Up From Genre City

Comics Enlargement

So, I had a slight change of heart with the postcards.  As you recently discovered, the plan was to have a doublesided postcard jimmied up to look like a TV Guide pastiche.  I took a break from coloring the "cover" to work on the "back page" which went from its original concept of a "page" of this "TV Guidesque" "magazine" and became some kind of advertisement likely to appear on the "back" of this "magazine".  I was planning on having the wear on the front side carry over to the back to really solidify the illusion.  This is what I came up with, though.

I'm pretty head over heels in love with the idea, I'll be the first to admit.  It got me thinking, maybe I should scrap the Magazine Cover idea and really run with the idea of Prescription Drug campaign.  I finished off the "fine print" on the ad (easily my favorite part) and went to bed for a few hours.

At around five in the morning I leapt out of bed and started pacing.  I was thinking mostly about things I could do with this approach at a convention.  Handing the cards out the way people hand out stuff in Times Square.  Not the sad, Brazillian Passport/Barber Shop handouts, but rather the premium, Free NutraGrain Bar hand outs.  And that led me, inevitably, to this:

It's a perfect combo, and a perfect, fun approach.  I can stand around going "Are my comics right for you?" hand out the cards, etcetera.  The only thing that's going to get hairy is, really how do you pronounce !Pass?  That was another thing I paced around about.  I was thinking for a while it could be any kind of non-verbal grunt, a personal favorite of mine being that weird "Rrr!" that Michael Bluth exchanges with Heather Graham in the Arrested Development episode "Shock And Aww".  This morning, though, I came to the temporary conclusion that I might just pronounce it "Ex Pass", which would be a necessary shorthand for the clumsy sounding "Exclamation Point Pass".  So that might work.

Basically, I'm planning on spreading the "Is !Pass Right For You" meme like a fucking virus this September.

Ask your doctor.

"Labor Day." "Labor What?" "Labor Day." "What Day?" "Labor Day." "What What?

So, I've decided to knock the !Pass launch back a week because it's got to a launch on a Monday and I just don't think it will make as big a splash on a major holiday as it would otherwise.  I think it's for the best, not to mention it gives me another week of cushion.  But I assure you, I was totally ready to go on 9/5.

As far as progress, I had a ridiculoulsy productive weekend.  Iron-On Club logo?  Done.  Subscription Message?  Colored, lettered, paneled, done.  New Kevin Analog cover?  Done, and much more striking.  Dude, I even finished stuff I wasn't planning on starting.  To wit: The !Pass Letters Page.  It's the first time I've ever fiddled around with actual aging in Photoshop.  The Plan B and Lonely Information logos weren't actually modified in Photoshop to age them.  They were scanned in and then I cloned out anything in the middle to give me a nice smooth working area.

I also came up with a postcard design which I'm pretty much happy with.  Thanks to the developments I made with the Interstatements logo, I decided I wanted to do something similar for the postcard, something aged out.  So I'm going to mock up the front side like a TV Guide cover and have a list of the main !Pass "channels" with a synopsis and a small piece of art on the back and make it look as much like a page of TV Guide as possible.  I'll be using a piece of unreleased Plan B art for the "cover", which will be giving everyone a taste of this really gorgeous Genre City print image that no one's seen but is easily the best thing I've ever drawn.

I've also been looking into Newsletter solutions.  Joey has said that it will eventually be built into the WCN engine but I'd really like to have one ready for launch.  Also, the Email Notification, I think, would just be a bit too intrusive, as it would send out an email from me every day with nothing but a brief description of that day's update, as opposed to the weekly and robust "Note From The President" (or, in the this case, Beautification Association Chairperson) I'd like to have.

Also, you longtime readers will be happy to know that daily !Pass updates means daily content on this blog, albiet brief.  There will be a link to commentary at the bottom of every strip on the site, all of which means you've got a lot to look forward to, both behind and in front of the scenes.   So it's an great time to be a fan of my work.  All of three of you should be very excited.

Because Of Leo McGarry

It occurs to me, as the deadline for the !Pass launch looms ever closer, that I might want to think about blogging regularly about the process, about the enormous amount of stuff that needs to get done before the launch, about my priorities as they figure between print publishing and web publishing, and, in the case of The Kings Of Pop, taking advantage of the rare opportunity to chronicle the progression of an idea from the very instant it's thought up to its eventual dissemination into the ether.

