 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
The Rant Shack
(Wherein We Rant)
Mike Says:
(09/01/04)
FALL FALLS. FILM AT ELEVEN.
Back to school, kids! It's that Trapper Keeper time of the year. That, and political conventions, inclement eastern weather, the Star Wars Trilogy on DVD, Burning Man, the premiere of 3 network shows set in Hawaii (?), and another Nice Guy convention appearance!
NICE GUY CREATORS APPEARING LIVE AT SAC-CON, 09/05/04!
Whoops! Big thanks to our pal Sarah, who reminded me that there was a Sac-Con coming up! Lost track of time on that one. These Sac-Cons take place a few times of year here in Sacramento, and have a lot of history with me and Tim. We used to go to these things in high school (MUCH better than sex or popularity). One particular one we went to with our pal Wayne when we were all, I believe, freshmen, and went after one of those great "Hey, let's just stay awake all weekend!" moments that somehow make sense when you're young. My Mom dropped us off, we ran around and did our thing and spent our allowance money. Then Mom came back at closing time, came and found all three of us sound asleep and snoring on a bench on the lobby.
And now, Tim and I make our triumphant return! We'll probably sleep the night before, though, but I can't guarantee we won't need a nap. This Sunday's Sac-Con takes place at the Scottish Rite Center on H street. We've got ourselves a table, and we'll be unslinging our Nice Guy table banner (after it gets here from San Diego, since we ended up leaving it as Russ's place. Thanks, Russ, for the hot UPS action!), putting out some "Nice Guy: Pilot" issues, and hopefully making some new fans...and meeting some old ones (Sarah better be there...). I'm sure Tim'll be doing some sketching for folks, and I'll be shaking some hands. Should be a good time...and doesn't even require us to pay for a hotel for a week!
So if you're in the Sacramento area, we'd love it if you'd drop by and meet us! We might even autograph a Nice Guy comic for ya. And give ya a free Nice Guy temporary tattoo! Yeah, we bought a thousand of those things, so we'll be giving them away for a while...
Here's all you need to know!
Sac
Con
(AKA Sacramento Collector’s Show)
Sunday, September 5, 2004
Scottish
Rite Center
6151 H Street (near the CSUS campus)
Sacramento, CA 95819
10am
to 4pm
Admission: $5.00
THE END IS NIGH
Just finished (this evening) the second-to-last book in Stephen King's "Dark Tower" series, the series none of us (who give a rat's ass) ever thought would see completion. And now we're three weeks away from the end...the final book, both of the series, and, if you believe the writer, of Stephen King.
Moments like this just make me wax nostalgic (meaning "old") and introspective. I just stopped and thought about how long I've been with this series, from about 1991 up until the 21st of this month, when "The Dark Tower" (is it really poetically proper to name the last book in a series the same NAME as the series? Will be people be saying, "Did you read 'The Dark Tower: The Dark Tower'?") hopefully arrives at my home courtesy of an Amazon pre-order (Amazon's pretty good about shipping your stuff early so it'll arrive on the day of actual release...at least they are with DVDs). 1991. I was in college, one of the of my few friends LEFT in college, living in Folsom, California, going through lots of life changes and suddenly realizing that, King buff that I was, I'd never tried this "Gunslinger" thing of his and the following pair of books that made up the start of the "Dark Tower" saga. And I wasn't alone. King wrote, in one of his book intros to one of the DT editions, I think, that he was once at a book signing, and he asked how many people there had read one of his books. Naturally, pretty much everyone raised their hands. Then he asked how many people had read one of his "Dark Tower" books. A lot fewer hands. This series was non-King King. It was weird and westerny and Arthurian and didn't dish out the typical stuff that people who saw his movies and THEN read the books were looking for. Didn't really click for a lot of King fans.
I wasn't one of them.
I fell in love with those books, reading them there in my (very) small bedroom in Folsom, one I couldn't even properly fit my wheelchair into. The characters and the main story were fine, but what I really loved with this backstory world that he teased us with in flashbacks, Roland's (the Gunslinger's) world before "the world had moved on", with its guns and castles and wizards and honor, a freakish mix of genres that was just inspiring to me. As much as I enjoyed the first three books, which followed the tale of the latter day (VERY latter, if you know the story) gunslingers shadowing Roland on his quest (at all costs) for the Dark Tower, but it was book four--"Wizard and Glass", that took me completely. I think we had to wait seven years between books three and four (one of the things most infuriating to "Dark Tower" fans has been the WAITING!). The greater part of the book was one big flashback, a tale told of Roland's past and his world (which, even at that time, was already moving on). That book did for me what the earlier King books, like "It" and "The Stand" had done....took me to another place, broke my heart, kept me turning pages deep into the night. That was 1997. And then we had to wait until 2004 for the NEXT book. Sadistic bastard.
