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This is the tree this year. It's pretty similar to the years past, and the picture was sort of... haphazardly taken with a computer web cam, which explains the quality. It's just not really a point and shoot job when you're dragging mouse work, and separate monitor into it. Angles, and angles. Apologies.
It's sparser than last year. I didn't use as many lights, or as many beads, and that's weird for me, because I generally think a full tree is the best kind of tree, and last year I thought it was pretty sparse too. But the tree's getting kind of old, and it sags a little under too much weight, and even though I spent the whole night on it, more of that might have went to watching Red Dwarf than digging through the decorations.
Plus, I had to cannibalize some strings of lights for the lights that wound up on there. I don't think I ever realized how simple Christmas lights were until I had to pull out bulbs and take a few sets apart. The upside to this is that fixing them was not as beyond me as I expected it to be. The downside is, as with most really simple things, it's really simple to screw up the perfectly good lights too while trying to fix or replace the bad.
Still, it made me feel handy. That doesn't happen very often.
I was writing last week, this short fantasy story called "The Mouth Devours." The plan was to post it on Friday, but the honest fact is, even though it was only a couple hundred words long, I decided it wasn't really up to my standards - which, if you've seen some of the prose I've put on here is pretty low. So, I nixed it. I meant to pop in on Friday or Saturday and write... something, but I didn't really see any reason to force it if I didn't have to. And I didn't.
Things have been busy. I actually only finished my Christmas shopping today, and that was "finished" with some caveats. There was a new book to review, and I actually polished it off a little faster than usual, just because the extra income to recover from said shopping would be nice, especially with other expenses that might be coming up after the first of the year. I'm also reading a friend's manuscript for them, and I'll admit I didn't really think about doing that with all of the Holiday-related merriment, which was... terribly short-sighted of me. And odd, because I really have procrastinated myself into a crunch in a very long time.
I'm actually pretty good at controlled procrastination, so that's odd.
Justin and I hung out on Thursday night - the long Magic games have been a lot of fun, and something I've come to look forward to each week. Surprise news this week, but Justin thinks on his current schedule, we could see "Calamity Cash and the Town with No Name" finished by February. Once the pages are finished, there will be a lot of work to be done by me again, and I'll detail it all here, as usual.
Something I wanted to add... I do something like this on the blog every year, where I write a letter to Santa, asking for whatever it is I want for Christmas. I have an Amazon Wishlist I sometimes give out which is embarrassingly huge, and my guess is, given the date, anyone who was going to get me anything and knows about it probably has already has. And anyway, the more I think about it, the more I realize that, honestly, I don't really want anything.
I mean, yeah, I know everyone says that. And I'm not going to turn down some book I want, and yeah, my scarves have all seen better days, and I have a Steam Account now, if anyone's interested in getting me a game or something on the cheap or just friending me to play Spiral Knights when I eventually get to that, and a bottle of Scotch wouldn't be so... sorry, no, no, I really am kidding with all that... because this time of year, like that's not what this is about for me. I just enjoy all this, you know? The music, and the shopping, and the decorations, and all the trappings, be they self-indulgent, commercial, and obnoxious, or just quiet, modest, and stirringly heartwarming. A celebration should be both, I think. I think that is what celebrating is.
So really. I don't want anything. If you must spend money on me, make a donation to some charity. RAINN's good, not perfect, but good. Honestly, anything pro-women's issues, or some place that's gay and/or trans friendly. Anything social justice related. Hell, try out some micro-lending. Just... nothing religious, no food banks, make sure you know where and what the money's going to.
It's gloriously cold out. There keep being promises of snow. It's Christmas time. I have this marvelous girlfriend, and a, at times mercurial, yet still incredibly affectionate cat, and yeah, things happen, setbacks like the thing with the story that I was going to post on Friday, but I feel like... it's slow, but I'm getting it back. I'm writing again, and I feel comfortable in that skin, being "the writer." Specifically, being the kind of writer I am.
Mind you, my moods are about like my cat's, so this could all change spectacularly, and soon.
