Strange Radiation Archive
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Nov 29 07: the calm before the storm before the calm
Am becalmed at the office, waiting for somebody to read something. At least a couple hours’ work to do after that happens; and tomorrow will be a total screamer. Here, then, is an infodump: What Andrew Is Up To.
The long period of reliable work with Big Honkin’ Publication that began in the spring comes to an end soon. Have picked up another client or two, but after the middle of next week I find myself without work. I can keep the wolf from the door for a while — and for longer than that if I have to dip into the Apartment Fund, which I really really don’t want to do — but still, much as it’s the nature of the freelance thing, staring into the void like this is scary. (Anybody with leads on people who need freelance copy editors, or even ideas on places I might find leads that maybe I haven’t thought of yet, is welcome to sing out.)
Despite the scary, I find myself in an unexpected position: I can honestly say that based on the last six months’ experience, I love what I do for a living. And I’ve never been able to say that, not like this. Which is cool.
On the fiction front: a number of 1.0 drafts have been given righteous (and well-deserved) kickings by the Secret Cabal. Perhaps I can use some of this big empty time in my immediate future to turn them into 2.0 drafts. (Even the Stevie Nicks Death Androids one. Jeez, the ‘revise me’ pile is getting big.) Am also working on another 1.0, which includes a musical number and an oblique Foglio reference. Or at least it does in my head.
And now, some random moments of Pop Culture Happy: First, on the comics-nostalgia front, I recently mentioned that Beanworld is coming back. That left only one secret desire in my heart: to someday see the Earth Stories from Zot! come back into print. And now they are: as part of the collected Zot!, to be published in summer 2008. (Big thank-you to yet another comics blog for the tip.) Zot! was an utterly sweet-natured black-and-white book by Scott McCloud. The titular character was a blond and adventuresome young man from a world where it was always 1965 and good always triumphed over evil. Then he met Jenny, a girl from “our” world. At first she came to visit him in his world, and the stories were full of derring-do and smiling heroism. But then he spent the final nine issues in our world, and the results are these fabulous looks at the lives of everyday kids, from the point of view of a kid who grew up in a world where nobody feels like a freak and nobody’s miserable. I loved them so much I bought a page of original art, and when I have walls to hang such things on it’ll be one of the first things I put up. One of the stories was called “Normal,” and was about being a gay teenager in high school, and what that feels like. It came out while I was a tightly closeted gayboy in college. I couldn’t speak for an hour after reading it. I’ve been waiting to see it reprinted for years and years, and now it will be. Yay.
Also: The return of Futurama draws ever nigh. W00t!