Comic-Con 2006 - SCA II

More photos from demonstrations by the Society for Creative Anachronism at Comic-Con 2006.

New Dirigible of the Imagination - podcast

EPISODE XII

In this 12th and final episode of the WRETCHED GOO OF THE IMAGINATION podcasts, I enjoy a chocolate milk aboard the Dirigible Of The Imagination II, leaving behind Eye Sockets Island ... forever?


Click HERE
to listen to this week's
hopeless
rabbit + crow podcast.

Featuring:

• Dirigible Of The Imagination II
  
• New Capital Of rabbit + crow Empire
  
• Chocolate Milk
• What IS Wretched Goo?
  
• Virtues Of Guy Swimware
  

← Episode 11 of the Imagination

To subscribe to ALL rabbit + crow audio & video podcasts paste
http://rabbitandcrow.libsyn.com/rss
into "Subscribe" under your iTunes "Advanced" menu

Comic-Con 2006 - G

Comic-Con 2006 - Day's End

Comic-Con 2006 - SCA

The Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) shows their mettle at Comic-Con 2006.

High temperatures over the weekend exceeded 100 degrees.

Comic-Con 2006 - Delirium

Comic-Con 2006 - Harryhausen's Medusa

Comic-Con 2006 - Star Wars

Comic-Con 2006 - Bernie Wrightson

One of the greatest illustrators alive - Bernie Wrightson

Comic-Con 2006 - Day 3 - Supermen

Comic-Con 2006 - Day 3 - Faces

Comic-Con 2006 - Day 2

Lots of walking.

Saying you did lots of walking at Comic-Con is a bit like saying you did lots of vomiting the first time you drank a fifth of Jack Daniels in a half hour.

Maybe it's not exactly like that. But I think you know what I mean.

Yesterday I attended many fine panels, including the dynamite Costumers Guild Panel #1 which ended the day. Costumers deal with people on an intimate level all day every day. They probably lay hands on actors' bodies for more hours in a day than the actors' partners and spouses. As a result costumers must master people skills. The panel was, uncharacteristic for a Comic-Con panel, on the whole, warm and inclusive. The panelists love what they do and it shines out of them.

But today, no panels at all. Today was all about the flesh-pressing. I talked to artists. And, more importantly, I listened to artists. Cause, you know, when I start yapping, it can get real bad real fast.

There are so many great illustrators at Comic-Con, of all stripes. It's humbling. There are also some really lousy ones too. But seeing them is humbling too - because there they are, at their tables, with their work, showing it. Making it available.

A friend of mine said he believes his purpose in life is simply: 1.) to make art, and 2.) to make it available. A lot of us can do #1. It takes guts to do #2.

One Thing That Worked For Me Today: Seeing Mark Smylie's Archaia Studios Press flourishing.

One Thing That Didn't Work For Me: People suddenly halting in the middle of a river of humanity to answer a cell phone call, creating a log-jam whose effects can be felt all the away across the hall. Not me, of course. I would never do that.

Comic-Con 2006 - Photos For Days

For pictures direct from Comic-Con 2006 in San Diego, click...

... HERE.

Religion Quiz

My results of the thrilling online RELIGION QUIZ at quizfarm.com. Not terribly accurate, but not terribly wrong either...

(The fact that my scores for Satanism and Christianity are equal suggests to me that the quiz designer's interpretation of Christianity may be different from my own. Or they are having a chuckle at the quiz-taker's expense)

You scored as agnosticism. You are an agnostic. Though it is generally taken that agnostics neither believe nor disbelieve in God, it is possible to be a theist or atheist in addition to an agnostic. Agnostics don't believe it is possible to prove the existence of God (nor lack thereof). Agnosticism is a philosophy that God's existence cannot be proven. Some say it is possible to be agnostic and follow a religion; however, one cannot be a devout believer if he or she does not truly believe. agnosticism 88% Buddhism 83% Hinduism 75% Islam 71% Paganism 71% Christianity 63% Satanism 63% atheism 42% Judaism 29% Which religion is the right one for you? (This quiz won't tell you. But it's fun anyway)

Comic-Con 2006 - Prelude

When people around the world are suffering, I find it helps to focus intensely on my own personal fears and desires, my own schemes and regrets. After a few minutes of this meditation, I am reminded of how saintly I am and how I deserve everything to go exactly my way, and also how much I am victimized by the unsaintly and the undeserving all around me.

Oh, sure, you may say: "Don't you realize that right now - RIGHT NOW - there are people suffering tremendously? And you - YES, YOU - have a great deal of power to stop it? Much more power than you are led to believe?"

Well, you know what I say to you? I say:

"Shut your filthy mouth I'm going to Comic-Con!! Huzzah!!!"

