200 Words with Paul Dini #6 - Countdown Digout
5 Posted on Mar 20, 2008 in articles by conor
Jesus, Buddha and the Mighty Favog, what a mess! After sixteen months of COUNTDOWN, my writer’s office resembles a nineteenth century bear pit. It’s time to clean up.Â
Brushing away forty-some dog-eared scripts from the desk, I unearth a portrait of Misty in full magician costume, a porcelain thylacine, a Woody Woodpecker talking puppet that no longer talks, the first picture I ever drew of Ida Red and several obscure CDs I’ve been meaning to send Eddie Gorodetsky. Beneath them are stacked Giffen’s layouts for issues 23 thru 2, script segments I wrote for the 2005 LOST season finale and contracts from my agent for something or other, still unsigned from last year (uh-oh).
On the floor next to the shark head are twelve unopened boxes of COUNTDOWN comps that Rashy has stacked into a fort. Crazy monkey.
Pushing it aside reveals new costume designs for Jingle Belle I forgot I did, and wow, my mandolin!  I haven’t had time to practice since issue 43. “Rocky Top, you’ll always be home sweet home to me…� I AM cleaning, Misty. I swear!
Man, too much junk, only one viable solution – seal up the office and write in the dining room.
Paul Dini is the Emmy and Eisner Award winning writer of Batman: The Animated Series, Superman: The Animated Series, Detective Comics, Countdown among many, many other things. You can find him online at either kingofbreakfast.livejournal.com or http://www.jinglebelle.com/.
Comments
Fortunately for me I was robbed last night and no longer have the need to clean out my desk since my house guests did it for me. Where the hell was Batman when I really needed him Mr. Dini?
Posted by mistersizzle on 03/20/08 at 02:00 PM
Sounds like my room. There's barely enough room to put on a belt. That is if I can find said belt.
Posted by Superyan on 03/20/08 at 02:04 PM
@ mistersizzle- Did you really get buglarized last night? If so, that sucks dude, and I'm sorry to hear of it.
I always like to argue that my messes are nothing but piles of stuff where I know where everything is. I like to refer to them as coordinated messes. There's a rhythm and a rhyme to it, but I'm not at liberty to share what it is. I clean my desk off, maybe, once a year and every time I do it, I'm mystified as to where I've put things. I'm then regulated to searching the piles in the closet, under my desk, and in my drawers. It just would have been easier to leave the pile on my desk. At lest then, I could find stuff.
Posted by Neb on 03/20/08 at 02:20 PM
@Neb-Sure did. They took my Wii, Xbox 360, 2 laptops, 42 inch flat screen, various paper work including bank statements, HD iPod video cable, wireless blue tooth iPod headphones, cut all the HDMI cables, a couple cameras, and prepare yourself, the booze, yes the booze. The good news is that I now officially have a bad ass security system w/cellular back up, cameras, and motion detectors all over the house. The other good news is that we have been looking for a Mastif puppy for the last few months and we get it next week. Between the dog and the security system I don't think I am gonna get robbed again very soon. The bad news is my wife is still scared shitless.
Posted by mistersizzle on 03/21/08 at 01:24 AM
Sounds a lot like my room and desk space. Last time I cleaned all I found of interest was an unpaid credit card bill that I had forgotten about because it was buried beneath a mound of comics, DVDs and other crap. All I got for my cleaning efforts was a $35 late payment fee. I dig the column, keep 'em coming.
Posted by comicdork37 on 03/20/08 at 11:14 AM