I am NOT making this up. Holy crap. I’m actually amazed and I thought I’d seen almost everything.

We get art and writing inquiries all the time at UDON, usually multiple e-mails every day.

Names removed only because I don’t want this guy crying that we’ve besmirched his reputation. Mind you, with an attitude like this, I’m sure he’s well on his way to screwing himself. Every thing else in the e-mail is pasted here unaltered:

_______________________________________________________________________________

From: ___ ______ <____________@hotmail.com>
Date: Mar 16, 2007 4:14 PM
Subject: ___ ______ is So Handsome And Cool
To: contact@udonentertainment.com

Hi.

My name is ___ ______, and I am a writer. An actual writer; not one of those weird hairy kids
at Comic Book Conventions who wants you to read his amazing fan fiction about Wonder Woman.

I wrote for the ____ ______ __ _______ __ ______, and I have two comics coming out. One of
them is an original project being published by ______ Comics, and the other iss a work-for-hire
piece for ____ _____ __________.

The bottom line here is that now that both of those comics are complete, I am looking for a job.
I have numerous original properties, and am more than willing to work on what you might already
have, provided it doesn’t, you know, stink. Might you have anything for me?

Nothing But Roses,

___ ______

_______________________________________________________________________________

Welcome to a tiny part of my day. I don’t know if this guy figured being a jerk was a good guerrilla marketing tactic or what… I mean, it IS memorable, I’ll give him that. I love that his writing inquiry has both spelling and grammatical errors, in addition to being unbelievably pompous and condescending.

Sending ego-oozing crap like that to a complete stranger is just sad.

*shudder*

Growing up, I was a Marvel Comics kind of kid. I almost never read any DC books or cared too much for their cast of heroes… except for good ol’ Captain Marvel. Looking at his design now, I have no idea what makes him so interesting but his slightly goofy, yet somehow regal outfit still kicks butt after all these years.

SHAZAM!

Pencil drawing colored up in Photoshop. I really like that animated look with simple high contrast light/shadow cuts and soft colored lines.

I had a fantastic day today overall. A couple major projects have just been taken care of with minimal headaches and things are actually quite organized. It’s almost freaking me out how well things seem to be going lately.

Hung out with charmingmonstrs and got caught up on the last three Battlestar Galactica episodes. Um…. wtf?

Battlestar Bitchin’ (spoilers) behind the cut

Lucked out at the last minute and got 2 tickets to see 300 on IMAX last night.

Wargasm.

Once the action starts, it’s quite an insane spectacle of action and carnage. There’s so much testosterone on screen that the film could impregnate a women from 50 yards away. It’s extremely well done and almost 100% faithful to the graphic novel.

Minor plot problem (spoiler) behind the cut

Everyone in the comic industry (and a bunch of major media outlets) are talking about Marvel killing off Captain America in the Epilogue issue of Civil War, the massive crossover that dominated the Marvel 616 Universe as of late. Chatting yesterday with retailer friends, they’ve appreciated the media frenzy and sales that Civil War has generated but also pointed out some serious problems with Marvel’s timing on it.

When you have the New York Times, USA Today, CNN and other mass media spotlight focusing on the comic industry in a positive way, that’s powerful stuff. It’s the kind of attention the industry needs to jolt more people in to reading comic books and securing a bit more ground as entertainment media. With that in mind, it’s a bit baffling why they’d put such a crucial mainstream media worthy event at the end of their massive insular crossover. Collectors and gawkers may buy Captain America #25 to own the issue where he’s capped (pun intended) but none of them will be able to understand why it happened or the events leading up to that moment.

Marvel’s Civil War includes over eighty (no exaggeration) issues throughout the entire Marvel comic line detailing the many story threads being woven in to it. It’s practically impenetrable to someone not marinated in Marvel lore and recent continuity. Even if a new reader decides to back track and read only the main Civil War mini-series, there’s no guarantee that a retailer will have all the issues in stock and a trade paperback is not coming out for several months, long after the peak of “Death o’ Cap” frenzy. There’s no convenient way to get in to comics once their interest is peaked.

If Captain America had died at the start of Civil War, it could’ve created a real frenzy of new readers with an actual jumping on point. They’d be brought on board by mainstream media for the start of a big story worth following: a moral battle between Superhero Registration and breaking the law. In the midst of the media push with Captain America’s death, Marvel could’ve then pulled out the “Spider-Man reveals his identity to the world” stunt and catapulted the whole thing even higher. Imagine motivated brand new readers in comic book stores for several months straight instead of just groping around looking for a single Epilogue issue.

Instead, the whole thing looks like it’ll just be a sales blip/flash in the pan – nothing about it serves as a jumping on point whatsoever. People will flood comic stores to buy the valuable death issue (Have you seen the price on Death of Superman issues? You can find them in the 25 cent bins of many a comic retailer nationwide.) and will just as quickly leave, never to return, confident that they were there when America’s Super Soldier took a few bullets in the gut and bled out the last of his liberty juice.

Am I missing something here?

TONs of people I know are now on Facebook now and raving about it.

Why?

As far as I can tell so far, it’s a website template with links to other peoples’ website templates. Links to other peoples’ pages of links to other people… a big loop of back patting and “Hi! You’re here too?” messages.

DeviantArt is a site to post artwork, writing and photography while seeing other peoples’ work.
Livejournal is a site to post journal entries and photos while seeing other peoples’ entries and thoughts.
Those two make sense to me right off the bat.

So what is Facebook?

I guess it’s neat to see that someone has known you as a friend for 10 years or whatever, but beyond that… what’s the point? You seem to be able to organize social events with it, but that only works if every person you want to go is on Facebook.

Am I missing some incredible functionality here?
What purpose does it serve beyond ‘me too’?

Chris Butcher has posted more details on the Comic Festival 2007 FCBD Special: Check out the line-up of indy comic talent rock n’ roll… and me somehow clinging along for the ride. 😛

And the comic is gonna be FREE!
How can you lose?

In other semi-related news: Butcher and Zdarsky rock. I had a fantastic conversation with them last night as they finished up laying out the book. It was worth braving the soul-shearing cold for.

I got home from a nice pub dinner at the Victory with charmingmonstrs and then went home feeling a little groggy and expecting to crash out. As I got in the door I remembered that I still had artwork to do for the Calgary Comic Expo. They have a pin-up book each year, with all proceeds from it going to charity. It’s a brilliant way to commemorate the con, do something nice for their community and get people at the show to meet more artists as they go around getting it signed. Click here to see the one I drew last year.

I thought I’d just do a quick rough and head to bed but then I got on a roll and couldn’t quit until it was done:

2B pencil on comic art board with tones added in Photoshop.

The actual pencil drawing will be up for auction at the show to raise extra money for charity, so if you’re going to be there you could own the original.

Kandrix, the head organizer of the Calgary Expo, is one of the smartest business guys I know. He strikes a perfect balance between approachable/fun and responsible/mature. He went to cons for years before organizing his own and you can tell how much he’s learned by analyzing the strengths/weaknesses of other shows. Last year’s Expo was easily one of the best shows I’d ever been to. Clean, organized, professional – everyone was great. This years’ looks even better, with a killer guest list to boot. If you’re even remotely out that way you should check it out.