Original articles on science, the economy, sociology, the paranormal, and history. This section also includes conversations with people I find interesting.
Category Archives: Editorial & Interviews
IDW Smoke & Mirrors
January 16, 2012 – 8:20 am
My friend Jon Armstrong consulted on this comic for IDW. It’s written by Mike Costa and beautifully illustrated by Ryan Browne. I don’t usually review things, but Jon was kind enough to send me the first issue. I’m blown away.
There’s the old Clarke saying, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” and this title takes that to an extreme. In the universe of Smoke and Mirrors technology literally IS magic, in the classical Harry Potter sense. You have a nod to the late Steve Jobs in a zealous CEO who introduces new magic-powered devices to the world, really showcasing how this world is different, but the same, from our own.
The protagonist is Terry Ward, an illusionist from our reality who has to now fight for survival using his wits and a box of tricks.
I love the pulp feel with the philosophical overtones. Really well done guys. I’m hooked!
The Real Horrors of Non-Competes
January 16, 2012 – 8:02 am
Yesterday I was contacted on Twitter by Rick Holman, a self-published author who works in the media industry in New York. He’s been under a non-compete agreement for the last twelve years of his professional life.
In my current protest of Halifax Media and their practices I’ve been lucky enough to hear the stories of people who live under these blanket non-compete agreements. All of my speculation in the previous article was brought into sharp focus reading Rick’s blog, which can be found here.
If one thing is true, management makes sure to let me and others know in their own way that they are doing me a favor by giving me a job. I’ve lived with constant threats for many years and have had interviews with many companies that don’t want to hire me because I don’t have industry related skills. As far as the companies in my industry are concerned, some have met with me and have said in the end that they can’t consider hiring me since they can be sued and even receive a cease and desist letter from my company for hiring me.
In fact, one of the last interviews I had last year was with a company that liked my skills and wanted to consider me until they saw my non-compete. They felt that one of their products competed with the company that I work for. The frustrating part was that my company didn’t hear of this company and this company even admitted that we are not on your radar.
This statement along is enough to reveal crippling realities of these non-competes. They’re an instrument of fear. Fear of displeasing your employer. Fear from any company brave enough to consider hiring you. Fear of starvation if you’re fired. We often toss around the term “wage slave” but these far-reaching non-compete agreements, which offer no severance or safety net, are engineered to destroy the lives of anyone who does not agree with their employer.
This isn’t just about mavericks and renegade journalists, this is about every office problem that anyone has ever left their company over. Something as simple as the way a co-worker talks, smells, or walks. Forgetting to lock a door. Borrowing stationary. Any run of the mill gray-area that exists in every office becomes the battleground where these non-competes show their force. How can you look your wife or husband in the eye and say “I got fired because I didn’t meet my quota this month… and honey, I can’t work again for two years.” Show me a universe where that represents the American dream?
If you would like to support Rick in his struggle you can do so by buying a copy of his book on Amazon.com. It’s a murder mystery based around a radio station which is gripped in non-compete fear. It’s called 96 Rocks. The more people who buy projects like this the more people you’re helping break the non-compete cycle of fear.
Don’t forget to write letters and talk about this through social media.
Don’t Get Down About Aborted Projects… Unless…
December 15, 2011 – 5:10 pm
It’s taken me a long time, as an artist, to understand that some projects just don’t get done. Now I understand that it’s not always my fault and I shouldn’t beat myself up over it. Over the past two years I’ve had a few projects fall through the cracks, and I’m fine about it. Julia calls it the “psychology of failure”. She says that some people who come from a traditional upbringing, where there wasn’t an artist influencing them, might never understand why the world isn’t ending when a project gets put back in the filing cabinet. Not a lot of creators are willing to explore their “failures” in public like this, but that does a disservice to other artists who might not have perspective yet. By writing this article I hope it gives someone comfort about their own unfinished work.
Manhunter. This was a spin-off of Smallville that Phil Morris and I were trying to get off the ground. Phil had written a teleplay and he brought me on to collaborate with it. We got something that we both liked and started bringing it to the powers that be over at Warner. A few months into this we were in New York together meeting with Neil Adams about Emissary (more on that later) when we picked up a TV Guide and saw a blurb about the show. Well! All hell broke loose and the project went from luke warm to cold. We still aren’t sure how it got there or if it was even about our take on the project. Nevertheless it wasn’t too long after that when our contact at Warner left in the big DC film / TV shake up. Phil continued to play John on the show, but we both picked up and moved on not really sure what would come of the spin-off idea. That was that. It wasn’t such a big deal and it lead to us working on Emissary.
