Month: August 2021

I don’t read a lot of manga, but…

…as I’ve been reaching into the backlist of this popular genre, someone recommended that I check out “Chainsaw Man” and it did not disappoint.

Chainsaw Man, Vol. 1 | Book by Tatsuki Fujimoto | Official Publisher Page | Simon & Schuster

Utterly demented in the way that only a manga can be, and very comfortable with its own concept, this one just jumps into a world where demons are real and they can kill you, or save you if you befriend one.

Our lead character is trying to pay off his dad’s old gambling debts by hunting down demons and slaying them for pittances. When he falls in with a group of much more organized slayers, he starts to dream of a better life, which is within reach, but it will cost him.

I need to get better at grabbing the reader soon and just having fun with whatever story I’m telling. That’s one reason why I read stuff like this.

FREE GUY was really funny.

The last time that I laughed and cheered and screamed in a movie was Avengers: Endgame in 2019. Granted the Coof screwed over 2020, and my first movie back was Black Widow, which wasn’t good, so I’ve been on the lookout for a fun theater experience.

Free Guy delivered, and it wasn’t just Ryan Reynolds carrying the thing. The cast did great, you could tell they all got really into their roles. I’d seen most of the leads in other things, hadn’t even seen Jodie Comer in anything but she did perfect as Millie/Molotovgirl.

Holy crap though, the cameos! From other Hollywood Alphas like Channing Tatum and Chris Evans, to the YouTubers like Pokimane and LazarBeam…I’m not exactly a die-hard gamer, but I do spend time on the Internet in 2021, so I know who some of these Web personalities are, and I get a lot of the in-jokes.

Even if you aren’t super into gaming you can generally pick up on the lingo. I took my mom, who’s in her 60s, and the only thing I had to explain to her was “NPC” and that was just because she had misheard it.

Anyway, my only knock is that it was pretty heavy on the swearing, and Guy dropped an F-bomb that didn’t need to be there, so be on the lookout. Fun flick.

To my YouTube Subscribers:

I did a live stream the other night, my first one. It went okay. Chatted a little, wrote a little, left it at that.

It’s been about a month since I published a video, but I’ve got a few on deck, I just need to record them. I work at a bunch of resorts in the summer so you can imagine how busy life gets.

Anyway, subscribe to youtube.com/thegraham721

I saw a moose up close last week.

May be an image of nature

“Up close” might technically be wrong. I was on a hike with an old friend and we turned around and the massive thing was just there. He and I had our sons with us so we took a few pictures and then moved in the other direction, checking over the shoulder every few seconds.

Maybe if I had been packing I might have chambered a round just in case even though shooting a moose would be A) stupid, B) immoral, C) ineffective and D) poaching, from a legal perspective. But if I had the choice between trying that or getting trampled, well, not a tough call.

Fortunately the big old beast seemed content to look at us but not charge or anything. He was chewing his twigs, we were walking, he kept chewing, we kept walking.

May be an image of 1 person, black bear, nature and tree

Anyway, that’s all, it was cool to see from this close. If I had the choice I wouldn’t have gotten that close knowingly. I’ve been closer than that to a moose cow, but I was in a semi truck when it happened, which affords you a little bit more armor.

Nature is cool. Don’t piss it off.

The Hardest Part is the Concept

It would be pretty cool to come up with a home-run concept for a web comic that people could identify with, so that I could monetize it and make a trashload of money.

Nathan W. Pyle did it with his Strange Planet idea, and it has worked to great effect. There’s also the Heart V Brain stuff done by Awkward Yeti. Very relatable, very shareable, and so on. Both those guys have a million followers.

I think I finally stumbled upon something that I can make work, at least in principle. Gonna stick it in the old rock tumbler between my ears and see if I can’t knock the rough edges off. Maybe it’ll be a one-shot, maybe it will grow legs.

After all, Charles Schulz had no idea what the hell he was doing in the beginning, but he kept doing it, and 50 years later he was sitting on a mountain of new income year after year.

I think I finally know what to do with all of the lousy texts my brother sends me.

Anyway, cryptic as hell, but I don’t care. I’ve got a concept and I can do something with it. Get back to work.