I am kind of a zombie today. Little energy, a bit of stiffness in my movements due to sore limbs, and most of my verbal communication is made up of grunts and muttering, and it's because yesterday was an epic, awesome day.
It's also possibly the closest I'll get to an actual vacation this summer.
I dragged a friend with me to Pigeon Forge for the day, having promised to take her to Splash Country because I REALLY wanted to go, as I haven't been swimming once this summer and it was killing me. I know a few friends that hate touristy stuff and themeparks, and while I kind of understand why, I just find it impossible to say no to giant, potentially dangerous waterslides. Unfortunately, halfway on our journey south, a massive rainstorm struck, and I was panicked, worried we wouldn't get to enjoy getting bumped into by little children in the lazy river.
I made the first stop when we got off the interstate at the Beef Jerky Outlet, because I am a creature of habit and every time I go to Pigeon Forge I HAVE to stop here and buy a pack of barbecue alligator beef jerky and a kangaroo beef stick and whatever other strange animal I can find. I was momentarily tempted by the cheddar and bacon flavored crickets, but thankfully decided against something so weird.
Since it was still wet, we just went on to Gatlinburg and went through Ripley's Believe It Or Not. God knows how many times I've been since I was a kid, but I still love that place simply because it's a museum dedicated to Weird Crap. Do we have a modern day equivalent to the mad explorer and collector of eccentricities, Robert Ripley? Because I think the world needs more rich people who circle the globe collecting strange artifacts and meeting people with bizarre physical features, y'know? We all need to be exposed to more strange things.
Anyways, a pizza lunch later, the skies were clear and we hit up Splash Country, going on pretty much every slide there. It was fantastic, and also reminded me I need to finish that Ezra Neuro comic at some point with the frozen waterpark and giant extraterrestrial jellyfish...
We made a few more stops, the Red Rocket, TGI Fridays, an arcade, and headed back. I guess I dropped her off at her place a little after 11, and got home myself after midnight, tired, sore, and with my iPod having died, being forced to listen to the radio and finding the crappy dance station more entertaining than the two rock stations. I also might've hallucinated at least one flying saucer.
Other highlights: Two little kids at the pizza place, one in a Superman shirt and one in a Batman shirt with cool glasses, going nuts over my friend's green hair, seeing and playing an arcade game for Terminator Salvation (I thought they had just outright stopped making arcade games for North America these days), getting on one of the raft slides with two fat people so we got swung around a lot, myself nearly getting thrown out of the raft at one perilous turn, NOT GETTING SUNBURNT FOR ONCE, and probably other things I can't immediately think of because my brain is still waterlogged.
And now it's back to reality, and back to work. I've been slacking a bit lately, so I need to get my ass into gear. Here's a sample of two pieces for the senior show, which is now titled EMBRACE INFECTION:
Still a lot to be done.
The weird dream comic is almost completely penciled and over half of it is inked, so that's chugging along nicely. Capsule hotels are more difficult to draw than you'd expect.
Finished the 10 volumes of Priest I was given, now I'm upset that I probably won't find the other volumes and finish it, because it's pretty awesome. Also picked up a stack of comics on Saturday, like another issue of that Chronowar manga and Howard Chaykin's Thick Black Kiss, which is probably the sleaziest comic I've bought so far.
I keep coming back to this online comic by Michael Deforge, Spotting Deer. It's so surreal and strange and beautiful and I love it:
I'm so incredibly jealous of his use of zipatone stuff, and his colors, and his skill, and, well, everything.
Also re-read the 6 issues of James Stokoe's Orc Stain, another comic I'm jealous of and in love with. It's the only fantasy comic I really love, possibly due to the colors, the importance of orc penises to the plot, and the lack of elves. His detail is ludicrous, I mean, look at these pencils for some random comic he just decided to start doing for fun:
Sweet Mary Christmas.
You should be digging into the work of both these guys, trust me. They're amazing.
That's it. Back to the real world, I've things to do.
[Brett]