The Mix : What are people talking about today?

MICHAEL DAVIS: A Letter To Sharon   

sharon-1019995Hey Sharon,

Happy Birthday, Sis!

I know I know I haven’t written to you in years and this is reaching you a dozen days after your birthday Nov. 10th. That’s not really that bad if you consider you’re been gone 35 years and change. Before you get all bent out of shape you’re not doing so well in the- keep in contract with your brother department either.

Even when you were alive you weren’t much of a letter writer, but you have not visited me in my dreams in well over a year. In fact the last time I talked to you in a dream was the day Jean died. I’d like to think you have been busy catching up with our 26-year-old mother. You remember the day she came home on her 26th birthday and declared loudly so the entire neighborhood heard, “Sharon, Michael, this is my last birthday! From now on I’m always 26 years old.”

She meant that too.

For the rest of her life each and every birthday card I gave her had to say “happy 26th birthday!” She picked the right age because her 26th birthday was magical. Robert actually showed up and showed up sober! He was taking us to Palisades Amusement Park and everyone including mommy was excited. Oh, tell mommy she’s been lax in the visiting her only grandson department also. It’s something how we call our grandmother Lenard, ‘mommy’ our mother ‘Jean’ our great-grandmother Sophie ‘grandma,’ our step father Robert, Robert and each other, ‘High Yella’ and ‘Dark Side.’

Dark Side, my name for you was so cool even you said it was. You asked me a zillion times where I got the name from and I never told you. still the longest secret kept beating yours by about 34 years 11 months, three weeks and 23 hours. I loved that-who can keep a secret longer- game Jean invented. Ya know, I should just tell you where that name came from…but I won’t and you know why.

I have not forgotten that long ass car ride on Jean’s birthday where everybody was so excited but nobody found the time to tell me why. You did find the time and the ideal way to torture me.  I really thought you were serious when you whispered “They’ve taking you to New Jersey to leave you there.”

“That’s not true!”

“Oh yes it is. What other reason would we be going to a park in New Jersey at night?”

You knew I had no concept of any other kind of ‘park’ besides the park I played in and never ever would I be allowed there at night. You got me good that night because I absolutely stopped reading (more like stopped looking at the pictures) the Long Ranger Big Little Book I loved so much. I pleaded with you to convince everyone to keep me.

“What are you telling that boy?”  Mommy snapped at you. Then I thought… wait a second…mommy loved me! Every morning she would make my cereal (sometimes with water when there was no money so no milk) and she’d tell me how much she loved me at dinnertime. Some times no one would eat dinner but us, which we both found curious. That is until you figured out why it was OK if we didn’t ‘clean our plates.’ It was because Jean would finish what we left.

“Sharon said you all were going to leave me, that’s why we’re going to New Jersey and a park at night!!”

“Sharon Davis!!” Jean yelled at you “Why you go and tell that boy that?” I was feeling pretty darn good and about to get all up in your face then Jean said, “We’re not leaving him in the park, we’re dumping him out on the highway. That way we don’t have to stop. Michael, remember, tuck and roll, tuck and roll.”

For a very very, very long moment I was scared shitless. Then I started to cry like I’d never cried before…then everyone started laughing. Which made me cry even harder. Funny Dark Side, real freakin funny.

Ha. Really funny, ha.

I remember how you kept telling me, “We’re here! Highyella, look!” I didn’t budge I was determined not to get out of the car despite everyone saying they were sorry. Nope, I didn’t need to see some park after dark I had a real good mad on and I was going to keep it and yeah, I know the story so well because you and Jean took turns telling it for years.

Then Robert opened the back door and the lights of the Ferris wheel hit me…

Wasn’t that a magical night?

It was the most perfect night ever. We were all together, Robert and Jean were getting along and Palisades Amusement Park was beyond anything we’d ever imagined because we had no concept (I didn’t) such a place existed

It was a dream comes true but the better dream was Jean, Robert, mommy, you, and me a family just like the Brady Bunch…and just like the Brady Bunch our ‘family’ was cancelled.

I don’t think as a child I ever saw Robert sober again did you? That was the year we moved from mommy’s house to the projects in Rockaway and that was the Christmas Eve when Robert, drunk out of his mind opened Jean’s skull with the die cast metal Tonka truck he brought me for Christmas. How on earth could you witness that at 10 years old and function Sharon? You did and you saved her. You called 911 and she survived. It all came back to me sis, 30 years later.

You were already gone but every single detail came back to me. I called Jean–she confirmed I had repressed the memory. Once she confirmed it I never saw Robert again. The man I idolized I cut out of my life because of what he did 30 years prior.

He died 10 years later never knowing why.

Cold right? I Know. Terribly cold and a terrible thing to do to someone. He had changed and I didn’t care. I was full of such anger I just couldn’t trust myself to even speak to him. I’m haunted by that…or is that you?

Yeah, I still got jokes. But funny as I am, Jean was by far funnier. I actually called her once to help me write a scene for a show I was on. Oh yeah, your brother is a HUGE writer, producer, artist, governor of New York and I’m married to Susan Day. Yep, I married Laurie Partridge my boy hood crush.

What?

Guess what?

Chicken Butt!

