|
|
Monday, July 6th, 2009
| |
9:58 am - C'mon, when was the last time I yammered on ceaselessly about comics?
|
As you may know, I don't read very many modern comics these days, preferring instead to comb the Half Price Books for long out-of-print collections of cartoons that might have been popular once but are now mostly forgotten. Part of what's interesting to me about these old cartoons is what they say about the people who were reading them at the time. I only buy ones I think are actually funny, insightful, or well-drawn, so it's not just any old thing goes. Recently I ran across a volume of the early years of Mutt & Jeff. I was mostly familiar with this in the context of "famous strip from the past that gets namechecked in all the histories," but I hadn't really read it, and figured I might as well find out what's up with this thing.
I'm about halfway through the book now (there are approximately 375 strips in there) and I've actually been finding it a bit of a chore, much moreso than I would have expected. Part of it is the repetitive nature of the humor - it's very much based in a vaudeville mindset, so you have the standard setup: slightly smarter shyster has slightly dumber lackey that he takes advantage of, and they hit each other periodically. (Mutt & Jeff got its start in 1905 or so, and the strips in this collection are culled from, I'm guessing, the first 10 years; maddeningly, the publisher didn't include dates for the strips.)
You could say more or less the same thing about Krazy Kat: that you have a vaudeville setup of one guy hits the other, repeat. The difference is in the execution. KK creator George Herriman obviously got bored with the vaudeville formula early on, and while the core of the strip was always mouse hits cat with brick, the event was surrounded by poetic writing, a rich landscape, a large dose of Mexican heritage (Herriman fell in love with Arizona and the ethnic mix of the people there), and a love triangle that caused periodic trouble for having all of the characters go by male pronouns most of the time (Krazy is most often male, sometimes female, and sometimes not specified).
Krazy Kat was never wildly popular, and mostly exists because William Randolph Hearst loved it and bullied his editors into running it (which would be like Rupert Murdoch insisting that the page 3 girl is followed by Chris Ware's latest Acme Novelty Library strip - not even remotely the right target audience). Mutt & Jeff, meanwhile, was one of the most popular comic strips of its day, and creator Bud Fisher managed to snag his own copyright, thereby making himself a millionaire on merchandising - an unheard or arrangement for the time.
The racism on display in many of the strips, while not surprising or out-of-line for the times, is nevertheless stomach-churning. It's so egregious I'm frankly annoyed with the collection's editors for utterly failing to mention it in the introduction (this volume, while undated, was clearly published within the last 10 years). There are, for example, several strips written at the time of "Great White Hope" James Jeffries' boxing comeback against black boxer Jack Johnson, and feature that fight prominently. Jeffries explicitly went into the fight "for the sole purpose of proving that a white man is better than a Negro." Well, Jeffries lost (hello, schadenfreude!), much to the deep embarrassment of his white supporters, including Bud Fisher. I do not understand how you can leave that kind of historical information out of a volume collecting these strips, especially when the only "joke" in some of them is that one of the main characters is sitting in the "colored" section of the fight audience (because, ha ha, a white guy sitting with a bunch of nigras, ha ha, what could be funnier).
The main thing this collection has going for it, at least from my perspective, is the rich catalogue of early 20th century New York slang (Fisher was based in NYC). Some of the passages are almost impenetrable and take a few moments to figure out. If I wind up keeping this book it will as a dictionary. Some favorites: gink = guy, sky-piece = hat, behave foundry = jail, the real noise = where it's at, this is poor = this is awesome. But the strip itself? Mostly the bunk.