Well, the idea interests me, anyway.

So, with only a little over a week to go before I launch !Pass, here was a list of must-do's I scrawled into my notebook yesterday:

• Subscription Message
• !Pass Gold ($24.95)
• T-Shirt Club ($14.95)
• Buttons
• Street Team (?)
• Iron-On Ad (Single)
• Kevin Analog Cover
• Postcard
• New !Pass Ad

Now, the Subscription Message is a little stop-gap I want to have before people feel like I'm forcing them to pay only for the privilege of reading my comics on the web.  That "only" is incredibly important and you'll see why in greater detail on September 5th.  Suffice it to say, though, getting that message across takes some doing.  First, I had to pencil and ink myself in an urging frame of mind.  I was pleased to discover that this sort of thing doesn't take nearly as long as it used to.  Lately I've been breezing through penciling and inking both in promotional material and in actual sequential work.  This, however, only occurs when I actually sit down to do it.  Second, I had to letter a rather enormous screed of dialogue that outlines my approach to subscriptions on !Pass.  Basically, I've decided that Genre City: Plan B is staying with Modern Tales and, thus, will require subscriptions to be read on my site as well.  However, effective Spetember 5, every single thing that anyone purchases from me, at all, whether its in person or online, comes with at least a month's subscription to Plan B on !Pass and in a few cases, an entire year's subscription.  More on that momentarily.

!Pass Gold is something I've had in mind since I got my WCN account. A catch-all, one time payment that will allow readers access to everything I do, whether it is in print or online or, in the case of Iron-On Club, wearable.  With the amount of content I'll be bringing to the site, that basically shakes out to quarterly mini-comics and one new Iron-On every month.  The good thing about it, for those who choose to hop on the plan, is that if I decide to do more, and there's a very good chance that I will now that I've pretty much abandoned the POD solution for comics production, they will be coming out severely ahead.  The reason it's on that list, though, is I need to iron out a brand identity for it so I can post it on Small Press Swapmeet.

"T-Shirt Club" is the potentially misleading shorthand for the cumulation of almost two years of consideration.  Along with the !Pass Gold-type scenario, I've also long desired to have some kind of "Of-The-Month" club for my Interstate ! universe.  I toyed with the idea of posters, postcards, monthly calendar one sheets; all sorts of things.  This dovetailed nicely into the frustrations I've had with the costs of flexible (read: Not Cafe Press) T-Shirt production, especially when sitting on such a potentially hot design, the Lightning Bolt Kevin Analog Mix Tape.  I don't know at what point I realized I could print out Iron-Ons ridiculously easily, but once I did, it was instantly obvious that this was not only the solution to my T-Shirt problem but also the perfect thing to offer as a monthly club.  So, for $14.95, you'll get the 12 Iron-Ons that will be sold individually on !Pass every month (for about $2.50) plus a bonus Iron-On only for club members.  And, also, a year's worth of access to the Plan B archives on !Pass.  The aforementioned Kevin Analog design will be the first entry in September, and I'm confident in my quite lovely logo designs that there will be no shortage of material over the course of the year.

As far as the buttons go, I need to get in gear and just take some quick pictures of the two buttons I currently have available so I can put them up on SwapMeet.

I've also toyed with putting together a Street Team package of the buttons, maybe some stickers and possibly an exclusive iron on design, but the moment I wrote it down on my to-do list I quickly realized that it wasn't a high priority.  All of those things are available seperately and they'll be doing their job on an individual basis.

"Iron On Ad Single" is just another tiny bit of busy-work, putting together a design for a SwapMeet entry for the first Iron-On, and it has to be ready on September 1st.  Now that I think about it, Anything Iron-On related is really a higher priority, because I'd like to launch that stuff on the 1st and not the 5th.

The Kevin Analog cover.  Right.  Well, basically I'm reprinting the Kevin Analog mini in a much lower-fi fashion, Copy Shop & Self-Cut/Stapled basically, and this will require a new cover design.  It doesn't need to be finished by the 5th, though.  Just needs to be ready for SPX.

