The SDF: Nonreal Poll

So, I'm probably overdue to get a new edition of SDF: Nonreal up on the web. Unfortunately, I'm not sure which character I want to devote a webstrip to. So, I've decided I'll leave it up to the small handful of people that read this blog. Just drop a comment on this entry that states which Torcverse character you want to see in the next installment of SDF: Nonreal. I'll make sure to write down which characters are requested, and use that to determine the order of who appears in the next handful of Nonreal strips. Democracy can be fun.

Mail Order Information for "SDF: Strange Patterns" is now available on the main site, www.torcpress.com.

"WE3" #3 and the latest issue of "Planetary" are now available in most fine comic stores. Both books recieve my absolute highest reccomendation. If you're a fan of comics, or hell, even if you're not, make sure to check these two books out. They're everything that's great about the medium.

"SDF Strange Patterns"- The Context

Particles come together, form patterns, and atoms result. Atoms come together, form patterns, and molecules results. Molecules come together, form patterns, and everything results. Patterns are everywhere. And yet, at the same time, there's so much randomness in this world. But if you look closely enough, even in the utter depths of insanity, strange patterns start to emerge. From the spirals on your fingerprints to the devastation of a tornado, there is a larger hand in everything, assembling a blueprint far beyond our simple human understanding.

Art is always affected by patterns. Maybe it's recurring lines of dialouge or speech. Maybe the artist can't help but paint an old man in the corner of every one of his paintings. Mayber the singer just has to hit that one note, every time she sings. But they're there. The strange patterns that ultimately consume every artist.

Me especially. I have patterns that are intentional, such as spirals, butterflies, birds, and references to Alice in Wonderland. And I have patterns that are unintentional, such as the way I draw hands and feet. Why do these patterns exist? Why am I drawn to draw them? What greater hand is at work? The search for the answers to these strange questions to these strange patterns is what keeps me going. That and caffeine.

Some Strange Patterns Stuff, and Some Other Stuff

So, my last post I yammered about how much I hated ads in comics. My buddy Boolah asked if I'd put in ads if they came from a major sponsor like Taco Hell or whatnot. The answer is a resounding NO. There is nothing more annoying than to be reading the latest Grant Morrison kick ass comic and to run afoul of some add for Twix or somesuch. I don't wanna subject my readers to that, even if I would make a little extra scratch. Now, if Taco Bell wanted to sponsor an add on my main website, www.torcpress.com, well, then I might be a leetle more flexible (hehhehheh...). But, no, art comes first, commerce second. (which may explain why I'm poor)

Mail Order info for SDF: Strange Patterns should be up on the main site in a day or two. Apparently my webmaster's personal business is taking a little more time than expected. That, or his internet is out again. No biggie either way.

I'm not sure who reads this site, but I'd like to make a quick clarification for the record. TORC Press is a very, very small, very, very low budget comic publishing operation. We only do one book, which is SDF. I am currently not taking submissions for any new books, because I can barely afford the time and money to publish mine. Now, having said that, let me also state that I am, by most standards, a pretty good guy. If there any aspiring self publishers out there who are having trouble self publishing, feel free to e-mail me with any questions. I can answer just about any question about the comic book making process except "How do I color my comic?". Jeez, I feel weird typing stuff like that. Makes me sound all corporate and stuff.

"SDF: Strange Patterns" The Content

If there's something I hate about comics (and this applies to comics from any era), it's that a large chunk of any given book is consumed by filler. You know, crap like advertisements, pin-ups, or long blathering monolouges (spell?) about how splendiferous the book and the creative people are. Ads are especially annoying, and have plagued comics since the olden days where shady companies tried to sell you X-Ray specs for five cents. We here at TORC Press believe that all 48 interior pages of our comics should be devoted to pure content. No fakes, no dyes, and no fillers. Sure, we've got a Hype Page, but we stick that on the inside back cover.

Long story short, SDF: Strange Patterns is an anthology style comic that tells a series of Noninterconnecting stories in 48 pages of glorious black and white. Here's the rundown--

-Cactus Joe the Clown- Cactus Joe and Pengy are getting ready to head to the comic shop to hopefully score the latest Grant Morrison mini-series, when a mysterious figure from Joe's past appears.

