Rob Williams

The entire comic industry is currently making hay (not literally) in San Diego for Comicon and where am I going Sunday? That’s right. Jackson, Mississippi.

There’s a hidden message about my comics career here, I’m sure.

I’m actually flying out in my freelance journalist role, as a guest of the NFL, to spend a day or so at the New Orleans Saints training camp, where I’ll be interviewing players like Reggie Bush (pictured attempting flight, below). All very exciting this, as I’ve been a huge (American) football fan since around 1984 and even travelled to St. Louis in the mid-nineties to see a Rams game there, the Rams being my team and all, for my troubles.

I’ve had a few good freebies out of journalism over the years. Trips to Dubai and Hong Kong for a start, although they were some time ago now, so this is too good to turn down. It’ll be a real thrill to see an NFL training camp close up, and then we’re getting a day or so in New Orleans itself afterwards. Somewhere I’ve never been.

The down side? The itinery is scary. I’m flying out from Heathrow Sunday morning to Houston, three hour stopover, get a flight to Jackson. The mid-week trip south to New Orleans involves TWO flights – one back to Houston and then another down to New Orleans. All this and I’m due back in Heathrow 9.20am Friday morning. It’s going to be absolutely exhausting.

These experiences don’t come round very often, though. Got to fight back my dislike of flying and get on with it.

When this trip was first mentioned it looked like it was going to be the San Diego Chargers and the Saints, and I thought I’d have been able to make Comicon too. Ah well.

Anyway, while I’m away, Star Wars Rebellion 15, Vector part 7 is released. I’m pretty excited about this. The cover by Travis Charest looks great and I honestly think people are going to be blown away by Dustin Weaver’s art. The guy’s going to be a star.

Anyway, Mississippi. A full report on my return.

Just back from a week’s break that involved riding bikes through a forest, swimming, fresh air and NO internet. What a wonderful thing. Felt quite liberating. A fog was lifted. Strange thoughts swirled through my mind like “do I really need to be checking my emails every four-point-eight nanoseconds?” Maybe, just maybe, there is a life and a sense of validation beyond this. Mental images emerged of me living the outdoor life, buying lots of lumberjack shirts, befriending an otter. Then, upon returning, I virtually knocked my girlfriend and son over – like George Costanza trying to escape from a fire in a children’s party – in my haste to get back to the the computer to check emails/websites etc.

As Sean Ryder’s Black Grape so wisely and eruditely stated: “It’s great to be straight, yeah”. He was, no doubt, back honking on the crack pipe four minutes after writing said lyric.

Anyway, I see that Dark Horse’s myspace site has a preview of the upcoming Star Wars Rebellion 15, which is the first of the two-part Vector storyline I’ve written. A Travis Charest cover and Dustin Weaver’s bowel-movingly lovely interior pages. It’s out July 30th:

Rebellion #15 Myspace Preview

Complete with gorgeous Tony Harris cover, INDIANA JONES AND THE TOMB OF THE GODS 1 is out in the States today and in the UK tomorrow, no doubt.

I received a copy through Fed-Ex this week, ripped open the package and must admit to having a big old fanboy thrill seeing a story I wrote spelled out in THAT logo across the top of the cover (it’s amazing to think that a font can have that effect). If you’re working in comics, you’re almost certainly a nostalgist with an unhealthy inner child buried not very deep below the surface. I’ve written dialogue for Darth Vader, Judge Dredd, Wolverine and, now, Indy, and every time you get the finished comic in your hands you briefly get this experience where you realise that, while you may be in your mid-to-late-thirties, with all the responsibilities that adulthood entails – mortgage, parenthood etc – the ten-year-old you is still there and can, occasionally, be blurrily glimpsed, loch ness monster photo-style. It’s quite liberating to realise this, actually, before the feeling disappears and you have to fill in the latest tax return or whatever. Pah, being a grown up blows big baby chunks (a line from Two-And-A-Half Men, which seems to be the only thing I watch on TV these days as it’s on Paramount when I sit down to eat in the evenings. It may not exactly be Evelyn Waugh in terms of comic sophistication, but it’s surprisingly funny. Anyway, I digress).

I’ve talked enough about TOMB so won’t bang on about it again… too much. But it looks absolutely great thanks to Steve Scott, and features all the things you’d want from an Indy story – an archeological mystery, a quest, Nazis, international locations, Indy getting the crap beaten out of him. Indy getting the crap beaten out of him… a lot. What more do you want? And he’s not in his mid-sixties in this one! Buy two in case something happens to the first one.