LocalTech Update

Feeling a little better.

This week, my new Apple PowerBook will arrive. It is a sweet machine and I'm also upgrading the home Internet accesses with modern cable 'modem' and wireless tech via NetGear. With the Bluetooth built in, my new computer should be humming by early next week, and I'll be anxious to redo my website, where I've been pulling old references off and will replace them with new Things to amaze and intrigue you.

The story of the APB is a long one, but in a nutshell, I've been thinking about it for about six months and decided to take the plunge last week, by buying the setup I had picked out and saved at www.apple.com...

Until I get there and find the computer I had picked out is no longer available.

After screaming at the work PC, I investigated and found that all the Apples had been upgraded slightly for only a minimal cost. Glad I waited because instead of a 1.33 GHz processor (if I get the terms wrong, sue me, as long as I can write on the fucker, I'll be happy) I'm getting 1.5 GHz. The memory was upgraded, too. So I spent the extra dollars and got the extra memory I was preparing to buy initially, and I get a more powerful, faster computer for only about $20 more.

I love Apple.

It took some convincing for Bobbi to go along with an Apple, but after a virus attack at her job and me telling her that I don't know what Apple's customer service is like because I've never needed it, well, it wasn't too long before we agreed on the Apple.

Plus this means I don't have to upgrade a bunch of software right away. I can still use it in "Classic Mode", as I understand it. Which I'm sure will be super nice.

What am I using at home right now? It's a ten year old Performa with a 75 MHz processor. Yeah. This is going to be like Christmas, my birthday and the first sexual encounter all in one.

Jason

Monday bleh

Don't feel much like writing anything, since I spent yesterday feeling like hammered dogshit. But the thought that came to me in a haze of stomach cramps from overspiced pad thai is about dedication. That feeling that things must continue to get done even when we don't feel like it.

And that's really all I've got, other than to say I have five pages of Occupation art penciled and inked from Juan Romera, and they are beautiful. I will post lettered editions up when I feel better and can get them done. I'm learning how to letter on the computer, so that may take a little longer, but I'll be pitching this book in late March/early April, I think.

Blambot is good.

Jason

The Villain is the Hero

At least in his own story.

I think that too often, writers forget that. This kind of thinking is what makes villains like Doctor Doom, the Red Skull and Lex Luthor such memorable characters. Lately there doesn't seem to be much of a villain in some movies I've seen.

The Aviator, for instance, was about 45 minutes too long. Leonardo DiCaprio did a fantastic job of portraying a madman trying to function in the already deranged society of Hollywood in the 40s, 50s and 60s, as well as trying to be the savvy businessman we all know Howard Hughes was. Crazy as a loon, but DiCaprio pulled it off. But who's the villain? The nominal bad guy is Alec Baldwin's character. However, Scorsese spends so much time on Hughes' madness, that the affliction is the real villain. Hard to dislike a disease, so they insert Alan Alda to make everything worse. Regardless of if it's true or not, there's really not an evil villain to make the story more interesting. I like the movie, but it's too long and could have easily been shortened up a LOT.

And why does M. Night Shyamalan think he's so goddamn important? I realize us creative types like the sound of our voice, but COME ON. The Village needs to be edited down to 30 minutes and shown on TV as a Twilight Zone episode. Then it would have been brilliant. Stretching out the central conceit of the film and then telling us the bad guy is not really a bad guy but misguided? Ugh. I wish I could get the time back. On the cover of the dvd, it's compared to a Hitchcock film and I can't do that any more. With Night, he's got Unbreakable and then Sixth Sense under his belt that make sense but Sense doesn't have a bad guy in it, either. His other two films, Signs and now the Village just don't hold up to the Idiot Questions: Why don't we turn on the sprinklers and When's someone gonna show some balls to do some exploration? I'll be wary of the next one, for sure.

Julianne Moore in The Forgotten is one of the better actors in a thriller, lately. The story goes along very well to start, but then falls back on a trope that's already tired and isn't given anything new to hang on. The fact the Dominic West is pretty good, that Gary Sinise turns in an average performance and Alfre Woodard comes just a little too late doesn't really help it, either. I like this movie, though, for the fact that there are two jaw-dropping moments that had me up and out of my comfy chair, once spilling popcorn. Credit is due for that.

What are the good thrillers lately? Panic Room is one of my faves. There are BAD guys in it, a genuine hero and the women aren't all 'oh save me Superman, save me!' From the opening credits, director David Fincher took us on a wild ride with some excesses in camera work, but nothing that really affected the story at all.

The other good thriller? Well, it's on HBO. Carnivale (first season now on DVD) is a classic good and evil story in 1930s dustbowl territory. The second season is really intriguing and is building on the first season's ambiguities very nicely. Two episodes this season are absolute standouts and have those creepy moments that make you jump. The two main characters are bad from the other side, and that's a rarity on TV now. Recommended highly.

Waiting for Deadwood in two weeks. Ian McShane is the coolest bad guy around and has the look that will leave any but the strongest of heroes in a puddle of blood on a dirt floor. It's not the language or the nudity that sells these shows, either. It's the writing, the stories. Why can't the networks get their shit together and do the things that need to be done to tell good stories? Why are they letting HBO do it and not themselves? Pay the writers!

I'm tempted to write that HBO is the DC/Vertigo of TV, but I won't.

So where are the great villains in comix? Who's treating bad guys like heroes from the other side? Deathstroke the Terminator just turned up in this month's issue of The Outsiders, but there aren't any others I'm seeing. Someone tell me where to look, willya? Remember only the winners write history, and the facts of the situation will be manipulated to their advantage. One truth to be told over and over until it's believed.


Jason
2-26-05

Three Chords and the

Truth.

I've only had one cup of coffee as I write this.

Alan Moore and JH Williams III have created a roadmap for all comix creators to follow with the absolutely brilliant Promethea.

There's only one Larry Young.

Truth.

On NPR this morning, William Macy said that an actor's job is simple. So simple it's difficult. The purview of the actor is about four seconds long, to deliver a line of dialogue and make it sound true. Then move on to the next four seconds and the four seconds after that. "Pretty soon you've done Hamlet."

But let's talk not about Shakespeare and his plays, instead let's investigate Truth.

Readers are inured to the Truth any more. They want Escapism if they're reading the spandex fight fantasies. Someone willing to venture out into the world and combine their passion (comix) with that world is likely my target audience. I have a vision of Truth that I put in each entry on this blog. I have a vision of Truth that I put into each story I write, each panel I might draw. That Truth may conflict with yours, but if you're reading my work and you're willing to come along with me, you might accept my Truth as True for the duration of the post or the story.

