Just to be clear

I was kidding. 

I am not actually writing an entire book about post-Apocalyptic vampires and the women who hunt them.

But that doesn't mean you will not see future segments from this book. People seemed to like it, so I think if we just post snippets from the imaginary book from time to time, in our collective imaginations, this will be the greatest sci-fi book that never happened.

Webcomic "The Rack" comes to an end

I don't know how or why I came to the webcomic "The Rack", but I know I've been reading it for what has to have been three years.  What's most remarkable about "The Rack" is that it maintained a rigorous production schedule of several installments per week over that entire period (and I came in late, it started 02/02/2007).

Yesterday, Agreeable Comics posted the surprise final installment.  Or what I assume is the last installment since that's exactly what they said it was.

The series followed the life behind the counter, and then outside walls, of a suburban comic shop.  The humor often came from how well you came to know the characters, recognized comic shop stereotypes, issues with comics and the fan community, lived in the web's geek-o-sphere, etc...  But, again, ultimately it came down to the characters.  I used to cackle that my "reviews" of comics sounded like junior versions of the pedantic Danny Levitz, and all of the characters had specific viewpoints on comics, matching their POV as a character.

Just as fellow fans can grate on you online, every so often a strip would rub me the wrong way, but it always came from a place of honesty, and even if I didn't laugh, I might at least pause to consider, and that's what some of the best humor manages to pull off.

I didn't hype the strip here because, tragically, I believed the jokes a little comics-insidery for, say, my dad.

In the end, I think you can say that writer Kevin Church and artist Benjamin Birdie put out not just a considerable product and body of work, but were pioneers in showing other folks how this webcomics thing should be done.

Its a hard place out there, and as I've often pointed out, the internet does not pay.  Cyberspace isn't even hard, its just empty and void except for the occasional flyby of someone giving you the thumbs up or the occasional jerk sitting on your stoop when you wake up in the morning telling you they think your birth was a mistake.   We can't all be Gary Trudeau, still cranking out "Doonesbury" two decades after the audience quit reading the paper, and still get paid.

I don't know why Church and Birdie ended it, but that's their business.  I respect it, and I wish them both the best.  But here's to 4 years of steady, good work.  May we all be so lucky to say we did anything half as well for a quarter as long.

Trailer for Rockstar's new game, "LA Noire", looks totally amazing

Apparently the game stars serious motion capture from actors, including Mad Men's Aaron "Ken Cosgrove" Staton as the protagonist. That's some inspired casting.

I don't get too excited about video games, but its Rockstar, and after the last few Grand Theft Auto games, Arkham, etc... games are really catching up with other media regarding storytelling ability. Heck, even DCU Online has compelling storylines.

It also looks like somebody knows their noir, including both James Ellroy inspired stuff and what looks like a reference to the unfortunately real-life Lipstick Killer.

Excerpt from the Great American Novel Part 1

As mentioned, I'm on hiatus as I'm trying to do some other writing at the moment.  But since you guys often show up here to read what I write, I figured it might be fun to share some of my work with you guys.  Now, I don't want to give too much away, so I'm going to just share a little snippet, mostly context free. This is from Chapter three, so you're getting into the story a bit at this point, I hope. And the main protagonist has been established, and we're getting to know her world, a bit better after the initial conflict has been introduced.

Bear with me, because my tendency is to write quickly, get the thoughts down, and then come back later to clean up the language, grammar, fix pacing, etc... I'm a little sensitive, as this is really putting myself out there (you try sharing a work in progress sometime), but I am going to leave the comment section open, and I would, honestly, love your feedback. If you feel that you would rather the messaging be private, please feel free to email me.

So, without further adieu:


