Very little spam gets through my GMail armor, but this one was so mind-bending I thought it worth sharing:
The long word was a link, probably to somebody trying to download some malware, and I've omitted it.

I was lucky enough to chat with Ricky a bit this morning over aim. He sounded content, and it made me feel good to hear it. Well, good meaning better than the pit I've been in this week.

So how's this for me being selfish: what are you happy about? Has anything gone particularly well lately? I think if I can get some inertia from other people's optimism and/or success I might be able to focus better on the things that are going well for me right now.

Because I don't have anything else to do (hah!) I've been skimming old blog entries. I just stumbled upon this thread (for minor context: I had mentioned cheering for Ohio State in some football game). Several million points to all involved!

• 21:49 Man, the Assassin's Creed guy would defeat the Ninja Warrior course every time. #

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EDIT: huge props to kmousie for the poifect icon!



I keep putting off getting this, even though the price has steadily gone down over the past couple months. Maybe I should resist until it's at least half off, hurr hurr hurr.

( Of course, now look what's coming out from DC Direct next year: the ultimate pointless expense for Heffie )

I saw this a few months ago, but dismissed it for two (HURR) reasons. First, I'm prejudiced against green scarring, it just looks silly. And second, it's three hundred fucking dollars. The most I ever paid for a piece of comic memorabilia was my Green Lantern Power Battery ten years ago, which was $250 (my employee discount at the comic shop helped). So I didn't actually go "WANT" when I first saw it.

But today, I checked out the amazon.com page, where it allowed you to zoom in for a high-def look at the details. Wow, the scarring is wonderfully done. I mean, if I had it my way, I would have preferred reddish-pink-black scarring, or even purple, rather than campy comics-green, but based on other images, it's less neon-pronounced as it is above. It works, really. Looks almost gangrenous. Most importantly, it's not a clean division, but rather has gradation like real acid scarring would have.

Plus, while I dislike the split suit, it's actually quite tasteful here, rather than half a used-car salesman, which is Harvey's poor preference most of the time. I'm gonna say it yet again: if I had my way, the only thing split on Harvey's costume would be his tie. Everything else would be a suit and maybe trenchcoat, with subtle plays on symmetry and asymmetry throughout. The idea is to take the emphasis away from the body and bring it right on the face where it belongs. He looks normal and average everywhere else, which makes the scars all the more jarring.

... Why yes, I really do give these things too much thought, why do you ask?

What's really impressive is how his pose actually gives him a decidedly different expression depending on which way you look at it:

( Arrooo? )

I just want an "O RLY?"-"YA RLY" icon of those (going back and forth between close-ups of the faces). I wish I had the ability to make animated icons (or even good static icons).* But not as much as I wish I could afford to blow three hundred smackers on something as awesomely useless as this. Shit, who does?

Maybe if I wait long enough, it'll go down to two hundred, which would give me enough flimsy justification to finally buy the damn thing.




*damn, I need photoshop

If you hadn't heard through the vines of FB...

Engaged to Mr. blindtillnow. In Budapest. Yay.





And a bonus, Seth and our friend Andras face off at the Square of Heroes. Beauteous.
( If you strike me down I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine. Alternately, I will fall down from drinking too much champagne. )

( Lots of awesome comic covers and ranting geekery behind the cut! )



In Part Two: the best stories still in progress, the best compilations of older material, and even a couple honorable mentions!




*A month ago, I wrote most of an epic rant about Grant Morrison's BATMAN, but I keep putting off posting it because, well, what's the point? It's not like I'm going to change any opinions.

• 11:34 Oh my goodness, someone just called me at work just to say "Thank you." It's a Thanksgiving miracle! #

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Via IM just now:

Penguin: i like goals
Penguin: they're made of choclate
Penguin: no wait, that's gelt
Me: lol
Me: oh [penguin], i need to im you more
Penguin: because i am a font of wisdom
Penguin: also, because i'm made of crazy

( Non-Photobucket access behind the cut )
koralleen combining forces with whimmydiddle made the following funnee:


starfyrone actually made me LOL with his LOLZ caption:


And kugelblitz unintentionally provided my favorite for the St. Fiacre (patron saint of gardeners) statue:

It always bothers me whenever I don't "get" a work of art that's praised and respected by those I would consider my peers. It shakes me on a fundamental level, right down to the squishy core of my neurotic tenderness.

It's not just the feeling of being left out of something, which isn't fun either. No one likes to feel on the outside of something. Seems to me that even outsiders seek the company of other outsiders. That's what I've always done. "The unwashed masses may gobble up dreck," I think, "but me, I ally myself with those like-minded snobs who can appreciate the great works!"

And it's so rare to find those great works of art, y'know? The ones that can move me, that hit me in the gut, that make me gasp and utter little squeaky noises. The stuff that makes me wanna find those people--the people I know who's "get" it--and shout, "CHECK THIS OUT!!!" while doing my best impression of Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube-Man.