All Truths, self-evident and otherwise, are True in their own time. Weapons of Mass Destruction. True, however briefly, whether you believed it or not. President Clinton was engaged in a criminal activity in Whitewater. True until Ken Starr spent $60 million to prove that he was really only a philanderer. Everyone has fifteen minutes of fame. True if you believe reality TV. Kyle Baker is a god, but not when he's drawing The Truth. There he was a hack.

Truth is an abstract when it's not a fact. Truth is a pursuit, a goal. Something to hang your hat on. It's the one thing that everyone can believe in until it's proven wrong. Facts are the hallmark of the Fourth Estate, not the Truth. Facts can be manipulated to tell A Truth, if not exactly The Truth.

People don't STOP any more. They Glide. I present a Truth in the Abstract in my stories. I hope that I can build a world where the things that happen can be True. What may be True in one story may not be True in another, but within the context of each story, there HAS to be Truth. The reader has to STOP and take the leap to believe the Truth of the story, or it's ineffective.

I was going to lay out a laundry list of Creative People who have influenced my work, who have given me Truth in their time. You don't need to see it. You won't really care. You have your own Truth and that's that.

But if you buy into my Abstract Truth, you'll begin to understand how I think. We do this with writers as we try to dissect their styles. Warren Ellis, Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman. William Gatewood, Jasper Johns, Alphonse Mucha. Looking for the magic bullet by visiting their basis for Truth won't reveal what's True for us. We each are colored in by our experiences and the Truth is different for all. We can explore what makes some things universally True, and that's the beauty of Joseph Campbell's work after exploring the Truth as expounded by Carl Jung. But it's all an Abstract to be explored. Divining the elements that are True for me.

Seeking the Truth is a never-ending journey with twists, turns and switchbacks that will carry us through our lives. When a writer finds readers willing to come along on that journey with him (like most comix creators do with Moore, Ellis and Gaiman) he will enjoy the company on his travels. The True writer won't care who comes along with him. His personal vision-quest is all that matters.

And that's Truth.

Jason
2-25-05

ManipuLit

What is it that makes comix sexy? And I’m not talking about porn, now, or even impossibly-proportioned women in bikinis and knee-high boots or ripped musclemen with big guns. I’m thinking about why we’re making comix. What draws us to them like frazzled moths heading for a nuclear event? And this isn’t the typical “why do you do comix?” line, either. What makes us think we can take a form that has been maligned for being ‘for kids’ for DECADES and give it some kind of legitimacy among the literate hoi polloi?

The challenge maybe? I doubt it. At least not for me.

I want people to like my book as it is and because it tells a good story. I don’t want to compromise my belief in the innate intelligence of the average reader. As a matter of fact, the Average Reader doesn’t exist in the world of comix. The fanboys are off in right field reading their spandex fight fantasies, so they might be average readers, but they’re not the target audience, are they? If they were, maybe we’d be on the Track to getting work on the revival of The Ray. No, the average reader now is someone who wanders in off the street and thumbs through a book he heard of in Entertainment Weekly or by seeing a movie based on that book. But the store they’re wandering into is not your Local Comic Shop.

It’s the bookstore.

Maybe that’s what makes it sexy for me. Being able to walk into a Border’s or a Barnes & Noble and see my name on a shelf. The down side to being a part of those larger stores is that there’s an incrementally larger chance of being completely overshadowed and lost in the shuffle by the Big Names. Not only would I be competing with someone like Bendis, but then you have to add in Orson Scott Card or even Maeve Binchy. And David McCullough. Folks writing books and stories aimed at a different market, sure, but still competing for dollars from the store in the first place just to win the coveted slot on the shelf.

It’s not the challenge, really, then, it’s the idea that my work could reach a wide audience just by being in a place where hundreds, even thousands of people would pass it in a week. The ‘exposure’ would be much greater, increasing the chances it can sell a few more copies. Will I have to ‘pay dues’ in the Direct Market first? Probably, and that’s a whole other can of worms that will have to be opened eventually and likely first. I’m aiming for this with the Occupation submission that’s getting readied. So all I have to do is letter the finished pages and make sure my pitch material is good.

So the indy label is the Direct Market, and the major label is not DC or Marvel, it’s Borders or Barnes & Noble or Hastings.

What do you think?

Jason
02-24-05

Keep it Greasy

Gotta write something every day. Doesn't matter what, even fragments are all right. But the fingers have to dance over the keys and the words have to pour out, else the flow gets disturbed and things begin to back up. Need a wetvac then to restart, because sucking on the hose in the gas tank doesn't quite sound so appealing any more.

Grease the wheels, keep the cogs turning, things moving.

I saw an invisible galaxy has been discovered, but I haven't seen the pictures, yet. www.space.com/news I listened to the college radio station every morning while driving up to Kansas City for jury duty. I think they stream out of www.kjhk.org, if you're interested in listening to college radio jocks sound like soulless robots while playing great funk and jazz in the mornings. Radiobots.

We lost power for an hour and a half yesterday at work. When you're dealing with food, that can be dangerous, but our walk-in refrigerators and freezers held their temperatures just fine and I think the only thing that was lost was some sushi. Not too bad, and thankfully it happened before the lunch rush, but then again, we missed a lot of business in the late morning and early part of the lunch period. Crazy stuff.

Read Books of Magick: Life During Wartime. Dean Ormston's art is all crazy angles and dark figures from Si Spencer's scripts and Neil Gaiman's story with Spencer. Constantine and Zatanna are in it. Molly's there. But no one knows who's real and who isn't, except that everyone believes that Tim is real. This is great stuff and I hope it doesn't die the death that the three previous series have. Hunter: The Age of Magic was just beginning to hit it's stride when it got the axe. I hated the first series late in its run because I thought John Ney Rieber was awfully full of himself, but I read great chunks of it, because I like the ideas behind it. Harry Potter owes a debt to Tim Hunter.

Got BattleHymn yesterday. Clay's writing there is something I hadn't expected out of him. It's tight, like an old Roy Thomas Invaders script. I recommend this one with bells. Get it and read it, you'll be hooked, I think.

There are thoughts swirling around in my head, but they're more complicated and I'll try to spit them out later in the day (Alan Moore's a genius, ManipuLit) but they're longer screeds. Maybe not til the weekend. In the meantime, you'll have to settle for this.

