Robert Venditti's Blog

Announced by The Washington Post today, this June I’ll be launching a new series for DC Comics, Hawkman, with the phenomenal Bryan Hitch. Hawkman is one of the most storied characters in all of comics, one whose history reaches back to the roots of the medium. Bryan is an artist of extraordinary talent, a brilliant storyteller, and an all-around good chap. This is the type of opportunity that every writer dreams about. It’s been too long since Hawkman had a series dedicated to his adventures. Bryan and I are putting everything we have into making up for lost time.

Much more news about the series will be released during the upcoming weeks and months. Stay tuned!

Today brings the release of Rise of the Robot Army, the second book in my middle-grade children’s novel series, Miles Taylor and the Golden Cape. In this volume, Miles must do battle against a power-hungry general bent on stealing Miles’s cape, and the general has an army of mechanized soldiers to help him! Like the first book, the novel has a hybrid format containing pages of comics by illustrator Dusty Higgins—whenever Miles wears the cape and becomes a superhero, the book switches to comics. Rise of the Robot Army is a Junior Library Guild selection and has received positive reviews from School Library Journal and others.

Also out today is the paperback edition of Attack of the Alien Horde featuring a new cover design that fits with the cover of book two. Check them out!

I’m off to Comic-Con International in San Diego from July 8-12. I’ll be appearing at signings and on panel discussions throughout the event. Here’s my schedule. I hope to see you there!

July 9

2:00-3:00 Panel: DC Entertainment Mysteries in Space (Room 6DE)

4:30-5:30 Signing: DC Entertainment (Booth 1915)

July 10

1:00-2:00 Signing: comiXology (Booth 2547)

3:00-4:00 Panel: DC Entertainment Justice for All (Room 6DE)

July 11

2:30-3:30 Signing: DC Entertainment (Booth 1915)

4:30-5:30 Panel: Vulture Valiant Writers Roundtable (Room 8)

8:00-9:00 Panel: ValiantFans.com – Celebrating 25 Years of Valiant (Room 4)

July 12

10:00-11:00 Panel: Ordinary Superheroes (Room 25ABC)

11:30-12:30 Signing: Autographing Area AA09

1:00-1:45: Signing: Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (Booth 1918)

2:30-3:30 Signing: DC Entertainment (Booth 1915)

Today brings the release of my first middle-grade children’s novel, Miles Taylor and the Golden Cape: Attack of the Alien Horde. It’s a story about a seventh-grade boy who comes into possession of a cape that turns him into a superhero. The novel is a hybrid format containing mostly prose, but also 65 pages of comics by illustrator Dusty Higgins—whenever Miles becomes a superhero, the book switches to comics. Attack of the Alien Horde has a nice write-up in School Library Journal, and the Junior Library Guild made it one of their summer selections for 2015.

My deepest thanks to Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers, my editor Christian Trimmer, and my agent Jason Grode, for making it all possible.

On June 6, 1944, my grandmother’s brother Tommy, a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne, was dropped behind German lines as part of the D-Day invasion of Normandy. Tommy was killed in action while defending the small French village of Graignes on June 11. What follows below is a transcription of a letter written to my great-grandmother by one of Tommy’s fellow paratroopers, a man named Charles Hammer from San Francisco. The details of the letter aren’t completely accurate—for example, Charles describes the town where Tommy was killed as being twelve miles east of Carentan, whereas Graignes is actually about nine miles south—but this photograph of the memorial confirms my uncle, Corporal Thomas Travers, as being listed among those killed in what is known as the Battle of Graignes:

It’s a rather famous battle, which can be read about at this link. Tommy, Charles, and 180 other mis-dropped paratroopers defended the town against the 17th SS Panzer Grenadiers Division. Reading about the battle—how hard the paratroopers fought against overwhelming odds, what became of the town and the people who helped them—adds heartbreaking depth and texture to Charles’s letter, him apparently being one of the paratroopers who survived.

I obviously never knew Uncle Tommy, but I was fortunate to know many others in my family who served during World War II both in Europe and the Pacific. Today has me thinking of all of them.

But Charles says it better:

Dear Mrs. Travers,

I received your letter of February 25. I was sorry to hear that you had the news of Tommy’s death so late after it happened. I could not tell you now if I were still over there. I have been in the hospital now for three months and now am on a boat heading home and I shall mail this just as soon as I get in the states.

No, I shall not come to see you for I don’t think it would work out right for you being the mother of Tommy, you would think, Now why couldn’t he be Tommy? I was going to see you but my letter will be all that I can do for I don’t think myself right in going to see you.

Tommy was killed in a small village called [Graignes] about twelve miles east of Carentan about 6:30 in the evening of the eleventh of June. He did not suffer none for as it was told to me by one of the fellows, Tommy and two of the others were killed outright. We were outnumbered but we held them off for more than two hours and Tommy was just like the rest of us scared but mad and we all stood by our guns till we were told to pull out.

I found out later that Tommy and the rest of our boys that we lost were buried by the French in the cemetery near the church and the time in which you were notified Tommy was missing and the time you were notified he was killed in action they had found his resting place and moved him to the 82nd Memorial Grounds in [Ste. Mère-Église].

That took the six months, Mrs. Travers, and I want to offer you my most humble apologies for the slowness of news of Tommy’s death. He was a good man and I am proud to say I fought with him. It was a shame that God had to take him just at the start of the real fight. But he and many others like him died so others could live in freedom. It was men like Tommy who have gone on and taken up where Tommy left off.

