Trek Today is reporting that, contrary to predictions, UPN has officially renewed Star Trek: Enterprise. In other news, high quality genre shows Farscape, Firefly, Odyssey 5 and Angel are still dead.

I’m beginning to think the only thing I need to do to keep a series I like on the air is not to like it. And vice versa. I’ve just now decided I love America’s Next Top Model, Will & Grace, and the entire UPN network.

In all fairness, Enterprise improved a great deal in its third season. There were story arcs (okay, one long arc) with real consequences, there were a few genuine surprises, and they’ve given a reason for the formation of the Federation. Unfortunately, it isn’t the same reason given by all the other Trek shows & films over the past 30+ years.

What’s the point of making a prequel if it’s not going to stick to the established stories and concepts?

Candidaldea, the Spanish-language version of Candorville, adds another newspaper to its growing list of clients. It will soon be seen in The Hispano Weekly, in Lubbock, Texas.

Candidaldea is produced by Darrin Bell and his fiancé, Laura Bustamante. Laura, a professional translator, is also an accomplished Spanish-language voiceover artist who’s worked in the Spanish versions of several feature films including Jurassic Park, Casper, An American Tail (where she starred as Fievel), and many others. Currently she works as a television reporter for the Latin American culture show Latin Eyes. Latin Eyes is currently appearing in the San Francisco Bay Area, Fresno, CA, Louisville, KY and other cities, and will be seen nationwide through syndication later this year.

Creating Candidaldea isn’t as easy as it seems. Some things just don’t translate directly from English to Spanish. So when the humor isn’t universal, Laura basically rewrites the cartoon, with a different joke, and sometimes an entirely different storyline. It’s a challenge, but it’s important to do it right.

Great day for a hike at Mount Tam. I twisted my ankle playing tennis a couple weeks ago, and I’m pretty sure the best way to heal a twisted ankle is a 10 mile hike over rough terrain.

Today, I’m finishing up work on the back cover for the second Rudy Park book, Peace, Love and Lattes. This design is a lot less cluttered than the first one. I’ll post the front and back cover sometime in August, once the catalogs go out to retailers.

Last year, for the first book, The People Must Be Wired, we all thought it would be a good idea to show all seven of the main characters doing what they do best. It was the first collection, so it was necessary to introduce ALL the characters. Darlene was ignoring Randy who was hitting on her while standing next to Sadie who was giving the evil eye to Rudy who was tangled in gadget wires, one of which was being chewed on by Monkey who was standing next to Armstrong who was counting money next to Mort who was getting ready to drop some knowledge through his trusty bullhorn (whew!). Needless to say, that left me very few options for design considerations, and next to no chance I could create something that would really catch the eye on a book shelf. It turned out well, but I thought we could do better.

This year will be different. The front cover features only one main character. It’s the one main character (and the one theme) that pretty much dominated the second year of the strip.

Back to work…