OPEN MOUTH
What's the deal with radio stations playing the same damn song once every hour? If I hear "Fortunate Son" or "White Room" one more time, someone's getting an AMP up their motherboard.
Day's winding down here at work and I'm preparing to head downtown for the NBM/MoCCA signing event type thing. Should be a nice little diversion from my usual drawing-jogging-writing nights. I think I might take a little detour and pick up some comics. I understand Larry Young's PLANET OF THE CAPES is out, and I'd like to check it out. I can't also explain how excited I am that a new Marc Bell book will be coming out. I've been needing some "frenz" ever since SHRIMPY AND PAUL hit my hot lil' hands.
Fightin' to stay awake here - wrapped up last night with 9 or so CAESAR pages and that was about it... hit the TV for some DEADWOOD reruns and (horrors!) a little BLIND DATE. Y'know, I figured out that these shows... BLIND DATE, FIFTH WHEEL and the like... if you're not an ass, you can really clean up.
Me? I'd probably go on the show blind, stinking drunk, muttering obscenities.
But that's just me.
Anywho, lookin' forward to a comic-al weekend and a bit of sleep catch up. Might have a date on Sundat afternoon, but other than that? Relax, says Frankie.
INSERT FOOT
Seig Heil, Cartoonists!
Secret Service questions student on drawings
"PROSSER, Washington (AP) -- Secret Service agents questioned a high school student about anti-war drawings he did for an art class, one of which depicted President Bush's head on a stick...The 15-year-old boy's art teacher at Prosser High School turned the drawings over to school administrators, who notified police, who called the Secret Service."
For god sakes, Dean... buy a shirt or something.
And, finally...
Frederic Wertham was right...
Holy heroes!
"Race is on to unmask Reading's very own Batman and Robin. They used to clean up the mean streets of Gotham City – but now the Caped Crusader and his loyal sidekick are taking on a new challenge. That’s right folks! Batman and Robin have been on the streets of Whitley, saving damsels in distress, scaring wrongdoers and even chasing naked men from football pitches."
OPEN MOUTH
Everyone knows that there's no two things I dig more than comics and alcohol, so it should come as no surprise that when given the opportunity to meld the two, I jumped at the chance.
This July, get two Neils for the price of one as Neil (BlACK FOREST, SUPERMAN )Vokes and I contribute "Secret Origin", a four page story to GeekPunk's HERO HAPPY HOUR SUPER SPECIAL. The book will feature stories by some great creators including Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith (30 DAYS OF NIGHT), Scott (SOUTHPAW, BAREFOOT SERPENT) Morse, Todd (YOUNG JUSTICE, WILDGUARD) Nauck and Tom (TRUE STORY, SWEAR TO GOD) Beland.
For those unfamiliar with HHH, Dan Taylor and Chris Fason's indie comic featuring superheroes patronizing their favorite bar & grill during off-hours has been praised by everyone from industry greats to WIZARD Magazine.You can read more about HH and other Geekpunk titles at www.geekpunk.com.
The PREVIEWS listing reads:
HERO HAPPY HOUR SUPER SPECIAL VOLUME I TP by Various
The Hideout Bar & Grill may never be the same after Steve Niles, Ben Templesmith, Todd Nauck, Dave Crosland, Tom Beland, and other fan-favorite comic book creators belly up to the bar and throw back a few rounds with the superheroes of Hero Happy Hour!
SPOT MAY04 2709 HERO HAPPY HOUR SUPER SPECIAL VOL 1 TP $6.00
Ask your local retailer to preorder a copy and read a copy while enjoying your favorite scotch, beer, wine or liquor.(All the creators involved encourage you to drink and read comics responsibly.)
OPEN MOUTH
Eyes are telling me its way past time to sleep, but my mind's telling me there's miles to go.
Just hammered out 6 pages in CAESAR; did a 2 mile jog half dozing and I gotta tell you... more comics work tonight don't seem too likely. Could use a day off from day job to catch up on the REM but it also don't look too likely. Least not this week.
Watched a bit of DEADWOOD tonight - I didn't know that Bill Hickock really bought it in Deadwood, or that it was real. I just thought it was for purposes of a show... boy, me stupid. Still - it's my new fav'rit. Well, that and BLIND DATE. Oh, shut it.
