Updata.

"A movie is like a roller-coaster--you go on a ride, get the experience and you're done. A TV show is more like a road-trip. The scenery can be nice but it's not going to be any fun if you don't like the people you're in the car with." The Manager, talking in general terms about the different requirements of a movie vs. a television show.

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#2

Looks like I've got a new manager. Which is to say, an additional manager--one who'll be representing my interests in the publishing area. He loves (or in his words, "loveloveloves") THE SPOOKY KIDS, which makes me happy. Not as happy as him getting a publishing deal for it would make me (or DONE TO DEATH or PARTING WAYS or BadBoy or THE HOLIDAY MEN would make me), but baby steps...

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INCH BY INCH, ROW BY ROW

Meanwhile, Manager The First seems to like the pilot I wrote--going to be having a call with her and (I think) her partner about it tomorrow evening. And the movie spec is getting closer to being ready to go out.

I guess taking the initiative and writing the pilot without consulting her was a good move, as she's now apparently entertaining the idea of me producing material in formats other than comics. The other day she asked if I'd consider writing THE KIDS as a screenplay.

This is a fairly dramatic shift from (what I perceive to be) her previous position, which was that anything I came up with was going to be somewhere between very difficult and impossible to sell without a comic book in hand--a terribly frustrating situation for someone who's at the mercy of artists to be in.

Between Manager The First deciding/realizing I can write something worthwhile in something other than the comic medium and Manager The Second coming on-board to handle the publishing end of things, I'm feeling closer to actually making a go of this whole writing thing than ever before.

Almost there...Allllmost...

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WHY AM I NOT SURPRISED?

Looks like UP1 in being shut down for the time being, which is going to hurt a little even if I get paid for the work already performed--I was expecting to have an additional forty-page story to help T and I get by, but right now, it's looking like the wisest course of action is to assume nothing's coming in and get on with life.

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WHAT IS THAT STINGING SENSATION BETWEEN MY SHOULDERBLADES?

Artists, man. They're killing me. Killing me!

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SEEING RED-5

Had a chance to look at the first issues of NEOZOIC, ABYSS, and ATOMIC ROBO, the initial offerings from Calgary-based Red-5 Comics, and I've got to say, I was very impressed. Some fun and/or interesting concepts, solid writing, great art right across the board, nice, professional production values...if one's going to try and launch a small press comic company, this is the way to do it. If Red-5 can maintain the level of quality in the issues I saw, keep to their schedule, not wander too far from the sci-fantasy niche the first books occupy, and not flood the market with too many titles too fast, they might be able to survive, even eventually thrive, in a hostile direct market. Here's hoping...

Foley