Amongst everything else I’m trying to accomplish this weekend, I decided I had to settle on some names for several characters that will make appearance in Dicebox starting in Chapter 5.

Yes, I know, it’ll be several months until I even begin Chapter 5. They’re actually going to be part of a pin-up that will go up on Girlamatic as fill-in for New Year’s week as I will be doing some visiting over Christmas and the relatives are actually going to want me present for the whole shebang, or at least a good part of it.

Anyway. The characters in question have actually been with me for quite sometime, some even named or between names, if you follow. I just felt if I was going to draw them, I should nail down all their names. And I actually do enjoy rooting around for names, have a few name books on the shelves and usually I have a feel for the rhythm or sound I’m after to begin with.

I was just about done selecting names when I realized that all the previously un-named ones now had names beginning with the letter “L.” Except for the one that was named “El.”

I do this thing quite a bit; Kip pointed out for a while there I was selecting a lot names begining with “G” and “R,” usually in sets of two. (Molly’s name used to be one that began with “R.”) As I had realized this before the names were set for me, I could actually go back and rectify the situation. Now only three have “L” names and I can live with that.

I actually blame this specific occurance on my recently picking an Ella Fitzgerald CD, Ella Sings Broadway. She does a version of “Whatever Lola Wants” that is quite compelling, corny early 60s band arrangement aside.

It’s 11pm PST and Kip is still at work, and likely will be for another couple of hours. Then he gets to work tomorrow as well. Whee.

Actually, while I’m at it, I have another complaint. I just hooked up our new DSL service here at home and whereas everything is much faster moving, the same percentage of internet content is just as boring as it was with my dial-up service. Where’s my new and exciting internet experience?

So, while coloring up the latest page of Dicebox, my computer froze mid-stroke.

I sort of panicked as right before my hard drive died a few weeks back it would do just that, freeze and crash without warning.* But I restarted and then continued with no more problems for hours. Nor have I had any problem since.

And it just occurred to me: before my hard drive went down, I hadn’t had a system crash for over a year and a half. The occasional quit out by Photoshop, sure, but, nothing else. And that only happened if I had to launch Classic. And I think this crash was caused by my wonky Wacom control panel (new version, gonna down grade I think).

And I demand a lot of my computer. Beyond the fact that the average Dicebox page is a working file size of 154 MB, I often run several applications at once, even allow one to execute a function as I work in another.

Not bad, Mac OS X. I salute you.

* I actually can figure out when a computer is about to crash by its performance.

Barry has posted an interesting proposal for really radical copyright reform, outlining and defining certain key points.

I don’t agree with everything, like compulsory licensing, but I always admire someone who proposes, and even outlines, a solution. As opposed to falling back to bitching and moaning to how screwed up everything is and contributing no more than that. Best of all, Barry actually welcomes debate and discussion.

It actually reminds me of a discussion Barry and I were having while walking through downtown, about how a character like, say, Superman, should, given his place in American folklore and zeitgeist, be declared public domain already. This way everybody who needs to could get their Superman story out of their system without the compulsory creation of a zillion Superman clones.

Barry has linked to an article about how Bill Watterson currently spends his days in Ohio.

One of my favorite speculations from that piece:

An industry source who wishes to remain anonymous says Watterson paints oil-on-canvas landscapes, but sets fire to each as soon as it’s finished. Supposedly, he was told that the first 500 paintings an artist creates are just practice.

Barry has also recently linked to Watterson’s The Cheapening of Comics, the infamous speech he gave at the Festival of Cartoon Art, Ohio State University, October 27, 1989.

And, actually, the recent Watterson rumor that I’ve heard and hope most to be true is the releasing of a Calvin & Hobbes collection on the order of The
Complete Farside.