I think the worst thing about losing the shit on your hard drive is all of the things you take for granted that you had on there. Bookmarks to places that you found that were fun or interesting, or in my case, my list of agents that I’ve queried and what my status is with them. Of course, I’ve got it all in email and I can dig them out with great tediousness, but it’s just a pain to not have it at my fingertips anymore.
There’s the music, which means I now have to listen to internet radio again, which means juggling the same two mediocre pop stations and the 80s station that’s relatively popular. I enjoy “nostalgic” 80s music, but my probably is that I was really only down with about half of it, the latter half, and the rest is kind of just lost to me. Unlike some folks, I’m straddling two decades so I can’t just enjoy one “I Love the…” show to artificially induce memories, I have to watch two. The 90s one is always weird because when it starts I’m like “Oh yeah, high school memories” and then at the end its “Ah, Allie being born and divorce…what a decade.”
Speaking of, I finally got a chance to watch “Fletch” yesterday and today (I’ve been taking a lot of poorly timed naps), which made me happy. It’s one of those movies I’ve seen clips of forever and knew I would enjoy, but I never really got a chance to get to sit down and watch. God bless you, TiVo.
But yes, naps, meaning I get home from work, we eat dinner, maybe watch some TV together, and then when Kenzie goes over to work on the computer I end up sleeping for anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour, which plays merry hob with my sleep schedule. It’s funny because no matter how gung-ho I was to party in Chicago, I always ended up lying down and falling asleep when Travis went to make a phone call or when Lee would get in the shower or something like that. One night I woke up just enough to see that those two had gone to bed, and I just had enough energy to get up and get under the covers, still dressed.
Getting back to dodgy tastes in music and nostalgia, on the way back Travis picked out a CD that was labeled “I Loved the 90s, 1990-94″ and we were mostly pleased with the results…although I did get the disappointed head shake when “Opposites Attract” came on.
I have no excuse, ask the missus…
EDIT: The 80s station is now playing “The Greatest Love of All” (the “I believe that children are our future” song), which is funny, because I sing that softly when small children are around that annoy me. Which is most children, most times…
I’d like to say “Chicago was a blast!” but I can’t really say that since I wasn’t really in Chicago. I was near Chicago, we drove through it on the way to the airport, where the convention was being held, but we didn’t get a chance to actually see and be in Chicago.
The convention? Yeah, that was a blast. Almost a little overwhelming at first, but it was really great to meet the people that make the comics, as well as being around all the comic themed merchandise and all that jazz. I was lucky I didn’t go ballistic with the store money. Right off the bat I got to meet Brian Bendis at the Marvel booth, and he signed a bunch of comics for the store and then my DC Comics hat, which he was happy to do because “there was no hate there.” He encouraged me to go to the panel he was doing with Geoff Johns on Friday, and I assured him that it was already on the agenda.
The panels were cool, seeing all the folks interacting and taking questions and seeing the pure fun that came from almost everyone there. The Bendis/Johns panel really was great because instead of it being a “DC vs Marvel” slugfest, they hijacked their own panel and called up a bunch of people and turned it into a joint Marvel/DC panel. I liked seeing them talk about lateness in comics, how the movies help or don’t help the industry and the different stylistic tones each company has right now.
I also liked seeing and hearing a little about the business side of things, specifically from Jim McCann at Marvel, who took a fairly hostile question about Marvel’s overprint policy (something I’d been wondering about myself, frankly) and turned it into some really good advice for those that want to help their retailer out, like pre-ordering using Previews, communicating with your retailer about what you like and looking beyond “the Big Two” for other good stuff because a lot of it is out there. It was really cool to hear someone from the Big Guy have some actual good advice to help out the little guy.
Handing out the comic to folks was…well, handing out the comic to folks. I did my best to not sound and act like a giant fucking psychopath, but who knows how well that turned out. It seemed like everyone I talked to as I walked away I wanted to go “Oh wait, I forgot…” and then it’d be something like introducing myself, or giving a business card, or buying something so I didn’t look like a self absorbed prick. I know self-promotion is part of the deal but it’s kind of hard when your nervous and you know that these people have probably been dealing with comic people all weekend and they have their own stuff to puddle and try to peddle and make money off of. But y’know, it’s out there now, and I get to check my e-mail on eggshells for the next couple of months before falling into a glum depression about how no one likes me.
