Posts Tagged ‘the horrible truth’
Please direct your attention to the following edicts:
- To more accurately reflect the truth, items formerly referred to as “Adult-Rated” will now be referred to as “Raging Hormonal Teenager-Rated.”
- All funds being spent on stupid, plotless, explodey movies will be diverted to world hunger, which should resolve the problem in about 20 minutes.
- All funds being spent on Twilight movies will be diverted to space exploration and colonization, which should have us permanently settled on Mars by 2016 (including travel time).
- J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek did not happen. Please remove all evidence to the contrary. (See also Edict #2.)
- Someone get us a sandwich.
As always, your cooperation in these matters is appreciated. Please continue to enjoy your pleasant lives under our benevolent rule.
-The Gneech
The Most Horrible of Traditions
NOTE: This actually looks better in my LiveJournal. The Gneech.com posting munges the format something awful.
And it’s upon us another year!
Look to the sky way up on high There in the night stars are now right Eons have passed Fear now then at last the prison walls break Old Old Ones awake Ones They will return They Fear Mankind will learn will the new kinds of fear re- Old when they are here turn Ones They will reclaim They will reclaim They will reclaim They will reclaim all in their name all in their name all in their name all in their name Hopes turn to black Hopes turn to black Hopes turn to black Hopes turn to black when they come back when they come back when they come back when they come back Ignorant fools Ignorant fools They Ignorant fools Mankind now rules Mankind now rules will Mankind now rules where they ruled then where they ruled then walk the where they ruled then It's theirs again It's theirs again Earth again It's theirs again Stars brightly burning They will return Stars brightly burning They will return boiling and churning Mankind will learn up in the gloom Mankind will learn bode a returning new kinds of fear bode a returning new kinds of fear season of doom when they are here season of doom when they are here Scary scary scary They Look to the sky They scary solstice will return there up on high will very very very They Stars brightly burn re- scary solstice will return Old Ones return turn Up from the sea Bring- Bring- Bring- from underground ing ing ing down from the sky cer- cer- cer- They're all around tain tain tain They will return Doom! Doom! Doom! Mankind will learn ... ... ... new kinds of fear ... ... ... when they are here ... ... ... Look to the sky Fear way up on high the There in the night Old stars are now right Ones Eons have passed They Fear now then at last will the prison walls break re- Old Old Ones awake turn Ones Madness will reign Madness will reign Madness will reign Madness will reign terror and pain terror and pain terror and pain terror and pain Woes without end Woes without end Woes without end Woes without end where they extend where they extend where they extend where they extend Ignorant fools Ignorant fools They Ignorant fools Mankind now rules Mankind now rules will Mankind now rules where they ruled then where they ruled then master this where they ruled then It's theirs again It's theirs again planet again It's theirs again Stars brightly burning They will return Stars brightly burning They will return boiling and churning Mankind will learn up in the gloom Mankind will learn bode a returning new kinds of fear bode a returning new kinds of fear season of doom when they are here season of doom when they are here Scary scary scary They They will return They scary solstice will return Mankind will learn will Very very very they new kinds of fear re- scary solstice will return when they are here turn Up from the sea Man Man Man from underground has should has down from the sky much fear much They're all around to to to Fear Fear Look to the sky Fear ... ... way up on high ... ... ... There in the night ... ... ... stars now are right ... They will return... They will return... They will return... They will return...
Care of The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society.
Merry Christmas. ;)
-The Gneech
…as trying to make progress on some OTHER project. :P
Stupid contrarian brain! Don’t give me great ideas for projects I’ve shelved when I’m trying to force myself to stick with one!
Feh. Okay, I’ll write that down and put it into a fragment file with all the others. Then can we PLEASE make progress on the CURRENT project? Thank you.
-The Gneech
This week I punted on a story that just wasn’t going anywhere; I hate doing that, and I especially hate doing it when the editor for whom I was doing the story seemed so keen to have it, but it was frankly not my best work and I suspect he would have had to reject in the end anyway. Better in the long run at this stage to let it go so both he and I can devote the mental resources to something else.
This, combined with the gear-grinding on Arclight Adventures, has led me to reflect on just what it is I want to accomplish with my creative endeavors, why it is that I do them — and why I seem to have been having difficulty with them lately. And I think I’ve discovered at least one psychological factor that’s been holding me back, i.e., “fear of commitment.”
