AMOC amuck: Behind the scenes of your favorite blog...PART TWO!!!

Hi Everybody!

When last we left our intrepid Interim Editor Matt Dow, he was about to respond to Dave Sim's response to his fax to Dave about becoming our intrepid Interim Editor (THIRD BASE!).

And that went...THUSLY: 

11/15/17

Hi again Dave,

At your request (via Sean,) I’ve posted my message and your response on AMOC (or rather, it’s scheduled to be posted sometime tonight, or tomorrow morning. Ah, the wonders of the internet…)

Anyway, I’ve posted the announcement of the Editorial take-over to AMOC. Here it is for your amusement: 

And then I inserted the announcement post.   I continued:

Anyway again, regarding your fax of 14 November:

It’s not so much “stressing”, it’s more of a mental coping mechanism I’ve developed. If I assume the worst, I can be pleasantly surprised when things don’t go wrong.

A.      Yeah, I’ve kinda assumed the arm’s length part. It IS my show now, but it’s a show that defers to the President of A-V. I’ve been trying to come up with a better analogy, but nothing seems to fit. (Batman/Commissioner Gordon?) But as Tim told me, the mandate is: to celebrate Cerebus and Hopefully drive some money to A-V.  (I can’t find the direct quote right this second…)

B.      No Dave! You’re doing it wrong! It’s SUPPOSED to go: “Oh Man! NOT Matt! Anybody but MATT!!!” Digression: Back in the early 2000s, right before Grant Morrison took over writing one of the X-Men books, I sent in a pitch to Marvel (along with a box of cookies), when I told my Dad about it, he said, “The worst they can do is say ‘no’” to which I replied, “No, the worst they can do is say ‘yes’. Then I’d have to write the damn thing!”

C.      I’m gonna shout “FEED THE BEAST!” every time I hit the “post” button now… And I know they’re finite. Technically EVERYTHING is finite. But when a feature reaches its natural conclusion, I’ll (hopefully) have a new feature. (Or quit. Ya know, just keeping my options open…)

                                 I.    So, that’s a “NO” on me using them? Just asking for clarification. Also, what about the Blog and Mail? Is that stuff “fair game” or should I hold off on raiding it? (I’m mostly thinking of the Mr. Meaty drawing…)

                               II.   I dunno about a “wiki,” but I can start organizing that stuff on my computer and either burn it to disc, or copy it to a flash drive and sent it “up Nort’ “ when it’s full/needed. (I plan to start this whatever your response. It’s too good an idea.)

                             III.   

[redacted by the "None of your damn business" Police. For further inquiries on this matter, please direct all communications to momentofcerebus {at} gmail {dot} com. We apologize for the inconvenience.  We here at A Moment Of Cerebus know you have a many options for daily doses of Cerebus the Aardvark related conten...wait a minute, no you don't. We're it. Ha ha suckers!]

D.      1. That’s ME: “Matt Dow: Problem Maker!”

                     I.  And that’s when that feature ends. Also, that’s two-years-from-now-Matt’s headache…

                   II. Well, not really. I kinda assumed you had copies of them somewhere in the Archive. I mean, it’s The Beavers. Not IDW’s Rip Kirby reprints. Nobody is gonna bitch about them not being in Hi-Def 1080p super deluxe awesomeness (or at least, I’M not gonna CARE if they do. It’s like they taught Janis in Pre-school, “You get what you get, and you DON’T throw a fit.”) (Also, while I totally understand where you’re coming from and absolutely don’t question your position on this, I kinda wanna press the point just because I find the idea of “The Great Dave Sim Beaver Hunt” hilarious. I can see the online article headlines now: “Dave Sim Searches For Beaver!” “Dave Sim Wants Your Beavers! Only High Quality Images!” “Help Dave Sim Find Beaver!” Heh.)

D. 2. “Blight”? Okay. It was an idea. To paraphrase Groucho Marx: “These are my ideas, if you don’t like them I have others.”

“Welcome to the Jungle”? Wait, you DO know the next line in the song is “You’re gonna die!!!!” (okay, near the end of the song, but still…)

Paula, Janis, and Rocky all say, “Hi” (Well, not really. Paula’s at work, Janis is doing homework, and Natasha just says, “Phbbt.” and “credibles” (she’s into The Incredibles right now.))

