And NOW, Ladies and Gentlemen, I'd like to talk to you about a subject near and dear to my heart...The remains of Adolf Hitler's corpse during World War II

As the legend of deserved death goes: Hitler in his  bunker on his las legs, took 2 cyanide pills, stuck a revolver in his mouth and blew his brains out as the cynanide pills were taking effect. BLAM! Choke. BRAVO! And the crowd goes wild! At which point not far afterward the Russian army flew over head and bombed the shit out of his bunker. POWPOWPOW!!! The Russians didn't find a CORPSE. They found the smoldering remains out of PIECES of a corpse and did God knows what to it. It's a mystery. Now if only that could have happened 10 million times over there'd be real justice in the world. But unfortunately, there isn't Justice in this world much of the time

Good Night Boston!

Me n' Da Industry. Da Industry n' Me.

For a long time, I’ve wanted to break into traditional comics publishing as an artist or writer. Perhaps because it was always (and always felt like) more of a challenge to succeed in commercial print bookstore and comics shop publishing than it did to succeed in digital publishing and webcomics, even though the latter doesn’t pay much if anything most of the time, and the former does. But with new media becoming increasingly more popular, and traditional media like books and comics losing sales, one has to wonder where the readers money actually is going: To digital or to print. Or are readers PAYING FOR anything at all? I’m not a commercial publisher. I don’t have tabs on this kind of information. It would make my job easier if I did, but I don’t, so like everyone else I read blogs, online articles, and the trades. But deciding where an upstart artist and writer like myself fits into the industry, be it manga, indie comics, or webcomics, is no easy task. If I can’t pinpoint it, I have doubts anyone else ever will.

Strategy and Family: A volatile mix

If my father were a war general in another lifetime, his "strategy" would be this:

"Do the most obvious, most direct, most naked thing possible, and don't anticipate any strategic or defensive moves on any of your enemy's parts. They'll just let you into their home base of course!"

&

"Full frontal assualt on the main road, fully advertised to the enemy, and full exposure of all defenses that are easy for enemies to spot"

Good luck with that, Dad. Go let someone kill you, because they definitely will.

New Fiction Piece I'm Working On

Multi-Race: An Autobiographical Short Story

Synopsis: A young baby with a mysterious Eurasian past and high visionary creative sensitivity and intelligence is adopted by loving white parents, but eventually grows to question his community, peers, mind, and ultimately, his own identity and place in the world after his life is threatened by a sociopathic acquaintance who stalks him and wants him dead, and the comforting innocence of the young man’s childhood has faded.

You know, I really, REALLY hate writing by internet-accessible computer.

God only knows what's sneaking into your CPU.

Trying to write with a non-wireless, hacked computer and compose literary compositions iss like being a musician trying to tune your electric guitar before a concert, where the stadium is ALREADY FILLED with a drunk, drug induced, and disorderly studio audience who show up at your rehearsal space...BEFORE THE FUCKING CONCERT EVEN STARTS. Just this massive impossible task. It's impossible to practice writing in such insane safety conditions. Essentially not possible, no matter HOW MUCH effort is put into it on the author's behalf. Not everything from the performer is a performance, and yet the audience (my audience) seems to relish in reacting this way. Fucking scary.

Exit to a Film...

Now I will admit, I did kind of leave my last job in the media with both my middle fingers raised high into the air, straight at America and most of the world. But no more of that...probably.

Still though, sometimes you don't want to put up with asshole crap.

Venture Industries

To think, I spent all this time, at least 4-5 months nonstop venturing into the big business and tech manufacturing world as a freelance inventor entrepreneur, and yet, now that I technically CAN talk about it, even with such legal freedom, I don't really much feel like talking about it. I'm just so used to not talking about my big business negotiations and adventures online. I should be spilling my guts to the world like usual, and yet this time around, I just don't feel up to issuing a public statement about that time of my life...

It's Clear Now: DBZ is the Most Popular Anime in the World History of Anime...