So I'm enjoying my Christmas specials, the decorations, all the prep, so much of it I will never see the payoff of, but just knowing that payoff is there, maybe some of what I do will brighten someone else's season, that's really enough for me.
All right. I am not so sentimental that I can't tell when things are getting kind of saccharine. So here's the thing, Santa. I just want the mail to run a little faster, so everything can get to where it needs to be on time, and I just want a little bit of this confidence to stick around after the New Year. And that's all I'm going to ask for.
Happy Holidays, everyone.
...
...
...
P.S. I put something like this on Facebook, but I want to put it up here, too. I'm no stranger to depression. It's very much a part of who I am, and maybe it shouldn't be, maybe it's mad that I put up with it sometime. Being tortured is quickly falling out of vogue. But all that aside, I do still find it in myself to enjoy things, enjoy things like this time of year, but I would like to say, I know it isn't always so easy.
Look, it's hard. Life is not what I'd call the most pleasant experience... most of the time, but there are bright spots, and it's easy to let all the times without them get you down - sadly, especially, when there are bright spots. I know what it's like to be celebrating something, but also feel depressed, disgusted, just generally worn down by everything. And I know that for most people, the first thing you get when you mention to someone, especially this time of year, that you're down, you're probably just going to get a nattering "Why can't you just be happy?" Anyone who thinks it's actually that simple is mad, and not nearly as sensitive as they think they are. And anyone who's said as much lately... contemplate sending a very apologetic Christmas card.
Sometimes it's not as easy as just cheering up. And it can be really hard when you can't reconcile the good with the bad. And if you're feeling like you're struggling, well... be damned with the cheer up people, and don't be turned off by suddenly more upbeat disposition. Call me, write me. Or if not me, find someone to talk to, reach out. It's hard. You might have to do it a couple of times, before you find what you need. But keep trying.
To quote myself, it takes some serious mad skills to handle it all on your own, and trust me, not having said skills is probably more healthy than not.
Take care of yourselves.
Now this is what I call a crossover.
This was my Christmas gift from good buddy and oft-linked [I'm starting to worry "oft-linked" isn't going to seem like a thing anymore] artist Glen Brogan, depicting two of my heroes/writers I get flak for liking. It's one of those truly unique gifts, I think, not just because it's by someone as hugely talented as Glen, but also because even referencing something, it is a truly original, one of a kind, no one has anything like it in the world work. Because look at the subject matter! It's like me -- it's like all of us really, I don't believe anyone has interests that ever fill a single niche, interests that may not seem contradictory or opposite of ourselves, but also don't line up, or fit in a comfortable little box. And this is, from Glen, my meeting of those elements, the culmination of my stranger, perhaps most disparate interests from the other things I like. And whether you see me as a geek, or an intellectual, it's still pretty safe to say that these two of my interests could not, on the surface, be farther from one another.Glen goes into greater detail on his site about his inspiration:"The interesting thing about the drawing for my buddy Randall was that it took a while to come up with an idea I was satisfied with. I tired to make the drawings in this series [Note from the Management: Glen did a whole series of these neat little juxtapositions for our circle friends for Christmas, which you've probably seen me linking on Twitter] fit each of my friend's specific interests, and one of the best compliments I got was from my friend Mike who said that he appreciated how nobody would want any drawing more than the one they received, and you could tell who each one was for. Randall is a fan of so many things and has a great knowledge of all of them: comics, movies, books, TV shows, cartoons, video games, you name it. Even though I felt like I had a wealth of subjects I could choose from I still wanted the drawing to seem tailor made for him.I finally settled on Kevin Smith and Mick Foley, two people whose work has meant a lot to Randall and his own work, and I know he has met or seen both of them in person. Obviously I played with the cartoon license a bit and bulked up Mick, who really isn't fat as much as just a big guy, and trimmed down Kevin, who is in fact a pretty hefty dude. (Though I can't tell if those giant shorts he wears helps or hurts his perceived appearance versus his actual size.)"The end result is this absolutely brilliant portrait, a weird slice of what goes on inside my head and with my work, not to mention some heretofore unconsidered influences on my wardrobe that Smith and Foley might have had. And while I'm showing off the digital version here, my gift from Glen was a beautifully framed print which I one day hope to have a wall in which to prominently display it on. I really want to thank him for this amazing gift, and also the many words of praise for me and my writing I didn't quote from his post about the piece. And if you like Glen's stuff [how could you not?], go check out his SplitReason store, where you can get prints, shirts, stickers and hoodies of his work, and as always, check out his blog, Albino Raven, to get the most up-to-date info on what he's doing, whether its for the Autumn Society, Gallery 1988, Front Magazine, or just neat things like this for his friends.
