The Outhouse - The Greatest Comic Book Forum

[David Bird]

June 11:

42 days!

http://www.warrenellis.com/?p=4452


-- W

Was in bed by 2am, woke up in a
fog that isn't clearing. Will soon
apply instruction-violating stack
of stimulants to brain, but first:

* CROOKED LITTLE VEIN has been
selected as an August "notable book"
pick by Book Sense, a consortium
of American indie booksellers. And
it got a positive, if slightly odd,
review in PUBLISHERS WEEKLY that
likened it to NAKED LUNCH.

* We're something like 43 days
from release: HarperCollins even
created a countdown widget for
websites, which you can find a few
entries down on warrenelliscom
today.

* Waiting on an update re: BLACK
SUMMER #0, but I'm told copies
are already appearing on eBay.

* Will be breaking stuff on The
Engine later.

[David Bird]

June 16:

Horrible morning, minor domestic
crisis. The good news is that I don't
have a brain aneurism, despite the
brief insistence of a visiting
paramedic. Long story.

Random downloads:

* Someone last week put into my
mind again the suggestion of running
a private online community for
artists and technologists. Which
I've done before, and, well, it doesn't
particularly appeal. But it appears
that I may fall into a job as a Sunday
columnist for a popular website,
which would mean I could use an
easier way of keeping up to date
with my network.

* I already have a test site, The
Ghost Tactical, that'd serve the
purpose. (I keep a few URLS and
installation sites to test software
and look at structures -- have done
for years, to try and keep abreast
of things.

* But -- and here's a thing -- it
seems that asynchrony has gone a
little out of fashion. I find that people
either check their RSS feeds
religiously, or in fact let them build
to the point where they'd just
rather not look at them. Note also
the recent notion of "declaring
email bankruptcy" -- just announcing
on your blog that you're deleting
all the email you've gotten because
it's too much to sort through.

* This is one reason why Twitter
caught on, and why so many people
live on their IM -- low-impact
synchronous communication.

* (What I've done with Twitter is
hook it to my blog, so that sends
to Twitter are republished on
warrenellis.com (with an hour's
delay).)

* (And my own effort to keep up
with shit is to pipe RSS "response"
feeds -- Technorati pings, for
instance -- into a Tumblr. This has
the wonderfully spooky effect of
giving me a bloglike page that shows
who's quoting me, which puts a
comment on their comment just
one click away. I've frightened the
shit out of a couple of people lately
by instamagically appearing in
their comments section.)

* Message boards are, of course,
asynchronous by their very nature,
coming from a time when always-
on connections were rare. They
may simply be beside the point
now. As time goes on, I'm appreciating
the impact of Twitter more and more
-- I know when Wil's away from the
keyboard, I know when Laurenn's
working, I know when Eliza's at lunch.
Minor things, mundane things
even, but it sharpens everyone's
digital shadows.

* In fact, I'd have to check this,
but I think that if you created a
Twitter account, selected your
friends to follow, yanked an RSS
feed out of it and plugged it into
(say) Tumblr -- instant mobile
groupblog. The 140-character
limit for Twitter posts in fact makes
it perfect for a tumblelog.

* (Also, for Ning users, the Twitter
RSS can be stuffed into a sidebar,
for showing where your people are
when they're not on the board.)

* What's this got to do with comics?
Nothing.

[David Bird]

http://www.warrenellis.com

http://twitter.com/warrenellis

http://www.flickr.com/photos/warrenellis/

http://suicidegirls.com/members/warrenellis/

http://www.last.fm/user/warrenellis/

* * * *

http://www.the-engine.net/forum/

http://engine.ning.com/

* * * *

http://secondlife.reuters.com/stories/c ... ren-ellis/



warrene @ aol.com

[David Bird]

June 20:

Random notes:

* Legal work should be done on new
journalism gig by the end of the
day. The nice thing about it is that
it has nothing to do with comics.

* I have been approached recently
about a column elsewhere about
comics. But, frankly, I'm struggling
enough with 400 words for SFX
every month. The current scene,
or lack thereof, is just boring the
arse off me.

* Got off Facebook. Just didn't
like the functionality. I'm culling a
lot of online presences in general.

* Ariana put a new skin on The
Engine, which makes the place
lighter and a little less claustrophobic
for people who didn't appreciate
the Soviet engineering of the
original look. I doubt it'll make any
difference to most people, but it
was time for a change.

* Comments are back up on
warrenellis.com for the moment,
until such time as the wanker squad
renders them unusable again. Given
that I mostly just collect music,
research material, and things that
friends and acquaintances are up
to, I doubt most people on this
list look at it too often anyway.

