So, I was wrong yesterday when I said that I'd be able to do EVERYTHING I'd originally planned before my unexpected car troubles. In point of fact, I only got about 75% done ... but that 75% was all of the penciling, lettering, and inking of new Bolt & Quiver and 10x10 Toon comics for issue #6 of Kobold Quarterly. The remaining 25% (the scanning, coloring, and final prep work) I did earlier today.

I have to say, and some of you may actually be getting tired of hearing me say this, I LOVE drawing! As much as I enjoy writing and doing game design ... making comics is what I LOVE to do. I have an easier time getting up in the morning, getting right to work, and staying productive for long hours at a stretch. In fact, I often forget to take breaks for things like ... oh ... MEALS. Doing comics engrosses me UTTERLY.

I STILL haven't figured out a way to make it PAY well enough to be even a significant part of my income ... but that's still the dream. (And it's a testament to how wonderful a life I've got that my "make money in the meanwhile" job is writing and game design.)

While working on the most recent cartoons, I came across something I'd meant to share about a month ago. It is an UNUSED Bolt & Quiver strip that originally was going to be in Kobold Quarterly #5. However, there were some issues with it. First, and foremost, the JOKE relies on the reader having an understanding of the relationship between the main characters ... a relationship that I haven't made apparent in the comic since some time in 2003. While it might be mildly amusing without that knowledge, it's really not FUNNY and could be rather confusing.

Second, from an editorial standpoint, between B&Q and 10x10, I'd done about four or five 4E related jokes in a row ... and all the research done on the subscribers said that they really weren't all that interested in 4E. And, on top of that, the GSI still was MIA at that point ... and it was unclear what relationship the magazine was going to have with this new edition.

So, despite the fact that this comic was already done, I voluntarily withdrew it and did a different one (that you can see if you go subscribe to Kobold Quarterly and get the latest issue.

Still, this comic amuses ME. And since this blog is ALL about me, I thought I'd share it. So here, for the first time anywhere, I present to you ... Bolt & Quiver #42:

After getting a longer night's sleep than I have in quite a while, today was looking pretty good. I dispatched with email and my daily doodle posting quickly and was right on to the work of the day ... work I'd REALLY been looking forward to: Doing the cartoons for the next issue of Kobold Quartely. I got the basics sorted out ... and then it was lunch time.

I haven't done any grocery shopping in a while (having focused basically ALL my waking time on my freelance projects), but I COULD have cobbled together a decent lunch. I just CHOSE not to. Instead, I went out to spend money I really OUGHT to have saved on a meal that was larger and less healthy than I really NEEDED. But I enjoyed it.

It was the ride HOME that I didn't enjoy so much.

About halfway back to my place, I saw a helicopter in the distance. And a few seconds later I heard a rhythmic thumpa-thumpa-thumpa. A bit strange, I thought, the helicopter was pretty far off and didn't LOOK like a military model. But as it grew closer, the thumpas got louder. Then it passed ... and the thumpas KEPT getting louder ... and it suddenly dawned on me, "Oh crap! That's my CAR making that noise!"

So I pulled onto the shoulder, got carefully out, and sure enough ... my right rear tire was completely flat.

*sigh*

So I opened the trunk and pulled out the spare. Then I TRIED to pull out the jack. But, for the life of me, I couldn't figure out how to get it out of its storage spot.

*sigh*

So rather than do the manly thing and change my own tire ... I did the suburban thing and called AAA. Even in times when money is tight, I've always made room in my budget to keep my AAA membership current. Some years I don't use it ... but whenever I HAVE had car trouble, it's felt like a godsend.

About 10 minutes later a very helpful service guy pulled up in a AAA-sponsored tow truck, changed the tire in all of about 2.5 minutes, and gave me directions to a tire center that he was willing to recommend.

The guys at the tire center were ALSO very helpful. They assessed the the problem was the valve, not the treads (which were still pretty good). Showed me several choices for replacement and admitted that the cheapest one was just as good as the most expensive. Recommended I have ALL the valves changed to save myself similar problems in the relatively near future (my tires all looked good, but most of the valves were showing small cracks). And then did all the work in less than half an hour.

