Zub Tales

My plans for a report on Wizardworld Chicago just keeping getting derailed. So after a browser freeze-up caused my fully written version to be lost, here’s the point form fly-by version:

– Driving down with Erik and Hepburn was an adventure. We left late, almost ran out of gas (but were saved by Petrolia), saw stupid newspaper headlines and solicitations for silly books, ate way too much junk food, were searched at the border briefly and still managed to arrive 15 minutes before Preview Night.
– Udon not having the booth at the show was a nice change. I could sleep in and actually get breakfast before the show each day.
– Finally meeting Roberto Campus face to face was great. He and his wife were great.
– Talking to retailers directly about Exalted and giving them a free copy of issue #0 seemed to go well.
– I bought a crapload of tradepaperbacks 50% off US cover price with no tax. Yippy!
– Erik bought a light-up replica lightsaber. He is truly the King of Nerds.
– Marvel parties are insane and I blacked out before the night was finished. Thank you for saving me, Sean McKeever.
– Kobe beef burgers, fine steak and kick ass traditional deep dish pizza… a yummy weekend.

Now you know.

I will have a Chicago Con report up soon… seriously.

In the meantime, check out this kick ass sammich I made for lunch:

Salami
Roast Chicken
Kielbasa
Cucumber
Marble Cheese
Mustard
Garlic Mayo
all on a croissant
with extra cheese and cucumber on the side

Sammich eatin’ time!

What kinda sammichs do you like?

Post Chicago Con report will be up tonight or tomorrow as well as more spiffy Exalted comic goodness.

In the meantime, remember this pic I took when the Exalted #0’s shipped in:

Well, here we are as of August 9th:

Notice that some of those boxes left are already opened up too… we’ll definitely be sold out by the time the cons are done.

Gen Con Indy, The Canadian National Comic Expo and Dragon Con… web stores like White Wolf online, Hero Fix and Rupps. Those are the only spots to get the convention special issue.

Have you gotten your copy yet? 🙂

We were originally supposed to head to Wizardworld Chicago Con Thursday night… but business meetings are dictating that we go sooner. Like 6am sooner.

10 and a half hours on the road coming up and I’m the driver. It’s 1 am and I’m airing out laundry and still packing. Good times as always.

Gal and I made up little inserts to put in the Exalted issue #0’s I’ll be giving to retailers there. It has the issue #1 solicitation text and the Diamond Previews order code for the first issue coming out in October. I’m hoping it’s an extra little push to retailers so they order the book strongly and support our efforts. Once the Previews issue ships I’ll be on a tear contacting local retailers and asking the Exalted fans to rally behind this release so we can strengthen the fanbase and make a real impact at the comic book stores.

AUG053243 F EXALTED #1 REG ED
AUG053244 J EXALTED #1 POWER FOIL CVR ED

So much to do and I’m exhausted. Time for some Red Bull methinks.

I used to be all tip-top up to date on computers. Hell, Gal and I built her last computer while we were living in Halifax, nerve wracking as that was (both the comp building and the Halifax experiences).

Back in Calgary I knew a few amazing people who would help me assemble computer stuff and find good deals on quality components so I wouldn’t have to buy pre-packaged computers with crappy cheap bits inside or parts I wouldn’t actually want.

But with everything else going on I’ve never had a chance to build that computer contact here in Toronto. I upgraded a few bits of my machine, swapped out the processor and added a new video card about a year and a half ago. Now I’m running Photoshop CS2 and a pile of programs which are finally giving my latest machine a heavy workout.

Parts from this ol’ box have been with me since I moved back to Calgary in 2000. I think it may be time to buy a whole new box and network this one to it for back-up storage and playing LAN games here at the apartment with friends.

So…

Please give me quality people or places I should go to in the Toronto area for computer purchases. People who aren’t going to screw with me or ‘used car salesman’ style sell me stuff I don’t want/need. I do need a whip ass computer but I want to be able to pick things and not feel out of my depth. I know quite a bit about computers, but am not totally up to date anymore.

