All entries written in October, 2007
October 30, 2007 at 11:18 pm · Filed under Personal, Thoughts
Well, the latest explosion of my apartment’s roach population seems to have reached some kind of demented climax this evening, with the appearance of the biggest freaking roach I have ever seen! Highly developed, bristling wings and all that (note: the wings don’t actually work, and I’m pretty sure New York doesn’t have too many flying roaches…small mercies). And here I thought the worst of it was past after yesterday, when one of them fell on me just because I opened the door to one of my cabinets, calling to mind the days of my youth when my grandma would warn me to stand back and let the roaches fall as she opened the door to her building’s trash incinerator.
I’m about to take my garbage out, hopefully that will help.
This seems like as good a time as any to plug the webcomic Tip Me Over, Pour Me Out, which is written by a friend of mine from college and drawn by a friend of his from high school. It’s quite amusing. And just to prove that there is a common thread here, have a link to the episode with the dancing roaches.
Incidentally, if you, too, have roaches (i.e. if you live in almost any part of the city), do not try to crush them if they’re past their tiny stage. Trust me on this.
October 29, 2007 at 9:07 am · Filed under Reviews, Thoughts
Here is the very definition of a work that grows with its audience, and, interestingly enough, its author. Cartoonist and writer David Willis began Roomies! in 1997 as a serial in his college’s newspaper, but he always had grander ideas in mind. It’s the form of those ideas that changed over time, along with the strip’s characters, as Willis grew and changed himself. I’m not just referring to the transformation of Roomies! into the sci-fi alien battling strip It’s Walky! in late 1999—the real shift had already taken place by then. It seems funny to think that we have the movie Titanic to thank for this, but Willis said it himself: it was seeing that movie, and witnessing the power it had over people, that made him want to tell his own powerful stories. He wanted to make people cry, and believe me, he did. It’s thanks to that emotional power that I’m willing to call Roomies!/It’s Walky! one of my primary artistic and literary influences, and a must-read for any fan of the genre I work in.
Keep reading….
October 24, 2007 at 11:59 am · Filed under Announcements
Just a heads-up: chapter 3 of Bad Company will post on this Friday, 10/26, instead of on Monday. This is so I can free up Monday’s post for something else. Just thought I’d give everyone notice, since this is unusual.
In other news, the print version of The Gauntlet is nearly ready, and there may be a contest where you can win a free copy. More on this in November.
October 19, 2007 at 9:05 am · Filed under Downloads, Extras
Just to add a little color to last week’s prologue, have a .mp3 file of me doing my best rendition of the song Ray is supposed to be whistling. And just so nobody feels left out, here’s Denzal’s version, too, fading into the night as he walks away. Enjoy!
October 12, 2007 at 9:01 am · Filed under Extras, Production Art
You might be shocked at the amount of production and official art I’ve been holding back on, waiting for that mysterious black, white and red symbol to appear on the header of this page. I wanted that to be the first place everyone saw it…you’ll be finding out exactly what it means over the next couple of weeks. In the meantime, though, I can finally show you just how many time I’ve tried to draw that header scene over the years, in various ways for various reasons.
Keep reading….
October 11, 2007 at 12:43 pm · Filed under Announcements
I’m not sure if everyone knew you could get to an intro/splash page by visiting www.schoolkids-sg.com (or www.sk-sg.com) without the /main, but you can. There was a picture of Mark daydreaming there before, but now that I’ve started a new, darker storyline, I’ve changed the frontispiece art accordingly.
Just wanted to draw attention to it.
October 5, 2007 at 9:07 am · Filed under On SKSG, Thoughts
The biggest change I’ve made to The Gauntlet so far, as I get it ready for the print version, has been deleting a whole page of character descriptions in chapter 10. Those paragraphs have bothered me more and more over the years since I first wrote them, and honestly, breaking into the flow of the story to catch new readers up on who’s who is one of the things that drives me nuts about writing a series. In any case, there’s no excuse to be doing it this early, so I cut the paragraphs.
But the main reason I did it is that I felt what the words were saying didn’t match the characters’ actions throughout the story. Nick’s passage is the best example…look at this:
Keep reading….
October 3, 2007 at 9:07 am · Filed under Announcements
New content will be posted here every Monday and Friday, though there may be other updates at random times if I feel the urge (use that RSS feed, people!) I had originally planned to go back to a M-W-F schedule when I started posting story chapters again, but since my visitation stats have all gone up since I switched to M-F, I think most people prefer it this way. Maybe three posts a week is more than anybody has time to read. So, Mondays and Fridays…and don’t forget, as long as there’s a story running on here, one of those days will always be a new chapter.
Also don’t forget–Bad Company starts this Monday!
October 1, 2007 at 9:03 am · Filed under Announcements
“Presentiment–is that long Shadow–on the Lawn–
Indicative that Suns go down–
The Notice to the startled Grass
That Darkness–is about to pass–”
–Emily Dickinson
Bad Company, episode two of School Kids SG and part one of the Blood and Brotherhood saga, begins one week from today. Be here.
