Battleship copyright Hasbro and Universal
So, last night I attended a midnight screening of Battleship.
I’ll be honest, I hadn’t intended to see this one, but the opportunity to hang out with a friend who’ll be leaving town soon came up, and off to the cinema we were.
Honestly? It was better than I expected…and I’ll get spoilery after the break!
It’s that time of year — SpringCon! Join us all at the MN State Fairgrounds! I’ll be signing, sketching, and chatting up Ghostbusters (Haunted America starts this month!)
Also, for the first time in a dog’s age, I’ll be on a PANEL! The info:
Saturday May 19
12PM to 1PM: BUY LOCAL – Meet local up and coming comic book superstars Mitch Gerads (The Activity, Dr. Who, Planet of the Apes), Erik Burnham (Ghostbusters), Jim Clark & CJ Renner (Colliders). A candid discussion about getting started and building success in the zany world of comic books one panel at a time! INSPIRING!
So yes, stop on by and say hello!
This! Is! It! My favorite comic show ever, the Minnesota Comic Book Association’s SPRINGCON! The best two days I have all year! And it’s my tenth year in attendance! (Thank you, guys, for not getting tired of me yet!)
I’ll be there signing and sketching and talking Ghostbusters — and unlike C2E2, I wouldn’t miss SpringCon for the WORLD! You can put money on me being there (barring a catastrophe, knock wood.)
If anyone wants to make sure I have time to do them a good sketch, they can give me a yell at darvey AT rocketmail DOT COM or by messaging me via my Facebook Fan Page (be a fan! It earns you brownie points!)
Info on sketches can be found at my commissions link — http://burnhamania.com/blog/commissions — and of course, if you don’t see something you like there or want to haggle (or work out some kind of merch trade) I may be open to that. I’m an amiable cat. Hope to see you all at the show!
For more info on SpringCon, CLICK THIS LINK!
http://burnhamania.com/blog/wp-admin/post.php?post=39&action=edit
Yesterday, I went to see The Avengers with my brother, Sean. I loved it… and it sent me on a trip down memory lane to this, the comic book that means the most to me:
This is not a comic book that will mean a lot to you — it’s just another comic book from the 70s with a sweet Jack Kirby cover… but it represents a lot to me. There are memories tied to it…
When I was four or five years old, I had a LOT of comics and comic-related things. A Spidey doll! Shirts! Blankets! Toys! Some of those comics had belonged to my dad and grandpa (and would’ve been worth a nice amount if they’d survived… but I digress.) There was a lot of stuff there.
And it went up in a fire. Gone. History. We moved in with my grandparents, who lived just a short hop away, across a field, as my dad, uncle, and grandpa remodeled the garage into a small house. I found scraps of my possessions – a piece of a sheet, a corner of a book – for months afterward, littered around the hill behind the place we lived. It was depressing.
But there were still comics. My grandpa had a stash, see, comics I would go over and read… there was Spidey and The Defenders and Batman and Cap… plenty of stuff to look at when I was visiting. Now that we were living there, the books helped me cope.
And Avengers Annual #6 was, somehow, my favorite. Maybe it was the cover. Or the chaptered format… I knew Captain America, but Iron Man? The Beast? The Vision? No. It was fascinating to read. And it was the first comic book given to me to keep.
As such, it always evokes strong memories – the loss of everything, the building/remodeling of a new home, and staying with my grandparents (I miss grampa terribly). There was a lot to process for a little mind, and I was grateful that the Avengers were there to distract me. I’ve kept that comic for thirty or so odd years. Through moves upon moves — it’s tattered and beaten and no longer in one piece. Most of the backup feature with the Vision is long gone. This book, my first new possession, before I even got clothes to replace the ones that had gone up in flames, was a floppy little piece of hope.
It’s in a box somewhere, hiding. But I still have it. It’s still mine.
A few years ago, Marvel put out some nice reprints for sale at Target. I flipped through one and found the Nuklo story that made up the feature of Avengers Annual #6.
I kinda choked up right there, in the store. All of those long-gone memories came rushing back — and I was a small kid again and the story was in my hands. Of course I bought it. It may not be the original, but I still have an attachment to it.
Again, all of this pretty much came flooding to mind as the end credits rolled on Avengers, and hey, I can always use a new blog post, even if it’s sappy.
Thanks for dropping by!
It was a great time at the Limited Edition signing!
I drove down to Cedar Falls, IA on a sunny Tuesday – nice change of pace – and dropped by the store just in time to hang out and interrupt the prep for Wednesday. (oops.) But it was nice to talk comics and other assorted thises and thats — something I rarely get to do in person these days!
Later, there was pizza, cheese curds, beer (Ranger) and more comics talk.
I hit the sack at 1am, waking up six hours later despite being dead tired… that’s the magic of me out of town — I can’t sleep for more than just a few hours!
I made it to the store at 8:30 and started about my business of chatting and signing!
It was insane. And there were homemade cupcakes (delicious.) Ton of fun!