Milestone is back and Static Shock is going to be a live action television show! Your little brother is in charge of everything! You live on as Sharon Hawkins! As does our mother as Jean Hawkins and yep Robert’s there also!

Except, well…about the writer, producer, artist thing…I am all of those things and I make a good living but I’m not huge by any means. I’m also not governor of New York and I’m not married to Susan Day.

Milestone is back and Static Shock is going to be a live action television show but I’m not running the show. I’m not even on the show.

They didn’t want me and get this, I asked.

They didn’t want me on the show I created the universe for they didn’t want me at Milestone although no has worked harder than me to keep Milestone current and always in the thoughts of fans:

http://comicmix.com//2014/11/03/michael-davis-the-milestone-contract/

http://comicmix.com//2014/05/06/michael-davis-deathlok-joins-milestone-universe/

http://comicmix.com//2014/04/09/michael-davis-milestone-raising-2-1/

http://comicmix.com//2014/04/02/michael-davis-milestone-rising-part-2/

http://comicmix.com//2014/03/25/michael-davis-milestone-rising/

http://comicmix.com//2014/03/18/michael-davis-milestones-comicmix/

http://comicmix.com//2013/12/17/milestones-spotlights-african-american-comics-pop-culture/

http://comicmix.com//2013/09/13/michael-davis-milestone-media-announces-static-shock-gay/

http://comicmix.com//2013/07/16/michael-davis-derek-kitty-static-the-dog-a-milestone-story/

http://comicmix.com//2012/08/28/michael-davis-milestones-african-americans-in-comics-pop-culture-and-beyond-part-3/

http://comicmix.com//2012/08/21/michael-davis-milestones-african-americans-in-comics-pop-culture-and-beyond-part-2/

http://comicmix.com//2012/08/15/michael-davis-milestones-african-americans-in-comics-pop-culture-and-beyond-part-1/

http://comicmix.com//2008/08/08/milestone-if-you-re-not-there-you-just-won-t-get-it-by-michael-davis/

http://comicmix.com//2015/05/27/michael-davis-the-problem-with-jaden/

http://comicmix.com//2014/10/23/michael-davis-i-am-static/

http://comicmix.com//2014/09/12/michael-davis-am-i-a-liar-or-a-dick-or-what/

http://comicmix.com//2014/02/11/michael-davis-28-days-afrofuturism/

http://comicmix.com//2014/01/21/michael-davis-black-age-comics/

http://comicmix.com//2013/12/31/michael-davis-denys-fucking-cowan/

http://comicmix.com//2013/12/24/michael-davis-late-ill-give-late/

http://comicmix.com//2013/12/17/michael-davis-ups-care-missing-denys-cowan-art/

http://comicmix.com//2013/12/17/michael-davis-ups-care-missing-denys-cowan-art/

http://comicmix.com//2013/12/12/michael-davis-teacher-changed-life/

http://comicmix.com//2013/11/19/michael-davis-haters-gotta-hate/

http://comicmix.com//2013/10/08/michael-davis-open-letter-paul-levitz/

http://comicmix.com//2013/10/29/michael-davis-top-10-black-superheroes

http://comicmix.com//2013/09/17/michael-davis-possible-dream/

http://comicmix.com//2013/05/28/michael-davis-you-better-recognize/

http://comicmix.com//2013/04/02/michael-davis-and-a-dollar-short/

Davis Named DC President, Publisher

http://comicmix.com//2013/02/12/michael-davis-it-was-twenty-years-ago-today/

http://comicmix.com//2013/01/01/michael-davis-the-wrong-stuff/

http://comicmix.com//2012/10/09/michael-davis-viva-la-france/

http://comicmix.com//2012/03/27/michael-davis-game-change/

http://comicmix.com//2012/03/13/michael-davis-it-will-never-happen/

http://comicmix.com//2012/03/06/michael-davis-african-americans-in-comics-exhibit/

http://comicmix.com//2012/01/24/michael-davis-static-cling/

http://comicmix.com//2012/01/17/michael-davis-shock-to-my-system/

http://comicmix.com//2011/09/06/michael-davis-the-great-pretenders/

http://comicmix.com//2008/08/29/if-you-re-not-there-you-just-won-t-get-it-conclusion-by-michael-davis/

http://comicmix.com//2008/08/15/if-you-re-not-there-you-just-won-t-get-it-part-2-by-michael-davis/

http://comicmix.com//2008/08/22/if-you-re-not-there-you-just-won-t-get-it-part-3-by-michael-davis/

http://comicmix.com//2008/04/04/the-race-card-by-michael-davis/

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2015/09/17/meccacon-milestone-and-how-it-should-be-michael-davis-from-the-edge/

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2014/05/09/milestone-extra-michael-davis-from-the-edge/

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2014/04/14/milestone-if-im-not-there-you-wont-get-it-michael-davis-from-the-edge/

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2014/03/14/milestone-unplugged-part-one-michael-davis-from-the-edge/

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/12/12/the-milestones-show-michael-davis-from-the-edge/

http://mdwp.malibulist.com/2014/01/an-open-letter-from-denys-cowan-straight-no-chaser-337-mdworld/

http://mdwp.malibulist.com/2013/11/pain-in-my-heart-by-michael-davis-straight-no-chaser-232-mdworld/

http://mdwp.malibulist.com/2013/09/get-it-straight-2-1-by-michael-davis-straight-no-chaser-324-sort-of-mdworld/

http://mdwp.malibulist.com/2013/09/get-it-straight-2-by-michael-davis-straight-no-chaser-321-mdworld/

http://mdwp.malibulist.com/2013/09/get-it-straight-by-michael-davis-straight-no-chaser-320-mdworld/

Yeah, I know that’s a lot of stuff but its not all I’ve written or done to keep Milestone in the public eye. Yeah sis, it floored me when I was omitted. Not a word, not a call, nothing.

