My beloved mother. Rest in peace.

I want to tell you about Jane Pak. But I’ve got too many words right now. She loved good writing and would want me to take my time.

But I’ll tell you that Jane Pak loved libraries. If you’re so inclined, you can donate in her honor to the Preston Royal Library Friends, c/o Preston Royal Library, 5652 Royal Lane, Dallas, TX 75229. In the check’s memo section, pls indicate “In memory of Jane Pak for children’s educational programs.”

Saw an incredible exhibition of art by Jae Ho Jung at the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Seoul. Hugely, highly recommended.

Jae Ho Jung creates these gorgeous, lived-in models and images that feel like stills from your dreams of documentaries about eerie sci fi events from your parents’ childhood.

Look at these Jae Ho Jung paintings. They feel like comics. They ARE comics, aren’t they?

If you’re in Seoul, don’t miss this exhibit. It’s part of the Korean Artist Prize exhibition at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art and will displayed until 11/25/18. 

I don’t think I’ve ever had as many books come out in a single day as this!

JOHN WICK #2 continues the prequel tale of John Wick’s first great vendetta with lovely art by Giovanni Valleta. Check out the preview here.

WEAPON H #2 features our Hulk/Wolverine hybrid hero taking on the Ur-Wendigo — with a mind-blowing final page that should be of special interest to old-school X-Men fans. Drawn by the great Cory Petit. Check out the preview here.

INCREDIBLE HULK #715, drawn by Carlo Barberi, continues the World War Hulk II story as Amadeus takes on the Marvel Universe. Read the interview at CBR.

WEAPON X #16, co-written by Fred Van Lente and drawn by Roland Boschi and Andrea Sorrentino, concludes the brutal birthday bash starring Old Man Logan and Sabretooth. Preview here.

Ask your local comic shop to hold you copies!

By Greg Pak

When my schedule got tight and editor Nate Cosby and I started thinking about who might be a good match to pull in as a co-writer for issues #9 to #12 of “Turok: Dinosaur Hunter,” Paul Tobin was the first person who came to mind. I just knew he’d go to town with a story about a dinosaur-hunting Native American co-opting the legend of Robin Hood in 13th Century England. So I was beyond thrilled when he agreed to jump on board.

Here’s an interview with Paul, wherein he tells you about the book and what you can expect to see in “Turok” #10, which hit stores today! And to further whet your appetite, check out the preview here!

GREG PAK: Yo Paul! So happy to be working with you on this book! Can you tell us a bit about what hooked you and why you said yes?

PAUL TOBIN: First, it was a chance to work with you, Greg! I felt like the last of our little group to work with you. Fred van Lente had his years of fun. And my wife, Colleen Coover, teamed up with you, but there I was sitting like some wallflower at the edge of the dancefloor. Really, it’s not often that two writers get a chance to teamup, so… yeah, I jumped. And of course it had something to do with immediately seeing an opportunity to have a t-rex fight a kraken, and that’s very important to me.

GREG: You brought some tremendous details from 13th Century England to the story — like that crazy bird-vs-man’s-teeth-at-ye-olde-faire scene. What kind of research did you do for that — and how much did you just make up?

PAUL: The “bird vs man’s teeth” scene is something that used to be an actual event at country fairs (and so on) during the middle ages. It’s called “mumbling a sparrow.” It’s horrible, and went the way of bear-baiting and other “sports.” As far as research, I love researching, and a lot of it was already in my head, because period research is a big part of a series of novels I’m working on, novels that span the 10^th century to the present day. Researching the old-timey days is interesting, because there’s a constant flood of finding out that people were primarily the same, but in a world that was much different.

GREG: Let’s talk a bit about our co-writing process. And to be totally clear, I’d like everyone to know that Paul’s the real hero of the book. I gave him broad-strokes outlines of the set up for the story and where I thought everything was going. And he figured out everything else and wrote four amazing scripts. And I came in at the end and helped massage dialogue. So for me, it was pretty painless and awesome! 😉

PAUL: Heck… you basically just described it all. It’s like we co-wrote the answer to this question. So, yeah… you gave me the basic premise, and then mostly stayed out of my way so that I could do the things I do. I built up the broad strokes of where I wanted to go, and the steps of how I wanted to get there, and then I developed a lot of the relationships, the characters, how I saw them… how they began real people in my eyes and their personality traits that I wanted to present. I basically consider myself a character writer, so that’s a stress point for me. And then I also wanted to make sure that the character of 13^th century England, but a 13^th century England that was rife with both wild dinosaurs and also “beast of burden” dinosaurs, was a primary stress point.

GREG: How’d the process work from your point of view, Paul? And what kind of strategies do you draw on for co-writing?

PAUL: I’m not sure I have any strategies for co-writing. I don’t do it very much, for one thing. I’ve co-written with you, with Colleen, and with Jeff Parker. It was different every time, because the three of you are different. Colleen mostly stayed entirely out of my way and then nudged things here and there. You were at the beginning and the end, and then left me alone in your sandbox during the middle stages. And Parker and I basically stood at opposite corners of the room and tossed knives at each other. The end result worked in all three cases, so I guess I don’t have a method. Just a result.