* I continue to mess around with
the G-Tac test site on Ning, and I'm
finding that it's actually better
suited for a private network, as
the links it generates are a mile
long. If they fix that, their blogs,
especially, will really blossom. (but
then, MySpace has a similar
problem.)

* The novel comes out in a hair
over one month. So does CRECY
and DOKTOR SLEEPLESS.

[David Bird]

June 21:

warren isn't awake yet



Gordon Lee Trial Date Set – CBLDF Needs Your Help!

The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund urgently needs your help. This August,
the long-running case of Georgia v. Gordon Lee will finally go to trial, with
court costs expected to hit $20,000.

For nearly three years the Fund has defended Georgia retailer Gordon Lee,
seeing him through multiple arraignments and procedures, and racking up $80,000
in legal bills. The charges stem from a Halloween 2004 incident in which
Lee handed out, among other free comics, an anthology featuring an excerpt from
the critically acclaimed graphic novel The Salon. The segment depicted a
historically accurate meeting between 20th Century art icons Georges Braque and
Pablo Picasso, the latter depicted in the nude. It was a harmless sequence,
no more explicit than the nudity displayed in the award winning Watchmen.
Yet because the title found its way into the hands of a minor, Floyd County
prosecutors hit Lee with two felony counts and five misdemeanors. The Fund
eventually knocked out most of the charges, but must now defeat the two
remaining misdemeanor counts of Distribution of Harmful to Minors Material, each
carrying a penalty of up to one year in prison and up to $1,000 in fines.

The case is slated to go to trial the week of August 13. We urgently need
your support in order to wage the best defense possible against these
remaining charges, and that means raising the $20,000 that the trial is expected to
cost. Here’s how you can help:

Make A Monetary Donation: Every dollar counts, so please visit the cbldf.org
and make a tax-deductible contribution today. As a thank-you for making a
donation of $30 or more, the Fund will give you a brand new t-shirt displaying
the text of the First Amendment in the shape of an American flag. Show your
commitment to free speech, and your support for this very important case.

Join The CBLDF: Now is the time to join or renew your membership in the
Fund. Your member dollars provide the baseline of support that we need to
perform our casework, and defend your right to buy whatever comics you wish. If
you join now with a basic membership of $25 you will receive a CBLDF Member
Card, featuring new Groo art by the one-and-only Sergio Aragones, as well as a
subscription to our news publication Busted!, and special admission to CBLDF
events across the country. If you join at a level of $100 or more, you will
also receive one of the new First Amendment t-shirts.

Donate Original Art & Collectibles: With summer conventions upon us, the
Fund needs original art, high-grade comics, and other collectible items to make
the most of our summer auctions. Please e-mail _cbldf1@gmail.com_
(mailto:cbldf1@gmail.com) for more information about how to donate to our auctions, or
with a description of your intended donation. If your donation is accepted
for our summer auctions, you will receive a letter of acknowledgment and a
2007 membership. To ensure that your donation is received safely, please do
not send physical items until accepted by the CBLDF.

With Gordon Lee's freedom in the balance, the CBLDF needs everyone who
values Free Expression in comic books to do his or her part to support this very
important case. Please visit _www.cbldf.org_ (http://www.cbldf.org) and make
your contribution today.

Donations: _http://cbldf.safeshopper.com/12/cat12.htm?479_
(http://cbldf.safeshopper.com/12/cat12.htm?479)
Membership: _http://cbldf.safeshopper.com/7/cat7.htm?945_
(http://cbldf.safeshopper.com/7/cat7.htm?945)
Other Donations: _cbldf1@gmail.com_ (mailto:cbldf1@gmail.com)

Anyone here a member?

[David Bird]

June 22:

Apparently I'm in today's ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY, on
the Hot 100 list of creative people arbitrarily chosen by
the drunks and perverts on staff at America's best-loved
magazine about stuff.

Someone described my position on the list as "behind
JK Rowling."


-- W

[David Bird]

June 25:

Some frequently asked questions
on CROOKED LITTLE VEIN:

* I'm not in charge of shipping. I
don't know when CLV will reach your
country. I don't know when Amazon
will send it to you. I'm getting a
stupid number of questions on these
topics. Listen: I'm Not The Publisher.

* The UK rights have not been
sold. I don't care what Amazon UK or
Waterstones have been telling you.
They're either offering you import
copies of the book from America,
or they're full of shit. Same with
Amazon.fr. I think we've only sold
foreign rights to Italy so far (and
I'd have to check that).

