And a sad farewell to Harvey Korman, utterer of one of my favorite movie lines of all time — above, as Hedy ("That's Hedley!") Lamarr in Blazing Saddles — and member of the Carol Burnett (and later, Mama's Family) ensemble. He'll be missed!

A day delayed by Memorial Day in the States, "Exalted" begins Thursday in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic #29. It's sure to provoke some discussion — come back here in a few days and I should have some notes online on the issue!

And we started our second storyline last week over on Sword & Sarcasm. Drop in and put some screwball comedy into your day!

Update: And Dark Times #11 is out today as well, with the next chapter of "Vector!" Pick it up — there's a special guest star!

A first for me on Thursday — outside a drive-in, I’ve never seen two movies in a theater back-to-back before. Oh, there was the time I snuck out of the regrettable Troop Beverly Hills halfway through to catch the second half of Aliens again. And that odd summer I saw Batman 10 times included seeing it twice in one day, but that was at different theaters with different people. But this time, I also had small connections of sorts with both films.

I finally saw Iron Man, and it was definitely as advertised. I echo here all the plaudits it’s received. And it was a kick to see Christine Everhart, one of the characters from “The Best Defense,” on the screen; if I’d known Hollywood would be interested, I’d have given her a larger role. (As it was, she appeared on exactly two pages of #75!)

Another curiosity: as a midweek morning showing at a multiplex, my party was the only one in the theater, making it like a private screening room (with way too many seats). That became a problem when seconds after the last line of the film, the projectionist cut off the sound! So while I’ve heard about the teaser at the end of the film, we didn’t stay for it. (Could have been worse. Years ago seeing Short Time — I think out of loyalty to Matt Frewer — I was the only one in the theater, and the projectionist stopped the film entirely!)

And then there was, of course, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which I wrote the comics adaptation for. (I now have some thoughts online for the graphic novel and the individual issues.) Now, I’ve certainly gone to movies knowing what to expect before — having read novelizations, comics adaptations, or the source material beforehand. I’m sure we all have. But this was definitely different, being a story that’s existed in my mind’s eye for much of a year. I knew what a lot of things would look like, but not everything — and so there were still many elements of surprise for me. Maybe more, since I was primed to look deeper at the details going past.

The film? Enjoyed it very much, of course — I’m pleased to have seen all of the Indy films first-run in the theater, and this is a worthy addition. I was on a serious Indy kick in the mid-1980s, between the movies, comics, and role-playing game, so this was fun to be a part of. (A minor blip came later, when a college roommate with $2 to his name insisted on watching Temple of Doom 12 times in a 24-hour period on my TV during finals. That took a while to get over!)

I used to see a lot of movies in the theater — obviously, given that Summer of Batman — but honestly, I think this time was the first since Spider-Man 3, a year ago. That’s a stunning thought, and a situation to be remedied.

OK, another busy week. This week sees the release of Luke Ross' and my adaptation of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, both the graphic novel compilation and first issue of the periodical version of the adaptation. Oh, and I hear there's a movie coming out, too!

Technically, these comics are street-dating on Thursday, same as the movie release — so I do not know what's available where and when. I can say that I won't be posting much in the way of notes until I actually see the movie, myself.

In the meantime, enjoy the picture!

And the final Knights of the Old Republic issue of Vector, #28, arrives in stores this week, kicking off the next chapter in Dark Times #11 later this month and setting up a year of galaxy-shaking stories in the Knights era, to boot! Production notes back here, soon -- be there or be quadrilateral!

And I don't have photos from the trio of appearances earlier this month to post, but I had a great time at all three. Next — an awful lot of work, punctuated by a very quick dash to Wizard World Chicago at the end of June.

5/18 update: Crazy-busy, but there be notes there.

I was going to put this and a number of overdue notes into a single post, but this deserves an entry — after an extended break to work on Force Unleashed, artist Brian Ching returns to  Knights of the Old Republic with  #32, the first part of "Vindication!"

