Indifferent Mechanics

“Near Dark” review at Postmodernbarney.com

Daniel Latta — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:50:22 +0000

FULL DISCLOSURE: I really, really, REALLY dislike Dorian, but this is literally the best review of one of my favorite movies I’ve ever read. So, credit where credit is due, the man knows movies, and you should check him out:

Kathryn Bigelow’s “Near Dark” reviewed by Postmodernbarney

GEEK JOKE/XKCD REFERENCE

Daniel Latta — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 19:53:53 +0000

MY HOBBY:

Locking Richard M. Stallman in a room with a caged, starving tiger and a laptop running Windows Vista. I tell him the cage will open in 20 minutes, but he can unlock the door to the room and escape by using Remote Desktop to access a computer on the other side.

I’ve only done this once but I plan to continue once reliable cloning technology is developed.

Incommunicado

Daniel Latta — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 04:35:44 +0000

I’m going to be down in Fresno all weekend for my baby’s third ultrasound, so I’ll be off the grid, save, perhaps, for sporadic cell-phone-based browsing.

Geek Tragedy Podcast

Daniel Latta — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 05:10:23 +0000

While I was blogging APE(and I use the term loosely), these guys were podcasting it — its actually a strong statement about a podcast’s popularity when you plug its name into Google and the first entry is actually its RSS feed! After a fierce kung-fu battle on the roof of the Concourse, I emerged victorious, and forced them to interview me, so I thought I’d be magnanimous and plug their show.

The Geek Tragedy Podcast — “Three old-school fans who know what we hate (and, sometimes, like) and aren’t afraid to tell anybody who’ll listen!”
Updated… uh… regularly!

Biting Off More Than I Can Chew: Part 6

Daniel Latta — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 04:59:46 +0000

At this point, you must be wondering: “How long is this guy going to milk this APE thing?” Well, considering the number of business cards I picked up and all the pictures I took, I could probably keep going until APE 2010 — but I’ll try to be done with all this by the weekend.

Of particular note is Khalid Birdsong creator of the excellent Youngbloods — not to be confused with the atrocious Youngblood by Rob Liefeld. Khalid is an teacher in Mountain View, CA.

This man, Richard Starkings, who I was no stranger to(my heyday of comic fandom having been during the 90s boom), literally ambushed me. He was standing two feet from me for 15 minutes before he suddenly thrust an autographed copy of ELEPHANTMEN into my grubby little hands. This is the guy who distracted me long enough to Starkings to deliver the killing blow:

If you see him, dial 911 and proceed to the nearest bomb shelter.

And, finally, there’s Larry Marder , creator of Tales of Beanworld. I initially suspected that he might actually be Dave Sim wearing Larry Marder’s skin, but convention security convinced me otherwise.

Biting Off More Than I Can Chew: APE 2009 Part 5

Daniel Latta — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 04:27:44 +0000

Closer to home… the booth right next door, to be precise… we find three up-and-coming SF Bay Area artists:

Courtney Carr has created a brand new, hot-off-the-internet-presses webcomic called In Character. She would apparently like the world to know that college students cannot be trusted.

Erin Milligan is the talented creator of the webcomic Timothy Green. Unfortunately, this is the best picture I took of her… sorry Erin! Erin’s also made all those crabs on the plate next to Courtney.

(yes we’ve already heard that joke, thank you)

And then there’s this guy –

His name’s Evan… in the huge crush of stickers, business cards, fliers, postcards, and autographed mummified tiger paws, I somehow LOST his information AND can’t even remember his last name… in fact, I’m pretty sure I called him “Tyler” when I said goodbye! I am a bad, bad blogger — if you see this, Evan, leave me a comment with your info and a link to any site you have and I will correct this terribly unprofessional oversight.

AN APOLOGY

Daniel Latta — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 22:03:33 +0000

On this post, I incorrectly put “.com” instead of “.net” when linking to my roommate Alicia’s site Katgirl Studios. The oversight has been corrected, as katgirl.net is the proper domain and katgirl dot com takes you some place… naughty. Sorry for the mix-up.

Biting Off More Than I Can Chew: Part 4

Daniel Latta — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 03:55:55 +0000

It was a very long day at work, so all I’ve got for you is Camilla D’Errico, painter, illustrator, and all around hep cat — one of the bright moments of my bold attempt to transform into a serious pop culture blogger. Ms. D’Errico is the co-creator of Make 5 Wishes and the artist on Serena Valentino’s Nightmares and Fairy Tales (yes, I’m cribbing from Wikipedia… why do you ask?), as well the absotively fantasmagorphic Sky Pirates of Neo Terra, published this year by Image Comics. Camilla was without a doubt one of the nicest exhibitors I met at APE, despite my completely obliviousness regarding her work. My straw cowboy hat is off to you.

www.CamilliaDErrico.com is her website — her work can also be found at her DeviantArt site.

Furthermore… I met Steve Notley , creator of Bob The Angry Flower. He actually wasn’t that angry, even after I tried to lift his wallet. Here’s what he looks like:

Those petals are permanently stuck on there, btw. They tried to make him take them off to go through the metal detector.

Biting Off More Than I Can Chew: Part 3

Daniel Latta — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 00:00:59 +0000

The guy sitting down in this picture is TED RALL.

This Ted Rall. Also, THIS Ted Rall. I was gobsmacked. Stunned. Flat-out *honored*. Geeked-out, even. He turned for the picture at the urging of one the other two people in the shot, but he was in the middle of doing a signing so I didn’t get a chance to talk to him right then. I stood in line for a bit, waited patiently for the young lady he was speaking with to get her book signed, and I approached him in full liberal-political-geek mode.

Me: “Mr. Rall, I just want to shake your hand. If it weren’t for guys like you, I would’ve gone INSANE during the Bush Administration. Seriously, my head would have exploded.”

Ted Rall: “Well, uh, thanks.”

Biting Off More Than I Can Chew: Part 2

Daniel Latta — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 23:42:13 +0000

Might as well get the big tamale out of the way:

JEFF SMITH ( of Bone fame) FLIPPED ME OFF!

Chew on that, Fanboys! It’s like getting puked on by Jack Kirby.

He’s a nice guy, BTW. If you haven’t read Bone, read Bone.