All in all, things could have been MUCH worse. In fact, if I hadn't gone out for lunch, the chances are that all this would have happened Sunday evening either going to or returning from karaoke. So maybe it IS a good thing that I went out for lunch.

Yeah. THAT'S how I'm going to choose to look at it!

Now I'm going to scan a doodle I did in the tire center's waiting lounge, post it as a Bonus Doodle over at Doodle-A-Day. com, and get back to my cartooning. I can still finish everything I wanted to today ... but I won't finish as early as I'd planned.

It's July 4th ... Independence Day here in the U.S. ... and I thought I'd take a minute just to reflect a little on what that means to me.

I love this country ... imperfections and cultural arrogance and political hypocrisies and all. Yes, I want it to be better than it is ... I want it to come closer to living up to its own ideals ... but I love it just the same.

It's easy, when you're born and raised in a solid middle-class family in a country with the opportunities and freedoms we enjoy, to take all that for granted. And at many times in my life I have. In fact, I'm sure even now I don't appreciate enough all that I have. But I'm trying.

I was at a baseball game a few weeks ago (already a quintessentially American thing to do), and as I rose for the playing of the national anthem, I looked out across the stadium. I was in one of the very upper-most rows, so I had a good view of the whole field ... and the stands ... and the park outside ... and the city beyond. I watched as the more than twenty-thousand other people there all rose, removing their hats ... many of them placing their hands over their hearts, and began to sing.

High above the center field fence, a large American flag flapped in the breeze. Then I noticed a smaller one on top of the stadium wall. And another one on the building across the street. And another one on a building beyond that. Very quickly, I realized that in my immediate field of vision there were no fewer than twenty iterations of the stars and stripes. And that made me think of an early evening about fourteen years ago.

It was June of 1994. I was still living in Japan then. I was on a train heading home after attending the wedding of my very, very good friend Satsuki. My contract with the school I was at was going to expire later in the year and I was trying to decide what my next step would be. I had many possibilities ... staying at the school I was at, following up on a job opportunity at a game company in Pennsylvania, working with local business connections to start my own school ... each had advantages and drawbacks.

I'd been in Japan for nearly 5 years, and things were going well. I was still enjoying the challenge and the adventure. But did I really want to stay there indefinitely? On the other hand, what was I going to do if I went home? My recent experiences and newly honed skills did not translate into any direct jobs back there.

Weighty questions.

I pondered them as I stared out the window. The setting sun threw the hills in the background into sharp silhouette, and I could see a flag pole on top of one with a flag waving bravely in the wind. As I watched the flag snap in the breeze, the tracks went around a bend and the flag was no longer in silhouette. It caught the suns fading rays and shined bright and white with a red rising sun in the middle ... the Japanese flag.

OF COURSE it was the Japanese flag. I was, after all, in Japan. I had never forgotten that. But somehow, when the flag was in silhouette, I thought for sure it was the stars and stripes. THAT'S what I expected to see. And so I was a little thrown when it turned out to be otherwise. And I realized that, as much as I enjoyed my time in Japan ... as much as I liked the culture, and as many friends as I'd made, and as much as the whole experience had helped me to grow as a person ... it wasn't home, and it never really would be.

I can't say that one incident is the reason I decided to come back to the U.S. A lot of things led me to that decision. But I CAN say that THAT particular moment is what I think about every time I stop and look at the flag. That's the moment I think about when I take my hat off and begin to sing ... not just politely stand at attention, but actually SING the national anthem at a sporting event or other occasion. That's the moment that crystalized for me how I really feel about my country.

It's been a contentious time in the U.S. over the past fourteen years. We've become more and more deeply divided on so many issues. Politics. Race. Economics. Education. Religion. We seem to have spent a lot of time gathering like-minded people around us and trying to shout out anyone who feels differently. Problems are approached not with a sense of cooperation and compromise, but with resolute determination that one particular solution or opinion or belief is the key ... and those who do not agree are seen as obstacles that must be navigated or eliminated. We've been transforming into a nation of people who all have tunnel vision ... but we're looking down different tunnels.