But when other people feel that for something I feel like I should but I don't, it gets under my skin, eats away at me. Every time I see it in a store, or hear someone raving about it, I obsessively wonder, "What the hell am I missing?"

Case in point: the AV Club's list of the Best Comics of the Decade. I've read most of these, but I can't say I actively enjoy them all. In some cases, I plainly just can't understand the big deal.

ACHEWOOD strikes me as one of those stranger Adult Swim cartoons (or perhaps more apt, like TIM AND ERIC AWESOME SHOW GREAT JOB!), and while I could appreciate the strangeness on occasion, I've never felt any instances of anything deeper.

BLACK HOLE was beautifully drawn, but hit none of the personal feelings that seemed to resonate in everyone else. When it comes to "the transitional period between adolescence and adulthood, a time when the need for companionship is as strong as the inability to grasp it," my own personal experiences were far from common, a fact I've struggled to write about in a way that can actually resonate with others. Then again, I have absolutely no interest in stories that accurately evoke that era, like DAZED AND CONFUSED, possibly because I hated my teenage years so much. Either way, BLACK HOLE does nothing for me.

See also: EIGHTBALL. I haven't read "The Death Ray," and it actually sounds interesting, but GHOST WORLD? What the fuck? That book seemed utterly pointless, and the only reason I liked the movie is because they actually made it into a story by adding the entire Steve Buscemi subplot.

Then there's BLANKETS, which I really liked when it first came out, but only because of the "first love/first heartbreak" stuff. I was deep in my own first and second, so I was a sucker for stuff like that (although I far preferred Jeffery Brown's raw and unpolished UNLIKELY in that respect). But I felt very uncomfortable throughout the rest. As with PERSEPOLIS, there's something I find very bothersome about the subject of religious oppression, to the point that it ruins any enjoyment I have of the story.

And then there's FUN HOME. I... dang it, I'm just going to need to read it again. It just did nothing for me. Then again, I'm starting to realize that most autobiographical comics do little for me. It's strange, considering how many great autobiographical solo shows I've seen performed (not to mention those I've done myself), how rarely their comic counterparts seem to affect me in any way.

Then again, maybe this all ties into one of the reasons I'm a writer myself: because people aren't making the kind of stories that really matter to me. They clearly matter to others, but time and again, I look at lists like that and think, "Where are the stories that can hit me like that?" Maybe I'm not missing something at all. Maybe I "get" these stories about as well as I can. They're good stories, but they're just not for me. And I'm guessing, then, that they're not for everyone else either.

Often times, I write because I want to tell these stories because no one else is going to tell them. Either they can't, they won't, or they wouldn't think to, so I feel driven to do it myself.

That said, I just read a recent exception:





Anyone else read this? It's a semi-autobiographical (best as I can tell) graphic novel published by Vertigo, which is finally starting to branch out of genre stories. I had never heard of THE ALCOHOLIC when I found it at the library. I've seen no press, nor has anyone posted scans on scans_daily, nor is it on any "Best Of" lists.

And yet, I dare say THE ALCOHOLIC hit me in the ways that FUN HOME seems to have hit so many others. There was an awful lot of personal resonance that I saw in the themes, the awkward humor, the raw emotion, and particular Ames' narrative voice. This book inspired me so much that I had to stop reading every few pages to write.

And while I think it sort of dwindled and wandered off in the last quarter, this book was a vindication that those kinds of stories I can enjoy do exist, while reminding me that I just need to have the strength of my convictions. I still have a hard time with that, particularly in a world where SCOTT PILGRIM--perhaps the biggest example of everything I'm struggling with here--is hailed as the graphic novel of our generation.

I was thinking of commenting on the AV Club's choices that I did agree with, but I had my own thoughts and amendments to those choices, and this post is long enough. So to heck with it. Next post, I'll do my own list of the Best Comics of the Decade. Hopefully with that, I'll earn back some of the cred I've lost by admitting some of the above.

In the aftermath, after the bird and pies and friends and family, there's one thing I'm more thankful of on the day after, today more than anything else.

I'm thankful that I don't have to work retail on Black Friday.

Was just in the cafeteria getting a spot of breakfast and there was a little girl accompnaying her mother to work today. She had on red glitter shoes. I was very jealous. I think we all need a pair of red glitter shoes.

There were more people at his Dad's side of the family Thanksgiving yesterday (all members of one side of the family plus me and another SO) than there were from my entire family at my brother's wedding. And this was the not-as-close & smaller side of the family. This does not bode well for any future potential budgeting.

I had expected something completely different but on the way home (almost 4hrs up, just over 2 hrs home) he explained that there was just a very different dynamic in this side of the family than there is on his Mom's side. Everyone's close, but they're extended family close as opposed to brothers-close.

