I like to tease Jamal Igle because he's a whole 12 days older than I am. Happy Birthday, old man! Actually, there's quite a few reasons for Jamal to be a happy man. Just under two weeks ago, he married his beautiful bride, Karine. Take a peek at his pictures here. In other Jamal news, his next project was just solicited - Countdown Presents: The Search for Ray Palmer: Crime Syndicate. I'm looking forward to it.

In other Firestorm alum news, Stuart Moore is having a good month, too. The trade paperback Wolverine: Blood and Sorrow was released, collecting his excellent tales of the famous beclawed one. Also out is an issue of New Avengers/Transformers and Earthlight #2, which is the series that has earned Stuart several nods from critics. He's also been announced as a new editor for a co-branded line of SCI FI Channel/Virgin comics.

The third and final former Firestorm creator to talk about, and the one that might have a hand in Firestorm's future, is Dwayne McDuffie. If I weren't such a slacker, you would have seen here that Dwayne was announced last month as the new writer on Justice League of America. Given the other work we've seen from him, I take that as great news. It doesn't hurt that this improves Jason's changes of making the team.

Dan Didio said that we'll see Firestorm join a team "soon". For a while there, The Outsiders was high on the candidate list but that lineup has now been made public, as is the lineup of Teen Titans. I've long felt that the JLA was the best fit and rumor mill strongly points in that direction. Perhaps we'll find out in a couple of weeks during the San Diego Comicon. Hey DC, throw us a bone!

No, unfortunately, I'm not referring to another issue of the comic - they put that to bed nicely with Dwayne's #35. Still, tomorrow is the day that the Jason Rusch Firestorm action figure hits store shelves. I do think they made the colors a bit too bright, but that's certainly not going to stop me from picking it up. I'm excited! I need to clear a spot on my desk...

Speaking of the series finale, that was quite a cliffhanger. I'm not sure I've seen a series end that way, but it gives me great hope that the story will continue. Yesterday's August solicitations don't offer much hope of seeing that thread being picked up this summer, but you never know.

Stuart Moore gave a nice interview to Comixfan containing some nice post mortem analysis of what went right and what went wrong with the series. It's also a good way to catch up on Stuart's more recent projects.

Three years later, the final issue of Firestorm volume 3 is out this Wednesday. We're promised a new status quo and Dwayne's writing has been great so far, so I'm very much looking forward to it. Don't miss it!.

And how about that World War 3? Yeah, some of the story framework doesn't make a ton of sense, Jason isn't going to kiss Lorraine and, hey, weren't there people on that carrier? But, all that aside, I found it to be an immensely enjoyable mini-series. Hats of to Keith and John, both of whom have a history with Firestorm. Keith, in particular, did some impressive writing for someone newer to the scripting side of things. His two issue were full of little moments that really sold the story.

On a housekeeping note, I finally updated the Issues page so, while I might be missing a small number of very minor references, I'm basically caught up there. I want to serve as a resource for writers who want to pull Firestorm off the shelf, dust him off and stick him in their books. I have a fair amount of character biography updates to do, as well.

Just a reminder that World War III starts tomorrow with Black Adam taking on the world. As I'm sure you know, Firestorm is going to be swept up in the mess. He will have a prominent role in the first WWIII issue named "A Call to Arms", as noted by the cover. I'm really looking forward to seeing what Keith Champagne has to say about the character and where the whole thing is going.

There's not much else to report in the realm of Firestorm news. I imagine we'll be seeing Jason and company in Countdown and there are some hints that Firestorm might have a role to play in the new Infinity Inc. Of course, we're also just a week away from the series finale and a promised change to the character. I'm interested to see what happens there, but I can't even begin to speculate on what it might mean.

Firestorm #34 is out tomorrow and I can't wait to see it. As the middle part of a three arc story, I don't expect quite as much movement as we saw in the previous issue, but I have no doubt it will be a good one. Remember, Pop Mhan will be taking over art duties so don't be too shocked by an abrupt change in look. While you're at it, Dwayne also has issues of Action Comics and Fantastic Four coming out tomorrow. Not too shabby!

I wish there was more to report. The usual knuckleheads are doing their best to embarrass themselves on the DC message boards and make the place unpleasant for everyone else. There's no specific news to report about future appearances so we'll wait another three weeks for World War III part 1 to see what Keith has in store for Jason. I haven't even seen any tempting original Firestorm art auctions lately, except one from Perez's Flash backups that went for a few hundred. I will get some pages updated, I promise. It's just that I upgraded to Vista (I like it) and now I can't find the install CD for my art program. D'oh!

My store wound up ordering something like sixteen of the Firestorm: Reborn TPBs mistakenly thinking that it was a regular issue. Oops! They're confident that they can move them eventually, though. Hopefully Stuart and Jamal got a little extra cut because of that. :)

Last week's #33 was fantastic, wasn't it? As I promised - ridiculously entertaining!

Seeing such a strong issue makes it that much harder to see the book go. Unfortunately, there was confirmation from Dan Didio at Wondercon that Firestorm is done from now, despite the removal of the tag "final issue" on the dccomics.com solicitation giving some hope.

But the news isn't all bad. Firestorm and its creators were featured prominently in the 2007 Glyph Comics Awards nominations. Congratulations to Stuart, Jamal and Brian Stelfreeze. Stuart also earned a nod or two for his Earthlight book from Tokyopop. Nice going!

Speaking of Stuart, his Detective Comics issue comes out tomorrow so pick it up. It's the first of a two-parter, and I really like the setup he describes in his Wizard Universe interview.

Can you tell I'm excited to have another issue? I'm really looking forward to this arc. I'm hoping Dwayne can sell me on the New Gods, who have yet to grab me. Without further ado, here's the list:

10. It's been two long months since the last issue. That's long enough to give a comics reader the shakes.
9. Gorgeous cover by Pete Woods. Pete Woods!
8. Shilo Norman is here. If you liked Morrison's Seven Soldiers of Victory, here's your best chance to catch up with the character.
7. It's a great way to meet Jason, who will be featured in a major DCU team book later this year.
6. The New Gods. They are some of DC's most colorful characters and they've been missing for a while.
5. The premise is ingenious. The unsung half of Firestorm - Martin Stein - is a brilliant Nobel winning physicist who spent time as a cosmic entity. Why wouldn't he have knowledge that DC's most infamous answer-seeker wants?
4. We're told that it leads into DC's Next Big Thing, so it's a great way to get an early scoop.
3. It's so pretty. Just look at Lashley's fantastic art in the previews. He said that he tinkered with his style a bit and it looks wonderful.
2. Dwayne McDuffie wrote it! You know, Justice League Unlimited writer, Milestone Media (think Static Shock), Fantastic Four, etc.

And, finally, the only one you should really care about...

1. It's ridiculously entertaining. It delivers on the full promise of the character - action, humor and a ridiculous amount of power that needs to be used very carefully.

If you need further convincing, you can see for yourself in this preview over on Newsarama:

Woohoo! I finally have enough stuff reinstalled on Vista to post again.

Thanks to poster theid from the DC boards for pointing out a new Wizard Universe interview with Dwayne McDuffie about his arc. There is a lot of interesting information and six new preview pages, making a total of nine we've seen from the issue. The art looks fantastic and the writing is a lot of fun. I'm very much looking forward to it. Just two more weeks!

Just to follow up with our favorite creators, Jamal's run on Nightwing recently started with #129 recently. Even better, Keith Champagne has his back with the inks. Stuart Moore's PARA TPB is now in comic stores and I highly recommend picking it up. Both Stuart and Jamal will be appearing at the New York Comicon on the 23rd through the 25th for you lucky buggers who live on the east coast.

Have I been too distraught to post since the bad news? Naw, I wish I could claim it was something other than laziness and being kind of busy. Firestorm Volume 3 will indeed end with #35. Dwayne revealed on his message boards that he was brought on to wrap up the series.

I'd obviously prefer that the series march on and on, but 35 issues is a good run these days. Jason's a great character and I know he'll get his share of air time in the rest of the DC universe. In fact, this week's edition of the Lying in the Gutters rumor column has... potential spoilers ahead... Firestorm teaming with Nightwing, Donna Troy, Supergirl and Flash on a new team. That sounds like a great setup to me.

This site isn't going anywhere. I'll continue to add to it. In fact, since Jason's only appearances will be in books other than his own, I figure it's that much more important that there be a good reference site for him for other writers to use. I'll need your help more than ever to keep an eye out for his appearances, too.

Just as a reminder, tomorrow's release of the Superman: Back in Action TPB features Firestorm heavily, both in the main storyline and in an old DC Comic Presents that has Superman teaming up with the Ronnie/Martin version of the character. That should be well worth picking up.

Oh, and I met Matt Haley this past weekend at the Phoenix Comicon and got a Firestorm sketch from him that I'll post later. Everyone loved his Firestorm covers so it only seemed fitting.

Despite feeling hopeful due to Dan Dido's comments about titles like Firestorm representing DC's commitment to diversity, I have to accept the possibility that tomorrow's Firestorm #35 solicitation may carry the dreaded "Last Issue" mark of death. The sales figures simply haven't been that good, so it's possible that the title will wrap up with the end of what looks like will be a great arc from Dwayne McDuffie. If so, going out with head held high isn't such a bad thing. Nor is it the end of Jason.

Keith Champagne, who was once content to merely ink the likes of Firestorm, has been put to work by DC in creating the stories around World War III. He talks about his plans over on Newsarama. His issues will touch on Firestorm's missing-year situation, which will be great to see. In fact, he says that the story is told through the eyes of a character who is deciding his own role, but I'm keeping my hopes in check because that could refer to a lot of characters. I'll definitely be buying those issues - Keith proved his writing chops for me on his JSA run. Interestingly enough, the other two issues of this done-in-a-day miniseries will be written by John Ostrander, who was once at the writing helm of Firestorm (and who now writes the absostupendoterrific Star Wars: Legacy for Dark Horse).

And, if you need a quick hit of Firestorm now, look for his bio page in the back of this week's 52 issue. Jamal and Keith once again team up to draw Jason. I'm looking forward to it. Also, did you catch Jamal's work in last week's issue of 52? I saw the preview art before the credits and knew instantly that Jamal was on duty that day.

Roberto from Comic Bloc is organizing another chat for this Tuesday the 19th. It's a fan chat, but sometimes we manage to have Jamal or Stuart pop in to say hello. Be sure to join in! Details here.

One of the topics of discussion, of course, will be last week's issue #32. What a fun comic to read - Stuart and Jamal obviously had a good time putting it together. These are two great minds that have been pouring themselves into these stories, and they deserve our thanks for the great ride. They'll be missed!

There are some interesting comments by Dan Didio in a Newsarama interview. He talks about the rationale behind replacement characters and specifically mentions some of the thinking about Firestorm. It's worth a read.

In a couple of days, #32 comes out. It's the end of Stuart's and Jamal's stay on the title, where they've both contributed to the character tremendously. I'm a little torn between not wanting to see it end and really wanting to see how this arc (and the overarching story) gets wrapped up. ;)

Today marked the release of DC's March solicitations, including Firestorm #34. This really does look like a great story that Dwayne and Ken are putting together. If there was any doubt of that, Newsarama posted a preview of Firestorm #33, which looks fantastic and is very entertaining. It's not too usual to post a preview more than two months before an issue is released, but hopefully this will give time for some buzz to build.

Finally, Pop Mahn reveals in his Newsarama interview that he's working on a couple of issues of Firestorm. Ken later confirmed that he'll be cutting his run short to run off and work on a dream project. So, welcome aboard, Pop!

#31 hits stores tomorrow and I'm excited for what Stuart says will be the coming together of the story lines since his run began. The short list of what I'm most curious about is Gehenna's origins, Tokomak's plans and Jason's relationship with his parents, although I suspect that will be dealt with more in #32.

It's now been officially announced that Jamal Igle will be Nightwing's new artist. As sad as it is to lose him, it's great that he's getting a bit of a professional bump up. Congratulations, Jamal!

Stuart isn't sitting still, either. I definitely recommend signing up for his newsletter (instructions) to keep up on his projects. Recently, he mentioned that he was doing a Batman two-parter. You can also see a preview of his Punisher X-Mas Special here.

Happy Halloween!

Jason McDonald, a longtime fellow fan, has put together a great MySpace page for Jason Rusch. I haven't been sold on MySpace in general, but this is a pretty cool idea. The biographical section covers the basics of Jason's life while each blog entry covers an issue of the story. I'm told that there's over a 1,000 friends already. Not too shabby! Nice going, Jason and Jason.