But your little brother is doing OK.

The Gordon Parks Academy houses The Michael Davis Auditorium, my mentor program has been recognized on such a level I’m asked to speak all over the world. I’ve given keynote addresses at the places you would not believe! I’ll just name one, the FBI.

Yep, that FBI.

Imagine me in front of a crowd of mostly white cops without my hands being up. OH and you know I talked about that which was not to be named. You KNOW I named it. I won’t do it here as your little brother has learned not to rock the boat

Some think it takes courage to stand in front of an institution and bring to light the hypocrisy of its leader who reportedly sort out Gay Americans to discredit while he and his boyfriend vacationed on Dick Island.

What?

The FBI gig was cool but this was cooler, Rosamond Bernier called me her inspiration and did so with a full page in the Playbill of her Lincoln Center school age lectures. Before she started lecturing to kids and teens she sort me out to see how your badass brother did it. She’s only the most important art historian ever, no big deal.

That’s just some little old stuff I do to give back. I’m also the only person in comics with distribution into the schools with The Action files from Simon & Schuster & Person Learning and the Black Church with the Guardian Line from Urban Ministries and Sharon guess what?

There’s more and nope no joke is coming. Well, the following clip has some jokes but its no joking matter. I curated a show at the Geppi Entertainment Museum called, Milestones: <a href=”

Americans In Comics Pop Culture & Beyond. In the 20 plus year history of the esteemed museum, Milestones has been recognized as the most successful exhibit ever mounted. The funny thing is although it appears to be an exhibit of Milestone Media its not. Nope.

Missy Geppi the museum’s President originally contacted me to put together a retrospective of graduates from my Bad Boy Studio mentor program. Bad Boys: African Americans In Comics Pop Culture & Beyond was the original name of the show. I changed the name and focus when I was to be a part Milestone 2.0 and had the idea to announce there.

We didn’t and there were a few other places we were going to announce all I arranged and paid for. We didn’t announce at any of those places. Somewhere and somehow ‘we’ became a ‘them’ then a ‘they.’

They announced in Jan. I became a trivia question.

Our cousin’s Regina and Desiree are trying to be slick. They don’t think I notice how they conveniently hit me up on Facebook right after I say some sad shit. That’s their way of looking out for me.

Doris their mom our Aunt was Jean’s maid of honor when she married Robert. Doris reached out to me a few times to try and get me to talk to Robert. I’d tell her I would, I didn’t. Robert tried to see me often all I could think of was Jean lying on the floor blood pouring from her head and just could not.

Jean had the presence of mind to tell Robert to leave before the cops came.  I made up my mind telling him to leave was not to save him from jail. In my mind she wanted him gone before he realized what trouble he could be in and killed us all. I kept that thought more than any other.

He wouldn’t have. I know that now. He was just a sad beaten man who made bad choice after bad choice. Jean forgave him and told me I needed to also, I couldn’t. Someone, I think Doris, gave him my number and he left me this last message; “Son. I’m dying. Please come see me.”

Nope. True to his word (for once I thought) in less than a week he was dead. Jean called to tell me and once again suggested I forgive him.

No.

Never.

Fuck Robert Lawrence.

Those were the choice words I used when writing about that day in my journal. Rereading them before writing this letter dropped me to my knees and finally after 20 years I cried for Robert Lawrence and yeah sis I’m crying for him now.

When I think of Robert the image of the monster that almost killed our mother has been replaced with a moment from when he was the most important man in my world.  That’s the day he remembered to buy me Spiderman number 100 and ask me why Spiderman had 6 arms.

That began the best comic book conversation I’ve ever had.

With the authority of a foreign policy expert asked to comment on developments in middle east in front of the U.N. I brought my father up to speed on Peter Parker, Spider-Man and those six arms.

Then together we read that double issue. Kinda like when you and I played together that one Christmas Eve when I let you convince me to let my GI Joe marry your Barbie.

Yuck!

Fun fact-I now collect Barbie. How did I go from hating them to a collection worthy of more than as few interviews? You. I wanted one to remind me of you and I found every time I buy one, for the briefest of seconds you’re with me.

Except you’re not. Yes, you’re in my dreams and memory but I wanted more. That more came when I wrote the Static creative bible used our life as the inspiration. I was not alone when Static was created. Far from it, Dwayne McDuffie, Jim Owlsey (a.k.a. Christopher Priest) Denys Cowan and Derek Dingle were right there.

I was certainly alone when Dwayne told me to write the Static bible aka the Static Universe. For over 20 years nobody from Milestone disputed that-in fact they co-signed.