And as much as I like most anime,

even I'll admit:

More popular than Pokemon
More popular than Naruto.

And more popular than Sailor Moon.

And more popular than Cowboy Bebop, Fullmetal Alchemist, and Yu-Gi-Oh.

And it's lasted just as long as a franchise if not moreso than all those shows, a 24+ year history

DBZ is the most popular anime show in the world, with popularity and devotion rivaling that of Star Wars and Harry Potter.

Not only a major and highly profitable franchise through not only Japan, but America, and the world, dubbed by two seperate studios (FUNimation (a studio DBZ helped build, launch, and found overall through the 90s and 00s) and the Ocean Group), adapted into a major (albeit not as popular) Hollywood live action film (ironically enough), and syndicated on not just CN (Cartoon Network)'s most popular programming block of all time, Toonami, as well as on 2 other major networks, Nicktoons and Kids WB's newest incarnation, CW4Kids. Not to mention spawner of numerous parodies and websites. And that's just in North America alone. Which is actually amazingly successful for a show that's an anime in America.

Submissions

Got an email back from France Film today. They're interested in hearing more about my submission. I'm quite happy about that.

Injunction

Eventually, I will be pursuing a legal injunction against my adoptive parents and my psychiatrist and therapist, essentially for making me a "medical prisoner" of my own home. But that's neither here nor there. Nothing will happen for a while. Moving on.

Fiction Writing Publishing

I’ve decided to try something new at WCN. I’m publishing some of my fiction writing prose online over at WCN http://tinyurl.com/3bptxet.

But MOST importantly, REAL art is more personal than could EVER be commercial...

One should never be discouraged from picking up a pencil, or opening photoshop, and just putting lines on a page. THAT, my friends, is real art, not some TV show that was anonymously made to annoy and irritate you. That has no real meaning. You or I putting lines on a paper to create simple geometric shapes, THAT is art. Simple shapes or forms on a page IS art. Half that shit you watch on daytime television every day? Sorry. That ain't art. It doesn't have to be hyper-realistic or ultra detailed just to be art. And it doesn't "need to" be big bug eyed anime girlies to be art either. DeviantART and Cartoon Network in particular, are, quite frankly, solely responsible for fucking up an entire generations view of what real art is. Now an art history book isn't art to a 13 year old. A fucking stupid ass hentai online is though??? That's pretty fucked up, man.

Anyway, I said my thing. Anonymous shit on screen isn't actual art. Lines on paper created by a human BEING, (even if they look incredibly simple and crude) ARE. See the difference? It's actually more democratic than some of these kids nowadays think.

Let me tell you a little bit why I hate the fact that people actually (and thoughtlessly) consider DeviantART anime and Cartoon Network to be "real art" when it's pure shit most of the time. Real art isn't manufactured or an imitation, or duplicate. Most of what surfaces from the abyss of CN and DA isn't real art by traditional standards, and instead is junk food and diarhea of media, BECAUSE it's not personal. It feels algorithmic and automated, like a robot with a crayon. Not personal at all, and therefore filler shithole. Anything you or I put down on actual (get this) PAPER(! Wow, paper!), is art, because it was produced by an individual. Anonymity, as far as I'm concerned, is one shitty substitute. It doesn't MATTER that you can automate and mass produce and manufacture thousands of crappy ass random, anonymous, and non-identity images (not art, IMAGES, and random ones at that) a day. That's not "prolificacy". It's lunacy, fucking crazy ass stupid retarded insanity, coming out of the ass of a corporation like turds get shot out of your ass. Art has an identity. Art has a name. It's not manufactured by an anonymous group of nobodies.

THEE END

And Another Thing. Commercial Animation Isn't Real Art. Not YET.

Anime is fun and all, but it isn’t real art. It’s commercial, and therefore not entirely pure, just like animation in every other country. There are a lot of fans that don’t agree with this kind of objective sentiment. But ultimately, like Hollywood and videogames, anime and manga aren’t real art. They’re entertaining, and they use creativity, yes, but that isn’t the same thing as being Leonardo or Picasso. They’re Commercial art and commercial media, which means they’re not real art.

