So, something funny.

Some of you might have noticed a few changes to the website since Monday. Moving the links from their own separate page to the main page, getting rid of the goofy images and just attaching standard text links for my subscription services, stuff like that. One of these included finally verifying my PayPal account for donations, which I admit I had put off for FAR too long because of laziness related to what e-mail my checking account was tied to and blah blah blah. Point is I got it resolved and my everything’s cleared for donations now (donate $10 or more and receive a sketch card from me in the mail as a thank you).

It was getting there that proved to be more convoluted than I had imagined.  As anyone who has had problems with PayPal can attest, PayPal does not list their customer service phone number on their website. Oh it exists, they just make a point of not listing it on their website.  They prefer to deal with all their customer service problems by form e-mails.  The company says they do this to cut down on phone costs, but others feel they do it because they get so many complaints that they just try to avoid them now.  I did find their customer service number, but ironically it was through an anti-PayPal website.

Why do I mention this?  PayPal is one of the most common ways webcomic artists receive their donations and income from fans.  I mention this to warn anyone who wants to make a profit from webcomics.  Thank you.

Recently had the pleasure of trading links with Nic Buxom, who makes comics about her work as a professional dominatrix.  If you like stuff that’s sexy and silly, I think you’ll enjoy it!  Check it out!

I received a VERY nice write-up by Amanda Lanyon-LeSage, along with other great artists who were at the Chicago Comic Con (among them my homie Eric Adams of “Lackluster World”). I’ll be doing an e-mail interview with her very soon. I’ll post the link once it’s up!

Want to give a quick shout-out to Dusty and Jade of Scuttlebutt-Inc.  At the Chicago Comic-Con, Dusty was kind enough to trade two of her fan badges for two of my prints of Koriko.  I highly recommend you read their webcomic Mahou Shounen Fight, it’s awesomesauce.

Rod Blagojevich was signing autographs at the Chicago Comic Con.

I’m going to repeat that.  My state’s disgraced former governor who tried to sell Barack Obama’s senate seat to the highest bidder WAS SIGNING AUTOGRAPHS AT THE CHICAGO COMIC CON.

Wizard Entertainment, what the hell is wrong with you??

A few more things while I have your ears:

- I will not be updating until Monday. Combined with getting laid off and getting ready for this con, I was simply too wiped to have a comic ready.  I will however be doing some very intensive and detailed stuff next week while I look for a new job, so I’ll be coming back with a vengeance.  And I’ll be active on my Twitter page all weekend with fun little posts and pictures of people I see there.

- Two other cons are happening this weekend that I honestly considered getting a table at, but in the end decided to go local.  First is the Minneapolis Indie Expo, going on at the Soap Factory this Saturday.  A lot of friends of mine are going to be there including Ryan Dow, Reynold Kissling, Bart King, Sean Lynch, Zak Sally, Ed Moorman, Tyler Page, Evan Palmer, Steve Robbins, Barb Schulz, Brent Schoonover, Tim Tapp, and of course the great Paul Taylor of Wapsi Square.

- The Dallas Webcomic Expo is also going on this Saturday, so if you’re in the area I highly recommend you go.  It broke my heart to cancel my table, but I simply couldn’t afford to fly out and stay in Dallas.

See you guys at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center!

Oof, long day.  Finally wrapped up my current run at the warehouse, so I’m as of now laid off.  It’s okay, I knew it was coming.  I’d only hoped to make it another week because I needed to make back some of the money I had to spend on my car recently, but it wasn’t in the cards I guess.

I’ll be focusing on some website stuff in the meantime while I start to look for a new permanent job.  In honestly, the warehouse was killing me.  So now I’m gonna kill myself in finding something new so I don’t have to go back.  If any of you know of any available work in the Chicagoland area, please let me know.  I’d really appreciate it.

Woof!  This one took a WHILE.  But I suppose it couldn’t be helped.  The way I had it written, if I had drawn it in my three-panel strip format then THIS INTRO alone would’ve taken all week.  That’s sadly one of the limitations of the three-panel strip format at this point.  Combined with my update schedule, it’s made a few of my stories move kinda slow.  It would help if I could dedicate more energy to this, but sadly I’m not making my living at this yet and have to get my income through other means.

