Wednesday, May 24, 2017

My Friend Killed Herself - Suicide + Mental Illness


A
friend killed herself Monday night.  We had just seen her over
the weekend at a convention.  There were no warning signs.
She was always a positive person.  She had starred in a bunch of
local films.  She had a great job that she loved working as a
studio director and DJ at a local radio station (she loved music).
Life seemed to be going well for her.  She bought stuff at the
con, got a pic with a celeb, was making plans for later in the week.
Had messaged a couple other people to get together.  None of
these are the usual activities of someone in a suicidal state.

She
went hiking with her besties Monday morning.  Then Monday night
there was a post on Facebook that simply said, "I am done"
and she killed herself.

I
didn't know her well enough to know if there were hidden demons.
I've had family members with bi-polar disorder, and from the outside
it looks an awful lot like that, because that tends to be a genetic,
biological illness, a literal chemical imbalance.  You can have
the greatest life, friends, family, job you love, no stress, no money
worries, and still suffer from manic depression.

It
seems like she was on a great streak, but when the illness struck on
Monday night it hit her hard, too hard for her to fight back, and
dropped her into that dark pit of despair and hopelessness.

If
you suffer from bouts of depression, especially sharp declines and
ones that include suicidal thoughts, I urge you to seek help.  Even
just talking about it, how you feel, what you fear, can go great
lengths to easing your mind. 

Love
from my little black heart.





Thursday, May 18, 2017

Disney + Cthulhu

Disney + Cthulhu


You knew it was coming.  In an age of mashups, if you hadn't seen them already, it was only a matter of time before the two cosmic horrors of Disney and Cthulhu collided.  Ursula from The Little Mermaid and Davy Jones from The Pirates of the Caribbean are two very obvious, already existing nods to H. P. Lovecraft and his most famous, tentacled creation.  But those are easy ones.  Even my young daughter noticed, saying, "Ursula is Cthulhu's sister."  But have you seen the others?




This is Duckthulu from the official Disney comic of Darkwing Duck.








Not sure what exactly is going on here, but it can't be good.



Then come the mashups.

 Ursula meets Cthulhu by charneco



by Keith "Streetsweeper" Portzen








 The Little Cthulhu by Captain Ribman





by Alex "Shin" Trombetta




Mickthulu Mouse by Beastpop (Popmonkey)




Silly Nameless Terror from the Goon Comic by Eric Powell




 Cthulahula by ZombieMedia
this is a parody of vintage Hula Minnie Mouse




by Pahko Moreno



Call of Kerthulhu by Winter Artwork
(The Muppets are now owned by Disney)



 My Neighbor Cthulhu by Murrills81
The classic anime style was inspired by Walt Disney's work
and Disney did redub and redistribute My Neighbor Totoro




Totoro Cthulhu by Crabro




Guardians of the Galaxy, Volume 2
based on the Marvel comics title of the same name
Marvel is now owned by Disney





Eldritch! is a digital comic definitely worth a mention!
Though this comic is not directly Disney related, it's creator Drew Rausch has quite the Cthulhu and Disney resume':  Drew Rausch (Cthulhu Tales, Disney's Haunted Mansion) and Aaron Alexovich (Fables, Confessions of a Blabbermouth, Avatar:  The Last Airbender). 




I figured I'd throw in a couple of my own.





I can't believe no one ever thought to replace Mickey Mouse with Brown Jenkin before!




And it would seem that most religions have some sort of silly hat.
So I made this one for the First United Church of Cthulhu.
Necronomicap?  NecronomiEars?  Mickeynomicon?






Dangerous Worlds - steampunk music



Dangerous Worlds – the steampunk band that never was from a past that never was. Sometimes things just don't work out. Steampunk music. It seemed like a nice change of pace from the intense days of my earlier industrial punk band Crowd Violence (ataricore noiserock is go!) A simple three piece of strings-drums-vox. I even had a Tesla coil so I could play some electrifying surf rock for a finale. Turns out the coil builder was a good fabricator but not a good engineer. Thing never worked properly beyond playing happy birthday and a few other tunes via midi, and even half of those were messed up because of bad channel interface. And none of my local mad scientists had the know-how to bring it back to life. Sad, sad.


After hitting up all the classical (violin, cello) strings players I could find, some 40+, and being unfruitful in my pursuit, I turned to my other passions, such as writing steampunk horror novels like Chainsaw Alice in Wonderland or starting an officially recognized religion to the dark gods via the First United Church of Cthulhu. But I will always be a musician. At my root, that is who I am. I listen, play or sing every single day and will until I die. You can't stop rock and roll.


