Whedonesque : Comments on 17322 : Lying In The Gutters unveils new Joss rumour.

I wonder what that is all about. Hmmm.

Intriguing. Maybe they're going to act out the rest of 'Ultimate Wolverine vs Hulk' ? ;)

Couldn't this just be an ad for that forthcoming Web documentary series about writers? I know Joss was amongst those listed as part of the project, and I think it launches soon.

[ edited by theonetruebix on 2008-08-18 22:31 ]

The One True b!X | August 18, 22:29 CET

Hmm. Am I missing the relevence of them saying "watch MySpace" in that blurb?

NYPinTA | August 18, 22:35 CET

Couldn't this just be an ad for that forthcoming Web documentary series about writers?

I wondered that as well but Metzler isn't featured (that I can see anyhow). Though it is on MySpace.

I think it's a remake of The Aristocrats.

Simon | August 18, 22:35 CET

Figures, we're never gonna find out what happens are we ? I mean, he was in two pieces FFS !

Yeah, that'd make sense and they're certainly exactly the sort of names that'd be on there (though Brad Meltzer isn't on the list of subjects). Wouldn't Rich Johnston already know about that too (and its trailer) ?

Saje | August 18, 22:35 CET

Did they do something together for Strike.TV? That launches soon, too.

The One True b!X | August 18, 22:37 CET

That seems even more likely, it'd explain Meltzer (I don't remember any of them on the early Strike.TV trailer but then it was early).

Saje | August 18, 22:40 CET

I think it's a remake of The Aristocrats.

Can't wait for Joss' version of that joke.

redeem147 | August 18, 23:09 CET

It goes without saying that I'm a Joss fan, but yay for Damon teaming up with him in some capacity.

userpjx | August 18, 23:12 CET

Though it is on MySpace.

I hadn't seen the July trailer before. So I found a "new" trailer already! Hooray!

Sunfire | August 18, 23:26 CET

from Brad Meltzer's 8/7/08 myspace blog & his own blog (bolding mine):

"Surprise to all the Buffy readers.

That's right, with Buffy being my next comic project after Last Will, the Buffy issue out today (issue 17) has the full Prologue and Chapter 1. And wait till you see what we're doing with Buffy in the paperback.

Thanks to Joss and Scott Allie and Sierra and all the amazing Dark Horse folks for the fun.

And trust me, this is just the first surprise. So many good ones coming."

Yeah, I don't see Brad on the roster for "The Write Environment" either. I do look forward to this series, which Jeffrey Berman notes as being in the "final editing stage."

But look what I found on myspace videos.

QuoterGal | August 18, 23:56 CET

But look what I found on myspace videos.

Ah.

The One True b!X | August 18, 23:59 CET

A little better quality.

And this.

Hee. WebDetectiveGal.

QuoterGal | August 19, 00:04 CET

Yay QG! That was fun.

jcs | August 19, 00:20 CET

Cool. What is this, exactly? Something that will come out & I can watch?

Oh, also, the second "traffic light" note (right after the Joss Whedon part) talks about Drew Goddard & Jason Biggs' underwear? What's that about?

korkster | August 19, 00:20 CET

Cool! I like having Christopher Hitchens int here pooh pooh-ing the whole thing, too.

Septimus | August 19, 00:20 CET

Cool. What is this, exactly? Something that will come out & I can watch?

If by watch you mean read, since it's a trailer for a novel.

The One True b!X | August 19, 00:24 CET

I think it's a remake of The Aristocrats.

Can't wait for Joss' version of that joke.

It's really funny until one of the Aristocrats dies.

lauratd | August 19, 00:25 CET

It's really funny until one of the Aristocrats dies.

Heh.

karosurly | August 19, 00:29 CET

@lauratd: Ha! That was a laugh-snorter.

QuoterGal | August 19, 00:30 CET

It's really funny until one of the Aristocrats dies.

Doesn't the joke usually get funnier at that point? Assuming the funniness of that joke lies in its horribleness Joss could probably tell a pretty good one.

Also, if Brian K. Vaughan is involved in any way, I'm going to have to consume this... oh wait.

[ edited by userpjx on 2008-08-19 01:35 ]

userpjx | August 19, 00:34 CET

I'm not too intrigued in the novel after reading the preview. I am however intrigued by the camera movements here. Am I supposed to notice the earring? We keep coming back to it. It's like Joss is the accessory. Same thing for people with glasses. The glasses wear you.

