skittelsen

[skittelsen]

There’s a bit of background on Savage Game, an original graphic novel presented by Strange Turn Entertainment and ComiXology Original. 

Created by Ryan Kalil, written by me, drawn by Chris B. Murray, letters by Simon Bowland, edited by Shahriar Fouladi.

If you haven’t read the book yet, shame on you! Get thee hence to ComiXology or Amazon. Savage Game is free to read with Amazon Prime, ComiXology Unlimited, or Kindle Unlimited. It’s also available in print from Amazon -- as the first print-on-demand graphic novel from ComiXology Originals. 

I like to brag about my friends so --

Check out the latest sketches and hottest prints from artist Chris B. Murray at his Instagram. Collectors and hip-hop fans will find loads to love and hang on walls in his portfolio.

Root for mighty Ryan Kalil as he dons Panthers blue and #67 for his final season in the NFL before retirement. I wrote this book with him because he had a vision that he was passionate about realizing, and that passion was infectious. From his beard game to his creative instincts, Ryan’s football skills are only half his talents. 

Enjoy!

#strangeturn savagegame

[skittelsen]

My Secret Origin as a Super-Fan

*This post is my personal story. It does not represent the opinions or views of NetherRealm Studios, WB Games, or DC Entertainment. 

What a week!

My first game as Narrative Lead, INJUSTICE 2, launched worldwide, and the response from fans and critics has been overwhelmingly positive—as in I feel overwhelmed by all the positivity. This week also marked the tenth anniversary of my NYU graduation. Finally, there’s the MOST important milestone of all, my son’s third birthday. For me, all these events are connected.

Of all the reactions to Injustice 2 out there, I love most when someone remarks that the people who made this game must really love DC Comics lore. Trust me, they do. Everyone on the I2 team has a favorite DC character, from the iconic to the obscure. My favorite is Superman.

It might come as a surprise that the Narrative Lead on a game in which Superman is portrayed as a lethal tyrant would profess to be a Superman fan, but I am. 

Here’s why. When I was about 4 years old, my parents told me that I was and would always be their son, but that I didn’t come out of Mommy’s tummy like my sister. I was adopted. My birth parents, whoever they were, couldn’t raise me, so they sent me away to find a family who could provide a better life for me.

This kind of news can really mess with a kid’s head. I was an indoorsy, deep-thinky emo boy, and I would dramatically stare into the bathroom mirror and wonder whose eyes were looking back at me. Fortunately, my Mom and Dad were a real life Ma and Pa Kent, equipped with big hearts to manage my drama. They loved my sister and I as much as any kids could be loved, and they never treated me any differently on account of my secret heritage. 

Superman: The Movie was on TV a lot in the 1980s. I don’t remember when, but at some point not long after my parents told me I was adopted, I made the connection that Superman was adopted. Superman was just like me! 

From then on, my personal identity as an adopted kid was still fraught with complications and insecurities, but it wasn’t always a source of trauma. In my mind, I had a secret origin, a source of strength. And how cool would it be if I found a spaceship buried in the basement? 

My parents reinforced this imaginative coping mechanism by indulging my every superhero fantasy. They took me to every comics and collectibles shop in upstate New York looking for special issues and rare action figures. Mom sewed more than one Superman cape (and a few Batman capes, too), and she and I binge-watched George Reeves in Adventures of Superman. For my 18th birthday, my Dad bought me the S-shield tattoo that’s still on my shoulder. A year later, he got the same S-shield tattoo on the same shoulder as me. He sat in the inker’s chair wincing from the needle, quoting Marlon Brando as Jor-El, “The son becomes the father, and the father becomes the son!” 

Without my parents’ support, I may never have gone to Metropolis for college at NYU. They were so proud at my graduation, but I wasn’t proud yet. I wanted to be a writer, but instead, I found myself working as the Corporate Files Administrator at the HBO Legal Department and taking an LSAT prep course by night. I was lost. 

