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!