You know, these days, with the Internet and all, lots of DC’s business is conducted through e-mail and on the telephone. So it IS unusual to see the hallways of DC’s offices bustling with writers and artists!

This used to be normal back when I entered the business—before fax machines!!!—as the writers and artists would actually hand deliver material on a weekly basis. Shortly after Fed Ex became a factor artists and writers started moving away from the big bad city that the comics publishers resided in—probably just so they could breathe some fresh air, though more likely because it was harder for us to grab them when we needed something ASAP!

Nowadays with everyone able to post high resolution scans of the art for any given title—we work with people all over the globe and we don’t even touch the physical art boards here in New York City anymore. (Man, THAT’s weird for a guy whose first gig in comics was photocopying Jack Kirby’s actual penciled art for KAMANDI and/or Walt Simonson’s pages for the Batman/Manhunter team-up back in the early 70s!!! Yup… I was a High School Intern at DC back in the day!)

So, not touching art, or seeing writers and artists in person makes it a real event when the talent comes into town to meet with us about the future!

In these two weeks before Thanksgiving we have Geoff Johns, Pete Tomasi, James Robinson, Sterling Gates, Eric Trautman, Tony Bedard, Keith Giffen, Judd Winick and more coming through the hallowed halls to help plan, with their editors and Dan DiDio, all of 2010– and beyond– in the DC Universe!

These meetings for a couple of new series as well as Superman and Justice League related titles are some of my favorite part of making the comics. They bond everyone involved to the goals and concepts shaped and honed TOGETHER and everyone leaves feeling like they are part of the family and that they matter to making the agreed upon stories “the best ever”! (And yes, Families sometimes have “feuds” but even THAT passion can help fuel the Never-ending Battle between the covers!)

I was in on instigating some of these so-called Summits back when I was editor of SUPERMAN… and they all came about because of a dinner a bunch of us had at a convention in Cleveland, IL during Superman’s 5oth anniversary in 1988.

There were a bunch of us Superman types on hand to help celebrate. Jerry Ordway and Roger Stern were there… George Perez was about to join us on the return of Superman TO ACTION COMICS… and the master himself Curt Swan even joined us at this legendary dinner. Together we all went out to discuss an ACTION ANNUAL that would bring George into our team… and would have Curt returning to the Man of Tomorrow as well! The dinner was fun and productive with everyone contributing ideas to the mix—including Curt who was only to draw a few pages in the annual.

When the dinner was over I asked Curt how this “plotting session” compared with the ones he’d done in the old days. He said that it was great—because he was never invited to join in the plotting back then. He was clearly excited to have been involved.

This got me to thinking… excitement behind the scenes always makes for excitement on the page… so we quickly scheduled the first real Super-Summit for shortly after that. And the meetings have stayed a staple of the creative process since then in one form or another.

The excitement in the halls this mid-November promises to translate well for next year… so let them keep inventing ways to keep us all apart—we’ll still find a way to get together and blow everyone away with what we can come up with!

The one thing I’ll never understand is how anyone did comics (or ANYTHING) before Post-It notes were invented! (But even those work best when everyone’s all in the same room!)

Interesting fact about Lt. Joe Higgins, a.k.a. the Shield: he does not consider himself a hero, let alone a super one. For Lt. Higgins, the experimental warsuit he wears saved his life and enables him to continue doing his duty. It’s his honor to serve his country and uphold its ideals, and even if the style of his uniform has changed, his commitment to it has never wavered. Higgins doesn’t think of himself as a hero, he thinks of himself as a solider of the United States Armed Forces, now and until the day he lays down his arms.

Today, Lt. Joe Higgins will complete his first mission, aided by former Marine Lance Corporal David Reid now known as Magog. For both of them, their commitment to upholding the virtues of their country is paramount, and their sense of duty remains strong, just like their real-life brothers and sisters in arms. So before heading off to your comics store, join all of us
here at DC in thanking the true heroes today for their service and sacrifice. To all members of the U.S. Military, past and present, we salute you.

