Wednesday, March 30, 2005

Two Days Till Tomorrow

Actually, two days till show night. I Can't wait. Hardly Wait

Gadzooks, I am a geek.

posted by Dale Ingram @ 8:43 PM 0 comments

New Penny


Penny Heartbreaker Posted by Hello


This is a new image of Penny I've been goofing around with. I'm kind'a digging this take. When I started it, I had intended to only use it as the 'cover' image to Hold My Life. (God, I am so link-happy these days.) But now I can think of one other use for it, just cuz I like the image.

Dave McKean does something in his "Pictures That Tick" book called one page comics. I think I'd like to take this image and make it a one panel comic, basically a single image with a text piece. That might be something fun to experiment with. The trick would be telling the story in text form and having it still be interesting.

If I did that, I'd also like to take the Illustrator file, and have the whole thing printed on a large format printer, about 3' tall, mount it and place it in the gallery. It's all vector art, so I can make it as big as a truck and the resolution would still be perfect. I love Illustrator.

Dunno who'd buy it, but that's beside the point.

I gotta remember to add that "No Loitering" sign on the post behind her, and put some names on those street signs behind her. The headband turned out cool, though.

posted by Dale Ingram @ 8:18 PM 1 comments

Tuesday, March 29, 2005

Cellphone Soap Operas

I read this yesterday. Interesting article about people using PSP's to view bootleg Manga as .jpg files. I read it and thought "Why doesn't anyone just create original comics for these things, instead of stealing existing manga?" The whole thing reminded me of cellphones and handheld computers. There are people dabbling in that already, I'd like to be one of 'em.

Stan Lee's new company has a couple of projects in development on phones, but I've a feeling that his current work won't really strike a chord with the audience the way it once did. His most recent comics work and the animation he's been working on haven't really appealed to me. Nothin' against Stan, mind you. I love Stan, really.

Put down the broken beer bottle, please, True Believer. All I'm saying is that to really hook the audience, one would have to create something modern and mainstream, a comic for people who don't currently read comics.

Still, it's a great idea. I think Hold My Life would work as a subscription-based comic that you could view on a cellphone or pda. I just need to get more episodes done. It's a mainstream story, accessible to a non-comics fan, (my friends who aren't comic book readers seem to be getting it) and best of all, I'm told (hey Barry) that it can be done with Flash, which is a must. I'd have to modify the dimensions of the display to match that of a cellphone, and the text would have to be a lot bigger in proportion, but it's doable. I'll have to look into that as a possibility once I've got some more episodes under my belt. Right now, with only two episodes done, it'd be completely ridiculous.

I can't help but think that comics publishers are missing what could eventually be a very lucrative boat with cellphones and handheld computers. It's sailing off right beside the webcomics boat, which they're also missing. Marvel and DC both pretty much ignore the possibility of comics going digital. As near as I can tell, a majority of comics fans seem to dismiss that possibility too. They love having the actual paper comic book in their hands.

Then again, the folks reading comics seem to be, little by little, losing interest. There are books whose sales are going up, and trades seem to do well, but mostly the trend still seems to be that of a gentle decline. Thankfully, it's a more gentle decline than in the past. I think we're just losin' em to attrition and inflation.

If the old fans are slowly giving in to apathy, and there still don't seem to be enough new fans coming into the hobby to replace them, then maybe it's time to cultivate a new audience. Comics on cellphones and handhelds would be a perfect way to expose that new audience (or a bunch of lapsed comics fans) to comics.

Then again, maybe it's just another unrealistic pipe dream of mine.

posted by Dale Ingram @ 3:42 PM 0 comments

Sunday, March 27, 2005

I Miss The X-99

Managed to get quite a bit of work done on Hold My Life yesterday and today, which is good. I'm getting some momentum going now. The stuff's looking pretty cool, can't wait to get it posted.

The bad thing is that it won't be today. I have to stop soon to go eat at Kevin's. I always hate having to stop when the work's going well. Especially today. Next week's gonna be crazy, and I probably won't get any real time to sit here and work until Saturday.

Maybe by then, I can get the X-99 chair back from Rhonda. She absconded with it, taking it into the living room so she can sit at the table and draft as she prepares for her NCIDQ test. This leaves me sitting in this crummy wooden chair. It isn't very comfortable.

posted by Dale Ingram @ 2:05 PM 0 comments

Thursday, March 24, 2005

Glen Phillips

I'm listening to Glen Phillips new album now, it's pretty good.

Rhonda will love it. Everybody will give her crap over liking it, too. :-)

posted by Dale Ingram @ 3:50 PM 0 comments

Polk Street Music District

Man, I can't get enough of this blog today.

Next week, the Polk Street Music District will spring to life once more at Kricket's bar. We call it the Pit. It's a term of endearment, I swear.