Dropping Catwoman. Will drop Powers after current arc, maybe before. Tired of Bendis if he's not writing Alias. Done with The Pulse. Green Arrow might be next, but I'm not sure. I'll be adding Nightwing with Hester and Parks showing us how to draw Devin Grayson's scripts to great effect. That'll be a nice change for me. I've always dug Dick Grayson.

Jason

Something continued

“Jesus.”

I woke up under the tables next to what remained of the front door. I remember the brick flying at my face and the blood smeared down the rubble in front of me confirmed I’d been hit hard. No idea how long I was out, though. Then I remembered what else I’d forgotten.

“Erin!” I scraped my way out from under the table and tried to stand up. The broken bricks and mortar of the back wall and smashed bottles from the bar were so unsteady that I cut my hand when I fell over. “Erin!” I hoped that somehow she’d survived the crash, but I don’t know why. I mean when a Buick comes crashing through the wall, you don’t have much chance, do you? “Erin!”

There was a huge crashing boom from outside that came on the heels of my latest exhortation to my favorite bartender. I turned to look out the front of the bar and saw a huge foot clad in metal attached to a metal leg as it stomped down the cars parked on either side of the street. I fell again, this time on my elbow and wrenched it terribly. Screaming like a baby in anguish, I heard the rubble now behind me stir a little.

“Are you all right, sir?”

I turned to the voice and saw a large man in black spandex standing in the hole the car made on its northwest passage. The puzzled look on my face must have confused him, too, because he asked me again if I was all right. “Yeah,” I said. I intended to tell him Erin was under the rubble there, but things began to kick up from where I was sure her body was crushed beyond belief. I didn’t bother to move.

The man started pulling bricks and debris away from the moving pile and soon enough, I saw Erin pushing her way free. Stunned, I just watched this impossible spectacle: the woman who I thought was just a remarkable person and a personal fantasy was something else entirely and I wasn’t sure what. She stood up, her clothes ripped and I was able to see the skin underneath was unhurt. More skin than I ever thought I’d see of hers, actually. She smiled at me. “Oh, lord, Marv, you’re fuckin’ hurt!”

“Gotta go,” the man in spandex said and leapt over the top of the building.

Erin made cooing noises over me, using her tattered shirt to wipe away the blood. I let her. “Your nose is probably broken and you’ve got a hell of shiner there,” she told me between gentle swabs. “But I think you’re going to live.”

“How---?” I stammered, still too confused by the whole thing. Then I heard some metallic clanging that might have been the man in black hammering the robot-thingy I think I saw. “What’s going on, Erin?”

“Shush,” she said. “It’s not the end of the world.”

Her tone didn’t exactly reassure me.


Copyright 2005 by Jason Arnett

Breast Feeding

Formulas have existed in comix since about 1940. There's a formula for every kind of story, rest assured. Most of us here are familiar with the typical formula for a Marvel comic which includes a chase and a fight, right? Others of us probably know about the Levitz Paradigm over at DC, too. Rob's worked out the formula for the EC 8-page short (which I'm sure he'll post if we keep bugging him about it). And formulas are comfortable ways to tell stories; they go fast because all you have to do is plug in a character and pick an event out of the air. Done in a day if you're practiced at it.

But what good are they?

I suppose we ought to know how to execute them. Knowing the rules before you break them is the best way to learn. (I just read from Warren Ellis on his BAD SIGNAL email that Hunter Thompson once retyped an entire Ernest Hemingway novel to learn how the Master put his books together.) Have you ever really looked hard at your favorite story and tried to figure it out? Really? Ever reconstructed a script from that story to see what a writer was trying to do, and how you'd describe the actions of each panel?

You ought to.

But don't start with your favorite writer. Look at someone who is somewhere in the mid-list. It'd be better if you can find a copy of the actual script for that issue to see if you came close. Don't start with the big guns.

Because we're all influenced by the A-list writers: Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Frank Miller, Will Eisner, Warren Ellis, maybe even Chris Claremont. I mean these guys make GREAT fucking comix, don't they? Why can't we all write like that? We can learn the formulas, why is it so hard?

"Because if it was easy, everyone could do it. The hard is what makes it great." (A paraphrase of a Tom Hanks line from League of Their Own. You can Yoda it, if you like, but I like this one better.)

You know Moore is famous for writing thousands of words for each script, right? He gives (or used to give anyway) long descriptions of why each item was important to be included in the panels. The guy who wrote Black Orchid in the 90s tried the same thing and who remembers him? Guys like Moore, Gaiman, Miller and Eisner know the conventions of comix, the traps and pitfalls, and aren't flailing about blindly in search of a peach of story. No, they understand exactly how to execute a typical comix story and then take those conventions and throw them out the window. Moore's done this most recently in the just-concluded Promethea, a re-working of the Goddess on Earth archetype. Miller embraced the conventions and then bloated them so far beyond anything recognizable that they appeared new again in DK2. Gaiman's Sandman exploded the three-act myth of comix that had been so prevalent prior to Alan Moore's arrival on US shores in Swamp Thing. Eisner used the same three-act compositions and took us so deep into the characters and settings that we cared more about what happened to them and why. Warren Ellis again goes over the top, but throws his influences at us way more brazenly, again essentially disguising the rotating formulas he uses to tell stories. Claremont brilliantly used B,C and D plots to keep a soap opera interesting for ten years. No one can subplot like Chris, despite nearly every X-Writer trying.

And these are the guys we study as we're coming up. That's why we fail so often in the beginning. We have to learn how to tell a basic story first, learn the rules, so that we know what we're doing. Once we've figured out writers like Kevin Smith, Devin Grayson, Judd Winick, Greg Rucka or Terry Moore, we can then aspire to moving up towards the light and our own greatness.

Anyone disagree?

Jason
2-23-05

Everest

There's a mountain in front of me, and I'm just up from the foothills. There's human wreckage, a lot, behind me, and more ahead. There's also the ghosts of others who were successful. Some of the spirits laugh and titter at me, trying to discourage me; others are helpful and show me the path to take. I realize that sometimes the best path is not the most direct, nor the easiest, but certainly it teaches me something I'll need later on should I ever be able to touch the void. This I've already learned, only about one-quarter of the way up my ascent. Already there are fewer bones than before, but there's slightly less air, and almost no foliage.