Animation CAN be art, and there can be exceptions, but to me animation is more media and entertainment than it is art.

Real art is pure. Real art is on paper, or in some cases digitally painted.

But the thing about anime and animation is, yes Disney Studios films (at the start) are cinema, and Production I.G. does real art. But not every single show that sees airtime on Cartoon Network or Nickelodeon is REAL art. If that were the case, those crappy commercials for brand products would be art, too. That shit ain't the truth. Art has real meaning. Art makes a statement on society, humanity, anything really. Most shows on TV are not art. And many anime, are not art. They're pure filler, designed to sell advertising space, and be forgotten about when they're replaced by newer shows.

The more it wants to sell you on a product, the less artistic credibility it has.

Newest Project

Submitted a little something to Film France, which I read about in the trades. Hopefully I'll get a response of some kind...Sounds like a fun prospect.

-J.M.

Hate to say it...

I hate to say it, but Google is the only company that's actually bothering to fairly monetize the interweb. The rest, like Time Warner, Disney, and Viacom (traditional media companies) don't GIVE A SHIT about you or I, only volumizing pre-existing profits for their pre-existing employees. And for the most part they do a terrible job of integrating pay scales to the web. They want slaves, not contributors....NOT internet users and prosumers (i.e. random peeps and me). At least someone's trying.

Smart Mind, Inferior Physique

I heard from watching the science channel that the body of a man with Aspergers ages faster than those who don’t have the condition. Your body fails on you faster. So technically, I have the brain of a super-genius rocket scientist, but the body of a 45-50 year old man. Not EVEN joking. When you’re a supergenius like me and your brain works at such a hyperefficient level, you’re body basically fails at adjusting and can’t cope, therefore making many people with Aspergers physically disabled and weak, while the brain functions in the 1% (genius level, the highest level possible).

I mean, hell, if you check the history books and the headlines, most real life geniuses don't survive past their 50s, if they even make it that far. I'll be lucky if I see 55.

Yep

Well, exactly 1 month to go until I offiicially survive that silly "27 Curse" thing.

That Plan

In my prison cell I think these words
I was careless
I can see that now
I must be silent
Must contain my secret smile
I want to tell you
you my mirror
you my iron bars

When I made a shadow on my window shade
They called the police and testified
But they're like the people chained up in the cave
In the allegory of the people in the cave by the Greek guy

No one understands
No one knows my plan
Why the dancing, shouting
Why the shrieks of pain
The lovely music
Why the smell of burning autumn leaves

No one understands
No one knows my plan
Why the dancing, shouting
Why the shrieks of pain
The lovely music
Why the smell of burning autumn leaves

In my prison cell I bide my time
Always thinking
Always busy cooking up an angle
Working on the tiny blueprint of the angle
Sketching out the burning autumn leaves

No one understands
No one knows my plan
I must be silent, must contain my secret smile
I want to tell you
you my mirror
you my iron bars

No one understands
No one knows my plan

Do Not Forsake Me

O, do not forsake me, my indolent friends
O, do not forsake me though you know I must spend
All my darkest hours talking like this
For I am one thousand years old

One thousand years old
Sure, you think that's old
One thousand years old
But what do you know?
In my darkest hour I'm talking like this
For I am one thousand years old

Oh, some have forgotten the flower of speech
And walks through the garden where I go to defend
Misbegotten notions while talking like this
For I am one thousand years old

One thousand years old
Sure, I'd say that's old
One thousand years old
But what do I know?
In your darkest hour, my indolent friends
We'll be one thousand years old

Story System Structure Map: Writing Fiction

STORY

DEVELOPMENT OF A NARRATIVE STORYTELLING SYSTEM

Beginning—Middle—End

Inciting Incident (Setup)—Conflict (Confrontation)—Resolution (Solution)

BEGINNING, MIDDLE & END

• (BEGINNING, MIDDLE, END) How do these three segmented parts-elements relate to the supporting cast of characters-&-villains?
• (BEGINNING, MIDDLE, END) How is the setup-inciting incident, conflict-confrontation, and resolution solved for each major character-player of the narrative?
• (BEGINNING, MIDDLE, END)What do we know about the characters/world at the beginning, middle, and end of the story as it relates to the beginning’s (setup), middle’s (conflict), and end’s (resolution) essential elements. In other words, how does each character interact with and influence the beginning, middle, and end of the story.

