PULPTRASH

Good news to those who read CALL OF THE SCREAMING WICKED! You can now purchase a lovely paperback edition published through Createspace for a reasonable price of FIFTEEN dollars. The printing is quite good, I chose to use the color printing option and the work, even though it is black and white, looks wonderful using these printing specs. You can peruse the book’s info through this link: CALL OF THE SCREAMING WICKED!

Capitalism can do a lot of things, but it can’t do everything. The plan to close schools in Chicago and replace them with supposed “nonprofit” charter schools is something that should concern everyone across the country. It is the continued push to privatize everything in the United States, as if “Atlas Shrugged” was a blueprint for the future. The details and intricacies of what is happening in Chicago can be found at more reputable websites than mine, what I’m here to do is to fantasize a bit on the type of World we would live in if schools were not socialist, oh, excuse me, I mean public. Let’s take a trip into the future.

If schools are privatized, what would stop a religiously biased charter school in a very religious community from being granted the control of the entire county’s school district. They could teach creationism along side evolution as equal theories, or perhaps a superior one. In fact, any type of biased political or religious belief could be taught in any way a private institution would want to teach it in. If you went to a privatized Nationalist Japanese school (assuming they exist state side) they could teach that Japan entered World War II due to unfair embargos placed on them by the United States. A National Socialist German school could teach its students that Germany began the war in Europe to free its citizens from Jewish Banker robber barons. Basically, any school could teach anything they wanted in anyway they desired.

These types of schools already exist, I don’t mean literally, there’s no schools like the ones I made up, just using them as an example. In our future World I speak of, these schools simply would have greater opportunity to instruct children in falsehoods. Now, many people believe that everything is an individual’s point of view these days, and many seem not to understand the difference between opinion, belief, and fact. But unfortunately for these people there are things such as FACTS, and facts have been and always will be tangible and real. You might not know the facts, but they exist, they are there, these things exist. Creationism is a belief, not a fact or a theory. Evolution is a theory and not a fact, but there is a mountain of factual evidence that supports this theory thoroughly.

Another problem with this push to privatize are education system is that it creates a greater divide between the rich and the poor. It would wedge these groups apart further than they already are. That old terrible notion that seems to be an American slogan at times, “You get what you pay for”, would have greater significance in our nightmarish future World. When a school is in a poor area, the student’s parents might not have to pay as much for their education, therefore they might not be provided certain benefits. That might be sports, arts, or science classes. It would be applying a Windows OS marketing model to education. You could have education home edition, professional, or Ultimate.

“Oh, you didn’t learn Spanish, well, he he, that’s because you went with the home edition, why the hell did you do that, you should of went with the Ultimate, that’s were you learn the real deal, sucker. God, your a loser.” I can almost hear the rich kids now echoing back in time at me from this future realm.

I don’t understand why we believe that Business Managers are some form of mythical Geniuses in nature and that they can solve any problem and produce miracles. The majority of Managers I have met in my life don’t know what is going on in their organization, they delegate all the real work to the people around them because they can’t really do anything, and they are granted the right to fire people. This ability to play judge, jury, and executioner gives them a euphoric high and sense of grandeur.

An example of this mythic idea we bestow on managers is (now this might get me in real trouble) how we have deified Steve Jobs. Yes, he was a brilliant salesman, and he might have been a great manager too, but you get this sense from ipeople that he somehow tinkered in a Tony Stark-esque laboratory soldering together wires and diodes creating the next sleekly designed megastar gadget. He did not make the iPod, or iPad, or even the first Apple computer (I’m pretty sure that was the Woz, I could be wrong). He had a vision of what he wanted, and that vision helped to define that company, but lets not forget the programers, industrial designers, and countless others that make these toys that we all love real.

Steve Jobs is about as good of manager we could ever hope for, but even he was over-estimated. The majority of managers fall trillion of miles below his pinnacle. Most are like the sugar water mogul John Sculley, the man that led Apple computers down the road to bankruptcy. I’m not downplaying the importance of a good manager or the role that capitalism can play in our World, but being a good manager does not qualify someone to be a President, and Capitalism does not work in every facet of our society. Certain things are socialized, and other things should be. After the Wall Street fiasco it should be apparent to everyone that capitalism works best under strong regulations. Now, that is my belief, but I feel I have a ton of solid facts, a mountain of empirical evidence if you will, to back that belief up.

