HIS MIGHTY SHIELD

Had a great chat with the guys at the Captain America Fans Podcast—talking about Cap, the Kraven What If?, Rocket Rewind, and much more. You can watch it below.

Enjoy!

POST-GALACTIC

A great weekend at Galaxycon Raleigh—meeting heartfelt fans, seeing old friends (like Bob Budiansky, Ralph Macchio (the editor, not the Karate Kid), Ron Marz and more) and, best of all, hanging out with my beautiful daughter (and brilliant booth assistant), Katie.

Next up, in September: DragonCon and FanX Salt Lake.  There might be one more convention later in the year, but that's still up in the air.

TOMORROW!

Two books coming tomorrow from Marvel:  What If...? Spider-Man—with extraordinary art by Yildiray Cinar—which revisits Kraven's Last Hunt and asks the question "What if Kraven survived his last hunt?"...

..and Rocket Rewind, which features the first ever meeting of Rocket Raccoon and his progenitor Rocky Raccoon. (Read the story and you'll understand.) This wonderfully absurd tale is perfectly illustrated by my old friend and collaborator Shawn McManus.

Hope you enjoy them both!

THIS WEEK!

It's almost time for GalaxyCon Raleigh! As the hipsters (well, the ones from the 1950s) say: "Be there or be square!"

UNDERGROUND

Had an interesting chat with the guys at the Illustrated Underground Podcast, talking about everything from my work back in the 80s to my recent time travel novel Dark Future. You can watch it below. Enjoy!

END OF AN ERA

The word is out (via The Hollywood Reporter) that Marvel Comics is leaving New York and moving to Los Angeles.

Back in the 1980s and 90s, a trip to the Marvel offices usually meant I’d be spending the entire day there—not just discussing work with my editors, but catching up on our lives, discussing (to purloin a phrase) life, the universe, and everything with an extraordinary editorial staff that included Danny Fingeroth, Tom DeFalco, Mark Gruenwald, Mike Carlin, Bob Budiansky, Carl Potts, Ann Nocenti, Glenn Greenberg, Eric Fein, and many more. These folks weren't just my editors, they were friends—and the Marvel office was a kind of home away from home. (The same was true of the Distinguished Competition. I'd often spend one day at Marvel, another at DC. Different faces, same vibe.)

Those offices were a place to work, but they were also places to hang out, meet up with fellow freelancers, goof around, share ideas. So much history, so many wonderful memories. Knowing both companies are gone from New York makes me sad.

I'm still working with Marvel all these years later. The current staff is a talented group of good people—and I send them all my very best as they wrestle with tough decisions in the months ahead.

Calling something the end of an era is a tired cliche, but, in this case, it's justified. Comic books and New York City have been synonymous since the dawn of the industry. Not anymore.

SILENCE DAY 2026

Wishing a happy, blessed Silence Day to my Meher Baba family around the world.

"Everything else may fail—Love never fails."—Avatar Meher Baba 

AMAZING!

The massive Amazing Spider-Man #1000 is coming your way in September and I've got a story—focusing on Peter Parker's tangled, traumatic relationship with the Osborn family—in the collection, illustrated by the great Humberto Ramos. If you could see Humberto's pencil art for this Goblin-centric tale, your eyes would pop out of your head (in the very best way).

Can't wait for everyone to read this one. For now, enjoy Humberto's variant cover!

Update: AIPT just released a preview page (minus lettering) for our story and you can see it below. Fantastic, isn't it?

WHAT THE IF?

I had a chat with the fine folks at CBR about my upcoming What If? tale that takes a new look at Kraven's Last Hunt. The amazing art (by Yildiray Cinar) and color (by Alex Sinclair) alone is worth the price of admission. You can read the article right here. 

MORE CAPED CRUSADER

The second season of Batman: Caped Crusader is coming to Amazon Prime Video on July 31st and you can watch the trailer below. What's my episode about? I've signed an NDA so I can't reveal a thing (beyond the fact that, y'know, Batman is in it), but you'll be able to see it soon enough. Here's to more Cape to come!

GOING GALACTIC

I've got two conventions coming up in July. First is GalaxyCon New Orleans (July 10—12) and then comes GalaxyCon Raleigh (July 23—26). For some reason I'm not listed on the GalaxyCon site for either convention, but I suspect that will be corrected shortly.

These will be my first cons of the year and I'm really looking forward to getting back out there and meeting the folks who read, and appreciate, my work.  

Update:  For reasons too complicated to get into here, I will not be at the New Orleans GalaxyCon. GalaxyCon Raleigh—July 23—26—is still a go. See you there, I hope! 

