You can hear me every week on the official Super-Fly Comics & Games podcast with the rest of the Super-Fly crew. You can visit the Panels on Pages PoP-Cast Network page through the banner above, or you can subscribe and listen to shows through iTunes on the banner below.
Archive for November, 2004
9 items.
If you wanted honesty, that’s all you had to say…
November 29th, 2004 | by Thacher ClevelandPosted In: General
So, another day off with not that much done thus far. I blame it on the fact that my coffee maker is totally fucked up and thus, I don’t have the basic fuel I need to even attempt to function in the first few hours after waking up. Thankfully, I’ve gotten the dirty-dirty on how to fix it, what with the vinegar and the flushing and the GLAVEN!, so I should be square by tomorrow a.m.
I totally hate Chapter 12. Chapter 12, surely, is the devil. Hopefully, I’m getting through all the ass-tastic parts of the book and will be moving into the parts where I can just do basic editing and cleaning and buffing and polishing and all that jazz. Chapter 12, sadly, you have to take the Vietnam approach, so in order to save the chapter, we must burn the chapter. I’m going to kinda sorta switch gears and try to get some of the comic shorts I’m working on to a point where I can actually try to solicit someone to draw them. One is pretty much done, except for some polishing; one is stalled halfway, but easily fixed; and the most recent just needs to be gotten out onto paper and see what happens.
The highlights of those? AS FOLLOWS!
- Supernatural adventure
- Schoolgirl outfits
- Nazis
- Evil Cheerleaders
- A RUN-DMC speed-metal cover band
- Guns
- Kung Fu
- names like Harris, Harmony, Lennox, Lukasz, Fee, Fie and Fumm
- “Demonic ritual, Starscream? This is bad comedy.”
AND THAT’S JUST FOR STARTERS!
So we’ll see how that goes.
I decided the other day that I need a t-shirt that says “Just because I work retail doesn’t mean I give a shit.” If any of you have worked retail, you know that there is this phenomenon that makes people want to just talk to you, like you’re a bartender or some sort of therapist. People need to understand that the reason why I’m standing there and not just walking away or telling them to leave me alone is because *they pay me to stand there!* I had a guy ask me yesterday “If I could do anything or go anywhere tomorrow, what would I do?” Yeah, random people don’t get an answer to that question. My current person can ask me that question, and I’ll answer them, but not some guy who just wants to chat five minutes past closing.
Of course, these are the people that say things like “Oh, if I’m bothering you or whatever, just let me know, because otherwise I’ll just talk forever.” What a fabulous way to abdicate responsibility for your own actions. I had an employee several years ago that said that she didn’t care she smelled like roadkill (because she hadn’t showered or done laundry in years, it seemed) because if someone doesn’t like it, it’s *their* problem. So by that logic, just do whatever you want, and if someone has a problem with that, they just have to tell you. If someone is in a situation wehre they aren’t comfortable with telling you exactly what they feel, or where it’s thier job to not be an asshole to someone, then you’ve hit the jackpot and wear that person down to a nub like a golf pencil.
Yes, I suppose there is a middle ground to that sort of thing, and yes, I did mention a situation recently where some freakshow was yammering my ears off and I blamed myself for not sufficiently making clear my desire for said freakshow to take a long walk of a short pier, but still…where do these people come from? What emptiness drives them to such horrid depths, such low lows?
I guess the sad part is that we’ve all done it to someone at some point, inevitably. It’s like cutting someone off in traffic. You hate it, but at some point, accidentally, we all do it.
So yeah, for those keeping score at home: *still* in love with the Eminem album (don’t be hatin’!) and I’m still rockin’ the Jay-Z/Linkin Park songs. Because they are good, no matter what people (current or otherwise), say. It’s just true. Not everyone’s cuppa, but still worth existing, mos’ def.
So it looks like my coffee maker is working. W00t.
Can I get an encore, do you want more? Cookin’ raw with the Jersey boy, so for one last time I need you to roar. What the hell are you waiting for? After me there should be no more, so make some noise.
I’m not okay (I promise), and I remain…
P.S. Ma, it’s a song. I *am* okay. Honest.
Comment
Don’t treat me like Pee Wee Herman, this movie is PG
November 27th, 2004 | by Thacher ClevelandPosted In: General
Ahhhh, Thanksgiving…what a good time. I spent it with delightful people (one in particular) and I had a great time. Watched the new Harry Potter and “Saved,” and played that movie DVD trivia game “Scene It,” if by play you mean beaten severely about the head and shoulders.
