• Blog

    The Batman Sequel 35 Years in the Making: Batman Resurrection

    Who knew that one of the best sequels of the year would be a novel to a thirty-five-year-old movie? Batman is my favorite hero. I consider the day the first Tim Burton film with Michael Keaton as Batman/Bruce Wayne debuted—23 June 1989–to be the real Batman Day. No matter what kind of Batman movie has been made in the years since, the ‘89 Batman was special. So when I heard John Jackson Miller was writing a direct sequel to that film, I was thrilled. And boy did Miller deliver. A Direct Sequel Batman: Resurrection starts in Gotham City right as the Joker is flooding downtown with Smilex gas. That would…

  • Blog

    New Nightwing Creators Remember Comics Can Be Fun Yet Deep

    That image. A single splash page is all it took for me to put the current Nightwing run over at DC Comics on my radar. And oh boy am I glad I did. A fellow writer posted it on Facebook about a month ago and I was captivated by the art, the simultaneous classic and modern style. The artist is Bruno Redondo and he has teamed up with writer Tom Taylor to have a run at Nightwing. And what a run (so far). Comics Are Not Supposed To Make You Cry…Right? Luckily, my local library has the first three volumes of the Taylor/Redondo Nightwing books and I eagerly checked them…

  • Blog

    How’d You Spend the 99 Days of Summer 2023 – (Part 1)

    I read at lot and watched a lot of movies. There. End of post. See ya. What did I see and read? I’ll recap the reading next week. Here’s what I watched…and hopefully you did, too. Summer 2023 Movies Were Great When was the last time we had a summer movie season like this? I think many of us earmarked certain dates on the calendar to get ourselves to the movie theater. I did that nearly every weekend this year. The end result was that, with the exception of the Pixar film, Elemental, I saw every movie I wanted to see this summer. And I enjoyed just about every one…

  • Blog

    The Real Batman Day: June 23 1989

    [In light of Michael Keaton’s return as Batman in 2023’s The Flash, I thought I would re-post this piece from 2019 about the the original Batman movie from 1989, now thirty-four summers ago. The original post is here if you want to compare. Ever since 1989, the date of June 23 has been fixed in my mind. It will always be the true Batman Day for me and likely millions more.]  Where were you 30 years ago today? Probably standing in line to see Batman. The Date  It all began with a symbol and a date. A simple poster considering what it wrought. For months, all you needed to know…