I can see far up the side of the mountain, and I can see the open hands offering help. They beckon, telling me to come on up, the weather's great. But I have to make camp for a while where I am, make sure my pitons and my ropes are good; that I won't slip on some loose rock and fall all the way back to hell. I've got a camp heater, and a good tent and sleeping bag, I'll stay warm during the long night to come. Hopefully the dream will inspire me further to take larger chunks each day and keep climbing.

I hear on my radio that there are some rock falls and snow slides that have taken out a couple of climbers. I'll help them if I can, because of the help I've received so far. One of my compatriots has passed me on with my good wishes. She'll be there at the peak when I get there, and I know she'll remember me. Hopefully we can touch the void together. Another friend is progressing along a different path than I, and occasionally we see each other. When I look back, I can see how far we've come. I can still see the top of my house.

I can conquer this mountain. I will. The bitter taste of reality is washed down with a shot of ambition and a pinch of hope at the first camp of the climb.

Jason
2-22-05

Life as a House of Ideas

My brain is not on fire, but it's smouldering.

I am assaulted every day, several times a day, with information that can lead to the writing of another story. There is so much going on around me in terms of TV, books, comix, internet, newspapers, overheard conversations, personal experiences and observations that I have a hard time containing it all. I try to write down what I deem 'important' and then put those hastily scribbled notes into The Idea Dump at home. Others are filed away in the storehouse in my head, like the writer in Dreamcatcher.

I figure if it's put into the house in my head, I'll retain it until the time is right and the idea pops out again, mostly formed. Until then, it's merely a picture on the wall in the den, or a can of spice in the kitchen cabinet, or a bottle of wine on the rack in the dining room. Possibly a dvd in the living room or even a magazine in the bathroom.

Mind you, this is all in my head. I have a house in my head. A crooked house, maybe, but a house nonetheless. It's a big, rambling affair much like Mandalay Bay or Neverfield. Lots of bedrooms, parlors and such. Three kitchens, probably, but I lose count when I get there, as I've designed them so similarly, though each room is fashioned after a particular experience in my waking life. For instance the downstairs parlor is the room where I met my current girlfriend, and has pictures on its walls of experiences we've shared together. One night, I showed her the entire house and woke up exhausted. It's that big. Jimmy Cavanaugh's in one of the kitchens by himself.

The smouldering is a bonfire out in one of the fields, near a large pond, and doesn't endanger the house one bit. There are people around to protect it. Good people I've met in my life, who I'd trust with my life.

It's a sad day, though, that one of my memories is now accompanied by a gravestone for Hunter Thompson. I hope he finds some kind of peace, now that he's passed on.

Jason

Collaboration Vs DIY

OK, this should make a pretty good chain discussion. Pro's and Con's between collaborating with another creator and doing the whole package yourself.

Both of us have a history with doing it both ways (no, not like that, you cheeky monkey). I'm actually currently doing both. There's the obvious sexiness to writing and drawing your own comic, and that idea of total control. That THIS is YOUR artistic voice. But there's also the hazard that you may be holding back on your story because you're not comfortable drawing something. Or that your art may just not be as good as your writing, or vice versa.

With collaborating, there's that excitement that comes from having more than one creative person working on the same project. There's that ambiguity about how the final product will turn out that's invigorating, too. On the down side, the two creators may not mesh well together, or may not 'get' what the other creator is after.

How do you feel about this, Jason?

DETERMINATION

Deter. Detour. Defer. Away.

Term. Word. Limit. Length.

Nation. Group. Carrie. Axes.

Mi. Italian. Me. I. Mine.

Resolve. Answer. Finish. Drive.

Noit animreted. Black humor. Action of the night. Mickey Bogart.

Word Association: Determination.

Value. Spirit.

Never quit.

Jason
2-20-05

DFP

Double fucking post. Sorry.

Feeler

Who can tell me how to find companies that publish comix outside the United States? (Besides Les Humanoides, I mean. I already know about them.)

Thinking on it, wouldn't Feeler be a good name for a comic about a blind man?

Jason

Job

I wanted to work for Oni Press. I wanted to work for AiT-PlanetLar. I wanted to work for DC/Vertigo.

Five years ago, I was actively pursuing relationships with editors and publishers at those companies. I loved their books and their attitudes about their books. They published the kinds of material I wanted to read at the time. Jamie Rich, Larry Young and the Vertigo editors were gods to me. I met Jamie and Larry at San Diego in 2001 and shook their hands. They corresponded with me via email whenever I did something noteworthy. They encouraged me.

The one thing all these companies had in common was that they didn't look at blind submissions at all. Vertigo had just stopped the previous year due to a stupid lawsuit by a wannabe writer claiming that a pro had 'stolen' his idea for a Superman story. Larry had enough stories of his own that he wasn't looking for outside material, and if he would be, he had plenty of friends who needed the creative outlet he could provide. Oni was deluged with material the same as Image and the other big companies were, only they had about one-tenth the time to go through the Slush pile.

But I was able to pitch to Oni on the strength of my being a nice guy and having a certain familiarity with Jamie. He knew who I was, and allowed me to pitch him a story that they passed on because it just wasn't their cup of tea.

"How could this not be their cup of tea?" I asked myself. "They publish all kinds of stories, and this one isn't all that different from Queen & Country with a dash of Road Trip in it. What did I do wrong?"

I figured out that it wasn't so much what I did wrong, as the content of the story was a bit political for the fall of 2001 and also wasn't as strong as I'd thought. I took the story to Platinum studios, Image and Dark Horse, too, only to be turned down by them all. The editor at Platinum actually gave a phone call to tell me the problems with the story and explain his rationale for not developing it with me. Image sent me a nice, cursory, form e-mail that said thanks but no. And DH never replied at all. That was the beginning of their "we won't tell you no we'll only tell you yes" policy, which I don't agree with, but hey --- it's their company, not mine.

Slave Labor Graphics has a nice form letter with checkoffs for what didn't appeal to them. DC, back in the day, had a great rejection letter that made me want to improve enough to want to work with them forever.

So now, as I get ready to pitch some stuff again this year, I look back at what I did, and what I can do to improve my chances of getting picked up. I study what others have written on the subject, I try to make sure my story is solid and the accompanying art is strong. I narrow my focus a little to just try and get companies I really want to work with and might have a chance to work with interested in the book I'm proposing.

