A personal diary keeping people abreast of what I am working on writing-wise.
Monday, August 31, 2009
THE MOUSE AND THE MASKS
For some reason, Broken Frontier thought it was worth asking me what I thought of Disney buying Marvel for $4 billion, the "OMG!" story of the comic book day.
My biggest concern is that the crossover between the two companies will be so great, it might violate some of the terms of parole for many members of the Marvel creative staff. I don't even think a lot of them are allowed to have the Disney Channel as part of their cable package, much less go to the theme parks where they might come into contact with children.
I'm kidding! Yeesh!
I have a feeling it's going to be business as usual for a good long while. If there is any creative crossover to be had, one assumes prior deals--comic book licenses, film projects--will have to be worked through before we see, say, a Disney-produced POWER PACK movie or a Marvel-produced BEAGLE BOYS comic (hopefully through the Max line, with Garth Ennis writing and Howard Chaykin drawing). (Also, Warren Ellis' GYRO GEARLOOSE and Matt Fraction's THE RESCUERS would be two must-haves.)
I would think the most immediate gain would be in advertising venues for both brands. If you've ever spent any time watching the Disney Channel, for instance, or loaded up a Disney DVD, you know how cohesive their marketing can be. I could see more Mouse ads in the comics and some hype for comic book events on their kid-oriented news shows. Not sure how the Marvel material will fit in the theme parks.
There have been multiple owners of Marvel in the last couple of decades, and I think it rarely really effects what is going on within the House of Ideas. Much like DC and TimeWarner, it's about stock performance, and there is probably less corporate monkeybusiness than most suspect.
Truthfully, what the hell do I know about any of this?
Current Soundtrack: The Prodigy, Invaders Must Die
HAVE YOU SEEN YOUR MOTHER, BABY, STANDING IN THE SHADOWS: Jury Duty Postscript
Um, okay. This is just bizarre.
So, today, I am walking down the street with a friend, and I see this woman feeding a parking meter. She looks familiar, and our eyes meet, and we trade a sort of weird, confused, knowing (?), empathetic (?) closed-mouth smile.
As we pass, my friend says, "Do you know her?"
"Yeah, this is really freaky, but I think that's the woman who ran out of the jury room crying when we delivered the guilty verdict on Wednesday. We're not sure who she is, we don't think it was his wife, maybe his mother."
My friend said, "Oh, because I know her. She used to be a regular at the restaurant where I worked several years ago. She used to come in all the time and get really wasted at the bar."
We compared notes. Her drinking companion at the time was a short man, much younger, with lots of tattoos, including sleeves that were skulls and devils and stuff.
Which would be the man we convicted.
Apparently, they didn't act like a couple, so the mother theory is possible.
I don't think it really is a small world the way they say, there are more people we don't know than there are people each of us does know. I do, however, think coincidences make it seem small just for the fact that it's so surprising that on a planet this big such unbelievable happenstance can occur. I'm still reeling several hours later.
Joëlle Jones has a new Etsy shop, and she's loaded it up with remaining pages from the "Seven Deadly Sins" sketchbook that she made this year. They are fantastic pieces, everyone should go there, ooooh and ahhhh over them, and buy some!
Not a lot this week. It's been a fallow time for getting assigned movies. I had several days of having nothing in my house to review for DVD Talk, and while I guess I could have jumped on a bunch more Criterions, I took some time to watch stuff just for the fun of it before my schedule went wonky.
IN THEATRES...
* Taking Woodstock, a rare stumble for Ang Lee. I think it's the split-screen that does it to him. People don't like it when he gets all fracturous and fancy.
UPDATED TO CRITERION CONFESSIONS...
* Schizopolis, Steven Soderbergh's deconstructionist comedy. Call it Cinematic Philosophy 101.
THIS WEEK IN DVD REVIEWS...
* Chinese Odyssey 2002, a romantic parody of martial arts films reteaming Chungking Express stars Tony Leung and Faye Wong. It's even produced by Wong Kar-Wai, and director Jeffrey Lau includes lots of subtle digs at the director. Too bad this U.S. disc is edited.
