What's going on?

Having one of those weeks where there aren't enough days, nor are there anywhere close to enough hours in each day. But then again, that's pretty much every week so it's nothing new.

Om my plate right now, I've got the last four pages of 52 #36 to finish by Friday. I didn't realize I was also inking the two-page character origin in the back until the pages arrived this morning. All of Jamal's and my lead time as we start Nightwing has basically been eaten up waiting for Marv to turn in a script so now we need to start cranking on that.

I also need to turn in written plots for editorial approval, one for an issue of ROBIN that I'm writing and another for the second part of my BATMAN story. I'm putting a lot of pressure on myself to get them turned in by Friday but, realistically, I'll be happy to get one or the other done. On top of that, a few months back I was invited to pitch some Scooby Doo stories which were all approved last week. Four stories in all, two six-pagers and two eight-pagers, something else to finish up by the end of the year. Turns out Scooby Doo and crew will be paying for my Christmas shopping this year...thanks, gang!!

Anyway, DC released their solicitations for February 07 today, here's what I'll have out that month. Seems so far away but by the time one blinks...

GREEN LANTERN CORPS #9
Written by Keith Champagne
Art and cover by Patrick Gleason & Prentis Rollins

Concluding the suspenseful three-part tale “The Dark Side of Green.” The being known as The Dominator arrives on Earth with murderous intent! Halfway across the universe, only the rogue group of Green Lanterns known as The Corpse have the means to stop his destructive rampage...if only they weren’t already dead. Can anything stop The Dominator from destroying the planet? On sale February 14 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US

The cover posted above for this issue of GLC. Again, I believe those are the flat colors. I would expect the final colored version to kick much more ass.

NIGHTWING #129
Written by Marv Wolfman
Art by Jamal Igle & Keith Champagne

Cover by Michael Golden

Introducing Bride and Groom — a marriage made in hell! Two new metas plague New York as an eerie competition begins: Who can achieve the most “kills” before their wedding day? But nothing is as it seems as Bride and Groom’s citywide war affects those closest to Nightwing! On sale February 7 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US

This is Jamal and my first issue of the book. I was under the impression we were starting with a new issue #1 but I guess not. Also, I had no idea that Michael Golden was doing the covers. That's pretty freaking cool.

Back to the drawing board on this end...

Script to art comparison

As I mentioned in my last post, here's the page of script I wrote for this page of art, which has been released by DC.

It's a very benign page in that it doesn't give away ANYTHING in terms of the larger story, nothing that hasn't been revealed in interviews so far, anyway. But it's a good example of the type of thought that Pat Gleason puts into his art.

Aside from the dynamic composition, I like the fact that he didn't feel bound to what I was asking for specifically. He gave me what I wanted but wasn't afraid to do it his way and, personally, I like to see an artist make their own choices and use their own imaginations instead of being a slave to mine. I want to work with people who think independently, not who approach the job as robots. If I want something interepreted exactly the way I see it, I make a point to ask for it that way. Otherwise, I hope to be surprised when I see the pages come in.

Prentis Rollins also added a lot with his inks on this page, really solidifying the art. It's a great looking book, I'm lucky to be working with these guys.

Anyway, enough rambling from me, here's the script...

PAGE THREE
SPLASH PAGE

We’re in a large holding cell. The Dominators are looking down from inside the open partition set high up in the wall. They’re all shielding their eyes. Below them--

A Khund warrior, Uruk, is strapped to a futuristic medical table, bound at his hands, feet, and neck by chains composed of pure energy. His body is bowed outwards as he strains with all his might, every muscle about to rupture, struggling in vain to free himself from his bonds. He’s screaming, his eyes clenched tightly shut, straining to look away.

Uruk has been deliberately positioned to face a large, glowing asteroid held in position by a crane like device directly over him. Swirling, rainbow-colored waves of radiation emanate from the space rock and buffet the Khund in an unrelenting storm of cosmic energy.

It looks like it really hurts.

1- CASTE LEADER #1: Your work shows potential.


ORIGIN BOX:

Billions of years ago, the oldest and most powerful beings in existence, the Guardians of the Universe, created a police force to serve and protect every sector of space. Recruited for their bravery and courage, from planets across the universe, the best and brightest serve proudly as members of the intergalactic peacekeepers known as THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS!

