The Comics' Biggest Blight thread on Canadian Geek has transformed into a more general discussion about the state of the industry between a frustrated, successful comics retailer (Happy Harbor's Jay Bardyla), an equally frustrated, not nearly as successful comics creator (me), with occasional interjections from other people trying to get a word in edgewise.

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Andrew Sullivan on why he blogs. I've only read a page and a half, but it includes some interesting historical bits, including the origin of the term "log", which make it worth mentioning right there.

(via Chad Gervich's Script Notes blog)

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NO QUARTERLY ASKED

The Future of Comics (I) Fiona Staples has a variant cover on VAMPIRELLA QUARTERLY, and I either just noticed or noticed earlier and forgot. Probably the latter, that sounds like something I'd do.

Anyway. Now she just needs to do something (official) for Red Sonja and she'll have worked on the Pre-1990s Scantily-Clad Ass-Kicking Babe Trifecta, which also includes Sheena. Then she could go back to drawing MY stuff*...

If anyone out there is in touch with someone in a position of authority at Dynamite Comics, please tell them they should hire Fiona for an RS book. End the insanity, before it's too late.

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DON'T WANNA, NOT GONNA. MAYBE

I don't want to write a zombie story.

I DON'T.

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I JUST DON'T SEE IT

OK, yeah, there was a communications error and we did the wrong strip.

I still don't understand how you didn't notice that the jet plane was missing, or that there was a robot completely unrelated to the strip in practically all the panels until we were done lettering.

Argh.

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DEAR GOD, WHY?

I have an idea for a reality-TV show.

Please, shoot me.

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SCREW YOU, BRITISH COLUMBIA

You know what you did.

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(*Wishful thinking, I know, but hope springs eternal...)

Tuesday Night Rambly-Dambling

As I sit--OK, actually lie--here, awaiting notes, pizza, and Law & Order: SVU (not necessarily in that order) I'm actually starting to come up with a story to go with something that would be pitched as "Hannibal Lecter's Adventures During The Zombie Apocalypse." I really do not want to come up with that story, because as soon as I do, I'll feel compelled to write it, which doesn't strike me as a particularly good idea.

Last night I woke up and scribbled the title "Zombie Girlfriend" on a napkin. I think I've been watching too many zombie movies lately. Which is weird, because I don't particularly like the genre. But they're, y'know. There. And I'm reasonably sure I'll find almost all of them more interesting than Twilight.

The British miniseries Dead Set is pretty good, though. The premise could've been played for comedy so easily, but instead it's really dark...worth the three hours just to get to one really nice image at the end that I bet was a major reason the creator wanted to do the project...

Someday I want to pitch a film thusly: "The Godfather meets The Godfather II"...

That is all.

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Friends like these

ME: I'm going in for a brainscan on Tuesday.
JAY: I hope they find something.

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BLIGHT UNSEEN

In an uncharacteristic moment of charity, when a thread at Canadian Geek started on the subject of "Comics' Biggest Blight", I won out over my baser urges to expound on the evils of the three elements of the industry that immediately occurred to me as contenders for the title and instead ended up in the odd position of defending the first nominee to the title, Joe Quesada.

You know something's gone seriously wrong with a conversation when I'm the guy who's trying to be positive...

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blargle.

I started fighting this cold sometime Saturday morning. Now, at 1:10 Thursday morning, I think it's safe to officially declare that the cold has won.

Coughing so much it's keeping me up. Blown my nose so much it's started bleeding. Head throbbing worse than usual. No antihistamines in the house, Linda, and no Nyquil either--it may not help a cold, but it knocks me out, which I'd consider a win right about now.

A couple hours ago I told the Future of Comics (II) John Keane that I wished this irritating malady would either blossom into a full-blown sickness or go away, and this is what I get for it.

I wish someone would give me enough money so I could go to the New York Comic Con in February (ideally, but not necessarily, in exchange for something I wrote).

