May 11th, 2009 by Neal

I signed this last weekend at Brave New World in Santa Clarita, a damned fine shop with a damned fine ownership. It was, hands-down, my most successful signing yet, and a solid rocket blast!

The Signal of Santa Clarita was kind enough to devote space to it here.

The woman in the picture, Pamela, was so incredibly awesome. She bought a big old stack of the books to share with her friends and family. I hope they dig them, because I’d feel bad if they didn’t.

I also had a pure cane sugar Coke during a break, which sounds like a stupid thing to mention, but it tasted rather fine.

It’s incredible to have people who didn’t just happen upon my table at a con come to visit. One man drove 45 minutes. It’s flattering, and it’s also scary as hell. I got nervous and bit my tongue so badly that it hurts to speak and eat, but I also got such hope and joy… I hope I did well by Brave New World for their gesture of faith and kindness in flying me down.

May 11th, 2009 by Neal

HEED!

I am in LA, and will be so for another day, but I still have the internets, and thereby I got my google alerts, which revealed to me an AWESOME review by Steve Saunders at the WIRED blog.

Yeah! Wired!

R. A. D.

At any rate, he’s very, very kind, you should get over there and check it out!

May 6th, 2009 by Neal

With much respect to Cglass81, AKA Carl Glassmeyer, friend and saint, I have been made aware that AICN has once again graced me with a kind review…
That’s kind of like winning the lottery twice, because AICN is notorious for having geek-high standards. In other words, they’re discerning and will rip you to shit if you fart in the wrong direction. That’s some people’s bag, not others. It’s the reason I read it.

If you want to read it, it’s here, and I once again thank the staff for not stabbing me with their prose, and for being kind. It’s so incredibly reassuring to run that gauntlet and come through unscathed.

He also gets what I was trying to do with the book, which is awesome.

April 13th, 2009 by Neal

Continuing my tradition of random non-sequitor looks into my new novel (5,000 more words now, do you kennit, as a man once said):

The title of chapter eight is OMEGA COCK!

And the great thing? Makes total sense in context.

This is Omega Supreme, a Transformer from several years ago. I imagine he is in possession of an Omega Cock. Sadly, the toy was lacking in this respect. Something about a toy for children.

I was reading a little bit this morning, Simple Art of Murder again, and a little bit of a look into “Murder/Kill Your Darlings.” The idea being, if something stands out to you as good writing, or a piece of good writing, you should kill it, beacuse it’s probably pretentious shit.

Sometimes, this is very true. But sometimes, it’s remarkably naive. Because I love this entire fucking book so far, more than anything I’ve ever created. Seriously. And there’s no high-minded thought to it, though there is a moral lesson. It’s just a fucking GREAT STORY. Something in my blood’s been crying out for it.

And yet, if I removed my precious darling Omega Cock, I know the work would suffer for it. How’s that for a Freudian insight into the writing process? BWA HA HA HA! TAKE THAT, AUTOBOTS!

April 1st, 2009 by Neal

Steve and I came up with a few great April Fool’s bits for this year. The trap was sprung, and quite well, I thought. You should check them out.

Particularly the “Obama in New Krypton” and “Men of Steel” ones.

I can’t stop saying to myself, “Well, the world needs more bastards!” And I particularly pride myself on being able to channel a fake Didio quote so well that folks initially bought it in the comments despite utter absurdity.

March 18th, 2009 by Neal

AICN, a site I have visited for many, many years (in particular the comic reviews and movie news), has just put up a very, very kind review of my first two comics. Thank you to Allessandro, my bud in Venezuela, for pointing them out.

