Purveyor of sheer awesomeness.
Joshua Hale Fialkov is the Harvey, Eisner, and Emmy Award nominated writer of graphic novels, animation, video games, film, and television, including:
THE LIFE AFTER, THE BUNKER, PUNKS, ELK'S RUN, TUMOR, ECHOES, KING, PACIFIC RIM, THE ULTIMATES, I, VAMPIRE, and JEFF STEINBERG CHAMPION OF EARTH. He's also written television including MAX’s YOUNG JUSTICE, NBC's CHICAGO MED and NETFLIX’s AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER.
Poof of Pudding = In Eating. Just finished the first draft. I'm... well. That was emotionally draining to say the least. Very fucking cathartic though. I think I'm going to go pass out for a bit.
Oh, also, the script is LOADS better with the different approach. I swear.
for me, anyhow, is no matter how well planned out a story is, when you're actually executing it, things have a tendency to just go where they want. Best laid plans and all of that. I've been hammering hard at Elk's Run 8's script for a couple months now. When things slowed down at Speakeasy, I took some time away from the book to get the other projects up and running, only to come back to the book with, at the very least, a very different sense of place and purpose for what I'm doing. So, I have this interesting little fight with myself between the story that I've been planning to tell since page 1, panel 1 of issue 1, or, just letting it roll where it needs to.
We'll see how it goes, I suppose.
In that issue there, there's a beautiful Elk's Run Review that says things like the following:
"Easiest described as Stephen King's The Body (aka Stand by Me) crossed with M. Night Shyamlan's The Village, but comic's best kept secret is actually a great deal more."
and
"A far from happy ending is exactly the reason we're reading why we're reading this excellent book in the first place."
So, go support the best horror mag on the stands, cause they've supported the best indie comic on the stands. It all works out karmically.
Speakeasy Comics Shuts Down - 3/7/2006 - Publishers WeeklyThere's a few quotes from yours truly, and it's a very interesting read. Go on and check it out.
I've got an eMusic addiction. I just crawl around and try to find shit that I've never heard and try it out. It's so cheap, I just can't say no. So, here's my most recent discoveries. Please note, if these bands are not particularly new or unheard of, I pay little to no attention to what's played on that new fangled radio thing.
Blue States http://www.bluestates.com/ Sort of like if Ennio Morricone was really into Trip Hop. Not as big a fan of the vocal stuff, but, overall, some really great stuff.
The Field Mice http://www.shink.dircon.co.uk/fieldmicebio.htm Early 90's Twee, sort of a New Order by way of the Smiths. Not particularly ground breaking by today's standards, but I can imagine when they first came out being pretty revolutionary. Really nice, not too too mopey.
Field Music http://www.memphis-industries.com/field_music.html Look, I'm a big Of Montreal fan. Field Music, as much as it pains me to say it, is a better Of Montreal. Very pastichey retro sound that's equal parts Elvis Costello/Talking Heads and Beatles/Atlantic R&B, just a breath of fresh air (and they're labelmates with The Go! Team if that helps push you over the edge at all.
So, there ya go. Again, if somehow these bands are all on the top 40 with whatever soulless game show winner is in the top twenty, I apologize. :)
The movie's a bit of a head scratcher. I'm steeped in Russian tradition (in part thanks to immigrant parents, a born-in-Russia-but -not-a-mail-order-bride girlfriend, and an obsession with Chekov, Solzhenitsyn, and Tolstoy) so a lot of the weird incoherent stuff was reminiscent enough of things I've heard here and there that I let them slide. Gary, who I saw it with, thought it was all just incoherent bullshit. I'm actually kind of sorry I didn't take Dina, because I get the feeling it would've made at least slightly more sense to her than it did to either of us.
So, bizarre mythos aside, the movie's pretty fun (if over long), has a bit of an uneven tone (which I'm just attributing to it's ethnic origins, I mean... what other nationality has produced books with titles like Cancer Ward, about the camarederie of forgotten about cancer patients telling racist jokes and croaking one by one?), and visually stunning (although some of the more simple stuff is lacking, the effects are positively remarkable.)
So, sort of a hesitant recommendation. My money still sits on 16 Blocks as the best movie thus far of 2006. Hollywood, it's time to prove me wrong.
It's just... wow.
I never walk out of movies, but Ultraviolet has joined that exclusive club.
Look. It's not Shakespeare, or shit, even Scorsese but it's a breath of fresh air and worth the money.
Ain't It Cool News' Comics Reviews Year End Recap Delcares:
"VROOM’S 'WTF?' AWARD FOR MOST INSANE PLOT POINTS PER ISSUE ELK'S RUN from Speakeasy Press. "
Thanks Vroom & Co!
The deadline for the Harvey Awards Nominations are tomorrow at Midnight. The nomination process is open to all comics professionals and the form can be downloaded here. Now, if you were to say nominate Noel Tuazon for Best Artist, or Scott Keating for best colorist, and maybe even Jason Hanley for best Letterist, that'd be unbelievably cool. f you were to nominate Elk's Run for best mini-series, or Western Tales for best anthology... wow. And if you nominate me for best writer? Well, that's just crazy.
So anyways, whether you vote for us, or yourself, get out and vote!