Along the way, King--and who could blame him?--decided it was time to retire. And he could think of no more fitting way to close things out than to finish up the "Dark Tower" series, his always-present epic that had been with him nearly his entire career. He sat down and wrote the last three books all at once--perhaps his brush with death in 1999 and his fans' rather morbid fear that they'd never know how the series ended if he kicked off, convinced him that it was time to close that series before time caught up with him. But after all this waiting, it's now done. We're not finishing one book and knowing the next one may come in 10 years if he's in the mood. It's really over. And the omega is just sitting there waiting to hit shelves so we can all reach the end of the quest together.
Am I in love with these last books? That's a yes and no, as it has been for me with much of King. There are times his writing--especially his characters--simply stun me. Other times I want to strangle him for overuse of "Kingspeak" (a sort of language from the 70s that no one else but King seems to speak anymore. Who else uses words and phrases like "honkey tonk" and "boogie", now, really?) and certain writing techniques and tricks that I'm all-too used to after reading so many thousands of pages of his work. But now that the end is near, I find myself more forgiving. It's almost endearing. Sort of like being at your graduation party, and hearing that loud stoner guy tell the same lame story about that time he and his friends got chased by the cops at the mall, the same one you've been hearing for four years? You realize this is probably the last time you'll be hearing it. It takes on a different meaning. You kind of want to hear it. And it makes you smile in a way you can't quite describe.
So, I wait for the final chapter. Will it be his best work ever, the one that will finally garner him critical acclaim? Probably not. Has he shot his writer's wad long ago and come to realize that it's time to get out because the tank's really getting empty? Yeah, probably. But that's cool. The one thing I really love about these last books--something that started at the end of book 5 and continued into book 6 (and shockingly so at the end)--is something I can't even discuss here because I don't want to ruin anything if you haven't read them. But let's just say King has pulled one last trick out of his literary hat, an unexpected twist that certainly no one saw coming, and it's something people are either going to love or ridicule. Me? I applaud the silly son of a bitch. He's found a way to end his writing career that only a writer LIKE him could get away with. And let's face it...there ARE no other writers like him. No one so prolific, so read, so adored and maligned at once. He's earned this final indulgence, one that I think makes me grin so much because it's something I could see myself having done. Power to the King. I've been reading his stuff since the late 80s, when my friend Kris, one summer, called and said, "Dude, I'm reading this book by Stephen King, and it's SO trippy! You HAVE to read it!". It was summer, and I did. And I got hooked on King, oh-so-ironically, through what most of his fans consider to be one of his worst books ("The Tommyknockers"). To me, it was magic, and it was my gateway. I've been reading him ever since, good or bad, and his stuff has inspired me to write more than anything else I can imagine (with the exception of maybe Mrs. Grenberg in 7th grade). It's a pleasure to be with him here at the end (at the clearing at the end of the path), still a fan after almost 20 years.
Thanks for all the sleepless nights, Steve. And the heartache. And the exaltation. And the fun. And the simply perfect way you describe writing...that being, "teaching the mind to misbehave".
And now the end comes.
O Discordia.
If you've never tried out the "Dark Tower" series, maybe give it a whirl. Some people love it, some people feel it's just "not their thing". But you never know until you pick up that paperback of "The Gunslinger" and find out for yourself...and, along with the last gunslinger, follow the Man in Black as he flees across the desert. Try some links below. Let me know what you think, if it do ya fine.
FUNNIEST JOKE I'VE HEARD FROM A 12-YEAR OLD LATELY
Why does Michael Jackson love Wal-Mart?
'Cause kids' pants are half off.
DISTURBING INTERNET IMAGE OF THE WEEK
HAVE A HAPPY LABOR DAY
See you next time, Fans del Nice. Stay out of detention. And remember...Assassinate Lincoln!!!
Michael
The
Nice Guy
“Pilot”
Now on Sale!
ITEM!
New strip added in the Comics! section: "Kneeeel Before Zod"
ITEM!
New update in The Rant Shack...with the news on the A-1 Comics Van Fundraiser...and the shocking Tim Watts finger news...
ITEM!
Update to the Photos page with A-1 Comics shots! Sorry, no shots of Tim's finger...
ITEM!
Always find out the latest NG News in the What's Cookin' Section
ITEM!
Look for new material on the 1st and 15th of every month!
And now available for purchase! "Serenity", the film continuation of Firefly! Order yours now!
Want to see more? How about watching the first 9 minutes of the film for free? Click below!