TITLE: THE DARK SIDE OF GREEN (part one)

CREDITS

Writer: Keith Champagne
Penciller: Patrick Gleason
Inker: Prentis Rollins
Letterer:
Colorist:Moose Baumann
Associate editor: Michael Siglain
Dominator: Peter Tomasi

Yet another interview

In the fastest turnaround EVER, my latest interview to promote the Green Lantern Corps stuff has been posted today--in spite of the fact that I just finished forwarding the answers to the questions last night. I wasn't expecting it to be posted until December when the book ships yet, nonetheless, here it is for the world to read and make fun of...

http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=89386

One thing I noticed while looking through the art is that the colored pieces (the covers for issues #7 and #8) aren't the final colored versions. I think those are temps that were rushed through to have something to advertise in solicitations. I've seen the finished colored covers and the difference between the two versions is staggering.

The art pictured here is page three from issue #7 by the great Patrick Gleason and Prentis Rollins. I was thinking of posting the script for this page and comparing it to what they drew, maybe I'll do that later this week.

Hope you enjoy the interview if you take a few minutes to read it!

TALES FROM FALLCON

Long delayed in the telling but I had a fun time at Fallcon earlier this month.

This was the first show I've attended where I've been flown out and put up on the convention's dime and, somehow, in some strange way, it makes the whole convention process much more...pleasant. The people behind the convention treated me like gold the entire weekend and I left having had a good time at a show, probably the first time that's happened in about five years. I would chalk up that rare experience to the first class treatment from the convention people, meeting some nice fans, and getting to spend some time with The Minnesota Wrecking Crew, consisting of artists Doug Mahnke, Pat Gleason, and Shawn Moll. Aside from being more talented than I am, they're all much nicer than me.

Pat is currently drawing my Green Lantern Corps arc so it was nice to get to sit down with him and talk about the work a bit. I've been honestly blown away by his interpretation of my scripts and can't wait for the rest of the world to see how great this stuff looks.

Shawn Moll is an artist on the rise and I was glad to meet him in person after being aquainted over the Internet for a couple of years. He's breaking big right now with his work on DC's 52 and I'd be surprised if he doesn't pop up working for Marvel soon. Even though I wussed out of rolling with him and flew home a little early to get back and see my son, I'm still 100% confident I'll tap him out numerous times the next chance I get. Tremble in fear, Shawn. I did you a favor leaving early, you'd be a crippled shell of a man if I had stayed.

And Doug is...Doug. You'd be hard pressed to find a more solid guy and a better artist in this business. Plus he has the strength of ten men and lesser men tremble beneath his gaze. My next goal as a writer is to snare Doug and work together on something. I've already started weaving an intricate web to lure him in.

I also spent a little time with Gordon Purcell, who I'm planning on pitching a project with. For whatever reason, while talking to him, I got the urge to do a giant, Godzilla-like monster book together so when my schedule calms down, it's something I'll try to put together, together.

Most importantly, I got to spend some time with my friend, none other than the legendary Tom Nguyen. If it wasn't for Tom, I would have never gotten out to the show in the first place; it was due to his networking that I made the trip so...thanks, Tom.

Tom is an interesting guy. Aside from being a competetive bodybuilder, he's been inking professionally for about ten years, I'd guess. Maybe more, I'm not exactly sure. But he unabashedly HATES inking, he only does it to pay the bills until something better comes along.

'Something better' meaning pencilling (which he's very qualified to do), which is right around the corner for him. His stuff is all there; in fact, he's better than a great deal of the pencillers working right now. All it's going to take is the right editor at the right time and he'll be rocking and rolling. Check out his work and gorgeous cheesecake paintings at www.tomnguyenart.com. If you're a beauty pageant winner or have posed for Playboy, you're qualified to pose for Tom so feel free to fill out his model application.

Tom also has superhuman endurance. He literally did not sleep for two straight days, Friday through Sunday night, spending his days at the convention and his nights working feverishly to finish a painting of the model who was working his booth on Sunday. I forget her name but I know it wasn't Shannon which, ignorantly, is what I called her all day.

Two days with no sleep would ruin me but Tom didn't even seem that grouchy. If he was, he kept it on the inside.

All in all, a good time and, luckily, I was in the right place at the right time and saved a little girl from drowning in my hotel's jacuzzi the first night I was there. Anyone would have done the same thing, no big deal, but I'm thankful I happened to be there when someone was needed.

Tune in next time for some topic I haven't thought up yet.

Halloween sneak peek

Somebody got his costume in the mail today. Yes, as you can tell, this year for Halloween, I've decided to dress up like a rapidly-approaching-middle age father/artist/writer.

