acomicbookgirl.me

BOBBY PINS & MARY JANES: Section V

Fri, 25 May 2012 12:29:27 -0700

VALERIE FLAMES - CHAPTER TWO

PAGE 1

Panels 1-4 or 5 or 6

I am envisioning this page as something akin to how we handled page 1 of “Reverberation (Doubt)“—a lot of tiny detail panels on the top and bottom, with one big panel in the middle.

This top tier, I’d essentially like to see the plane from Valerie’s future right itself and get out of the pit in her back yard. The sequence could contain all or some of the following:

1. Holes open in the nose of the plane, just under the cockpit.

2. Spider-like arms with circular pads/feet on the end extend from the holes.

3. Once the pads hit ground, the arms begin to lift the plane’s nose out of the pit.

4. Similar arms come out of the tail of the plane. (This could be combined with 3 if we see the whole plane there.)

5. As momentum tips the tail, the pads in the back catch it.

6. The plane is upright on four “legs.”

MIDDLE PANEL

A large image from inside the hull of the ship. A drawbridge/plank has lowered in the back, creating a loading ramp. Dennis and Valerie are pushing her Corsair up the ramp, toward the reader.

This will be our first time seeing the pug, HENRY. He follows behind Valerie, tongue hanging out, slobbering. He’s a black pug with a lopsided face.

            DENNIS: This is so weird, Valerie. That lady is you…

  DENNIS (second): …but all grown up!

VALERIE: I know. Just when I think I’ve seen everything there is to see…

VALERIE (second): …the world hands me another surprise.

VALERIE (third): I wonder what she wants?

BOTTOM ROW.

The panel count should probably equal the decision you make for the top row. This one shows the plane taking off.

1. The back door closes.

2. The wings rotate so that the powering engines are facing upward.

3. The engines—be they flames or propellers—start.

4. The plane lifts straight off the ground.

5. It floats above Valerie’s house.

6. They fly away.

PAGE 2

Panel 1

Future Valerie sits at the controls in the cockpit. Behind her, Dennis and Henry enter.

  DENNIS: That take-off was awesome!

FUTURE VALERIE: Glad you liked it, Dennis. Where’s Valerie?

DENNIS: Valerie is making sure the Corsair is all squared away. Then
she’ll be right up.

Panel 2

Future Valerie hits the autopilot button. Perhaps just her finger hitting a big button clearly marked “AUTOPILOT.”

  FUTURE VALERIE: I’ve got our course all programmed.

FUTURE VALERIE (second): The plane will take care of itself from here.

Panel 3

As Future V. gets out of her chair, she sees Henry for the first time. She seems touched, maybe a little surprised.

  FUTURE VALERIE: Goodness, is that Henry?

DENNIS: Yeah. I guess he probably isn’t still alive where you come from?

Panel 4

Valerie crouches down, extends her hand to the pug. He sniffs it.

FUTURE VALERIE: Sadly, no.

FUTURE VALERIE (second): It’s been a long time, old buddy.

SFX: snff snff

Panel 5

Henry cocks his head, he looks at her hand like he doesn’t understand.

     HENRY (sfx): Ruhh?

Read More

gastrogirl: mini strawberry rhubarb pies.

Fri, 25 May 2012 12:22:26 -0700

gastrogirl:

mini strawberry rhubarb pies.

gastrogirl: white strawberry-lemon sangria.

Fri, 25 May 2012 12:19:42 -0700

gastrogirl:

white strawberry-lemon sangria.

Photo

Mon, 21 May 2012 16:53:00 -0700

BOBBY PINS & MARY JANES: Section IV

Fri, 18 May 2012 12:19:09 -0700

bobbypinsandmaryjanes:

There was a guy that Parker dated in college who initially looked as if he was a bit of a bad boy. He didn’t go to her school, he actually worked at the pizza place near campus that a lot of the students used to study in. Surprisingly, he was not known for hitting on any of the co-ed patrons. Most of the other campus-fueled businesses had non-student clerks, baristas, and servers that were always trying to score with the college girls, often taking advantage of the most naïve of Freshmen. Not so for pizza boy, and this made the gals wonder why.

This made the girls want him. He became their Holy Grail.

Of the things that were known about him, there weren’t many. His name was James, and he was twenty-five. He had three visible tattoos, one of which was a girl’s name, Libbie, emblazoned on a decorative ribbon that snaked around the thorny stem of a rose. Libbie was not a girlfriend but the name of his grandmother.

