I've been remiss in blogging as of late, chalk it up to being overwhelmed, away on a short vacation, getting sunburned on a short vacation, a few family occasions, twitter being the lazy person's blog, and having a lot of work to deal with. Some of which has not come together as smoothly as I would have liked. No, not the Yo Gabba Gabba! scripts, they went fine. Rather quickly, actually, because Sarah is a whiz. The DC thing went well, short and so far sweet. Finished up a Mad spot illo, not too many hitches there. The Beasts #4 script..uh, well, that hasn't worked out so nicely. Because I am a dizz. But it should be done in the next few days, and I think it's shaping up well. Fingers crossed.

Anyway, the reason I've called you all here is because Beasts of Burden #1 has been solicited by Dark Horse, and is scheduled for release on September 16th. The project made the cover of the latest Previews, as I'd mentioned a while back, which is available at comic shops, as well as online, and we're on page 22 of the catalog, in the Dark Horse section, in black and white and painted color, for everyone who cares to, uh..see.



For those of you who pre-order your comics, or who shop at a local comic shop that is reluctant to order anything not from the the big two publishers, Beast of Burden #1's item code is JUL09 0015.

Here's the Diamond Previews page featuring the book. Here's a look at the Previews cover featuring a Mike Mignola quote that I think we paid him fifteen bucks for or something...and which now I can't find a link to for some reason. Whatever. It's out there, somewhere.

Here's the link to the listing on the DHC page, where you can pre-orde the book through Things From Another World.

And hey, I stumbled across our most excellent editor Scott Allie calling for folks to chime in for the first issue letter column. I think it involves a preview of the first issue or something. Or you can write in based on the four short stories if you've read them. I dunno. Here's the link to find out what the deal is: the link to find out what the deal is.



I do know what the deal on the comic is: It's $2.99 for 23 pages of story and art (the first issue is 23 pages, the others are 22), wonderfully painted by the talented and popular Jill Thompson (Scary Godmother, Magic Trixie, Sandman et al).  Dogs and cats versus the supernatural. Come on, that sounds okay, doesn't it? It's at least half as good as a kid bitten by a spider who gets superpowers and can't make money even though he invents all this great stuff and sews a costume all in one night. Don't you think? Well, okay, maybe not, but it's still okay in my book. And it's only three bucks! Three lousy bucks. Cripes, you people, really, don't tell me about the economy, I don't want to hear that jive talk. Just take it out of your mom's bag, or your dad's wallet. Bring some beer bottles in for redemption. Roll the town drunk. Busk. Do something. Hell, my daughter has three bucks, and she's only four. Don't give me any excuses this September. Please. I beg of you.

Anyway, the interesting thing is we'll be doing some interviews, supposedly, with some of those comic book websites that pretty much have ignored Jill and I since they began. And we might do some signings around the time the first issue hits, although that's all still in the planning stages. I don't do that many interviews with the daily-updated sites with banner ads, nor do I do many signings, so I find this interesting, even if you guys don't. So there.

Convention-wise, I'll be doing the Baltimore Con in October (along with the rest of the HOF) in support of the series, and Jill will be at the big carnival in a few weeks, that of course being the San Diego Comic Con. Dark Horse will be setting up as usual, so please stop by the booth and see if they have any promotional material or previews of the series. If not, ask them why not, then throw something at someone and run. One of those annoying Stormtroopers will possibly jack you up, but it might be worth it for the funny story you can tell the other guys in stir that evening.

Oh, I forgot,  DHC will also be at the Baltimore show, unless they get pelted so badly with objects at SDCC they're injured out. Maybe you shouldn't throw anything at anyone. Except Klingons. God. Klingons.


