The One Fear I Will Allow to Drive Me
Wow. When I announced that I’d be posting something that had “significant implications” for “The Victory Streak” and my life in general, I guess I should’ve realized that would have created a bit of buzz. I suppose I should be happy about that. But it wasn’t my intention to: a.) worry anyone, or b.) oversell this post. This isn’t a discrete announcement, per se. I’m not joining the circus, becoming an astronaut, moving to the moon, nor dying of some terminal case of Cucamongaphobia.
No. This is about 37 years worth of struggling to get my life together, and my attempt to put a metaphorical stake in the ground and say, “It’s now or never. The battle will be won or lost here.”
37 isn’t that old by today’s standards, but as I approach my fourth decade I’ve begun to realize how quickly time creeps up on you. I’ve been to more funerals in the last three years than I’d care to see in a lifetime, and I know they won’t be the last. I’ve lost both of my maternal grandparents, an old friend, and a beloved pet. My girlfriend’s second cousin died after years of surviving longer than anyone thought he might; and her sister-in-law’s mother died on Christmas Eve of this year. A neighbor who had been living next door to my parents since before I was born succumbed to some awful disease that I can’t name and don’t understand.
Never before has it been so crystal clear to me that my life is finite. Whatever dreams I’ve got, there’s a limited and ever-narrowing window to bring them to fruition.
Concurrent with this epiphany has been a gnawing sense of frustration at my inability to keep my commitments to myself with respect to “The Victory Streak.” I’ve set deadline after deadline and missed every one. Some months ago I set a deadline for the end of this month and I can tell you I’m not even going to come close to making it. I feel like I’ve shot my credibility to hell with everyone else. I know I’ve shot my credibility to hell with *myself.* I see other people’s blogs and Web sites listing me as a “comic-book creator” and I think, “Like HELL!” Right now, I’m not an artist. I’m someone who talks about being an artist. I feel like I should shut the fuck up until I do something worth opening my mouth about.
Yeah, I’ve never had much compassion for myself. Never was that brought into sharper focus than when I participated in a thread in Colleen Doran’s blog around the topic of what gives you insomnia or something like that. I posted about my own lifetime of struggling with sleep disorders, and Colleen opined that what I described sounded like “hell.” I rejected the description, pointing out that there are people in this world without food, without medicine, without any measure of safety against violence. Colleen scolded me for ignoring my own suffering. And I realized that, yeah, for 37 years I really have suffered. I really have.
All my life I’ve struggled with inattention and lack of focus. It wasn’t until I was in my 20s that I was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). I’ve tried numerous medications, and while medicine has helped it’s not a cure. It’s a daily struggle, a war with and against myself. My mind races off in a seemingly infinite number of directions, unbidden by me. Words come tumbling out of my mouth before I have a chance to think about them, even for a fraction of a sliver of an instant. I’ll be in the midst of a riveting conversation, wanting nothing more than to listen to what someone is telling me, only to realize that my brain has shifted gears and I MISSED IT.
I also spent much of my 20s in the grips of a severe depression. I needed years of therapy and medication to pull out of it. I look back on that time and I can see a big, smoking crater where years of my life should have been.
It doesn’t end there. I mentioned sleep disorders. I suffer from Restless Legs Syndrome, which causes an overwhelming urge to move one’s limbs to the point where they’ll twitch on their own if you don’t give in. It’s always worst at night, which makes it hard to sleep. Add to that a case of sleep apnea I didn’t know I had until it was diagnosed two years ago, and, yeah, I’ve spent most of my life severely, cripplingly sleep-deprived. Hell, there were times when even the stimulants I take for ADD couldn’t help me keep my eyes open at work.
Sleep deprivation even robbed me of the ability to read effectively. Reading relies on an ability to scan words and sock them away into short term memory until “batches” of them can be processed. When your short-term memory is impaired by a severe lack of sleep, well, that gets a little tough to pull off. Also, the act of concentrating on a text often caused me to, you guessed it, fall asleep.
I’ve had a shitty time of it, and it’s high time I admit that to myself and cut myself a break.
These aren’t the only things that have gotten in the way of me pursuing my artistic endeavors, of course. There’s also my ever-present fear that I’m not, have never been, and will never be good enough.
