Back to Business

Welp, it's the Day After Thanksgiving. A decent chunk of you out there in the real world will spend today sleeping off yesterday. Another batch of people will be out Christmas shopping in a desperate attempt to score stuff on the cheap. The rest of us (myself included) will be going back to work as usual. To console myself, I'm gonna ramble about my comic a little.

The second SDF book, "Strange Patterns" is done, but, as I have documented on this site numerous times, I haven't had the money to get the book printed yet. The good news is that I'll be paying the last of my really BIG November bills on Saturday, so maybe in a few weeks I'll have enough spare money to get to the printers. I figure the book will be available in January (fingers crossed).

"SDF: Strange Patterns" will be another 48page, black and white interiors, black and white cover comic. This book will mostly focus on the Funny and Wierd aspects of my work (For all you fans of my comics more ultra-violent aspects, read on...), and features a Cactus Joe story, the introduction of Mosquito Village (already featured in one of my webcomics), a Frimpy story, the very wierd "Primitive", a Cosmic Fool tale, and a Chupa-Chupa the Dancing Monkey of Love strip. Oh, and King Smooth is introduced. That's a lotta stories in one book.

The third SDF book, "Perfect/Ugly", is currently in production. I'm about half done right now. Again, it'll depend on my finances as to when I'll be able to get this one to the printers as well. In a perfect world I want to have it printed by March at the absolute latest.

"SDF: Perfect/Ugly" will follow my standard 48page black and white interior, black and white cover format. This issue is ultra-violent, with plenty of funny wierdness as well. Although I haven't finalized the content, there is definately a Cactus Joe story, a Walt and Sped strip, a story about Jom Smythe of the Uranium Secret Police, and the introduction of the most anti-heroic anti-hero to ever grace a comics page, the gun-totin' El Gorio. There'll probably be a few more stories as well.

After "Perfect/Ugly" is done, I'll be hard at work on a series of mini-comics which will be used as promotional tools when I hit the convention circuit this year.

Speaking of the convention circuit, I have sent off my application and entry fee for table space for the big SPACE convention in Columbus, OH. SPACE stands for the Small Press Alternative Comics Expo, and it is the second largest small press comic book convention in America. If everything goes right, I should be appearing there in April. I'll have a big announcement on the main page with details when my table has been confirmed.

As usual, if you're in the mood, swing by the central site, www.torcpress.com, as we are continually striving to evolve our web presence. Also, there should be some Holiday themed swag on the Merchandise section soon (aw man, I'm such a whore...). Also, there should be some Christmas-y webcomics up soon as well.

Let's Get Mushy

Ahem.

I am thankful for the Father who created all, and the Son who sacrificed all to save us all. I am thankful for my family, my crew, my friends, and my acquaintances. I am thankful that I've got some skills, or at least the delusion that I've got some skills. I am thankful that I have a job that pays the bills and puts food on the table. I am thankful that I got one issue of SDF published this year. I am thankful that when I ran over that dead deer on Tuesday night my car wasn't seriously damaged. I am thankful that I own my own house. I am thankful for art in all of its many forms. I am thankful that I live in America. I am thankful I live in Southern Illinois. And finally, I'm thankful that I'm alive and have a chance to experience all of the crazed joys of this utterly fucked planet Earth.

Oh yeah, and I'm thankful for Mexican food.

Head Scratchin'

Okay. So, I'm driving to Flora (when you live a very small town you gotta drive to a slightly less small town if you wanna get the ingrediants to fix Chilequillas), and just like always, I pass by this billboard for Rally's. And just like always, I think the same thought, "Why the crap is there a Rally's billboard here?" Don't get me wrong, Rally's makes a pretty good hamburger, and I do understand the power of advertising. The problem is this: the closest Rally's that I know of is a 2 HOUR drive away in Evansville, IN. Now, I travel to the Hoosier state quite alot, cause two hours to E-ville is still faster than 2 and a half to St. Louis. But, when I'm in Evansville, I'd rather eat at someplace decent. I sure as crap ain't gonna drive two hours and eat at a Rally's. Why the Hell is that stupid ass billboard there? What marketing genius thought that a buncha podunks in a podunk town wanna drive 2 frickin hours to a damn Rally's?

