Adis!

Having technical issues today (which seems to be the theme for my life this week, lol)and the comic is not updating. I'll keep trying. If not, then I'll post it either tomorrow (marriage day!) or monday.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'll go practice tying the laces on my fancy shoes.
-adis!

Hospitals are similar to hotels in many ways. Both have comfortable but nondescript rooms, a television, a dvd player, a sanitized bathroom, and a dvd player. Both make me feel kinda at home but slightly uncomfortable, like when you visit your favorite uncle for a while, it's almost there, but not quite. You feel enough at ease to relax, but you would think twice about putting your feet up the tale.
The difference, obviously, are in the details. As bad as some hotel stays can be, in a hospital room the occupants are hardly ever comfortable for long. Sure, women have babies and people have phantom limbs removed, but it is always an uncomfortable experience.
When you are the one laying on the bed, everything is at a standstill, and you are unsure of the nicety of the people who come to see you; your family is supposed to be there smiling, and the nurses are doing their job. None of that is different from the eternal smirks of hotel employees.
However, no hotel clerk has ever cured my fiancee from pneumonia, so for that I pick the hospital. (Not to mention that the private hospital we stayed at had something that resembled room service. Sure, doctors and nurses and people came and went inside the room almost every hour, but I ate hearty meals three times a day, much better than I'd been feeding myself. They made brilliant milkshakes. Is it wrong to miss them?)

Now go to bed,
-adis!

There's no comic for today, thursday. Liliana, my fiancee, has been suffering from a very persistent cough for the past month or so. We all thought it was due to the nervousness of the wedding, a phyisical reaction to the stress. So when she woke up today coughing it didn't seem odd, it was even normal. Except it only got worse as the day went on. We ended up paying the emergency room a visit and even then I though they'd just give her a shot and send her home, but that didn't happen, it was severe enough to have her admitted with a bronchial infection, and then later in the afternoon they said it was a severe pneumonia, and thus here we are now, me here and her spending at least the next 24 hours in the ICU. And it was just a cough.
She's been in great spirits, even though she'll probably still be in there by friday, her birthday, and even though she doesn't feel ICU bad, she didn't collapse or anything, she was fine and awake and talking and lively when she took her there. I'm still in a daze over how things quickly spiraled to that point.
The thing is, it's been quite a scare, and I obviously haven't had time to work on the comic or on anything else today. But I'll catch up. Soon.
Now go to bed,
-adis!

Hi. Sorry I've been away for so long. I've actually got a few things to say, about stuff that's happened to me:

As you all know, I've got a cat now. I've been keeping a mental record of the things he does, just so I can talk about them later. One thing he does do is wanting to be in the same room I am. He wakes me up at 8:30 in the morning just so I go with him to the kitchen and look at him eat his leftover food from the previous night. He gets mightily offended if I don't. He's odd and fidgety and terribly moody, and I get the feeling he believes I do get him most of the time, which is why he gets so frustrated when i don't. Here's a picture of the both of us. The one with a lot of hair is me, the one in grey is Tapete.

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Hello everyone, it's me, your fearless author, absent for too long. You know I'm alive because the strip's still appearing obviously. I'm really busy these days, and I still manage to make the strip every single day, and it's quite surprising.
Let's see, what else? The wedding is going great, Liliana is a great girl who is willing to put up with a big child/dreamer like myself, with not a lot to his name. (Which is a relief!) I want things to go right, and that's one of the reasons I'm busy, I'm being responsible and adult, quite a big change for me :)
Also, there won't be t-shirts, merch or anything similar for the time being, I'm without a distributor and it's not economically feasible for me to tackle something like that right now. But who knows, maybe someday. In the meantime, rain, sleet or snow, you'll see the strip right where it's always been. For a while there, I saw it a bit as a means to an end: riches, fame, and stardom (but mostly riches.) And that's no way to try and create art, the comic is what it is; a labor of my love for the medium, followed by many who love it, and something that might not lead to an empire, or even a full-time job, just a solid body of work I can be proud of.

As for the riches, does anyone know a good horse to bet on? ;)

now go to bed,
-adis!