* This is Not Comics: this book is
not released on a Wednesday cycle.
There is no "late." If a local supplier
is telling you they don't get the
book until August, well, that's when
they're getting the book, and it's
nothing to do with me.

* The cover is from a political
cartoon by Benjamin Franklin. It
has nothing to do with any band,
any poster, or Skrulls.

* There is no book tour. I can't
afford to do one, and the publisher
apparently wasn't interested, as
the subject was never broached.
So, no, I will not be appearing in
Legstump, Indiana in support of
the novel.

* Therefore, if you're not at San
Diego, no, I won't be signing your
book. You can't send copies for me
to sign.

* Also under the heading Not
Comics: the promotional push for
the book is not limited to week of
release. It continues through to, so
far, the end of September.

* As of an hour or two ago, CLV's
Amazon ranking was #465.

Seriously. But I've had to field some
two hundred messages on these
subjects over the weekend. I don't
know where people's heads are.

You don't get a real sense of how
weird some comics fans are until
you put a prose book in front of
them. You have no idea how many
of them emailed to DEMAND to
know why the book was late because
their local bookseller didn't have
the July 24 publication date listed.
One guy wanted to know how many
pages long it was before he bought
it, in case it wasn't good value.

And the number of people who've
told me I've "sold out" by getting
listed in EW... I almost hate to tell
them it's the second time. Funny
stuff.

* * *

In other news: time for a change.
Within the next couple of days,
the contract on a new online
journalism job will be ironed out.
This is going to lead, I think, to a bit
of a change in how I do things online.
Including, possibly, the instantiation
of a private message board.

(Oh, by the way -- we found the
flaw in the code that made
warrenellis.com render weirdly in
Safari. Give it a shot.)

His first post only confirms what I've come to realize. A great many comics readers don't know much about books without pictures. They may read them, but they don't how the process of getting a book into their hands really works.

[David Bird]

June 26:

Woken after 5hrs sleep by gaggle
of tards at FedEx. No-one bug me
with stupid crap today. Control of
temper will not be good.

Book pre-orders at Amazon went
crazy yesterday, on the back of
the EW thing. It peaked overnight
at #214 on the bestsellers list. I
know how Amazon ranking works, so
no need to write and tell me -- it
doesn't mean I'm rich or anything.
But it looks good. And it goes to
show what the right kind of plug can
do. Last week the book was ranked
around the #17000 mark.

The new online gig got confirmed
yesterday, and the contract will
arrive today. It has me sharing
space with a couple of friends, which
is always nice. And it couldn't be
further from comics. Which,
frankly, is pleasing me right now.
As is the money. Comics are such a
fucking snakepit right now.

Anyway, that'll get announced once
the contract's signed. Probably
tonight or tomorrow.

You know what's odd? Shoegaze
coming back. Nu-gaze, some people
are already calling it. It's a bit
weird, hearing people try to emulate
glide guitar (again). Kevin Shields
will be threatening another My
Bloody Valentine album (again)
before you know it. What was it
the inkies used to call it? The Scene
That Celebrates Itself? Can't recall
who came up with that particular
word-mong.

Talking of odd, I heard a bit of the
new White Stripes. And I'm going to
have to listen again, because I swear
I heard some Jethro Tull in there.
What was the name of that git?
Ian Anderson? With the wild look in
his eye, and his "look at me, I'm
so craaazy, prancing around playing
my fucking flute." Because nothing
says Mad For Rock like a flute, mate.

Emusic hasn't got any of the week's
new releases I want. Pissed off. Am
still trying to buy all my new music
as downloads. I could get some on
iTunes, but I bloody hate iTunes AND
its poxy DRM. Do iTunes offer the
week's new releases as overpriced
DRM-free iTunes Plus? Do they
arse. And the last time I ordered a
download from recordstore.co.uk,
they sent me two 7-inch singles and
4 CDs instead. All of the same song.
Bleep and Rough Trade have
excellent systems, but their stock
is sparse -- by design, yes, but
still annoying.

[David Bird]

June 27:

I am a Sunday columnist now.

Specifically, I'm the new Sunday columnist at suicidegirls.com.

Once a week, they will be paying me actual money to write
The Sunday Hangover, wherein I will basically be emptying
my brain on to the screen. The actual mandate reads something
along the lines of "whatever Warren wants to talk about."
Which is asking for trouble, really.

As I imagine many of you will know, they have an insanely
large readership, which I intend to exploit shamelessly.

I start July 1.

