Down, buried in a bunker and generating many, many new things that will be unveiled in the coming months.

Will be back with updates when and where appropriate... all I can say for now is, the culmination of many years and many efforts are about to bear fruit. I've had the good fortune to channel much of what I've been able to do (as well as what I've learned through spectacular failure on one or two fronts) into original, creator-owned comics projects which make me giddy to consider.

Please, if you do check this site, do keep doing so. Feel free to find me on Twitter, Facebook and anyplace else out there with a low standard of admission.

And, in the interim... Go Yankees!

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?

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.

We announced my first two creator-owned comics titles at the San Diego Comic-con's Oni Press panel this past weekend. Newsarama has the details, but I wanted to elaborate a bit.

I've had a journey, from Marvel mainstay on both Spidey and X-books (if you remember these, wonderful, but I can't bring myself to flashback in this post), to horror movie Hollywood and back again. Oni seems to get what I'm about and what I'm trying to do. I've been blessed to have two incredibly talented co-conspirators and am ecstatic to bring my first original comics to the fore.

First up for me is GHOST PROJEKT (illustrated by Steve Rolston).

The story takes place in the former Soviet Union and revolves around the idea that during the Cold War, the Soviets experimented with all sorts of weapons of mass destruction, including the supernatural.

An American weapons inspector discovers a project that involved the Soviets trying to weaponize ghosts that "went horribly wrong," Harris said. It's due in late 2009 or early 2010.

The series will mark Steve's first color work for Oni and is going to be a tense, action-packed thriller with some very creepy moments of horror. I'm writing it now and can't wait to get this out.

The second title we announced is THE HASHISHIAN, an original graphic novel with former DC and Bat-books artist, Trevor McCarthy.

Harris said the name comes from a sect of assassins during the Crusades who were sent out to perform assassinations "drugged out of their minds," Harris said.

"But that's not exactly what our story is about," he added. It's about two Brooklyn stoners who find a magical stash of marijuana, and when they smoke it, "they have flashbacks to the 12th century where these characters were alive and well and doing their duty," he said. The owner of the pot, one of these 12th century assassins, shows up and hunts them down to reclaim his pot - later they learn he's there to assassinate the president.

I love stoner buddy movies in the Cheech and Chong tradition. I look forward to Pineapple Express like few others. But I've never seen anyone do with the genre what we're trying to pull off here. I've been describing this as a sort of "Harold & Kumar meets The Bourne Identity" with a serious action/adventure bent and some subversive politics thrown in for good measure to go along with the drug comedy.

I've had the idea for THE HASHISHIAN percolating in the back of my head for a very long time and I can't tell you how excited I am to finally be telling this story.

I'll be joining the big Oni Press panel this Saturday at Comic-con to announce not one, but two new, original comics I'll be writing and releasing through Oni next year. I've been working (along with my talented co-conspirators) to get these projects going for a while now and I'm very excited to get the news out.

SDCC has the following description of the Oni Panel in their programming guide:

5:00-6:00 Oni Press Panelmonium 2008!-- The most fun you'll ever have at a panel! See what all the hubbub is about at indy comics powerhouse Oni Press. Get sneak peeks at upcoming projects, news on new Oni Press initiatives, and Q&A with some of your favorite Oni Press creators. Oh, and did we mention prizes? There's going to be prizes and free comics, so come one, come all! It's panda--er, Panelmonium! Room 3

I'll be attending the San Diego Comic-con this coming weekend with a bit of news breaking on not one, but three original comics titles as the con rolls on.

At least I hope so! The run up to Comic-con is always comprised of half the time needed to get everything I want to get done done and getting all the business stuff done before this weekend is going to be a Herculean effort.

But watch this space. Very excited about what's been happening in the background over these past few months...

Just a quick update to apologize for lack of postings. I've been underground, deep in the bunker, writing. 2008 has been a very transitional and busy year and I'm going to be announcing a slew of new projects as the summer gets going, including creator-owned comics and graphic novels, new super-hero books at a major publisher and more.

But first I have to finish writing. Always with the needing to finish writing, this one.

I'm going back under. Stay tuned.

We were handing out this promo card at the New York Comic-Con last weekend, so I guess the cat is out of the bag. Just like the first volume from Fox Atomic Comics and Harper Collins, I've written two stories based on the works of Thomas Ligotti:

"Gas Station Carnivals" with Vasilis Lolos illustrating and "The Clown Puppet" with the legendary Bill Sienkiewicz!

I'm very excited for this book's release. The first volume of THE NIGHTMARE FACTORY was beautiful and I learned a lot while making it. This new collection is going to be top-shelf fucking stellar.

Painted cover by Jon Foster!

New books! The new Previews for July have been released and my new Batman book is listed. We're spotlighting SCARECROW in a special BATMAN "fifth week" event. Super-talented artist Juan Doe and I present a horrific take on the Master of Fear, blending everything I love about both 80s slasher films and 80s teen movies like HEATHERS and THE BREAKFAST CLUB into one twisted tale examining Queen Bees, slumber parties, masked maniacs and the nature of fear.

From the Diamond Solicits:

I'm really pleased with how this book has turned out...

When not walking the WGA picket line and/or absorbing every scrap of shameless election porn on cable news... over and over... I get work done. Well, I try anyway.

What's up at present:

• Just finished an issue of a BATMAN project to debut this summer. I'll post more on this once DC solicits the book.


• There's something else going on with THE NIGHTMARE FACTORY. The Fox Atomic/Harper Collins graphic novel was so much fun. Can't wait to dig into this new part.


• I'm developing three new, original creator-owned comics series' with a trio of artists I'm excited to be working with and proud to call friends. I feel rejuvenated, working in comics like this again. Once upon a time, I aspired to climb the Marvel ladder... to toil on lesser books, then X-books, then bigger X-books, then... splat. Times changed. I made horror movies but still longed to write comics. I'm so pleased things have come back around and feel I'm just starting to really get my feet under me, my voice in shape, etc. This is fun and I'm very excited to get these projects out there.


• And since I'm not screenwriting for money... I've also been writing a new paranoid thriller spec about fear, war and government control. I left a variety of projects I'd been developing with different producers and companies attached either on the table or in suspended animation. I miss them all and can't wait for this strike to end so we can get back to work getting those going. But this strike has given me the unexpected chance to spend time writing things I really care about, say things I really want to say. I'm really excited about this new script I'm working on.

In addition to fits of blood and political bile spewing from the back of my throat, I thought I'd use this space to add new and old things to this site before they're actually ensconced in a section of their own.

First up is TOYBOX, created by yours truly and once and future X-artist Adam Pollina.

We're currently exploring publishing options for this project that's long been near and dear to us. It's a poignant, dark and socially relevant tale of both lost childhood and childhood's end.

More to come on this soon... for now, enjoy the promo art: