Archive for October, 2007

Okay, not really. But one of the really neat cool awesome things about my job is when I get to handle work from the pros that hasn’t seen publication yet. Especially when it’s the work of a perennial Eisner-award-winning pro.

Right now I’m merging Todd’s lettering for “Burning Hearts,” the lead story in our January issue of Walt Disney’s Comic and Stories (#689). It was originally slated for Donald Duck & Friends #348—but that series was canceled, so we had to shelve this Valentine’s Day story… until now!

For a few years now, I’ve titled this blog with variations of “the second mouse gets the cheese.” Once, I even went into a convoluted justification for the name. But all this time (and even when I wrote that post), I knew the name just didn’t quite fit.

Well, problem solved! I woke extra-early this morning (Joshua screamed at 3:30–sounded like he had a bad dream or something) and couldn’t get back to sleep. Then the name just hit me: on the other hand! It’s a perfect description of how I think and the topics I like to talk to people about. I’m always playing “Devil’s Advocate” and trying to consider what others typically dismiss out-of-hand. Seems like a much better fit for me.

On top of that, it helps me to focus (or maybe that’s just the 4am cup of coffee). “Second mouse” didn’t really do much except encourage me to procrastinate, whereas the new title fits my most popular (and my wife’s favorite) posts. A nice side benefit is that I might finally be able to shed all the “mouse sings to cheese” traffic! (No, ma’am, I can’t e-mail you the video. I didn’t make it!)

Oh yeah, and I guess this means I get to start another blog redesign! (But not before Cosley… that would just be mean!)

It’s going to be a nice change of pace for Katie and Joshua to have separate rooms. We’re also within walking distance of Marietta’s downtown, so we’ll probably have lots of opportunities to go on family outings without the car!

…but is it the kind of difference you should make? Dean Rankine’s latest mini-comic, Sticky Bunny 2, is now up at Webcomics Nation.

Date-Dabitur just blew the dust off of a conversation between Nathan Chilton and his dad, David. It’s really funny (and profound) at spots, including:

Nathan: Well, why aren’t these people happy? Do they think heaven is a sad place to be?

Papa: I think they’re sad because they’re thinking about their sins.

Nathan: But they’ve been forgiven, and now they’re in heaven! They’re supposed to be thinking about Jesus!

Papa: Oh, they’re thinking of Him, too. They’re sad because they’re thinking about Him dying on the cross.

Nathan: But He’s not dying anymore. The whole reason we’re doing this is that He came alive, right?

Papa: Right.

Nathan: Well, I don’t think they could be sad about Jesus. I think they’re sad ’cause they had to eat those icky crackers and drink that dumb old Kool-Aid.

My favorite part was the following exchange (because it seems to sum up so many things for me):

Nathan: Is this as confusing to them as it is to me?

Papa: It might be if they thought about it much.