Postcards from Space

I found this and then waited WEEKS for the perfect, slightly...

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 17:47:08 -0700

I found this and then waited WEEKS for the perfect, slightly patronizing context to come up in conversation with Chris Sims so that I could use it. Last night, while he was ranting about X-Mans, it finally did, and I did, and it was perfect, and now I feel kind of empty inside.

Dark Horse Expands Originals Line With New Ryan/McNeil, Webcomics Collections

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 10:49:52 -0700

Dark Horse Expands Originals Line With New Ryan/McNeil, Webcomics Collections:

badhousescomic:

Dark Horse is significantly ramping up its Originals line of creator-owned graphic novels this fall with books by an array of award-winning creartors, including a new book by Sara Ryan and Carla Speed McNeil and collections of webcomics Bandette and Sin Titulo.

A departure from cryptic-ness! PW features the cover & an excerpt from BAD HOUSES!

Aw Hell Yes

ah. there it is. it was behind the cinnamon. y o u s e r v e d m e w e l l m o r t a l

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 22:52:04 -0700

Could you tidy up a little while you’re in there?

Is that where the title X-2 came from?

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 22:50:43 -0700

Definitely.

Dear Everyone Who Just E-mailed / Tweeted / Messaged to Confirm that Chuck Austen Did Indeed Claim on the X-2 Commentary that Nightcrawler Has Two Penises,

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 22:47:39 -0700

Thanks, I guess?

How many Amis does it take to change a lightbulb?

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 22:46:38 -0700

Only one, but she might need to stand on a chair.

Where did you hide my soul jar, mortal?

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 22:42:28 -0700

Did you check the spice rack? It’s probably in the spice rack. Or the door of the fridge.

how many homestuck can you fit in one hand

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 22:41:57 -0700

The fuck whaaaat?

which two comic characters would look best/worst with a mohawk?

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 22:41:18 -0700

BEST: Anyone drawn by Jaime Hernandez.

WORST: Calvin’s dad.

Which member of the X-Men and its affiliate teams do you think would be the best lover?

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 22:38:55 -0700

I’ve basically covered this question here, but I’ll throw Beast into the mix for good measure.

So if being a mutant is, among other things, a metaphor for queerness, do you think that Quentin Quire is the first character who really deploys his mutantness like a radical queer? I mean, he has a tee shirt that has "mutie" scrawled on it, and he used to dress like a propaganda image of an evil mutant. I realize this is blatantly one of those obnoxious "Here's a thing I think; do you agree with me?" questions, but you said you needed distraction.

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 22:29:23 -0700

Thank you for phrasing it in question form, though! I appreciate the effort.

I think it’s an apt analogy, but 1) I don’t think he’s the first, and 2) I will be disappointed if you don’t spin this into a post about the Morlocks as radical queer separatists.

My pet skunk has lost his tail fur. He eats a well-balanced whole food diet with all of the proper nutritional supplements. He looks like a black and white possum. Help!

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 22:26:29 -0700

I am not a vet, nor should the following be interpreted as veterinary advice!

That said: I’d suggest starting by looking at your skunk’s general stress level, grooming habits, habitat, and diet—whether, for instance, you’ve added anything new to it lately—and the state of its skin. A lot of things can cause fur loss, from stress to allergies to skin problems, and a lot of those things are relatively benign—but if it doesn’t reverse on its own or you notice other physical or behavioral changes, you should definitely take your skunk to a vet.

Did one of the directors of the X-Men movie state on a commentary track that Nightcrawler had two penises? And would that be/should that be true of comic Nightcrawler?

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 22:23:26 -0700

1. I have no idea. A cursory google search offers no definitive answer and attributes the information in equal parts to Bryan Singer and Chuck Austen, so, in absence of proof, I’ll guess “no.”

2. Given the whole occasional Catholic priest thing, sex is probably pretty confusing for Nightcrawler even with only the usual number of penises, so, agan, I’ll go with “no.”

How do you go from editing your friend's work to being an actual EDITOR for a living?

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 22:13:17 -0700

Depends on how you go about the friend editing.

Something that a lot of the people who ask this question have in common—not all, but many—is that when they say EDITING, they in fact specifically mean PROOFREADING or COPY EDITING.

For those, how you go from one to the other is to train yourself up to professional standards (or get training, but most copy editors I know are mostly self or job-taught): get comfortable with standard style guides in the fields you want to work in, learn standard markup, hone your judgment, and develop connections at publishers or other fields that hire editors (tech, advertising, education, &c.).

You don’t have to go through a publisher or in-house gig, but most of the freelancers I know did, and it’ll give you irreplaceable ground-level experience. That’s less vital, I think, for proofreaders and copy editors, but experience in publishing (or whatever field you hope to edit in) is incredibly valuable regardless the level of editorial work you’re shooting for.

The route to higher-level editorial work is much the same, because, in general, editors’ career paths start at the specific and broaden as they continue. The only real editing I did without heavy supervision in my first couple years at a publisher was detail work, and it wasn’t until later that I got to dip my hands into big-picture stuff.

If you want to get a wider range of answers than mine, I’d try LinkedIn: they’ve got a handful of pretty good, active groups of editors and other publishing professionals.

For the record, everyone should know that I converse with you regularly and I'm EXTREMELY bright and friendly.

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 21:47:14 -0700

I actually considered name-dropping you during the post about loneliness, since you’re the person I most often message during middle-of-the-night crises of confidence, but decided that readers might be distracted from my Very Good Advice by your glowing grandeur.

Who farted?

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 21:43:42 -0700

Batman, and he did it better than you ever will.

Sadly, it's not who you think it is, but I take it as a compliment that I seem bright and friendly enough to give you the impression that I'm someone you speak with about this at least semi-regularly.

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 21:43:04 -0700

Well, that, and it wouldn’t be the first time I’d had a correspondent turn up here when I got sufficiently delinquent with e-mail.

The Doctor Is Still In

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 21:38:00 -0700

The Doctor Is Still In:

Ah, what the hell. Let’s keep going, at least until the drugs* kick in.

*ibuprofen. What, you thought I was interesting?

Well, I wanted to cover my bases because I've written scripts specifically for things meant to be comics and then re-written them as full pieces of writing without the story board insertions and descriptive entries meant to paint directions for a comic and I wondered if perhaps both would be helpful in the creation of that comic.

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 21:29:24 -0700

Depends on the story, the rest of the team, the audience, and you. I know that’s not helpful, but it’s so project-specific and so subjective that I feel like any other answer I offer will be a shot in the dark.

(P.S. - If this is who I think it may be, I’ll e-mail you back tonight. It’s been a weird whirlwind week.)

I know your opinions on "Man of Steel," but how do you think it holds up to "Superman Returns?" Better or worse?

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 21:19:15 -0700

I don’t do number scores for a reason, lawfulgoodness, and this is pretty much it.

I think Superman Returns had a lot of the same problems as Star Trek Into Darkness: by working so hard to establish itself in context of the original, it set up a comparison that could in no way play out favorably for it.

Man of Steel misses the point of Superman in a fundamental way that Superman Returns didn’t. On the other hand, in a lot of ways, it’s a much braver, more interesting movie.

I enjoyed Superman Returns more, but that doesn’t mean it’s a better movie. It just means I enjoyed it more. I also went into Man of Steel as a critic; I watched Superman Returns for fun—and I haven’t seen it since first-run—so I can’t really offer a point-by-point comparison in any significant way. Sorry!