I like this

I just stumbled upon a review of 100 Girls written by an individual who, I can only guess, is a Buddhist. They look at the book in the context of Buddhism, and the concept of Dharma specifically. I've re-read the review several times and I can't tell whether or not they liked the book.

This interests me because... well, because I know nothing about Buddhism or Dharma and I never intended the book to be a comment on either. The fact that someone who studies Buddhism can find these connects in a book where none were intended. It's a good reminder about how readers can and will supply meanings to your work which you would never in a million years see yourself. In this instance, the meaning is positive and interesting, but there can be instances where that meaning is negative and hurtful to the reader.

And, no, I'm not going to consider the impact of a given story on every potential reader in the world, but it's a good thing to keep in mind, I think.

More bullet points

My brain feels all mushy lately and I seem unable to pull it together long enough to write coherent, fluid posts. Because of that, I'm going to do another bullet-pointed list and call it a day.

• The short story Todd Demong and I are doing for DHP is coming along nicely. It is written and drawn, and I have lettered it. Now we only await the colors to be completed by miss Marta Ziemnicka. I am sure they'll be stellar.

• Speaking of which: Comic Book Resources reported earlier this week that, for this month at least, DHP isn't being hosted by Myspace. Seems Myspace is suffering some financial woes and laid-off a bunch of people, including all of those who handle the DHP end of things. So, for the time being, Dark Horse are hosting it on their own site. I'm not sure what this means for the future of the online comic, but I assume that our strip will see the light of day since I haven't been told otherwise.

• We all know how reliable assumptions are, right?

• Another bit of Todd-related news that will only be of interest to a handful of you: After months of intense negotiations, I believe I have finally reached an agreement with Mr Demong to provide illustrations for this year's end-of-year mix CD. Everyone here at Adam Gallardo Enterprises is thrilled to be working with Todd on this endeavor and we're sure he'll be providing some of the finest work of his career.

• Apparently Nuria Peris has been posting to the Gear School blog without telling me. There are two entries up that I have not previously mentioned. One concerns the crew of the Gear School short film which Bamf! Studo is working on. And the other concerns a copy of our wee book making it into the hands of Yoshiyuki Tomino! There's a picture and everything! I couldn't believe it when I saw it the first time. I need to contact Nuria and have her tell me the circumstances of this particular pairing. For those who don't know, Yoshiyuki created Mobile Suit Gundum, of which Gear School is only a pale shadow. I liked the photo so much, by the way, that I ganked it from the GS blog to display here.

Photo parade

We let our flickr account lapse a while ago, but we've rectified that and I've just uploaded more than 100 photos there. These go all the way back to the beginning of May. Enjoy!

This business we call "show"

Culled from this week's Publisher's Weekly/Comics Weekly newsletter, a quote from comics writer Greg Rucka:

"What I learned is that the checks cash just as well whether the movie is made or not. Whiteout was on and off several times since first being optioned in 2000, and I think the secret to all that not driving us [he and artist Steve Lieber] crazy is that it was never our goal to get a movie deal out of this. A lot of people are writing comics or graphic novels in the hopes of getting it made into a movie. That is a recipe for disappointment."

To which I would just like to add: Amen, sir.

Anyone who gets into comics so that they can get a movie made is going to get their damned hearts broken. Hell, anyone who gets into comics for any reason other than to make comics is destined for el corazón quebrado.

I remember a few years ago I spoke to a high school class that was studying comics (although the courses may have actually called them "graphic novels") and one of the things I said, based on a question about how quickly one can become rich as a comics artist, was, "if you get into comics to get rich, you're in for a nasty shock. The only reason to get into comics is because you love comics."

The teacher and the owner of the local comics shop both gave me dirty looks. It quickly became apparent to me that these kids had been told something other than this pessimistic view I was spouting. Maybe they had even been told, as incentive to get them to take the class, that they would become overnight sensations and that people would throw buckets of money at them where ever they went. And here I was saying that comics might have some worth beyond the ability to make you rich and attractive to the opposite sex.

But some people get their comics made into movies and earn money that way, right?" the teacher asked me. His expression said to me that I should not contradict him. And, since his statement was true, I said, "yes." But I didn't go on to say that these kids would be better served taking a class that taught them how to play the lottery than they would be learning how to make comics that got turned into movies. How many comics movies have there been in the last ten years? Twenty, thirty? And how many comics are published every month? Hundreds! Hundreds of comics a month get published and only three or four a year get turned into movies. If Vegas offered those odds, there wouldn't be any casinos still in operation.

So, please, kids, if you want to make movies, do that. Go to film school; buy a camera and go shoot something. Just, please, don't think you're going to make a comic that will be seen by Steve Spielberg and then turned into a movie. It ain't gonna happen.

And no, the recently scuttled deal for 100 Girls has nothing to do with this rant. Why would you even think that?

Following up on my last post which discussed, in part at least, Japanese cinema: please bear witness to maybe the greatest movie trailer of all time.

There is absolutely no way the film can live up to the awesomeness of the trailer, but I'm willing and ready to be proven wrong.

Takashi Miike speaks truth

Via Warren Ellis's sometimes bewildering, but always entertaining, column about comics, Do Anything, comes this quote from Japanese film director, Takashi Miike:

“We have to change the negative things into positive. In today’s Japanese film industry we always say we don’t have enough budget, that people don’t go to see the films. But we can think of it in a positive way, meaning that if audiences don’t go to the cinema we can make any movie we want. After all, no matter what kind of movie you make it’s never a hit, so we can make a really bold, daring movie. There are many talented actors and crew, but many Japanese movies aren’t interesting. Many films are made with the image of what a Japanese film should be like. Some films venture outside those expectations a little bit, but I feel we should break them.”

Substitute the term "Japanese film" with "American independant comics" and you'll get where I'm coming from.

Shameless, really

A bullet point I forgot yesterday:

• I found maybe the best synopsis/write-up ever of 100 Girls yesterday on a site that, as far as I can tell, is used by librarians and teachers. CMIS? Anyone out there familiar with it? Anyway, the review starts off with the line, "This book unfolds like an origami swan, with intricacies at first hidden, then slowly revealed with a surprising intensity underneath." And it just gets better from there. I'd really like to find the person that wrote this and give them a great, big kiss.

And I think that I'm going to pull out the swan line any time I meet a creator whose book is better known or reviewed than mine. Basically, all of them.

"Oh, yeah, well my book unfolds like a freakin' origami swan, so suck it, Jeff Smith.*"

*Jeff Smith, if you happen to read this, please be aware it's a joke. Bone totally rocked.