I did get a little mail this week that is funny enough to share. Make sense of it however you will. Youth in decline, or adult illiteracy?
Current Soundtrack: Leonard Cohen, "Famous Blue Raincoat;" The Specials, "Bright Lights;" Walker Brothers, "After the Lights Go Out;" Rufus Thomas, "The Preacher & the Bear;" Jane Birkin, "Image Fantome - Pavane Pour Une Infante Defunte;" The Ronettes "(The Best Part Of) Breakin' Up"
The group of 12 I was a part of finished our job earlier today. I feel we were extremely diligent in performing our duty and gave all facets of the case proper attention. Our verdict was guilty, ultimately, though we had an 11-1 vote, and once again, invoking 12 Angry Men, I actually think it was good that we had someone who believed enough in the dissenting opinion to push us to question further. And, obviously, she was to be respected for standing up for herself.
Delivering the verdict was emotionally harrowing, I'll admit. We all felt it. The heavier presence of guards, the tension in the air. We were even polled and had to say our opinion out loud. I am convinced justice was served, though, and in our debriefing, the judge said he felt we had done the right thing and commended us for how seriously we took it. For all my grumbling, this is twice now I have seen how well this system works, and how an intelligent panel of diverse people can come together to sort through evidence and rendering a just and proper verdict.
So, yeah, done. I may write about it more at a later date, but I am now two days behind on work and, frankly, ready to think about other things.
Current Soundtrack: P.M. Dawn, Fucked Music
HEAVY IS THE HEAD
No kidding around or whingeing today. Today is the day it gets serious.
Not that I wasn't taking jury duty seriously before, but when you get down to the end, when it's time for deliberation, there isn't much levity to be had. Though I say "today," I actually type this the night before day 3, and I am post-dating it to pop-up while I am gone or maybe even done, and comments are disabled because I don't actually want to hear it. I don't want debate, I don't want kudos. I won't be Tweeting or Facebooking this link. By the time I get home, I'll want silence.
I've had a lot of people remind me that jury duty was my civic duty, as if I didn't know. I also had many do so in a way that suggested I should be happy about being summoned to serve because apparently a duty is something that should bring you joy, you are part of the process, hooray! Well, there's a reason they don't call it a "civic prize." It's a duty because it's a job, a requirement. It's not fun and it's not happy but you need to do it anyway, and if you've never done it and you respond that you really want to like it's going to be summer camp or you won a free bunk on a cruise, then I really hope you'll let me know if you ever get summonsed because I'll sit outside the courthouse like the romantic hero of a teen movie, leaning on my car and waiting. Not to whisk you away on a hot air balloon, but to see the balloon pop.
And if you took jury duty before and you still think it's fun...well, I don't know exactly what to call you. Are you also into nipple clamps, candle wax, and the Marquis de Sade?
Yes, there is something fascinating about real-life cases, there is an interesting human drama. Everyone in just about any trial has had their life reduced to soap opera, and there is a Rashomon situation happening where it's hard to tell what or whom to believe. Hell, maybe they are all right, there are some things we can never know. If I wasn't under a gag order I could tell you the story I've heard, complete with all the angles, and you'd be impressed by how complicated a tale it is. You would have no idea, though, what it was really like to hear. You'd get the edited and polished version that takes maybe fifteen minutes, not the rambling version that took two days to tell, full of repetition and mistakes and a general lack of eloquence. And you'd miss the dry examination of evidence and the overwhelming reading of the law.
You'd also miss the weight of having to decide another man's fate. This is what keeps me from relaxing tonight. The thought that tomorrow I will be having to consider another man's freedom. I will have to do so beyond a reasonable doubt and with a moral certainty. Think about that. What doubts aren't generally reasonable and how often are you certain about anything, much less morality? But these are terms you must consider, these are the areas where you cannot get it wrong and yet might. Even in extreme cases where the acts are so heinous that there can be no question of their vileness, you still have the burden of meting out a proper dose of justice, one that will make the wronged parties and their family and friends satisfied. And you also have to wonder how a guilty verdict will affect the families of the accused, too. You can't let it influence you, but you will wonder. Trust me, even the biggest dirtbags can have someone show up that cares about them.
