No Strings Attached

Posted By Kathleen David on February 24, 2014

Caroline loves Monster High and she has been getting the Monster High Magazine. The newest issue came out this past week. She flipped through it and then flipped because on the art page by fans was her drawing that she sent in last year.

(For the VI this is a page of art from the Monster High Magazine. Caroline’s drawing is in the lower right hand corner and depicts Abby Bominable in front of school lockers with a checkered pattern on the floor)

Needless to say she is over the moon that her artwork was chosen.

I am very proud of her.

I am grateful for Caroline’s art abilities.

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Posted By Kathleen David on February 21, 2014

As in outside the house. And it is already over 40 degrees F right now. But rain is going to be a majority of the day precipitation. I am traveling into the city with Caroline so she can spend sometime with her sister Gwen at the end of her winter break week.

Caroline is working her way diligently through the Harry Potter books. She is up to Goblet of Fire. She occasionally asks what this or that word means and then go on with reading. I give props to JK Rowling for not writing down to kids but assuming that they either know these words or they will find out what they mean. More books need to be like that.

Caroline has earned her blue sash in Green Cloud Kung Fu. This has been a lot of hard work on her part. It took her about a year and half to get to this point. She memorized forms and stances along with defensive and offensive moves. I am very proud of her.

I have a couple of things I want to do while I am in the city. Places I need to go and look at things. I hope that the rain holds off so I can get everywhere.

This weekend is going to be a quiet one and that will be nice. I loved my time at Farpoint and it was great to see everyone. But I need a weekend to reset and change my mind set to the next set of things that need to be done. I see lists and notebooks in my near future. I need to get my head back in the game.

Yes, random post is random but I have had two cups of coffee so it had already kicked in.

We got our letters of agreement from Dragon Con. Now we sign and return and we will be official guests of the convention. Most of the creative year goes to Dragon Con as the end game. This year I have to do a costume for Caroline, a costume for me and the Art Show. I am already feeling like it is not enough time but I know it is.

I love Peter Gabriel’s music. Just saying. I had forgotten how much but recently I went back and listened to US and remembered how much his music meant to me. His concerts are life changing.

Got to get ready for the city and the puddles and the rain.

I am grateful that Caroline earned her blue sash.

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Posted By Kathleen David on February 20, 2014

Recently there have been some articles and some very well drawn comic strips about girls and comic book shops. The comic book shops or rather the employees don’t come off looking that well or even slightly professional.

I have worked in a couple of comic book stores over my lifetime. In both cases I was the first female to work at the store and I was hired because I knew my comics and fandoms not because I was a girl.

I started getting my comics at the Book Nook in Atlanta when I was a teenager. It was a group of us and we were a mix of genders and ages. Maybe because I was part of the group, I never felt like I was being marginalized there. While in college I went to either the Book Nook or Oxford books, which at the time had a comic book section within the used book store. By that point I was a known customer who was knowledgeable in both mainstream and independent comics along with games and toys.

While I was at the Yale School o’ Drama, I worked for product at Whirlygig Comics. I couldn’t take a job outside of the dear ol’ YSD but we worked out a deal that I could earn comics and gaming supplies. They dealt with my crazy schedule. I had a lot of fun there. That’s where I first met Neil Gaiman and a number of other comic book creators. I also saw people that I had known from conventions down in Atlanta. I made it a point to make sure that women felt comfortable in the store. It was right next to Yale so we had a mix of locals and college students. Everyone was treated as an equal and everyone was treated with respect. That came from the owners down.

After settling back in Atlanta, I needed a job for in between stage management gigs and just to make up the difference of living expenses. I applied various places. I had gone to Oxford Comics, now in its own space under Oxford Used Books, and lamented to the owner that it was hard to find a job that allowed me the flexibility that I needed. He was short handed at the store and decided to take a chance on me since I already had comic book shop experience (Thank You Whirlygig). I don’t think he ever regretted it and in fact over the years he has had more women than men working in the shop.

Oxford Comics was known for stocking the independent comics that other stores might not every take a look at. Also the owner was very toy savvy and collectibles were his specialty. He appreciated the trends I saw and pointed him towards as well.

I made it a point to talk to the girlfriends and wives of the customers who would just be standing around. I asked them what they would like to read and give them some comics that I thought they might like. Quite a number of them became regular customers. All the employees (well with two exceptions and neither of them lasted very long) tried to make the store inclusive.

My parlor trick for the store is that I could run through the “history” of the X-Men from the beginning through the current issue. People use to bring their friends in and have me catch their friends up on the story so they could start reading X-men again. We had someone else who could do that with some DC characters as well.

The only time I tried to dissuade anyone from any comic was an issue of age and some comics that were a little on the mature side. There I would inform the parent about the content and let the parent decide whether their minor should be able to buy it. We also had an adult section that was separate from the rest of the books so that children couldn’t just “run across it.

I know I was lucky in my choices of comic book stores and that the owners saw women as other paying customers not some exotic creatures that were rarely seen. But then I tended to gravitate to those sorts of stores.

Comic book readers are comic book readers be they men, women or small creatures from alpha centari. And customers are customers and need to be treated with respect and good service.

