(San Francisco Bay out to the ocean, from the Golden Gate, 2004) A couple days ago, I turned in final edits on my first novel. Okay, not my first novel, but the first novel I've written that will be published by someone other than myself. I'm sure there's a little cleanup work to do still, but predominantly finished. I'm not going to pretend that this isn't anything other than a big deal to me. It also makes for a relatively terrifying prospect, as this will likely be read by other people. I'm realistic about the reach of the self-published author who didn't build an army or jump from traditional publishing. It's, for the most part, completely and laughably miniscule. That long tail? Yeah, n
Can't tell you how often stuff like this will happen. Maybe never again. Apologies to Kaleb Horton, who I'm biting without mercy in this. -- There is a dark room, in it a casket-shaped table ringed by chairs. None of them are meant to be comfortable but the one at the head. Mike wasn't ever allowed to sit in that one. The room was an endurance test, where his parade of fuckups and disappointments were all made to dance in front of him. His handlers delighted in reminding him that his third strike had been five strikes ago. But the boss liked him enough to keep him around. Mike would always have that, whether his last name was Benning or Banner or Brotzmann or Baxter, like it had been for the
Let’s talk about AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR. Hella spoilers follow, so you’ve been warned. Just a quick bit of background, so you can get a barometer read on me and these superhero entertainments. They’re mostly fine entertainment. AVENGERS? It was fun, gave me what I was looking for. AVENGERS 2 was terrible and muddled, even accounting for production interference from the studio. It needed several rounds more of revision. Burned up a lot of goodwill. I’ve gone and seen most of the Marvel movies since then, and found them…largely okay. THOR 3 was a welcome break from that, embracing the crazy and silly and mannered. So I went into INFINITY WAR with somewhat mixed expectations. I try to manage ex
So I'm looking at some numbers behind comics. Look along with me. A typical issue of comics has 22 pages of story, but is printed onto a saddle-stitched book of 32 pages. If you go really cheap, you can get a page of comics produced for say, a hundred bucks a page. That's $2200. Add a cover and miscellaneous expenses and say you're at $2500, plus whatever you do to fill those last ten pages (front and back covers included.) Then you pay for printing or if you're being printed by Image, you're paying around $1400 a month for catalog placement/printing/marketing such as it is. We're at $3900. Many comics don't start making money until they get to the trade collection. That's typically six mont
Three from CAPTAIN VICTORY #1. CAPTAIN VICTORY #1 1981, Pacific Comics Jack Kirby writing and art, Mike Royer inks, Steve Oliff colors
Thoughts on SAVAGELAND Spoilers for this film and NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD follow. You've been warned. Here's the trailer for SAVAGELAND: I don't know if you know this, but I'm usually a big fan of zombie flicks. At least when they're done well. And I'll tolerate them, to within certain boundaries, even if they're not done well. If they spill over in to straight gore-porn or push the lines of thoughtlessness (or are simply a carousel of misery, such as THE WALKING DEAD) then I usually punch out. One day, I'll write the takedown of THE WALKING DEAD and its spin-off show that are so brutal that everyone involved will just have to nod their heads in agreement and shut off the money pipes and en