Another fan, John Simcoe, added a great entry to his comics blog explaining why Firestorm is such a great title and one he would recommend to anyone just starting the hobby. It's a worth a read. He makes several good points then sums it up with "Quite frankly, Firestorm is what a comic book is supposed to be." It's hard to argue with that.

Finally, Ken Lashley has reemerged on Comic Bloc to answer (or not answer as the case may be) fan questions. Someone beat me to requesting a Firestorm sketch, and he delivered with an impressive one that he put together right after being offered the job on the title. It's crackling with energy. Click on the image to see a bigger one. I hassled Ken to know what he's working on in the book. He's done with #33 and is now on #34. It'll be exciting to see his work on the title.

I have lots of catching up to do, so let's dive into it.

Yep, the prediction from my last post was wrong. But then again, it was a trick question as 52 never told the story of Firestorm and Cyborg's separation. Today's issue was very entertaining, though. They did a good job of making Firestorm show that he wasn't ready for the biggest of the big leagues while not making a complete joke of him, either. I can rest a little easier now.

I'll work backwards with the news. This Monday's solicitation involved two surprises for Firestorm fans. First, there is no issue planned for January. My suspicion is that that has to do with a time gap in getting the new creative team lined up and going. Either that, or DC needed an extra month to prepare their worldwide, massive media push for Firestorm. Right? The good news, or rather the fantastic news is that there will be a Firestorm trade paperback in February covering the first One Year Later arc of the title. Where's the trade? is something we've been asking each other for a while. In fact, this is the very first collection of any Firestorm title, so it's a first in the 28 year history of the concept. Not too shabby!

Last week's #30 brought some nice moments in the story. True, I felt that Lorraine's political speech ate too much panel time and felt shoe-horned in, but the issue was a good one because it established a lot of connections between characters and set up a bad situation with the villain, whose visual redesign was fantastic. It even almost sold me on Jason and Gehenna's relationship. ;) The news that Jason was training with Mr. Terrific filled my heart with glee. Steve Sadowski stepped in on art chores in the middle of the book and did a great job. I particularly liked his take on Lorraine, Martin and Gehenna.

And I think that's about it. I've been working over the past several days to update the issues page, and now have some bio pages to update. Maybe I should look at January as a nice month to truly get caught up.

Seeing what looked like Black Bison's head in the preview of tomorrow's 52 made me think that they're starting the storyline that will include Firestorm. So, I'll publicly state my guess that this week's 52 is where Cyborg and Firestorm split. From what I gather, it may happen off-panel. You know you've been waiting for it!

Speaking of Firestorm in other books, last week's Action Comics was a nice send-off to that arc. Firestorm got a few speaking parts, too. Many thanks to Kurt and Pete for portraying our man so well. Tomorrow brings OMAC #4. So far, Firestorm has shown up in each issue, albeit in decreasing roles. Let's see what happens. Hopefully, he'll be there again.

Also from last week (yeah, yeah, I'm behind), we saw Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman considering Firestorm and Firehawk for Justice League membership. While they didn't show the vote tallies, my impression was certainly that they didn't make it in. I think that's probably still a year or two away. Today, I actually met with Brad Meltzer (Justice League's writer) and we talked about Firestorm and the League. He said he saw my point and was going to correct his oversight and bring in Jason right away. I think we see eye to eye on the subject, which is as it should be because Brad's a great writer and a great guy. Oh, and one of the sentences in this paragraph is a big, fat lie. :)

Dan Didio announced earlier in the week that Mike Siglain, Firestorm's current editor, is being put in charge of 52. That's two editors that have been stolen from Firestorm for 52, the first being Steve Wacker. That's pretty cool for Mike, though. There hasn't been an assistant editor credited in the last few issues, so who knows where Firestorm is going. Note to editors: Firestorm is obviously a fantastic career move!

Last but not least, a friend tore the Firestorm article out of Wizard for me. It was interesting to learn that a JLU episode about Firestorm was worked on, but was scrapped when it didn't look as promising. Dwayne hints at a throw-down with Firestorm and several New Gods in New York City. He also makes it clear that this story entails moving Jason out of his newbie phase and into the class of hero that people will notice. That all sounds great to me!

This week marks the final issue of the Action Comics story featuring Firestorm. It's been a great read so far although, again, I don't expect Firestorm to get as much face time as he did in the first issue of the arc. I'm looking forward to seeing how they wrap it up. Then, the next issue of Firestorm comes out in two weeks. I'm going to miss getting two doses of Firestorm each month. Who knows, maybe he'll stick around in OMAC for a while. Also, keep in mind that at least an appearance in 52 is coming within the next few weeks. Based on the preview art, Jason is in #24 at the latest.

In other news, poster barrie325 over on the DC boards got his copy of Wizard early and spilled the beans that Ken Lashley will be drawing Dwayne McDuffie's issues. Very cool! A lot of us were wondering who would land the role. Recently, Ken has done The Flash: The Fastest Man Alive and 52. He's also a cool guy, as he spent some time with us over on Comic Bloc. Welcome aboard, Ken! Let's hope he posts some concept art to whet our appetites a bit.

Finally, I went to my first comics convention over the weekend in Phoenix. It was a lot of fun and I'll probably get around to describing it in gory detail some time, but for now I'll post the Firehawk sketch that Amanda Conner did for me. She's a great artist and a really fun person. How cool is that? It's my first convention sketch. I didn't quite spot the right artist with the right style to draw Firestorm, but maybe next time around. I'll have another shot in four months because they're moving the Phoenix Comicon to January starting next year. I imagine that's because professionals are a little convention-weary by September. Phoenix is pretty nice in January, Jamal. Nudge nudge, wink wink. ;)

DC released its December solicitations today. As always, it's interesting to see what that month's Firestorm issue will be. Both Jason and Ronnie will also be appearing in a new collection of the current, fantastic Action Comics arc as well as some classic DC Comics Presents issues, including Superman and Firestorm's teamup from years ago. I'll definitely pick it up.

Over the weekend, Stuart posted his commentary on #29. You'll find Jamal's here. Those are always interesting reads. I'm going to miss'em (both the creators and those commentaries, that is)!

You'll know what I mean when you see it. Don't miss it! If you can't wait, you can catch the first few pages here.

In related news, this week's cover is featured as a wallpaper on DC's web site. See it here. It's not the first image I would have selected, but it's still exciting to see.

There have been some pretty big announcements this week about Firestorm. Some of it is exciting, some sad and some ominous. I wanted to hold off on commenting until I had the lay of the land, so here we are. First, a recap:

• Newsarama announced that JLU show co-writer and indie comic legend Dwayne McDuffie is going to write a three-issue Firestorm arc starting with #33. The story line will deal with Martin discovering the underlying principles of the Firestorm matrix. In doing so, he earns some unfortunate attention from the New Gods as his discovery relates to something some of them have wanted to discover and others have wanted to conceal for a long, long time.
• The following day, Stuart Moore let fans know that, indeed, he and Jamal Igle were off the book.
• Jamal later came along and confirmed that, while dropping a not-so-kryptic hint about his next project with DC.

Now, the positive reaction. Dwayne's arc sounds incredible. I don't even like the New Gods much as characters but I think the connection is brilliant. Dwayne has a wonderful creative mind and I'm sure it doesn't hurt that he has a master's degree in physics. He has popped onto the DC Firestorm boards a time or two. I once offered to wash his car if he worked Jason into JLU. :) While he didn't quite rig that for us, signing up to write his book sure qualifies for something, I'd say. It's going to be very cool seeing him take a stab at Firestorm.

The concerns? It's a blow to lose Stuart and Jamal. They're great minds in this medium and they've been really open and personable with the fans despite some really bizarre attitudes thrown at them. We all know that they truly love this book, so it can't be easy for them. It does soften the blow knowing that Jamal is getting a bit of a professional promotion, moving to a higher profile book. For his part, Stuart has a lot of other coals in the fire, both in comics and in prose. So I know they'll be fine - I just know we'll all miss them.

There is a bit of an ominous note here for the title itself. Dwayne is signed up for three issues and has made it clear that he's not currently engaged for more. It's fair to take this as a trial - not of Dwayne himself but of the book's ability to grow in sales. At the same time, it would be foolish to take this as an advanced cancellation notice since DC would not otherwise make this investment. It would be equally foolish to not be concerned at all. Firestorm is running a bit above cancellation numbers, but it's no secret that it has struggled for sales. I think Dwayne's participation and the fact that this story is supposed to lead into The Next Big Thing(TM) at DC will help out quite a bit.

You and I also have a role to play here. I think we got a little complacent when Infinite Crisis and One Year Later drove the sales to new heights. We, the fans, need to get the word out there and let our fellow readers know that this is a book well worth picking up. Between Stuart and Jamal's remaining four issues and Dwayne's upcoming arc, it should be an easy sell.

Just a reminder that Firestorm will be appearing again in this week's Action Comics by Kurt Busiek and Pete Woods. I don't expect quite as much screen time as the last issue, but I love what Kurt is doing so far with him.

Oh, and I've been working on a little something fun and Firestorm related, too. Stay tuned.

Jamal made a wonderful announcement - he's engaged! He and his fiance ran off to France for a couple of weeks, presumably to celebrate. Can we say fill-in artist for December or so? :) Really, that's very cool news. I hope he's taken her to a convention so she can fully appreciate the strange career her man has picked for himself.

Oh yeah, and the November solicitation for some book named Firestorm came out this week.

Roberto has organized another Firestorm chat over on Comic Bloc at 8 pm eastern. Check here for details. It's a funky time for us Pacific time zone dwellers, but I should be able to make it. It's always been fun getting together with this group, even if Firestorm isn't always the topic of conversation. I'm looking forward to it!

Tomorrow's issue promises to be the start of an epic five-part adventure. I'm looking forward to it! To whet the appetite a bit, Newsarama has posted a little missive by our very own Professor Martin Stein about the players involved and what might be at stake.

And the cool appearances keep on coming. I enjoyed Firestorm's appearance in OMAC #1 but thought that that was the end of his involvement in OMAC's story. Oops! Thumbing through OMAC #2 today, I saw the error of my ways. There's some interesting character stuff there, such as the fact that Jason was once a Boy Scout with a, um, unique nickname. Most of the time he's seen working with Cyborg, but there's some tension there - I guess running into someone that you were once merged with can be a little uncomfortable.

Jamal recently spilled the beans at SDCC about that "other" Firestorm that showed up at the end of #27. I won't name him here, but I've spent many hours the last few nights rereading his story and have created a biography page for him covering some of the highlights. In my previous passes through those issues, I hadn't paid close enough attention to his side of the story. He's an interesting character in his own right, and I'm interested to see what Stuart has in mind for him.

When recently asked what book he felt wasn't getting the attention it deserved, Kurt didn't hesitate to answer Firestorm, in big, red letters. His love for the character was definitely on display in today's fantastic issue of Action Comics #841. It was a great Jason Firestorm appearance - my new favorite outside of his own title. It's a great introduction to the character for people who may be less familiar with his personality and abilities. On top of that, it was a great story with great art. I can't recommend it enough.

There were a couple of pieces of interesting Firestorm news coming out of San Diego this weekend - one of which I would have told you a year ago would probably never happen.

First, as you can see, our man's getting his own action figure! I really like it. I could stand for the red to be a bit darker and I hope the flaming mullet is detachable, but overall it's a great looking figure. Sign me up for a few, DC Direct.

The other news was a near-future spoiler from Jamal during today's DC Universe panel, so be warned. Dan Didio asked each participant to give a spoiler for their title. Jamal revealed that the Firestorm seen at the end of #27 was, as some had guessed, Mikhail Arkadin! Pretty cool. It looks like I'm up for another bio page.

And fortunately, I'm finally more or less up-to-date with bio pages. I did a big round of updates over the last few days for Jason, Martin, Lorraine, Gehenna and created a new page for The Pupil. Phew! I was embarrassed to find that some of those pages were last updated around ten issues ago.

Finally, while we're on the topic of upcoming events, head over to this post over on the DCMBs and try your hand at guessing some of the events coming up in the next arc.

Since San Diego Comicon is kicking off this week, Follow these links to see the attendance plans of Stuart Moore and Dave Baron. I know Jamal is going but I can't seem to find his message where he spells out where he'll be when. I believe that Keith Champagne is sitting this one out.

I won't make it this year. If you're into whining, you can hear about it on my new ComicBloc blog here. :)

Over on Newsarama, Brad Meltzer does a little teasing about Firestorm's membership in the JLA. For the record, my overall impression is that Firestorm won't be joining the JLA in the next several months.

And finally, a big, resounding HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO JAMAL! I have to continually tease him for being born a few days before I was.

DC has released their October solicitation for Firestorm #30. I like the sound of where this arc is going and it seems to confirm some of my suspicions about the mysterious villain.

