New MONSTER KING and Random Thoughts

"Pretty Music."

Yep, we're a little early again, but here's a new MONSTER KING! Huzzah! This week we see the results of a Kharma Bullet, and things near the wrapping up stage. You can view everything at www.torcpress.com/monsterking.html.

Speaking of Monster King, I'm still debating how much longer to roll with book. It doesn't seem like too many people are reading it. I've definitely got three more issues that I'd like to do, and I'm already at work on Issue 4. We'll see after that.

I've been thinking about where I'm going with all of this. I'm constantly debating all of this nonsense. I had an idea to do a big Epic. Something big and baroque. Pulling all of my disparate ideas into a single book. I spent most of the week ramming that stuff through my mind. My big fear with that is that it would get too serious. I don't want that. There's always a certain amount of seriousness that comes with action work, but I don't like the idea of doing something that's purely straight laced and square jawed.

As always, I'm not interested in stagnating. I always want to be experimenting, trying new things, new approaches. I never want to just tread water. I don't want to get bogged down in my own narrative, either. At the same time, I need to move the narrative forward. I have to keep the story moving. I don't want to do throwaway stories. It seems like so much of what Marvel and DC fart out is so...pointless. Nothing is moving, it's just Event. Reset. Event. Reset. Someone Dies. Someone gets Resurrected. Blahblahblah. Writers rotating on and off of books. Nothing stays consistent. Boring. I don't want that.

I also don't want to do much more imitating. If my work's not commercial, then why even try to imitate anyone, right? I mean, I know most people would call me something of an original, but there's still my need to "do my Kirby stuff" or "build my own Marvel" or "do my Lynch stuff". I'd like to shake that. Kirby never bothered to do anything the way anyone else did anything. Or Lynch. So why should I?

So, yeah, I've got a lot on my mind, as always.

Anyway, it's off to Kentucky Lake in a few hours for our annual, half-assed family gathering thingie. It's a nice chance to get away and relax, but it's also pretty poorly timed. The last thing I need is to dump some more gas in the tank and eat out for a couple of days.

I wish the weather would stop sucking.