Sorry, sorry. Mood's been in the toilet the last...30 years or so, and I'm trying cut back on the public moaning about how awful life is. It's unseemly (even if it is accurate).
So, not a lot of posting coming from me lately, and honestly, I don't see a whole lot more in the immediate future. But here's one bad thing I can whine about because I'm not doing it on my own behalf, and some good stuff that's going on.
First, the crappy thing. You may recall a year or two back I and Nick Johnson joining the online comics collective The Chemistry Set, where we released THE HOLIDAY MEN in THE MASSACRE MEMORIAL DAY SALE MASSACRE. There was a lot of good comics material on the Set, much of it unfinished for a variety of reasons, many relating to creators needing to do something other than a non-paying online comic to eat. Many, but not all.
For isntance, my favourite strip (other than the one I co-created, obviously), FCHS by Vito Delsante and Rachel Freire, stopped its ChemSet run after finding a print publisher.
FCHS, frequently pitched as "Riverdale, 90210", was a story about a group of teenagers in high school. Not the sort of subject matter that particularly appeals to my sensibilities, but Vito's writing did manage to hook me--the situations and characters rang true for me, something that's probably related to the story being at least semi-autobiographical.
But for me, FCHS's real draw was Rachel Freire's pared-down, cartoony artwork. Her FCHS work read to me like a cross between Dan DeCarlo and early Paul Grist. I loved it. My biggest gripe with FCHS's initial release on the ChemSet was that the creators had elected to work in a rigid three-panel strip format. I didn't mind the strip idea--in fact, I think it was great--but three panels every few days, well, I just wanted more.
Then Adhouse came along and agreed to publish an FCHS book. Vito and Rachel pulled FCHS from the Set and started retooling for print publication (losing the three panel tier along the way, which I still think is a shame.)
It was heartening to see Adhouse really get behind the book. In addition to Vito working relentlessly to let the online community know about the project, Adhouse released an FCHS teaser issue for Free Comic Book Day. I don't know the details of what went on behind the scenes, but as far as I can tell, a lot of people put a lot of effort into marketing a book I was looking forward to finally being able to read in full.
It's recently come out that Adhouse didn't get enough preorders and FCHS has been canceled. And that sucks.
I'm hoping Vito and Rachel come back and manage to find a new home for the project, either a new publisher or online. Not for them, but for me. As always, I want more FCHS, damn it.
***
GOOD STUFF
Happy Harbor Comics continued to earn its 2007 Outstanding Retailer Shuster Award this past weekend by raising in excess of $2700 for Alberta Literacy via a 24 Hour Comic event. HH is kicking in 10 cents for every dollar raised, which puts the total the charity will receive at over 3 grand.
That was last weekend. This weekend sees the launch of the Gilbert Bouchard Memorial Art Show: Visions of Comics. An exhibit of works by local artists, the show celebrates the creators, icons and history of the comics medium. The opening, at 7:00PM Saturday night, will have...cheese or something, and it will have me. I got my crummy sketches I did of Will Eisner in San Diego that I also got Will Eisner to sign shortly after the panel I drew them in framed. There is a reasonably entertaining story to go along with the piece--longtime readers of this blog (provided this blog is LiveJournal) might remember me relating it, but if you don't, or you want to hear the live version, or you just want to support the community and remember Gilbert, you should come down to Happy Harbor Volume One Saturday night.
Finally, thanks to Diamond electing not to release new comics on the Wednesday between Christmas and New Years this year, the Harbor's declared that Local Creators week. For those seven days, the New This Week shelves will feature comics almost exclusively by local creators. I believe Jay's talking to people about doing signings too. I wonder if I could talk Fiona and Nick into coming up...
***
SPEAKING OF FIONA...
...This used to be the weirdest interview with her ever, but apparently who- or whatever replaced words in her answers with more Lovecraftian language ("comic" became "jocose") has undone what they did. Still a nice interview, but I kind of miss the sensation I got when I first read it that I'd either fallen into a David Lynch film or suffered a massive stroke.
***
ALSO...
There's talk of someone doing a movie of Chris Carter's MILLENNIUM, with original series star Lance Henriksen reprising his role as profiler Frank Black. Sounds like Carter might not be involved, but then, I don't know how involved he was in the second season of the show (my favourite), either.
Millennium had two of the absolute best season-ending images ever, the super-bleak "We probably won't be back for a third season" S2 finale, and the final image of season 3.
Now all we need is for David Lynch to return to Twin Peaks and I can die of geek nostalgia-induced bliss.
A
Showing posts with label the chemistry set. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the chemistry set. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Why not finish off with a blog post?
