Redefining Savagery

Okay, it’s official. I’m doing a few fill-in issues of Punisher War Journal for Marvel comics. This is just a quickie job, then its right back to the hand-to-mouth existence I so love.

But its totally a foot in the door and I cream like a 16yr old girl let loose in the GAP with daddy’s credit card every time I think about it.

Did anyone else gag a little when I said “cream”? Because I did.

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Atomic Robo #2 hit stores last week and the almost complete lack of reviews is driving me nuts. What’s wrong with you INTERNETS!! To add to my frustration Whitey Black keeps finding stuff (good important stuff) that my stupid Google Alert seems to miss. So far of all the junk I’ve found this stuff seems worth linking to:

Atomic Robo on IGN

The Weekly Chrisis

Chris’s Invincible Super-Blog

Atomic Sculptie by Tim!

Meanwhile, Atomic Robo #1 (second printing) SEP078147 can now be ordered from Diamond. So for all you chumps who didn’t pre-oder it the first time and then cried because your LCS didn’t think to order it for you with their Psychic-Comic-Retailer-Helmets –here’s your chance to set things right.

In other news, Ronda Pattison will be coloring Killer of Demons.

We actually already had a very good colorist, but there were some time concerns, and then some people saw her work on Atomic Robo and that was that.

I guess you guys want to hear about the Big Apple National? It was good.

I think we sold about 100 copies of Atomic Robo (#2 and #1 re-prints), and Jim Hanley’s Universe bought quite a bunch off us.

There were two Artist Alleys. The list of attendees was VERY impressive, and we got put in the downstairs Alley with Tim Sale, Darwyn Cooke (my hero!), David Sims, Sergio Aragones, Jim Palmiotti, Alex Maleev, and many more.

Most of my time seemed to be spent looking at the fat asses of Tim Sale’s fans who were too geeked out to form a line. Apparently I was not alone because someone else made a sign that read “Tim Sale’s Fans Have The Best Asses”. I must have been sitting at the wrong end of the mob. To be honest though, if your gonna be cock-blocked at a show, Tim Sale is the kind of guy you want fucking up your scene. He and his wife(?) both seemed really nice (as we observed them from a distance), and his fans were too. They probably accounted for half our sales, so I’m just complaining to be amusing, not because I had a real issue with the situation.

As an aside, Tim’s lady-friend was drop-dead gorgeous. I couldn’t stop admiring her. Though I really hope I wasn’t gawking at her like a creep, I probably was. Crap. She just had such strong features I wanted to whip out my sketch pad and draw her.

Alex Maleev sat next to us, his table forming an “L” with ours. I felt bad –we must have bumped him a thousand times. There just wasn’t room to breath in that place. Luckily for his sanity, Alex wasn’t there very much. You’d look over and he’d just be gone. Then he’d be back. We got a stupid little kick out of telling people that were looking for him that he’d just Mah-left.

The folks running the show were very nice and (when you could find them) quite helpful. It was probably the best organized cluster-fuck I’ve ever seen. I mean that in a good way. The venue they use is without doubt the worst I have ever seen. The escalators are sketchy, the ceilings too low, and the heating/cooling system was no match for the hordes of people moving in and out of that place.

If there had been a fire there was no doubt in my mind that most of us would have died horrible, horrible deaths. Team Robo was crushed up against a giant pillar and it was so tight behind our table that I couldn’t push my chair back and stand up. I had to climb out over it.

Also, as you know, I always like to judge a venue by its shitters. I could go on for hours about how awful the tiny, over-worked bathrooms were but I won’t. Lets just say that when the urinal looks like its got a thick, curly beard you know things are bad. Luckily I found a bar at the back of the hotel attached to the convention with a reasonably clean toilet. By “reasonable” I mean you couldn’t actually see the hepatitis-C crawling around on the seat.

So, GREAT show. Terrible building. I hope they move it. But I’ll go again even if they don’t.

Mostly it was just great to hang out with Clevinger, Powell, and Frank. Someday we should do that without a Con to clog up our schedules. Not that making each other laugh all day followed by nights at the Commonwealth was anything less than great.

Gay McDonalds was probably one of the stranger experiences of my weekend. I just popped in for a coffee on my way to Marvel and really wasn’t prepared for what I saw. Normally you think McDonalds = skanky facilities, belligerent and unhappy workers. This place had all of that AND the fifth transvestite fast-food worker I’ve seen in 3 months. He/she had very tasteful makeup, totally fake eyebrows, and his hair up in a perky little bun. Contrast that look, and some very effeminate mannerisms with the ugly polyester uniform and things get really weird.

Anyway, I’ve got TONS of work to do. Catch you guys later.

RANDOM SPLENDOR:

Kitty Wake-Up from my new friend Marion.

Evil + Stoopid = Our Commander in Chief.

I used to know what this actually was. I’ll leave it to you guys to come up with a new and more memorable explanation.

This is sort of sinister. But then, so is Starbucks with all its fake yuppie fakery.