Jack? Oh, that's just his casual, everyday, around the house apparel. I'm happy to report that my household is crime free since he rocketed to Earth from a distant, dying planet.

check it

A story worth reading...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061013/sc_nm/environment_climate_dc

Back soon with a full write up of Fallcon last weekend...I've been so swamped I'm going to change my name to Okeefenokee.

Easy reference for you comic geeks!

Twin City Tango

For the millions of twin city Champagne fanatics out there, I will be appearing at Fallcon in Minnesota this weekend, Oct 7th and 8th. I should be easy to find; I'll be the insanely handsome and ruggedly charming man sitting next to the misogynistic, miniature Vietnamese inker known only as Tom Nguyen.

Stop by and make fun of Tom with me. It never gets old!

Favorite list

Because blogs are basically narcissistic and self indulgent by nature of their very existence, herewith I present to you the five best movies ever seen by MY eyes. I'm not a critic (although I have written six or seven screenplays which really means nothing but I wanted to mention it) but I am narcissistic and self indulgent and this is my blog so my opinion is the only one that matters.

#5: Aliens.

#4: Big Trouble in Little China

#3: Forrest Gump

#2: The Empire Strikes Back

#1: The Natural

Are there technically better or more popular movies out there? Of course there are. But these are my five favorites, in order.

Wizard Interview

What? Three posts on the blog in as many days? Who is this masked blogger??

I did a quick interview (through email) with the Wizard Magazine website to start promoting the Green Lantern Corps comics. Here's the link:

http://www.wizarduniverse.com/magazine/wizard/001713353.cfm

It's always interesting to me how these things are edited together. Not for good or bad, they just always read differently when compared to the original questions and answers. Kind of like a diet version.

Green Lantern Corps

DC Comics has released their solicitation info for the month of December and it's a busy month for Patricia Champagne's middle son. First up, we've got...

DCU INFINITE CHRISTMAS SPECIAL

Written by Greg Rucka, Judd Winick, Bill Willingham, Joe Kelly, Kelley Puckett, Keith Champagne and Ian Boothby

Art by Joe Bennett, John Byrne, Jerry Ordway, Ale Garza, Giuseppe Camuncoli and David Lopez.

Cover by Howard Porter.

Time to celebrate the holidays with the greatest heroes and rising stars of the DCU! Join Superman, Supergirl, Batwoman, Shazam, Green Lantern, Flash and Shadowpact as they spread the joy of the new season in their own special ways.This giant sized 80-page Special features stories by Greg Rucka, Judd Winick, Bill Willingham, Joe Kelly, Kelley Puckett, Keith Champagne and Ian Boothby and art by Joe Bennett, John Byrne, Jerry Ordway, Ale Garza, Giuseppe Camuncoli and David Lopez.On sale December 6 • 80 pg, FC, $4.99 US

Next on the list, my very last issue of...

FIRESTORM: THE NUCLEAR MAN #32

Written by Stuart MooreArt by Jamal Igle & Keith Champagne.

Cover by Brian Stelfreeze.

The epic story “In My Father's House" concludes as Jason Rusch must deal with the catastrophic fallout from his own actions against the mystery villain. It's an ending and a new beginning for DC's Nuclear Man!On sale December 13 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US

And finally, the one that I'm most excited about, my very first issue of...

GREEN LANTERN CORPS #7

Written by Keith Champagne.

Art by Patrick Gleason & Prentis Rollins.

Cover by Gleason & Wayne Faucher.

Part 1 of the 3-part “Dark Side of the Green,” written by Keith Champagne with art by Patrick Gleason & Prentis Rollins! What begins as a routine mission quickly spirals out of control for Guy Gardner and new recruit R’amey Holl, leading the duo to discover a secret that could shake the Corps to the core. Meanwhile, a lone Dominator has found the key to great power and plans to unleash it against the Earth!On sale December 13 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US

This is one of the writing gigs that I've been patiently waiting to be announced so I could talk about it. And I will when it gets closer to the shipping date, both here and in interviews at various websites. I'm very proud of this 3-part story, they're the best comics I've written to date (which may not say much) and, so far, Pat Gleason and Prentis Rollins have blown my mind with the art. This storyline introduces a new, much more bad ass division of the Green Lantern Corps that will, knock on wood, be spinning off into its own title next year.

It's going to be a fun month for me and will hopefully lead into a very exciting 2007.

Saturday the 14th

Sorry for the lack of updates. Lack of time and lack of anything to blog about, really. No wonder the reader tally for my blog is skydiving by the month. This blog sucks!

Anyone remember a movie called Saturday the 14th? It was a horror/comedy spoof that came out in the early 80's. I remember it being the funniest movie when I was a kid and was thinking of trying to track it down. I doubt it would hold up, most things don't after all these years. But sometimes, one is pleasantly surprised.

