Ridiculous Opinions #249
Greetings, fools! It is the witching hour for teachers at this point in the year, so our brains are scattered and our ability to get things done is massive. There’s a reason teachers have a summer break: It is to recharge. Dealing with the psychology of students, parents, administrators, and other teachers takes a toll on our brains and summer break beckons us ever onward so that we can continue our jobs and not move on to some other, less-taxing brand of employment.
But I didn’t come here to bitch about teaching. Let’s talk about some new projects I’m working on…
As you all know, I am the most efficient and creative man on the planet and no one can tell me otherwise, DESPITE the email that I wrote last week. At the beginning of each month, I lay out my tasks that I will work on each day of the week, and then, when I wake in the morning, I write down those tasks and tick them off, one-by-one, through the end of the day. For instance, on Mondays, I will usually write three Maurice the Beaver comics (down from five), then draw them through the week, four days per week. I write ideas for books and such every single day to keep my brain fresh and practiced. And I have other miscellaneous things that I work on throughout the rest of the time (including this newsletter).
I am currently working on several things, which I will detail here…
The Ridiculously True Adventures of My Uncle Plez
Ideaspace
The Fermi Paradox
Maurice the Beaver
Untitled Album
The King is Dead
Shall I explain these to you? Sure, I will.
The Ridiculously True Adventures of My Uncle Plez
When I was in Oklahoma in October for my mother’s 80th birthday, I was scanning in old pictures for posterity. And I came across this photo:
This is my grandmother in the center, holding my mother as a baby. I assumed this is 1942-43. In the white dress beside my mother is my aunt Beverly (Beb), and on the left, beside my mother is a little boy who I believe to be my uncle Plez. My mother doesn’t think it’s Plez, but I’m convinced it is him and I will never be told otherwise.
Now, aside from the notion that my uncle’s actual name is Plez, which is kind of awesome, I was struck by this little boy’s look. Have a closer look at him:
It’s those goggles and the aviator hat that struck me. This is a boy who regularly engaged in high adventures and he could barely muster the time to STOP having high adventures to pose for this photo. I invented all kinds of scenarios in my head as to what this young man got up to in his spare time.
And that’s the way my brain works, friends. That was the seed for a story, because I couldn’t stop thinking about this picture. My uncle Plez has always been a bright light in my life. He used to take me on grand adventures when I was young, hanging out with all kinds of interesting characters, trotting out into nature, and generally helping to quell the boredom of the day-to-day in rural Oklahoma.
So, I decided to write and draw a graphic novel about Plez as a young man, and I drew the main character to look like the lad in this picture. It’s about Plez, my mother, their brother, Don (who I am named after), and a fictional character named Charlie Beaver, who engage in all kinds of grand adventures in rural Oklahoma after an afternoon watching serials at the movie theater. They battle Nazis, travel to Saturn, and each gain superpowers. It’s a fun book. I’ve finished writing most of it and I’m currently doing the rough layouts for each page. I only work on it one day a week, so it’s a slow process, but I am certainly enjoying doing it. I’m very much looking forward to actually drawing the book, which I will probably do in the summer.
2. Ideaspace
I’ve probably told you about this before (sometimes I can’t remember what I’ve written here and what I haven’t), but this is a movie that I am actually going to make. It’s about a girl reading the journals of her recently deceased father and learning to be able to talk to him through the writing that he did when he was alive. It’s a fun movie and hopefully will be quite touching. I’m at around 60 pages of script, shooting for 120. Ideally, I will be done by the summer.
3. The Fermi Paradox
I wrote this as a pilot for a television series last year and I really like it. It’s about how Earth is viewed as a “nature reserve” by the rest of the galaxy, so all the aliens don’t really go near it. But then one day, a ship crash lands on the planet next to a high-school boy and chaos ensues, as the rest of the galaxy soon views Earth as fair game to invade as they please.
Basically, this is John Hughes meets Star Wars, and it’s really enjoyable to write. Thus, after finishing the pilot, I am now mapping out an eight-episode arc for a TV series. I’ve plotted the first five episodes and once I’m done with the plotting (so I know where it goes), I’ll start writing each episode. It’s a pretty wild show, but lots of fun.
4. Maurice the Beaver
Yes, Maurice is still going strong. I’m not as popular as I used to be on Reddit, because there’s been an influx of new creators on there that have pushed me down the rankings. I think I’m at strip #761 at the moment, with the writing complete up to 789. I will take a break to recharge once I hit #800. I’ll publish two more books over the summer and then I plan to shift the formatting of the strip quite a bit in the same way that Bill Watterson changed Calvin and Hobbes’ Sunday strips in the 80s. I want to make things a bit more artistic and esoteric. I’ve always said that I will quit when I reach 1000 strips. I really enjoy making Maurice, so I cannot guarantee that will happen, but I’m getting to 1000 at least.
5. Untitled Album
Some of you may remember that during spring break of 2023, while Tracey was in Canada, I holed up for two weeks and wrote and recorded an album. I quite liked the songs and I even had a former student (shoutout to Karim) record guitar for one of the songs. I worked pretty intensely on editing several of them during May, but then lost steam once the end of the school year hit.
Well, the other day I listened to those songs and they’re not half bad. So last night, I started editing them again and actually finished yet another one. I’ve got five in the can, with five more to finish editing. I might actually put these out UNDER MY OWN NAME! We shall see.
6. The King is Dead
This is currently the project that I am most excited about. I haven’t written any prose since 2022, when I finished my unpublished Cindy McCloyd book. The other day, I started questioning why I hadn’t written any prose. I think I haven’t because I partly feel that no one reads anymore, especially kids. But then I thought, Who cares? Do what you want!
Once I’d settled on that notion, I also realized that I didn’t have any good ideas. I had nothing to write about. Zip. Nada. Nothing.
But as you know, I write down an idea every single day, and one day, one just appeared out of thin air. It even came with a title.
Basically, I’m writing a rip-roaring, science fiction adventure story. I’ve never written a sci-fi book before, so this is a new experience. It’s a learning process, really, because I’m having to keep track of unusual things, so much so that I’m going to have to start keeping a glossary of terms (I’m not kidding) involving different species, different planets, different spaceships, etc.
Don’t get me wrong…this isn’t some impenetrable book full of obscure lore and complicated history. This is an adventure book, one that anyone should be able to pick up, start reading, and have a great time.
I started a couple of weeks ago and my goal is to write 1000 words every day, four days a week. I’m at 10,000 words right now, with the goal of reaching at least 90,000. I might be done by the end of summer.
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So, there’s your window into my creative brain. This is where I’m at right now. I am looking forward to the summer break, but there’s never really a break for me. I am always working on something. Always.
And I enjoy every minute of it.
