Filed under comics …

Nov 20 2010
Leave a comment
comics, games, school, vancouver, whining, writing, 中国

i guess it’s saturday today?

I think I left the house yesterday. Yes I did. I bought some groceries. And the day before, I’d been to school and off visiting libraries for homework purposes and then to Kerry’s for board- and party- gaming. We played Settlers and the endgame got bogged down as it sometimes does. I skipped out on Dominion because I was recuperating from Settlers, where I’d made the classic mistake of jumping to a lead too soon and not being able to close it out before getting ganged upon. Selah. I’d been pretty lucky in my early resources.

The rest of the weekend’s been homework. I’m almost done the actual Subject Headings part of the last assignment for one of my classes (leaving the essay about the experience still to go). I’m giving a selection of my comics collection subject headings to describe what they’re about. I’m not breaking down the series like DMZ or Transmetropolitan into specific volumes and giving them each their own headings. It still got kind of out of hand (I have a lot of fun making lead-in terms). So far I’ve done it all in a text document without any layout type stuff so I don’t have a clue how big it would be on paper and that’s probably for the best.

I woke up to snow, which made it a good day to stay inside and work. It’s fine when the snow is on the mountains and I can see it up there when the clouds are high enough, but I’m not a big fan of it being here in my part of town. I came to Vancouver for rain and being able to bike to school all winter without ice spikes on my tires. Three days before I bike again.

One of the things I’m looking forward to about China (beyond just being with Holly and eating baked goods and watching movies Holly needs to see and not having assignments that need doing and being a somewhat useful dishwasher for the woman I love) is getting some writing work done. I’ve been terrible about it this semester. I know that so much of it has to be just sitting down and making the time to do it. Holly’ll be working when I’m there, so I’ll be filling my time with working too. I did this when I went to visit Nanjing in 2008, all spending my mornings writing while Holly was working. I got a lot done. Hopefully I can repeat myself, at least effort-wise.

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Sep 15 2010
1 Comment
comics, school, vancouver

and it was raining

On my bike-ride home from school today I saw: an old VW campervan next to an old VW bug at a stoplight and they were both the same shade of orange, a portly middle-manager looking fellow in khakis and a blue button-down shirt skateboarding up a hill, a couple of people riding tall custom-built leisure bicycles, and a woman wearing high heeled boots for biking. They were kind of awesome and I told her so. She said “They do the trick.”

Yesterday in class I had a great interaction. We’ve been introducing ourselves a lot this past week, and in the 8am class we did it again. “State your name and something about you.” At 8am I said “I’m Justin and I think Joss Whedon’s best work was on Astonishing X-Men.” Nerd talk, but fine. Going around the room we got to Corey, who is a big guy from Houston, who served in Afghanistan (I don’t know which branch of the military) and then got an MA and now is getting this degree. He says his bit, but tacks onto the end, “And Justin, Joss Whedon is overrated.” I’m mock outraged and we all laugh and life is good.

In the afternoon class, we’re doing basically the same thing, going around the room saying our names and what our undergrad was in and whatever. This time I’m near the end. Corey has already introduced himself before it gets to me. I say “I’m Justin and I have an anthropology degree and then I was inspired to go get a journalism degree by Transmetropolitan, the graphic novel by Warren Ellis. And if Corey,” I say, theatrically gesturing to his side of the room, “has a problem with Warren Ellis, we may have to step outside.” Everybody laughs. Someone asks, mock incredulously “Are we going to see a fight?” Everyone immediately puts their money on the big black man who’s been trained to kill people, and I’m mock-outraged and life is good.

In the class break I find Corey to talk comics (we agree that Neil Gaiman is a genius and that the way Whedon brought back Colossus might not have made complete sense) and another classmate tells me/us how freaked out our prof had looked as that exchange had happened, like he was going to have to break up a fight. So that was even more fun to know after the fact.

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Aug 27 2010
2 Comments
books, comics, travel

lefty

I’m in Vancouver. After meeting Jackie and Terry on the plane (they were heading west for a wedding), the SkyTrain tried to separate me from one of my bags, but through phonecalls back to Winnipeg, all worked out. And then I cursed my two checked bags a hell of a lot as I took the bus the rest of the way to my new home. But I got here and the room is not as small as people had said it would be. Everyone did a very good job adjusting my expectations. Thanks.

I went out walking for a couple of hours, familiarizing myself with the area, as I am wont to do. I found comic shops and used book stores and the train station. I’ll head to UBC on Monday to get my bus pass. And then I had dinner with my new roommates, Brenda and Marlis. Which was fun and welcoming. They’ve been really great and it’s going to be a pretty good time here, I think. Except for the times when I realize how far away I am from the woman I love. Those times kind of suck.

Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,
Jun 04 2010
Leave a comment
comics, whining, writing

workshoppery

Today was part two of this comics making workshop I attended at the library. It was one of those things that made me wish I could draw and don’t have to rely on finding a collaborator to turn my comics ideas into something. That’s why I’ve been shifting away from my comics I suppose. Writing without pictures doesn’t require me to find a person to help me. I can hack away all by myself without bothering anyone. But these two sessions were pretty good. I think I got more out of last week’s than this week’s but whatever. It does feel good to have been in a room with people who care about the same sorts of things I do. I didn’t take full advantage of it because I didn’t want to get in the way of the younger people who the session was really for.</excuse>

Unrelated, I have a place to live in Vancouver! Thank you, Mennonite connections.

