Spilled Milk Update #12
Sent: Thu 5/4/2000 9:36 AM
Quick Reference:
1.
What’s
New?
2. This
update on the web (nicely formatted).
Hey Everybody,
I was pretty close to getting the update out in April, but it just didn’t happen. I think that means there will be two this month. Read On, I’ve got a plot synopsis below!
Huge
thanks goes out to Cecil Adkins of the Blue
Phoenix website. He told me
that he wanted an interview after he did the first article back in February.
Last week he sent me a few questions and I took a night to answer them.
I thought that was pretty cool. My
very first interview. To check it
out you can go to his site and then to the Comics section.
The interview link should be right there on the home page, but if it
isn’t then click on the Comics button and the link should be there.
If you’re really lazy you can click on this link:
I
can’t guarantee it will work which is why I tried to map out the way to the
interview.
If you
don’t want to read my interview there are others by Erik Larson and Mark Waid.
It’s totally bizarre being mentioned in the same sentence as those
guys.
I’ll
be heading to the Denver Majesticon this weekend.
I hope the turn out is as good as last time.
This is the last big push until San Diego. I’ll let you know how it goes later on this month.
I’m
all set to go be at the San Diego convention.
Notice how I said “be”. I’m
not all set to “go” to San Diego. I
don’t have my flight yet which is ranted about at the end of this
update. I’ve got my booth and my
hotel reservations so I’m ready to BE there.
A
roving reporter on this mailing list took these notes.
Eric was kind enough to put quite a few of my postcards on the free
tables and get the word out there. He
also stopped by a few of the other retailers and spoke the word of Spilled Milk
and it’s new series. All hail
Eric! And now Eric’s report…
Ahhh...
the show was great.
It was a
short show but great none-the-less. I didn't get to as many dealers as I
thought I would...in fact I only visited about 4. I am sorry I didn't get
around to seeing more but the wait to meet some of the guests was terrible.
I waited in line for an hour to meet Stan Lee and only got to have him sign one
thing. Since it was only a day show for me there wasn't much time. I
got to meet Barry Windsor Smith and I thought he was an asshole. I was
only allowed to have 3 things signed and when I FINALLY got up to meet him he
saw one of the items that I had and said that he had done terrible work on it
and that because of that he wasn't going to sign it. He also said he never
got paid to do that work from Marvel. I felt like asking him, "Its
not my fault you didn't get paid...can't you just sign it?"
Anyway.
I left a bunch of them on the promo tables. I checked periodically
throughout the day so I could restock them. I still have a full pack that
you sent so I will have that one mailed back to you as soon as I can get to the
post office. I did give the dealers some of the autograph cards so I still
have about a 1/4 of that pack left as well.
I told
them that I didn't have much information on the comic book but I told them to
check out the web site as I felt they could get some information there that
would be helpful. They commented on the art....they said it was very nice
and worth looking into.
So all
in all I would say the response was a positive one for something they didn't
really have any idea what is was about. Hopefully a lot of people took some
promos and check out the web site.
If you
already read the interview then you can skip this section. I’m just recapping for the people who are really lazy and didn’t even click on the link I provided.
Since the ashcan is going to press and has all this preview material in
it, then I felt there was no harm in spilling the beans.
It definitely was an exclusive to Blue Phoenix, as this update won’t
ship until after it’s posted to Cecil’s site.
The
basic premise is that CiCi is a clone. She’s
not a clone in the sense that she was grown from an embryo and hatched out of a
test tube. Well she was hatched out of test tube; a really big one.
CiCi was made from an exact duplicate of the original, Cynthia
Christiansen (kind of like the movie Multiplicity). Every molecule in her body was scanned by nano-machines.
Their locations and composition were logged in a huge database.
Several months later, CiCi was created after many fouled attempts using
the same technology in reverse. The
nano-machines are able to break apart and fuse atoms at will in order to create
the necessary structures in the body. Once
every molecule is back in place, you’ve got an exact copy of the original with
all the same physical features and memories of the original.
The fortunate (or unfortunate, depending on how you look at it) is that
the clone does not know she’s a clone. As
far as she’s concerned she just woke up from a nap.
Cynthia’s
background is deeply religious, and therefore CiCi is too.
Once CiCi finds out she’s a clone she battles with her beliefs and
wonders if there really is a soul, or for that matter, a God.
How could she possibly have a soul if the original Cynthia is alive and
well?
The
Garbage Collector is one of the villains and it’s also a term from a
programming language called L.I.S.P. This
guy is relentless and was a product of the nano-machines too.
