This image was drawn up by a wonderful artist I know, Stewart McKenny. Check out his website. He sent me this delightful New Year's greeting and was kind enough to let me share it with all of you. Thanks Stewart!
In celebration of LOST's final season and as a project of fan appreciation, 16 top designers and artists, who are also fans of the show, were commissioned to create artwork celebrating one of the series' most memorable, and unforgettable, "water cooler" moments. This ultimate "fan art" was then turned into labor intensive, hand-pulled screen prints, limited to an edition of just 300, with less than 200 available to the public through our websites. Each beautiful poster tells its own different story, allowing the fan to relive memorable and influential moments in an artistic manner, as the show's storied run comes to a close. Once this limited edition print has sold out, they will never be printed again. Celebrate the fandom, community and family created by one of televisions' greatest shows by hanging a little part of it's history, inspiration and influence on your wall.
The store has lots of goodies for people like us of course, a replica Terminator head, Lantern corps t-shirts and Lightsaber chopsticks. This particular item was something of a wonder if you'll excuse the obvious pun. The first appearance of Wonder Woman in Sensation Comics circa 1942 with a CGC rating of 7.0. Any guesses as to how much they're asking? $20,000. Wowza.
After the party, I asked my boss Jonah from CBR to give me a tour of the office. Let me just say, if I lived in California, I would love coming to work. Besides the great design scheme, there's an XBOX and toys sitting all over. I'm very impressed the site publishes content at all. Also, sitting atop a shelf, I spotted CBR's Eisner Award. Considering it was awarded the year I began writing for them I'm gonna go out on a limb and call it "our Eisner." :) By the way, "our Eisner" is really f'ing heavy.
L.A. is a lot bigger than I imagined and all those areas you think are other cities in California are really all just part of L.A. Like Hollywood for instance. I traveled there one day to do the ultra-touristy thing and scoot along the Walk of Fame. And look who I ran into first. I'm always in convention/cosplay mode so I asked her if I could take her picture (the polite thing to do in any circumstance really). She said, "Sure, I pose for tips, is that ok?" Yeah, what the hell, I've got a buck or two I can give Catwoman. I should have known I wouldn't get away that easily. Looking into my wallet, the smallest bill I had was a five. Damn. As some random passerby snapped her picture without asking I gave her the five and said I hoped it made up for him. No hot-Jack-Sparrow-impersonator you cannot have a dollar, Catwoman cleaned me out. 
The whole area by Grauman's Chinese Theater was actually pretty busy for a Monday afternoon. That and the costumers trying to make a buck made it difficult to get many pictures of the stars or hand and footprints but I did get a few I enjoyed like the Star Trek and Harry Potter casts.
I visited Ripley's Believe It Or Not, since that's always entertaining, and found something I wanted to steal. If it wasn't under glass and I wasn't in the basement relying on an employee to take me back upstairs in a wheelchair lift when I was done, I'd be slaying vampires as we speak. It's not the same Vampire Killing Kit that was up for sale last year but it's close. Sigh.
The highlight of my trip was the day I got to visit the G4 building. I know a few people who work there and they got me in to watch the live taping of Attack of the Show that night. I've been in television studios practically my entire life so it wasn't that aspect that impressed me but getting to see professionals at work doing exactly what I hope to do one day. Unfortunately Olivia Munn wasn't there, Sarah Jean Underwood was subbing for her but the man himself, Kevin Pereira was. He was really friendly and cool and I'm so glad I got a chance to watch him work because he's really talented. I also got to see Blair Herter and Chris Gore to their thing as well. Thanks to everyone on set for having me and letting me feel right at home. Now hire me.
Post AOTS, I headed upstairs to join Courtney Kraft (The Otaku Goddess) for her webshow on G4 Interactive. She usually discusses video games but was nice enough to branch off into the comic world for me for a while. We did talk about Batman: Arkham Asylum though. Here it is in case you missed it. Count how many times I mention Green Lantern. :)
Abishek Singh is the artist on the one above, below we have a very interesting piece of art that wasn't part of the Indian exhibit but mixed in with some Mayan artifacts. So you can understand why I did a double-take when I saw the Man of Steel. This is a work by Enrique Chagoya.
My last night in L.A. I organized a Geek Girl Dinner. I know so many girls like myself via Twitter or the internet at large that I thought it would be a nice way to get us all together. I actually got to meet Geek Girl Diva first when I ran into her at Disneyland earlier in the week but it was nice to finally chat for real. Here's her thoughts on the night. Me? I think it was a rousing success to say the least and...not one of us thought to take a picture. What kind of girls are we? Whatever, we had a hot waiter, drank delicious beer and got a free dessert. Now all of you move to New Jersey so we can make this a weekly thing. :)
I recently interviewed Jeanty for the Girls Entertainment Network. Here's a taste:I'm a huge comic fan so doing homage covers was something I was itching to do. Not all the time, mind you, just where it seem to fit like the cover to Action Comics with Superman's first appearance. There have also been gag covers that weren't taken from a comic book but film. Like the cover with Faith and Giles as the British characters the Avengers. So when we can do something cheeky with the alternate cover, we try to. It's a lot of fun going back and forth with Joss and the Editorial staff about what we should do every month, let me tell you!I got to chat with the hard-working illustrator about his love of the Slayer and what’s coming up in the series now that Season 8 is coming to a head. And will there be a Season 9? Head over to GEN to find out!