I also want to have !Pass Postcards ready for SPX, to pimp the site in The Real World.  Again, not due on the 5th, but they do need to be considered.  Also, lastly, I wanted to make a slightly more involved ad for !Pass than the one that currently resides in the back of the Kevin Analog mini.

So, how did I do last night?  Well, The Subscription Message is fully pencilled, inked, and lettered.  And that was really the hardest bit on the entire list, except maybe the Postcard design.  All I've got to do is color it and slap it online.

As I looked down the barrel of this work pile, I started to wonder why exactly I was going through all this trouble?  There are tons of webcomics and print comics that are promoted and put out much more shoddily and have a much wider audience and level of exposure.  You'll note that nothing on that list is any kind of serious attempt at marketing my product or getting the word out.  Well, maybe the postcard.  There are several ways to do this and if I wanted to, I could divert this energy into designing more banners and contacting sites about ad rates, etcetera.  So why am I putting the energy into creating clubs and subscription packages that, potentially, no one will be interested in?

The first thing I thought of?  Leo McGarry.  Chief Of Staff (whoops, EX-Chief of Staff) to West Wing's president Bartlett, he was instrumental in getting the President through the tough transition from Governor to Presidential Candidate.  At one point, a frankly terrified Bartlett tells Leo that he is simply not ready to go out there and act like someone who should be president.  He doesn't have it in him.  Leo tells him succinctly, "Fake it till you make it."  And that, my friends, is exactly what I'm doing.  I'm not kidding myself by thinking that !Pass' launch is going to be met, press releases or no press releases, with anything more than passing interest at best.  But those five or ten people a day that are already browsing through the site are going to find something that looks like and offers just as professional an experience as anything else on the web.  And that stuff will be there whether or not anyone takes advantage of it.

Because, honestly, I have spent far too much time trying to get the word out and far too little time producing stuff that's worth generating word.  So I'm done.  I've set up a structure that will allow me to simply produce and if people start noticing, fine.  If they don't, well, they're going to feel pretty out of the loop when I drop down on APE 2006 like a goddamned atomic bomb with, what, nine Iron-On deisgns, like five kick ass mini-comics and a website with a fairly blinding amount of content.

So that's what I've been working on.  Oh, and a little other thing, I mapped out pretty much all of Lonely Information on the train ride to work this morning, which is a massive development and one I'm ecstatic over.  I have a huge chunk of the first chapter written, enough for at least a month's worth of updates, but I did hit a bit of a wall until I realized I had overlooked an enormous opportunity to link the novel concretely with the Plan B storyline.  Once I introduced that key element, which you're batshit crazy if you think I'll be spoiling here, the rest of the novel fell into place pretty easily this morning.  At least as far as the broad strokes go.  Now, I'll let you in on a little secret, I've never had that happen before with a longform work.  Sure, I've got the beginning and end of Plan B in my head, and I've also got the very last Genre City story in my head and have for some time.  But this is a new and very comforting achievement for me and one that, frankly, was a critical step if I had any real interest in crafting a working Detective Novel.  Well, now I've got one.  I'll tell you, folks, it is working overtime.  September 5th.  Be ready to fall in love.

Liveblogging Late

This is me listening to the new Kanye West album, Late Registration, as it happens. Exciting, huh? Yeah, I didn't really think so either, but it's like five in the morning.

1. "Wake Up Mr. West" (f. Bernie Mac)

Bernie Mac? Does this mean he was on College Dropout too? That's supposed to be the same guy, right?

2. "Heard 'Em Say" (f. That Guy From Maroon 5)

Okay, I'm already full into this beat. And then these pianos come in and this is officially my favorite album ever. You can really hear the Jon Brion. Pianos over that fuzzed out Keyboard Bass, and then acoustic guitars? Yeah, absolutely Brion. And I hate Maroon 5 more than I love a whole lot of things but the guy sounds fucking great here. Aside from the samples and song construction, you can really hear Brion's influence in the chorus harmonies. This is just a fucking incredible song. YES! What's that xylophone thing that starts with "clavi" that Brion always uses? Anyway, I just heard one. And we finish with a nice instrumental flourish. This album has a lot to fucking live up to now.

