Monday, April 23, 2007

Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of Too Many Piercings

Saaaaaaaaan Francisco.

So, APE travelogue.

-Made the drive down to San Jose Friday night, met up with Herr Donkeljohn.
-Crashed.
-Woke up, ate delicious waffles, got ready.
-Missed the train. Played Forgotten Worlds and Sonic the Hedgehog on Don's still-functioning Sega Genesis. Shooting and Fighting.
-Missed the train again. Ate some lunch, decided to walk down to the train station and loiter.
-Rode the train, arrived at APE. It was quickly apparent that I'm not "indy" enough for APE. I knew that long beforehand, but the immediate confrontation with reality drove it home. Don and I basically wandered aimlessly, hoping to find something cool.

for (int i=0; i<999999; i=i+1)
{
LookAtBooth();
SearRetinasWithPoorlyDrawnImagesOfChicksBathingInBlood();
ScrubBrainByThinkingOfBunniesAndDaisies();
MutterUncomfortableSarcasticComment();
MoveToNextTable();
}

Don's quote really summed it up for me: "There's only so far you can get with black and red."

I don't really have problems with goths, I just stick out like a sore thumb when they congregate. It's not that I don't want to talk to them, it's that I'm too square for them to talk to me. Shrug.

So that was the negative.

Positive points:
- I did find some really neat cartoonists who were more in the funny animals (bathed in blood! no, I'm kidding.) genre. I will definitely be checking out their websites.
- Caught the art spiegelman/Franciose Mouly panel, which I really enjoyed. There was a neat discussion of using the whole page of a comic like the old Winsor McKay Little Nemo Sunday comic compositions, rather than just thinking of comics as a sequential group of images. Comics versus storyboarding. Worth the cost of entry.
- We randomly ran into Dan C. Johnson and Don introduced us. Chatted about kids and the iPhone.
- Got Runnerguy a Jim Mahfood sketch (It's coming). We kept stopping by his table and he'd be gone, or eating a burrito, or something. Finally, I just stood posted at his table like a guard at Buckingham Palace until he noticed me. Nice guy.

Highlights from the trip back:
Discarded thong on the street.
Drunken guy swaying and singing in the train station.

In summary, the trip was a success!
Many thanks to Don and family for food/shelter/one-liners!
------------------------------------------
Mission objectives completed: 100%!
Secrets found: 5/5!
You have unlocked a new weapon!



Friday, April 20, 2007

Done

The script for issue one is Done, heaven help me.

Just in time for APE.

I am so great with arbitrary, self-determined deadlines.

Oh, right, the title.

The book is called Decayed Orbits. Three issue miniseries, 22 pages per issue. Maybe.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Time slows down as you reach the speed of stupid...

APE is this weekend, and I will be there Saturday. Driving down Friday night.

We rented Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. Daughter's one-word review: "Cool!" I agree with her. Heavy environmentalism, lots of action, outstanding production design. It's a film you'll wish you could see the concept art for. The plot is iffy, but it's okay. Dubbed voice work by Patrick Stewart, Edward James Olmos, Uma Thurman.

If Miyazaki's environmental epics are like the Star Wars Trilogy, Nausicaa is A New Hope. Castle in the Sky and Princess Mononoke are Empire and Jedi. No, she hasn't seen Mononoke.

There's shooting in it, more than I expected. It's not ultraviolent, in fact it is very toned down, with very little blood. Daughter has finally associated guns with killing, which I'm not too concerned about. She made a gun out of Duplo blocks and shot me. She called it a "Boom" and told me I died. I agreed with her. We've been cautious about violence around her, and I'm just thrilled she got to age three before she figured it out. She's a very kind and helpful soul. Violence isn't part of her persona, but she digs a good action scene. She's very into drama.

Noob Runner stuff: My legs are falling off. I've almost beaten my college time in the mile and a half run (and I weighed a lot less then). I'm running between 2-3 miles per day. What's good for shin splints? I keep giving myself time to heal, and then they return whenever I push myself. Stretches, treatments, suggestions?

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Still here.

I'm still here, just very busy.

Highlights: Potty training, running, trying to find quiet moments to write. Hoping for at least an hour tonight.

There was Easter in there somewhere.

Thursday, April 05, 2007

The System Hates Dick Dale.

Screw it.

I was reading Mike Allred's The Golden Plates last night with my daughter. My boss lent them to me, how cool is that?


There's a beheading in the first few pages. It's not like I was surprised, I'm intimately familiar with the content.

My previous post. I am not going to worry about violence in my writing. I've been listening to far too many pacifist wusses for too long (including the one in my head).

As long as it's going somewhere, and not violence for violence's sake.
Now that I've clarified that to myself, I feel so much better.

My script is so awesome and so sucky. I kill people in my head.

I don't know.

Looking over my script, I'm seeing people getting shot and blown up.

I really don't hate people. I'm pretty sure I'm going somewhere with all this.

In my head, this whole story was a lot more James Joyce. Now it's like playing in the ball-pit at McDonalds, only the balls are all hand grenades.

I'm a little concerned, but also secretly pleased that my script is so cool.

Yes, I know. It's going to suck. But it will be so cool while sucking.

Maybe I need to stop watching 24.

Final cleanup, then ready for being ripped apart, I swear. It's "done."

Now it needs to be Done.

Monday, April 02, 2007

BANNED: Anvils, mallets, firearms, light bulbs, and butcher knives.

Me: "Why aren't you asleep?"

Daughter: "There's a mouse in my bed."

Me: "Really? Let me check it out."

Me: "I don't see anything, honey. Are you sure?"

Daughter: "Yes."

Me: "Where is he?"

Daughter: "Right there."

Me: "Hm. I don't see anything. Wait, is this an invisible mouse?"

Daughter: "Yes."

Me: "..."

Me: "Okay, what's his name?"

Daughter: "Jerry."

Me: "Of course it is."


Thank you, Mr. Quimby. Thanks a ton.