I already pointed to Stuart and Jamal's respective message board posts covering #27, but Comic Bloc has posted the compiled version complete with Jamal's preliminaries and final pencils. Next time, I'll probably just wait to link to that version. I find those behind-the-scenes comments very useful.

And with it, the first story arc of One Year Later comes to a satisfying end. I'll just say that I'm pretty happy that those whose stayed stayed and those who left left and the big mystery at the end has me intrigued, as nature intended. And hey, I even like Martin's long hair and hope it sticks around. Finally, I can safely update Martin's profile! Not that I won't find another excuse to put it off...

Once again, we've been spoiled by Stuart and Jamal sharing their thoughts on the issue.

Comics Continuum is sporting a five-page preview of next week's #27. As far as I can tell, it doesn't spoil the condition of our favorite middle aged hero.

Not to be outdone, Stuart posted some teases about what's going to happen in the issue. Okay, he actually posted those a few days ago but that sounded more dramatic and less like I'd forgotten to post it.

At least I can point to the issues page and say that I've been up to something. It's great to see that Firestorm's appearances in other titles are still coming fast and furious. Speaking of appearances, Firestorm's appearance in OMAC #1 was well worth picking up a copy. I applaud Bruce and Renato for doing their homework on the character.

I'm headed out of town for the holiday, but didn't want to get away without a few updates. Neither work nor baby nor Superman movies shall keep me from updating this time!

First, September's solicitation gives us our monthly peak at the future. Again, we see a great mix of villains, supporting cast, family and mysterious types. Should be good!

July is right around the corner and that means a few things for Firestorm aficionados. Keep an eye out for Firestorm in both OMAC #1 and Action Comics #841. I'm excited about those appearances. Speaking of appearances, you can catch Stuart and Jamal at this year's San Diego Comicon. I actually had a hope of being there with work taking care of most of the expenses, but they need me there about a week before the convention. Argh!

Finally, did you catch Firestorm's briefest of appearances in DC's Brave New World compilation book? He's in there, I swear! Alright, it's pretty trivial so don't hurt yourself looking for it. Look at the monitors (no, not those kinds) on the last page.

Firestorm: The Nuclear Man #26 was another great addition to Firestorm's story. This issue contained one of my favorite portrayals of Jason in recent memory. I'm really, really curious to see where it's headed from here. Suffice it to say, I have a lot of updating to do.

Once again, Stuart and Jamal recorded some thoughts on the creative process behind the issue. Their comments were compiled and formatted by magicspoon, one of ComicBloc's administrators. If you're following the title or are simply curious about the creative process, their comments are a must-read.

You're reading 52, right? I just added what we've learned of Firestorm's fate from 52 to the issues page. Not exactly an easy year for poor Jason. I read into some of Stuart's comments that Firestorm wouldn't have much of role until the latter half of the year. Sometimes, I'm glad to be wrong!

Don't forget, #26 is out this week!

Wizard is showing some strong Firestorm love. Stuart made use of their new message boards to announce a change to the next arc of Firestorm and talk about some of the ground that it will cover. As always, he's careful to avoid spoilers and you wind up with more questions than answers.

Wizard also posted an interview with Jamal that largely centers on Firestorm. There's some interesting information about how the new costume came about. It's well worth a read.

Wizard has a few new features on their site, including an area that lets you read selected scripts from difference series. Go here to see the script for Firestorm #16.

I spent some time reading the script while looking through the issue itself - it was an interesting exercise. If nothing else, it will give you an appreciation for the amount of thought that Stuart and Jamal put into these stories. It also made me miss Dr. Otaki a bit. :)

Jamal has announced that he's going to be at Wizard World Philadelphia this weekend. Those of you who don't live 2,000 miles away from Philly, as I do, should go say hi and get a sketch from him. That is, if you can drag him away from the wrestling babes. Stuart thought he'd try to make it but no promises.

Speaking of Stuart, he managed to find a new blog entry by Rafael Kayanan, a great artist who got started with Firestorm. It includes a great image of Ronnie's version of Firestorm.

There isn't too much else going on in the way of Firestorm news - just a lot of anticipation around June's issue. It's almost here!

Okay, so this interview from The Pulse isn't truly new - it's from last week. I was just slacker and forgot to post it. Bad me!

In the interview, Stuart gives a great cliff-notes version of the themes of the book and a few peaks at where it's going without revealing too much.

DC's new solicitations came out today and it looks like August is going to be a great month for The Nuclear Man. First, in his own title, it sounds like all kinds of crazy things are happening, including the possible emergence of another Firestorm!

Elsewhere, Jason, along with others, seems to have been taken captive by a Superman villain in Action Comics. If you look carefully at the cover, you can see Firestorm being held captive. The OMAC #2 solicitation indicates that OMAC tangled with Firetorm in July's OMAC #1. Finally, Firestorm appears on the cover to Justice League of America #1.

That's a whole lotta love for Firestorm in August!

The chat we had Friday night was a lot of fun, even though I had to cut out early. The highlight was Jamal's appearance where he entertained our silly questions. He's just a cool guy.

And if you're not convinced of that already, check out this MP3 interview with Comic Geek Speak. That's the first time I've heard Jamal's voice. He comes off as confident but never cocky and spills a lot of interesting details about his career and some plans he has pitched for Firestorm. It's well worth the time to listen to the interview. One interesting piece of news is that they're considering a trade for 2007 containing the OYL storyline.

As advertised, Stuart has posted some thoughts on the writing of #25. I particularly enjoyed reading about some of the thought processes involved with using a character like Killer Frost.

Another chat is in the works for Friday at 8 pm EST over on ComicBloc.com. If we're lucky, Stuart and/or Jamal will pop in. If nothing else, a bunch of us fans will have another great time! Announcement thread here.

Today's issue was a fun read - it was nice to see the good guys getting along with each other, with one entertaining exception. Yeah, price increases are never welcome, but the paper upgrade made a significant and welcome difference in the look of the book. Spoilers ahead.

Likes

Not just the fact that Martin appeared, which was cool enough, but what made him appear was both surprising and logical. Loved that!

Jason and Lorraine acting more like a team

Interactions between Alvin and Gehenna

Killer Frost's moment in the sun, so to speak. I almost felt happy for her!

"...go subatomic like we did oncebefore..." Hmmmm.

Batman's speech. Not I'm not a huge fan of Batman, but I found myself completely agreeing with him. Still...

...Jason's reaction was even better! That was a great moment.

"Don't bother loser." Hah!

Dislikes

Too many forced cold-related puns

Killer Frost's scheme was a little too Wile E. Coyote for me

The art again, was great. Jamal has already posted his commentary on it. Stuart's will follow tomorrow.

Two years ago today I took a risk on a new comic whose cover caught my eye. It was Firestorm #1, and I've loved the ride so far.

Happy Birthday, Firestorm! For the occassion, I've put up some quotes on the home page from those who know.

Shortest update ever! Check out Stuart's Wolverine #41 tomorrow. Great art, great premise, extra sized. Why wouldn't you?

Oh, and come help us figure out what we should do for Firestorm Vol. 3's Second Anniversary!

Jamal, never to be outdone, also provided some great commentary on issue #24. I was particularly impressed by the efforts he goes to get the settings right.

Today marked the release of DC's July solicitations. The Firestorm #27 solicitation seems to point to two major plotlines coming to a head. Brian Stelfreeze turns in another great cover, too. Almost equally exciting is Jason's cover-worthy appearance in July issue of the venerable Action Comics. It wouldn't be the first time Superman took on Firestorm, but I don't think it will come to that. It looks like moving to New York is paying off for Firestorm already!

I'm leaving town shortly for a little holiday traveling (Happy Easter!) but wanted to make sure you knew about two great pieces of Firestorm news.

First, Stuart is pioneering a brand new means of communication - the audioless podcast! Okay, so it's a message board post but it's interesting reading. You'll get a behind-the-scenes peak at the thought process that goes into the book. If you like it, let him know and maybe we'll see more in the future.

Also, there's a great new interview over on Silver Bullet Comics with both Jamal and Stuart. It has some interesting comments on their working relationship, as well as a few new tidbits on the current plot. It's well worth a read!

And, finally, kudos to the creative team for giving me so much to write about! :)

Keith Champagne gave a great interview about his inking duties on Firestorm over on Newsarama. I found it interesting to hear him talk about some of the adaptations he made for Jamal's pencilling style. Be sure to read the comments below the article to see Jamal and Stuart chime in.

Another oft overlooked contributor is the colorist. In this case, it's David Baron, who was kind enough to hook me up with some digital art from the comic. Expect some upgrades in the site images here and there.

#24 hit stores today and things aren't any better for Jason and Lorraine. They manage to get a few steps closer to solving the mystery of Stein's dissappearance, but not before having to confront both Killer Frost and Mister Freeze.

I've mentioned on a couple of message boards that the tone and pacing felt "off" on this issue, so I might as well say it here, too. There are quite a few characters in this one but no two of them are comfortable with one another. Everything is too unsettled. I realize that much of this points to the effects of Stein's dissappearance, but it gives the impression of very little progress in Jason's life. There is plenty of enjoy, however, and the solicitations for the issues that follow give me plenty of hope for more twists and turns even as things around Jason settle down. I look forward to meeting Greg, too. ;)

Over on Dave Baron's blog, he mentions that he just finished coloring #25 so it's a safe bet that we'll see that one on May 10th, as scheduled.

There were two ways to interpret Firestorm's reoccurring cameos in Infinite Crisis - that Geoff Johns was building to something big with the character or it was just enough appearances to server as a launchpad for the changes going on with Jason and Martin. In my 33 years of life, I've learned that it's wise to keep my expectations low when it comes to entertainment, so I was leaning towards the latter. Once again, my low expectations paid off in the form of a pleasant surprise this week!

Infinite Crisis #6 spoilers ahead. You've been warned!

Martin's brains and Jason's powers, together, saved the day. They performed a little fingerectomy on Alex Luthor's giant hand, which foiled his plans to combine Earths 2 and 3. Not only did they prevent the destruction of both earths in the process, but they saved the lives of Superman and Wonder Woman, who were then on Earth 2. If you're going to make a career out of superheroing, that's just the kind of thing you want on your resume!

Just so we're all on the same page, the records left by the Titans of Myth more or less told Donna Troy that the universe was going to be destroyed. She decided to prevent that by gathering a team and going to the middle of universe. That entire storyline, which started in DC's books seven months ago and crossed into several titles, culiminated in Firestorm stopping Alex Luthor's mad experiments. Not too shabby, I must say. It's a good day to be a Firestorm fan!

In what may be something like a first, Firestorm #24 was postponed from this week to the next because it wasn't quite ready to ship. Previous delays have been due to delays in other titles or events that related to the story in Firestorm. It looked like it was going to make it for a while there, but the issue didn't appear on this week's Diamond shipping list.

Ah well. From the silver lining department, that possibly takes the wait between #24 and #25 down from five weeks to four. Possibly. And, maybe we'll get something of a fix in this week's issue of Infinite Crisis. Jason's still floating around its pages, after all.

Alan Kistler posted a wonderful history of Firestorm over on Monitor Duty. It's required reading for Firestorm fans. I had to tease him a little for borrowing so many images from the bio pages. :)

Jamal casually mentioned something on the DC boards that a lot of us have been hoping for - a trade paperback of Firestorm. Apparently, there are some discussions about the content. There's nothing to share about time frame and I won't get my hopes up until things are a little more solid, but the fact that it's being kicked around is encouraging news!

From the "kindred spirit" news department, Blue Beetle #1 came out this week and it was a great, funny book. Writers Keith Giffen and John Rogers are already catching a lot of grief for replacing an previously established character with a new teenager. Sound familiar? I wonder if Dan Jolley could start up a self-help group for writers of replacement characters?

For those who enjoy Stuart's writing, be sure to catch the start of his JSA: Classified arc today. It deals with Vandal Savage, who is one of DC's more interesting villains. It's great to see Stuart write other DC books as he did with Legion of Super Heroes. Now, if we can just get him to write Justice League or one of the big cross-overs, we'd get more people reading Firestorm a la Gerry Conway.

As promised, I'm (ever so slowly) updating some pages to reflect this crazy One Year Later business. I just completed a new page on Dani Sharpe, who was originally going to be a throwaway character but wound up being popular with readers. I'm still not sure I know whether she's friend or foe. That instantly makes here an interesting character in my book. Just for fun, I created a poll over on Comic Bloc to see what others think about her.

In other news, Comic Bloc has posted a review of Firestorm #23. You'd almost get the impression that these guys liked the issue!

