"...And he said "Arr! It's drivin' me nuts!"

I've realized with my sporadic posting that when I do write something here, it's just bitching.  So this is all going to be cool things happening.

No girl stuff.

No stress.

No complaining about how huge a loser Tim is.

Today was the production day for the Lifeline comic books package, which I had been planning and working on putting together since mid-January.  I actually can't believe it got done.  With all the work I put into it, I also realize that a ton of other people did a ton too.  This isn't even everybody, but here are the big ones, in stream-of-consciousness order, in what I am calling...

THE SIX-PACK OF PROPS

Jake May pulled me aside and commended me on my work.  Later, he told an entire meeting of current and prospective Lifeline reporters that this was the best Lifeline section of the year.  :-D  I definitely owe that guy a beer.

Of course, I wasn't the only one putting huge amounts of work into it.  Evan Shaner did a full-page illustration that serves as the cover of our section, with a good dozen-plus superheroes, and it is absolutely incredible.  I know it took him a ton of time, and he worked his ass off on that illustration.  An illustration for MY idea, which was mostly supporting MY stories.  I definitely owe that guy a beer.

Caitlin and Lalita (or collectively, Caitlita) worked their already-diminutive asses off editing everything in order to make me look good, getting it all together, and writing columns and doing Lifeline Picks and everything.  I definitely owe those ladies beers.

And then there was poor Steve Welsh.  His phone has been broken, so to get a hold of him and let him know we needed a picture of him, I drove over to his apartment, and talked to him as he was replacing a flat tire on his car.  He was awesome enough to come up to the office, where he was promptly blown off by everybody else who needed to do stuff with him, and forced to stand around doing nothing for an extended period of time.  Eventually, Jeff came in to save the day and got the bloody picture done.  I definitely owe Jeff a beer, and I DEFINITELY owe Steve a beer.

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So, I'm definitely pumped for tomorrow.  The comics package runs (after all that props-giving, it hardly feels appropriate to say it's "my" comics package anymore), and COMIC BOOKS ACTUALLY COME OUT.  On top of that, I am going to be appearing on Geek Speak again, broadcasting LIVE FROM THE COMICS SHOP.  If comics were cholesterol, I would need a triple bypass.

I know, I just posted, but I actually have a point in posting this time.

At about 7:30 tonight, it was reported that Steve Gerber passed away yesterday at the age of 60, due to pulmonary fibrosis.

Steve Gerber was a comic book writer who wrote scores and scores of really good books from the early 70s up until the present.  He co-created Shanna the She-Devil and Omega the Unknown for Marvel, and basically rejuvenated the character Dr. Fate for DC.  What he was best known for was creating Howard the Duck, and also being the only writer who could ever make him really, really funny.

But in being best-known for Howard the Duck, Gerber should be best remembered for his INTEGRITY.

While working at Marvel for most of the 70s, Gerber had a lot of differences with the higher-ups.  Creative differences, pay issues; the typical problems a creative individual would have with a soulless money-grubbing corporation.

After leaving Marvel in 1979, he engaged in a legal battle with the company over the rights to Howard the Duck, which never really got settled until 2002, when Gerber came back to the company to write a Howard miniseries for Marvel's mature-content MAX imprint.

After departing from Marvel, one of his first works was the obvious parody "Stewart the Rat," and later in the 80's he created "Destroyer Duck" with Jack "The Father-God of Modern Comics" Kirby, which satirized and roasted the legal actions of Marvel, and ultimately ended with Gerber claiming within the story that the Howard published in Marvel comics was no longer the character he created, and was instead an empty, soulless clone.

This may have been a dick move in the eyes of many, but it was the right move.  Gerber was the only person who could write Howard the Duck right.  The character in all the other stories and miniseries not written by Gerber has been absolute crap.  The character had a reverence and quirk and humor when written by Gerber that no other writer was able to emulate.

He just had that special something as a writer that didn't come along too often.  Omega the Unknown is the same way.  What was a smart, inventive superhero-mystery was turned into an absolute clusterfuck in the hands of a lesser writer.

Gerber has always stood by his versions of his creations, throughout legal battles, personal strife, and the Christ-awful "Howard the Duck" movie.  He was a large player in the late-80s movement towards comics creators getting more rights to the characters and stories they create, as well as the movement towards independent publication for original creations.

Like I said, integrity.

Most everybody who might be reading this (all two of you) probably haven't heard of Gerber.  If this is your first acquaintance with him, go find something he wrote and read it, because it's great.  If you've heard of him before, please don't remember him or his work for the "Howard" movie.  God, anything but that.