|
|
(6 comments | comment on this)
|
| Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009
| |
6:05 pm - A blood vessel in the brain had burst from straining
|
So I'm cleaning out the ol' apartment, as I am preparing to move once again. I ran across this ad from the late 19th/early 20th century, which I initially found framed at Goodwill (I was buying the frame itself, FYI, though I obviously found the contents to be worth keeping). It is a beautiful testament to the truly surreal world of advertising. Behold:
( Costiveness had become chronic )
I suppose modern advertisers find their own ways of saying BUY OUR PRODUCTS OR YOU WILL DIE. But how many of them actually show Death putting his hands on you? So fucking awesome. Also, note the crappy (no pun intended) paste-up job on the logo. Perhaps the production assistant had taken one two many Cascarets and was in a hurry to finish up.
|
|
(8 comments | comment on this)
|
| Thursday, June 18th, 2009
| |
12:40 pm - Anthropological Discovery!
|
I believe I have found proof that there are wild teenage boys in the woods:
Note to hikers: solitary teenage boys are easily frightened and do not pose much of a threat. You can usually scare them off with a call of "hey-why-aren't-you-in-school" or, if it's summer, "it's-time-to-do-your-chores."
Packs of teenage boys, however, can be dangerous, and it is best to avoid them if at all possible. If they do get close, you may be able to disperse them with an authoritative Mom Voice.
|
|
(6 comments | comment on this)
|
| Thursday, June 11th, 2009
| |
3:18 pm - So, seat belts, then
|
Earlier this week my grandparents were in a car accident wherein their SUV (a RAV4) was rolled by a collision with a car pulling out of a parking lot. So maybe the other car was going 20MPH, tops. It hit their rear wheel and flipped their car upside down. I don't really want to think about what would have happened if they hadn't been wearing seat belts (they're both pushing 90 years old), but as it is nothing was broken and they were released to home care after an overnight in the hospital.
It sounds like grandma had a concussion ("They said my brain got bumped," she said). I talked to her today and her cognition is fine, but her speech is a bit slurred. I thought it sounded like she was on heavy painkillers, but apparently she's only taking Advil. She was on the impact side of the car, so she got the worst of it. Grandpa is pretty much doing fine.
They're having to wear neck braces at the moment while the nurses monitor the delayed effects of the accident. I said to her, "So, they put a cone on you?" Because my grandma is that kind of person, this cracked her up and had her saying, "Oh, it hurts to laugh, but it was worth it!" And now you know where my sense of humor comes from.
She also had enough presence, despite the concussion, to take photos of the overturned RAV4. "We'll have to bury her with a camera," says mom. "I'll send you pictures from Hell," says grandma.
Needless to say, their car was totaled, and neither of them is excited about the idea of getting behind the wheel again. I don't know if there's a ride service to run elderly people on errands, but if so and if it exists in South Dallas, please do let me know about it. They're interested in looking into such a thing.
|
|
(12 comments | comment on this)
|
| Wednesday, May 27th, 2009
| |
6:32 pm - New Feep site is go!
|
Doot doot doo. At long last, may I present you with the newly-redesigned Feeping Creatures website. My eyeballs are about to fall out of my head from staring at the screen for so long, so I'm only going to do a spot-check for uploading errors. If you find any bugs please do let me know about them so I can fix them.
There's a ton of new content, so please take some time to look around. Some sections (especially stuff in the Extras area) I hope to add to sooner rather than later, but I'm opting to focus on getting this thing live instead of perfect. I know! Unconscionable, but there it is. I hope you enjoy.
current mood: brainfried
|
|
(6 comments | comment on this)
|
| Tuesday, May 19th, 2009
| |
9:31 am - Attention amateur copyright lawyers
|
|
What do people know about copyleft? I've read the Wikipedia entry, but I'm still not quite clear on what I'm relinquishing if I let a copyleft publication reprint one of my cartoons.
|
|
(3 comments | comment on this)
|
| Friday, May 15th, 2009
| |
1:46 pm - That wacky time-space continuum!
|
So I saw that "Star Track" movie all the young people have been going on about. I shall refrain from spoilery commentary (though I will say it was a fun romp, and I'm not really big into the Trek). Rather, what prompts me to post is this: previous Trek incarnations with which I have any familiarity (so, a few episodes of the original series, the first four films, and the first couple of seasons of TNG, plus maybe two of the TNG movies) have all been about people much older than myself, featuring actors much older than myself. This new movie was the first one where the majority of the characters were supposed to be in their mid-20s or so, and it did leave me feeling a little ... odd?