Wow, I'm actually getting stuff done this weekend - first a revised outline of The Thing for That Emmy Guy, then a new version of THE HOLIDAY MEN pitch that better reflects the actual comic (the only official proposal I ever did for the project was written up as an animated series. When the ChemSet asked if I had anything I'd be interested in doing and Nick got on-board, it became a comic - refreshingly, without my having to go through a "It's A Christmas Carol meets Die Hard, by way of Looney Toons" type of sales pitch to get someone, artist, publisher, whoever, interested in it. Which was great till I actually decided to start seriously trying to find a publisher and realized I didn't have a proposal written in a suitable format...), even got a decent start on a short essay on something that's been eating at me. And this after finishing four new comic reviews on Friday. What--what's happening to me...?
***
SHE'S A (COGNO)MANIAC, (COGNO)MAAAANIAC, I KNOW-OH
The Future of Comics (I) Fiona Staples returned to blogging recently to make a post noting on her blog Vicious Ambitious member Cognoman's started a daily webcomic, COGNOMANIA. While Nick Johnson's got the most polished, commercial art style of all the VAers, Cog's is by far the most idiosyncratic - in a way I can't quite put my finger on, it reminds me of Sergio Aragones, though his images are much less detailed, more open and relaxed. These done-in-one surreal comedy strips are a great showcase for an artist I've long believed had a lot of potential. From what I've read, each installment seems to be set in its own weird little world, but that variety of set-ups and settings produces some genuine laughs on a surprisingly consistent basis, at least so far.
***
QUOTE OF THE DAY
"It is clear that superrich people should be punished, because they didn't get where they are today without having eaten a live human baby at some point in their career..." Cintra Wilson, in her book A Massive Swelling: Celebrity Reexamined as a Grotesque Crippling Disease and other cultural revelations.
A
***
SHE'S A (COGNO)MANIAC, (COGNO)MAAAANIAC, I KNOW-OH
The Future of Comics (I) Fiona Staples returned to blogging recently to make a post noting on her blog Vicious Ambitious member Cognoman's started a daily webcomic, COGNOMANIA. While Nick Johnson's got the most polished, commercial art style of all the VAers, Cog's is by far the most idiosyncratic - in a way I can't quite put my finger on, it reminds me of Sergio Aragones, though his images are much less detailed, more open and relaxed. These done-in-one surreal comedy strips are a great showcase for an artist I've long believed had a lot of potential. From what I've read, each installment seems to be set in its own weird little world, but that variety of set-ups and settings produces some genuine laughs on a surprisingly consistent basis, at least so far.
***
QUOTE OF THE DAY
"It is clear that superrich people should be punished, because they didn't get where they are today without having eaten a live human baby at some point in their career..." Cintra Wilson, in her book A Massive Swelling: Celebrity Reexamined as a Grotesque Crippling Disease and other cultural revelations.
A
Friday, June 6, 2008
RANDOM NOTES FROM THE COLON OF DARKNESS
My mood has miraculously improved not at all in the last 36 hours. Definitely Bad Dairy. Probably shouldn’t be blogging publicly at the mo, but there is much to talk about, so off we go with items of interest…
***
NO FORMULA
Today on Comicon.com’s The Pulse: a roundtable discussion by all those creators participating in the NO FORMULA: STORIES FROM THE CHEMISTRY SET Volume One anthology Nick and I weren’t invited to participate in. The book’s in the current PREVIEWS, order code: JUN083849
***
THE NEW VANGUARD
In light of recent news regarding the company, I really don’t know what to make of today’s announcement that Platinum Studios is starting a new joint comic imprint, Vanguard Comics. Looks like the first title’s going to be ILLEGAL ALIENS, a project Rob Moran created and sold to the company years ago. If nothing else, it’s good that Rob’s book’s finally going to be hitting the stands. It’s been at Platinum for as long as I can remember--I think its acquisition might even predate my starting work for the company.
***
YOU GO, SVETLANA!
A glimmer of light in the depths of my oh-so-angst-ridden week: the announcement of Svetlana Chmakova’s animated series MY LIFE ME did perk me up a little. Sometimes good things do happen to good people.
***
QUOTE OF THE DAY #1
“I'm going to assume the answer to all these questions is ‘no’ and find something else to pointlessly obsess about for awhile.” Me, venting at my manager.
***
THE SHIT GOT REAL
Did I mention Vicious Ambitious’ latest multimedia extravaganza, three trailers for the non-existent film ENTER THE DRAGNET 2: DIRTY BADGES can now be viewed on YouTube? Well, now I have. These have had the really politically incorrect bits I got to see when they were initially unveiled in Calgary edited out, which is probably a good move in regards to everything other than Entertaining Me.
***
I’m told the Chimaera Universe Superhero Roleplaying Game rulebook I did a bit of work on is now available for preorder from Mongoose Publishing.