In fact, as far as anyone knew, James did not have a girlfriend and never did for the two years he had been working at the parlor. He was not gay, but he was tolerant of homosexuals, as was evidenced by the kind and jovial way he denied the male secret agents sent on intelligence missions by interested girls. This meant his lack of activity was not necessarily a lack of interest, and in the best of imaginations, his reticence to cross the pizza counter on a bevy of flirts was actually due to the fact that he respected women enough to leave them to enjoy their pie in peace.

Not that plenty of girls didn’t flirt with James anyway. Many of them regularly did. Simple flirting wasn’t overtly reciprocated, however, more like kindly tolerated. Some girls found this frustrating and took this as a reason to doubt their own powers of attraction, while others enjoyed the safe zone of being able to play without having to worry about consequences. Only the bravest of ladies would get an actual rejection, brought on by their willingness to extend the flirt to a concrete offer and/or request. James had never joined any of them for dinner, a movie, or even coffee.

That is, not until Parker.

To this day, Parker is still unable to explain exactly how she caught James’ attention. Her best guess is that the same effect he had on women backfired when applied to him. Hearing all the stories about the pretty pizza boy, she decided that she wasn’t going to play that game. When she saw him, she thought he was definitely cute. The gelled hair swooping down in his face like a wave while exploding into spikes on one side was kind of cool, and he had remarkable grey eyes, but the pierced lip and the ripped rock shirts didn’t really speak to her. Why chase her tail for a boy who was only mildly attractive?

There was quite possibly an audible gasp when James handed her a piece of pizza and said, “I added some fresh garlic to the slice just for you. No charge.”

Parker wrinkled her nose, already smelling the cloves in the distance between the counter and her face. “My roommate is going to love you for this,” she said, before remembering to be polite and say “Thanks.”

She didn’t think anything of it. It was just a couple of pieces of chopped garlic. (And what was it with her boys and garlic?) Parker took the pizza and turned to go to her table. It was then that she realized that the room had grown relatively quiet, and that most of the girls—who outnumbered the men here at 2 to 1—had turned their eyes on her. She never felt so conspicuous sitting down to eat a slice.

Parker had barely finished her snack when James was bussing her table. Only, instead of taking her dirty plate and leaving, he sat down in the empty chair next to her. He examined the open book she had in front of her. “Is that English?” he asked, perplexed.

“Yes, it’s Chaucer. So it’s an old style of English.”

“Oh.” He stared at it a few seconds more, wondering how that could be, then asked, “Did you like the garlic?”

She huffed a blast of breath in his direction. “What do you think?”

James laughed and said, “Ah, sweet roses,” and smiled at her. Parker found it cute, and thus now James was cute, and so when he asked if she had time to hang out until the pizza parlor closed and would consider going and having a drink with him, Parker said yes.

It was a short step into campus legend, and Parker took it.

They dated for a couple of weeks, and it was nice—though in college time, a couple of weeks isn’t very much, with their time together having to be scheduled around her classes, studying, and his work. Still, she was enjoying his company. They mainly had coffee or drinks together and spent a lot of time talking. Not surprisingly, James was into fairly avant-garde things, and so Parker was glimpsing an alternative lifestyle she had not really been privy to. He told her about cut-up writers like Bryon Gysin and even took her out to see what he called an “ambient turntablist.” The show was in a smoky little club in the next ‘burb over, and the DJ spun hip hop mixed with electronic and industrial, more head drilling than booty shaking. Parker wasn’t in love or anything, but spending time with James was better than aimless nights by herself with nothing to do. Plus, when he kissed her, she could feel it way down in her stomach, like a hand was cradling her abdomen just under her belly button. It made her tingle with warmth.

Thus, it was all the more shocking when the other shoe dropped, and it landed squarely on her heart, pushed down with the force of a kick.

“I don’t think we can keep seeing each other anymore,” James said during a Sunday night dinner.

They were at a vegetarian café. He was having an oatey-looking Garden Burger, she was having a Caesar salad. They had sex for the first time on Friday night, and it had left Parker feeling like there was an emptiness inside of her, a feeling that had persisted through most of Saturday and was gone by Sunday. It wasn’t a metaphorical feeling, either, but like someone had scooped out a rabbit’s den in her gut. Now, hearing James say what he said, it felt like the rabbit had come home and was kicking and stretching out his spot before settling down to stay.

“You think? Why do you think that?”

“It’s complicated. I’ve got issues.”

“That’s a rather blunt way to be self-aware.”