OK, it's a long shot, but who knows. It seems like I got my wish once today, why not see if I can get a streak going on something that doesn't involve me being miserable?

Oh wait--going to conventions does make me miserable.

Never mind.

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The $11 House

I love this idea. Given the current number of entrants, I can't see the people putting it on getting the number of people they want to actually go through with the contest, but I'd love it if they did.

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Don't talk to ME about the evils of socialism II/Quotes of the day

The CEOs of the Big Three North American automakers take the lead in the race to be the first with their backs against the wall when the revolution comes.

Also, they need much, much, much better PR people:

'"Making a big to-do about this when issues vital to the jobs of millions of Americans are being discussed in Washington is diverting attention away from a critical debate that will determine the future health of the auto industry and the American economy." GM spokesman Tom Wilkinson, who clearly doesn't understand the role the public's perception of his douchebag CEO is going to play in that debate.

"That's it man, game over man, game over! What the fuck are we gonna do now?" Bill Paxton in ALIENS.

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Westboro Baptist Church Fundraising Effort for the Oregon Queer Community

While the ideal method for dealing with demonstrations by the idiots of the Westboro Baptist Church would involve baseball bats, I've got to admit this is a pretty cool way to turn their hatemongering back on them.

Via

rae_is

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I am a machine.

An aging machine that's going to break down soon, but a machine nonetheless. Cold medication might slow me down, but nothing short of finishing the job can stop me when I've got deadlines. I AM UNSTOPPABLE.

And now some Nyquil is in order, I think.

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When it rains...

While there's never a good time for having a cold, this is a really, ASTONISHINGLY #*%&ING BAD weekend for me to have a cold.

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What a morning/quotes of the day

"...the proposal itself just doesn't seem to be working. No matter the great new material Andrew has provided, and no matter how I've rearranged and experimented with cutting and restructuring... it's still too confusing and almost top-heavy." The New York Editor (I), explaining why she's passing on the YA novel (at least till I write a few more chapters.)

"The operative word is 'fantastic.'" Emmy-Winning Producer, giving me the operative word regarding a movie treatment I wrote. Revised outline this weekend (because "fantastic" doesn't preclude there being notes), then into the script. And then, somewhere in the future, step 3: Profit. Speaking of which...

"This time last year, I told myself if I didn't get someone offering me something in the way of a paycheque for writing by the end of the year I was going to give up on it altogether once and for all. However, I lie to myself ALL THE TIME." Me, feeling sorry for myself because New York Editor passed on my YA novel of which I've written only two chapters and a confusing, top-heavy outline.

"Well, I'm out guys. If this is what's cool now, I think I'm done. I no longer have any connection to this world. I'm gonna go home and kill myself." South Park's Eric Cartman, responding to the High School Musical phenomenon.

What is the sound of one head desking?

There comes a time in writing prose--and other written media, but it's much more acute and noticeable with prose--when one's gone over the same material so many times in an effort to improve it that one no longer knows if it's any good at all (but, when the one in question is me, one suspects it's complete garbage.) At the moment, I blame The 10% Solution, Ken Rand's incredibly useful but mind-numbingly repetitive editing system, detailed in his book of the same name, for this. Rand says going over the same sentences over and over is a Good Thing, and my personal experience says he's right. But it's damn hard to believe it when you're trawling through the same three thousand words for the tenth or more time.

But! The novel outline is done, and polished to the best of my meager abilities. And, more importantly, it's off to the Book Editor, who will hopefully like it, or at least confirm my suspicion that it's complete garbage. If the latter, I shall cry and then get back to work. If the former, however, the outline, along with sample chapters and the editor's recommendation, will go upstairs to the office of whoever's responsible for deciding which projects the Book Editor's employer decides to pick up.