Then, two things happened that set me back on course. First, I was hired by an indie producer to write a screenplay, enabling me to quit my job at HBO. Second, at my wife’s urging, I sent a fan letter to one of my favorite writers, author and educator Douglas Rushkoff, asking if he needed any help.

They say don’t meet your heroes, but in Rushkoff, I found a mentor and a lifelong friend. Working as his editorial assistant was a dream come true. I learned more in one year working Rushkoff than I had in four years studying at NYU. 

Then my screenplay deal fell apart, the global economy tanked, and like a lot of recent college graduates, I faced the real possibility of going broke and moving back in with my parents. Rushkoff couldn’t pay me a full time salary, but he offered to help me get an inside track at DC. 

Applying for a job at DC Comics without a personal recommendation is like throwing rocks at the moon. For years, from sophomore year of college on, I had applied for every DC internship and entry-level position available. Never got a response. Rushkoff recommended me and I got a call from WB HR within a few hours. It certainly helped that I now had a few more bullets on the CV. It also may have helped that the person Rushkoff recommended me to was Paul Levitz, then President and Publisher of DC Comics.

An extensive interview process later, I was hired as Assistant Editor - Interactive at DC Comics. My family was with me when I got the phone call. We all went out for dinner and celebrated, and I got so drunk, I ate a bowl of unpeeled shrimp with the shells intact. That hurt in the morning, but it’s still one of my favorite memories.

Little did we know how much that job would change things. Less than a year after I started at DC, Paul Levitz stepped down and Diane Nelson arrived as President. DC Comics became DC Entertainment, and the office was split between New York and California. 

It was a great deal of change in a relatively short period of time for a company invested with decades of tradition. That made for a controversial and upsetting time for many of the employees who had been at DC for years. I had the benefit of being the newbie, and my wife grew up in California, so were were excited to relocate to Los Angeles, even though it meant leaving our beloved city and so many wonderful friends behind. I accepted my offer to join the new team in Burbank, and off we went.

Working at DC was a dream job. I considered my colleagues like family members, and I got to work with more talented creators than I can list here. One of my favorite collaborators, though, was NetherRealm Studios. 

Working with NRS on Injustice: Gods Among Us felt like a big deal. Mortal Kombat was a formative games franchise for me growing up, and the team was just coming off an amazing 2011 reboot of the MK franchise with an incredibly ambitious cinematic Story Mode. 

Plus, this would be the AAA game in which my favorite hero, Superman, could finally take center stage. He would be the villain of the story, but a villain motivated by good intentions in response to a horrific tragedy. 

The results were nothing short of awesome. From that first game through five years of comics and a blockbuster mobile adaptation, the Injustice universe took off like a bullet train. 

I left DC before Injustice launched. It was a dream job, to be sure, but I still had that other dream of being a writer, and for HR reasons, that wasn’t possible while I was a DC employee. So when a Burbank creative agency offered me a leadership role, a better salary, and the freedom to write for anyone I wanted, I knew it was time to go.

Leaving DC felt like a big risk. It doesn’t get bigger than Superman. What would I find in the great beyond? But after getting comfortable in my position at DC, disrupting my routine and transitioning to games marketing was a challenge I needed. My partners and I built a crack team of creatives and account managers. That team pitched and executed campaigns for clients all over the world, and went on to win award after award after award. 

My risky marketing venture was now a successful career. It was possible to envision a future where I never wrote again, living comfortably off all those marketing dollars. I had co-written a screenplay since leaving DC, but apart from that, I no longer made the time to write. My wife was pregnant, we’d just a bought a house, and I was traveling on a weekly basis. There were only so many hours in the day, and I needed to make those hours profitable.

But all the money in the world couldn’t fulfill my goal to be a writer. It was at this time that some close friends challenged me to write. Well, not just to write, but to finish something. One comics editor friend put it to me, “If you can’t write a 12-page backup, what can you write?” That put the fire in me. So I wrote a short story that editor, then a short story for another. Then I sold an original comic series (still upcoming!). And then I got a call from an old colleague.

