We've been caught up in the hustle and bustle of hustling and bustling to get everything in order for the Big Move to Arlington. Apparently my cat thinks this keyboard is a bed, by the way. Anyway, we found an apartment with almost the exact same floor plan as our last one, so that's really awesome...and kind of strange in a Twilight Zoney kinda way. I wrote a goodbye e-mail to all of my Dallas co-workers, which most of them found quite entertaining.
I'm currently about 40 pages into a book on how to speak the language of music. I imagine the finished work will be around 60 or so pages, so once I add illustrations and reformat it to like a 6x8, it could be in the range of 100 or more, not including the appendices. Once I get it edited and published, I'm going to send a copy to each of my guitar students. I only have six weeks with each of them before my time as their teacher comes to an end.
My parents got me a $100 Visa gift card for my birthday. I'm usually of the mindset that gift cards are effortless cop-out gifts given by those who lack creativity. But I'm also at a point in my life where I appreciate the ability to go spend money on un-budgeted-for things. Like graphic novels.
- 300 isn't Frank Miller's best work. But it is something that every Frank Miller fan should have in his collection. It is drawn with his signature Sin City style, yet the presence of consistent color is just enough to set it apart from the rest of his standalone works.
- Batman: Year One. As a diehard Batman fan, I just freaking needed to own this book. The fact that it is written by Frank Miller just adds to the fact that I freaking needed to own this book. Regardless of visual artistic style, when I become a graphic novel artist, I imagine my writing style will be very closely akin to that of Miller. I only wish he had drawn it as well. I still need The Dark Knight Returns, though...
- Final Crisis. You could fill up an entire bookshelf with all the crises that the DC universe has suffered. In fact, I'm pretty sure my dad actually has a bookshelf in his house labeled DC Crises, with every single one lined up in chronological order. I got this one mainly because I opened up to the middle and saw what looked like Ultraman being squashed in the hand of an 8-storey Mr. Manhattan. I know, right??
- The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. I can explain. First of all, you don't get married to a woman named Glennda and expect to live the rest of your life without hearing about this book constantly. It wasn't the story that interested me, but rather the fact that it was penciled by one of my all-time favorite comic book artists: Skottie Young. I became a follower of him about a decade ago when I stumbled upon his website (http://www.leadheavy.com/), which no longer exists. He's right up there with Frank Miller and Jim Lee in my book.
- Mystery Novel...ok so I didn't go out and buy a novel called 'mystery novel,' but my wife did order something for me from bn.com and refuses to let me know what it is. I could go look at the digital receipt sitting in my inbox because she used my own account to buy the thing, but where's the fun in that?
We're house-sitting for some friends this week. They have these awesome door knobs that open from the inside but not from the outside, so when a house-sitter goes outside to take out the trash and doesn't think to take the house key with him, he ends up spending 15 minutes looking like a burglar trying to break in until he finally finds a half-unlocked window and uses a pooper scooper and a hose to MacGuyver his way back in. I'm just saying.
I'm going to go pay attention to my cat. In a fit of attention-craving, he actually climbed up my jeans just now. It was cute until he kept going and began to climb up my T-shirt. That was significantly less cute.
And now, you're in the loop.
-R.