But then I asked the IMDB about it, and apparently almost all of the main actors are within 5 years of me. Which is rather funny, really, and not at all atypical of Hollywood. But Wynona Ryder looked really freaking old, despite being, IRL, roughly the same age as everyone else. I have since decided that it was makeup and not an indication that she is actually looking way older than she should. But then! In reading her bio (because I was trying to figure out if maybe she'd done lots of drugs and was pulling a Keith Richards, and apparently the answer is "no"), I find out she briefly dated a musician named Rhett Miller, the frontman for Old 97s.
I have heard of the Old 97s, but am not really familiar with them. It was the name "Rhett Miller" that rung a vague bell. "Hmm," though I. "Didn't I see some guitar guy in a coffee shop in Dallas back in, like, 1990? Was his name Rhett Miller? It sounds about right ... "
Further interaction with The Google revealed that Mr. Miller was born in Austin and went to high school in Dallas, and released his first solo album in 1989. So, yes, apparently it is the very same Rhett Miller. I only saw him the once, owing to being a carless teenager at the time, and the only song I can remember is "Jack the Necropheliac," but evidently he did pretty well for himself. Kind of cool to think about, really, especially in the context of how I came to find out about him (again).
On to things I'm actually supposed to be working on, tomorrow I will be at Zine Fest Houston, which I think should be pretty self-explanatory. I will be selling comics and feeps, as per usual, so if you're in H-town you should drop by and check it out. Free admission etc!
|
|
(2 comments | comment on this)
|
| Friday, May 8th, 2009
| |
9:26 am - Book update
|
Long conversation with my editor yesterday on how to shape the enormous, far too long, and far too wide-ranging pile of material I handed her in the form of a first draft. I had done my own read-through in the days leading up to our talk, and could tell parts of it weren't working (the first two chapters in particular, which means people would flip through the early pages of the book, fall asleep instantly, and have to be kicked out of the bookstore at closing time without being given the opportunity to purchase said volume).
She suggested not trying to think of it as a whole work just yet, but to take the very best bits and develop those, and then we'd structure the book around the strongest points. "I'm your editor, I'm supposed to help you figure this out." It's true! I'm used to working 100% by myself, but I'm also used to working on very short pieces, not on whole entire books. So breaking it up into distinct chunks is more in line with how I structure things anyway.
I almost started working feverishly right then, but I was awfully wound up and felt like it would be better to sleep on it, let the suggestions percolate, and adjust my idea of how the whole thing is going to look.
The good news is, she seemed very confident about the material I'd gathered and was quite certain there was a good book in there, it just needs to be properly carved. First we, uh, select the porterhouse cut? I guess? And then garnish with ... appropriate vegetables? Or something? Sorry, vegetarian fails at extending meat analogy!
In other news, my old pal ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) eyeteeth has started up a website of her stix comix, and you should read them because they're funny. Especially if you find dysthymia and lobotomies to be funny! And who doesn't?
Small Peculiar
current mood: buzzzzz
|
|
(8 comments | comment on this)
|
| Monday, May 4th, 2009
| |
9:24 am - Intarvyoo
|
|
| Sunday, April 19th, 2009
| |
3:18 pm - I have a confession to make
|
I'm one of those people who has a really, really hard time getting rid of books. I will admit that part of it is a desire to show off how smrt I am because look I have lots of books and so I must be smrt! But, and here's the thing. Books are heavy. And bulky. And as someone who moves a lot, because it's just something I do, carting around hundreds of pounds of books I don't really intend to reread is kind of ... not smrt!
