Glaring At You Balefully From My One Good Eye

I. AM. ALIVE.

Hi, campers. It’s been a little more than a week since the lovely surgeons at the Yale Eye Center cut my eyeball all to pieces and then put it back together again. The less said about the surgery the better, I think. Mechanically, they are happy with their work. Physiologically everything looks “fantastic”. Now time will tell what, if any, vision I regain.

Recovery from my surgery involved me spending a week lying face down and moving as little as possible. I find it fascinating that people shudder when I mention eye surgery, but when I mention the lying face down for a week part, that’s when they get REALLY sympathetic. Basically everyone correctly deduced that surgery sucks, but tedium sucks AND seems to last forever.

Here I am, recovering from surgery. My progress is being monitored by Dr. B.A. Kitty Fantastico.

Of course, then I go online yesterday and read about “planking”. It turns out that maybe I’m really cool.

Frequent naps, plus a general medication-abetted muzzy-headedness put the kibosh on my original plans to dictate pages and pages of genius comic book script. I continued to wake from long naps convinced that I had dreamt the best idea for a comic book EVER. But then when I pieced it together it would turn out to be something like Patrick Swayze fighting Dog the Bounty Hunter and Triple H of the WWE for the love of a red Camaro. And they were all undercover cops posing as high school students. (I have been assured by several industry experts that this would sell like hotcakes, but the rights would be a legal quagmire.)

There might be an audience for a comic adaptation of the erotic dream I had starring one of my ex-roommates, but if there is they would terrify me, and I do NOT want to meet them.  

So I spent most of my time the past week face down (or face turned slightly to the side), listening to LOTS of audiobooks. I highly recommend any audiobook of any of Mr. Neil Gaiman’s works, particularly if read by the man himself.  I think you could probably tell me anything, as long as you did it in Neil’s voice. In fact, now I sort of wish my initial diagnosis of needing eye surgery had been delivered in warm, British tones.

Also, I listened to a LOT of podcasts:

THE SARCASTIC VOYAGE – This one will always be near and dear to my heart because the fellas responsible for it, Ron “Aalgar” Watt, and Matt Rowbotham, are pals. And occasionally, they condescend to have me on the show. They’re funny. They’re strange, they’re nerdy. The cast of regulars to the show often features some of my most favorite people on the planet. I highly recommend giving them a listen. www.sarcasticvoyage.com

WORDBALOON – “The comics podcast featuring 1 on 1 interviews with comic book writers and artists, and pop culture creators.” Host John Siuntres is a fixture on the Bendis Boards, and has endeared himself to that community through his frequent “Bendis Tapes” interviews with BMB. He’s a great interviewer, and his guest roster is really the who’s who of comics. www.wordbaloon.com

MIKE AND TOM EAT SNACKS – I was turned onto this by the sexy and talented Melanie, who chases ghosts, cuts my hairs, and wrangles the lovely ladies of the Hot Rock & Dye salon. It’s Michael Ian Black and Tom Cavanagh, who you may remember from their work together on the TV show “Ed” eating a delicious snack and discussing it in detail. And it’s pants-wettingly funny. http://soundcloud.com/matescast

Bonus: Here is a picture of me, my friend Scott, and Michael Ian Black, the latter of who is wondering why there are two fat guys in the green room eating all his pizza.

LOIKAMANIA! – Goddammit, I love Pat Loika. I could probably devote an entire blog to how much healthy non-homo man-love I have for that magnificent mountain of a cool mother-lover. And perhaps someday, I will. One of my favorite things about Pat is his love of comics, his enthusiasm for the medium, and how infectious a joy he takes in all things four-color. He’s been hitting it out of the park lately on his podcast, with appearances from Matt Fraction and Jonathan Hickman.  http://comicbooknoise.com/loikamania/

I also listened to approximately 16 hours worth of “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me” and about three or four hours worth of “Fresh Air” interviews.

Hugs and kisses,

(The)Travis

P.S.

I am considering doing a future blog of Q&A. Because I think it will be less work than coming up with original content out of whole cloth. This is a lesson I learned from Sarcastic Voyage! (Thanks, Matt and Aal!) So if you have a question or conundrum you’d like to see me tackle in a future missive, let me know in the comments here, via email at travis DOT holyfield at gmail DOT com, or via twitter (@travisholyfield).