BEGINNING

• (BEGINNING): When does the inciting incident really happen? When does it start and end? Can there be more than one inciting incident at the beginning?

MIDDLE

• (MIDDLE; CONFRONTATION; CONFLICT) What kind of buildup and rising action or tension helps get us through the story’s narrative? What’s causing the suspense and drama? How does the confrontation define that suspense and drama?
• (MIDDLE; CONFLICT): What is the nature of the conflict-confrontation? Nature, Society, or Supernatural/Scientific? What is the Conflict, and who/what’s causing it?
• (MIDDLE): CONFLICT: Who/what is leading/causing/instigating the conflict/tension/events of the story? Character action or the situation/events?

END

• (END) Where does this element/segment/act/final scenes truly begin/end? And with who, which characters, one or more?
•  (END): How is the story problem-confrontation completely resolved-concluded-solved?
• (END) Is there an emotional-psychological resolution too for the audience-&-characters, or is it just physical-temporal?

2011: A Productive Year

2011 felt kind of long for me.

I got a lot of work done during 2011, probably more than usual.

I produced some spec.ulative work as a screenwriter, concept artist, production designer, and storyboard artist. I've expanded the range of my portfolio of work by quite a bit. I didn't publish much of what I did this year online, but then again, why should I?

-JM

The Story of HERE

I sit at this laptop, typing yet another blog entry. On my desk is a stack of printed computer papers and sketches. In my closet, on a dresser, is a unworn flannel tee shirt draped over dual kendo shinai bamboo blades.

Seriously. Yup. That is the story of my life in one paragraph

Trendspotting: Story, Literature, and Japan

Fiction writing, screenwriting, and literature all seem to be on the rise in popularity with younger male readers in Japan. There are more Japanese novels being released in the United States than any time before, with things like light novels based on anime, and fantasy and science fiction novels such as Brave Story and All You Need Is Kill. And famous Japanese scriptwriter Dai Sato—who started writing professionally at the age of 19—starting his screenwriter consulting company StoryRiders as recently as 2007. Never has the Japanese love for literature and the printed word been so strong collectively. I can’t wait to see how this develops in the future.

I've been into anime and manga for a long time now, and I don't remember Japanese printed literature that wasn't primarily visual, like novels, scripts, and whatnot ever having this much visibility in the American anime mainstream. Personally, I've always been a writer since at least the age of 16 or so,  but it's nice to see a visual medium like anime seeming to really start considering story and literature more.

Stop thinking of yourself for once, prick....

And START thinking about people who are richer and more famous than you! How are they gonna eat, huh?!

Now they're gonna have to drive in a limo HALF that size and jerk off on a pile of money one third as massive the size!

Asshole!!!

My current Teacher in Art...

So I remember my most recent teacher, Donna Frank of Orlando, once  telling me in person how in terms of her current cityscapes, the production design and architectural designs I've drawn for Parallax influenced a lot of her painted Impressionist cityscape interpretations of Downtown Orlando's Architecture. I was kind of honored that I'm now actually directly influencing a member of the fine arts community, not just anime online, which is a tad bit different than what I'm used to. Usually it's just teenage Asian girls online who want to copy Mono's trenchcoat and draw their own renditions of it. It's nice to talk to a fellow local artist directly. Hasn't happened before now for a while. She did receive some of her art education in France and Italy during her career at one point. So technically, even though I haven't been to France to study art myself (yet!), I'm still the protege of an older artist who DID have some of her art education take place in France for quite a  while. Better than nothing I suppose.

