Saw Tv Spots for Avatar all Thanksgiving weekend.  James Cameron getting back on the action horse after a long time at sea–filming it.  I’ve voiced this before, but after getting Lucased in the nuts by new Star Wars, then New Indy, I feel like a battered woman at the shelter ready to date again.  He seems handsome, and he’s saying nice things, but then he talks about cat people.  And all I see are Gungans crawling out of a fridge after a nuclear blast.  Someone hold me and my first born alien to be.

You take for granted some things in life will always be around: monuments, your parents, museums, even a good book.  I grew up a PBS Kid.  A day without Sesame Street was my personal 9/11.  I did not suffer fools that caused me to miss a moment of Snuffleupagus.  I had a long memory when slighted back then.

Once there was no more Sesame Street to be had, I settled for a post coital cuddle with Mr. Rogers, The Electric Company, and Reading Rainbow.  I even watched that one show you can barely remember with the creepy-ass male mannequin that would come to life after the mall closed.  If you don’t remember the title, I don’t blame you it was kind of a let down when I researched it.  It’s just called Today’s Special.

Naively I thought these shows would be around for my kids someday.  Unbeknowest to me and probably many of you, Reading Rainbow actually stopped making new episodes as of 2006.  LeVar Burton hung up his Butterflies three years ago, and I was not consulted.  The recent news of Reading Rainbow being canceled is actually PBS deciding it doesn’t want to spend the money to renew the reruns.  My mother growing up actually picked up quite a few books based on the shows recommendations around the time I was three or four.  I suppose I’ll just pick it up on dvd at some point when I come across them in a bargain bin.

This like many of our comics has some real life significance for me.  It’s finally happened.  I’m morning the loss of a dead pixel.  I’ve had my beautiful widescreen monitor since Christmas.  Pixel in the lower left portion of my monitor you will be missed.

This is one of my favorite pieces we’ve done artistically.  Don used some painting techniques in Photoshop to pull this sucker off.  I wrote this to be at least a two-parter, however Don wants to keep making it this pretty, if we finish it.  This means we probably wouldn’t be able to do it for Tuesday’s strip, due to time constraints.  If you’d like us to continue it for either Thursday or next Monday let us know in the comments below and I’ll try and convince Don to paint up the second part of Pixel Pilgrim.

District 9? more like District 10!  And by 10 I mean awesome, and not the new internment camp.  This movie has actual character development.  It shows the weakness and heroism inherent in man, and the duality of such available in the same man.  The whole film is emotionally wrenching.  Your allegiances shift multiple times, to the point of you having to make an ethical decision as to who you should be rooting for.  You may heard something about the movie’s politics, the movie itself is mired in a realistic scenario, comparisons can be made to real world things, but it’s not forced on you.  But if it makes you think because you happen to be fairly fluent in world politics, then bonus for you.  It’s probably been mentioned elsewhere but the Alien Chris Johnson, would be the first CGI character that not only do his decisions and actions make sense, he’s never wacky or zany like many before him, but we also get emotionally invested in what happens to him almost from the get go. I have a lot of Sci Fi favorites, I want to watch this again to see if it retains it’s magnificence after a few re-watches, but this is quickly becoming one of my favorite Sci Fi films. The icing on the cake, or more appropriately in your pants, the special effects are the sort of things wet dreams are made of.  A+, 4 snaps in Z formation.

My weekend went pretty awesome.  Got to meet some old WoW guildmates that I had know for about 5 years and never met.  I don’t really play WoW much anymore but I always love the geek buzz that hums outside of the Anaheim convention center once a year.  It was like a preview of Pax where there will be much more drinking cavorting and hanging out with out old and simultaneously new internet friends.  And as long as I can avoid making out with any fat guys that look like me while I’m there I should be good.

I went all the way to the semi’s in a beer pong tournament at a friends birthday festival.  Hat’s of to my pal AJ she wrecked my face.  She was much drunker than I, but the power of the drunken master was very much with her.  At least she won the whole thing, so I don’t feel too bad about the loss.  At some point during the night some of us got to talking about the webcomic, Tina mentioned that I always write her as mean in the comic.  I told her I would be sure to write a comic about how angry she was and make sure to embellish it a whole lot.  I decided when sober it wouldn’t make a great comic, so I’ll in include it in my blog here.  Boy will she be pissed.

Finally Sunday morning we hoofed it out early and got to a noon showing of Inglourious Basterds.  Great movie, good old Quintin never disappoints.  Even Mike Myers didn’t feel wierd being there.  If you’re a fan you’ll love it, and if you’re not you’ll at least think it’s pretty good, I’d hope.  Or I’ll think less of you.  Please let me know if this is the case so I can shun you apporpriately.  I probably won’t do a proper review for this flick as the less you know going in, I think the more you’ll enjoy it.  It’s Tarrantino with Brad Pitt, and there’s more Dead Nazi’s than an Indiana Jones movie.  If you don’t want to see it from that last sentence, I can’t help you.  I’m also going to need to see your geek papers.

