Jason Rodriguez's Blog, page 11

Unfinished Drafts

The past two months have been hard for reasons I don’t feel like divulging. But I got a bit of perspective yesterday when I learned that one of my writing students passed away.

His name was David, and he was an older man who was trying to write for the first time. He was funny and energetic and always had great stories to share with our group. He didn’t have lofty aspirations of being a famous writer - the only thing he wanted to do was write a book for his grandchildren. He loved his grandchildren very much, talked about them constantly. He wanted to write a book where they were the heroes. 

He wasn’t in class last week which was odd because he never misses a class. He didn’t email me to let me know he wouldn’t make it, either. The week before that he shared the latest draft of his story and it was a huge improvement over earlier drafts. He just linked up with an artist who was ready and willing to provide spot-illustrations for his story. He seemed so alive. His energy was infectious.

I made a joke about David not being in class. I said that he probably sold his book and is a millionaire now and doesn’t need us anymore. We all laughed. The truth is, he passed away after suffering a brain hemorrhage. He never got to finish his book.

There are a million lessons I can take from this. To stop putting off to tomorrow what I can finish today. To stop sweating the small stuff and even the big stuff and to appreciate what I have, instead. The importance of family. The importance of leaving something behind. I’m processing all of this and trying to make sense of it, but it’s slow in coming.

I wrote his wife and asked for her permission to finish his book. I told her I’d take care of any costs and make sure that at least two copies get printed for his grandchildren, so that he can leave it behind for them. I’m hoping she agrees. Someone needs to finish his story - he worked so hard on it with nothing but good intentions. 

Everyone - hug the person you love today. Finish your work. Enjoy your lives. And when the pain is too much, write about it. 

"Maybe we’re toxic,” I said, and I immediately regretted the words. I know we like to think of the..."

““Maybe we’re toxic,” I said, and I immediately regretted the words. I know we like to think of the universe as an open system of limitless possibilities, but that’s really only true if you look out into infinity, into a time that’ll exist long after you’re dead but also long before everything ends. This one moment, billions of years into the future, where anything is truly possible. But each life is driven, somewhat, by the preceding generation and each year is driven, somewhat, by the preceding year and each month by the preceding month and each hour by the preceding hour and each minute by the preceding minute and each moment by the preceding moment. And the finer your resolution, the fewer the possibilities - and there aren’t many different ways a person can respond to being told that they’re toxic, and most of them don’t end well.”

-

In last night’s Write Right Now class I left my students with an assignment - to write a story about what it means to consume the life of another person. Like the rest of the universe, lately, I’ve been kind of obsessed with Marina Abromovic and, particularly  her performance piece with Ulay, Breathing In/Breathing Out, where the couple attached mouths and breathed each other’s exhaled breaths until they passed out. I drafted my story last night and…I don’t know, I may try to continue it as time permits.

Time never permits, however. Anyways, this is the opening paragraph. 

"I have loved fairy tales since I was child and experiencing them in graphic novel format is always a..."

“I have loved fairy tales since I was child and experiencing them in graphic novel format is always a thrill. Adding a twist of science fiction into this beautiful graphic novel only made it more appealing for me. The elements of science fiction change the stories in a way that was quite captivating. I especially loved the one of Pinocchio (The Stars Are Not Wanted Now) who was a machine made to tell the truth, but started to lie because he found it was too hard to tell the truth.”

-

I’ll always call out a review of a book I’m in, but I’ll call it out with a million smiles when it calls my story (with Scott White) the best of the bunch.

NO OFFENSE TO ANYONE ELSE IN THE BOOK. But I’m awesome. 

"Once Upon a Time Machine: 432 pages. 50 stories. 26 writers. 51 illustrators. This is a gigantic..."

“Once Upon a Time Machine: 432 pages. 50 stories. 26 writers. 51 illustrators. This is a gigantic book filled with different artistic styles and takes on the various stories. Imagine if someone took the time to adapt Gardner Dozois’ The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Ninth Annual Collection into a series of comics/graphic novels—that’s the scale and scope of this volume. Ambitious, I know, but it really works and better than you might think.”

-

Kirkus on Once Upon a Time Machine. 

Once again, I have a story in the book with Scott White. You can pick the massive volume up at Amazon or, of course, if you just want a teaser you can pick up my story for the Kindle. 

"I’m 81 years old and on a hunt for “The Heap," a none-too-heroic comic hero I prayed..."

“

I’m 81 years old and on a hunt for “The Heap," a none-too-heroic comic hero I prayed would return to Mad Magazine, but he didn’t while I was a member of the waiting crowd. What an idea! A comics critter who wandered around with banana peels and spinach cans (all tiny as postage stamps compared to him) falling unnoticed and unmissed from his body, which was made of garbage, just exactly like all the rest of us are, this wonderful epic implied, but not by hitting you over the head with the bottom of a frying pan.

I can’t remember any more details, only that I thought it was the most hilarious invention I’d seen since a few of Elzie Segar’s wilder ideas in the ’30s, and what a compliment that was. Al Capp & Walt Kelly were certainly on speaking terms with hilarity too, and I’d been too young to cuddle Krazy Kat. Segar’s Popeye I inhaled from an oversized b&w-only comic book of the cusp-30s/40s; the format was never repeated, and the rats in my mother’s kitchen consumed the spine just before I let the rest go too. Its title was “Popeye & the Search for Poopdeck Pappy," and I would never have seen that story again but for the publication of Segar’s 1936 dailies in the Fantagraphics likewise oversized books of today.)

I’d be very grateful if somebody could point me in the direction of another look at “The Heap" before I too fall to earth just behind whatever Great Carcass may be shuffling around with me as, perhaps, some part of his personage.

