20 years after picking up my last issue (13) on the Wednesday it came out, I've finally assembled the back half (14-28) of ALIAS, one of Bendis's three best series (the others being TORSO and his DAREDEVIL run with Maleev); a damn fine day for The Collection.
After a few years of looking at one, I finally took the plunge yesterday and purchased a reMarkable 2 writing tablet (along with the typepad folio)...
Goals: a capture device and an easy-on writing device for pieces here – as well as fulfilling (and amplifying) the usual functions of my Boogie Board: handwritten explorations of specific sections of a WIP. Planning to use the reMarkable app on desktop and mobile to facilitate the export and import of notes and scaps and other writings from reMarkable to Obsidian for work and zettelkasten archiving. Potential use as a Daily Note device too?
Should arrive next week. Penning this to start the tag and log its purchase.
Filing yet another under the "no I can't believe I didn't read this until now either" header because, not only is "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow" now my favorite Superman story, but it's one of my favorite comics stories of all time, my ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST of comics.
In fashion not dissimilar to Leone's masterful deconstruction and exploration of the mythological Western, the pairing of Moore's words with Curt Swan's immortal and character-defining pencils is magic: a deconstruction of the hallowed and iconic by a mind matched by few wrapped in a rousing action story with deep emotional stakes; a distillation of, at that point, nearly 50 years of monthly storytelling that not only showed why Superman has endured, but why he must: it's the first work anyone tasked with carrying on that legacy – be it in comics or in film or in any other media – should read; I can only hope that Gunn uses this as a guide – fortunately, from what he's said of what's coming in LEGACY, it sounds like he has. Certainly nailed the casting so far.
Other than Morrison and Quitely's ALL-STAR SUPERMAN (now my second-favorite Superman story and apparently one of Gunn's guiding texts), I can't think of another take that so deeply captures every facet of the character – the hope, the action, the sacrifice, the tragedy – in such a powerful, poignant, and emotionally satisfying way. Essential.
Signed up for Threads (which, to its credit, is remarkably easy to do), posted a Thread (Threet?) or two and a dog GIF, and realized that a.), Twitter is its own Twitter killer – Space Karen is just the latest (though admittedly far more loathsome – if he and Zuckhead fight it out in the Colosseum, the world would be far better off if the rules of engagement were historically accurate to the place they chose to besmirch, read: lions) wrecking ball; b.), while I’m willing to fiddle about with it, I have little interest in another short, status-based ambient social/swarm experience; and c.), having asked myself, "If I were to start using social media for the first time today and not 15+ years ago, how would I use it?" the answer is, without fail, I wouldn't: while I'm grateful for the eyes that “the socials” have brought to my little narrative experiments and mental gesticulations, I've felt a mental and creative freedom in these last couple of weeks away from all of them – yes, even Mastodon – that I haven't felt in, well, 15+ years. That being said: perhaps with a bit more time (I'm experimenting with once-weekly photo dumps from the week prior on Insta and, like I said, I’m willing to fiddle with Threads for a spell) I’ll find a modicum of enjoyment but I'm not going to expend any significant mental energy to do so.
A smile-eliciting melding of some of the most brilliant minds working in music today; sonic playtime via exploration and synergy.
Another one of those series whose last issue has been in the long and/or shortboxes since my collecting phase (90-96) and joined by the first three issues only over the last couple of weeks of this one. Patience – if that's the right word for it – is rewarded, however, as this brutal, stunning work – Wrightson's art, especially with Bill Wray’s colors, is insane here: this Gotham breathes exhaust fumes and decay – is now one of my favorite Batman stories, a prescient and searing breaking of the Bat and the placing Gotham under martial law long before Bane and an earthquake got around to it – didn't realize how much Nolan and co based DARK KNIGHT RISES around this, swapping Deacon Blackfire with Bane and mixing in DARK KNIGHT RETURNS, KNIGHTFALL, and NO MAN'S LAND, to set it all aflame.
It's been an experience to read THE CULT as I've been listening to the audiobook of Steven Hassan's excellent COMBATTING CULT MIND CONTROL – I have a deep-rooted and long-standing fascination with cults, their destructive effects, and the methods by which good actors can help those who have fallen victim to undue influence (something I'll write about soonish) back to their authentic selves – (whilst mowing various lawns) and witnessing Blackfire's mental breaking and Patti-Hearsting of Batman in the first issues through starvation, sleep deprivation, drugs, and other forms of mental (and physical) torture and manipulation (while the love-bombing is missing, Hassan's BITE model is on full display here), demonstrating, in particularly vivid form, that the stigma faced by ex-cult members is unfounded at best and as destructive as the cult itself at worst: a weak mind has nothing to do with falling victim to a cult as even one of the most disciplined and developed minds in all of literature is susceptible to dirty tricks and mental rape by con men, authoritarian demagogues, and power-hungry zealots. Particularly moved by how, even after all is said and done and Gotham saved (or as saved as Gotham can get), the effects of the experience still weigh heavily on the Bat. Wish those had been explored further and maintained as part of continuity.
THE CULT is also notable, from a comics perspective, for featuring one of my favorite stories with Jason Todd as Robin – made even more so that it's written by the writer who killed him not long after: this Jason has the potential to be as great as Batman, which makes his death and subsequent revival and transformation into the Red Hood that much more tragic.
So good and so vastly underrated; my complete reading list, from 2013 to the present, lives here.