My contribution to the book came in the form of smartass descriptions of skills. One of my favourite things about the old Champions rulebook was the humourous characters used to illustrate how a given power worked. The last version of the Hero System rules I saw had done away with those--with any personality at all, really, which was depressing. So when George Singley asked me to do descriptions for a list of a hundred and fifty or so skills, he got stuff like this:
“Prestidigitation: The first thing one learns with the prestidigitation skill is how to say ‘prestidigitation’. A magician must-have, sleight of hand allows its user to deceive a watcher, making them believe something is where it isn’t while putting it somewhere else.”
and
“Speed Reading: If you had this skill, you’d already know how this game defines the Basic Law skill.”
and
“Pilot Rotor Wing: Helicopters, gyrocopters, ornithopters, other aircraft with names ending in ‘opter’…these are the kinds of things a Rotor Wing Pilot can fly and, more importantly, safely land on top of a skyscraper. Let’s see you do THAT, Mr. I’m So Cool Jetfighter Pilot…”
and
“Poetry: If you had this skill
You’d know this was no sonnet
It is a haiku.”
and
“Basic law: Basically, you know the law.”
and
“Writing: A highly overrated skill. Anybody can do this. At least, that’s what every talentless nitwit I’ve come across says when I tell them what I do for a living. YOU THINK COMING UP WITH THIS STUFF IS EASY?!?! SCREW YOU, YOU PIECE OF--(editor’s note: The publishers of the Chimaera Roleplaying Game would like assure its readers that they do not share the opinions expressed by Andrew Foley in this Skills definition, and that they’re making absolutely sure he’s actually taking his medication before allowing him to continue.)”
Strangely enough, everyone seemed to quite like this approach. I must admit, I’m curious to see how it meshes with the rest of the book.
***
QUOTE OF THE DAY #2
“There's only so much shit you can throw to the wall before the room starts to stink.” Someone in a mood as chipper and upbeat as my own.
***
Right. I’m off to try to get some work done, fail miserably, and console myself by watching seventeen episodes of Battlestar Galactica.
A
***
NO FORMULA
Today on Comicon.com’s The Pulse: a roundtable discussion by all those creators participating in the NO FORMULA: STORIES FROM THE CHEMISTRY SET Volume One anthology Nick and I weren’t invited to participate in. The book’s in the current PREVIEWS, order code: JUN083849
***
THE NEW VANGUARD
In light of recent news regarding the company, I really don’t know what to make of today’s announcement that Platinum Studios is starting a new joint comic imprint, Vanguard Comics. Looks like the first title’s going to be ILLEGAL ALIENS, a project Rob Moran created and sold to the company years ago. If nothing else, it’s good that Rob’s book’s finally going to be hitting the stands. It’s been at Platinum for as long as I can remember--I think its acquisition might even predate my starting work for the company.
***
YOU GO, SVETLANA!
A glimmer of light in the depths of my oh-so-angst-ridden week: the announcement of Svetlana Chmakova’s animated series MY LIFE ME did perk me up a little. Sometimes good things do happen to good people.
***
QUOTE OF THE DAY #1
“I'm going to assume the answer to all these questions is ‘no’ and find something else to pointlessly obsess about for awhile.” Me, venting at my manager.
***
THE SHIT GOT REAL
Did I mention Vicious Ambitious’ latest multimedia extravaganza, three trailers for the non-existent film ENTER THE DRAGNET 2: DIRTY BADGES can now be viewed on YouTube? Well, now I have. These have had the really politically incorrect bits I got to see when they were initially unveiled in Calgary edited out, which is probably a good move in regards to everything other than Entertaining Me.
***
I’m told the Chimaera Universe Superhero Roleplaying Game rulebook I did a bit of work on is now available for preorder from Mongoose Publishing.
My contribution to the book came in the form of smartass descriptions of skills. One of my favourite things about the old Champions rulebook was the humourous characters used to illustrate how a given power worked. The last version of the Hero System rules I saw had done away with those--with any personality at all, really, which was depressing. So when George Singley asked me to do descriptions for a list of a hundred and fifty or so skills, he got stuff like this:
“Prestidigitation: The first thing one learns with the prestidigitation skill is how to say ‘prestidigitation’. A magician must-have, sleight of hand allows its user to deceive a watcher, making them believe something is where it isn’t while putting it somewhere else.”
and
“Speed Reading: If you had this skill, you’d already know how this game defines the Basic Law skill.”
and
“Pilot Rotor Wing: Helicopters, gyrocopters, ornithopters, other aircraft with names ending in ‘opter’…these are the kinds of things a Rotor Wing Pilot can fly and, more importantly, safely land on top of a skyscraper. Let’s see you do THAT, Mr. I’m So Cool Jetfighter Pilot…”
and
“Poetry: If you had this skill
You’d know this was no sonnet
It is a haiku.”
and
“Basic law: Basically, you know the law.”
and
“Writing: A highly overrated skill. Anybody can do this. At least, that’s what every talentless nitwit I’ve come across says when I tell them what I do for a living. YOU THINK COMING UP WITH THIS STUFF IS EASY?!?! SCREW YOU, YOU PIECE OF--(editor’s note: The publishers of the Chimaera Roleplaying Game would like assure its readers that they do not share the opinions expressed by Andrew Foley in this Skills definition, and that they’re making absolutely sure he’s actually taking his medication before allowing him to continue.)”
Strangely enough, everyone seemed to quite like this approach. I must admit, I’m curious to see how it meshes with the rest of the book.