Attack Cat and me - with Special Guest Deadly Buda - will be heading the heck down to San Diego this evening. With our Drew's Milishamen in position tonight, we can begin shelling at daybreak.

Tonight is Preview Night - a sneak preview of the whole shebang, from 6pm - 9pm, for industry professionals and geeks with 4-day passes. Even though me will be attending as a member of the liberal media, me will probably not be able to make it - unless we can airlift our troops out of the Los Angeles Metro area well before 6pm, and that doesn't seem likely under the present dire circumstances.

I still have to pack, you see. And at this point, I really don't even have clean laundry. Do hotels usually have a coin-operated washer & dryer for you to use. I don't want to have to take stuff to a dry cleaner if I can help it.

Do you think Sergeant Rock ever used a coin-operated washer & dryer? I bet he never, ever did. I bet he washed his clothes in the blood of his enemies.



even more Comic-Con 2006

Comic-Con Warm-Up

Sorry about all these WAR posts.

What a downer huh?

Don't know what I was thinking.

From now on - yeah, for the rest of this week - it's ALL COMIC-CON ALL THE TIME!

Starting Wednesday night, I'll be down in San Diego for Comic-Con 2006.

For those of you who have been living in a bunker for the last 10 years, Comic-Con is the premiere convention in the world for sequential art & illustration - and their dozens of related markets (movies, tv, animation, games, toys & collectables, the WWW) - on the planet Earth.

There is no other show - well, possibly SIGGRAPH - that I anticipate more every year.

Check out the...

COMIC-CON EVENT SCHEDULE


more Comic-Con 2006

Tag, You're It!

Let's face it. There is NOTHING more adorable than a kid autographing an artillery shell.

Gimme Shelter

Skyscraper

Crime Scene Investigation

Notions of Blasted Babies

If you click here, you will see photographs of children, dead and in pieces.

I suppose anyone who knew these children - friends, relatives and so on - will be overcome with hatred for those who killed them and for or who supported their killers or deliberately stood by while they were killed. These devastated family members may devote the rest of their lives to exacting revenge via any and all means available to them and they may encourage others to do the same.

No one will be able to reason with them. No one will be able to assuage their grief by any concessions or restitution.

This is perfectly natural.

Landscape

ElectronicLebanon.net

Up-to-the-minute reporting from men and women on the ground in Lebanon:

ElectronicLebanon.net

Hotter Than Previously

Remember a couple weeks ago when I complained about how hot it was here in Los Angeles.

That was foolish. I didn't know what I was talking about. I was being a cry-baby.

Now TODAY. Yes, TODAY it is hot in Los Angeles.

It is hot and humid and 100 degrees and climbing.

Wait, let me check that.

Wouldn't want to be called an Exaggeratist.

... checking ...

See? I was exaggerating. I am an Exaggerator. I am not to be trusted.

The actual temperature is 92 °F / 33 °C. 35% humidity.

So that's not nearly as bad as I thought.

I ought to be grateful that I don't live in San Bernardino County.

And I am. I am really grateful for that. I am really grateful that I don't live in San Bernardino County. You should be too. Unless you live there. In which case I don't know what to tell you.

Oh, wait. Yes, I do know what to tell you...

MOVE!

It's going to be a long afternoon. The doors and windows are shut. The barely functional air conditioner is chugging away, lowering the temperature of a 4 square foot area it beneath by as much as 3 degrees.

Luckily I've got my large coffee here to keep me cool.

Again Eye Sockets Island of the Imagination - podcast

EPISODE XI

In this episode, I am dumped back in the jungle after my traumatic time aboard the Flying Saucer of the Imagination. I despair of ever reaching home, until a familiar face rears its ugly and friendly head.


Click HERE
to listen to this week's
hopeless
rabbit + crow podcast.

Featuring:

• Again With The Jungle
  
• Microsoft Dinosaurs
  
• Coconut Milk
• White Elephant In The Room
  
• Lieutenant Guy Swimware
  

← Episode 10 of the Imagination | Episode 12 of the Imagination →

To subscribe to ALL rabbit + crow audio & video podcasts paste
http://rabbitandcrow.libsyn.com/rss
into "Subscribe" under your iTunes "Advanced" menu

May Day Tar Pits

Mankind Triumphs Again!

Finally! Filthy brutes! Glad to see the back of them!

They kill babies, you know! Yes, they stack them on their horns like shish kabob! Good rhiddance, rhinos! Good rhiddance!

West African black rhino feared extinct

Andrew Meldrum in Pretoria Wednesday July 12, 2006

The West African black rhino appears to have become extinct, according to a leading global conservation group. Extensive searches throughout the black rhino's last known habitat in northern Cameroon have failed to find any rhinos or signs of their existence.