Roberto, known to Comic Bloc members as clarkent1982, was the man behind the idea for the last chat we had. This time, he's organizing another chat tomorrow (Tuesday) night at 8 pm eastern. Anyone is invited to come to discuss OYL! I may not make much of it because of my son's birthday, but we'll see!

Today also marked the release of the solicitation for June's issue. This is really the first of Stelfreeze's covers to knock my socks off. If Matt Haley was the master of big, bold action, this cover shows the power of understatement. I love it!

Sorry for hiding out. Between work kicking my butt and upgrading/rebuilding my computer, it's been tricky getting things done. I tamed the work beast on Thursday and my computer is ready to tackle the site as of today, so we're back and open for business.

As I'm sure you know, #23 came out this week. With the big One Year Later leap, there were a handful of changes. I'll have plenty of pages to update over the next few days.

For me, this issue wasn't love at first sight, but I enjoyed it - particularly on a second reading where I picked up some of the subtleties. I think I knew a little too much of what was going to happen, although there are certainly some new mysteries for us to kick around including quite a cliffhanger at the end. There is no shortage of new elements: Lorraine's roles, some new tricks with the suit, new baddies, a mysterious fellow who met an unfortunate end, Gehenna's new role in Jason's life, and many others. The subtle changes in the art and the new colorist's (Dave Baron) touch were nice changes to match the tone, too. I'm looking forward to seeing where this is headed.

Don't forget to check DC's site for the solicitation for #26 late tomorrow!

Spoilers ahead!

Stuart's newest interview with Newsarama was posted today and it contains at least one substantial spoiler about Firestorm's direction. Starting in #23, Jason will be partnering with Lorraine Reilly. Stuart credits Dan Didio with the idea, which you can take as Stuart being graceful or Stuart saying "if you don't like the idea..." depending on how cynical you are. :)

I think there's a lot of potential for a partnership between Jason and Lorraine. The last time they worked together, she wanted him to succeed but didn't have much patience for his shortcomings as a newcomer. More recently, she showed that she had more respect for his abilities by recommending Jason to Donna Troy for her mission in space. In any case, it'll be interesting to see how the two work together. I was also glad to hear that Martin's dissappearance is temporary, too.

On another topic, and one that I need to get much better at sharing, both Stuart and Jamal will be attending the New York Comic Con this weekend. So if you're lucky enough to live around the area, go see'em!

This week's Firestorm #22 was a great read and now I can't wait to see how things play out in Infinite Crisis #5. I loved the dynamic between Jason and Martin and hope we get to see more of it down the road. The art was great - Eddy Barrows should get his own book at some point. Expect to see some updates here and there as I absorb the details. I've already created a page for possibly the most surprisingly reoccurring character of all time, Nanette.

Stuart gave us fair warning that Newsarama is about to run an article on Firestorm that spills a lot of details about the book starting with #23. I have mixed feelings about such things - I enjoy being surprised but I like the idea of building some excitement. So, if you're interested, keep an eye out over the next few days.

DC released their May solicitations today, meaning that we get to learn a little bit more about issue #25. It looks like Stuart is going to put on one big ol' brawl for us. The only downside I see is that the price is going up to $2.99, as is the price of all other mainstream DC titles. Jamal confirmed tonight that the book is getting a paper upgrade in the bargain. I know comics are expensive as they are, but that's sure going to help the art shine.

Keith Champagne, Firestorm's inker, put a page from #25 up on his blog. It shows a nice, quiet scene between Alvin and Gehenna. It's great that you can pick up the jist of a scene from the art alone.

In other news, Dan Didio was asked the status of Ronnie Raymond at this weekend's Wonder Con. His response was straight-forward enough: "Gone". That doesn't neccessarily mean forever, of course.

Finally, this week marks the release of #22. That's enough to make my week. DC has a little Firestorm tile with a section of the cover on its home page. I think we're all looking forward to learning more about Firestorm and seeing how this new version takes shape.

There's another great Firestorm-related interview online, this time with Jamal as part of Comic Book Resource's Black History Month tribute. I liked how they refer to him as a "working-for-many-years-overnight-success". In it, Jamal talks about his career, his influences, and some of the highs and lows of being a comic book artist today.

When you think about it, nobody has put more energy into Firestorm than Jamal. Pencillers, by far, put in more time on a given issue than anyone on the creative team. On top of that, Jamal has worked on more issues than anyone. He's a huge part of what makes the book what it is.

Which brings me to the picture to the right (click to enlarge). It's the coolest thing I have in my house, excluding anything that breathes. It won it on eBay several weeks ago and it finally came last week. I was so excited. I ran out and got a frame and hung it. Just as an indication of how excited I was, it made it up on the wall before the picture of my new baby daughter did (okay, there's more to it than that, but still).

It's an 8 1/2 by 11 inch preliminary sketch of Firestorm versus Typhoon and Multiplex. This drawing eventually became the first page of #12. I like it in this form because you can see more of the pencil marks and understand how each element was made. Not that that will bring my drawing abilities above those of an 11-year old, but it's still very interesting to study.

Now, if I had my proverbial druthers, I'd buy art directly from Jamal from his Serendipity Art gallery. Afterall, I have it on good authority that he's planning to use that money for a really good cause. The trouble is that I don't have hundreds of dollars of wiggle room in my budget. Have I mentioned the baby?

Anyways, it's great having Jamal on this book and even better that he interacts with fans on various message boards. If you're in New York, be sure to catch him at the New York Comic Con towards the end of the month. He plans to be there.

There is a fantastic interview over on Newsarama with Steve Wacker who was the editor on Firestorm until very recently. The entire interview is a great read for DC fans, but I was surprised by the amount of content on Firestorm, which Wacker refers to as the "little book that could". There's even a four-page preview of #23 there which was enough to excite me about the direction of the book. At one point in the conversation they pull in Michael Siglain, the new editor, to talk about the book. Their level of enthusiasm is great to see.

Our first Firestorm chat was a great success. I finally managed to post the transcript for those of you who missed it, or for those of you who, like me, have questionable memories. I was thinking of ways to color code the transcript by subject or something along those lines but realized that if I started that you wouldn't get to see the transcript until, oh, October or so.

It was a lot of fun. There were a couple of hints about upcoming stories, discussion about the book in general and insight into other things happening with Jamal and Stuart. I'd like to make this a regular thing, even if it's just among fans. We have a great group of readers.

A big thanks to Comic Bloc, who hosted the chat and provided the transcript. The guys there work hard to run the best comics community on the web.

Where have I been? I have a really good excuse. A 9 pound, 8 ounce excuse, to be precise.



And look - she's already a fan!

As predicted, it was a great week. Infinite Crisis kicked off a big change for Firestorm and the Firestorm issue took the ball and ran with it. I've started all the changes required across the site to catch up with the new information, but there's a lot to be done. Be careful, spoilers ahead.

Back in October, I met Geoff Johns when he came to Phoenix. He's a really nice guy and his energy is contagious. He was thrilled to learn that I started reading comics basically because of his run on The Flash. He thought it was really great that someone would pick up their first comic at the age of 31. As we talked about my degree of addiction, he asked me who my favorite character was. When I told him it was Firestorm, his demeanor changed right away to something like... guilt. I've suspected from then on that they were going to do something bad to Firestorm in Infinite Crisis. It was pretty funny, actually, particular since I had some assurances that the book was continuing on.

Tuesday night, the night before IC #4 came out, I bumped into Geoff again in the Comic Bloc chat room. Other members were talking to me about Firestorm and Geoff responded with a "poor Firestorm...". I told him that I knew he was up to no good. I even invited him to come to Sunday night's Firestorm chat to beg our forgiveness. He just laughed. Did I mention that I Geoff's a cool guy?

So, here we are. Poor Mick. I think a lot of us had a sense that he was on his way out, but he died like a true-life hero while saving others. It's even made clear in the Firestorm issue that Jason died, really. In a way, it's a complement for Jason to join the esteemed ranks of once-dead heroes. He still has one more to catch up to Ronnie, though. ;)

There's a lot of symbolism in the things Jason sees in the Firestorm issue that I still need to get my mind around. There was the process of educating Jason balanced on one hand with the "rehumanization" of Martin on the other. I think they're going to make a great team.

So, another great issue. I think Barrows great a great job on the art. In my book, he's welcome to come back if Jamal ever needs a break and/or moves on to other things.

Hopefully, we'll see you this Sunday for the chat!

Wow, so much at once!

First, we've all been dieing for Firestorm #21 and it's finally here this week, as confirmed by Diamond's shipping list. Be sure to read Infinite Crisis #4 first. And be afraid for Jason and Mick. Very afraid! Here's a mischievous little quote from Stuart's email newsletter about this issue:

That aside...this is the big one. It brings together a lot of themes from my run on the book, and is probably the most ambitious issue I've written to date. If you like cosmic action, subatomic physics, superheroes, surrealism, or Professor Martin Stein, I humbly suggest you give it a try.

Oh, and you Ron Raymond fans might want to check it out, too.

With this release comes our first Firestorm chat! Stuart and Jamal have agreed to a chat this Sunday night starting at 7 pm eastern, 4 pm west coast over on Comic Bloc. It should be lots of fun.

Today also marked the release of the solicitation for #24 It looks like Stuart is bringing in a lot of the best characters from the past while moving the story forward.

Finally, if you dug Dan Jolley's book Bloodhound, ask your retailer to order Sawed Off Mojo. It's solicited now and will be in stores in March.

As much fun as I have sharing news about fictional characters, it's even more exciting to share news about good things happening to good people in real life. Newsarama just announced that Jamal signed an exclusive agreement with DC. I love how Editor Steve Wacker describes him as "scary talented, super reliable, and one of the nicest guys in the business". Being signed as an exclusive artist is one of the highest professional compliments and a well-deserved one at that. Congratulations, Jamal!

Thanks to your watchful eyes, I learned that Firestorm appeared in Superman #225 and Outsiders #32 this week. It's pretty remarkable to consider that between Firestorm #20 and Firestorm #21, there will be 5 DC books that refer to Firestorm. Another way to look at it is that there have been 7 Firestorm books since Stuart Moore came aboard as writer. In that same time, there have been 10 other DC books with Firestorm references or appearances. True, they're not all huge roles, but it's clear to me that DC is supporting this book and I wanted to thank them openly for their efforts.

While inserting these references, I put in some time this weekend for a much-needed revamp of the the Issues page. As I mentioned elsewhere, just putting in the book's new title as of #23, "Firestorm: The Nuclear Man", blew up the page so it had to be recoded sooner or later. Probably the most interesting change is that I included pop-up links to see Firestorm cover art in detail, all of which were derived from the original digital art and not scans. Mrs. Clear thinks there's a little too much white now, but I did that to make things easier to read. Let me know what you think.

Finally, for Ronnie fans, I found a very cool animated-style custom Ronnie figure while I was looking for covers. I really like what Bill did.

Happy 2006! I hope the year is going well for you so far.

DC's site still shows that Firestorm #21 is shipping this week but it isn't due to a delay in Infinite Crisis #4, which it follows. I imagine most of you know this, but I wanted to get the word out in case. Stuart Moore says that he'll let us know the new date as soon as he finds out. DC shows IC #4 coming out on the 18th, so that may be the date. The good news in this is that there will probably be very little time between #21 and #22.

I'm done traveling for work for a few weeks and the Christmas rush is over, so my excuses for not updating have vanished!

I hope you caught Infinite Crisis #3 for its Firestorm happenings. It was only about two panels, but Stein showed up in the form of the fire elemental that we know and love and offered his assistance. For the occasion, I've updated the Firestorm/IC FAQ. The story should really get interesting in #4 where something pretty bad happens to the group.

Jamal recently gave an interview at Newsarama in which he talks about Jason's new look. If nothing else, it'll give you a new appreciation for how much thought goes into each detail.

Finally, I've been meaning to point out this essay on Firestorm which points out several of the title's strengths that are often lost on people. He also comments on how he's been using the book to help an at-risk teen that he mentors. Pretty cool.

The wait is over! #20 hit stands today. It's great to read about Firestorm and his fellow heroes' adventures in space. It was full of good moments, as always. Did it top #19? Not quite - there were a few rough spots. Give me some time to put my finger on those. In the meantime, I'm travelling for business twice in the next five days so the usual per-issue updates will be a little delayed. I'll be checking in on the usual message boards, of course.

DC's march solicitations came out today, and the internet was abuzz because the March issues are the ones that follow the big one year leap forward. The Firestorm solicitation was pretty tight-lipped. It's interesting that it simply refers to 'Firestorm' as the character and not Jason or anyone else by name. The most glaring change is a new title: Firestorm the Nuclear Man. That's a mouthfull, and it also breaks my issues page so I'll cheat for now. There's also a new cover artist, Brian Stelfreeze. It'll be interesting to see what his angular artwork brings to the series. I do wish Matt Haley, the previous cover artist, the best on his future work. He really did fantastic work.