Interesting fact: did you know magic doesn’t work on bears? Watch your ass, Harry Potter…
So I had another “Ah jeez, I gotta get my shit done” moment over the weekend, which is important, because the more of those I have the more likely they are to stick and make me less of a fuck-up. I mean, I’m working, don’t get me wrong. I finished the rough draft of the first 22-page issue of a comic mini-series that I’ve been thinking about for *years,* which is nice, and when I’m done with this I’m going to work on the “Gifted” 16-page story I’m in the middle of. And on Monday, more calling about reference stuff for the book…y’know, the thing I’ll make my millions on (if it doesn’t suck).
I had a nice long conversation about how and why I write over the T-Day break. It put some things in perspective, which is nice. I always find it weird to talk about writing with other writing people, because I just don’t feel like I’m on the same level as some of those people. Not a “I’m better than thou” other level, just a “I just like telling stories” level, and so many of them are on a pretentous “high art” kind of level, which just kind of makes me shrug my shoulders. Not to mention that when you talk about writing with other writers, they always find a way to turn the conversation around on to themselves, and yeah, that happens with almost all subjects and with al people, but still…it just makes me want to, as Jay-Z would say, brush my shoulders off.
Work is going well. We made a shitload of money on Friday, which I like (even though I don’t get any of it, turns out). The business and the staff are clicking, and I feel like we’re on the cusp of being able to take it to the next level. What that level entails, I have no idea…
One of my co-workers loaned me “Ghostbusters” on DVD. Hehehehehehe. Oh God, what fun. Even better, left over from last weekend’s “Holiday in the Village” hoo-hah is a giant tin of cookies, the little buttery ones with the sugar crystals on top. My God I love those. I’d cook them up in a spoon and inject them into my eyeball if I could, or if that wasn’t really gross.
I’m still kinda-sorta drawing too. If you can call what I do “drawing.” I know I’ll never draw comics, but I’d like to be able to do rough sketches of characters and places (and other nouns) to help out artists that I end up working with. If by “helping” you mean “making sure they don’t get fucked up.”
One of my favorite T-Shirts on T-Shirt Hell lately: “Spin my Dreidel…and by Dreidel I mean Cock and by Spin I mean Suck.” That and the “I Saw Mommy Kissing Mrs. Claus” shirt. I love T-Shirt Hell…I just wish you could actually wear half thier shirts in public.
Have I said how much I love the new Eminem album? Terrific, especially “Toy Soldiers,” “Crazy in Love,” “Puke,” and “Never Enough.” And I found that Jay-Z has a new album where he raps over Linkin Park songs, and it’s quite choice, especially “Numb/Encore.” I almost though I might want to get the “My Chemical Romance” album, because I like the single, but the rest of the album, that I’ve gotten so far on-line has been…eh.
So yeah, I’ve got work to do. Smell you jerks later.
No matter how many battles I’ve been in, no matter how many bill collectors on my nuts, no matter how many stories I churn out, it’s never enough, but I remain…
That’s just another way of saying no one’s special
November 21st, 2004 | by Thacher ClevelandPosted In: General
Melissia and I took Allie to go see “The Incredibles” tonight. Wow. Quite possibly the best movie I’ve seen this year, and a contender for best superhero movie ever. Best Picture? Fingers crossed. Proof that animation is probably the best medium for a superhero movie, and that animation can handle a lot of serious content as well. Honestly, there is a lot of stuff in it that kids may find boring, not understand, or maybe even find scary, but it’s fun enough that it works on levels for everyone in the whole audience.
Speaking of wow, I can’t believe the brawl that ensued at the Pacers/Pistons game last night. I was watching it and turned it off to play Playstation and talk on the phone, and when I was done I turned the PS off and ESPN was still on and it was chaos central. Apparently there was a fight between two players in the last few minutes of the game, and as the refs were sorting it out, one of the Indiana players was laying down on the scorers table, one of the Detroit fans hurled a full cup of beer down on him. Quick as a flash, he’s up off the table and into the stands, swinging on the guy. The Indiana bench empties and heads into the crowd, and then it’s just brawling so bad that they have to call the game. At one point, fans were on the floor swinging on players, and Jermaine O’Neil runs up and straight catches the guy in the jaw. It was a total mess.