So, sort of an unofficial rule here on the Mojo Wire is that if you send me a postcard via snail mail, I'll put it up on the site. Sort of a nice treat for me, here in the middle of nowhere, where it's mostly my grandmother's mail waiting at the box every morning. It's also a pleasant callback to my college years, when Dad, even when were sort of on the outs each other for awhile there, would drop me one in the mail, all tobacco-stained with messages not... really about much of anything at all. But like these, I rarely expected them, and their arrival was always a nice surprise.With the holidays in full force, lot of mail has piled up, plus I've been busy, so there just hasn't been the time to dig out the scanner.
This first one is from my favorite freshman Smash Bros punching bag, Jessie, and like her first this one is a rad homemade deal. I don't know if it's a quirk of Jessie's, or if she just knows there's this little hipster part of me that just kind of gets off on having something no one else has [yes, I'm one of those "I like That Band you haven't even heard of yet/may not actually exist guys... only with everything]. This one is actually a Christmas card, though, really, even here in the south, we don't let chickens in the Kitchen during Christmas [though we do let them stay with the Swedish Guy in his Bunska-bunska].
The next card that popped up was from my friend Cara, a regular reader [and like Jessie], and smashing designer and fellow Bennington alumni. It's actually an Escher print [awesome], called Metamorphosis III, which not knowing as much about Escher as I should, I'm still feeling pretty safe in assuming is probably inspired by/a reference to Kafka's famous tale.
Which I actually didn't realize right away, and thought at first that, like Jessie's, Cara's was another Christmas card. A a really, really strange one, but hey, I like really, really strange, and tend to attract that when it comes to friends. And in an awesome show of getting so much text in so little space [which if you've ever gotten a card from me, you know I dig], Cara more or less implies as much herself.
Though, okay, okay! It's not a Christmas. It was still exceptionally awesome to get [I should also mention that I got the nicest card from Terry Lively and her company, Vandalia Productions, but since it's a little more business-y, I'm keeping it to myself. Still, it was a wonderful surprise]. 
This next come from Elle, a picture-print-postcard of Joshua W. Cotter's work, an illustrator and cartoonist who is one of those "I didn't know I knew them" kind of artists, his art popping up uncredited [or I was too lazy too look for the credit] on various tumblrs and I think some t-shirts [I'm a big fan of shirt.woot! and I'm pretty sure he's had some stuff there]. You can see a more detailed version of this piece on his website, along with a lot of other awesome illustrations. I didn't scan the back, because it's not really a postcard proper, and the message on the back was pretty simple, just "Randall -- Keep writing. --Elle" a lovely sentiment that I've sadly been negligent at as of late. It wasn't postmarked either, because this card was actually tucked away in a lot of other schwag Elle scored for me at the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival [so... goddamn... jealous], which was the second best thing to actually getting to go with her. I contemplated rolling everything out like I had in the past, but it seemed a bit like boasting. 
Last, but far from least, is the only New Years card I've ever gotten, ever, and like all the rest they came from Bennington gals -- the oft-linked journalist Sarah Crow, and her roommate and fellow blogger Sarah St. Lifer [those links aren't even close to all they do]. The multi-colored zebras already had me flashing back to Fruit Stripe gum, but the inside...
