Comics are a hotbed of creativity

I made the plunge into comics after realizing I had read less than a dozen in my life.

Thanks Amber, Tim, and John for helping me pick out some of my first comics the other day.

To commemorate my plunge, I’ve dug up the first comic I wrote.

I was 11 or 12.

I had forgotten I was such a PC-basher, and such an endering speller.

Here’s “Fred’s Adventure” my frist comic in full screen 3-page glory.

Comic geeks, what do you call the comic Oscar? Another question for comic geeks: Am I a suppressed comic geek if I read like two, created a few, then forgot about the magic?

You think twitter forces you to be pithy? Try saturating a story into text bubbles. Original stories thrive, and when it’s good… innovation at the intersection of visual and written story collide brilliantly.

One night this week I skipped beer with friends, for reading the next page in my comic book. Whatever—I’ll call it a phase.

We commit ourselves to well-crafted art. It’s why we NEED to see the next episode of Lost, or get Bryan Adams’ new CD.

I’ve been going through “Y: The Last Man” book by book at Nashville’s Great Escape, and leaving the story trail for my roommate, who is also hooked.

In the age of Kindle and the decline of newspaper readership, can you imagine physically walking somewhere so you have the next installment of a story?

As I walked to be inspired by the next installment of Y today, I knew the beautiful ending was that my level of commitment was being reciprocated with great story.

I’m having a love affair and I’m-loving-every-new-second-of-it.

Dynamic Paintings of The Future

It calculates how close you are and enlarges the frame as you teeter close.

It creates the sensation of depth by merging inputs based on the distance between your eyes and your closeness. No polarization tricks. No glasses. No staring at a dot or crossing your eyes required.

The technology is seamless as air.

If you like, it recreates the weather in your precise location and spawns pixels of rain drizzle on a wet day and flashes of light during thunderstorm warnings.

It emits your daily does of vitamin D, which sets off a chemical response which pumps a mental association of childhood adventures into the crevasses of your brain.

The lifetime warranty guarantees if you spend at least five minutes a day looking at the painting, it will add two years to your life, or your money back—to whoever you specify in your will.

Art reviewers agree it reinforces the where of your belonging. They call it Essential.

Economists agree the price point for such an advancement in technology will make it accessible to every household. They call it Viral.

Dead artists agree in their well-catalogued notebooks it is the fulfillment of a prophesy. They call it Inspiration.

It can track the movement of a nearby fly and recreate the image of the fly’s legs touching glass.

If you like, you can teeter extra close and smash your hand against the paining, which responds and displays the fly fleeing from your input.

But the true magic is this.

Of all the reprints, none are the same. And in each instance of the billions of blinking eyes, large and small, that look into reprints of a Dynamic Painting, never—never even once, is the image the same as it was a millisecond ago.

They call it Window.

Stephen Yeargin wins first Nashville's Almost Impossible Crossword Puzzle

Congratulations to Stephen Yeargin!

He told me he put calls on Do-Not-Disturb to fully focus on the prize, which won him a retro Opryland Belt Bucklet. Get it.

He was able to win Nashville’s Almost Impossible Crossword Puzzle by solving the last clue:

CLUE: In the second fold below the clouds

ANSWER: John C. Tune

The second fold refers to the folds in the Cumberland River.

With the leaderhip of Stephen and other crossword champs, Nashville was able to collectively finish the puzzle in less than a day.

Which means… we’ll have to make the next one harder so more people have a chance to jump in. Many people realized what was happening only after there was one clue left.

The Winner’s circle from the last puzzle will be able to contribute clues, which could add to the difficulty and lengthen the time it takes for Nashville to solve the next puzzle.

Let me know if you have any other ideas on how to improve this experiment. It was great to see such a positive reaction. Thanks for playing and expect another soon!

Nashville's Almost Impossible Crossword Puzzle

Winners List

Jonathan Baker

• WILLIAMSON - TN’s richest county per household

Nicholas Young

• GORE - TN’s nobel prizer

Colin J. Hill

• MUSICA - Nine nudes
• CAFECOCO - 24-7 coffee shop

Tim Kerrick

• FLYINGSAUCER - Most on tap

Chris Ennis

• MEHARRY - Sit-in participants: Fisk, TSU, American Baptist College, _____
• LORENZO - Miracle - ______ = Frank + Kevin
• OPRAH - Former Channel 5 anchor

Samantha Y.

• YOUNGBUCK - Straight outta Cashville
• PEACE - 31-floor message returns

Defycreative

• ATHENA - She holds victory

Tony Grotticelli

• BOAT - Nashville’s showboat built by Jeff _____

Levi Cole with the assist from Andrew Duthie

• BATPOET - Caped cab driver

Stephen with assists from Samantha Y.

• MBA - Inspired sweaty-toothed madman
• INTERSTATE65 - Grand Wizard’s view
• JACKSON - Broken circle’s namesake
• PYRAMID - Memphis brought this exhibit

Lance Conzett

• ENQUIRER - Street named after dead horse who has a grave stone in Nashville

Jessica (No link to twitter?!)

• HANGMAN - Moved to Florida pre-mall

Piecing Together Chapter 11

My computer froze as I wrote chapter 11 of my story.