Oh, here's another thing I wanted to mention: Those of you who read the first four short stories featuring these characters in the Dark Horse Books of Hauntings, Witchcraft, The Dead and Monsters already know what to expect. Hopefully you liked them and will give the regular series a shot. Those of you who haven't read the earlier material, have no fear, you don't need to in order to understand and enjoy the mini-series. Or even hate the mini-series, for that matter. And if all goes according to plan, you may have a shot at reading some of the short stories in a convenient, non-piratical way fairly soon. Fingers crossed. I believe nothing until it happens, and then, as with the Star Wars Holiday Special, I often still don't believe it.

I don't know what constitutes solid sales for DHC, or for the Direct Market, these days, but I hope we hit the mark so we can do some more stories after the first mini-series wraps up. We have plans, oy, such  plans. But we'll see what happens. For now, we've got four nifty self-contained issues coming out, starting this September, and worth it for the beautiful art alone, in my humble opinion. 

So, everyone got it now? Beasts of Burden #1. Four issues. Me and Jill Thompson. Dark Horse Comics. September 16th.

If you can find it, I think you'll enjoy it.  
 
Honest.

By the way, if I don't offer drjon a raise in the next few weeks, it's only because he'll have broken my brain. Again. He shared a very interesting tale of how multiple groups of microhylid frogs and large spiders have mutualistic relationships, and that suddenly makes me want to research something I'd spotted in the garden recently. Considering that the paper wasps out by the greenhouse are turning the area into my very own little LV-426, I may be gone for some time.

Out from Wednesday (North America) and Thursday (UK and elsewhere) this week, and here’s the first five pages located at Issuu.

(Automatically crossposted from warrenellis.com. Feel free to comment here or at my internet church at Whitechapel. If anything in this post looks weird, it's because LJ is run on steampipes and rubber bands -- please click through to the main site.)

And perspective is the most key ingredient for profiting from reading the news. I’ve come to believe that. Some people can see “White baby dies in Alabama” and think it worse than “Ten thousand brown folk killed in Tsunami.”

I don’t. I mean, I sympathize for both. I empathize for both. One is obviously a bigger problem, quantitatively speaking. I can acknowledge that the one white child is somehow more important to your mentality, and I won’t stop you from grieving, but I do encourage anyone who wishes to gain perspective to comparison/contrast. And not in that boring way that your English teacher made you, but in ways that actually benefit your life.

For instance, I again bring the example of Michael Jackson’s death.

People have said to me that there is a damned good reason for all of this coverage. Why? Because his actions, even if they went astray, affected millions and millions of people. He was an icon of his time, and his work will be remembered through history. ANYONE, and I mean ANYONE who meets that qualification would HAVE to get a stadium burial. It just stands to reason.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the death of Robert McNamara. In the news today.

I know probably 80% of you are shaking your heads and saying, “Who?” The other nineteen percent of you are probably solemnly nodding and yet still thinking about Michael Jackson. That other one percent is probably like me, you poor shit.

Anyway, read the simple bio in the obit and you’ll see that his actions, even if they went astray, affected millions and millions of people. He was an icon of his time, and his work will be remembered through history, whether you love him or hate him. Having read his book, I’m still not sure if he caused the Vietnam war or was just a tragically flawed soldier who did everything he was told. Or maybe, as he asserted, he never wanted the war and advised against it. At any rate, that doesn’t, and will never in my opinion, excuse this. There are arguments for and against it. There are many passionate people who have threatened me for daring to question his contributions in this matter.

My internal war and debate over Robert McNamara since I first read of him is something that’s really haunted me my entire life, because he did what he was told and achieved a very high station in America, and yet he may (or may not) be one of the most sinister figures who ever lived. That’s very intriguing.

He means a fuckton more to me than Michael Jackson even if I half loathe the man, because he’s had a greater unseen impact on all of our lives than most of you probably know. Do you know how different the world would be without a Vietnam war? Or with an escalated one?

I dunno. I read a LOT of news, and I’m just sick of looking at Michael’s fucking face and barely seeing the McNamara article as a footnote.

A fucking footnote.