Jamal posted a page of interior art giving away Firestorm's new look. I think it's stunning - puffy sleeves and all. That is one very cool design.

Finally, the solicitations also revealed that Stuart is working on an arc of JSA: Classified about Vandal Savage. I haven't picked up the series yet but I'll be there for this one. The premise sounds really interesting.

One more week to go until the next issue. If you need to see a little Firestorm this week, have a look at Justice League Unlimited #16. Firestorm (Ronnie's version) has a fairly prominent role in the story.

Need your Stuart Moore fix? He wrote the lead story to X-Men Unlimited #12, also out today. The premise grabbed me - Wolverine laying in the snow for the whole story coping with the pain as his body recovers from severe damage. I certainly liked it.

Finally, a big congratulations is in order for Dan Jolley. He just announced his recent marraige to Marie Croall. They're both very cool people.

Nope, it's not the big influx of readers lately. It's not the attention Jamal is getting for his art or Stuart's new work with DC. Firestorm now has its own forum on Comic Bloc, which has long been my favorite message board. Notice I didn't say my favorite comics message board. Jamal christened the forum by posting some new art, including a fantastic first page of #21.

Remember, Stuart's backup story in Legion of Super Heroes #12 comes out this week. Check'er out.

On the downer side of the news, Infinite Crisis #4 has been pushed back to January 25th. Firestorm #21 needs tp follow IC #4, so it will likely be pushed back, too. This also means that the Firestorm chat will likely be in early February or so. If there's a silver lining here, it's that there's a possibility that #21 and #22 could come out a week or two apart from one another. And, hey, #20 is just over two weeks away. I'm feeling better already.

I hope all of you in the US has a good Thanksgiving Day. I took the chance to do some shopping and picked up some older Firestorm stories from the Justice League and JSA. No, I'm not a fan. Why do you ask?

Firestorm #22 has now been solicited. 'Solicited' was such a nice, clean word once.

It looks like the plan is to squeeze #21 and #22 in between Infinite Crisis #4 and #5. Stuart's hints that a big change would come before the One Year Later jump make more sense now. The big question is the identity of the new partner and, hey, didn't Jason already leave for space with a partner? The Alvin reference came from left field, too. At least, I assume that they're talking about Alvin.

In the same month, there is Infinite Crisis #5, in which Jason's new costume debuts according to Jamal. The Rann/Thanagar Special also features Donna Troy's team, so Firestorm may also be there unless it's in the brief period of time before he "rejoins" the group.

No need for an update to the FAQ because, it turns out, we saw all the Firestorm we were going to see in the preview. Looks like we're well set up for #20, now, which is five long weeks away. Hopefully, we'll get a double-dose that week with another Firestorm IC appearance. We know he's in #4 in January because he's on the cover. Jamal also indicated that #5 will be the debut of his new outfit. Who knows, we may even get a sneak peak with next week's solicitations.

You knew it was coming, right?

Again, since many people picking up Infinite Crisis aren't familiar with Firestorm and might not know why there's a disembodied head floating over his shoulder, I thought it was appropriate to put together a new Infinite Crisis FAQ for Firestorm. Yes, I borrowed some content from the Villains United cross-over FAQ. Unlike that appearance, this one will span multiple issues so I'll keep it updated as the series goes. So far, I can only guess what questions might come up based on the wonderful three-page preview on Newsarama.

I'll also confess that I skimped on some details this time around because many of the answers are available in the recent (and fantastic) Firestorm #19.

Four updates in a row? Believe me, I'm at least as freaked out about it as you are!

Over on his blog, Keith Champagne spills the news that he'll be the new inker on Firestorm. That's very cool - I've enjoyed his work elsewhere such as JSA. He even had a hand in the last issue of Firestorm.

Of course, this means we're losing Rob Stull. Rob's been doing great work since #8, which makes him one of the old-timers. Thanks for all the hard work, Rob!

I'm updating other pages with the new stuff from #19, yadda, yadda.

Issue #19, out today, may be my favorite of the series so far. I'll have to give it time to see if that impression sticks.

It's a fun comic and it includes much of the cast and a lot of good character moments. I wondered how we would have time for Mick, Martin, Gehenna and Donna and still have a coherent story, but it came together very well. I can't recommend this issue enough.

I just finished an upgrade to the issues page to include all the references I know of to Jason Firestorm. I started to make a separate page for those references, but realized that it's much easier to see where, exactly, they fall in Jason's story if I just throw them in between when Firestorm issues when they occur. I'll cut that page into sections some day. No big rush.

Since I don't read every DC book, I'll need you to be my eyes on ears. Please let me know if you spot a reference that I haven't included.

Remember, folks, Firestorm #19 is out tomorrow.

If I read my hints right, this week's (woohoo!) issue of Firestorm may touch on the story of Martin Stein. For the occasion, I've posted a new biography of Martin.

And let me tell you, his story is extremely complex. I wouldn't mind some fact-checking by some of you long-time fans. Still, I'll also add that Martin was one of the truly unique aspects of Firestorm from the beginning. There just aren't many characters his age that play such a central role in comics. If he doesn't show soon, I do hope we get to see him at some point. You'll notice that he's on the cover to #21.

Speaking of #21, Stuart has confirmed that the announced January 4th date is incorrect. It will be released on the 11th, which is the same day as Infinite Crisis #4. Based on a suggestion from nightwing1982, we're working on organizing a Firestorm chat with Stuart and Jamal on Comic Bloc right after that issue is out, so create an account there if you haven't already. It's a great community.

This may very well be irrelevant to anyone but myself, but I finally finished the 100 issue run of Firestorm six months after getting my hands on all the issues. That was quite a series. Reading those issues gives me a much better foundation to comment on the history of the character and, hey, it was a lot of fun to read. I have all sorts of things I want to write now, but I'm guessing the more most pressing is Stein's biography. Look for that soon. #19 isn't too far away...

The solicitation for Firestorm #21 was released today and he cover is very intriguing. Go check it out. I smell symbolism. If I get the chance, I'll post some of Stuart's hints about the contents of #21 and #22 to give a better idea of what the subject may be. In case, it's already generating a lot of interesting discussion.

Right after talking about being back and ready to get some work done on the site, I was whisked away to California for a last-minute business trip. I fought to leave Wednesday night, but no luck. I was afraid that I was going to miss my weekly comics fix. Where there's a will, there's a way, so I drove 15 miles from my hotel and found a nice shop in Oceanside, California to buy #18 and other titles. The beach may be one of my new favorite places to read a comic.

The issue wasn't much like I expected at all - in a good way. I knew an OMAC would show up and I basically knew how Jason would deal with it, but everything else was a surprise. I never would have guessed that a couple of those minor threads from previous issues would be revisited, well, ever. The clever moments came fast and furious, from tiny (no pun intended) jokes like the name 'Nanette' to more intricate ones like Jason's long speech to the S.T.A.R. labs receptionist. I've found that you have to pay attention to every little detail because you don't know when they'll resurface. It's pretty clear, though, that this issue closed another chapter in Jason's life. I'm anxious to see what happens as Crisis gets rolling in the next issue. Just wait 'til you see the cover to #21! It will be seen in the solicitations this coming Monday.

Newsarama carried a new interview with Stuart this week talking about the present and future of the character. Most definately worth the read as there are hints about things to come such as a girlfriend, a possible appearance of Martin Stein soon, more Gehenna, and wider recognition of Jason among the hero community. Very exciting.

I'm back and I'm very excited for this week. We have it on good authority that Firestorm #18 takes place before Infinite Crisis #1, so read Firestorm first. I'm not even sure that there's a strong connection between the two right out of the gate, but I'm excited to see both. I have this nagging feeling that we're in for some big surprises in the near future.

Stuart Moore has posted an update of some of his upcoming projects, including brief flirtations with Wolverine and the Legion of Super Heroes. For you lucky buggers who live around New York City, Stuart and Jamal will be part of a signing at Jim Hanley's Universe this Wednesday. Details here.

And, finally, someone finally went and made caffeinated soap. Not Firestorm related, I know, but that may be my new favorite thing to talk about for a while.

Fewer updates than usual? Well, I don't have an excuse for the last few days - although I've been slowly working on a page or two. I do have a good excuse for the next week or so, as I'll be on the road visiting family, old friends, etc. I'll see you on the flipside.

In the meantime, you'll catch a little Firestorm cameo in JLA #119. While it didn't amount to much in that issue, the possible consequences are pretty interesting.

DC has spilled some details on #20 with their monthly solicitation. Oddly enough, Stuart had dropped enough hints on the DC message boards that some people guessed that Jason would be teaming up with Animal Man. Looks like I'm going to have to study up on him. It's a surprising choice and I'm interested to see what Stuart has planned.

What's with all the hostility between Firestorms and Thanagarians, anyways?

This issue takes place "during or after [Infinite Crisis] #2", meaning it probably takes place entirely in space. After this issue, we launch into a pair of issues that Stuart has said involves some major changes for Firestorm. Jamal is doing the covers of #21 and #22, and they've both said that the cover to #21 will cause quite a stir. Stay tuned.

In other Firestorm news, John Ostrander gave a really good interview recently in which he touches very briefly on the whys and wherefores of his time as Firestorm's writer.

The Pulse has a new interview up with Stuart talking about the next few issues and the book in general. I don't know that there are any revelations there, but there are interesting teases such as this one:

As with VILLAINS UNITED, there are a couple of FIRESTORM characters thrown into the mix who are crucial to defeating the OMAC.

Hmmmmm. I think there's a fairly big twist coming in this one.

His other comments also seem to confirm my suspicions that a little transmutation is the cure to what ails ya, particularly if you're an OMAC.

Also of note is that the art here is done by Pat Oliffe and Simon Coleby. Jamal and Rob are still credited on the solicitation, so I don't know if they're sharing duties or not. I also just noticed, much to my disappointment, that the issue is now coming out a week later than was originally announced.

Firestorm #17 hit stores today. This is probably the first issue since the ID Crisis cross-over that will attract so many new eyes because of the tie-in to Villains United. So did it deliver?

If you followed Jason from VU wanting to see a unique knock-down, drag-out battle of superbeings, you probably didn't find it here. Otherwise, there was plenty to enjoy. The issue put Jason's personality on display, introduced an interesting new character, dropped more hints about Firestorm's nature, and brought in a character who is very important to the Firestorm mythos. Not only did it touch on VU, but there was an interesting and unexpected visit to a corner of space where the Rann-Thanagar war is taking place, allowing Stuart to flex his considerable SciFi muscles. In short, there were a lot of interesting things going on, and plenty of fuel for speculation. So much, in fact, that I've started a commentary on the issue just like I did on early issues. Give me a few days. I wrote a dozen paragraphs tonight on the first three page alone. I also have plenty of other work to do with a summary, a bio for Gehenna as well.

The best news of all, though, is that the next issue is only three weeks away!

dcmaster1: Any more Elemental Firestorm/Martin Stein teasers coming?
Stuart Moore: Sooner than you think.

This exchange on the DC message boards, among other things, caused me to do a little research on the whereabouts of Martin Stein. Martin, for those of you who may not know, is currently the spacefaring Elemental Firestorm. Martin was an original component of the Firestorm and a critical part of the old series. Stuart has also stated openly that Martin will at least appear in this series. While I will be creating a biography page for Martin in the (hopefully near) future, for now I'll refer you one of these excellent sites: The Nuclear Fan and DCU Guide.

So, without further ado, click here to see what Martin's been up to lately.

Two more weeks 'til the next issue. The wait has felt more painful than usual and I figured out why. I got my mitts on an advance copy last time around, on July 27th. This month has five Wednesdays, which is bad enough, but next month's Firestorm ships the second week instead of the first, possibly due to a misunderstanding that it needed to be released after Villains United #5. So, that'll be a pretty big stretch between issues. How's a man supposed to cope?

I was sick this weekend so I had some extra time to read some issues of the old series, around the time of Ronnie's graduation. Those were fun issues. Interesting subplots with Ronnie and Martin's personal lives, some interesting villains (plus some really goofy ones), some more insight into Firehawk's character, and a lot of discoveries about Firestorm's powers that will help me understand what's what. One of the things that left me scratching my head a little was how everyone didn't know Firestorm's identity. Ronnie and Martin would discuss their powers right next to other people in restaurants, the Weasel seemingly learned their identity before going to jail, Ronnie changed into Firestorm in front of the school with people standing around and on and on.

