Aberrant Press

Equals out of mind, despite any effort to make it otherwise. There has been so much going on in our little corner of the world that it seems like every time I sit down to post an update, something comes along and distracts me. Plus, since most of the people who pledged the project know me personally, I usually keep folks updated in person. Still, this is an excuse at best for not updating more often.

As far as the book goes, we still move at a slow-but-steady pace. Flat colors keep coming in, and the rendered colors come a bit slower than that. I’ve floated offers to a few colorists that can match the work Brandon has been doing, but don’t have anyone locked in place yet. Trying to find someone who will work in that way (matching someone else’s style) is always a task, but we are fortunate in that Brandon works in what’s known as the Hi-Fi method, so there should be a number of artists out there other than the ones I’ve tracked down to date that can do it without too much hassle. We press on.

As promised last time, here are the pencils of the script pages from the last update. As I show you folks more and more of the behind-the-scenes stuff, you’ll get to see art that only Gilbert and I have previously laid eyes on. It feels a bit weird because we’ve been showing of the first 25 pages for so long that we almost forget that there are 135 other pages of penciled work just sitting there, waiting for an audience. I look forward to hearing what everyone thinks of the “new” pages and the way Gilbert’s work evolves over the course of the book. As you’ll see in a moment, Gilbert’s pencils are so clean that we decided to not have them inked and go straight to color!

With that, I give you the next two pages of our story in pencil. Next update: flat colors!

Was just watching Full Metal Jacket the other day while inebriated and this is what came into my head right when Joker finds Pyle in the head…

"Really guys... Just chill out."

Not only do I need to log in to Kickstarter more often to update, but I also almost missed out on this bad-ass lightboard!!! Most artists I know would kill for one of these. So if you are one of the artists I know or know an artist I don’t know (or know an artist I know that doesn’t know I know them), send them over to check this thing out… It only has three days left!

Also, these guys are local, so why not back some Vegas people who want to make something that doesn’t play on the worst attributes of our species?

In my days wandering around on this planet, I occasionally find myself trying to explain my mode of thinking to people. They wonder why I am often indecisive, irreverent and more often still, indulgent. Most times when this happens, I find myself backed into a corner, unable to properly word my viewpoint because of a lack of time to think on the subject (there’s the indecisiveness). This leads to what many will attest are “roundabout answers”, which entail me dancing around and chewing on the edges of a quandary (possibly telling a story I feel is relevant) until I lead them to the answer I want to give. People generally don’t like this. They find it off-putting because they either conclude that the opening bits that fall out of my mouth are my stance, or worse still are of a mind that they are too busy to give me five minutes to come up with an answer to a question that they themselves came to the table with answered, fully formed and ready to defend. The former is almost certainly the by-product of the latter, but I give it special consideration because it typically is subconscious. There are times when the aggravation is caused because the question is small, believed to be a given. But while I do believe that we should not sweat the small stuff, and that it is indeed all small stuff, I do not believe that any question is too small to revisit.

That leads us to a question you may have now: what does any of this have to do with the title of this post? Stop meandering and answer us, you prick! Below is a lecture that was given by John Cleese (writer, director, man of mirth) that discusses the process of creativity. The video explains my typical thought process better than I could have without taking the time to prepare my own speech, so I’m just going to use it instead. Of course, since I am still providing the answer in a way, it is 36 minutes long.

John Cleese – a lecture on Creativity from janalleman on Vimeo.

EDIT on 4-14: And now that video appears to be down. Here it is on Youtube:

Actually, watch this one too.

I have two predictions I feel I should make before they become true and put me in the awkward position of trying to prove I called them after the fact. Of course, if it turns out I’m wrong about either of these, it is because I was trying to throw everyone off so I could clean up at the betting parlor. Seriously though, this stuff is just mostly mild speculation, but I’ll throw in my two cents as to why I think the future will pan out this way.

Comics: Marvel Comics will end the Thunderbolts series only to relaunch it as West Coast Avengers (or alternately Avengers West Coast). Thunderbolts is currently selling under 20,000 copies a month and Marvel have decided that issue 174 will be the last before they end the book. Immediately thereafter, they will be launching a new book with the same writer and numbering starting at 175, promising that the title of the new series is recognizable and will carry weight thematically. With the bulk of Avengers titles selling fairly well right now (Avengers Academy being the one, sad exception), and the big crossover coming up with the X-Men that they can tie the story in with (not to mention the Avengers movie coming out this summer), it makes a lot of sense from a business standpoint. And of course, when you consider that the point of the Thunderbolts was to be a program where former villains can redeem themselves and the Avengers is an organization with a history of bolstering its roster with former villains, well, there you have it…

Television: On The Walking Dead, Michael Rooker (who played Merle, the brother to Norman Reedus’ character, Daryl) will return as the governor, a character that was a catalyst for major change in the book. Look for Daryl to initially betray the rest of the group before deciding he is not actually too fond of his brother and turning on him. The last part makes sense from a producer standpoint as the guy Reedus plays has become very popular with people and they are going to want him to develop into a “good guy”. I haven’t really watched the second season (maybe I’ll catch up later), but I’ve believed the governor part of things was the plan since the first season when Merle originally cut off his own hand and then disappeared.

EDIT: In regards to the thought about the Thunderbolts, it has since come out that I was mostly right. Right about why it would became an Avengers title, just wrong about which one they would be. Instead of going the “West Coast” route, they have opted for the more business savvy (also limiting) “Dark” route. The move does make more sense in certain ways. First, it ties the previous book to one that was at one point Marvel’s top seller. Second, it lends a sense of history to the much newer “Dark” brand. And really, when you look at it, isn’t that basically what the Dark Avengers were? The Thunderbolts in higher profile clothing?