And even better, they just made fun of it on SNL. :)
They announced today that a bunch of the Pacers players and Ben Wallace of Detroit are going to be serving indefinite suspensions, and I’m sure the fines will be in the tens of thousands of dollars. Honestly, for the players, I think massive league fines and suspensions are enough, and they should peruse the taps and press charges against the fans that instigated the brawl by throwing things. Let the league take care of the players and the law take care of the regular citizens. No, I don’t think this is letting the players off the hook, because there was no reason for them to go into the stands, but the fans started it by throwing stuff. I mean, if you’re on the street and someone hurls something at you and you fight back, isn’t the fault with the person who instigated the fight? Yes, we should strive to be better people, and the Pacers could’ve just gone and said “Hey, that guy is throwing stuff, we want him removed from the stadium,” but they didn’t. I guess I can’t blame them for following through on what would have been my own immediate reaction if put in the same situation. Trust me, the league is going to *nail* any of the players who hit fans, as they are already humiliated by this. I just hope we don’t get to a situation where we end up like English soccer leagues that have to completely put chicken wire up to keep the fans away from players, because that would be the real tragedy.
Speaking of ridiculous, anyone who was upset by the “Desperate Housewives” skit at the beginning of Monday Night Football needs killed, right away. Fucking idiots.
So yeah, I don’t know, maybe we’re living in the end times. All the violence and chaos and nonsense going on. I mean, I’m sure there have been other times like this, but hey, I’m here now, right?
Doomsday prophet, I remain…
I hate when I wake up, stumble into the living room, put the coffee on, turn on the TV and SportsCenter isn’t even on. That blows.
It also blows that I couldn’t find this particular picture of Condolleeza Rice that was on the cover of the New York Times this past Tuesday or Wednesday. I was going to make a funny, but no, the internet failed me. Damn you, internets!
I had weird dreams last night. One involved an ex-girlfriend of mine sending me back a bunch of stuff, like weird, dementedly scrawled notebooks and stuff like that. Poigniant, yet crazy. Another was practically a story idea, which irritates me that I can’t remember it fully. That’s only once before, where I had a dream so vivid that I knew I had to do something creative with it at some point.
Of course, God only knows when that will be. Yes, I’ve been doing more work than I have before, but there is only so much that you can do. I’m working on fucking around with a couple of 16-page minicomic scripts that I had done before, as well as get down on electronic paper the one that I just roughed out. I like this system. It works for me, and not having it has been the one little obstacle to being more productive. I hate just sitting in front of the computer going “Okay, so what happens now?” Granted, a lot of ideas come up while you’re working, but I need to have a sort of blueprint, at least a general guide of where the thing is going, what’s on this page, what’s the pacing going to be like. Roughing stuff out the way I am laves room to focus on description and dialogue, things that suffer when you’re going “Okay, where exactly am I going with this?” I think it also keeps me from overwriting, and making sure that the story I want to write fits in the page structure I’ve defined for myself. 16 pages is perfect to produce into a little ashcan (half-sized comic) that can be printed B&W and given out at conventions or mailed to editors. Like a droid in an escape pod, it’s a writer’s only hope.
When I haven’t been pounding the pencil pavement, I’ve been downloading music. I haven’t really been excited about listening to anything lately, but the new Eminem album is out so I’ve gotta go get that, so in addition to DL’ing a couple of tracks from that (“Mosh,” “Just Loose It”), I got some Ludacris (“Move Bitch,” “Get Back”), Ciara (“One Two, Step”) some…*sigh* Destiny’s Child (“Baby Boy,” “Loose my Breath”) and even some…*bigger sigh* Gretchen Wilson (“Redneck Woman,” “Here for the Party”). Because, apparently, I’ll forgive shitty country music if it’s sung by a pretty girl.
Because I’m an idiot.
Other good things…”The Venture Brothers” is on every Monday-Wednesday night at midnight. Holy Damnit Christmas that show is funny. Good comics out this week, like “Space Ghost #1.” Yes, Space Ghost. Not “Host a Crappy Talk Show Space Ghost,” “Turn invisible and kick your ass Space Ghost.” The first issue is, of course, the “Secret Origin of Space Ghost,” wherein our hero, a cosmic policeman, is betrayed by his crooked brethren. Good, good stuff. Also in is “Spider-Man: India,” which is produced and distributed in India, taking the Spider-Man legend and setting it in modern India. It’s a different twist on the story, making it more mystical than scientific, and it looks to be great fun. Even better, you get the whole origin story in the first issue, which I think is an incredibly wise choice, given than a lot of folks may not have the patience for a six-part origin story where he doesn’t even get powers until part two or three and doesn’t get a costume until part six. Is it rushed? A little bit, but it’s a great idea and can’t wait to see where they go with it next.
