I Can’t Not Collect Something

I’m collecting fonts now. I desperately want to redo the site and make it gaudy and stupid, because that’s how I love things. The first version of this site, the version that lived on the web for a month before being wiped from existence was terrible. Everything was ornate, the menu-bar was so fancy it didn’t even look like words, the decorative elements above and below the comic were bigger than the comic itself. I wasn’t planning on blogging back then, the space under the comic was filled with fancy swirls and curls that did nothing but distract, I loved it, and it was utterly useless.

I amuse myself now by creating fake versions of the site, obscenities that are an affront to the internet and all it stands for. They are my favored children, nursed and coddled well past time when they should be shoved out of the nest or thrown to the wolves. I find it relaxing and a pleasant distraction to create these things that no one should see. The by-product of these fruitless endeavors is a large collection of fonts. Literally every free font Nate Piekos has created at Blambot, I’ve downloaded and played around with. They are all amazing.

I do think I’ll update this site eventually, but there’s no telling when that auspicious day will come, it could be awhile. But my god, the possibilities are endless. There is so much I would love to do, but won’t because I don’t know how, or it would make the site nigh-on-unreadable.

I haven’t collected comics in years, I never knew I was looking for something to fill that hole in my life until I started downloading fonts, now I can’t help myself.

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Richard Diamond, Private Detective of the Month

I listen to two different things when I write/draw Merunga. A playlist comprising 8(ish) songs and Old Time Radio. OTR I can only listen to while drawing, because Merunga is not a detective strip, and it would be if I wrote it while listening to detectives, of which genre accounts for 99% of the OTR I listen too.

This month is Richard Diamond, the Singing Detective. He’s alright, he has fund with it, doesn’t take it too seriously, and his gal Helen is there for comic relief not plot-enabling (side-eye to Margot Lane.) His mysteries aren’t anything new, I hear the same thing when I go on Shadow or Saint or Barrie Craig or Michael Shayne binges. They’re like westerns, three different stories, you just change the names. I suppose Diamond’s biggest claim to fame is that he was created and written by Blake Edwards, who also did this little thing called the Pink Panther.

Like most things, the first one I encounter is inevitably my favorite. For Diamond, that episode is “Blue Serge Suit.” Hi-larious, if you’re into that kind of thing I guess. Whenever I start one at home I get plenty of eye-rolls and suddenly everyone has something important to say so I have to turn the volume down to listen, it’s more than a little suspicious.

I’ll have all the available episodes of Diamond wrapped up in a few days, not sure what I’ll move onto next. In the past I’ve always gone back to the Shadow, always listen to the Shadow and then a new show, might change things up this time. I’ve dabbled in the Philip Marlowe and Sam Spade shows, but after ‘The Big Sleep’ and ‘The Maltese Falcon,’ I can’t do it. If it ain’t Bogey, then it ain’t anything.

For now I’ll just keep things open, play it by ear and see what sounds good in a few days. Maybe doodling that climatic death scene for you know who will put me in the mood for a light comedy.

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Unintended Influences

It’s been a long time since I’d seen ‘The Last Unicorn.’ I remembered it vaguely as a child, mostly the part at the end with the bull and the unicorns coming up out of the sea. Turns out, there’s this other part, earlier in the movie, where a witch is exhibiting a caravan full of exotic mythical creatures! Even a damn harpy. Besides the harpy and the unicorn, all the creatures were fake, but the idea was very interesting, I might have to use it in a comic strip sometime. I’m serious about that, I might use it.  I’ve mentioned earlier that that was the initial plan for Merunga, a wandering caravan, which has really only been in the strip once, we’ll get back to that kind of story shortly.

It was crazy, I was shocked, my wife was shocked, my daughter said “Is that Merunga?” It was a surreal kind of experience, which made me wonder what else I’ve forgotten that I’ve still been influenced by.

Of course I remember some stuff, Prince Valiant is an obvious choice. My Buck Rogers collection, and too a lesser degree Flash Gordon. I’ve got six long-boxes of Superman comics that besides engendering a love of comics, they have no influence on the strip. Some Alan Moore, some Jack Kirby, the complete Marvel Micronauts (including their late 90s appearance in Cable,) that’s the stuff I know about.

But ‘The Last Unicorn,’ out of nowhere I see this thing and aha! Maybe years ago is when the idea first took root? I don’t know. Another recent rediscovery was Thorgal, a classy Euro-comic. I found two collections as a kid in the library and loved it, and now that I’m old enough and smart enough to use the internet, I can find more it, and it’s all great, and I feel like there’s a little bit of that in there as well, (and there will be more, finding my old copies I’m now kicking around an idea for a full sized 8-pager about Merunga, at a time before the Caravan.)

Crazy stuff nostalgia, throws you for a loop. I’m in this trap where I’m pouring over all this old stuff and not getting any new stuff done, which is never a good thing. But I’m filling up more than one legal-pad with sketches and ideas for the years to come, so I can still justify it as work-related research.

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Just Something to Consider

Sooo, we could be looking at a format change.  Going from one strip a day, to a half-page less frequently than that. What I’d like from you guys, tell me how you read Merunga. My wife stops by once a week to catch up, my brother checks in every other day, what’s your schedule, and how much would changing my schedule change your schedule?

To be honest, I’m a little on the fence about changing how I do things, which is almost entirely due to the fact that I’m comfortable drawing a single strip. Drawing much bigger than that makes me nervous. From a story-telling point though, more space is better space, and I wouldn’t mind having the extra room to try new things, and pace the story a little different.

It’s a 50/50 chance of happening right now, and if it does change, it’ll happen when we reach our next story arc, in a month-ish. So, drop me a line, let me know what you guys think.

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It’s Here it’s Here! It’s Finally Here!

Above all other comic-book characters, I love Superman, by a fairly significant margin. I don’t even know who my number two favorite is, because after my number one (Superman,) I don’t really care. I love Superman so much I will most likely never like a Superman movie 100% because they won’t get everything right I want them to get right. I will also never totally dislike a Superman movie, unless it’s made by Tim Burton because that movie would have been crap.

I like ‘Man of Steel,’ it’s my favorite Superman movie, mostly because of how Clark Kent is portrayed. I also really really hate it, because of how the Kents in general are portrayed. I’m excited it’s getting a sequel, I’m pissed Batman is in it. I’m really really really pissed that Batman is going to kick Superman’s ass, because Batman is such a goddamn Mary Sue of a character and I can’t stand him. That all being said, I’ll probably watch this trailer every day, just like I did when the ‘Man of Steel’ trailers came out. I may not like it, but something is better than nothing.

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