Things I would be porting over:
– My new LCD monitor
– My Wacom tablet
– My printer and scanner

Things I need:
– cheap monitor (so my current box which is becoming my 2nd box would still have one)
– keyboard
– mouse
– speaker system
– The comp itself with lots of USB ports, a fast processor, an unholy amount of RAM and a sweet ass video card.

I have software out the wahoo and can install my own OS and everything else no problem.

Your recommendations would be much appreciated.

Sometimes I warm up to digitally paint by just scribbling or blending random colors to get my brain going. I pull up a blank digital little canvas and just putter around without much rhyme or reason. Yesterday I messed with a couple brushes in Photoshop to warm up and got this in about 10 minutes:

Not too shabby as a warm up. I’ll have to post the actual stuff I’m working on later on when it’s published.

Adaptations.

Anything that isn’t a story’s original medium is an adaptation. Even when Sin City is directed by Frank Miller (the guy who wrote and drew the comic) and almost every frame is composed to mirror the comic, it’s still an adaptation. How true something is to the spirit of the original source is where things get murky.

Which brings me to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Visually impressive, in places it’s a dead-on vision of Roald Dahl’s book. The first 15 minutes or so is an almost perfect adaptation, updating the frame of reference ever so slightly without making a nuisance of itself. But then, Willy Wonka shows up in person and something goes horribly wrong. The visuals are still working well but the heart and soul of the movie goes very askew.

Johnny Depp, what the Hell are you doing?!

This isn’t the diminutive and eccentric sagely figure I saw in the original illustrations from the book or imagined moving through my mind. This isn’t even Gene Wilder’s strange legalese-spouting chocolateer from the original movie adaptation. Johnny Depp is just out somewhere – going, going… gone. Where he’s at isn’t somewhere empathetic or entertaining… it’s just creepy, plastic and slightly repulsive. His jerky mannerisms mixed with the grotesque pallor of his skin and a halted voice like some sort of cowardly eunuch left me with an empty hole where there was supposed to be delight. Who thought this was a good idea? It boggles my mind that dailies would come in and no one could take a clear view of this and go “No, there’s something missing – right here – right here dead center where there should be a wonderful character.”

Most of the casting is quite inspired. Charlie’s entire family is fantastic, the kids are pretty sharp and everything else is raring to go. The Oompa Loompas could’ve been done with a little less modern trappings and techno music, but even that wasn’t a boat sinker. All the film needed was a ringmaster to direct the circus. A special Willy Wonka to fill it in and make the whole thing magical. What they got was a jaw-clenching unlikeable twitchy creep with a completely unnecessary sub-plot heaped on to make the whole thing crash under its own weight.

Adaptation can take liberties with the source but it has to be like a nature hike where you “leave no trace of your passing”. Changes should be as seamless as possible, especially when the source material is extremely well known. Taking Tom Bombadil out of Fellowship seems like a smart move when you read that portion of the book and realize that it has nothing to do with the core of Lord of the Rings. Adding in brutally overwrought flashbacks of Willy Wonka’s childhood and wrenching the ending into a creepy and emotionless father and son reunion that was never in the book? What did that add to the tale? What part of the original story was strengthened by it or made clearer?

I left the theatre disappointed and wondering why creative people have to shit on things that worked just fine the way they were. If you have to bugger with things… create original stories not adaptations. Look at what you’re doing and ask “Would I want someone to alter my work this much from the source?” If the answer is “No” then rethink your strategy instead of assuming you know better than the original creator who crafted the material you loved enough to want to adapt it in the first place.

Typos over instant messaging can be truly priceless. Gal’s awesome one today was:

“Here’s hoping it wasn’t *crosses ginfers*”

GINFERS!

MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Okay, that might have seemed funnier than it was just due to lack of sleep, but it was amusing.