2010 World Cup (of Eating) coming soon!

I pretty much abandoned this blog when I joined Facebook in 2008. But it makes an ideal place to post my daily updates on the World Cup-- and what I'm eating and drinking and thinking about while watching it-- as I did in 2006.

Witty observations, odd photos, and updates on the craziness surrounding the month-long event: that's what you can expect.

The 2006 "Van's World Cup of Eating" blog appears to be lost forever, which is sad. (I worked hard on that thing-- and it was funny!) But I'll do my best to make this year's edition even better.

Stay tuned! We're just 2 1/2 months away from the start of my "Thirty Days' Countdown!"

Comics of 2008

I have posted my thoughts on the best and worst comics of 2008 on the AvengersAssemble! board:

http://vplexico.proboards60.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=jarvis08&thread=2245

25 Favorite Movies

I haven't done this in a while, so here we go:

Van's Top 25 Movies - Updated December 2008

1. Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
2. Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
3. Star Wars
4. Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World
5. Iron Man
6. Casablanca
7. Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
8. The 13th Warrior
9. Serenity
10. Star Trek: The Motion Picture
11. V for Vendetta
12. Babe
13. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
14. The Crow
15. Die Hard
16. Gladiator
17. Dead Again
18. Ocean's 11 (2001)
19. Payback
20. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
21. LA Confidential
22. Return of the Jedi
23. The Empire Strikes Back
24. Henry V
25. Highlander

Recently pushed off Top 25 List:

Pulp Fiction
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Chocolat
X-Men 2
Goodfellas
Captain Blood

Secret New Project Coming...! (3 of 3)

Aaaaaannnnd finally-- picture #3.

Who is Raven?? What's this all about??

More to come...

Secret New Project Coming...! (2 of 3)

Another mystery figure... novels coming in 2009...!

Secret New Project Coming...! (1 of 3)

Who is this??

More coming tomorrow...

Kull and Solomon Kane

As much as I like the character of Solomon Kane-- the Puritan crusader who wanders the Earth, rapier and pistol at the ready -- better than any of R E Howard's other creations, I haven't enjoyed the Dark Horse comic as much as I'd hoped. It's seemed a bit muddled to me, and the pacing has been off. The art is close enough to what I'd want for the property, but it's not always clear enough as to what's going on.

Meanwhile, I've never cared much at all about Kull, the barbarian who stole a kingdom (and who mainly served as an early template for Conan's later career)...

But I picked up KULL #1 this week and found I really enjoyed it. It's a lot more in the style of what I expected the new/relaunched Howard properties from DH to be like. The writing is crisp and fast-paced and the art is perfectly suited to the character and the world.

If you like the classic Howard properties, give this one a try. Meanwhile, I hope SOLOMON KANE improves soon.

SENTINELS: ALTERNATE VISIONS

Here's a thumbnail of the preliminary cover for SENTINELS: ALTERNATE VISIONS.

The cover art is by Danny Wall (who was book designer for ASSEMBLED!), doing a riff (at my request) off of Don Heck's classic Avengers #45 cover.

This will be a regular-sized trade paperback that will contain all the short stories that have previously only appeared in the big Widescreen hardcover... plus two new Sentinels-related stories by Adrian Watts and David Wright... and two new Sentinels stories by me (Van) that bridge the gap between Sentinels volumes three and four.

That means you get stories by Ian Watson, Ron Fortier, Bobby Nash, Wayne Skiver, and more-- plus some of the great artwork that also appeared in the hardcover.

This book is tentatively scheduled for early 2009! More info as it becomes available, posted here and at the Sentinels site: http://www.whiterocketbooks.com/sentinels

HOW SOCCER EXPLAINS THE WORLD

If you're into European or world soccer, and are looking to choose a team to support, but you don't know much at all about the socio-political situations surrounding each team... and you care at all about history, or at least you care at all about the perceptions of those around you who *know* the history of these teams... Then you need to get a copy of Franklin Foer's HOW SOCCER EXPLAINS THE WORLD and read it cover to cover.