LEN DAY

The great Len Wein would have been 78 today. Here's an excerpt from a tribute to Len I wrote, and posted here, back in 2014.

We miss you, Len.

                                                          ***

When I first began working with Len, he was—despite being just past thirty—already a legend in the industry. This was the writer who, with the equally-legendary Bernie Wrightson, created the groundbreaking Swamp Thing series. Unless you were around when that book debuted, you can’t really grasp how truly revolutionary Swamp Thing was, how different from everything that had come before it. I remember being floored by the emotional power of the art, the pulp-poetry of the language and the big beating heart at the story’s core. You couldn’t read an issue of Swamp Thing without feeling something, without being moved.

If that series was all Len had done, his place in Comic Book Heaven would be secure, but he was also the guy who co-created Wolverine, one of the most successful, and popular, characters in the medium’s history... resurrected and revitalized the X-Men franchise...had memorable runs on everything from Justice League to Hulk, Batman to Spider-Man...and, oh, yes, was editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics along the way. Len could do slam-bang superhero adventure with the best of them, but the hallmark of a Wein story wasn’t the action, it was that aforementioned beating heart. All of Len’s best work was marked by a deep humanity and a profound compassion.

Which is why, when I entered his office in the spring of 1979, I counted myself among the lucky ones: I didn’t realize just how lucky until I got to know Len. There are some writers whose work you admire, but then you meet them and it’s impossible to make the leap from the words on the page to the person across the table: there seems to be some great cosmic disconnect—and, yes, a great disappointment, as well. (It’s unfair to expect a writer or actor or musician to somehow be the embodiment his art—the work alone should be more than enough—but we hope for it nonetheless.) With Len, though, the man and the work were one. He was just like his stories: charming, funny, eloquent and all heart. He extended that heart to me. There wasn’t a hint of self-importance to the man. His editing style was warm and welcoming. He taught through encouragement, enthusiasm. Even if he didn’t like a particular story—and, believe me, some of my early scripts were massively flawed—he never eviscerated the work, never bullied: just found a gentle way to guide me out of the morass of my own inexperience and onto solid creative ground.

In a very short time, Len became not just my editor, but my friend and first real mentor in the comic book business. He saw a spark of something special in my stories and, through his patient guidance, helped fan that spark into a flame. There I was, an insecure, working class kid from Brooklyn, uncertain of my own talent, wondering if I could carve a career for myself in this wonderful, and hugely peculiar, business—and there was The Legendary Len Wein providing the answer: “If you want it, you absolutely can.”

You can’t put a price on that.

THRILLS!

Got my copies of Thrilling Adventure Yarns 2026 and the book looks great. If you missed the Kickstarter and want to read short fiction by me, Steven Grant, Paul Kupperberg, Alisa Kwitney, editor Bob Greenberger, and many more, hop over to Amazon. The book releases in July. Hope you come along for the ride.

RETURN OF THE CAPED CRUSADER

Looks like the premiere date for Season Two of Batman: Caped Crusader has finally been announced. Happy to have contributed to the new season. (And, no, I can't reveal what my episode is about.)

You can read more details and see some promotional art here.

PROPOSITIONS

Had a fun chat with Chris Schnabel of the Mad Props podcast, talking about music, the creative process, Spider-Man, and other things. Enjoy!

1994

A short one to let you know that the collected edition of Spider-Man '94 is on sale now. (If you want to read a review of the book, just hop over to AIPT for an enthusiastic thumbs up.) No official word from Marvel regarding a return to the '94 universe but—with or without my participation—I hope they do.  

And while I have your attention, let me point you to this announcement, heralding the coming of Amazing Spider-Man #1000. Very happy to be part of the celebration.

Thank you. That is all.

KRAVEN COMES ALIVE

Came across this on YouTube: a full-cast motion comic adaptation of Kraven's Last Hunt. I was very impressed with this and I think you will be, too. Congratulations to the folks who created and performed this adaptation. You did a fantastic job.

COMING UP

Some fun projects coming up this summer from Marvel, starting with the Rocket Racoon 50th anniversary anthology, Rocket Rewind. I've contributed a story, illustrated by my brilliant buddy Shawn McManus, that both pays tribute to, and actually interacts with, the character's 1970s origin tale by Bill Mantlo and the late, great Keith Giffen. The book goes to sale July 31st.

On sale the same day is What If? Spider-Man—which asks the question: "What if Kraven survived his last hunt?" (I vaguely remember that old Kraven tale, but I don''t recall who wrote it.) The art, by Yildiray Cinar, knocked my proverbial socks off—and I suspect you'll have a similar reaction. This one-shot is part of Marvel's celebration of 50 years of What If?