So, I'm driving and contemplating, and I get stuck behind a truck goin about 40 mph. As usual, I throw out some four letter words, and that's when I noticed another momument to stupidity. The truck in front of me was CAMOFLAUGE.
Why the hell would anyone paint their truck camo? I don't care how invisible your damn truck is, the animals are still gonna hear you comin three miles away! Not to mention the smell. And if you camo'd up your truck and left it in the woods, wouldn't that just make it really hard to find it later? It'd be like Wonder Woman's Invisible Plane, y'know?

So, to reassert my faith that humanity is a race of luminous beings, and not just a buncha slightly smarter than average apes, here are some things that rock: Art, Heavy Metal Music, Aretha Franklin, Cowboy Bebop, Akira, Shonen Jump in general and One Piece in specific, the Silver Surfer, Paul Pope comics, Love and Rockets, the Hellraiser movies, those Tortured Souls action figures, and, of course, Mexican Food.

Whew. I feel better. How bout you?

Odds & Bodkins

Let's keep this quick and random.

Fixed up some queso fundido last night. It's a pretty simple dish, you just fry up some Chorizo (Mexican sausage, the key ingrediant), poblano chiles, and onions in a skillet. Once everything's cooked up, dump it in a baking dish, smother with Montery Jack and/or Cheddar Cheese (shredded, of course), and bake until the cheese is gooey. The cheese and meat mixture is served on tortillas, taco style. It is scrum-diddly-umptious, but very rich.

Gotta clean my house this weekend. Getting hard to walk.

I'm trying to decide which facet of comic book self publishing I'm the worst at: fundraising or bookkeeping. I'm leaning towards bookkeeping right now.

The mice are trying to invade my house, but at least I've managed to keep the damn raccoons out so far.

Has anyone else noticed how many child-oriented films are in theatres right now? It's a good time to be between the ages of 2 and 11.

It's Deer Hunting season in Illinois. (Well, technically, if you hunt with a Bow or Pistol it's been Deer Hunting season for awhile, but this is the big one: Rifle hunting season) I don't hunt, but I thoroughly support deer hunting. Anyone who opposes deer hunting has obviously never hit a deer with their car and then been screwed over by the insurance company. Don't kill em all, but do kill a lot, please.

Tick, tick, tick...

Some people are consumed by nostalgia. They think that whatever era they're currently stuck in sucks, and it was this one spot in time that they indisputably ruled. Me, I tend to take the present at face value. Do I occasionally wish I could go back to a time when most of the music didn't suck and wearing flannel was hip? Sure. But I ain't obsessed with it by any means.

Having said that, I'm feeling surprisingly nostalgic today, and since I'm an anal retentive bastard, here's my top ten list on it.

JOSEPH MORRIS'S TOP TEN THINGS I'M NOSTALGIC ABOUT
10) WCEE-13- This was a small TV station based out of Mt. Vernon, IL. They weren't a network affiliate, so to kill time they used to show nothing but syndicated programs and poorly edicted movies. I watched David Cronenberg's "Fly" for the first time on this channel.

9) WKRP in Cinncinati- Man, I miss this show. It was one of the shows I grew up with, and I can still remember just about every episode. Funny, clever stuff with a real strong grasp of characterization.

8) Chicks with Long Hair- What? I'm a pig, sue me.

7) Cheaper Gas- Do I even need to explain this one?

6) Jim Henson- This creative genius died way too young, and frankly his children haven't done that good a job of continuing his legacy. I miss the Muppets...

5) Having Sattelite- I live on my own nowadays and can't afford sattelite. As a result I have one channel that doesn't come in very well. Ugh.

4) Comics by Jack Kirby- The King is dead, and comics have been a duller place for it.

3) Grunge being popular- Listen, I'm not a Grungehead, but I do like the music way better than this pop crap. It was nice to be able to turn on to a pop radio station and be able to listen to Pearl Jam or Nirvana instead of whatever the hell this crap is they play nowadays.

2) Extreme Championship Wrestling- The best wrestling federation EVER. It wasn't just that ECW was violent (although that was cool). What made ECW rule was the caliber of the performers and the passion with which they wrestled. When Tommy Dreamer and Raven had a match, it legitamately (spell?) looked like they were gonna kill each other.

1) A time when the US wasn't at War.