At DC, I worked with an incredible woman named Victoria Setian, or as we call her, Tory. She had been part of Team Interactive with me, and since I’d left DC, she’d also moved, across the street to WB Games, where she was a budding producer on Mortal Kombat X, which of course was being made by some of our favorite developers, NetherRealm Studios.

Tory asked if I wanted to throw in a pitch for an MKX comic series. I knew the lore, I knew the team, what did I have to lose? So, in between agency work and preparing for a new baby, I wrote my pitch.

Then my son was born. A big deal for anyone, an extra big deal for an adopted person who’s never laid eyes on a blood relative before. My son opened his eyes, and for the first time, I saw myself in another human being. The experience was psychedelic. Becoming a father profoundly changed me in ways I’m still figuring out.

Everyone who knew me knew that I wanted to name a son “Clark” someday. Didn’t want to force that on my wife, though, so we came up with an alternative name, and she picked from both names once she saw the baby and got a sense of his personality. He was quiet for a newborn, a little gentleman, she said. She named him Clark Eric, taking his middle name from my father, which was an added surprise. Suffice it to say there wasn’t a dry eye among the Kittelsen men that morning.

The call from my editor at DC came that week while I was still home with the family. I got the gig. How soon could I turn around a new outline?

Thus began the most difficult summer of my life. New house, new baby, new writing gig, and I still had to pitch, travel, and manage the creative team for the agency. There was pressure coming at me from every direction. I became depressed. Something had to give.

Alan Moore gave an interview once where he talked about taking the leap to freelance. He came home to tell his wife he was quitting his industrial job, but when he got there, she told him she was pregnant, so he went back to work. But in time it occurred to him that no matter how poor his writing career might make the family, the baby would survive. They’d find a way. The only question was, would the baby grow up with new shoes and a miserable father who resents his lot in life, or with secondhand shoes and a father who can honestly tell that child she can be anything she wants to be.

This was the choice I faced. Fortunately, I didn’t have to make it alone. I had my wife, my partner, to work it out with me. She drafted a household budget, figured out how lean we could live, how long we might survive, and together we put together Humble Wordsmith, LLC, my freelance business.

I quit the agency job, reduced my monthly expenses to bare minimums, and started working from home. Beyond the comics, I had freelance gigs as a copywriter, a marketing consultant, whatever I could get paid to do. I busted my hump, but no matter how hard I tried, I never seemed to build momentum. That first year, our household income went down by over 75%. 

Things picked up a bit when I got hired by WB Games to write story and in-game content for the DC Legends mobile game. With that under my belt, I looked for more games writing gigs, but they were hard to come by. I focused more of my time on Feral Audio, a start-up podcast network was growing steadily. 

That’s when I got another call from another old colleague, Senior Producer Adam Urbano. NetherRealm Studios was looking for a writer to join their team and work on the story for Injustice 2. Would I be interested and available? After years of working with NRS on various projects in various capacities, this was the ultimate compliment.

The rest, as they say, is history. Writing for the game is the best dream job I’ve ever had the privilege of working. There was so much work to be done, I handed off my Feral Audio duties to my partners at the network. For the first time since I graduated from college, I could focus on one job title: Writer.

Becoming a father was wonderful but disruptive. Writers are selfish people, we like having lots of time to ourselves to “think” and “be creative” and sometimes even to write. But I can’t be selfish anymore. So with each year since I started freelancing, I’ve worked harder at balancing my family life with my work. The more quality time I spend as a Dad, the more fulfilled I become. I’ve been around for all Clark’s achievements, from walking to talking to his first tantrum. At the agency, I feared I would miss all those priceless memories. Now I have a treasure trove.

As if all this weren’t enough, there was one more surprise waiting for me in the lead-up to launching Injustice 2. 