What would drive a Lantern to abandon the ways of willpower for pure rage? We’re not sure, but we’re curious to find out. So, we asked GREEN LANTERN CORPS Editor Adam Schlagman to give us some info. And he was kind enough to throw in some art. So, take it away, Adam:

What could turn the most bad ass Green Lantern into a crimson spewing red one? Find out in Green Lantern Corps #42 (on-sale November 11th) as Guy Gardner experiences a tragedy so utterly terrible that he loses complete control in Green Lantern Corps #43 (December on-sale) leading to his selection by a red ring of rage. Welcome to the Red Lantern Corps, Guy Gardner!

In the meantime, wet your appetite with this awesome design by Green Lantern Corps artist Pat Gleason then pick up Green Lantern Corps #42 on Wednesday to witness the shocking ending that only writer Peter J. Tomasi could tell.

Here’s a behind-the-scenes bit of fun for all you Sourcers out there. As one of the most fun editorial tasks yet, I’ve spent the past two days running up and down the hall getting pictures of some of our editors. They all seem to be pretty scared of…something… Can’t be Halloween-related at this point, right? So what’s going on here?

For instance, here’s Mike Carlin and Rachel Gluckstern, looking very unhappy about whatever’s going on over Mike’s desk:

Maybe it’s the same thing that’s about to hit Harvey Richards in the head:

Janelle Siegel is doing a pretty good job keeping it at bay:

While Mike Marts isn’t so lucky – it’s coming right at him!

Sean Ryan and Wil Moss are doing the smart thing and high-tailing it out of here:

Which – oh, man – gives it a clear shot at me. Look out, me!

Welp, looks like it passed me by, considering I’m still here typing. And I think I know where it went – straight for Eddie Berganza and Adam Schlagman:

That’s gonna be trouble. As soon as we can actually see what it is, that is….

Until next time – wish us luck!

In the spirit of my favorite time of the year…here are a few things that scare me.

THE FLAMINGO. This guy has death and danger written all over him. He rides a motorcycle and rips people’s faces off for fun. Oh yeah, and to top it all off, he’s dressed head-to-toe in pink. What’s not to be afraid of? If Batman & Robin thought they had their hands full with Red Hood & Scarlet, well, they haven’t seen anything yet. Check out the Flamingo in all of his pink and face-ripping glory in BATMAN & ROBIN #6.

TONY DANIEL. This guy scares me. True, he’s one of DC’s exclusive artists. He’s also one of my good friends. But he still scares me. Why? Because he’s a double-threat. Not only can he draw circles around anyone holding a pencil, but this guy can write, as well! In case you didn’t already know, Tony’s both writing and illustrating the current arc of BATMAN, which runs from #692-697. Will Tony reveal who’s under the Black Mask in this storyline? (Hint: I wouldn’t be teasing it, unless he was.)

BLACK MASK. His true identity scares me. Stay tuned.

WHITE GHOST. Sure, he has a name that sounds like a discounted Halloween costume, but this right-hand-man of Ra’s al Ghul is scary because he appears in not one, but two Batman titles this month–RED ROBIN #6 and AZRAEL #2

The PHILLIES don’t scare me.

MARCUS TO. Have you seen this guy’s art? Incredi–I mean, scary. Marcus debuts as RED ROBIN’s new regular artist this month, and I can’t tell you how excited we are about this. We’ve seen several complete issues of art from Marcus already, and each one gets better and better! Welcome aboard, Marcus!

Till next time, Stay Scary.

What is MILESTONE FOREVER, you ask? Well, we can take a guess, but why slow down the process? Since it’s part and parcel of what we do, being The Source and all, we talked to Milestone founder and MILESTONE FOREVER writer Dwayne McDuffie for the scoop on the new project, along with some essential back story to bring you newbies up to speed. Take it away, Dwayne:

16 years ago this month, industry giant DC Comics and upstart Milestone Media entered into an unprecedented creative partnership, producing 14 interlocking, creator-owned titles including Hardware, Icon, and the multimedia hit that would best be known as Static Shock. The story Milestone chose to tell was an audacious one, larger than life on its surface, character and story-driven at its base, Humanist and multicultural at its heart. For over 250 issues, fans explored a superhero universe like no other.