Over the past few years, however, I’ve begun to realize each of these battles can be won. I’ve conquered my depression; I’m learning to live with ADD; my Restless Legs condition is now controlled with medication; and a CPAP machine has me sleeping more soundly than I ever dared to dream possible.
Having won these battles, I now know it’s time to fight the biggest battle of all: the war against the currents of time. Because you can get swept up by those currents and let them take you in random directions, or you can learn to navigate them so you end up where *you* want to be.
I realized that my lack of focus and direction has in part a result of having ADD and sleep disorders. But recently I’ve also realized that treating those medical conditions isn’t enough. That has merely created a situation in which I *can* learn to acquire discipline, focus, and direction, but I still must *choose* those things.
I recently found a book called Getting Things Done by David Allen that has been of great help. “GTD” (as it is known to its enthusiasts) has a reputation of being a bit of a cult. Well, it’s not. It’s a simple productivity methodology that I’ve begun applying across all aspects of my life, and the early results have been very promising.
The other good news is that during this last period of letting my artistic abilities lay fallow, the plot for the first issue of “The Victory Streak” has come to me in fragments of inspiration and today, without fail, I am going to begin to write it. I feel in my gut that this will be the best story I am capable of writing at this time — and that with time and effort my skills will only grow.
I am also eager to put pencil to paper once again. I recently bought a book called Working Methods in which numerous comic-book pencilers explain their process from start to finish. Reading it was a bit of an ephiphany, as I came to realize that most artists don’t simply lay down a piece of art board and begin drawing. They sketch designs on scrap paper, and often do a rough version of the drawing which they then place beneath the final art board and, with the aid of a light box, use as a guide to creating the finished drawing. So now I’ve got a lightbox and hopefully my days of erasing and redrawing until I ruin an expensive piece of Strathmore Bristol are over.
I still fell this gnawing fear that I’ll once again let myself down. That I’ll once again make a fool of myself with this sweeping, grandiose declaration that is followed up with nothing. But I don’t belong to my fears. They belong to me.
There is one fear I *will* allow to motivate me. I do not want to go to my grave wondering what might have been.
To any of you who made it to the end of this torturous post… thanks.
January 12th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
Yeah, but if you DID join the circus, well, could you get me tickets?
January 12th, 2008 at 6:44 pm
Yeah, that sounds like it’s been a pretty rough couple of decades to live through. Still, if it’s brought you to a point where you can harness and focus what you need then it may have been a good thing. It may not bring anything to the table as far as straight up super hero comics go, but your past might bring you gifts if you do variations on the standard theme or if you use a surrogate character to tell stories of a personal nature.
One of my favorite authors ever is the (very) late H.P. Lovecraft. H.P. is probably one of the top five greatest horror writers (Yeah, I know. It always goes back to horror with me. I’m not well.) of all time. The thing is, good old H.P. was kind of messed up emotionally and maybe just a wee bit psychologically. Whether he did so intentionally or not, his writings harnessed the problems he had and focused them into nightmarish visions that strike at the deepest levels of the unconscious mind. Now, while I’ve no doubt that horror is off the books for your creative endeavors due to your having no tas… uh… due to your saying that horror isn’t really your thing when we’ve talked; I could see you tapping into that to do a very personal story arc in your work and doing it well.
I’m also kind of relieved that your announcement was of a positive nature. Coming so close on the heels of Mulligan and I ribbing you about your torrid affair with Dave and my linking a thread to The Pink Angels trailer, I was worried that your announcement would start out mentioning your purchasing of a Harley.
~8?)
January 12th, 2008 at 10:50 pm
“There’s also my ever-present fear that I’m not, have never been, and will never be good enough.”
I’m a big-time sufferer of this one, myself. No matter how many people tell me that I’m good, I have talent, that I don’t suck, there’s still a nagging sense of doubt, driven home by months with a really crummy mental health professional, that I’m just now beginning to get over. In fact, the only creative people I know personally who DON’T have that feeling every so often(or more…) are coming out with derivative, copying-the-latest-trend, read/watch/listen to once and it goes out of your head. What I’ve seen of your writing is NOT derivative. Just don’t let yourself get caught in the “This would sell better if I did THIS” trap. Don’t censor yourself with that. Get it out, get it whole, and then if something needs changing, THEN change it.