I am Covered in Blood

Bro, Fitch, Boolah, and myself went to the St. Louis area and watched GWAR last night. For those of you uninitiated, GWAR is a crazy metal band that dresses up in elaborate costumes (they look kinda like monstrous barbarians) and then proceed to put on a bizarre, violent stage show. People are murdered, blood sprays everywhere, and they usually fight a monster or two. To say it's a whole lotta fun would be an understatement, plus, if you were a white T-shirt to the shoe, you can a lasting memento of the event, cause it's guaranteed to be dyed a nice shade of reddish pink before the night is done.

Anyway, there are downsides to alla this. The crowd was packed. I somehow managed to get within two to three people of the guardrail, but that only meant there were tons of people behind me, pushing. I'll never understand how people at a concert think they can just keep moving forward when there are other physical beings who can't move anymore in front of them. Oh well, being crushed like a sardine is a small price to pay for a good show. Unfortunately, I got crammed from behind so hard that I'm pretty sure I'm pregnant right now...and I'm a dude.

Last night's Murder Victims included John Kerry, George W. Bush, Arnold Swartznegger (spell?), Michael Jackson, Osama bin Laden (course, they gave bin Laden a nuke ahead of time...), and, in our most tasteless killing of the night, Lacy Peterson. The monsters were a little shallow this time. The only ones to come out were Bonesnapper (which they gave a goofy voice to in a Lord of the Rings or Shrek mock, not sure which) and a gigantic cyborg Zombie Ronald Regan, which was easily the highlight of the night. As far as the music goes, that rocked the house as well, and I was especially pleased when they played old school favorite "Sick of You". Kick ass show, glad I went.

Through Gritted Teeth

So, some creative people like to listen to music while they work. Me, I like to have something playing on the TV while I work. Because I only have one channel (a half assed Fox station out of Evansville, IN), and it wasn't coming in last night at all, I watched movies last night. (Actually, given the utter foulness of Fox's every night but Sunday line up, this was no big deal) Had an eclectic mix to say the least.

"Frida" got a lot of lukewarm to bad reviews when it came out, and I have no idea why. The movie is a moving, intimate, and colorful portrait of Frida Kahlo, the legendary/revolutionary Mexican artist. Frida suffered a serious back injury when she was in college, and she spent pretty much the rest of her life in varying degrees of pain. Despite this, Frida's life and artwork were like a mad, haphazard explosion. She lived, she loved, she fought, and created with a fervor that most of us would ever be hard pressed to match. Hell, after watching the movie, I didn't feel that bad about the fact that I could only breath through one nostril (at best) all night. (In fact, because I couldn't breath well, and I kept coughing up chunks of crap is the main reason I'm writing this at 5am as opposed to 6am...)

"Bubba HoTep" is a bit on the different side. Bruce Cambell stars as an aged, forgotten Elvis dieing in a retirement home. The King (if he is, in fact, the King and not an Elvis impersonator that got confused...) springs into action when he discovers a redneck mummy is sucking the souls from the residents of the nursing home. Or at least, he would spring into action if his hip wasn't busted all to hell. To add to the fun factor, Ozzy Davis (does anyone remember the TV show "Evening Shade" or "The Stand" TV mini-series? Anyone?) plays an old black guy that's convinced he's JFK. Yeah, baby. Despite an abysmally low budget, this film is a big old bag of kick ass. It's funny, it's clever, and it's surprisingly moving. Plus, there's this one really good song on the soundtrack, which kinda makes up for the fact that they couldn't afford any real Elvis songs.

"Cowboy Bebop: The Movie" is just another adventure for our crew of bounty hunters. This time around, Spike, Jet, Fay, Ed, and their somewhat faithful dog Ein, have to round up a crazed terrorist who plans on releasing a nanotech virus that'll pretty much wipe out the population of Mars. As with all things Bebop, it's less about the story and more about the style with which the story is executed. As always, the fight scenes rock it hardcore style, and the soundtrack (hey, we're back on that subject) couldn't be more perfect.

Got three pages done last night. I'd say I was sufficiently motivated.

Slow News Day

It's Veterans' Day. Although I don't always agree with our country's military policies, I have a deep and lasting respect for our troops in the armed service. So, I'd like to take a quick moment to salute our Veterans. May they have a kickin' Thursday.

Unfortunately, today's not so kickin in Southern Illinois. Heavy rains are plastering the countryside and making the less than traverseble (spell?) backroads even rougher than usual. Still, could be worse. Could be sleeting right now.