MAKING COMICS most recent blog posting discusses common graphic design font-type crimes, some of which I plead guilty to committing. One in particular that I plead guilty to is using the incorrect apostrophe and quote marks, I’m using measurement quote marks instead of dialogue quote marks. I am sick of correcting tiny mistakes like this, of course to someone who lives and dies by the font this is considered a major and unforgivable error. But, luckily, I’m not one of those people who lives and dies by the font. In this article the author states that fixing issues like this separates the good from the great, and while that may be true, it is also a very arrogant statement.

I have a better solution to dealing with the issue of my measurement quote usage (at least it’s better than me spending the rest of today and tomorrow redoing the quotes in my book). If you haven’t realized it yet, my story CALL OF THE SCREAMING WICKED is about a psychic government broadcast delivered through a virtual telepathy monitoring system. Everything in the story is set in the year 2176, by this time in our history the separation between dialogue quotation marks and measurement quotation marks will be non-existent. In fact, only measurement quotations will exist because only Objectivist categorization will be allowed in public forums and writings.

In the year 2099 dialogue quotations will fall out of favor and be shunned by the English speaking World. Therefore, to keep in sync with the realistic depiction of a very real and tangible depiction of our future World, I have omitted the usage of the dialogue quotes for the preferred usage of measurement quotes. This is sound and reasonable, and it is an appropriate explanation for my choice in font graphics.

Ok, so I found more mistakes in CALL OF THE SCREAMING WICKED which I have worked to correct. I’m sure there are more mistakes in the book, especially grammar mistakes.

I think I’m dyslexic. Thank the mighty Thunder God for the internet.

While proofreading the story I suddenly realized the making of this book might not make me many friends. Ugh, life sucks…

…. Merry Christmas everybody!

My God, so I’ve finally received my fluoroscopy license. Now, the only thing I need to do is find an x-ray job, which may not be happening if the economy doesn’t change. One positive thing about my situation is that I have no foreseeable exam coming up within the near future. That is pretty much it.

I keep finding type-0s in Call of the Screaming Wicked! It takes forever to fix these type-0s because I have to go through each different electronic version of the book to make the needed changes, i.e. pdf, kindle, etc.

I will be posting a downloadable version of the text soon, relatively soon. Hopefully people are enjoying the storybook. I, on the other hand, I am simply glad it is pretty much done because that means I will never have to think about it ever again.

I think I just came down with the flu, I’m coughing up yellow mucus.

I also find it strange that in movies about alien abduction (or movies about aliens invading contemporary society) the aliens never wear any clothes. They are always naked, advanced technocratic nudists. When the film or television show is set in our collective make-believe future, i.e. Star Trek, the aliens are always relatively humanoid and wearing clothes.

This could be occurring for various reasons. It would be nice if a scene could be added to Close Encounters of the Third Kind where one of the scientists asked his colleagues why they thought all the aliens were naked. I mean, in ET: The Extraterrestrial the alien is naked through most of the film, except for a couple scenes where it dresses up in drag.

What is even odder is that at the end of the film when his fellow Aliens come to pick him up, their wearing some weird disco robes, they are definitely clothed. Why the fuck was E.T. naked? From the alien’s point of view, it must have been embarrassing.

Maybe I simply misunderstood the film. Perhaps, from the alien’s perspective, the film was more akin to The Hangover than Old Yeller.

I was, like most sentient people, pretty offended by Frank Miller’s attempt at public commentary on the Occupy Wall Street movement. You can find his paranoid rant here. In a way, it is a beautiful thing, a hate performance of exactness and loathing.

David Brin, noted author and possibly philanthropist, wrote an excellent retort which you can find here. It points out many issues I’ve had with Miller’s work post 300.