The Flappybats have been working dilligently on our set since...well since the last show, at the end of February. As it turns out, we were playing on February 18, the tenth anniversary of Bob Stinson's death. As usual, we did a bunch'a Replacements songs, but this time, we did 'em in Bob's honor. It was too much of a coincidence to just let pass unmentioned. I like to think that Bob was looking down on us from above, saying "You got it wrong, idiots!!"

As I mentioned before, we went and saw Westerberg the very next Friday, which only rekindled the desire to play that 'Mats set again. You'd think that seeing the same guy play two days in a row, and playing a good dozen of his songs over and over for the month prior, one would get a little burned out on him. Didn't happen. I'm a geek. Can't help it. Don't care to try.

Next month, we'll cover Ramones, the Jam, maybe Johnny Thunders...who knows. But this month, it's the much awaited (on my part) sequel to our Replacements set. I have high hopes, because I think we're getting some of these songs down, and that's fun.

Here's what we've been working on, in no particular order:

Little Mascara
Left of the Dial
The Ledge
Another Girl, Another Planet
Portland
Talent Show
Valentine
In Between Love & Like
Seein' Her
Skyway
Can't Hardly Wait
I'm sure we'll find some way to humiliate ourselves.
This will also be Mustard's first anniversary show, as the band was formed on opening day last year at the Diamondbacks first home game. it's also where they get their name, from the Mustard, Ketchup, Relish races... anyway, The quadruple-bill of Flappybats, Mustard, Twang and Los Tigres De La Noches will be there for sure. We're also told that our friend Rob's band will be there, as well as the usual solo acts.

It's a fun time. If you live in Phoenix, (does anybody read this thing?) go to the corner of 1st Street and Polk and listen for the godawful caterwauling and bad guitars, blaring out of tune. That sound you hear will be us, living our pathetic rock n roll dreams.


posted by Dale Ingram @ 3:18 PM 0 comments

Paul Westerberg, and the Flappybats/Mustard Tour...

I should've written about this in February.

It was a brilliant plan, for which we have our friend Frank (a.k.a. Francois Mustard) to thank.

Growing up in rual 'middle of nowhere', I never had the opportunity to see the Replacements live, or any of Paul Westerberg's solo tours after the band split in the early nineties. When he retreated to his basement in the mid-nineties, I figured I'd never get a chance to actually see this guy perform onstage. He'd often said during that period that he just couldn't get into the idea of playing in front of an audience again. Something about feeling like a gravestone standing up there with a bunch of strangers.

Needless to say, when a tour was announced for this year, I geeked out. Finally, a chance to see another Replacement onstage. We'd seen Tommy Stinson last fall here in Phoenix and he was great. I can remember after that show thinking "if Tommy is that good, imagine how good a Westerberg show would be."

A bunch of us had decided to go to the show here in Phoenix (Tempe, actually, but who's counting?) at the Marquee Theatre. Actually, the entire First Street and Polk Music District decided to go... the Flappybats were all in attendance, all of Mustard, Twang and Senor Llave (or is he calling himself Los Tigres De La Noches this month?) but the road trip was all Frank's idea.

Y'see, as it turned out, PW had a show booked in Anaheim the day after the one in Tempe. So Frank, diehard advocate of the road trip that he is, suggested that we make a 'roadie' of the weekend by driving to Anaheim and catching that show, too. We could head out Saturday morning, stop in LA and hit the strip, and then make our way to Anaheim, to disney world (he was playing the House of Blues there) and catch the show before driving back home. Food, smokes and a guitar would be brought along, for the purposes of writing an original tune. We'd call it a tour.

The show in Tempe was awesome. Westerberg seemed rested from having a day off prior to our show, and he was in rare form. The band was tight, too, picking up on any little cue and playing like they'd rehearsed the entire show like that. Westerberg is 45 years old, but he was playing and singing like someone half his age. This was a flat-out amazing show. They played an even mix of Replacements songs, mixed in with older and newer solo Westerberg songs. Even his Grandpaboy alter ego was represented. He even busted out Here Comes A Regular, for pete's sake. Just a great show all around.

Afterwards, we hung out by the bus with our guitars, hoping he'd come out and sign 'em. The security guys kept saying he wasn't coming out, and that we should just go home. Blah blah blah, we knew the drill. They just wanted to go home, and the fewer of us that were around meant the quicker they could get outta there. Me, I didn't care. I know enough about PW to know that the ritual of meeting the fans was a staple of his live schtick these days. Not a lot of performers would bother, but Westerberg's wired differently than your average rock n' roll star.

About five minutes after that announcement, Paul walked out, made a beeline for the caution tape that was separating us from the general area of the bus, and ripped it down. Walking back up, he took a seat on the steps up into the bus, where he graciously hung out with the 25 or so fans who'd stuck around. People had brought old Replacements bootlegs, albums, anything they could find to get him to sign. As I mentioned, we brought our guitars, a million dollar bill, a videotape, and the pack of Winstons that he'd tossed out into the crowd midway through the show.

It's no secret that I am a geek. I get up there, thank him for putting on a great show like, five times in a row, and ask him to sign my acoustic.