So if you're somewhere in the process of submitting your proposal somewhere, don't give up. You're going to amass a large number of rejection letters before you get picked up. Learn from what you're told by editors. Seek them out and talk to them. Don't bug 'em, just talk. Create the relationship that used to be there on the letters pages of comix back in the day. Shake their hand at a convention and tell them how much you like their books without criticizing them.

I want to work for Oni Press (even though Jamie Rich isn't an editor there any more); I want to work for AiT-PlanetLar (because Making Comix Better is a good thing); I want to work for DC/Vertigo (because they make the coolest books); I want to work with Image (because their attitude is quality over quantity) and I want to work with Dark Horse (because Diana Schutz is the bomb).

Will I?

I'll keep you posted.

Jason
2-18-05

Damn it.

double post.

Scatter Shot Magnified

I'm all over the place, creatively. So many things I want to say, write, draw...

Jeez, where's the time going to come from?

Out of the depths of whatever hell I was in, I am rejuvenated and throwing out whatever occurs to me for anyone to see. The Fear is gone. Now the work can begin. The Blood can flow.

Progress.

Moving ahead. Looking to the future. Finding the Way. Discovering a Voice I didn't know I might have always had. Plumbing the ether. Mixing metaphors like a dope-crazed baker on holiday in an 1890s frontier town.

Feeling English. Ripping off Warren Ellis.

Yeah.

Only I'm not so cranky and a year older than him.

Doesn't matter. Got work to do. Irons in the fire. I'm like a pot of boiling salted water waiting for the pasta to get dumped in so I can cook it all up and serve it out al dente. With a fine red sauce, or perhaps an alfredo with just a hint of lime.

And the best glass of wine you've ever had.

Jason

The Jealousy of Angels

With apologies to Tony Kushner...

The Continental Principalities were having coffee when the subject came up.

"What's the big damn deal any way? They're only comic books," Asia said around her second bearclaw. "It's an easy, inexpensive way to tell stories."

South America stood up. "Money is all you think about, isn't it? Can't you see that as a communication tool, ones who can't read words can still get the idea behind the pictures?"

Asia sighed. "Not this again. Listen, if they can't read, fuck 'em."

Europe laughed. "THAT'S the only thing Asia thinks about, dear. It's not the money."

"At least you all have a population to work with," Antarctica interjected. "All I've got are a bunch of scientists who don't believe and some wildlife." She sipped the espresso delicately. "Come to think of it, though, I don't have near the problems you all do. Heh."

North America then stands up. "Why are we discussing this at all? There are larger issues on the table!"

"Oh, be quiet, love," says Australia. "We know that, but you seem to forget just how much we have to do all the damn time. Can't we take a minute to blow off some steam?"

North America spread her wings and levitated off the floor.

"Stop it."

They all turned to look at me. "I don't know why I'm here, but I won't tolerate a bunch of bickering among yourselves. Either get to the heart of the matter or let's break it up and get back to our lives."

North America snorted. South America spun her cup on its saucer. Australia smiled "That's what we love about you people," she said. "You have a knack for telling us what's what, especially when we're in our full-on heavenly modes. It's the only thing you have that we don't, but wish we did."

"It's true," Asia said. "Your ability to stand up to overwhelming odds is actually what makes you so human. WE have emotions, WE feel, WE can do everything you do. But the fact that, as a species, humans are nearly indomitable is the best part of you."

North America took to the air and spread her wings wide, taking on her full Aspect as Angel, her voice deepening and echoing throughout the room. "I, I, I, I will not tolerate this discussion further! They will do what we tell them as it is the Word and they are inclined to obey!"

My hair blew back, my eyes squinted at her through the raging wind and debris from the cafe her performance was whipping around. "Fuck you," I said. Then it got worse. The windows of the cafe blew in and the table I was at was torn from it's bolts in the floor to crash against the counter. The other Principalities were forced to stand.

"YOU WILL NOT CONTINUE TO DEFY THE WORD, HUMAN!" North America fairly screamed at me. "YOU WILL NOT CONTINUE TO DEVIATE FROM THE TEXT! I, I, I, I WILL SEE YOU PERFORMING YOUR FUNCTION AS WE DO!"

Asia rose to North America's height and tried to soothe her. "Calm down now. Please. We're just talking here. It's all right, really. This whole conversation is merely a footnote in the book. Come on."

Still seated throughout the hurricane force being tossed at me so casually, I stood up now and pulled down my shirt. "Angels, I do what I do, whether it's in the book or not. How you all deal with me and the rest of my species is what you're programmed to do, isn't it? I mean, do you really have ANY free will?

"When you're in the Presence, does he give you the idea that you can do what you want or is he merely directing you so subtly that you can't see what he's doing? Your functions are what HE says, right? How many of you have picked your own function?"

No answer from any of them. North America continued to stare me down with hard black eyes, but only Australia would actually look at me with anything like kindness. The rest found something else in the room to study.

"I'm sorry that you think we're here to supplant you. I'm sorry that you think we're so inferior to you. From my angle, you all are pretty damn impressive and at times I wish I could fly on my own and have sex with whoever I wanted just because I could impress them into thinking I was too powerful to resist.

"Look at what you have and take stock of it. You have a pretty good existence, different though it may be from ours." I picked up my chair and set it up right. South America, Australia and Europe began to direct the tables and chairs to their correct spots. Asia held North America by the shoulders and brought her back to ground level. None of them really LIKED touching the floor, but they were actually trying to keep me comfortable, I think, by doing it here.

I looked around at them all again, seated at the table, order restored to the cafe. "Wait a minute," I said. "Aren't there supposed to be seven of you?"

Copyright 2005 by Jason Arnett

CBR visits the Diner

Here's the article I mentioned would be coming a while back.

Jason

Kill 'Em All

Had so much fun yesterday, let's do it again...

Frank Castle is dropped hard by a thug in the street who snuck up on him. The Punisher never heard a thing, not having realized his hearing is nearly gone for all the weapons fire in his 'career'. Nearly deaf, Frank won't give up the ghost and goes out in the street after some punks with new drugs that are stringing out and killing kids at raves. In the confrontation, the punks have new modern weaponry provided them by AIM and the guns manage to put Frank on the run. Afraid for almost the first time in his life because he can't hear anything, he can't cope and starts seeing ghosts like SilverMane and Jigsaw coming at him. He fires wildly at the apparitions and his bullets kill several innocents in their apartments. He's taken by a cop who snuck up on him and Frank is confined to solitary and expedited to the electric chair.