Speaking of which, I need to get on the ball with the agent hunt. I decided I can’t sit around and just wait anymore because it’s driving me crazy. I must be proactive. All of the stuff coming up, which seemed like such a mountain before I left, now is just…hey, that’s coming up. Cool.
I’m going to try to find a way to get the .pdf of the comic up on the Writing page, so I can have it there to be browsed lovingly. Or not so lovingly, depending.
Am I relaxed now? Yeah, you betcha. Not a 100%, but way more than the mad dash of skull-fuckery getting ready for the trip was. I talked to Allie on the phone last night and she’s doing well. She’s learning the clarinet (she has an extensive “I tried to learn it” collection of instruments), wants to take hip-hop dance (in addition to the ballet and tap she’s already taking) and, most horrifyingly, in a twist that makes me want to smash my face through plate glass and into a vat of lava, is that she went to go get a haircut and make up and general prettying this past weekend and afterwards BOYS WERE CHECKING HER OUT. Melissia told me because she felt she needed to share this agony with me.
Super.
But she’s doing well, going to camp for kids of officers who have been deployed, and is taking a trip to see her in-laws (well, Melissia’s in-laws) on a cargo plane (again, deployed officers families get to fly for free, apparently). Fritz is doing well in Afghanistan, and they get to talk everyday, which is good.
Maybe, if you’re good, I’ll blog more now that the Crisis is over.
This has been an exceptionally challenging…week? Two Weeks? Month? It’s all kind of blended together. I’m thankful I have a loving and supportive wife who keeps me grounded.
The store has been running like clockwork, which is good, although it’s a clock that requires a lot of managing. It’s been a constant go-go-go all summer, starting with Free Comic Book day, and then Street Fair, and now going to Chicago on Thursday for Wizard World , and then when we get back planning the midnight show party for the new Batman movie (the night of July 17th), and then whatever we want to do for our birthday, and then, finally, a trade show in Vegas in September. Oh, and then after that, October Street Fair.
Other than that, it’s running just like clockwork.
Getting the comic ready for Chicago has gone well, except for, y’know, the end part. Where it’s not printed yet. And the lettering isn’t done. All of this really hinged on the fact that I was stupid enough to try to be upgrading the computer while this was going on.
I think you can see where this is going.
I’m not going to bore you with the litany of details and tragedies, but let’s just say that I ended up buying a whole new computer from parts, except for the hard drive, because of two weeks of trying to get these parts to work together, when we finally put in my old hard drive it stopped working. Thankfully, there were some backups of my writing and such, but not a lot of Kenzie’s stuff, so we have to get that stuff professionally retrieved. In the course of all this madness we ended up with a spare 80 gig Hard drive so we’re using that, but yeah…all brand new computer, and none of our old data on it.
The worst was that it took all the lettering for the comic with it to its grave, so we kind of had to start over with it, less than a week before we left. The art was done and scanned in on CD, I just had to re-letter it, and then get all the notes and back matter up and working. With less time for all of that stuff, it may not have come out as I would’ve liked, but I’m also so worn out from staying up until 3+ am and getting up at 8:30-9 that I kind of can’t see the good in it.
There is good, though. I have a 16-page (counting cover, so 12-page) comic that’s written and drawn and lettered and ready to put in the hands of people that publish comics. Yeah, it’s black and white, and it’s 8.5 x 11, but it’s a thing that I did and I’ve waited my whole life for this opportunity. Even if nothing comes of it, this will be *fun,* and I’ve been so non-stop busy the past month and a half that fun has almost become a distant memory.
Tomorrow, one last early morning and then its in the van with Travis and Lee and to Chicago. Panels, comics, signings, schmoozing, drinking, drinking with Warren Ellis, actually seeing and meeting people like Peter David, Brian Bendis, Greg Rucka, Alex Ross and so many others.
The light at the end of the tunnel is here, and it’s not a train.
I’m not really, but that little gem from tonight’s Gossip Girl (yes, we watch it, and by we I mean Kenzie watches it and I sit there and pretend that I’m not interested, but it’s compelling in a trashy teen soap way) made me smile and appreciate the show that much more. Even if the guy who plays Chuck is secretly British and using that sick voodoo to have an “American accent.”