Tomorrow night (er, tonight?) is the big NBM book thingy at MoCCA. I'm going. You?
Suckin' down Coronita's like they was flavor ice tonight... usually I go for harsher fare (like the Bare Knuckle Stout I had saturday night - packed a punch) but there's just something about bite-sized beer. Wish I had some tiny pretzels to go with 'em. I starting dabbling with bartendin' again for my friends and I made a pitcher of Shark Attack this weekend (lemonade, grenadine, vodka and ice) but now I wanna bre up something worthy of moonshine. Anyone got some suggestions? Post 'em in the comments section and I'll rejoinder with some mixes of mah own.
Oh, by the by - if y'all haven't noticed, I made some updates to the site. Check out new info about upcoming work on the COMICS pages.
Hm. That's all I got. I don't have to go home but I can't stay here.
Bring on the sheep counting.
OPEN MOUTH
So yesterday I came home to find that SuperHappyFunTimePal Maureen McTigue sent me a copy of her latest baby- VAMPIRELLA COMICS MAGAZINE #4- in which NINETY CANDLES is reviewed for the very first time ever!
Here's an excerpt of what they had to say:
"Experimentation in comics often comes in two forms: the creators play around too much, confusing their audience and leaving them flailing in the dark for some meaning in hat they
just read; or they fall miserably short of the lofty expectations they've set, leaving their readers wondering what all the fuss was about.Neil Kleid's an experimenter who finds the happy medium between the two, one who succeeds more often than he fails. Indeed, in his latest graphic novella, Ninety Candles, if Kleid didn't tell you this was experimental you
probably wouldn't have known..."
"...this gradual process, presented with an unflinching eye, results in a poignant tale that could be all too true."
excerpted from VAMPIRELLA MAGAZINE #4
Boni Alimagno, April/May 2004
"Poignant." Hear that, kids?
Thanks Maureen!
OPEN MOUTH
Cannibalizing this post at 1230 AM on a Nestcape browser in the ass end of my room, yo.
Been fairly ambitious these days on work output - maybe this singlehood thing has some upside? Just laid to rest tonight's addition to AMERICAN CAESAR, le graphic novel. Up to page 103 in the script which give me about 20-30 more to go, so at least when Jake is ready to busy moves on it, it'll be good to go.
Got halfway through the second ish of WALLY MEIERS- Beland and I have decided to slow down the pace on this one due to his work load. Man, I dunno if I could write, draw, market and publish an ongoing. Headaches galore. Mamma di'nt raise no publisher and NINETY CANDLES is enough.
Anywho, halfway through issue 2 and plan to ace it this weekend. That'll give me room to set it aside and plot the next 3 or 4 while I reattack THE BIG KAHN. Might be some doin's there - we'll find out this weekend when I wrangle some jaw time with NBM.
Drawerin-wise, I busted out two pages of THE STAND, my SPX-THOLOGY submission. Gotta get the next 4 pages done in a week or so to wrap it up in a pretty bow and send it off.... alos sending off a nice little pitch packet to Image tomorrow. Wish me luck! I could be the next B Clay Moore..but you know, handsomer.
Rackin' my bains tryin' to figure out how to work with some pals under some Big Banners. Maybe it's time to dust off the old RAGMAN pitch?
Eh. Maybe not.
I'm stuck in pitch limbo, really... got nothing to show anyone until BROWNSVILLE hits the stands, and it really doesn't prove I can do a monthly book. I wish, I wish, I wish that Oni or Vertigo would simply take a chance.
Or Slave Labor. I'm not picky.
How about DAMAGE CONTROL? I can write a really good DAMAGE CONTROL.
Other than comics I'm ready for the summer. Looking to make the most of Riverflicks and the Park Sundays. Anyone know of a good, quiet place with plenty of sun where a boy can draw? Nice, flat, available surfaces? Apart from your mom, that is.
Oh, hey - almost forgot! I have a short four page story in the HERO HAPPY HOUR SUPER SPECIAL #1 illustrated by Neil Vokes. The story is called "Secret Origin" and it's pretty funny. Contributors include Todd Nauck, Ben Templesmith, Scott Morse, Steve Niles among others. But they all have big names. What? "Templesmith" is a big name, isn't it?
