Of CHiPs and the future

There's something about '70s TV that they don't get anymore. At least, I was reminded of this when I opened up the most unexpected Christmas present this year: season one of CHiPs, the show that made a heartthrob out of Erik Estrada and made cops cool.

But first, a little personal background. I was born in '77, so I caught the tail end of the great '70s shows like The Incredible Hulk (more on that later), Welcome Back, Kotter, and CHiPs. I still, to this day, have very little in common with my older brothers except for a love of two things, CHiPs and Dukes of Hazzard, both shows we watched religiously as kids. 

Know how, often times, we go back and watch our favorite shows, hoping to relive the same fascination we had as kids, and it falls flat? That's not the case with CHiPs; it gets better with time, a lot of the humor that was lost on my four year-old mind now hitting me like a ten car pile-up in the San Fernando Valley. Ponch's  antics a helluva lot funnier to me now that I no longer think of girls as icky things.

Sure, there's goofiness and the obligatory car blow-ups, but that was lessened in the first season. Even though you knew that Baker would survive having his front wheel loosened by a pack of hoodlums, it still keeps you on the edge of your seat. Good, fun, stuff that doesn't take itself too seriously unless it needs to.

Oh, and The Incredible Hulk? I've slowly been working through season four, and the final scene where the aimless David Banner defeatedly walks away to his next adventure, sad piano theme playing, still brings tears to my eyes.

In the narcissist department, I think 2009 is going to be a big year for me. Why? A few reasons: 

God willing, Watchmen is coming out to theatres and will hopefully prove to the unitiated that superheroes are smart (even moreso than the excellent The Dark Knight did).

Digital comics are finally going to have their day. With Marvel's amping up original digital content. And, with the cover prices of monthlies going up, I see it being very soon that many monthly customers will switch to online counterparts, waiting until a published hardcover comes out. This is something I've been anxious to see finally happen. 

Neil Gaiman is writing the "final" Batman tale. This is something I'm very, very excited about. Toting it as a booken to Alan Moore's final Superman tale in the '80s is hyperbolic, but I'm sure Gaiman can live up to it.

Coraline comes out in theaters. The scariest, and best, of Neil's novels is coming to life ala stop-motion. I enjoyed the preview for this more than all of The Spirit.

Something big is happening with Graphic NYC. Watch this space, and Seth's blog. We have something big popping soon.

My next book, From Four Color to Silver Screen, is out by this summer. Relieved to finally have the final draft turned in, I'm finding myself geared up to do the panel at San Diego and hold my first full-color book in my hands.

I met an amazing girl who happens to read comics. Nuff' said.

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I'm back

            Having two jobs can kick your ass, I should know.

            Just last week, I finally finished the polished draft of From Four Color to Silver Screen: The First Movie Superheroes, weighing in at a massive fifteen chapters. And it nearly killed me.

            The biggest hazard with juggling a full-time job with a writing career is that you often times find your arms getting really tired after a while. Add the normal happenings of life in general, as well as an unexpected business trip, and working to get another book project off of the ground, and taking in a kitten found underneath your sister’s friend’s car hood on a cold winter day, and playing Sheriff while aforementioned kitten tries to move in on older cat’s turf, and having to deal with the holidays, on top of the stress of seeing several of your friends laid off because of the recession…

            And you can understand how it can wear one out.

            But, at the end of the day, I have that warm fuzzy feeling inside, balanced with a euphoric anticipation at this new book coming out from a new (to me) publisher, and I’m reminded of why I started writing in the first place. Right now, we’re looking at a May to June release date on this full color book, with a stiff cover stock, coming out from Hermes Press. I am beyond looking forward to holding a copy in my mitts.

            I learned many things, good and bad, while working for TwoMorrows and writing and editing my first two books there. Getting that type of hands-on experience with everything from pitch to writing to editing to working with a designer to polishing up the final edits (not to mention getting the cover art put together) was invaluable to me. I ran into some limitations while there, sure, but the experience taught me to think in a broader scale while writing; rather than just focusing on getting the research and writing down, I now find myself visualizing the entire package as I go.

            Dan Herman, my publisher, is uber-excited about this one and promises to pull out all of the stops for it. Expect for us to have a few things going by San Diego, and expect me to throw a few more projects their way in the near future.

 

            The force is strong in Taylor.

            My niece is an irresistible chick magnet, guys. Every time I stand outside in public while holding her, she grabs the attention of any female within a 100-foot radius. So, when you find out your brother or sister’s about to reproduce, single guys, take advantage of your single status and the kid’s cuteness. Sure, babies just lay around, poop, sleep, and act like a comatose narcoleptic for the first month. But when they hit the second month and start smiling uncontrollably and making cute baby noises, it’s time to crack out the stroller and go for a walk.

            I love being an uncle, obviously. Having her around has taught me a lot about the immense responsibility being a father entails. I was reminded of this while holding her with my left arm a few weeks ago (she had a stomachache) and proofing my manuscript with my right hand. It has been a firm reminder that I have way more to do with my life and career before I can even think about kid-folks.

            Let’s talk about my new book project, the kind-of Top Secret one I’ve been working on four about eight months.

            Graphic NYC is a photo and essay book that New York photographer Seth Kushner invited me on to. Basically, Seth is taking (or has taken) portraits of approximately fifty New York cartoonists, and I am interviewing each of them and writing a critical essay about each of them.

            It has worked out beautifully, as this gives me a chance to take concepts and approaches from my aborted Comics Introspective series, but with better photography and in a better, non-censored format. If I have an artist that draws boobies, then dammit, we’ll be able to show boobies; if they say “shit” we can publish “shit” instead of the not-fooling-anyone “sh*t”.

            I can’t say much more about it, other than Seth and I hope to go a very long ways with our team-up. We’re both of the minds that we owe it to society to get comics in the hands of everyone, and to portray the cartoonists as personalities and real people rather than mysterious figures chained to drawing boards. It’s going to take a progressive and liberal publisher for us to do it through, and I’m jazzed at the possibilities already in front of us.

            More to come but, in the meantime, check Seth’s blog out at sethkushner.blogspot.com.

Which reminds me...

I love New York. And now I have another reason to love it even more...

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