3. "Touch The Sky" (f. Lupe Fiasco)

And it shows signs of delivering with the sample from, God I'm so ignorant. What the fuck sample is this? Anyway, it's instantly recognizable to anyone who knows anything about music, which I clearly don't. Anyway, he changes up the beat behind it in a really enjoyable way. Oh, it's a Curtis Mayfield sample. "Move On Up". Fucking, duh. That's liveblogging for you. I had to Google it. Anyway. The way he drops out the beat every now then is just as nice as the way he adds an extra fill every now and then. I love the way he writes beats, but I always think of that one part in his MTV Diary where he shows this painting he did of how he "sees" beats. That was hell of the lamest thing ever. Lupe's verse is okay, but realistically is anyone buying this album for lyrical prowess?

4. "Gold Digger" (f. Jamie Foxx)

YES. Give me "Gold Digger" right now and just make this officially the strongest opening sequence to an album ever. "Last Living Souls" into "Kids With Guns" MY ASS. First time I heard this song I just instantly loved it. And then I listened to it fifty more times. I still love it. You all know how fucking awesome this song is. What more can I say? I can say that if this was College Dropout, we would've had to sit through three skits by now. Good sign. I saw Ray a few weeks ago. It made me really want to listen to everything Ray Charles ever recorded and really want to never see the movie again. Success and failure at the same time. God damn I love the synth line in this song. And the Brion fade out. Fried gold.

5. "Skit #1"

Spoke too soon. Back to the college theme. Ha?

6. "Drive Slow" (f. Paul Wall & GLC)

Portisheadian sample and languid beat makes this the first song on the album that doesn't kick me in the nuts straight away, but I love the way the the horn sample harmonizes at the end. As usual, even in the more boring Kanye songs, there's something exceptional you can latch onto. Heh, the beat is getting all dissonant, Punch Drunk stizz. Kanye said somewhere that Brion was his secret weapon and he was not lying. At this point I'm editing the rest of this post, so take that as you will. At the end, Kanye does his Second Disc Of The Mike Jones Album thing, which I'm a big fan of anyway.

7. "My Way Home" (f. Common)

Is this a concept album? This sounds a lot like Be, and not just because Com Sense is rapping. When this beat comes in, it's most likely going to be sick. We get a sample...but no beat yet....come on...right, we get it, it's a sample...a few bars too many....oh, and then he just ends the song. Weaksauce.

8. "Crack Music" (f. The Game)

I'm not a fan of marching beats but the sample makes up for it in a big way. I hope reciting the chorus isn't all The Game is here to do. Because he sounds like every other guy doing the same thing on every other Dirty South song I see on Sucker Free Countdown every week. I like the way things spin out of control as the song progresses. It makes it less boring. Which the beginning of this song was, honestly. Man, you could put this on your Jon Brion mix tape between "Here We Go" and "Knock Yourself Out" and you wouldn't really be all too messed up.

9. "Roses"

Why would you call a song "Roses" this soon after Outkast released the same thing as a massive single like a year ago. I hope he releases this as a single just to confuse people. Wouldn't really work, as this is just Kanye rapping over a straight piece of Jon Brion Huckabees soundtrack until the beat comes in. Not that I'm complaining. Isn't that what everyone was hoping to hear the first time they heard he was co-producing? That or the bit in Magnolia when Donnie confesses his love to the bartender? You know you fucking did. Don't play. The choruses of this song actually do sound like the most indulgent and annoying parts of The Love Below, but thankfully less annoying and indulgent sounding. At this point I really just want to hear something as banging as the first three songs.

10. "Bring Me Down" (f. Brandy)

Well, I can't tell from this straight Jon Brion orchestral bit whether I'm in for something good or just the most cliched thing Kanye's produced since, I don't even know what. It's somewhere in between. But certainly not what I wanted to hear at this point. A fairly pedestrian song, but if I heard this music beatless on a Jon Brion score, I'd be into it, so I can't front on it too hard. It's just on a hip hop song it's pretty played at this point. And it's being played really straight, standard beat, barely any fuzz synth lines.

11. "Addiction"

Can't say I'm too broken up over that last song just ending abruptly. This one is a bit more interesting, but still not reaching those halcyon heights of twenty minutes ago. Conceptually, the musical progression is interesting, but I've always found Kanye's more restrained beats to be kind of boring, especially because his more ridiculously funked out stuff is SO fucking good. But this isn't bad to play behind your next discussion of the films of Inarritu. It won't get in the way too badly.

