[570] totally vulnerable

console

< Piro >

"back from texas..."

Monday - June 7, 2004

Heyo, finally home.

While at a-kon, had a chance to bump into a lot of people I know, which has fun. It was also fun to talk with the Antarctic Press guys a bit, in particular John Katz who does Legends from Darkwood (along with Chris Reid, the writer for the story :) We did a little gift art trade, and oddly enough the Pirogoeth drawing I did for him came out looking not too bad, so I asked him to scan it for me so I could post it as a DPD if he didn't mind. When I got home I found a link to the scan sitting in my email box. Thanks John :)

I was bad today, and I admit it. I was supposed to work on the next MT comic on the plane, but instead I wrote about 5 pages worth of development on another project that I'll be working on sometime down the road (yes, that other project I will not name because people ask me about it every time I turn around and ask me when it's coming out ^^;; I'll say first thing in 2005, but don't hold me to it). I was really in the mood to do so for some reason, and i was able to work out some story problems that have been bugging me all year. Funny how things can really clear up and click into place if you let them sit long enough :)

I also finally got my copy of Clannad. :) No, I am not going to load it and play it right now. No really. ^^;; Well, uh... if I disappear for a few days, you know what happened. :P It's all Pocky's fault. And Uguuu-sensei. Blame them. They are evil.

On a more serious note, I'm seriously thinking I'm gonna just ditch working on the comic tonight. I wanna see a movie, damnit. I've wanted to see a friggin movie since Hellboy hit the theaters and I STILL haven't see it yet. I assume its not in the theater anymore, but there are a few decent ones i think Seraphim and i can suffer thru. :)

So, to those of you all set to send me one of those pissy little emails about how sick and tired you are of me not delivering comics when I say I will, and how tired you are of DPDs, save your keystrokes. It's not like you are gonna say anything i haven't been hearing week after week for four years. For the rest of you, I appologize for the "1 DPD, 2 Comics" week rather than the "1 DPD, 3 comics" week i was originally shooting for. This is the way things are when i have to travel around.

That said, I'm going to be home for a good stretch of time (nothing till San Diego Comic Con, and then nothing after that for a while :) and the only thing that has messed the release schedule up this year has been trips... of course, there is still a lot of work to do for the new store we are opening at the end of July... aw, hell, like it'd be MT if i was reliable. :P You can form your own opinions about the comic schedule in the next month :)

Me? i'm gonna go see a friggin movie.

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< Dom >

"We need bigger guns"

Sunday - June 13, 2004

[Dom] - 21:26:00 - [link here]

It's been two weeks since my last rant. Wow. So, uh, there's a lot to catch up on, and I'll get started right away. But first, a blatant plug for my buddies in the Shadowfist gaming community. I missed out on seeing them at KublaCon this year, which was a bitter disappointment--I just bought a box of the new set, Seven Masters Versus the Underworld, and I'm absolutely in love with the card art. Great job as always, Z-man, and I hope to see you at Gen Con SoCal later this year.

Two weeks ago was Fanime, and to be honest, It doesn't really stand out in my mind. The MegaTokyo panel was disgustingly early but as fun as usual, but the rest of the con was just my usual thing. I've been going to Fanime for some six years or so now, and given that it was held only a couple miles from where I went to high school, it's rather homey. So I relaxed, had fun, and realized that I only have two more cons this year before I'm free... a comfort, since I'm also going to be unemployed soon--my contract with Wired expires on June 30th, after which I become a freelance writer again. And that means I can't really plan very many trips.

So anyway, other things I've done in the past two weeks? Well, I've done a whole lot of writing--Asmodeus introduced me to a 2channel saga called 電車男(Train Man), about an otaku who meets the girl of his dreams, and comes to a giant BBS for help on how to woo her. It's sweet, it's only slightly improbable, and it's wildly funny. Too bad it's all in Japanese, or I'd be able to share it with all of you.

Wait, I said I was writing, not reading. Well, the point is that Densha Otoko/Train Man has inspired me to start writing again. If something that crazy can happen in real life, after all, it can definitely happen in one of the many screenplays I have floating in my head. So I'm writing again, because deep down inside, I'm a squishy little romantic. And that squishy little romantic has awakened from a long sleep and said "DUDE! I have this GREAT idea for a story, you should TOTALLY write it!"

Yes, the romantic inside of me is a goofy Californian with a sunny grin. What did you expect, a tuberculoid Brit with a black rose? Edit 6/14: I've gotten a couple of e-mails misunderstanding the thrust of my joke. This is not a knock on the British--it is rather a reference to an old literary movement known as the Romantics, who saw the symptoms of tuberculosis--weight loss, chest pain, the flush of fever, uncontrollable sweating--and saw the same features of a pining lover, and used it as a symbol in literature. Sorry for making a joke only English majors would understand at first glance ;)

Anyway, back to writing. I'm one year out of college. I consider myself an average writer at best--I just have good editors is all. I mean, look at the quality of these rants. They're my natural voice, and they're erratic in quality, ranging from uninformed rubbish to amusing rubbish. And so when several people responded to my request for history books about the early days of computer games by suggesting that I write one myself using the Wizardry saga as a beginning, I was taken aback. A book is a huge project, and I'm still cutting my teeth on magazine writing. But who knows? I might get an urge to write longer non-fiction some time.

As for the books that I WAS pointed to for the early history of computer games, here are a few names with ISBN numbers for others who're interested:

Dungeons and Dreamers: The Rise of Computer Game Culture from Geek to Chic, by Brad King and John Borland (ISBN 0072228881), which is... well, about what the title says.
Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution, by Stephen Levy (ISBN 0141000511), which has a section about Sierra (specifically, Ken and Roberta Williams) and about Lord British.
Masters of Doom, by David Kushner (ISBN 0375505245) which is about id (obviously).

As for High Score! and Supercade, I remember those from my GamePro days... I think Dan Amrich told me that they weren't so hot, but I'll definitely hit him up for more advice on what books are good and what books are crap. Game Over was a recommendation of his that I highly enjoyed, so we'll see if he liked any of the others that I didn't put on the list.

Hmm, what else... well, coming back to card games, I got silly with Hamusutaa's cards the other weekend and created a "Sad Robots in Snow" deck for MT fans who play Magic: The Gathering, which you can view in our forums here. I don't claim to be the best player in the world, and I know that the deck isn't good... but dammit! Sad robots in snow!

Meanwhile, I've been trying to fit Shadowfist back into my schedule, which has been hard... but will get easier with time and unemployment. Hurrah for monkeys!

Stay tuned until next time, when I talk about video games (especially why I prefer City of Heroes to Final Fantasy XI) and manga.