Here is one of his footnotes:

I’m sorry. Not interesting enough?

Here:

Automatically cross-posted from NealBailey.net

Since I'm not going to post the color Tom Bombadil piece until after the 20th or so, I thought you might like to have a look at some unpublished STARCHILD stuff.

This is the splash illustration from a short story called "TwoPenny Serenade".

And on the subject of pure beauty, the Czarina spotted a beautiful century plant agave blooming the next street over from us, and took photos over the past two months. No, really: take a look. Not only do you get a look at a stunning display that neither of us will probably ever see again, but you get to see me five kilos lighter than how I ended last spring.

Crazy, vivd dream this morning. I dreamt of reading a comic book from cover to cover, panel by panel. It was a DC-style comic that was kind of a cross between Justice League and Blackhawk, with this huge cast of low-powered superheroes (each with their own distinctive costume) who flew fighter planes and fought the Nazis during World War II. The whole thing was incredibly detailed; I could even tell that the story was set in 1943 by the type of planes that the heroes and heroines were flying. (I also remember thinking to myself that the artist had no idea what a DeHaviland Mosquito actually looked like.)

I'm also pretty sure that the comic was written by mercuryeric. The action and dialogue were in his style.

No idea what this means, except possibly that I'm working too much.

FLIST. So I had a big post planned about Palin's resignation and Robert McNamara's death, but that'll have to wait.


I so rarely get to use my King Ghidorah icon. Below you will see why I'm using it today.

But first! I got sucked into watching the new season of America's Got Talent last week.

Yes, last week's episode had the yodeling dominatrix who topped out at seven feet in height, those Polish triplets on violins, and a power pop trio of teeny tiny girls jamming on bass, guitar, and drums.

But then the Comic Bots appeared. As far as I'm concerned, the contest is OVER, people. As soon as these guys walked on stage, they should have stopped all proceedings and declared them the IMMEDIATE WINNERS OF ALL WINNERS.

Nick Cannon is hosting this season of AGT (wow, I haven't seen Nick Cannon since Drumline!), and he noted that they were "Transformers from the hood."

These guys built everything you see here in these clips, and lo, they are AWESOME INCARNATE, the divine principle of awesome contained in physical form. Unfortunately NBC complained about the clips of their performance on AGT being uploaded to YouTube, so I had to trawl the perilous depths of MySpace to find them:




The ComicBots Greatest Robot Show on the Planet



The quality in this vid is a little rough until they get to the part where they tear it up to Daft Punk:


The Comicbots Real Robot Dance Machines




Add them to the list of Robot Overlords that I will happily welcome.


Since I've just posted clips of blinged out robots breakdancing, it's a timely segue into posting the results of Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny: Backyard Edition poll - and I'm only thirteen days late in posting the results, but the delay is due to the fact that Ultraman and Galvatron were in a DEAD HEAT there for four days straight.


Without furrrdddder ado, the results:

- TEH WINNAH: Galvatron (axe crazeh version, natch) galvanized you, the voting public, and won. yarol_2075 cogently noted that Galvatron would show up to any fight with the rest of the Decepticons ready to maraud their way to victory regardless of any paltry and insignificant "rules," and that's the kind of logic that I can't argue with.

- Any Version of Ultraman Ever came in second place. Man, it was close, but I'm glad to see that so many people exhibited sense and voted for the Ultra Power. (I suspect, however, that mercuryeric voted for Any Version of Ultraman Ever out of loyalty to me.)

You doubt the Ultra Warriors? You doubt Ultraman? Fools!

Here's a clip from the Ultraman Mebius series. (That's actually supposed to be "Ultraman Moebius" in English, but everyone seems to call him "Mebius.") Ultraman Mebius gets punked by the Reflectian, then comes back at 6:44 to layeth a smackdown by turning his body into an Ultra drill and then disemboweling him:

Ultra Awesome:





(Guest appearance goodness by Ultraman Leo!)

