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Here are some 24 hour comics by artists I've worked with. I wanted to post these links for awhile, but I was waiting to see if Brock Rizy or Brent Schoonover would make their 24 hour comic available online. (Daniel Warner, have you done one?) Diana and Paul, both amaze me with their talent.
Diana Nock, UrbEX Paul Milligan, God of Rock and The God of Rock Strikes Back
My fantastic, beautiful girlfriend April said it best in a mass e-mail to her friends:
Kids, if you're looking for something to do on SATURDAY, maybe you should pretend to be awesome and head over to Austin's Indie comic book convention. I promise it's not geeky. All the cool hipster kids will be there. Namely, me. Oh, and David, who like, writes comics or something.So there. She's not biased or anything. It's this weekend.
As if the Internet, in all its infinite wisdom, needed another social networking site -- we've got one. It's through Variety Magazine, called The Biz. I'm assuming this site is more specific to people involved in the entertainment/film industry. Although, I've received some odd "contact requests" from people I don't know, and I don't really know how they stumbled upon my profile.
Here's my profile: http://thebiz.variety.com/people/davidhopkins The Q&A section is interesting. And for comic book creators, this site could be place to post a resume, if you're looking for work in other media. (I can't say I'm one of those people. I'm rather happy staying with comics, but who knows?) I seriously doubt this site will be your answer to a multi-million dollar movie deal. However, it looks like a better alternative to LinkedIn or Craig's List.
Some of you might know, for the past four years, I've been doing research for a possible graphic novel about Jack Ruby (preview here). I've read numerous books and articles about him, listened to audio, watched several bits of video, analyzed photos, documentaries. I've walked about Dallas, visiting the places where he's been. Better than most people, I know Jack Ruby.
 Recently, Dallas Morning News reported that County District Attorney Craig Watkins revealed documents related to the assassination of Kennedy, found in a little-known vault in his office (click to read the full story). The juiciest document is a transcript of an alleged conversation between Jack Ruby and Lee Harvey Oswald. A conversation that apparently took place at the Carousel Club. The transcript is a "smoking gun" that suggests (a) Ruby is involved with the Mafia (b) Ruby contracted Oswald to kill the President (c) They did this to get at the Attorney General, i.e. Robert Kennedy, brother of John F. Kennedy. Apparently, it's easier to assassinate the President than the Attorney General. I've read the transcript. I promise it's a complete fake. This so-called conversation does not sound like Ruby. It doesn't pace like how Ruby talks. It doesn't use Ruby's vocabulary, or have his personality. It reads like bad crime noir fiction. Besides, Ruby's involvement with the Mafia is HIGHLY, HIGHLY, HIGHLY unlikely. He simply wouldn't be trustworthy as an Mafia operative. All available evidence shows that he liked the President. He was more fixated with other matters at that time in his professional life. This is not Jack Ruby. I'm not a conspiracy theorist. Instead, I side with Darnay Hoffman: Ruby's dog disproves any and all conspiracies. Not kidding.
April sent me this link (click here). You can play matchmaker with the different fonts: Mistral, Papyrus, Comic Sans, Helvetica, Stencil, and American Typewriter. You have to check it out.
American Typewriter on a date with Comic Sans... "Oh my god. Are you crying?" I love Mistral. Not the actual font, but the character on the website -- Helvetica is waiting for him to arrive, and he's passed out with his head in the toilet.
The 2008 Harvey Awards nomination ballot is now available. If you are a journalist, editor, creator, blogger, etc., you are eligible to participate in the process.
http://www.harveyawards.org/2008ballot/Harvey_2008_nom_ballot.pdf You can also send your ballot via e-mail (click here), which is pretty cool. It seems like they are trying to get as many people involved as possible. A lot of great stuff has come out. Thankfully, there are plenty of blanks on that ballot.
Movies I want to see:
The Bank Job | Smart People | Defiance | Jumper | Priceless | In Bruges | Be Kind Rewind | Backseat
Cracked has a list of the 5 Ballsiest Con Artists of All Time, including (of course) the king, Mr. Frank Abagnale. For fans of Karma Incorporated, you know how intrigued I am by the lives of confidence men. If I ever dare to attempt non-fiction again, the Fox Sisters might make for an interesting graphic novel. I've got dibbs.
Where have I been lately? I missed some great reviews for Astronaut Dad. On January 14th, Marc N. Kleinhenz from Silver Bullet Comics gave our book "4.5 out of 5 bullets."
To put it simply – and it should be, given that David Hopkins’s story is simple yet sharp, its focus narrow but highly refined – the script is extremely well written, combining characterization, humor, and even touches of romance deftly and effortlessly. Its fast, even pace moves at a consistently and refreshingly crisp pace, yet not so fast that one thinks he’s reading a Fiona Avery-penned script. Indeed, if brevity is the soul of wit, then Astronaut Dad has more soul than most other comics combined; in fact, that it has a soul at all speaks volumes about its conception, construction, and execution.Then on January 28th, Michael May at Newsarama said in his review: The story spends some time with the three astronauts, but the most powerful moments are when it focuses on Jimmy and Ed Kelly’s daughter Vanessa. Jimmy resents his dad, but Vanessa is fiercely proud of hers. The two kids are different in other ways too, but they strike up a friendship and that – in the midst of so much uncertainty about their dads, their country, and the fate of the world – is the beautiful part of this story.Both reviewers dug deep to analyze this story, and I appreciate all the thought they put into it. Astronaut Dad is also the January selection for the Steve Austin Book Club (click here for the announcement and then here to read their discussion). I'm especially pleased Astronaut Dad encouraged EG and OG of the Book Club to share some touching stories about their fathers. How cool is that? I couldn't be happier.
The script for my third "Souvenir of Dallas" comic has been approved. Paul Milligan is working on the art right now. He showed me the pencils, and it looks great. Expect this comic to be in the April issue of D Magazine.
Also for the April issue, I wrote a pulse article on the DMA's Comic Book Club. Hopefully, it will be included. Daniel Warner sent me the character sketches for our short story "50 Miles to Marfa." Good stuff. Beyond that, it's been a crazy week. Kennedy has been sick. We went to the doctor on Monday, and she's been away from daycare the past two days. I kept her on Tuesday. Melissa had her today. Fortunately, Kennedy's temperature is now down. Thus, she'll be heading back to daycare. Tomorrow, I might see Sarah Jaffe at the Doublewide. Looking forward to it.
This film looks good. I just added it to my Blockbuster queue.
Kurt Cobain About A Son is a an intimate and moving meditation on the late musician and artist Kurt Cobain told entirely in his own voice - without celebrity sound bytes, news clips, sensational tabloid angles or attempts to mimic a grunge aesthetic. Instead, filmmaker AJ Schnack has created something closer to an autobiography of Cobain - a profound first hand account of Cobain's own successes and failures, thoughts and experiences, allowing the audience unprecedented intimacy with a legendary figure in popular culture - set against the wildly divergent Pacific Northwest locations that loomed so large in Cobain's life.
(via The Beat)
If you can stare at your computer for 77 minutes, you can watch The Mindscape of Alan Moore on AlterTube.
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