Rambling thoughts on comic books
Tonight is one of those nights where I sit and think about comics.
Comic-con is upon us and I'm stuck in this feeling of loathing for my favorite medium of entertainment.
There's the big 4: Marvel, DC, Image and Dark Horse.
Marvel has sold out, DC has become a series of continuity confusion, Image is there but almost bland, and Dark Horse site in a corner throwing merchandise to the world that 90 people will buy.
And I'm at a standstill.
Indie comic are a hipster's paradise, Manga has faded from popular demand and more comics are being made into mediocre films that I can barely stand.
I don't know how to feel about all of this. Is this what comics have become? A bland and boring pass time? Have they come and gone as a "great way to tell stories?"
Are comics turning into another piece of shit market? Is the point just becoming to sell enough comics to get a mediocre payoff?
Some kind of random update
So... a breakdown of where I'm at:
1. I found out that I'm going to be at GVSU until 2012... two years later than expected. Oh well. I can only blame myself. Frankly, it's not that bad. I can spread things out and just get everything done nice and easy. Let's just hope I finish this semester with B's...
2. mat42dr -- the new TV show I'm directing/writing for GVTV -- has it's casting call on the 14th of this month and man I'm nervous/excited. My nervousness is basically fueled by my worry that a) people aren't going to show up to the casting call and b) if people do show, I'm going to be too picky on who plays who in this show. I mean, I know I have until next Fall semester to figure everything out but because I'm me, I'm worrying now. Nonetheless, I am still super excited for this show. I'm really proud of the 6 and a half episodes (I'm in the middle of writing episode 7) I have done and since my goal is to write 18 episodes (3 seasons of 6 episodes), this is going to be a lot of fun.
3. As always, I'm looking for more work. I have some side projects that, as of yesterday, will be taking up my time this summer, but more work = more money = my life easier. Of course, not having a car sucks... My hopes for this summer are to find a second job in Allendale and maybe make enough money to buy a cheap used car to get me by for the next 2-3 years. Here's hoping!
4. C2E2 in Chicago is next week. I'm heading out to that with the GVSU Comic Book Club. Flipping Alex Ross, Daniel Way, Greg Pak and numerous other writers and artists are going to be there which basically means I'm going to be peeing my pants with excitement for three days straight. That's going to be fun.
5. And the final big thing is in May. Russ Terbeek's wedding. My best friend is getting married and I'm going out to Arizona to be his best man for the occasion. It's going to be expensive, but damn it all it's going to be fun. May 26, 2010. Hell yes.
And yeah. I don't think there's that much more going on. Comics are always on my mind and watching a good TV show or two is fun... I finished Buffy, need to watch Angel, I'm on season 4 of Supernatural... anyone have any good suggestions? (I've seen Firefly, Reaper, Spaced... and a bunch others)
Marvel comics coming to the iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad?
I'm reading 10,000 times into this and I'm far from a reputable source, but! one little tweet this morning from a "higher up" gives me an indicator that Marvel may be pushing comics to the iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad medium.
Here's the tweet I read:
I think I want an iPod touch now.
- Jeff Suter, Senior Art Director @Marvel, permalink
The thing that gets me is that there's no explanation to the tweet and then shortly after, we get this:
OK, rush job in hand... digitally of course. SECRET rush job that is!
- Jeff Suter, permalink
So what does this all mean? I know people from Marvel are always tweeting "ooh this is a secret!" but I think this may be something to think about. Marvel (well, Disney) striking a deal with Apple to put comics on the iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad? Perhaps through the Book Store app? Who knows. We will see. I'm waiting for all the cool stuff to get announced after the iPad launch *cough*March 26*cough*.
PS. Then I found this link that was published on February 2, 2010. Talk about crazy.
On being sick and the last four days
It's been a crazy past four days.
- I moved into my new place in Allendale with Brian and Josh on Saturday
- This includes moving a bed, a desk, a TV + stand, all of my comics & trade paperbacks, a bookshelf, stereo & speakers, all of my DVDs and books, all of my clothes and other odds and ends
- I also helped Brian move his bed, desk, dresser, desk chair and other things into his room
- I acquired a cold after unpacking 80% of my said moved stuff in my room (I blame the dust)
- I've watched at least 8 episodes of Supernatural with Katherine as well as the last few episodes of The IT Crowd, series 2
- I've sorted 200+ comics and filed them in my longboxes
- I've washed all of my clothes and arranged them in a functional way in my room
- I picked up last week's comics on Saturday
- I shot some of Jeff & Mike on Sunday in the blistering cold over at Whitecap Comics with Jeff and the rest of the J&M crew
- This only made me more sick
I'm sure there's some more in there, but overall it's been a long four days; so long, in fact, that my body decided to give me a big middle finger yesterday by keeping me in bed instead of going to work and class.