It's the third (THIRD!) time this week that I've had to go back and correct the day's strip because a bubble is pointing in the wrong direction. When that happens once, I'm usually super careful the next time, except this time it happened again the following day, then, I was extra careful the next day and got it right, and then, I was still careful for the following strip, and despite my efforts, I did it again. It's odd because I check them a few times, and for the life of me, I just don't see it. In my head, it looks the way it's supposed to.
It's not until the morning when someone emails me, that I realize I'm an idiot who can't get his bubbles to point in the right direction. I want to apologize because I make a point of presenting the best product as possible, and I've been unsuccessful this week. (In my opinion, a wrongly placed bubble shatters the illusion of the narrative.) So, I'm sorry, I will not let it happen again, at least not as many times in one week.
-adis!

Hi, it's me. My attempt at a t-shirt presale didn't go all that well, and I had to pull the plug. However, I'm not one to give up, so here I am going at it again from the beginning. If you go here you'll find a poll with five designs. This time I'm only going to offer for sale the designs that people adore, otherwise it's not economically doable, and I'll be forced to return the money again.
So, check them out, vote for one, and if your favorite makes the cut, I'd appreciate it if you buy one once the sales start.


***
I jumped on the fantasy football bandwagon, not only because it's super fun, but because it's the perfect opportunity to create Katie's team, The Los Angeles Smarty Pants. (Let's not get into how well I'm doing, shall we? Although, I accept any advice on wether I should start Ben Roethlisberger or Matt Schaub this weekend.)
But anyway, since the name of the team arose from the comic, here's a little something for you: An LA Smarty Pants wallpaper!
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Thanks!
-adis!

Not so long ago, I mentioned my semi-guilt and semi-enjoyment in fantasizing about a certain athlete being horribly disfigured in a career-ending injury. Well, it wasn't that exactly, but I watched said athlete (who shall go unnamed) fail spectacularly yesterday. Not exactly a career-ending injury, but something I can revel in with no guilt.
I'm pretty sure he will come back to torment me, but in the meantime, specially today, all is well with the world.
-adis!

Out of wanting to see how it would do, I decided to submit a couple of things to threadless, to see if it gets printed (and win $2000, always welcome.) You can see them here:



and:

Sometimes I see a little girl, spunky and pensive, smartmouthed and smartheaded and I can't help to see Katie in them. Today, I was sort of reminded again after I found this on the internet:
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*Ahem* SPOILERS!

Don't complain I didn't give you enough warning... So, given how Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows have dominated my life for the past four days, I'm here to let everything out of my chest and get on with my life. (I have things to do, dishes to clean and people to see, you know?) Life is the reason I only managed to finish the book on monday by 8pm, despite my best intentions, because yesterday was the only day I could devote the three hours it would take me to finish the five hundred pages I had left. But anyway, the book:
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When you see a man running down the street, get into Wal-Mart, and then storming out with a newly bought plunger in hand and see him fly down the street and back to his apartment, do you think it's obvious what the situaton is?

I have felt panic like that a few times in my life. It was horrible. The toilet starts to overflow and you really see your whole existence flash in front of your eyes. Hopefully no one who saw me running up and down the street suspected the rather uncomfortable situation I was in. I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy.

A few hours later, everything is back to normal. Luckily, nature knows what it's doing and it makes water evaporate after a while! Science works. (Not to mention soap, rag mops and yes, even plungers.)

The epilogue to this story? I took the longest shower ever.

Now go to bed,
-adis!

It so happens that a few of my favorite musicians were all born within a seven day span in May, Morrissey on the 22nd, and Noel Gallagher on the 29th, but today it's Bob Dylan's birthday, and the point of this post is to celebrate the man who wrote my absolute, hands down favorite song of all time, Shelter From The Storm. I'm in love with embedded videos, so here's one of the original studio version, in a very odd video to say the least:



On a good day, it can make me cry.

But as you know, good ol' Bob tends to change the arrangements for his song in concerts, which results in wildy different songs, which you can see after the jump.
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It's me. I'm sick with some kind of flu again, and I'm in my pijamas, so feel free to be envious.
As part of a sudden urge for giving readers more content and stuff to look at, here's a video of a little animation by Matt Wallace, a CYS fan .