(I was going to write something about Green Lantern here, but DC did such a good job of offing Hal Jordan years ago that I don't think it can really be topped. Hats off to them for sticking with it as long as they did and bringing him back as the Spectre, but now they're bringing him back as GL, aren't they? Bad DC.)

Wolverine is virtually unkillable, and the best there is at what he does. And to get the drop on him even to hurt him would be a magnficent stroke of luck, but Black Cat can manipulate luck in her favor a little, which is why she eventually went over to Hydra after refusing their offers for years. She encounters Logan in a bar and tells him if he can drink her under the table, he can have his way with her. Respecting the guts to try and outdrink him, Logan refuses the challenge but asks her to dinner anyway. (Didn't know he had a romantic bone in him, did you?) She takes him back to her room and when he's asleep, she snuggles him so that he won't feel the little pinprick at the base of his skull where a self-replicating virus designed to combat his healing factor is introduced. Her bad luck powers work and he wakes the next morning with a cold like he's never had. Back at the X-Mansion, he's seriously ill, with his immune system going down fast and his healing factor more than compromised. He's dying. Try as Beast might, Logan can't be saved and dies of complications from pneumonia surrounded by his friends.

Let's see, who else? Flash died. Starman was killed. What about Aquaman? He still alive? If he's not, tough. Here's how I'd kill him...

Aquaman is led to believe that there's another, more ancient city of Atlantis in the depths of the Marianas trench, far from any traditional locations of the city. He leads an expedition to the region where they are surprised to find Black Manta living in solitude and a changed man. Arthur takes pity on his brother and leaves him where they found him, continuing to their destination miles below the ocean floor. Swimming down, they encounter all manner of odd creatures and have to fight several off, losing a few of their party along the way. They never reach the bottom of the trench and only discover this when they find that it's getting lighter than they expected. Feeling as if they somehow got turned around, they continue on to the surface to get their bearings to find that they've passed through a dimensional warp of some kind into another world. One populated by dinosaurian creatures and strange tribes of land-walking men. Unable to retrace their path, they are lost and cannot hope to return. The isolation and loneliness of their situation drives several more of the party mad, and Arthur is forced to defend himself. Driven out by the remaining members of the intial expedition, Arthur wanders into the strange ocean never to be seen again.

How's that? Anybody else want to play?

Jason

I Like Comix

I like them goooooddd.

I want to make comix. I want to make all kinds of comix: mysteries, romances, action, suspense, science-fiction, porno.

Yeah, even porno comix have a certain validity. Why else would Vivid recruit Steven Grant and Antony Johnston to write adventures for the likes of Jenna Jameson, Savannah Samson and Briana Banks? There's a market there that shouldn't be discounted.

I don't want to make a living making hardcore porn, because I have other interests, but why shouldn't I write something like that, too? I don't see anything wrong with porn, as long as you're eighteen and capable of making a significant life-decision on your own. If you don't like it, okay. But there are a lot more people interested in porn than ever before, and sales prove it. The fact that Jenna Jameson is a household name in the mainstream is significant, too.

Even Rob did a faux porn story called Debauccio (which is the greatest title, btw, I really liked that!) that doesn't go hardcore, but it's very good, nonetheless.

Free porn. Hm. Free Comix Porn? Maybe not. One thing I've learned is that ain't nothin' free. You gots to pay no matter what.

Jason
2-16-05

Change or Die

You want cutting edge comix? Here's a solution, but you may not like it, depending on your particular bent...

Superman and Lois Lane are separated by a galaxy or two when their firstborn arrives on earth. Clark dies a horrible death under a red sun, alone and unable to tell Lois what happened.

Peter Parker has the flu and his spider-sense is dulled by the throbbing in his head. After a tough, tough battle with Doctor Octopus, he is surprised by a burglar in his home who shoots him in the head. Peter wakes from a coma ten years later to find that he can't remember a bloody thing but has an inordinate fear of spiders.

Bruce Wayne is seduced by Poison Ivy and finally realizes he's tired enough to want to spend his life with her, until Catwoman comes along to break it up. The two women argue and ask him to choose one or the other. Bruce chooses Ivy, as she's always been honest about who she is and is far less flighty than Selina. Bruce buys her an island paradise where he can stay away from the world if he wants to. Enraged, Catwoman takes on the Bat-Family and kills Nightwing, Robin and Oracle. Black Canary comes along to take Selina out permanently and when she tries to tell Bruce what's happened afterward, he won't hear it, because he wants to stay away from the world that has taken so much from him already. Besides, he thinks, Dinah already did what had to be done.

Hulk rampages through New Mexico and Arizona where he eventually calms down enough to change back into Bruce Banner. Doc Samson has been following him all along with an arm broken by the Hulk. Samson tracks Banner to his hideaway cave to find Rick Jones' body laid in state and Bruce mourning him. Samson pities Banner and walks away, leaving the two of them in the cave. Back in the air, Samson orders the tactical nuke strike that buries both bodies and ends the menace of the Hulk forever. Bruce is trapped in the rubble, his arms and legs broken, his lung punctured. Calmly, he forgives Samson and lets himself go...

Wonder Woman, distraught over Clark's disappearance, seeks help from the gods of other realms, running afoul of Hera in doing so. Ever the jealous wife of Zeus, who's always favored Diana over all the Amazons, Hera sets in motion a plot whereby the gods of India murder Diana in Asgard. The fallout from this causes Hera to be imprisoned forever on Themyscira as a marble statue, her mind destroyed by Chaos.

Each of these endings would permanently change the characters, which is the problem with all of them. Essentially, each one is the same as the day they were created. Of course, there would have to be story-lines leading up to these massive changes and this might take two or three years, depending on how many titles each character has.

Jason

Cut the Edge

You know what the comix industry REALLY needs?

People who write considered, thoughtful letters to their favorite titles. Not message boards. Anyone who takes the time to sit down and compose an actual Letter of Comment to the editor of a book has an opinion that ought to be weighed more heavily than those who just sign in to the message board and say 'this issue sucked' and proceed to misspell and misuse words. The industry as a whole (and there are notable exceptions, but for the purposes of what I want to say we're lumping the good with the bad today) has gotten lazy.

Static panels. Statted panels. Long bits of dialogue that don't add up to anything except being 'true' or 'street' or whatever. Bad art. Awful art. Recycled characters and plots from 40 or 50 years ago.