January 12th, 2008 at 10:51 pm
By the way, I had the “I’m not good enough” thing going before getting into therapy, but my time with my dear old friend that I want to pound into a thin pink paste just reinforced it.
January 13th, 2008 at 1:10 am
“There’s also my ever-present fear that I’m not, have never been, and will never be good enough.”
Yeah, been there and done that to massive levels of self doubt. I once (late teens to very early twenties) stayed with a crap job for a few years longer then I should ever have had any reason to do so because I couldn’t shake the idea that I wasn’t good enough to succeed at a better profession. Part of why I quit writing anything and trying to get published for a while was the idea that I was obviously not good enough to do anything with it. Even now, that doubt nags at me in larger ways. The only issues that ever come up in my marriage (tiny, tiny issues) are caused by my crashing headfirst into feeling that I’m not good enough a husband and a father to give Jenn and Ian everything they deserve. That’s usually followed by or accompanied by a short and very mild depression.
Still, it’s never been to the levels that either of you have been discussing. It’s mild enough that, at risk of sounding like everyone’s favorite Scientologist, I could usually shake it off in a day or so by being physically active, monitoring what I eat and drink and not allowing it to knock me too far out of my routine. Still, I do notice the increase in those feelings when, like this last year, I let my exercise routine completely fall apart. Maybe Tom’s not completely nuts.
January 13th, 2008 at 7:14 am
Bill, you’re putting me to shame. I really have no good excuse for not doing anything with my life.
You’re overcoming every day many difficulties and still you’ve achieved a successful domestic and professional life, and you are pursuing your dreams. Under the circumstances hope if not outright optimism is in order.
I don’t place deadlines to myself because I don’t trust myself to keep them. So I doubt I can give you advice. But I will anyway
I don’t know if what you need is more deadlines. Maybe instead do it more on a one day at a time approach. Try to at least think about Victory Streak almost every day. Of course, I’m trying this approach and it’s not really working. But that falls under the separate departments of ‘it’s not good enough’ and lack of discipline which you have to deal with anyway.
January 14th, 2008 at 9:37 pm
I just realized I forgot to put something in my post. My friend the animator used to live with a guy who was always pushing him to write, draw, whatever. He’d pull it every so often with ME, too. Now, when I write, it comes entirely out of my head. My buddy, too. I expect that’s how it is for all of you–if the story isn’t there, it just isn’t there. No amount of putting pressure on yourself will make it be there, in FACT, it might make it further away. There’s being dedicated, which is a good thing, but then there’s also knowing when to push back from the page and do something else for a while besides staring at a blank page and feeling low about yourself. Don’t just work hard, work smart.
January 15th, 2008 at 10:53 pm
Bill, even if you don’t consider some of the challenges you’ve had to overcome, look at where you are.
Good job, great girlfriend, friends who love you…enviable under any circumstances.
Now when you do consider what you’ve had to deal with…well, you are quite an admirable person.
I hope you accomplish as much on Victory Streak as it takes to make you happy but if you never did work up the passion needed to do it…it won’t change my opinion of you one iota.
January 16th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
I just had the chance to get caught up on the comments here.
Wow.
All I can say is that I have very good friends.
Regarding your specific remarks…
Jerry, you don’t have to be a Scientologist to believe that exercise and diet have an influence on mood. ScienTISTS have found it to be true. It’s just that some cases of depression can be so severe that non-medicinal treatments simply don’t do enough. Also, don’t get complacent about your own situation. If your feelings of depression are mild, infrequent, and alleviated by diet and exercise, that’s great. But keep an eye on it. If it gets worse, GET HELP.
Micha, why would you believe you’re not “doing something” with your life? Who gives a shit about external measures of success? You’re a good person, in the truest sense of the term. That alone qualifies as “doing something” with your life. Add to that the fact that you are well-educated, intelligent, have participated in political movements based on the dictates of your conscience, and work for a living, I cannot fathom why you would disparage yourself in such a fashion.