-Frimpy- A short day in the life of the TORCverse's most unluckiest character.

-Primative- Observe, National Geographic style, the bizarre frog smashing rituals of the Unnamed Tribe, and the horrible price that an outsider must pay for forbidden knowledge.

-Welcome to Mosquito Island- Reintroducing Halloween Man and Doom Harvest, now the Sheriff and Deputy of Mosquito Village, as they attempt to do their jobs while avoiding the annoyance of bueracratic red tape.

-Cosmic Fool- Almost a silent comic (there's a few words in an alien language), the Cosmic Fool learns a harsh lesson about picking up hitchhikers.

-King Smooth- Words can't properly describe the oddities contained within this story. Just think about Genocide Viruses, Human Puppets, and the Thirteenth Hour.

--In addition, there's a new Chupa-Chupa the Dancing Monkey of Love one page strip, as well as three pages of Cartoon Joseph Morris/Buzby the Fly strips.

Whew, that's a lotta stuff in one issue. I'm exhausted. Think I'll take a nap.

IT'S HERE!!!!

It's cold as hell, work sucks, I've attended the weirdest funeral in the long history of weird funerals I've attended, and our computer's been toast for about three days. But none of that matters. What matters is this:

SDF: STRANGE PATTERNS HAS COME BACK FROM THE PRINTERS!!!!!

That's right folks! My second professionally printed comic has finally returned from Evansville, and I couldn't be happier. In fact, I think I'm gonna dance now.

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Whew. I feel better now. Y'know that Safety Dance isn't as safe as they say it is.

Anyway, "SDF: Strange Patterns" is a 48 page Pure Black and White (even the cover, cause you'd be surprised how much money you can save by using a B&W cover...) one shot, self contained comic featuring a metric ton of brand new stories and short strips. The tone of the book is a little on the weird side, but there's plenty of fun stuff as well as the decent dose of the Old UltraViolence. For anyone that's interested, Mail Order instructions should be available on the main site (www.torcpress.com) within a day or two.

As for me, because this is supposed to be a site designed to promote my comic, the next handful of posts will be pure propaganda hyping and dissecting my most recent work. That's right, I'm gonna do my best used car salesman impression for the next week or so. For those of you not even remotely interested in my work, all I can do is apologize for what will be several days of shameless shilling.

But who cares? My book is done, and I'm the happiest man in the world!

Unfocused

So, the only good thing about renting "Resident Evil: Apocalypse" was that there was a preview for "Steamboy" on it. Steamboy's the new anime from the team that brought us such classics as Akira and Metropolis. Stylistically, they're most impressive in the sheer amount of detail that they can cram into a given scene. I definately gotta see this one when it comes out.

On a similiar note, I still haven't gotten around to renting "Ghost in the Shell: Innocence". It's actually available in the local area, but I just haven't got around to renting it yet. Need to.

For some reason the last ten pages of "SDF: Perfect/Ugly" have become something of a bear. Oh well, just gotta grit my teeth and keep pushin forward.

On With the Show

Right. So, I rented some stuff to take my mind off recent events. Here's the Reviews.

"Resident Evil: Apocalypse": Y'know what's funny about this? The Resident Evil video games are more terrifying, entertaining, and cinematic than the movies are. RE 2 is bad on all fronts. Bad acting, directing, cinematography, editing, soundtrack, even lighting. It's boring, not much happens, the characters are woefully underdeveloped, and for a horror movie the only thing that's shocking is the utter lack of gore. The film's only saving grace is that the Nemesis monster is pretty cool. Otherwise, no good.

"Stander" This flick is based on the true story of a South African cop, who after killing a black man during an anti-apartheid rally, starts robbing banks, and then investigating the banks he robs. A solid flick overall with good acting and a fairly intriguing story. The ending's a bit of an anti-climax though. Recommended if you're into films about Cops and Robbers (not really a Heist film...).

