The OS Journal, 3/1/10

Let's see...my comics are coming out in two days and I'm as anxious as hell. It's a good anxious, but it's still anxiousness. It's like waiting for Christmas Day if you were waiting for Christmas day for 30 years.

I just made an appointment to get my hair done by a place that does NOT resemble the reliable, safe neighborhood salon. We will see how that goes. All I know is, I will not look the same when I leave there. I don't know if that's good or bad. The last cut I got, I was so neurotic about Change that I had them take like an inch off and just paid them and ran out. You couldn't even tell the difference. So now my hair is exceptionally long and shapeless. It's when I break the ponytail out that I admit defeat. You pull that hair back and spray it into place – done! Defeat! Then: walk of shame into salon.


Watched "Julie and Julia" yesterday. Thought they could do a "Goodbye To Comics" version where footage of Frank Castle taking down a Columbian drug cartel is intercut with me learning to use Blogger for the first time. "Look honey: I got a comment! From someone who didn't know me! (squee!)" Then: a safehouse in the middle of the jungle blows up. It's genius I tell you. Someone alert Sony.

Thunder-Jock

My Munden's Bar with Martha Thomases going live was a welcome surprise. Norm did a great job didn't he? He was a real trooper. I remember seeing the first pages for this story come out, and spitting coffee all over the keyboard. And yes, it should be remembered here: Martha did create Dakota North in the 1980s. There was a lot of great female characters back then; somebody on the ComicMix boards mentioned "Whisper," and that's really true. Whisper was a GREAT book.

Ah, Sean Kleefeld has just sent me a mock-up of how I might look like in a post-disco Dazzler cut:


You know, that really ain't too bad. Now here is the BORIS original of that art:


If I could get that butt, plus the hair...you know, and the light powers...

Oh, and ordered my iPhone today. That's right. No more land-line. Change: it's scary, but fun too!

More reports as they unfold!

--Val

The OS Journal, 2/9/10

So I finally got this used pair of sneakers in the mail that I bought on eBay, and there's old bloodstains on one of them. Golly. Other than that, they're pretty nice, and have been hardly worn at all. They make my feet itch.

***

That the author of the Yahoo Shine article on the Midwich Cuckoo/"Young Hollywood" Vanity Fair cover is getting death threats is just...wow. It's just messed up in every which way. When you get to death threats, abusive comments...it's not even about the topic anymore. It's just about wanting to get your anger out, to kick someone's teeth in for something and against someone that isn't even there anymore. It's projection.
That said, I don't believe Vanity Fair should have purposely looked for one or two people of color for that cover just to meet a diversity quota. If the editorial staff at Vanity Fair itself (yeah, and Hollywood as well) were diverse, it would have naturally carried over to their content. That's what you want. It starts in editorial, and it starts with the writers and even photographers. Diversity is something that should be organic as the result of your editorial/creative team. Of course, who hires the editorial/creative team? And who casts the movies in Young Hollywood? Does diversity need to be purposely encouraged somewhere up the ladder? Maybe.

Vanity Fair's "Young Hollywood" for 2012

The very biggest mistake Vanity Fair made with that cover, however, is that it is as boring as hell.

***

I just don't understand how persons defending a certain point of view would want to attack and make fun of the other side instead of trying to communicate with them. How is this a sane or productive tactic? I mean, do you want to seem cool to the choir and get high-fives for being snarky, or do you want to actually start changing hearts and minds? I just don't understand it. It seems so backward. There's just so few communicators that can reach both sides; there seems to be so little in it for the person who wishes to go about it this way. That's why when I see Obama attacked from both sides, I think: "He was just too damn reasonable." Reasonable doesn't "sell." Batshit insane angry sells.

And yet, I believe that the majority of persons in the United States are far more open to alternate points of view than people think. But you just can't approach them and go: "Hey, idiot: you're a fucking moron. Listen to me."

Do you want to sell a billion books and hit the top of Amazon? Write a political book called "Hey Idiot: You're A Fucking Moron." I'd be as cynical as hell about it, I'd write two versions of the exact same book, one attacking the Left & one attacking the Right:


Or I'd leave the specifics out of the book and let people think I'm supporting their cause and attacking their enemies. And I'd make a billion million dollars.

You know, that book title is way too long. Very unTwitterable. Lemmie change that:

"Hey Morans!"

There we go.

***

If Dan DiDio is pushing "Watchmen 2," then it's probably going to happen, and you should just accept it. There's just no convincing him.

***

I'm a bit of a morans, and haven't yet realized The Beat has moved over to ComicsBeat.com. Adjust your bookmarks accordingly.

***

Well, the mail is here with the used pair of jeans I bought off of eBay. Hoping for no bloodstains. I'll let you know how it goes. I really want to save money and help the environment by shopping "vintage," but honestly I'm getting a little skeeved the fuck out.