Now I was just ‘one of five guys in the room.’

Funny, how it just so happens Static’s life events and family is a carbon copy of ours right down to the names. Clearly that’s an amazing coincidence.

Sharon, I wanted Jean to see you live on she had such a hard life she needed some joy so no matter the current spin your little brother created the Static Universe and co-created the most successful black superhero ever created by black people, and I can prove it.

Our mother, Jean, and you saved me. Man, I should have been dead so many times but you saved me.

I couldn’t save you.

I couldn’t save Jean.

I didn’t even try to save Robert.

I’m sorry.

I will save your legacy-the world will know where the inspiration and swagger of Static comes from. It comes from, Sharon Davis, Jean Harlow Davis, Robert Lawrence, Sharon’s little bratty brother and Regina’s cousin.

Happy Belated Birthday Sharon

Your brother,

High Yella

P.S. OK I was late getting this to you so I’ll tell you where ‘Dark Side’ comes from. Jack Kirby created a villain called Darkseid I got it from there. I could have said nothing giving you the impression it was all me but that simply would not be right to do to anybody but family??

Unforgiveable.

Writer’s note: This was to run November 10th my sister Sharon’s birthday.

I had every intention that it would, even going so far as to ask Mike Gold if I could get it to him on the day it was to post, something my editor and friend for almost 28 years would prefer not. I had written and rewritten several versions of this and was sitting on the one that I was sure I was to send Mike in one hour, give or take 167.

I re-read the piece and realized I was making a rather large mistake so once again I had to re-write it.  My mother didn’t raise any fools as such I neither watch FOX nor will I announce the coming rapture to non-believers.

John Ostrander: Nero Wolfe Revisited

nero-wolfe-6713090

My mother once told me that an odd pleasure she had in growing older was that she could go back to favorite books, particularly mysteries, and enjoy them all over again because she didn’t remember the ending. She knew she liked it but she could discover it anew.

That’s happening a bit to me these days. I’ve recently started re-reading Rex Stout’s mysteries featuring Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin (not to be confused with the late, great comics writer and editor with the same name, although that would have been an interesting pairing as well). I read quite a few of them a few decades back but not all of them; that would be a monumental task since Stout wrote 33 novels and about 40 novellas about Wolfe and Goodwin.

Rex Stout (December 1, 1886 – October 27, 1975) was born of Quaker parents in Indiana and was raised in Kansas. He served as a yeoman on Theodore Roosevelt’s presidential yacht. In 1916, he created a school banking system that paid him royalties and made quite a bit of money. He described himself in 1942 as a “pro-Labor, pro-New Deal, pro-Roosevelt left liberal”. A man after my own heart. He was denounced as a Communist during the McCarthy Era but denied it. He told House Committee on Un-American Activities chairman Martin Dies, “I hate Communists as much as you do, Martin, but there’s one difference between us. I know what a Communist is, and you don’t.” J. Edgar Hoover was not a fan and Stout wasn’t a fan of his or of the FBI and that figures prominently in Stout’s very famous Nero Wolfe mystery. The Doorbell Rang.

The Nero Wolfe stories are an ingenious pairing of a cerebral detective (Wolfe) and hard-boiled detective (Archie). I love narrative alloys like this; my GrimJack stories are a combination of hard-boiled detective and sword-and-sorcery. Suicide Squad melds The Dirty Dozen,  Mission: Impossible, and The Secret Society of Super-Villains.

Wolfe is fat. He is more than stout, he is obese. He’s been described as weighing a seventh of a ton, fluctuating between 310 and 390 lbs. He lives in a beautiful brownstone on West 35th Street in New York City that he owns; Archie lives there as well, having his own room. Wolfe takes on detective work only as a source of income to indulge his passions, which includes orchids, fine food, and beer. He keeps to a very strict daily schedule and does not even allow the investigations to meddle with it. He is brilliant, fastidious, idiosyncratic, arrogant, demanding, and filled with wonderful character tics.

Archie is Wolfe’s “legman”. He does the physical stuff, tracking down things and witnesses, bringing suspects to the office for Wolfe to question, acting as secretary as needed. He’s also a wise-guy, quick with a quip and good with his fists. One of his jobs is to needle Wolfe, keep him on the job, make him relatively human, and just be a pain in Wolfe’s sizable ass. He’s also the narrator of the stories; we know what we know through Archie and Wolfe sometimes deliberately doesn’t tell him everything, often just to annoy him.

The stories also have a stable of supporting characters, each with their own well defined personality tics and traits. One of the real pleasures of the series is the interaction between Wolfe and Archie; Stout tells a good story and can plot with the best of them but it’s the interplay between the two leads that drives the series. Like any serial fiction, including comics, it’s how you play the expected tropes that keeps the series fresh. Stout does endless and inventive variations of the expected notes; it feels a little like jazz to me. That’s a lesson I need to keep learning; how to take what is expected and make it surprising, fresh, and entertaining.

I don’t know if I’ll go through all of the Nero Wolfe cannon this time; I doubt it. There’s just too many other things to read. However, what’s nice is that I know I will enjoy what I’m reading. I did the last time even if I don’t exactly remember why. Such are the blessings of aging.

