This Is How You Know We've Jumped The Shark
Sep 18
Hiya.
My name is Jeff, but I’m basically Cousin Oliver. Or Ben-Gali. Matt, Sarah and Chris decided to bring me in to ‘sex up’ this blog for younger readers, what with me being ‘only 30’ (as Matt puts it).
You may already know me from my own blog or my contributions to the Elvis Costello blog I co-write with Matt and the world-famous Dazzler Fan Blog. If you’re a discerning reader (and between you and I, I think you’re pretty discerning), you might have seen my name in the pages of Grok, our humble amazing ‘zine.
For those of you who don’t know me already, here’s the text of my handbook entry:
Name: Jeff
Occupation: Marketer, Occasional Writer, Sometimes Teacher
Legal Status: Resident of Pennsylvania
Identity: Publicly known
Known Aliases: None
Marital Status: Married
Group Affiliation: Alert Nerds, Dazzler Fan Bloggers
Height: 6’5″
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Prematurely Grayish
Beard Status: Yes
Rock Band Band Names: Manic Chalice, Jefferson Stolarship
Geekiest Thing You Own: An original Scott Pilgrim page
If you have any other questions, especially ones that are embarrassingly personal, ask in the comments. I’ll answer them all in a follow-up “New Guy Q+A” post.
Now, I’m going to back out of here quietly. I still feel like I’ve broken into someone’s house or hacked Sarah Palin’s email.
Adventures in Marketing: Embracing Change
Sep 18With a hat tip to Old Man Church, who writes frequently and well about the pitfalls of marketing comic books, a few words on Marvel’s “Embrace Change” TV ad, below.
1. I like the “Hail Mary” gutsiness of this ad as a concept; the idea that a comic book publisher would choose to allocate marketing dollars toward putting a longish, viral TV spot on ESPN2 during primetime is pretty outrageous and maybe not all that smart…yet I respect and admire that they even bothered to do it. I’d rather see them hire an entry-level marketing person to help support good, low-selling titles both in and outside the marketplace, or maybe even just come up with some crazy free publishing strategy to help battle illiteracy or get kids excited about reading, but whatever.
Grok #3 Wants You!
Sep 17Yes, this headline does not rhyme as pleasingly as “Grok #2 Wants You.” We’re sorry. We try to be consistently awesome, but sometimes it just doesn’t pan out.
Anyway! Hot on the heels of the blockbuster that was Grok #2: Secret Origins, we’re preparing another exciting issue of our little PDF ‘zine. And we want YOU to contribute!
Once again, the mission statement: this is an electronic magazine dedicated to sharing stories, examinations and opinions of geek culture. That means stuff like fun essays, fiction and the like focusing on the nerd experience. For further explanation, wander your little eyeballs to the sidebar on the right. And for examples of the kinds of ideas we’re looking for, peruse the two issues we’ve released already. They’re pretty swell.
Each issue also has a theme — #1 was Pon Farr, #2 was Secret Origins. This time around, we’re going a little Lovecraftian and calling it Nameless Horror. This can be interpreted as broadly or specifically as you choose.
Do you have chills yet?
If you want to write and/or draw something, please drop a line to fangirl@earthlink.net and tell us your idea.
Do it!
Civil War: The Fun Version
Sep 16Mister Kevin Church has an inspired bit of silliness he put together, which is designed to give you a few giggles on a Tuesday morning.
That’s a really shitty sentence. Watch this video. It’s funny.
The Gateway Chewie
Sep 15
Remember the Tale of Two Chewies? I still have Cute Chewie. He encourages me when I’m writing myself out of whatever mess of story construction I’ve managed to build on any given day, and then he goes off to star in his adorable anime-style TV series, which also features Superdeformed R2-D2 and a bunch of Jawas with sparkly, embiggened eyeballs. (Cute Chewie wants you to know that this series is not related to The Clone Wars — not in ANY WAY. Cute Chewie doesn’t like to use profanity, but he thought The Clone Wars was pretty shitty.)
Anyway, as you may know, Cute Chewie is part of a whole line of Mighty Muggs, courtesy of Hasbro. Marvel characters, Indiana Jones peeps…all have been cute-ified. And I keep thinking I need more of them.