The lovely ladies on a background of lasers, in what can only be their family Christmas photo. I don't think I've ever made the list of someone's holiday cards I wasn't working for, and this one was so 1990s-riffic that I sincerely hope ushering in each new year will continue to include a callback to my favorite decade. It also really gave me the itch to hunt down my old Charlotte Hornets pullover, which considering what a little porker I was in middle school, I might actually be able to wear again now. So, there we have it. Two from Boston, two from Brooklyn. Each one absolutely awesome, and I just... don't even know where to begin when it comes to thanking you guys. It means a lot, and I hope you don't mind me showing these off here. Also gives me a very nice impetus to scan everything, and get nice digital copies because in the boxed-up way I have to keep everything in my one room domicile, I don't always have the option of digging cards up and leafing through.It's also a really loud, and [I think] sweetly obnoxious way to just say thank you. Sincerely.And hey, guys, this is not a girl's only kind of racket I'm running here. Anyone who wants to drop me a postcard, the address is Randall Nichols at 72 3rd Avenue, Elkview, WV, 25071, and I will heap just as much attention on them as I did on these. I really enjoy getting them, and if nothing else they remain one of the most novel ways to catch up. Always reminds me of Kerouac for some reason... And it's very interesting what people write to you, when they only have a set amount of space.Except of course for Cara, who I think pulled an Escher-like trick herself, and got a small novel on the back there.This has also reminded I really want to show off what Glen [that's Glen "Mario's Closet" Brogan, folks] did for me for Christmas... it's a picture print, that shows off my hidden affinity for slightly rotund, bearded gentleman [whew... so glad I spent the bulk of this post talking about chicks. Chicks and...postcards... huh]. My phone camera is rubbish for the job, though, so I may have to talk to Glen about it.
And again, everyone, thank you. I haven't had much time to slow down and just... appreciate things. But I do. A lot.
Cheers.
What can I say? This appealed to my ego.
CheriAnn Borgstrom [née Stevens], or... maybe you know her as Nixon Agnew, or Cheeseborger, did this for me. She's... insanely busy, but for Christmas she said people could request a small sketch, no string attached, and did this for me. Kind of a striking likeness for someone who's never seen me in real life [and also? THANK YOU, Cheri, for making me blond. I fight so hard for the acknowledgment of my actual hair color], complete with a POV that might explain that necromancer's tan I rock. And even though the artist was apologetic for being late, I have to say... this couldn't have come at a more wonderful time. Sounds weird to say, of course, but I just took the Christmas tree and all the decoration down, so a slightly belated reminder of the holiday was just what I needed. Merry Christmas, CheriAnn, and thank you so much for this. Anyone who's reading, help me thank CheriAnn by checking out her deviantART site here, and her tumblr, both of which regularly feature updated work from her. CheriAnn has been lovely to me for... well, as long as I can remember, though I like to think our friendship really took off after working together to solve the riddle of Emilio Estevez's crotch-related super-powers.Oh, the search terms we're generating.As for other things, I have several posts forthcoming, lot of stuff to show off that isn't Christmas related, maybe some writing I've been messing around with, but right now I've kind of put everything off to do holiday-related things, watch movies, and dig into the massive stack of books that I received for Christmas. So, promise, more soon. Not at all strange for me, but... lots to talk about.Until then, just a short post.And thanks again CheriAnn. I really appreciate this.