See? "HOW DARE YOU SCAR MY BODY?!" The ability to target your enemy's psychological weaknesses and exploit them all the way from Tokyo to Kilimanjaro? That's why Ultraman is spelled A-W-E-S-O-M-E. Bonus points for all the bishie hair on the boys - in truth, Mirai is just bishie, period - and "Can you save Earth with those tears?!" and "I've come to collect the life that I left you." Oh, man, could Ultraman get any more delicious? Morals of the story: 1) Ultraman makes for fine dorama-style viewing and 2) you fuck with Ultraman, you better be prepared to reap the whirlwind. Literally. (This same "drilling rainbow death from above" was notably exploited by Mothra in one of her epic fights with King Ghidorah.)

- A competently piloted RX-78NT-1 came in third place, with Red Ronin and Jet Jaguar tying for fourth. Poor Stingray got no votes at all (but if he had, I would have lost respect for all of you).



...Since I mentioned Mothra above, and you may doubt that the mighty lepidopteran protectress of the Earth, the original Wonder Woman, the Queen of the Kaiju turned herself into a mighty Drilling Death from Above, screw it.

It is now Mothra Monday.

As the Joker is to Batman, as Sabretooth is to Wolverine, as Clive James is to Dazzler, as Lex Luthor is to Superman, as the Red Skull is to Captain America, as Doc Ock is to Spider-Man, so King Ghidorah is to Mothra. She's ultimately beaten everyone she's gone up against, but out of all the evil assholes she's had to stomp down, King Ghidorah is the one who was/is truly formidable - they've traveled back and forth in time fighting each other, fought in space, underwater, on the ground, in the air, and in Mothra's case, she once defeated him in the spiritual plane.

This is from the last Mothra trilogy -- if you haven't seen The Rebirth of Mothra trilogy, rent it, stat! An insanely powered up Grand King Ghidorah (as opposed to his regular King Ghidorah form - as if "King Ghidorah" weren't an awesome enough title already) shows up in the present and starts to trash Tokyo.

Mothra flies in like the rainbow avatar of peace and justice and KAIJU ASSKICKERY COMMENCES.

This clip is excellent on so many levels - the choreography, the grace of Mothra, the absolute unstoppable force and alien quality of Grand King Ghidorah. You really get the sense of how terrifying one of these kaiju fights looks from the ground, from the perspective of a tiny human. I also never thought I'd type the following: believe it or not, the Rob Zombie track accompanying this is PERFECT.

(Lots of use of Mothra's rainbow beam here, canadabear!)

This clip demonstrates why Cloverfield will always be lacking for me. Why? Because Cloverfield would have been a thousand times more awesome if there were two giant monsters leveling Manhattan in a grudge match rather than just one monster ruining some guy's going away party.


Mothra vs. Grand King Ghidorah, Round 1 - if you watch anything today, let this be it:





(Look at Grand King Ghidorah - he's trying to get away from her. And no, I do not know why there are random velociraptors at the beginning of this clip, and also, when I first watched this film? I thought the "Mini Mini" sign said "Miu Miu" and had a few seconds there of thinking that Miuccia Prada had a very interesting product placement strategy.)


You may think she's down and out at the end of this clip, right? He's got her grounded and is stomping the shit out of her, right?

Oh, hell no. What does Mothra do?

She dies, reincarnates herself as Mothra Leo, flies back in time to the Cretaceous, finds young!King Ghidorah, delivers a beatdown, picks him up...and TOSSES HIS ASS INTO A VOLCANO:





Wait, did I mention the part in the Mothra trilogy where she morphs into her armor form and flies right through him?







I believe that the above is Mothra's version of YOU LOSE. GOOD DAY, SIR.

If there is truly a beneficient Pancreator running the universe, I would like to know why they haven't gotten off whatever passes for their transcendent ass and caused someone in Japan to spend seventy million dollars on an all new all-CGI epic Mothra film. Until that happens, I'm still formally an agnostic.