Chapter 3

   The wheels on her El Camino skidded in the dust, locked solid as the rubber slid over yellow dust into the road's edge.
   Elvis was twitchy, but when wasn't he twitchy? This much sunlight could play havoc on the gears of even the most expensive robot, and this model could have belonged to her grandmother when she'd been a girl in hydro-curls.
   "Clean your gears, Elvis," she said, removing her sunglasses to look out over the horizon.
   "Auto Clean commencing," the metal man droned tonelessly, the whir of pneumatic tubes humming gently. Dammit, she thought. Where am I going to find robot cleaner out here?
   The remains of Old Dallas rose on the horizon, a twisted mass of girders, a paean to an age drunk with its love of power, industry, wealth, celebrity and professional sports.  She's been lucky to be born in the years when people weren't into stupid stuff like American Idol and phoney music, but when the masses had begun to really appreciate deep and meaningful music from artists who'd been underrated in their age, like Pink and Ke$ha.
   All of that was now forgotten, lost in the haze of the third Darkness War.  The beauty of music had become a luxury few could afford.  Dance, all but forgotten.  After dark, when she needed the music most, she could only slip her earbuds into her pearly ears and let the music overtake her.  But if they heard the music, if the vampires heard the music, they would find her out here, and it didn't matter then if Elvis was functional or not.  And no matter how she felt about Ke$ha, that wasn't the last sound she wanted to hear.  Except, for, of course, the music would be drowned out by the gurgling of a vampire on her hot blood.
   The sun was already getting dangerously low, and as much as the broken city before her scared her, the idea of being out on the road, exposed like this, after dark, wasn't a good idea, either.  "We're going to have to go into the city, Elvis," she sighed, putting her Ray-Bans back on and tightening her fingerless-gloved hands around the leathery grip of the steering wheel.  "A-a-ffirmative, Kaya," the robot droned.
   Stupid robot.
   She put the car into stealth mode, the engine bursting silently and the wheels making no noise on the broken asphalt as she pointed the car toward the wrecked skyscrapers.  Inside the streets, the auto-car seemed to move like a panther, from shadow to shadow.  She knew of a couple of places she could be safe, none of them great options, but the sun was sinking, and soon, the vampires would be rising from their ultra-coffins.
   The door was almost invisible, buried in the wall of what had once been the arena for the Dallas Lonestars, Texas' favorite professional paintball team.  Long gone were the millionaires of the sport, and the whooping crowds that had thronged the stadium.  Now, it was all just a dusty memory.
   A blue light appeared from a narrow slit, cascading over her sweaty, nubile body, outlining the curves she never bothered to hide.  "Dammit, Bryan, let me in!" she seethed at the door.  "It's Kaya!"
   A whir of pneumatic pistons and a heavy iron clang, and the door slid open, Bryan on the other side, clutching a sledge hammer.  "Heya, Kaya," he said.  In long days and nights on the road, she had tried to forget.  He was big, broad shouldered, handsome and had a penchant for these ancient myths told in stories called "comic books" that she didn't quite understand.  Their affair had been torrid and satisfying, but she knew hoping for more with a dangerous man like that was simply hoping for too much.
    "Get your ass in here," he said, a mighty arm swinging the sledgehammer up onto his shoulder.  "It's almost sundown."  She padded into the room, Elvis trodding in just as the massive metal door shut behind her.
    "How bad is it?" she asked, once he'd sat her down, given her a mug of grog and put something resembling food down in front of her.
    He looked around, blazingly intelligent eyes looking for the right words.  "It's real bad out there."
    "We lose anybody I know?"
    "About a half dozen per week," he nodded solemnly.  "Those damned vampire bastards.  Ever since their scientists came up with the ultra-coffins-"
    "I know," she said, cutting him off.  "I know."  Her thoughts drifted to her father before she pushed those thoughts away.
    The green light of Elvis's motion sensor lit, and Kaya leapt to her feet, the katana in one hand, the Faze-Pistol gripped expertly in her shooting hand.  Bryan let out a belly laugh.
   "I think," he said, stepping away from the doorway, "I need to introduce you to a friend."
   From the shadows stepped a man, but not a man.  After countless years stealthily fighting on the front lines, she knew him immediately for what he was.  His skin was too pale, his eyes too dark, and his front teeth too pointy, revealing his true nature. 
   "Kaya, this is Drumicus," Bryan smiled.  "He's a friend.  And he may just help us win this thing."
   Dammit, Kaya frowned, lowering the katana and pistol.  Did he have to be so good looking?


So that's it for the scene for now. I hope I left you hungry for more, and I hope I didn't reveal too much. Thanks for reading, and I really look forward to your feedback.

Henry Cavill cast as Superman?

NathanC send along a link to an item in Variety stating that British actor Henry Cavill is cast as Superman in the upcoming movie directed by fast-slow-fast auteur Zack Snyder.

Here's the nigh-info-free post.

I have no idea who this person is, but according to IMDB, he's a full 6'1", which is a good start. And his credentials seem very good.

At first I thought this was the old rumor from pre-Superman Returns that actor James "Jesus" Caviezel had been cast as Superman, but he may be a bit long in the tooth for a new franchise.

I'll be honest, I'm a little sad that Brandon Routh didn't get a second shot. He was pretty much what I would want in a Clark Kent/ Superman, and had he been given less self-pitying to do in Superman Returns, I think he would have been pretty ideal.