The western black rhino sub-species, Diceros bicornis longipes, had declined precipitously in the past 20 years largely as a result of poaching. In 2002 there were only 10 remaining. The few left were distributed over a wide area, making breeding more difficult.

Hello. I am...

Soon I and our wife will be moving to a FOREIGN COUNTRY. A country filled with FOREIGN PEOPLES. Oh, the peoples there speak English, yes, but don't let that fool you. They are strange and FOREIGN.

Naturally, I have been practicing my foreign greetings so the FOREIGNERS will not feel afraid when we land amongst them.

If you intend to be around FOREIGNERS in the future, you might want to practice some of these phraseologies yourself:

"Hello, there. I am ...

• ... happy to meet you."
• ... a North American."
• ... not from around here."
• ... a displaced person."
• ... sorry."
• ... not dangerous."
• ... looking for a job."
• ... here to stay."
• ... desperate."
• ... a jolly good fellow."
• ... well aware of your resentment toward my people."
• ... eager to learn your ways."
• ... having a bowel movement in my trousers. Send for help."

Tetras

Comic-Con Countdown

Comic-Con International 2006 next week - from Thurs. July 20 - Sun. July 23 at the Convention Center in San Diego.

I'll be down there all weekend - from Thursday morning to Sunday evening - and will be staying in a hotel downtown. If you want to hook up down there, write me at ask@nealromanek.com and we'll work something out.

I do Comic-Con hard. If I'm not attending some lecture or panel discussion, I'm on the floor, roaming, circling - like a shark - like a dopey, slack-jawed, bipedal shark. Look for me. I'll have a t-shirt on.

Neal's Comic-Con 2006 To Do List:

1. Pitch comics stories/scripts to publishers.
2. Ruthlessly interview illustrators & artists for rabbit + crow Comics.
3. Try not to buy armloads of things that I will have to get rid of in a few months anyway.
4. Chant to myself "Remember, thou art married" whenever I see young women dressed in skimpy fantasy & superhero costumes.
5. Attend as many programs and panels as possible without bursting my brain - starting with "Myths For The Modern Age?" on Thurs., July 20 at 10:30 am (room 7B).
   

Beverly Hills Bones

Webhost Switch

Oh, so much, so very much afoot.

The game, for one. Always afoot, that game.

Blasted game.

I'm switching webhosting service. NealRomanek.com was previously hosted by Earthlink, which has some great customer service, but is too expensive and has a primitive toolset for site management. I am also wanting a webhost more international in nature, since the capital of the rabbit + crow Empire will be moving to London come Fall.

I am switching to Bluehost, which - by all accounts - is quite the fine company.

It's slightly possible there may be some glitches, over the next two or three dweeks, when you load any pages that start with www.nealromanek.com. It's not likely. But it's possible. If you are unable to get the page to load, don't freak out. Please don't freak out. Freaking out isn't good for you. Also people who freak out are inclined to lose favor. Simply wait until the panic passes and try to load the page again in an hour or two or three or ten. Any glitchiness should be well ironed out by the end of the month. So if it's August and you're still experiencing freaky glitchiness with nealromanek.com pages, the problem is on your end and you ought to be ashamed of yourself for thinking ill of us here at rabbit + crow who are trying, day and night, so very very hardly to satisfy your every neediness.

The switch in hosts will NOT affect this blog, or the subscriptions to the podcasts, or any of my pictures hosted by Buzznet. If you are having trouble with these, again, if I may quote Bruce McCullough in the "Screw You, Taxpayer" sketch: "Don't brame me."

It is also possible that you will have mail sent to ask@nealromanek.com bounced back to you. I apologize if this happens. If you do get an email back, don't think it's because I've stopped loving you. Simply resend the email after a day or two or three or ten with a vicious series of insults prepended and I will send you a form-letter apology in response.

And, if I may add my experience to the knowledge-pool: People considering a switch in webhosts - it's more of a pain than you would suppose.

Actaeon The Rabbit

This is Actaeon.

Actaeon is a superior rabbit.

If you feed & water Actaeon, and gives him lots of hugs & kisses, he will have mercy upon you when the DAYS OF WRATH come.

God Save The Queen (full version)

Will all please now rise for Her Majesty's National Anthem:

God save our gracious Queen,
Long live our noble Queen,
God save the Queen:
Send her victorious,
Happy and glorious,
Long to reign over us:
God save the Queen.


O Lord, our God, arise,
Scatter her enemies,
And make them fall.
Confound their politics,
Frustrate their knavish tricks,
On Thee our hopes we fix,
God save the Queen.