The most feared man ever to walk the earth...BLAH!

I am the most feared man in entertainment. My enemies have got some big ass balls, primarily because they have the audacity to talk back to someone as powerful as me. You got balls, kid. I like that.

Academic Theories: Surrealism Makes You A Visionary

I like Surrealism, and I've derived a scientific psychological-developmental theory around it. I saw a lot of surrealistic imagery as a child, and not surprisingly, I grew up to be a very creative designer and general artist.

That is why I can't help but suspect the following scientific theory:

If you view a lot of surrealistic images at a young age, in print (comics, children's books), on TV, and on computers, (NOT anime. Surrealism. Difference.), your brain will automatically become highly imaginative and creative visually. Visual intelligence.

My theory is similar to the notion that "Listening to Mozart makes you smarter"

And because other than Science fiction and fantasy, Surrealism is the most creative visual art, and it will likely broaden your creative mind, and make you a better visual stylist when you grow up.

I wonder if psychologists will ever test this theory and conduct research related to it...Hmmm.

The French Animation Scene (IS there an animation scene in France???)

French Animation Productions

“Co-Production Market”

• Totally Spies
• Valerian and Laureline
• Marathon Animation
• Oban Star-Racers
• Code Lyoko
• W.I.T.C.H.
• Martin Mystery
• Fantastic four: World’s Greatest
• The Mysteries of Alfred Hedgehog
• Magi-Nation
• The Amazing Spiez
• Team Galaxy
• Gormiti
• Redakai
• Bots Master

It’s clearly anime and manga influenced, yet quite distinctive and different from those styles and

genre-mediums. They all have realistic backgrounds, use a lot of perspective and stylistic

character design. There are a lot of angles and sharp edges in the clothing and character design,

and fashion savvy costumes; vibrant color scheme and color composition. Their production

values are profound, cinematic, and high standard, much like anime.

French Animation and Co-Productions:

The French TV animation market was built on co-productions. French animation on TV is very co-production friendly. It’s the entire market. The concepts of co-production and French animation are interchangeable.

So why are so few TV shows available in America on DVD. This one's, that aspect of it, is a mystery to me.



The French television animation style is actually a very distinctive style of Western animation.

I Like My Cartoons BLACK Just Like I LIke My Metal...

Ever since I found out that “Noir” is the French word for the color “Black”, I’ve been fascinated by, and addicted to, the aesthetics and execution of the Noir genre. Whether in comics or animation. Interest in this genre is at an all time high in the mainstream and in the international film and comics world. From the Sam Noir graphic novel, to the French animated film Renaissance, to the anthropomorphic Cerebus-esque painted comic book Blacksad, to the live action adaptation of Frank Miller’s equally neo-noir comic book Sin City, to my own comic book cover style. Noir, or “Black Cinema and Comics” seems to be everywhere, particularly in French comics and animation, and in live action film. Black, while seemingly one dimensional and traditionally considered “evil” on the surface, allows for much expressive potential in the arts, literature, and cinema.

I’m quite proud and more than happy to at least appear like and feel as though somehow I pave a path to in other people’s eyes, somehow come across like I’m one of those modern day auteurs who have his finger on the pulse of something like that. Or not.

The French were some of the first appreciators and connoisseurs of the Black Cinema movement, the “Noir Thing”.

To me, Black and Dark are the same genre. Noir Fantasy, Dark Fantasy, Gothic Fantasy. Future Noir (“Future Black”; Blade Runner). Noir and Goth. German and American Expressionism. Though other people don’t always think this way, they’ve always been integrated in the creative parts of my mind. The words and terms can be translated and intermixed both ways. Not just one way. Noir is not as big in Japan, but if you ask me, it’s only a matter of time, what with stuff like Darker Than Black, Hipira, Big O I & II,  Black Jack, Ghost in the Shell (Noir), Berserk, Akira, Strait Jacket, X/1999, Hellsing, Vampire Hunter D, Trinity Blood, Sword of the Stranger, and Karas I & II. I don’t know if the color black will ever be as heavily used in Japan as big eyes, but WHATEVER direction it takes over there, it seems well beyond being on its way.

