Joe Blog

I have been neglecting my blog but I've had really, really good reasons to be spotty with the updates (honest!).

2008 was a transition year for me. Over the course of my career as a storyteller, I've written big company comics for Marvel, written studio horror films, had the #1 movie in America, launched books near the top of the Diamond listings, made shorts, gone on strike with the WGA and returned to comics with a slew of new projects on the horizon. I have come full circle and feel incredibly comfortable, self-possessed, wise and hungry to kick some ass in 2009.

Coming off the heels of last year's successful JOKER'S ASYLUM event at DC Comics, I've written a bunch of new Batman projects -- one of which should be solicited in the next Previews in support of a certain "Battle" for a certain superhero's "Cowl". It features a highly underused and richly Gothic and dark member of Batman's mythos and I'm hopeful it's the first of many stories I'll get to tell featuring him.

I'm also involved in horror comic launches at a couple of other publishers which I believe will be public knowledge by the time New York Comic-con rolls around next month. Very cool stuff. I'm absolutely thrilled.

My first creator-owned book for Oni Press, the Russian-set supernatural thriller GHOST PROJEKT is currently in production. Steve Rolston is currently drawing the first issue while I race to finish the script for #2. We are hopeful we'll be launching at this summer's San Diego Comic-con. My other original book, the stoner-adventure titled, THE HASHISHIAN is in the works as well. Watch this space in the coming months for updates on both of these projects.

So, in short, 2008 is dead and in the ground. We elected a transformational figure to the Presidency, won a Super Bowl here in New York and I've really set some plans in motion for the coming months and years. I'm pretty sure some other stuff happened over the past year... but those were the highlights as I saw them.

More to come. Thanks for listening, reading, watching, etc.

A couple of trade paperback collections of some of my past comics work have been released recently.

Marvel has reprinted my X-MEN: THE SEARCH FOR CYCLOPS mini-series in the latest volume of their X-MEN vs. APOCALYPSE books. Illustrated by the great Tom Raney, with alternate covers by Adam Pollina), this book was a big deal when it came out if memory serves. Good to see it back in print.

Across town, DC has collected last year's well received JOKER'S ASYLUM mini. I wrote the fourth installment featuring SCARECROW with Juan Doe supplying the super cool art. Jason Aaron, David Hine and many other talented people contributed stories featuring Penguin, Joker, Two-Face and other colorful members of Batman's famous rogues gallery to this series.

JOKER'S ASYLUM comes out on December 16th, just in time for the holiday shopping crush. The perfect entertainment purchase in this maddening economy.

I love my Giants. The Super Bowl victory last February only whetted our appetites here in New York and I've grown convinced that this team is poised to become a Dynasty. Who would you rather build a team around than Eli Manning? He's not going to be the highest rated passer or the most touchdowns/yards thrown guy in the NFL ever... but he's got that Derek Jeter big play-stuff about him and he's the reason they beat the Patriots. And he'll be the reason they crush the Philadelphia Eagles tonight.

Oh, and that defense. Goddamn, that's an incredible pass rush they're going to throw at poor old Donovan McNabb...

I can't go on at length right now. Still drained. But still jubilant. Something's got to give, eventually. For now, just a reflection...

I live at the southern edge of Harlem, here in New York City. I've been a resident of this neighborhood since 1993, saw the awful rise of Giuliani-ism over this city, the rise and set of Bill Clinton, and let's not even get into Bush.

I've been voting at a local senior center for at least the past five years. Tuesday morning, having not been able to sleep much the night before, I rolled out of bed and headed over to the center to vote at 5:45 am. Like most everyone else with a story to tell, the length of the line already formed inspired me. But what really got me was the poll workers -- predominantly elderly, African-Americans who've done this important job so dutifully over the years at this polling site. The look on their faces... just... absolute, tear-glossed joy over what they knew was coming... what had already come and what was out of reach from the opposition at this point and unable to be snatched away... was so moving, I almost lost it. When I closed the curtain and pulled the old red handle to the left to ready the voting mechanism, I think I did for a second.

The enormity of what this country has done... the promise that has been restored... the newness of all this... I don't think it's fully settled in yet. We, no doubt, face very difficult days and President Obama is going to be tested and he's going to make missteps. But my God, if you can't feel a swell of patriotism and pride after what happened this past Tuesday... if you can't get inspired by what this country just did... I don't even know what to say. You might be a lost cause.

**For some great pictures, check out Callie Shell's photoblog. She's gotten some great, candid shots of Obama over the past few years, including this favorite you might have seen along the way:

There's a new interview with Stuart Moore and myself discussing the process of putting together THE NIGHTMARE FACTORY series of graphic novels.

An excerpt:

O'Shea: How has screenwriting influenced your approach toward the comics medium (if at all) and vice versa?

Harris: Honestly, I think my ambitions to direct more influence my comic scripts more than the actual screenwriting does. When writing comics, I set out to direct the movie on paper. I love the collaboration with my artists. I tend to view them as both my cast and cinematographer. When the partnership is good, the only thing I appreciate more than an incredible depiction of the panel just as I saw it is an artist's rendition that brings something out of the panel, the page, book, etc. that I never saw coming. But make no mistake. I'm sitting in my mental director's chair while curled up at my desk and scripting the book. My scripts direct the camera and the actors and I'm cutting the movie in my head while shooting the entire time.