Sean, I don’t believe it’s wise to “wait for inspiration.” I believe inspiration often waits for *me.* The more I write and draw, the more inspiration I receive.
Bill, I appreciate your kind words. I don’t know that I am “admirable,” though. Like anyone else, I am just trying to get by. As for “The Victory Streak,” *not* doing it has been making me extremely unhappy. The thought of abandoning the dream makes me sick to my stomach. So I think this is something I need to do.
Thanks, all. I don’t know how I rate such excellent friends.
January 16th, 2008 at 8:41 pm
Well. like attracts like.
I think there’s a link between depression and creativity–it’s a cliche that creative people are prone to depression and it’s clear that when you are depressed it’s hard to be creative. It seems to me, based purely on my own experience, that we may have it backwards there–it isn’t that being depressed has made it hard to create, it’s that being unable to create has made us depressed.
(Which makes it hard to create which…it’s a positive feedback loop).
I’ve found that since I’ve gotten hot and heavy into the filming thing I’ve been much happier. My life is now chaos squared but I’m happier. The disadvantage is that I have to force myself to complete the projects and not just flit from one to another (Film is 80% creativity and 20% grind. If you don’t do the grind you never finish the movie. I have hundreds of feet of super 8 footage from my youth, all creation with no cohesion, lots of pretty puzzle pieces that can’t be put together).
I say…set aside time for pure creativity. If it’s not coming to you–and it might not–have some other creative thing there. Lumps of clay, papermache, scrapbooking, play with photoshop (though I find there’s a very different feel doing hands on creativity as opposed to digital). I’ve even played with music creation programs. Will your efforts suck? Very possibly! if my experience is any guide. But it gets you out of that block.
The worst days are those when I go to bed and in that time before sleep I can’t think of anything I accomplished that day. So I try not to let it happen.
January 16th, 2008 at 8:56 pm
Because you’re something of an excellent friend yourself, I’d wager.
As for the inspiration, what I was speaking of were the inevitable dry spells that sometimes strike occasionally where as much as you want to work, just nothing comes out. Usually, once I start either writing or storyboarding it just flows, sounds as though that’s how it is with you, too. But in those dry times, Stace has noticed this, that’s when I get really down on myself all because I can’t come up with thirty brilliant ideas every day before lunch. But when you ARE getting thirty brilliant ideas before lunch, in the immortal words of Linus Van Pelt, Go, Man, GO!
I can see where the admirable part comes in, too. Everything that you’ve had to deal with and continue to deal with and you’re still stepping up to the plate and saying “THIS is what’s important to me, this is what’s interesting about me, etc.” and not whining constantly about how bad you’ve got it.
January 17th, 2008 at 2:48 am
“Because you’re something of an excellent friend yourself, I’d wager.”
That would be a safe bet.
January 18th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
Here’s a question for all my literary-minded friends out there. When you’re knee-deep in writing, do you try some of you dialogue out loud in different voices to see how it works, if it flows right?
January 18th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
Some?!?!? Dude, the reason I hate the higher gas prices these days isn’t because of the long commute to work as much as how it cuts into pointlessly driving around and “talking to myself” while working that stuff out. Yeesh, I’ve dialoged entire chapters that way before. (Hint: It helps to have a mini tape recorder when doing that kind of thing. Sometimes something cool comes out in the adlib and it also makes people driving by think a) you’re dictating notes and b) not a raving loon.) Still, that’s better then constantly telling my wife in the next room over that I’m not talking to her.
January 18th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
See, that’s one of the reasons I enjoy having a job where I spend 90% of my time alone. Nobody’s going to look at me like I’m nuts if I’m talking to myself in a camera tower or master control/mix.
January 21st, 2008 at 11:00 pm
Ok, here’s a question for you all–I want to write a short story about a giant…well, that’s the problem. It has to be about a giant monster something or other but I don’t know exactly what to make giant that hasn’t already been done or is just too stupid to consider (Giant Naked Mole Rat).
Curse the guys who did THE GIANT SHREWS, GIANT GILA MONSTER, THE GINAT MANTIS, THEM, TARANTULA, MONSTER FROM GREEN HELL and MANSQUITO! All the really good ones are taken…
Well, if you come up with anything good I’ll pay you back by killing you in the story in a truly awful way.
http://www.permutedpress.com/giantcreatures.php has the details for the proposed anthology. If you want to try it yourself just remember to have a character named Bill Mulligan die. Horribly.
