big news I mentioned in my previous post yet, as some details are still being worked out, but as soon as I can (hopefully before the end of the week), I’ll post a detailed rundown of what it is, and how it came about, here. The project marks what could be a really big turning point in my career, so I’m looking forward to telling everyone (by which I mean the 7 people that read this blog) about it.