Whew! Well, I had to finish the script for Runaways #6 before leaving town tomorrow, and I did. Sent it off to Marvel today. This is a huge issue, by the way. It completes the Majesdane story with a truly shocking twist, and I really poured my heart into it. And that’s all I’m going to say about that.

And I finished Echo 7, of course. I approved the pdf proofs online this afternoon, so it will print this weekend and ship Monday.

I heard Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane #3 came out today, but I haven’t seen it.

Okay, I’m off to Belgium for a long weekend. Maybe I can make a post while I’m there. If not, I’ll let you know how it went when I get back. Have a good weekend.

LIQUIDATING SIP TPB’S AT HALF PRICE!

Sounds like an ad for a local furniture dealer, doesn’t it? True though, we are letting the trade paperbacks go out of print to make way for THE SIP OMNIBUS, which is scheduled for release next summer at the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con. By then there will be only two formats available for SiP: the omnibus and the ever-popular pocket editions. This means no more trade paperbacks. Because of this, we’ve decided to sell the remaining stock at half-price. Of the 19 tpb’s, 5 are already out of print, so check the store to see if the book you want is still available.

So, yeah, the SiP Omnibus is happening and it’s official and we’ve already started working on it, because it’s big. I mean, big. B. I. G. Big. How big? Big. But cheap! More details later.

SiP Pins and postcards and the Katchoo statue are also on special sale at the SiPstore.

Katchoo and assorted indy comics figures are available for preorder at shockertoys.com/store.php

Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane #3 preview, 5-pages worth, right here.

Echo 7 is finished!

It’s being passed around to a few people this afternoon for proofing, then on it’s way to the printer tonight via ftp. I’ll check the pdf proof tomorrow online. The book will ship Monday 13th and be in stores Wednesday 22nd. Badda bing badda boom. For some reason, this issue seemed to me to take forever and require a lot of work, but I’m happy with the results. FYI, I’m using the cover art with the bad guy and his hand on this one—a last second decision. That was originally planned for issue 8, but, hey, we play it fast and loose here (”we” being me and the menagerie of monkeys in my head). Whatever looks best.

Robyn and I leave for Belgium on Thursday. I was privately dreading the trip’s interruption to my schedule until I saw a photo of the beautiful facility and surrounding area where the F.A.C.T.S. convention is being held. Now I’m only dreading the downtime of the travel days, but looking forward to the time in Belgium, meeting new people and soaking up the inspiration in a country I consider to be the heartland of comics.

Remember the Harry Potter rights problem—the fansite reprinting huge chunks of the book under the guise of review? That was obviously wrong, but it went to court and Rowling finally prevailed in defending her right, after great expense. But that was in England. Now Congress is about to pass a bill making such activity legal in the United States. It’s called the Orphan Bill, and it’s buried in with the same bills attached to, of all things, the bailout. Why such a thing would even exist—whose idea was this???!—is beyond me, but if it passes I, and all the other publishers in this country, will be screwed.

So I’m posting the entire letter from the National Cartoonist Society here for you to disseminate and act upon as you see fit. Please also pass this along to all comics related friends, journalists, bloggers, news sites, etc. Thank you! —Terry

postnote: Robyn just called Nancy Pelosi about this and left a message on her phone. Come on! How often do you get to call the Speaker of the House? We are legion and it’s time to be heard. Speak up!

Dear Cartoonists,

This email and call-for-action can’t wait until tonight or tomorrow.  If you want to protect your copyrights, I urge you to follow up as suggest below NOW!  The bill could be up for a vote right now.

We have gotten word that the House is going to make an attempt to pass Orphan Works Bill HR 5889 or substitute it with the Senate bill S 2913 while the House has suspended it’s rules to try to pass the Wall Street Bailout Package.  With the rules in suspension, this bill could pass with as little as 2 congresspeople if it gets out of Judicial Committee and onto the House floor for a suspension vote.

Please act now and pass the along this email to everyone you can.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————–

1. We need YOU to contact Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and ask them NOT to allow H.R. 5889 to go on the calendar.

