A preview here.

And this page linked here is why you want to buy it.

Some of you may have felt a little underqualified to become a manhunter for Special Operations Command. Never fear. An anonymous pal has found a job almost as good: “Intelligence Analyst” for the Walt Disney Company.

Yeah, you read that right: a spook for the Mouse… “highly developed Internet skills” and “US Government security clearance (at least Secret-level) desirable.”

Employer: The Walt Disney Company
Sector: Public
Type: Job
Status: Full-time
Location: Burbank, CA
Title: Intelligence Analyst
THE SITUATION: Basic Purpose and Objective of the Position: The Intelligence Analyst anticipates and assesses threats that could harm, or make vulnerable, The Walt Disney Company (TWDC), its employees, guests, or assets…

All details here

bad signal
ME AGAIN
shut up

I got my comp copies of FELL 4
this morning.  I'm guessing this
means it drops in stores either
this week or next.

Hopefully, this'll goose the sales on
the new printings of FELL 1 - 3.

And I wrote the backmatter for
FELL 5 last night.  Which mostly
talks about Will Eisner, the effect
of film and theatre on comics, and
the relationship between FELL and
THE SPIRIT.

Remember: if there is a trade
collection in English one day, then
it won't contain the backmatter.

Someone sent me a scan of a
WIZARD magazine page the other
day, wherein Brian Michael Bendis
says that FELL is his favourite comics.
Heh.

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bad signal
WARREN

The comics talk today is going to
be alive with the late-breaking news
from last night that Speakeasy
Comics is closing its doors with
immediate effect.  Which comes as
no surprise to most people, as
Speakeasy made most of the classic
errors associated with new comics
publishers who think being a fan of
the medium is enough.  And
Speakeasy publisher, Adam Fortier,
bless 'im, is a superfan.  I met him
some years ago, in connection with
a project outside comics; a very
personable guy with a lot of money
who made the two animators he
was travelling with drive him all over
LA in pursuit of comics.

Adam always struck me as a smart
guy, who'd done his homework on
the medium, so I was kind of taken
aback when Speakeasy started
releasing book after book with no
visible marketing plan beyond the
usual "if you build it they will come"
that always spells doom.  Especially
in an overheated publishing
marketplace that now has increased
expectation placed upon it by the
internet conversation.

We used ELK'S RUN as an example on
the Engine a few months ago: why
was there no dedicated marketer
who could develop an ad that worked
for that book?  

As time went on, and financial
responsibilities were placed on the
creators, Speakeasy began to
sound like a vanity press, despite
the efforts of people like Rich
Johnston -- who works in advertising,
and therefore orchestrated his
own marketing for his FLYING
FRIAR graphic novella at Speakeasy
-- hailing it as a radical new step
from a publisher to prevent it
bleeding money and assuring
continued operation.

Publishing isn't just a case of
assembling and trafficking books.
Speakeasy's moves just baffled me
from start to finish.  They filled
no obvious gap in the marketplace,
and, sad to say, I think they'll
vanish with not a ripple at all.

Except for the creators.  I think a
lot of people got their start at
Speakeasy, and I'm damn sure
there's people who had books in the
pipeline there who will now feel
robbed of their start.  All I can say
to those people is: it happens.  Almost
every pro creator has a false
start early in their career,
sometimes more than one.  It's
never easy.

Things aren't getting harder.  This
isn't market correction.  This, I'm
sorry to say, is one publisher
getting it wrong from start to
finish: releasing too many books,
without a support structure.

Adam's saying online that he's done
with publishing, and would like to
go back to just being a fan.  Some
might say that it's being such a
great fan of the medium that did
him in as a publisher.  But if he does
come back, he will do better.
Publishing comics is a harsh gig, and
he's been through pretty much the
most unpleasant learning curve
it can give.

The Speakeasy-related creators
on The Engine should be talking
about their plans for the future
on the Engine throughout the day.

http://www.the-engine.net

-- W
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Geoff Manaugh is a mad genius:

… it occurred to me that if the U-Bahn system could somehow be hooked up to massive, earth-anchored magnets, and made, therefore, to produce a magnetic field of its own, that you could transform all of Berlin into a geomagnetic harddrive.

As a sail traps the wind, a planetary harddrive would use geomagnetism.

Provided constant motion on behalf of the trains, I thought, and given absolutely gigantic magnets of the right polarity and location, Berlin could start producing its own magnetic field – which meant that any city with a subway could be transformed into a harddrive. Harddrive London. Harddrive Beijing. Harddrive Moscow.

Of course, it’s obvious even to me that you’d have to do quite a lot more than just bury some magnets underground in order to transform a city into a harddrive – you’d need a shovel, for instance, and perhaps some strong anti-manic drugs; but my point is that if Christopher Wren could build a tower that simultaneously memorialized the Great Fire of London even as it acted as a scientific device, then perhaps you could turn urban infrastructure itself into a kind of working scientific apparatus.

You could turn all of Berlin into a geomagnetic harddrive….

(Thanks to Matt Jones)

Another shot I keep forgetting to share, by Teresa Meza. So beautifully sleazy.

A former marine who was raised by nuns and made a fortune selling pizza has embarked on a £230m plan to build the first town in America to be run according to strict Catholic principles.

Abortions, pornography and contraceptives will be banned in the new Florida town of Ave Maria, which has begun to take shape on former vegetable farms 90 miles northwest of Miami.

Tom Monaghan, the founder of the Domino’s Pizza chain, has stirred protests from civil rights activists by declaring that Ave Maria’s pharmacies will not be allowed to sell condoms or birth control pills. The town’s cable television network will carry no X-rated channels.