"Dead or Alive Ultimate" (for the XBox)- This is a two discer. Disc one has the original Dead or Alive in all of its unupdated glory. DOA was pretty much a lackluster Virtua Fighter/Tekken clone. Pretty blah. Disc 2 has the much, much better Dead or Alive 2. DOA 2 features a slightly larger cast of fighters (my personal pick is the Ninja Dude), jaw droppingly gorgeous graphics, multi-tiered fighting envioronments, and an awesome opening cinema set to Aerosmith's classic "Dream On". The ultimate problem with DOA 2 lies in its small cast of characters (lessening the replay value) and some HUGE flaws in the overall fighting engine. The major flaw in the fighting engine is that you can pretty much master the game by just jamming on the buttons. Not much strategy there. The second problem is that there is a Counter system, where a fighter can catch another fighter's move and then counterattack. In theory it's a good idea, but in practice it just gives the computer an excuse to turtle up and catch everything you throw at it. I literally would lose an entire match just cause the damn computer countered every attack I threw at it. In addition, the counterattacks do an inordinately large amount of damage. For example, I'd hit the computer with a six hit combo. Then the computer would catch one of my moves and counterattack, ultimately dealing the same amount of damage as my combo. Super Frustrating. DOA Ultimate's worth a rent. Man, I miss the old school 2D fighters...

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There has been a death in my extended family. This will irrevocably change the lives of several people who are very dear to me. As such, if anyone who believes in a higher power would offer up a prayer or two for my family, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

Some Quick Reviews

Maria Full of Grace- If you read up on Movie Critics' Reviews alot, you've probably heard about this one. Maria is a poor girl from Columbia who lives in an overcrowded house with her sister, her sister's constantly sick baby, her mom, and her grandma. She works a crap job at a Rose Factory, and all her wages go to support her family. And she's knocked up and doesn't love the father. When the opportunity presents itself for her to get a better life, she takes it. Unfortunately, the opportunity involves swallowing 60 little packets of drugs and flying to New York. "Maria" is fairly simple and straightfoward in its storytelling, and its strength comes from the courage of its central character and the tension presented as she tries to complete the drug shipment. Despite the fact that she is performing an immoral act, you can't help but have sympathy for a character who just wants a better life and knows that this is the only way. It's definately worth a watch.

Shonen Jump for January finally arrived. I picked it up at Buehler's Buy Low (local grocery store chain for those of you uninitiated) of all places. Anyway, I agree with Shafe, the preview of "Legendz" was butt. Just another Pokemon/Yu-Gi-Oh/Duel Masters/Digimon clone. Ugh. Speaking of which, Yu-Gi-Oh returns (Booo!!!), except they've skipped over a ton of issues, and now the story makes very little sense. Bah. "Yu-Yu Hakusho" is a decent read, but as usual the art is butt. "Dragonball Z" is always top notch, definately better than the anime. Nothing really important happened in "Shaman King" this month. "Hikaru no Go" was interesting, but I gotta admit that this series is starting to wear thin just because I have no idea how to play Go (I need to get Dan to teach me sometime...). With both Naruto and Sasuke unconscious, it's up to Sakura and guest ninja Rock Lee to fight off the dreaded Sound Ninjas in "Naruto". Great action, and the Sound Ninjas turn out to be incredibly dangerous foes after all. Still, I wish Naruto would wake the hell up. Jeez, the main characters been out cold for two straight issues...

Now for the Main Event.

We got two installments of "One Piece" this issue. Luffy, Sanji, Chef Zef, and the Fighting Cooks of the Baratie restaraunt have to fight off the desperate cutthroats of Don Krieg's Pirate crew. A new villian, the Invincible Pearl, is introduced. I gotta say, in the short time I've been reading One Piece I've seen a lotta strange, goofy villians, but Pearl definately takes the cake. I'm not kidding, this guy's so odd, you gotta see him to believe him. Anyway, this issue rocks hardcore, as we finally get to see Sanji's awesome footwork, Luffy gets back into the battle, Krieg pulls a couple of new weapons out of nowhere, and we even get to see Chef Zef kick a little ass. As usual, the only flaw with One Piece is that I want to read more after I've finished it. Aaaugh!!!!

It's Almost Ten Degrees Outside.

I'm going to stay positive. I'm not going to think about how it rained all day yesterday and how the rain slowly turned to snow as the thermometer continued to shrink. I'm not going to think about the long day ahead of me in the high winds and the freezing cold. Stay positive.

I'm starting to reestablish a rhythm on "SDF: Perfect/Ugly". I now only have eight pages and the covers to do (unlike certain publishers, we here at TORC Press always save our cover art for last, mostly because we have no idea what's going into each issue anyway). Plus, I've got a page penciled, border inked, and lettered, so that's another almost done. Progress is a good thing.