With the financial bailout the House as been inundated with emails and calls so we are providing special ways to get in touch.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi         email:    americanvoices@mail.house.gov
Majority Leader Steny Hoyer:         email:   steny.hoyer@mail.house.gov

I was able to leave a voice message for Pelosi and Hoyer when I called  the Capitol Switchboard Number 800-828-0498 I asked for Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Hoyer.

If you ask for Mr. Steny Hoyer you might be transferred to a different line and the mailbox was full.
So be sure to use their titles, Speaker or Majority Leader, respectively.

Suggested Letter for Pelosi/Hoyner

Dear Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi/ House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer:

Please, please, help me. For months I have been contacting members of Congress regarding my opposition to H.R. 5889, the Orphan Works Act of 2008. This legislation, if passed as written, will have devastating consequences for millions of copyright holders. On Friday, the Senate passed their version of the Orphan Works bill by hotlining the bill via a unanimous consent vote, and my worst fears will be realized if the House follows suit.

I am in total disbelief that now—
* UNDER COVER OF NIGHT
* UNDER COVER OF AN ECONOMIC CRISIS
* UNDER COVER OF ANOTHER TELEVISED DEBATE

… when we were led to believe that the bill would not be passed by the 110th Congress… NOW is when certain members of Congress are trying to get their special interest bill passed.

I am part of a loosely formed alliance of 75 organizations representing over 500,000 artists, photographers, musicians and writers—AND WE WANT OUR VOICES HEARD. We want to have a voice in crafting appropriate Orphan Works legislation which will not devastate multiple industries– in the 111th Congress. Please help us make that happen by not allowing H.R. 5889 to appear on the schedule for the rest of this session.

This radical change to copyright law is not in the best interests of our country—especially given the economic crisis we are facing. Surely Congress has more important things to worry about right now than passing a highly contested radical piece of copyright legislation.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,
Your name
Your cartoon feature/ newspaper where your editorial cartoons appear
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————–

2. We also need YOU to get to 4 critical members of the House Judiciary Committee and tell them NOT to abandon their version of the bill, to accept the amendments submitted by The Illustrators’ Partnership of America, Artists Rights Society, and Advertising Photographers of America and truly make this House bill an Orphan Works solution that will benefit libraries, museums, documentary filmmakers, and the copyright holder.

This is SO important that we are asking everyone to phone, fax AND e-mail these six people IMMEDIATELY.

Perhaps if they all get 10,000+ messages  it will have an impact.  Here is the contact information, followed by sample letters that you may use as is, or edit as you see fit. Please be aware that some of the representatives only accept e-mails from constituents.

I have been very successful getting through via fax.

Rep. John Conyers, Jr.             john.conyers@mail.house.gov
Phone: (202) 225-5126              Fax: (202) 225-0072

Rep. William Delahunt            william.delahunt@mail.house.gov
Phone (202) 225 3111               Fax (202) 225-5658

Rep. Jerrold Nadler                 jerrold.nadler@mail.house.gov
Phone: (202) 225-5635             Fax: (202) 225-6923

Rep. Howard Berman              howard.berman@mail.house.gov
Phone: (202) 225-4695              Fax: (202) 225-3196

SUGGESTED LETTER

Dear Honorable  (Conyers, Delahunt, Nadler, Berman),

Please, please, help me. For months I have been contacting members of Congress regarding my opposition to H.R. 5889, the Orphan Works Act of 2008. This legislation, if passed as written, will have devastating consequences for millions of copyright holders. On Friday, the Senate passed their version of the Orphan Works bill by hotlining the bill via a unanimous consent vote, and my worst fears will be realized if the House follows suit.

I am totally outraged that now—

* UNDER COVER OF NIGHT
* UNDER COVER OF AN ECONOMIC CRISIS
* UNDER COVER OF ANOTHER TELEVISED DEBATE

… when we were led to believe that the bill would not be passed by the 110th Congress… NOW is when Congress is trying to re-write our copyright laws.

