You are currently browsing the monthly archive for June, 2008.
4 days of staying up REALLY late at work
+ 2 days of work travel
+ a birthday
= Kelly, sick as a dog. Yet again. I don’t know what the hell is going on with my body, but I have another Flu/Cold thing that includes everything from head congestion to fever and body aches.
This also equals, no comic today…sorry guys.
So there’s the mystery. Solved, sort of. I mean, we know what happened, but I doubt we’ll ever know why. The bottles were not new, and not old, we’d had most of them a little over a week, probably including the one that exploded. It wasn’t a particularly hot day and the bottle didn’t appear faulty or damaged (although it’s kind of hard to determine if something is damaged AFTER it has exploded I guess) so it will remain a mystery. I just hope it never happens again. It scared the crap out of us and after spending almost three hours cleaning the apartment I was treated to another half hour of cleaning up…and then more cleaning up on Sunday…yay!
Anyway, I hope you all have a great weekend, this will be the last comic this week as I’ll be out of town Thursday night and Friday for work and unable to post. Also, I added up how many hours I’ve worked so far this week…and between Sunday and Wednesday when I got home (very late - or very early depending on how you look at it) and I’ve worked 49 hours this week…and I still have Thursday and Friday to go. Yikes. Suffice to say I’m worn out. Also, it’s my birthday this weekend, so I just kinda don’t feel like forcing myself to draw comics…you mind?
I’ll be back Monday though in full not funny, not talented force…and one year older. Yay again. whoo.
That’s right people…the mystery continues. And if Adam and I seem a little “problem solving deficient” I can only say that I hope we offer all our illustrious problem solving skills to our job, thus leaving us a bit brain dead on a Saturday afternoon when forced to deal with our own problems.
Of course, as artists and “creative types” we were never very good at the kind of problem solving that involved “if a bus leaves Chicago traveling at 60 mph…”…or in this case, “If a full two liter of soda was all over your floor an hour ago, and you have four 2-liters that all appear full…” so maybe there was no hope for us anyway.
Tune in Thursday (I hope) for the mysterious conclusion.
Ugh. Sometimes I hate drawing…last night was one of those nights. I have a sneaking suspicion it will be this way all week. Sigh. Poor me. Anyway, the mystery continues tomorrow…hopefully with better art 
If you haven’t seen American Beauty then this bit is probably lost on you…I’d like to apologize, except all I can say is “shame on you”.
Hope you all had great weekends. I wouldn’t log mine as great, I mostly worked and avoided work, but I finally at least cleaned my apartment. Yay. SO overdue. You have no idea. This week proves to be hellish and I’ll be out of town for some of it, but I promise to do my best to get the comics up every morning, I know most of you can’t get through the day without them
I think I speak for us all when I say, thank the gods this is the last ‘Tragic Penis-Man’ strip. The ideas only got more gross after this one…and this one was almost painful to draw. Hopefully it at least gives you a chuckle…
For Illustration Friday…”Punchline”
But I call this one “The Literalist”. It took a while to come to me, but once it did I had to post, even though I’m barely making the deadline and the art is crappy. I want to use “The Literalist” again, such great opportunities in store for him…I don’t know the other guy’s name…something like “The Olive Vampire”? I have no idea…
I guess I was able to squeeze one more out…let’s see if we can make it though the to the end of the week…one more day. I like the symmetry of a full week of ‘The Tragic Penis-Man’…I think I can, I think I can…
I read the novel this week of a girl (woman) in my writing group - and it was REALLY good. Her characters were so well drawn…they felt so real…I was left feeling that my novel characters are really very one-dimensional in comparison.
It was both inspiring and daunting to read her book. The subject matter of her book is challenging and intense and so it may take her awhile to find the right publisher/agent, but I have no doubt that her book will eventually get published. It really was wonderful.
As for my novel. I believe I’ve finally committed to doing a MASSIVE re-write. Usually stuff just comes out of me pretty much how it’s going to be in the end, I mean I tweak and revise and fuss, but I’m not good (I hope mostly because I haven’t tried) at full re-writes. I think a certain (small) amount of talent comes out of me naturally, but I seem to lack the skills and talent to take my work to the next level - so this will be a huge challenge - but I think it’s a necessary one if I ever want to see this book (or any other work?) published.
So wish me luck. My deadline is September 1st (2008). Which considering it’s a major re-write of the existing 250 pages, and the addition of probably 300 to 400 more pages, is daunting to say the least. Oy. This means I’ll likely be shelving my hunt for agents this summer, and reopening that nasty can of worms in the fall. It doens’t however mean a break from short fiction submissions. I’ve got to re-submit a whole stack of stuff…so I can get my rejection numbers up really high…
That’s right, back by popular demand, the “UNN!”