I'm probably going to watch "House of Flying Daggers" this weekend. Can't get enough Kung Fu action.

Jeez it's cold.

It's Almost Sixty Degrees Outside

First off, the important stuff. Over on the main site (www.torcpress.com), we've added not one, but two (!) new webcomics. The first one is what was going to be the last of the Christmas strips. I'm not really thrilled with the art, but the story (short though it may be) is good (in my opinion, course, I'm a little biased) mostly because it further emphasizes the friendship between Cactus Joe and Pengy (something the previous CJ online strip didn't really accomplish. Today is fun with parenthesis day). The other strip features a character which will appear in "Strange Patterns", the soon to be notorious King Smooth. This is my personal description of what I was thinking when I came up with Smooth: "Imagine Ian Fleming's James Bond reborn as a living Viral Infection drawn by a Zombified Salvador Dali possessed by the ghost of Jack Kirby, trapped inside a William S. Burroughs novel". Yep, I need help. Regardless, really like how this one turned out (Gee, aren't I just the modest one today. Don't worry, I'll be yammering about how much I suck in a later column I'm sure).

So, in the comments on the last blog entry, my buddies Boolah and Tate were talking about the Sin City trailer and how hyped they were. Me, I'm ultra-hyped, cause I've read every issue of Sin City ever, and I know how much ass it can kick. Ironically, I've only seen a two second blip of the movie, and have yet to see a trailer. The funny thing is, I don't wanna see a trailer, cause I want to go into the movie fresh (which is what I always want to do when I'm gong to see a movie I'm excited about). Which is wierd, because since I've read all of the stories that are going into the movie, I more or less know what's going to happen in the movie. Did that make any sense?

The optimist in me is celebrating the unseasonably warm weather and the fact that I don't have to wear a heavy jacket today. The pessimist in me is terrified about what's going to happen when the bottom drops out and everything freezes again.

More St. Louis Swag

The last three comics I scored at St. Louis were all by Jamie and/or Gilbert Hernandez and were published by Fantagraphics. If you're a regular to this collumn, you've definately heard me hype Gilbert's new "Palomar" collection which serves as a great introduction to his work. In addition, although I haven't scored it yet, a great way to get started on Jamie's body of work is to acquire the new "Locas" collection, which has most of Jamie's old "Maggie and Hopey" stories. Onward!

"Love & Rockets" #12 (Jamie & Gilbert): On the Jamie front, there's two new "Frogmouth" stories (which I didn't like at first, but have grown on me), and we finally check in with Hopey and her life. On the Gilbert front, there's another edition of "Julio's Day", which is not my favorite story, but it's not bad this issue. Also, we learn about Petra's second ex-husband. My only nag about this issue is that it's a little straightforward, there's almost no surrealist elements (except for a wierd looking sea monster that pops up in the Petra story).

"Luba's Comics & Stories: Lovers and Hector" (Gilbert): This issue focuses on Petra's likeable but none too bright boyfriend Hector. In addition, the world's greatest lover, Fortunato..., shows up and does some street magic. Good stuff if you're a regular.

"Luba" #9: Geez, alotta stuff happens this issue. Pipo tries to get Fritz to commit to her. Fritz's sister Petra tries to get Pipo outa Fritz's life. Fritz breaks up with Pipo's son Sergio. Sergio tries to get Guadalupe to ditch her husband (Sergio's adoptive father), but fails. Pipo breaks up with her boyfriend whose name escapes me. Fritz accepts Enrique's marriage proposal. Fortunato... has sex with every single female character in the series (I think, he may not score with Petra. Gotta reread that issue...). Luba's estranged daughter Marciella returns (finally). And Khamo finally talks, just in time to accuse Luba of infidelity (well, duh, she's done it with Fortuanto... like twelve times in the last three issues). Sounds kinda like an insane soap opera, no?

None of that is important. Over the course of reading Love and Rockets and its various spin offs over the last two years, I have become attached to several characters. At the end of Luba #9, something very bad happens to one of my all time favorite characters from this series, and I gotta say it kinda affected me. Call me a wuss if you want, but the end of Luba #9 was damn heartbreaking.