January 22nd, 2008 at 1:45 pm
A Giant made of many many zombies holding each other or attached to each other?
January 22nd, 2008 at 9:45 pm
Nematodes? Maggots?
Velvet Ants (great color visual and nasty bastards)?
“One velvet ant that is commonly submitted for identification is the ‘cow killer.’ The cow killer is the largest of the velvet ants in Kentucky, nearly an inch in length. It earned its name by the reputation of the female’s sting. It is said that the sting is so painful that it could kill a cow. The female is mostly red with some black, the male is half red and half black with dark wings. Females seek out bumble bee nests and lay eggs inside the wax cups. After bees or wasps have formed cocoons, adult female velvet ants enter the host nest by digging through the soil or breaking through nest walls. The cow killer larvae feed on the bumble bee larvae and pupae band will pupate inside the bumble bee nest. This bumble bee is ultimately killed.”
http://www.uky.edu/Ag/kpn/kpn_99/pn990913.htm
You could always play with the fire bird/thunder bird legends and have an entire flock of predatory prehistoric giants descend upon a small southwest town or even a major U.S. city.
Other then that…
Disgruntled Hooters waitresses? Irradiated WGA members looking to crush the studios?
January 22nd, 2008 at 10:01 pm
I see that their website’s bookstore has Dying to Live By Kim Paffenroth. I don’t know how his fiction work is, but his non-fiction zombie novel, Gospel of the Living Dead, is dense as hell to get through for such a short read. Granted, if you buy a book written by a professor of religious studies that sets out to look at the religious symbolism in George Romero’s zombie films… Well, lets just say that you’d be kinda dumb to not expect to wade through a lot of “lecture” style prose. Still, a worthwhile read even for the non-zombie fans (all four of you) out there.
January 23rd, 2008 at 9:53 pm
We have “cow killers” out here. Truly amazing bugs. I think they are actually wingless wasps but they look exactly like ants. Giant, colorful, painful stinging ants.
What is really amazing is that when you step on them…nothing happens! They don’t even seem really pissed off at you for it. You have to jump in the air and land on the heel of your boot with all of the force you can muster…and even then, they just sort of stagger off.
(Ok, normally I don’t kill insects just for grins and giggles, but there were small kids around and they were trying to pick up the pretty bug. I don’t mean to offend any PETA people. Wait. Yes I do. Kiss my ass! I’m going to eat a burger now. Yummmmm)
January 23rd, 2008 at 10:39 pm
PETA blows.
As for titles for your giant story, I think maybe you need to go for something a bit more subtle. To wit:
**It Was HUGE!**
**The Enormity**
**The Big One**
**Living Large**
Or, if you don’t mind doing a story about a giant donkey, **The Big-Ass Ass**.
January 24th, 2008 at 10:25 am
I finally saw Transformers on DVD. It was pretty bad even with the low expectations I build up.
January 24th, 2008 at 10:57 am
“Disgruntled Hooters waitresses?”
I’ve seen that. It AIN’T pretty. No matter how hot they are.
January 24th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
Yeah, I “rented” Transformers on Dish PPV the other day. First time I saw the thing as well. If it hadn’t been for the HD picture quality I wouldn’t have had much to say about it of a positive nature. The first thirty minutes were pretty good. After that, and especially in regards to the backyard scene, the less said the better. It was another classic example of Hollywood expecting great FX to take the place of good storytelling.
January 24th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
I looked up their link and was interested in doing a story, but I can’t really think of something either. My first, second and forth impulse is to go with insects (primarily ants) while my third and fifth impulse is lizards and rodents. After that, playing with giant birds or bats seems the best way to go, but I’m pretty sure they’re getting flooded with those as they more or less nixed insects in their invitation for submissions.
January 25th, 2008 at 2:54 am
snails?
January 25th, 2008 at 2:56 am
re: transformers
It felt as if the director wanted to do a movie about soldiers fighting aliens/monsters and the execs forced him to add a few children characters. so he stuck them in.