***
QUOTE OF THE DAY #2
“There's only so much shit you can throw to the wall before the room starts to stink.” Someone in a mood as chipper and upbeat as my own.
***
Right. I’m off to try to get some work done, fail miserably, and console myself by watching seventeen episodes of Battlestar Galactica.
A
Monday, April 7, 2008
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
THE HOLIDAY MEN #1.11: Educational. Yummy.
The next to last installment of THE HOLIDAY MEN's debut adventure, THE MASSACRE MEMORIAL DAY SALE MASSACRE, is up at The Chemistry Set.
And that's no joke.
A
And that's no joke.
A
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
THE HOLIDAY MEN are on vacation...
...substituting for them this week at The Chemistry Set is THE TOKEN GOBLIN in his first and, to date, only comic story, The Art of The Matter.
Those without broadband should probably give this one a pass...
A
Those without broadband should probably give this one a pass...
A
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
THE HOLIDAY MEN #1.8: Say Good Night, Foley
www.chemsetcomics.com
Too tired to insert image or proper link right now, but it's up.
Good night, Foley.
A
Too tired to insert image or proper link right now, but it's up.
Good night, Foley.
A
Monday, February 18, 2008
A Very Special HOLIDAY MEN Episode
This week at The ChemSet: A HOLIDAY MEN episode like no other!
Read it and weep. I know I'm going to.
A
Read it and weep. I know I'm going to.
A
Monday, February 11, 2008
HOLIDAY MEN #1.6: Still Senselessly Violent After All These Years. Year. OK, Month and a Half.
Well, editor Ward Foyle was as good as his word and abandoned us mid-storyline due to a disagreement over how awful this particular installment's title is. That guy's got no sense of humour, I tell you.
Anyway. This week, things go from bad to worse for pretty much everybody, but especially Nick Klaus and the crowd of people who thought a Massacre Day Sale would be a pleasant way to spend an afternoon. Important life lessons can be learned, in:
Monday, February 4, 2008
THE HOLIDAY MEN #1.5 goes Boom now.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
KARE-KARE KOMIKS: Act of Choice
Over at The Chemistry Set, Andrew Drilon knocked it out of the park today with the latest KARE-KARE KOMIKS story, "Act of Choice". It reads as the opening to a Jasper Ffordian interstitial apocalypse tale featuring the return of Mang Thomas, Storyhunter. Highly recommended.
A
A
Monday, January 28, 2008
THE HOLIDAY MEN #1.4
Two of my favourite HOLIDAY MEN bits can be found in this week's installment. I'm so excited I could eat nineteen oranges in seven minutes.
OMegaMart@GMail.com
Monday, January 21, 2008
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Deep Thought
This was originally written as part of my and Nick Johnson's "commentary track" for the first installment of THE HOLIDAY MEN. Nick thought it was a little, er, let's call it wordy. So I retooled it slightly so it's less a "me talking to Nick" thing than a "Me talking" thing, and, well, here's me talking about webcomic density:
When I first came up with the Holiday Men concept, it was very, very straightforward (I actually once described it as "the silliest idea I've ever had", something I think is still arguably true). The template for an H-Men story was simple: Holiday Men find out about evildoing, show up, kick the living shit out whatever O’Mega-Mart’s up to this episode, and retreat to the shadows from whence they came.
Getting Nick onto the art was a godsend, because he can do ridiculous action scenes like nobody’s business, and that’s all the H-Men was intended to be. At first. So, knowing Nick was on-board, I went ahead and wrote the first episode as a straight-up action comic, with minimal text.
It took about fifteen minutes.
And that seemed like…an inappropriate amount of time to spend on a 24 page comic. Especially considering how long it was going to take to draw it.
I began to feel lazy, which isn’t unusual. I also began to feel bad about being lazy, which is highly unusual. Even by my standards, which are pretty forgiving, this just seemed ridiculously easy. My writer’s ego or Catholic guilt (an admittedly odd condition for an atheist ex-protestant to have) couldn’t stand me not putting at least a little more into it.
Now, add to this the fact that, by this point, I know we’re starting out with online serialization. Which means a reader’s going to be (potentially) seeing the equivalent of one to, at most, three pages of a standard comic a week. What are they going to be getting for their time?
It seems to me the real webcomic success stories so far have been built in the daily comic strip format: regular installments, more than one or two a week, with some kind of climax at the end of each installment, usually a punchline. Less successful, so far, is the serial release of non-comic strip-format, dramatic webcomics. Why?
I have some theories about this, and the H-Men is an attempt to prove some of them. Only time will tell whether it worked, of course, but here’s one of them, or part of one of them: it’s one thing to have a ten page fight scene in a comic you can read 22 pages of while you’re in the bathroom. It’s another thing altogether to have a ten page fight scene released over 2 and a half months. Getting someone like me to even remember the context of a scene after a couple weeks is going to be tricky.