The town will be centred around a 100ft tall oratory and the first Catholic university to be built in America for 40 years. The university’s president, Nicholas J Healy, has said future students should “help rebuild the city of God” in a country suffering from “catastrophic cultural collapse”.

Yet civil rights activists and other watchdogs concerned about the separation of church and state are threatening lawsuits if Ave Maria attempts to enforce Catholic dogma. Environmentalists have also complained the town will restrict the habitat of the Florida panther, an endangered species. Asked recently about possible lawsuits in Florida, Monaghan replied: “That’s great. That would be the best publicity we could get.”

Monaghan, 68, sold his takeaway chain in 1998 for an estimated $1 billion…

(Found by Garrett Dwyer, thanks)

32 seconds of deeply alien, peculiar video art by Tanja Puustelli: “A screen printed video work featuring a pornographic loop of a fellatio scene, accompanied with the sound of a cow being milked into a metal bucket in sync with the movement of the image.”>

Xvid avi, QT mov.

http://www.katiewest.ca is still coming soon, apparently.

[TAGS]katiewest, katie+west[/TAGS]

posted on
THE ENGINE

“This is my plan: If, someday, some giant murderous dude has picked me up completely off the ground by my throat and is strangling the life out of me, instead of fighting him I’m just going to get my pants off and start masturbating furiously. Because, if I’m gonna die anyway, that whole Michael Hutchence suffocation-orgasm thing is supposed to be pretty amazing and maybe– just MAYBE– the giant murderous dude will be freaked out enough to let go of me and I can get the hell away.

“With no pants on, sure, but you take what you can get.”

Been meaning to post/store this for ages. It’s from Shannon Larratt’s excellent modblog.bmezine.com, and if you don’t read it every day, then you know nothing.

I am so weak. I can never ever get used to this kind of photo. I just cross my legs and whimper slightly. I will never be Hardcore.

It was already in comments, I know:

A woman trying to cheat on a drug test was behind a bizarre incident in which a frightened convenience store clerk thought she had microwaved a severed penis, police said.

The clerk at the store outside Pittsburgh actually microwaved a prosthetic device used to cheat on drug tests, police said Friday.

The incident unfolded late Thursday afternoon when a man and a woman entered the store and the man asked the clerk, “Can you microwave something for me? It’s a life-or-death situation,” police said.

The man asked for paper towels, wrapped an object in them, and had the clerk microwave the item for 20 seconds, said McKeesport police Chief Joseph Pero.

When it was finished, the clerk handed the item back to the man and saw what she thought was a severed penis, Pero said.

After news reports Friday, a woman called police to say she was with the man in the store and explained what really happened, Pero said.

The woman told police she was applying for a job and was required to take a drug test. She said the man had filled the device with his urine, which she planned to submit for the test, Pero said.

The couple stopped to warm the device in the microwave so the urine would “pass the body temperature test,” Pero said—that is, be warm enough to not arouse the suspicion of those administering the test.

Pero said police weren’t sure why the woman was storing the urine in a device mimicking male genitalia.

The woman wasn’t applying for a job at the convenience store, but Pero said he didn’t know anything else about the job.

Pero wouldn’t release the names of the man or woman. Charges, including harassment and disorderly conduct, were possible, he said.

The clerk at the Giant Eagle Get Go! is “still visibly shaking,” Pero said Friday.

A clerk at the store Friday referred all questions to Giant Eagle corporate headquarters. An official there declined comment.

Vanessa Yaremchuk:

Massive catch-up edition:

All details here

Dan Goldman provides a fine start to the day for Planet Comics.

And you all went to the one thing
I forgot, the Crumb story about
Dick that's online... Thanks, all.

Since I specifically referenced LA,
I imagine most of you have worked
out why I was asking...

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Like the genius I am, I have put all my Philip K Dick biographies, the Exegesis books etc “somewhere safe.” This means that I cannot find the bastards. And I need a couple of research questions answered by Monday. I’m hoping there’s someone who can help me out:

1) His father, Edgar Dick, reportedly did a radio show in LA at some point entitled “This Is Your Government.” Does anyone know what this show was actually about? It could have been a public service broadcast of some kind, since he was employed by the Department Of Commerce at that point, but I don’t know for sure.

2) Second, and most importantly: was Philip Dick living in LA or San Francisco when he had the first of the main sequence of visions, the one triggered by the icthus, the Christian fish symbol?

I’ll find the fucking books eventually and do all the digging myself, but I particularly need the second question answered so that I know if I have a gap in the story’s spine or not…

I still say that poor damaged bastard was the defining visionary of the 20th Century. Some say it was Lovecraft, but I think Lovecraft was born too late. Phil Dick, the unlucky sod, came right on time.

Answers on a postcard to warrene @ aol.com if you know ‘em. Thanks.

bad signal
WARREN ELLIS

Like the genius I am, I have put all my Philip K Dick
biographies, the Exegesis books etc "somewhere
safe."  This means that I cannot find the bastards.
And I need a couple of research questions answered
by Monday.  I'm hoping there's someone on the
list who can help me out:

1) His father, Edgar Dick, reportedly did a radio show
in LA at some point entitled "This Is Your Government."
Does anyone know what this show was actually about?
It could have been a public service broadcast of some
kind, since he was employed by the Department Of
Commerce at that point, but I don't know for sure.

2) Second, and most importantly: was Philip Dick
living in LA or San Francisco when he had the
first of the main sequence of visions, the one triggered
by the icthus, the Christian fish symbol?

I'll find the fucking books eventually and do all the
digging myself, but I particularly need the second
question answered so that I know if I have a gap
in the story's spine or not...

I still say that poor damaged bastard was the defining
visionary of the 20th Century.  Some say it was
Lovecraft, but I think Lovecraft was born too late.
Phil Dick, the unlucky sod, came right on time.

-- W

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