Marc Alan Fishman: Justice League Unblemished

Justice League UnlimitedJustice League Unlimited was recently collected into a single Blu-Ray disc and, while I happen to own its on DVD – as well as literally everything else Bruce Timm and his menagerie created – it still stirred up a sense of unbreakable joy and nostalgia in me.

I use the term nostalgia in spite of the show itself being broadcast during my early to mid-twenties, mind you. I use it because we all know that nostalgia indicates that sentimental longing for a better time. And while we’re living in a veritable gilded age in terms of comics-to-TV live action adaptations, the animated realm is devoid of any direct counterpart to serious pulp storytelling. Sure Teen Titans Go! is on, and a handful of Marvel properties as well. But none of them hold a candle to Justice League. The absolute best episode of Avengers: Earth Mightiest Heroes – now over five years old – couldn’t shine the boot of the worst episode of any of Timm’s League.

I dare you to disagree.

What made the show so amazing, amongst countless reasons, would be its scope. With an unrivaled cast that built from the solid foundation of the holy trinity of DC (Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman, in that order), and then peppered in perfectly distilled amalgams of dozens upon dozens of characters, they truly communicated to the world at large what the DCU encompassed.

No other cartoon has come close to the depth of the presented roster of heroes and villains. Beyond the bench though – and trust me, we’re gonna hit on that in another column soon – the actual storylines we got to follow held sway as mature tales that balanced wide-eyed action with well-focused moral debates.

Take perhaps the Cadmus arc, wherein Superman ultimately learned the potent lesson that he may have adopted Earth as his home, but his home wouldn’t turn a blind eye to the sins of his past. This was, of course, a nuanced and layered issue. The secret projects erected in the name of self-defense came only after Supes had inadvertently become the pawn of Darkseid. While we comicsphiles might have given the Big Blue Boy Scout a pass for succumbing to the plot-of-the-week, we couldn’t have expected all people would share in our leniency.

To see episode after episode building the case for the world being all but backed into war with the heroes that swear to protect it… in the name of being proactive? Well, ain’t no episode of Pokemon that’s coming anywhere near that neighborhood. From the birth of Galatea (Power Girl, by way of cloning Supergirl), through to the tet-a-tet between Batman and Amanda Waller, Justice League Unlimited proved that cartoons could be more than a series of punches and CGI set-pieces. They could be compelling prose that live action movies and TV shows are still too afraid to touch. It helps when the networks just think cartoons are for kids, eh?

And what of the merging of Brainiac and Lex Luthor! What was first presented as a delightful nod to the villain tag teams of our pulp and paper (or perhaps the stop-motion, animatronic, special effect laden action films of Generation X), soon grew into an apologue on addiction. Beyond an excuse to let Flash say the words “Speed Force” without so much as a quip, the arc cemented Lex Luthor as somehow a more complex beast than our beloved Batman. Here was a man, self-made as the Dark Knight, given his ultimate prize; infinite knowledge and power. And when it was ripped away from him? We were given a long-running serialized epic as Lex chased what could only be described as the ultimate high. In the end, Luthor even saved humanity by offering Darkseid the Anti-Life Equation (oh, you didn’t know? Halliburton invented that). Simply brilliant.

So, yes, I long for the days where a Saturday morning cartoon could strike to tell the most complex stories in the lexicon of comic lore. While the world of today has Gotham, The Flash, Supergirl, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Agent Carter, Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Arrow, Teen Titans Go!, and Walking Dead…

my heart belongs to Bruce Timm’s Justice League. Because that, my friends, is how cartoons were meant to be made.

The Point Radio: You Must Binge THE HIGH CASTLE

It’s a weekend made to binge! MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE has dropped from Amazon Prime video, and if you don’t know what all the buzz is about, we have stars Alexa Davalos and Luke Kleintank plus visionary show runner Frank Spotnitz to fill you in. Plus with a title like ADAM RUINS EVERYTHING, Adam Conover is making a lot of noise on his Tru TV series.

Follow us here on Instagram or on Twitter here.

Martha Thomases: So This Is Thanksgiving

bugs-bunny-300x409-3098165“When I’m worried and I can’t sleep

I count my blessings instead of sheep

And I fall asleep counting my blessings”

“Count Your Blessings” by Irving Berlin

Next week is Thanksgiving, and so I’m trying to remind myself that I have many reasons to be thankful. <a href=”

, of course, I am grateful for my family and my friends (human and otherwise) who make my life so entertaining.

But you didn’t come here to read about how fabulous my life is. You want to read about comics. And so, I present to you, Constant Reader, those things about comics for which I am most grateful.

