I Feel Like I’m Missing Time
Where the hell did this week go? I’m all goofed up. I was sick, then Widget was sick, then something else happened, and some other stuff went funny, and it all went to shit.
I sat down to work out my con schedule for 2008 and got as far as September. As it looks now I have at least 2, but often 3, shows a month, with at least one of those requiring me to figure out how to pay for a hotel and airfare. God I hate creative financing. Why can’t I just have more money?!
I find conventions to be really traumatic. Even when my friends are coming along to help me out I am still a ball of stress for the first two days –will my suitcase full of art and Robo swag arrive at the same airport as me? Is my hotel room okay? When can I set up my table? Where is everyone meeting and am I pissing someone off by going to this shindig and not going to that other one? And without fail it takes 3 days minimum to get back into a work routine after a weekend long con.
Yet somehow they are still fun. I learned just how fun then could be with a partner in crime to get into trouble with when Kubrick The Younger joined me at PittCon last year. Kube is the most bananas cat I know. His brain is always going in a million directions at once, and all of them hysterical. Put him together with Robo’s letterer, Powell, and the two just spool each other up and its instant good time.
Speaking of Powell, he’s redoing his website and he sent me the new design. It looks pretty hot. He’s also helping me work out a new look for this website.
I’ve been getting some quality time in with Team Fortress 2 since my 360 returned from the land of the dead. Few experiences have been quite as frustrating and getting that stupid X-box fixed. Except perhaps my attempt to buy a new pair of eyeglasses today. Widget had the day off from school so we went all over the place –returning X-mas gifts, buying her shoes, getting dumb cat stuff, and visiting no less that 5 eyeglass stores.
I know exactly what I want and no one has it.
Anyway, 6 hours of shopping with Widget and no glasses. I did pick up Princess Bride, Jeff Johnson’s “Draw Fight Scenes Like a Pro”, some sort of giant atlas of WWII weapons and vehicles, and Paul Pope’s amazing “Batman Year 100” at Barnes & Noble though. You have to realize that to get me interested in anything Batman related (that is not Bruce Tim’s animated series) is a big deal. I have never read a Batman comic book that I really liked –and yes that includes Miller’s Dark Knight which I know is supposed to be a big huge deal, but listen, if you’re not a Batman fanboy, it just isn’t. But Pope brought something very interesting to the table and more or less gave me everything that I wanted Dark Knight to be, and so I am happy.
We saw Punisher War Journal #15 on a rack in the magazine section of the store and I showed it to Widget. When she caught on that it was my work she got all excited and started showing it to everyone in a 15ft radius.
I also got Widget a bunch of books since she is reading like a champ these days. I had to squirm through a twenty minute reading of “The Rainbow Unicorn” last night. I wanted to kill myself when it was over.
The only other thing that’s happened this week I can think of is that Cupcake almost went for a ride in the dryer. Ever since her almost-ride she’s been a little nutty. . .like more than usual I mean. She’s been climbing the door frames in the house and just sort of clinging to the walls like a gecko. I’ve been trying to get a picture, but haven’t had any luck yet.
Other than all that, I plan on having Robo’s FCBD story done this week and I’ll share some pages next Monday. Brian and I also nailed down the format for Vol.2 and I talked him into changing a major character from a male to a female. I am stoked that women are reading Atomic Robo, so I thought it would be really cool if we could introduce a good female character in a role that is nearly exclusively reserved for men. More on that as we work out details and I start doing sketches.
When will the Atomic Robo stuff stop coming!?! (Never, I hope!) Check this out over on Eye on Comics.
Switching gears . . .the other fantastic game that came with the Orange Box is Portal. The black humor and interesting puzzles make this game equally as enjoyable as the wacky mayhem of Team Fortress 2. At various points in the game robotic gun turrets do their best to blow holes in your vital organs, but you really have to wonder what they do when you’re not around. Well wonder no more: A Day In The Life of A Turret –If you haven’t played Portal . . .well, we just can’t be friends anymore.
The SkySail. Environmentally friendly and really friggin’ cool!
The Five Most Terrifying Bugs In The World. Please don’t look at this. Trust me.
The Worst Spiderman Ever.
He’s wearing great socks.
Look out Kaliman! El Doc-tor del Destino is right behind you!
Excelsior muthafucka!
Stan Lee got bling, yo.
Nice to hear future Robo stuff is coming along.
By the way, I forgot to say you *totally* nailed Carl Sagan.
And also the lil’ Robo head on the last page of PWJ was a real treat.
Keep it going.
Yay! Con season! I’m looking forward to documenting the comic book-fueled insanity this year.
The bug thing is awesome.
How far west were you planning on heading out, con-wise, this year?
If you’re talking about Chicago, Mid-Ohio, or SDCC the answer is all the sale; Not that far.
I’d love to do those shows but it won’t happen until they invite me and pay expenses, or I can make enough money at those shows to justify the trip.
So I’m pretty much sticking to the Right Coast this year unless something insane happens.
That feeling that time is slipping out of your hands? That’s called age… it gets worse…
Ok, so, first of all Princess Bride is probably the greatest movie of all time. Good to know that you now own it (but, I wonder what took so long?)
Secondly, check out Loeb and Sale’s Batman the Long Halloween. My personal favorite batman story.
Stan Lee is the mothah-f’ing man. Excelsior indeed.
And, really, there’s nothing funnier that domestic abuse, right? The 50’s really were a different time.. heh…
Pitt’s gonna rule this year… f’n Tom Savini is going to be there!!! Hell yeah!
dooood, it’s finally up!
http://naomi-jeys.blogspot.com/
Holy crap, that website look dandy!
I miss NH, Oh gawd do I miss it. I am happy to see your putting together your deadlines better than me!
^Alec, Tom Savini is the MAN. Period.
and Long Halloween is my favorite thus far! Check out Paul Pope’s version. Talk about awesome.
Dear Mister Wegener,
I desperately wish to be your friend… maybe something a little more. Yet, I do not have Portal. Nor have I ever played Team Fortress. Please do not renounce my adulations for such simple reasons.
With a single tear– Jorge
Oh okay, fine. How about, “If you can watch the various Portal and TF2 trailers and spoof movies and feel no desire to play them, then you cannot be my friend. Because, clearly, your sense of humor has been surgically removed with a rusty soup spoon, and the chances of you ever appreciating me, or my questionable humor, are slim to none.”
“Nazis, baby eaters, guys with “diddler” mustaches, people who consider “American Idol” & “Dancing With The -insert noun here-” to be quality programming, and those who consider porn a respectable form of entertainment and not just a way for me to kill ten minutes in the afternoon, also need not apply for friendship.”
“Circus performers, Republicans, and pan handlers will be considered on a case-by-case basis.”
Is that better, Jorge?
Ten minutes? Maybe 15 years ago
Checked out the Five Most Terrifying bugs in the world. I wanna see more videos of Botflies now. And those 3″ wasps suck. They shouldn’t be dismembering their fellow buzzybugs.