“I never should have gotten involved with you,” James said. “It wasn’t fair. I know I have trouble getting close.”

Despite not really caring one way or another about the relationship up until that moment, Parker cared now. The timing of it made her suspicious. “So you waited until you laid me to bounce me? If anyone should be getting dumped after Friday, it’s you.”

“Don’t be mean. It’s not like that.”

“Then how is it? I really want to know.”

Read More

Ma, thank you for always being there for me and everything else...

Sun, 13 May 2012 06:49:39 -0700

Ma, thank you for always being there for me and everything else in between. Love ya, Ma! (Taken with instagram)

Starting Monday, Operation Fit in this Dress will be in effect....

Sat, 12 May 2012 13:11:25 -0700

Starting Monday, Operation Fit in this Dress will be in effect. I got this. (I hope)

chicgonegeek: The Princess Bride / The Incredibles merge on...

Sat, 12 May 2012 11:58:29 -0700

chicgonegeek:

The Princess Bride / The Incredibles merge on this witty tee to form the superfamily the Inconceivables!

Grab this tee for $10 only today…see Fashionably Geek for the info!

BOBBY PINS & MARY JANES: Section III

Fri, 11 May 2012 12:07:31 -0700

bobbypinsandmaryjanes:

Parker was awake in the morning before Mario was, despite his having gotten all that sleep the night before. Her body was more programmed to a regular schedule, and she almost always woke up before her alarm unless she had done heavy drinking the night before. The food they had gotten was enough to remove the drunk from her drunken state, so it was business as usual in Parker’s head before that head hit the pillow.

She watched Mario there, sleeping on his stomach like a discarded doll, arms at odd angles, ass in the air, balanced on one knee. If her internal clock hadn’t roused her, Parker would not have been surprised had his endless fidgeting done the trick. What kinds of dreams played out in the boy’s mind to make him move around like that? Sometimes, the way his hand jiggled and twittered, he almost looked like he was drawing.

Enjoying her first cup of coffee, Parker sat in her chair, observing, letting the dark elixir bring her mind more into focus. It was like rubbing the steam off of a mirror, clearing the picture in order to prepare her mental face for the day. Once the first cup of coffee had passed, she got up and refilled, made a second cup for him, and then returned to her chair and started to rouse Mario with her foot. He groaned, looked over his shoulder at her once, and then began to gather up his limbs like a fisherman pulling his net. Once everything was in, he turned over and sat looking back at her. “Good morning,” he said, his eyes bleary and his voice full of spider webs.

“And to you,” Parker said, extending the extra cup of coffee in his direction.

Mario took the mug and had his first sip. As he swallowed, he stared at her through the hot beverage’s rising steam. The bleariness in his coral eyes turned to a smile, followed by a small trace of one on his lips.

“What?” she asked. She had a feeling the answer would be sappy and semi-annoying.

“You’re wearing your glasses,” he said.

Parker wrinkled her nose and cast her eyes down in an odd attempt to confirm what he was saying. She hadn’t really thought about it. She usually wore her glasses in the morning before she put in her contact lenses. They were small, almost the size of bifocals, meant to be unobtrusive. She never wore them out of the house. “Oh, not this again,” she said.

“I like it when you wear your glasses.”

“You always say that. It’s not something special. They make glasses for everyone who needs them.”

“Yes, but you’re so scholarly in them.”

“Sexy schoolgirl, naughty librarian, or chastising teacher?”

“Take your pick. Academia turns me on.”

“Males are wired so weird.”

Mario put down his coffee and crawled across the bed toward her. He rested on his elbow at the foot of the mattress, and she mockingly put the bottom of her foot against his forehead, knocking him back a little.

“It’s not just the glasses,” he said. “It’s the natural morning look. Your hair is pulled back, your make-up is gone. Most people probably don’t know you have so many freckles.”

“There’s a reason for that.”

“You know, if I get hate mail, it’s your fault.”

“For what?”

“You’re the reason I gave Valerie Flames glasses. I wanted her to look like you. These mornings were my inspiration.”

“That’s the dumbest excuse for a plot device I’ve ever heard. You’re working a little too hard to get laid when you’ve already scored multiple times.”

“Ah, but those were off the backboard. I’m going for a swish.”

Okay, now he was being really annoying. Parker didn’t even have a verbal answer, just a disgusted face to give him.

Mario reached out and grabbed the big toe on her right foot, gave it a wiggle. “Oh, come on,” he said. “I can’t help it if my time with you influences what I’m doing. It’s not on purpose, it just kind of happens. You’re having a tremendous influence on Valerie.”