That's not a dig at this new guy, who I am sure will be great. I just never thought Routh got a square deal.

oh, sure.  Why not.  He's going to need blue contacts.

If I seem a little...  unenthusiastic...  as I've said: I don't believe anything until I see the first publicity stills.  This could all be wrong or change if Snyder gets fired or quits.  A lot of things can happen.

On the plus side, nobody tried to cast Ashton Kutcher, and to this point, no Wayans are involved.

And lets hope that if they've hired Snyder, it was because they plan to put some actual action into this Superman movie.

editor's note:  by the time I finished this post, this story was everywhere in the geek-o-sphere, so I tend to believe its the real deal, unless something weird happens at WB.

And I'm going to say it:  I really hope they don't go too crazy "updating" Superman's costume.  There's a reason everyone in the geek-o-sphere has been laughing themselves silly over the "updating" Tim Burton planned to do to Superman for his take.

The Big Hiatus

Okay. Real hiatus this time.

I am usually pretty honest with you guys about most aspects of my life. Last time I took a hiatus, it was largely so I could screw around and play the new DCU Online game, which I did and am doing. If anyone else is playing, let me know so we can team up. It didn't feel like a big deal to break the hiatus because, well... I was playing video games.

This time I'm going on hiatus because I made a New Year's resolution and I am not sticking to it. I mean, I should be, but that takes discipline. And it also means: quit talking about comics nobody in this audience is reading, anyway. Take a break.

I mention this once every blue moon, but a decade ago I started working on The Great American Novel, and when I am blogging, I am not finishing The Great American Novel. And, dammit, America has been waiting, I am sure, for another pulpy, crappy book to not get picked up, because, seriously... I do feel like I have to say it out loud, or its not real or I don't have to do it, because nobody knows about it, anyway. But if I say something, well, gee... it makes it all a little more real.

Anyhoo... My New Year's resolution was not to finish the book, but at least spend more time on it than this here blog, and get some new chapters cranked out by year's end. And I am failing at that.

And, yes, its exactly like this.

SOTU, Eraser, Fantastic Four

I write to you, a man who has just finished watching the 2011 State of the Union Address in a Courtyard Marriot in Waco, Texas... a man who has eaten some really awful Chinese food at a building that once housed a proud fried chicken joint I liked in middle school... a man who was delighted to realize his mid-range hotel had a full bar with a bartender...

Anyway, I did watch the State of the Union. Whatever. I don't get much fired up about the political game these days, so much as I get fired up about participating in government, and I consider those two separate things. ie: I will always vote, and I work for the state partially because I like the idea of serving something bigger than myself or the needs of shareholders. I am too old and cynical to take the bait when it comes to platitudes regarding education and social infrastructure that, once push comes to shove, won't be funded (even at a fraction of the cost of robot dog missles or whatever we're cooking up this week...) nor do I get excited about what some young congressman from Yahooville reads from a teleprompter, as if these thoughts occurred to him as he sipped a martini and listened to the address on the radio.

I voted this year. I'll vote again next year and the year after that. But enjoying the right to vote is not, for me, the same as engaging in politics as hometown team spectator sport.

You know, I definitely over-romanticize old school corrupt politics, political machines like Tammany Hall and political conventions having more meaning than the Golden Globes. I never lived any of that. And its probably wrong to long for the days when the corruption was mustache-ier and people got stabbed more often during ballot counting. But its not like its hard to guess who is buttering whose bread based on watching who claps for what during these clown shows.

I didn't watch the response because... I can think the words "everything he just said was a damn, dirty lie" to myself. Now, I missed Bachmann's response but the Twittersphere seemed positively incandescent pondering what they were seeing. Sadly, by the time I got over to CNN from the Telenovella I'd tuned to (the hair on those ladies is so SHINY), Bachmann was done using her words and Headline News was literally already back to talking about Jersey Shore.

That's okay. AMC is now showing Eraser, which I made Jason and Jamie go see in the theater during its original release because (a) Arnie, and (B) Vanessa Williams. Mostly B. Man, this movie is everything that went wrong with 90's action movies by the end of the decade. But, you know, it features lots of Point B.

And... right. Today Marvel Comics released their latest issue of Fantastic Four, a comic I like in theory much more than execution unless Mark Waid is writing the book (Sorry, rest of industry). In this story, one of the FF was scheduled to die, a move so routine in comics as an attention grabber, its quite literally true that we now expect the "death" of at least two major character per universe per year, followed by a much less celebrated resurrection.