PRIDE GRAND PRIX!!

The finals of the PRIDE FC Absolute Grand Prix is this Sunday night and it's going to be a fantastic night of MMA fighting. As far as the main (tournament) fights go, these are my quick picks...

I’m picking Crocop over Silva. Wanderlei hasn’t been the same fighter since his loss to Mark Hunt, he’s been less aggressive and half a step slower. He looked great against Fujita but Iron Chin is a B-level fighter at best and, I think, was an opponent made for Silva to look good against.

I’ll take Nog over Barnett. This is a fight that could go either way, it really could. My heart is rooting for Barnett, I think he’s great and also very fun to watch and I love that he’s dedicated himself and gotten into top shape instead of relying on natural skill. My head picks Nog though, he’s a legend in his prime and it’s hard to bet against him.

Crocop versus Nog in the finals and I’m picking…Crocop. He killed Nog the first fight until he was taken down and tapped. I see this fight as more of the same with the exception that Mirko has improved his submission defense enough to get back to his feet and start kicking again. Plus, I’d rather see Crocop VS Fedor a second time as opposed to Nog VS Fedor the fourth.

No matter who wins any of these fights, this is going to be a great card. Aside from the tourny finals, the undercard has a few great fights, including Sergei Kharitinov VS Aleksander Emelianenko and Ricardo Arona VS Alistaire Overeem.

Can’t wait for it. I'll be glued to the TV on Sunday night.

Xena: Strange Visitor

While poking around the Dynamite Entertainment website, I noticed that they had posted about the upcoming super-sized Xena one-shot that I wrote for them. Here's the link...

http://www.dynamiteentertainment.com/htmlfiles/p-C105720.html

The book is called Xena: Strange Visitor and focuses on Xena facing off with a warrior from another planet. Think of it as Xena Versus Predator and you're on the right track. My intent was to put together a different kind of Xena story. The character lends itself well to all different kinds of situations so sometimes it's fun to explore something off the beaten path.

I've yet to see any artwork from the book but I know it's being drawn by a young artist named Noah Salonga. Attached is the black and white of the cover which I lifted from the Dynamite website. I'm not sure what the shipping date is. The website has it listed as October 2006 but that seems too early to me. I'll have to do some digging and find out what's what.

I usually learn something from every assignment I write and on this one, I learned that writing for a licensor (Universal holds the rights to Xena) can be...interesting, to say the least.

Dave Gibbons and John Byrne

Things have been more hectic than usual here at Champagne Central and the newer, more-frenzied pace of my daily existence doesn't look like it's going to let up anytime soon. Nonetheless, I've got a couple of bits of comic news to share.

Pretty much any comics fan knows of the work of Dave (Watchmen) Gibbons, one of my artistic 'heroes' in the comics biz. The guy is a legend, plain and simple. Personally, I've loooooong admired Mr. Gibbons' storytelling, composition, and clean drawing style. In fact, almost twenty years ago, a friend of mine wrote in my senior yearbook in high school that I should never give up my dreams because maybe, one day, I might reach the level of someone like Dave Gibbons.

This week, the stars have aligned nicely and an unexpected hole in my inking schedule has been filled with the opportunity to ink his work as I pitch in on a Green Lantern Corps issue that Mr. Gibbons is writing and drawing.

It's really, really hard work.

Not only is it intimidating as hell to try to translate and enhance the work of someone whom I admire so much, but his clean and precise drawing style leaves very little room for error. Artists who noodle more and throw in tons of detail give you plenty of room to hide mistakes. With Mr. Gibbons', the inks are either going to work or they're going to fail miserably. So it's been a painstaking few days and I expect the next week will be equally so as I try to do his work justice. I haven't been very happy with anything I've done over him so far but it always takes me about 10 or 11 pages of working with a penciller before I begin to feel comfortable and able to contribute something to the art. Hopefully this will be the same. I'd hate to only have one chance to ink his work and blow it miserably.

On the other side of things, I found out today that John Byrne, another of my comic book heroes, is pencilling a ten-page Green Lantern Christmas story that I wrote a month or so back. I've been campaigning for about the last year or so to get a chance to work with the brilliant Mr. Byrne and finally, all my begging and pleading to Peter Tomasi has paid off. To say that I'm thrilled is a huge understatement. There's only one other person in comics whose work has been as influential to me as Mr. Byrne's has and, off the top of my head, I can't think of anyone who has produced more quality comics for as long and as consistently as John has. X-Men, Superman, Fantastic Four...there's literally nothing he hasn't OWNED at one time or another. In the list of all-time great artists, Mr. Byrne is easily in the top five with plenty of room to spare.