I love this country. But I sometimes think that we are our own worst enemy.

It's time, on this Independence Day, for us all to step back from our personal beliefs ... just for a day. To step back and look at the bigger picture. We developed our personal beliefs because of the way the larger system, the greater culture was designed. We are ALLOWED the luxury of our freedoms because OTHERS have the same freedoms ... the freedoms to do things in different ways, to hold different beliefs, to aspire to different ends, and yet all be living the American Dream.

It's like that silhouetted flag on the hill. We each expect to see different things once we go around the bend. And yet ... we can all see what we need to, what we HOPE to when the light shines on that star spangled banner. It means many things to different people, but it means the same thing to us all. Freedom.

Let's try to remember that freedom means not just letting others think differently than you do, but embracing their right to do so. It means not just having the right to your own beliefs, but the responsibility to defend others' beliefs as well. Freedom is interpreted differently by every person, but grants the SAME rights and responsibilities to all.

Happy Independence Day, everyone, whether your in or from the U.S. or anywhere else in the world. Let freedom ring.

And since I'm in a video-posting mood, my buddy Jeff sent me a link to the trailer for The Day The Earth Stood Still.

Hmmmm ... unemotional, detached, barely human, overly dramatic ... seems like a GREAT role for Keanu!

Edit: YouTube pulled the trailer I'd originally embedded in this post ... so I changed it to a link to the Apple.com trailer page.

Getting tired of these yet? I'm NOT! Here's a Public Service Announcement from Hellboy and the BPRD.

And a couple of even FUNNIER variations on the Inside the Actor's Studio one.

TWO more cool Hellboy II crossover commercials, both with the main character from Chuck (which you really ought to watch when it comes back for the new season).


Ummm ... I HAVE a Hellboy lunchbox ... guess that means I ought to be on the couch with them. (How nerd-cool is THAT?)

Another crossover commercial for the soon-to-be-released (but not soon enough for MY tastes) Hellboy II: The Golden Army, this time with the Ghost Hunters.

Thanks to scarlettina for the link.

I bet there are (or are soon going to be) more commercials like these ... I'll keep you updated on what I find.

I'm sure many of you have seen this already, but it's been making me crack up ALL evening since I first was pointed that way by Aaron Williams (thank you, sir). Two of my favorite things ... Hellboy and James Lipton!

"Boo yeah" indeed!

I have to say, after 8 weeks of pushing my writing muscles as hard as I've done in several years, I'm finally beginning to feel the strain. It's getting harder and harder to get up in the morning and get to work. In fact, when I sit down at the computer each time I have a variant of the following conversation ... OUT LOUD ... with myself.

STAN!: "Oh god! I can't do it. I don't have anything left to say."
BAD-ASS STAN!: "Shut up and get to work!"
STAN!: "I can't ... really ... I just CAN'T."
BAD-ASS STAN!: "There's a #&*$ing outline there, just follow it."
STAN!: "But I don't even know what I'm saying."
BAD-ASS STAN!: "That's why we wrote the outline ... so you could stop thinking about it and just DO it."
STAN!: "But ..."
BAD-ASS STAN!: "NO BUTS!"
STAN!: "But ..."
BAD-ASS STAN!: "Ah ah ah ... what did I say?"
STAN!: "I ... I ... well ... maybe I can write THAT paragraph ..."
BAD-ASS STAN!: "You're damn right you can ... AND more!"
STAN!: "I'll just start here ..."
[sound of keyboard clicking ... faster ... and faster]
BAD-ASS STAN!: "That's a good typing monkey. Keep it up ... or ELSE!"

It's my own fault that I'm in this position. I took on too many contracts and I didn't get myself far enough ahead early in the process. And I'm really well over 90% through it. I just have to MAKE myself stay focused through the remaining bits.