Anyway, the book is in the May PREVIEWS with a "spotlight" from the guys at GeekPunk, so go out and preorder many. MANY.
Good folks, them GeekPunk guys. I'd like to work with them again if they want.
Man, I'm a project whore.
About your business.
OPEN MOUTH
Very logy this week. It's been recouping from the NINETY CANDLES tango and switching gears from HOUSE OF TWELVE work into SPX drawing. My mindtrain isn't shifting tracks as easily as I had hoped, but slowly, slowly.
Been bombarded with gangster/1930s movies lately - from ONCE UPON to LANSKY to assorted other source materials I delved through back during BROWNSVILLE writing... it's funny - i so immersed myself in one subject that its hard to pull away from the station. Been spending my train commutes reading the history of San Francisco for DEAD RONIN and I dont think i was more excited than when I got to the chapter about the Sydney Ducks, SF's first gang. But thats me - a bad, bad boy at heart. Ha.
Started toying with future ideas - Jake and I might bust on THE FIFTIES now that ex-artist Laurenn McCubbin is rocking the RENT GIRL... He's reading it now. Garrett Dwyer and I are getting busyin' in the prison... Beland tells me he's working on WALLY this weekend so I should nail something down with someone by the summer (hope, hope, hope)...and then there's DEAD RONIN. Yay.
Also started reading Shakespeare again - ROMEO AND JULIET in particular. It's odd... for a boy who was schooled on translating ancient and forgotten text (red:Talmud) you would think this would be easier. I guess I'd rather decipher what Rashi meant about goring one's ox than what ol' Will meant by "forsooth! tis the very fellow of the thing is the man therin, wot?"
Or some such.
I'm also getting a crash course in jealousy these days. Pals and associates are getting more and more work, movie deals and opportunites... and until BROWNSVILLE comes out I really cannot capitalize. Here's hoping the years bring ease to my path on the highway of comics.
Oh, and this heat? Hating it. I'm a man of winter, a dude of the snow. Man was not made to sweat into his rolls of fat while watching night crickets burst into flame as they pass by the window, tryihng to have sex with mosquitos.
Crank dat A/C.
The one thing thats amusing me these days is reading livejournals - in particular Dino Haspiel and Evan Dorkin. Them cats is crazier than hamburger slurpees.
Ooh. Slurpee.
I'm out like Liberace.
OPEN MOUTH
Debating putting up a Cafe Press shop to sell some shirts and shit with my art on it. I'm thinking of some RANT COMICS and NINETY CANDLES gear along with taking the "Rant to Me About Comics" logo and plastering it everywhere. Any one interested in that sort of thing?
I'm also thinking of a cool "Comic Books Ate My Brain" shirt with images from my HOUSE OF TWELVE #2 story.
Maybe.
Apart from that, folks...NINETY CANDLES is on its way to the printer, the Diamond packet is going out this weekend and I hit page 52 in the AMERICAN CAESAR graphic novel last night. Finished the first page of the SPX story and getting ready to do page 2 on Sunday.
So all is calm and peaceable.
Soon I begin the attack on Image Comics (Hey, Eric!) and the assault on MoCCA... gotta put together the BROWNSVILLE ashcan and reprint some minicomics. No rest for the weak and weary.
Thanks to "Speedy" McNeill for seding me some awesome macaroons for Pesach - theyre full of unleavened goodness. Also, big ups to Sean Bieri for getting a swank new job with the Metro Times, the very publication in Detroit that interviewed me recently!
Yay for everything!
Bring on the weekend, fool!
OPEN MOUTH
Okey doke. So Pesach is done and gone... I'm back to pizza and beer with some modest watching of the weight.
Back to comics too. Big news is that I've decided for personal reasons to pull out of this year's HOUSE OF TWELVE anthology. No ill will has gone on between the HO12 guys and me... it's just that there's some material in this year's book I'm not so comfortable with, and for personal ethics, I'd rather abstain. If they'll have me, I'd definitely like to come back for the next anthology, and will continue to push the fine wares of the House of Twelve. But for personal reasons... there will be no Neil in this year's monster sized book.