You may remember, a few weeks ago, PanelsOnPages.com named me their Fangirl of the Month for December. Well, what I didn't tell you then (but those who follow me on Twitter found out last week) was that they put together an AMAZING calendar of all their Fangirls this year! What are you waiting for? Check out the 2010 Fangirl of the Month Calendar, I guarantee you won't find anything else like it.
As expected, blogging with not be happening while I'm away because it is a vacation after all. But if you want to keep up with my antics, which will most likely involve several comic shop trips and pictures, just check out my Twitter stream. Until then, arivaderchi!
Talk about devestatingly handsome men. Check out ol' Alfred Pennyworth as designed by Gary Frank. Hummana-hummana! This also comes courtesy of the DCU Source blog and is the basis of a new ongoing line of original graphic novels about Batman and Superman subtitled Earth One. DC says the series will be "spotlighting the most powerful heroes of the DC Universe, with their first years and earliest moments retold in a standalone, original graphic novel format, on a new earth with an all-new continuity." Ok I lied. I do have one more thing for you today. I had the pleasure of interviewing actress/musician Helen Slater recently for Comic Book Resources and the article has just been posted.
Slater's portrayal of Supergirl was something that influenced me heavily when I was a young girl, not to mention her role in The Legend of Billie Jean (though I never did get up the nerve to do the haircut). She was beautiful, extremely friendly and gracious making the interview an absolute pleasure.
You all know I've loved Supergirl since I was a wee lass so needless to say this was a very special interview for me. I hate to sound corny but it was really a dream come true getting to meet and chat with her. It's been 25 years since "Supergirl" was released in theaters, and CBR News recently sat down down with actress Helen Slater and discussed her famous role, her upcoming co-writing gig on "Supergirl" #50, her turn on "Smallville" and more.Check out the interview, Helen Slater is Still 'Super' at CBR and don't forget to leave comments in the forum there!
Hey, it made me chuckle.
Found this Obama inspired Transformers poster thanks to the chatroom during the Panels On Pages Pop!-Cast earlier in the week. 
This t-shirt design is quite possibly the greatest idea ever. It's called "Team Edward [James Olmos]" and, for those of you who don't get it, it's a spoof of Twilight. "You can have your sparkling, fangless Twilight vampires. There's only one 'Edward' whose team I want to be on. EDWARD JAMES OLMOS! Whether he's inspiring inner city kids, tracking down replicants or leading the Colonial Fleet to victory against the Cylons, EJO has always got your back. Shouldn't you return the favor?" It's based on this webcomic, which is good for a chuckle or two.
Persistent Entertainment and Pantry Films will be backing The Piper, "the cinematic version of the Pied Piper of Hamelin will introduce a darker version of the fable through the eyes of a much-bullied high school band student who unintentionally channels the spirit of the Pied Piper, only to realize the terrifying consequences of his actions are well beyond his control," says Variety. Zenescope's own Joe Brusha and Ralph Tedesco, the creators of the series, will act as executive producers on the project but no writer has been named so far.
It's like winning an Oscar for being a geek...or something. Anyway, I'm truly honored to have been chosen. And I've got great company! Check out the previous Fangirls of the Month on PoP.So what are you waiting for? Go read the rest of the interview and say hello to everyone at PoP for me. And listen for me tonight at 10 EST on their podcast!PoP!: You’re writing all over the web these days between your blog, CBR and GEN. What made you move from mere spectator geeking to the real deal?
Jill: You’re right, I feel like a writing machine at times, haha! But I love it. At school I created what was called a contract major for myself. Under the general umbrella of Contemporary Arts I got to pick and choose which aspects of communications I wanted to study. My main focus was on television so I took several different voice and on-camera classes as well as production, but I also leaned toward journalism and other forms of writing like TV, radio and film. I didn’t think I had interest in straight-up news writing but it turned out I was pretty good at it and I took a few more of those courses just for fun. Right after graduation I landed a job in radio and writing basically fell by the wayside. I felt like I needed to get back into practice so I started my blog, “Has Boobs, Reads Comics.” I have a lot of fun on there, but when I would go to conventions or other events I decided why not do formal reports on them? Now that I’m writing for other sites and doing some video work I feel like all of my schooling is finally coming together and it feels great. Now if I could make it onto G4 my life would be complete.PoP!: What costume do you plan to tackle next?
Jill: I’ve got so many costumes I want to do, the only question is which to pick next. I think the Red Lantern costume is going to be hard to top but I’d like to try one of the other Corps as well, maybe Blue or Orange. I also have the idea to cosplay two other redheads once my hair is a little longer. One is Misfit from the Birds of Prey and the other is Cyclone from the Justice Society. Their costumes are both really cute and relatively easy to pull off, which would be a relief for me, haha. One day, probably a while from now, I want to attempt a major Batgirl costume. I’d have to have that made for me though because it’s going to involve my scooter. I plan on making it into her Bat-cycle.