Emissary got some amazing buzz behind it. We had distribution strategies that involved Fathom for in-theater and we were talking to several IPTV players. We moved through creative partnerships with Neil Adams, Paul Jenkins, and some of our other usual suspects. To be honest Emissary isn’t actually dead. We’re still writing it and retooling it, so I’m not comfortable saying it’s gone, it’s just on the backburner for now. I saw Phil in October and we talked about some great new material.
I had wanted to produce a Liquid Television-like compilation of animation called Quantum Gate. I got a few licenses and was working with Paul Jenkins to get the rights to Eyebrow Tuna squared away with Kevin Eastman, as he owned it through Heavy Metal. Everything was looking great until we got some kind of weird panicked phone calls from Kevin saying some not so cool things about us. It kind of broke my heart a little, but once again you move on.
Arkham was another series, this time for mobile. I’d already done a series for mobile earlier, but this one was going to be done with the blessing of Arkham house publishing and it was going to be shot at some very cool locations. It was an X-Files / Nightstalker kind of thing obviously based around Lovecraft’s universe. The funding never really showed up and the company I had been working with to distribute it went under, so that was that.
Dan Slott and I were collaborating on a series for Illusion On Demand. Kind of a Twilight Zone concept. We’d retained Dan and we were both really excited about getting the thing off the ground. Dan plotted out several episodes, money changed hands, etc. Around then Illusion got sold off and the project fizzled.
In books, I was writing a really cool charity project which included extensive interviews with internet political figures like Jimmy “rent is too damn high” McMillan. Jimmy stopped emailing with me. I recently learned he’s being evicted. I hope all is well for him, but that’s life and sometimes it gets in the way.
Where I’m going with this list of shame, is that this kind of thing happens all the time. As a creative you can’t beat yourself up over it. Projects start and projects end, sometimes before you have anything much to show for it. The last thing you need to do is become stale and drag this baggage with you wherever you go, trying against all odds to make this ONE project work. Stop that right now! Refocus and get something else done. Don’t keep pushing that “one” single idea that you think is “it”. If you’re a creative worth your salt you have a million ideas in your backlog. It’s time to take another one out and get to it.
In this same span of time I’ve written two books… Parasite was on several Amazon Kindle top 100 lists for over a year, Tea Goddess has gotten nothing but 4 and 5 star reviews, Mondo Atomic is released and getting attention / sales (Not to mention how happy I am that Big Bang Theory has made us part of their sets, it’s like a geek crown jewel for an indie creator). I also co-wrote and directed Arcadian, which is set to release in Spring of 2012 and has been well received overseas (as well as being featured on Attack of the Show). I opened and sold a few very unique restaurants, for which I thank The Huffington Post and all the other outlets which helped make them successful. I’ve opened a retail store and inked deals with most of the top skate fashion brands. Tentacle Grape became a worldwide obsession with Cracked and Kotaku covering it, not to mention the fan art / mix tapes lol. As I’m sitting here typing this I’m drawing my first graphic novel (based on a story idea from years ago. See the picture at the top). I’m working on a pitch bible for two old friends from the boy band scene. I have an exciting music venture I’m looking into and I’ve written a few more screenplays to pitch around. I’m planning several art shows internationally, and my next two books are being edited. We still have a reality thing we’re cooking up with Adam Sessler collaborating on it and we’re halfway through filming this documentary about EC Comics and the comics code authority. I’m also writing for some TV shows, but that’s less exciting because it’s not my own “work”. Some of these projects won’t happen. Some of them will fail. Some of them WILL work. The only important thing is that I’m keeping busy. That’s what’s crucial as a creative.
The more time you spend trying to force your creations into existence the less time you spend seeing the great opportunities that present themselves every day. You need to evaluate what’s a priority and what can wait. If progress isn’t happening, shelf it. You always need to be creating! You owe it to yourself to be prolific. It means working a hell of a lot harder than you might be used to, but the more hits you have… the more projects get done and into the hands of the audience… the less your aborted projects will matter in the long run. It’s all a numbers game and if you’re stuck only playing one note you’ll never write a symphony.
The Pros and Cons of Digital Distribution
December 14, 2011 – 7:02 pm
Music is sold digitally, it just is. That’s the way of the world now and everyone excepts that (kind of). But movies are something different, and they always have been. They’re much more expensive to produce than a music EP and that makes them highly guarded IP. The sale of movies is typically driven by talent and large media conglomerates are willing to pay top dollar for celebrities they feel will drive people to purchase their media.