BAD-ASS STAN!: I don't hear the right kind of typing going on in there!

Oh crap! I gotta get back to work!

I just saw a news item (thanks to Jana) about the death of character actor Don S. Davis. He wasn't as big a star as many of the other entertainment legends who have passed away recently, but he certainly was an important one to geek television.

Most people will probably remember him as General Hammond on Stargate SG-1. Or perhaps Dana Scully's father in The X-Files. But that's not how I think of him.

MY personal favorite of Davis' roles was Major Garland Briggs from Twin Peaks. And every time I ever saw him in ANYTHING else, the first thing that popped into my head was "The owls are not what they seem."

I spend A LOT of time in my home office. Well ... it's really what's supposed to be the master bedroom of the apartment ... but from the day I moved in I've been using it as my office/studio/library. After all, why would I want to take the biggest room of the place and use it for being unconscious?

One of my favorite things about the room was that it had a tree right outside its window. Through much of the spring, summer, and fall, there were various buds and flowers on the tree ... and the breezes that blew through it were quite fragrant.

I'm sure I posted (more like WHINED, actually) about the various cleaning activities and improvements they've been doing around my apartment complex recently ... painting, fixing things here and there, etc. And I may have been temporarily inconvenienced by some of these activities (like when the wrapped my apartment windows in plastic during the hottest days of the year so far), but all in all I've found EVERYTHING they've done to be an actual improvement.

Until ten minutes ago.

While I was sitting here working on my current project, I suddenly heard the sound of snapping wood ... and then the amount of ambient light in the room increased substantially.

They had come by and, without any notice or warning, just pulled the tree down. Then, even as I started writing this post, they fired up a gas-powered chainsaw and finished the job. In less time than it took me to get this far in the post, they removed my tree.

Now I have a stunning view of the parking lot. Now people in the buildings ACROSS that parking lot have a clear view into my office window. Now the breeze coming in is no longer fragrant. (Okay, right now it's still carrying a hint of the gasoline fumes ... but that's not the same thing.)

This is NOT an improvement.

I'm sure they have good reasons for what they've done. The tree was fairly close to the building ... maybe the roots were starting to cause structural problems or muck up the water pipes. I don't know. (Mainly because they haven't TOLD me.)

All I know is that my tree is gone ... and I miss it already.

Update: Ugh! It's ALREADY significantly WARMER in here. I never thought about how much shade that tree provided. Guess I'd better get used to it.

The Origin Awards were handed out last night at the Origins Game Faire. For those of you who don't know, the Origins Awards are given by the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design, an arm of the Game Manufacturers Association.

You can find a list of this year's nominees and winners at CriticalHits.com (as well as many other geek news sources), and I want to send my congratulations out to ALL the nominees and winners. But especially so to my friend Jim Lowder who last night won BOTH the award for Fiction Publication of the Year (Astounding Hero Tales) AND Non-Fiction Publication of the Year (Hobby Games: The 100 Best).

I was honored to be one of the writer's Jim tagged to craft an entry for Hobby Games, and proud to have my name on the credits page along with so many people I admire and look up to as truly the BEST in our industry. And I was touched when Jim sent around an email to us all saying that while he got the award, this was in every way a team effort that he wished we all could have shared last night.

For my part, I accept his kind note ... but return the credit right back to him. My little essay never would have been written without Jim's impetus, and it wouldn't have been nearly as good as it turned out without his keen editorial eye and guiding hand. I feel certain the same is true for MOST of the entries.

So I take my 1% of that award (well ... almost 1%) and hand it right back to Jim Lowder. And I hope I get the chance to work with him again in the near future!

I went to the comic book shop the other day, hoping to see issue #4 of The Worlds of D&D, the book that will hold my first official big-time comic book writing work, on the shelves. However, I was surprised instead to see issue #2 there. The guy behind the counter told me that just about ALL of the Devil's Due books are a few months behind ... but seem to be back on track now.

Oh well.