Even though the excerpt was a draft and riddled with errors, I couldn’t stand the thought of losing a nuance of what I had just created, so I took some photos of the screen. I ended up not loosing anything, but decided to piece the images together for their own sake. Here’s the result:

Click for larger image

Nashville's tech community spawns gpsAssassin mobile game

Kill your neighbor.

That’s the motto of gpsAssassin, the iPhone application which became available on iTunes yesterday.

Players scan for targets and launch mafia-style attacks on nearby friends.

“What has been great is the huge community support that we have received,” developer and co-founder Jackson Miller said in an email.

For the over 50 beta testers and numerous contributors to the game, killing neighbors cultivated a community which fed the game’s development.

Nashville companies including Griffin Technology, Sitening and Firefly Logic have released iphone applications, but not necessarily with the same degree of community input.

Nashville’s growing technology scene may indicate a shift in the readiness of Nashville to be known not only for its music and healthcare industries, but also for technology, according to co-founder Nicholas Holland.

“Many feel we haven’t had a major success - something that is so innovative and/or cool that [it] garners world-wide attention,” Holland said in an email.

“We’re hoping that gpsAssassins can solve that problem due to its Startup Weekend roots and the innovative combination of GPS gameplay with social interaction.”

Co-founder Nicholas Holland grabs lunch at Nashville Startup Weekend
last October, where he pitched the idea for new iphone game, gpsAssassin.

Last October Holland presented the idea of gpsAssassin at Nashville’s first Startup Weekend.

Startup Weekends are gatherings of community members which work to launch various companies in a weekend.

In less than a year, and after co-founders Holland and Miller put in an estimated 500 hours each, the project went live.

“We thought this would be much simpler when we started,” Miller said.

“We have had a really incredible group of beta testers working with us for several months. They deserve a lot of credit for the high quality of the gameplay and mechanics,” Miller said.

Co-founder and lead developer Jackson Miller discusses new iphone
game, gpsAssassin, at Nashville Startup Weekend last October.

Players can create custom weapons, so they can kill their friends in as many morbid or cute ways they can imagine.

Health, armor and money are tracked during gameplay.

“I can easily say that gpsAssassins wouldn’t be half as fun (or feature rich) if it wasn’t for the excellent feedback of the local players,” Holland said.

The game is currently $4.99 and available from the iTunes store for the iPhone. Planning has begun to support other mobile devices.

Holland and Miller formed Side Hobby LLC to launch gpsAssassin.

Buy it now to support the launch party, according to an online message from Holland, who mentions a free version will eventually be available.

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More Online

• Official gpsAssassin website
• Tom Cheredar reports on Nashville iphone development, including gpsAssassin
• Mar 8th, 2009 Nate News Review of beta game:
  
  1:32 | mp3

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Bookstore Magician

A magician strolled down the how-to isle cradling Your First Herb Garden.

Rows of books became rosemary, basil, parsnip perhaps—the daydream died at the “Magic Tricks Revealed” sign.

The magician fumed. He readied the herb book.

1. Twist the ends of you mustache with your finger and thumb.
2. Press the desired series of letters in a bound book.
3. While fanning the pages out, blow through them and towards your target.

“Sellouts and Traitors” spawned.

Smiling, the magician twisted his mustache and hide his fingers in his hands. He blew through his hands towards the magic books.

They shifted about but nothing happened.

He tried again. Nothing. Again. Nothing.

“Huzzombie!”

The girl at the checkout began to watch. The magician knelt and scanned the books.

Making Little Kids Cough Up Goldfish
Making Little Kids Think You’re A God Dude
Making Things Appear
Making Things Disappear

The missing step was in Making Things Disappear.

After twisting his mustache, he hid his fingers in his hands (behind his back this time), and blew at the books.

They disappeared.

He carried Your First Herb Garden and Making Things Disappear to the counter.

The girl looked up from her book.

“Look magician, unless you can make those books reappear, you’re paying for them.”

Flipping through Making Things Disappear his face grew red.

“Huzzombie!”

Luckily he remembered a trick.

1. Twist the ends of you mustache with your finger and thumb.
2. Take a check and fold it in half three times.
3. 
   
   

The girl’s finger tapped CASH OR CREDIT ONLY.

He handed her a Visa.

The magician walked out with a herb book, a bill for over $3,000, and the knowledge of how to make things disappear but not reappear.

At the chime of the exit bell, the girl bookmarked her spot in Making Things Appear.

She walked to the empty section and pulled a mustache from her back pocket.

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“Bookstore Magician” by Nathan T. Baker is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Terms of Marriage

He passed his proposal across the table.

His eyes undressed her. Her eyes paced over the page.

Terms of Marriage

For each minute of life we share, you may read one word from my JOURNAL until you’ve read it all.

JOURNAL is the bound book notarized by Shelby R. F. Goodman.

X__________________

“HUSBAND, how many journals do you have?”

“More than one.”

“I want the opportunity to know you completely.”

“We share a common goal.”

“Does that mean what I hope it doesn’t?”

“Yes. The reason I write is to have the opportunity to know myself completely.”

“HUSBAND, I’m jealous. Your words need to be for me.”

“That’s what I’ve written in the other journals. That’s what you can’t see. That it takes this much work to believe what I believe.”

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“Terms of Marriage” by Nathan T. Baker is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.