**MINOR I2 SPOILER WARNING** In the game, Superman meets his cousin, Supergirl, for the first time. It’s the first time he’s ever laid eyes on a blood relative. The first time he sees himself in someone else. Just like the first time I saw Clark.

Writing that scene was obviously somewhat personal and emotional for me. Now, a couple years later, I get to live that scene out for myself.

See, ever since my wife became pregnant, I’ve been taking DNA tests, trying to decode my secret origin. They never yielded any close results, but the ethnographic results they provided me were interesting, and I never knew what they could yield, so I kept taking them. Then, just this March, I got a match to a distant cousin. On a lark, I sent her my adoption info, and within hours, she sent me the name of my maternal grandfather. Then we found my grandmother.

We did not find my birth mother. In a soap opera twist, my birth mother was given up for adoption, just like me, so her identity is still a mystery. But I can’t complain. I’ve found new uncles, aunts, and cousins, they’ve welcomed me to the family with open arms, and they want to help find my birth mother. 

By finding the birth family my mother never knew, I’ve found another missing piece of myself. Now I can look in the mirror and see the pieces I gave to Clark, as well as the pieces my grandparents gave to me. Sometime soon I’m going to meet my cousins in person for the first time, four Supergirls who share my blood. The game becomes the writer, and the writer becomes the game.

So there it is. My life story as a Superman fan, a writer, and a father. This week I got to celebrate as all three. Remember when I said I graduated from college and my parents were proud of me, but I wasn’t proud of me? I’m proud of me now. I just checked off my bucket list by the dozen.

How am I possibly going to top this experience? I’ll have to figure that out. For now, I’m going to savor this moment with gratitude and satisfaction. After 10 years of professional ups and downs and always searching for the next opportunity, I’m happy where I am, and on the whole, I think it’s just swell. ;)

[skittelsen]

Hi, Shawn! I'm a humble fan of the MK Universe and an official translator of the russian version of MKX comic book. Could you please tell what does the word "corrupted" or "corrut" mean or give some synonyms to it when we speak about Havik and what he did to Raiden and others?

When Havik “corrupts” Raiden and the others, it means that he’s changing/tampering/interfering with those characters’ normal behaviors, making them act differently from what we expect, for evil purposes. Hope that helps!

[skittelsen]

MKX Comics: In Konclusion/To Be Kontinued

This Labor Day weekend marked the release of Mortal Kombat X Chapter 36, our last chapter for the time being. 

(Print readers can still buy monthly print issues up to #12 in November at local comics shops, and there are two more volumes of collected editions on the way in coming months. But the weekly digital stories? Finished!)

We went out on a high note, IMO, with a Sub-Zero adventure that I’ve been waiting to see since my first read through the MKX game script back in May 2014.

I owe a massive thanks to the crew who made these 36 chapters together: my editors and brilliant artistic collaborators on these comics (we’ll all work together again, I know it!), the Elder Gods at NetherRealm Studios and WB Games, the DC Comics production and marketing and PR teams and more. (Names withheld to protect the innocent.)

Special thanks to the MK fans who bought every chapter and kept my debut comics series near the top of the digital bestseller list for our entire 36 week run. You’re no doubt also responsible for the extra print runs we got on issue #1 (3rd printing) and our first collected edition (2nd printing).

This book is a love letter to MK past and present. It belongs to MK fans, even if we didn’t always tell the story exactly the way you had it in mind. ;) 

That’s why I appreciate every kind word, constructive criticism, and honest question that I get about the book on social media.

And now that we’re at Chapter 36, the most frequent question that I’m getting is, “Will there be a Season 2?”

Honest question. Honest answer: I don’t know yet. As soon as I know more about the future of the series and I’m not bound by an NDA, I’ll tell you!  

