It is another Monday.
Though, hopefully we can all agree that Mondays are fundamentally stupid, so we should collectively all agree to call them Pre-Tuesdays instead. And you can welcome this particular Pre-Tuesday with the open arms of GARY THE CRAB SPIDER, who has claimed that particular day-lily as his domain. (Sorry for folks who might be arachnophobic; I like to think that the photo is funny and goofy enough that you can barely tell he’s even a spider.)
GOOD MORNING, FELLOW WORD-NERDS.
A real quick buncha information to stuff into your brainholes:
First, hey, my Darth Vader annual — drawn by the impeccable Leonard Kirk — comes out July 18th, or next Weds, so hopefully you’ll grab it at your local comic book grotto. Note that some very fun people claim they want to boycott the issue — or “soycott” it, I guess, since they seem to love the “soy” insult with great dipshit gusto? — so feel free to read their very sound logic on why you should boycott my issue of a comic book.
Second, some folks have been asking about The Raptor & Wren (Miriam Black book five!) in audio — well, the day has come, and it is here. Narrated once again by Emily Beresford. Check it out.
Third, the audio for Damn Fine Story will be coming soon.
Fourth, soon I’ll have some cool news in the form of [redacted].
Fifth, note that the Awkward Author Photo Contest runs till this Wednesday, so you’re on your last chance to get in a photo. Don’t miss out. Prizes! Glory! Awkwardness!
And I think that’s it for now.
Here is another cool macro photo that I’m really happy with, this one of a blue dasher dragonfly — up close and personal.
Note too that the dragonfly’s head, if you ignore the eyes, looks like the face of a weirdly bearded man —
Or perhaps the King from Katamari Damacy —
Stephanie Treviño-Ballard says:
I’ve never understood fandom’s inclination to dictate the opinions of their heroes — acting like you aren’t all still just people underneath the “I get paid to do this” hats. People are weird. *makes note to pick up Vader when it releases*
(Also, that spider looks like he’s trying to summon a demon. Don’t do that, little spider.)
July 9, 2018 — 9:28 AM
Deborah Makarios says:
It looks to me like he’s making some kind of occult lemon meringue pie offering. (Slaughter the sacrificial pie with the ritual cake-slice of Doooom!)
July 9, 2018 — 10:38 PM
John Harding says:
Color me confused. Why are they boycotting things in the first place? Is this the group of folks that are unhappy that there were women in Star Wars (I know that’s probably a simplification of their position – but it seems to be the gist of it). Now they seem to be boycotting Chuck “love him or hate him”* Wendig for calling BS on their BS Boycott.
It’s all too circular!!! And petty, and worthless. Don’t feed the trolls springs to mind.
Especially on a Monday morning.
And ESPECIALLY WHEN THERE ARE REAL ISSUES TO GET OUR PANTIES IN A WAD ABOUT.
More caffeine please.
* And put me in the first category – I may be one of the few “Wendig fan boys who has never been into comics and sci-fi” ?? Hey – comics and sci-fi are great. I’m just a casual interloper is all…
p.s. Mr Wendig I really do love you – but please don’t feed the trolls. (sure slap back when they get out of hands but don’t try to explain sh*t to them – they just don’t get it)
July 9, 2018 — 9:45 AM
terribleminds says:
Oh I don’t try to engage the trolls meaningfully anymore. It’s never ever worked out. I do push back sometimes, under the auspices that, if they’re gonna shit-talk at me, I’m gonna use that as a platform to just talk about my stuff some more. I look at it as, I’M NOT TRAPPED IN HERE WITH YOU; YOU’RE TRAPPED IN HERE WITH ME.
July 9, 2018 — 10:30 AM
thelma scudi says:
No! No! no! you don’t get it! EVERY day, until ten in the morning, is Monday.
July 9, 2018 — 11:58 AM
anonymous says:
Good lord. Star Wars fans are terrible. Sorry you have to deal with their harassment because *gasp* you have different ideas for the universe than they do.
Would they be as angry if you were doing a Tolkien continuation or something?
July 9, 2018 — 1:31 PM
JenniferShelby says:
Huh. It was nice of the boycotters to collect my favorite Wendig quotes in one place, I guess.