Y’see, Suburban Jungle and NeverNever consumed so much of my life for so long, that there is a part of me that’s frankly afraid to get that wrapped up in something again. I loved doing my comics, don’t get me wrong, but there were plenty of times when it could also be a draining, demoralizing, downright painful experience, and part of me is shying away from that.
Another issue has been my own underlying motivation for doing the work, and here I have not been pleased with what I saw in the mental mirror. Y’see, for both NN and SJ, my motivation was that I loved the work — I was making those comics because I wanted them to exist, I thought they were good and worthy things that would make the world a better place by being in it. This has been less true of my more recent projects. In fact, at the end of the day, what has been motivating me lately has been ego.
I don’t want the entirety of my creative output to be “ten years of webcomics and done.” I don’t want the history of pop culture to say of The Gneech: “Known, by those few who do, as the guy who did The Suburban Jungle.” I want to leave a bigger footprint.
A natural feeling, perhaps, but a terrible reason to be doing any major undertaking. Somebody recently described me in my LiveJournal as “dedicated to my own epicness” — said as a joke, yeah, but it still had the sting of truth to it. I should be thinking about the work itself, and the readers out there who will hopefully get something out it, not about what it will do for my prestige and/or fragile egg of a sense of self-worth.
So … what to do about it? Well, for starters, I’m blowing away all of my current “projects” (which have been more placeholders than actual work anyway), except for the Short Story Geeks Podcast, because I have made a commitment to my fellow podcasters on that one and I intend to honor that. But for everything else, as of this blog entry, I’m no longer “working on X” for a half-dozen half-formed ideas.
Second, I’m going to look at each of the things I have been working on with a critical eye and determine which, if any, are actually worth doing on their own merits, rather than because I think it’d be “good for my career,” so to speak. If a project can actually justify its own existence, then I will add it to my to-do list, even if the due date is “sometime after 2015,” but if not, it’s going into the proverbial sock drawer indefinitely.
I do know of at least one project which will move up in the priority list, a YA collaboration with Mrs. Gneech, actually, which we’ve been talking about on-and-off for several years now. We recently sat down and hashed out a lot of things about it, to the point where I think we have a pretty good vision for what it should be like. It’s not something that really builds on anything I’ve done before (except in the vague sense of having some fantasy elements), nor really is likely to have immediate appeal to my established audience, but it is something about which I can confidently say its existence would be a +1 for the world. :)
As for what other projects will be added back in, I couldn’t tell you at this stage. If you have one you’d like to advocate for, I’d love to hear it!
-The Gneech
Random Dead Frog
So it’s a rainy day … tornado watch even. And we step out the door to run some errands only to be surprised by a frog on the patio. “Oh, neat! A frog! … Er … wait, there’s something wrong here…”
The frog, sitting in a fairly normal attentive-frog pose, was quite dead, with its mouth hanging open and a purple-black tongue lolling out. Yeeks. Ate some pesticide, perhaps? We don’t put any out ourselves, but who knows what the neighbors do. The frog has no visible wounds, so it’s not like some predator left a half-finished job on the porch. It looks for all intents and purposes that a frog just decided our porch was a good place to die.
Okay, creepy. We have a random dead frog on a cold and stormy day. But we also have errands to run, so random dead frog is left where he is.
Later, we’re back home and taking care of stuff and I happen to look out on the patio: random dead frog is still there, sitting attentively…
…facing the other way…
Time for the jibblies. O.o WTF, random dead frog? And why is it that you’re ten inches closer to the door?
Mrs. Gneech decides it’s time for the random dead frog to go. So we head out to the patio, to find that the random dead frog is now facing in a third direction. ¬.¬ But in short order it’s scooped up in a plastic bag and tossed into the trash. No getting in and laying a curse on the house for YOU, random dead frog!
Still.
WTF random dead frog.
-The Gneech
PS: I’m actually fairly sure that what happened is that the random heavy spurts of rain caused puddles which floated the dead frog around as they washed off the porch. But I didn’t see this with my own eyes, so it’s just as conceivable that we had a haunted frog on the porch. If it reappears after having been thrown away, we’ll know to call in the local exorcist.
http://www.comicsbeat.com/2011/04/15/end-of-an-era-tokyopop-shutting-down/
I knew they were scaling back as the manga market cooled down but … dang. O.o
-TG
