Fourteen Rivers, Fourteen Floods

Since my Eisners judging gig, I found another way to spend more time on the computer doing something aside from writing for yourself: I'm now the Features Editor of www.comicfoundry.com, a monthly comics magazine. It's been a lot of fun so far, as I honestly think the stuff that's coming in is really print-magazine quality. It's interesting to do comics stuff with angles and premises like you might see in Esquire or EW or Details, rather than what I'm used to at Comic Book Galaxy, which is more commentary-based and opinionated and less journalistic and edited. Two very different approaches, but I'm glad for the opportunity to try the magazine style and maybe learn a thing or two.

I've been pretty out of it for a while, emotionally, wrung-out on a girl who's a friend of mine, if that. I think it's probably come to a head, and not in the way I want, which is my fault more than hers, as she never led me on or anything. I'm thinking I'm probably drawn subconsciously to women who can break me, which is a depressing thought. Add to that a cold the past two weeks which I'm now convinced is really bronchitis and a sunburned forehead that feels like sandpaper and I'm not in a great frame of mind.

Also, my new 60GB iPod seized up on me last night and I can't reset or restore it, so I guess I will have to visit the Apple Store and see what they say. I'm traveling the first week in May and will definitely need some tunes.

On the plus side, I was able to use this mood to finish a comics short story I started a little over a week ago, called "Park." It's a seven pager, and I'm thinking of writing a bunch more as either a small graphic album or maybe a sporadic comic book, illustrated by others. I do have an urge to try to practice drawing again and get an appropriate style together to do these myself, but I have to recognize my limitations.

I also FINALLY finished the sixth and final issue of IRREGULAR JOE. A month ago I made notes for revisions of the first issue, and I imagine there will be revisions on all of them before I'm happy with it, but I think the first three issues will have the most changes, and even those don't seem TOO bad. It's not that I don't like what's in there, it's more a matter of seeing if I can fit some more stuff for the supporting characters and their subplots.

As for media stuff, I took the kids yesterday to the forgettable THE WILD, which is just the forgettable MADAGASCAR with even fewer laughs and some father issues that left even me cold. In case I haven't mentioned it, I never watched THE SOPRANOS or BUFFY until this year, so I'm on the second seasons of both now, via Netflix. Somehow I am aiming to be caught up with THE SOPRANOS, THE SHIELD, and, yes, THE PRISONER, by the end of the year. Oh, and I really liked COLD MOUNTAIN quite a bit. Not a great film but a good one. As far as comics, I've been lax, only reading THE LIFE AND TIMES OF SCROOGE MCDUCK lately, and it's great. I read Jessica Abel's LA PERDIDA as well, and it's not great. In fact, it's horseshit.