As a self-proclaimed nerd I live in a strange time. I no longer like Star Wars, or Indiana Jones for that matter, and I can’t really say I am a fan of Frank Miller. It is simply bizarre, there have been at least a decade of my life where those two things were my constant. They kind of defined me partially. As long as Alan Moore and Grant Morrison don’t become, I don’t know, evil… then I guess I can survive.

What would be great is if Bill Sienkiewicz did a new graphic novel…
…unless it was a novel that chronicles the Tea Party Movement with Sarah Palin as the protagonist, illustrated similarly to his Jimi Hendrix bio-comic. It will be called You Betcha’.

I definitely would like to see a new Stray Toaster-esque work; but then again, at one time in my life I really wanted to see a new Star Wars movie, I better let the past be the past.

The irony here is that there are some points where the OWS crowd and Tea Party crowd overlap in agenda. If they could find common ground on the things that matter then things could seriously change. Unfortunately there are plenty of wedge issues that can fracture any form of mild agreement between the two camps. It is a shame.

Now that I have finished CALL OF THE SCREAMING WICKED, I’m working on all the various advertisements and e-book formats to disseminate my lyrical bile. It’s just more WORK! I’m actually liking it quite a bit, I especially like working on my KICKSTARTER video, which I’m doing for my upcoming KICKSTARTER campaign. It should be fun.

I’m almost done with the video but unfortunately I’m going to, once again, have to put everything on hold. I need to take a fluoroscopy exam within the next 3 months, therefore I need to focus on passing that stupid exam so I can potentially get a real job. I’m hoping to take the exam sometime next month.

CALL OF THE SCREAMING WICKED will finally premiere on this site, PulpTrash, on November 15th, 2011. I actually enjoyed working on it and I really like the illustrations that infect the work throughout its prose. I’m looking forward to seeing how people respond to it, which will probably be sparse and anti-climatic acknowledgements of the book’s existence… but… meh… I had fun working on it.

Here is another new and completed image from my forthcoming adult children’s book entitled CALL OF THE SCREAMING WICKED. The release, well… more so completion date, for the project is October 21st, 2011… the day the World ends. Enjoy!

I proudly present one of the first completed images from CALL OF THE SCREAMING WICKED!

It looks like I’m going to have to focus all my energy the next two months on passing my Radiologic Board exams. Therefore comments posted by me will be nil. This also means I won’t be able to work on any art till mid-August, kind of a bummer. I hope this all works out for me, because it looks like I will be graduating into a double-dip recession… Goddamnit…

I’m looking forward to seeing how our country’s economy will turn around… but I just can’t see it happening without a return of a competitive manufacturing base nationwide.

Just my inarticulate opinion.

I am getting that much closer (index finger and thumb about one inch apart) to being finished with my X-ray program. Eventually I will be able to disseminate ionizing radiation to the public at will. It shall be glorious, and the new age of psychic giants shall prevail. I am hoping this will turn into a real job, and not be another bust.

I am planning on doing an illustrated novel version, unabridged, of HOW TO BE BULLETPROOF. It will be something similar in style to what I am doing with CALL OF THE SCREAMING WICKED. My opinion is cluttered on what to do, many motives swirl inside me, desires to make the ultimate graphic novel, the desire to make stand alone art, and the desire to formulate a production process that is more satisfying and attainable.

I don’t really like working with people, I like to do everything on my own, you can do that with writing. I also like to over work my art. It is very frustrating to do that with comic art, if you change one panel you end up usually needing to change multiple pages of work. I need to find a friendly compromise between my ambitions. I wish I was a better artist, and a better comic book artist.

I am Bloodhead. I am no longer trash. My head is filled with blood.