I'd be nervous about that if I was conscious, but if The Solution wasn't bad enough, winter has arrived. Oh, there's no snow, yet. But darkness is falling in the middle of the afternoon, the air is as cold and bitter as John McCain's campaign staff, and the daytime sky is an oppressive grey ceiling hovering just out of reach. The pills prescribed by the neurologist are not doing their job, or at least not doing it well enough, as today's throbbing headache is going about its business with no regard to the thrice-daily stomach-disintegrating anti-inflammatory I've been taking. I'm not sure if the overwhelming desire to sleep for the next six months or so is the result of the shortening day, changing weather, the new medication, or just common sense telling me it would be Better not to be awake for the winter. Or a combination of all four.

I'm told the Hollywood Producer (I) liked my outline for his movie idea inspired very, very loosely by one of my comics. That said, he of course has "some notes". Why I should need to have a pre-phone meeting phone meeting with my manager prior to having a phone meeting with HPI, I don't know, but the Manager has declared it so, and so it shall be, sometime this week.

While I await those phone meetings, notes and/or a reaction from The Book Editor, I plan to work on an outline for STEEP CURVE, a comic miniseries, in the probably vain hope that someone will someday express some interest in my writing one again. It could happen. An editor contact I thought was dead recently resurfaced wanting to know whether we'd talked several months ago as planned (we hadn't) and suggesting we get together on the phone to discuss a few ideas I'd sent his way. Of course, he suggested this while I was in Calgary and we haven't managed to get together yet, but hope springs eternal. Or, if not eternal, it at least springs for a long time.

Don't ask about the bathroom. I'm not.

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Two Steps Forward.

Was I the only one who felt like he was watching the awards ceremony sequence of Star Wars when the Obama and Biden families assembled on the stage after the new American President-Elect's speech last night?

And, as soon as that thought hit, who thought, oh crap. Now the empire's going to strike back...?

I watched the election results come in with a group of people as cynical as I am, if not more so. When it became apparent Obama had prevailed, one of the group, a Texan, expressed doubt that he'd survive his first term. Another couldn't bring himself to believe that Obama wouldn't become thoroughly corrupt eventually, but hoped he'd resist temptation long enough to fix a few things.

Even if Obama managed to be all the things we hope he will be, there's still plenty cause for cynicism. While Obama crushed McCain when it came to the electoral college, the last time I checked, the popular vote was much closer than I'd have liked. It appears that California, Arizona, and Florida all managed to defend the holy institution of marriage by legally preventing many couples who love each other from tying that particular knot. I haven't been able to find a definite statement on it, but I gather this might in some way actually invalidate previously accepted gay marriages in California, which - if it is the case - is absolutely horrific. Ted Stevens managed to keep his seat, which doesn't do much to redeem Alaskan voters. Bush still has a couple more months to utterly destroy America's standing in the world, to say nothing of significant segments of the Middle East. And, of course, FoxNews continues to exist.

Still. Last night was huge for the US and possibly/hopefully the world. A few weeks after a Canadian election that changed nothing, we got an American one that could, potentially, change everything, and for the better. Here's hoping...

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Idiotic Quote of the Day

Still recovering from the World Fantasy Con, which was equal parts fun, weird, and exhausting. And expensive. Lots of free books, though. I like free stuff.

In the meantime, here's some enlightened commentary on Proposition 8, a motion on tomorrow's California ballot to enshrine anti-gay bigotry into the state's constitution by eliminating legal gay marriage there:

"I vote yes on 8! My son, which just started high school, told me that he does not want prop 8 to pass because he has school friends who are gay. I was shocked! I told him that at his age, his little thing is not yet fully developed, how does a 14 years old know he is gay !!!!" - A mentally challenged Proposition 8 supporter calling him or herself "chen".

I just hope this twit's son had the wherewithal to say, "Because he's sexually attracted to males and not sexually attracted to females."

This was selected more or less at random from hundreds of comments on an LA Times editorial describing the distortions the pro-8 side is using to make its case, a good portion of which don't seem to have been made by narrow-minded assholes. Even so, there's more than enough there to get my blood boiling.

hatehatehatehatehatehatehatehatehate

Deep breath...Think about free books...think about free books...think about free books...

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