July 9, 2018 — 1:56 PM
jamethielc says:
That’s what I thought when I trudged over there, like, huh, I’m getting more Chuck from them than from Chuck himself! What was their point again?
July 9, 2018 — 2:49 PM
HalfshellVenus (@HalfshellVenus) says:
I read your entire Twitter thread on that site, and it made perfect sense to me. And the counter-argument linked was idiotic. Look at it this way: with your Star Wars books, you’ve been hired to write official stories for that fandom franchise. If your employers don’t find the books worthy, THEY WILL NOT PUBLISH THEM. And if fans don’t enjoy them, they’ll write nasty letters to the owning franchise and won’t buy future books you’ve written in the series. So, that part of the capitalist loop takes care of itself– without anyone becoming a dancing monkey.
I don’t know anything about the group (or, person?) who created the “Boycott Wendig” rant over there, but the idea, the wrongheadedness, and the responses to comments are extremely childish. The author sounds like a 13-year-old boy. Or a basement dweller. Or both.
Dude needs to get a life…
July 9, 2018 — 5:27 PM
Sean P Carlin says:
It’s absolutely staggering to behold the amount of time, energy, and effort some put into hating on Star Wars and anyone involved with it. You know what sane people do when they stop enjoying a series? They stop watching it and move on to other things. Good grief…
July 9, 2018 — 5:40 PM
Nathan Haines says:
So many things, and yet I’m just happy to learn that you’ve played (and presumably enjoyed) Katamari Damacy…
July 10, 2018 — 6:57 AM
Suzanne Lucero (@S_Lucero) says:
Some day I’ll learn how to use all the cool filters and Photoshop features on my pics, too. They look like fun
July 10, 2018 — 7:08 AM
wizardru says:
I went to that site, which appears to think that reprinting the entire twitter thread is…evidence, I guess? I mean, they provide a handy way to read the entire tweetstorm unedited and then at the end they…don’t really explain what the issue is? I guess that it’s Chuck Wending and he’s unhinged or something? Most of their articles on that blog appear to be ‘SJWs ruined this thing’ or ‘Disney ruined this thing’ (the blog itself is ‘Disney Star Wars is Dumb’, after all).
Listen, I was disappointed in the sequel trilogy (as I’d wager most were). There was definitely stuff of value within it (and in some cases it gave us great side material like the Gendy Tartakovsky ‘Clone Wars’ shorts and Rebels), but I never once considered that it belonged to me or that it had to be made to accommodate ME. Perhaps it’s due to the fact that we grew up without a direct lifeline to everything related to every project in development all the time forever, where someone collates every minutiae around a subject, from a twitter post by a Best Boy to an offhand comment at a fashion show runway to a producer interview to a behind-the-scenes featurette. It strikes me that fans have lost the narrative in some cases; while it’s good that producers are listening, they shouldn’t JUST listen to fans. Avengers: Infinity War made a bazillion dollars selling mostly to NON-COMICS FANS. Die hard Star Wars fans are a significant percentage of the movie’s audience, but not it’s largest one, I’d wager. Solo not meeting expectations has more to do with a troubled production and generally very lackluster marketing (I’ve been a Star Wars fan since 1977, but I wasn’t even interested in what felt like a cash grab until the final trailer…and while I heard it was OK, there were other movies I wanted to see). Given that a movie only makes about 17% of it’s gross in the theaters, I suspect Solo will do just fine in the long term, despite what the haters think.
July 10, 2018 — 8:15 AM
Fatman says:
The audience of the blog you linked to consists of the author and two (2) other individuals whose views on the Darth Vader annual align with the author’s, plus several accounts (real or fake) trolling them. I’m guessing the boycott isn’t taking off. But why draw attention to them in the first place?
July 10, 2018 — 5:10 PM
terribleminds says:
Because:
a) this shit happens, and the noise of it is constant, and I feel like sharing
b) if we don’t people know it’s happening, they think it’s just three people, and not a still-small but very noisy group of harassers
c) it gives me an excuse to talk about the book and ideally help counter the supposed “boycott”
July 11, 2018 — 8:59 AM
Terry Madeley says:
The dragonfly macro photos make me think of Thomas the Tank Engine. Perhaps I need to get out more.
July 11, 2018 — 3:09 AM