I wish I had before I chose the teams I'd follow!

Operating mostly on ignorance and what little I gathered from watching Setanta and FSC, reading a few FOUR FOUR TWO magazines and surfing the Web, I somewhat arbitrarily decided I liked the following clubs, among others: Chelsea (England), Real Madrid (Spain), Inter Milan (Italy), and Rangers (Scotland). Likewise I decided I did *not* like, among others, Barcelona.

Now that I have read most of Foer's book, I feel sort of foolish.

Because now I am mostly convinced that I should support Barcelona and hate Real Madrid... that I should stay as far away from Rangers (and Celtic, too, for that matter) as possible... and that I never, ever should have chosen Chelsea as my favorite club of all.
And this is not just because of Foer arguing in favor of his personal preferences--though he does, to a degree. It's because of the *history* of these clubs that he lays out in very clear and persuasive fashion.

England: Chelsea, as it turns out, were long the favored team of English neo-Nazis and crazy fascist bastards. Their squads of savage hooligans (such as the Chelsea Headhunters) left the other English teams' hooligans in the dust. The only saving grace for me is that this seems to have receded in recent years, and of course today the club is owned by a Russian Jew. So maybe I can keep my Chelsea jerseys and continue to support the Blues in good conscience, anyway.

Scotland: Rangers and Celtic, who were both appealing to me as a (part) Scotsman, turn out to have hordes of crazy fanatics on both sides, singing about being "up to their knees" in each other's blood and chanting horrendous things about the Pope, for example. After reading the chapter on Rangers and Celtic, my revulsion at their religious conflict was such that I want nothing to do with either of these Scottish league powers.

Italy: I'm not sure about Inter Milan, but Foer lays out a clear case that I did better choosing them than going with either of the more popular sides in Italy. Juventus essentially is owned by the Fiat car company and has been involved in corrupt government manipulation for decades. AC Milan has served mainly as a political platform for the apparently very corrupt Italian premier (Berlusconi). Neither comes off very well in the book.

Spain: And finally, and possibly worst of all, Real Madrid and Barcelona. I chose Real Madrid last year as my Liga team after watching replays of the previous season on Gol TV and watching them chase down Barcelona and win the title on the last day. They played with panache and their defense included the captain of the World Cup champions, Fabio Cannavaro--and Italy is my (non-US) national team. So I got a Madrid Cannavaro jersey.

Whoops.

First there's the history. Turns out that Madrid were the team of Franco and the Castillian fascists, while Barcelona have always been more sophisticated and cosmopolitan. Barca's team colors come from the French Revolutionary flag. By contrast, Madrid seems extremely unsavory. Yikes. Strike one on Madrid!

Also turns out that Madrid are the Yankees and Barcelona are the Red Sox. And since I'm an Auburn (not Alabama) fan and a Red Sox (not Yankees) fan, and thus tend to associate myself with the more "underdog" team in a rivalry... clearly I had no business going with Madrid. Strike two on Madrid.

And finally, Barcelona is the only side in Europe to not sell the front of their jerseys for money-- when they finally put something on the front, it was UNICEF. Now that's cool. They're cosmopolitan and proudly Catalan, but not violently so (unlike, say, the Basques). They have a team museum but it's filled with art, not just shoes and soccer balls and trophies. In fact, during the Spanish Civil War, Franco's guys bombed the Barcelona museum to destroy Barca's trophies. Strike three on Madrid!

I won't drop Chelsea, and Inter survived this book intact, but I won't be buying that Rangers jersey now... and the Madrid jersey may go in the trash. Certainly I'm switching to Barca and getting one of their red and blue jerseys asap.

Happy Breakaway Day!

Happy Breakaway Day, everyone!

Actually, we're at Breakaway + 9 years, but who's counting? :-)

Updated DragonCon Schedule

Now with a Reading added.

