Obsessive Cartoonist Disorder (aka My Old LiveJournal) (Patreon)

Every once in a while I search through my old LiveJournal account to jog my lousy memory, usually this is for a Patreon comic book industry story-type post. It's usually not very helpful, unfortunately. I typed a lot over the years there, slowing down and then stopping around 2018. I guess Twitter really helped put the last coffin nails in to the LJ for me (and others), the immediacy and the larger audience and all. And less typing, overall. Way less. I liked LJ overall, I had more energy to write and more things were happening back then to write about, for me, at least. And the comments sections were generally pretty active and fun. 

When Sarah set up this Patreon we mentioned in the welcome write-up that I was going to raid the LJ for posts/material. I never did that to any real degree, though. Between wanting to post new stuff and feeling awkward about a backlash over "repeats", it was easier just to dive in and start typing new nonsense. Especially if new work-related nonsense was happening worth talking about. And with my weird blinders on, I kind of tend to just plain forget about material resources like the LJ. The difficulty I had trying to locate relevant material didn't help things, also, with my poor memory, it's always possible I never did post about a particular subject on my LJ, making a search useless. 

Part of my approach to this site was basically to continue those LiveJournal posts here. If you look at the LJ you'll see it's where my overly-extended online rambling started, and I always deviated from the topic, went on tangents and lost sight and focus and my way pretty often. I guess it's part of my charm. How much a part, well, I don't know, luckily I don't have to pay direct attention to me. 

Anyway, today I searched the LJ for CBLDF cruise anecdotes and mostly failed to find anything directly related to the cruise. I guess it was too many years after the fact. I'll keep looking because I'm trying to put together something about that fatal trip. Fetal trip? Weird trip.

Anyway, for those that weren't there, or forgot, here's the LJ link: https://evandorkin.livejournal.com

All the posts and pictures are still there, a search through them might yield some interesting things, spark some memories, raise some eyebrows. The industry is very different today, from when I started the LJ. Some folks are no longer with us, some publishers are no longer with us. I made a lot more comics back then. I was still with SLG for a chunk of the LJ years. I found posts about my radio interview on WFMU, doing a book festival with SLG, attending MOCCA, I used to review comics occasionally (sparking some grouchiness from Darwyn Cooke when I met him years after reviewing his SOLO issue, and some nods of approval from Tony Moore when I met him, agreeing with me about script logic gaps in the first Walking Dead trade). 

If you're stuck on a train or plane or bored out of your mind, you might kill a half an hour searching for terms and seeing what pops up. 

I plan to still post some things from LJ that I find, because there's no real point to rewrite a story that was told when my memory of it was fresh. I've been wanting to write a series of posts over time about some of the comics professionals I've met (similar to my meeting Sheldon Moldoff, as recounted on the World's Funnest series of posts). Some of the stories are funny, some are dead short and not really a story (like when I passed out drunk in front of someone), some are just "Oh, yeah, I met them and --" (so-and-so was a jerk or so-and-so was a sweetheart), some are weird or embarrassing (those might never get posted, we'll see), most are probably too boring to bother with (like how I fled from Jack Kirby when someone tried to introduce us at SDCC). Many will involve me being nervous. A couple might be blind items, like the Golden Age professional with the crummy apartment I posted about recently. I guess that was part of the series. I don't remember things, remember?

I'll sprinkle them in here and there. Most of them will be new, a few I've told before but they're worth retelling (and I don't remember where I've told them). A couple might have been written up for the LJ and I'll reprint them if they aren't terribly written. 

I think I'm going to post one of those tonight or tomorrow or asap. I'll probably add a comment about how I view the story in hindsight. Or in hindsight of the original hindsight. Double hindsight. Additional hindsight. Hindiersight. 

Oy, whatever. Be back soon.  

(Above: One of my LJ avatar drawings, manipulated and colored by Sarah. I mainly used a Devil Puppet avatar but Sarah made a few others from my art for me to change things up here and there. I don't know why I drew Ronald McDonald in the first place. Never been a fan of that creepy character.)