So, the idea I’m pushing with the H-Men is that, yeah, we’ve got the fight scene, and it’s all there visually if that’s what you’re after. BUT, if a reader wants to, there’s text material there for them to dig into beyond the traditional comic story elements. This approach is hardly unique: heavy text goes all the way back to Hal Foster’s PRINCE VALIANT, at least, but more recent comics I looked to for inspiration were The Intimates, The Nightly News, and The Amazing Joy Buzzards. Each of these used the comic convention of the text caption (way out of fashion in mainstream comics for the last several years) in interesting ways--ways that didn’t necessarily forward immediate storytelling concerns. The captions are value-added material. Or at least, that's the idea behind them.
Do you need to read them? Not really. If you want to watch Santa Claus kick someone’s ass, we’ve got that. If you want to know what kind of magazine the person whose ass is getting kicked read before (or during) said ass-kicking, that might be there, too.
Or there might be a description of what kind of bird is lurking in the background. Or what I had for lunch. Whatever I think might get a laugh.
If you’re giving people two comic pages a week, you’ve got to offer them something more than just a nicely drawn page. You’ve got to offer some kind of satisfying reading experience, on a per-installment basis. The textual elements of the H-Men are intended to do that.
An editor buddy of mine said they made him slow down to read the thing--made him slow down too much. I don’t really know what to say to that. My initial instinct is to take issue with the notion that a comic should be readable quickly. Most modern comics can be read fairly quickly, but I spent twenty+ going through an old Lee-Kirby FF the other night. You want to talk about dense text, you look at these classic silver age things and tell me lots of text on a comics page is unworkable.
I don’t believe it. Or I don’t want to believe it. Our reader(s?) will tell me whether I’m right or just stupid. Or both.
Foley
When I first came up with the Holiday Men concept, it was very, very straightforward (I actually once described it as "the silliest idea I've ever had", something I think is still arguably true). The template for an H-Men story was simple: Holiday Men find out about evildoing, show up, kick the living shit out whatever O’Mega-Mart’s up to this episode, and retreat to the shadows from whence they came.
Getting Nick onto the art was a godsend, because he can do ridiculous action scenes like nobody’s business, and that’s all the H-Men was intended to be. At first. So, knowing Nick was on-board, I went ahead and wrote the first episode as a straight-up action comic, with minimal text.
It took about fifteen minutes.
And that seemed like…an inappropriate amount of time to spend on a 24 page comic. Especially considering how long it was going to take to draw it.
I began to feel lazy, which isn’t unusual. I also began to feel bad about being lazy, which is highly unusual. Even by my standards, which are pretty forgiving, this just seemed ridiculously easy. My writer’s ego or Catholic guilt (an admittedly odd condition for an atheist ex-protestant to have) couldn’t stand me not putting at least a little more into it.
Now, add to this the fact that, by this point, I know we’re starting out with online serialization. Which means a reader’s going to be (potentially) seeing the equivalent of one to, at most, three pages of a standard comic a week. What are they going to be getting for their time?
It seems to me the real webcomic success stories so far have been built in the daily comic strip format: regular installments, more than one or two a week, with some kind of climax at the end of each installment, usually a punchline. Less successful, so far, is the serial release of non-comic strip-format, dramatic webcomics. Why?
I have some theories about this, and the H-Men is an attempt to prove some of them. Only time will tell whether it worked, of course, but here’s one of them, or part of one of them: it’s one thing to have a ten page fight scene in a comic you can read 22 pages of while you’re in the bathroom. It’s another thing altogether to have a ten page fight scene released over 2 and a half months. Getting someone like me to even remember the context of a scene after a couple weeks is going to be tricky.
So, the idea I’m pushing with the H-Men is that, yeah, we’ve got the fight scene, and it’s all there visually if that’s what you’re after. BUT, if a reader wants to, there’s text material there for them to dig into beyond the traditional comic story elements. This approach is hardly unique: heavy text goes all the way back to Hal Foster’s PRINCE VALIANT, at least, but more recent comics I looked to for inspiration were The Intimates, The Nightly News, and The Amazing Joy Buzzards. Each of these used the comic convention of the text caption (way out of fashion in mainstream comics for the last several years) in interesting ways--ways that didn’t necessarily forward immediate storytelling concerns. The captions are value-added material. Or at least, that's the idea behind them.
Do you need to read them? Not really. If you want to watch Santa Claus kick someone’s ass, we’ve got that. If you want to know what kind of magazine the person whose ass is getting kicked read before (or during) said ass-kicking, that might be there, too.
Or there might be a description of what kind of bird is lurking in the background. Or what I had for lunch. Whatever I think might get a laugh.
If you’re giving people two comic pages a week, you’ve got to offer them something more than just a nicely drawn page. You’ve got to offer some kind of satisfying reading experience, on a per-installment basis. The textual elements of the H-Men are intended to do that.
