andrewfarago's Journal
[Most Recent Entries]
[Calendar View]
[Friends]
Below are 20 journal entries, after skipping by the 20 most recent ones recorded in
andrewfarago's LiveJournal:
[ << Previous 20 -- Next 20 >> ]
| Tuesday, July 14th, 2009 | | 11:01 pm |
A treasure greater than Nazi Gold?
The latest mystery unfolds at [ Error: Irreparable invalid markup ('<a http://www.williambazillion.com>') in entry. Owner must fix manually. Raw contents below.] The latest mystery unfolds at <a http://www.williambazillion.com>The Chronicles of William Bazillion</a>. Read it at your peril! | | Tuesday, July 7th, 2009 | | 10:48 pm |
| | Friday, July 3rd, 2009 | | 1:15 pm |
Question for Comics Folks about Diamond
Shaenon is self-publishing the first volume of Skin Horse, and she's getting a submission packet together for Diamond Comics Distributors. This is a line from their submission guidelines: "If you publish comics, Diamond generally receives a discount in the range of 60-70% off the US retail (cover) price." If we offer a 70% discount, I'm sure that Diamond is more likely to consider listing Skin Horse in their catalog, but we'll only get $4.20 per copy sold (minus whatever shipping costs we incur getting the books to Diamond). If we offer a 60% discount, we'll make $5.60 per copy sold--still not great, since we're self-publishing this, but I always prefer making more money instead of less money when possible. So, the question is: Is offering a 70% discount going to greatly improve our chances of getting listed in Diamond's catalog? Is only offering a 50% discount a guarantee that they won't even look at the book and will automatically reject it? Given Diamond's new standards, what can we do to improve our chances apart from putting Wolverine or Barack Obama on the cover? Are any self-publishers getting picked up by Diamond at all right now? Are there any other alternatives to Diamond if we want to get into comic shops (apart from the traditional method of hauling books from store-to-store and trying to convince the owners to carry it)? Thanks for any advice. | | Thursday, June 25th, 2009 | | 4:23 pm |
| | Wednesday, June 24th, 2009 | | 1:33 am |
| | Wednesday, June 17th, 2009 | | 12:13 am |
| | Tuesday, June 9th, 2009 | | 11:42 pm |
| | Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009 | | 1:06 am |
| | Tuesday, May 26th, 2009 | | 11:59 pm |
Mummenschlaughter!
Lots of 1970s-style mayhem in this week's William Bazillion as the Race for Santa's Nazi Gold nears its conclusion. In other news, I was at the National Cartoonists Society's annual get-together this past weekend, and I'm still reeling from the surreal nature of the whole thing. I've got photos that prove I was at Cathy Guisewite's house talking about World War II with Bil Keane, but part of me still doesn't believe it... | | Wednesday, May 20th, 2009 | | 1:31 am |
| | Wednesday, May 13th, 2009 | | 9:22 am |
| | Thursday, May 7th, 2009 | | 12:02 am |
Down but not out...
That's it. I've officially given up on my life "settling down" anytime in the near future. In addition to my trip to Japan last month (which I promise I'll sit down and write about someday, but you can follow Shaenon's detailed report in her current series of Comixology columns), here are some other recent doings: In late March, I got to visit Skywalker Ranch to discuss some work-related business with LucasFilm's animation department. I didn't get to see Mr. Lucas himself, but we had a nice picture taken with a Yoda statue just before we left:  Then we went to Japan. Apparently someone at the SF Guardian reads my blog or my Facebook page, since the trip scored a mention in their write-up promoting the Cartoon Art Museum's Comics 4 Comix event:  The headliner for that event was Carlos Alazraqui, who's best known for his role as Garcia on Reno-911!, as well as his voice acting as the infamous Taco Bell Chihuahua and as Rocko in my first-or-second-favorite Nickelodeon cartoon series (along with the early seasons of Ren & Stimpy), Rocko's Modern Life. Carlos and I both got hats from SF-based designer Cassel Goorin, which we're sporting here:  In the midst of all that, we took a 12-hour drive up to Portland for the Stumptown Comics Fest, where we enjoyed the hospitality of Jesse Hamm and his wife Anna. I exhibited with my friends in the Couscous Collective, and I caught up/chatted/met/palled around with loads of comic folks including Derek Kirk Kim, Charles Brownstein, Steve Leiber, Jeff Smith, Graham Annable, Vera Brosgol, Chris Turnham, Diana Schutz, Jacq Cohen, Gail Simone, Jeff Parker, Kurt Busiek, Ivy McCloud, and other people that I'll probably offend by forgetting to mention here. That photo of me and Miyazaki had really been making the rounds since I'd posted it online (whereas that photo of me and Paris Hilton, fortunately, has been largely unseen), and was a frequent topic of conversation. I felt *really* impressive when I asked Ivy if Scott McCloud had ever met Miyazaki, since I figured he was the most likely person in our circle of friends to have done so, and she revealed that no, Scott actually hasn't traveled to Japan yet. She followed up with, "I'm not sure if Neil's met him." It took me a few seconds to remember that she and Scott are on good terms with Neil Gaiman and get to casually refer to him by his first name, and I smiled as I realized I might actually be able to top some of Neil Gaiman's "I met so-and-so" stories if I ever run into him