OK, first thing's first... "A Scanner Darkly" is f*cking amazing! Go see it now.

Moving on... the San Diego Comic Con started this week. I've heard that Team Red Star is kicking much ass so far; I would expect nothing less. Despite all the fun I'm having, and all that I'm learning down here in Auckland, NZ, I must admit I'm really bummed that I'm not there with my comrades in arms, to say nothing of my beautiful, talented and oh-so luscious valkyrie princess Adriann; who I actually met the very first time at the Con in 2003. (Man o man, where does the time go?) There were grand plans for 06, and so far, it's been a banner year: The Red Star was optioned by Universal Pictures, the videogame finally found a home as well, and the comic series was relaunched with a new look and the creative stamp of NZ's own WETA workshop.

Speaking of which, I saw copies of the new Red Star book down here in Auckland today at a comic shop on K street...

We had also planned to relaunch Assassin, the series which brought me into Team Red Star. I was really excited about it. I had a worked up a killer, self-contained storyline, filled entire sketchbooks with layouts and designs, typed up dozens of pages of story and script notes. I shared everything with Chris and Jo, we set up a deadline and I was ready to go...

and then, less than a week later, out of nowhere, I got the call to work on 30 Days of Night.

For a while, I tried to do both at once- but quickly realized, after not sleeping for about 8 weeks, that it was going to be damn near impossible. Fortunately for my sanity, Chris and Jo both graciously encouraged me to concentrate full time on 30 Days, which was a huge opportunity that I was ecstatic about. They assured me that one way or another, we could continue Samuel's adventures in Assassin, at a time when we'd have the time and resources to do it right.

I've attached a color comp of an idea for the cover for the curious.

The Comic-Con has been something of a tradition with me for many, many years now and I've had some truly great times and met some fantastic people in San Diego during the convention. If you've never been, you should go at least once, no matter what.

Sigh.

Guess I'll just have to hit it twice as had next year.

Anyway, I actually worked at David's all day and night today... there's only two weeks 'til filming starts and things are getting even more hectic than usual. We still have a ton of stuff to board- but I'm having a blast. David and his better half Erika have both been fantastic. Most of the time, we just sit around and laugh like a bunch of 12 year olds.

Here's some pics from David's balcony... the clouds were so crazy at sundown that I had to stop what I was doing and snap some pics. They don't do justice to how massive the clouds were and how they were rolling in the sky.

God, I sound like a tool.

Fuck it- it was amazing.

I'm off to watch some rugby... go All Blacks!