GREG: Which of the characters did you have the most fun writing? Who was the toughest?

PAUL: Turok was a lot of fun, because he has this nobility of character that’s fun to bend. And Tom is the same way, except his entire belief system is being challenged, and it’s taking him out of his comfort zone and making him into a bit of a simpleton, so he’s not exactly stupid, just… lost. That’s fun. And both Marion and Kita are great because they have such power to their personality. Andar was probably the toughest for me. He has a lot of anger to him, and that’s a tough emotion to sustain without softening or going overboard. He’s as lost as Tom, in some ways.

GREG: I think you and I share a real love for almost absurd genre excess in comics. What are your strategies for making those big ideas and crazy hijinks come together into a coherent story?

PAUL: Consistency is a big thing for me. Anomalies don’t work. I just recently finished reading a novel that ended with a naughty scene, and it was the only naughty scene in the entire book, so to end with an entirely new mood was a definite stumble on the author’s part. There needs to be an emotional and thematic thread that goes throughout a piece of writing. “Big” and “crazy” both need grounding. A story is just the same as a character: if a reader sees a character that acts inconsistently, it’s easy to tell, and it’s the same for story flow.

GREG: Tell the folks a bit about our awesome artists, Stephen Downey, Felipe Cunha, and Lee Ferguson. What’s one scene in particular that folks should watch out for?

PAUL: I really enjoyed the overall scene of the country fair, because we get to see pterodactyls, and there’s stegosaurus jousting. Really… if you don’t like seeing armored knights jousting atop dinosaurs, you ain’t coming to any of my parties.

GREG: What else are you working on? PLUG AWAY, MY FRIEND!

PAUL: Let’s see, Colleen Coover and I are doing our Eisner-award-winning Bandette until our sun goes super-nova. And Juan Ferreyra and I are finishing up our Prometheus sci-fi epic, and at the same time continuing our Eisner-nominated horror series, Colder. I’m also writing another book for Dynamite, a fun Jungle Jim title. I’m doing more Angry Birds, and more Plants Vs. Zombies is likely on the horizon. I’ve got another Witcher title in the works. And there are two more sci-fi series that should be announced soon, and then three more creator titles soon after that. In addition, about half my time is spent on novels, now. I have a middle-readers series starting early in 2016, and another announcement in the field of prose should go live hopefully in the spring, so, all in all… I keep my keyboard burning!

Ask your local retailer to hold “Turok: Dinosaur Hunter” #10 for you — or buy it digitally at Comixology!

I’m packed up and ready for this weekend!

See you at the Special Edition NYC comic con Saturday and Sunday — I’ll be at Table T9 in Artists’ Alley selling my graphic novel CODE MONKEY SAVE WORLD, my one shot comic LOS ROBOS, and various other books.

Click here for more info and to buy your tickets!

See you in the morning!

1. Drink more water.
2. Buy more apples.
3. Get a postage scale.
4. Try not to forget to eat lunch.
5. Care less about dumb stuff.
6. Care more about important stuff.
7. Don’t spend three months nurturing a tiny bit of subconscious anxiety about that redeye flight I just booked.
8. Plug good work by friends and strangers at every opportunity.
9. Always say please and thank you.

Number 5 is probably the toughest.

I’m making a fast trip to Los Angeles for two big panels this weekend! Come see, come see!

Saturday, October 26 – C3 Conference for Creative Content

2:45 – 4:15 pm – “Let’s Talk About Race” panel

L.S. Kim (Associate Professor, Film and Media, UC Santa Cruz)

Joy Osmanski (Actor – Allen Gregory, Save Me)

Greg Pak (Writer/Director – Robot Stories, Vision Machine, Marvel Comics)

Phil Yu (Angry Asian Man)

Moderated by Karin Chien (Producer – Circumstance, The Motel, Robot Stories)

Sunday, October 27 – Film Independent Forum

3:30 – “There’s an App for That” panel

Panelists Include: Karin Chien, producer, Circumstance (moderator); Neal Edelstein, 
Founder, Hooked Digital Media; Andy Merkin, Head of Special Projects/Transmedia, Mirada Studios; Greg Pak, writer/director, Robot Stories; writer, Vision Machine.

Comics writer and all-around good egg Steve Niles recently suffered some big losses when his house was flooded in Austin. The great Matt Miner has put together some benefit auctions for Steve, which just went live tonight.

Check ’em out – tons of spectacular stuff in there, including original Phil Noto art and script reviews from Scott Snyder and Ron Marz!

I donated three bundles of signed comics, including the rare “Batman/Superman” #1-4 variant sketch covers, another pack of “Batman/Superman” #1-4 variants, and the lenticular covers for the “Zod,” “Doomsday,” and “Darkseid” Villains Month books.

Happy bidding!

Hey, ho! Check it out!

Second printing hits stores on September 25. Thanks so much for buying and reading the book, friends!