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Tripping Over Myself by Joel Meadows #6 – Off On A Bender

Published Thu, 15 Jul 2010 06:45:07 -0500

Last updated Thu, 15 Jul 2010 07:14:08 -0500

For freelancers in all creative industries , the deadline is often the subject of regular debate. When I've worked as a journalist and as a sub editor, they've loomed large. When we put together this latest issue of TRIPWIRE, the date to deliver it to our printers was always in our mind. But for me deadlines are key to get work done: they focus the mind and force you to be more disciplined. Of course, if you were working on something just for yourself you could take fifteen or twenty years to hone it to perfection and make it exactly what you thought you wanted it to be. But deadlines also lend work a certain immediacy that is lacking in material that has been created away from their pressures. When we started the new issue, we weren't certain if we could do it. Normally for one of our once-a-year editions, we have at least three months to put it all together whereas here it was all done in about six weeks. The deadline forced us to push content through quicker than we would have had the luxury of doing so in previous years and so we finished it with no loss of quality. The idea was to get it ready for this year's San Diego Comic Con as it's just too good an opportunity to pass up…

Speaking of this year's San Diego, it's a show that I am always ambivalent about. I've been going every year since 1999 and there are things that I like and things that are a huge pain in the arse. The prohibitive cost makes me think twice each year and the fact that if you want to plan things like go out for dinner, you have to work everything out with almost military precision, is particularly annoying. The fact that it's been getting harder and harder to get a hotel that isn't miles away is also another factor. But on the other hand, you do get the chance to connect albeit rather briefly with a lot of people who you wouldn't see otherwise. I've done a lot of interviews there over the years with figures like Ridley Scott, Terry Gilliam, Tim Burton and loads of others who I wouldn't have had access to otherwise. So I admit that, just after I've been to one, I whinge about the things I don't like and swear I won't go again. But as it gets closer, I usually end up changing my mind and going anyway. It must be some kind of masochism. For anybody who's there, we're having a TRIPWIRE panel at 10.30am in Room 3 on Thursday where I'll be with US editor Andy Grossberg, our writer Jeff Carlisle and Rich from Bleeding Cool. So feel free to come by and see us.

Here's some sample pages from the new TRIPWIRE to tantalise your taste buds…