The new media movement has been selling the whole “artists don’t need big business anymore” message and Louis C.K., an unlikely player in the digital retail space, decided to conduct an experiment. He took $250,000 of his own money and produced a comedy special outside of the establishment. The end result was a $5 digital download of all original material at similar production values to his HBO comedy specials. Would people bite? Hell yes! Was it worth it in the end? Maybe not.
As of Today, we’ve sold over 110,000 copies for a total of over $500,000. Minus some money for PayPal charges etc, I have a profit around $200,000 (after taxes $75.58). This is less than I would have been paid by a large company to simply perform the show and let them sell it to you, but they would have charged you about $20 for the video.
-Louis C.K., from his official website
After reading this I started to wonder what creative freedom is really worth. If all someone in Louis’s position has to do to increase his earnings is show up, why would he have any interest in doing the hard work of producing a ground-up production? Where is the incentive? What’s the point to it? Maybe there’s something to be said for the vanity of controlling your own product, but as a creative in the film industry I can’t accept that it’s just that. There needs to be a business model that we can latch onto that will bring the kinds of returns that a studio produced project is able to.
Independent producers need to be conscious of how they can use the whole buffalo. Consider a live experience, like Kevin Smith did with Red State and see how that can fit into your model. Look at what retail points of sale you can unite with to sell product. If your film revolves around active sports, see if you can team up with surf or skate shops… maybe even clothing labels to get your physical product in places you normally wouldn’t see it. After this try building up a tiered digital distribution plan.
Digital is tough. I recently released Mondo Atomic as a downloadable comic on Wowio, Graphicly, Kindle, and other outlets, and it’s still difficult to have that format embraced. There is a print edition coming out this month to satisfy the analog culture clique. As of now producers are still struggling to find out what works, and maybe we never will. Maybe it’s what works for each project or artist, not one magic formula. All I know for sure is that things are forever changed and we have to adapt to become both great artists and great business people. It’s the only way to stay independent.
Over the next few months I’m going to lay out my business model for a new distribution venture. It will be the kind of look inside of a company that is rarely ever given. It might fail, but I want my readers to see the process and be interactive about ideas. I think it’s time that we, as a creative industry, started airing some dirty laundry in public. We don’t have a clue what we’re doing half the time and hope it works because things keep changing to quickly. Let’s have some frank discussions about what we’re trying and why. Let’s attempt to bridge that self-imposed distance we place between ourselves and other artists and actually help each other succeed. This might be a holiday pipe dream, but it’s something I’m going to sincerely try to do moving ahead. I can’t wait for the talks that I’m going to have at Sundance.
From my new book: Greenspan Letter
August 24, 2011 – 11:35 pm
This is a letter I sent to Mr. Alan Greenspan several months ago in response to comments he made about my generation. The letter will be included in my new book, a book of political and economic letters.
Mr. Greenspan’s original comments can be found here
Mr. Alan Greenspan,
Your recent comments regarding the generations of Americans born after 1964, known colloquially as generations “X”, “Y”, and “Millennial”, are both morally reprehensible and ill-informed. For a man holding a position such as you do I am shocked that you would make such reckless assumptions without hard statistical data to back up your claims. For the purposes of this letter I will focus on the differences between the “Baby Boomers 1946-1963” and “Generation X 1964-1983”, as the younger generations are only recently becoming entry-level in the American workforce based upon a standard high-school graduation age of eighteen and a four year college education.
In your defense of the “Baby Boomer” generation, you praise their work ethic and academic prowess over successive generations.
You have made the following public statements,
“In the United States, we are in the process of seeing the baby boomers — the most productive, highly skilled, educated part of our labor force — retire,” Greenspan tells The Globalist.
“They are being replaced by groups of young workers who have regrettably scored rather poorly in international educational match-ups over the last two decades.”
I will first educate you on the inaccuracies of your statements before indicting your beloved baby boomers with some rather damning facts.
Education:
27% of Baby Boomers received four or more years of college according to the US Department of Labor. However, according to a 2010 study by Sparxoo, an independent market research firm, Generation X has a 60% college graduation rate. According to Po Bronson in a 2006 Time Magazine article entitled “Dear Graduates, Hilary Clinton Has Got You All Wrong”, as many as one third of all Generation X college graduates earned their degree while working a full time job.
