Calamity Cash Update: Rumble.

I won't say you've seen the last of the "Top Ten Horror Films of the Decade" lists here, but we're definitely close enough to handle some other business.

Justin has posted some new comic sketches [re: Calamity Cash and the Town with No Name] over on his blog, including this one that I've snagged just because of how cool it looks, and the fact that it features what I consider one of the most badass words in this glorious English language.

Justin's post is also pretty informative, and gives you at least a partial look at what my comic book scripts used to look like, as opposed to the script to "Real Quality Comics" I posted which used the strict template included with my screenwriting program. I still, honestly, haven't decided which I liked best, and am hoping to figure out how to set up my own custom template with the software somewhere down the line, as both formats have things I do and don't like.

More important than my shit, however, is that Justin gives you a good look at how he goes from script to layouts, which for me is one my favorite parts of the process to look at, because it's truly the half-way point between what I wrote, and what he's about to draw. There will always be changes, of course -- I'm not Alan Moore, and even when my panels and dialogue get really out of hand and specific, it's my philosophy to default to the artist's judgment 99% of the time when it comes to things like page layout and paneling. A good example is that excerpt posted above, which was not scripted as a separate panel but works far better in the overall flow of the action/dialogue than what I'd written for it to be.

I've been writing a little bit this past week/week and a half/two weeks, but admittedly the bulk of my free time has went to preparing everyone's lists for Horror Week, which was actually a much bigger job than I expected at times. A lot of this blame lays squarely on the shoulders of blogger.com, if I dare bite the hand that feeds me, as layouts filled with images and links do not look the same in preview mode as they do when actually posted. Admittedly, this is probably partially my fault for using a custom template, but a better preview option would likely solve a few of my minor headaches. Then again, the fact that I only get minor headaches from a free service is kind of amazing of Google, so I'm hesitant to bitch much more.

And... honestly I think the whole "Best Horror Films of the Decade" lists turned out incredibly well and I'm really thankful for everyone who stepped up and got involved, and it was never bothersome digging up links or images to go along with all these fun commentaries because it really felt like thought and care were put into these lists. Thank you all for that. The Mojo Wire also saw record traffic, and there were more comments on entries than there ever were when it was just yours truly writing them, and I hope at least a few of the visitors will choose to stick around, and see what I'm up to, and what's on my mind. Furthermore, if anyone has any ideas for guest blogs, or just would like to do one, absolutely feel free to suggest it to me. This turned out really well, and I don't mind sharing at all.

Anyway. Back to what I was saying about the little bit of writing I've been doing -- I've had a couple of small breakthroughs on old projects, specifically "Assisted Living" and "Trendsetter." The latter was particularly interesting, and came to me while listening to the Mountain Goats's song "No Children." As far as either project goes, I haven't really made a plan to move forward on any actual scripting yet -- I've been really busy in my day-to-day lately, and also, frankly, I've just been reevaluating what's a good use of my time, or more specifically, what kind of realistic goal I can really have working on screenplays knowing I don't have the funding or connections to proceed beyond the writing part.

Then again, there's also something to be said just for writing for writing's sake.

As I mentioned a couple weeks ago, I've also been doing some prose, which if I can get myself focused I may post some of here. Though I'm pretty sure my next project will involve going back to, of all things, Nova. For a particular reason I find myself in a place where I need to sweat about seven pages out of it, and if anyone is up for helping me with this, I'd be much obliged. I'm actually kicking myself pretty hard because I did do a much shorter version of Nova which I called the "Severe Cut," but that particular copy has mysterious disappeared from my hard drive -- and anyway, it was closer to ten or twelve pages shorter, and took out too many things that right now I'm pretty keen on keeping.

More soon. And thanks again, to everyone, who made these past two weeks work so well.