At around noon, the other half of the signing bill — Mr. Gordon Purcell — got into town and settled in for a long day of sketching. This picture, where Gordon looks like he found a centerfold in the middle of an issue of X-Men:
After the day ended, there was more fun chatting and comics talk, and me zonking out at the hotel around 1am. (Of course I was up before 8!)
This is all I’m prepared to remember at this point.
But it was a lot of fun at a great store – what more can ya ask for?
“The Most Magical Place On Earth,” the second entry into the ongoing Ghostbusters series that I’m writing for IDW, once had a totally different vibe to it.
What made it to the page was a three issue arc featuring the Ghostbusters in a haunted amusement park in Schenectady…. but when I’d initially pitched it, it was going to be an issue longer and a LOT more dense.
I was going to have double the characters as the guys were joined by a very familiar group of supernatural debunkers who had their own reality TV show.
Two men, two women, and a large dog. The gag was that at one point, the ghost would possess the dog, enabling it to talk for a bit. I think the joke I was going for has become clear.
I decided against this for a few reasons… first, that is a LOT of characters to keep track of and serve. I didn’t want to give short shrift to the Ghostbusters, and if I was going to introduce these other characters and make them more than a one note joke, I’d need space for that…
It just didn’t work. Maybe I’ll revisit the idea one day.
In any case, it worked out — taking them out let me cut the arc by one issue and give the pages over to Egon for this month’s Ghostbusters #8.
…Which I hope you are all enjoying!
I’m cursed.
No, really. Every year, within a week or two of my birthday, for as far back as I can remember, I get hit with some sort of calamity, major or minor. It’s practically a given.
This year, unfortunately, the curse contributed to me having to cancel out of attending C2E2. This was gonna be my big show for the year; I had bought a table and I was set to go. I was looking forward to seeing old friends, and meeting new ones, especially all of the fans of the Ghostbusters ongoing! I’m truly sad to be missing it.
The last time I made it to C2E2 was its inaugural year, in 2010. That was an interesting time; a weekend of truly bizarre circumstances.
How bizarre? I was pulled over on the way to Chicago for NOT speeding. You read that right. Wisconsin is a strange place.
I also had one of the worst allergy attacks I’ve ever had. The OTC meds available to me had me so loopy I’m sure I gave quite an impression to all the folks I met.
I thought this year I’d be able to experience the show without a lingering haze and with (joy) a place to sit! But such was not to be.
I do want to give a shout out to all the folks who tried to help me find a way to attend after all — Michael Moreci, Ethan Colchamiro, Paul Storrie and the artist on my upcoming Splinter one-shot, CP Wilson III. I appreciate the effort gentlemen.
…Maybe next year!
Hey, everyone!
Working like a madman over here on Ghostbusters: Haunted America, but I wanted to share a few things with you…
First, still planning on making C2E2, but there’s a chance yet I’ll have to cancel out. I’m working to make sure that doesn’t happen, but I have had a couple of circumstances pop up to meddle with my weekend. I took care of one, but the other… we’ll see how it plays out next week! I really hope to make it.
Second, Team Ghostbusters has been nominated for the 30th annual CBG Fan Awards! Here’s what we’re up for:
Best Writer (me), Best Penciller (Dan), Best Colorist (Luis), Best Cover Artist (Tristan), Best Editor (Tom), Best Series and Best Story Arc. We would all of us appreciate your vote!
Here’s where you go to vote: CBG Fan Awards.
Finally, I wanted to share on my blog the David Peterson cover for the TMNT Micro Series issue I’m writing — Splinter!
And that’s a wrap!
The last week, to take a break in between my script deadlines, I was doodling little caricatures of the incarnations of The Doctor… and then, I combined them all into one massive image. Folks have asked about a print. May just. Ultra-limited, one time only run should I do so, though.
But the individual Doctor portraits WILL be for sale. They’ll look slightly different from the versions you see here because I’ll be hand-coloring the line art. That’s right! Even MORE unique!
I know the Tenth Doctor will sell easily, but I want all of the other boys out the door, too… so watch this space for that. (;
So I turned in the first draft of Secret Project Theta (I should be able to let you all in on what it is in a couple of weeks, and maybe share the cover… news as it develops!)
I am still making plans to hit C2E2 in a few weeks, and still have time to pre-draw a sketch, see a post below for all that jazz. May be making a few store trips here in the future as well, which I enjoy, again, news as it develops!
Over on my Facebook Fan Page, I’ve been posting quick sketches of the incarnations of the Doctor (y’know, Doctor Who.) I’m up to the Fifth Doctor as we speak — these are fun! Go check ‘em out! (:
Well, not today. My birthday’s passed… but it did put me in a reflective mood, and since I’ve been blogging on Mondays…
I’ve had a pretty good year, doing a job I love. I hope to continue (and expand) the writing over the next year, as well.
There was cake. And presents — one brother got me some much-needed paper, one sister got me the Bone one-volume edition. (And I sped through most of it over the course of one day.)
I got myself a copy of the out-of-print movie Dead Man on Campus (judge me not) and some Carl Barks stuff is on the way. I’m excited to read it!