I’m not sure how much deeper (no pun) I can go with this Penis-Man bit…perhaps I should have guessed it from his character, but his jokes are a bit shallow, his gags a bit one note. Also, it’s really hard to write about him without everything sounding dirty. And I thought of a couple really good gags, but I mean honestly, I can’t bring myself to draw them…so we may have to move on…
Update: A Panel! This obviously isn’t the original strip planned for today, but a quick one I did at work that will have to suffice…enjoy!
Um…I don’t know what to tell you. There’s no image. I swear yesterday while I was home sick I scanned in the new comic, did the necessary editing, and then saved it in my drafts so I could post it when I came into work today…there’s no draft here. Apologies to you all. If I find some time this morning I’ll draw a new strip (quick and dirty though it will be) and post it as an update…sorry guys!
I blame the food poisoning. I did have some crazy ass dreams…maybe I just imagined all this scanning and prepping - although that makes for a pretty mundane, though wildly realistic dream!
Okay, so here’s how this happened. Saturday Adam asked if he could draw something on one of the stories I was reading for my writing group. He then said he wanted to draw a man with a little penis. Of course I said no, he then asked if he could draw a big penis with a little man. He meant a little guy but with a giant penis, but this is what I saw in my head…and it was just too hilarious an idea not to share with all of you, so all this week (or maybe just a couple days until I run out of ideas) The Tragic Penis-Man will be guest starring in Rabid Lamb. Enjoy! Or not.
Saw Iron Man on Sunday. Thought it was great. Definitely in the upper echelon of comic book films. And my man Favreau is looking good (as Stark’s security guard/driver).
Am home sick this morning with what seems to be minor food poisoning. Hoping to go into work soon…but every time I make a move to do something productive (like get dressed) I get sick again. Yay!
Another rejection. Sigh. These things seem to come in groups, so I’m steeling myself for a few more.
This was an official rejection from the smallish literary agency that had a partial of my book (since January). I was optimistic (until recently) on this one because they’re a small house that seemed to have a lot in common with me, and my work, but alas it is not to be. For the record the rejection was quite nice, though it is likely their form rejection as it doesn’t even have “Dear Ms. Thompson” on it. It’s nice that they have a “nice” form rejection, but after two personal emails to me and keeping my 50 page partial for almost five months it would have been nice to get something at least SLIGHTLY personalized.
Oh well, onto the next. Here’s the summary for those keeping track.
#1. Partial Requested and Rejected. Took about seven weeks from receipt of partial. Door left open to submit future work.
#2. Never heard back on regular mail Query. Over six months ago, considered Rejected.
#3. Never heard back on email Query. Almost six months ago, considered Rejected.
#4. Partial Requested and Rejected. Took five months from receipt of partial.
#5. Full Requested. Full Sent. Manuscript sent four months ago. Emailed three weeks ago as follow up, no response as yet.
#6. No response to email query. Almost five months out, considered a Rejection at this point.
#7. Rejection to regular mail query from huge agency, about a ten week turnaround.
#8. Rejected Query, about a 30 hour turnaround.
So, five rejected queries; two rejected partials; one requested full. And no more queries living in oblivion. Time to slam my nose into the grindstone again it seems. Oy.
I think we’ve officially established that Adam’s stomach issues are stress related, which is a shame, but at least, as work becomes less stressful for him we can hope it will go away, rather than a more serious medical issue (though long term stress can be a very serious health problem). I expect Adam’s is temporary though, so we’re optimisitc.
I hope you all have great weekend plans. Saturday here looks to be hot and humid, so I’ll be mostly staying in, though I need to drop off some goodwill donations (i.e. late spring cleaning that has never been dealt with). Sunday I have my writing group and hopefully Iron Man since it looks to be a bit cooler and manageable.
Anyone out there have anything fab planned?
Definitely Hollywood.
Let me just say, before everyone (anyone?) jumps all over me for not liking the first two Spiderman movies, I will give the people involved credit for really trying, but it just didn’t work for me. The dialogue, the kind that DOES work well in a comic book, was laughable on the big screen. They also had a huge strike against them in that I cannot stand Kristen Dunst, and so to buy her as Mary Jane is difficult for me and frankly I just don’t want to make myself do it. I will admit that I find the train sequence in Spiderman 2 to be shockingly powerful. I almost cried the first time I saw that scene…which was a huge surprise to me since I found the rest of the movie to be pretty terrible. Let’s talk about the new Incredible Hulk movie for just a second. Why the F’ is this movie being made? I don’t know anyone who is interested in seeing this movie. How did the project get a greenlight? Just because Edward Norton was interested? I really don’t understand. The first film, only five years ago by my beloved Ang Lee was a very obvious and horrible miss (I’ve seen enough of the horror to agree - though I never saw the whole thing), so why is there a need for another bad Hulk? Looks terrible.
