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Too Close To Home

You'd think Scott Meyer wrote this comic about my life. Steve, is it strips like this one that made you think of me?

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The Ongoing Discussion

Sorta of like "Who would play which X-Men?" before they made an X-Men movie.

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Basic Instructions

Steve/patch introduced me last week to the wonderfully witty comic strip Basic Instructions. It's a four-panel, once-a-week (Monday) strip. Good times. And lovely RSS feeds for strip and blog. On of my favs so far:

Let's Play Linktoss!

Weekend was madness, so I'm going to rest the small part of my brain used for posting and just share some interesting things from around the Internets.

• Jonathan Coulton was one of the subjects of an interesting article about the new world of being a musician.
• The oddest man in comics, Alan Moore, got married. And the pictures are pretty much what you'd expect from Alan Moore's wedding. Except with less druidic cult activity.
• Not new, but I finally got to watch the entire episode of Penn & Teller's "Bullshit" about gun control. VERY good. (lots of cussing, btw, so audio probably NSFW)
• The "global warming" crowd gets outed again for partisan stat warping, this time with snowpack levels in Washington.
• I totally sympathize with this Words & Pictures comic regarding daughters defending themselves.
• Copyranter pulls back the curtain on the creative process. Now you know why so many ads look the same. (language warning here, too)
• And finally, a fascinating piece from the Foundation for Economic Freedom arguing that fuel economy standards for cars not only have no positive effect on gas consumption, but they actually have several negatives effects—including increasing automotive-related deaths.

Here's hoping something tickles your fancy.

Doktor Sleepless

Warren Ellis (Transmetropolitan, The Authority, Planetary) is one of my favorite comic book authors. He's smart, knows how to turn a phrase, is insanely creative, and is fascinated about the science fiction future of humanity and the cultural future of the comic book art form. He also appears to be a bit "touched in the head", if you will.

On a side note, Laura once said, "Warren Ellis needs Jesus" after finishing one of his comics, which is an incredibly true observation. This phrase quickly joined the pantheon of "things we say as part of our cult of 2". I even once registered the email address "warrenellisneedsjesus" for his Global Frequency project (a horribly out of date site, btw), an action that I'm sure would only anger (or amuse) him if he ever found out.

Anyway, back on target. He works mostly as an independent writer now, publishing with smaller companies (ie: not Marvel or DC). Which means he has to do a lot of his own promotional effort. Like the coupon he just put out on his website for you to print, fill out, and give to your local comics retailer.

Well, I thought it was funny.

Ah, San Diego

Today is the start of the San Diego Comic-Con, the world's largest comic book convention. Or, as Warren Ellis calls it, "Nerd Prom" (see this and this for why). Over 100,000 comic book, movie, mange, anime, sci-fi, fantasy, and other types of fans will jam their way into the San Diego Convention Center between now and Sunday.

Laura and I went twice when we lived in LA. It was a lot of fun, but you gotta go on Thursday if you want to see anything or get a decent seat in a forum/seminar. Friday's not too bad, but Saturday is a madhouse. You're pretty much cattle at that point.

Over the years we've gotten to meet some of our favorite writers and artists, like Jeff Smith (Bone), Shannon Wheeler (Too Much Coffee Man), Brian Michael Bendis (Powers), Mark Waid (Kingdom Come), Kurt Busiek (Astro City), Mike Mignola (Hellboy), Kevin Smith (Clerks, Daredevil, etc) and others. A buddy that went with us once got to meet Chris Claremont, his comic book idol. Claremont pretty much blew him off, so there ended that fandom. I got to shake Will Eisner's hand and get his autograph just a few years before he died. Saw Ian McKellen doing the PR tour before X-Men came out.

Never got to meet Frank Miller or Ellis (who swears he will never go again), but overall we had great times on both trips. Stayed at the Marriott attached to the convention center which was a HUGE plus. Just walked on over.

I gave blood one time at the Con and proceeded to get calls from the San Diego blood bank until the day we left California.

Good times.

UPDATE: In a moment of synchronicity, a co-worker just emailed me an article about new stamps that are coming out featuring DC super heros. Released tomorrow at Comic Con, then on sale nationwide on Friday. Cyndi—hook a brother up.

Buffy's Back

Whedon Pens New Buffy Comic
Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon is writing a new six-issue Buffy mini-series for Dark Horse Comics.  The first volume is due out in October.   A Dark Horse spokesperson has confirmed to ICv2 that the new series chronicles events that happened to Buffy and her friends after the conclusion of their televised adventures and will function as a "Season 8" to the highly popular cult hit TV series that ran for seven seasons.

Tired

Saturday was a big packing day. Our dear friend Karen came over and helped us lug the heavy (entertainment center, anyone?) and bulky stuff into the crates. The only downside, which we just realized tonight, was that she packed all the lids to the tupperware-like items, but not the containers themselves. So now we have dozens of oddly-shaped plastic bowls. Oh well.

Sunday was mild comparatively, but it's 1:15 a.m. and I'm just now going to bed. I'm sure I'll feel that tomorrow morning when the electrician shows up at 7:30. Blah.

Tomorrow should be busy, busy, busy. Gotta return Laura's car, have a couple of conference calls for work, get a PO box in Orlando, call all the utilities, and make one last trip to Comic Cult to pick up my last stash of books. That'll be sad.

We've been going to Nancy's for twice as long as our church, and she's just one of the most wonderful proprietors I think I've ever met. The funny thing about Nancy is that she has run a comic book store for well over a decade and only occasionally reads comics. Who knew?

We've lined up some babysitting for a couple of patches over the next few days to make the final push a little easier, but it also means less time for me with my adorable daughter before I hit the road. In return, I get to drive across the country with a big, hairy man. I guess life could be worse.