So I haven't posted in a while, which is typical whenever I try to blog.

It'll go two weeks without any posts, and then I'll be like, "Sorry I haven't posted, I'll try to do better from now on!"

Then two weeks after that, same thing again.

Then three weeks, then four.

Then my blog falls to the floor, dead.  "Not with a bang, but a whimper."

I mean, I'll try to post in this, but really, I mostly have an LJ to eavesdrop on the lives of my CM Life friends.

And I really shouldn't be doing this right now, anyways.  I should be working on my three stories for Control My Life.  Just like I should have been doing them instead of playing XBox.  Or pooping.

I think that's how Timba gets so many stories done all the time.  He doesn't poop.

So I'm working on homework and stories until I fall asleep, and then I'll get up first thing in the morning, and do the same bloody thing.

One flash of bliss in my life right now is the huge jumble of fucktacular White Stripes I'm listening to right now..  I just took every single album, song, and b-side I have of theirs and put it on shuffle.  You know you're jealous.

I really don't have much else to say right now.  That's my life; too much work, too much newspaper, too much school, not enough time to just sit around and be Bradley Optimus Prime Canze, and write for fun or do whatever it is I do.

As a side-note, I decided my new middle name is Optimus Prime.  Sorry, Mom, but Joseph sucks.

Everything's been so busy lately.  Is this what "real life" is like?  Not having time to sit down and gather your own thoughts?  Or having time to decide what you are feeling?

I often find myself forgetting that I have feelings.

This whole sorting my life out thing is harder than I realized.  It's like my life is a dam with a bunch of holes in it, and as soon as I plug up one hole, all the others start pouring out even more water to compensate and fuck me even harder.

This whole holding down two jobs that both require a large time-commitment thing isn't working out so hot.  I think I may end up quitting one of them, but knowing me, I'll quit the one that's making me money, and stick with the newspaper.

I feel like I should be figuring out who I am right now.  I'm kind of setting precedents for the rest of my life.  But I'm so used to having somebody there to back me up, that now that she isn't there anymore, I'm afraid of falling backwards.

What if I really am making the wrong decisions with my life?

What if I've become so niched and particular as a person, that no other women will be interested in me? 

I need to quit drinking so damned much, work out more, and figure out how to be happy with myself again.  It was so easy for so many years, what's making it difficult now?

I dunno man.  Friendship is rare.

So, I'm starting up a livejournal, mostly because all the CM Lifers have them, and I'm exceedingly lame and susceptible to peer pressure.

I'm going to be starting a movie blog with CM Life pretty soon, too.  I hope I'll be able to maintain two blogs.  I've rarely been able to maintain one.

I'll start out by getting right into the livejournal kick of things by being introspective and emo.

Stuff's really weird right now.  I'm only one week out of my relationship with Amanda.  I know she basically hates me for breaking it off, but I really think we're both better off.

So I've basically been trying to keep myself occupied.  I'm really super-busy, but never seem to get anything done.  Spending a lot of time at CM Life.  Whoever came up with the joke that the paper's name stands for "Control My Life" (I think it was either Caitlin Foyt or Abraham Lincoln) was a profound genius.

I have had a little more time to myself lately, which after three years, feels phenomenal.  I would be lying if I were to say that I don't miss her, or that it isn't weird, but I definitely think I'm better off, and can focus on school, and work, and getting raped by David Harris's ruling iron fist.  But not literally.  Ew.

I need to start working out again, too.  I've really let my health slip, and I want to get that on turnaround.  2 years ago, I probably could have competed legitimately on Ninja Warrior (had I known what Ninja Warrior was 2 years ago), and now I get winded going up the stairs to the CM Life office.

So I think my night is going to consist of working out, eating dinner, reading comics, and homework homework homework.

Oh, and I'm auditioning for LEAVE IT TO SKULLCLEAVER.  Oh god, why am I doing this to myself?  I mean, Pauly Tamale is probably going to put out a boss-as-fuck television program, but let's face it, I've got a face for radio.

I also want to start working back up on "Thor and Brian," this comic book I was going to write and Amanda was going to draw.  I don't know if I'd still want to do it with Amanda, but it's my concept anyways, so I'm going to get the best artist for it I can.

Of course, I'll need to finish a script for it first.  Gosh.

I'm going to go work out.  Maybe later I'll write something up about T&B, see what y'all think of it.

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