Just to bring folks up to date on stuff. Please forgive the crass
commerciality of just dumping this information out in a blipvert like this, but
people have been asking about the status of various projects for a while, so I
figured I'd just do a brain dump of it all at once.

1) Midnight Nation

After various delays on the publishing side, the graphic novel/trade paperback
version of Midnight Nation will be out in bookstores this coming Wednesday
(January 15th). This is something I'm immensely proud of, and from my point of
view represents some of my best work to date.

It's also available via Amazon at:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1582402728/qid=1042432838/sr
=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/104-3188390-0907960?v=glance s=books n=507846

2) Novels

I'm pleased to note that I've just signed a deal with iBooks/Simon and Schuster
to republish all of my prior works of fiction, making them available both
online and in major bookstores. This includes my novels Demon Night,
OtherSyde, and Tribulations, in addition to a collection of my short stories
tentatively entitled Straczynski Unplugged (which should make it just about
impossible for readers to find it by spelling the title), which would include a
number of my Twilight Zone stories, combined with stories published elsewhere
but never previously gathered into a single collection (such as "Say Hello,
Mister Quigley," originally published in Pulphouse, and "Your Move," originally
published in Amazing Stories), and a number of brand new, previously
unpublished short stories. I think they're targeting Spring/Summer for the
books to come out.

3) Comics: Supreme Power

On new comics projects, I've just turned in issue 3 of Supreme Power, so I'm
about 3 weeks ahead of schedule on the writing. The first issue, drawn by Gary
Frank of Midnight Nation, is due to hit stores around March 16th. This is a
very serious story, one of the most mature things I've written, oddly enough,
given the medium. My scripts have turned into these huge, 50 page (for a 22
page book) Alan Moore-ish tomes that are designed to be visually dense. It's a
rethinking of a number of superhero conventions that, so far, has turned out
very well, I think. For various reasons we've kept a fairly low profile on
this, until we could get a number of issues ready to go, and to avoid word
getting out prematurely on what we have in mind, 'cause over the long haul it
will prove to be kind of controversial. Once it hits stores, I suspect it'll
move out pretty fast unless folks have dibs on copies.

4) Comics: Doctor Strange

Finally, I've turned an expanded, 35 page outline for a Doctor Strange limited
series in to Marvel, and will be writing the script for that one as soon as I
can get my head above water (easier on the keyboard that way). I wanted to
bring the Doc into the 21st century and revisualize certain aspects of his
character and his history. It's not intended to be as deep or as potentially
controversial as Supreme Power, this one's for fun because I'm a longtime fan
of Doc Strange, and want to do something nifty with the character.

I've also agreed to do a three-issue Spider-Man/Fantastic Four crossover, which
should also be fun. (Which is the only reason to do anything, to be honest.)
I think we've slotted that one to begin around issue 55 or so of Amazing
Spider-Man.

Anyway, I think that's about it on the pubishing side...apologies again for the
commercialness of this.

jms

(jmsatb5@aol.com)
(all message content (c) 2003 by synthetic worlds, ltd.,
permission to reprint specifically denied to SFX Magazine
and don't send me story ideas)