I know the preview buzz on Avatar wasn’t great following Comic Con, but if you can’t tell by the last couple of comics, I love me some James Cameron Terminator.  Sure he had his I’m on a Mother Fuckin boat, Drawin’ titties, and cranking up the Celene Dion moment.  But I’m hoping he can avoid George Lucasing the situation.  Cameron has basically become a deep sea diver and pirate over the last few years.  He has been filming all kinds of Titanic and general under water documentaries.  I’m hoping he  can get his land legs, get in the kitchen, and knit me some Sci-Fi and it better not be any of the generic brand ScyFy or I’m not eating it.

Turns out there’s going to be three Terminator comics so you have until Tuesday Morning to see District 9.  Don is working hard this week, he not only has two comics to get done by Tuesday, but he’s got a bunch of side drawings to do for the new web design.  Will he be able to make it without snapping?  Only time will tell.  Last I talked to him he was drawing an avatar of me to be as ‘gay as possible’ for making a late edit to this comic last night.  I was told this would include a penis made of rainbows that shot unicorn shaped semen.  Before you ask he didn’t say whether it was my penis, or if I’d be covered in mythical beast.

Sexy right? If I had to describe this comic in three words, it would be: Fap Worthy Hilarity.  I like to think of myself as knowing my audience pretty well by now.  I know it’s been one of those things you’ve been trying to figure out but hadn’t realized, you were wondering, how could Matt possibly get hotter.  And here we are, Matt as a Terminator.

I’m going to give you fair warning.  Get your asses out of the house and see District 9 this weekend.  This is quality sci/fi and or action.  Really it has something for everyone.  I’m going to be writing a review for it and we’re going to do a comic either on Monday or Tuesday, depending on how much Matt/Terminator antics I want to dive into.  Normally I don’t like to do any Babe Ruth like pointing for the fences in regards to my comic subjects, but this movie is too good to pass up.  If you would like to be totally in on the joke, you will have seen this movie.  It’s your homework assignment.  If you don’t have the spare cash I would suggest either becoming a hobo until you’ve begged 11 dollars from others, if you’re feeling risky there’s always theft, or lying to grandma and telling her you’re going to use the money for an operation.

Don’t be too horrified, my Comic Con tales all come second hand.  Like the Skyfields and the Mccoys before us, the Trekkie and the Star Wars Geek have long since spilled blood on convention center grounds, all across these United States under Khan.  Trekkies hated Star Wars fans and their easily approachable characters. It’s said in hushed circles that Trekkies finally gave Star Wars it’s due “props” when Jar Jar was introduced.  Only then was a character off-putting enough to make the Star Wars Universe sufficiently nerdy.  Star Wars fans decried the tight fitting costumes and the fully learnable Trek languages of Klingon and Esperanto as too far down the garbage compactor chute to be worth the effort.

Visions of Avatar and Iron Man 2 trailers danced in their heads.  The eloquence of the light saber vs the versatility of the phazer debate had started on schedule while the uber fans waited in lines a many.  Then in they came, wafting in like a gloomy dirigible of sparkles and angst: The Edwards and the Bellas.  Both Spock and Boba Fett look alikes brandished their Iphones and Blackberries.  Two quintessential nerd debates put aside for more peaceful times.  Today Blackberry and Boba, Spock and Iphone became brothers in arms to perform one big Care Bear Stare of flash photography.

Photographs of the twilighters, fangbangers–to borrow a term–were let loose upon the twitterscape.  An alliance was formed. Triumphant in their first barage of smug tweets they roared in unison,  a Tuscan Raider brae and the cry of a dying red shirt for a moment coexisted.  Boos filled the halls like the sound of a thermal detonator sploding in a crate of dilithium crystals.  A new geek has infiltrated the Con, and in accordance of the Geek Caste System established long ago.  They will be placed right below Harry Potter fans that wear Slytherin, Ravenclaw, and Griffindore Robes and right above those that wear Hufflepuff.  There they shall remain until the next even more losery generation of fans rears it’s ugly head.

Ah to be young and 18 again.  I’ve been a little more than nostalgic, with my most recent annual Matt Celebration taking place this last Tuesday.  When I was 18 I watched Almost Famous the day I finished reading Stephen King: On Writing–that was it for me–I was going to be published by the time I was 27.

Let’s skip ahead 10 years: in my procrastination limbo, with these here Straight Face Comics, I’ve slipped under that goal line with zero seconds to go.  I’m not in print yet.  That violent vampire novel is still collecting dust, but here I am writing jokes while one of my closest friends draws them.  We’ll be four months old in another week or so.  I hope the comedy is getting better or at least consistent.  It’s been fun to watch the art get better with just about every strip.

If you’ve ever wanted to do something creative with your life, set a schedule and devote part of your day to it.  You’ll thank yourself even if you’re awful.  Creation is like sex, or is sex creation?  Either way I recommend both regularly.  Even if you have to hire a prostitute to paint for you.  I call mine Don and he’s working out fine so far.

Some news:  If you did not see our special Don Illustrated/Matt written edition of Addanac City mosey on over here.  Thanks and welcome to everyone from Addanac that came over and checked out our stuff–especially those of you who commented.

I imagine if I had my own cult of followers, that acted exactly like me, I’d get irritated pretty quick.  I’m kind of a snarky jerk.   Thus concludes our cultist series.  We have another multiparter coming up for you guys in another week or two.