And now he's drawing something I wrote. It's literally a dream come true and, on top of everything else, I'm inking it too.

What a great week in my little comics world, that's all I can say.

Fanboy Planet

The fine folks over at www.fanboyplanet.com thought it would be a good idea for me to fill in for one of their regular columnists this week and write a report for WWE's RAW on Monday.

So I did.

Feel free to click the link above and check it out.

Snakes on a Plane

OK, so...am I crazy or was Snakes On A Plane actually really good?

I caught a matinee yesterday which I had been advised against, mainly because I was told that the way to see the movie was with an enthusiastic crowd, not just a few random people scattered throughout the theater in the middle of an afternoon. I don't see what the difference would have been though, because I loved it anyway.

Is it a silly B-movie? Absolutely. But I thought it was pretty much the king of silly B-movies. People have been saying it's so bad, it's good but I actually thought it was goodgood.It's a solid movie that hits all the right notes. It got me cringing in my seat a few times.

It followed the basic rule for these types of action/thriller movies: Whenever you think things can't get worse, they get worse. Starting to get a handle on the six million snakes slithering around the plane? Too bad because here comes the giant 30 foot python, baby! Think you're out of the woods once and for all? Too bad, your pilot just died. And so on and so on.

All in all, a really entertaining way to spend a couple of hours. Anyone else see it?

Ed Brubaker

Not much to blog about. I still can't publicly talk about any of my upcoming writing gigs, probably not for another month or so until solicitations begin to filter out. Come to think of it, I still can't seem to spell 'publicly', either. In the meantime, I thought I'd recommend Daredevil for anyone looking for a good comic to read.

I lost interest in Daredevil about halfway through Bendis' run; not that it was bad, it just wasn't floating my cup of tea anymore. I buy very few comics, I can't keep up with my comps as it is and I'm sort of spoiled that way. But, based on Ed Brubaker's work on Gotham Central and Captain America, I made a note to pick up Daredevil when he started writing it.

So I'd say it's currently my favorite book. I'm probably an issue or two behind everyone else because I don't get to the comic shop very often, either. But I'm finding the current storyline, with Matt Murdock and the Kingpin in jail, to be very enjoyable. It's just a well written comic with solid art and storytelling by Michael Lark and his inker, who's name I can't think of. Stefano, I think?

Plus, although I haven't read the issue yet, I've heard through the grapevine that Iron Fist starts to play a major role in the story. The Fist is my favorite Marvel Comics character so I'm excited to see him used in important fashion and am even more looking forward to the upcoming Iron Fist series...written by Ed Brubaker.

Good stuff, check it out.

more art

I started doing a right-handed version of the below sketch but got tired of using a pencil. So I just started inking and this is what came out.

Interesting time to work in comics right now. Lots of changes on the horizon, long term plans being made, political manuevering behind the scenes. I'm sort of a bystander watching things change on what seems to be almost a daily basis.

Vague but interesting nonetheless.

The inks

And here are the inks.

I ended up inking this straight on the piece of copy paper with a brush because my printer is dry. I probably would have noodled and detailed more with a nib but the paper is flimsy and would get torn to shreds by the penpoint. So I stuck soley to brush and it is what it is.

I can't say it's a great drawing but hey, I give myself credit for finishing it. I try to get away from my drawing board as much as possible when I'm not working. That's why I look forward to the day when (knock on wood) I can write full-time. It'll be nice to be able to get back to producing artwork for fun again, as a hobby. As it is now, it just feels like more work.

Hope you liked this little experiment. Don't know what it really proves, except that I suck equally at drawing with either one of my hands.

Keith

Left Handed Sketch

And here's the sketch. Altogether, it took about 8 minutes to rough it out.

I drew it on a piece of copy paper so the next step will be bluelining it in photoshop and printing it out on a sturdier piece of bristol board for inking.

I definitely don't have the fine motor control with my left hand that I do with my right, meaning this is even more loosely drawn than usual. So it seems like I can hit the broad strokes but I don't think I could actually finish this drawing in pencil, not with my left hand. At least not yet.

The akward thing about trying to draw with my opposite hand is approaching the paper from the opposite angle. It takes a little getting used to as everything in my office is configured to a right hand. Even my drawing table lamp casts a shadow on the paper from my hand.

It's a fun little experiment though even though it looks rather crapadelic.

Tune in shortly for the finished inks.

Keith