So, I'm still battling this cold and I'm making myself go through class and work today sniffling and coughing--oh yeah, I acquired a cough last night/this morning. DayQuil to the rescue!
This week is going to go by quick, I assume. Rest tonight. Comic Book Club, tomorrow--we're watching Batman. Friday will most likely mean D&D. Saturday will be dedicated to shooting Jeff & Mike. Sunday is the Superbowl--which I really don't care much for, but will probably be spent drinking beers and eating chili with Jeff and some people. Whew. This should be fun.
I hope everyone else's past four days have been good. I'll be around with more random updates.
Warped Tour and the summer time
About a week ago, my good friend Tori IMed me and asked me what I was doing this past Friday. Now, this requires a bit of explanation: I had made plans with 10-12 people to go up north to Tawas City, Michigan, to a cabin my cousin owned in what would be the third year in a row of what I've come to call "Rapinstock" but after some botched planning, mistaken date understanding and bad luck, all of that backfired straight into my face. When all was said and done, I ended up having a free weekend. After a bit of talking, Tori "convinced" me to go to the Warped Tour with her in Detroit.
So, Friday came and BAM! We (ie. Tori, her boyfriend Dave, a guy named Nic and myself) were on the road at 8am and heading towards Detroit. We ended up arriving at the show at 11:45am and man oh man were there tons of people. We headed straight to find a schedule and managed to make it on time to see Big D and the Kids Table, followed immediately by a band I have loved for about 7 years now: Anti-Flag. They played a few songs and we headed over to try to see Bayside. After some major misunderstanding on my part, we found out we were at the wrong stage and had missed the whole Bayside set. It sucked, but we headed straight to see Less Than Jake. Holy crap, they put on a fantastic set. We followed that by We are the Union, which was pretty damn good, then hit up Bouncing Souls. Mind you between those three bands we traversed the entire damn concert area, but it was all good.
We split back, half way across the Comerica Park parking lot (where this all took place), and sat and saw Senses Fail--who were pretty damn good--and then saw Streetlight Manifesto immediately after (the two stages were right next to each other). Man Streetlight was damn good. We took a break for an hour--because all sorts of shitty hipster-fuck-bull-music was playing--and got some pizza inside of the ballpark.
We proceeded to see Bad Religion on the main stage and I was fucking impressed. 45+ years old and still kicking ass. It was truly a sight to see. Finally we headed to the other end of the damn concert to see the most packed fucking show of the night: A Day To Remember. I got elbowed, sweated on and generally sick given the amount of sweat and weed that was around. It was the worst show of the day for sure.
All in all though, the entire concert was one of the coolest experiences I've had in a long while. But I'm pretty sure this upcoming weekend's Wizard World Chicago will be pretty top notch seeing that 1. It's 3 and a half days long and 2. it's all comics. I'm pretty damn pumped.
Nevertheless, I'm damn sure I got my years worth Vitamin D from all of the sun I took in. I'm glad I went to Warped and I'd do it again--that is, if the bands are just as good as they were this year. I had a hell of a time.
I bought my first real DC comic(s) yesterday
Despite my normally going to the comic shop on Wednesday to pick up comics, I hit up the comic shop a total of three times this week.
Why? Well because 1) Tommy asked me to go on Tuesday, 2) Wednesday was new-comic-book-day and 3) Amra/Jared/Tommy wanted to go on Saturday.
So there I was, at Tardy's and the four of us has been looking around at comics for a good 45 minutes or so talking it up and such when, as everyone was seriously ready to leave, I notice something... I noticed DC's Justice Society of America Kingdom Come tie-in for Superman.
Writing more and more (and more)
So, since I had my TV show accepted to be made on GVtv, I've been working on and off on the script(s) for the show.