January 25th, 2008 at 9:18 am
Snails…why’d it have to be snails?
I almost hate to admit it, but we really liked the Transformers movie. Now when it comes to the GI Joe movie, they’re gonna have to REALLY work to impress me. Between all the books and the two screenplays that I’ve written, I know what makes a good Joe story. Hope they don’t screw it up.
Or maybe if they do I can sell one of mine.
Screw it up, boys.
January 25th, 2008 at 6:24 pm
“Snails…why’d it have to be snails?”
I think any kinds of maggots, leeches, slugs that stick o things — stick mushy creatures to use the echnical term, could work well.
“I almost hate to admit it, but we really liked the Transformers movie.”
That’s OK. I’m not a huge fan or anything. I just ddn’t feel it was very good. Just my impression. You’re entitled to your own. Truth is it’s petty hard to write a good script to a subjet like that or G.I.Joe. How do you translate a pretty silly children cartoon story dated from the 80’s into a movie in the present without making it a silly campy movie?
“Hope they don’t screw it up.
Or maybe if they do I can sell one of mine.
Screw it up, boys”
If you want to save it, act now before the make the movie. Because if they do make a bad movie they’ll insist it was great no matter what everybody says, and there will be fans and critics who will back them up.
I recently subjected myself to the sado-masochistic eperience of conversing with Star Wars/George Lucas fan about the prequels. And I tell you, the prequel apologists sound like Bush apologists. It feels like they work as press agents for the white house who will efend anything, evading and spinning.
January 25th, 2008 at 8:29 pm
Snails? try THE MONSTER THAT CHALLENGED THE WORLD. Pretty good example of 50s style giant monster movie with a great finale and a pretty effective full sized puppet for the monster (a la THEM). It’s about giant Mollusks.
Other than that, there’s always ATTACK OF THE GIANT LEECHES which is pretty good except for the giant leech costumes which look like garbage bags.
Continuing our tour of invertebrate horrors—STING OF DEATH!!! The infamous jelly fish man! It sucks! Really!
January 25th, 2008 at 9:29 pm
The other night we rented Rob Zombie’s Halloween remake. REALLY disappointing. Stace didn’t like it for all the cursing, I didn’t like it because it humanized Micheal. The original Carpenter version was perfect in its vagueness. The Myers family(Hmmm….keep big knives away from Bill) was normal except for the fact that a six-year old was a silent, deadly force. Michael was never meant to have a voice.
The Star Wars prequels I look at as pretty much the same thing. One of the most effective things Lucas did was hiding the faces of the stormtroopers and Vader. Why? Because he knew then that when you can’t see the enemy’s face, particularly their eyes, they’re much more frightening, more alien. It’s easier to hate someone when you can’t see their face. There’s not much to relate to. Some mysteries, especially in stories, shouldn’t be explained.
January 26th, 2008 at 6:57 am
Porcupines? Ferrets? Squirels? There’s a creature living near my house, with thornes, but not a porcupine. The size of a large dog. Nocturnal. He makes a rattling sound brushing into things.
Maybe giant birds? An homage to Hitchcock.
How about a giant man riding a giant horse? Michael Moorcock has a character called Gofanon the Dwarf. He’s 2 meter high, but in his society that’s a dwarf. You can also have a giant 3 year old having a tantrum.
OK, I’m done.
——————————
Sean, I think I know what you liked about transformers. Basically there were three movies. You had a pretty good movie about the geky but plucky teen getting the girl with the help of his alien friend. You had a Jaws/Independence dy kind of movies about humans facing a mysterious, overpowerful aliens and defeatin them by good old fashion human (American) gumption. That was pretty good too. But then they stuk in those characters from an 80’s cartoon, that were portrayed as pretty silly side characters. They didn’t show them a lot, but when they did it felt knd of out of place.
re: the prequels
You’re basically right, but I think the process of humanizing Vader started in the old movies. The problem was in the execution. But you’ve got a point that one of Lucas’s many mistakes was that he forgot the mystique of masks, so the clones, Boba Fett, and Vader to a certain degree lost much of their mystique. What is it with Hollywood and masks these days?