12. "Skit #2"

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. I really wasn't this bored by the skits on Dropout.

13. "Diamonds From Sierra Leone" (f. Jay Z)

I still can't tell whether or not I like this song. The most melodramatic video ever made by someone who isn't/wasn't in Guns N' Roses doesn't really help. Not the kids in mines, really, more the two pianos being played at the same time. As much as I'm sort of bored by the sample and melody, that keyboard line is so good that it causes most of my trepidation to just call this a straight up bad song. After listening to WMAs of this and "Gold Digger" for weeks, I'm really appreciating all the texture on this album. It's certainly bolstering my appreciation of this song. I wonder if Jay-Z and Jon Brion were ever in the same room together. Do I dare to dream?

14. "We Major" (f. Nas & Really Doe)

MAN, I would really like to hear something as good as the first three songs at this point. Like, I'm sure after a few hundred listens to this album (which I already know are in the pipeline) I'll grow to appreciate this song more, but at this point I just really want to be floored again. Was this beat really built to support everything that's going on in this song? Hey, is Nas allowed to be on a Roc-A-Fella CD? It strikes me at this point that this is what I really would have liked from The Love Below. A lot of bizarre musicality, but more focused, which Love rarely was. The second half of this song illustrates exactly what I mean. Okay, I meant the middle. Because we go back to the standard song for, oh there's still like a minute and a half left. At this point I'm actually really enjoying this song because it's just so strangely constructed. "And Jon Brion on the keys right now." Shit, yes.

15. "Skit #3"

ZzzzzzzzZzzzZZZZZZZzzzzzz.

16. "Hey Mama"

This is SO more like it. "Family Business II" in pretty much every way, from subject matter to beat, which I have no problem with. I wouldn't mind it popping out just a slight bit more. That fucked up keyboard part buzzing around in my left headphone does the trick nicely. Ah! And that xylophone in my right that just showed up does too. Certainly quickly erases the Forrest Gump reset he just dropped. As opposed to "We Major" which got more interesting as it progressed, this is sort of becoming more boring as it goes on, even though Brion is trying his hardest to make it interesting. Which he does. Ah, it's almost over anyway.

17. "Celebration"

I can't say I hate that synth melody, but you know the second you read that title he'd start off with a Chappelle reset. But that's quickly forgotten as this song gives off the same vibe that the other "Celebration" has without sounding like it in any way. Does that make any sense? I remember hearing some band play "Celebration" at one of those upstate resorts when I was like seven. Maybe even younger. Anyway, it makes me think of that. This horn part sounds like a song I "wrote" on Garage Band. Alex, you know the one I mean. Keep it mind when you hear this song and you will laugh and laugh. Not that that's a bad thing. I'm an exceptional songwriter.

18. "Skit #4"

ZzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzz. Oh, okay, I'm getting it. Basically Kanye's calling out the people who've been calling him out on not being broke. I suppose. I like that at the end of this skit even Kanye's bored with them.

19. "Gone" (f. Consequence & Cam'ron)

"School Spirit II" and you don't hear me complaining. With the most Jon Briony orchestra piece under it. That is just so bizarre and awesome. As much as this song doesn't rock me the way "Spirit" did I just have stand back and look at what Kanye's done with this collaboration. Because Brion has always been a pop musician. Even his scores have just been really beautifully made standard-type scores. And Kanye's beats have always been really well made standard beats. Not like a Neptunes beat, trying to stretch things too much, or an Andre melody that might hit so well once ("Hey Ya") and then completely falter a hundred more times (everything else). Just really well done convention. So this team up is really the Superman/Batman of pop music and this song is the best example of that so far.

Oh, shit. That's a hell of a way to end an album. That's some fucking Monsters, Inc, just drop the movie out from under you kind of finish.

20. "Diamonds Of Sierra Leone" (Bonus Track)

I guess this is like the video version of the song? I don't think that having Hov in it or out of it makes it that much more enjoyable. I mean, obviously he's a great rapper and all, but I don't think it makes "Diamonds" any more or less of a good song. It's still just an okay song with really fantastic stuff going on along the fringes. Which, I suppose I could say at this point is a pretty fair way to describe the album as a whole. An okay album with some really fantastic stuff going on along the fringes. The best songs ("Gold Digger" "Gold Digger" and "Gold Digger") are better than the best songs on Dropout, but there are less of them. The less then great songs are probably not as bad as the less than great ones on Dropout, by default. Because Jon Brion's doing something on them. Duh.

