Spider-Man: Fear Itself (redux)

A bit late on my part, but there's a nice writeup here on the special, coming January 7th.

As a bonus, the Marvel writer has provided covers of previous Spidey/Man-Thing teamups.

Tribbles

So Andy Schmidt, newly-minted editor of the IDW Star Trek line, was sitting in my "office" at Comicon San Diego* and said, "They want me to do more Alien Spotlights. They want a Tribbles Special, for God's sake!"

So I said, "I want to pitch you the Tribbles Special."

Tribbles are hard to spotlight because they don't do much except trill, breed, purr, and die just in time to fall all over Captain Kirk. But they mean well, and as soon as I came up with the idea of a whole planet full of the things, the story clicked into place.

Andy (pictured above) liked the idea, and so did Paramount. It was a tricky script to write because there are basically three groups of characters, all with their own character arcs, packed into 22 pages. There's a human freighter crew that really doesn't look for trouble the way Starfleet does; a Klingon crew that's a bit more rundown than the unstoppable Imperial fighting forces we're used to seeing; and, of course, the tribbles -- billions of them. I like the way it came out, and Mike Hawthorne (THE UN-MEN) is doing a great job on the art...not too cartoony, not too straight. I'll post some soon.

STAR TREK ALIEN SPOTLIGHT: TRIBBLES -- or, as I call it, "The Trouble with Humanoids" -- comes out in March. I hope you'll give it a try.

Photo nicked from here.

*Not on your life. Buy me a drink next year.

Amazing Spider-Man Family #3

I've got a five-page story in this issue, out tomorrow (Wednesday). It's called "Bridge and Tunnel," which will mean something to the New Yorkers and -- he abruptly realized -- probably sound kind of dull to everyone else. Spider-Man must escape from the remote hell that is: Brooklyn! (And remember, he's from Queens.)

Above: a couple of uninked panels by Val Semeiks, who did a terrific job.

Update: Also in this issue is the debut of The Amazing Spider-Ma'am, written by my very cool neighbor Abby Denson and drawn by Colleen Coover! Details here.

Sunday Thoughts

- We're getting ready to launch a really cool behind-the-scenes production blog on one of my new projects.

- I may have books tied in (vaguely) to two of next year's biggest films. Neither title has been announced yet.

- I'm just finishing up a WOLVERINE script that might be the best thing I've written. That one hasn't been announced, either.

More on all as it happens!

Iron Man: With Iron Hands trade paperback

This one slipped by me: In January, along with my one-shot special SPIDER-MAN: FEAR ITSELF, Marvel will collect my recent Iron Man storyline into the one-volume trade paperback WITH IRON HANDS. Two threats -- one from Tony Stark's past, the other stemming directly out of his present role as Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. -- converge on Iron Man as he leads his elite Alpha Team on a mission to stop an Eastern European nuclear terrorist.

This will, sadly, be the final volume of DIRECTOR OF S.H.I.E.L.D. When regular writers Daniel and Charles Knauf were unable to return to the book, Marvel decided to end the title, replacing it with the upcoming WAR MACHINE book and allowing the new INVINCIBLE IRON MAN series to carry on the red and gold tradition. In any case, I loved this story -- I tried to give S.H.I.E.L.D. its own military protocols and jargon, while keeping Iron Man himself in constant motion. The way I see the character, if he's not using both his brain and his technological strength every waking moment, he gets antsy. He needs to be doing good, as he sees it...even though things don't always work out as planned.

IRON MAN: DIRECTOR OF S.H.I.E.L.D. - WITH IRON HANDS is scheduled for release the week of January 18, 2009. Here are the first two pages of the story, as published this past year in IRON MAN: DoS #29.

Some Things That Happened

• The wonderfully gracious and talented Colleen Doran notes THE NIGHTMARE FACTORY Volume 1's recent award, and says unduly nice things about me.

• The also-gracious Tim O'Shea posts an interview with me and Joe Harris about Volume 2.

• And, uh, something else nice too.

Award for Nightmare Factory Volume One

Just got the news: The first volume of THE NIGHTMARE FACTORY, published last year, just won the prestigious International Horror Guild Award for "Best Illustrated Narrative."

NIGHTMARE FACTORY is a class act. Congratulations to my talented cohorts: Colleen Doran, Ben Templesmith, Joe Harris, Michael Gaydos, Ted McKeever, and editor Heidi "My Name Is Bruce" Macdonald. UPDATE: And, of course, Fox Atomic ed-in-chief Eric Lieb, who started it all and whom I stupidly forgot earlier.

Thanks to Tim Lucas's Video Watchblog for the info, and congratulations to him for his own award.