Category: Uncategorized (Page 2 of 8)

After three months of looking — the Gilberts found the stratoballoon! Or rather, a local farmer did, when he saw the orange parachute start to get sucked into his combine. Thank goodness he was able to stop the machinery before the capsule got mangled too badly. Check out the report:

The Gilberts also got featured in this great news story on our local CBS affiliate. But my favorite part is, as I expected, all the beautiful, beautiful data. Mark’s written some in-depth posts outlining all the different metrics they were able to track, and plotting them in fascinating ways. He’s put together 2-d graphs of the flight data, mapped its GPS data on Google Earth, and then gives a writeup on how he got all the data into and out of the SD card that did all the logging. So cool!

Congrats, Gilberts, on a successful end to an incredible, two-year journey! I’m glad to have been a small part of it.

Over on the Fiery Studios blog, I’ve added my SPX Con Report. This is also probably a good time to mention that I’ve updated the layout of the Fiery Studios site The Fiery Studios Store now has a proper shopping cart, and you can download PDFs of all three books for less than on other sites.

You may have noticed that the JanerBlog also got a facelift recently, and now both it and the Fiery Studios site are properly responsive, meaning that you can read them easily on your phone or tablet. The Vögelein and Clockwork Game sites should also follow soon.

Go have a look!

Hey you guys, want to see how the Clockwork Game Deluxe Hardcovers are going to be made? Check out this tour of Bessenberg Bindery that I posted as an update on my Kickstarter! Jon Buller was gracious enough to let me completely geek out all over his workshop and take a ton of pictures. I have always been fascinated by seeing how things are made, so this was a real treat, and I’m excited to share it with you.

I rolled in from Texas at midnight last night. I’m pretty sure I went to work today, and I know I spent the evening unpacking and putting stuff away and looking at all the neato comics I bought or traded for. Texas was great — really warm and nice, especially considering I came home to 40F weather starting with rain, progressing to purple thunderheads and 50mph bluster, then sun, then rainbows and finally, snow. I am not making this up; Michigan’s November was at its schizophrenic best. So yeah, trotting around in my shirtsleeves for the weekend was pretty darn pleasant.

My hosts were Jeff and Tracy — two of my earliest fans — and gracious hosts they were. I was cooked for, provided with tasty food and drink and ferried around the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Jeff and Tracy were first introduced to Vogelein by Jeremy Shorr, co-owner of Titan Comics and my travel co-ordinator.

So without further ado, let’s get to the pictures!

So yeah! All in all a really great trip. I apologise that I didn’t get photos of all the ArtLoveMagickers, including Josh Boulet, who I sat next to (Sorry Josh, I suck) but things got a little crazy. Thanks again to Jeff and Tracy and Jeremy and Cecilia for making it such a great trip and for hosting me. I hope everyone had as great a time as I did!

Do you live in Dallas? Know anybody who does? If so, come on down — or send ’em on down — to Titan Comics tomorrow from noon till 11pm. I’ll be there, as will ArtLoveMagic, and it sounds like it’s going to be a really fantastic time.

Hope to see some of you there! If you’re a blogreader, or a fan, please don’t be shy about introducing yourself. I love meeting my readers!

Yay, Texas! Pictures to follow next week. Till then — I’m off to sign books and make art and eat my bodyweight in longhorn steaks.

See you soon!

Vault of Midnight release party pix, as promised!

There was a third one, and it was a really nice picture, but I had this smirk on my face that made me look like a snide jerk. So I’m not posting it.

Enjoy!

Photo one, courtesy of Steve at Vault:

Photo two, courtesy of Anne Murphy, is of me and Gwen and Jordan Marion (Jordan’s the wee tiny one):

I’m finally recuperated enough to write my SPX con-report, so here ’tis.

SPX has always been my favorite show, and this year was no exception. Paul and I and Jim Ottaviani all flew down early Friday morning and arrived just in time to set up for the show. Sales were brisk and the floor was crowded. I rather like the new hotel, as we have the benefit of all being in one big ballroom, and there’s also this really nice patio where I was able to sit and have lunch with Rich Watson on Saturday.

There’re some great restaurants nearby — we sampled two, the Vegetable Garden and a nearby Chinese Buffet. Both were outstanding, and the buffet was so good that we went back a second time.

Carla Speed McNeil quite kindly put us up at her house, ferried us back and forth, and fed us breakfast every morning while we played with her kids. It was a real treat to get to just hang out together for a while, without a table between us, or having to shout across a roomful of people. Thanks again, Carla. You rock.

Denise Sudell was also kind enough to run us to the airport at the end of the show, so we didn’t have to Metro it back for an hour and a half. Yay! Thanks to you too, Denise — and if you’re reading this, I have some great pix of you and Henry to share, but your email bounced. So write me!

The rest of the show would take a really long time to write out, so I’ll just let the pictures do the talkin’. Yay, SPX!

Hey you guys — check out this really sweet interview that Tim O’Shea did with me over at Silver Bullet Comicbooks. Tim was one of the very first people to ever interview me, lo these many years ago. He’s also one of the best people who’ve interviewed me — his questions are really thorough and inventive, and show that he not only reads my books but likes ’em. What better could you ask from an interviewer?

Go. Read. It’s good.

MT-Blacklist is such a good thing. Killed around 600 spam entries yesterday with just a few clicks. Thanks Dan, you continue to kick ass.

Still struggling with the cover. Still.

Spent 3-4 hours last night, came up with a beautiful image, but it’s still not right. Will probably use it for a pinup if I can just figure out what to do with her arms.

Sigh.