And hey! I've heard a lot worse at some of the steampunk conventions. And they were getting paid! So if you'd like to pay me to never sing again, feel free to donate generously via Paypal. And let's face it, steampunk needs a little more punk and a little less robots playing PBS kids show tunes or pompous assholes who think they invented the subsubgenre. You are not a rockstar! You're playing in the Montana Room at the Holiday Inn at an old-timey sci-fi convention. Get over yourself. Fuckin' amateurs.





Was feeling a bit nostalgic for the good old days of performing and hitting the local music scene five nights a week, so after a show and still inebriated I recorded some lyrics. This was the only one that made it through without slurring, laughing, or forgetting some of the words. Bathroom acoustics are not everything they're cracked up to be.

And trug is an obsolete obscenity. Maybe I'll see you down at the trugging house.



GRAND THEFT AIRSHIP (a capella)

In an armored zeppelin, baby, don’t you know that I’ll always love you
In an armored zeppelin, baby, don’t you know that I’ll always be true
In an armored zeppelin, baby, come and take a ride
In an armored zeppelin, baby, it’ll all be alright

Been a long time since I flew in the moonlight
Been a long time since my airship took flight
Been a long time, been a long time,

Been a long lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely time, yes it has

I got my head in the clouds and my heart in your hands
I got my head in the clouds and my heart in your hands
I got my head in the clouds and my heart in your hands
Don’t you understand?

I got my head in the clouds and my heart in your hands
I got my head in the clouds and my heart in your hands
I got my head in the clouds and my heart in your hands
Don’t you understand?

No GTA today! No GTA today! No GTA today! No GTA today!
Grand Theft Airship

No GTA today! No GTA today! No GTA today! No GTA today!

Air pirates trug off!
Air pirates trug off!
Air pirates trug off!
Air pirates trug off!

No GTA today! No GTA today! No GTA today! No GTA today!

I got my head in the clouds and my heart in your hands
I got my head in the clouds and my heart in your hands
I got my head in the clouds and my heart in your hands
Don’t you understand?




Sometimes I can't sleep. . .so I sing! Or perform an entire concert, in my bedroom. This time I actually recorded it. And not drunk this time, just suffering from terrible insomnia. The song is based on true stories. This is actual advice I received from my young daughter, and YES! I still do stupid things for pretty girls.

My neighbors are all good people so I decided it best not use the actual drum kit for this one. Bedroll drumroll. And check out that rock face! Jack Black would be proud. Can you find the pictures of the dead Victorian family members and the idol of Cthulhu in the background? And the Tesla shirt, naturally.



YOU'RE NO PRINCESS

My daughter said Daddy, “No more bad girls, you can only kiss a princess.”
But I need some help to save me from myself
Cause you know I can’t resist ‘em!

You’re no princess! You’re no princess! You’re no princess!

You’re no princess! You’re no princess! You’re no princess!

And I think I like it


These Vicki chicks come equipped

I do
Stupid things for pretty girls
Stupid things for pretty girls
Stupid things for pretty girls
Stupid things for pretty girls

Stupid things for pretty girls
Stupid things for pretty girls
Stupid things for pretty girls
Stupid things for pretty girls


You’re no princess! You’re no princess! You’re no princess!

You’re no princess! You’re no princess! You’re no princess!

And I think I like it


Saloon girls are people, too
Saloon girls are people, too
Saloon girls are people, too
Yes I’m gonna make love to you

You’re no princess! You’re no princess! You’re no princess!

You’re no princess! You’re no princess! You’re no princess!

And I think I like it




Deaths come in threes, right? Well so does shitty steampunk music. And if it's not apparent, I may have drums but I am not a drummer.


What exactly was Doctor Moreau making on that island of his?

Party animals.



WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE

I wanna kiss you on the velvet sofa
Let my lovin' take you over
Why don't you slip a gin jacket on
We'll keep it going 'til the break of dawn

I wanna be where the wild things are
Have a good time and get a few scars
Come on, baby! Show me your claws
I wanna be where the wild things are


A little brown sugar on the tip of your tongue
Come with me, the night is still young
This is the plight of the working class
The king is dead and Vicki is a gas

I wanna be where the wild things are
Have a good time and get a few scars
Come on, baby! Show me your claws
I wanna be where the wild things are


Come on! Come on! Come on! Wild thing
Come on! Come on! Come on! Wild thing
Come on! Come on! Come on! Wild thing
Yeah! Yeah! Yea-ah!

Come on! Come on! Come on! Wild thing
Come on! Come on! Come on! Wild thing
Come on! Come on! Come on! Wild thing
Yeah! Yeah! Yea-ah!