I am unconscionably behind. Updates will remain sparse for the next several days, as I'm trying to get through a huge backlog of films I've missed this year before the start of the next [we'll see on that one], and I still have a lot of holiday-related things breathing down my neck, mostly in the form of taking decoration down, New Years activities, and the prerequisite "thank you" notes that need to go out. Also looking to seeing if the things I sent to people got to their intended destinations. Plus there are, for various reasons, a handful of folks who are going to be getting things from me post-Christmas, mostly because they either weren't in the country, or what I had planned on sending them sort of... kind of... hadn't been released yet. Poor planning, all around.I have also gotten a plethora of rad things I'd like to show off here, but that involves dragging out the scanner, which is going to take time. After my uncle and cousin where here, a lot of things were tucked away to keep my room from looking like a closet with a bed in it, and digging that out is going to be a whole evening kind of thing [seriously, Jenga-level stacking of things going on].But... here's something kind of cool. From Kyle Quinn, puppet maker of "Seth Martin and Friends" fame, based on the designs by Glen "Mario's Closet" Brogan, a Christmas gift that sort of perfectly serves my narcissism:
Pretty good likeness, wouldn't you say? But wait, let's check:
Oh yeah. Definitely seeing a resemblance. And possibly a nice proxy to send along when I want to get out of things. It was a lovely gift from Kyle, and everyone in the group got one, leading to a pretty hilarious group photo that I'm pretty sure will be popping up on some social networking site eventually.Speaking of Kyle, Glen, and the rest of the Brainwrap crew, they recently got some much-needed and well-deserved press on the Huntington, WV Herald-Dispatch. It's a really good intro to the work their doing if you haven't been following their Facebook page [and just why haven't you been?], and if Glen's blog post on the article is any indication, it's the first write-up the group and the web show has gotten which Brainwrap has really been pleased with. So definitely go and check that out.Plus, even though we are past Christmas proper [and I hope every one's was lovely], "Seth Martin and Friends" had not one, but two Christmas-themed shorts that came out for the holiday season, and since we have not yet reached New Years, and I'm guessing most of you still have trees up, you might wander over to the SMAF YouTube channel and check out "Trace's Tree (A Christmas Special)" and "Arthur's Gift."I have writing to do, and ever since the half-mad winter spent slaving over the "Trendsetter" first draft, not slaving away into the wee hours of the morning on something kind of makes me feel like I'm wasting my time. But lately I've noticed I'm getting a lot more from reading and watching the good works of others than doing much myself, though once things slow down after January 1st, I'm getting back to the peep show script, and "VHS Generation."
"I think there must be something wrong with me, Linus. Christmas is coming, but I'm not happy. I don't feel the way I'm supposed to feel. I just don't understand Christmas, I guess. I like getting presents and sending Christmas cards and decorating trees and all that, but I'm still not happy. I always end up feeling depressed." - Charlie Brown, "A Charlie Brown Christmas"I spent the evening putting ribbons and bows on chocolate oranges for my friends, watching a few hours of the copious amounts of professional wrestling which has been on television this week [...strange, though I'm sure it can't hurt to channel some seasonal hostility into a few fake fights on free TV]. I've done a lot this Christmas, more decorating than usual, more gifts purchased... I've wrapped so many things, spent so many hours on etsy looking for x or y, debating whether or not the gifts I were giving said more about me, than the people I was getting them for. When it comes to gifts, I suppose, there should always be a little bit of both, though definitely more the latter -- though, I guess if it were all of the latter, that would be better. More selfless. But I like to sign my work.The point? Oh, right, the point. I think, now just a day to go, it finally hit me, that the holidays are here, that Christmas will not be put off another moment. I've been pushing it now and again this year -- all the activity, maybe my heart hasn't been completely in it. But it's easy to disregard that, when I think about what it means to other people, having those little moments which just so... completely personify the season.All of my ideas of the season are... antiquated, almost. There's that scene from "A Christmas Carol," at Mr. Fezziwig's ball, which is just a little too... Victorian for me to ever actually experience, and meanwhile, my Belle... well, I could not hold on to her. Then there are things, little madnesses, like being in a horse-drawn carriage with someone I love, if not Belle, than a Belle [if there can ever be two] "through the snow" bundled too tightly and sitting too close, for reasons that have nothing to do with frostbite, elegant parties at grandiose houses with people you hardly know and too much alcohol served around too many candles. That last one, especially, I held onto a little too tightly, going so far as to entertain crashing someone else's event, after recruiting a partner adept at playing the mouth harp, purchasing the nicest wreath [and bottle of rum] I could find, donning Santa hats, and just knocking on the front door.I still contend that could work. But duplicitous plots and Christmas don't exactly go hand in hand. Nor have I ever found a partner so willing or self-assured to back