The things they don't tell you about ahead of time.

When I was a teenager and decided I wanted to draw indie comic books for a living, before the internet was fully available to publish and promote my work online on (ironically, computers are the primary way people are aware of my comic book and manga work now. As far as traditional shop and bookstore publishing goes, the more successful I got at paving the groundwork for a new generation of online comics in the new millenium, the more and more submitting my work to actual traditional publishing houses for editing and revision seemed futile. At the time I reconsidered traditional publishing and had developed somewhat of a reputation as a creative type online, I wondered if I really wanted to, or if I could really endure or even stand the publicity and celebrity of traditional publishing, in the future, or at all for that matter. I worked my ass off as an online comics artist in the last 5 years. Publishing and promotion through "sanctioned print" seemed like a  big pain in the ass in some ways, whether it's being forced to attend conventions, or not being able to say whatever it is you want, or even just not having full control over my own career. For whatever reason, now that online publishing is kind of starting to take off a little, traditional publishing (not counting self-publishing and local distribution by hand, which I have done both of), traditional publishing just seems like a massive pain in the ass, especially if your books don't live up to expectations of the publisher and market. It's like there's no exit in that kind of career in some ways.), I was far from fully aware of what working in comics was really like.

One part of drawing comics I don't know if I ever could have prepared for would be the fact that drawing comics often feels like a fight. You're fighting to sell you're books, you're fighting critics and haters, some of whome wish you quite a bit of ill as active competitors, and you're fighting for acknowledgement. You get that kind of impression from some people online that they seem to just assume without any real provocation, perhaps blinded by the status of pros on the market, that if not everyone already knows who you are, you must be untalented and undeserving of ever making a living at comics if you're not already famous and have a built in now-online fanbased that just magically transferred in from the 90s and first half of this decade. Not exactly a level playing field. If you're starting from the bottom up in the comics profession, more than likely you're going to have a fight for recognition on your hands. Maybe even a war. Just ask Dave Sim.

List: The Toon Illuminati

The Toon Illuminati

• Google
• YouTube
• Adult Swim
• Cartoon Network
• Pixar
• Funimation
• Tokyopop
• Bang Zoom Productions
• Manga Entertainment
• Adult Swim Message Boards
• DeviantART
• Oni Press
• Slave Labor Graphics



I'll arm wrestle you for it....

Well ah will...

Rest In Peace Steve Jobs, Apple Computers, 1955-2011

Steve Jobs was a truly great man on many levels. Great Man. Great Celebrity. Great Inventor. Great Promoter and Businessman. Great Entreprenuer. And of course one of the main minds that gave birth to Pixar. He was one of my heroes growing up, right next to Bill Gates and all the rest. Jobs was not only a Business Titan, but a Science and Technology Titan. He set a great example to all others till the very last moments of his life when he lost his tragic battle with Cancer he had been dealing with primarily in private.

He will be missed by many

True Genius

Steve Jobs

Rest in Peace

You've Earned It

1955-2011

Gotta Admit...

In terms of UGC (User Generated Content), the absolute worst, whether it's DeviantART or YouTube is the corporate stuff being whored about in the most amateurish manner possible by some 6-12 year old who shouldn't even be allowed on a computer, let alone the internet. Just a big embarrassment for everyone, when you see some corporate based figure like Naruto or Sasuke being traced, photoshopped up, or AMVed up in a vain attempt to get "famous online". Just some of the most pathetic shit I've ever seen, EVER. You're not expressing yourself girlie. You're whoring a corporate image on an independently funded website, or any user-generated content website for that matter, in what is just the worst, most unnappealing, untalented, and hideous looking aborted fetus of freedom of speech ever. Making this abortion of creativity and "fanart" or "fan content" even worse is  the fact that these little girls don't even know this is what they're actually doing. They're not even aware of their crimes against the humanities. In what little exists of their sanity and trend-following minds, in their minds they're just doing "What's cool". i.e. conforming to digital peer pressure, which is most certainly a pathetic form of peer pressure no one should ever listen to. Musashi Kishimoto wouldn't pay you in a million year to ever produce something that debauched and horrible. It's like paying for your own shit, literally.

