ponypull (!)

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Attended what was supposed to be a draft horse pulling contest today but my grandfather – the 96-year-old horseman with whom I attended because, as I said to him, When was the last time we did anything together that didn’t involve a hospital – misread the advert and didn’t see that the big horses didn't show up until 1800, but we did, instead, sit in the baking sun on a metal bleacher watching tough-as-hell ponies pull a fuckton of concrete blocks (2700 pounds, by the time we left). I dislike ponies, intensely. One bit me once, a long time ago. I still have the scar on my stomach. But I can, nonetheless, respect the little assholes’ physical prowess, if only begrudgingly. K and my grandfather will be attending the 1800 draft horse contest though now I kinda want to see a draft horse / pony tug of war.

DCU / Elseworlds

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As I seem unable to get this out of my head, I'm recording it here: while I dig everything I've heard coming out of the James Gunn DCU– and maybe it's my decades-long love of the wild stories (RED RAIN, GOTHAM BY GASLIGHT, RED SON, METROPOLIS, NOSFERATU) that came out under that banner – the "Elseworlds" branding for out-of-continuity projects like THE BATMAN and JOKER sequels, etc, feels… off. To me, at least, the current "Black Label" nomenclature used for things like BATMAN: DAMNED, WONDER WOMAN:HISTORIA, or SUPERMAN: THE LAST DAYS OF LEX LUTHOR (very good) seems more apposite. But IDK, maybe there's a rights issue with Johnny Walker or something.

Couldn't have said it better myself

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Whole article is not only a great primer on why I voted a hearty NO on Ohio's bullshit Issue One, but a succinct guide to understanding the clusterfuck that is the present state of Ohio politics:

With Issue 1 on August 8, Ohio lobbyists and politicians demand total unchecked power.

They seek to create signature requirements so burdensome that they would destroy the ability of Ohio citizen groups to bring amendments to our Ohio Constitution ever again.

And they seek to ensure a minority of voters can veto critical decisions over the life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness of all Ohioans.

Ohio Republicans presently enjoy absolute control over our state’s legislative, executive, and judicial branches. Last year, they manipulated that power to override a majority of voters on gerrymandering.

Now those same gerrymandered politicians seek to rip away citizens’ power so that a majority of voters can be overruled on the Ohio Constitution itself.

THE SPECTRE, Vol. 3, No. 8 (Ostrander / Mandrake; DC, 1993)

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Every Wednesday morning, I make a blind pull from Siri's (randomized) choice of one of the 20 alphabetically-organized shortboxes that constitute my comics collection, (re-)read it, write about it, and publish the resultant review / memory / whatever. Earlier installments live here.

(Box16): One of the crown jewels of the 90s (words rarely uttered though the era does hold a special place in my heart), DC doesn't get much better than this SPECTRE series, a perfect collision (similar to the 00’s JONAH HEX series) of writer and artist and characters – Corrigan / Spectre (Mandrake's Spectre, like Kaluta's Shadow and Adams's Batman) is THE Spectre, as far as I'm concerned), Amy, Nate – pushed to their limits in a deft balance of the topical (HIV ignorance) with the timeless (demons and the afterlife and human nature and all): in a just world, this volume of THE SPECTRE would be spoken in the same breath as Gaiman's SANDMAN.

I've always imagined (supported by evidence of previous lackluster efforts) The Spectre – a mostly-naked, pasty, all powerful vehicle of wrath and vengeance in pixie boots, a hooded cloak, and a speedo – to be a difficult character to get right: while he has limitless power and can do anything (not always a good thing), from punishing a mugger to stepping in to bring one Crisis after another to an end, he's not the most elastic of DC's stable (a la Superman or Batman): punishment, wrath, green cape, a dead cop powerless to stop his perpetual companion.

Ostrander and Mandrake succeed where others failed (and continue to do so (while all have been solid – I'm a big fan of Hal Jordan’s time as The Spectre, as vehicle of redemption, one of those rare transformations that, to me, worked; and I wish Crispus Allen had had a longer tenure – there hasn't been a capital-G Great take like Ostrander/Mandrake on The Spectre in awhile) by leaning in and pushing the character and his staples to their nth degree: their Spectre is both heroic and terrifying, a potent mixture of hardboiled private eye and embodiment of vengeance; I would both love and hate to see Tom Mandrake draw my greatest fears.

While it's been in the "pick them up whenever you see them" file, I'm adding this series to my list of "runs to complete”; an absolute pleasure to revisit.