Got two quick reviews, then I'm rolling up to breakfast. "Strange Killings: Necromancer" #6 concludes the mini-series by Warren Ellis and (insert artist name here). Essentially, it's badass British combat magician William Gravel vs. Zombies. Lotta zombie comics out there nowadays. Anyway, a decent conclusion to the mini, but I'm starting to get a little bored with the Strange Killings books. The protagonist is just too...powerful. Maybe I'm just in a funny mood.

"Ocean" #2, also by Ellis, with art by Chris Sprouse, is mostly set up, as we find out why a UN Weapons Inspector has been sent to investigate an exploration site on one of the moons of Jupiter. Intriguing, but like I said, it's a set up issue, and so not enough happens to really thrill me. On the bright side, Chris Sprouse's artwork is excellente, and definately cements Sprouse's status as one of the most underrated artists in the industry. Also got the Apparat preview book, which preview a series of one shots written by Warren Ellis with art by various artists (it was a big Warren Ellis day). Heaviest anticipation is for "Angel Stomp Future", least amount of anticipation is for "Quit City".

I'm a Dancin' Fool (Emphasis on the Fool)

The one tool that comics don't have that I wish they did have, is a soundtrack. I love a good soundtrack, and frankly, there are more than a few occasions where the soundtrack have meant the difference between a film being good and a film being a classic. Obviously, the best examples of a soundtrack adding to the experience of a film are the three Star Wars movies (where would we be without the Imperial March?), the three Indiana Jones movies (Indy kicked alota ass on his own, he kicked even more when they were playing his theme song), and the three Lord of the Rings movies (the sweeping score help to sell the epic scale of the series).

If you're feeling froggy, head to your local video store and rent the following movies, paying not only attention to what's going on onscreen, but also the music that flows with the action. Here's the list: Amelie, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Resevoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill (esp. vol 1), Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, Pie (the Mathmatical symbol), and Requiem for a Dream. Admittedly, it's around 6am Illinois time, and I can't think of anymore movies right now. So, I invite you, the viewing populace to contribute your picks for movies with great soundtracks. Just drop a line on the blog here.

Now, it's also pretty easy to make a bad soundtrack. Alotta movie makers tend to just slap a bunch of current and/or popular songs willynilly onto a soundtrack and think they've made some sort of audio masterpiece. There's hundreds of examples of this trend nowadays, but I'd feel dirty reccommending any film like that. If you're feeling gutsy, and you really want to experience the difference between a perfect soundtrack and a perfectly crappy soundtrack, watch the original Blues Brothers movie, and then immediately follow it up with Blues Brothers 2000. There's just no comparison.

Today's Comic You Cannot Live Without is "The Frank Book" by Jim Woodring. Woodring's Frank strips are a series of surrealist, dreamlike images that are all rendered in pantomime. Despite the fact that the audience doesn't fully understand what is going on, Woodring skills as a Cartoonist are so powerful, that you still understand everything perfectly. It's a book that has to be seen to be believed, and a definitive must have. The hardcover is available from Fantagraphics for around $40 and contains every Frank story ever.

The Stupid Dreamer, Reckless of the Dawn

Incidentally, the title of today's blog comes from the end credits theme to the anime movie "One Piece: Dead End", which I scored an import of at Wizard World this year. I feel it's a pretty accurate description of myself, as well as One Piece's protagonist, Luffy B. Monkey. On with the show.

Y'know what I love most about making comics? It's the fact that I have an unlimited special effects budget. For example, last night, I had a character blow up. Now, if I was making a movie, even an ultra low budget one, this effect would take a considerable amount of time and effort to pull off. Even if I was doing hand-drawn or computer animation an effect like that would be fairly complex and time consuming (whadda you think Shafe? Exploding CGI human, simple or hard?). In a comic, I can blow up as many people as I want, as many different ways as I want, and it will only take me anywhere from twenty minutes to an hour for zero dollars. Now that is some low budget storytelling.