My St. Louis Haul

Comics have always been a part of my life. So, it really shouldn't come as much of a surprise that I read a fairly large cross section of odd and rare comics, as well as plenty of mainstream material. When I'm in a large metropolitan area, I like to find the biggest and best comic shops and dig up all sorts of oddities and obscurities. Here's the stuff I scored on my trip to St. Louis after visiting two Fantasy Shops and one other shop whose name escapes me right now.

"Street Angel" #3 (Slave Labor Graphics. Jim Rugg & Brian Maruca)- This one came highly recommended when I attended the "Gems of the Small Press" panel at San Diego, but I never got around to picking up a copy. I rectified that over the weekend. Street Angel is the slightly whimsical story of a pre-teen girl who rides around on a skateboard and fights evil in a seedy urban envioronment. The issue I read also featured Land Sharks, insane cultists, a Demon, and a cameo by Jesus Christ. It's solid stuff, with clean art and a interesting story. Definately worth checking out. Still, the book felt like it was missing something. Maybe I'm just getting too picky in my old age.

"Batman: Arkham Asylum" (DC. Grant Morrison & Dave McKean): For all my huff and puff, I'm just now getting around to scoring a copy of Morrison and McKean's Classic Batman story about the madness that fuels not only Batman, but also his Rogue's Gallery. All around great stuff, Morrison especially handles the Joker well, whose creepiness is only further punctuated by McKean's screwed up artwork. If you don't have a copy yet, score one.

"Flight" #1 (Image. Various): This is an anthology put together by a large group of mostly unkown creators that centers around the theme of (big surprise) Flight. There's been so much Hype about this book, that I really thought it was supposed to be the greatest thing since sliced bread. It's not, but it's still a very worthy addition to any comic fans library. The stories are a very eclectic mix, featuring lots of different art and writing approaches. My personal favorite stories are the bookend segments (featuring a character called Copper and his wise-ass dog) and a cool story featuring a boy and his companions, a flying pig and a flying whale. Check it out.

"Young Gods & Friends" (Fantagraphics. Barry Windsor Smith): The collection of BWS's cancelled series that parodied the old Thor books is a decent read. It's mostly a one joke premise though. You've got a bunch of uptight God characters, and then in the middle of it, you've got this one God who's a bitchy chick who uses modern talk and modern cursing. It's kinda funny at first, but it eventually wears thin. Still, the art is exquisite. Moderately recommended.

"Black Hole" #12 (Fantagraphics. Charles Burns): I think this is the last issue of Black Hole. I think. If you've never read Charles Burns's work, you're missing out. The art alone is absolutely beautiful, a scathingly dark, inky blackness consumes every panel. Burns's works looks like old fashioned woodcuts, that's how thick and black it is. He's a hell of a writer too, as his Black Hole series has perfectly captured the sheer nightmare of being a teenager in all its ugly glory. Since this may be the last issue, I wouldn't recommend picking it up if you're new to the work, but when the trade comes out, pick this book up!

"El Borbah" (Fantagraphics. Charles Burns): This is a collection of Burns's earlier, crazier work. El Borbah is a big, bad Mexican wrestler turned detective who takes no crap from anyone. Any robot, midget, cultist, or dog faced asshole that gets in his way is gonna get stomped, hard style. Very imagintive, funny stuff, the only flaw is that the story fall into something of a pattern. Still, definately worth scoring.

Outa time gotta go to work. More comics reviews tomorrow!!!!!!!!!

Behold, Thy Great Arches

First off, a round of business. The main site (www.torcpress.com) has indeed been updated with new Cast bios of Halloween Man, DoomHarvest, and Wugpie. All three of these are veteran characters: Halloween Man appeared in my very first Xerox Comic, "Pulp Horrorshow #1", Doomy appeared in "Pulp Horrorshow #4", and Wugpie debuted several years later in "Super Duper Fun Comix: Killing Machine #1". All are very near and dear to me, and will be appearing in "SDF: Strange Patterns" as soon as it's released.