Hey Myself,

I just found a detailed nerd review of WATCHMEN that I posted on the infamous site Ain’t It Cool News and thought I’d share it with my singular populace. Here it is:

I’ve seen WATCHMEN and as a supporter of the NO SQUID=GALACTUS IS A CLOUD call to arms, I found the film to be not as bad as I had expected. In fact it was quite good at moments. The fact that the squid should have remained in the film is now an obvious and mute point. The sequence depicted in the comic, the faux alien attack at the end, is critical and needed in any adaptation of this material. That said, many of the other critical moments were included, and others where actually overdone in a sad attempt at making it seem more ADULT than truly needed. A prime example of this was the alley fight Dan and Laurie had with the punk rockers, the extra violence was fine UNTIL Laurie KILLS one of the teenage gang members by stabbing him in the throat. OOPS, so, let’s see…how is she any better or less psychotic than Rorschach. Is it because she pretty. Extra violence doesn’t make a film more real, especially when they take a KID’s life and don’t even think twice about it or mention it again in the film. She’s more concerned with achieving a rebound fuck with Mr. Nice, post getting plowed by an immortal God for 5-8 years. The scene was only 30 seconds, if taken out, you’d have a better movie.

Next up, the choreographed Karate fights belong in WOLVERINE, not WATCHMEN. To have such slick fighting sequences takes away the reality of the story portrayed. It should have been toned down, basically it just felt odd. I always felt WATCHMEN was a counter argument against the superhero, showing how living out our diluted fantasies, played out on pulp, would add up to a nightmare in the real world. The film almost captured that feeling, but then switched course. It was like they wanted to show a gritty real world scenario but then realized people who liked X-MEN UNITED are a part of their target audience so they better throw in some Jackie Chan scenes. It’s just a bit overdone and was unnecessary. Part of this might be due to the many nerd complaints about the fight scenes in BATMAN BEGINS and the fact they’re visually imperceptible. Then again the choreography of the WATCHMEN fight scenes are very similar to 300′s so maybe it’s just a Snyder trademark. I don’t know, I can just say for myself that they were distracting.

Finally, dealing with the ending, it wasn’t as bad as I had imagined and it almost worked. The problems are in the delivery and the explanations, why would this cause the Comedian to lose it as opposed to stopping it, what did he discover, why would the world rally around the USA when the spiritual symbol of the United States just nuked them. These are all issues that they should have addressed during script development. Personally, I almost feel bad saying this, but it was an act of cowardice that led Snyder to change the ending, I bet he felt the studio wouldn’t allow the correct ending, audiences wouldn’t buy it, and the MPAA would stamp an NC-17 rating (if those still exist) blocking the film and the scenes due to the gory conclusion. I’m a bit torn with WATCHMEN because, my God, it’s almost there, it’s almost perfect, but the few mistakes in it are crucial mistakes. It doesn’t make the film bad it just doesn’t make it great, which it could have been. Also, as a movie fan and as a comic fan, I want to see the opening sequence of the twelfth issue so FUCKING bad, I really want to see that, and now I’m not. This movie’s not going to be remade with this level of production probably ever. I’ll be honest, it angers me. That said, this film, I think, will have re-watch value, and will be a classic for novelties sake alone.

Now here is my personal problem with the film, he turned a film which should have been a horror story into a fascist statement. Zack Snyder’s WATCHMEN did not focus on the ambiguities that make the comic so rich. At the end of the film, it’s almost saying that Veidt was right in Killing 15 million people, that Rorschach was right in that it was the liberal masses that weakened the United States in the alternate 1985 world, that the ends do justify the means and the strong need to Shepard the weak. Of course, luckily, there still is that closing shot on the journal so I might be a little off here. I definitely did not get that feel from reading the comic and I’m almost 100% certain that Alan Moore wasn’t trying to make that kind of statement. I’ll say it again, WATCHMEN is a horror story wrapped in spandex. I wish the movie focused on that element more. The Armageddon sequence at the end barely showed one dead body. It was as emotionally charge as watching a phaser blast on STAR TREK TOG, they are there one minute and gone the next, there’s no emotional connection. That destruction sequence should have been visceral, powerful and extended… but it wasn’t. Maybe some of these complaints will be address in the director’s cut and the uber-director’s cut, I don’t know, I’ll have to wait and see. This is the longest talkback I have ever written and probably ever will, I guess that alone says something about the movie.

Good review, good reviwe,

pilptresh

Well, it’s official… barely anyone is coming to my site, including myself. I don’t even want to look at this site. My God I suck. I see all these fabulous webcomics out there (all of which are listed on my MIGHTY LINKS page) and I am humbled and ashamed. The list continues to grow, it blows me away the amount of quality work out there now.