The OS Journal 2/5/10

Preparing the last book of "The End of the Vampire Craze In New York" and posting it today (hopefully). Response has been good. It's a very very weird book, so I don't really feel like emailing my friends through a Facebook fan page and saying: "hey! you should read this now!" You know, it's like if I was Lars von Trier and I created a Facebook fan page for "Antichrist" and then you got this unsolicited email in your Inbox that said: "Lars requests you be a fan of Antichrist." And because you are a Facebook friend, you felt you needed to sit through the scene where the lady smashes Willem Dafoe's nads with a rock even though it made you very uncomfortable; you know, just to show your support. Because I, as Lars van Trier, might run into you one day at Ditmas Park and quiz you on the movie just to see how attentive you are to your Facebook friends.

Sometimes I wonder why I couldn't just be the writer of like "Happy Fun Ball" or something. You know, have the facility to churn out these rollicking adventures. I've been thinking about all this a lot lately. My literary idol in college was William Burroughs. I was already writing a bit in his style before I discovered him at the library. So when I saw that this guy was writing similar to me I felt great, because I felt somebody understood. But my professors absolutely hated Burroughs. They hated Burroughs and comics. Not "real" literature.

And I tried to read "Naked Lunch" on a plane once to distract myself from a panic attack I was having, and it just about made me lose my shit. But I love the idea that a book – a simple book – can make somebody lose their shit just by its words; almost put the reader in an altered state of consciousness. Burroughs did that. Lovecraft is the master of that, and Poe is really good too. There's an author named Dennis Cooper who wrote this book called Period. The book is a total mind-fuck. I bought it and threw it away on two separate occasions. Just because it frightened me to have it in the house, as if it was some sort of grimoire. There comes a point during this short novel where the story loops in on itself, and it just fucks you up.

I'll probably buy that book again.

The OS Journal 1/28/10

I've been ill since Monday, hence the lack of postage. But because of the magic that is telecommuting, I've still been working. When you work from home, it's hard to justify taking off work completely because of illness. I mean, can you still sit upright? Then, my friend, you can type out an ad proposal. Please understand, nobody is forcing me to do this. It's just the way things are. But in the midst of all that, my blog unfortunately takes less priority. Also, I lose that blogging "mojo." You know about that mojo, right? It's like when you find story after story to blog about effortlessly, writing your spin, knocking them out – you are on a roll. Whereas this week has been like: Apple tablet, something about toast, Screech from Saved by the Bell writes book about fornication, etc. Just not making the bloggy connections there.

As for my being sick itself, I'm kind of hoping this is my body's way of massively purging toxins from my system. I'm serious, it's like a Sam Raimi movie over here.

(That would be early pre-Spider-Man Raimi, for those of you not familiar with his entire filmography. Though I've lately seen stuff come out of me that looks like that Venom shit.)

The OS Journal 1/21/10

This is a segment I've created on the blog, updated in the evening, that serves as the "journal/log" of the site. I've discretely separated it from the stories about Megan Fox & butt flora, allowing those readers who have interest specifically in my egocentric introspective ramblings to easily know what's going on with me. To wit: something for the kids at the back of the class who dig that sort of stuff.

Well, today marks the end of a big stretch of overtime I did for my day job. I'm proud that I did the overtime, but it was a lot of overtime and I probably won't be doing that again. I don't feel I had enough free time to promote my upcoming comics, and I'm feeling a little grumpy about it. On the other hand, I still have a little bit of time before the Diamond order cut-off (Feb 11), so I suppose I can make an extra push.

But also: I think I'm still an unknown quantity to some people and until a book like Punisher MAX: Butterfly is in their hands (or reviewed, or whatever), people really won't know what to expect. So I'm thinking: a big push when that and Girl Comics #1 comes out on the stand, and then focus on when the next project is solicited.

Honestly, if any of you fine people have insights on how to promote the book to retailers and whatnot, feel free to let me know.

I recently did a big interview with a big website on the upcoming projects, and I let my guard down and was pretty balls-out about everything. When the interview is posted, it's a must-read. I've been pretty reserved in the press & public lately, but it's all a bit of "oh what the hell" right now. Of course, that's all tempered with "let's not be a total ass and bring shame to everywhere you go." It's a balancing act.

Just saw the cover to my new edition of Memoirs of An Occasional Superheroine, which will be released hopefully within the next couple of weeks. The cover is done by my friend Tiffany Kamerman, and really I just barked like some sort of strange dolphin/dog hybrid when I saw it. It was so totally *me*. I couldn't believe it. It was wonderful; I can't wait for you to see it. It's like I could stop aging and the picture would age for me. It's spooky-accurate and cool.

So I'm very psyched about that, and am just planning for the future. I've been doing social media/PR for other people for almost three years, now – but you know it's hard to get that all-important objective perspective for one's self. I guess even this blog is sort of like PR, but it just doesn't have that boffo socko promotional quality I see so many talented artists and writers work so well.

Just came back from the bar; I've been trying to "sell" underwear all day at my day job, which is very cool don't get me wrong, but I needed that down-time at the local pub.

Anything else to say tonight? Well, just psyched at the possibility of watching Community & Parks & Recreation on the DVR. Sort of watched it at the bar, but that was not really real.

Tomorrow is a Day Off for me:


Got an article to finish, but in theory this should be a mellow time.

Current picture on my laptop wallpaper:


But I guarantee you this will change.