All Work And No Play

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Hello from out here on the Thames Delta. The writing is going very well.

OPERATIONS

THE BEST TOOLS

My laptop, a ThinkPad T580, is pushing seven years old and is finally starting to die. This is the longest I’ve had a single laptop computer. It’s an absolute beast and has lasted far longer than I ever would have expected But this week it started seizing when asked to play video for longer than forty minutes. I’ve done all the things you’re supposed to do when your computer starts having seizures, and it has come back to health a little, but it seems time to accept that it’s on its way to going to live on a farm.

I only work on ThinkPads, which are Windows machines, and I have a secret weapon for getting up and running on a new machine quickly. Ninite. They offer up-to-date installers for around a hundred applications. Select the ones you need and press the button, and Ninite wraps them into a single package. Stick it on a USB drive, place the USB drive into your new machine, and open the package. Saves me an hour every time.

Macapps seems to be the equivalent service for Mac.

I am sad about the prospect of losing this machine, though. And even sadder about the amount of money I’m going to have to pay to eventually replace it.

As I was writing this, I was reminded of something Harry Harrison said in an essay at the back of the book HELL’S CARTOGRAPHERS - couldn’t find my own copy and had to hunt down a scan online:

ThinkPads have the best keyboards. If everything you have comes from your tools, get the best tools you can afford.

(The British chef Keith Floyd used to say “buy the best ingredients you can afford and do as little as possible to them.” He didn’t live to see Rene Redzepi (no hater here, I own all his books) quantum-foaming hobbit blood and unicorn skin in a particle accelerator to garnish an amuse-bouche made of speculative elements on the periodic table)

ORBITAL

ELSEWHERE

Old comrade Marc Guggenheim sent me a copy of his new novel this week. It releases on August 1. It cracks along at a refreshing pace, as you’d expect from an Emmy-winning writer of television, film and comics.

Old friend of the newsletter, designer Roger Strunk, has started blogging again, which is an unexpected pleasure.

Kjetil Karlsen.

OTHER

COMICS WON’T ALWAYS BREAK YOUR HEART

We just approved the initial print run on this with our friends at Image Comics. Solicitations will be coming up in a little while, but it couldn’t hurt to tell your local comic shop or bookshop about this if you want one. DESOLATION JONES: THE BIOHAZARD EDITION takes a beautiful piece of work and one of my favourite things that I’ve been involved with and reprints it in a luxury hardback book. I’m really looking forward to having a copy in my hands.

This weekend, the comics business is stopped dead, because everyone’s at San Diego for Comic-Con. Last week, I got what I believe was my first ever invitation to a party at San Diego. It was actually quite sad to explain that to the person doing the inviting, and that I stopped going to San Diego Comic-Con in the 2010s because it was such a miserable bloody experience every time. Room service food and sitting on my own in bars.

I remember one time, I found the green room for attending professionals - this was maybe 2012? - and walked in to get a glass of water. And as soon as I walked in, the buzzing room of my peers went silent. And stayed silent as I got my glass of water. I was so creeped out I left pretty much immediately.

In thirty years, there’s never been a moment where I’ve felt accepted by the comics field. I’ve always been on the outside looking in, to a large extent. But it hasn’t stopped me making comics. And it’s making comics and telling stories that I showed up for, so I guess it all worked out okay. When greeted with aggressively silent rooms, you go outside and listen to some music instead, I suppose.

GOT MORE TIME?

LTD

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And that’s all, folks. Lot of news out there this week, right? I have a fairly minimal set of news provider notifications enabled on my phone, and it still blew up last Sunday. I actually had to Google that, because so much seems to have happened since then that time has telescoped. If you love being involved with the flow of the news, then enjoy yourself. If you don’t, it’s okay to turn everything off and check out. It’s all going to happen anyway, whether you’re watching it happen or not. Don’t deprive yourself or us of your health. Take care, see you next week.

W