An update for those of you following the site (this is referring to me in the future, next week, when I check to see if anyone is visiting my site), I have finished the rough draft and lay-out to my new children’s story for adults named CALL OF THE SCREAMING WICKED. I’ve been working hard on trying to finish off the art and I’m really happy with it, I feel it is written well and I like the visuals so far. The story follows the life and struggles of the last living mugger in an Utopian society. It is a story that will probably inspire despise and disgust, but… I already wrote it so I might as well release it.

It was originally drawn up as a mini-comic by me back in the nineties. It’s mind numbing how long it takes me to complete anything, if you’ve been following the progress of HOW TO BE BULLETPROOF or THE PANGAEAN, you can easily attest to that painful fact. Both of those stories I’m still working on too, ouch… and don’t worry, I still plan on transferring my notes from art school to online for viewer digestion. This will hopefully ensure no person will ever have to go to art school again in America. I truly believe, outside of having access to a model and lighting, you can learn anything art-wise for free through hard work and perusing different online art sites.

What else should I include in this update, hmm, nope got nothing… wait, I made a new logo.

PulpTrash

Ok, I will be the first to admit that I’ve been successfully neglectful to this site. Hey, you gotta be able to succeed at something, am I right? Of course I’m right. I don’t post enough, I’m lazy, fat, and possibly impotent, but that is no excuse for not typing out, in the very least, some words confessing my sins on a weekly basis. For the New Year coming up I hope to do this, to prattle virtually online. I’m good at prattling.

Also, I’ve been reading my earlier posts and realized they are, how should I say this, poorly written. The difficulty for me right now (outside of not being able to write with gusto) is that I am learning the ancient art of x-ray photography for medical analysis. It takes up all my time, it is twenty-four/seven, and the kicker is the job market sucks so there is no guarantee I’ll be getting a job in x-ray after I graduate.

Many people will say that I should just be focusing on my art, in a perfect world I would agree with them. But you have to understand, I’ve lived off of under $10,000/annually over the last 10-11 years, and that’s a bit rough. During that time I worked odd jobs here and there, even briefly worked as an animator, all the while trying to develop my skill and get my comic shit done. What I realized was that I was spending most of my time working shit, and I mean shit, jobs (But a jobs a job so I’m not complaining too much about that) and still not finding the time to complete my weird ass art slash comic slash writing projects.

The worst part for me is the confusion I face with each consecutive project. This should be amply apparent with my recent postings and the various versions slash stages I redid THE PANGAEAN and HOW TO BE BULLETPROOF. Facing chronic poverty does not alleviate that confusion, it obviously only adds to it. The level of self-doubt I struggle with is overwhelming at times.

Reflecting on my angry letters about art school remind me that sometimes I exaggerate a bit; art school can, and should, be a wonderful and insightful experience that can set you on a path to a happy life and career. It’s just an uncommon occurrence according to what I have witnessed. My main gripe, and this is with collegiate schooling in general, is that it is far too expensive. If anything needs regulation it is the private schooling market, it is the next bubble waiting to burst post-mortgage melt-down.

I’m going to try to start posting my notes and resources I’ve received over the years in art school, but most of my posts will revolve around my struggles with x-ray school. Expect more frequent and regular postings come August or September. That is when I will be done with my schooling and thrown out, once again, into the real world…
…don’t worry, my friends, I have my McDonald’s application ready and waiting.

{ilpTrash

To the children of America, I’m sorry you are incubated inside America’s vapid main stream media culture. It may unfortunately form your ethics, therefore, I look forward to seeing you on a reality television show in the near future. It shall be entertaining.

Beyond this point, I have no post for you.

pulptrash

Made another change to HOW TO BE BULLETPROOF page 69. Now the bird looks more like a bird… I think.

PUlpTRash.

Made another minor change to the new HOW TO BE BULLETPROOF pages. If I don’t stop changing things the story could end up being about fluffy animals dating rabbits. Depending who you are, you may want that to occur, or you may not.

In other news, I made lasagna over the weekend, it came out… ok.

PulpTrash