Today, nine Parents Choice awards, four Eisner Award nominations and one Emmy and Humanitas award-winning hit TV series later, Milestone is back, its continuity mysteriously merged with the DCU. While we saw the DC side of the story in “Justice League: When Worlds Collide,” Milestone Forever gathers the original artists from Milestone’s launch titles: John Paul Leon, Mark Bright, Chris Cross and Milestone Founder Denys Cowan, to complete the tales told in the original runs of STATIC SHOCK, ICON, HARDWARE, SHADOW CABINET and BLOOD SYNDICATE. Milestone Editor in Chief Dwayne McDuffie reveals the final fate of each of Milestone’s launch characters in a bittersweet tale that chronicles the literal end of a universe, and the birth of something new, with major consequences for the future of the DC Universe.

Hola, folks!

I wish I could be like my ultra-trendy pal Michael Siglain, and give you a nice Halloween theme here, but let’s face it: on New Krypton, everyone wears a costume 24/7, and they don’t have candy there. (Notice none of the Kryptonians are overweight—well, except for Kal’s lawyer, but that’s genetic.) You’d think having been trapped in a bottle for decades they’d all be out of shape—or at least have invented Malomars. Whatever.

In celebration of not celebrating Halloween in space this year, here’s a shot from WORLD OF NEW KRYPTON (WONK to you insiders) #9, featuring Kal-El, some bodiless heads that are really big, and a couple of people I really wish were just dressing up, courtesy of James Robinson, Greg Rucka, Pete Woods and Nei Ruffino.

You can get the full horrific scoop of what’s going on here next Wednesday, the 4th, which is not just the first Wednesday of November, but about the time I’ll be trying to figure out a “What Superman’s Thankful for This Year” theme for the next column. Continuing our non-scary tour of the DC books, check out this upcoming page from ACTION #883, which comes out November 11th.

Wow, who knew Flamebird’s super-power was a knockout kiss? And hey, that Brimstone dude’s kinda Halloween-like, right? At least Rucka, Eric Trautmann, Pere Pérez and Javier Mena think so.

Check out this page from November 18th’s SUPERGIRL #47. Guess we know what Alura Zor-El thinks of Halloween, huh?

And if you want to see something that’s really scary, just imagine this day which Alura has been both eagerly anticipating and dreading simultaneously, as she at last comes face-to-face with the man who murdered her husband—Reactron!

Bet you wish you knew what they were saying, huh? My thanks to Sterling Gates, Matt Camp and the aforementioned Nei Ruffino for these glimpses into Supergirl’s future—well, her book’s future, anyway. Which brings us to November 25th, Thanksgiving eve, and SUPERMAN #694. Anyone remember Javi Pina? He teamed up with James Robinson to bring you this past summer’s SUPERMAN ANNUAL. Well, the scream team is at it again, this time for SUPERMAN #694, a.k.a. “Man of Valor” part 1, the arc which will bring Mon-El back in time to the very day Halloween was conceived, and… okay, it has nothing to do with Candy Day, but Bizarro is pretty scary, right? Huh? Please?

Wow, that’s some heady stuff, particularly with Blond’s coloring in place! Why, I—er, what? Oh, okay. That was Alex Segura on the phone, telling me I have failed utterly in my Halloween themage. Maybe I’d better get an early start on the Thanksgiving column. Anyone have a good suggestion for words that rhyme with “Turkey”?

