The kind of art I like is based in technology. Film is told through a camera lens. Music is made via recording equipment. Even when drawn on paper, which is increasingly rare, comics are the product of digital lettering and coloring techniques. Never mind that the whole of the publishing and media industries are run on Word docs and Zoom calls.
You could probably even argue all art is based in the technology of its day. The printing press made possible the modern publishing industry and put a bunch of hand-writing monks out of business. Change is never fun, especially if you’re the monk, but it almost always leads to new and interesting art.
I would encourage other artists and creatives to do the same. Don't stick your head in the sand. Figure out how to use these tools. Figure out what kind of art is possible. That's what I'm trying to do.
I've been catching up on older episodes of Off Panel with David Harper, and today, I came across this amazing quote from Jonathan Hickman when describing his entry into the comics industry and developing his own writing style:
It was very obvious that there was a giant hole in the "this is a guy who makes watches" versus "this is a guy who does internal monologue and self-examination and character-centric stories.”
I love the idea of a "guy who makes watches." Like many things with Hickman, I totally get what he means but have never heard it described like that.
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Full clip of this quote from Jonathan Hickman, in context
I guess I didn't realize it was a controversial run.
King wanted to deconstruct the Caped Crusader and have him deal with his emotions (or lack thereof) in every story and that has continued to this day, well after King’s run. King famously uses comics to break down his own thoughts about grief and the emotions that come with it at all stages and it’s a tactic has given readers the first truly mature take on Batman. It’s why it’s so controversial.
The piece goes on to connect this to Batman finding peace (or not) and how that worked with his relationship with Catwoman. I was all-in on the on-again, off-again, what-even-is-going-on-here relationship with Catwoman during that run. A real highlight you should read if you haven't.
Anyway, then the article ends with this banger, which I did not know:
When Matt Fraction takes over in September with a new #1, it will be interesting to see how Batman evolves next
Matt Fraction is writing Batman next?! How did I not know this. Sign me up.
It’s not that I didn’t want to keep working on the comic. Of course I did. It’s just that I thought it’s life as a gen-AI prototyped comic was done. It started life as a proof of concept for the family writing content, After that, I thought I would use the pages to find an artist to work with me on the series. But then that never materialized either.
Finding an artist seems like the thing I ought to do. I want to support comics artists, and it's how proper comics are made. But it's hard to find an artist to work with, and the economics just don't make sense for a tiny web comic. I'm also really slow at working, juggling this as a side project.
There's also this – I really enjoyed working on Hartwell as a self-produced comic.
I feel bad about that. I don't want to live in a world where generative AI tools take work away from real comics artists. I'm also super conflicted. I think using generative AI tools can lead to new kinds of work and also empower slightly artistic folks like me to realize our dreams of making our own comics. I'm really interested to see where this kind of tooling and art can go.
So all that to say, I'm going back to working on Hartwell as a comic I make fully myself with the help of generative AI tools. I know there could be some controversy in this, and likely some folks will be disappointed I've made this choice. But I also just really want to get back to work on my comic. Let's just see where it goes from here.
Wow, has it really been 10 years of Apple Music? In some ways, it feels like Apple Music has been here for longer than that. I was a Beats Music user before it became Apple Music. A decade is still a decade.
To celebrate, Apple has released a 10 Years of Apple Music: Top Songs playlist. It features the 500 most-streamed songs of the last decade of Apple Music. Some great songs in there, to be sure.
I've been keeping this playlist on shuffle and repeat.
I've been behind on streaming superhero shows. It has taken me a bit to catch up. I had yesterday off, and now today, for the 4th of July holiday. The nice thing has been catching up on series I've been behind on. One of those is Daredevil: Born Again.
No spoilers – here are my thoughts on the series.
First off, I liked it, but I didn't love it. There are elements that left me scratching my head, but overall, I had a good time with the series. I'm excited to see where season 2 goes. If I have any "meh" about this series, it's just that it seemed to be setting up for a season 2 more than standing on its own, which is a weird thing to write, given how enthralled I was as I binged the series.
The first episode hits with a bang, and then the show settles into what feels like a completely different direction. This shift in tone – I don't know if that's accurate, but it's clearly a shift of some sort – left me unsettled for a couple episodes. Once the series hits it's stride, I was all in.
There's a lot to watch here. That may also be part of the series's problem. Lots of characters, lots of subplots. But wait, are these subplots or the actual plots? Who's the villain here? This, of course, becomes clear as the show reaches it's conclusion, but I wasn't sure along the way. Again, this is partly a strength of the series and partly it's weakness.
Characters and more characters in this Daredevil reboot
Fans of the original Netflix-based series will find lots to like here. The street level fights are the same intense, gritty action realism that we all loved from the originals. There are some added elements like Daredevil swinging around the city that just don't work quite as well. Those elements, while a nice touch for us comics nerds, feel too comic-booky compared to the grittiness of the original series.