”

-

A comment left last night on my old blog, on a review of Mad Magazine #5. I followed the comment’s profile to Thomas Wark, a retired newspaper editor.

I just wanted to post this comment. I thought it was touching. It got me to thinking about how some comics just stick with us through the years. Now I’ll try and send Thomas a digital copy of Mad Magazine #5. I believe I still have mine here, somewhere. 

But if someone can help me learn more about The Heap, I’d appreciate it. 

"I’m 81 years old and on a hunt for “The Heap,” a none-too-heroic comic hero I..."

“

I’m 81 years old and on a hunt for “The Heap,” a none-too-heroic comic hero I prayed would return to Mad Magazine, but he didn’t while I was a member of the waiting crowd. What an idea! A comics critter who wandered around with banana peels and spinach cans (all tiny as postage stamps compared to him) falling unnoticed and unmissed from his body, which was made of garbage, just exactly like all the rest of us are, this wonderful epic implied, but not by hitting you over the head with the bottom of a frying pan.

I can’t remember any more details, only that I thought it was the most hilarious invention I’d seen since a few of Elzie Segar’s wilder ideas in the ’30s, and what a compliment that was. Al Capp & Walt Kelly were certainly on speaking terms with hilarity too, and I’d been too young to cuddle Krazy Kat. Segar’s Popeye I inhaled from an oversized b&w-only comic book of the cusp-30s/40s; the format was never repeated, and the rats in my mother’s kitchen consumed the spine just before I let the rest go too. Its title was “Popeye & the Search for Poopdeck Pappy,” and I would never have seen that story again but for the publication of Segar’s 1936 dailies in the Fantagraphics likewise oversized books of today.)

I’d be very grateful if somebody could point me in the direction of another look at “The Heap” before I too fall to earth just behind whatever Great Carcass may be shuffling around with me as, perhaps, some part of his personage.

”

-

A comment left last night on my old blog, on a review of Mad Magazine #5. I followed the comment’s profile to Thomas Wark, a retired newspaper editor.

I just wanted to post this comment. I thought it was touching. It got me to thinking about how some comics just stick with us through the years. Now I’ll try and send Thomas a digital copy of Mad Magazine #5. I believe I still have mine here, somewhere. 

But if someone can help me learn more about The Heap, I’d appreciate it. 

The Jugger

Wow.

Wow, wow, wow. After the somewhat disappointing The Score, Richard Stark destroys me with The Jugger. I started reading it off-and-on in-between chapters of Nat Philbrick’s Mayflower but last night I got into, “can’t put down mode,” and finished it at around 2:30AM. It was remarkable, probably my favorite Parker book so far. I’m honestly not sure how it can get any better than this but, given the ending, I have to imagine we’re in for some new looks in future books.

Light on the some of the poetic prose that floored me in previous volumes but so heavy on character development that it was just completely captivating. Parker was a vicious thunderstorm and the supporting cast was so tragic. It felt a lot like a Coen Brothers movie, or Raimi’s A Simple Plan, with a bad guy coming to town and nobody understanding how bad a bad guy really is. There was no score in this book - no money and no job - just a bunch of hicks who think they can beat Parker. It was amazing. AMAZING.

Beyond recommended. If you don’t read this book at some point in your life you are hollow. You should sit in a dark room and think about all of the dumb mistakes you’ve made in life, starting with the moment when you read this post and said, “Pass.”

Books read in 2013:

Swallowing the Earth
The Signal and the Noise
The Mourner
The Book of Human Insects
Moonraker
Forced Founders: Indians, Debtors, Slaves, and the Making of the American Revolution in Virginia
The Score
The Jugger

A shiny nickle to the person who can tell me why Corn Hill...

A shiny nickle to the person who can tell me why Corn Hill became Fort Hill. 

colonialcomics:

That map!

I asked my contact at the Massachusetts Historical Society if she had any leads on where to find maps of New England that I could use in Colonial Comics. She directed me to the Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library which has a HUGE database of historical maps from around the world and I believe I’ll be spending the rest of my week there. 

So many wonderful, wonderful maps. The one above is the original plan of Boston from 1630. I love how it points out who will own what lands. Winthrop gets top-billing, of course. 

I am trying to wrap my head around one particular aspect of this map and that’s Corn Hill. According to Nathaniel Philbrick’s Mayflower, Corn Hill was the place where the Pilgrims stumbled across a reserve of Wampanoag corn seed that was buried in the ground. But that was in Provincetown, when they were looking for a place to settle, before making their way to Plimoth. I found another map of Boston from 1635 (below) that labeled the same area Fort Hill.

I must know the reason behind the name change!

The Official Handbook of Colonial America

colonialcomics:

We’ve been throwing around the term “interstitial” pretty willy-nilly over at Colonial Comics. The fact is, all of the stories need a one-page intro that starts on an even page and sets up the story. We decided to do an evolving map of New England as a watermark for those pages so that’ll be pretty fun to do. I’m going to Boston in three weeks for map collection (among other things) so that we can do that right.

But, the fact is, some stories will have an even-numbered page length so we need something to fill the gap. Additionally, there are several major characters that we simply don’t have the space or the manpower to talk about in the books. So I had an idea…interstitial pages that give bios of these characters but done as an homage to The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe. Kind of like The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Redux Edition but with colonial-era British/Americans and Native peoples. 

So this is sort of a call for interested parties. You can get in touch with me at colonialcomics@gmail.com for more info. 

“Uh huh. Uh huh. What? Yeah, I’m listening. Uh huh....

“Uh huh. Uh huh. What? Yeah, I’m listening. Uh huh. Uh huh.”

Hey, NBC, I came up with your new fall line-up. You’re welcome.