Out of the blue Wednesday night I received an email from someone I don't know. They identified themselves as a producer and asked after the rights to 100 Girls. I followed the link they provided to their bio on IMDb and was impressed with what I saw there. Further, I was impressed with how much effort they put into finding my email address so that they could contact me.
I was struck dumb and immediately referred them to my managers in LA.
The whole episode made me start thinking that I should probably record the tortured history of 100 Girls in Hollywood. I won't do it tonight, mostly because I don't feel like crying, but soon, I think. I'm sure that most people I know have no idea how many close calls there have been with the book and either movies or TV. I almost always play that stuff close to the vest, because I learned early on that the odds are against you and I'd rather not have to tell people, "You know that thing I told you about? Yeah, you can forget that." Over and over. I remain, at the moment, cautiously optimistic.
One quick anecdote as an illustration: Some months ago I had a phone interview with two agents who wanted to rep 100 Girls in a specific market. I took the phone call alone because Todd, my co-creator on the book, has reached the point where he won't even talk to Hollywood types anymore. He just tells me to talk to them and report back to him. If I like them, he's willing to work with them. Anyway, I was on the phone with these folks and one of them asked me if I was excited about this latest opportunity. I thought for a moment, and then I answered truthfully. "If this had happened even two years ago, I'd have been excited," I said, "but we've had so many opportunities almost happen, that I try not to get excited. If this all works out, then I guarantee I'll be excited." My publisher at Arcana, Sean, told me later that one of the agents told him I had a "bad attitude." I just laughed.
Friday, August 1, 2008
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Briefly
Today will be the first day that Oscar and I go it alone without support from Melissa. Wish us luck.
Also, The Mister weighed in at 14.8 lbs yesterday at the doctor's office. He's getting bigger and bigger all the time.
More later...
Also, The Mister weighed in at 14.8 lbs yesterday at the doctor's office. He's getting bigger and bigger all the time.
More later...
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Comic Con 2008: the tweets
Because I don't feel like creating anything new right now, here is every twitter I posted while in San Diego last weekend:
• Saw vanity plate on way to airport. 'JEDIBUS.' Good omen. Saying good-bye to Melissa and Oscar sucked. Even worse than the security check. Plane on the tarmac for the last half-hour. May have to de-plane. What the F? Finally wheels down in SD. On to hotel, then convention center. 75 degrees is a lot warmer when you're carrying 50 lbs. So far, with all the lines, Comic Con is a lot like Disneyland. Where's Mickey? 'No, I'm not here to buy anything, I just want to touch it all with my greasy paws.' Got exciting news last night, but can't talk about it 'til August. Made the con for me! All good news! Kristin ran the booth for us while we signed. Sold the hell out of some books. We may offer her a job. Just met Johnny Johnny of Tiki Lounge fame. Cool, funny guy. Talked with Eddie Campbell for a few minutes at the show today. Another cool, funny guy. Read his books. Just uploaded my photos from first two days at con. http://tinyurl.com/5no4zx
• It's amazing how much better even five hours of sleep can make you feel. It is a cargo shorts kinda day. Nearly sold out of Gear School and it's only Friday. Man. I can actually feel my soul being crushed. Beer was able to repair my soul. Thanks for asking. Saturday and I've woken up tired. Could be a long day. Could be great, too. Waiting for a cab to take us to the show. Trying to find my game face. Unlike a lot 'artists,' I can't wait for the chance to sell-out. My gameface, while not absent, is certainly capricious. It is likely to leave me w/out warning. Trapped behind the table, I am getting no good photos of costumes. Of course, I've been underwhelmed by the costumes I've seen. Comics Foundry has a prominent sign: '2008 Eisner Award Loser.' Love it when folks who bought the book come back and tell us how they liked it. Ego bump. Melissa is sendìng me photos & videos of Oscar. It's killing me how much I miss them. To think -- I considered not going to the Hyatt this year. I believe that the convos and contacts made on Saturday night are worth having come to SD again. Maybe I should only come on Saturday night. Last day of con. I've had fun and all, but THANK GOD. 'You're not my real dad!' A random stranger just went and got me a Shermy pin from the Peanuts booth. Very nice! Booth babe directing people to us. This signing going much better. Time to head to the airport. It's never a good sign when the bartender asks how much you've had to drink today. That last tweet wasn't about me. They've started boarding the plane. End in sight. On the plane. Ready to turn off phone & sleep. One more SDCC under the belt. Home again. I'm so tired, my brain hurts.
