Stephen Graham Jones's Blog, page 250
July 4, 2016
Werewolves out in the World, Part XIII
If you’re just coming to this at #13, here, then, welp, there’s some clicking-back, if you’re interested—lots of masks and pets and Mongrels: One Two Three Four Five Six Seven Eight Nine Ten Eleven Twelve First and favorite—this doesn’t even really involve Mongrels, except insofar as Scooby-Doo is so deep in my heart it could never be extracted, and my heart’s also where Mongrels comes from: That’s at the top of this thread on fb (also, click the image for the stolen-out pic of just Velma). Sorry, I forget who alerted me to its existence (thinking it might have been Jerome Stueart?). I know who did this, though: That’s Libby and Darren right there, yes? And, man, if only Brautigan had: And, I think I like these annotations after the images instead of before, so this is just a placeholder while I shift gears . . . Cool to be listed with John Foster, too. Think we were Shirley Jackson Award finalists together once, yes? I need to get to Mr. White. Everybody says it’s great. It is a pretty book, yep. I’ve always been lucky with covers. Same way William Munny was lucky with what he was lucky with. Y’all may not all know this, but Matthew Summers is some kind of evil genius. Thus the lair: He might even have some thugs and/or henchmen arrayed around the place. And I’m completely messing up my before/after thing, here. Let’s just keep going, to . . . A few nights ago in Seattle, when Duane at University . . . → → →
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June 26, 2016
Werewolves out in the World, Part XII
You usually get either three, seven, ten, or twelve installments of a thing, don’t you? Here we are already at twelve somehow. Also almost at twelve? The clock I’m under right now. A scheduled lunch. So, instead of stacking a big series of wolfy images up as links to the previous iterations of this—I actually just said “iteration” in the same paragraph as “installment,” which I’d never realized a personal goal until right this very instant—how about we go quick and dirty this time, with just a list? You can click on the exact number you want to see (“Every Good Boy Does Fine” has eight syllables, or, believe me, that’s what I’d have used) To begin: A moon pic! Of course! How did I never think of that? And, the Mongrels fun continues at BookRiot: Which is to say: thank you, BookRiot. Here’s the link that directs to, which is for some reason previewing, but who am I to argue: Horror: It’s Not All White Dudes I mean, especially when there’s a cool/wicked bird, who am I to argue. And, I’m always forgetting to get instagrammy with this. Maybe because I don’t really have access/an account, so always have to sneak in through other people’s links? Dig that spiral phone cord. It’s a carryover from the era Mongrels prowls. And this—I mean, really, what could be cooler: Full image of that here. And, two things I dig, with this next one: “bestseller” in the bookstore name, and that dude being . . . → → →
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Cabin in the Werewolf Woods
In a movie where each scene is cooler and more iconic than the last, this one maybe rises to the top: Hey there, Little Red Riding Hood. It’s #WerewolfWednesday, so give your Big Bad Wolf a kiss. pic.twitter.com/0CFGg3PhDp — Lykanos Wulfheart (@Lykanos_Wulf) June 23, 2016
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June 21, 2016
Werewolves out in the World, Part XI
The trick with this, the eleventh installment of these, it’s figuring how to list the first ten in a way I haven’t done before. Last time I used Def Leppard. Can’t remember what happened before that. Let’s see, let’s see—I know. How about: Also? I could have written a novella in the time it took me to stack all that up. Worth it, though. I dig how it looks. I dig how this looks, too: And, I heard Tod’s graduation speech. It was solid. Rather, I should say: The truth about his graduation speech, it was that it was solid, in spite of the yellow book: That book to the left is Monsters, a Love Story? I think I’m in love with that title. Thanks, Scott: Thanks for nabbing that last one. Also, this is either a freaky shelf or a really clean trashcan or an unfinished chair, yes? At this resolution/size, and this late in the game, I can finally see that that twitter ‘Compose’ button, it’s a quill, isn’t it? Weird callback. Or, maybe not: is it a feather because Twitter’s logo is a bird? Is the idea that we pluck a feather from the big flying thing, and write for 140 characters? Kind of cool. Anyway, all I meant to say was thanks, Nick: I can see with great confidence that Mongrels has way less cussing than the Eggert book (reason? not aesthetic or Puritan so much as me, being a really poor cusser—I . . . → → →
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June 20, 2016
Building Your Bad Guy