Parker pulled her foot away from him and stood up. “Don’t tell me that,” she said.

“Why not? You should be flattered! Who you are is informing me about women, and that’s affecting how my character grows up.”

Walking out of the room, Parker waved her free hand in the air to indicate she didn’t want to discuss it further, but then she stopped. She turned back to him, feeling a sour anger in her chest, the taste of it registering on her face. “I’m not going to be able to read it the same now, you know. I’ll keep wondering, ‘Is that me? Is that thing she did just there, do I do that?’”

“Now you’re being dumb,” Mario replied, rising up on his knees in the bed. “It’s not like it’s going to be anything that obvious. It’s the little things. Besides, it all gets warped on its way from my brain to the pen.”

“And what about off the page? How do I act now? I’ll always be wondering, ‘This? Is he going to use this?’ Like, will Valerie Flames have an argument just like this one with Dennis?”

“Dennis and Valerie aren’t dating. He’s her sidekick.”

“You’re not helping, asshole.”

Mario got up, walked over to her, tried to put his arms around her. “I’m telling you, it’s not like that. When I’m in the moment, I’m in the moment, I’m not writing. I’m not thinking, ‘Oh, this will be good for the comic.’ It’s the remembering, the good stuff I think about when I’m alone, that makes it into the story—and even then, I am not always aware I’ve done it until after.”

It was a reasonable explanation, but Parker didn’t want to believe it, at least not yet. He tried to hug her again, but she pushed him away. “I’m going to go shower and brush my teeth,” she said.

“Can I join you?”

“Only if you want me to flush these glasses down the toilet.”

Mario laughed as she walked away from him. Parker wished she could find it funny, too. In the shower, unable to shake the exchange, she wondered why this was so. She had to admit, ever since she had discovered books as a young girl, she fantasized about being a writer’s muse. Was it just that it was still early and she was a little grouchy that it didn’t seem like such a good idea now? Or had she just never thought about it in terms of spying before?

Because that’s what it felt like now, like someone was spying on her and selling her secrets to the highest bidder.

Read More

Got my theyetee.com shirt designed by Blair (@blairjcampbell) in...

Wed, 09 May 2012 21:07:00 -0700

Got my theyetee.com shirt designed by Blair (@blairjcampbell) in the mail! Also, bedtime reading! #yay (Taken with instagram)

What I got from #FCBD (Taken with instagram)

Sun, 06 May 2012 12:53:00 -0700

What I got from #FCBD (Taken with instagram)

Brought home a meatloaf pie for Ma from Republic of Pie (Taken...

Sat, 05 May 2012 17:41:06 -0700

Brought home a meatloaf pie for Ma from Republic of Pie (Taken with instagram)

heyoscarwilde: Well I gotta keep it going, keep it going full steamToo sweet to be sour, too nice...

Fri, 04 May 2012 12:12:20 -0700

heyoscarwilde:

Well I gotta keep it going, keep it going full steam
Too sweet to be sour, too nice to be mean
Well on the tough guy style I’m not too keen
Try to change the world, I’mma plot and scheme

- MCA (from the song Intergalactic featured on the Beastie Boys album Hello Nasty circa 1998)

BOBBY PINS & MARY JANES: Section II

Fri, 04 May 2012 07:56:45 -0700

bobbypinsandmaryjanes:

VALERIE FLAMES - CHAPTER ONE

PAGE 1

This entire page should have a complicated background behind the image. It should look both a little scary, like we are seeing torture devices, and also alluring, some kind of sci-fi treasure. In reality, it will be very simple things: instruments used by eye doctors to test our vision.

It’s upon this background that the following images will be overlaid. Think a very irregular layout, something that will appear mysterious on first glance. Order of the panels will not matter outside of the final two.

What we are seeing is VALERIE FLAMES’ eye test, but it should look like she is being tortured by her enemies.

Captions will be tied to panels, but they won’t appear over the actual image, but over the background and around each panel.

Panel 1

Most of the panel is being taken up by a light shining directly at the reader. Behind it, though, we see the very top of the doctor’s head. It’s a flashlight he is wearing on his forehead, looming in to peer into Valerie’s eyes.

                  CAPTION: “The light may be bright, but it will not hurt.”

Panel 2

Valerie sits behind the lens machine where the doctor asks her to try out a variety of lenses. We only see the machine very close up, though, the top curve of the mechanism, the lens itself looking vaguely otherworldly. As with the doctor in panel 1, we do see a hint of Valerie behind the machine.

