Category Archives: Read This
Gabby Ray Arrives!
Gabby Ray has lived in my family since 2007. It began as a joke but I’ve used the character as an example for years in my class when I teach Photoshop, InDesign, etc. Last year, I did a project with the students and actually did the project with them. Writing, drawing, all of this comic book.
The assignment was to take a myth, fairy tale, folktale, or legend, and adapt it as a story for an original character the students created. So I did this. It features Easter eggs of my sister, her partner, my wife, and both of my daughters. Han Solo and Harlan Ellison might also make an appearance. Most importantly, my mother makes an appearance.
My Patreon Patrons got to see it first. I hope you enjoy it!
Where’s It Going?, or Time Flies Because Clichés
I swear I thought it was only a month or two ago since I made my last non-Batman-related update. Oops. So, here’s why you haven’t heard from me save when I’ve been writing about men wearing rubber bat costumes:
Life.
I know, that’s broad. I’ve been writing as much as possible since school started back up again in late-August. I finished the second draft of the novel on October 18th. I’m not sure how it is. I’m waiting on a couple of people I trust to read it and give me the lowdown before I start the third (and, I hope, final) draft. When I wasn’t working on the book, I was writing the Gotham to Gautham Batman essays. I even wrote a 5,000 word short story last week.
When I’m not writing, I’m either reading (should finish Stephen King’s superb Revival tonight) or vegging out because teaching is hard motherfuckin’ work.
Before I go, I want to recommend two things to you:
Thing the First. If you haven’t checked out Mason James Cole, you really need to. His Pray To Stay Dead is a great zombie/horror novel. I’m not a huge fan of zombie books, but I loved this. Even better is his much shorter novel Buster Voodoo. I consider him a friend from afar, meaning he connected to me via Facebook at some point in the last five years or so, and we found that we had a huge admiration (obsession?) for the Nightmare on Elm Street movies, Stephen King, and basically nerd stuff. All that means nothing to me when it comes to the writing. Cole is the real deal, I promise. His writing reminds me of King’s, but definitely is his own. I can’t wait to see what else he has up his sleeve.
Thing the Second. Richard Chizmar, owner, publisher, and editor of Cemetery Dance magazine and Cemetery Dance Publications, recently launched a new endeavor called Stephen King Revisited. With associate (and a really good writer himself) Brian James Freeman, Chizmar is re-reading Stephen King’s books in the order they were published and then writing essays about them. They remind me quite a bit of what I’ve been doing with my movie essays. Funny enough, I’d thought about branching off into the King books, too, but am now thinking that maybe I shouldn’t. Either way, you should definitely check this site out. It’s entertaining, insightful, and will bring you back to the first time you cracked open one of King’s novels.
That’s it for me. My essay on The Dark Knight Rises should be up within the next few days.
A Super Slight Delay, & Other Updates
I’m not sure who, if anyone, is following my From Krypton to Gautham series of essays on Superman on the big screen, but if you are, this week’s essay(s) on Superman II will probably be delayed. As you know, I’m a high school teacher by day, and I have a 7-month-old baby (the 15-year-old doesn’t keep me up at night or have a diaper to change). This is the end of the school year and I’ve been tired as well as busy. My normal writing time these days is between 9-or-10 and 11 and lately, I’ve needed the sleep or have been busy doing school stuff.
The good news is this: My last day of the Day Job for the 2012-2013 year is next Tuesday. My intention is to finish the first essay on Superman II (I’m at about 1,800 words now and am close to finishing) in the next few days and post is as soon as it’s done. I will also then be rewatching and then writing an essay on Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut within days following. My goal is to have that essay, along with Superman III‘s essay, online next week. I’d hoped to have the two versions of Superman II up this week but it just didn’t happen.
I also intend to write more on this blog in general, maybe even try my hand at a vlog post this summer. Who knows? One of the things I discovered doing the few radio appearances is that I enjoy talking like that, so I’d like to try it in some way. I may even do a podcast-type thing, or audio posts, if that’s possible. We’ll see. So if you’re sick of only seeing movie-related posts, my intention is to make sure that’s not all that’s happening here.
Stick around. Things will get interesting.
Up the Hill to Lovecraft
All right, sorry for the bad pun in the title of this little post. I just wanted to quickly let you know that I just finished reading Locke & Key, Volume 1: Welcome to Lovecraft by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez. I know I’m late to the game on this one, but you might be, too. Or maybe you haven’t read it because it’s a comic book/graphic novel. It took me a bit to actually read it, I’d had it sitting on my iPad for most of this year (and I’d meant to buy the damn collection for several years). Everything I’d read about Locke & Key has made me want to read it. Rave reviews. As time passed, I almost became fearful that the hype would hurt the book once I got to it.
It didn’t. Locke & Key reads like an HBO show. It’s multilayered, intelligent, filled with emotion, and scary. This book actually scared me. Joe Hill mesmerizes me with his prose work. His scripting for Locke & Key is every bit as careful as his prose, his characters every bit as fleshed-out. The story never feels forced and the characters are believable. Gabriel Rodriguez’s art is great. At first glance the characters seemed to cartoony for my tastes but that feeling didn’t last. It’s the details in every panel that helps with that, not to mention the subtle characterization in his drawings. His art won me over within the first page and I can happily say I’m a fan now.
So that’s my ten cents on Locke & Key, Volume 1: Welcome to Lovecraft. It’s rare that I get so excited about something, but in this case I can’t not be excited. It’s not as good as I’d heard it was, it’s better.
It’s ALIVE!!
So, I’ve been hinting that I’m working on a new blog/site. And I’m happy enough with it to announce it and see what you think.
It’s called MediaBio and it’s a combination of commentary, memoir, criticism, and humor. It’s also, hopefully, a way to facilitate conversations with readers and bring people on a trip down memory lane. It came about from some essays I wrote on my LiveJournal about the Nightmare on Elm Street series, Lost, and the Toy Story movies. I got a pretty good reaction and found I enjoyed writing the essays so decided to try it on a larger scale.
For those of you who have followed my column American Gauthic in Dark Discoveries, then you’ll have an idea of what’s to come on MediaBio. Each week I’ll post a new essay/topic and in between those larger posts, I’ll add what I’m calling MediaBio Quickies, small interludes that may or may not compliment the bigger posts.
You will note, should you visit the new blog, that there are already three big posts and one Quickie. Eventually, I’ll be reposting some of the posts I’ve made on LiveJournal that fit in there.
I hope you’ll join me on this adventure and hip others to it, as well.
Just a Link
Go read Bev Vincent‘s essay “Gap Year(s)” for Storytellers Unplugged. It sort of fits into my last post.
Gautham: Bill Gauthier.com 