Once upon a time it would have made more sense, as I did indeed used to reread certain books with some regularity. But these days I rarely manage to reread something, preferring to spend my time on reading something new instead. I do reread many of my comics with decent frequency, but that's as much about a study of the form as it is recreational reading (how did Herriman do those layouts? Oh, right, like that).
So I've acknowledged this to myself and have resolved not to move a sizable chunk of my book collection again. But I am having this vaguely sad feeling about seeing empty bookshelves. So now I'm kind of wondering about the aesthetic of books and bookshelves. I'd never be one of those people who bought books to match the drapes - I've read everything on my shelves - but how much value is there in carting around books I'm not going to reread merely for the sake of being able to look at full bookshelves? And is it important enough to pack 'em up and haul 'em around indefinitely? I don't actually know the answer to this and must ponder.
Of course, worst case scenario is I get rid of a bunch of books I'm not going to reread, feel sad about my empty shelves, and then gradually fill them up with new books I'm not going to reread.
|
|
(12 comments | comment on this)
|
| Friday, April 10th, 2009
| |
9:51 am - My cat had some choice words for me
|
You know you're back from Seattle when your grocery store-brand coffee, which tasted fine before you left, now tastes like crap.
Also jetlag, which is why words hard sentence what? Verbs! Verbs. VerbzzzzzzzzSNNnnnzzzz ...
|
|
(1 comment | comment on this)
|
| Sunday, March 29th, 2009
| |
10:46 am - I guess the drummer is in jail?
|
I borrowed a friend's copy of Guitar Hero, as I had never actually played it and figured it might be good practice for Rock Band gatherings. It's a little odd to go from RB to GH, especially the first GH game. I mean, I know it's an evolutionary process from the latter to the former, but it seriously feels like I've picked up the cheap, illegal knockoff version of RB. All it needs is a healthy dose of Engrish and it's there.
Part of it is just that they didn't quite have the game mechanics or controller design down yet. There's having to pick pre-fab characters instead of making your own. But really? I think the biggest difference for me is psychological: GH feels like a mere practice session because the rest of the band is missing. I would really like the play these songs (original versions, of course) on Rock Band with the full complement. I guess a couple of them have slowly trickled into RB, and I can see how it wouldn't be a priority to Rock Bandify songs that had previously been Guitar Heroed, but still. Surely all the hard work is done and they could just offer them up for download.
Although, really, a reskinned GH with Engrish would be pretty funny.
|
|
(3 comments | comment on this)
|
| Tuesday, March 24th, 2009
| |
12:24 pm - Bikeless
|
Dear assholes who stole my bike,
It's possible that in the dark it looked like a reasonably nice bike. I hope you have noticed by now the rusted, squeaky chain, the cracked tires that need replacing, the bent pedal, the missing medallion, the peeling-off decals, and the rust damage to the body. Just so you know, I got it brand new at Target for $100 a few years ago. It was their second-cheapest bike. (I didn't get the cheapest bike because that one had shitty brakes). Given its current state you'll be lucky to get $20 for it. I hope your buyer haggles you down to $15.
Sincerely,
Dylan
p.s. - Fuck you.
current mood:  grumpy
|
|
(19 comments | comment on this)
|
| Monday, March 16th, 2009
| |
5:22 pm - When math attacks!
|
I had been in a reasonably good mood. Thankfully, I was able to squelch this positive, wholesome attitude by doing my taxes.
But, for those of you who care, I did an interview with OutSmart Magazine this morning, so I will let you know if and when it runs.
current mood: impoverished
current music: The Magic Flute as done by Boston Brass Ensemble
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| Saturday, March 14th, 2009
| |
11:06 am - WATCHMANS
|
I have now ... seen ... Watchmen. [I thank you in advance for your accolades in re: my avoidance of the obvious joke.]