-- W

Don't combine Sida Cordifolia with a Tyrosine/guarana/Carnitine stack,
three cans of Red Bull and the little red capsules from the bottle with
the ingredients list that is printed too small to read.

(And a few glasses of Caol Ila.)

Don't do that. Seriously.

Aaaacccckkkkk.


-- W

[David Bird]

June 28:

I flaked out early last night -- today's
going to be a nightmare of catch-up
-- but before I went to bed, I
checked the thread on Suicide Girls
where my Sunday column was
announced. And in the middle of
the responses and best wishes etc,
I found a comment which read:
"So long as it doesn't interfere with
his comics writing duties."

So now, apparently, I have to ask
permission from the fan community
before taking a new job. Amazing.

I got a copy of CROOKED LITTLE
VEIN today. The printed, complete,
finished object. It's a little black
book, which is perfect. Lovely
little thing it is. Turned it around
in my hands for a while.

People keep asking me if I'm leaving
comics. I tell you: today, it's very
tempting.

Here's a thing brought up by
friends, after a similar thread on
the Engine and a recent stunt on
the website.

If you're a woman and you read the
Signal, drop me a quick note to say
so.

Sampling elsewhere would suggest
that you're no more than 20% of
the audience, but the Signal's always
been a bit wonky. So let's have a
look.

(And if you read warrenelliscom too,
I'd be interested in that. Ta.)

I do have broader reasons for
wanting to know this.

-- W

[David Bird]

June 29:

Well, that was interesting.

Rule of thumb: no more than 20% of
people ever respond to anything.
In twelve years of messing around
online, I've never seen that rough
rule violated. With around 10000
people reading the Signal, that'd be
2000 people.

I must've gotten some 500 responses
to yesterday's poll call. So I'm going
to go ahead and suggest that 25%
of the Signal's readers are female.

Of them, about half read
warrenellis.com. Of them, probably
less than a third have visited the
Engine.

(Oh, and note to the LJ users --
you can pick up the LJ feed for the
site -- warrenelliscom.)

And, it has to be said, it was really
nice to get several hundred messages
yesterday that, in addition to the
basic shout-out I asked for, also
took the time to say something nice.

(Also, a dozen responses began: "My
girlfriend/wife is making me write
this...")

Of course, the first message I
opened this morning was from
someone informing me that I'm a
fuckpig and should shut up and
write comics.

[David Bird]

July 1:

http://suicidegirls.com/news/culture/21799/


-- W

[David Bird]

July 1:

before I pass out, because I won't remember tomorrow;

Starting Monday, my friend Eliza Gauger and her colleague John Brownlee
defect from Wired Blogs' "Table Of Malcontents" to their own site.
Give them a big launch on Monday at Ectoplasmosis:

http://www.ectomo.com/


-- W

[David Bird]

July 4:

FAQ:

1) I will not get you a job.

2) I will not give you money.

2a) Unless your services are, you know, *extraordinary*.

3) I will not do your homework for you.

3a) Yes, your thesis is your bloody homework. Get a job.

3b) And, let's face it, if your thesis depends (as so many requests
seem to do) on me spending 1000 words telling you what I think of
some superboy comic you want me to talk about, you're heading
for a life of disappointment and emptiness and you are going to die
confused and crying.

3c) And yes, I can tell when said request is actually a thinly disguised
attempt to get an interview for your poxy website.

4) I will not advise you on your writing.

4a) I will not, no, stop everything to help you come up with the
correct sound effect for someone shitting themselves.

5) I will not take you on as my apprentice.

5a) I will not take you on as my "filthy assistant."

5b) Well, okay, I might take you on as my "filthy assistant.".
But I shouldn't. I'd have to hide you in a secret apartment
and stuff, and, you know...


-- W

[David Bird]

July 6:

* It occurred to me the other week, listening to Burial's new GHOST
HARDWARE, that dubstep is the new science fiction music. In fact,
it's the new post-apocalyptic music. It's antediluvian South London
three years from now. It's cold and it's underwater.

* (Perhaps interestingly, I've just read that Digital Mystikz and Kode9
were both on the CHILDREN OF MEN soundtrack.)

* My life is currently one ongoing nicotine fit and caffeine deficiency
episode. (Occasionally broken up by painkillers, as the weather
continues to wreak havoc on my leg)

* "Because We're Dead" by Slow Club is really good.

* Sold a film option last week. Details to come. Nothing that's going
to make me rich, don't worry.

* Have begun process of removing some of my tentacles from
the internet.

* "Running Away" by the Polyphonic Spree is really not so good.


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