Along the front of the parade route, to be precise. Riding the front rail as the President and Vice-President came by and freezing my ass off on Pennsylvania Avenue. So worth it. So fantastic.

So much of my own identity over these past eight years seems to have been culled from being outraged and sharing those feelings engendered by the most appalling American government I hope we ever see in my lifetime.

Now, a time to lay down arms, fears and to stretch the legs out from the defensive crouch they've been hooked in since 2000. Things are frightening out there and there's so much to brave... but hope is contagious and in strong, strong supply this morning.

DC Solicits have leaked out. IGN has the rundown of the rest of the BATMAN: BATTLE FOR THE COWL event following Batman's apparent death in the R.I.P. and FINAL CRISIS storylines.

I love Man-Bat. I think he's Batman's dark reflection, monstrous yet sympathetic, lost and dangerous but well-meaning, noble and in possession of immense power, rage and pain.

Jim Calafiore's artwork is stunning. We're going for dark and gritty here. Man-Bat is an outcast. He doesn't play well with others. And dark, disturbing things seem to follow wherever he goes.

And ain't that Jose Ladron cover sweet?

In a display of Ticketmaster.com prowess, I have scored highly-coveted and incredibly sparse tickets to the seating erected along the Inaugural Parade route and am heading to Washington tomorrow morning.

Will report back. Should be a hell of an experience.

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.