The key, for me anyway, to creating wierd, crazy stuff in my comic mostly comes from just thinking along the old stream of consciousness. Just like the old mind wander and see what comes out. Then, all you gotta do is be brave enough to put that stuff down on paper. For example, back in the early days of my comics, I had the "serious" Monster/Hero comics (Cactus Joe, Halloween Gang, ect) together, and the Funny Animal comics (Walt & Sped, Iggy Iguana, ect) in another. Then one day I just had this idea, "What if we had Cactus Joe playing Dodgeball with Walt and Sped? That'd be funny." It was like I had been given an epiphany! Immediately, all sorts of new and exciting ideas came to my mind. Unfortunately, then I had the usual negative thoughts, like, "That's stupid. No one's gonna like it if you have your funny animals and your monster heroes running around together." Doubts began to sink in, and I about killed the idea right there. But then I thought, "What Would Jack Kirby Do?" And the answer to that question was, "Kirby would do anything he damn well felt like, no matter how odd or unconventional it was, and he would make it kick so much ass that your jaw would instinctively drop while reading it." Now, I may not have got that second part right, but I went ahead and slapped the "silly" and "serious" aspects of my comic together, and viola! my comic was rejuvanated. So, the next you're working on a creative endevor, and you think to yourself "This idea is too silly or radical or wierd," take a tip from Joseph Morris, Comic Guy and Cultural Guru, and Just Do It. (I'm full of cheap slogans today)

Today's Comic You Cannot Live Without is "Jack Kirby's New Gods". You want insane creativity at its best? Check out this kickin collection from DC. The scene with the giant whale monster is worth the price of admission alone.

Bah!

What a lousy freaking week. Normally I wanna try to keep bitching to a minimum on this site, but jeez, I think it's warranted now. For the most part, the worst part of this week was the weather. Gray skies, low temperatures, high wind chill, and ankle deep mud made the sawmill an even less enjoyable experience than usual. Throw in the fact that just about every machine on the place broke down, and my misery quickly compounded. On Thursday we went and watched "Saw". Ugh. The premise of "Saw" is incredibly terrifying. The idea that some looney could break into your house, abduct you, and then lock you in a room with some complex, virtually escape-proof deathtrap, is a very, very scary idea. Unfortunately, the execution of the movie is beyond pathetic. The film suffers from bad acting, worse directing, and plot holes so big you can drive a Mac Truck through them. On Friday I rented "Mortal Kombat: Deception" for the Xbox and spent most of the night screaming obscenities at the screen. Needless to say, I wasn't very good at the game.

But the ultimate indignity came last night. Went to a buddy's house to play some Texas Hold 'em. Didn't get a hand the whole freaking night, then when I finally get a FLUSH (I'll repeat that, a FLUSH), and go all in, what does Jesse "I always got a hand" Brooks calls. Guess what, Brooks has a FULL HOUSE. Gyahhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The only upsides to this week were the new comics that came out, and I rented a surprisingly good anime entitled "Tokyo Godfathers". If you want to watch a different kind of anime, one that tells a slice of life kind of story, check this one out. It's great.

No Politics, Please.

Ugh. I am not spending anymore time thinking about the election. Screw that. Unfortunately, November is only a few days old, and it seems like everything has went to crap. Most noteably, my job at the sawmill has become something of a nightmare. Still, I try to keep my chin up. I mean hell, there's lots of worse jobs out there, and because I'm an anal retentive dork, here's the list:

Joseph Morris's Top 10 Jobs that Suck More than Sawmilling:
10) Farming- We used to be farmers as well as sawmillers, so I know from experience that farming sucks more.

9) Sewar Work- Claustrophibia, foul smells, bacteria hazards, and you can probably use your imagination on the rest.

8) Oil Field Work- Long hours, dirty ass manual labor, and an above average chance of getting blown up.

7) Coal Mining- Claustrophobia, Black Lung, and an above average chance of being killed in a cave in.

6) Any Job in a Third World Country- Absymmal pay, worse hours, lots of new and exciting ways to get killed or injured on the job.

5) Iraqui Policeman- The only job in the world where getting horribly killed is absolutely guaranteed.

4) Fluffer- Hey, this job literally sucks!

3) Jizzmopper- How low do you gotta sink to get to the point where you're cleaning other dude's spooge for a living? Pretty desperate, considering Fluffer and Iraqui Policeman are higher on the list...

2) Crack Whore

1) Crack Whore Trainee- I would like to thank Norm McDonald for the last two entries on my list...

Big comics that I picked up this week were the latest issue of "Ultimate Fantastic Four" and the new issue of "Shonen Jump" which features absolutely awesome One Piece and Naruto stories.

Gimme a Beat

Pacing, until recent years, was probably the most underrated and overlooked facet of comics (or any other type) of storytelling. In recent years, certain events have arisen to change that.

