WWdN: In Exile

a bite at the golden apple

The manga signing at Golden Apple last night was awesome. We drew a very large crowd by comic book in-store signing standards, and it was more like an informal party than anything else.

I'm telling you, if you're local and into comics or Star Trek, you should come out to one of these things, because we have a lot of fun getting our geek on.

At last night's event, the SoCal contingent of Enforcers from PAX was in full effect, so we posed for a picture to protect our rep against the Seattle Enforcers, who I understand are always taunting the SoCal Enforcers with tales of awesome. Well, who's awesome now, beeches?!

I also got to meet filmmaker John Singleton, who was on his way to a dinner, but stopped to get his comics on the way.

"Wow, I am a huge admirer of your work," I said when we were introduced.

"I'm an admirer of yours, as well," he said, and I could tell that he meant it. A lifetime in the entertainment industry has given me a nearly flawless bullshit detector, and I was totally floored by his sincerity.

I stayed at the shop until they closed down, and picked up Batman #668, which will wrap up Grant Morrison's outstanding run on the series. I also grabbed a 100 Bullets trade, a 1602 hardcover, and a book for Nolan called The Big Book of Hoaxes, which I think he'll like. I now have so many unread comics, trade paperback, and graphic novels, I will have to take a full day to do nothing but read them. It's a sacrifice, I know, but I'm willing to make it. Stiff upper lip and all that.

I met a bunch of people from TokyoPop, including the publisher. In the film and television world, this would be the equivalent of meeting a network or studio head, and those guys are always douchebags, but Mike from TokyoPop was a cool guy. In fact, everyone from TokyoPop was cool, and I felt like I was talking to people who are in this because they're passionate about the work and excited about the future of Manga in America.

And speaking of the Manga, there's another review out today, from activeanime.com:

The first volume really had a fan fiction feel to it, and frankly, the art work left a lot to be desired in many cases.  In this volume, the stories have more punch, and the design is better.  Perhaps some of the talent behind the stories is to account for this.  One of the writers is Wil Wheaton- yes, that Wil Wheaton of TNG fame.  He shows he has the right stuff as a writer for the franchise with his work “Cura Te Ipsum” which headlines the book.  Damaged engines, Scotty getting new crystals from the middle of a war zone, and McCoy wrestling with his conscience and the Prime Directive whilst seeing a civilization tear itself apart are prominent elements in the classic tale that could easily have been an episode in the original series.  You can see the author has caught the essence of what the classic shows were all about and has cleverly distilled it in a compact manga format.

Dude! I'm 2 for 2! Awesome.

Our next stop is at the West Hollywood Bookfair this Sunday, where we'll have a Q&A, then we're down in Manhattan Beach next week at Comic Bug for the final comic shop stop on the tour.

in honor of my dad

After my sister's wedding, our two families gathered on the beach where Amy and Andrew were married and threw flowers from the bouquets and reception into the ocean, as a memorial for our family members who aren't with us any longer, and couldn't be there to witness the ceremony.

It's been a tough year for my dad. He's lost a lot of people from his family who he loved very much.

With these pictures, I hope to remember my dad as he remembered them.

They're here!

My printer shipped a limited number of The Happiest Days of Our Lives to me earlier this year, so I could take them with me to the various conventions I appeared at over the Summer.

The remainder of the first printing arrived about twenty minutes ago, and it's quite fitting that I feel the way I did in this picture:

that's why i said i relate

On the way home from school today, Nolan said, "I think D&D Girl likes me."

"Oh?" I said, "Really?"

"Yeah," he said, "I think it's because I cast a level three Charm spell on her."

There are few things more joyous for a parent than seeing yourself reflected back at you in your children, and these precious moments make all the sacrifices and challenges worthwhile.

memorial

My sister got married this weekend, and after the wedding, our two families gathered on the beach where they were married, and threw flowers from the bouquets into the ocean, as a memorial for our family members who aren't with us any longer, and couldn't be there to witness the ceremony.

I threw in a flower for my Aunt Val, who I miss more than anyone.

a little PAX video: NES

I just came across some video of my PAX keynote:

This is me talking about the first time I played NES, with my brother, in a department store. It contains what is probably my favorite line of the entire keynote.

I watched a lot of video from PAX while I was supposed to be working on my GiR today (which actually makes sense, and fits this week's column) and was viscerally reminded of how much fun I had there. If you can only attend one convention a year, make it PAX. Trust me.

reminder: golden apple this wednesday for the manga, which gets a good review

Note: There's a time change for Golden Apple. It's updated below.

Hi, I'm Wil, and I like blog post titles that are obnoxiously long. Thanks for stopping by, San Diego.

Star Trek: The Manga - Kakan ni Shinkou has been released, and is showing up in comic shops and book stores all over the place. I had a bit of a squee moment this weekend when Nolan and I found it in a Borders, marking the first time in my life as a writer that one of my books was stocked in the correct section.