Fri 04:00 pm M301 - M304 Dragon*AutoGraph 1 Hour AUTO
Fri 05:30 pm International North Politics in SF 1 Hour SFLIT
Fri 08:30 pm Fairlie Communication from Beyond 1 Hour SFLIT

Sat 10:00 am Fairlie Tolkien & Lewis Breakfast Roundtable 1 Hour SFLIT
Sat 02:30 pm Greenbriar The Dark Tower 1 Hour SFLIT
Sat 04:00 pm Williams Dragon*Reading: Van Allen Plexico 1 Hour READ
Sat 05:30 pm L508 Marvel vs DC Jeopardy 1 Hour COMICS
Sat 10:00 pm Fairlie Attack of Dead Author's Society 1 Hour SFLIT

Sun 10:00 am Greenbriar Small Press & Self-Publishing 1 Hour SFLIT
Sun 01:00 pm A703 Planet of the Apes 40th Anniversary 1 Hour CLSF
Sun 02:30 pm A703 What happened to the Sci-Fi Channel? 1 Hour CLSF
Sun 04:00 pm Greenbriar SF & Fantasy Jeopardy 1 Hour SFLIT
Sun 05:30 pm A703 King Kong: 75th Anniversary 1 Hour CLSF
Sun 07:00 pm Fairlie Look at All the Purty Pictures 1 Hour SFLIT

Mon 10:00 am Fairlie Roger Zelazny: Face of the New Wave 1 Hour SFLIT
Mon 11:30 am Greenbriar Tales of Dragaera 1 Hour SFLIT

Last year's POLITICS IN SF panel-- me vs Ringo vs Kratman, et al

A blast from the (recent) past, to set the stage for this year's upcoming Round Three!

From the POLITICS IN SF panel at DragonCon 2007:

Dragon Con schedule 2008

Here's my tentative schedule for Dragon*Con:

http://permutedpress.com/smf/index.php?topic=3907.0

Charles Tan interviews Matt Staggs

Matt Staggs, my publicist for Swarm Press, gave me (and my stable-mates) a mention near the end of his interview with Charles Tan:

http://charles-tan.blogspot.com/2008/08/feature-interview-with-matt-staggs.html

Thanks, Matt!

New SENTINELS web site!

I've set up a new page just for the SENTINELS, complete with the short story I wrote for A THOUSAND FACES magazine and all of Chris Kohler's interior art for books 1 and 2.

http://www.whiterocketbooks.com/sentinels/

Beware! This story is set sometime after the events of book 3, so if you haven't read the first trilogy yet, you may want to do so before doing anything more than just looking at Chris's art!

Best Superhero Movie and TV Show Ever?

SFSignal.com asked me the question: "What was the best Superhero movie and TV show ever?" My answer, along with those of other writers in related genres, can be found here:

http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/006879.html

Mars is back underway

Okay, after having real trouble finding time or energy to work on Mars McCoy, it is now back underway-- in a big way. The book is nearly half-done, but most of the serious plotting work is finished-- now it only remains to write the thing down.

My goal is to have Mars wrapped up by the end of September. We shall see.

Comicon PULSE Interview

Jen at Comicon's THE PULSE interviewed me this week about the new SENTINELS editions from Swarm Press:

http://www.comicon.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=36;t=007280

More Chris Kohler art from SENTINELS 3: APOCALYPSE RISING!

Here's another preview to whet your appetite for the carnage that is to come in SENTINELS (vol. 3): APOCALYPSE RISING!



And is this not awesome??

I asked Chris to show the "Warlord in Red" and the regular (blue) Warlord locked in fierce battle in an alien desert, while Francisco lurks, awaiting the outcome, his dagger at the ready. In the background is the latest machine created by the Warlord-- which can't be good at all for the Earth!

Chris used Rob Davis's recent sketch of the Warlord and Francisco as models for two of the characters, with the Jiminez design of the original Warlord for the other, so you can tell them apart in black & white. A nice touch!