Monday, July 28, 2008
San Diego photo parade
The last of the photos from San Diego are up now on the flickr page. At some point, I suppose, I shall break it down here in prose form.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Yes, sorry
I meant to blog continually throughout the show, but I was not in the mental space to do so. Something about this show really took it out of me brain-wise. I will play catch-up in a day or two after I've inserted myself back into my life and have spent at least 24 hours holding my wife and child.
All in all, however, good show.
All in all, however, good show.
Friday, July 25, 2008
Let's take another shot at that...
Our lovely model is wearing the shirt that I made as a gift for all the folks I'm meeting in San Diego that have had a hand in 100 Girls success. The shirts also come in black with white type. They are a wonder to behold. No, I won't be making any more, than you for your interest.OK, Let me try this again. Even getting about five hours of sleep makes the world a little more understandable. And here's the thing: half the decisions about what movies will get made and eventually show up in your local cine-plex, they get made here in San Diego during the con. That means that the American entertainment industry is running on four hours of sleep and is fueled by over-priced alcohol. Think about that the next time you're plunking down ten dollars to watch a movie.
Anyway, I'm going to try to do this as linearly as possible so as not to get derailed. Again, the atmosphere at the show seems to prohibit clear thought. I can only write this because I'm outside the one-mile wide zone of influence.
Tuesday saw me get into town a little late. The plan sat on the tarmac for around an hour. This was a cause for much complaining until I started to hear other folks' travel horror stories. All one needs to stop whining is a little perspective. I will complain about my poor planning, however. Once in town, I went to the hotel, checked in, freshened up, then went and retrieved the boxes I'd shipped to myself. More than fifty pounds of awkward boxes, my backpack, and me. I hit several people in the head with the box containing the banner as I walked along and get apologizing. I thought one mom was going to rip my throat out when I pumped her girl. Thankfully the crowds that already clogged the sidewalks made pursuit difficult.
A security guard let me set the boxes down near him while I negotiated the check-in process. This process was time-consuming, but seamless. Then on to the convention floor and my first crisis. You see, I had gone along planning that the table we'd be at was eight feet long. I designed out banner to be that long, had ordered a backing that length to go behind us (for the banner). Problem was, the table is only six feet long. So we nixed the backing (and got a complete refund, thanks Freeman!), and the folks behind us let us hang the banner off their steel pipe display. You can't see the whole banner, but the logo is prominently displayed. See photo.Set up was easy. Mostly just me and Todd throwing things on the table and moving them around until they had some sort of pleasing semblance of order. We got done pretty much right when the doors for Preview night opened. So then all we had to do was sit back and try to give off the whiff of desperation. That first night, we made a few sales and talked to a few people, but the crowd on Wednesday night is a different animal than the crowd on other days. You can only get in on Wednesday night if you've bought a pass for the entire four days of the convention. If you are that hard core, then ou have planned your visit. You know exactly what booths are giving away exactly what exclusives. And you are making a bee-line for those locales/events/items. Folks like Todd and me, and nearly everyone else in the small press area, have no con exclusives that got listed in the program, so we just get those few folks who want to meander through the hall when it is relatively free of crowds.
After the show, a large group of us went to dinner. Todd's and my friends, Will and Kristin Miller joined us, which was nice. The Miller's are some of those friends that I see only at the show and they are truly one of the reasons I come down. I felt a little bad because for a while, Todd and I got caught up in conversation with Sean, our publisher about this thing. About which I can't talk yet. So we spent a few minutes having this cryptic talk that excluded the two of them and we couldn't really explain it to them. Other than that, the dinner was great. And we were in bed fairly early.
That catches us up to the first day and seems a good place to stop. More later.
Rambling
Hello, Internets, did you miss me?
After a two-day separation from the world wide web, I am back in business.
The show is going well. Very well. Todd and I received news last night that makes us very happy. We are not yet cleared to speak of it, so I won't. But soon. Happy.
We're chatting up some folks, selling some books, eating some excellent food. The food in San Diego is stellar. Even better than the food are the people that I see only once a year while at the convention. Our friends Will and Kristin are always a highlight.
It's one in the morning and I don't feel very coherent right now, but I felt I should write something here.
Maybe I should just mention that there are photos from the convention floor up on the flickr page. Go there and partake in the sweet madness that is Comic Con.
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