I could not have written you a letter like this back in England or France for it would not get through the sensors. We are not supposed to write home and tell of those we lost. They have their reasons, cruel and hard as it might be, but a fellow like myself has to abide by the rule or I would have written to all the Moms and Dads of the fellows I once knew. God has seen fit to spare me and I am humbly grateful.

I have told you all I know of Tommy’s death. He was a brave man and it’s men like him who are making the world safer for tomorrow.

Yours sincerely,

Charles

What is it about June? Last year at this time I wrote a post about how busy the month was going to be. This year, June is even busier. 6/3 sees the release of Green Lantern #41, the first issue in the new creative direction for the series. It’s a new look and new adventures for Hal, all amazingly rendered by Billy Tan, Mark Irwin, Alex Sinclair, and Tony Aviña, with Dave Sharpe providing letters.

The following Wednesday, on 6/10, I’m celebrating the 25th anniversary of Valiant Comics with a special one-shot issue revealing the origin of the X-O Manowar armor. It’s a story I’ve been waiting to tell for a long time, and I’m happy to have the chance to do so with CAFU and Brian Reber, and Dave Sharpe again.

The week after has two releases. On 6/16, my debut kids novel with illustrator Dusty Higgins, Miles Taylor and the Golden Cape: Attack of the Alien Horde, will be in bookstores everywhere. I’ve been working on this story in one form or another for over ten years, and I couldn’t be more excited about seeing it on shelves. The next day, 6/17, Diego Bernard, Ryan Winn, Brian Reber, and Dave Sharpe (he’s everywhere!) join me for X-O Manowar #37, the final issue in the “Dead Hand” storyline.

Last, 6/24 brings The Flash #41, another new direction for one of DC Entertainment’s marquee characters. My good friend—and cowriter—Van Jensen and I are bringing back Barry Allen’s greatest nemesis, Professor Zoom. Brett Booth, Norm Rapmund, Andrew Dalhouse, and Pat Brousseau bring it all to the page.

If you’re picking one or more of those titles this month, I can’t thank you enough. I hope you enjoy them!

Unless I’m mistaken, this June marks the first time since I began writing comics that I’ll have a new release in stores each Wednesday of the month. Things kick off on 6/4 with Green Lantern #32, Part 3 of the “Uprising” crossover with Green Lantern Corps. The shape-shifting Durlans have been up to no good for a while now, but in this issue we see just how lowdown they really are.

On 6/11, Armor Hunters #1 hits shelves. This is the first event miniseries I’ve written, and it’s something I’ve been working on with Valiant Entertainment for over a year. A huge moment takes place in the first issue, and after that the Valiant Universe will be forever changed.

The following Wednesday, 6/18, brings the release of the Green Lantern: Lights Out hardcover collection, telling the story of the cosmic villain Relic and his efforts to extinguish Lanterns of every corps.

Finally, on 6/25 I’ll have three new releases: X-O Manowar #26 (the first issue of the Armor Hunters tie-in storyline), The Flash #32 (Future Flash meets Captain Cold!), and Secret Origins #3 (retelling the origin of Hal Jordan as the first human Green Lantern of Sector 2814).

This month, I’ll also be a guest at Phoenix Comicon and Derby City Comicon. Hope to see you there!

1,085.  That’s the number of pages I published this year, whether in the monthly comics series X-O Manowar, Green Lantern, and Green Lantern Corps, or the graphic novel adaptations of Blue Bloods and the Percy Jackson and the Olympians novels.  I think back to when I was starting out, wondering if I’d ever get a single word published.  I’m truly grateful for how fortunate I’ve been.

There are tons of things on tap for next year.  Launching in June will be my first event miniseries, the four-part Armor Hunters story for Valiant.  Everything we’ve done over the first two years of X-O Manowar has been building to this.  I’ve also been working in secret for months on a new DC project that will most likely be announced any day now.  It’s a dream gig completely unlike anything I’ve done before, which is exactly the way I like it.

My continued thanks go out to all the publishers, editors, and collaborators who make writing such an enjoyable way to make a living.  And, most importantly, the readers who support my work each month.  See you in 2014!

2012 is in the books, and it was a busy one.  All told, I wrote 562 pages of comics during the last 12 months, and that doesn’t include the work I’ve done on what is going to be the largest creator-owned project I’ve ever undertaken.  Of course, I only published 8 issues of X-O Manowar in 2012, so if you’re wondering where all the other pages have gone off to, you’ll be seeing most of them over the course of the new year.  Some are for projects that have already been announced, but others will be a surprise.  And some won’t be released until 2014 and beyond.

My sincere thanks go out to the publishers and editors who’ve taken a chance on me, as well as the readers who invest their time and money in the stories.  Here’s wishing everyone a healthy, happy, and productive 2013.

I’m a huge fan of the Olympics.  Winter or Summer games, you can be sure the TV in my house is running 24/7 during the events.  I’ll watch fencing.  I’ll watch curling.  I’ll watch anything, as long as the Americans are competing.  So when I saw this Wall Street Journal report, I was beyond excited:

In the 2014 Winter Olympiad, the U.S.A. luge team will be wearing helmets and uniforms based on X-O Manowar.  Patrick Zircher, sometime cover artist for X-O Manowar and co-writer and artist of the forthcoming Valiant series Shadowman—which you should absolutely buy when it’s released November 7th—designed the uniforms.  They’ll make their first appearance in competition next month at the Luge World Cup in Austria.

Un. Real.