Guess that means that issue #4 should be hitting stores sometime in August (and then issue #5, with part 2 of my story, should be out in September). Don't let that stop you from picking up issue #2 while you can ... it looked really terrific! And maybe, just maybe, DDP will have an accelerated publishing schedule to get everything back on track. Stranger things have happened.

Speaking of strange things, I just read that Michael Turner, creator of Witchblade, Fathom, and truly a fan favorite artist if ever there was one, passed away last night. I can't say that I read many of his books (though that is mostly because of my limited time and budget), but I always admired his work. And I'm saddened by his passing, and my condolences go out to his family and friends.

We're losing too many super talented people this year. I think it will be quite a while before we can actually assess the toll the popular arts have suffered in 2008.

During the after party at last year's Gen Gon, I was approached by none other than the inestimable Robin D. Laws to participate in a little project he'd been putting together over the course of the show. He'd approached various game industry professionals and asked them all the same question and videotaped their answers.

Lately, he's been posting those answers on YouTube for the entertainment and oceanographic edification of the world at large. Here, then, is what I had to say:

Thanks to John for the pointer. You can see all the currently released "What sea creature would you be?" videos here.

Oh, and here is the "Shark vs. Octopus" video I was talking about.

Remember my little fake city of Stanplex?

Well, it's gotten to the point that just adding more residents is not enough ... Stanplex needs industry. So now, in addition to sending tourists to the town ... I'd appreciate it if you could send a few jobs our way.

The rules of the MyMiniCity site say that once a day you can either:

Send population to Stanplex

OR

Send industry to Stanplex

In the future, if my town grows enough, you will get the option to improve our transportation network, bolster our law enforcement, improve the environment, and increase business ... but right now we still have some basic growing to do!

Over the past month or two I've found or been directed to a number of articles, broadcasts, and podcasts about otaku, which is a Japanese word that most easily translates as "geek" or "nerd." Otaku (OH-tah-koo) are generally male mid-teens and up who are socially awkward, interested in games (or comics, or animation, or electronics, or some other fringe diversion) to an unhealthy level. They spend all their available income on collectibles, live in the Japanese equivalents of their parents' basement, and are painfully easy to spot (and even easier to make fun of).

It turns out, though, that businesses in Japan have been realizing that otaku as a group have a lot of money to spend and are a demographic WORTH chasing.

First, there's this LA Times article about "Maid Cafes" that have been springing up in Tokyo over the past couple of years.

Then there was this NPR piece on Japanese "immersion pods," where anyone can go to get some alone time with cutting edge technology and comfortable reclining chairs.

And finally, a sign that all this otaku culture may be less foreign than you'd think, this NY Times article about the first "Maid Cafe" to open up in Los Angeles!

Otaku culture is coming! Otaku culture is HERE!

Y'know how I've been kvetching so much about my workload the past couple of months? Well, I'm in the final week or so of that oh-so-busy period, and it's kind of exhilarating in its own way. Yeah, I'm spending a really ridiculous number of hours each day pounding away at the keyboard, but it looks like I will meet (or at least come REALLY close to meeting) all the promises I made.

So far in the past few weeks I've: turned over 3 re-writing assignments for manga publisher Viz Media; worked on, re-worked on, rewrote, co-re-wrote, and consulted on additional re-writing of the top secret "Hollywood Project" which is now in the hands of the actual thumbs-up-or-thumbs-down decision maker; co-designed the first One Night Stand adventure for Super Genius Games and brainstormed the next three; and did a ton of writing for my first official 4E project with WotC.

Still to come in the next 10 days: FINISHING the 4E project for WotC; drawing and coloring the cartoons for the next issue of Kobold Quarterly; co-designing the second One Night Stand adventure and preparing a map order for the third; finishing design on the second Call of Cthulhu product for Super Genius Games; and directing the design of future One Night Stand and Call of Cthulhu adventures.

So, yeah, it's going to REMAIN really busy here for a little while. But the end of the insanity is in sight ... unless, y'know, I make some other sorts of commitments in the meanwhile.

