For those who think this is just a list of the comics I bought this week… it isn’t. It does have a list, but I try to add some dialogue to it about other things, instead of a bunch of posts.
I do follow a number of artists and comic creators and groups on SubStack and through newsletters they send out. Recently one posed a question that left me trying to come up with an answer- “What comic changed you?”
The idea behind it is that art changes us, be it a book, a painting or sculpture, a film… experiences change us. So having done the whole Social Media thing with posting favorite movies, books, etc. and then calling out a friend to do the same (a subtle form of bullying IMHO), I’ve gone through it. Then again a comic? As members of the educational community (and a few members of my family) would point out comics aren’t reading, comics aren’t anything but fluff. I still roll my eyes at my niece saying that comics ruin your imagination.🙄 So what comic has changed me? I could list off all of my favorite comics, and how they have impacted my life, but that’s a lot of comics. So instead let’s just say comics kept me from major depression during trying times in my life.
When I was in third grade my parent’s sent me off to a sleep away soccer camp held at a nearby college. Yes, I went to a sports camp and as you can guess, had a horrible time. What saved me was Hägar the Horrible. When I was in third grade I was (and still am) socially awkward and I brought along two brand new Hägar the Horrible comic collections. In those days you could get collection of daily strips in the handy paperback book size at your local drug store (Comics are the gateway drug to literacy). I had two that would hopefully last me through the week of camp. Being socially inept during camp I tried to stand up for my room mate and got picked up and dropped on my head for my efforts. My room mate thought it was funny and moved to another room afterwards. I guess he thought I was weird or immature or something. The only thing that kept me to together was escaping into the land of the vikings and Hägar. I can’t say if there was any one strip that made a big impression on me, but the ability to shut out the real world and only deal with a whimsical world of three panels and a punchline made the experience survivable. Note: I never went to a “sports camp” again.
I have found that I repeat this anytime I’m in a situation in which I am alone and just need to escape the anxiety. When my grandmother dropped me off to my college dorm room. (Don’t ask where my parents were, I think it had something to do with a soccer game 🙄) I sat alone listening to the other kids families excitedly talk about the future, I sat on my bed realizing that I had no idea what to do or where to go. Being from out of state, I knew absolutely no one. Where an extrovert/sportsing kind of person would go out and throw a ball around and talk to people, I instead went down to the campus bookstore and picked up Bloom County. I had never heard of it, but it looked amusing. <spoilers> Bloom County is amusing.
Those are just two instances that I comics helped save my sanity. Now as I draw comics I find the creating a comic allows me to express the feelings I have from various situations and share them in an away I normally wouldn’t. I do a lot of self censoring and no matter how much I’d like to do a comic about some events and topics, I know better. Fortunately for the most part (and looking at the site’s views) not many people read my stuff, so I don’t have to worry too much about offending anyone.
This Week’s Comics:
Amazing Spider-Man #59 – Tombstone and Spider-Man have it out in a fight that takes up an entire issue. In the end- well… define “winning”
Batman and Robin # 14 – Bruce and Damian get to head out for a night on the town! Much to Damian’s chagrin it’s a gala fundraiser that (fortunately for Damian) doesn’t go as expected. It seems that there is a growing dislike for all things Wayne in Gotham, no matter how much good they do.
The Ultimates #5 – so mistakes were made, The tech that was supposed to go to the new “Hawkeye” ends up in the hands of the wrong person and it’s Cap’s job to retrieve it… Again lots of fighting and, since it is Captain America, lots of talking. The sad part is , while they are fighting the illumination no one is asking the import questions like “What about the stockholders?”
Absolute Batman #1 – We have a general idea of what DC is doing- they’ve created another universe and will now inhabit it with altered versions of the heroes we have grown to know. The first one is Batman. No longer is Bruce Wayne a wealthy philanthropist. No longer were his parents killed in “Crime Alley” after taking in a showing of “The Mask of Zorro” at the Monarch Theatre. And yet, he still becomes Batman. I’m interested in seeing how this all plays out. I think this may be another attempt at a “New 52” but without rebooting every title. I know there are plans to do this treatment to most of the major heroes in the DC pantheon. So far using Alfred as our lens into the new version of Gotham has made it definitely different.
Action Comics #1070 – Darn that Phantom Zone! it seems that things are going amuck and after three Kryptonian criminals escape in a rather strange way it is up to Superman to find out what is going on and hopefully stop it and maybe help those imprisoned. Secondary Story- Supergirl goes off on a top secret mission to… Heck if I know.
Batman: Gotham By Gaslight The Kryptonian Age # 5 – Five issues in and we finally see the guy who lives in Smallville. Since this is a Victorian era tale (Elseworlds) there are a number of storylines going on. Batman has left Gotham to find out what happened to the train (it was blown up). Alan Scott, Carnival Trickster and Balloonist is visiting Smallville where Lois and Jimmy are reporting on the happenings which include the sheriff and bespectacled gentleman who seems to have no issues with bullets. Outside of that Lex Luthor seems to be creating other heroes including one Jay Garrick frozen in mid lightning strike, and Cliff Stone who may or may not have been blown up by Luthor after refusing to work with him.
Public Domain #9 – So our merry band of comic creators take their show to the big Comic Expo in San Diego in hopes to get their version of the Domain comic the press it needs. Of course the evil corporate folks have other plans.
Rocketeer Breaks Free #3 – Cliff and the crew survived a Nazi U-Boat attack in San Francisco rescuing people. and now our intrepid band need to figure out what the Nazi were up to with Alcatraz in the middle of it. Of course it ties back to the last series so I need to go back and reread.
Next Week is New York Comic Con so I’ll be on hiatus for a week. I’ll still be drawing, but posting to this website is a bit of a challenge. If I can figure it out I will post something- if not check out Cecil’s hijinks, I’m sure he’ll post something.