The Week in Cat-Tales

It was an amazing week kicking off the 10^th Anniversary of Cat-Tales. A book signing, Cat-Tales the Graphic Novel Prologue release in Second Life, Capes and Bats got a new cover, released its final heart-pounding installment, and became the first Cat-Tales spinoff to go out as an ebook and downloadable pdf. Selected spinoffs have also been added to the cat-tales.mobi site, and would you believe it, I even made some headway on Trophies… Whew, you’d think I’d be tired, but not even close.

It was wonderful meeting the new folks who made it into Second Life for the book signing at the Virtual Visitor Center. At the ribbon-cutting, I officially added the GN Prologue to the gift bags available there—drop in any time, there’s no need to wait for an event. For those unfamiliar with Second Life, books of this kind you can either display in world, like a coffee table book in your home, read and turn pages that way, or else attach to your HUD and read that way at any time. Anyone who visited on the 8th received an exclusive signed copy of the 10^th Anniversary Edition, and anyone who missed it—don’t worry, there will be more signings and more Cat-Tales releases in this popular SL-format.

There should also be more TIME at future signings for anyone who wants to tour the sim with me or get some help with their avatar and other aspects of the Second Life experience. I didn't have much time on the 8th because, frankly, I had no idea how many people would come. But from here on out, events will be much more laid back.

Capes and Bats… what can I say? If you haven’t read the final installment
Dark Knight Toccata yet, chills. It will give you chills. The faint of heart are advised to read before sundown, by the way. You also might want to make some garlic bread and have some holy water on hand, just in case.

So… what’s next? Tomorrow we’ll begin A Look Back. Revisit a favorite scene from each year of Cat-Tales. And Thursday another book signing for Cat-Tales #2: Normal.

Hm? I passed over Wednesday? Well, we’ll just have to see if something related to a giant penny might happen then.

Chris Dee
www.catwoman-cattales.com
cattales.yuku.com
cattales.wikispaces.com

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10th Anniversary begins: Laissez le bon temps roule!

It's hard to believe it's been 10 years since Chapter 1 of Cat-Tales 1 was posted on the Internet.  It wasn't Cat-Tales #1 back then, it was just A Girl's Gotta Protect Her Reputation.  If I'd known it was a founding stone, I probably would have gone with a shorter, punchier title.  One without the word "Gotta." 

It is also Mardi Gras, and in that spirit I say Laissez le bon temps roule because today merely kicks off the Anniversary celebrations.  Nothing is confined to these 24 hours but the ribbon cutting.  There will be events and extras all year long.  Today's:

Chris Dee will be appearing at the Second Life Visitor's Center for book signings throughout the day.  Yes: BOOK SIGNINGS.  Today's offering is a 10th Anniversary edition of the Graphic Novel Prologue, exclusive to SL residents. 

Combining  "Mask for Mardi Gras" with another page of panels from the Graphic  Novel Prologue, this might be my favorite of the posters kicking off  Cat-Tales 10th Anniversary tomorrow.

Harvey Pekar Dead at 70

One of the real annoyances with the fustercluck that is DC Comics of the last decade-plus is the scope of their wrong ideas.  It wasn't just a particular writer here or a specific storyline there.  It was an all-encompassing atmosphere of WRONG, a virtual monsoon where ALL decisions and attitudes were doomed to fail because they were built on core principles that were faulty.  

A perfect example was Will Pfeifer's passive-aggressive attempt to paint any alterntaive to the East End goggle-whore excrement as boring.  It went something like "Panel 1: Selina pours coffee.  Panel 2: close up on the handle."

Telling example, as that cup of coffee is certainly an emblem of real life, an aspect of storytelling which eludes the year long crossover crowd.  "Realism" is not making everyone a psycho, a pedophile, a prostitute, or a serial killer. Realism is drawing those links between the fictional creation on the page and the living people reading it.  Bruce Wayne shaves in the morning.  It doesn't negate the fantastic larger-than-life stuff, it grounds it in something we can all relate to.

Harvey Pekar is dead at 70.  He wrote the autobiographical comic American Splendor, but more than that, he saw potential in the comic medium to tell stories beyond pulp horror and fantasy.

Pekar felt that the medium could be put to wider use, and he played with panels as a storytelling vehicle for more than a quarter of a century.

Without men like him, we'd be nowhere.  Without those who stretch and explore, who fiddle with the dials and see what something can actually DO beyond whatever we've been doing, without those guys, we'd be absolutely nowhere.  We'd still be in the trees.

Chris Dee
www.catwoman-cattales.com
cattales.yuku.com
cattales.wikispaces.com

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This week in... Screw it, a love letter to Remidar

Don’t let anyone get away with saying comics aren’t an art form – and that includes the faux intellectuals who will sometimes allow that the stuff in that museum in Brussels is art, but not the lowly American stuff and certainly not anything pertaining to *sniff* superheroes.

The art of the comic is in the created colloid of words and visuals to create a new thing that is more than the sum of its parts.  I got my first taste when Thundering Monkey began using Poser to illustrate his favorite Cat-Tales moments.  Then Dorothy Rose got me into the hard stuff when she took the first paragraphs of A Girl’s Gotta Protect Her Reputation to create a graphic novel-style prologue for the CT series.  That brings us to last week’s addition to the fan art gallery.  This breathtaking jewel from Remidar:

That, my friends, is the work of a true artist.  See, for me, the art begins before pencil is touched to paper.  It begins with the sensibility that chooses that precise psychological moment.  “Just me, down here, with the bats.”  That’s just… damn.

And that’s why this week, rather than make a big todo about the reception of Chapter 5 (which Joker is trying to take all the credit for, btw, despite the fact that it’s the messages on Selina’s voicemail generating all the buzz), I’d like us all to take a moment and drink a virtual toast to our favorite artists. 

Words and pictures, guys.  Words and pictures.

Chris Dee
www.catwoman-cattales.com
cattales.yuku.com
cattales.wikispaces.com

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