And finally, on sale in August, is a celebration (yes, another one!) of one of Marvel's greatest characters, Mary Jane Watson, who debuted in Amazing Spider-Man 60 years ago.  Mary Jane—Face it, Tiger features a story of mine, beautifully illustrated by Andrea Broccardo, that looks back at a pivotal moment for MJ, inspired by a story from my second Spectacular Spider-Man run.

Collect 'em all! (If you're so inclined!)

THE GAME'S AFOOT!

I recently wrote an introduction to Joel Meadows and Andy Bennett's excellent Sherlock Holmes reinvention, Sherlock Holmes and the Empire Builders—and you can read it below.  (And if you want to buy the book, just click here.) 

Growing up in New York City in the 1960s, the classic Sherlock Holmes films starring Basil Rathbone (with his deerstalker hat, raptorial features, and unerring intellect) and Nigel Bruce (stuttering, bumbling, and unfailingly loyal) seemed to be playing perpetually on our local TV stations, as omnipresent on weekend mornings as Abbott and Costello and the Bowery Boys. Rathbone and Bruce were my introduction to Holmes, a character who’s had an extraordinarily long life since he first emerged from the fertile imagination of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Like Batman, Superman, and James Bond, Holmes has far outlived his creator, assuming a kind of immortality, constantly resurrected and reinvented for new generations. We’ve seen innumerable literary incarnations (from life-long Sherlockian Nicholas Meyer to, of all people, Stephen King), movie interpretations (from the traditional Rathbone to the more anarchic Robert Downey, Jr.), and multiple TV incarnations (my favorite being Steven Moffat and Mark Gattis’s brilliant Sherlock). And we would never have had Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, Lieutenant Columbo, Benoi Blanc, and dozens of other quirky, ingenious detectives had Doyle and Holmes not been there first.

The beauty of an iconic character like Sherlock Holmes (“iconic” is a word that’s painfully overused these days, but in Holmes’ case, it’s appropriate) is that the template is so sturdy, with roots so deep and strong, it invites constant reinvention. You can bend and twist Holmes in dozens of directions and, as long as you’re true to the character’s essence, he won’t break. (We know, instantly, when someone has violated that essence and turn swiftly away.) Which is why writers are constantly returning to Doyle’s world, ready to bring what they hope will be a new and unique perspective to Holmes’s adventures.

That said, given the overcrowded ocean of Holmesiana out there, it takes a considerable amount of courage to stride into those waters and launch yet another version of the character, to believe you have something singular to say. Which makes the work of Joel Meadows and Andy Bennett even more impressive.

Their Holmes is grittier, harder edged, and the world he strides through, with his customary confidence (some might call it arrogance), is darker: a steampunk universe of violence and corruption. Meadows’s script rockets along with impressive speed and apparent ease (I say “apparent” because I know how much hard work goes into making a story’s flow seem effortless), providing the expected, and often unexpected, twists and turns one wants in a Holmes tale. In Meadows’s hands Sherlock Holmes—nearly 140 years old, way past retirement age—feels fresh, new, exciting, and that is no small feat.

But comics are a collaborative medium and the best script in the world will die on the vine without the right artist to bring it to life. I’ve learned, over the years, that I could hand the same script to five different artists and get five different stories back. A comic book artist is constantly making choices—about “camera” angles, body language, panel to panel flow—and the right artist can raise my story up to places I never dreamed, while the wrong one can tear it apart, leaving it in incomprehensible fragments. Meadows’s collaborator Andy Bennett brings this adventure to vibrant life with rock solid storytelling, powerful emotion, and fine linework reminiscent of a woodcut. The art feels simultaneously modern and Victorian, a perfect blend. (I’m especially fond of Bennett’s striking full page illustrations, like the wonderful shot where we see biplanes and dirigibles flying over London.) That the story is in black and white seems appropriate, carrying me back to those New York weekend mornings, stretched out in front of the television, watching Rathbone and Bruce solve mystery after mystery.

And now it’s time for you to stretch out, perhaps light up an imaginary pipe, and enjoy this engaging tale. A brand-new game is afoot, but only Meadows and Bennett know how it will end. Relax, enjoy. You’re in good hands.

THRILLS!

If you missed the Kickstarter for the Thrilling Adventure Yarns anthology a while back, you can now preorder the book at Amazon. TAY features short stories by me, Steven Grant, Alisa Kwitney, Max Alan Collins, Paul Kupperberg, and many more. Edited by my old pal, and former DC Comics editor, the erudite and charming Bob Greenberger. It's a great collection and well worth your time.