An Update Update

For our time together this week, I thought it might be a good time to address a few hanging threads and put some other stuff in context. Here we go!

Fuck Cancer Update: Well, kids, I’ve been on the oral chemo meds for a couple of months. Monday started my fourth rotation; for those who don’t remember, it’s two weeks of eight pills a day, followed by one week off. On the first day of each rotation, I get an infusion that lasts around 30 minutes. That’s a vast improvement over 8 hours every other week, for those keeping score.

In a couple of weeks, I’ll have a PET scan. My last CEA is 13, which is fairly stable and, according to the team, a perfectly acceptable number for what I’m doing now. After it crept up from the radiation and beginning of oral meds, this is overall a positive indicator. The PET will basically be there to make that everything’s where it should be. The door is open for more Y90 should the need arise, but we’re hopeful that the current course of action will do what it’s supposed to do, and that’s keep everything level and livable.

One thing that I think people don’t grasp, and maybe I’ve done a bad job of communicating it, but it’s likely that it never goes away goes away. I’ll basically do something to hold it at bay forever unless something new comes along that just wipes this shit out completely, and that is entirely possible. So I’m doing very well, but I’m not “cured” or anything. I’m doing what maintenance drugs literally mean, and that’s maintaining. If I can keep on keeping on, then that’s a massive win. So there we are.

It’s in the Cards: I’ve told the story about how I started writing cards for Topps previously, so I won’t repeat it (if you don’t know or don’t remember, you can read it here). Anyway, I first freelanced for them around 20 years ago, and I’ve been super-regularly doing stuff since The Mandalorian came out and they tapped me for the Star Wars team. I just did another 290 cards across four sets, which brings me up to around 3100 cards total, about 2800 of which are Star Wars. That is, honestly, batshit crazy. As you know, I’m cynical, a fatalist, etc., but every once in a while I get reminded that I’ve gotten to projects for or related to Marvel, DC, Star Wars, Buck Rogers, and Dracula, and that’s way more than tiny me ever thought he would get to do. Star Wars cards aren’t credited to individual writers, but if you happen to pick up any new ones before the end of the year, there’s a decent chance that was one I did.

Connor Book Update: Connor’s novella, The Good Ones Evolve, had a VERY nice launch. We don’t get into numbers here, but it’s had a great first few weeks. If you haven’t picked it up, you can do so right here: The Good Ones Evolve.

Hey! It’s Connor’s novella!

ALSO! And this is a reminder for every piece of creative work that you buy, especially for friends: REVIEWS MATTER. If you read Connor’s book, or anyone’s book, please drop by and leave a (honest) review. ALL reviews increase the visibility of the work and make for organic growth. Stars are great, but a sentence or two (or twelve) is even better. This goes for his stuff or my stuff or that band you like or anything else. REVIEWS MATTER.

My Book Update: I have a minor update in that my music clearance journey has crept forward a bit. If you don’t know, you don’t get to just use someone else’s lyrics in a book unless you pay a licensing fee. I don’t object to this AT ALL. Musicians get royally screwed more than almost anybody (outside of comics) and licensing fees for music used in other media is one of the things that helps to pay the bills. No shade on Taylor or Sir Paul, but less than 1/10 of 1% of working musicians are billionaires; in fact, there are only a handful. Hell, Dave Grohl and Paul Stanley famously drove their own kids to school.

The song I’m looking to use has four credited co-writers, as all four members of the band at that time received equal writing credit on all of their compositions. The publishing rights are essentially held half by them and half by a larger company that administers such things. The fee to use the lyrics will likely be $300. That means that the company would get half, and each band member would get $37.50, which is ironically what I used to have to pay at Indiana State University to get them to turn off the fountain so I could put on shows at Dede Plaza. On one level, it’s not bad that at all that you can still get money from a song that you made almost 40 years ago, but $37.50 is not exactly rent, y’know? That’s like two people getting Qdoba. So I don’t begrudge the notion of paying those fees at all. The process is a bit of a drag, but it will be worth it to me because my vision of the book would be exactly what it was meant to be.

One additional caveat: titles aren’t generally copyright protected in terms of songs. That’s why both Stevie Nicks and Nu Shooz can have “I Can’t Wait” or Ed Sheeran and Nickelback and Def Leppard call all have “Photograph” or Metallica and Three Dog Night and U2 can all have “One.” But one would need permission to title a different work of art after a song title IF the band has filed a type of legal protection like a trademark on that title. So TITLES are typically fair game, but LYRICS are always protected. The more you know, kids.

As soon as I find out about the clearance, accepted or denied, then I will get the book formatted and uploaded and announce a release date. I am looking to do hardcover, paperback, and digital, so you’ll have some options.

Welcome to the Planet: A side note here to salute my pal David Pepose and his wife Claire as they welcome Lucy Madeline Pepose to the world. She was born July 10th, checking into existence at 7 pounds, 1.2 ounces. It’s been a journey, but I know they’re going to be great parents, even if David is the kind of guy to stress way too much about plotting Space Ghost. :D

An Odyssey Odyssey: By the time that this posts on Friday, there should be a story up at The Saturday Evening Post that I did about the cinematic history of adaptations of The Odyssey. The story has always been a favorite of mine, going back to childhood, so I’m really looking forward to what Christopher Nolan has done. A career highlight for me was getting to take part in a press junket on the set of The Dark Knight, and listening to the man talk movies and answer questions and actually seeing him direct in person was just outstanding (the primary scene in question was Gordon and Batman in the bank vault; that day also included interview time with Christian Bale, Gary Oldman, Aaron Eckert, producers Emma Thomas and Chuck Roven, and Oscar-winning designer Lindy Hemming; it happened due to the magnanimous nature of Matt Brady, who got me the assignment for Newsarama. And it’s STILL not my most epic Newsarama story. Again, only in person).

THIS JUST IN! The Odyssey review: After I had this one in the can, I actually had the opportunity to see it in the Dolby at the AMC where Kyle is a manager. Kyle, Connor, Kyle’s friend and college roommate Madix, and I all went. And here’s my review . . .

The Odyssey.

Holy shit.

That’s my review. Back up the Oscar truck.

You want a little more detail? EVERYTHING is good. The practical effects are batshit crazy. There are a half a dozen or more possible acting nominees in here. Directing and cinematography nods should be academic. It also, like Oppenheimer, has a sense of drive undergirded by an incredible Ludwig Göransson score that keeps every scene, even “slower-paced” pieces, moving. It’s got that sense of scale and ambition that will have the conversation running toward “People bemoan the movies that Hollywood used to make? They never made them like this.” It treats the poetic/mythological source material seriously and finds deep and, shockingly, relevant character turns in many places. It’s a cliché, but see it on the biggest screen with the best sound possible.

That’s all for now, everybody. Since my next installment will drop after the big show is already going on, safe travels to everyone making the journey to San Diego Comic-Con International. It is an abjectly crazy experience to be there and proof that sensory overload definitely exists.