me up on that [plus, the need for a partner in this particular crime is based on the possibly erroneous assumption that people are less likely to call the cops if there's two of you].And family. Everyone together, and festive, and always a few people you don't know, one-part renewing old acquaintances, mostly that, but also another, small part of feeling like you're hunkering down, in greater numbers, from the weather outside. Which, if you haven't heard, would be ideally frightful.But I don't think, and pardon me for saying this about a holiday with "Christ" right in the name, that this is a time when we should be all that beholden to our own, personal dogmas. I think again, to those high-minded ideals of the season that I have, and the feelings they stir in me just by thinking of them, and even having never really achieved on, I have scratched the surface of those feelings -- seeing "Mary" at the theatre, sitting middle row and not cold, but not so warm I couldn't wear my coat and scarf throughout, or sitting in a room that seemed to have no point or function in Sara's house, opening a VHS copy of Clerks I did not expect to receive. Reading comics in my dad's living room at... seven or eight, having him explain to me again about how, since they both worked at night, he could talk to Santa and get the presents I was getting at his house the night before Christmas, and how that was no problem at all. Those all didn't quite fit my ideal, but they got close, so close as to scratch the surface and release a kind of warmth, that mimicked what I think I'd feel if I got Christmas all the other ways I got it. And when it comes to everyone else, I imagine their ideals for the season are just as unreachable and impossible as my own [maybe not? Who can say?], but doing something small, to get them close to that, to make that scratch... I can do that. I can put my own baggage down long enough to hand them a gift, to tell them a story. Or just listen to one of theirs. "Here, have a drink, some eggnog, some cider, maybe something stronger... and there's candy, but not too much, because there's dinner later." Yeah. If I can find a way to get someone something that makes them feel even a little bit like that, let them have that reminder of a time, or a place that was ideal. Or one they think would be.Right now, I'm capitalizing, enjoying a bunch of Christmas specials, doing what I tend to do, remarking on things I probably never appreciated as a kid, that "A Charlie Brown Christmas" debuted in 1965. That even after growing up with the characters, the appearance of the Sesame Street gang during a "Muppet Family Christmas" looks vaguely Lord of the Rings-esque, Bert and Ernie descending on Ma Bear's house with a dracula, a cadre of monsters, and a giant bird in tow. And just marveling at how vibrant and... well, actually animated "Mickey's Christmas Carol" looks, with painted background but books bouncing and chains getting caught on something, and then you realize it was made in 1983 and you can't help but wonder why more cartoons don't look better now.I mean, if you're like me, a grown man who still watches cartoons [if you're not, I'm surprised, though pleasantly because I'd think the previous demographic might be one of the only I appeal to].Other movies are on the horizon too: Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas, and Die Hard [for the second time!], and hell, I may even work one of the Home Alone's into the rotation. Only out of respect, of course, for our recently departed. Gremlins, could happen, and I have a deep need to see The Ref as well. And yes, I realize, hitting this stride with only two days to really enjoy it seems a bit crazy, a bit crunched for time, but hey... it's not like I have any other plans for Christmas anyway.Don't know if I'll post again before the big day. So, to everyone reading, if anyone is, have a wonderful holiday. Appreciate that which you have, and those who you have close, not because some have less, or none, or no one, but just because you do. And if you don't, if you are without or alone this time of year... then get smashed, or turn on "PeeWee's Christmas Special," or one of the "Rugrats" cartoons about Hanukkah [some of the best modern holiday specials in my opinion]. Or something else, something you like, that makes you happy, that reminds you of what time of year it is, and will make it better, or special to you. Me? Sometimes I just listen to The Clash's "London Calling." I'm not kidding.Merry Christmas, everyone.
Five days without a post is a long time for me, and even though I don't have much to report, I thought I might check in and show off the tree as promised [I think I promised that]. Of course, the pictures are from my phone, which means the quality is pretty much crap, and you don't get to see a lot of the little touches. The tree isn't real, and is fairly old [it belonged to my Mom's mother before my Dad's mom got it], so it can't hold a lot of weight without limbs slipping out of their well-worn holders in the middle support, and the decorations I used are probably more often employed on a smaller sized tree, like one of those desk, or store window models.
The heaviest things are homemade icicles, made over the years by my grandmother, and various other members of the family using pipe cleaners and clear beads. The details I'm particularly fond of are the little wooden apples [I have no idea why, but having apples hanging from the branches of a pine tree make me smile -- I've said it before, but it's just so odd and absurd], and the big snow-flake looking things are actually little picture frames made of plastic and yarn, each one holding a picture of either the children of the family, most of us at some earlier time in our lives, or those who've died, and left us behind.