In L.I.S.P. the garbage collector’s job is to collect unused memory and
return it to the heap for reuse. The
same goes for my garbage collector, although he hunts down clones so their
resources can be reused. Pretty
cool. Pretty nerdy. Although with all those web-savvy kids these days, I think
I’ll hit a pretty good niche.
So as
you can see, the story is obviously science fiction.
I really want people to grasp what this technology can do and how it can
benefit our species, but also how really frightening it can be.
But in the same light I want to go into how it will affect humanities
greatest meme, Religion. Meme is a term coined by Richard Dawkins (who wrote The Blind
Watchmaker, The Selfish Gene, and others) that means an idea that is transferred
from generation to generation just like genes are. Now maybe this book might
turn out to be controversial, but I think that’s what will make it sell.
So
there you go. You heard it here
first (or second if you read the interview).
Of course any comments are welcome.
I got
the new proofs back from Digital Chameleon and I was a little disappointed.
Much of the bold text that I asked for didn’t make it.
And some of the word balloons and boxes were still in their original
positions. I’m sure there’s a
logical answer that most of my corrections didn’t make it in.
Maybe my notes weren’t in the right format. I’m not sure, but hopefully it’ll all be cleared up by
the next round of proofs and I’ll be ready to print.
I got
some e-mail from Adam Kline of Adam Kline productions.
You’re saying to yourself “who?”
Yeah, so was I. His e-mail
was pretty generic and asked if I had any properties that I would like to submit
for movie proposals. I guess they
do a lot of this and have made some pretty big hits. Here’s his fairly generic e-mail that I’m sure he sends
out to everybody.
Dear
Parker,
I
am a producer in Los Angeles. I recently finished producing the film, SHADOW OF
DOUBT, a political-thriller for Largo Entertainment, which has been released on
HBO this winter. It stars Melanie Griffith and Tom Berenger and was directed by
Randal Kleiser.
The
reason for the e-mail is that I have had several comic books that I have set-up
at studios to make as a feature and/or television series. I am requesting that
you e-mail 5-7 sentence summaries of all of the projects you have worked on.
Should and if I enjoy the idea(s) I will request the project.
In
the feature world, I have recently set-up a project at Disney based on a Dark
Horse comic book entitled, Johnn Dynamite. Additionally, I am proceeding into
pre-production on a movie for this fall entitled, “S.I.S.” Among the feature
projects I have set-up in development are the following: DEAR ROSIE at Twentieth
Century Fox.
In
the television world, I am developing a cable movie with Encore to entitled,
“The Hindenburg Files.” Additionally, I am developing a television series
based on a DC comic for Lions Gate TV entitled, “Ms. Tree.”
If
there are any questions, please call me at XXX XXX XXXX. If not, I look forward
to your e-mail.
Sincerely,
Adam Kline
Needless
to say I was a bit skeptical, because I have never heard of anything that he
mentioned above. I replied with a
very cryptic e-mail saying briefly what the story was about and that I could
send him the ashcan when it was in print. He
responded with a “the time is now” message so I figured I’d touch on some
of the basic premises, which I outlined above, in my next message.
He ended up calling so I returned his call and found out that he was
already doing a clone movie that was rather different from CiCi, but there may
be a conflict of interest due to the fact the ideas could become
intermixed. Currently the title of
the clone movie is Mirror Image and I guess the title could change at a
moments notice. I’m curious to
see what this movie will be about. I’m
not even sure it’s a sure thing. He
sent me a submissions form and I figure I’d fill it out after all four issues
were in print and send him the series. I’m
not holding my breath.
About a
month ago I checked the fares on the United website and found a roundtrip ticket
to San Deigo from Denver for about $250. I
thought at the time that was pretty good, but I didn’t want to jump on it.
That would have been an impulse buy which is what I’m trying to steer
away from. It turns out four days
later it’s up to $350 and then a day later it’s up to $379 and then $400.
What’s up with that!! Are
the fares that arbitrary that they can fluctuate that much in a single
week? Now they’re pretty stable
at around $380. I talked with an actual person at one of the local offices
and they said they were probably matching a special deal given by a competing
airline. Translation:
They were trying to run the competing airline out of business by beating
their deal. So now I’ve got to
check the website every damn day and check the fares.
And I get the same damn Java script error message and my system asks me
if I want to debug the website. NO,
I don’t want to debug their damn website.
So every morning I’ve got the check and every morning I get the same
error. Thanks United!
All I can do is wait and hope that the fares drop down to $250. I wish they would tell the browser that it’s only a special
deal and they should jump at the chance at a $250 ticket. I think they’d get more takers that way.
Copyright © 2000, Spilled Milk Corp., All rights reserved.
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