Productivity:
You claim that the baby boomers were the “most productive, highly skilled, educated part of our labour force”. The educational misnomer has been debunked, so I would like to share with you some statistics on employment. The same Time Magazine article I referenced earlier claims that 75% of college-age Generation X workers have some sort of job vs 68% from the previous generation. In addition to this a staggering 22% perform unpaid volunteer work of some type within their communities, the largest percentage in American history. A fact sheet provided by Boston College’s Sloan Work and Family Research Network claims: “When we compare 2002 Gen-X employees with their age counterparts in 1977, we find that 2002 Gen-X employees actually work significantly more paid and unpaid hours per week (45.6 hours on average) than employees of comparable ages in 1977 (42.9 paid and unpaid hours per week on average)” (Families and Work Institute, 2004, p. 5).
Generation X and its successors stay productive despite baby boomer favoritism in the workplace. A Forbes.com article by Meghan Casserly from January of this year entitled, “The New Pay Gap: Boomers, Gen-X, and Millennials” says: “A 2009 study of 25,000 Millennials conducted by the Futures Company found that nearly 20% of the employees polled between the ages of 21 and 30 had seen at least one pay cut since 2008 and 14% suffered a layoff. In contrast, only 8% of Baby Boomers surveyed lost their jobs in the same year.”
Now that I have educated you on why your praise is misguided, I will enlighten you to the legacy of your favored generation.
Psychology:
The boomers had the highest divorce rate of any American generation and Dr. Judith Wallerstein of the Center for the Family in Transition is quoted by ABC News as saying of Generation X: “They’re very good about work because they learn at a very early age you have to be independent, but they’re very troubled about their relationships, and they have a very hard time, and they blame their parents, and this affects the whole fabric of American society.”
Similarly, ABC News goes on to cite that Dr. Hetherington, a psychology professor at the University of Virginia, found up to 25 percent of children with divorced parents “have serious social, emotional or psychological problems”
The US Divorce rate peaked in 1980 at over 27%.
Reckless Banking:
The baby boomers purchased and built homes they could not afford and fueled a housing bubble that burst onto them. The way that this effects subsequent generations is two fold. First, banks are less likely to extend credit to those seeking home ownership. This is not as crucial as it may seem considering research points to Generation X having a substantially decreased desire for this as a goal. The second is bank lending for small business, an area where Generation X is being gutted. As large corporations place more and more workers on contract, small business is becoming the single most important coal in the American economic fire and Generation X and millennials are trying very hard to stoke the flame. There is a distrust for large corporate entities among younger people and can you honestly blame them? In our lifetime we’ve seen no less than three economic bubbles burst. We’ve seen the largest misuses of retirement fund monies and equity ownerships in American history. We’ve seen our parents laid off. We’ve seen ourselves laid off. We’ve seen our peers work at Starbucks on the weekend to secure healthcare benefits while they toil away at their regular publicly traded jobs forty hours a week. When they’re not taking reductions in salaried pay they’re being paid as consultants on forty-five to sixty day invoices for jobs which used to be regular positions. Corporations sit back and watch American workers starve while they float money owed. They give nothing and take everything. If the banks do not support small businesses by young and fresh people, the country is truly doomed. If you can not see that, then perhaps you never deserved your former position of authority. This may be yet another puzzle you have not unraveled, and your famous quote regarding the housing bubble of 2007 “I really didn’t get it until very late in 2005 and 2006” could be applied to this same issue. Given time the situation may become more clear to you.
To be fair, I do praise your enthusiasm for immigration reform. I have a great respect for immigrant workers and support any and all channels which help them to help natural born citizens form a more prosperous nation.
I understand that you may find fault with some of my sourcing, especially Time Magazine, as they named you number three on their list of twenty-five persons most to blame for the 2007 economic crisis. For that, I can offer no solution. I can only offer a quote from an about.com article by Christine Kennard entitled “Is Dementia Age Related”. The quote is as follows: “Dementia will affect roughly 10% of Americans over the age of 65 and roughly 50% by the age of 85.” If I’m not mistaken you turned 85 just this March. As part of the statistically most compassionate generation on record, I beg you to please seek regular counsel from qualified medical professionals.
I trust this correspondence has been enlightening.
-R. Dekker Dreyer
Fringe Majority
Where is your country?
July 12, 2011 – 11:44 pm
My nation is a vast country of ideas with manifest destiny for those who share them. It’s a nation without borders. I live within it while it exists solely within me. We have no flag to fly and no hymn to sing. We have no army or passports to stamp. My country is an imaginary concept, but so is yours. When we can agree on that you’re welcome to immigrate here. We are the Fringe Majority.
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