January 26th, 2008 at 5:50 pm
“You can also have a giant 3 year old having a tantrum.”
MICHA, DON’T SCARE ME LIKE THAT!!
You’re dead on about Vader. One of the things I would’ve liked to have seen is a more gradual progression from Vader back to Anakin. More of the internal conflict. Y’know, that in itself could do either an animated series, sorta Lucas meets Freud meets Dali, or a really ambitious fan film. Seriously, for all Luke’s talk in Jedi about rescuing his father, knowing there was good in him, he really didn’t do a heck of a lot to help on the journey back.
January 26th, 2008 at 5:51 pm
And seriously, DON’T SCARE ME LIKE THAT!!
Gonna have nightmares for a week now….
January 26th, 2008 at 9:52 pm
Artillery Soldier: “My God… Nothin’ kin stop this thin. It just destroyed all that and took everythin we had like it was nothing. Now it’s headin for da town. What’er we gonna do now?”
Hero: “Stay calm, Soldier. The Professor will come up with something. I know he will.”
The Professor: “I zink zat vee vill need at least two hundred yards ov heavy cotton fabrick und zum zort ov large rope. Und ve vill need zem immediately!”
Lead Damsel: “Why, Professor, whatevah are you going to do with all that?”
Hero: “Easy, Damsel. I’m sure The Professor has a plan.
Artillery Soldier: “Don’t sound like no weapon I done ever heard of.”
Hero: “Easy, Soldier. So, what’s the plan, Professor?”
The Professor: “Vell, zeeing az how zat giant inzfant haz juzt eaten two vields of corn and zen washed it all down wit un entire dairy… Ve have to make ze worlds biggest diaper in ze next two hours or ve are all doomed!”
Hero & Lead Damsel in unison: “Dear Lord!!!”
January 26th, 2008 at 9:56 pm
That sound you hear is Sean waking up and screaming. For the next ten years.
~8?)
January 27th, 2008 at 6:32 am
I’m sorry Sean, I thought you were looking for scary.
About Vader, I’d have to disagree. I recently caught the old movies on cable and have come to appreciate them as an adult. One of the reasons was the way Darth Vader wasd structured — he appears emotionless but his emotions are beautifully conveyed by a small change in James Earl Jones’s voice or a small movement of his body. His move to the light side actually starts in the Empire Strikes Back, when the Emperor is concerned with Luke and Vader basically pleads with him that Luke should be spared because he could be turned to the Dark Side. After that there’s a gradual process up to the Death Star. One of the best scenes is when Vader, on Endor, tells Luke: it is too late for me, Son; thus actualy showing that it is not too late. Luke also seems to me even better than when I was a kid. Think about it. Luke went against the advice of both his masters and staked everything, including his own life, on his belief that in the moment of truth Vader will switch sides. After he nearly kills Vader he throws away his weapon and puts himself at the mercy of the Emperor, thus forcing Vader to choose. That is a very powerful scene.
But, you’re right that a story written from Vader’s point of view showing his internal process could be a good thing if done right. I’m not sure how it could be done in film any better than it was done though.
In my dealings with the above mentioned Star Wars prequels fans, I was amazed how much they internalized the Jedi version of Anakin’s fall: namely that he was too attached to his (beautiful and very well dressed) wife. They seem to miss the point of the climactic scene in Return of the Jedi in which Luke defies Jedi convention by turning his attachments to his family into a strength.
January 30th, 2008 at 11:58 am
Hey Sean,
“Sure, there have been a lot of recent announcements regarding the live-action G.I. Joe feature film, but they all pale in comparison to this one, folks: Larry Hama, the architect of much of the G.I. Joe mythology for several decades now, will be joining the G.I. Joe film in some capacity!”
http://www.comicmix.com/news/2008/01/30/larry-hama-joins-g-i-joe-film-devils-due-loses-license/
January 30th, 2008 at 3:12 pm
That’s good news, I suppose. I used to read G.I.Joe back in the ealy 90’s. It feels kind of silly now. But Larry Hama was a prety good writer and the stories were pretty good. It was the only comic I read back then. I can’t imagine how to turn that comic into a modern movie that is not going to be campy. It will be interesting to see.