Got new glasses yesterday. I can now read what I’m typing here. I’m hoping this will make work go faster.

Also got a new vacuum cleaner yesterday and spent hours sucking up dust, debris, cat hair, cat litter, and, probably, the remains of ancient submicroscopic civilizations hidden in the carpet.

My burning ambition now is to clean a bathroom before starting on the next *Doctor Fate*.

(“Your life might be a meaningless void if…”)

I’m also going to write that long-postponed item on my health, because you may be hearing stuff about it elsewhere, and I’d rather you read it here first.

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Mark Evanier posted this clip of Ernie Kovacs’ famous “Nairobi Trio” on his blog a few months ago. I meant to link to it then, but forgot. For some reason, now seems like the right moment.

The clip is both self-explanatory and unexplainable. It’s much funnier than its gag, much funnier than the music, much funnier even than the ape masks — but possibly *not* funnier than the ape masks, overcoats, and hats as a gestalt. You’ll have to decide.

I first saw the bit performed on television in the late ’50s/early ’60s, about the same time I was discovering that comic books had existed before I was born, and that there had once been a character named Doctor Fate.

There are times when I think that explains the last 50 years of my life.

Okay, here’s what I know:

*Doctor Fate* will become the lead feature in a new, ongoing dual-feature title, along the lines of the current TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED. This new book will have the word “Countdown” in its name, but crossover-phobes need not panic. These are the same full-length stories, without alteration, that were slated for Fate’s own title. (The dual-feature titles contain almost twice the page count of a regular comic book.)

Personally, I’m hoping that the “Countdown” title and the presence of the book’s second feature will goose the sales a little bit.

At this point, I’d better hang back and let the rest of the news — the overall title of the book, the name of the second feature, etc. — come from DC. I will add, though, that I’m very pleased to be sharing a comic book with this character. In its Silver Age incarnation, it was one of my favorites, and I like the current, decidedly more twisted version a lot, too.

It’s my understanding that the book is being solicited for September, so you’ll be hearing all the details officially from DC very shortly.

And now, just to whet your appetites a little further, here’s a totally unauthorized look at one of Justiniano’s early concept sketches of Doctor Fate.

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The pencils for the first story are even better.

Got some news from DC this morning regarding their plans for publishing the Doctor Fate material. There are still some details left to be decided, but I generally agree with what they have in mind. I’ll pass it along as soon as things are settled.

The blog is back.

Enormous thanks to Sandon at Dreamhost Customer Support for patience and persistence above and beyond. If you’re looking for a place to park your web site, I recommend Dreamhost whole-heartedly.

I’m still under the gun with DOCTOR FATE, so it may take a few days to finalize the blog cosmetics. Bear with me.

More to follow…

I’ve been immersed in trying to solve a DOCTOR FATE storytelling problem for — uhm — a very long time.

The solution arrived yesterday, at a Starbucks near the intersection of Lake Mead and Buffalo in Las Vegas. I now consider this establishment holy ground. The pigeons and sparrows are oracles reading cake crumbs. The palm tree burns but is not consumed. Other delusions.

NEXT: Finish this script, go to L.A. for some medical tests, return, then move the blog and the wreckage of my website to a new server at Dreamhost. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the blog and the website may not be reachable for a few days as their new location propagates across the net.

Then I get to clean the house — it needs it; desperately — and start on the next DOCTOR FATE. Hopefully wearing my new glasses so that I can actually read what’s on the screen.

Feel free to ignore my rambling. I’m just so happy to have solved that problem…!

Watching Cho Seung-Hui, the Virginia Tech mass murderer, read his “manifesto” into the camera, I noticed something oddly familiar about the expressionless, run-on, nasal quality of the voice.

On the fifth or sixth listening, I got it. Cho sounds *exactly* like the possessed Rick Moranis in *Ghostbusters*, saying, “I am Vinz Clortho, Keymaster of Gozer.”

I’m not sure what, if anything, that means.

I’m in the process of changing host services, and there may be a little transition time involved.

I’ve just seen scans of about two-thirds of Justiniano’s pencils for DOCTOR FATE #1.

It’s some of the most beautiful work I’ve seen in 35 years of writing comics.

Very encouraging visit to the cardiologist yesterday.

Blood pressure is back in the range it should be (124/76). Liver and kidney functions, cholesterol, triglycerides, and EKG all normal.

I seem to be okay for the moment.