Pacing is the speed at which events unfold in a narrative. Like I said earlier, pacing is crucial for any type of storytelling. If a book reads too fast, the reader gets lost and confused. Too slow and the reader falls asleep. A fast paced movie can sacrifice character development and create nasty plot holes. A slow paced movie can create an overabundance of anticipation that can only be relieved by a superior payoff (which is rare in storytelling in general, and Hollywood in particular). The key to pacing (one which I will freely admit I sure as hell ain't mastered) is to either find the happy medium, or to take one of the two extremes and make the absolute most of them. If you're gonna set a quick pace, then inundate the audience and keep their jaw dropping (without overinundating them), and if you're gonna set an absymmally slow pace, then you either need A) a hell of a payoff, or B) some damn fine characters.

I bring this up because pacing has become a problem in comics of late. In the olden days, comics pacing was fast. You bought an old "Tales from the Crypt", and you got three or four short stories all bound together in one book. You scored a copy of "Fantastic Four" , and you knew that The King was gonna rock your socks off with at least one or two pages. Nowadays, most comics have fallen into this pattern: Issue 1-Introduction/Attention getter, Issue 2-Build up, Issue 3-Build up, Issue 4-Payoff. There are two reasons for the development of this slow ass pace in comics nowadays. The first is Hollywood. Comics have become so obsessed with movies that the creators now think that they have to make comics into movies. The second is Japanese Manga. Manga has a fairly slow pace (compared to old school American comics). Since Manga is so successful, many American creators have emulated that in their own comics.

The flaw with the Hollywood approach is obvious. In a movie you get to watch the entire piece in one sitting (not counting continuing sequels of course). Although 24 pages of comic may only be 15 (or fewer) minutes of movie time, the audience is still only getting 24 pages every month. If the reader buys two or three 24 page issues in a row that contain nothing but build up, the audience is eventually going to feel ripped off. Lord knows, I've dropped dozens upon dozens of comics just because I got tired of waiting forever for a payoff that wasn't as good as the build up would signify.

The flaw with the Manga approach is less obvious and has to do with distribution. In America, every month (in most cases) you get an issue of a comic you're reading. That's 24 pages with one story. In Japan, you get a thick ass Manga compilation EVERY WEEK. That's over a hundred pages with anywhere from six to twelve stories. In Japan, a creator can afford to spend two or three issues developing characters or plot, because he knows that there will be other manga stories in the same book that will have something kick ass happening. Then, when the manga story is collected into Trade Paperback, the pacing will feel more natural and less forced, which is what American creators are trying for, as well, but because of the single issue, monthly format, are boring most audiences to tears.

So, Mr. High and Mighty Comic Guy, you've got this long dissertation on pacing, do you present any solutions to this conundrum? Sure, I got some ideas. Personally, although I know it couldn't be done weekly, I think more comics companies should try the manga digest format. Not only would that allow for more experimentation with pacing, it would also allow audiences to be exposed to a greater number of books than they normally would be. Another idea is to find a happy medium between the old school speedy pace, and the Hollywood turtle pace of today. Writers should remember that they've got 24 pages to kick it every month, and they should strive to make sure there's always something to shake the audience up. Oh, and if you're building up for a big confrontation between Daredevil and the Kingpin, make sure the fight is actually a compelling work of kick ass action choreography, and not just a couple of punches.

Hold the Line!

For every ounce of ass that October kicks, November tends to suck an equivalent amount. The weather gets signifigantly colder, every bill ever invented is due, the skies turn a consistant shade of pale gray (which usually lasts until March or later), the time change royally screws up my internal clock, and for some reason, everything that can go wrong will go wronger.

Now, I'm not bitching, mind you. I'm merely stating facts about the single worst month of the year. Even March/April, where we spend the entire month bracing for tornadoes, at least has the occasional bout of warmth and sunlight.

But, all is not lost. I've got just enough money to pay off my bills (not much beyond that, but oh well). I established a fairly successful post-work rhythm when I'm working on my comic. And, November is usually when the most interesting movies of the year are released. Right now, I need to see: Saw, Ray, and I Heart Huckabees, and I'm currently waiting on "The Life Aquatic".

Today's Comic You Cannot Live Without: I'm feeling pretty basic today, so let's just go with the greatest comic ever made, "Watchmen". For those of you who have been enjoying this section of the column, sorry, I'll come up with something more obscure tommorrow. For those of you who hate this section of the column, read Watchmen.