My story kicks off the collection, and is described by Comic Book Bin thusly:

In Cura Te Ipsum, the U.S.S. Enterprise is crippled, far away from the nearest Federation Starbase, and badly in need of dilithium crystals.  They find dilithium on a planet in the middle of a brutal civil war/blood feud. Captain James T. Kirk sees an opportunity to guide the planet's warring factions towards peace, but will he be violating the Federation's Prime Directive not to interfere in the affairs of non-Federation planets?

Comic Book Bin gives us an A-, and says:

Star Trek: the manga - Kakan ni Shinkou rings true enough to be more than fan fiction, and for all practical purposes contains some of the best Star Trek comics ever done.  Veteran Trek creator Diane Duane, Trek actor Wil Wheaton, rising star of manga Bettina Kurkoski deliver star performances with their contributions to this volume.

Dude! Awesome!

I'll be at Golden Apple Comics this Wednesday with many of the other writers and artists for a Q&A and signing as we continue our SoCal tour:

Wednesday, September 26
8pm-10pm
7pm-9pm
Golden Apple
7711 Melrose Ave., Hollywood

a bit more about my episode of Family Guy

So recording Family Guy yesterday ranks in the top five most awesome moments of my acting and geek lives.

Seth MacFarlane directed my session, and when I met him, I said, "Okay, I'm not even going to try to pretend to keep it cool. I am a huge fan, and this is more exciting for me than I can quantify."

Yeah, I said quantify. I say stupid shit like that when I'm giddy and excited.

"Well, if you're going to do that," he said, "then I'll have to tell you that Next Generation is my favorite of all the Star Treks, and I've seen every episode about a thousand times. The First Duty is just great, man."

I did my best not to faint.

We had a meeting of the mutual admiration society for a few minutes, and then I went into the booth to record my lines. It was incredibly fun and creatively fulfilling, and even though we only worked together for fifteen or twenty minutes, I instantly liked him. He reminded me of my friends from ACME, and I hoped I earned another bit on the show at some point in the future, because he was really fun to work with.

When I was finished recording, I asked him if I could talk a little bit about my episode on my blog, without giving away too many details, and he said that would be fine, so . . .

I play myself, in a story that you could call a tribute to Next Generation. Pretty much everyone from the cast is on board for the episode, and holy shit is it funny.

I can't divulge any specific story details, or give away any jokes, but there's a joke with me that, if it makes it to the final cut of the episode, could quite possibly be the funniest thing I've ever done on television.

The show will air in about a year, I guess, and I can't wait to see it.

Happiest News

The softcovers of The Happiest Days of Our Lives have just shipped, according to my printer, so I should be able to start taking orders next week. The limited edition hardcovers are taking much longer, and won't be here until the week of October 8, but I think it's close enough that I can start taking pre-orders for both versions next week.

I'm talking with David Lawrence about doing an audio version. We're hoping to record the first week of October, so it's ready to go at the same time as the printed versions.

Since I'm doing this book entirely on my own, I'm going to be drawing heavily on community support to help promote it, starting right now: if you got The Happiest Days of Our Lives this summer from one of my convention appearances, would you let me know what you thought, so I can make sure my marketing efforts reflect what readers are getting from the book?

From the people I've talked to already, I'm starting to get the sense that it inspires nostalgic memories of their own, which leads to discussing a lot of the shared experiences we who grew up in the 70s and came of age in the 80s share: Star Wars figures, video games, RPGS, things like that. I also hear that even if you've read these stories online, it's an entirely different experience to read them in print.

Andrew and I are working on a media kit like the one we did for Dancing Barefoot, and Roughy and I are busy building all the appropriate ordering and product pages at Monolith Press.

Questions? Comments? You know what to do.

a preview trailer for the TNG box set special features is online

The Really Super-Awesome Trust Us You Totally Need To Have This One Even If You've Already Bought All The Other Ones DVD box set for Star Trek: The Next Generation is about to hit stores, and I got a chance yesterday to see a preview of the special documentaries John de Lancie and I shot, in this preview trailer at Star Trek dot Com.

If you are totally into TNG and don't already own any of the seasons on DVD, I suppose it's competitively priced at $40 or so per season. Otherwise, I think it's grossly overpriced.

If you already own the good seasons (3-5, IMHO) you're pretty much looking at this for the special features disc, which according to TV Shows on DVD contains:

• The Next Generation's Impact: 20 Years Later
• The Next Generation's Legacy: 2007
• Star Trek Visual Effects Magic: A Roundtable Discussion
• Select Historical Data 1
• Inside The Star Trek Archive
• Intergalactic Guest Stars
• Alien Speak
• Select Historical Data 2
• Inside Starfleet Academy Archives: Sets and Props
• Special Profiles
• Dressing The Future

So that looks pretty awesome to me, and I guess there are lots of specials added to each disc, including stuff that was once exclusive to Best Buy or something like that, but it still feels way too expensive to me with a suggested retail price of $440. I mean, WTF, CBS?

(Thanks to WWdN reader L.E.M. for the links!)