Fourth World Comics is our go to shop out here on Long Island. It is run by a family that recognizes that readers come in all kinds of forms. They have a section of comics for younger readers. They have a magnificent manga and graphic novel selection. They treat everyone as a paying customer. They have a lot of independent and I have seen them help people find what they like to read. They are very family oriented and it has paid off that they have families that feel comfortable bring the children to this shop and finding books for everyone to read.

And that is the experience that everyone should have in a comic book shop.

I am grateful for all the comic book shop owners I have known over the years who got it right.

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Posted By Kathleen David on February 19, 2014

Patience is the Greatest of All Virtues-Cato the Elder

Patience is over-rated –Anyone in a long line at Disney

Recently in one of the many fandoms I am a part of, usually a silent part, someone said something that was meant as a joke or at least that is what they said after they were dog piled on after they posted it. Funny thing was that many of those who lurk came out for a scratch and a bite on this one. Eventually the person who made the joke in rather bad taste left the group. If everyone had been in the same room or took a little time to think before posting including the original poster then I honestly think that the original poster would still be part of the group.

When I was a child, the only phones we had were landlines. If you made a long distant call, it was not cheap. In fact there was a time that all the phone lines in the land were controlled by Ma Bell. Making a long distant call was a conscious choice and you only made them when there was something to say or there was occasion to call like a birthday or a holiday.

Photos use to be a bit of a crap-shoot. You would take the photos and hope that they are not fuzzy. You would mail the film off to be developed and you got the pictures back in the mail. All of this cost something and one would be a bit picky about recording things. If you got a good picture, it was a magnificent feeling.

Before texting there was letters. We corresponded with each other through the mail. Cards and letters were sent. Pen pals were communicated with. But it was not immediate. You had to wait to get a response to something that you sent.

You had to be…wait for it…patience.

I was talking various people at Farpoint this weekend and we did do a little bit of “I remember when” including for costuming how hard it use to be to get reference material for costumes if you wanted to recreate something much less the fabric and trims and the like. We talked about fanzines and fan magazines that we poured over when we could get them. Once a month I got Starlog and read it from first to last page. It was my only source at the time for photos of things that I watched. I have all the issues of the Doctor Who Weekly until it became the Doctor Who monthly. I have all of the Blake 7 magazines. The first fandom I got heavy into on the Internet was Doctor Who after the movie aired. It was the first time I could “collect” photos and information about a fandom which was useful when I went to make the Doctor Who puppets. Well that and the Doctor Who magazines and photos I had.

In our instant world, being patience seems to have gone by the way side. We are impulsive creatures as it is and learning how to be patience was part of growing up. Instant gratification is so easy. Waiting for things is much harder.

I make it a practice when something on the Internet upsets me, I step away from it and give myself 24 hours to decide if I should respond to it. I try to keep away from impulsive responses. I am a pragmatist but I was not always. It has taken me years to get to this point where I don’t have to respond to that which disturbs or annoys me.

I am trying to teach Caroline to be patience. And there are times that she gets it and there are other times that she doesn’t. But she is learning that instant gratification is not the only way to go in this world. She works hard at her kung fu and her flute because she can see that progress in both disciplines but neither has come easy to her. She has had to be patience to learn.

And there are times I have to remind myself to be patience with people and things that I have no control over. All that frustration gets me is an upset stomach and a bit of a headache.

But I am still learning how to be patience and it is a life long lesson.

I am grateful for what I have learned about being patience and what Caroline has learned so far.

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Posted By Kathleen David on February 18, 2014

Farpoint was fun. I almost sold a couple of puppets. I know this because a couple of people have said to me “I almost bought this weekend. Maybe Shoreleave if you still have him.” What was nice is that it was not the same puppet each time but if I had made all the sales, Rumple would have been gone more than once.

I was asked for two things I don’t have and should really get before going to England this year or even my next convention in the US.

“Do you have a business card?”

and

“What’s your website for your work?”

Business Cards I ran out of a while back and haven’t gotten them redone. I had been using Peter’s but he is out as well. So it is time to redo the business cards.

Website is hard. I have tried once or twice to put something together so I could put a record of my work out for people to see. I don’t have the skills to put a site together and haven’t a clue of where to go so I can put a site together. If anyone has any ideas where I can go please tell me.

“What’s your puppet Facebook site?”

I might do this and made it a fanclub for my puppets and art. That would allow me to keep the puppets in a public area since I have closed down some of my facebook to the general public due to some odd behavior by certain individuals.

My Internet Presence is rather small. If you know me then you know me but if you put my company name in a search engine (No Strings Attached) you don’t get me. I have had No Strings Attached since 1987 so that is over 25 years. If you put my name in with my maiden name then you find me (Kathleen O’Shea David).

More artists I know have created an Internet presence to promote their work or sell their work. It has worked well for some and not as well for others.

One of my goals for myself this year is to get some form of website up that I can put photos and tutorials on along with promoting my work and maybe selling to a larger audience.

This week is mystery project 1 and mystery project 2. More on those once I am able to talk about them.

I am grateful for the small internet presence I do have.

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