Just in Time for Halloween.

The New York Times has published an article about why people have nightmares and how they are much more frequent than we think they are.

It's very interesting reading, but what really grabbed me was the accompanying video file, (assembled by either an psychiatrist or one of the Times' art staff - I can't tell which) that illustrates what your brain sees when you have a nightmare. It's on the same page as the article.

This video is either the most creepy, disturbing thing I've seen for a long time, or it comes off as some film school student's Senior project. I can't decide which.

In all seriousness, if you are creeped out easily, home alone, or about to go to bed... don't watch the video.

Strip returns November 19, Empyreal Fall preview

Sorry that things have been so quiet around here. I only meant to go on hiatus, not into exile, but Empyreal Fall was a little more work than I had bargained for (see below) and I got heavily into some more of that digital painting.

I'm setting November 19 as the return date for Suburban Tribe. I don't know what the schedule or the format will be yet, but I'm thinking it's going to be different. The art & characters may get a makeover, maybe not.

I currently have half 5 1/2 of 11 pages of the Empyreal Fall submission penciled. It's been a bit tougher than I expected. Every character has to be designed from the ground up, costumed, given appropriately designed props and then dropped into a detailed and heavily populated medieval fantasy world. That's a few steps up from drawing Alan in a T-shirt and sitting him in front of a computer in gray cubicle. I'll post some preview art as soon as I can figure out how the heck I can fit the 11 x 17 pages into my 8 x10 scanner.

I've also noticed a slight decline in nerds and geeks posting their uninformed and blinkered opinions on pop culture all over the internet, so here are some thoughts on movies and TV shows:

Elizabeth is to The Empire Strikes Back as Elizabeth: The Golden Age is to The Phantom Menace.

Attention fans of The Office: You think that you are Jim, but you are not Jim, and neither am I. I've worked with 7-8 Dwights, 10 or so Kellys and 12 Kevins, but I've never worked with a Jim.

Dear NBC/Universal suits: Why would you hire talent responsible for Battlestar Galactica to (re)create The Bionic Woman, throw an X-Files show runner into the mix, then promptly stick your johnsons in every aspect of the show that scares you and doesn't fit into a little box? When you go out to eat at Spago's, or wherever the hell, do you bring a Happy Meal from McDonald's and give it to the chef and ask him to turn it into pork loin and baked potato?

Dear NBC/Universal suits: Congratulations on shooting yourselves in the foot with the whole iTunes/DRM mess. I just discovered Heroes when the DVD came out and it sure is swell. I would just love to collect season 2 on my iPod, but because Apple won't let you run roughshod all over your customers financially, I guess that's out. I know that you think letting people stream an episode for an entire six day window from your website while forcing them to sit through commercials at their computer is just as good as downloading a commercial-free episode from iTunes that they could own and watch anywhere, but the only reason you think that is because you are stupid.

Dear NBC/Universal suits: TVguide says that you won't release Battlestar Galactica Season 3 on DVD until Spring 2008. Meanwhile, season 4 will be halfway over by then (if it doesn't go into that 9-month hiatus everyone is talking about, that is). Meanwhile, the DVD set has been available in Region 2 for over six weeks and you have yet to announce a release date for Region 1. And we're halfway through October. Get bent, I'm going to BitTorrent.