Until we know one way or the other, the best thing fans can do is pre-order the upcoming print issues and collected editions. (Links to MKX collections on Amazon: Volume 2 and Volume 3)

Meanwhile, I’m busy writing a slate of projects for 2016 that I hope you’ll all read and dig, even if they don’t have the brand recognition of a historically important AAA video game. MKX is definitely not my last writing credit -- or my last comic book. ;)

And because I honestly think that writing alone in my office every day would eventually destroy my sanity, I’m leaving the house more often to work with producer Dustin Marshall to build the amazing Feral Audio podcast network, home to shows like Harmontown and The Duncan Trussell Family Hour. 

Check out FeralAudio.com if your ears have good taste.

Other than all that, I’m also making the trip to New York Comic Con in October, so if you’re there, holler at me!

Thank you all for participating in this series with me as colleagues, fans, and friends. A thousand times thanks. 

And my apologies to any fans whose favorite kombatants were maimed or killed in the making of our comics. You can take heart knowing that they all died doing what they loved, surrounded by people they loved. 

Except for Hsu Hao. Nobody loved him. ;)

Oh, the places we’ll go from here! 

PS: Did anyone else notice this:

36 Chapters of Mortal Kombat X -- A comic series featuring kung fu.

36th Chamber of Shaolin -- A kung fu movie so great it inspired the Wu-Tang Clan AND Mortal Kombat.

Coincidence? I say thee nay!

Providence.

Long posts like this are intermittent for me, so until next time, you’ll find me procrastinating on Twitter.

[skittelsen]

Mortal Kombat X @ SDCC 2015!

Love Mortal Kombat X? Coming to San Diego Comic Con? Want to Finish Me for a cosplay photo op?

I’ll be signing comics and taking more pics like this at the magnificent DC Comics Booth at the following days & times:

FRIDAY, 7/10 – 3:30PM–4:30PM SUNDAY, 7/12 — 10:30AM–11:30AM

Be there or be square, you weak, pathetic fools!! ;)

[skittelsen]

MORTAL KOMBAT X: FIGHT!!

Just about a year ago, I signed a non-disclosure agreement to learn all the top-secret details of the latest Mortal Kombat game and prepare a pitch for a weekly comic series. I never could have imagined everything that came next.

After a few rounds, I landed the gig to write a Mortal Kombat X series in the same week that my son was born. When DC editor Alex Antone phoned me with the good news, I was in the baby’s room attaching his new bookshelf to the wall. In the months since I found out I was going to be a father, I’d felt a renewed determination to make sure that some of the books on my kid’s shelf were written by his Dad. I imagined some faraway day when my boy is struggling to achieve his goals, when his dreams seem out of reach, and to comfort him I’ll point to those books and remind him that he can do anything, as long he does it with integrity, passion, and persistence.

After that phone call, I imagined pointing to a Mortal Kombat X book, and had one of my first truly “grown up” thoughts: “At what age will it be appropriate to show my son these comics?” 

I love comics and video games. It’s no surprise that my first comic is based on a video game. It’s just a surprise that it’s based on one of my all-time favorites. 

My parents love to tell the story of my early obsession with Mortal Kombat. Back when the original arcade game showed up at our local Pizza Hut, I flipped for it. I flipped again when I found out I could play it on SNES. And I flipped the hell out when that SNES version had no blood and neutered fatalities. "What’s wrong with Nintendo?” I ranted. “Don’t they know that it’s all about the Fatalities?!” 

When my parents refused to buy Mortal Kombat II on the SNES because it contained uncensored bit-mapped gore, I concocted a story about a “Blood Code” parental feature they could use to disable the violence. They believed me, bought the game, and by the time they discovered that the Blood Code was just a ruse, I reasoned with my mother that as I had already been exposed to hours of wanton violence, the damage was done, and all she would achieve by taking the game away from me would be to crush my soul and ruin my social life because EVERYONE plays Mortal Kombat. Besides, even Dad liked playing it. 

I don’t know why my Mom let me keep playing, but it sure paid off in the long run. 