Tagged , , , ,
May 29 2010
Leave a comment
comics, library, writing

join the fight

This afternoon between downpours I went to the library for a comics making workshop run by John Toone and GMB Chomichuk (which is pronounced completely differently than I would have thought). It was a good time and I wasn’t even the oldest person there (it was billed as being a YA event), not by far. They talked about formatting issues and pitching your ideas in one sentence, about following instructions and how emails are legally admissible in court. There’ll be another session next week and we have homework to do, which I realize I need. I need some sort of deadline to get work done. So tonight I’ve outlined out the arc of the rest of my graphic novel (Animus Lost, the one that Hassie and I did the idea spitballing for however many years ago). The first near-20% is scripted, and now I know where the rest of it is going. Which is more than the homework but once you get working, good work sort of pulls you along. So yeah, good times.

Also, the other day I noticed that Texas Bound (my story published in Broken Pencil) is now online. I’m not saying you’re going to like it, but it’s there.

Tagged , , , , , , , , ,
Feb 13 2010
Leave a comment
comics, library, whining

i will have to buy a bus pass

I’m done with twenty-minute walks daily and can now look forward to 33% less income. But I’m not complaining. I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords. There are worse things that could have happened and I now have an excuse to read piles of manga. Maybe I’ll even grow to like it.

It feels like every manga I’ve read moves glacially. Wait. That’s not true. The only one I read with that problem was Old Boy. Hassie’d recommended the movie and when I saw the manga at the library I took it out and read the first volume. It was so obvious and redundant and dumb. In my memory there were like two sentences per eight pages, and all the images were of people walking down hallways trying to look cool. I’m sorry Old Boy if I have distorted you beyond recognition but I thought you were terrible and was very glad I spent no money on you.

Maybe for the manga club I’ll bring Old Boy in as an example of what I can’t stand. Maybe it’s better than I remember. I wonder if I’ll have to expand beyond manga to the comics I love or if I’ll be able to find enough manga I like for discussion purposes.

Tagged , , , , ,
Jan 25 2010
Leave a comment
books, comics, writing

book review: shivering sands

Warren Ellis writes a lot on the internet. Shivering Sands is a collection of his essays. They’re very good even though I’d read them all before. He talks about writing about cooking about music and most importantly about the future. This book was a Print on Demand experiment and it hasn’t made a lot of money. But it’s a good little book to take with you places and read and think.

Tagged , , , ,
Jan 25 2010
Leave a comment
books, comics

book review: apocalipstick (the invisibles volume 2)

There’s an interview with Grant Morrison in the fourth issue of Coilhouse. It was the first thing I read in there. And before that interview I didn’t realize that his 1990s book The Invisibles was a form of autobiography. If you’ve read The Invisibles you can see why. Anyway, I went out and bought volume 2, Apocalipstick and read it.

The idea behind the Invisibles is that they’re these anarchist mystics. One of the main characters is a Brazilian transvestite shaman, another is a psychic clown from the future and they stop power hungry people from doing power hungry shit, while trying slowly to free everyone.

This book had a voodoo story and a time-jumping tale of drugs and identity in the Brazilian. It’s good, and most importantly weird. I think weird is important.

Tagged , , , , , , ,
Jan 25 2010
Leave a comment
books, comics

book review: war powers (dmz volume 7)

War Powers evidently falls somewhere in the second act of Brian Wood’s comic DMZ. The art remains dirty and everything you’d want out of a new american civil war in New York, but I have to admit I feel like Matty Roth (the journalist protagonist) feels like he’s losing his way. This volume he spends doing political work, not being the voice in the wilderness. I don’t know. I’m not saying Mr. Wood is writing it wrong or anything, but I miss the way Matty used to be. In this volume he takes a stand that I don’t agree with, not one bit. It’s still a good story, but I feel like it’s becoming a sad one.

Tagged , , , , , , , , ,
Nov 12 2009
Leave a comment
books, comics

book review: absolute sandman volume 2

Last week I spent a goodly chunk of my paycheque on the second volume of The Absolute Sandman by Neil Gaiman (and artists). I did this for a few reasons. First, I don’t want Xmas presents this year (and am not buying them for anyone). These Absolute Sandman books are mainstays on the Xmas list, but now I could get it for myself. Second, for some reason it’s not available on Amazon.ca at a reasonable cost right now so I noticed it at McNally Robinson. Third, I wanted to read something in a big-ass tome, to feel like I was plumbing the depths of arcanity and such. That this volume of Sandman tales involves the lord of dreams coming into possession of hell makes it a good fit for that “reading a tome” experience.

Sandman comics are things I’ve known about through my entire comic-reading life (which isn’t actually that long). I may have only started reading comics when the original run was ending. I remember the spines of the trade paperbacks in the comic shop. I remember flipping through issues and not really being dragged in. One time at Campaign we were given a trade paperback by one of our book suppliers. I read it (it had the Midsummer Night’s Dream story in it) and I didn’t mind it, but I had other things to spend my money on like Transmetropolitan. So yes, I wasn’t a long-time fan or anything.

And then I started learning how influential it was, beyond the coolness of Neil Gaiman himself. How this was sort of a gothy bible, an artifact of the 1990s that I missed out on. But now I’m reading it. In Absolute form. While I would love to own books like Absolute Watchmen or the giant volumes of Sin CIty or Hellboy, I’ve read those stories, in many cases I on those stories already. But Sandman is this pristine land I’m walking through on these massive pages with their beautiful colouring et al.

Reading this doesn’t bring back memories of the first time reading these stories because this is my first time. I don’t know if this is forming the same kinds of memories for when I reread them in the future. Of being wrapped up in a blanket on my couch in my underheated condo, sipping tea and shooing away a cat. It’s not the same as if I’d been 17. Damned fine stories though.

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , ,
← Older posts
Newer posts →
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 237 other followers