I was also happy to find another Olsen (my last name) in the DCU. Wendy Olsen is a brilliant research scientist with cerebral palsy at Vandermeer University. Think Stephen Hawkings without the Y chromosome. According to the letter columns, there's no relation to Jimmy Olsen or his parents. Including Mrs. Olsen, Hal Jordan's childhood school teacher, that makes five DCU Olsens that I know of.

Finally, a brief word about Hurricane Katrina. I'm just dismayed by the devastation and suffering it's caused. My family is going to try to dig a little deeper than usual to help people out of this. Please consider pitching in, too. Our help is badly needed.

Stuart's been at it again! In his CBR interview, Stuart talks about his plans for the next few issues. Best of all, there's also some black and white preview pages from #17. In his Comixfan interview, Stuart gives a behind-the-scenes look at some of the planning for the title and discusses Firestorm's unique role in the DCU. Both are well worth reading.

There are a few things that are emphasized in both interviews. One is that any of the next several issues would make a great jumping-on point. That's a good thing to highlight since several people will be looking at a Firestorm book for the first time with the upcoming crossovers. He also emphasizes that you don't need to read anything other than Firestorm to understand what's happening. Another reoccurring theme lately has been Stuart's glee that nobody has publicly guessed what big things are about to happen in the book. That sounds like a challenge to me!

DC's November solicitations were released today and there are some teases about Jason's role in Infinite Crisis. In the Firestorm #19 solicitation, we learn that Jason merges with an "unexpected partner" and heads to space with Donna Troy. We know that Supergirl and Hal Jordan are also going with Donna into space, but their mission is unknown. Interestingly, Supergirl doesn't think she's coming back based on the Superman #223 solicitation, so it's no joyride. Hal's part is discussed in the September 14th issue of JSA, so we probably don't have too long to wait to figure out what they're up to. The Return of Donna Troy wraps up that same day.

A week after the Firestorm issue, Infinite Crisis #2 comes out. It mentions an appearance by Firestorm, so presumably he's in space for this issue.

But, in the spirit of stopping to smell the roses, that's a great cover. It's been posted on other comic message boards and people are gah-gah over it. Kudos to Matt Haley. Speaking of Matt, his GI Spy series is finally getting its start this week.

This week, Jason steps into the big DC spotlight with Villains United #4. This is a Big Deal because it marks the first time that this version of Firestorm is making a major impact in the DC universe. We don't actually know what he'll do in this issue, other than being a captive, but I'm happy for the exposure. Villains United is the best-selling DC mini-series right now.

For this occasion, I've created a little FAQ for people who are seeing Jason for the first time in this series and may want to know more. I've also done a lot of updating and housecleaning. I found lots of embarassing errors, too. You guys are supposed to let me know about that stuff!

Anyways, thanks DC and thanks for the love, Gail! I'm very excited to get my mitts on this issue.

Yesterday marked the release of another great issue. This one was lots of fun and left me very hungry to see Villains United #4 next week. I'll be updating a number of pages (including a badly dated Jason bio) and creating a little introduction to Jason for those joining us with the cross-over.

I'm back from a business trip in San Diego, during which I was able to work on the site a bit. I'm getting caught up on character biographies just in time to update again them for this week's Firestorm issue.

August marks an important time for Firestorm because we'll see his first major appearance in the DCU with Villains United #4. For the occasion, I'll be working on a Firestorm primer for people who are reading the miniseries but who aren't familiar with the character. I'll also see if I can pull together some of the glimpses we've had of the future. I've said it before and I'll say it again, a huge draw of this book is the unpredictability. I think we'll see some major changes over the next few months.

One of the most impressive pieces of art shown at the San Diego Comic Con this past weekend was the cover to #18 showing Firestorm as an OMAC. Now THAT is a cover. It's almost a shame to put all the other stuff that goes on covers over it. Have I mentioned that I'm impressed with Matt Haley's work?

Another tidbit to come out of DC Panel was that Firestorm was to play "an important role" in Villains United. So says Bob Wayne, the VP of sales at DC. Stuart Moore, on the DC boards, confirmed that this would launch from the ending of #16, so I believe that that clinches Jason's role as the powerful hero that the Secret Six need to rescue, as mentioned in the solicitation for Villains United #4. Keep in mind that VU is the most popular DC miniseries today, so that's some serious attention. I'm very excited.

Today, officially, the solicitation for #18 was published to the internet. If the cover doesn't make it clear enough, OMAC is going to be causing trouble for Jason, and it sounds like Jason is going to be ill-equipped to resist.

It's a good time to be a Firestorm fan.

Many publishers use San Diego Comic Con to make announcements about new projects. I noticed a few by those who have worked on Firestorm in the past. I'm sure to miss some, so please drop me a note.

Stuart Moore, in addition to talking up Firestorm's future (more on that tomorrow), has some other projects in the pipeline. He's done a graphic novel called "Will Star! Space Pilot!" for AiT/PlanetLar. He also wrote a story for Western Tales Of Terror #4 for Hoarse & Buggy Productions. Stuart described a number of his other projects towards the end of this SBC interview not too long ago.

Dan Jolley is teaming up with fellow Studio Phoenix members to launch a line of creator-owned comics under the name Voicebox. Dan's project will be a comic called Sawed-Off Mojo. Read Dan's interview on the site and see some preview pages there. Fans of his Bloodhound should like this. I became a convert of that title, so I'll be checking it out.

John Ostrander has been doing some awesome stuff with Star Wars for a while. At San Diego, Dark Horse announced a one-shot by Ostrander called Purge, which tells the story of a pocket of surviving Jedi that have an unfortunate encounter with the freshly minted Darth Vader. John's ongoing title has not been announced, but it's suspected he'll be writing a series about the events after Episode III.

#15 hit stands this past week and it's a fun read with plenty of setup for deeper issues that may simmer for a while. The supporting cast continues to grow, as does Jason's confidence with his life and his abilities. As a result, I have plenty of updating to do, including three new character biographies. Keep an eye out.

Matt Haley, know to us as the cover artist of Firestorm since #8, is working on a new series for Boom! Studios called G.I. Spy. According to Matt, the first issue should be out this week or in the near future. Read details here. His art looks fantastic. How many new series do you know that have their own movie trailer?

First, the bit that's related to Firestorm. Like last month, Firestorm #15 will be in stores on Thursday due to the holiday. Coincidence or conspiracy? You decide.

For those of you in the US, have a happy 4th! It was a pretty remarkable thing the founding fathers did all those years ago. A democractic republic was a big gamble and they knew it. We're not what we used to be but, all in all, the results have been pretty amazing. Enjoy the day and think about all those who can still only dream about the freedoms we have.

Hell, Michigan #1, Dan's latest book, hits stores tomorrow. Be sure to check it out. I'm not big on horror, but I promised him I'd buy an issue. Dan's working on a number of projects, some of which will be announced pretty soon according to the man himself.

We need some more bodies playing the Firestorm trivia game. Pop in and dazzle us with your knowledge of all things Firestorm.

The new solicitation for #17 leaves little doubt that Jason is very much involved in the Villains United storyline. Jason has been kidnapped by the Society of Super Villains. If the Secret Six try to rescue him, it doesn't go so well.

I find myself oddly intrigued by this Gehenna character. After reading about the place of that name, I assumed it had to a villain. Not so. By all appearances, she's the supporting character that Stuart has hinted at over on the DC message boards.

Chris Sotomayor has signed an exclusive contract (congratulations!) with Marvel (alas), so #14 was his last issue. If you'll notice, Chris was there from the beginning of the series and worked on every issue to date, making him the last of the old guard to go. If you get a chance, swing by his forum and say thanks. He did a lot of cool work that helped me appreciate colorists a lot more and showed me things I hadn't seen before. Olivia Woodward of Silver Bullet Comics, who wrote some pretty negative reviews of Firestorm, said that she enjoyed the art and that she was "especially fond of Sotomayor's coloring", saying that "He's one of the best around". Aside from all that, he's just a super nice guy.

Coming aboard is Paul Mounts. I learned a little about him just looking around the web. He's probably best known for his work at Marvel, on such titles as The Ultimates, Fantastic Four and Wolverine. He's also worked on a lot of well-received independent projects with top artists and writers. The Fourth Rail chose him as best comics colorist of 2002. Here's a good interview with Paul about his take on the art. More recently, he did the colors for Superman: Red Son, which was a great series.

So, welcome aboard, Paul! Drop me an e-note if you get a chance.

I sent out some spare copies of #14 this weekend to few influential people outside of comics that I thought might find them interesting. It was a long shot, but you never know. I won't name names unless I get a positive response so you can't laugh at me for my choices. :)

In the meantime, it looks like I have lots of updating to do.

Today marked the release of #14, the first of Stuart's issues.

First, I'll say that when I'm wrong, I'm wrong. No sign of Ronnie. I'll take some consolation in the fact that nobody believed me anyways. Looks like we've moved on to teasing about another Firestorm character, though. :)

I'll just share some quick thoughts on the issue. Spoilers ahead.

As advertised, it had the feeling of a season opener. Much like the change that took place with issue #8, there's a new tone here and Jason has a new outlook on life. Thankfully, it's a very natural progression from the past. There was a higher dose of humor which was natural given the circumstances. Most of it worked but a couple of jokes fell a little flat. I'll also have to admit I'm one of those who had to re-read the opening action sequence to get it. I found it funny that Stuart couldn't resist using a supercollider in the story. He knows a little something about them. I've been curious about the Pionic Man, so it was interesting to learn that he might not be the real villain here.

It was a pretty dense issue. Most of it was setup. New relationship with Alvin. Sharing a new apartment with the lead singer from Hoobastank (sorry, couldn't resist) who's wearing a really cool t-shirt. New job in an interesting environment. It's a good launchpad for more stories. Let's have'em!

Five more weeks. Ugh.

Only a week to go before Stuart Moore's first issue hits the stands. Remember, it's going to be a day late because of Memorial Day. I'll get to see it a whole hour or two before I otherwise would because the owner of my local comic store needs a little help getting the stock ready that day. It should be interesting.

In the meantime, Stuart Moore has been setting a few things up. First, he has a new mailing list which he describes as follows:

I keep forgetting to post this here: I have an e-mail list that I use to keep people informed of my upcoming projects. On average, I send one out once a month, but sometimes it's more frequent (like now, when my FIRESTORM is about to start) and sometimes less. Occasionally I'll throw in some exclusive art I've gotten that hasn't appeared anywhere else. In weeks to come, I should have news about FIRESTORM, my new Tokyopop project, and more.

If you'd like to be added to the list, send an e-mail to stuartcomics@mindspring.com

The other thing he's done is distributed black and white advance copies of #14 to various, prominent bloggers. A thread containing a link to all the reviews is here. I started to read them but two of the first three contained too many spoilers for me. It's tough having a thread on the boards that I have to steer clear of, but I like this method of gaining a wider audience for the title. From the little I did see, I'm beginning to suspect that my theory about Ronnie's return in this issue is mostly bunk, but we'll see.

The release of DC's solicitations has become an entertaining monthly ritual. I'm right there with the people who watch the clock, waiting for them to come out. Firestorm #16's solicitation goes down in the records as one of the strangest ones I've seen. I just don't remember seeing a lot of emphasis on knitting needles in the past. I asked and Stuart confessed - he wrote this one. In terms of content, it more or less contains information that Stuart had previously mentioned, which is plenty of meat for a good story.

The solicitation for Villains United #4 really grabbed me, too. Knowing that Jason was scheduled to make an appearance in that book, I've been watching its solicitations for hints of how he'll be involved. The solicitation has this to say about the issue: "The renegade Six, the criminals who have refused to join the ever-increasing ranks of the villainous Society, are given an unlikely and potentially deadly mission: rescue one of the DCU's most powerful heroes!"

Now, that could refer to any of several heroes, but consider this:

• We know from Countdown that the Society is considering using Jason to create Kryptonite to deal with Superman.
• Presumably, the Society is going to get their hands on these means before they confront Superman.
• We know from Stuart's comments that Jason is in Villains United. He leads a pretty insulated life right now and is part of no team, so trouble generally finds him. The kind of trouble that is known to be looking for him that the Six would want to undermine would be the Society. It all holds together well.
• The timing is right. The Firestorm issue that comes out the first week of the month ends with Jason being thrust into the VU plot. The following week, this VU issue comes out. In September, Firestorm's issue contains the VU crossover.
• The language of the solicitation leads me to believe they're not dealing with Superman or someone of that stature. They would probably come out and say so if that were the case. Instead, they've accurately described Jason as one of the most powerful heroes. I think the identity of the hero will be a big surprise to many, and that's what a successful solicitation does.

