Last week, we were treated to a visit from Xan's childhood friend Sara, along with Sara's son Gavin and Debbie, her mother. Sara, who is expecting her second child, grabbed a lightsaber(something you can actually do in our house) and posed for the photo below...

Sarah the Pregnant Jedi defends Xan's mom Lin and our Yoda collection

Gavin had a great time playing with our old action figures, which we keep in a drawer in the studio for just such occasions.

Gavin and the little girl

Later, an exhausted Jess-Belle climbed into the action figure drawer for a little rest...

Our favorite little action figure

On Sunday, Xan, her mom Lin and I all drove to Debbie's home in Dayton to visit some more with Sara and Gavin, who are in from Toronto. We also got to spend time with Sara's brother Eric, their aunt Marcy(who brought her famous peanut butter fudge), and our friend Sherry and her son Ben, and Sherry's sister Sally. Good times.

We may get to see Sara again soon if we actually make it to the Toronto Comicon in April, where I think I'm supposed to be a guest. I'm listed on the website for the show, but I haven't heard from the organizers since the initial invitation was extended last year, so it seems a little uncertain at this point. Here's a link to the Toronto Comicon's site. Stay tuned...

Speaking of links, here's a strange little thing I found today. Scroll down a bit and you'll find a reference to a scene I drew in Midnighter #3.

--C

Ocean Headed to the Silver Screen?

Well, no...apparently not just now, anyway...If you follow this link, you'll find an article from good old Newsarama.com which reports that Gianni Nunnari, producer of the movie 300(based on a graphic novel by Frank Miller), mentioned in a press release that he'd be interested in adapting Ocean(the graphic novel written by Warren Ellis and drawn by me) as a feature film. as Warren points out in the update to the story also found at the above link, no one has actually approached either one of us about this(we own the thing, so presumably someone will have to approach us before buying the film rights), so for now, it's just some guy in Hollywood dropping the name of a book we created.

Still had me feeling pretty good, though. Even the nasty little comments by those internet pundits I love so much did little to bring me down this time...

...because in the end it's still some guy in Hollywood talking about making a movie about a book I co-created and drew and had published by one of the top two publishers in the comics industry.

--C

Brrrr....
Not much news from the Sprouse House as we hunker down inside and try to avoid the brutal cold weather this week and last.

I finished up the first big Midnighter storyline and began working on covers for the next few issues, one of which I've posted below. Next up is a short story for the new Spirit comic (to be written by Walt Simonson, one of my comic book idols), and then back to the Midnighter for more dark humor and all-out (some might say "over-the-top")action.

The cover of Midnighter #7--freefalling with zombie-cyborgs in pursuit!

Xan has kept busy during her off hours bonding with her dad as she helps him figure out and fill up his brand new iPod. It's actually really cute watching them together, talking music and trading songs(doo-wop, soul, and classic rock, mostly).

Xan's dad: hyp-mo-tized!

Jess-Belle is loving having her humans stuck at home with her so much, but she doesn't seem to be enjoying the constant static shocks that come with winter. This hasn't stopped her from sleeping on top of the cable box, my computer monitor, my drafting table light box, and various other electrical appliances for warmth, however.

Yes, she really is sleeping like that in this photo...

Just around the corner for us: a trip to Seattle in late March/early April for the Emerald City Comicon, another jaunt up to Cleveland's Beachland Ballroom, and just maybe a comic convention in Toronto in April.

--C