I am part of a loosely formed alliance of 75 organizations representing over 500,000 artists, photographers, musicians and writers—AND WE WANT OUR VOICES HEARD. Please do NOT allow this bill to pass now— and do NOT adopt the Senate version of the bill. This radical change to copyright law is not in the best interests of our country—especially given the economic crisis we are facing. In the upcoming election this will be a vote-deciding issue for me and many artists like me. We want to have a voice in crafting appropriate Orphan Works legislation which will not devastate multiple industries, and despite what you may have been told we have not been given that opportunity. Please help us make that happen—in the 111th Congress.

I look forward to your reply.

Sincerely,
Your name
Your cartoon feature/ newspaper where your editorial cartoons appear

Abstract Studio co-mogul extraordinaire Tom took the plunge last week and got a SiP tattoo! It looks fantastic, but don’t tell his parents.

Which reminds me, during my recent trip to Las Vegas, Shannon Outlaw asked me to add a Francine drawing below her Katchoo tattoo. She planned to take that to her favorite tat-artist and get it inked. I’m thinking maybe I should just start doing these tattoos myself.

And I’m adding this to the post… a picture of Shannon’s tattoo done and inked:

I notice they added the painter’s measurement lines to Katchoo’s face, just like the real thing. Cool.

And Jeff Nowicki pointed out that the actresses from tv’s CHUCK, Sarah Lancaster and Yvonne Strahovski, would make be perfect for Francine and Katchoo in the smash hit tv series, Strangers In Paradise. I could picture that.

I updated my home page on MySpace.

Working feverishly to get things finished before we leave for Belgium next week. Must turn in Echo 7 and the script for Runaways 6 by Monday! Thankfully there’s nothing going on in the news to distract me. …eh? What?

October 11 and 12 I’ll be in Ghent, Belgium for F.A.C.T.S. 2008, “the biggest comics, sci-fi and anime festival in the Berelux!” This will be my last trip to europe this year, having already been to cons in Spain and Italy. I’ve been looking forward to this trip in particular, Belgium being such a  beautiful country, and home to two of my favorite fictional characters: Tin Tin and Hercule Poroit (neither of which I’ve ever pronounce properly).

When we come home, my next stop, and last of the year, is Arlington, Texas for Wizard World Texas, November 7 - 9. I’ve see that Sean McKeever will be there. Maybe we can have a panel on Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane?

Meanwhile, back in the studio, I’m spending my Sunday afternoon writing the first 10 pages of Runaways #6 so speedster artist Humberto Ramos can have some pages to work on this week. He caught me. Can you believe it? He draws faster than I write. So embarrassing.

Enjoy what’s left of your weekend!

The Hulk cover I did for Hero Initiative’s charity auction is now up for bid on eBay. I drew this onto a blank Hulk comic and colored it myself with color pencils, a yellow highlighter, and a red marker pen. Color drawings by me are about as common as guitar solos by Hilary Clinton so… you might want to snatch this one while nobody’s looking.

Go to the store! Runaways #2 is there waiting for you!

DC has cancelled the MINX line of young adult GN titles as of January ‘09. MINX was a great line of books hand picked by the very talented Shelly Bond. One of the last books to come out will be TOKEN, by my friend Alisa Kwitney. The industry needed MINX.

It is no secret that Strangers In Paradise and Echo fans tend to be very smart people, so I’m passing this along to you in case you haven’t already seen it. Come up with one good idea to help the world and win an award of millions of dollars from Google.

May vs Fey
After sweeping the Emmy’s, Tina Fey—the best writer working in television today— was rightly heralded as the Elaine May of her generation. I love them both, of course. They look alike, at the same age, and their names rhyme… it’s kismet! And I’ve admitted the influence of Elaine on my work many times before. To hear for yourself what we’re all talking about, try this audio collection of a few classic skits from Elaine May and Mike Nichols.

(tip: the second skit about the doctor, 6:30-12:00 minutes, isn’t very funny, so don’t stop there, the material before and after is some of my favorite. The late 1950’s skit about a mother calling her son, the rocket scientist, started the whole Jewish mother schtick. Yes, I mean that literally. Amazing, when you think about it. But it happens like that. For instance, the way high school girls have talked for the last 20+ years came from the Frank & Moon Zappa song Valley Girl. Social archeology is fascinating, isn’t it?)

