The Tax man Cometh

Well, went to see the tax man today. I was dreading it since 2006 would be the first year I’d be filing taxes as my own boss, and circumstances were such that I never quite put enough aside for that end of the year raping of the anus the IRS is so fond of.

Luckily, I make so little money doing this work that The Man owes me some dough. Go figure.

Anyway, this little fieldtrip took me to the nearby town of Nashua, where I used to live and work, so I swung by the airport where two of my best friends still earn a living. Up until a few years ago I was a pilot (mostly flight instruction) and was semi-happy with that until I lost my medical certificate. It took about a year and a half of farting around before another good friend suggested I try my hand at comic books. The rest, as they say, is history.

I don’t miss flying very often –you might be shocked to learn that most of it is pretty damn boring. But on a day like today, when the sun is shining and the weather is warm by New England standards, I was feeling the urge to get up in the sky pretty strongly. It wasn’t helped by the trio of A-10’s that decided to drop by for a couple of fly-bys before zooming off to wherever it is they zoom off to do what they do.

This Sunday is the Nashua Comic Book Show! The last show I did was great and I’m hoping for more of the same. Swing by and hang out, say hello, by my crap, etc, etc.

I watched Hellboy: Sword of Storms yesterday. I’m having mixed feelings about it. It seems like Mignola’s work is really hard to translate out of comics and into other mediums. I thought the Amazing Screw-On Head that came out a while back was some of the worst animation I’d seen in a long time, (and was not trumped for crappiness until I saw some of the Marvel Ultimates cartoons). The only thing I liked about it was the writing for Dr. Zombie. I really thought the live action movie was lame because it seemed to totally miss the essence of the Hellboy character. I had the same problem with Sword of Storms, though the animation was very good for the most part, and the writing of the other characters was really well done. But again, HB came off as sort of snarky and childish.

Maybe I’m the one in the wrong here, but if they want to do the Big Red Guy justice they should study those great old police and P.I. movies from way back before they had color in the movies. Clevinger summed it up for me when he said that HB comes across in the comics like those old hardboiled detectives –a little burnt out, semi-disillusioned, but still out on the streets doing his job, because it needs to be done.

Okay, Getting near the end of Robo #6 now. I’ll get some new artwork posted when its all done. I’ve got a really fun Spiderman-themed commission to post as well. But all that is in the future. Right now I’ve gotta get back to my pens.

Munamana!