I wanna be where the wild things are
Have a good time and get a few scars
Come on, baby! Show me your claws
I wanna be, where you are


Saturday, May 6, 2017

Free Comic Book Day - Phoenix, AZ


Free Comic Book Day is the 1st Saturday in May.  That can be bad news here in Phoenix, Arizona because the weather starts hitting 100 degrees by then, which it did this year, or at least the 90s.  So here's a rundown of the westside of the Valley of the Sun.  I didn't have my kids this weekend, and their mom never takes them, so my daughter gave me a mission to bring back any and all Wonder Woman and Harley Quinn free comics.  I would succeed!  Sadly though, no Harley in any of the books this year.


DRAWN TO COMICS
Love the store.  Great people.  They have more of a little festival with fun activities for the kids and boasts over 40 tables of artists, crafts and community clubs which is inside the American Legion Hall.  It is very organized, they even had laminated print outs with pictures of the covers of all the free comics that they had so people could think about which ones they wanted beforehand.  Very thoughtful and efficient.

The main problem is that the line to get inside the Legion hall backs up real quick.  I arrived at the 9am opening and there was already a line which took about 20 minutes of waiting to get inside.  They have some shade canopies set up.  But there is a big dead spot of standing in the direct sun between the canopies and the front of the building where the line extends to back into the morning shade (even less shade once noontime rolls around).

As you enter the first room in the hall you get to pick out your 3 free comics, plus they had some buttons and other different extras you could choose from.  They had a good stock of the free comics but were already out of a few of the more popular titles like Rick & Morty.  But the problem is that everything backs up in the next, bigger Legion hall room where all the vendors are located.  We're only 20 minutes into the day and the room is already packed.  I got my comics and got out because it was already difficult to move down the rows.

It was the same way last year and I ended up not going in then because just the line waiting to go inside was wrapped around the corner and down the street.  I wasn't going to wait 1-2 hours to get a few free comics.

So I probably won't bother to check them out on Free Comic Book Day anymore.


JESSES JAMES COMICS & COLLECTIBLES
They moved to a much bigger store a year or two ago, and it was a wise decision.  The free comics were in an open area at the back of the store so there was a lot of good flow as everyone moved around the tables to pick out their comics.  And an extremely wise business move - they offered 10 free comics.  In addition to the full stock of the standard Free Comic Book Day titles they included a wide host of other comics for free.  Some were back issues that were never going to sell, obscure titles from smaller or independent publishers.  Some were back issues from series that failed.  Had a bunch of Marvel's Civil War II titles; I browsed through some of the comic books and realized why they hadn't sold - what a boring series!  Some great covers but the inside was full of civil but hardly any war.  Lots and lots of nothing going on.  But they also had some more current back issues available for free.  Wisely, there was a fair amount of Rocket Raccoon/Guardians of the Galaxy issues scattered around the tables.  And all those back issues that no one would buy can be written of as a loss or as a promotional expense for tax purposes.  Good planning.


ALL ABOUT BOOKS & COMICS
Once again, love the store, great people.  But they had a 1 free comic limit.  Unless you bought $5 or more of their regular stock, or made a $5 donation to the National Breast Cancer Foundation, then you could pick out another 5 of the free comics.  Or if you bought $25 worth of the specially priced $0.99 titles then you could pick out 25 of the free comics also.

Too much of a hassle, and kind of a hustle, so I didn't even bother to stop in.


SAMURAI COMICS - Phoenix location
Place was packed!  They had the free comic books set up at tables toward the middle of the store, there was a good traffic flow despite the crowd.  They allowed 3 free comics and they had the full selection of Free Comic Book Day titles.  I even picked up the free one for The Legend of Zelda - Twilight Princess which was already out or not at the other two stores.  Which was lucky for me because my son loves Link.  I was happy to see that there was a massive increase in the number of comics that would appeal to little girls my daughter's age (Monster High, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Wonder Woman, DC Superhero Girls) but not that many that he would have picked out.  He would have said "meh" to a majority of the free titles this year.

And Samurai Comics was great proof that you don't need any extra gimmicks.  Yes, people were in picking up only free comics, but a majority of the crowd was in one of several lines to buy other comics or geeky items they had discovered.  So Free Comic Book Day was a success in exposing people to the wider world of comic geekdom.

I myself only got the free titles on this specific adventure because I already picked up the new Scooby Apocalypse issue last week and none of the stores had the Disney Haunted Mansion graphic novels that I've been looking to pick up.  I always try to support local before turning online.

I would declare Jesse James the best of the westside for Free Comic Book Day in Phoenix.
But we're all winners - because we got free comics!  Hurray!