SORRY! I know I’m late getting back to the blog. All attempts to get things back to normal around here, and back on schedule, have been met with fierce resistance by the winds of change in Houston—the same ones that blew out the power and water and ice machines and gas stations and knocked 100 year old oak trees down like 1st graders on a schoolyard.

Today, a joyous sight: a brigade of power company trucks hit our neighborhood like allied troops marching into a WWII french town. We were so happy to see them. Several hours of men working and shouting across several yards as they hooked the poles back up. Lights came on everywhere, air conditioners turned back on… grown men cried. Not me. I’m just saying, I heard that some of them did. (note: my last post on the 17th said we got power back. True, but it went off again today, then back on again, while houses around us haven’t had power since the 12th.)

So, anyway, we’re back up and running for good now. Tomorrow the big debris trucks come to pick up the broken forest of dead trees stacked 10 feet high in front of most every house in the neighborhood. My cell phone works again. I fixed the outside internet cable myself and hooked us back up. The grocery store is selling cold Dr Peppers again. Smile. It’s the little things.

So, you live in another part of the world and you’re wondering, what’s the big deal about a little hurricane? Not enough words to describe it, friend. Two pictures say it all. Here’s what Hurricane Ike looked like from space:

A few days later, on the ground:

Okay, moving on…

In the meantime, I have been working, AC or no AC. I’m on page 11 of Echo issue 6. That means the first 10 pages are done and dropped into the Quark layout for the book. I will be finished within 10 days and then it’s off to the printer and, 2 - 3 weeks later, in your hands.

Runaways: I’m on script 6. The pages Humberto Ramos is making for 5 are just great. I’ve given him some very difficult things to do and he’s making it work like a charm.

Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane: I’m finished with the scripts, of course. But I see the pages coming out of artist Craig Rouseau’s hands and they are fantastic. He has really hit his stride with the characters.

What’s next for me at Marvel? We’re talking about it. Something, that’s for sure. I like them. They’ve been good to me.

Gal pal Paige Braddock made an ad for her books recently and dropped an issue of Echo in there, just because she’s so nice. Hugs to you, P-girl.

Trevor sent me this gorgeous rendition of the last Mary Jane cover just before the storm hit, so I’m only now getting to upload it for you. His coloring is getting too good to be amateur, don’t you agree?
…did you …notice the DC comics “thing”?

Another Trevor sent me this fun bit:
Terry,
I found this new site that does a keyword analysis of websites and blogs to produce “word clouds” based on it’s content.  Here is what your blog generated, its pretty cool.
Trevor Tupper

http://wordle.net/gallery/wrdl/178658/Terry_Moore%27s_Blog

And I have to share this letter I received from a retailer in Germany.

Hi Robyn and Terry-
I work at a small Comic Book Store in Bremen, Germany called COMIC CAFE. I’m in charge of the import section, which gives me the unique opportunity to stock titles I’m into and recommend books. I’ve started reading SIP way back when the first Antarctic trade came out and stayed with it until the end. I make sure that the pocket books are always in stock and they’re doing well.

I’ve started recommending Echo on the strength of SIP and way before the first issue shipped. It seems like my faith in you has been justified, because I’m not the only one enjoying your new series. Echo #5 was the highest ordered book in our store and comfortably so. That includes everything the mayor publishers had to offer including Final Crisis and Secret Invasion.
Not bad at all, and maybe something you’d like to hear.

Keep up the good work (and brisk publishing schedule), it’s very much appreciated here at the Comic Cafe!
Take care,
XJanX.

That’s the best news I’ve heard all week, Jan. Thank you!

Wednesday night, 8:00 o’clock, and we just got our power back! Five days is a long time to go without it. I’m so far behind on email and work… but just to let everybody know we are back up and running as of tomorrow. Thank you for all the thoughts and prayers. Hurricanes suck.

we’re safe and the house we rent is fine. All the trees are down. No flooding in my neighborhood, so all the SiP art is safe! There’s no power though. Word from the energy co. is 3 weeks!!!! Robyn and I have escaped the heat to Austin for a few days. Thanks for all the wel-wishes. Check back in later.