So now you all know where I got the idea for the Blood Code, just one of many autobiographical Easter eggs that have worked their way into the first volume of my first major published series. We’ve sold multiple printings of the first issue, the book is consistently in the Top 10 every week on Comixology, Kindle, and iBooks, and fans have been overwhelmingly supportive. 

The impact of the series on my life goes way beyond sales and selfishly laid Easter eggs. I was already in development on a few creator owned books when MKX came my way, but with this one more gig, I was emboldened to leave an exciting, high-paying ad agency job as a sort-of gamer Don Draper and once again took the uncertain path of a freelance writer, a dream that I ironically put on hold years ago when I took a job at DC Comics -- a job in which I eventually came to work with NetherRealm Studios on Injustice: Gods Among Us. 

Mortal Kombat X is a tipping point for me, professionally and personally. I’m extremely grateful to everyone who helped me reach this milestone, and they know who they are.

And for anyone wondering how long I decided to wait before showing the book to my son, let’s just say that within minutes of unboxing my personal copies of this new collected edition, I was sitting in the playpen with my boy, flipping through the pages as proud as can be. The boy seemed totally into it, cooing and squealing at all the figures and colors. Then I turned the page to an exploding head and he started to cry. 

Clearly that was a mistake. After all, he’s only 11 months old. I’ll wait a few years before showing it to him again. But when I do, it’s gonna be a real Hollywood fatherhood moment, just the way Johnny Cage would like it. 

Buy Mortal Kombat X Volume 1: Blood Ties on Amazon, among other places: http://www.amazon.com/Mortal-Kombat-X-Shawn-Kittelsen/dp/1401257089/

Of course, you should also buy the game, Mortal Kombat X. And don’t just take my heavily biased word for it! IGN called it “the best Mortal Kombat, period.” Polygon scored it 9 out of 10. http://www.amazon.com/Mortal-Kombat-X-PlayStation-4/dp/B00KOOUVNI/

[skittelsen]

MORTAL KOMBAT X #1.

It doesn't get more surreal than my debut print issue landing on store shelves.

Don't walk, don't run, LEAP into your local comic shop and demand to purchase an issue of MKX #1. Let these retailers know you mean business. 

What else can I say?

I'm feeling super thankful again, especially to everyone who worked on this book with me. Let's run with that.

MANY THANKS TO...

Ed Boon and all the producers, artists, writers, and developers at NetherRealm Studios, for creating all my favorite fighting games and bringing a bold new vision to MKX. 

Tory Setian and everyone at WB Games. This wouldn't be happening without you.

Editor Alex Antone for coaching us through the fast weekly schedule. WE MADE IT!! Also Hank Kanalz, Jim Lee, and the rest of the gang at DC Digital for granting a passionate-but-unknown writer a huge break.

Dexter Soy and Veronica Gandini for KILLING IT on the art in every chapter, and Saida Temofonte for lettering every KRACK and SPLAT.

Ivan Reis and Alex Sinclair for giving this book the fire & ice cover, and Ivan Costa helping me secure the original art. 

Brandy Phillips and Kelley Popham at DC Publicity, for shouting "MORTAL KOMBAAAT!" with me.

To the rest of my friends and family at DC Entertainment: I hope I make you proud with this book (and many many many more books to come).

FIGHT!!

#mortal kombat x #comics #scorpion #sub-zero

[skittelsen]

Looks like he's marching right into the brightest day... 

[skittelsen]

MORTAL KOMBAT X CHAPTER 2 RIPS FACES OFF AT THESE LINKS

LINKS FOR ALL!

Read Chapter 2 of Mortal Kombat X by me and Dexter Soy, OUT NOW from DC Comics. 

Amazon!

Comixology!

iTunes!

Google Play!

Nook!

*All links for US sites. I'd aggregate international, but that could take all day!

[skittelsen]

MKX: My Special Thanks

Any minute now, the first chapter of Mortal Kombat X by me and Dexter Soy will launch online. If you want more details on the series, check this interview with LA Times Hero Complex.