I’m sure many of you dedicated readers picked up on the most recent DC NATION column in the back of the books this week, where our very own Simona Martore gave the page some international flavor. And, because we’re completists here at The Source, we’ve got the translation of Simona’s original text, to help those who couldn’t translate it on their own. Take it away, Simona:

As it is my turn, honor and duty to deliver a memorable DC Nation, I would like to approach this task in a peculiar manner. As you all know, we have so many exciting projects to discuss that I don’t even know where to begin, and the fact is that I don’t want to reveal too much! That’s why I came up with another interesting path to follow that will make my words harder for you to understand. Yes! Sounds like fun, doesn’t it? Thus, I will transform myself into the multilingual African Deity Orumnila for a couple of paragraphs, and will discuss some of these projects in other languages.

Ready?

Vous êtes prêt? Avez-vous un dictionnaire multilingue proche de vous? Très bien! Je commence par écrire en français, la langue la plus belle. Je voudrais vous parlez d’une nuit noire, la plus noire de toutes les nuits, quand des anneaux noirs provoque l’enfer dans l’univers des super-héros. Il y était une fois un super-héro, son nom : l’Homme des Etoiles. Apres la mort de Ted Knight, Starman s’est incarné plusieurs fois. Je suis donc heureuse d’annoncer que l’une de ces incarnations sera de retour dans l’univers de DC. Mais cette fois, il y aura quelque chose d’étrange et de terrifiant ! Notre ami se conduira d’une façon bizarre et aura un rendez-vous peu agréable avec une vieille amie irlandaise et avec un personnage obscur à la fois. Cette nouvelle histoire de Starman sera écrite par la main magique de James Robinson qui connait parfaitement l’univers de l’Homme des Etoiles.

TRANSLATION: Do you have a multilingual dictionary with you? Very good! Let’s begin, then. I will start writing in French, which is the most beautiful language in the world. What I’d like to do is to tell you something about a night, the darkest of them all, when some black rings caused hell in the heroes’ world. Once upon a time, there was a superhero named Starman. After his death, he came back several times under different names. I am very happy to announce that one of his incarnations is coming back, but this time, he will do something strange and terrifying! Our superhero will behave in a peculiar manner and will have an interesting encounter with an old, Irish friend and another character who’s very dark in his own way. This new Starman episode will be written by the magic hand of James Robinson.

E con l’italiano, come va la cavate? Meglio di me? Puo’ darsi; tuttavia, essendo la mia lingua madre, mi sento in dovere di onorare la patria degli spaghetti e degli imperatori romani e di annoiarvi ulteriormente imprimendo qualche pensiero su carta in quello che alla maggior parte di voi potrebbe sembrare Latin gibberish.

A proposito di “Notti piu’ oscure”… Sono sempre entusiasta all’idea di leggere una storia dall’intreccio solido e originale e penso proprio che questo sia uno di quei fortunati esempi. Si da’ il caso, infatti, che una nuova avventura avente come protagonista Catwoman e in qualche modo associata ad una “notte buia”, sia in procinto di essere immortalata su carta da Fabian Nicieza. Questa volta la nostra felina preferita si trovera’ alle prese con un vecchio nemico che ostenta da sempre una passione poco ortodossa per artefatti generalmente usati a scopo protettivo od ornamentale.

TRANSLATION: And what about Italian? Do you speak it better than I do? Perhaps. However, as it’s my mother tongue, I feel obliged to honor the country of spaghetti and Roman emperors and to annoy you even further by writing something in a language that probably sounds like Latin gibberish to many you. Let’s start then. Speaking of blackest nights again…I am always very excited at the idea of reading a story that has a solid and original plot, and I think that this time I am dealing with something like that. In fact, a new adventure featuring Catwoman, associated somehow to a “dark night” and written by Fabian Nicieza, is going to be presented to you very soon. This time, our favorite feline will have to face an old enemy who is known for his passion for artifacts generally used ornamentally.

How do you like them apples? Shouldn’t we play U.N. more often? It’s fun! Thank you for your patience! Zai jian!

Source-rers!

