... ... huh.

Well. THAT was unexpected...

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Debatable Quote of the Night

Fromrae_is, whose liveblogging of the third presidential debate is directly responsible for a Coke Zero spittake on my monitor:

"NO, I DO NOT TRUST YOU. YOU ARE A SCARY FISH-MAN FROM THE PLANET EVIL. YOU HAVE SPENT YOUR ENTIRE LIFE IN SERVICE OF JOHN MCCAIN--OH MY GOD HE WANTS TO BE A LEGACY PRESIDENT. I HATE YOU SO MUCH JOHN MCCAIN.

"Obama, you, on the other hand, can come play D&D with me on Friday if it's okay with Harrison, 'cause he's GMing. You'd be pretty cool. I mean, you'd rules-lawyer, but you'd be mellow about it, and you'd totally be a character-based RPer."

I just know I'm going to have nightmares about being stuck in a roleplaying game session with John McCain, now.

Also, if it hasn't happened already, someone needs to use PLANET EVIL as a title. Possibly even THE SCARY FISH-MAN FROM THE PLANET EVIL.

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What does asbestos smell like?

Tiina and her father have had a good day of smashing our downstairs bathroom into itty bits and pieces as a prelude to...well, fixing it, one hopes.

The original idea was that they'd do this while I was out of town for the World Fantasy Convention at the end of the month. But the plaster dust cloud filling the house says the original idea got discarded somewhere along the way, along with the bathroom walls, ceiling and any hope I had of getting anything productive done today. I'd feel a little guilty about not helping out if my sinuses didn't try to explode out of my face every time I open the door to the office or bedroom.

All things considered, it's a good thing I'm not planning to cook anything involving flour any time soon.

***

Actually, it wasn't that bad a day. Not a lot of writing, but a reasonable amount of editing done. So that's something. THE WEST WAS LOST is almost done, just needs a cover and lettering (and there isn't a whole lot of lettering in that one.) ReBoot's more than halfway done. No notes on the corporate strip yet, which is promising.

I'd rather be writing.

***

I was the opening quote on !journalista! a few days ago, with my pledge to use Gary Groth's "undistinguished pap" comment re: C&A as a cover blurb someday. Actually, I should talk to T about getting that up on the website, now that I think of it.

I read Deppey's blog first thing every day to get up to date on the comics industry. So getting a !journalista! link's more satisfying to me than seeing my name in Entertainment Weekly or The Hollywood Reporter. Beyond that, I'm comfortable taking responsibility for what I said and Deppey quoted. There's something of me in Cowboys & Aliens, I suppose, but it's almost all in the page and panel breakdowns. I didn't come up with the characters, the story, or the tone; I reworked Fred's dialogue and my words were in turn reworked by others; I wouldn't even have written the first five pages (the part of the book I'm happiest with) if I wasn't told to. Getting congratulated for C&A's perceived Hollywood success makes me more than a little uncomfortable, because I don't see it as my success (very, very easy to do when I'm not getting any of the money out of the multimedia exploitation). I've always felt weird taking any sort of credit (or blame, for that matter) for a project that had so many people, credited and otherwise, working on it.

I also really hate the official C&A logo.

***

I wonder how hard it'd be to get Groth to call The Holiday Men or something else "distinguished pap"...

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Blocked.

It's a stupid, thousand word piece. It shouldn't be this hard to write. I think I'm actually a little nervous about committing these particular thoughts to a public, permanent form.

Urgh.

First five pages of script for LI'L HANNAH is off to Nick, so at least I got something accomplished this weekend.

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uhh...?

Don't know if it's the weather, or the medications I've been taking to deal with the headache caused by the weather, but I've been dazed and confused for pretty much the entire day.

Maybe it was because I got up an hour earlier than is my habit to have a phone conversation with Fred Van Lente and a public radio...I guess his title would be producer...? He contacted Fred and I because we're the credited writers for Cowboys & Aliens, which is something I can't honestly say I've got a lot of interest in discussing, but the subject of the proposed feature is about alien invasion movies as a metaphor for European imperialism in North America, which is a subject I can get enthused about (even if I think most alien invasion movies tend to use whatever threat's most contemporary for inspiration {Body Snatchers reflecting the Cold War, Star Wars: Revenge of The Sith's Bush imperialist parallels}, rather than Europe's takeover of America.)

If nothing else, I think Eric (the radio guy) learned a fair amount about how comics work (and sometimes don't work), and it was nice to be able to directly talk to Fred for the first time. Considering my job on C&A largely consisted of cutting out a lot of the humour he brought to the project and reformatting the script from an album-sized 62 page book to the 100 or so it eventually became, I was a little nervous talking to Fred, but he was very cool, and much better-spoken than I am. In my defense, a few years ago I couldn't have managed to do a phone interview at all, so I am getting better at dealing with the outside world via something other than a keyboard and monitor. Still prefer typing, though. I don't mumble as much when I'm typing.

Also, I completely forgot that Gary Groth called something with my name on it "undistinguished pap" (in the New York Times, no less). I swear I'm going to use that as a cover blurb for a book someday...

***

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“You know back in 1980 Ronald Reagan asked the electorate whether you were better off than you were four years ago, at the pace things are going right now you’re going to have ask whether you’re better off than you were four weeks ago.” Barack H. Obama

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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.

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Debatable Quote of the Day

I'd probably be watching the spinners on CNN right now, but the History Channel has a special on King Henry VIII on, and seeing as he's Tiina's favourite King Henry, I'm currently making the rounds checking out various peoples' blogs re: the debate instead. I'm so glad others watch the debate and liveblog their reactions. It gives me a sense of how things went, though admittedly from the perspective of people whose political views are closer to mine than, say, any of the talking heads I'm sure are currently trying to frame the debate as their preferred candidate's utter victory, regardless of, you know...reality. And it saves me from needing to cleanse my home of the Stench of Lies by tossing the television through the living room window.

Best line I've come across so far:
"10:06: “John McCain knows how to win a war!” This is true. McCain won the War Against American Airplanes, and the War Against Being Faithful To His First Wife, and the War Against Coherence. Military wars, no, John McCain hasn’t won any of those." Mightygodking, re: a comment Palin made during the debate. I really want to just cut and paste his entire realtime commentary on the debate - it's hysterical.

Rae_is' is pretty good, too. And by good, I mean it entertained as well as enlightened. Entertained me, anyway. Your mileage may vary, but if you're reading this blog, I can't imagine it varies that much. Any post that starts off with "Oh, my god. Sarah Palin is such a douche." can't be that bad.

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