Now for a little Geography. I live Clay City, IL, pop 950. The nearest metropolitan areas (aka they have a shopping mall and a good theatre) are as follows: Evansville, IN, 1 and a half hour drive, Terre Haute, IN, 2 hour drive, Springfield, IL, a little over 2 hour drive, Carbondale, IL, 2 hours 20 mins, and Fairview Heights, IL, a solid 2 hour drive. As a side note, almighty Chicago, IL, is a whopping SIX HOUR drive North for me. The important part of this rant, is Fairview Heights, which is a suberb of St. Louis, MO. When people from around here say, "I'm goin to St. Louie," what they usually mean is they're going to Fairview, which is actually about 30 mins East of St. Louis proper.

Welp, me and my trained howler monkeys (Bro and Fitch), set a course for St. Louis proper. Hell, yeah, it was time to pass by the Arch and try not to die on a bridge overlooking the Mighty Mississippi (spell?). Our goal: spend our Christmas cash. Bro went to the Guitar Center and spent a buttload of money on recording gear. Me, I went to THREE DIFFERENT COMIC SHOPS in the same day! Yeah, the Christmas cash went by fast. (Side note: Reviews of my weekend acquisitions will be up tommorow)

We ate at a Mexican Grill called Qdoba's. Or at least I think that was the name. The place reminded me of Chipotle's in Chicago (a favorite eatery when we're at Wizard World), except the food wasn't as hot and the decor wasn't as art deco. Still, good stuff, it was obvious that quality ingrediants were used and that the food was prepared fairly fresh. The only heartbreaking part was that there was ANOTHER Mexican restaraunt on the same street called "Tomatillos". Gotta go there the next time I'm in town.

We rounded out the night by watching "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissoo" at the swanky danky Tivoli theatre. Man, that movie was rock on. It's wierd and funny and detailed and strange and silly and dense and intelligent. Bill Murray is so good... it should be illegal how frickin' good Murray is in this movie. Hell, even Owen Wilson does a good job. Highly recommended; watch it, if you don't like it, just blame it on my insanity and strange personal tastes.

Dig them Arches, man.

Sloganage

It's 2005. A New Year for the world, and a New Year for TORC Press. As CEO of this fine company, I have decided that the time for pussyfooting around is long since over. It's time we claimed our destiny and dominated the comics industry. All will fall before our might. Even Marvel and DC will bow low and worship before the altar of Cactus Joe the Clown. There's only one problem. TORC Press is lacking a corporate slogan. We need a slogan that will strike fear into the hearts of our enemies. Here's the ideas I've had so far, any suggestions may be left in the comments section.

TORC Press...Hey! You Like Cahmick Boooks?
TORC Press... Mmm. Tastes Like Chicken.
TORC Press... Now with 50% less Dead Rat per Issue.
TORC Press...Yo Mama!
TORC Press.... We're only slightly confused.
TORC Press...Virtually Guaranteed not to give you Explosive Rectal Cancer.
TORC Press...Slogan? We don need no steenking slogan.
TORC Press... We're slightly less lazy than Joe Maduera.

(Note: It's been a long, brutal week. The preceding was meant purely as a pick me up and was in no way intended to be taken seriously in any way. Except for that part about the Rats and Joe Maduera.)

Corrections, Retractions, and Dark Tidings

I'm officially not going to be attending the San Diego Comicon International. Apparently it's the same weekend as my buddy Shafe's wedding. No big, I'll just go next year. To fill the slot, I may look into attending another, slightly smaller con in some other far away place this year. Or not. Not feeling very decisive right now.

Mistakes like this wouldn't be made if I could just getting freakin' Hotmail to work! Gah! What is up with that? Since when does a simple e-mail service become a waking nightmare?

Comics Legend Will Eisner is dead. For those of you uninitiated, Eisner was not only the man who created the legendary comics character, the Spirit, he also took comics from being purely newspaper strips to the full on art form it is today. By breaking conventions and introducing a sense of design to his stories, Eisner didn't redefine comics. He DEFINED them. Eisner was always on the cutting edge. He created the first Graphic Novel, and he was the first to start creating comics for a mature, intelligent, adult audience. Eisner created comics his entire life, and I'm pretty sure he released a new book within the last two years. We here at TORC Press bid a fond farewell to a true Legend. Adios, Will Eisner.

And Adios to Dreamwave Productions as well. The publisher best known for their Transformers comics have officially bit the dust. I've heard rumors that the company is simply restructuring under a new name, but regardless, the Dream(wave) is dead. Further proof of just how hard this comic publishing game is.

