In a follow-up to my post about being recognized in public, it happened again yesterday morning as I was walking to Tim Hortons (shut up). A guy on a bike stopped and asked if I was Chip Zdarsky. I said I was and that I was on my way to get “my Batman juice” so I could “write more Batman.” The conversation fizzled out pretty quickly after that and he biked away, clearly questioning why he stopped in the first place.
Never meet your heroes (or idiots who happen to be writing Batman).
Speaking of Batman, our big finale to the DARK PRISONS arc is finally here! Batman #148 is thirty pages of Jorge and Tomeu goodness and we couldn’t be prouder. Jorge was incredibly excited to draw this issue and you can see it on every page. It’s the big fight with this guy!
Um, “cure Gotham?” If that happens Batman will be out of a job! This guy needs to be stopped!!
In DESIGN NEWS, I’m very excited for our first DAREDEVIL OMNIBUS to come out next month. But, even better, the second one will be out in January, giving us this snazzy looking pair!
Rafael De Latorre handled art duties on our second volume cover, mirroring what Julian Tedesco did on our first one. I’m so glad this project came together so nicely and that Marvel let me handle design and direction on these bad boys. They’re gonna be big-ass classy bricks, I tell ya.
My second bit of DESIGN NEWS is that I worked on the cover design for our upcoming AVENGERS: TWILIGHT collection!
It’s out in August! Just look for Cap’s grizzled face! Grr!
One of the cool things about working in comics is getting art from heroes of yours (see: Alex Ross above). On TIME WAITS, David and I have been throwing names out there who are on our “dream artist” lists to do cover art. There are some fun ones coming up, but the first on the list for both of us was Sean Phillips. And he said yes! And then delivered this cool-ass cover:
Sometimes comics can be fun?!
In SAD NEWS, I’ve unfortunately had to cancel my Raleigh convention appearance next month. It turns out I have family commitments that weekend. It also turns out I have a family?? I’ll make it up to you, Raleigh! I swear!!
And finally, this is fun! MEN’S HEALTH asked a bunch of wildly unhealthy comic book creators for their comics / graphic novel picks! A really nice collection of work in one handy place! So go and learn about comics for once, ya dummy!!
My favourite part was Kieron shouting out me and Matt for SEX CRIMINALS and then me and Matt NOT shouting him out.
Okay! Bye!
UPCOMING BOOKS
BATMAN #148 — June 4
NEWBURN VOL 2 — June 12
THE WHISPER QUEEN #2 — June 12
BATMAN #149 — June 18
BATMAN/CATWOMAN: THE GOTHAM WAR—June 25
BATMAN #150 — July 3
PUBLIC DOMAIN #6 — July 3
DAREDEVIL OMNIBUS VOL 1 —July 9
THE DOMAIN #1 — July 10
THE WHISPER QUEEN #3 — July 10
PUBLIC DOMAIN #7 — Aug 7
BATMAN #151 — Aug 7
THE DOMAIN #2 — Aug 14
BATMAN: THE BAT-MAN OF GOTHAM TPB—Aug 20
AVENGER: TWILIGHT TPB —Aug 27
BATMAN: THE JOKER YEAR ONE — Sept 10
TIME WAITS #1 — Sept 11
CREEPSHOW VOL 3 #1 — Sept 25
DAREDEVIL OMNIBUS VOL 2 —Jan 1
THE ALL-NIGHTER VOL 3 — Jan 21
UPCOMING SIGNINGS
ROSE CITY COMIC CON (Portland) — Sept 6-8
I am first here!! First time for everything
…Hortons…really?
And wow, we are at the end of Dark Prisons already? How many issues has it been now? Four, five? Normally there’s 6 to an arc, and for some reason I feel like we haven’t reached even 5 yet.
Those dual cover omnis for DD look amazing! You have any input or was that all the artists call?
Avengers Twilight was my surprise favorite mini of the year hands down. And like I said before, is all the reason I need to want to see you write an ongoing avengers team book at some point in the future. Can’t wait to get the collected series!
And you have family? I always assumed u were a celibate recluse out in the woods, surviving by writing comics for money and purifying and drinking urine, and hunting elk down all Rambo-style…with your new car of course. But hey, nice to know there’s more of the zdarsky bloodline out there…they all cut from the same cloth as you?
Looking forward to seeing what else u have planned for us this year, Chip!