An editor buddy of mine said they made him slow down to read the thing--made him slow down too much. I don’t really know what to say to that. My initial instinct is to take issue with the notion that a comic should be readable quickly. Most modern comics can be read fairly quickly, but I spent twenty+ going through an old Lee-Kirby FF the other night. You want to talk about dense text, you look at these classic silver age things and tell me lots of text on a comics page is unworkable.
I don’t believe it. Or I don’t want to believe it. Our reader(s?) will tell me whether I’m right or just stupid. Or both.
Foley
Monday, January 14, 2008
Linkblog
Dental problems continue to vex me, and the last minute rush to get the second installment of THE HOLIDAY MEN up in 13 hours or so has me preoccupied. Still, some interesting stuff to read kicking around the web this morning...
I'm the Guest Writer at this month's Writer's Corner at the Edmonton Public Library. Not entirely sure what I'll be doing there, yet. From what I can tell, the format of the gatherings is extremely flexible, but I'll probably be reading from a couple things, just because I like doing that and I haven't had a chance to do it publicly for a year and a half.
From Dirk Deppey's !journalista!: As much as it pains me to find myself siding with long-time personal irritant and serial fuckwit Ezra Levant, if there isn't more to this story than he's being forced to defend himself legally for simply reprinting (presumably with the cartoonists' permission) the infamous Danish anti-Mohammed cartoons, well, damn it, I guess there is something to that whole strange bedfellows thing after all. Now will somebody please get this asshole out of my bed?
SF Author Lyda Morehouse on how supposedly negative emotional states can inspire productivity. Speaking for myself, jealousy and competitiveness have long been major personal
From Todd Allen's column at ComicBookResources.com: A link to the Hollywood option document for Platinum's COWBOYS & ALIENS. I'm going to need to be in a substantially better mood than I have been for the last 15-odd years before I read it.
Warren Ellis is letting independent comic creators plug their work at his Whitechapel forum.
A little more than twelve hours till the new installment of THE HOLIDAY MEN goes live at ChemSetComics.com. I'm still getting butterflies in my stomach from getting it out there...
I'm the Guest Writer at this month's Writer's Corner at the Edmonton Public Library. Not entirely sure what I'll be doing there, yet. From what I can tell, the format of the gatherings is extremely flexible, but I'll probably be reading from a couple things, just because I like doing that and I haven't had a chance to do it publicly for a year and a half.
From Dirk Deppey's !journalista!: As much as it pains me to find myself siding with long-time personal irritant and serial fuckwit Ezra Levant, if there isn't more to this story than he's being forced to defend himself legally for simply reprinting (presumably with the cartoonists' permission) the infamous Danish anti-Mohammed cartoons, well, damn it, I guess there is something to that whole strange bedfellows thing after all. Now will somebody please get this asshole out of my bed?
SF Author Lyda Morehouse on how supposedly negative emotional states can inspire productivity. Speaking for myself, jealousy and competitiveness have long been major personal
From Todd Allen's column at ComicBookResources.com: A link to the Hollywood option document for Platinum's COWBOYS & ALIENS. I'm going to need to be in a substantially better mood than I have been for the last 15-odd years before I read it.
Warren Ellis is letting independent comic creators plug their work at his Whitechapel forum.
A little more than twelve hours till the new installment of THE HOLIDAY MEN goes live at ChemSetComics.com. I'm still getting butterflies in my stomach from getting it out there...
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
HOLIDAY MEN bits
THE HOLIDAY MEN - bits
It's official--HOLIDAY MEN Season begins January 8 on the Chemistry Set. I'm pretty sure this is the first press release I've done where someone didn't stop me from having fun with it:
The Chemistry Set Online Comics Collective is pleased — well, not pleased, exactly, more like extremely reluctant but they’re doing it anyway, to announce the addition of Andrew Foley and Nick Johnson’s comic THE HOLIDAY MEN to the site’s regular features.
ChemSet co-founder Vito Delsante tried to explain the situation. “I don’t really know how it happened. I was just having a drink–a Pepsi, it wasn’t even liquor!–and the next thing I know I’m in a cheap hotel room with a dead hooker and there’s Andrew and Nick telling me they’ll take care of everything if I’ll just convince the other ChemSetters to let them join. No one’s found the body, yet, so,” said Delsante, stifling a shudder, “They’re in.”
THE HOLIDAY MEN chronicles the ongoing conflict between twisted versions of holiday icons and global economic superpower O’Mega-Mart. Described by Johnson as “a subtly nuanced, satirical critique of consumer culture,” and “a haphazard collection of ridiculously violent fight scenes” by Foley, THE HOLIDAY MEN is the first collaboration between the two talented, handsome, and modest creators.
An elderly curmudgeon since the age of 12, Foley graduated from the Alberta College of Art and Design’s drawing program, ran his own painting studio, and successfully evaded his creditors for several years in the ’90s, before deciding to focus his creative efforts on writing. In addition to the independently produced comic books PARTING WAYS and DONE TO DEATH, he’s been paid to write more than a dozen graphic novels that haven’t been published, and a couple that have.