I only read FF for about two years back in the mid 00's, and during that time, one of the FF died, too. So, you know, it happens.

Ah, wait. Bully has a terrific post on the topic.

I actually did hit a comic shop today after my meeting. Bankston's here in Waco is a sister store to Austin Books and Comics as its owned by the brother of the owner of ABC. Anyhow, they have a terrific selection, its a really fun shop, and I always have to make sure I have a gameplan when I walk in the door, because its a place I could easily go crazy.

Yes, they had the issue of FF by the cash register, all wrapped up in a black bag, a la "Death of Superman". And I looked at it and looked at it... but the thought of actually buying it never crossed my mind. Death of major characters has officially become so commonplace, even a well-marketed and well-placed copy of the comic can't pique my curiosity.

I did, however, grab Superman/ Batman #80, which has been getting some great notices and penned by Chris Roberson (and issue 79 rocked my socks).

Death of The Comics Code Part 4: CMAA MIA?

This is interesting.  Apparently the Comics Code Authority had basically been so neglected the past few years, even folks inside the industry seem to have no clue what they story has been for some time now.

Newsarama has an interesting article on the quest to find out what's actually going on.

Newsarama hasn't been able to locate any evidence that the organization was functioning since 2009. And Archie Comics has indicated that it wasn't actually submitting comics for approval to the Comics Magazine Association of America, which oversaw the Code.

"We haven't submitted for a year or more," said Archie Comics President Mike Pellerito.

When asked if the CMAA was even functioning anymore, Pellerito said, "I don't think they are."

 In reading more, I have learned that Batman and Superman comics were, in fact, still carrying the seal.  It was just much different from the seal I recalled from the 1980's and whenever it was I last looked.

I'm Headed for Waco, also (Some) Lawyers are Pigs!

I'm headed out for Waco yet again tomorrow.  No, I will not go to your old local haunts, JimD.  Its another night at Ninfa's for me!

I'd feel worse about the fact that I'm not going to do a real post, but I interrupted my hiatus to talk about Wonder Woman on TV and the Comics Code thing.  See:  news breaks, we're on the scene!

This evening I was driving south on Lamar in Austin, and at the intersection of Barton Springs and Lamar, I saw this:

It was a gentleman of middling years in a pig costume standing at the intersection and cheerfully waving. 

And then he turned and I saw his sign:

I was in traffic.  I risked my life to bring you this image.

  

Can't read the sign?  Well, let me help you out.

"Some" Lawyers are Pigs!

Apparently the pig costume is nothing new.  Austin gadfly John Kelso wrote a column on the Lawyer-hating pig-guy way back in November.  I'd just not had the chance to see him.

Kelso never did learn what was going on, exactly, and it sounds like the world may never know.  I just like the idea of dressing up as a pig to make an abstract point.  Especially when you dress up as one of the two things you're comparing and suggesting you like neither.  That's owning it, man. 

But, I wonder if the pig suit is getting attention as pigs can be terribly cute animals.

I am waiting for the high pitched "eeeeee!" sound Jamie will make when she sees this pig.

See, that's just adorable.

I actually think grown up pigs are cute, too.  And delicious

Anyway, I knew I was in luck when I went to Google "Lawyers are Pigs" and "Lawyers are Pigs Austin" came up as an option.  I salute this fellow, even if the lawyers I know are mostly okay.

why I am not allowed to have a pig of my own

DC Comics, The Multiverse and Everything

Grant Morrison believes that the DC Universe is alive and well and trying to tell us something.  And that something may have first been whispered to us via Flash comic books in 1961 (50 years ago!) via the story "Flash of Two Worlds".

The story posits that there are multiple universes, and The Flash (Barry Allen) can travel between them by changing his "vibrational frequency".  He travels to "Earth-2" where he meets the Flash from that world, a Flash he's only read about in comics books, named Jay Garrick.

Maybe writer Gardner Fox wasn't so crazy...

From NPR's science desk, a story on the possibility of multiverses.

From the article:

So if the universe is infinitely large, it is also home to infinite parallel universes.
Does that sound confusing? Try this:

Think of the universe like a deck of cards.

"Now, if you shuffle that deck, there's just so many orderings that can happen," Greene says. "If you shuffle that deck enough times, the orders will have to repeat. Similarly, with an infinite universe and only a finite number of complexions of matter, the way in which matter arranges itself has to repeat."

Deck of cards?  Why...  that has 52 cards in it.  It seems like I've heard that number somewhere...

I'm just saying.

DC's Infinite and 52 Universes