If anyone else has made their own video, sign, song, mp3, smoke signal or whatever you might fancy, send it along and I'll gladly share it with people.

Now go to bed,
-adis!

The gossip making the rounds in my circle is that the best friend of a relative, whose spouse is overseas, might be now involved in a romantic affair with an international superstar. (How's that for a blind item?) I avoid the names, not to avoid the potential wrath of said superstar, but to avoid getting punched in the face by non superstars close to me who asked me to keep quiet about this. The thing is, I can't! So this is a compromise.
It's one of those things you don't expect to happen within two degrees of separation from your own unfamous self, the same way it surprises you when you are diagnosed with an incurable disease. Being this close to an illicit affair plastered on the tabloids is as rare as getting Krabbe Disease.
It's a bit of a shock, of the same kind you get when an old friend you haven't seen or an ex-boyfriend or girlfriend has suddenly become famous (or infamous.)
Rant aside, I'll keep you posted on any newer developments.

***

I don't think I've mentioned this before, but my apartment is next to a kindergarden, and from my window I can see children engaged in all sorts of activity, from bumping into one another during recess, to rehearsing for a festival with pre-recorded xylophone music, which they're doing right this instant. You'd think that given my line of work, I'd find a lot of inspiration just from looking at them. It's odd that I haven't yet. It makes me feel like a fake, so I just close the window.

-adis!

I woke up to the news that Spider-Man 3 had made more money this weekend than any other in the history of humanity, planet Earth and the whole universe. And that's fine, as I'm amongst the ones who did like it.
I found it as enjoyable as the first two, which I never considered anywhere near brilliant or the apex of cinema, as some people believe. I haven't seen a superhero movie that I can call extraordinary. Batman Begins is probably the closest, but the trappings of the superhero story haven't still been adapted tot he trappings of the Hollywood script in a way that we haven't seen before. And, honestly, I'm fine with that.
As the lights go out inside a theater, I don't expect high art from a superhero film necessarily. If you know where to look, you'll find extraodinary, well narrated, ambitious and almost literary superhero stories in their natural medium, the comic books themselves.
It's as if as movies were thought to be the superior art form, where the ultimate story would have to be told, because its film version is what will ultimately come to people's minds whenever they think of a certain character, even if it rose to fame somewhere else. That's the price you pay when movies are that visible and widely marketed, I guess. As far as superheroes go, I'll stick to the books, and the movies can be the gravy.

Of course, the reverse is true. I've been wary of people attempting to translate movies into comics, which usually don't turn out well at all. What I'm trying to say is, don't expect the strengths of one specific story to work as well in a different medium, you might get dissapointed. Enjoy them, or try to, at least, for what they are.

And thus ends my rant to no one.

-adis!

Here's a gift and a little story: Most of you grew up with the traditional Spider-Man song, which is fine and catchy and everything. But some of us grew up watching that show with an entirely different theme song, which is just awesome. You see, most cartoons, when translated to other parts of the world either keep their original tunes in english or get translated versions of the exact same songs, like it's done in Diney movies. So it was quite rare that the old spidey cartoon featured an entirely different song in spanish. Not only that, but it had an entirely original soundtrack, that I owned in vinyl and danced to all the time. Good times.
Anyway, looking for it, I realized I'm not alone, and that the Internet is crowded with Spidey fans who get goosebumps when this song plays, as it has almost dissapeared from any official Marvel outlets, which is a shame. I mean, this song is MY childhood and MY Spider-Man, and they shouldn't dissapear! So, enjoy.




I still don't know who sings, though!

First announcement:
I was the subject of an interview by a fellow webcomic author by the name of Kathy Peterson, which you can read here. It's been a while since I did one of those which made it cool. It's always fun to answer questions about what's in my head.

Second announcement:
I had this little idea doodled in one of my notebooks, which after some tinkering became an idea for a picture book, which I have completed and that you can find for purchase here. It's called "Someone to see the Emperor", yet another story about children and the things they do and the relationships they make and what's in their head, and I hope someone out there likes it. I suppose some proper advertising is in order, but in the meantime, let this be the official press release. :)

now go to bed,
-adis!