There are also a couple cameos that I'm not sure if I loved or not. As one of these characters came on screen, I literally gasped and thought, "Wait, is that [...]?!" And then, I was like, "Oh hmmmm, why are they in this show?!"
If you haven't caught on yet, I've got mixed emotions everywhere with this show. I'm glad Daredevil is back. I'm also glad Disney seems committed to this series. Charlie Cox in particular is perfect as always. What great casting!
To wrap up, I'll say this – the series really gets to an interesting place by the last episode. I'm legit excited for season 2. As I mentioned above, this is also a problem with the series. The show doesn't have a satisfying resolution. Great comics find a way to tell a complete story and leave you wanting more. With Daredevil: Born Again, I was mostly just left wanting more.
I found Mitchell Hashimoto's My Approach to Building Large Technical Projects via Simon Willison's link post. Man, everything in this post is golden. I think I agree with every word. This is definitely how I approach building software. I especially love the focus on getting to something workable as soon as possible.
Building a demo also provides you with invaluable product feedback. You can quickly intuit whether something feels good, even if it isn't fully functional. These aren't "minimum viable products", because they really aren't viable, but they're good enough to provide an engineer some valuable self-reflection.
I love that phrase "self-reflection." We need more of that in software these days.
I also love the idea of building software for yourself. I've got some things I've been meaning to work on that I need to get back to. As I do, I'm going to get to a workable demo as quickly as I can. Maybe I'll have something to show here soon.
And so, the new year is upon us. Wow, what a year has it been. This past year saw my family settling into our second year in Atlanta. My younger daughter started her senior year of high school. It's hard to believe, but my wife and I are almost empty nesters. My older daughter finished school at Aveda Institute and started working full time. I changed jobs myself and then went back to grad school. Then, I had to withdraw. I also managed a fair amount of writing, publishing the first part of my comic series Hartwell and managing a short story or two.
Again, wow. What a year!
In looking ahead for this coming year, I expect more change. My youngest will go off to college somewhere this fall. We'll likely take an extended trip this summer to celebrate her graduation. We'll see where 2025 leads soon enough!
With all the change that happened last year, this site languished a bit. I did write more on here than other recent sites I've maintained. I want to do more in 2025. More writing. More software. I'm also going to be making some site updates to freshen up the look and functionality here, too. More details on all this as it develops.
Here's hoping your new year is exciting and filled with wonder and good things. Cheers!
Best laid plans and all. The intent was to go to grad school at SCAD here in Atlanta. I was thinking I would write, grow myself as a writer, and with MFA in hand, go teach when I'm done working as a software developer. Ha! Joke's on me.
I made it to midterms at SCAD and then life intervened. Or rather, everything that could go wrong did. There was a change in CTO where I work. Lots of meetings ensued as we all scrambled to figure out what this meant for our teams. I had to work a couple late nights. Not a lot of after hours work, mind you, but SCAD has a strict attendance policy. Those couple of after-hours nights combined with a week I needed to miss due to an on-site event for my team, and in the end, I had to withdraw. My time at SCAD, for this quarter at least, is done.
There are options that would enable me to keep at it. I could take online classes, but much of the appeal for me, beyond the degree and where it could lead, was the in-person classes. I work online all day for my day job. The thought of doing that in the evenings for school seems not fun. I could try again and take a lighter load. That's an option, too. I've got some figuring things out to do.
It's been a little quiet here lately on my site. I want to say "I've been busy," but that's the lazy too-common excuse. I've been focused. There, that's it.
I just finished up with a nice 5 day vacation for Dragon Con. It really is a magical time of year for me. I started going 7 or 8 years ago with my oldest daughter, and now it's a family thing. My wife and younger daughter join in with us now. It's a great time. The girls are older now – 21 and nearly 18 – so they do their own thing. My wife and I do our thing. We meet up occasionally in a panel. It's a blast.
I took a break from writing anything serious during Dragon Con, either creatively or here on my site. It's my one time of year to check out from everything – professional work, creative work – and just take it all in. Be present. It's a fun convention but also a great reminder that I'm not just the things I do. It's my yearly reset.
I'm back at some creative writing now, and I have a draft of a thing I'd like to get done before I start grad school on Monday. Best laid plans and all that, I'm not sure I'll make it. I'm putting in the work, though. I'll have more to say about that when it's ready.
I'm also trying out the socials more again. Threads and Instagram are my mainstays, but I'm trying a bit of Blue Sky too. Come say hello there if you like. I have thoughts and feelings about these sites, but I do like to connect with other like-minded folks. I'm making a run at it again to see if that's still possible with these type of sites. I hate the term "social media" but it is the social element that draws me back. I'll let you know how it goes.
Just wanted to post an update here so you all know I'm still alive and well and writing. Until next time.