After spending Friday and Saturday in the scorching heat of Julian, I had to do SOMETHING Saturday evening that involved spending time in a building with industrial strength air conditioning. I chose to head to the movies (together with the visiting and equally par broiled Marc), and the film we agreed on was The Incredible Hulk.

Now, let me start by saying that I LIKED the Ang Lee directed Hulk film from a few years ago ... but I also understand why many people didn't. Immediately upon leaving the theater after seeing it with my friend Monte, he turned to me and said, "You know what that reminded me of?" I answered, "Incredible Hulk issues 170 to 185." Monte agreed that this was EXACTLY what he was put in mind of, then added, "I HATED those issues!" I chuckled and said, "I kinda liked them." And so it was that we understood each other's perspective on the movie.

With that established, let me say that I LIKED the new Hulk film, too ... but I'm somewhat astounded at the number of people who are coming out with the opposite opinion. This movie seemed to have everything that the other one lacked: a sense of humor about itself and the history of the character of the Hulk ... a much more action-oriented plot ... a lot of "Hulk smash!" fight scenes ... the actual words "Hulk smash!" uttered by the Hulk himself. Plus, it had solid actors in all the main parts, something the previous film ALSO had ... but my personal feeling is that Edward Norton matches my idea of Bruce Banner better than Eric Bana did ... and (surprisingly to me) William Hurt did a better job as Thunderbolt Ross than Sam Elliot did.

The people whose negative comments on the film I've read all seem to be coming from the position of disliking the movie because it was filled with fairly mindless violence writ large by rampaging monsters.

Ummm ... the title of the film you went to see WAS "The Incredible Hulk," right? Didn't you EXPECT mindless violence writ large by rampaging monsters?

Be that as it may. Let me just say to those of you who HAVEN'T seen it yet ... this movie is pretty much JUST what a Hulk film should be. Yeah, the story takes liberties with some of the long standing characters ... yeah the motivation for the uber-villain is shaky ... yeah, the ending is a little muddled and not especially satisfying ... but OH BOY does the Hulk smash stuff! And Banner gets to do what he's good at (thinking things through, trying to keep his emotions under control, and realizing when it ultimately is a good time to just give in to his rage). Okay, some of the dialog is a little stiff ... and Liv Tyler is very pretty to look at she does a good enough job as Betty Ross, but she's no Jennifer Connelly. It's NOT a perfect movie (it's not even a perfect Hulk movie) ... but it IS just the right kind of mindless fun that it ought to be.

I think the biggest problem for The Incredible Hulk, though, is that it's sharing the summer with Iron Man ( which may be the best super hero film ever ... maybe) and Dark Knight (which promises to be of that calibre as well) ... AND Hancock (which, given that it's a Wil Smith film, will almost certainly be the "super hero out of control" movie that most people remember from this season). In many recently past years, The Incredible Hulk would have been among the most popular of the summer. This year, it's just going to be an "also showing at this theater."

But if you've got the time, it's worth the price of admission.

Tonight is, in fact the actual Eve of Midsummer whose celebration and imagery inspired William Shakespeare to write A Midsummer Night's Dream.

I think we should all do something PUCKISH tonight!

What fools these mortals be!

I've spent a little too much time this morning watching various YouTube snippets of George Carlin's routines that others have chosen to post on their blogs in honor of his passing. Another immeasurable loss to the entertainment industry AND to American comedy and cultural commentary.

I just wrote and deleted a fairly long diatribe on the differences between what Carlin said in his stage routines and what he was actually trying to encourage in his audiences. It seemed to patently miss the point of his life and his work to start deconstructing it. Rather, I encourage you all to spend some time watching Carlin performances ... and, after you get through laughing at the surface messages, watch them again and try to see subtexts and challenges to the status quo and calls to action he placed before us. Think about what it is he's REALLY asking us to think about and do. And then maybe ... just maybe ... think about actually DOING some of it.

THAT, I think, would be a fitting tribute.