Sunfire | August 19, 00:44 CET

I was hoping for a reality show spoof: So You Think You Can Numfar Dance of Joy.

Saturn Girl | August 19, 00:58 CET

Looks interesting to me - I wonder if it will use anything related to Aleister Crowley's The Book of Lies (text here) or if they just share great titles.

QuoterGal | August 19, 01:20 CET

That would be one long book.

toast | August 19, 01:57 CET

I had never heard of Brad Meltzer before Buffy S8 (shame on me). Has anyone read 'The Book of Faith'? Is it any good?

The amazon discription as a kind of 'The West Wing'-esque thriller with rounded out characters intrigues me. Plus, this trailer to the follow-up featuring two of my favorite writers of possibly all time (Brian K. Vaughan and, obviously, Joss) and being generally engaging, helps as well.

So, I'm assuming Joss and the others did this as a 'helping-out-a-friend' kinda deal? I like that. Great bit of promotion, either way, though. This is probably going to get linked on other weblogs, fora etcetera, where fans of the people featured in the trailer gather.

GVH | August 19, 02:23 CET

A trailer for a book. I love it.

NYPinTA | August 19, 05:03 CET

I never knew Joss' ears were pierced. How come I never knew his ears were pierced?

eddy | August 19, 06:28 CET

I've read his Book of Fate. It's just ok. It got hyped as one of those "Not since the DaVinci Code..." books and it really had nothing to do with that genre. I'd borrow from the library rather than buy it.

Simon | August 19, 11:15 CET

Using the Da Vinci Code to sell a book isn't gonna do much for me unless it's along the lines of "Nothing like 'The Da Vinci Code'. At all. Seriously. Sure they're both in English but that's it. This one, for instance, may not make you cringe on nearly every page".

Might check it out, his stuff is always easy to get from the library though I must admit i'm not a huge thriller reader. Now and again as an "in-between book" but I don't generally seek them out.

Saje | August 19, 11:25 CET

I remember when Brad was still trying to choose the title for this book, earlier this year (it was between The Book of Lies and The Book of Truth).

Interesting that they created this fun trailer to promote it.
Here some additional info about this book, for whoever is interested.

Numfar PTB | August 19, 16:01 CET

Seeing as there's a bit of interest in this elsewhere, I've linked to on the sidebar on the front page.

Simon | August 19, 21:56 CET

OK, watched it with sound and it turns out it's easier to follow that way - hoo da thunk. Quite an original take on marketing a book (Jerry Siegel's dad did actually die before Superman was created, wasn't shot though - see, kernel of truth like all the best conspiracies) and also quite a nice set of mates Mr Meltzer clearly has, that'd be one helluva night down the pub ;).

Saje | August 19, 22:09 CET

Interestingly Christopher Hitchens fired his publicist after appearing in the video.

I have to say the plot sounds even more ludcrious than the DaVinci Code. And yes since when did Joss start wearing an earring? Maybe we'll know more if we read THE BOOK OF LIES.

Simon | August 19, 22:55 CET

Ah but this is new Conspiracy Joss™, comes with earring and contempt for evidence based reasoning - "Fuck The Man" character trait optional.

(they're all kinda-sorta playing parts aren't they ? 'Cept Azzarello, he really is that intense ;)

ETA: Actually, I don't think that's him, think it's BKV. Oops. Bloody slapheads, we all look the same to me ;).

[ edited by Saje on 2008-08-19 23:06 ]

Saje | August 19, 23:02 CET

We've seen his earring before. Sometime in the past year, if I recall. I noticed it 'specially, 'cause my guy's got one and an eyebrow brow one, too.

Um, he's a little younger than I am... my partner, I mean. Well, so's Joss.

QuoterGal | August 19, 23:08 CET

I thought DaVinci Code was ok. Good for a thriller, nothing more. Definitely light on realism, but they tend to do that. This one just seems to be following that general trend without a good genuine hook though. The mystery of Cain's weapon just doesn't do it for me.

I'm pretty tough to sell a thriller to, so I'm not really their target audience anyway.

Sunfire | August 19, 23:09 CET

Yeah, it'd be an Uzi or a Desert Eagle probably, Cain was very into supporting local businesses.