At long last, the day has finally arrived: All Hallow’s Eve…eve’s eve. (All right, so it’s not the big day, but it’s in my own best interest to write this tomb today, and not tomorrow, during DC’s Halloween festivities, as there is a very good chance that I will be covered in blood tomorrow. I may also be in costume, but that’s another story.)

So are all of you boils and ghouls ready for the frightening festivities? Do you have your horror movies all picked out? Are your bags of candy ready to be opened and devoured? And what about your comics? Wanna read something that’ll make you go bump and Bwah-ha-ha in the night? In that case, check out this all-new preview page from BOOSTER GOLD #26:

Spooky. Next up is another interior page, this one from the upcoming BATMAN 80-PAGE GIANT (due out this December), in which a blizzard of unimaginable proportions blankets fair Gotham in a bed of icy white death. This frigid little tale comes courtesy of artist extraordinaire Rafa Garres and writer Kevin Shinick (of “Robot Chicken” fame…check out his “The Arkham Redemption” bit—it’s fantastic). Their tragic tale focuses on Commissioner Gordon and is called, “What Falls Below.” Take a peek:

But what’s Halloween without Doug Moench & Kelley Jones, and their moody, atmospheric, pointy-eared Batman? Here’s a page from issue four of their current BATMAN: UNSEEN mini-series, which hits in a couple weeks:

Want more gratifying gruesomeness to tide you over? Well, might I then suggest SUPERMAN/BATMAN #65, which was our horrifying Halloween issue, or the jam-packed extravaganza and sure-to-be instant classic known as the DCU HALLOWEEN SPECIAL 2009.

Rumor has it that the nefarious HOUSE OF MYSTERY character I…VAMPIRE makes an appearance in this little ditty, and I, for one, would like to commend the obviously brilliant and undoubtedly handsome writer who resurrected this classic creature of the night. Well done, sir!

Of course, for those of you who are looking for something you can really sink your teeth into (you know, just the other day I said I’d stop using that gag, but old habits die hard), there’s the trade paperback of SUPERMAN & BATMAN VS. VAMPIRES & WEREWOLVES from the Kevin VanHook and Tom Mandrake, each of whom is a master of horror in their own right. And speaking of MASTERS OF HORROR, this trade comes with a hauntingly good introduction from film director John Landis, whose AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON can’t be shown enough at this time of year. Enjoy!

All right, gang. That’s it for now. Gotta get some books to the printer (BATGIRL #4, I’m looking at you!), gotta talk to a few writers (have to speak with Peter Tomasi about his final issue of OUTSIDERS), and gotta start planning my Halloween costume (it’s gonna be very last-minute this year, and not nearly as intricate as some of my other years…sorry, folks).

So until next time, gang, have a Happy Halloween and try to enjoy the daylight…

J. Michael Straczynski wrote to remind me that this December is the 65th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge. (I say “remind me” as if I’d been in it!) He’s not bringing it up so I can futz with its Wikipedia entry. It’s because with the current issue of THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD, he sends the Flash into the thick of it…to meet the Blackhawks, no less. We’ve done a few Flash stories but you’ve never read one like this! Barry Allen battles on the side of the Allied forces in World War II, in an adventure in which every incident is as unexpected as the premise!

Talking of “allied forces,” that sure describes BRAVE & BOLD. In the book’s grand tradition, JMS is lining up some inventive and even offbeat alliances to feature every issue. Seen the Batman/Dial H for Hero adventure? Everybody’s still buzzing about that one! Snag one if your local store has any left!

In the offing is a Batman/Brother Power the Geek team-up (Brother! Power! The! Geek!). Then, Doctor Fate and Green Lantern see whether or not magic can trump willpower. Jesus Saiz is drawing that one now even as I write this, and he’s having a blast doing it! He really knocked it out of the park on that “Dial H” issue, and he gets better every month!

If you love these Silver Age characters, JMS will remind you why you do! If you never did, or you’ve never heard of them, these new stories will show you why people still talk about them…and why they endure!

(Dude, the Geek abides!)

Your pal,
–Joey