Mostly, I didn’t get up to too much on my actual birthday — too busy writing Ghostbusters and working on the Secret Project. I did go to Target, however, and bought some jalapeno poppers. Probably wasn’t wise to eat them all, but hey… it’s my party, and I’ll cry if I want to… and crying is the most likely future after eating a bunch of jalapenos and cream cheese.
I *will* be taking pre-orders for C2E2 sketches pretty quick here. Just sussing out pricing. When I mentioned I might do it, there was interest — more immediate and expansive than I’d expected. Which is awesome, should help pay for the trip! I’m looking forward to getting back down to Chicago again.
I may also make it to SDCC for the first time ever this year, but that’s still up in the air… and I’ve talked with a shop about the possibility of doing my first ever FCBD signing, too. We’ll see if that comes together — I’d love to go.
Speaking of signings, I’ve only ever done one… and that was at Limited Edition Comics in Cedar Falls, IA. Folks, it was awesome. I hope to go back someday soon… but in the meantime, they have some sales and signings coming up that’d be well worth looking into, if you’re within a day’s drive. Go check ‘em out.
Also? Check out Hoax Hunters — the zero issue should be out PDQ and it’s got a great premise (mixing X-Files and Mythbusters… this book is about a reality show that seeks out and discovers weirdness… and then covers it up!) The artist, Axel Medellin, is a comrade over at the FOCer Sketchblog, and one of the writers, Michael Moreci, is a good guy who tweets amusing things.
Please do give it a look.
While I’m recommending work, I need to give a shout out to The Activity and Winter Soldier. Some great espionage comics anchored with interesting stories (courtesy Nathan Edmondson and Ed Brubaker, respectively) and awesome art (by Mitch Gerads and Butch Guice. Hmmm… perhaps it ain’t nothin’ but a G thang.) In any case, these are books that sent me to DIGITAL. I also love IDW’s TMNT and Marvel’s Daredevil. Good reads, all.
And finally, Ghostbusters: Haunted America starts in May with issue #9. Four standalone stories of the Ghostbusters on the road! Please, if you’re interested, pre-order. IDW’s giving this a big push and they WILL be eyeing the numbers closely! THANKS!
Okay, that’s enough for me… time to get back to work!
I added some pieces from the Days of Geeksmas and from the FOCer Sketchblog up for sale at http://burnhamania.bigcartel.com/ — go see! I’ll add more when these have sold or when I feel like making a change. (:
Ugh. It’s been a long week. I was ninja-attacked by a kidney stone that really knocked me for a loop and took away a week’s worth of productivity — ending with me at the hospital on Saturday, taking IV for a severe dehydration. Yuck.
I’m still dealing with the recovery symptoms – lesser degrees of pain and such while I stitch myself back together. Here’s to a speedy recovery, I have plenty of work to do!
First off, I’m putting together HAUNTED AMERICA, a story for Ghostbusters #9-12 that will send the boys to four cities across the country… first stop is Detroit, and that’s what I’m working on now!
I also got word that a pitch I put in (for what I’m calling Secret Project Theta) was accepted, and I’ll need to have a draft done soon — so yeah, need the residual pain to subside FASTER!
As for other stuff… I sure would like to be involved in a Chuck: Season 6 comic book. I’m just putting that out into the internet ether, no matter how unlikely the prospects. Smallville and several Whedon properties got more storylines in sequential form, and I think Chuck could go that route.
So there.
Back to work for me!
Hi, everybody. I know, I know, I need to start keeping my home page updated like a good boy. (:
Today, I recorded a podcast interview for Geekvolution — fun times, though it seemed like the off-air conversation was more fun than my babbling on Ghostbusters! lol. Seriously, though, I had a blast.
I also got caught up on my sketch blogs. I’m part of two –
FOCers Sketcblog, a group of artists from Frank Cho’s message board. (Greats like Steven E. Grant, Scott Sava, Blair Shedd, Axel Medellin… I could go on, we have a lot of GREAT folks contributing.) That’s here:
Also,it was the first week of Sketchbook Showdown, with my pal from across the pond, R J Bavington. That’s here:
SKETCHBOOK SHOWDOWN
Please, do visit and comment.
Working diligently on the writing, having caught up on Ghostbusters and mailed off a pitch for another thing to IDW here this week. Knock wood, fingers crossed, etc. Hope to announce it soon, should I get it!
I hope to have a new NICK LANDIME collection for C2E2, but if I can’t pull that off, then I at least hope to pull a print together for the show. Public domain fun. If anyone has any ideas, let me know!
Back into the breach!
-E
…I’ve been busy. With real, paying work. One should have such horrible problems, right?
Anyway. Gonna do an overhaul as SOON as I can. But first I wanted to put out my AS OF NOW 2012 appearance list:
* C2E2
Chicago, IL
April 13-15
* MCBA SPRINGCON
St. Paul, MN
May 19-20, 2012
More will be announced as plans finalize. (And if any stores or cons want my attention — gimme a yell!) (;