Unlit.
Lit.
Second Christmas without Dad... I went ahead and mentioned casually he should probably get a space on the tree now too. Last year seemed too soon, this year seems too soon, honestly, but it has to be done eventually, and among all the stars I'd found someone who had two, so we didn't even need to put a new one together [not even sure if that would be an option at this point].
Anyway. On to other business. Ander and I got an e-mail from Eric, saying very complimentary things about our comic [re: A Change is Gonna Come] and confirming our spot in "Normal." It was very vindicating hearing from someone else that the spark we were feeling while working on the project really was there like we thought. Haven't got much chance to work on the other script Ander gave me the idea for [re: VHS Generation], but that's because the Christmas season has been keeping me far busier than even I expected. And the only writing-related thing I've gotten to work on is this huge crit project for a friend.
Speaking of friends, there's a new "Seth Martin & Friends" short up on YouTube, where the Brain Wrap guys debut the new superhero character SuperUltraMan, which I think you comic-readers will appreciate. So definitely check that out, and support Seth, and Kyle, and the rest of the crew.
I'm trying to get ahead of stuff for this coming week, but I'm not entirely sure how free my schedule will be. And then there's Monday looming where... hopefully... the contest I entered "Nova" in will announce its winners. I picked up a four year old bottle of Australian Chardonnay at the local grocery store [we're talking far from glamorous here, though I've never found anything older than a year or two of any kind of wine on that shelf before], which I will either bust out to celebrate, or barring that, save and have on New Years.
Because it's not jinxing yourself if you're buying it for more than one occasion. Right?
The previous two years on this blog, I did posts about what I wanted for Christmas, worded somewhat cleverly [okay, "cleverly" is being kind to myself there] as letters to Santa. I honestly never expected to get anything I mentioned either time, and for at least the first entry, I think I was kind of play acting "ah, if this were only the Christmas I wanted it to be, then I'd get this, this, and this." It made me feel a little more in the spirit to do it, stirred some Christmas cheer in me, if you will, but this year, with one or two more people reading who don't know me, and who might think it less capricious and more annoying, I thought I'd forgo that. I couldn't rightfully tell you any specific thing that I want this year anyway, and honestly I've always preferred giving gifts as opposed to receiving them. I do have a load of books, and a couple of odds and ends in the way of office supplies, on my Amazon Wish List, though I'll admit I keep that more for myself, to unclutter my bookmarks menu, than I do for any other reason. Still, if you did come looking for a hint of something to get me this year, I'll link it here. I'm also a sucker for scarves, and moleskin notebooks. As far as music and movies go, I've gone about as digital as you can get [unless it's something indie, or rare], so I guess you could call me a man of simple tastes now: Books, stationary, and neck wear.Truman Capote would be proud.Which is not to say I'm abandoning the spirit of the season. Almost all the decorations are up here [though I'm contemplating tinsel... oh God, how I'm contemplating it], hoping next week to go out and get some candles as well. If the rot-smelling-hell of whatever it was that died under the house left any sort of impression, it was that I actually took some kind of strange pleasure in the ritual of lighting candles, and often while doing so my thoughts turned to Christmas in a Pavlovian sort of way that I didn't expect. Admittedly, I felt entirely less punk rock sorting through the abysmal selection at Kmart the other day, but the hell with it. If I have to look less cool to make this Christmas awesome, I'll take the hit.Isolated as I am, I'm not entirely sure why I worry about that sort of thing anyway. I mean, really, who am I trying to impress?I got an e-mail from Ander the other day, just a nice, "getting to know the person I was working with" sort of letter, which considering how all-business both of us have been to get "A Change is Gonna Come" done, was a nice change of pace. Instant chemistry like this always needs explored, and I'll probably talk a little more about the workhorse of an illustrator who wrangled me for a comic in the future [odd, because usually I'm the wrangler]. And Ander if you're reading this, I'm going to send you a proper reply soon, but... your comment on my previous post gave me an idea for something new, and I'm putting a lot of my free time towards trying to work that out into a story. Apologies. Nothing will kill correspondence faster than a new idea. Blogging too. I'm really only posting this because I realized it's Thursday, and my last post on anything was Monday... probably more like Sunday night. And since then, December's come.Ah. And not just December. Today [yesterday now], was the first snow of the season. Walked out in it in my coat and pajamas to get the mail, felt it fall on my shoulders and in my hair, watched it melt not too quickly, as the wind did it's best to cut right through me. Brilliant feeling. Not enough snow for coverage, but it's in the air now. Everything is dull, and gray, and dead, just waiting for that one morning when it'll hit again, hit hard, and leave everything all bright and exhilarating -- and clean. I've missed that.