For a while now I've been obsessed with sci-fi that's not sci-fi. It probably started in earnest with Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, but there's also bits of what Chuck Palahniuk does, and even some of the grittier pulp noir writers that teeters cleverly on the edge. So, when someone brought up the concept of The Time Traveller's Wife to me, I was intrigued.
Course, I can't afford rent, so buying a trade paperback by some author I'd never heard of was out of the question. There's a reason I read nothing but old pulp books... I can find them used for around $2 a pop. Anyways, I stumbled upon the book at a used shop out in Northridge the other day, and just finished reading it.
Here's the dust jacket text to save me some time talking about it.
Often lighthearted, thoroughly original, and ultimately profoundly moving, Audrey Niffenegger's first novel tells the story of two people destined to be together: Clare, a perfectly normal woman, and Henry, a time-traveler.
According to the unique rules that Niffenegger creates, Henry travels unexpectedly and mostly to his own past, often when he is "all stressed out and [has] lost his grip on now." As Henry explains when he first meets Clare: "…the person you know doesn't exist yet. Stick with me, and sooner or later he's bound to appear. That's the best I can do." And while it's true that Henry travels to different moments in time, he also travels from them as well. He frequently gets lost in time and doesn't know "when" he is.
But the real story of the book is the lifelong love Clare and Henry share as they try to make the most of the times they have together -- the times when Henry is not traveling.
Subtle but powerful, The Time Traveler's Wife is a book whose importance becomes more evident with each turn of the page, provoking readers to ask themselves if they've made the most of the moments of their lives --moments so fleeting, they could be time travelers themselves. (Fall 2003 Selection)
That's actually not from the publisher, but from Barnes & Noble's site. The execution is a bit less... gaudy as the overview makes it sound.
Here's the thing. I love Chuck Palahniuk. He's a genius. His word choices are flawless, his conceptual and character work is brilliant, but, in terms of it being an involving, emotional read, that's just not there. His books are about shitheads and ego-maniacs (although Diary is a notable, and excellent exception to that) and although I find myself almost always blown away, there's rarely a true emotional connection to the characters.
So, why am I talking about Chuck? Audrey Niffenegger has crafted something remarkably similar to a Palahniuk novel, with two notable differences. One: Her word choices aren't quite as strong, and Two: I haven't been so moved by a book in a long time. There's this interesting conundrum that the book explores, and something that's oft forgotten in time travel stuff. The end game is a forgone conclusion. It's the why's and wherefore's that make the thing work. Niffenegger seamlessly layers in plot points in a remarkable non-linear fashion that while some of the tension goes away, it tends to give all of the build up scenes much more weight. You know a character will die, and, in some cases, when, but, it gives this wonderful sense of dread and resentment.
Plus, I got to sob like a schoolgirl while reading it, which despite loosing my already limited "Manly Points" with Dina, makes the book considerably more cathartic and satisfying than just about everything else I've read in a long while.
Click Here To Buy the Book on B&N, Cause Amazon didn't have a linkable version of the cover...
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Originally uploaded by Joshua Hale Fialkov.
Jebus. Thanks for all the well-wishes and kind words everybody. I'm behind on a deadline, so I'm gonna end up not answering a lot of these, at least not tonight. For those concerned, we're fine, and all saw this coming, so, don't worry. We've been planning our next move for quite some time, and know what's what.
Of course, if you really want to cheer me up you can visit http://www.WorldsEnd-TheComic.com and http://www.PunksTheComic.com still on the horizon.
So, just got off the phone with Adam Fortier, President etc. of Speakeasy Comics. Speakeasy is no more. Due to some payment problems and low sales, it seems, they've had to lock up shop. Elk's Run... well... We're working on it. The book is 90% done, and it's murder keeping it away from you guys, cause frankly, I've never been prouder than I am of the back half of the series. Everything clicks, and it's just amazing work from Keating and Noel... The type of stuff you, as a writer, only dream of having turned in.
The book will come out. You will get to read the rest of the series.
When and How are still our main questions.
From getting back from San Fran on Sunday night, I was literally running non-stop from place to place. Gary and I were on a game show on Tuesday and squarely got our asses kicked. It was thoroughly embarassing. Been plugging away at both the day job, the writing assignments, and a bit of transcribing every day. I also finally settled down and watched the original BBC version of The Office. I don't know if it's a problem with my BBC America or DirecTV or what, but whenever I'd watch it on TV, I'd go nuts because I couldn't hear what the fuck they were saying, to the point of utter irritation. So, now, armed with the DVD's, I'm almost the whole way through and pretty well in love. I still prefer the American version (Steve Carrel is less irritating and considerably less 'mean' than Ricky Gervais's version of the character which goes a long way.)
The biggest pleasure of the show, which is also the highlight of the American version, is the relationship between Tim/Jim and Dawn/Pam. It's the most honest and natural thing about the show, and it helps smooth over the more forced stuff that surrounds it.
Aside from that, getting the last of the stuff ready to send out for World's End, which'll be going to publishers this week-ish, getting the business plan together on Punks, doing takes for two different properties (a tv show and a comic), and getting ready to pitch for a gig writing a low-budg feature. In other words... busy fucking week.
Great Title
Originally uploaded by Joshua Hale Fialkov.
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Originally uploaded by Joshua Hale Fialkov.
Gary & Giant Wine
Originally uploaded by Joshua Hale Fialkov.
ON SALE NOW!!!