You’ll notice I only really included the “new” comic book movies, I didn’t go all the way back (too much work) and deal with the original Superman series, and the Batman movies and all that. Suffice to say most of those are hit and miss…I mean is there anything better than Michelle Pfieffer’s Catwoman in Batman Returns? Is there anything worse that Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Mr. Freeze in Batman & Robin? No. No there is not.
Also absent off my list this morning I realized is Sin City. I have issues with Sin City. I love the graphic novels by Frank Miller, and I really wanted to love the movies because I respected the exact literal translation they did for the film, and I also respected Robert Rodriguez for giving Frank Miller co-directing credit (it was well deserved) even though it consequently got Rodriguez kicked out of the Directors Union (jerks and their jerky rules). But for me, it doesn’t really work on screen. The exact translation, much like in Spiderman, involves behaviour and dialogue that feels stilted and false, or worse laughable. Which is really sad, because it had my beloved and adored Clive Owen in it, among other talented powerhouses…but it doesn’t matter, it still ultimately failed.
The best of the best, for me, in comic book films, are the first two X-Men films by Bryan Singer. I never would have expected to like these films because X-Men were my favorite comics growing up and so they were precious to me like few other characters and stories. But Singer handled the material expertly. He understood that a direct translation of what was in the comic books would not work on the big screen, but he also understood that these were truly beloved characters that had to be treated with respect. He did treat them with respect, and he stayed as true as he could to their personalities and storylines, and as such he established the standard on which future comic book movies should be built.
I’m finally seeing Iron Man this weekend, and I have high hopes that my beloved Jon Favreau built his Iron Man on these standards. If the masses can be believed, he did, and he was successful.
Sidenote: Though Singer gets mad props for the first two X-Men films, I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to forgive him for abandoning X-Men 3 (one of the worst comic book films of all time), allowing a hack like Brett Ratner to get ahold of my beloved characters; and all so that he could make a terrible new Superman movie.
Sidenote 2: Sin City is when I first really lost respect for Jessica Alba - there were plenty of opportunities to lose respect for her prior to this I know - but this one sealed the deal. The fact that she plays a stripper, but doesn’t take her top off? C’mon. If Nancy from the Sin City graphic novels didn’t take her top off I’d be okay with it, but Nancy is topless for at least 30 to 40 percent of her time in Miller’s books - so what happened to our frame for frame literal translation? Suddenly Jessica Alba’s boobs are so precious they can’t be shown? They should have gotten a real woman, who could have respected the material and the character more than her “precious reputation” which is crappy anyway. Boo to Jessica Alba (who I’ve always wanted to like - ever since the surprisingly good Idle Hands).
Sidenote 3: Apparently the world and I are very in synch, as I found today, the 20 worst comic book movies of all time on EW. I don’t know that I agree with their order (is it even in order? I can’t tell) but I agree that all the films on the list well deserve to be there. Except maybe Barbarella. Not that Barbarella is a great film, but the clothes and craziness alone should maybe save it from the list. Notably missing are Hack Ratner’s X-Men 3; Lee’s Hulk; Spiderman 3; and Fantastic Four #2 (though it’s at least implied that the whole Fantastic Four franchise is terrible).
That’s right, Adam swears I am Lucy van Pelt. I totally disagree, of course, I mean who would want to be Lucy van Pelt?! She’s terrible! I agree that we share some bossy qualities, but that’s about it. I prefer to think of myself as ‘the mysterious red-headed girl’…or let’s face it, Charlie Brown. I don’t live any kind of charmed life here, so surely I’m Charlie Brown…of course Adam thinks HE is Charlie Brown…is there anyone that doesn’t identify most with Charlie Brown?
At least I’m not delusional enough to think I’m as awesome as Linus…or as talented as Schroeder…
I swear, if this heat wave doesn’t break tomorrow’s comic is going to be blurry lines and water spots on paper. It is WAY TOO HOT, even to draw. I hate this. Oh how I miss you February.
More “to be continued” bits, I guess once I got in the habit it was hard to break.
Let’s not even talk about how we’ve broken the world. Early June and 98 Degrees - with a heat index of 105. We totally broke the world. Yay.
So I’ve got something up that I’m more happy with than the temporary one from the last couple months, but I’m still pretty dissatisfied, and it is really far from the original vision, so there are probably still more revisions to come until I land on something I’m content to keep up for awhile, but apparently this is going to happen in baby steps. And I blame James Jean for being such an amazing artist and setting the bar in my first (and stolen) header at a level I could never dream of reaching…thanks James. Thanks a lot.
