DING DING!

GO RYAN!

Ryan Hamilton's Last Comic Standing Audition

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Oh my brain.

SDCC has released their programming schedule:

http://www.comic-con.org/cci/cci07prog_peek.shtml

I'm frantically beginning the process of cloning myself. There's no way I'm going to get to everything I want to see.

I'm getting tired just thinking about it.

Of Note:

In another lifetime, I was in a comedy troupe at Ricks College. We were called the Whigs. I performed for a semester, I think. Then I met a girl and my comedy career promptly ended.

Ryan Hamilton was in that troupe with me, I think he joined at the same time I did. We auditioned together. Impressions: very nice guy, super fun to improv with, and extremely funny. I probably haven't spoken to him in 13 years.

Here's Ryan now:



He'll be on Last Comic Standing on NBC, Wednesday July 11.

http://www.ryanham.com/

Break a leg.

I can't complain.

I won't deny things are difficult. But things slowly improve.

For example: my son has grown a full set of eight magnificent teeth. If you could only see the sheer unadulterated joy on his face when he bites someone, you'd plainly see life is packed with brilliance and beauty.

When you've got teeth that you can use to bite people, what do you have to complain about, really?

Life is fantastic. Go bite somebody.

Present and accounted for.

You should probably take a look at this:

Into the Pixel art exhibition

So yeah, what's been going on?

Good things. Family is fine.

Comics: Reading some fine comics. Gutsville is insane. DMZ is still noteworthy. Criminal is so filled with amazing comics that it makes my teeth hurt. Madman is suitably weird. Looking forward to Black Summer, more Fell, more Walking Dead.

Film: Finally saw Casino Royale. My review: pretty good, much less slutty. Also, watched Donner's Superman and the Secret of NIMH again. Excellence and nostalgia, great stuff.

Games: We (as in, the family) finally got around to beating Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker on our dusty, mostly-unused Gamecube. It was very positive. The children would rather watch Dad play Zelda than watch TV, which is interesting. Wife wants more Zelda. I'm taking a more serious look at family-oriented gaming than I have in the past. It's much more rewarding when you can share the fun.

Music: I don't know why, but I can't stop listening to Freezepop these days.

So that's the summary of my consumerism for the past month. Consuming instead of producing. Yes, I do feel badly about it. I promise, I'm repenting.

Coming up:
Will be in San Diego for the Comic-con from July 25-29. Let me know if you need me to pick up anything, sketches, swag, Warren Ellis DNA samples. I have it on good authority that everyone in the known universe will be there. Everyone.

Will be in Virginia August 6-14.

That's everything. Have a good Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

Curse You Bendis!

So, Wife-Lady picked up one of the Ultimate Spiderman issues I grabbed for the kids from the quarter bin.

She's hooked. She wants to start picking up the trades. That and she's wanting to pick up the Madman Gargantua hardcover, because she's been dying to read the whole run.

And she's saying she's wanting to hit the cons with me.

She's read some of my comics in the past, but it hasn't been sticky. She liked Peter David's Incredible Hulk. She was mad that I only picked up the first issue of Whedon's Serenity.

Now I have no idea what our home will be like. Never in my wildest dreams.

I have a comic wife, and I don't know what to do about it.

Morally Obligated.

I should post this. My brother Troy and some friends created a pitch for a TV show for a class project. He came to me for story ideas, and I threw him this one:

(Warning: the acting will hurt you, but the premise is there. In Youtube terms, this stuff is Shakespeare.)



It's very unsettling to talk about an idea one week, and see a video of it the next. I think I'm going to outsource all of my story ideas to college students from here on out. Never underestimate the power of a class project deadline.

Sorry, blog.

Been busy. Been sick. Been playing with kids. Been working. Been watching movies. Been reading. Been commuting.

Been is an odd word. Look at that spelling, it's a mess. Been. It's like the name of a Hanna Barbara superhero's sidekick. Gleep. Been.

Forgive me, blog. Why must we drift apart? Maybe something interesting will happen, and we'll have more to talk about.

Until then, I'll see you when I see you.

Now I know something's wrong.

I'm so sick/sleep-deprived today that both of my eyes are twitching nonstop. Either permanent nerve damage, or... permanent nerve damage.

That kind of weekend.

Sweet.

Friendly Reminder.

Tomorrow is Free Comic Book Day.

Go get yourself some goodies.

I may as well just quit now.

Best Story Idea Ever.

Was His Name-o.

APE BINGO.

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!

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.