When I heard they were making a “Scott Pilgrim” movie, I was excited.  As a comic geek I knew the original Bryan O’Malley series pretty well, and to have a movie made out of a comic of that level was unprecedented.  But I grew concerned when I heard it was going to be live-action.  Couldn’t it be animated in the style of the original comics?  The designs would lend themselves perfectly to that!

…But all my fears dissolved when I heard Edgar Wright was directing.  I’m just gonna say it: Edgar Wright is my favorite comedy director working today.  “Shaun of the Dead” and “Hot Fuzz” are two of my all-time favorite comedies.  He gets that the point of comedy is to laugh.  It helps to have some heart thrown in, but really you’re there to bust a gut.  He takes the basic theory of movies like “Airplane!” and “Blazing Saddles” (another two of my favorite comedies) by just BOMBARDING YOU with jokes.

Think about how many jokes are in “Shaun of the Dead” or “Hot Fuzz”.  Big jokes, little jokes, subtle jokes, not-so-subtle jokes, obvious jokes, inside jokes, you name it!  Not only is this good for the initial theater experience, but it makes it fun to re-watch on DVD to catch all the stuff you missed the first time.  The original comics were the same way, with tons of little stuff scrawled into the margins.  When I heard “Scott Pilgrim” was in his hands, I put my fears to rest.  Edgar Wright hasn’t let me down yet and I see no reason he’d let me down now.

I confess I DID get a little skittish when I saw the initial trailers and saw they had even kept in the sound effects from the original books.  I get nervous/annoyed when movies try to actually LOOK like comic books.  One of my most loathed movies is Ang Lee’s “Hulk” because of the way he’d cut and edit it to make the film transition like comic book panels.  A little message to filmmakers in Hollywood: MAKE YOUR MOVIE LOOK LIKE A MOVIE, NOT A COMIC BOOK. When you’re translating a story from one medium to another, you should use the strengths OF that medium, not try to imitate another.

…But believe it or not, the use of the sound effects and all the other visual stuff didn’t really bother me as it did with Ang Lee’s “Hulk”, and I think I know why: “Scott Pilgrim” is a comedy.  It doesn’t take itself seriously and is all about having fun.  When you see the sound effects or the little video game references, you laugh.  Ang Lee’s “Hulk” was trying to be DEAD serious, and the goofy visual style just killed any hope of that.  With “Scott Pilgrim”, it’s a help rather than a hinderance.

In terms of a visceral comedy and action experience, “Scott Pilgrim” is a success.  I brought a friend who’d never read any of the original books and she died laughing during the screening.  I was almost jealous of her, experiencing it fresh for the first time.  Having read the books I knew about the Pee Meter, and the Vegan Police, and Ramona’s subspace hammer.  But my friend didn’t see any of that coming, and I’m sure it was a thrill.

I thought about nitpicking stuff I wish had made it into the film, but I already get enough of that from “Harry Potter” fans and I’m sick to death of that.  When you translate something from book to film (even if its a comic book), you have to make the story flow in the context of a two-hour movie.  This means stuff has to either get re-arranged, or cut out completely.

I will confess there was stuff I wished they had expanded on more (Nega Scott, Kim Pine, etc) and the story feels VERY compressed after the fight with the third evil ex-boyfriend (IMO the most spectacular fight of the movie), but I was still delighted with how much still made it in and how the ultimate points of certain plot lines were still made.  A lot of the dialogue is taken verbatim from the books and even when it’s re-arranged it still works in the context they put it in.

Looking up recent box office figures, “Scott Pilgrim” sadly didn’t win about #1, which I knew wasn’t going to happen.  It’s been a highly competitive summer for films, and the series has too much niche appeal to reach a very wide audience.  Not to mention I’ve spoken to plenty of people who don’t have kind things to say about Michael Cera, and that might’ve put some people off.  To those people: give him a chance.  Yes “Juno” was overrated and “Year One” flat out sucked, but I don’t think he was at fault for either one of those.  Just remember the Michael Cera from “Arrested Development” and “Superbad” and try to come into this with an open mind.  I guarantee you’ll have a good time.

Though I doubt “Scott Pilgrim” will tear up theaters, I do predict that it will be VERY successful on DVD and I think it’ll creep in on people like a fungus (but in a good way).  Oh, and the soundtrack rules.  Highly recommended, see it if you can.