                  CAPTION: “Tell me what you see.”

Panel 3

The corner of the doctor’s smile.

                  CAPTION: “Relax.”

Panel 4

A side-view, close-up of Valerie’s eye as air is being directly blown into it. Her eyelashes flutter. Speed lines represent the gust, perhaps we see more of her hair blowing.

                  CAPTION: “Don’t blink.”

Panel 5

The nozzle of an eye dropper, suspended in mid-air seemingly, a great big gloop of liquid squeezing from it.

                  CAPTION: “Don’t blink.”

Panel 6

Close-up of Valerie’s right eye. It’s closed. A tear flows out past her lashes—or is it the liquid that has been dropped into it?

I think 5 and 6 should actually overlap, with 5 going straight up and down like a regular panel, but maybe 6 slightly off-kilter, tumbling us off the corner of the page and to the next.

                  CAPTION: “Is it becoming clear now?”

PAGE 2

The first three panels run in the regular 1, 2, 3 position of a standard grid, with the final fourth panel taking up the rest of the page. The image of Valerie on the right side of the page, the title on the left, under panel 3.

Panel 1

The doctor’s clipboard in the extreme foreground, him standing behind it. We don’t see him from the neck up or down past his upper torso. He is wearing a white lab coat. He is marking something down on whatever paper is on the clipboard.

                  EYE DOCTOR: There can only be one conclusion…

Panel 2

Extreme close-up on an eye chart, so that it’s almost abstract. We see at most three letters, maybe even only the edges of them.

  EYE DOCTOR (from off): …my dear little Valerie.

Panel 3

The doctor’s hand, outstretched, palm up, a closed glasses case resting on it.

                  EYE DOCTOR: It’s not the end of the world.

Panel 4

Valerie sits on a stool in the doctor’s office, wearing her new, round spectacles. She looks forlorn, her bottom lip quivering, she’s about to cry.

Valerie is a 12-year-old girl at this point. Though an international adventurer, she is also a junior high student. She is starting to care more about her social status, her body is changing, and it all sucks. She’s a cute girl. Tall and thin, bright red hair, freckles on her cheeks. She’s cute, but also a kind of “every girl.”

                  EYE DOCTOR (from off, floating balloon): Valerie Flames, you need glasses!

                  TITLE: VALERIE FLAMES and HER VISION OF THE FUTURE.

CREDITS: Written & illustrated by Amanda Fowler

VALERIE: This is too gruesome.

Read More

Bringing casual back with Avengers Day/my god I’ve turned...

Fri, 04 May 2012 06:39:50 -0700

Bringing casual back with Avengers Day/my god I’ve turned into one of those help me (Taken with instagram)

Black Manta and Raspberry Vinaigrette over Arugula (Taken with...

Tue, 01 May 2012 12:12:02 -0700

Black Manta and Raspberry Vinaigrette over Arugula (Taken with instagram)

In case you missed it

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 12:55:22 -0700

In case you missed it, last week I got to speak with Jamie S. Rich about his novel Bobby Pins and Mary Janes, It Girl and the Atomics, digital piracy and other good stuff as well. Check out the interview here.

Also, I was on Paperkeg West talking about C2E2. Check it out here.

Its what’s for (Sunday) Dinner (Taken with instagram)

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 18:25:52 -0700

Its what’s for (Sunday) Dinner (Taken with instagram)

My trainer Nadia told to find a goal and I did. To fit into this...

Sat, 28 Apr 2012 18:58:23 -0700

My trainer Nadia told to find a goal and I did. To fit into this dress in 3 months. (Taken with instagram)

I chat with writer Jamie S. Rich about his latest novel Bobby...

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 05:59:15 -0700

I chat with writer Jamie S. Rich about his latest novel Bobby Pins and Mary Janes, (first section is already up!), his approach to the novel, his upcoming ongoing series It Girl and The Atomics as well as other stuff like comics and such.

He’ll be at Stumptown Comics Festival this weekend. Check out his schedule here.

Thanks to Cameron and Derek with the assist.

Please give it a listen, sit back, enjoy this lovely image of It Girl below and please don’t forget to check out Bobby Pins and Mary Janes!

Jamie’s website: http://confessions123.com

Jamie’s Twitter: http://twitter.com/jamieesrich

Bobby Pins and Mary Janes: http://bobbypinsandmaryjanes.com