  • Image Comics. Back in the 1990s, I agreed with the founding principles of Image (creator ownership and control) but didn’t really like what they published, which to me looked like a lot of scratchy drawings of women with gigantic tits and tiny little ankles. Now, however, I find myself buying a few Image titles every week. Was I wrong in my original impression? Maybe. Are they publishing a more diverse list now? Definitely. In any case, they provide me with more joy.
  • Boom! Studios. I confess that I originally mostly picked up the Boom! titles when Mark Waid worked there, because I strive to be loyal. He is no longer editing their books, but they publish a lot of things I like. I told you how much I like Americatown. I started Last Sons of America and that looks promising, too. They publish lots of cool stuff, including Last Sons of America, Adventure Time, Lumberjanes, and Mouse Guard. You could do worse.
  • Forbidden Planet. I am fortunate enough to live in a place where there are many different comic book stores near my home, and a high percentage of them are excellent. However, for more than three decades, Forbidden Planet has been the one I go to most often. A lot of that is location (they are near the subway station that goes where I need to go on Wednesdays), but I also like the vibe. When I go, I’m greeted by name. The folks at the check-out know I want a paper bag, not plastic. They recommend books they think I’ll like. Some people have a favorite bar where everybody knows their names. I have Forbidden Planet. I hope you have a local comic shop that makes you feel just as special.
  • Kids. Every day, there are opportunities to turn kids on to the fun of comic books. After I get my stack on Wednesdays, I go to the hospital where I volunteer on the pediatric floor. I’m there to teach knitting, but there are some kids who don’t want to knit. If I have a Simpsons comic or another age-appropriate title with single-issue story, I’ll often give it away. Every child, even those without hair or with a port in his chest, lights up in beauty with a glorious smile at the sight of a new comic.
  • The revenge of the nerds. Sometimes I wonder if comics are really mainstream now, or if I simply live a life in which that can pass for truth. But, really, there is at least one television show based on a comic book on prime time just about every day. “Superhero” is now a movie genre, one taken (mostly) seriously by respected film critics. The New York Times Book Review publishes best-seller lists for graphic novels in hardcover, paperback and manga formats. Comics are now so respectable that parents try to make their kids read them.
  • Comics! Let’s not forget how great they are. Even when I’m irked by some current controversy and what it means about our sociopolitical climate, I still love the feeling of sitting down to a fresh stack of comics, with my cat purring next to me on the armrest.

And, as always, I’m thankful for you and your indulgent attention. Happy holidays, folks.

Tweeks: Maddy’s Spoiler-free Review of Magnus Chase & The Gods of Asgard

This week we review Rick Riordan’s latest book, Magnus Chase & The Gods of Asgard.

Wait, who are we kidding…this is Maddy and this is my review. Anya hasn’t even finished the first Percy Jackson book yet (but if you would like to talk about BuzzFeed & Scream Queens, she’s your girl).

The first book in the Magnus Chase series has Mr. Riordan taking on Norse Mythology as we follow a 16 year old homeless Boston boy on an adventure after finding out his dad is the god Frey. This is a spoiler-free review, so instead of spilling the plot details, I compare this Loki to Tom Hiddleston’s version in the MCU and I tell you about what this Thor likes to binge watch.

Dennis O’Neil: Green Arrow For Mayor?

green-arrow-1282536…and when I’m mayor I’m gonna build a big high wall all around the city to keep the bad criminals out and what’s more I’m gonna make the bad criminals pay for it. • Excerpt from Oliver Queen’s stump speech.

Well… not really. I haven’t heard Ollie’s speech yet (and perish forbid that I’d use this as an opportunity to lampoon a real office-seeker) and as far as I know, Ollie hasn’t perpetrated any campaign oratory yet, but it’s only a matter of time, right? Because he is running for public office. Wants to be mayor of the town. Hmph!

The venue where this is happening is a television show titled Arrow and this season it’s been edging closer to its comic book progenitor. The lead character is now calling himself Green Arrow just as his comics iteration has been doing since his introduction in More Fun Comics #73 (1941). These Wednesday evenings, when the show airs, he has taken to wearing a mask, just like his comics counterpart. How this affects the concept of his having a secret identity, I don’t know – didn’t a lot of citizens get looks at his maskless self in earlier seasons? Maybe not. It’s possible – dare we say “likely?” – that I missed a plot point or two.

Finally – and this may be news even to you comics folk – the comics GA also ran for mayor. If memory serves – and won’t that be the day! – the story appeared in the 70s and was almost certainly written by Elliot S! Maggin. (He likes the “S” followed by an exclaimer, and what the heck, it’s his name). Elliot was, and probably still is, a follower of politics who twice went to far as to be a Democratic candidate.

Now, we’re not in the draconian rules business here, so you won’t catch me decreeing that superheroes should never seek public office. Because I don’t absolutely know that to be true and if I did make such a pronouncement some wretch might come along and prove me wrong.

But it seems to me that superheroes and politicians occupy different, and maybe irreconcilable, domains. Politicians are, almost by definition, men and women of the people who work within the system and deal mostly with human-scaled problems. Superheroes, again by definition, are not of the people; they are differently abled and what’s superhuman about them causes them to attack problems beyond the capabilities of our uniformed public servants. Look at the early Superman stories: as his powers grew, so did his foes. It makes no dramatic sense for a chap who, at his mightiest, wrangles planets to chase jaywalkers.

So conflating superheroics and politics seems to be cognitively dissonant – two ideas occupying the same cerebral turf and bumping into each other. And that might be compromising the superhero essence more than is desirable.

Or it might not.

Maybe Elliot Maggin could clarify this for me. I wish I hadn’t misplaced his phone number.

