Folks who've been missing my deliciously puerile webcomic antics... get ready.

No. Bad Shape isn't being reinstated just yet.

But, as of this morning, I am writing for another webcomic.  One with a slightly LARGER readership. 

Stay tuned!

So I've been getting some gentle nudges from my electronic lady-friend, jodi_davis. Maybe I should be using my journal more.  Part of my problem (I'm in a fractional mode these days) is that I'm sort of like a live-action game of Frogger-- jumping forwardforwardbackleft.  Start one thing, like a journal, froggy hop to avoid a truck and never hop back to the lj lilypad.

Thanks for the nudge, lady.

What's been going on?

Double mastectomy.   My sister-in-law just joined my personal hall of heroes, a very elite hall who's only residents up until this point were Richard Pryor, The Rock and my three year old daughter.  She had her surgery last week and rocked it hard.    Our tribe has been gathered around her medicine hut keeping her in good spirits and making her laugh until it literally hurts.

Boogers.  On a less George Clooney era ER note, both of my girls have colds.  The three year old's is a steady dripdripdropping of snot.  The six-month old is going all Vesuvius with her mucus contributions.  She's having a terrible time sleeping.  But here's the beautiful thing about my Minnie Mouseketeers, even covered in boogers they're adorable and in such great spirits.  Makes feel like an ass monkey when I complain about how tired I am.

I am an ass monkey.  oot-oot.  scratch-scratch.  fling-fling.

Comics.  Things are really moving and grooving in this area.  Check my technique, bitches...



That's page one of a three page story I'm including in my as of yet unnamed anthology/uber-pitch.  The next two stories are already in the artists' hands.  Matthew Weldon, artist on this last story, has signed on to provide art for a seven page superheroes on crack piece and Federico Zumel will be layingg down some lead for an eight pager called "THE BLACK WAKE"... pirates and aliens, people.  Pirate and aliens.

Children's Book.  After month's of eForeplay otto_germain and I have decided to make a love child.  It's called HEROBOT and it's something special.  It's like what would happen if Shel Silverstein was really into RoboTech.

                                            
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[from a posting I made in the digitalwebbing.com forums]

Hi, folks.

I'm so pissed right now, I can't even express it, but I thought I'd relate an experience I just had with Western Union. I'm posting this in this section because many of you may be using or may be considering using Western Union to wire money to artists and/or writers that you link up with here.

I recently had some pages colored for me by a brilliant guy named Juan Rodriguez. Juan saw an ad I'd posted here [digitalwebbing.com] a couple of weeks ago and sent me some samples. We hit it off immediately and he began work. He finished the work last night (gorgeous stuff) and asked me to send him the money I owed him via Western Union as we had previously agreed.

I created a Western Union account, including all the personal info you'd expect to be involved. When I moved to the "Recipient Info" portion of the process, I was asked to provide the recipient's name (Juan Rodriguez), country of residence (Argentina) and city (Buenos Aires).

That's it. That's all the info about the recipient they asked for. Pretty simple right?

No.

When I hit "send", a message promptly popped up saying that my transaction could not go through without first calling customer support. So I called and spoke to a customer service rep who reviewed my transaction info, put me on hold and then proceeded to tell me that my proposed "against Western Union business practices".

When I asked her why, she simply replied "I can't tell you, sir."

What?

So I politely asked to speak with a supervisor who could provide more info about why my online transaction was being denied. The supervisor came on the line and started the conversation off by telling me that it wasn't my information that was stopping the transaction, it was the recipient's information that was triggering the problem.

Let's backtrack... the only info they had about the recipient was that his name was Juan Rodriguez and he lived in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

"Are you telling me there is a 'watch list' for every Juan Rodriguez in Argentina?" I asked.

She replied "Sir, I can't tell you anymore then that. But, if you'd like, you can bring cash to any one of our U.S. locations and your transaction will be processed immediately."

So... what's the difference between me doing it online and in person?