Do I hate this shit? You be the judge.

Hey Jealousy

Yay. For the first time since childhood, no one’s jealous of me. I love having a nice, freedom-centric jealousy-free life. I’ve been so used to people being jealous of my success and early achievements, and I was getting so used to people saying all this nasty crap about me because they were jealous of me. Now I’m free and pretty much a regular person. Feels great.

Unrealistic Sales Figures

The truth about most indie comics is that indie comics sales figures aren't real sales figures at all. In truth, most black-and-white indie comics in the 90s, if they were lesser known, sold, on a good sales run, 2,000 to 4,000 copies in comics shops. And that was when indie comics were most popular, the 90s. The only comic book series that sold more than that low market figure were the ones everyone's heard of.

So in indie comics it's not really about getting rich. Sales are pretty much irrelevent. No one's getting rich off of sales figures that low, and yet it's still considered the norm to publishers of black and white indie comics.

When the Felonies Became “Funny”. Modern TV Comedy and Why it is Morally WRONG.

Why is every comedic animation protagonist on late night animated sitcoms a first degree criminal or offending felon at some point? When did it become okay to normalize first degree offenses, felonies, and crimes by making light of it by making all of your show’s so-called “heroes” criminals? Therefore comedy protagonists are not heroes anymore. They’re felons. Family Guy, American Dad, Squidbillies, King of the Hill. South Park. Superjail. You name it. If it’s on the early hours of the evening, and on cable, it has a part time felon as a protagonist. This desensitization to moral evil and crime in generally has me more than a little worried. When did America’s rap albums become its animated sitcoms? On a moral level, I find this kind of lazy and hypocritical writing deplorable, and hope this trend doesn’t continue indefinitely.

Sincerely,

Some guy who hates watching comedy shows written about nothing but felony-commiting losers. It's not that I'm oblivious to crime and justice. Far from it. I watch CNN like everybody else. But when you make light of the act of commiting a felony on a nightly basis, in so much of your programming, it becomes like rap music was in the 90s where it can attract a crowd that deep down you know you don't want to attract, and it blurs the line between realism of criminal behavoir and what is essentially promoting such nefarious conduct. I guess I'm just trying to make TV producers and writers, etc., more aware of just how much TV still influences the public to this day. Crime is not okay. I myself have never been to jail or commited a crime, and I can't say I feel like I can relate to TV characters and shows that show people who do. I can't relate to that. If anything, I find it more disturbing than entertaining.

"Current" American Comics

Comics in America ain't what they used to be. Honestly, I draw comics, but I haven't found a current comic book on the mainstream American scene, that I actually like, since at least a decade ago. Honestly, the ony contemporary comics I actually like are French Tomes.. Hardly anyone in America seems to read french Tomes like those of Blacksad and Orbital, but their artwork is more anime-like than pretty much anything being produced in the United States today. I stopped going to comic book shops in my hometown years ago, after I stopped finding anything I liked as much as the early 2000s stuff. Much as I don't want to rain on anyone's parade, I don't know why so much of the current American published comics industry is getting so much mainstream media coverage. It's almost all horrible, if not all of it. What gets featured in the mainstream from current American comics is just so shitty. At least the French can still draw.

The French and their silly old "Perspective-based" comic books. How silly. Everyone knows comics never use perspective!

The French definitely like their share of dark romanticism and science fiction fantasy based comic books that look kind of like manga in certain ways. Very much in tune with my own style of narrative sequential art.