Box Office Democracy: “The Peanuts Movie”

peanuts-movie-cast-2630526I was a huge fan of Peanuts when I was a kid. I can vividly remember staying up late in bed reading collections of the comic strip until I could barely keep my eyes open. This should make me the ideal audience for The Peanuts Movie, but instead it just serves as a reminder of how far this franchise has fallen. I have this hipster-esque longing for a time before Peanuts became so damn commercial (a time that never existed in my lifetime, mind you) and back before the Schulz estate seemed locked in a nefarious race with Jim Davis of Garfield to see who can make the most money with the least amount of artistic effort. The Peanuts Movie is a soulless movie stitched together from the corpse of a very soulful comic strip.

The script for The Peanuts Movie feels like it was stitched together from three episodes of an abandoned TV show. There are definite segments (Charlie Brown wants to learn to dance, Charlie Brown is a genius, Charlie Brown prepares for a talent show) and these segments build to a conclusion, are broken up by a Snoopy vignette and are then largely forgotten about by the rest of the movie. It never feels like a story worthy of a feature film, and the story doesn’t feel unique to the Peanuts characters or universe. I also despise how much they’ve sanded down the characters so that they barely feel evocative of the characters from the comic strip. There’s no philosophy or nuance; every character is just the first two adjectives you would use to describe them at the very best. These were characters with a rich history, and to see them basically reduced to catchphrases and rote characterization is sad. (Also, and this is an incredibly nerdy nitpick, having Charlie Brown, Linus, Lucy, Marcy, and Peppermint Patty in the same classroom is a flagrant violation of canon and it makes the world feel smaller. This is not a complaint worth seriously considering.)

I didn’t much care for the visual style either. The 3D models look ok and the characters are unmistakable but the trademark narrow eyes tended to bleed on to the noses and looked weird. The hair was textured a little too realistically for the cartoonish feel of the rest of the world. I don’t know how easy any of these problems are to fix, but they both led to moments where instead of focusing on what was going on in the film I was taken with how disturbing this character or that looked in the moment. Like the script, the animation feels like it would have been good enough for TV and just never got the upscaled treatment for the silver screen— except that’s not the origin of this movie and it just looks cheap for no discernable reason.

Ultimately, I don’t think the goal of The Peanuts Movie is to entertain children so much as it is to appeal to the nostalgia of their parents. Between It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and A Charlie Brown Christmas mid-November is peak awareness of the Peanuts characters, assuming we aren’t getting a blitz of MetLife ads. This is a movie designed to bring up warm fuzzy feelings in parents while pacifying their children for 90 minutes, but there’s no artistry in this film… just a simple boring regurgitation for the sake of a quick buck. This would be antithetical to the comic strip as it was in the 1960s, but seems par for the course for the latter-day commercialism and exploitation of the brand that dominated Schulz’s later life and his heirs. I’m not always fond of Bill Watterson being so inflexible with people wanting to let Calvin and Hobbes branch out in to merchandise or other media, but if it means I’ll never have to watch anything as dreadful as The Peanuts Movie starring those characters I’ll have to accept it.

Emily S. Whitten: Looking With the Heart

the-little-prince

“People where you live,” the little prince said, “grow five thousand roses in one garden… yet they don’t find what they’re looking for…

They don’t find it,” I answered.

And yet what they’re looking for could be found in a single rose, or a little water…”

Of course,” I answered.

And the little prince added, “But eyes are blind. You have to look with the heart.”

The Little Prince has always been a favorite of mine. It was the first book I read in French, and I still prefer to read it in French, despite being a little rusty on the language. It is also particularly appropriate to quote as I think about what happened in Paris last week. Not only did the book engender in me a fondness for the French language and culture, but it also contains an important message that I feel we should remember in times like this.

There are a lot of reactions to what happened in Paris. Appropriately, there is mourning, and outrage, and sympathy for Paris and for those who have lost people (and I extend my sympathy to them as well). As appropriately, but also somewhat obscenely in the face of such destruction, there is posturing and arguing and debating about the root causes of the attack and the best responses.

People are blaming political policies, organized religion, and entire cultures for what happened. And while in the smaller sense we know who particularly has claimed responsibility for the attacks, in the larger sense, these people are not all wrong. There may be elements of all of these things and more at work in what happened; and even though it sometimes seems to me that ego is as much a part of why certain people step into the limelight to try to address the impetus for the attacks and the best way to respond to them and try to prevent them from happening again, of course it is also necessary to do so.

Today, I don’t feel like doing so. What I feel like doing is reminding myself and everyone, instead, of the importance of looking with the heart. There is so much hatred, violence, and destruction out there; and if we let it, it can consume us. But there is also a lot of beauty to be found; in individual people, in nature, in art and our creations.

I think it can be very easy to lose sight of this, in the face of such sadness and destruction and hate, and of devastating events with global impact; but it is imperative that we remember. Because while geopolitical issues, and religious disagreements, and what-have-you are very important and shape our world; so too are all of the individual lives we touch each day and the care we take over our own actions. These things are what make us who we are, and what make us, in a way, more human. And while I can’t always control what angry, hateful, misguided people choose to do, I can at least control my own reactions and state of mind.