I’ll put George on the list of helpers.

Thanks for the wishes, good luck with the Kickstarter,

Matt Dow

And now Dave Sim's response (via Sean R.) to the above:

17 November 17
Hi Matt!
I'd describe it as "less extreme" than Batman and Commissioner Gordon, but that's not a bad analogy: the Commissioner of Police working secretly with a masked vigilante is "not on" in any conventional real-world sense. And Dave Sim, non-feminist, is "not on" in our society as constituted. Which leaves you, as Commissioner Gordon, with an unenviable balancing act.
Which I don't participate in. I'm not a feminist and the 15 Impossible Things To Believe Before Breakfast are among the reasons why I'm not a feminist. Which, in 2017, makes me the metaphysical equivalent of a masked vigilante outlaw. And I'm as fine with that in 2017 as I've been with that since 1994; Completely fine;
It makes my life very straightforward. Everyone else is a feminist and I'm not and neither of those things is going to change in our lifetimes so there's really nothing more to be said.
All I really want to do is get STRANGE DEATH OF ALEX RAYMOND finished and A-V's entire history preserved. I'm assuming I die "in harness", the only question is "when". And then everything keeps going exactly as it's going now except I won't be here, Which leads to:
A greater AMOC emphasis under your editorial administration on "drive some money to A-V" would be nice. Not to the point of the PTL CLUB when that ship was sinking but a kind of on-going "reality check": this is really about one societal outlaw hoping to preserve 40 years -- and counting -- of his outlaw history and the history of his outlaw intellectual properties.
(It's not a "monument to myself'' as the naysayers on AMOC keep saying, it's the whole enchilada of the chrysalis I'm leaving behind when I blow this pop stand somewhere up ahead. "Me" is leaving. This is the "not me" I left behind. Anything in physical form in any way related to Dave Sim is all there in one tiny little Off-White House. Make of it what you will, future generations. I did the best I could to preserve it as close to intact as possible.)
As the old joke went, "don't applaud, throw money". Patreon, Kickstarter, the donation button at cerebusdownloads, cerebus downloads itself, going to the comic store the last Wednesday of every month and buying the new CEREBUS IN HELL? #1. It's been a completely unlikely fan-driven, fan-financed 40 years and that part never gets easier. We're within 1 ,400 copies of dropping to the sales of CEREBUS #1 in 1977.
Apart from that, the best advice I can give you is the advice the aliens gave to Woody Allen, "Tell funnier jokes."
Anything YOU can find ANYWHERE or someone else can find for you is "fair game" in Feeding The Daily Beast. I have never stopped anyone from publishing anything of mine and I can't picture a situation where I would. Since you know where all of the BLOG & MAIL is stored that makes it "fair game". Likewise THE BEAVERS: whatever you can find on your own or someone finds for you, you're welcome to print. 

Well, except without the links, I put those there...

And now, our intrepid Interim Editor responds to that:

Hi Dave,

Of course YOU would wanna be Batman...

(I kid. It's like the T-Shirt says, "Always be yourself, unless you can be Batman. Then be Batman".)

Well, more money to A-V means more A-V, which means more A-V product available to me to shamelessly swipe and put on the internet, which (hopefully) leads to more money to A-V...(talk about your snake eating its own tail...) So, ya know: THAT'S the plan.

"Anything YOU can find ANYWHERE" is "fair game"? Really, anything? ANYTHING? Even that photo of you with my smiley-face umbrella doing "Gene Kelly" at SPACE that one time?

REALLY?!?

Dave Sim with my smiley-face umbrella doing "Gene Kelly" at SPACE that one time.

Heh.

Well, feel free to respond to this on the weekly update, or not at all. I'm pretty sure "deal with Matt Dow and his inanity" is on your "to-do" list right below, "restore The Beavers".

Take care,
Matt Dow
PS: I already posted this to AMOC with your response to my response to your last response (third base.)

Next time: Dave Sim responds! Or not. Or he does! Or doesn't. Ya know what, I don't know what happens next, and neither do you...