My family is sorta spotty. There's the brother that only my dad and one of my aunts talks to, there's that aunt and her wacky stiil-u8nder-21-don't let Nana see me with the cigarette and the beer that mom bought me" cousin who are both very nice and very sweet but not very the-rest-of-the-family, my aunt and uncle (who only a couple of us in the family know) who are 3000 miles in the other direction so the geography doesn't lend to frequent gatherings (Crumpet: I'll be home on Sunday -- Nana has the phone #, don't leave a message unless I've clearly set up the voicemail). And then there's my dad's side of the family. Oofta.

I think what I expected was a bunch of people who don't really talk to each other much, sitting around sorta awkwardly, like the last time I saw my older brother. But what I saw was a family that in some ways is closer than mine. Certainly closer than parts of mine.

I really missed Colin & mom yesterday.


But hey, I got to make a challah for a friend's dinner, and I'm going shopping for Cookie Season tomorrow or Sunday! Three cheers for Cookie Season!

Lookie! I have internets!

But I'm about 10% awake at the moment so I'm just going to mention real fast: the Ig Nobel awards will be rebroadcast tomorrow on NPR's Science Friday, according to the internet, at 2pm eastern. Not to be missed! This year's theme was RISK.

On the off chance that you read Wired.com, you should know that their list of 10 DC Comics Characters Deserving a Mass Makeover is utter shit.

Bizarro? A Bizarro not dressed in any way like Superman? He's defined as a twisted mirror to Superman. Anything else misses the point. Fuck you.

The Question? You think the Question's costume actually merits anything more than the perfection it already has? You think it needs an "ambitious costume change"? He has a fedora, trenchcoat, suit, tie, and no face. That's perfect. Fuck you.

Swamp Thing? Fuck you.

Gaiman's Death? I don't even like Death that much, I find her whole "sunny goth" thing kind of annoying. But just on principle, fuck you.

Dr. Fate's "character could also use some roughing up?" Oh really, you think that's what would improve Dr. Fate? That would do it? Fuck you.

And the capper to all this fucktardery can be found--where else?--in the comments section, where a person writes: "Death is the only character on this list that isn’t, for lack of a better word… ridiculous. DC really needs to look at their characters and come up with something imaginative and unique rather than putting new costumes on old superheroes. Why inst Jesse Custer on the list? Because he is a timelessly substantial character who will never need “dusting off” or reconceptualization."

Mr. Caruso? Care to weigh in on this?



...

Y'know, I don't normally get this worked up about things, but Henchgirl finds it sexy whenever I get into a geekrage rant, so I'm starting to let it out. Hope y'all don't mind. I'm going back to being nice now.

Seriously, you want character makeovers done right? Let Project Rooftop show you how it's done (well, once the photobucket issue gets figured out; what's going on there, dryponder?)

A couple of really good ones taken by whimmydiddle using Bandit. (Long story involving the company trying to fix a broken order so I would up with 2 zombies and an extra right arm. Eventually they were named Marcel, Eddie, and Bandit.)

Extra points if you can identify the saint (not St. Francis, btw) depicted by the statue.

So it's official. I didn't get into the Orlando Fringe Festival for next year, which is a real bummer.

I was seriously counting on that one. After two years of Orlando, I was counting on the thought that THIS would be the year I'd hit it big. Or at least, finally make the kind of profit that could sustain me as a working performer (I lost money the first year, made a small profit this year, and in a subpar venue to boot!). But no, it'll have to wait until next year. Or the year after that, depending on luck.

I was spoiled last year for a couple reasons, which essentially spared me the real lottery experience of all the Fringe Festivals I did in 2009. Not so for 2010. I honestly don't know how many festivals I'm going to (be able to) do, which means I honestly don't know how much money I'm going to make, and that's a bothersome thing for one who craves security as I do. Especially now, after two years of doing this. I know I can't be impatient, I can't expect to be there yet, wherever there is. I have to just keep going. It's tough when the effort doesn't always seem worth the reward.

But on the plus side, I now have Henchgirl. For the first time in my life, I've found a true partner (and in more than one sense), someone with whom I can weather the bad times and savor the good in equal measure. And for that fact alone, I truly have reason to be thankful this Thanksgiving.

• 14:23 "A national day of Thanksgiving was proclaimed by George Washington nearly 400 years ago after the Pilgrims survived a bitter winter." What? #

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091124/ap_on_re_us/us_census_worker_hanged

This explains why it didn't get more play and why they didn't rule it a homicide off the bat. And in the interest of fairness, I publish the correction.

How do you like your "Hefleeze" now, benchilada?



Similarly, via mellifluous_ink: BREAKFAST CEREAL CORPS COLOR WAR. My favorite is Trix Rabbit as Larfleeze, although I sooner see Cap'n Crunch as Ganthet than a Rage Lantern (along with the original three chefs for Cinnamon Toast Crunch). But for the life of me, I can't think of any breakfast cereal mascot capable of rage. Well, other than Trix Rabbit finally snapping...

By the way, as I helped unpack the comic shop's shipment for tomorrow, I've read the new GL and BLACKEST NIGHT issues. Let me say right now, I bloody love Larfleeze. I hope he sticks around for awhile.