So, here's hoping. Considering that VU is the most anticipated of the Countdown mini-series as far as I can tell, this will bring considerable eyes to the character. If true, that's fantastic news.

See it here. A few things caught my eye: an indication that events leading up to the Villains United crossover might start sooner rather than later, a battle against an army of supervillians (likely related to VU, but you never know), a new adult mentor, some resolution with Jason's mom and dad, an appearance of someone from the book's past, etc. Go see for yourself.

This sort of thing helps get me excited about the book. I've decided to let others worry about whether Ronnie will be around or not. I buy comics for entertainment, and I'm already intrigued enough to know that these stories are going to entertain. Part of the beauty of this title is also that I don't know where things will stand at the end of any given issue or storyline. Off the top of my head, I can't say that of any other book I'm reading.

It also seems pretty apparent that the issues will be really dense. There is a *lot* of stuff going on.

Issue #13 came out yesterday and it was a great season ender and a great way for Dan to wrap up his run. I would have updated yesterday but there were too many interesting conversations on the various message boards.

Spoilers for #13 ahead:

This issue featured the dissappearance of Ronnie. That's okay, though, we knew it was coming and it's likely temporary. To some, that's all that happened in this issue, but there was quite a bit more. We got to peer into Cliff's sick mind. We were taught about the obligations of being a hero once more from someone who really knows. Perhaps most importantly, we saw Jason pointed squarely in the right direction. He is now on the cusp of becoming a hero.

The issue really had a great feel as the end of a chapter in Jason's life and I'm anxious to see how the new chapter begins. Now that there's a new status quo of sorts, I can safely update several of the information pages. Look for little changes here and there over the next few weeks.

On the eve of Dan Jolley's last issue, I wanted to take a little time and write a bit about the guy who's carried the writer credits on the book for thirteen issues. See my little tribute here.

Of course, if tomorrow's issue really stinks, I'll have to take it all back.

Kidding!

This isn't a Firestorm update, per se, but I recently discovered some recent work from long-time Firestorm writer John Ostrander and I love it. Among other things, he's writing the Star Wars: Republic series for Dark Horse. I finally put my childhood interest in Star Wars with my more recent hobby of reading comics together and was very pleasantly surprised. John's writing some great stories that are leading right up to the upcoming movie. Oddly enough, I'm eager to see the movie and have low expectations for it at the same time. Anyways, try out Republic #75, which came out this week. Great character work and interesting stories. It's probably too late to secretly replace George Lucas.

John sometimes shows up on the Dark Horse message boards. I asked him to make sure Dan Jolley gets his Firestorm alumni packet soon. Please don't go there to harrass John about elementals or Russians. :)

After four auctions and three stores, I've finally pieced together a full run of the last two Firestorm series. It's a big relief, and I look forward to reading them all. Word to the wise: if you want to get a big run, just bite the bullet and buy it all at once if you see an auction like that.

The estimable ChrisCross kindly informed me that the cover credits on the issues page needed some tweaking. Again, I sleep better at night knowing that the site is that much more accurate when people correct me. Keep'em coming.

Mostly out of habit, I still check eBay for Firestorm auctions. Today, I found an auction for a piece of Firestorm art that caught my eye:



I love cute. I'm all about cute. But it just seems a little odd for a commission. "Hey, could you draw Ronnie Raymond Firestorm but, you know, make him a toddler? And instead of a potty training seat could he be sitting on an atom? That would be awesome!"

Oops, I stand corrected. Apparently, that's something the artist, Jim Coon, does often. Here's a gallery of the kidified characters he calls BABY-DOLLZ. If that's your thing, now you know where to find it.

It looks like Lorraine will be spending a little time in court in Manhunter #9. Yes, she'll be in costume, too. Manhunter is another book that could use a little more attention. I've picked up a few issues and have found a lot to like there.

Last week, I wrote a little article on the use of Ronnie's during Stuart's run. Nothing definite, but I think we've seen enough hints that Ronnie fans will continue to see their favorite character in the book.

Comic Foundry has posted a great interview with Jamal. Jamal's always struck me as a no-nonsense guy and this proves it. There's a lot of information about his background, experience and techniques, as well as some sketch panels he used to lay out part of issue #8. I highly recommend checking it out.

Oh, and there's a refreshing lack of character x vs character y debate.

In other news, I'm one of those dolts that I like to make fun of now and then. I kind of already knew that, but I recently found lots of evidence. I've been spelling villain 'villian' all over the place and, well, probably since forever. A vigilant spelling vigilante let me know about that, so thanks. Please drop me a note if you see problems. I'll probably even pull that particular mistake again just to see if you're paying attention. ;)

DC has posted the solicitation to issue #15. It looks like can look forward to a story about a new villain and his possible ties to Jason's past.

For those (like me) who have been interested in getting their hands on some Firestorm art, Jamal Igle announced today that he'll be selling artwork and doing custom art work through Serendipity Art Sales starting in May. Sounds like a good use for some of those tax refund dollars.

Dan's second-to-last issue came out yesterday and it's a good one. We get to see a difference between an experienced and an unexperienced hero. We get to see some good old fashioned Firestorm-style problem solving. Two villains cooperate in a way that left me wondering "why hasn't anyone shown that before?" Alvin really, sincerely, starts getting his act together. And finally, things turn about to be a little worse than they seem. Good stuff.

On to the next four week wait! I'll be updating things here and there, as usual.

As promised, I've completed a biography on Typhoon. As always, let me know if I got something wrong.

Stuart Moore is up to no good again on the DC boards, artfully dodging direct questions about, among other things, whether or not Martin Stein will show up at some point. He also reveals that Firestorm will play a role in the upcoming villains United mini-series, as opposed to just being affected by it.

Matt Haley, the series cover artist, has posted a large version of the cover to #14. It's a great image and the costume tweaks seem to be well-received. Thanks to thenuclearman for pointing out that the image was there.

Some preview copies of Dan Jolley's HELL, Michigan have gone out to comic stores. I'm not a big fan of the horror genre (although I'm betting it's a lot of fun to write) but the setup is intriguing. If you'd like more series information, go to Funnel Cloud 9's website. I love that company name. If you register on their boards and tell'em Clear sent you, I could even win a nifty prize. Dan also just announced a new gig with Chaos! Comics, with details to follow.

Finally, I was able to plunge into a bunch of old Firestorm issues while I was sick this weekend. There's a lot to like about them. Check'em out if you haven't already.

I've been wanting to do this for a while. I have a couple of great images that could be used for desktop wallpaper. I spent all of 10 minutes posting them, but they really represent the hard work and talent of the book's artists.

	From Firestorm #9: Jason faces Killer Frost Pencils: Jamal Igle Inks: Rob Stull Colors: Chris Sotomayor
	From Firestorm #11: The History of Ronnie Raymond Pencils: Dale Eaglesham Inks: Wade Von Grawbadger Colors: Chris Sotomayor

I love both of these. I didn't resize them to any particular dimensions. I'll leave that up to you. If you're using Windows, click on the small image to launch a bigger one in a new window. You should be able to right-click on the larger image and choose "set as background" or "set as wallpaper" and tell it to stretch to fit the screen.

I asked for permission to offer these images and got a semi-official "we don't know". I decided to go for it since it's pretty common fan site practice and I have no intent other than to promote the title. If DC asks me to take them down, I will. In other words, you might consider downloading these sooner rather than later.

In an interview posted today on Newsarama, Stuart Moore talks about some of his plans for the book. It sounds very good to me. Details on a new villain. Jason's new job. Mrs. Rusch. Crossover with villains United. Changes in the way the merger works (not sure how I feel about that one). A breakdown of the first few arcs. Return of "some very old characters" (hmmm). Good stuff.

Naturally, some were concerned with the lack of mention of Ronnie, but Stuart had already promised not to talk about his fate. He repeats his standard line to Ronnie fans: try #14 and you'll know whether you'll like where it's going. Some remain irritated that he's "teasing" fans, but is that really a tease at all? Isn't his meaning pretty obvious? Consider: if Ronnie were not in the issue 1) Stuart would be setting fans against him by implying that he might be there and 2) the statement would make no sense otherwise. If Ronnie is not in that particular issue, how would he expect that issue to tell the reader what happened to Ronnie one way or the other?

DC's solicitation for #14, Stuart Moore's first issue, was released today. It certainly sounds like the focus of that particular issue will be Jason. It looks like a lot of interesting things are happening in his life. A great cover never hurts, either. If you need more hints about what's coming up, take a look at Stuart's question and answer thread on the DC message boards.

I've been making a few updates here and there, including biographies for Multiplex and The Thinker. Look for a Typhoon profile soon.

By the way, Jamal Igle has created a mini-site that features some of his recent work. If you've been wondering what else he's done, have a look here. There's a lot of great work there.

Dan Jolley opens the final arc of his run with a great issue. Excellent character moments abound, especially between Ronnie and Jason and Jason and Alvin. villains band together for a "good" cause. Dan makes use recent DCU developments like the Calculator. In this issue, Ronnie earns the praise the Superman recently gave him. He's driven to do what a man in his position would do, but his responsibility to others takes precedence. As I said on the DC boards, if you don't love Ronnie's portrayal in this issue, I can't even begin to guess what you liked about him. It's all here.

Dale Eaglesham pitches in with the art for this issue and does a great job. If you like his art, look for him on the upcoming villains United miniseries with Gail Simone. Once again, colorist Chris Sotomayor steals some of the panels with his great work.

Looks like I have some pages to update. Keep an eye out.

The solicitation for Dan Jolley's last issue was posted this week.

I asked cover artist Matt Haley who the person on the cover was and he didn't know. He simply received some reference material. The look apparently came from Jamal Igle. Many are speculating that it's an update to the Thinker, who seems a likely candidate for the "mysterious villain" that's behind the plot against Firestorm.

I'm nearly done with a round of updates relating to #10 which revealed several things. See the issues page and several of the biography pages. I should be done with those shortly.

Stuart Moore has been taking questions on this DC message board thread. If you want a few glimpses of what's coming up, that's a great place to start. He's a brave soul.

Don't forget what tomorrow is: DC's May solicitations. Oh yeah, and that other holiday with the hearts and stuff. :)

Now, it's probably just assumed that I'm going to say that whatever the current issue of Firestorm was good. Still, there are some issues that stand out and I think #10 is one of those. It was fun, it was intense, and by the end of it I was surprised by quite a few things. It didn't hurt that the art was great. I think a lot of readers will pick this one up.

In other news, just in case you're not seeing enough Firestorm in your daily life a guy on eBay has made a Firestorm (Jason Rusch) switch plate from the last page of #1. It looks like it's well done. See the auction here. Too bad my house uses rockers. :)

I finally did something that I've been meaning to do for a while: pick up a set of the current run of Firestorm from an auction on eBay. They're not going into one of the boxes in my closet. They're going to Iraq.

Politics aside, there are thousands of military men and women serving there under very tough conditions. They want to get the job done and come home. In the meantime, comics have proven to be a very popular item with the troops. They're perfect for a setting where entertainment needs to be quickly digested and shared and where there are no televisions to be found. Think about how appropriate Firestorm is to a group of people who represent the most powerful force on earth but are young and often come from troubled backgrounds. They have a legacy to live up to whether they want to or not. They stand out, both to those who would do them harm and to those whom they serve. I think Jason Rusch's story will resonate strongly with some of them.

So, I'm going to choose a unit through Any Soldier to send these to. And, who knows, having the books passed around can't hurt interest levels, either. Everybody wins. Think about doing something similar if you get the chance.

Don't forget, Firestorm #10 comes out tomorrow!

This news broke this morning on Newsarama: Stuart Moore is the new Firestorm writer!

See the interview here. It talks a little about Stuart's background and interests. In it, he also reveals some of his plans for the book, which are quite interesting.

If Stuart Moore is a new name to you, be sure to check out my little article on him and why I think he's a great choice for the book.

I've finally written and posted an article on Ronnie's death that's been rattling around my skull for a while.

In other news, Jamal Igle has verified that the new, as-yet-unnamed writer has been selected. Based on the schedule as I understand it, he or she is probably writing already.

Finally, Tilman Goins of Funnel Cloud 9 (love that name!) sent me some information about Dan Jolley's upcoming project, Hell, Michigan. Go check'er out. Since there's some interest in the project from Hollywood, plan to be onboard early so you can impress your friends and neighbors. For a little more information, look at Dan's interview on The Pulse. Interestingly, the interview also covers wrap-up plans for his run of Bloodhound and Firestorm (plans for both Jason and Ronnie), as well as hints of future projects with one possibly coming out of DC. Good stuff.