(For those not playing along at home, you may not know that 1) Japanese monsters in a cultural context are oft considered the physical embodiment of emotional and/or spiritual concepts, 2) Mothra is the Guardian of Earth both spiritually and physically, and 3) King Ghidorah is a giant golden dragonlike alien from Planet X. With three heads. If you don't know any of that, you may be reading the wrong journal. You may also want to do some reading of the excellent scholarly material that has been published about the significance of the kaiju genre.)


I've posted video clips of Sharky the Pit Bull and his brood of baby chicks/bunnies/kittens before - in fact, I subscribe to his owner's YouTube channel because it's pittie/baby chick/bunny/kitty cuteness nonstop.

But this? Nothing conveys happiness more than a pittie's smile while getting back skritches:

But this? Nothing conveys happiness more than a pittie's smile while getting back skritches:





Since we haven't had any Shulkie here in...over two weeks, here's the only reason that I'm paying attention to Fred Van Lente's new Savage She-Hulk mini:

Jennifer Walters, Esq. one-punches Bob Reynolds:








ASPHALT FACIAL, BITCHES.



No Monday would be complete without at spirited attempt to scar your soul, right?

Blame descant: There actually exists a thriving fan base for art that shows dragons having sex with cars. Um, wow - image #4 gives a whole new meaning to the term "high flow exhaust." That's definitely an aftermarket add-on.

Oh, also of note: Costa Rica is the happiest and greenest country on Earth. Maybe I should think about relocating - my Countries That I Want to Emigrate To Should Serious Shit Go Down list includes Norway (see Michael Moore), the Netherlands (see the Netherlands), and Costa Rica (small carbon footprint, vigorously green politics, happy). Who's with me?

So here I am, at work, doing that "I'm not really working yet because I'm reading all sorts of stuff and installing a game, but I will totally be in over my head tomorrow" thing. That's okay, though, because they're Paying Me. :)

Got here, got through, paid way too much for parking (have to get cash for tomorrow), drank way too much soda so far (that HAS to stop), and managed to find a zen zone in which I did not freak out at starting something new, just glossed my way through. It's okay. Tomorrow should be easier assuming that I get my shit together for the bus (it should be easy, really, given that the boys are with David during my workweek this time) and bring my water bottle.

I had lunch with Julia, Brannon, and Janna. It was really nice to sit and be social and get acquainted again. I've missed that. Good stuff.

He died today, in case you hadn't heard. Everything I learned about Robert McNamara I learned from the most excellent documentary The Fog of War, which I highly recommend.

McNamara was more than the chief architect of the Vietnam War. He was also a very intelligent influential person, much more so than I'd thought prior to watching The Fog of War. His method for developing analysis of policy, particularly military policy, is fascinating.

Take a moment to download The Fog of War. It's all around probably the best documentary I've seen, with excellent, candid, revealing, and insightful discussion by McNamara who doesn't hesitate to say where he was wrong, when, and why.

Jeff VanderMeer over at Omnivoracious: apparently he likes them. Now if they'd just sell.

I now have a brand new batch of Texas Triffid Ranch buttons, and I'm not afraid to share them. All comments below are screened and all information received will only be used for mailing buttons, so give me a mailing address and you should have your own button within a week if you live in the US. Yes, I'm also willing to mail outside the US; if you already have one, but you'd like to send one to someone else, the same rules apply. This offer is valid until close of business on July 10, so ask and ye shall receive.

I'm slipping. I've known for years that both Sarracenia and Heliamphora pitcher plants worked as impromptu toilets for various species of frogs, but that was because the frogs were feeding upon prey attracted to the pitcher. However, I completely missed the story of Nepenthes lowii, which is regularly described as having upper pitchers that resemble a commode. As far as Borneo tree shrews are concerned, the resemblance doesn't stop there. And yes, the article includes both photos and video, you pervs.