In other downer news, it's raining cats and dogs out here. If a big freeze hits, it's gonna get real ugly real fast.

So, in conclusion, sorry Shafe, I would have e-mailed you ahead of time to confirm the dates (cause I completely forgot when your wedding was), but I got no e-mail. Ain't technology grand?

Cookbook A-Go-Go

Afore I forget, my only New Year's Resolution is this: Publish four issues of SDF this year. I've got a pretty good start on that, considering that "Crumpled Planet" is currently at the printers, and "Perfect/Ugly" is only ten pages from completion. Course, those last ten pages are stumping me like you wouldn't believe.

This time last week I was wading through foot deep snow. Now it's in the upper fifties and raining. Gotta love that utterly messed Southern Illinois weather.

So, I've got a Mexican Cookbook, and I've been trying to learn how to cook. And frankly, it's been going fairly well. I'm kinda on a 2 successes for every one failure pattern. For example, for every Chorizo or Enchilada recipe I get right, I screw up something surprisingly simple, like homemade tortillas. Welp, last night I tried to fix "Red Chile Enchiladas, Street-Style", and for some reason, the recipe turned out brutally bland. I mean, don't get me wrong, I still ate fairly well, but the recipe just turned out weak. Wonder what I did wrong? Maybe I didn't use enough dried ancho chiles....

Regardless, if at first you don't succeed, try something else. Tonight's recipe will be "Potato Chorizo Tacos with Simple Guacamole Salsa". Hope it goes okay.

And In Other Somewhat Pointless News...

Whoops. On my Best Movies of 04 list, I forgot to mention "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind". Crap. And I just watched it on DVD the other day. Thanks for the reminder Tato.

Shafe, mark this down on your calender. The following is the unofficial list of Comic Book Conventions that TORC Press/Joseph Morris will be attending. Of course, all of this is subject to change, and I have confirmation on none of these. Still, here's the dates:

SPACE- Columbus, OH. April 16, 2005
Comicon International- San Diego, CA. July 14-17
Wizard World Chicago- Chi-Town, Illi-freakin-nois (Represent!). August 5-7

Dig it.

Watched season 4 of "Mr. Show with Bob and David" yesterday. Very clever stuff. Definately more clever than funny. If you're into surrealism like I am, it's a good time, otherwise avoid it like the plague (spell?).

Scored the special edition of David Lynch's ultra kick ass "Wild at Heart" the other day, and watched it this afternoon. Again, if you're a surrealist this film (actually, just about any Lynch film) is an absolute must have. Besides a clean, colorfilled digital remastering of the original print, the disc has got a buttload of interviews that shed further light on the bizarre process that is Lynch's filmmaking. Again, a must have if you're into weird.

No Fox tonight, instead, they're showing "True Lies", which is admittedly one of Ahnolds best films. Still, edited for TV movies suck sour frog ass.

The Last Shredded Tatters of the Old Year

Before we get started, Shafe, if you happen to be reading this, our internet is working, but for some reason gaining access to Hotmail has been a Herculean task. I'll e-mail as soon as I can. Really.

Now for our confused Best ofs Lists.

Best Comics of 2004: I can't remember everything I read, and I sure can't remember what all came out in 04 specifically. Still, here's what rocked that I can remember. New X-Men (Grant Morrison only), Sea Guy, WE3, Planetary, Global Frequency, Frank Ironwire, The Ultimates, Wanted, Love and Rockets, One Piece, Naruto, GYO. Worst Comic of 2004: The Unfunnies.

Best Movies of 2004: Spiderman 2, Hellboy (Big surprise, two comic book movies on my list), Sideways (Best pure film of the year), Team America, Napoleon Dynamite, Garden State, and I'm sure there's a couple more I'm forgetting. Worst Movie of 2004: What I didn't watch: Catwoman. What I did watch: Alien vs. Predator.

Best TV of 2004: This will be real short, cause I only have one channel that comes in. Simpsons, King of the Hill, Malcolm in the Middle, Arrested Development, and the Fox Box Saturday Morning Cartoon Line-up. Worst TV of 2004: Trading Spouses or Nanny 911.

Perhaps this wasn't the most inspired year in History, but oh well, better luck next year.