Below is the full image that I took the new header from. The original vision was to include the entire drawing, but it was just not working. Stay tuned for future header drama…
BAM! Did any of you think I’d really go there? I bet not. But I did. I really did.
Happy Friday.
Adam and I have both basically begged each other to have a good weekend, so I’m hopeful we’ll be able to pull it off (too many crappy weekends in a row just makes it brutal to get through the work week). However, it’s supposed to be super hot (high 80’s and even 90’s) and super humid - the worst combo on earth, so I for one will be doing my damndest to not even leave the house. What about you guys? Any excellent plans?
Update: Yet another reason to not leave the house this weekend - ANOTHER parade. Jeezus. I am apparently in the wrong city for someone who hates parades. I think this is a Puerto Rican Day parade. Yuck (not “yuck” to Puerto Ricans or Puerto Rican Day you understand, just yuck to parades…and sunshine…and people…and love…and happiness…)
Update 2: Adam has submitted an awesome drawing of a dude with a deer’s head for everyone’s enjoyment. He shows me up as a cartoonist again. Yay. Joke, it’s awesome.
Ah Adam, welcome back to the strip. He’s always good for some good Rabid Lamb Comic fodder. We all know he’s the REAL star of Rabid Lamb. Tell me any of you have been able to forget about “dancing adam”…I thought not. 
Given the chance to draw a cute little baby, instead I drew a woman about to puke with morning sickness. What is wrong with me you ask? I have no idea.
I think part of my need to go this way was that I was sure many people would draw cute babies, but few would come up with this image, and thus, my rampant need to be a black sheep rears its ugly head again. Regardless, I like this image despite its dark streak. I’m dark and I guess so is my perspective…what’s a girl to do?
And so ends the sequential strip. A bit anti-climatic, like everything with me, I had slightly different intentions throughout the strip, but this is where we ended up based on time (and skill).
Since the sequential strip worked out well though and nobody hated it, I may bring it back. I have an idea for another strip that will take two days I think, so maybe we’ll try the “short sequential strip” next. Thanks for hanging in there.
I still need I.D. and a business card to get to work because my street is blocked off and filled with like 40 cops. This is of course just a minor hassle, but the whole 40 cops thing is frustrating, every time I see them they are literally standing around doing nothing. So I end up feeling A) those are my tax dollars at work? and B) I don’t like having 40 cops just standing around doing nothing as it looks scary and intimidating. While all they seem to want to do is chat at each other and glare at passersby, they all have guns and clubs and shit…it’s a pretty uncomfortable feeling.
Also, much like my feeling about airport security, I don’t really believe the street is any safer just because I get carded before coming in. Delivery drivers and even the occasional food delivery guy has been able to make it into our office (and I’m sure others) so that tells me that they are letting plenty of people through with less hassle than they are giving me. People who want to do something wrong, or just want access and are motivated…are not timid, so really, the cops and barricade are only keeping out the most timid of people who would probably never try to get access for the wrong reasons anyway. Security is a sham. I wonder if the cops even buy it.
Hate to get all serious and introspective, but this ongoing story definitely had a serious side to it.
So, uh, anyone got any good jokes?
Hello all. Hope you had a great weekend. I’m on a real roll with crappy weekends over here, so I’m hoping to break that next weekend, but there’s a whole five days of hellish work before I can even give that a try.
Let me talk for one second about parades. What the F? Who the F goes to parades in this day and age. I can see where a parade was once an exciting thing…but now? In 2008?! What the F is the draw?
Perhaps you can tell I had a nasty run-in with a parade on Sunday.
On my way to writing group I grabbed a cab since I was running late and in what should have been a simple 10 minute (and eight dollar) cab ride across town, everything was shut down because there was a stupid f’ing parade starting and all of 5th Avenue was closed from the mid-50’s all the way to the upper 80’s. For those of you not familiar with New York, I live on the Upper East Side and Central park is in my ‘hood. There are only a few streets that cross the park, in the 60’s, 80’s, and 90’s. Because of where I live, I usually cross over at 86th Street, but since everything was closed, my cabbie ended up having to take me down to 45th Street and then up and around the park, costing me more than 20 bucks and making me almost 40 minutes late for my meeting.
All because some stupid morons wanted to walk around in the hot sun in a line and other morons wanted to stand in the hot sun and watch those morons walk around in a line. It made me hate everything. Sunshine, People, Love, and Happiness. What a way to end the weekend. I guess one man’s happiness parade is my personal hell.
Sidenote: I have no issue with whatever the parades might be about (in this case I think it was an Israeli Parade) but it could be a parade for Atheist Feminisit Comic Book Enthusiast Women Writer’s of America and I still would hate the people particpating with the heat of a thousand suns.
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