I’m writing a novel….

For National Novel Writing Month Gonna give it the old college try at least. Anyways, it's sort of a Man of Mystery Dime Store Novel thing, and you can click on the image on the left of this post, or on the NaNoWriMo Icon on the sidebar to check in. Should be updating each chapter every day, so give it a readsie. There'll be an additional chapter done today, I think, as I'm in the grove. Please, let me know what you guys think. I can use all the cheering i can get.

Oh, and friend and editor Jason Rodriguez is writing one too. It's in fact entirely his fault that I'm doing this. So blame him.

Iowa Photoset Up

Click Here for an assload of pictures of my family. View the absolute cuteness of my niece.

Picture058.jpg

Picture058.jpg Originally uploaded by Joshua Hale Fialkov.

Picture057.jpg

Picture057.jpg Originally uploaded by Joshua Hale Fialkov.

Picture056.jpg

Picture056.jpg Originally uploaded by Joshua Hale Fialkov.

The Last Night

The Last Night Originally uploaded by Joshua Hale Fialkov.

Tonight is probably the last night I'll ever spend in my hometown. Tomorrow,my folks are leaving for the Iowan Corn Fields. So. Here I sit at the Eat n Park at two in the morning,reliving a teenage past time. To think about the difference... How far I've come. Very strange feeling.

I fucking hate flying.

I fucking hate flying. Originally uploaded by Joshua Hale Fialkov.

On the Road Again

Ah, here we go. First, I've been unpostable for a bit, as I've had a bit of diabetes resurgence (which contributed to the bladder, and really made things unpleasent), and now I'm heading back East to Pittsburgh for a few days, and then onwards to Des Moines, all in an effort to help my folks move from my childhood home. So, in other words, you'll be getting lots of pictures and not much commentary.

Oh, and this week's issue of Hellblazer is fucking outstanding. Go get it.

Swamp Thing #20

I don't often do this. I've been known to pimp for friends on occassion, and pimp for writer's I idolize every once in a while as well. But, in one single issue, Josh Dysart (the other Comic Book Writing Josh who I'm frequently confused with) has been writing Swamp Thing for around a dozen or so issues now. Here's the thing about Swamp Thing. Alan Moore did such a brilliant job on his issues that NOBODY has been able to do shit with the character since. Brian K. Vaughan, easily the best writer in comics today, even struggled with Big, Green, and Gassy, and instead focused on the daughter of the earth elemental. The fact is, Alan Moore really did say everything there is to say about Swampy.

And then Dysart had to go and fuck it all up. Josh's been doing what've been easily the most interesting Swamp Thing stories in a while on the book. Focusing on peripheral characters, using Swamp Thing as sort of a foil in his own book. Again, that's really the only way to do the character justice these days.

And then there's issue 20 (which I believe came out a week or two ago.) In a single issue, Josh manages to pose a new fucking question. It's a story of delicacy, intensity, poetic brilliance, and sheer amazingness. Add that to some beautiful Richard Corben art... and, well, you have the best Swamp Thing story since Alan Moore's very first issue.

Kudos, Dysart. I'm gunning for you now.

Oh, and the book's selling okay, but not great, so, if you read this issue and love it as much as you certainly fucking will, then make sure to let your shop know to put it on your subscription or pull list or whatever. Every copy helps.

Medium

I've been slowly working my way through Season One of Medium, off some rips of the series I got from some friends. I'm actually surprised the show's been more or less ignored by the internet fandom world, cause it's damn good. It starts off a bit rough, but as it goes on it gets better and better, and the current season is actually pretty fantastic. The only thing it really lacks is an overall arc. The first season has sort of a bookend arc where the first case and the last case are tied together, but aside from that, no real over-arching anything.

That's actually not true. The slow corrosion of the family relationships because of her 'abilities' serves as that sort of throughline. Again, in season one, it's a bit too one note, husband gets frustrated, kids feel ignored, she saves the day, mix and repeat. But, again, as it goes on, it's gotten considerably stronger, and we see a true falling apart of the familial unit.

All in all, it's a pretty great take on both the cop show and the family drama, plus it's got some good supernatural fun to boot. Anyways, check it out.

Elk’s Run #6–Cover

Elk's Run #6--Cover Originally uploaded by Joshua Hale Fialkov.

Art by Datsun Tran

Komikwerks Interviews!

Man, I did this interview like... forever ago. I seriously don't even remember doing it. But, here it is, now up, and not particularly contradictory to anything going on now, so, go team! It's a quick fun read. Enjoy.

Komikwerks Interview

WordBalloon.com has me

Talking about Elk's Run, Western Tales of Terror, Future Projects, and the comic industry in general. Check it out!

http://www.wordballoon.com

For those of you who don't know, Word Balloon is a long form radio interview show hosted by John Siuntres (and his mighty radio voice) interviewing some of the best and brightest (and me) in the industry.

Now THAT’s a review.

Mark Fossem goes above and beyond with his review of the Elk's Run Bumper.

Expectations are a bitch. So often, you'll hear something praised to the skies, only to find it can't possibly inhabit those lofty heights. A band, a book, a comic: it's always an undiscovered gem that will change your life ... and it seldom does. Many times, it's the expectation itself that's to blame: Few works of art can support the crushing weight of "the best thing you're not reading/playing/watching". Buzz is all well and good, but can easily bite the hand that feeds it.

However, there are some books that do live up to the hype. Elk's Run is one of them. In fact, the breathless buzz that's circulated around this criminally underselling gem doesn't come close to describing it's greatness. The first three issues came and went with intense critical fanfare and slim sales. Even a highly-graded pimp from Entertainment Weekly couldn't get the book onto and off of comic shop shelves throughout the nation. Now the book has moved to a new publisher, Speakeasy, and has released the "story so far" in a trade edition with a Darwyn Cooke cover to try and get some sales mojo workin'. And if ever a book deserved some sales mojo, it's Elk's Run.

Click Here for the Rest

If you have a review on your blog or site, post in the comments, and we'll link to it either here or on the messageboards.

Industry Buzz

BUZZSCOPE's weekly Industry Buzz Column is up, and involves me and a slew of others bitching about Diamond and the comic market in general. It's fun!

In Celebration of…

Alfred Hitchcock Presents - Season One Picked up the box set today (after selling off a slew of CD's in order to have money to pay rent. I'm a huge anthology fan, obviously, and, secretly, Alfred Hitchcock Presents is far and away my favorite of them all. I love Twilight Zone. Really, genuinely love it. But, it relies a bit too heavily on the twists. AHP doesn't. It's about story and acting, the twists sometimes non-existent. The acting, directing, production value are all top notch.

The Box Set is beautiful, I'm amazed ast the clarity of the prints, considering their age and the medium they were shot for, they're positively crystal clear. There's some spotting here and there, and the occasional dust particles, but, really, it's just a gorgeous print, easily the same quality as most of the Special Editions of the Hitchcock Features. I wonder if Hitch made a point of print storage et cetera.

Anyways, it's dirt ass cheap, for a ton of episodes, so, go and pick it up. It'll rock your socks off.

Buzzscope on Elk’s Run

Buzzscope's Elk's Run Coverage finds Guy LeCharles Gonzalez berating people for not reading, and then interviewing me, and asking some... hard questions about the state of the industry and our place in it. It's a pretty good read. So, click the link and enjoy already!