It’s in quotes because there isn’t an “American accent,” it’s just talking normally. *They* have accents, we don’t. If they can talk normally, why don’t they? We can sound like them because you can put on an accent. If you can take it off, you don’t have an accent. It’s like taking off your nose.
Seriously, British people sounding American is creepy.
Anyway, normalcy has returned. Events went okay, Guitar Hero very so-so, and Free Comic Book Day super-fucking-awesome. The Star Wars 501st people were a big hit, and yes, we took pictures.
Left to Right: Travis, Me, Tony & Steve.
So yeah, that was a good time.
Iron Man is also super-fucking-awesome. Probably the best comic-book movie ever made. It’s not definite, but it’s gonna be up there and in the conversation for a long time. Very few things, if any, wrong with it. Even Kenzie liked the shit out of it. And Sam Jackson as Nick Fury? Talking about SHIELD and the Avengers? Holy crap. If they manage to make halfway decent Hulk, Ant-Man, Thor and Captain America movies…and all those actors are in the Avengers movie? BOW YOUR HEAD IN SHAME DC!
Speed Racer is also very acceptable, even though it’s more just goofy for kids fun, with ridiculous effects and corniness, but crazy visuals and all that. Of course, it’s bombing apparently, because it cost shit-tons to make and the core market is people my age and older who remember a cartoon.
Things have been a little creatively stalled, but I’m refocusing on helping Lee with layouts for the first few issues of Gifted, rather than try to force myself more into the final issue. It’s going to be a toughie, I think, so I still need time to digest it.
Grand Theft Auto IV hasn’t helped in that regard either. Dammit. I did, however, manage to do both tonight, and in a way that didn’t make me feel like I was neglecting the comic work. Still in “any day now” mode with the agent. He has all my eggs. I miss my eggs.
Here’s hoping he does something super-fucking-awesome with them.
This is going to be a lousy week. I can feel it in my bones, and with my cheery positive outlook, I am bound to make it so.
We’re doing another Guitar Hero tournament on Thursday, this time at Peach’s, the music bar and grill about a block away. It’s us, the music store next door, and Peach’s hosting, with me “emcee”-ing it so I can pimp Free Comic Book Day, which is this Saturday.
Right there, those two things are causing the aforementioned cheery outlook. Guitar Hero came together right before the last minute, but with three shops organizing, it hasn’t been too much hard work, just those crazy last minute details that always fly up in your face like a leaf-covered rake. Like the prizes, and where I’m going to sit, who (if anyone) is going to be there with me, and yeah, being on a stage at a bar trying to be “funny” or whatever while I’m hosting a making fake music contest. Or how we’re going to randomize the songs. Or if we’re going to get Tony’s 360 hard drive to Peach’s to use the downloaded or unlocked songs. Or how I’m going to get the tournament bracket set if we don’t get enough people.
Hey, lets think about Free Comic Book Day instead. Like where we’re going to put all the stuff we ordered. Or where the Darth Vader and Stormtroopers from the 501st Legion are going to be, or if they’re going to be on time, or if you can make them happy and be a good host. Or if the money we spent on flyers or radio advertising will actually bring people out.
Lots of fun.
I could also talk about how I got the runaround for a month from the people at the movie theater when I wanted to do some flyering and coupon handouts at the Iron Man premiere (this Thursday, natch). After dealing with fuck-ups at the corporate office, Tony and Travis went out to th theater in person to talk to a human, we found out one of the other comic shops in the area locked down a promotion two weeks ago…after I’d been told by someone there to put all my eggs in corporate’s basket. Fool! Never put anything in corporate’s basket!
Of course, that would’ve been the same night as Guitar Hero and that would’ve been a blast (of crap in my face), so that’s okay, I guess…but damn.
But hey, I heard back from the agent that has my full manuscript. It was on Friday, just after I spent the whole day applying vinyl letters to the awning outside the store so we could be big and visual on the outside for our inaugural FCBD. You’d think putting letters on an awning would be cake. Of course not. Instructions were apparently sold separately, and I measured them wrong, meaning I had to come up with a whole new way to use the $150 worth “comics & games” we bought. So we spend the whole damn day working on it, me up and down the worlds ricketiest ladder, finally Tim Gunning it up and then, exhausted physically and mentally, I sit down to check my email, and there’s the one I’ve been waiting six months for. I actually sat there and said “crap…crap…crap” for about five minutes before I opened it.