Much like banks and public ATMs, Western Union agencies have security cameras.

They're basically inviting me to add my face to the world's most idiotic watch list! How grossly ineffective and inefficient is it to monitor the transactions of every JUAN RODRIGUEZ in Argentina?!! That's like monitoring every John Smith in the United States!

The part that burns me is that it doesn't matter if I don't show up. It doesn't matter if I cancel the transaction. They already have my information and a record that shows that I tried to send one of the millions of "suspicious" Juan Rodriguez's out there some money.

I did a quick google search and discovered that there are tons of other outraged customers out there with similar experiences in the last few months. China, Nigeria, Iran, Brazil, Indonesia, Chile... many of them wiring money to some of the most common names in those countries too.

I understand that we live in changing times, but is THIS the best we can do? Is this how we're fighting the war on terror? Cause this smells like some Barney Fife type detective work here!

Needless to say, Juan will be getting his money ASAP. But, I won't be handling the transaction through Western Union.

I thought this might be important for anyone on these boards who's working with someone internationally.

So fucking pissed right now.

Gotten a couple of emails... here's the deal with Bad Shape.

I'm calling a "time-out".  Yes.  Again.

Why?  Nothing medical.  Nothing life-altering.  I've just decided to jump back and take another crack at print comics.  Up until about a year and a half ago I was all about writing scripts for new comics and pitching them to Image, Dark Horse, Platinum, everybody.  Was working with three incredible artists, getting encouraging feedback (Erik Larsen said of one pitch "I'd definitely read this, but I don't think there are enough of me out there to  buy this") and just  having fun.  All of a sudden bad stuff started happening and projects started falling apart just as they were looking most promising.  I got upset with a lot of people, but, in reality, almost all of the problems had to do with me.

About a month ago I got a new idea for a comic and I've been unable to stop thinking about it.  I started writing it and I can't stop.  I put out some ads for artists and they've been answered and, quite suddenly, I'm back in the groove.

What's this mean for Bad Shape?   Not sure.  But, it's gonna be on hiatus for a long while.

I'm gearing up to drop a bomb on comics, bitches.  I'll keep you posted.

Pitstop before a visit to the oncologist...

Sophisticated Pig, after a hugely successful relaunch at AdultWebComics.com, jumps back into the fray with CHAPTER 2!

Though he claims to be a "simple farm animal", readers have been titillated to learn that Sophisticated Pig is indeed much, much more; a bisexual, trendsetting, pig of mystery with a snout for adventure and a tenderloin for... everything else.

“This is a hilarious strip,” says Joe Botts, editor at AWC. “One of the funniest I’ve seen.”

Written by Wiz Rollins (Bad Shape) and illustrated by WCCA-nominated web cartoonist, Chad Diez (Today: The Comic), this latest chapter promises to deliver a generously risqué portion of the "other white meat" every Tuesday and Thursday.

SOPHISTICATED PIG

Slim and Blue discuss cancer treatments...

Been posting this in all sorts of places, so ...

Hi, folks. My name's Wiz Rollins and I'm looking to hire an artist for a 3-5 page project. I need someone who can pencil AND ink their own work, but, ideally, they'd be capable of coloring it as well. I'm also looking for an artist who can set realistic deadlines for themselves and meet those deadlines.

I'm offering $75 per page for pencils/inks or $100 per page for pencils/inks/colors.

• All submissions must include at least TWO examples of your sequential work.
• All submissions must include inked samples (and color if applying as a p/i/c).
• All submissions must be sent electronically (as a link and/or attachment).
• All submissions must be sent by August 31st.

Please email all submissions to: wiz_rollins@madugly.com

** Emails that do not include art samples in the form of a link and/or attachments will be ignored. 

Over the next few months, I'll be posting other ads (similar to this one) as I'm putting together a small collection of my work. I look forward to seeing a wide variety of styles in the submission samples.

Thank you for your time and your talent.

WIZ

...