It's his first issue since #16 — he drew the cover, as well. It's just the start of the fun to come in the next batch of stories, as "Vector" proves to upset plans all around the galaxy — Jedi and Mandalorian alike!

OK, pretty busy weekend coming up here.

First off, I'll be attending the NEWFOD convention, EgoCon, Saturday morning. That's in the Elizabeth Inn in Plover, Wisconsin. Then in the afternoon, it's up to Galaxy Comics in downtown Stevens Point for my third annual Free Comic Book Day signing there.
Then on Sunday I'll be headed down to Oconomowoc to appear at the first Oconocon with Chuck Fiala, my artist on Sword & Sarcasm. It'll be our first joint appearance since we started the strip.

When, you might ask, will I get a chance to see Iron Man? Good question! Not this busy weekend, for sure. But I have posted the Iron Man sales history over on my Comichron site for those interested. I should also like to thank Alan Kistler for picking "The Best Defense" for his list of 10 Must Read Iron Man Stories over on ComicMix. And in answer to his question posted elsewhere, no, I don't know when or if that'll appear as a trade paperback.  It is kind of tricky in that the ending makes it pretty hard to put out there without the seven issues that follow, so that's an additional commitment. Still, who knows? I'd sure like to see it, of course!

The Diamond shipping chart says this is the week for not one, not two, but three Star Wars comics — including Knights of the Old Republic #27, the third part of "Vector." Notes on the issue to come — after I recover a bit from New York. Well, maybe more than a bit!

4/28 Update: And now the notes are online. Enjoy!

Just back in from New York Comicon, and all I can say is — well, exactly nothing, because I lost my voice on the first day of the show and it never realy came back. I went from a sort of Sally Kellerman rasp to a Lionel Stander croak (Max from Hart to Hart) to nothing at all.

Not the sort of thing that makes it particularly easy to call a taxi, although I did meet one of the more interesting taxi drivers while heading to Times Square. Instead of simply swearing at the workmen in the road, he'd give them a personality review worthy of Babu from Seinfeld. "You are a very bad flag man! A bad flag man and a very bad human being!" I also got out to he touristy ESPN Zone, where I couldn't have heard myself speak anyway during the hockey game. Something about that experience suggested that New Yorkers may not exactly like Bostonians much, sportswise...

And film ads for Indiana Jones and Iron Man were everywhere. A big Indy ad is the first thing I saw on the island, and there were gigantic ads on buildings for Iron Man. Speaking of which, Andy Mangels' new book, Iron Man Beneath the Armor, was out — including a nice section on my time on the series. It's a book worth checking out — follow the link to more info.

I did a signing at the Dark Horse booth with Rob Williams, the writer of Star Wars: Rebellion and the upcoming Indiana Jones mini-series, Tomb of the Gods; that's him on the left and me on the right, below, flanking an Indy fan. (That's Dark Horse publisher Mike Richardson in the background left.)

One of the interesting things was the Firaxis booth, where they were showing the new Civilization version for consoles, Revolution. This mural artist worked throughout the show...

Thanks to everyone there, especially Marc Patten, Chris Revekant and the Heroes in Action crew!

OK, it's not really — but evidently the folks at Wookieepedia have Jarael as their Featured Article for the week, and that should count.

Something to add to it — at a con, I had trouble naming a real person who I "hear" when writing her. I don't go in for a lot of the  dream-casting stuff, but I guess Catherine Zeta-Jones is a pretty good fit — and, of course, she did the whole Zorro thing. (Now, the creepy thing is that when I very first started writing Lucien, I was imagining a Michael Douglas voice... fortunately, that changed!)

That didn't take long: The Knights of the Old Republic short story "Labor Pains" is now online at the premium Star Wars Hyperspace service. Members can reach it by clicking the link above: To register, click here. Illustrations by Pablo Hidalgo!

The story takes place approximately 3,963 years before the battle of Yavin, and is set between issues #12 and #13 of the comics series. Or Volumes 2 and 3, if you're counting that way. Enjoy!