First drafts of fiction including micro, fanfic and NaNoWriMo.
Slowly but surely, I'm getting back on track over there. A huge help in that regard was finally finding a managing editor, Kevin MacDonald, who saw my posting on The Engine and endured a grueling interview process that included publicly, and intelligently, talking comics while drinking in an Irish pub. Equally important, though, is that he's actually a production editor by day, working for one of the major publishing houses here in the City. He'll be taking over coordinating and editing approx. 60% of our columns, while I finally turn my attention to getting our reviews up to snuff. Yay,…
I knew there was something I wanted to blog about recently. The Frey guy and his fictional memoir, A Million Little Lies, or something like that. Glad to see Oprah ripped him and his editor a new one over it.Reminded me of the poetry debate we used to have over "fiction in the first person", and whether or not it was cool for poets to perform first-person tales of woe without clarifying the truthfulness of the content.Noel Jones wins!...Yeah, that's all. Hit the comics blog if you want verbosity from me these days. :-P
Let's just get to it, yes?Black HoleBy Charles Burns (Pantheon, 2005; $24.95)There are some comic books that I simply do not have the critical vocabulary to properly review, like a casual art fan who finds himself in The Prado standing speechless before Breughel's "The Triumph of Death" in all its full-size glory. I know it's an amazing piece of art, but anything I might say about it seems inadequate. I felt that way after first reading Blankets a year ago, almost to the day, and I feel that way now about Charles Burns' freaky Black Hole. It's a stunning piece…
(Actually, a few days ago, but work's been kicking my ass this week.) This is the blog version of a chain letter Salomé "infected" me with. The point is to state 10 random things about yourself and "infect" ten others. Here we go...1) Despite the former poetry series, editing Buzzscope, and my apparently good reputation at work (see #2), I am one of the most disorganized people I know. My desk is almost always buried under piles of papers, most relating to jobs in various stages of incompletion.2) I can't take a compliment. Makes me feel awkward and I never…
Over at Newsarama, a lively debate sprung up on their message boards. That's nothing new to Newsarama regulars, though. They have one of the most active forums on the web. Fans regularly log on to bitch *cough, cough* discuss topics related to comic books, but this one was slightly different. This time the "Hero" being written about holds a dubious place in history. Not the comic continuity type of history, real life history, as in you and me. The topic in the fanboy's crosshairs this time is Che Guevara.For those of you who don't know who he is, here is…
Mateo Cor Marak Tiefling Rogue/Lvl 3 Male, 21yo, Chaotic Neutral Born into slavery in Innarlith (Lake of Steam) to the human concubine of a once-powerful wizard, Mateo was abducted by the local enclave of Red Wizards when the truth of his fiendish bloodline became known - Rakshasa, given away by his catlike eyes and pointed teeth. Raised from infancy along with three other Tieflings of varied bloodlines, he was constantly reminded of the taint of evil his ancestry marked him with, but held to the belief that his ultimate destiny was his own to determine. Rigorously trained in the arts…
Just emailed the first draft of my comic book story to Erech, the artist putting the aforementioned anthology together. Second draft actually, as I handwrote (!) the first draft during lunch last Thursday and did a lot of revising while typing it up. I like what I'm trying to do with it, but have no idea if I pulled it off, what with this being such foreign territory. In the immortal words of Charlie Huston: "I'm not fucking Joss Whedon! This is my first fucking comic book, motherfucker!"Seriously, though, I was way more confident - though admittedly, wrongly so -…