So what's next? The SPX piece! Time to buckle down and get the doen and out... as well, I'm sending out 90C in the mail tomorrow, so i need to get the final details squared away... along with the beginnings of the Diamond package... which I will sit with at home tonight.
Then it's on to finishing WALLY MEIERS #2, AMERICAN CAESAR the OGN and starting work on MUSE and DEAD RONIN. I just got two books on the history of San Fran waiting at the library for me, so the research begins shortly. E-mail any good books or sources on SF history around 1905-1910 to
What else, what else...? Single again. D'oh.
Watched DEADWOOD episode 4 last night. DAMN IT DAMN IT! I saw the story going this way but it didnt help any when it finally happened. Now it's time for Bullock to become badass, right? Sigh. I hate when bad things happen to good people.
Big doings in the comic world. ICON, The Comics Journal scandal... man, I used to be more excited about comics news. Now I just care about getting the work done.
That's a good thing, yes?
Conventions... Doin' MoCCA this year - I should have (G-d willing) copies of NINETY CANDLES and ashcans of BROWNSVILLE along with various minis at the NBM table. I still dunno if I'm doing WW Philly or not - I'd like to party with Radtke and Speed and such...but i cant find hotel crash space and I'm buh-roke.
Hey - if anyone is actually reading out there... comment away!
I'll talk about anything!
Even frogs!
Ooooh....frogs! The hop...and they... well, they...
Did I mention they hop?
Hop All the Time!
Okay. I gotta get some work done.
OPEN MOUTH
Back from Detroit and thrust into NYC work and comics work again...
Did an interview for the METRO TIMES when I was home. Nice guy, that Cornelius Fortune. I'll let y'all know when the piece runs. Should be in 2-3 months. Also... I need to update the site. Cue random thought right there.
NINETY CANDLES is print ready - the disc goes out after the second days of Pesach...so about Wednesday then. This weekend I finish the HO12 story art and start lettering it at week's end... then I can begin the SPX-THOLOGY tale I've come to call "The Stand."
Writing wise, I just edited the first ten pages of INSIDE JOB, a prison drama I'm working on with Garrett "Can't Get Mah Mind of the Man Love" Dwyer. It's a great opening and I can't wait to see what happens when we sink our teeth into the story, You liked OZ? You'll love this. Any interested artists?
Speaking of OZ, Jamie "Screw you, Fanboys" Rich and I are ga-ga over DEADWOOD. You should be too. Only three episodes in and the minor increments of plot and subplot are giving us, the fair viewer, a bevy of character traits and a world of ideas. I think it's a testament to a good show that I don't yet have a favorite character.
This week is Pesach, Mark Two so I'll be underground soing the synagogue/sleep/eat thing again... but I'll be thinking about getting back to WALLY MEIERS and DEAD RONIN, along with MUSE, my next graphic novella.
I'm brimmin' with artistic vim!
Go to the comic shop and buy the following books by my pals:
Andrew Dabb's GHOSTBUSTING sellout
Antony Johnston's Dog of War
Nick Bertozzi's Navel Gazin' Rubber neck
Tom Beland's epic love story
Be good to each other, hoss.
OPEN MOUTH
So it's Passover again and I'm off today for Detroit - cold weather, cars, Eminem. Ooh, yeah.
Got FROM HELL in my backpack, the first few pages for INSIDE JOB in hand to rewrite and a nice, new haircut.
Looking forward to the post-Pesach comics push... but for now, it's all blue skies, family and matzah-induced constipation.
Hooray for the Holidays!
You all be good now, hear?
I'm talking to you, Lurky McLurker. Why not post some comments for me to see when I get back?
OPEN MOUTH
You know... when i started this blog, i realized that J. Torres had a column called OPEN YOUR MOUTH. But now, the greatest crossover happens as his column diverges with my blog, OPEN MOUTH, INSERT FOOT:
J. Torres and Erick Hogan interviewed me a few weeks back about NINETY CANDLES (my Xeric Grant winning graphic novella), AMERICAN CAESAR (my recent off-off broadway play) and assorted nonsense. The interview is now live in this week's OPEN YOUR MOUTH column at Comic Book Resources.
Go have a look at what I'm up to, a page from BROWNSVILLE (my upcoming OGN with Jake Allen) and watch Erick and I make fools of ourselves, just in time for April 1st!