What the industry NEEDS is a forum where readers can call bullshit on the titles that are being put out. It used to be that those forums were in the letter pages of the titles themselves. Yes, the MBs are where you see a lot of 'honest' opinions, but they aren't considered. They're simply knee-jerk reactions designed to get a rise out of the creators, to put them on the defensive. It's the whole attitude of "You suck and I can do a better job than you."

What I say to that is: Well then do it yourself. What's stopping you?

It's so much easier to criticize someone else's work rather than do you own and it's time it stopped. The longer we let the industry be dominated by comix that mean nothing any more to a vast majority of potential readers, the worse it'll be for new voices to be heard. It used to be that the New Voices of comix were sort of familiar to folks who read letters pages. Marty Pasko, Gerry Conway, Kurt Busiek and others all had letters published in comix before they became writers of comix (Pasko and Conway have since moved on to TV...) and they wrote considered opinions that were treated seriously by the editorial staff. For an editor now, there's no incentive to do what the fans are crying out for.

And what are they crying out for? Jim Lee. Big deal. I like his art, but he's NOT all that. Bendis? Please. Again, I like his stuff, but there are better writers out there, guys and gals who are putting heart, soul and sweat into projects that sell one tenth of what JMS does on Amazing Spider-Man. Kevin Smith sells 100,000 copies of something that could have been great, but ends up being, what?, two years late? And he got an exclusive contract to do it?

Bah.

Fans of comix need to speak up and out in ways that will get the attention of the editors and publishers. Tell them what you want to see in terms of story content, (not just 'what if Galactus tried to eat Apokolips?' or 'if Batman was a government operative would he be gay?') rather than 'I want Jim Lee to draw Batman' or 'I want Brian Azzarello to write Black Panther'. Since when did the talent become more important than the story?

Give me stories that I can relate to in some way. Make those characters reflect something that I might have encountered. Tell them in interesting ways like from a different viewpoint or in non-linear fashion or disguised as a Gothic Romance or whatever. Give me expressive art that doesn't look like everyone else. Give me Michael Gaydos or Eduardo Risso or Jock or Dean Ormston and give them free reign. Writers need to loosen up a bit and let the artists go a little more if they want to. Put together some teams like Loeb & Sale; Millar, Hitch & Neary; Ellis & Doran and let them do what they want to. Let the story sing. If one fails to catch fire, so be it. It's a risk. Take the chance. Cut the edge.

Be honest.

Jason

Confession

If Briana Banks were a redhead in the same room and was interested in going somewhere private, I'd be hard-pressed not to take her up on it.

But how likely is that?

Jason
2/14/05

Shot Down in Flames

Which is better: a spectacular failure or a middling success?

For me, I'd rather read the train wreck and get something out of it than put a book aside and say "Eh, it was just okay." Something that's Just Good Enough won't teach you anything and is very much an Empty Calories kind of feeling, innit? If it's brilliant (I just ordered a copy of V for Vendetta for my bookshelf) you'll want to go back and dissect what the best bits were, right? And if it's really awful, you'll likely retain the parts that were terribly bad for reference when you're writing your own stuff in a "I don't want to do THAT" kind of way.

Taking the extra step is what makes us better, but it's something that we have to define for ourselves. For me, it was drawing my own scripts, which I'll still do on occasion. Then it was learning how to letter by hand. Now the extra step is lettering on computer with Photoshop or something. I have to take that extra step to gain new knowledge and make my comix better.

For anyone else, figure out what the extra step for you is, take it and learn from the mistakes you'll make. It's really that easy.

Jason
2/14/05

One More Note

Redefinition of existing characters is cycling through again and needs to stop. If the archetypes are no longer viable in their current incarnation, move them to publish only original graphic novels and take them out of the monthly realm. Make some room for new characters to take over the archetype. The alien, the misfit kid, the vengeance hero, the goddess on earth and the monster within can all be shed, given new names and perhaps plumbed to new depths of insight into the human condition by creators unfettered by the weight of history's dust.

Imagine a shelf full of Superman OGNs by talent who WANT to play with the archetypes doing their own takes and not worrying about details like 'continuity'. Let them tell the stories they want to tell and don't hold them back. This keeps your registered trademarked property in a publishable condition and available for continued raping, I mean licensing of the product for other media. The argument against paying the creators during the process (read: as they turn pages in, they get money back) is bogus now because of the plethora of Direct Market consumers willing to 'wait for the trade'. If Superman only comes out in trade/ogn form, the hardcore fans will spend the money. If Hulk is written by Neil Gaiman and drawn by Michael Zulli, but comes out only in ogn form, where's the risk on the part of the publisher? Feh. Publishers will take the risk only when the Market tells them to.

Well, the market is telling you to, folks. Pamphlets aren't dead. Pamphlets featuring the Tired Old Concepts still sell, right? Why not take the lead and move them into the ogn market? Give it a year and see what flies. Maybe if FF only came out in ogn four times a year, with a different creative team each time, it'd equal out to the same or maybe more sales than the title is currently enjoying? Anyone crunch some numbers for me to tell me different?

Where's Matt Wagner, anyway?

That is all for today.

Jason
2/13/05

NexGen

Where is the next generation of hot comix creators going to come from? Can anyone tell me of a hot writer besides Bendis or Millar? (Meltzer's a tourist, Rucka's always been a novelist, always will be and Whedon's the Hollywood guy that can deliver unlike Kevin Smith.) Ellis is the Old Man of comix now, having established himself with Transmet and a kickass OGN called Orbiter. Back in the early 90s (when Morrison and Ellis were struggling to establish themselves) Neil Gaiman came along and caught everyone by surprise with Sandman. Who's doing that now? Kirkman? Maybe Clay Moore with Expatriate (he said knowing one of the Big Ideas of the book, but is sworn to silence). Maybe Diggle with the Adam Strange book? It seems the manga purveyors are catching the imagination of the New Comix Reader, rather than the Old Guard Marvel and DC writers. Everyone's going exclusive. I miss James Robinson, Tony Harris, Wade VonGrawbadger and Starman...

Brubaker's gone to Marvel now. I'll be dropping Catwoman and Gotham Central. Be interesting to see what he's cooking up over there. Sure it won't be anything original, but MAYbe...

Who's out there that can be seen on the horizon as the Next Big Name? Someone who came up through comix, like Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman. Not someone who visits like the Hollywood folks or the 'legitimate' (Orson Scott Card, anyone?) writers of novels and such. Who is it?

