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Blue Beetle is Back!

So, probably not too surprisingly, I'm going to be writing the Blue Beetle backups in Booster Gold starting in June. I'm very thrilled about this, not leastwise because the super-amazing Mike Norton will be handling the art. Mike was on my short list of artists I wanted to work with,and you don't always get the artist you want, so this is a Very Good Thing.

The news was revealed in DC's solicitations today, but I'm bummed because they didn't use the solicitation text that I wrote, for space reasons.

So here is my preferred (and awesomer) solicitation text.

Blue Beetle
Written by Matthew Sturges
Art by Mike Norton
Jaime Reyes is back -- and he's got robot trouble! Giant, flying, killer robots to be exact. Sure, they plague every city from time to time, but the El Paso variety are so big, so fast, and so deadly that only Blue Beetle has any chance of stopping them. So, who devised these technological terrors? And why are they so hell-bent on killing Blue Beetle? Read it and find out -- it's a brand new chapter in the lives of Jaime, Paco, and Brenda, and it begins right here!

Midwinter Review: Library Journal

Midwinter has received its second starred review, this time in Library Journal (about 2/3 down the page):

Known for his talents as a writer of comic book series including "House of Mystery" and the Eisner Award-nominated "Jack of Fables," Sturges turns his storytelling mastery to epic fantasy. With an enigmatic hero and a supporting cast of colorful and varied personalities, his latest work breathes new life into a genre too often stunted by stereotypical portrayals of good and bad creatures of the faerie realms. Joining Neil Gaiman in making the crossover from comics to prose fiction, Sturges represents a strong, new voice in fantasy.

I like anything where they mention me in the same breath with Gaiman. Even if it's like "he has lots of nose hair, just like Neil Gaiman" or something.

Midwinter Review: Fantasy Book Critic

Robert and Liviu over at Fantasy Book Critic have posted their thoughts on Midwinter, and both gave it high marks.

Robert liked it in spite of a few issues. He was not sold on the interlude entitled "Conversations with the High Priest of Ulet" which is an excerpt from abstruse, Socratic-style dialogue between two fictitious historical figures about the theological implications of magic. Go figure. But he did like the Thule Man. As one ought.

Liviu was more forgiving of the books shortcomings, though he looked askance at antagonist Purane-Es, calling him a "comic opera" villain. So fans of both opera buffa and epic fantasy will find cause to rejoice!

Edit: Liviu is a "he," not a "she." I don't know where I got it into my head to think otherwise.

Midwinter Excerpt Available Online

You can now read the first two chapters of Midwinter online, courtesy of Pat's Fantasy hotlist.

Here's an excerpt from the excerpt, which is the brief text piece that opens Part One:

Winter comes to the land only once in a hundred years.

When it comes, the always blossoming cherry trees close their petals and turn away from the chill wind. The animals of the forest come down from their trees and rocks and burrow deep into the ground for warmth. The Channel Sea grows angry and gray. The sun shines less brightly, hiding its face behind clouds rough as granite. When the River Ebe freezes over and a man can walk from Colthorn to Miday over the ice, then Midwinter has officially begun.

Midwinter is the darkest season. It is a time of repentance and of somber reflection during which even the Queen will wear black. In the mountain temples of the Arcadians, the icons are covered with dark cloth and the ancient censers are unwrapped and burned; they swing dangling from the fingers of silent monks who walk the frigid stone floors of their temples barefoot. Around lakeside villages and in certain city shops where gaiety is the order of business, signs are hung reading simply, "Closed for Midwinter."

There is a rumor in the court of the City Emerald that during Midwinter even Regina Titania’s powers ebb, that the Queen herself becomes pale and cold to the touch. But this is only a rumor, and a treasonous one at that.

It lasts until the ice cracks and the first new fish is caught in the Ebe. The lucky fisherman who catches it becomes Lord of Colthorn for the day, and so for months before they have any chance of succeeding, the peasantry bring their poles and lines to the water’s edge, waiting for Firstcome to return.

Firstcome is the time of rebirth. Every city in the land, from the tiniest hamlet to the City Emerald herself, has its own centuries-old tradition for celebrating the coming of the new summer and the greens and yellows and blues that accompany it.

But until then, the trees will wear a wreath of white around their heads and the hills will be capped with reflective ice. From the farthest north expanse of the land, the snow will creep southward, stirring hurricanes in the Emerald Bay to lash at the city folk. Even the desert gnomes will feel a chill in their mud homes in the far south, but the snow will melt over the swamplands and its inhabitants will suffer a year or more of icy rain before Firstcome rescues them.

Until then, it is Midwinter.

Read the rest.