In addition to being a founding member of Calgary’s Vicious Ambitious Studios, Nick Johnson’s hobbies include juggling, animal husbandry, and lingerie modeling. An artistic wunderkind who drew his first comic prior to leaving his mother’s womb, he started selling minicomics to earn beer money at the age of fourteen.
Writer and artist first met in 2000 when Foley attempted to dispose of the pizza box Johnson lived in at the time. Said Foley, “Looking at the frankly disturbing images Nick had scrawled on the side of the box, I realized I’d just stumbled onto an amazing creative talent and immediately planned to ruthlessly exploit him to the best of my ability. Now, with THE HOLIDAY MEN, I finally get the chance.”
In addition to giving Chemistry Set’s audience a rollicking good time, THE HOLIDAY MEN also offers invaluable services to its corporate clients. Foley claims that, “Sponsoring a HOLIDAY MEN panel is a great way to bring your message to ‘the kids.’ You give us money and we give you access to the free webcomic-reading demographic every company’s dying to reach. Being part of this project will lend your business instant ’street cred.’ Rather than seeing you as a dust-covered dinosaur on the brink of extinction, partnering with THE HOLIDAY MEN will convince young people you’re ‘radical to the extreme!’” Anyone interested in becoming a HOLIDAY MEN sponsor is encouraged to send an e-mail with “Sponsorship” in the Subject Header to OMegaMart@Gmail.com.
THE HOLIDAY MEN’s first episode, “The Massacre Memorial Day Sale Massacre”, will appear in serialized installments every Tuesday on chemsetcomics.com, starting January 8. “We’ve still got good stuff like Dwight McPherson’s SURREAL ADVENTURES OF EDGAR ALLAN POO and Andrew Drilon’s KARE-KARE KOMIKS appearing on other days,” said Delsante, trying to reassure himself as much as anyone else.
The Chemistry Set is a destination for webcomics in a variety of styles from a variety of up & coming and established talent. Founded in 2006, The Chemistry Set’s membership boasts three Xeric Award winners and a combined bibliography including work for Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Random House, Image Comics, SLG Publishing, Markosia and many others. Visit The Chemistry Set at www.chemsetcomics.com
***
"Robert" commented on O'Mega-Mart's Holiday message posted on the Set, taking offence that O-Mart had failed to mention Christmas. I wrote OMegaMart@Gmail.com and got the following in reply:
Dear O’Mega-Mart Customer,
Thank you for contacting O’Mega-Mart’s Customer Relations Department. While we don’t want to encourage such behavior, we appreciate you taking the time to have thoughts of your own, and even for sharing them with us.
O’Mega-Mart would like to apologize for offending you by refraining to use “Christmas” in our annual Holiday Greeting. As you are likely aware, the O’Mega family are strong believers in the Christian faith—their luxury underground bunker on the O’Mega Estate has a fully-stocked 200 seat chapel ready to go in the unlikely event that they are not swept up with the rest of the righteous during the Rapture. Hopefully knowing this will help you appreciate that the O’Mega Family shares your indignation with its employees’ failure to highlight the celebration of the birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ in an appropriate manner.
In defense of the employees in question, prior to their termination, numerous studies indicated that a substantial portion of O’Mega-Mart’s customer base did not respond favorably to religion-specific holiday messages (unless those messages were specific to their religion.) A choice had to be made between the O’Megas’ deeply-held religious convictions and the desire to profit from people who are doomed to an eternity in the Lake of Fire. Ultimately, we had to do what was right by our shareholders; hence the generic holiday message. Only time and Our Lord Jesus Christ will tell us whether we chose correctly.
As you clearly have an interest in O’Mega-Mart-related affairs, we have taken the liberty of adding your e-mail address to our O’Mega-Mart Customer Update mailing list. If you don’t wish to receive alerts regarding the latest bargains available at your local O’Mega-Mart, please go to chemsetcomics.com on January 8 and follow the instructions there to remove your address from our list, or send an e-mail to this address with the “I don’t want your XXXXing Spam” in the subject header.
Yours truly,
The O’Mega-Mart Customer Relations Dep’t.
_____________________________________________
O’Mega-Mart: Serving all your consumer needs. Or else.
It's official--HOLIDAY MEN Season begins January 8 on the Chemistry Set. I'm pretty sure this is the first press release I've done where someone didn't stop me from having fun with it:
The Chemistry Set Online Comics Collective is pleased — well, not pleased, exactly, more like extremely reluctant but they’re doing it anyway, to announce the addition of Andrew Foley and Nick Johnson’s comic THE HOLIDAY MEN to the site’s regular features.
ChemSet co-founder Vito Delsante tried to explain the situation. “I don’t really know how it happened. I was just having a drink–a Pepsi, it wasn’t even liquor!–and the next thing I know I’m in a cheap hotel room with a dead hooker and there’s Andrew and Nick telling me they’ll take care of everything if I’ll just convince the other ChemSetters to let them join. No one’s found the body, yet, so,” said Delsante, stifling a shudder, “They’re in.”