It's a little frustrating that there really are so few really good creators out there right now. Guys like Hester and Parks are overshadowed by Jim Lee taking a run on Superman. Come on... Lee's never been all that, has he? I like his stuff, but he's seriously damaged because he wouldn't turn a book out on time. Now DC is giving him high-profile work because the Fanboys demand it? Why did Devin Grayson get shit on so bad by the comix world? She oughtta team up with Colleen Doran and get Shelly Bond to edit it, Pam Rambo to color it and show those boys How To Do Comix Right.

You know what the real problem is? That editors don't have the guts, the stones, the chutzpah to take a talent and give him a free reign with some Way Outside the Box limits. I though Bob Schreck was going to do this with Judd Winick a little more, but Judd's not doing enough creator-owned stuff to satisfy me. I love Outsiders, and I'm still reading Green Arrow. I liked Caper well enough, but I want more Blood and Water. That was the kind of stuff comix can carry off very, very well. Judd came up through the ranks, but seems to be pretty happy writing Batman, Outsiders and GA. More power to him, but I think he could be the guy, given some leash and a little incentive, who could really take comix ahead, like Gaiman did. Like Moore did. I hope that what's happening with Judd is that he's refining his Mad Ideas and is just waiting to spring them on us.

Azzarello is becoming a one-note song, as Bendis did last year, for me. I love 100 Bullets, but mostly because I want to see what Risso is going to do to blowup the conceits of comix with his art. Millar is still relevant, I think, with his Ultimates v. II out now. I'm glad it's shipping on time, too.

But other than Winick, I don't know who else there might be.

Enlighten me.

Jason
2/13/05

Working

I got word yesterday (and saw some preliminary pencil roughs) that I will have an artist drawing five pages of the Occupation Script for me to send out in a pitch-packet late March or so. I'll share a lettered page when I get it back and let you all know how it's going.

I am taking a huge step here and paying the artist to do the work. We even have a contract and so far he seems to be living up to it. We'll see what happens when the deadline comes around, but I feel confident in his work. Now all I have to do is make sure the words on the papers are the right ones and that I'm dotting the I's and crossing the T's...

Turned in the first draft of my revised I Make Believe columns to Sonic Comics and am waiting to hear on how many words I have to cut.

More to come, I'm sure.

Jason

The beginning of something

The moon hung low like a celestial fingernail scratching the skin of the city. It was warm for February, but we'd gotten used to it as the "old days" of bitter cold, deep-snow winters have given way to subtropical conditions at Valentine's Day here.

Tuesdays were usually pretty quiet until later at my favorite drinking establishment, and I was almost always home by ten, before the frat boys and their distaff cousins wandered in for some local color. I was in my usual spot in the bar, sipping the whiskey Erin kept on hand for me. I'm not a tough guy, and I don't smoke, but I like the taste of Pinch, and Erin keeps it for me just because she thinks I'm a nice guy and we talk like old friends once or twice a week. She tells me about the women she sleeps with and then goes home to her husband and how she keeps him happy. I tell her about my wife's penchant for what other folks might think of as kinky and we find a common ground talking about sex.

I was just getting ready to leave after a long story from Erin about a recent conquest and had stood up to leave a twenty on the bar. I leaned close in and whispered that I was going to have to go home and masturbate after that conversation. She leaned over the bar and told me she was freshly shaved, if that helped me along. I smiled and was almost out the front door when the back of the bar and Erin were crushed by the weight of a car crashing through, as if thrown.

Copyright 2005 by Jason Arnett

GroupThink

Who's here reading?

No one responds to anything I've put up, but that doesn't matter to me. This is a blog that will likely see some action more from me than from Rob, who seems to be wrapped pretty tightly in his own thing right now. If you're interested, click on over to his website listed to the right there.

Artists and writers perform their art in solitude. Asking them to get together on anything approaching a regular basis and to work together is a losing proposition any more. People are selfish whether they admit to it or not. We'd all do well to remember that. "Cat-herding" is a popular term for the action it takes to get us all around an idea or even a table. Those that have the time to attend regular meetings of organizations purported to encourage 'community' fall into two categories:

1) Those that create art full-time and need to get out of the house for the socialization that others get at work.

or

2) Those that aren't spending their time creating their art and are using the 'community' as an excuse to not create more.

People that are busy creating art, holding down a job and trying to keep some semblance of a joint life with someone else WON'T have time for 'community'. But that's the beauty of the internet, innit? You can come and go as you please, contributing or not as you have time or see fit and no one will criticize you for wanting to try something a little different. Organizations that become bogged down in paperwork and procedures are doomed to a mire of quicksand and ill will. They'll work for a while but will eventually fail to spark anyone's interest and eventually become a joke. I have seen this a number of times, and it's a common enough cycle in business.

So blow it all up.

Find what you like about an organization and take that bit away with you and start your own 'community'. Become what you wanted the organization to be in the first place. Did you like one event that the organization put on? Take it for your own and begin competing with them. You'll find out how much work it is, but if you have the passion for it you'll keep it going and see it through. If you don't, then you fall into that second group above and you ought to realize that. Ask yourself: Am I going to go all the way to the end with this? If yes, then do it. Find a way. If no, then stop wasting other people's time and quit pretending. Honesty is way more attractive in the long run and will be respected by more folks. Don't worry about the trolls who call you a sell-out. Just be yourself and others will come along.

That's what's happening to me, right now. I'm working as hard as my life will allow to be a comix writer, but I'm not able to put in the time that I wanted to for various reasons that needn't concern anyone but me and my immediate family. I'll make it, but I'm having to revise my ambitions to more accurately reflect the time that I'm able to commit right now. My day-time career might be taking off, leaving less time for comix, but there are projects in the Pipe that might just be how I break into the biz. We'll wait and see. In the meantime, I'll be working on a couple of scripts for some radio dramas, one of which I hope to see produced this summer. I'm also still batting around ideas for a web version of a radio drama that Rob and I talked about earlier. Hope that one will work, too.

Do what you want. It's your time, and your interest. Don't worry about being part of a 'community'. Your work will speak for itself and will attract it's own community as you spend the time you can just getting it out in front of others. But do the work. It's the most satisfaction of anything involved in the Community of Comix.

Some bright sunshine for your day.

Jason
2/11/05

Called to Serve

Got picked to be part of a jury for US District Court in Kansas City yesterday. Now I have to give two weeks of my life to this. Hopefully, I'll get some story material out of it. I started writing a comedy in my head while the selection process was going on....

Jason