A choice quote:

One of the things that really turns me off about the media is the bias. Newscasters, news writers, internet bloggers–it seems everyone wants to tell everyone else their own political beliefs and how yours is wrong. Personally, I feel my political beliefs are something private. I believe in the power of my vote, but I also have faith in my fellow man to make decisions without me having to cram my beliefs down his throat. When I heard that Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton were each going to be receiving a comic book biography I was a bit leery, not because I lean particularly to the left or to the right, but because I feared it impossible for someone to talk about a Democrat or a Republican these days without resorting to inserting their own political agenda in there somewhere. I understand that no one has a Writer-Bot 3000 that guarantees no bias, but something that didn’t rip on one side in order to support their own would be nice. Something that left the decisions up to the reader would be preferred, but very unlikely.

So imagine my surprise when I had a chance to read FEMALE FORCE: SARAH PALIN #1 and HILLARY CLINTON #1 and found them to be a pretty fair treatment of each political figure. On page one of each issue the writer addresses the issue of media bias as well as his own. Writer Neal Bailey says he’s a liberal writer, but throughout the stories he’s telling here he shows he is a writer of better caliber than most seen in the media today by shelving his bias for the sake of the story (a talent also exemplified by Oliver Stone with his W and NIXON biographies—I still think those films weren’t as successful because people were expecting the guy to rip into these political figures, which he smartly didn’t, making them honest to gosh biographies rather than soapboxes). By addressing the white elephant in the room and owning his bias, Bailey smartly and simply tells the female politicos’ stories in a fair manner.

Awesome. My thanks to Mr. Miller.

Also, another story from Florida…

March 14th, 2009 by Neal

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! CHRISTIANS OF ALL STRIPES! FINE CAPITALISTS!

The time has come, where we, the intelligent, shall no longer deign to support the rabble! For WE are the intellectual elite! WE are the stuff that dreams are made of!

Following this post, I, along with my fellow intellectuals, will be leaving this country for a secret base in the mid-west, where we will develop PROJECT-X!

All hail the almighty dollar! We are GOING GALT! For TOO LONG we have put our support into that mongrel dog, the artist, the mother, the out-of-work person with a chemical addiction! They are scum, and do not warrant our attention or treasure!

We are AMERICANS, by god, and as uniquely American as we can be, because we are supporting capitalism by moving somewhere to start a commune! We are uniquely American, because we can run a factory that needs workers WITHOUT THE WORKERS! We are totally American, because the figurehead of our movement, that of good Christian men everywhere (and I do mean men, ladies, though we will deign to rape you if your name is Dagny, because that name is fucking HAWT!), is so Christian that she in fact DOES NOT NEED GOD! She is the most Republican atheist on the face of this planet! Her god is the dollar, and PRAISE BE!

Some might say this is contradictory! Ignore them! They are part of the rabble, and obviously not sophisticated enough to keep up with the likes of I or Glenn Beck!

Instead TAKE UP YOUR FURS! LIFT UP YOUR HEDGE FUND! BURN THE YOKE OF YOUR MARGINAL TAX RATE THAT DOES NOT IMPACT YOUR STANDARD OF LIVING!

Are you with me?

I SAID ARE YOU WITH ME?

March 13th, 2009 by Neal

So…

First off, my editor was on Greta Van Susteren.

There’s also mention at Air America.

Then The Daily Beast. (Thanks, Susan!)

And in other news, a spinoff character from my “Michelle Obama” series, a lanky dude I created as a dramatic foible named Barack, just got a guest shot on Youngblood! I hope I get royalties!

At any rate, point being, FOX, CNN, MSNBC, The Guardian, Fark, CBR, Newsarama… the only major media missing is the Daily Show.

The first two books have completely sold out, and Michelle, which has yet to be released, is apparently the top selling indie book for its month.

See, what I don’t remember is when Biff gave me the book. So when that snot-nosed kid comes and starts asking questions about his old man, what do I do? WHAT DO I DO?

March 8th, 2009 by Neal

March 5th, 2009 by Neal

This comes on top of good sales news. Very good sales news. Like, something like “Top selling indie book” kind of news.

Oddly enough, I’m not scared, worried, preturbed, belabored, hectic… I’m just kind of like, “Wow.”