He takes one look at my Ovation and says "God, an Ovation... how d'you play this thing, they keep slidin' off yer knee."

I said something like "Well, ya don't play it sitting down is the trick"

To which he replied, y'do if you're playin' Glen Cambpell"... then he started noodling around a bit on the guitar. Geek that I am, I'm awestruck. My acoustic is now supercharged. I also had him sign that pack of Winstons, before handing him a videotape we'd made of our band, the Plastic Flappybats, performing at the Pit. I handed him this with the warning, "we aren't very good, but we try"

We got some great pics, my favorite is the group shot of all of us and Paul. Greg posted 'em here

Paul mentioned that if I'd told him we were good, he'd never have watched the tape. I can't imagine a scenario where I would've told him that we were good. We are, after all, a Replacements cover band. I wish I'd gotten to tell him that the week before, we played a set of Mats tunes in Bob's honor. February 18th was the 10th anniversary of Bob's death...

Anyway, we all left, basking in the glow of seeing a great show with a bunch of friends, and meeting Grandpaboy himself. Day one was done and gone, and Saturday, day two of the Flappybats/Mustard tour began at 10:00 in the morning. A little tired, yes, a little out of it, yes, but we rallied.

I don't wanna talk about the Pelt Outpost in Quartzsite, or the ginormous trailer park that seemed to stretch on for miles in that place. Or the public shower. In fact, the less said about Quartzsite the better...

The roadie was a smashing success. We made it to LA about 3:00, and after a brief adventure at the cemetery where Dee Dee and Johnny Ramone are buried (well, Dee Dee is, Johnny just has a memorial there) we ventured on to the strip, there to have dinner and a drink or five at the Rainbow. The original plan was to go to a couple of the bars there, but the doors didn't open at the Whiskey till 8:00, and the show was at nine.

The Rainbow was nice, though. Good pizza, and they had my favorite beer, Miller Lowlife. Drinking beer in a bar, it was just like being at home.

We made it into the House of Blues just as the band was taking the stage. Another great show, in front of a packed house, and another blurry meet n' greet. We stuck around, got in line, and waited for a good hour after the show, which paid off, because we eventually did make our way back there. Greg got his shoe signed, whereas Frank, Rhonda and I had him sign our tickets. They didn't allow cameras into the venue, but luckily Rhonda had her camera phone.

The pic's blurry, but then again, so were Paul and I by that point in the evening. Again, I can't say enough how cool it is for a performer to get onstage and play for two hours, and still have the patience to deal with geeky fans like me asking if he'd seen the videotape I'd handed him the night before. Turns out he hadn't.

Oh well...

posted by Dale Ingram @ 11:42 AM 0 comments

Clearing out the cobwebs

Okayyy, I'm back.

Y'know, we moved in December, and initially, I figured I'd take a couple weeks off from the blog and the site, get settled, and I'd be back up and running by mid-January.

Right.

Anyway, at some point, I realized that I'd lost any momentum that I had going on the webcomic, which is a problem I don't want to face again. Ever. And here I'd just gotten a nice little plug from Warren Ellis on diepunyhumans.com, so naturally I'd decide to take three months off and brilliantly squander the boost in traffic that said plug had garnered me.

Nonetheless, that's past. And I'm back now. Sorta. But not just yet. A proper launch of Karmic Calamity and Hold My Life are both on their way, and it'll be worth the wait.

Sometime between December and February, we decided to call our gallery (which isn't even built yet) Karmic Calamity as well, which would necessitate a major redesign of the website. Then we started talking about having the business be a newsstand as well as a gallery, for which Karmic Calamity would be a horrible name. Karmic Calamity Newsstand? Ummm, maybe not.

We're just beginning to work on the business plan for the Newsstand Gallery idea, so that, when it happens, will necessitate a redesign for the website, but in the meanwhile, I can go forward with my plans for Hold My Life. That alone will take plenty of my time.

So here's my plan: I'm going to use the San Diego Comicon (July 11) as my target date, and work offline on the webcomic. Basically, there's a lot of development stuff, backstory and miscellany that only exists in my head at this point. Not the least of which is the blog that I have to build for Penny. Interactivity is something that I always wanted to incorporate into Hold My Life, after a friend of mine (Barry) suggested it. As soon as he mentioned it, I realized that Penny being a blogger could open up countless story ideas and innovative ways to tell her story... all I'd need is a blog for her, and I could cross link between webcomic and blog... I could also link to other sites, which would be kind'a like the old Editor's notes that we used to see in comics. I love the idea, because it creates another level of content for the comic.

There's also a lot of writing and drawing that I need to do in advance, just to get some work 'in the can' so to speak. That way, when I do officially launch the webcomic, I can avoid massive downtime or delays...

So, In the meanwhile, I'll probably be spending more of my time working on that than posting here, which is unfortunate but necessary. If I do everything right, though, I'll be able to launch Hold My Life as a valid webcomic by summer.

posted by Dale Ingram @ 7:56 AM 0 comments