It's been about, uh, 12 years or so? since I last read the book, so the most I had going into it was a vague glimmer of some of the characters and plot. I have to confess, I'm just not a big Alan Moore fan. I've read quite a lot of his work and I can appreciate why people like it, I guess it's just not quite my thing. I vaguely recollect liking Watchmen more than most of his other stuff, though, so I was keen to see what they'd do to it on teh big screen.
( and so, blah de blah de blah and at THE END WHAT HAPPENS IS )
|
|
(10 comments | comment on this)
|
| Sunday, March 1st, 2009
| |
10:02 pm - An adventurer is me
|
So I was supposed to fly back to Austin today. From the east coast. If you have been paying attention to the weather at all, you are probably rolling on the floor with laughter at this point.
Oh, but it gets funnier. I was visiting with a friend in DC before my flight, but didn't realize how long it was going to take to get to the airport. A mad dash ensued. I puffed up to the check-in about 45 minutes before the flight was scheduled to leave, figuring I had cut it close but all would be well.
"Where are you headed?" The desk attendant asked.
"Austin, ultimately," saith I.
"Not tonight you're not."
"Er?"
[insert grumpy noises from him, helpless squeaking noises from me]
"The best I can do is get you to Chicago tonight, put you up in a hotel, and get you on the first flight to Austin in the morning."
I've always meant to take advantage of one of those situations (besides which, schlepping back to DC was not going to make things any less chaotic), so I said sure, why not.
I do wish I'd had a bit of advance warning, or been less exhausted, or didn't have to leave at ass o'clock in the morning (assuming the flight actually takes off as scheduled) since there are quite a few Chicago peeps I would like to see and I need to pay the city a proper visit someday anyway. But, alas, I am tired and it's late and bleh. So. Some other time.
current mood: going with the flow
|
|
(8 comments | comment on this)
|
| Saturday, February 28th, 2009
| |
2:14 pm - A clue you might not be in Texas anymore
|
When the energy conservation tips for the apartment complex ask you to set the thermostat to 72 degrees during the summer.
current music: Ainjel Emme - Easier
|
|
(2 comments | comment on this)
|
| Tuesday, February 24th, 2009
| |
9:13 am - BBB Bread
|
This may come as a shock to some of you, but I have Frankensteined together a recipe for a breakfast bread. Historically I have not had much interest in cooking, but of late have found it necessary to cut refined sugar (including corn syrup), rice, and bleached flour out of my diet. You may have noticed that refined sugar, rice, and bleached flour are in everything ever made anywhere, and I was getting bored eating the same two things over and over. So I have started learning to cook some things.
After a certain number of experiments yielding varying degrees of success, I have finally come up with an edible no-refined-sugar breakfast bread recipe that is worth sharing with other people. And since there are a lot of food geeks on my flist, I figured I should post the results to el jay. So! May I present ...
( BBB Bread: Banana, Blueberry, Butternut Squash Bread )
|
|
(6 comments | comment on this)
|
| Thursday, February 19th, 2009
| |
9:48 am - How to have a heart attack in one easy step
|
A couple of weeks ago I sent my editor the first draft of the script for the book. It's rough and needs a lot of work, and I explained up front that I knew this and here are the things I know I'll have to add/change/etc. But I needed some time away from it so I could come back to it with fresh eyes, so now was a good a time as any to hand it off to her.
Yesterday I got home from grocery shopping and saw that I had an email from my editor in my inbox. And, because Gmail gives you that little preview of the first line of the email, this is what I saw:
Dylan--Sorry to say, but
Needless to say, I was rather frantic to read the message. Sorry to say but what SORRY TO SAY BUT WHAT
Dylan--Sorry to say, but I'm still catching up on this lovely update of
yours ...
Oh. Okay. Well, then. Yes. Quite. Ahem. I ... I totally knew that was what you were going to say. I'll just resume breathing, now, shall I?
|
|
(2 comments | comment on this)
|
| Sunday, February 15th, 2009
| |
10:49 pm - Archiving
|
|
|
|
|
|