Sure, anyone sitting in the defendant's chair made choices that got him or her there, and they are facing the consequences of those choices. As a juror, you will be enforcing responsibility where it needs to go and possibly even setting community standards for what will and will not be permitted. You will even have guidelines for how to go about deciding if consequences are warranted. That doesn't mean, however, that the evidence is going to easily plug into those guidelines so as to make your decision absolutely clear. The facts don't fit a neat teleplay structure with an intro and four segments with their own commercial breaks. Have you ever watched Law & Order and been shocked by how the lawyers on there can turn a certain act into a crime, and you can't believe they'd actually prosecute it? Now imagine that you are on the jury for that.
Which isn't to say that any of these "what if?" scenarios apply to the case I am on. I am being very careful not to be specific. The questions are there, though. Are we interpreting this right? Are we remembering that right? Are we believing the right people? What if no one is credible? What if you think the accused is clearly guilty or not guilty, but the law says you must go against that, it doesn't support your own moral certainty on the matter? Whenever there is a trial, like the Rodney King or O.J. Simpson cases, where the case seemed so clear cut from the vantage point of our living rooms, and the public is shocked that the jury voted the way they did, if you find yourself really having no idea how they came to that decision, then you've probably never actually been on a jury. Every time, the jurors who talk to the media say that the evidence did not meet the burden of proof and that the case made by the losing side could not support the guidelines for conviction. It's never as simple as did he or didn't he, it's did he or didn't he within the confines of the law under which he is charged.
I only saw 12 Angry Men for the first time this year. Surprising, I know, but it's true. It's a pretty incredible piece of cinema, and shockingly accurate. Yes, there is the tidiness of fiction, things move along in a logical manner and not as messily as they normally do, but the experience is right. Twelve different people having to sort through a pile of details, and only one (Henry Fonda) not only willing to go against the grain, but to do so not because he believes the others are getting it wrong, but because he feels not enough time is being taken to consider whether a boy goes to jail or whether he goes home. On my jury, only ten have to agree; on his, all twelve. So, were I to be a Henry Fonda, I wouldn't even have to go to the mat.
One Shot Presents interviewed Joëlle Jones and I in San Diego about You Have Killed Me. The results are now online at their site; hosted by one of the best comics stores in the country, Night Flight; or here, from their YouTube channel:
Our segments start at just before the 3-minute mark. By the way, Joëlle picked the blood-red endpapers. That's all her.
"Polythene Pam" - Jaime Hernandez "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window" - Paul Pope "Golden Slumbers - Joëlle Jones "Carry That Weight" - David Mazuchelli "The End" - Mike Allred
The stories would be produced in order, each artist starting his following what the previous one did so that they are connected at lest by some kind of thread, no matter how tenuous. Maybe even the first panel of every story is penciled by the previous artist and the next one inks and builds on it.
"Carry that Weight" was hardest, because it's fairly esoteric. Scott Morse was my other choice for it. I think he and Mazzuchelli could do something freeform and inspired. Maybe they could team up!
(And, yes, I know there are more songs on side 2--Abbey Road was my first Beatles record, bought it on vinyl from a used bin while I was in high school, and it's still my favorite. But, I am sticking to five, and those last four tracks are essential.)
Current Soundtrack:
MY FUNERAL, YOUR TRIAL
I have jury duty today. I've had jury duty before. I don't like it.
In fact, these guys talking about the movie Jury Duty can pretty well stand in for how I feel about real-life jury duty.
Amusingly, Tally has also been summonsed, so we can at least endure part of this boredom together. My goal today is to somehow get her convicted. I don't care how I do it, or of what crime, she's going to jail.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
INK YOUR LIFE
This week's "Five For Friday" topic at The Comics Reporter asks people to "Name Five Songs You'd Like to See Turned into Comic Stories and Your Artist of Choice."
