Category Archives: Blog

It’s a Marvel, Man! Surridge does Gaiman

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My friend Matthew Surridge just interviewed Neil Gaiman! It was for an article Matthew’s doing about Anticipation, the 2009 World Science Fiction Convention. Gaiman’s going to be the guest of honor, and the convention’s right here in Montreal (Aug. 6 thru 10).

Go here for what Gaiman told Matthew about the Marvel purchase of Marvelman. Short version: Gaiman’s “delighted” and he may write the title again, but no promises — “I hope so. I don’t know. It would be very, very good.”

Spam and Comments Policy

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So we’re getting slightly more spam than in the past. I’ve been deleting it fairly quickly so far. But I was wondering if I should try to set up one of those things where you have to jump through a hoop (typing a word or series of numbers or whatever) in order to comment. Anyone have an opinion? Which is more annoying — occasional spam or having to go through an extra step to comment?

She should be vice president, or possibly just stay home

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Republicans have wildly different ambitions for the ex-Gov. Fox News did a poll and found that 27% of GOP respondents doggedly insist that Palin really ought to be vice president now that she’s had enough of her governorship. But the next most popular choice, at 18%, was “homemaker.”

A commenter at the Washington Post site, where I found this, points out that it’s a bit odd for a poll to list “homemaker” as a career option for ex-governors. I don’t know if the survey gave respondents a list of choices or just ranked what the respondents threw back at them. Probably the first, though.
My choice was “college professor,” which didn’t do too well: 7% among Republicans, 12% among Democrats. I guess the Democrats come out so far ahead because Republicans figure nobody should be a college professor. Either that or Democrats just have more of a sense of humor.
update, How about president? A Wall Street Journal/NBC poll finds 21% of the country says yes, meaning they want her to be president someday. The “no, never” response is 67%.

Gaffe

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I was talking about Joe Biden and how he commits classic-style gaffes, ones where the dumbness lies in saying something that’s true but the saying of which will get you in trouble. 

It just occurred to me that Obama’s “stupidly” comment about the Gates affair is such a gaffe. Possibly also his remarks last year about people in the rural U.S. “clinging to guns and religion,” but that’s a matter of interpretation. The Gates business is open and shut: the charges were dropped around when the cop car reached the station house. 

Braindrip

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I was on the phone with Fantagraphics an hour or so back and realized I sounded like I’d been released from an institution. Whoever answered the phone had to give me a couple of “All riiiiight”‘s or the equivalent. I mean the sort of thing you say when the other person in the conversation just won’t track.


I’ve been up for a while trying to finish a TCJ column and just sent it off. The thing went thru drafts and got bigger and smaller, just heaved around in different directions. I always do this, and most of the time I wind up the way I am now, feeling like I’ve been run over. What a lousy approach. How can I go thru the rest of my life thrashing about whenever I try to write an article? Also, it feels a bit shabby to keep people guessing about lengths and when you’re going to deliver.

A bright spot is that I just cut 1,400 words. I sent what I thought was the final draft on Monday, and then Michael Dean said space was tight and he gave me a couple of days to cut the article back from 5,000. For me that was like getting an extension, because the “final draft” needed a lot of focusing. Now it’s down to 3,600 and the points I really want to make have been spelled out more. 

The article is about the Watchmen movie and how it’s not so different from what I see as the dumber aspects of Alan Moore’s own post-’89 comics career.

Favorite phrase that I dropped:

He was just catching a ride on the collective unconscious’ public transit system of shared tropes and icons. 

That’s me being snotty about Moore’s use of Alice, Wendy and Dorothy in Lost Girls.