It ALWAYS comes down to this… the last ten percent. Finishing.
A great idea and sterling execution of a project doesn’t mean jack squat if you can’t close the deal. Hit the final period. FINISH. So here I sit at midnight on a Tuesday, trying to put the last few nails in two or three coffins that have lain neglected in my brain for way too long. The final chapters of I Kill Giants. The design work of Douglas Fredricks and the House of They. The final edit of my short film, Brothers’ Day. All on the slate to finish in 2006, along with half a dozen other screaming babies…but we’ll get to those next blog. One of them WAY sooner than later.
The film has me tonight and most likely for the rest of the month. The b-roll’s been shot. Credits assembled. All that’s left is to wave a wand and transmogrify a few rolls of digital musings into a compelling dark comedy romp through the minefield that is “family”… with color correction, of course…and a few pick-up lines to sweeten the deal. That last ten percent.
The last ten percent of any project is without a doubt, the hardest for me. I’m a great idea guy, and more than competent at filling in the guts, but the endings…-sigh- “What about the blank page?” you say? “Isn’t THAT the worst part for a writer?”
To paraphrase a friend of mine who may coincidentally be my wife, “The @*#%ing is the fun part… nine months later you have to push the brat out.”
But believe me, gang… I’m pushin’. With all my might.
... or, more specifically, early on a Sunday morning.
I think I've been as busy in the past four weeks as I've ever been in my professional career so far. And it's not because of comicbooks. I never thought that would be the case, but that's exactly what's happened.
It's not horrible.
But, that means that I get to spend my Saturday night diving in head-first and catching up on the comicbook work that's been hovering just above my office desk for the past few weeks. The first issue of a new mini-series for Marvel. Scripting GØDLAND #15. Prepping an animation pitch document for MOA approval and commentary. Making space in my brain for a one-shot I may be doing for a publisher I haven't worked for yet. All exciting stuff.
I hate that the blog has been so quiet. I guess we're all knee-deep in it. But, rest assured, we're still here. Still blogging. Still working. Still living. You may be hearing about a lot of new stuff in the coming months. Again... all exciting stuff.
On tour with NWC (www.NWClive.com), I had the chance to go back to where it all started. Not the city of my birth, Biloxi (though I did get close when we stopped in to New Orleans), I’m talking about the comic shop where I got my first copy of my first comic book, KAFKA (available now in its all-new re-mastered edition @ Active Images/Comicrazy).
The pic is me at Boulder, Colorado’s TIME WARP. Original owner Wayne is still the kingpin. And most awesome of all – I got almost all the issues of BEAUTIFUL STORIES FOR UGLY CHILDREN I was missing!
Maybe it's the sugar rush from all of the candy I "tested" yesterday to keep my kids safe from errant sewing implements. Maybe it's the audio hangover from seeing Frank Zappa resurrected by his son Dweezil last night at Madison Square Garden. Maybe I'm just a sucker for serendipity...but I'm still giddy.
This is Jake. I met Jake yesterday afternoon while I was out trick or treating with the brood. A random crossing of paths on the hunt for the perfect candy house.
This Halloween, Jake didn't want to be a pirate, a Power Ranger, a psychotic Slim Jim, or even one of the ol' Superhero standbys...
He wanted to be Ghostfreak from Ben 10. OUR GHOSTFREAK from OUR SHOW.
This is why we do it, gang. This is what makes the world turn for people who do what we do.
Thanks, Jake. You single handedly made Oct 31st, 2006 the coolest Halloween ever.