Or did Firestorm leave Dan Jolley? Dan posted this on his site tonight in conjunction with the news that Bloodhound had been cancelled:


So, it's finally official. I can't say I'm happy about it. I came for the art and shiny #1 stamp on the cover, but stayed for Dan's writing. He's wildly enthusiastic about his next project at least, so I'm happy for him.

My New Year's resolution? Don't take it out on the new guy. :)

I've been updating information here and then, including the biographies of Firehawk and Killer Frost and the issues page. There's so much stuff I want to do - it's just finding the time.

I also received an email from Anthony Otero, who has created his own Firestorm Site. Check it out! He's collected some nice images.

Read his interview on The Pulse. Jamal shares a little bit about his history with Firestorm, his view of Jason and about accepting change. I knew there was something I liked about that guy. :)

Don't forget, #9 comes out tomorrow. I know that high expectation never did anything for anyone when it comes to entertainment, but I'm pretty excited about getting my mitts on this one.

Happy New Year! I'm back from out of town and, no, I haven't forgotten about the site. I'm working on the commentary for #8 among other things. During the break, I had a chance to start reading Firestorm volume 1. It is a fun series but I'll have plenty to say about how embarrassingly ironic some of the criticisms of the current series is when coming from fans of that run. More on that later.

I hope you were able to enjoy your holidays. I learned a lot about train sets and got to spend some nice time with family. I also can't help but mention that I was moved by the tragedy in the Indian Ocean and hope we can all find ways to pitch in. In a world without superheroes, you and I will have to do.

Rumors of Firestorm's cancellation or creative team change have been flying furiously. The first one I noticed was from ChrisCross from his ComiXtreme message board:


Shortly after that, All The Rage posted a similar rumor which fueled some speculation on the DC boards:


Just when it seemed bleak, Jamal Igle had this to say:


Finally, Dan Jolley chimed in (registration required):


When asked directly if he was off the book, Dan followed up with this:


So, the book appears to be safe (phewww), but it looks like some big change is a comin'.

I recently finished a little article detailing some of the hints that came out about Ronnie's return even before the series started. I wrote it to counter the claims that this was some ploy to turn around sales.

As I began work on the new biographies, I became irritated at how poor some of my images looked. My scanner wasn't the best when I first bought it and it went downhill from there. I looked for help and got some kind offers from people to send me higher quality scanned images from the comic. I was getting ready to hassle one of them when I realized, hey, this is a digitally colored book. I figured I'd ask Chris Sotomayor, who does the coloring, if he could send me an image or two. No harm in asking, I thought.

Well, Chris is the man. He came through and you can see that I've changed some of the images. The digital ones are so much more vibrant. I think it improves the look a lot. Let me know what you think. I restructured the header, too, so let me know if you have problems on your browser. I'm particularly nervous about Safari on the Mac.

By the way, colorists are generally underappreciated, but Chris's contributions to this title are remarkable. The fire and light effects, the blurs, the skin tones, it's all him. I went through every issue last night and fell in love with the book all over again. Much of that has to do with the great artwork. Chris is the one person that's worked on every issue's art so far, so hat's off to Soto!

See it here.

Doesn't this just look like a love letter from Dan Jolley to the long-time fans? Ronnie Raymond's return is clearly more than an imaginary event. You also have two classic villains. I've read a few Multiplex issues and I put him up there with Mindboggler on the goofy scale. Typhoon, I know less about. I'm interested to see what Dan does with them.

I pick up issues of the previous Firestorm series now and then. I've read maybe a couple dozen issues. Today, I finally took the plunge and bought a big ol' lot of them for next to nothing on eBay. Side note to sellers: PayPal fees may be a pain, but you lose serious money if you don't offer it because buyers don't like the hassle of other methods.

Anyways, when they show up, I'll have a lot of reading to do. We'll be seeing at least a little bit of Ronnie in the next few months, so it's good to have a little more information. I've already posted a bio of Ronnie, but it's just enough to fill in people new to the series and far from being a complete overview of his life so far. If things go as planned, bios on Killer Frost and Firehawk will follow soon.

Firestorm #8 was released today and it's a great issue. The new artist, Jamal Igle, takes the reigns and does a good job. We see a major change in the Jason/Alvin relationship, Jason trying to act heroic and a couple of people from Ronnie's past. I'm going to sit on the commentary for a little bit, as I understand the events of another comic this month (presumably Identity Crisis) will help explain some of the occurrences in this issue.

Also, for you Ronnie Raymond fans out there, there's a new figure in stores today. It's really pretty nice.

Here's a great interview with ChrisCross, the former artist of Firestorm, over on comiXtreme. In it, he talks about why he left the book and his take on life in general. It's a great read and it doesn't hurt that there are many concept sketches for the character there. Do yourself a favor, pop in on ChrisCross's forum and say hello or at least read a few pages.

I just finished my commentary on Bloodhound #5. I normally won't comment on books where Jason simply appears, but this one was very important in telling his story. Thanks to some input from Dan Jolley, there are also some details here that aren't in the book so you can get the full picture.

I'm recoding a lot of stuff and adding little bits of information here and there, so I could use your eyes to look for problems. I tested the new navigation bar on IE and Mozilla for the PC, so let me know if you have problems on IE or Safari for the Mac or whatever else you might be using. I'll tell you upfront that this site is sure to be wonky on older browsers. In my professional life, I have to care about that. Here, I can safely ask you to upgrade your browser or live with the problems. :)

I finished the commentary on issue #7 last night. With all of the revelations in that issue, I need to update a lot of character profiles. One of these days, I'll also add some real site navigation to this thing, but don't hold your breath.

If you're a regular DC message board user, I also created a page on how to improve the looks of the boards using the magic of user style sheets. It's a dark art, but you'll find it explained here.

Still working on lots of things from the last issue. In the meantime, Dan Jolley has given a new interview to ComicsNexus. It covers a lot of questions that have been asked in other interviews, but there's some interesting hints about the upcoming encounter with Killer Frost: "Frost doesn't do things half-way, and her encounter with Firestorm is going to have serious and long-lasting repercussions on him and on the book as a whole. She didn't get the name "Killer Frost" for nothing." Hmmmm.

On the eve of the Bloodhound crossover, I figure some of you who haven't tried Bloodhound yet might need an introduction to Travis Clevenger, so I started his character biography. I'll fill in the rest at some point after the issues are out. Let me just say it again - I'm very excited about the double dose of Firestorm tomorrow and can't wait to talk about them.

The fates are conspiring against me. Between a two-week flu, following the elections, a surprise visit from an out-of-town high school buddy, playing family tech support and other stuff, I've been slowly working on commentary for issue #1. Well, it's done. I don't know that I'll be able to cover every issue so far, but I'll make an effort to stay caught up.

On another note, I got a peek at an advanced copy of #7, coming out this week, and it is fantastic. This one has a very action-oriented vibe. I can't wait to read the conclusion in Bloodhound.

PopCultureShock has posted a preview of Firestorm #7. While I'm a little concerned about some aspects of the art, the story setup looks very, very interesting. I'm excited because, in a little over a week, we're basically going to get two issues of Jason's story.

Cover artist Matt Haley has released an image of the cover of #10, and be warned, it contains a major spoilers.

See it here.

Think I had forgotten you? Nosiree. I've updated various pages with information revealed in issue #6, but those updates didn't warrant a news item. I've been working on commentary for #6, which is now available for viewing. It's not a review, it's not short, and it's riddled with spoilers about the current issue so be warned.

The good news is that our extra patience has paid off. We had to wait an extra couple of weeks for #6, but that means #7 will come more quickly. We get a double dose in November, with Firestorm playing a central role in both Firestorm and Bloodhound.

Dan Jolley has hinted that he's dropping a major bomb in issue #9. I was afraid that DC was going to give it away, but it looks like they behaved themselves. See the solicitation here.

Beating the DC solitications by a few days, cover artist Matt Haley posted art from the cover of #9. See it here. Nice!

If you're dieing to know what happens in issue #6, several people have put up summaries on the message boards of Geoff Johns, Studio Phoenix and DC Comics. I'm trying to remain unspoiled, so I'm avoiding those posts.

PopCultureShock has posted a preview of Firestorm #6. Typically, these previews don't give much away, but this one answers much of the question of what happened to Ronnie Raymond. So, be warned. If you still want to see it, check it out here.

For a while, we've been hearing that ChrisCross had made an entirely new character design for Firestorm early in the creative process. Ultimately, DC editorial backed away from it because it was a little too extreme, but until now few have seen it. Chris had planned to take it around with him to show at conventions, but a few impatient fans (could be anyone, really) badgered him into putting a drawing online. To overcome some technical problems, I voluntered to host it on this site. Click here or on the image itself to see a much larger version.

I understand some of the concerns and spot a thing here or there that I'd prefer to be a little different, but man does that perfectly convey power and its just a very, very cool and novel design. Chris now has the rights to it, but I hope there's a chance to use it some day. Maybe it's Firestorm when merged with Martin Stein or some other powerful character. Maybe it's a more mature Jason or even a Kingdom Come Firestorm. Who knows?

If you'd like to catch up with ChrisCross or get involved in the discussion about this design (plus see concept number one), visit the ChrisCross message board that the folks at comiXtreme set up for him.

Someone forgot to tell me that I run a Firestorm site. I saw this art from #8 weeks ago, loved it, and completely forgot to post a link here. I won't even try to hide my shame by backdating it. Those two pages look great. Jamal Igle is really going to do great on this title. The drawings are strong and the scenes are fluid and well-framed. It's also good to see Jason with such confidence on his face. We're looking forward to your run, Jamal.

The character biographies section is up-to-date with all of the major players we've seen so far. Well, perhaps with one exception. I'm going to wait to complete Ronnie Raymond's until after issue #6 comes out. Speaking of which, it's now the big month. I might put together a little something special for the occasion. Stay tuned.

Andrew Wickliffe interviews Dan Jolley on his comic-related blog, The Stop Button. The interview is a refreshing change from the typical request for spoilers and questions about fan reaction to this or that. There's good information about Dan's influences and his writing process. Three cheers for procrastination!

Dan Jolley and fill-in artist Liam Sharp spill details of the upcoming crossover to Comic Book Resources. I wasn't so sure about this crossover, but between the art shown on these pages and some information about the story and the effect it has on the characters, I'm very exited. Jolley also hints that Firehawk and Killer Front will be making appearances soon.

Dan Jolley's Interview
Liam Sharp's Interview

There have been a lot of interesting interviews and news in the past fews months that I missed because I wasn't in business, so we're going to pretend I was. The dates presented are those of the related articles, not neccesarily the events themselves.

Fall 2002 - DC announces plans to do a Firestorm mini-series.

February 27, 2003 - CBR Interview with Mike Carey
Mike Carey was slated to write this series and reveals here his feelings on what the book should be. As you can tell, DC went with a radically different vision than the one Carey had.

May 14, 2003 - Mike Carey pulled from Firestorm
After an editorial shakeup, with Firestorm's proposed editor Dan Raspler leaving DC, Carey was pulled from the project and it was put on hold by Peter Tomasi.

Summer 2003 - DC acknowledges that editor Peter Tomasi has an ongoing Firestorm project in the works.

September 25, 2003 - New series, helmed by Dan Jolley and ChrisCross, announced
Finally, it was clear that the series was a go. At the same time, the news that Ronnie would be replaced was released. Some still haven't recovered. :)

February 9, 2004 - Newsarama interview with Dan Jolley
Some of the first complete details of the new direction and some reasons behind the change.

March 17, 2004 - CBR Interview with Dan Jolley
Excellent summary of Jolley's take on the book. Dan says he has about three years of stories in his head already.

May(?) 2004 - UGO Interview with Dan Jolley
Some more details on the editorial process that led to the change, plus some insights on Dan's take on abuse.

July 14, 2004 - Broken Frontier Interview with Dan Jolley
Short and sweet, but Jolley implicitly reveals that Martin Stein (one of the original two people fused to create Firestorm) will not appear any time soon.

July 9, 2004 - Newsarama interview with Jamal Igle
Recently announced as the new series artist, Jamal Igle talks about his upcoming work. Also includes some quotes from Tomasi on the market's reaction to the book.

July 11, 2004 - ChrisCross explains his departure from the book
While he surely has some legitimate gripes, Cross does not help his reputation here.

July 18, 2004 - ChrisCross apologizes
Cross offers a course in outstanding apologies.

August 4, 2004 - Dan Jolley drops Ronnie hints
Perhaps feeling giddy with the power of having a brand new message board, Dan states that a big reveal will take place in #6, but a true resolution will come later. He also implies that he thinks Ronnie fans will be happy, but can't guarantee that.