Wow

It's been a while.

Who's alive out there? Is this thing on?

Action Classics!

Or, shameless self promotion in action!

As y'all may, or may not, know I've been scripting a series of comic adaptations of classic works of literature. The two books I've scripted so far are Tom Sawyer, and The Odyssey.

I just uploaded a butt-load of behind-the-scenes images to my flickr account, and figured I should hype the project (which should drop next year) a bit.

Take a look: www.flickr.com/photos/53807115@N00/sets/

And, please (please!) do not reproduce these images, or share them with anyone outside of tribe.

Thanks guys!!

-Tim

(x-posted in the comic workshop tribe)

My muse of the day...

When someone lives on both coasts they're Bi-coastal.

What if you live at both poles...?

The Second Coming

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all convictions, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.


Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?


Y.B. Yeats

Yogga Yogga Yogga- Vanity and Validation

Ben forwarded me part of an E-mail from Sterling Publishers (who I recently found out were aquired by Barnes and Noble).

I get nervous about my writing, and it's hard to get anyone to read a 170 page script for free, so I was very please to see this.

"Are your sure Tim isn't you in disguise? His ultra-specific and
erudite stage directions in the Tom script certainly have your obsessive
nature! I loved the script. It was light and spare and and fun yet still
conveyed perfectly all the nuances of the characters. I thought it was
absolutely superb. I have just one or two minor notes (which are at work
-- I'm at home now), but nothing that will change the course of the
book. If you find yourself being pressed for time, I'd strongly
recommend giving Tim more scripts to work on -- he's really good.

Frances"

More work stuff...

Tom Sawyer is now my bitch.

That's right. I said it, and I don't care who hears it.

112 pages of script (176 actual pages)-- not bad for 3 weeks work.

...now wait...where'd my social life go....?

The editors over at Sterling seem to like my Odyssey script, which is
good because I get nervous about stuff like that. I was afraid I stuck
too close to the source and drifted too far away from the Action!
aspect. Ben said that they have a few comments for me, and that he will share them with me upon completion of my next assignment.

So now I plow forward with the comics adaptation of Tom Sawyer. Which is due in about...2 weeks. The end of the month, though there's probably some play there.

So here is where I get back onto the train headed for the world of deadline axiety. As of Monday I'm also not working nights anymore. Good for the social life, bad for the writing.

Honestly, though, Tom Sawyer is a lot less narrative intensive than Odyssey, and while I'm not sure yet if that will work in my favor or against, I am able to cut out whole swatches of the book, and that's something I had trouble doing with Odyssey.

My hand...

My hand, my little moneymaker, one of the pair, was recently on the cover of NYNewsday.

Look at the grace with which I'm swiping that Metrocard. The gentle, yet slightly awkward affectation in the fingers. The rush of the commute, the humility and freedom of public transportation, the 'slice of life' manner in which the picture is framed is evident with each present knuckle and chewed cuticle. My hand, I've never been prouder.

Good job hand!

This is how we write comics

Right?

Hell is Miscommunication

Recent e-mail between Ben C. and me.

Tim: "Blah Blah Blah...story-wise I haven't delved too far into it because I'm still scripting through Odyssey. Is 128 pages the absolute gospel regarding page limit on Odyssey?

Can I push it to 130? Can I push it beyond that?

Just wondering, there are some scenes that I think would work well if we had the space for them.

Thanx, Ben!

-Tim!"

Ben: "odyssey... 128 pp isn't the story limit. that's the ENTIRE book, including t/p, afterward, etc...i should have been clearer.

there really can't be more than 118 story pages. (the publisher really wanted 112, i had to push for 128, so there's definitely no wiggle room beyond that.)

sorry, you're just going to have to squeeze it in! or delete some scenes/bits.

ben c."

My frustration is palpable at this point.