So, around two decades ago, when I was a footloose single guy, I lived in the Phoenix area but would return home to Northern Arizona for the Holidays. And, being the night owl type, I'd find myself puttering around long after everyone else had gone to bed.

On this particular Christmas Eve, I was eating Santa's cookies when I heard a noise from the front porch. I thought it was probably a cat, but when I glanced out the window, I saw the silhouette of a man standing there.

My childhood was rife with memories of a neighbor who would get drunk then end up at the wrong house - so seeing someone just standing on the porch at midnight was not something I took lightly. I watched for a moment, then went around to the door.

I opened the door, and saw him more clearly - a little shorter than I was (not hard), and still just standing there. I asked if I could help him, and he didn't answer. I pushed open the screen door and stepped out, speaking more forcefully: "Hey! Buddy! Everything okay? Can I help you?"

Still no answer.

I moved onto the porch - he stood ten feet away - and walked right up to him and practically yelled, "HEY!" And THIS got a response - he hissed something I couldn't understand and lunged at me.

I took five years of Tae Kwon Do, and my reaction was instinctive: I stepped back and threw my best kick squarely at his face.

It worked - not only did my kick throw him backwards and away from me, but it also snapped his head cleanly off, and I watched in horror as it sailed into the middle of the yard.

I stood there in shock, trying to decide what to do, when the porch light came on, and the rest of the household came outside to see what was the matter. They found me there, standing over the now headless body of Joseph, father of Jesus, in a now demolished nativity scene.

When I yelled, it scared the cat sleeping in the manger, and it had hissed and jumped against Joseph, knocking him forward. And so I got to explain why I'd basically beheaded Jesus' dad in the process of protecting the household from our own cat.

Why I didn't just turn on the light myself is a mystery that may never be solved.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

The sky is overcast and gray, with perfect soft light. There's a Jazz Christmas channel on itunes radio, and I'm going to be Christmas-card-making with the kids, then drawing at the Studio all night. All calming; centering; necessary.

 

There are some things too great for one's heart to bear, and mine cannot even fathom the pain my friend Cesar is going through. He is a fine artist, a fine man, and his daughter Alana, not yet three, has been critically ill all year. Multiple surgeries, and infections, and several occurrences of septic danger caused by whatever went wrong that day. In November, she didn't even have enough abdominal skin left to cover the wounds from surgery. She has been so sick, and so sweet and brave, and it got worse a few days ago, requiring full time dialysis just to keep her functional, and Cesar and his wife have decided to let her go, so that she won't continue to suffer from all the ailments and treatments she just isn't strong enough to bear. And this isn't my pain, but it's my friend's pain, and I am shattered today. Shattered. Tell them you love them. Don't wait. Don't push back the days, or the hours, or the minutes. Don't waste time on anything less important - and everything - everything - is less important. God be with you and your family and little Alana, Cesar. http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showthread.php?t=300699

First, I have reviews of Avatar (neato-o!), The Nutcracker at the Atlanta Ballet (neat-o in a different way) and the season 4 finale of "Dexter" (OMG!) And this year's Clickable Advent Calendar is plugging along.

Monday, the Southeastern Film Critics Association announced its 2009 awards. As vice president, I'm one of the three responsible for counting the ballots, which was slightly less tedious but basically as long as it was last year. Collectively we picked Up in the Air as Best Picture, although it wasn't one of my picks. Here's my ballot. (The Top 10 movies were in a slightly different order.)

1. Up
2. The Hurt Locker
3. 12 (Nobody but me voted for this.)
4. In The Loop
5. The Damned United
6. District 9
7. Fantastic Mr. Fox
8. A Serious Man
9. Coraline
10. Anvil! The Story of Anvil

( Read more... )

The coolest thing I've been given this year is a custom-made artisan clock, which I've decided is what you'd get if you made Roly Poly Olie into a Kachina Doll. We hung it outside the doorway to the toy room. ;)

The color version of the cover art I posted recently... 

...Publisher's Weekly is spotlighting my ice-cream-0serving talents. http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6712115.html?nid=2788&source=title&rid=16800567

All the dancing around he did? Well, that's EXACTLY how an author feels when completing the last major round of copyedits on a book. Exactly.

Whew. Gonna go rock out, now. Then fall over.

A photo of one of the new illustrations that I've just hung on the art wall:

My recent stories include an assessment of Neil Gaiman's career, reviews of Me and Orson Welles (Christian McKay is awesome!), Up in the Air, The Princess and the Frog, The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, Everybody's Fine and three plays at PushPush Theater.

Incidentally, I suspect that Up in the Air is the most likely movie to win the Oscar for Best Picture. There will be 10 nominees in the category this year, so the dynamic will be a little different. Among its competitors will (probably) be Precious, Up, Inglourious Basterds, The Hurt Locker, Nine and Invictus. Probably all of these films will have admirers and detractors, and Up in the Air seems to be the most pleasing and "safe" overall -- it'll have, propotionately, the most admirers and least detractors. (Of the likely nominees, my favorites are Up and The Hurt Locker.)

It doesn't seem to be an obvious 'Oscar movie' -- but none of them do, and "obvious Oscar movies" (lavish old-school period pieces and/or biopics) don't really win Best Picture any more. The most recent past winners were Slumdog Millionaire, No Country for Old Men, The Departed, Crash and Million Dollar Baby.

Four finished covers and one color mockup (done before I started the finished illustration) to show the publisher what I had in mind for the cover progression.

This looks like a cover illustration for something or another...

Come on! Just do Dylan Baker as the Lizard! He's already in the movies! Just put a velociraptor in a white lab coat! It's Jurassic Park meets Spider-man 2! People would love it!

"Movieline says that Paramount and Sam Raimi are circling John Malkovich, plus the previously mentioned Anne Hathaway, to star as villains in Spider-Man 4. Malkovich is reportedly negotiating for the role of the Vulture, an evil inventor whose mechanical, swordlike wings give him flying and stabbing abilities. Hathaway would play Felicia Hardy, who, in comics, was the alter ego of evildoer the Black Cat. But in the movie, says Movieline, Hardy will become an all-new Spider-Man-taunting bad person named the Vulturess."

Just think of John Malkovich... flapping.

The gorgeous Greek edition of THE SEARCH FOR THE RED DRAGON just arrived. There's something particularly thrilling about having a book that features the Argo on the cover printed in Greek.

So, the UPS truck was just here, and my Studio Manager came upstairs to tell me the truck had dropped off two packages: a box from my editrix Navah (which contained copies of the Greek edition of RED DRAGON!) and a freaking COOLER from Omaha Steaks.



Examination of the contents label showed it to be a gloriously full cooler:



And at the bottom, the mystery of who sent it stands revealed with a note from my favorite publicists:



It's terribly gratifying to have worked so hard on one's book tour - and then to have that effort recognized in such a kind and thoughtful way. I have wonderful publicists, and I know they work just as hard for me. But this is an awesome thank-you present.