There are a couple of concurrent interesting themes that run through another favorite book of mine, Terry Pratchett’s Small Gods. In it, it is shown how a character named Vorbis is evil not only because of what he does, but because of what he makes other people into – in other words, how he influences them to start thinking and behaving like him, in part through his assumptions about what all of humanity is like. At the same time, the protagonist Brutha influences The Great God Om (in Discworld books the gods are influenced by their interactions with humans) to realize that humanity can’t only be looked on as a whole, because each individual life is as important as all of them. Or, to quote from one memorable scene in which Om storms Dunmanifestin, the home of the gods, and in the process converses with a somewhat lesser god who is still learning about the value of numbers (P’Tang-P’Tang, who looks like a very large newt and has a whole fifty-one followers):

“Is one less than fifty-one?” said P’Tang-P’Tang.

“It’s the same,” said Om, firmly.

“But you have thousands,” said the Newt God. “You fight for thousands.”

“I think,” [Om] said, “I think, if you want thousands, you have to fight for one.”

I can’t imagine the mindset of people who think that a point being made by killing random people is more important than the people themselves. But I can see that these are clearly people like Vorbis, who have lost sight of the importance of the individual, and that in order for us not to be turned into something like them in our reaction to their heinous actions, we need to remember it. We need to remember that each person out there is unique, and is someone’s parent, child, lover, or friend; and that our care for others is what makes us human. After all, as the little prince observed, “To forget a friend is sad. Not everyone has had a friend. And if I forget him, I may become like the grown−ups who are no longer interested in anything but figures…”

We are so lucky to live in a world of endless variety, and the most endless of that variety is the sea of humanity we swim in. I can’t fully comprehend why some people choose to disregard this and instead work to destroy it. All I can choose is to recognize it myself, and act accordingly. Because even in a world where there are terrible people; or even annoying people, or people you might not choose to interact with on a daily basis, the alternative to being surrounded by this sea of diversity is frightening. Again, a concept Pratchett conveys so well in Small Gods, when Vorbis has died, and is alone with Death on the black sand of the vast desert that he must cross to reach judgment:

“Don’t leave me! It’s so empty!”

Death looked around at the endless desert. He snapped his fingers and a large white horse trotted up.

I SEE A HUNDRED THOUSAND PEOPLE, he said, swinging himself up into the saddle.

“Where? Where?”

HERE. WITH YOU.

“I can’t see them!”

Death gathered up the reins.

NEVERTHELESS, he said. His horse trotted forward a few steps.

“I don’t understand!” screamed Vorbis.

Death paused. YOU HAVE PERHAPS HEARD THE PHRASE, he said, THAT HELL IS OTHER PEOPLE?

“Yes. Yes, of course.”

Death nodded. IN TIME, he said, YOU WILL LEARN THAT IT IS WRONG.”

Indeed, what would we be without everyone else out there? We should remember how lucky we are to be a part of humanity, and act accordingly, and with the remembrance that everything we do is our choice, and changes our world in ways that can’t be undone. Because after all, as Terry (through The Great God Om) once said:

“I. This is Not a Game.

    II. Here and Now, You are Alive.”

My sincerest condolences and sympathy to everyone who has been affected by the Paris tragedy, which is all of us; and let us always remember that this life is not a game, and that each choice we make matters, and that each person in our world is very, very important.

Until next time, Servo Lectio.

Molly Jackson: John Scalzi Got Me Again

got-me-again-4545189Authors go out of their way to provoke emotions. I understand that. And authors do an amazing job of balancing that impact. However, they aren’t writing for automatons, so each person’s reaction is different. That reaction is where it can all go wrong.

Some authors just have a way of getting to me but John Scalzi in particular. Have you ever read his work? He has a great conversational tone that can suck a person right into the story. After reading his book Redshirts, it ruined TV for me for at least a few months. Over a year later, I yelled at him at Book Expo America. It’s true. I have witnesses. Afterwards, I realized how cathartic it was. I felt unburdened and relaxed. Which brings me to my point. He did it to me again.

While at NYCC, I had a chance to pick up a copy of his new book, The End of All Things, which is in the Old Man’s War series. (Read the first book and you will be hooked.). It is a collection of short stories following the political turmoil in this universe. While I was getting it signed, I made a point of telling him about how traumatized I was from Redshirts. At that point, I was still a little upset but mostly I was over it.

Fast forward to last week. I had finally picked it up to start reading (still struggling with my reading list) and well, I had to stop reading because way too many feels. He sacrificed an important character in a way that was too emotional for me. I really wish I could go into details but I can’t without spoilers! Safe to say, this rocked me once again. They don’t give time off for emotional scarring from books.

Now, I know this all might seem like I’m angry at the writer. I’m not, really. Scalzi is one of my favorite writers. Look at the emotion he invokes in me. The impact his writing has had on me and now all of you. I willingly go on this roller coaster. And yes, sooner rather than later I will finish reading The End of All Things.

So think about the books that have made you so emotional. The writers that still impact you long after the book is finished. Hunt them down; seek them out. Let them know that their writing affected you. I yelled at Scalzi. He was happy that his writing made a lasting impression. Let your writers know how you feel. Yell and everything.

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