'The Da Vinci Code' failed the "first page test" for me - read the first page-ish in the shop and it just had some pretty bad prose IMO (this - though maybe a bit heavy on the donnish pedantry - pretty much puts words to what I felt as I read it).

Saje | August 19, 23:16 CET

Dan Brown is one of the worst prose stylists ever, I'd agree with bells on it, but what really made me incredibly annoyed about the DaVinci code (and some frakkin other book of his I was FORCED to read one rainy day in a cabin in the middle of nowhere) is that 1) I finished it because 2) I wanted to find out "what happened."

I hate that.

QuoterGal | August 19, 23:45 CET

Joss had the earring when he was in Cambridge for the rally in December.

jenekb | August 20, 05:44 CET

Didn't he also have an earring at CC?

korkster | August 20, 21:41 CET

"2) I wanted to find out "what happened."

That's it in a nutshell. I dunno about you QuoterGal but the other Dan Brown I read on a holiday in France (aka "one rainy day in a cabin in the middle of nowhere") was Digital Fortress and it was terrible but I had to finish it.

moley75 | August 20, 23:10 CET

Earring update: it can be seen on the cover of Equality Now's fundraising booklet-y thing (which I think is at least a year old) and he was wearing it at the Mutant Enemy day picket thing.

Sorry, at work. No links or coherent sentences.

deadbessie | August 21, 21:25 CET

Well, at the Grant Morrison/Deepak Chopra panel at Comic-Con, Morrison said that Siegel's father was shot to death before Siegel went on to create the "bulletproof man." So, uh...either Morrison was wrong or he is also promoting the book in a deeply viral way?

UnpluggedCrazy | August 22, 03:53 CET

Online sources almost all say he was shot but it's apparently a bit of a widely held misconception - he died during a robbery but it was from a heart attack (presumably) brought on by the stress.

Here's an interview with an author that wrote a book about the story behind Superman's creation. So, much as it pains me to even utter these words, it seems like Morrison was indeed wrong (or being viral).

*waits for sky to fall in and all existence as we know it to end* ;).

Saje | August 22, 10:54 CET

Dan Brown... is not a good writer.

Cain's murder weapon? I keep thinking, "jawbone of an ass," but that was Samson. I'm guessing Cain either used some regular old farm implement, or simply beat Abel to death.

ManEnoughToAdmitIt | August 24, 05:21 CET

No kung fu?

UnpluggedCrazy | August 24, 11:14 CET

Ah, grasshopper, you do not use Kung Fu, Kung Fu uses you ! Plus, do not concentrate on the finger, for you will miss all the heavenly glory ! ... And never play cards or pool against a guy named after a city ... That's it, that's all i've got. Maybe i'm just not cut out for the wise old mentor gig.

And they were in a field at the time so my bet's on a good old Mk 1 rock. Gotta feel for Cain a little bit, he made his offering in good faith, it's just that God's apparently not a fan of the "fruit of the ground". See, any supreme deity that doesn't like chips has to be suspect in my view. That's just not natural.

Saje | August 24, 11:56 CET

For what it's worth, Brad is not one of the featured interviewees in The Write Environment series. But Joss is, along with Damon Lindelof, Tim Kring, Sam Simon, Doug Ellin and Phil Rosenthal. Each writer is featured in a one-on-one interview per episode. Each inteview rund approximately 50-65 minutes. The launch date for the series is November 17th (finally, I swear I thought it would never get here).

If you have any questions you can find us on our home page, The Write Environment.com. or check our Facebook page. Or just e-mail me.

Jeffrey Berman

jeffreyunited | November 04, 10:31 CET

Plus, for those who were scanning the bookshelves in the promo clip, their Facebook account has some closer up photos. ;)

The One True b!X | November 04, 16:25 CET

I'm pretty sure someone called that as Roget's Thesaurus back when we first discussed the 'Weapons' book behind Joss. Those, the 'Dictionary of Scientific *summthin* [Literacy ??]' And "How do they do that ?" make it very clearly a writer's bookshelf i'd say (and an SF&F writer at that).

ETA: Oh and this has the potential to be a really interesting series of interviews, very much looking forward to it (assuming it'll be available internationally).

[ edited by Saje on 2008-11-04 16:42 ]

Saje | November 04, 16:41 CET

August 18 2008