I've been meaning to link this post by Justin for a couple days, probably longer [lost some time while I sick], and show off this new sketch."Calamity Cash and the Town with No Name" has certainly become a much longer term project than expected, and as Justin is quick to point out, it's definitely been a learning process for both of us. To give you some idea how long the two of us have been working on this, my first post on the blog contains the tags "Calamity Cash" and "Town with No Name," and at least a small way, once I went public with the Mojo Wire it was to better triangulate between myself, Justin, and our main characters' creator, Laura Phalen. If I feel bad at all that it's taken 2+ years [and that's considering the four or five months it took me to put together the 48 page script, not to mention the extra month I took to rewrite the latter half of it], it's that Laura likely wonders if she'll ever see our shared brainchild come to life like she originally wanted. But worry not, Laura. You will.Otherwise, it takes as long as it takes. And even though Justin is mostly looking at this as a practice run, a way to perfect his craft, I still plan on at least getting a handful of print copies for my portfolio and anyone who's interested, or maybe figuring out some other way to distribute it. Naturally there are some monetary concerns there, but I'm not too worried about it yet. Plus, I actually have some other Calamity Cash stories I'd like to tell. I've just sort of put a moratorium on talking about them/working too seriously on them, until after I find out how my collaborators feel about this project.Anyway, Justin's post puts a good perspective on a lot of things that can... not wrong, but get in the way while working on comics, and anyone curious about the process should go check it out. It's great stuff, and it's just the sort of thing I asked him to do along the way.In other news, I got the copy job I was talking about earlier. Next week I'm probably going to be pretty focused on that, so if you don't hear anything from me, or something nonsensical pops up here on the blog... well, just blame it on real work.
I haven't been feeling very well the past few days, but I wanted to do something nice for the up-coming holidays.It's no secret that I'm not a big fan of pictures. But when Justin and I were going through comic books a few weeks back, I'd found a cache of older snapshots I hadn't seen in awhile. I'm not entirely sure where they came from -- mom would periodically hand me pictures, and Dad gave me a lot of them a few months before he died, ones that were probably assumed lost in the divorce shuffle.Most of these are from Christmas in the late 1980s. The scans aren't the best. And not all are entirely flattering pictures of yours truly, but I share them because this is the time of year when things should be shared. Even things we'd normally consider private.
One of the reasons that I like Christmas so well is that it's really the sort of holiday that's just for everybody. No matter which of the various religious or non-religious traditions you recognize, there's something there for you, and unlike Halloween it isn't just for the children, or like Thanksgiving which is just a family affair. And there's even an argument for it being a parent's holiday, in that so much of the leg work is done by parents, to make the season so magical for their children. It's really a time of year that's for everyone.Save, perhaps, for the lonely. 
This last one is a little before my time. December of '82, the back of the photo reads. My mom and dad, looking so young, and my Grandpa Cole. Two of these people are no longer with us. I miss you, dad. You always worked so hard around this time of year to convince me you knew Santa. It's funny how when you're six, that's not such a stretch, especially since both of you worked nights, right?Merry Christmas, everyone.
This is the tree this year. It's pretty similar to the years past, and the picture was sort of... haphazardly taken with a computer web cam, which explains the quality. It's just not really a point and shoot job when you're dragging mouse work, and separate monitor into it. Angles, and angles. Apologies.