Mark Coale, of Odessa Steps and the Beat, not only proposed the topic, but included myself and Joëlle (and Chynna) in his answers:
Mark Coale
1. "Dedicated Follower of Fashion," The Kinks -- Chynna Clugston-Flores 2. "Up the Junction," Squeeze -- Jamie Rich/Joelle Jones 3. "Enola Gay," OMD -- Russ Heath 4. "Tessie," Dropkick Murphys -- Kurt Busiek/Mark Bagley 5. "Mr. Garfield," Johnny Cash -- John Cassaday
I also participated, and I suggested the following:
Jamie S. Rich
1. "All This Useless Beauty," Elvis Costello & the Attractions -- Matt Wagner 2. "Happiest Girl," Depeche Mode -- Ross Campbell 3. "Somebody Got Murdered," The Clash -- Naoki Urasawa 4. "Twilight," Antony & the Johnsons -- Craig Thompson 5. "Tea for the Tillerman," Cat Stevens -- Joelle Jones
I have to be honest, I didn't actually know this song:
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Current Soundtrack: Arcade Fire, "Burning Bridges"
Friday, August 21, 2009
GALLAGHER FOR THE DERBY
I was lucky enough to get Monica Gallagher in my portfolio review at Stumptown this year. It was an easy session, full of good talk and good art. I liked what I was starting to see in her style. It's rough and fluid at the same time, feminine but edgy, kind of like old-school Christine Norrie. The dichotomy seems to make sense for a skinny blonde girl in red lipstick who skates in roller derby. There's a reason Monica uses Betty Draper with a shotgun for her LiveJournal avatar.
Today on her journal, she updated about her vacation and her vacation reading, and she happened to say nice things about mine and Joëlle's little book even though I am a douche and haven't read the comics she sent me. I swear to God, I actually put them in my bag this morning when I left the house, long before this post...and still didn't read them. Dammit!
Anyway, Monica's own words:
"Sorry I've been absent for a while, peeps. There was vacationing to get to! I love that no matter how old I get, I can still retreat to a little cottage in Michigan during the butt-hot summer. I can laze on the hammock, soak in the lake, read as much as I want, and endlessly drink and catch up with relatives. Ahhhhh ... vacation.
While I was there I went through Jamie S. Rich & Joelle Jones's You Have Killed Me all too quickly. At first I was too mesmerized by the art to pay attention to the story, and I spent several minutes on each page admiring how much work Joelle put into it. When I did get around to paying attention to the story, I found it similar to the film noir dramas my friend Lauren used to make me watch -- all race tracks and high pants and drinks with ice cubes in cheap apartments. But whereas with some of the movies I'd get a bit impatient or confused (to be fair, Lauren's floor in her old apartment was really uncomfortable), Jamie's storyline kept me intrigued. I wasn't pressured to guess whodunit! the entire time, and the end still surprised me. Sometimes crime stories from the 40's and 50's are so stylized I have trouble identifying with any of their characters, so I was pleasantly surprised that I got a little choked up by the end. Plus, I never tire of a main character who gets beat up every day yet still looks cool. Even Jack Nicholson had a little trouble pulling that off in Chinatown..."
So, go to her site, Eat Your Lipstick, and check out her online comics, "Bonnie & Collide" and "Gods & Undergrads." Also, buy her minicomics from her store. Lipstick & Malice is a must. I love the tall, skinny format, like that wicked comic Vertical by Steven T. Seagle, Mike Allred, and Philip Bond.
UPDATE: I realized after I first posted this that I wasn't doing anything, so I sat down and read the minis Monica sent me. In addition to Lipstick & Malice, which continues to be fun and action-packed each issue, as well as putting the vertical format to use in cool ways on just about every page, you should pick up her autobio comic Boobage. The story of one girl and her relationship with her breasts manages to be both funny and sensitive. Ms Gallagher is shaping up to be a rather talented writer in addition to her vivacious art.
Current Soundtrack: some Antony & the Johnsons, some of the new edition of the Housemartins debut, London 0 Hull 4
YOU'RE NOBODY IN THIS TOWN UNTIL EVERBODY IN THIS TOWN THINKS YOU'RE A BASTERD
IN THEATRES...