21. "Late" (Hidden Track)

To continue, I guess this makes it just as good as Dropout technically but less enjoyable. This song, by the way, isn't bad. Better than "Diamonds" I guess. Kind of hypnotic. I can see myself listening to this album more and more and a few months down the line thinking it's the best thing ever. I suppose I just wanted that feeling right out the gate. Much like Missy's The Cookbook which hasn't gotten enough straight through listens to really appreaciate it because I'm always going straight to "Can't Stop", I'll be doing the same thing to "Gold Digger" for a good few weeks at least.

So, that was Late Registration. I'm going to sleep now. Wait, I'm listening to "Gold Digger" again. Then I'm going to sleep. No, wait. I'm listening to the first three songs again. Then I'm going to sleep.

I've Found The Bestest Comics Podcast Ever

Big ups to Rivkah for pointing me in the direction of the Horcast, the podcast for Horhaus Studios (Karl Kerschl, Brenden Fletcher, Kalman Andrasofszky, and Matthew Forsythe). Although it's a surprising pain to get onto iTunes (see, it's allowing me to subscribe and you can individually download all the shows since #6 [a whole other disappointment, because the first five are just as good] but for some reason it's still coming up with the Exclamation Point Of Doom in my iTunes Podcast channel) it's hands down the best comics podcast I've ever heard. Sure there might be more radioey ones out there, but this one basically takes all the things I love about Diggnation or Major Nelson (a loose and conversational style plus an insider's perspective) and puts them into a Podcast about comics.

Just got finished with the first one and there's a point where Karl Kerschl is talking about his design for Superman and the conversation turns so in depth that they end up talking about one line that was used in Superman's Justice League Unlimited design that was later removed. Fascinating, awesome stuff. It's surprising to me that something that's so in depth and actually well produced isn't completely burning its way across the comics blogosphere. Maybe it is and I haven't noticed, but they've actually bothered to put up video posts as well. I mean, there should be a Fanboy Rampage story everytime a new episode airs. The shit is that tight.

Also, it doesn't hurt that Horhaus' work is so easy on the eyes.

That's How I Roll

The Kings Of Pop are coming.

And just think, it's like you saw it all happen right in front of you.

Drink Up!

So, obviously I haven't posted in ages, we all can see that.  But until September 5, when everything goes pearshaped and I launch ! Pass for real, here's my new favorite obsession.

The BevBoards at BevNet.

Ostensibly a net warehouse for Beverage Industry Information, it seems like the focus on the forums is just people obsessed with soda.  Here's some treats from the thread What A Great Week!

I had a nice week, soda-wise. I was sent some Vault and found a distributor to send me a case of Vess cream soda for $7.00! I think Vault is pretty much Surge in a different bottle, but it's good. And obviously the Vess cream soda is the best! I haven't had it in years and was excited about being able to drink it again...

says "Darren".  But here's "Hacksaw"  (who rocks the sig "Life's Too Short To Drink Crummy Sodas"), who hasn't been so lucky.

Mine's been boring. I tried Welch's grape again for the first time in some years. I think it's slightly better than Tropicana, but not as good as Gray's Grape.

But watch out for "TheConnieVandelayShow" with the trump:

My mom's on vacation this week so I've been going off on little soda trips every day. This is all I've found this week:

Welch's Strawberry
The old and new versions of diet 7up
1 last 20 oz of orange slice
Fanta Pineapple and Peach, and NuGrape in NC
I tried Frawg out of a Seven Eleven Fountian
I bought that new seven eleven big gulp soda (the apple one)


I also spotted a Tab Fridgepack at a Food Lion about 10 min. away from my new house. I didn't buy it because I have too many fridgepacks on my hands right now. I also saw Sun drop and diet sun drop fridgepacks out there.

I am loving this shit.  Check back for more updates from the Kings Of Pop.  (And don't bother.  I'm already planning the first comic strip about them.  Yes.  It's called The Kings Of Pop.)