Back in the office after a brief visit with family, now. I did do some catching-up yesterday (and was alarmed to see 24 top-priority messages in my inbox, though all were about an issue already resolved so no panic required) so today's fairly routine.

Apparently Dad got me a set-top digital-to-analog signal converter on my folks' last trip to the States, and gifted it to me as an early Birthday present. It looks nifty, but there seems to be an issue with my indoor antenna now that it's hooked to the DTV box and can only pick up one station at the moment. (And my analog reception's gone south, too, even when I take the box off.) I may have to get a replacement for the old antenna; it's over a decade old now, come to think of it, and the adjustment dials don't mesh too well anymore. Still, DTV is very pretty, near-DVD quality is nice to see from an over-the-air signal.

Tomorrow is Bungie Day, 7/7. This year won't be as elaborate but there are still fun things to do to mark the occasion. Alas, I seem to have mangled my left thumb's ball joint again while schlepping luggage so teh Haloz are contra-indicated until the inflammation goes down. Yay.

More later, but break's over.

-- Steve's delving into the telephone mines again.

Having regularly encountered one species of the Nicrophorus burying beetle in upstate New York when I was much younger, I was surprised to find out that the once-common Nicrophorus americanus is now endangered across its entire range. Naturally, I'm thrilled to discover efforts intended to bring it back. As the researchers already know, there's just something about these beetles that encourages a sympathetic response, and I couldn't tell you in a million years what it is.

Can be found here.

Excerpt:

It was a fitting end to a grotesque political career that will stumble on for a while like a mortally wounded moose. Her stated reasons for stepping down included everything from "frivolous" ethics charges to Something Awful making fun of her Down syndrome son.

The purpose of this article is to apologize to Sarah Palin for that last part, but first I feel that a bit of history is in order.

Thanks to redmondmenace for the link. :)

The weather the past couple weeks been sunny and in the mid to upper 80s. I like having everything bright as much as the next fellow but it did start to wear a bit. Yesterday, for example, I was in the car and reached for my clip on sunglasses and realized that I was already wearing them. Whoa. That's too bright. Today marks a return to the nice calming overcast and cool temps that're the most comfortable. Yay! :)

It also means I don't have to water the potted plants every day and that's what I appreciate the most, I tell you what. ;)

From the people who brought you THINGS OUR FRIENDS HAVE WRITTEN ON THE INTERNET 2008, a new and potentially very important venture: The Newspaper Club.

We’re building a service to help people make their own newspapers.

What do we mean by people? Individuals, communities, clubs, societies, companies, friends, gangs. You know; people.

What do we mean by newspapers? Anything you can make by putting ink on newsprint. We think lots of people will want to make things that are quite like the sort of newspapers we already know. But we also hope to encourage people to reinvent what newspapers could be.

They’re also running a blog.

I’ll get into this later once I’m past the bulk of the day’s work, but I think this could be really, really interesting. Also ref. PEAR emerging as a newspaper. (Which I also need to talk more about, because it’s a really fucking interesting newspaper)

(Automatically crossposted from warrenellis.com. Feel free to comment here or at my internet church at Whitechapel. If anything in this post looks weird, it's because LJ is run on steampipes and rubber bands -- please click through to the main site.)

Some weird things get done to newspaper boxes...



Look closer...

I note my fourth WIRED UK column has been pushed to the web for your free reading "enjoyment." Here it is:

I speak to you now as a man who survived the bird flu. I acquired the lethal, human-transmissible H5N1 from looking at a turkey at a farmer’s market in north Essex. For weeks, I battled the deadly disease, bedridden, close to perishing entirely. I could hear the Grim Reaper using the toilet and everything…

(Automatically crossposted from warrenellis.com. Feel free to comment here or at my internet church at Whitechapel. If anything in this post looks weird, it's because LJ is run on steampipes and rubber bands -- please click through to the main site.)