* Inglourious Basterds, Quentin Tarantino's amazing WWII movie. I've got a few complaints, but it's really an astonishing filmgoing experience. I loved it!
* Thirst, Park Chan-wook's vampire flick, is too long and often too slow, but some cool ideas, story twists, and a great performance by Kim Ok-vin in the female lead still make it worth seeing.
* Pete's Dragon: High-Flying Edition, an old Disney musical that is pretty predictable, but still entertaining. Plus, you know, animated dragons are hep.
Been working. Started that new project I hinted at. Finished the research, rounded out the outline, wrote the first chapter and sent it to the artist to see if we're on the same page. Fingers crossed. He's not someone I've worked with as a writer before, but we did a couple of things when I was an editor. It was his idea to do this, his seed that has started to grow...so keep hope alive.
Also have been working on a script for Yen for the second volume of Raiders, and I'm about to undertake my first assignment for Viz.
Nico is celebrating the 2nd anniversary of his blog, and he has invited a bunch of his artist friends to contribute a drawing to a special birthday post. He got a lot of fine draftsmen on board...and then he got me.
Follow the image through to see the good ones. Tally's is pretty remarkable. (Hey, lady, can you provide a translation?) I also like Ruddy Pomarède's zombie Nico and Ipomée's sweetly drawn tribute...well, they're all good. Just go look.
Current Soundtrack: Elbow, "Lullaby/Our Little Boat/A Regret"
Friday, August 14, 2009
GOOD GRIEF, THE COMEDIAN'S A BEAR!
I wrote a new strip for Nico's blog. Amazingly, I resisted doing this to Tally all night when we went to see Ponyo. Of course, she's so gullible, I could tell her this did happen in real life, and she'd totally believe me!
That's Oni publisher Joe Nozemack who pops up in both of those.
Current Soundtrack: The Housemartins, Live at the BBC
Thursday, August 13, 2009
BETWEEN THE CLICK OF THE LIGHT AND THE START OF THE DREAM
IN THEATRES...
* The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard, a comedy of desperation that feels desperate. So much so, you'll pity it more than laugh at it. With Jeremy Piven.
* Ponyo, Miyazaki's latest (and possibly last) movie is geared toward younger kids, and as a result, will leave the adults only partially satisfied. Pretty to look at, there is more good than bad, but not the masterpiece his fans have hoped for.
UPDATED TO CRITERION CONFESSIONS...
* Equinox, the sci-fi low-budget is preserved as a historical curiosity due to its pioneering special effects, but your curiosity may vary.
* Big Man Japan, a confused mockumentary about giant monsters and giant monster fighters in Japan. See it for the fights, fast forward through the rest.
Gigi Little shows off her You Have Killed Me graphic over at her blog, while also sharing her thoughts on the book. Click on the pick to read her full entry.
"One thing I particularly like about this book is this great narrative voice that threads through the story. Our hero, Mercer, just tossing out little reminiscences on things that seem completely unrelated to the plot, but they're beautiful metaphors for the way Mercer is feeling. A really unique way to add dimension to the tale and to the character."
Current Soundtrack: Del Tha Funkee Homosapien, I Wish My Brother George Was Here
ARE YOU READY TO PARTY WITH ME? CAN YOU SHOW ME A GOOD TIME? DO YOU KNOW WHAT ONE LOOKS LIKE?
I just love this Spell Checkers splash page so much...
Nico is about halfway through. He also did this super cute fan art for Tally. I am sensing a conspiracy. A confederacy of artists. Soon they will rise against me....
Author of prose novels and comic books like Cut My Hair, It Girl & the Atomics, You Have Killed Me, and 12 Reasons Why I Love Her. Jamie's most recent novel is the serialized book Bobby Pins and Mary Janes, and his most recent graphic novels are the sci-fi romance A Boy and a Girl with Natalie Nourigat; Madame Frankenstein with Megan Levens; and the weird crime comic Archer Coe & the Thousand Natural Shocks with Dan Christensen.
* I am on Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace, just look if you're interested...