It was anticlimactic, just a “wow, I’ve had this for a while, do you still interested in me representing it?” I wrote him back, using less strong language than “Sweet glorious fuck-stick yes, please!” I haven’t heard back yet. I am cautiously optimistic. Or soon to be catastrophically heart broken, coupled with the self loathing that comes from not querying as much as I should.
Lee is, I think, done with the pencils for the first ten pages of the comic. I think. Then we begin the rickety, uncharted, process of inking. And then the hellish no man’s land of lettering.
I’ve been writing for crap lately. Finished the 2nd draft of the third issue of the aforementioned comic. I’d been wanting to have drafts of all six issues done by now, but 4 and 5 are still in first draft notebook stage. I’m still trying to pace 6 out in my head, but I find myself unsure. Regardless, it’ll be done by Chicago (end of June) by hook or by crook. I don’t know which one involves more blood and tears (because both sound pretty horrible), but it’ll be that one.
I leave you with this video one of our customers made for an entry into a Free Comic Book Day commercial. If you look closely, you can see me (playing the role I was born to play, that of the confused shopkeep) and my store (you don’t have to look to hard to figure out which one it is…we don’t sell fabric)…and the store logo that I sent him that has the wrong phone number on it.
See? Cheery, positive outlook.
PS: “Harold and Kumar: Escape From Guantanamo Bay,” like donuts, is awesome.
So I used to really dislike the whole improv comedy thing. It often came off as the pretentious tripe of vaguely talented theater majors so desperate to prove how clever they are by making something almost funny out of serious of nouns culled from the audience like really bad Mad Libs.
Then I watched the season 2 finale of “The Whitest Kids You Know,” and it made me so much more appreciative, as it was filed live on stage in NY. If you haven’t seen the show you’re really missing out, as its probably the best sketch comedy series on TV right now, and since its on IFC it’s uncensored which makes it that much more awesome.
Examples:
Of course, the season finale was just on, so if they do reruns on IFC you’ll have to catch it then. The thing about the finale, with the live-ness and the not having costumes and sets and all that jazz made me appreciate the art of getting up there and just being funny in a weird unique way. There aren’t any YouTube clips of the finale up yet, but keep your eyes out for them because it’s great. Watching it really made me wish I had the opportunity to get on stage and do stuff like that (y’know, if I had a stage, or was comfortable on one, or if I was funnier), and really made me respect the people that can do that a lot more.
Of course, writing this and thinking about it more…I guess they aren’t improv at all. It’s regular sketch comedy. No retarded audience Mad Libs.
Fuck those improv people.
****
Speaking of “Fuck those people,” I just got done watching The Cook, and what a giant piece of crap. As much as I love crappy direct to video horror movies, this had no real redeeming value whatsoever. Even toplessness, implied lesbianism, lesbians in bondage and near constant drug use could save it, and that’s a lot of good things. We’re getting a lot of these low-budget horror movies at the store and we’re doing good business with them, but flashy covers and hilariously awful concepts aren’t enough to sell them. People ask us all the time if they are “good,” and as we all know there are levels of good. There’s good, and then something so bad its good, or something that’s just kind o mindless popcorn good, even things so horrifyingly wrong they’re good, etc. This, sadly, is none of those. It’s just bad, and that means I’ve got to find something else to sell.
Eventful times, of course. I’ll forgo the usual “oh gee it’s been so long,” except for this whole mentioning it thing.
The store has been doing well, quite well in fact. We’ve been busy but not overwhelmed, but we’ve been all worked up over Free Comic Book Day, which is coming painfully soon. We’ve got all kinds of fun stuff lined up, including a visit from the 501st Legion Storm trooper folks, who craft their own highly detailed and accurate Star Wars Imperial costumes and make appearances for charity donations. Maybe we’ll find ourselves with some good press this year and keep making a name for ourselves. We did our first off-site sale at a local comic convention, which went really well even though we’d been wait-listed for a table and got one with about 12 hours notice.
Writing is going relatively well, although I did find a way to finagle myself an Xbox 360, so now I’m all enthralled with new video games and it’s really putting my mettle in the fire. My MySpace quote used to be “There’s no such thing as writer’s block, just video games.” So true, Brian Vaughn. So true.
We’ll see how well things turn out. The first draft of five of the six issues have been written, and we’ve got about 8 pages of pencils so far. Then inked, lettered, printed and then its off to Chicago.