Thy choicest gifts in store,
On her be pleased to pour;
Long may she reign:
May she defend our laws,
And ever give us cause
To sing with heart and voice
God save the Queen.


Not in this land alone,
But be God's mercies known,
From shore to shore!
Lord make the nations see,
That men should brothers be,
And form one family,
The wide world o'er.


From every latent foe,
From the assassins blow,
God save the Queen!
O'er her thine arm extend,
For Britain's sake defend,
Our mother, prince, and friend,
God save the Queen!


Lord grant that Marshal Wade
May by thy mighty aid
Victory bring.
May he sedition hush,
And like a torrent rush,
Rebellious Scots to crush.
God save the Queen!

Thanks to my dad for the tip on this original, unexpurgated version.

Over The Fence

ID4 w/o Aliens

Hot Beer Of Old King Lud

"Oh, I gots the rabbit + crow Blog is one year old blues...
Oh, yes, I gots the rabbit + crow Blog surely is one year old blues...
I got them blues that are so blue, as regards the one year anniversary of the rabbit + crow blog,
That I am really quite blue. Oh, yeah. Doo-wop. Yuh-huh. Zizz!"

Ever have a one year anniversary of something and you think to yourself: "That was a year. That was it. Now I know what a year of doing that is like. It was different from how I thought it would be. It was better. And it was worse too. And it was different. Sigh."

Do you ever think that do yourself?

I do.

I'm thinking that to myself right now.

It's so hot in Los Angeles that I would like to blow up the sun.

When we move to London in the fall, it will not be hot. And that is very good. Whenever I talk about the imminent London relocation, people - with the expression of a doctor about to give bad news - say: "But of course, there's the weather there. That's going to take some getting used to."

It will take some getting used to, yes, in the sense that after someone has been splattering hot grease in your face for several years in a row, you will probably be a little jittery for a while, even though the grease-splashing has ended.

I like rain. I love rain. Rain and cold weather and that feeling like I might be getting pneumonia somewhere way, way down there in my alveoli, that stuff makes me perky and relaxed and contented. It also seems to improve my concentration - kind of like how nicotine does, except without the premature death part of it.

Sometimes I get on the bus and I'm sure I'm sitting in a pool of sweat from a previous passenger. Usually, luckily, it's just spilled beer.

None of that uncertainty in London. No! In London - oh, London! - it's a dead cert that it's spilled beer!

Of course, nothing is certain in this day and age.

When my wife and I went to London for our honeymoon, we took a behind-the-scenes tour of the Natural History Museum's jarred specimen collection. We were shown a small barracuda that had been caught off the coast of Cornwall the previous year. It was the farthest north a barracuda had ever been caught.

The barracuda is a tropical fish.

Cornwall is where King Arthur was from.

Barracudas and King Arthur should not have to be spoken of in the same conversation.

I'm sweating.

New Goo Reviews

Since it seems we may be coming near the conclusion of the Wretched Goo of The Imagination podcasts - assuming there will be 12 episodes in all - and I'm not saying there are going to be 12 episodes. I'm just saying that if there were 12 episodes, we might be coming to the end of them ...

... if there were 12 episodes.

But I'm not saying for sure or not that there will be 12 episodes.

But if there were...

Since that it seems that may be happening perhaps, I thought it'd be fun to post some reviews of the Wretched Goo podcasts that have appeared in various publications over the past few months.

Here's what them are saying about Neal Romanek's triumphant "Wretched Goo of the Imagination" action/adventure/soundscape/comedy podcasts!:

"...juvenile nonsense..."

- Louis Tegwest, Spirg County Examiner

"If you adore dinosaurs, space aliens, and movies, you will be cured by listening to this execrable podcast."

- P. Jackumondi, www.gorille.com

"Someone told me the Rabbit + Crow podcasts were like 'Monty Python meets David Attenborough on acid'. In truth, they are more like David Attenborough's friend Monty talking about his phobia of pythons while on acid."

- David Charrick, Die Reviewer

"The 'Wretched Goo of the Imagination' podcasts are inaccurately named, for there is nothing gooey about them."

- J. McSee, podcastit.org

"They drove me mad."

- Harry

"Elaborate sound design and exotic settings ... don't make the shows any more palatable."

- Carol Levitopp, Psychology Weekly Today

"I would never, ever carry off a man like that. Ridiculous."

- Quetzalcoatlus northropi

"I liked de paht whea he peed in hiss spacesuit."

- Gov. A. Schwarzenegger

"The little man who plays Neal Romanek on the shows is very realistic-sounding."

- Nicholas Sturges, Drama Rama Magazine

"Genius. Sheer genius. Sheer comic genius. Sheer sublime comic genius. Sheer sublime poetic comic genius."

- Neal Romanek