This series has been a long time coming, a lot longer than the 7 months I've been writing it. You could say I've been"patiently waiting for a track to explode on" like 50 Cent. After years of working on other creators' stories, I finally get to tell a story of my own.

I've got some big plans for 2015, more MKX and beyond. But before we start talking about what's next, I need to thank everyone who's supported me on my long, unexpected journey to my first big writing credit.

Thanks to my parents and sister. Creativity was always fostered in our home, especially whenever we spent all day in the basement making severed heads with papier-mache for this year's haunted house.

Thanks to my extended family, who have always been there to support me.

Thanks to all my friends, who aren't afraid to call me out when I slack off, like when I didn't finish writing any stories for a few years.

Thanks to all the teachers and mentors who took an overly excited, rambling kid under their wing and taught him something new. I'm out of your hair, for now.

Thanks to DC Comics for letting me play with so many of my favorite heroes, characters and creators.

Thanks to NetherRealm Studios for entrusting an unknown scribe with the MK universe. You're making the greatest MK game of all time and I'm honored to be a part of it.

Thanks to WB Games for supporting this franchise and all the other great titles we've worked together on in the past.

Thanks to Midnight Oil and their partners for showing me that I know how to pitch even if I don't always know how to wear shoes.

Thanks to my wife, who is also my sounding board, my therapist, my best friend, my caretaker, and mother of my child.

Thanks to my son. It's all for you, kid. 

And finally, thanks to everyone who reads the Mortal Kombat X series and enjoys these comics. Dexter Soy, Alex Antone, Vero Gandini and others have worked hard to pack every issue with the action, characters, and insanity you expect from the games.

Took us a while to get here. But we're just getting started.

GO BUY MORTAL KOMBAT X EVERYWHERE DIGITAL COMICS ARE SOLD!

-SK

[skittelsen]

This is an exciting bit of news. IMO Valiant has been killing it since their relaunch a few years ago on books like RAI, UNITY, and hilarious satires ARCHER & ARMSTRONG and THE DELINQUENTS.

With that kind of consistency, you can bet I was psyched to contribute a short story drawn by rising star Ryan Lee to RAI #5 PLUS EDITION, a print-exclusive available only at your local shops.

Matt Kindt and Clayton Crain have been in top form on this run, so if you haven't been reading, catch up! For that matter, try anything by Matt Kindt. I've been a fan of his since REVOLVER and his MIND MGMT series from Dark Horse is required reading. 

Know what else is cool about this issue? It reunites me with two of my favorite former DC colleagues, editor Kyle Andrukiewicz and writer Sean Ryan. STARTED FROM THE BOTTOM NOW WE'RE HERE!

RAI #5 PLUS EDITION drops this Wednesday, so if you haven't already ordered it, RUN to your local and request a copy!

#comics

[skittelsen]

CHECK!!! Tryin' on Danny Brown's style before starting my rap career.

(Image courtesy of @fancydee) 

[skittelsen]

THIS IS HAPPENING!

[skittelsen]

MORTAL KOMBAT X!!!

A weekly digital series from DC Comics, written by myself with art by rising star Dexter Soy. Coming this January.

AW. YEAH.

Waiting for this announcement has been KILLING ME. Huge thanks to all the MK fans who posed for Fatality pics with a very excited unknown writer — this book is for you!

[skittelsen]

Hmm. Wonder what I'll be talking about on 10/12...

It's far better to tease than to spoil, right? ;)

[skittelsen]

Good news is on the way :)

Nope, I'm not writing Christian Mingle ads, but I am writing something else that's going to change the world and I can't wait to share it with everyone. Unfortunately I can't share it just yet, so I have to sit on it, and I'm worried it may aggravate an old tailbone injury.

Therefore I tease you. I cannot sit on this alone. Join me in waiting.

I'll update this blog again when the good news goes front page.

Until then, wonder at a nearly wordless Tumblr by some guy who calls himself a humble wordsmith.

[skittelsen]