Was just on a panel about villains at Denver ComicCon—actually, my second villains-panel there—and then, just now, I went all the long way down to Alamo Drafthouse to see Footloose on the big screen for the first time in thirty-two years, then listened to the Sir Patrick Stewart episode of The Nerdist on the way back, and . . . it all left me thinking, I guess. About antagonists, and the building of them. It’s Robert McKee who says that, when designing up your story, you always start with the antagonist, right? The antagonist is pretty much the measure of the protagonist, as that’s who the protagonist has to overcome in some fashion, be it swords or brains or dancing or whatever. It makes perfect sense. Also, it works against our storytelling instincts, which are always to some degree role-playing-game instincts . . . kind of, wish-fulfillment, as I see it: I’m going to have a bad Harley and this long shampoo-commercial hair and I’m going to know all these fighting styles and also I’m going to cry about cute kittens and I’m always going to have killer lines and I’m going to be an outlaw but have a heart of gold and I’ll be able to use any weapon pretty much and never run out of gas, and and and: First? There’s nothing wrong with that. I’m the last person to bad-talk RPG, I hope, and the only reason I know so much about Renegade is because it’s still my secret bible. What I’m . . . → → →
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June 16, 2016
Green Arrow: Rebirth
Don’t think I’ve ever done a write-up for a single issue of a comic book. But this #1 of Green Arrow / Rebirth—it earns that ‘rebirth.’ First, of course, I didn’t at all see the last Percy arc of Green Arrow going off the rails in any way. I mean, if anybody’s going to appreciate a werewolf-thing happening, right? Mix some Slade in, and I’m jimmying the lock on the local comics shop on Tuesday night. But, this new GA, man. It’s firing on all cylinders. If you’re looking for a solid write-up, this’ll definitely do. As for what so worked for me? I never even realized I had something near a fetish for dialogue balloons without the outline. But, doing it like that, it flattens everything out in a way that’s very cool: This, with the coloring, is doing something kind of . . . kind of like what Hawkeye did when Fraction and Aja were on it. And past them as well, some. It’s a really controlled . . . something, I don’t know. Color-talk always loses me fast. But I know when it works. And it’s working here, double-time, and it’s somehow syncing up with the line-less balloons to make these pages just something to study, and appreciate. Also, I like Ollie looking like the Ollie in my head: Troubled, that signature fancyboy goatee, and something just generally “moneyed” about him, I guess I’d say. Also, my favorite panel/sequence, it’s almost immediate: Why I excise this one to show, it’s . . . . . . → → →
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The World is Full of Mongrels
That “derogatory” part—man, just search twitter. However, over on instagram (which I hardly know), it’s mostly dog-pics. Looks like “mongrels” is a lot of other things, too: a boot/shoe thing: a screen protector: a gang in Australia: a band out of Michigan (very cool tracks, too; their fb-page): another band (this one out of Missouri. their fb): a Massachusetts band (fb): a band out of 1968: a band with a track titled “Full Moon Half Moon” (off Attack the Monolith): an independent film distributor (with no easily stolen banner image): an ATV tire that’ll take you anywhere: a British television series (with, I think, foxes . . . mostly?): a pretty cool looking non-werewolf book: there’s . . . whatever this is? (via Mike Hance) a now-playing movie? Nah (that’s a snap from an event I did at the Cocteau Theater, though, which is even cooler). And of course regular listeners already know it’s a t-shirt, a cover story, a local bestseller, a screencap trail, all that. Mostly, of course, it’s a little yellow book, with my heart packed inside:
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June 15, 2016
Werewolves out in the World, Part X
“X” as in Jason X, yes. I did love that installment. Jason all chrome, and in space, with the same machete as ever? I can’t even imagine how to imagine that. Luckily I just got to go the movies, see it. Anyway, this may be the longest of these screencap sessions yet. Reason being: been a crazy last few days. Anybody wanting to catch up with the nine rider that came before, here’s the clicks: Gunter Glieben Glauten Globen [ at which point Mutt Lange ceases to be of any help, and we have to fall back on normal/boring numbers . . . ] Five, as in, how many fingers Homer doesn’t have Six, that is, when the REAL Jason comes back to F13 Seven, that being the number-son that’s automagically a werewolf Eight, the butterfly’s favorite number Nine, homophone AND scrambled-up letters for “nien,” which has surely led to many hilarious confusions At which point, let’s go: Truth? You know how, say, a person might write a story about dog-headed people in order to rid himself of the very real fear of a dog-headed human? Purely hyopthetical, here. Like, Sam Waterston-era Law & Order hypothetical. As in, not talking about anybody in this room. In the same way, I thought that if I were to write about yoga pants (which weren’t a thing in the years Mongrels is getting written) and stretch pants and tights and hose and leggings, then maybe, just maybe, it would finally dawn on me, the difference between them all, that my wife . . . → → →
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June 14, 2016
StokerCon 2017 GoH
It’s happening ON A SHIP. In CALIFORNIA. I’m THERE, GoH’ing. Click HERE for that.
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June 10, 2016
Thrills 1 of 12
Werewolves on the beach: definitely; forever; please. No better place to be.
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