THE HOLIDAY MEN chronicles the ongoing conflict between twisted versions of holiday icons and global economic superpower O’Mega-Mart. Described by Johnson as “a subtly nuanced, satirical critique of consumer culture,” and “a haphazard collection of ridiculously violent fight scenes” by Foley, THE HOLIDAY MEN is the first collaboration between the two talented, handsome, and modest creators.
An elderly curmudgeon since the age of 12, Foley graduated from the Alberta College of Art and Design’s drawing program, ran his own painting studio, and successfully evaded his creditors for several years in the ’90s, before deciding to focus his creative efforts on writing. In addition to the independently produced comic books PARTING WAYS and DONE TO DEATH, he’s been paid to write more than a dozen graphic novels that haven’t been published, and a couple that have.
In addition to being a founding member of Calgary’s Vicious Ambitious Studios, Nick Johnson’s hobbies include juggling, animal husbandry, and lingerie modeling. An artistic wunderkind who drew his first comic prior to leaving his mother’s womb, he started selling minicomics to earn beer money at the age of fourteen.
Writer and artist first met in 2000 when Foley attempted to dispose of the pizza box Johnson lived in at the time. Said Foley, “Looking at the frankly disturbing images Nick had scrawled on the side of the box, I realized I’d just stumbled onto an amazing creative talent and immediately planned to ruthlessly exploit him to the best of my ability. Now, with THE HOLIDAY MEN, I finally get the chance.”
In addition to giving Chemistry Set’s audience a rollicking good time, THE HOLIDAY MEN also offers invaluable services to its corporate clients. Foley claims that, “Sponsoring a HOLIDAY MEN panel is a great way to bring your message to ‘the kids.’ You give us money and we give you access to the free webcomic-reading demographic every company’s dying to reach. Being part of this project will lend your business instant ’street cred.’ Rather than seeing you as a dust-covered dinosaur on the brink of extinction, partnering with THE HOLIDAY MEN will convince young people you’re ‘radical to the extreme!’” Anyone interested in becoming a HOLIDAY MEN sponsor is encouraged to send an e-mail with “Sponsorship” in the Subject Header to OMegaMart@Gmail.com.
THE HOLIDAY MEN’s first episode, “The Massacre Memorial Day Sale Massacre”, will appear in serialized installments every Tuesday on chemsetcomics.com, starting January 8. “We’ve still got good stuff like Dwight McPherson’s SURREAL ADVENTURES OF EDGAR ALLAN POO and Andrew Drilon’s KARE-KARE KOMIKS appearing on other days,” said Delsante, trying to reassure himself as much as anyone else.
The Chemistry Set is a destination for webcomics in a variety of styles from a variety of up & coming and established talent. Founded in 2006, The Chemistry Set’s membership boasts three Xeric Award winners and a combined bibliography including work for Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Random House, Image Comics, SLG Publishing, Markosia and many others. Visit The Chemistry Set at www.chemsetcomics.com
***
"Robert" commented on O'Mega-Mart's Holiday message posted on the Set, taking offence that O-Mart had failed to mention Christmas. I wrote OMegaMart@Gmail.com and got the following in reply:
Dear O’Mega-Mart Customer,
Thank you for contacting O’Mega-Mart’s Customer Relations Department. While we don’t want to encourage such behavior, we appreciate you taking the time to have thoughts of your own, and even for sharing them with us.
O’Mega-Mart would like to apologize for offending you by refraining to use “Christmas” in our annual Holiday Greeting. As you are likely aware, the O’Mega family are strong believers in the Christian faith—their luxury underground bunker on the O’Mega Estate has a fully-stocked 200 seat chapel ready to go in the unlikely event that they are not swept up with the rest of the righteous during the Rapture. Hopefully knowing this will help you appreciate that the O’Mega Family shares your indignation with its employees’ failure to highlight the celebration of the birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ in an appropriate manner.
In defense of the employees in question, prior to their termination, numerous studies indicated that a substantial portion of O’Mega-Mart’s customer base did not respond favorably to religion-specific holiday messages (unless those messages were specific to their religion.) A choice had to be made between the O’Megas’ deeply-held religious convictions and the desire to profit from people who are doomed to an eternity in the Lake of Fire. Ultimately, we had to do what was right by our shareholders; hence the generic holiday message. Only time and Our Lord Jesus Christ will tell us whether we chose correctly.
As you clearly have an interest in O’Mega-Mart-related affairs, we have taken the liberty of adding your e-mail address to our O’Mega-Mart Customer Update mailing list. If you don’t wish to receive alerts regarding the latest bargains available at your local O’Mega-Mart, please go to chemsetcomics.com on January 8 and follow the instructions there to remove your address from our list, or send an e-mail to this address with the “I don’t want your XXXXing Spam” in the subject header.
Yours truly,
The O’Mega-Mart Customer Relations Dep’t.
________________________________________
O’Mega-Mart: Serving all your consumer needs. Or else.
Monday, December 24, 2007
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