Quick Thoughts on HeroesCon 2008

Some quick thoughts on HeroesCon 2008:

* The main event: We had a pretty good crowd for the primary thing I flew out there for: the "Avengers Assembled!" panel on Saturday at 3 pm-- especially considering that it started out listed as Friday, then changed to Sunday, and finally ended up on Saturday. The fact that anyone figured out where and when it was held (including me) was a miracle.

I led a general "Avengers" discussion for about a half hour, touching on topics such as Bendis, Iron Man, Secret Invasion, the way almost all of the Marvel line is now one big story, and so on. Then I talked about the ASSEMBLED! book for a few minutes, by which time the HERO Initiative rep had arrived. He talked briefly about what the charity does, and then I presented him with a check for $1,200.00 for the profits the book has earned to date.

Here's a photo of the check presentation: http://plexico.blogspot.com/

FWIW: I ended up stuffing the big check in the trash. After, of course, handing over a real, normal-sized one. :-)

* In other news: The con was okay, but not as good (IMO) as the other two I attended. Seemed like a smaller crowd, and folks didn't much want to spend money (probably trying to save enough to be able to buy gas to drive home!) Guy Davis was right across from me and had a pretty long line all weekend, and indeed it seemed most folks were spending what they had on sketches and art commissions.

* Chuck at ComicsRelated.com interviewed me as part of his daily podcast series from the con.
My episode is here:http://www.comicrelated.com/audio/relatedrecap011.html
I haven't heard it yet, so I'm sure I'll sound ridiculous. Plus, the first take was better, but Chuck discovered halfway through that his high-tech device wasn't recording! So we had to do it over. Oh well!

* I did sell twelve copies of ASSEMBLED!, including eight at my table over the course of the weekend and four more at the panel. Toss in several copies of the other books and it was a decent show-- about a hundred bucks below my last few cons' average, but since this was a comics convention and folks appeared scared off by all the *text* in the books, I guess that's not bad.

Several folks came up to get the copies they already had signed, which was pretty cool. Lavish praise was handed out for all the contributors, so you folks who wrote the chapters should feel... um... lavishly praised! :-)

* I ran into Two Morrows Publishing's Eric Nolen-Weathington, an acquaintance of mine from a few other convention panels over the last few years, and we discussed a couple of interesting ideas I'll keep under wraps for now. We'll see what comes of it.

* Along similar lines-- One guy who came up to my table had a *thick* book he'd done himself-- a comprehensive history of the minor villains of the DC Universe, I think. He gave me a copy. It has tons of illustrations on every page and is like 600 pages long. He wants to publish it but is afraid of getting sued by DC. He was wondering how we managed not to get sued by Marvel. I said: 1) Almost no pics; 2) profits for a comics-related charity, and 3) probably small-beans enough not to attract the wrong kind of notice. Plus it's a general commentary book, and lots of those get published all the time.

I encountered quite a few other folks of both recent and long-time acquaintance, from Chuck at Comics Related to the "Likely Stories" gang to Danielle and a couple of other DragonCon folks, and many more (including a small but growing group of individual folks who seem to run into me at every convention and have read all the Sentinels books so far-- now that is cool!).

My table-neighbors were Kent Archer and his girlfriend; Kent is the inker of DR McNINJA, and he had quite a few fans coming up to get sketches and buy books over the weekend (I picked up a copy myself). They were super-nice-- they'd driven all the way from Boston!-- and it was great having them to talk with.

The one thing I always feel aggravated about at HeroesCon is that I still don't have an actual *comic book* of the Sentinels to sell. Dozens of people came up, looked very excited, flipped open WARLORD, and walked away upon encountering *text*. *sigh* But I'm working on addressing that very situation presently. Yes, a Sentinels comic book may be coming in the next few months. We shall see.

All in all: a decently fun weekend, some okay sales, and lots of friends and acquaintances to chat with. Not too bad a weekend.