In case you do not live in Metropolis, Gotham City, Atlantis, or any of the other major cities where the Bureau of Superheroics is airing its latest public service announcement, you may see it online here.

(The ad was written by my co-author Matthew Brozik, and directed and edited by his brother Adam. I did the music and a few additional tweaks.)

I came across a rather interesting eBay auction. I wonder if it’s authentic? If so, I wonder how the guy got his hands on it.

Matthew? Any guesses?

I have just learned through top-secret channels (*) that The Government Manual for New Superheroes is being sold at the gift shop of The DC Spy Museum. That is way cool. I am delighted to know that the men and women of our nation’s secret services (and the tourists who love them) have easy access to the important costumed crimefighting tips they need in today’s dangerous world.
I don’t see the book listed in the museum’s online store, but that is doubtlessly because the book is too sensational to be sold online; it can only be sold in person, where the store’s highly trained clerks may assess whether the purchaser intends to use it for good or for evil.
(How then, you may ask, is the book available through Amazon and other online retailers? National security prevents me from answering that.)
(*) Actually, a college buddy told me(**).
(**) Well, actually, he told my co-author Matthew, and Matthew told me. This kind of serpentine information retrieval is exactly the kind of thing that earned me the approval of the DC Spy Museum.

These are my author’s copies. If you’d like your own, Amazon claims they are currently shipping the book within 24 hours, although I haven’t gotten any independent verification of that.
In any case, it is not too soon to begin checking your local bookstore for The Government Manual for New Wizards. Nor is it too soon to begin an angry picket line if they don’t have it.

Among the course offerings at Miami University of Ohio is the rather ambitiously titled What Is Human Nature? Students in this course are required to submit their own interdisciplinary research proposal on the topic, complete with a list of proposed reference works. It recently came to my attention that two students in this course — Shiree Campbell and Jocelyn Hauge — are proposing to research the topic of “Heroes and Superheroes:”

For the past few years, my friend Rob has been organizing an annual charity benefit in New York called “the Shushan Channel.” It’s a Purim-themed sketch show, followed by a dance, with the proceeds going in part to an environmental charity called Hazon. There is also an open bar, so you can fully observe the deeply spiritual commandment to get drunk out of your gourd on Purim.
By the way–and this is going to be a shock, I know–it turns out there are a lot of Jewish comedy writers out there, and Rob has organized an all-star writing and performing team. This year’s performance –which takes place on Monday, March 13th–boasts writers from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Dennis Miller Live, The Onion and Channel 101, and performers from Comedy Central, VH-1, Upright Citizens Brigade, and more. As I have for the past few years, I’ve contributed a sketch to the show.
If you’re in New York on March 13th, I’d encourage you to check it out. (But you may want to book in advance–the show sold out last year.)
More information at the Shushan Channel webpage.

Matthew and I have recently taken advantage of the Amazon feature which allows authors to post comments on their book pages.

Having spent the past two months staring at “For Your Consideration” ads, I’m now going to make one of my own…
Nominations for the Bloggies are now open. Yankee Fog is eligible for Best British Blog, Best Entertainment Weblog, Most Humorous Weblog, Best Writing of a Weblog, and Best-Kept Secret Weblog. And, for that matter, Weblog of the Year, if you are incredibly generous and/or don’t actually read any other weblogs.

Pretty much every author I know has had bitter complaints about their publisher’s PR department. Before The Government Manual For New Superheroes came out, everybody warned us that, if we wanted any publicity, we’d have to get it for ourselves.
Somehow, though, Matthew and I lucked out. Greg Moore–the PR guy Andrews McMeel gave us–has done a fantastic job. Among other things, he’s gotten us a bunch of interviews with radio stations all around the country. Today, for example, we’re talking with a station in Alaska at 1:05PM EST, and then, at 3:08PM EST, we’ll be on WJBC AM1230 in Central Illinois. You can listen in on the WJBC interview via their webcast.
We asked Greg how he rounded up all these interviews, and it turns out there’s a magazine devoted to bringing people who want to be interviewed together with broadcasters who want to interview them: Radio & Television Interview Report. Andrews McMeel took out an ad in RTIR, and the interview requests starting rolling in.

To the list of People With Exquisite Taste, add the entire editorial staff of Men’s Edge Magazine.