Frankbeaton.com

Whether they do or not, I’d like to take a moment to give some props to my lovely wife Jill, who, in addition to having recently survived the horrific experience of having a power-mad doctor stab her repeatedly in the stomach, was also officially hired last month by the excellent Oni Press as an Assistant Editor.

Attagirl.

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Bought myself a new laptop yesterday — a 2.4GHz MacBook. It’s my first Apple and I think I’m officially a convert now. OS-X is every bit as cool and useful as you’ve been led to believe. I’m in love.

Gabba, gabba, one of us…

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It’s been months in the making, and all weirdly hush-hush, but the all-new, all-awesome Comic Book Resources is finally up, and 99% of the programming work was done by yours truly.

Check it out.

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Wow. Lot of emails about this one.

Okay, to answer your questions:

1. Yes, I’m still writing comics. I should have at least two books out this year and I’m still actively pitching projects. (Hey, Michael Crichton wrote THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN in med school — and it barely sucked at all!)

2. Yes, I’m still programming. I’ll be doing less freelance work while school is in session, but I’m keeping my day job.

3. No, I don’t want to say what my major is just yet. Not until I’m accepted into the program and the financial aid is all squared away. Call it superstition.

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Sent in my application form, requested my embarrassing transcripts from UNLV, and made an appointment to take the entrance exam and meet with an adviser about financial aid.

A few short months from now (barring catastrophe), I’ll be a science student.

Unexpected, no?

Thornton Mellon: academic role model

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Whenever I’m in a really good mood, I listen to old Metallica — particularly MASTER OF PUPPETS or RIDE THE LIGHTNING.

What’s weird is, I never made that connection until now.

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Happy New Year, everybody.

May 2008 turn out a damn sight better than 2007 did.

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I am not sorry I kicked you in the shin.

A lesson in concert etiquette, sweetie: If you’re going to rush the stage during the encore and start throwing elbows and stamping on people’s feet (including mine), you should expect to get at least as good as you give.* You are not allowed to cry on your girlfriend’s shoulder afterwards.

You may have seen Tori 483 times, but I’ve been to way more punk shows than you.

Dumbass.

—
* A lesson I learned the 14th time I saw Bad Religion at the Huntridge.

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Well, in short, I support it. (Come on, politically I’m just to the left of Lenin — what did you expect me to say?)

I’m not a guild member myself, as you may have guessed by my astonishing lack of film and TV credits. But as someone who can certainly see himself working in Hollywood at some point during his career, I do have a stake in the outcome of this action. Also, working in digital content distribution — as I have been, off and on, for the last five years — I can tell you right now that this strike is absolutely, 100% necessary. And now is the perfect time.

This is apparently the fourth time the WGA has had to resort to a strike, and those strikes are the reason writers are now fairly compensated for reruns (1957), feature films broadcast on television (1965), and home video sales (1988). This one is about Internet broadcasting and purchased downloads. Right now there are no residual payment models in place for digital sales (iTunes), ad-supported streaming (NBC’s HEROES), or video-on-demand (Vongo). These distribution methods unquestionably represent the future of home entertainment — industry pundits are already heralding the death of physical media in favor of online delivery systems in as little as 10 years — and if the studios (or, more accurately, the corporations who run them) have their way, the men and women who created that entertainment will get nothing. Which is exactly what they’re getting right now.

So, yes. I support the strike wholeheartedly and without reservation. Consider this me honking my horn and raising my fist in support. Or, what the hell, me picking up a sign and joining in.

You tell ‘em, Sally.

[For comprehensive, up-to-the-minute information on the strike, go to UnitedHollywood.com. Also, check out these awesome strike-related essays by Joss Whedon and Brian K Vaughan.]

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Old TV died. Bought a new one. It’s LCD. It’s 16:9.

It’s totally rad.

(And that “anamorphic widescreen” thing? With the DVDs? Dooood…)

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