I think today I finally finished a full 24-minute script done and ready for production though. For a while, I was stuck writing 10 or so minute scripts and I was trying to add filler that wasn't too funny. Luckily my friends Jeff and Nick were there to help me get through those not-so-funny times (I mean, I'm trying to write a clever and funny comedy here!) and I think the pilot episode I have is pretty good.
Sadly, this has been pulling away from my comic book reviews on DestroyTheCyb.org! and that's never good! (It seriously isn't good how much I have been lacking lately) so I'm making it a goal for the next 3 weeks while I'm on winter break to write at least .75-1 review a day. That should be too hard, right?
On top of that I recently lost one of my two jobs. Yeah, big deal, but not really a big deal. The facts are/were these:
- This job (aka CTS) was like... 4th on my list of priorities and they pretty much knew this by the end of this semester
- With School coming in at number 1, my job as a Web Developer at number 2, and comics/freelance work coming in at number 3 in a straight tie
- On my last shift, some bull shit that I has suspected about co-workers and supervisors talking shit behind my back about me was TRUE which makes me wonder why they didn't just fire me back in October when all of my ideas of "I'm probably getting fired" came into my mind and as I assume came to theirs as well
- Then again, I was being a super fuck-face via Twitter talking bad about one of my former-not-really-my-boss-bosses, which pretty much put them over the threshold to fire me--which my real boss came to tell me
- But in all seriousness, I wish I would have been "let go" or whatever back in October because I really fucking hated working at 6:30am and getting bitched at for oversleeping when all of my bosses and supervisors knew that morning shifts and I have never gotten along at all (given the problems I had last winter semester).
- Half of me votes conspiracy... but that's the impractical, cynical and outrageous half of me.
- When it all came down to it, I told them right-out I knew it was coming and left as a gentlemen and shook all of their hands. They told me if need be I could use them as a reference because overall, they really are all nice guys. And really, they told me I wasn't being "fired" but more of "not being invited back" which when I think about it means "we don't need any liabilities for this" which is understandable... I guess.
So I'm out one job, but it's really not so bad. Now I have more time to work for the web team and more time to do the things that were already higher on my list of priorities for next semester.
My only real gripes right now are that my show is funny. Man I don't want to have a sucky TV show... Hopefully once we get things recorded I'll find a way to get it online and you, the internet community, can judge me...
So that's what's up with me. What's up with you lately?
Immortal Iron Fist #17 review
I’ve been reading Immortal Iron Fist since the current series began and I have dug it a lot. It’s probably one of my favorite series right now (next to X-Factor and Invincible) and this week I was just blown away.
Given that Matt Fraction ended his run with issue #16–which I was dumb and somehow didn’t realize–I was a tad skeptical at how this new arc was going to take off. Lucky for me, it ended up being fucking amazing and it seriously blew my mind. From what I’ve been hearing from Comic Con in San Diego, Matt Fraction and Ed Brubaker (who co-wrote the first 16 issues together) are saying their series is going to look lame compared to what is coming from Duane Swierczynski in the near future… Really with one issue in I can already see it getting amazing. (Although, I loved the tournament from Fraction and Brubakers run).
**more review and spoilers after the break**
Supreme Power review of what I own
As I mentioned before, I was reading J. Michael Straczynski’s Supreme Power and I was damn impressed. Last week, I finished the actual Supreme Power series (issues #1-18) and I moved on to the side stories after the very dramatic and skin devouring ending to the series. I purchased the trade paperbacks back when I went to Wizard World Chicago at some discount booth and I really am glad I bought them. Let me just say that the series ended up being way better than I thought I could have been and I loved Straczynski’s take on the possible craziness of the DC universe.
But enough of that, let’s talk about the greatness of what I read.
**spoilers after the break**
| S | M | T | W | T | F | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| « Jan | ||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |||
| 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |
| 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
| 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 |
| 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | |
@MikeRapin
- Whew. Project finished/fixed for the night. 3 rums + Diet consumed. Lots of music listened to. Now: Snack + internet, then sleep. 5 hours ago
- RT @themacinjosh: @MikeRapin but I can't fault you for thinking it's good, so I suppose the friendship is back on. 8 hours ago
- Today’s listening count of Daft Punk’s “Random Access Memories”: 4 #fb 8 hours ago
- Rum + Diet + coding. 10 hours ago
- Moving from one project to another. 11 hours ago