Hello, readers!
The keenspot servers woke up on the wrong side of the bed, it would seem and I can't update the comic. I'll keep trying today, so keep checking back!
Thanks,
-adis!

First up, Coldplay.
Had I bought tickets for Sunday's concert, I would have been privileged by Jay-Z joining the band on stage, while Gwyneth, Michael Stipe, Gael García, and Beyoncé swayed their arms to the music from the crowd. At least that's what they say it happened. Instead, I attended Saturday's concert, which was fairly typical, but highly enjoyable. Usually, I'm pretty excited before the concert of one of my favorite artists, and I tend to first listen to their music incessantly for weeks in advance until about a week prior to the show. Then I institute an embargo on all of their music, news,thoughts and verything, so that by the time of the concert comes, I'm not sick of their songs.
This time around, I didn't need to. Despite being the soundtrack of my early twenties, I found it hard to swoon or drool over the upcoming concert. And it's not because I'm getting older: In november, I finally had the chance to see my absolute favorite artist in all of creation, a certain Stephen Patrick Morrissey, and I was as excited as schoolboy. (They get excited too, you know? Besides, it's Morrissey we're talking about.) So, with no pretensions and no expectations, I attended the concert and well, while not as relevant to my thoughts and feelings anymore, their songs are still the absolute best elevator music in the world. And I mean that as a compliment. "Fix You" played live was GRAND.

***

And now, Pan's Labyrinth.
What I love about guys like Guillermo del Toro is how they remind me of myself in their geekiness. Guillermo is above all, a reverent fan of his influences. It used to be, for guys like us, growing up in the third world where things don't get made, that the chance to be in the stage where what we admire is done was distant and impossible. You see a lot of that, reverent fans with encyclopedic notions of horror films, westerns, super heroes, Seattle's music scene, The Beatles, Evangelion or the Dallas Cowboys. This knowledge tends to be used on nothing, but a few are so skilled that, if given the opportunity, could be Offensive Coordinators for the 'Boys or Kurt Cobain's official biographers. They could even love American comic strips so much that they could come up with a concept for one so far removed from his own experience, that only his skill and love for the medium could make it work. (Or not, but believe me, he tries hard. *nudge* *nudge* *wink* *wink* and all that.)
For Del Toro, it was movies, more specifically, horror movies. The movie, it seemed to me, screams of him saying, "this is what the things I like made me." And what he is, is a virtuoso pop synthethizer of his geekness.
And I can absolutely relate to that, the movie is wonderful and magical and scary and sad. The sad, mixed with either the funny or the strange or the scary is one of my favorite things (as I'm sure you've found out by now.) So, get off your butt and go see it now.

-adis!

I apologize for not posting anything recently, but I've had a good reason: the computer is too hot.
It's been unbelievably hot around these parts for the last few weeks around here, and when that happens, my computer feels like it's been possesed by the sun, and it makes my eyeballs sweat. So, I try to spend as little time as possible on the computer, that's why I didn't write any entries or answer any emails. But, if I do it early in the morning, I'm at no risk of my computer giving me a tan.

***

I began my movie watching schedule by watching The Departed, which in a way doesn't count, because I've been a fan of the original Hong Kong movie it's based on, called Infernal Affairs (but you knew that already. Yes, you did, yes you did.) It felt like one of the usual Scorsese manic affairs I love so much (Taxi Driver, Raging Bull) with tons of blood and none of that Aviator bullcrap. Still not perfect, but I'm glad I watched it.
Next up, Pan's Labyrinth over the weekend. Dreamgirls will have to wait a little more, sorry.

***

Speaking of going to the movies, here's something I like to do: sitting at the front rows, I wait for the big emotional release moment of the movie (when the girl tells the guy she's just a girl in love with a boy, for instance) and when it happens, I stop looking at the screen, turn around, and look at the people react. Thanks to the environment and the context and the lack of light, people forget they are in a public space and react the way they react the way they do if they were in the shower. That is, unashamedely sentimental. It might seem somewhat like an invasion of privacy, but I'm a writer doing reasearch, a field study in what makes people react in a story.

***

I need some suggestions on how to convince myself to go to bed early. Short of shock therapy, I'm open to suggestions.

***

Next up: Coldplay concert tomorrow.

-adis!