at a bar and feel like showing him up. In the midst of all of this, though, and overshadowing everything else that's happened this spring, my mom came down with a terrible case of pneumonia and had to be hospitalized in the middle of April. It was really, really scary and was touch-and-go for a while, with ventilators and all sorts of machinery used to help her with her breathing. She's been getting better bit by bit, and moved from the ICU to the general population within a couple of weeks. I flew home last weekend as she moved from the county hospital to an assisted living center in my hometown, just a ten-minute walk from my parents' house. They've got her on oxygen and an IV drip, but she's slowly regaining her appetite. There's a lot of physical therapy to be done before she gets to go home, too, but she seems to be getting a little bit stronger every day. And I'm 99% certain that the reason my mom kept the fact that she was feeling so sick a secret is that my dad, who had a heart attack in December, had a pacemaker installed in late March, and I'm sure that she felt she didn't have time to be sick while he was going through all of that. It really drives home the fact that I still have no clue how to be a grown-up. I've paid off my student loans, I've been saving money, I haven't asked for money from my parents in several years...but seeing both of your parents go from your own personal indestructible protectors to suddenly having to help them cope with life-altering illnesses over the course of five months...man, I'm exhausted. On top of all that, one of my mom's best friends died from cancer just before I flew home, so I had a funeral added to what was already going to be a not-terribly-upbeat weekend of helping my dad clean the house and making sure that he was looking after himself during Mom's absence. My birthday's coming up next week, and I'm hoping that my next year on this planet has a little less excitement in it. Healthy parents and some stability...I think that's all I really want this year. | | Wednesday, April 29th, 2009 | | 1:49 am |
Mini-update for William Bazillion
I'm taking an emergency trip home this weekend and that and a looming writing deadline forced me to go with a quick filler for this week's William Bazillion. Hopefully things will be back to normal by next week, and we can all move closer to discovering the secrets of Santa's Nazi Gold. | | Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 | | 1:06 am |
The home stretch...
The Race for Santa's Nazi Gold takes a few more giant steps toward its stunning conclusion. Really. Sorry not to post more Japan photos this week, but Shaenon and I just got back from a roadtrip to Portland, and we're trying to settle back into some semblance of a routine right now. Once it's sunk in that we're actually going to be in our apartment again for more than a few days in a row, we'll try to dive into the Japan blog reports. And if you want to find us on Thursday night, please swing by The Cartoon Art Museum where we'll be hanging with Carlos Alazraqui of Reno-911! and Rocko's Modern Life fame at the fifth annual Comics 4 Comix stand-up comedy/art auction fundraiser. Excelsior! | | Wednesday, April 15th, 2009 | | 1:02 am |
Totoro in Tokyo
Here's the first of many photos from Japan:  Taken at Hayao Miyazaki's private quarters at Studio Ghibli. More details soon, of course... | | Thursday, April 9th, 2009 | | 10:23 pm |
New WilliamBazillion!
I would have announced the new chapter of William　Bazillion yesterday, but I`m in Tokyo right now, doing work for Studio Ghibli and Disney. More details once I get back. Sayonara!　 | | Wednesday, April 1st, 2009 | | 1:51 am |
Best. Line. Ever.
Or not. But the payoff's pretty good in this week's William Bazillion, if I do say so myself. Coming soon--pictures of our recent trips to Pixar and the Skywalker Ranch. Sometimes I need reminders of just how cool my job can be... | | Wednesday, March 25th, 2009 | | 12:00 am |
Und zo it ends...
More of the ongoing Chronicles of William Bazillion are now online for your viewing pleasure. There's a brief lull in the action this week, but next week's installment will make you glad you waited. And where the heck is William Bazillion, anyway? I don't think he's been in the comic for several months now. Oh, well. | | Tuesday, March 17th, 2009 | | 10:43 pm |
Breaking training and going to Japan
First up, there's a new installment of William Bazillion this week. You don't want to be in the dark when everyone's talking about it at the water cooler tomorrow, so read up. Secondly, Shaenon and I now have our tentative travel dates for our big trip to Japan next month. We've been helping Studio Ghibli and Tokyo's Modern Art Museum get a big Mary Blair exhibition (a HUGE exhibition, actually--I'd consider paying my own way to go there if they weren't taking care of it for us, since it's going to be something like 400 pieces of Mary's art and memorabilia). Anyway, I've never been to Japan before, so if anyone has any suggestions--anything at all--that will help us to navigate the Tokyo area and get the most out of it in the three days (and seven or so nights) that we'll have available, please fire away. And bonus points to whomever gets the reference to the subject line first. No Google-ing, please. | | Wednesday, March 11th, 2009 | | 12:10 am |
|
[ << Previous 20 -- Next 20 >> ]
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
andrewfarago's journal