Knick knack paddy whack, can’t afford a Cadillac, family in my heart, made my homies put their money back, still brushing plaque, still action-packed, and ideas? I keep ‘em flippin’ like acrobats, I remain…
STOP! Itís the motherfucking last entry remix!
November 16th, 2004 | by Thacher ClevelandPosted In: General
I haven’t been around lately. Took a little time off work for personal recreating. I had fun, lot’s of.
So yeah, Iím enjoying myself. Trying to, anyway. Iím succeeding more than Iím failing, but those failures keep nipping at my heels likeÖwell, like the female dogs they are. Yes, a clean break is definitely needed from that.
The Giants lost to the Cardinals today. Bullshit, that is.
So, in addition to loosing to the Cardinals of all teams, weíre now switching over to The Boy; Eli Manning. Hopefully, young master Manning can get us out of the slump weíre in, but I wonder if itís really a quarterback problem. I mean, the offensive line hasnít necessarily been consistent lately, and weíve got some of he best past rushers in the league coming up. Can a young rook carry that off. I guess weíll see. Weíre still in the hunt for a wild card berth, and hopefully this wonít fuck it up.
Kobe Bryant’s Lakers are losers. Ass monkey, he be.
Thereís really not much else to say to this. I mean, way to go Kobe, scoring 41 points in a gameÖand still having your team loose. I bet your real proud of yourself.
Crazy guy at work. Crazy hillbilly, wouldn’t shut up. Not the verbal badass I thought I was, because instead of telling him to fuck off, I just sat there and listened to him. Big phony, right here.
Yeah, so this guy was chewing my ear off with the most inane bullshit talk ever, not getting any of those hints that you give off when you really donít want to talk to someone. Hereís the thing though: itís really my fault. Because honestly, I could have just said ìLook, I have a lot of work to do and I canít just sit here and listen to you right now.î Itís just that simple, but I didnít do it, so really, itís on me. Yeah, yeah, big man, doesnít take any shit from anyone now, totally forgot that lesson.
Hopefully, itís the last time.
Writing. Is it fun? Thinking this over, I was.
I think it is. Iíve worked out a little way to get comic scripts out of my head quickly and in a nice rough draft format thatís easy to build on. Of course, this could all be bullshit, but itís important to get something worked out.
So thatís that.
Crip-walking like thatís whatís up, I remainÖ
I just wrote a long post and then poof, like magic, she is gone.
Not happy, am I.
Highlights:
-I haven’t been around lately. Took a little time off work for personal recreating. I had fun, lot’s of.
-The Giants lost to the Cardinals today. Bullshit, that is.
-Kobe Bryant’s Lakers are losers. Ass monkey, he be.
-Crazy guy at work. Crazy hillbilly, wouldn’t shut up. Not the verbal badass I thought I was, because instead of telling him to fuck off, I just sat there and listened to him. Big phony, right here.
-Writing. Is it fun? Thinking this over, I was.
So yeah, I’m grumpy now. I’m going to listen to Dave Chappelle singing “I Want to Pee on You,” because that will make me happy.
Cherry onion lover, I remain…
PS: Go to www.fuckthesouth.com. It’s funny, and it’s what I clicked on to make me loose my entry (meaning I clicked on it in email and it opened the link in the Explorer window I had my blog editor open in, not that it’s going to wreck your computer or anything).
So, we’ve refocused. I think I’m trying not to think about the whole wide world right now. Just my own little corner of it.
Allie’s birthday party was today. It’s hard to estimate how many kids there were, because they all move so damn fast and are so damn loud. Most importantly, she had fun, we ate lots of cake, and a Pinata was offered up as a warning to all the others.
You let one pinata step out of line, they all want to. You’ve gotta nip it in the bud, and I’m a bud nipper.
I will say this: it’s amazing, how you think things are going one way, and then *voila* off in another direction they go. It’s amazing, it’s frustrating, it’s scary, but it’s also called life. I look forward to enjoying it immensely.
It’s really kind of pointless worrying about things, and I’d like to think I’ve almost gotten the habbit licked. I guess someone doesn’t really grow into their power until their 30′s. Those who know me may know that I’ve often bemoaned my rapidly approaching tri-decade mitzvah, but I think it’s a good thing. Good, given the fact that I can’t turn back time, go back, cut out the fat and wasted years, the wasted energy on those who betray, lie, deceive and generally suck and just live better.
Since I can’t do that, I’ll take growing up.
Upgrading from tropical storm to hurricane, I remain…
P.S….I found my new author photo…
