Hey, Mom! The Explanation.

Here's the permanent dedicated link to my first Hey, Mom! post and the explanation of the feature it contains.

Sunday, June 28, 2020

A Sense of Doubt blog post #1958 - We Need Perspective - Comic Book Sunday - 2006.28


Marvel Comics

A Sense of Doubt blog post #1958 - We Need Perspective - Comic Book Sunday - 2006.28

 "Every story is a ghost story."


Hi readers,

It's comic book Sunday, and I am gearing up for some reading, some writing, some relaxing, and SELF CARE.


Though it was FATHER'S DAY, I did not get a self care day last Sunday, and so, I have been working for 14 days straight.

No pity party for me as my jobs are somewhat easy to manage, and I set my own hours, so those days were not all 12-hour, non-stop days.

But it's time for another day of self care, no work (after just two discussion posts and one email), and some serious reading/relaxing/writing. I plan to do some work on a new novella and maybe a little poetry.

So, today, soon, to get on with that stuff. I am walking the dogs early, and I am going to order PIZZA from a local place.

I am also going to spend some time on the phone with my Dad.

I am still wrecked over the news that Warren Ellis is fucking BLUEBEARD. Since then, the SF&F world is rife with claims against many authors, including Chuck Wendig and Elizabeth Bear. I don't believe these last two AT ALL. I think we need to be very smart going forward. Twitter is full of bullshit. Warren Ellis is guilty because 50+ women have come out with their stories. That's damning and incontrovertible. But from what I can tell one person privately told things to one other person about Chuck Wendig and Elizabeth Bear, and so I suspect those accusations to be BULLSHIT.



Also, people are making the rounds again calling out Orson Scott Card for being a bigot and JK Rowling for being a TERF (which is another way to say bigot). These things are true, despite in both cases justification for their bigotry. Fine. But I am not into boycotting things I love, and though many
people may be disappointed with me for saying that I will continue to give both of them my money for their art.

J.K. Rowling Writes about Her Reasons for Speaking out on Sex and Gender Issues

Rebecca Watson (@rebeccawatson) | TwitterRowling seems to be defending actions that may have been misinterpreted. I might find myself in the same position as her if I was such a famous author. I have not fully investigated this issue yet, and so I am not going to wade farther into the deep end of this pool until I do more research and more thinking; however, my first impression reaction is to (GASP) disagree with my new favorite video maker REBECCA WATSON and others castigating Rowling as a "bigoted fuck face."

This is a thing to gasp about because so far I have tended to agree with everything in every video of hers I have watched (at least thirty so far). I am going to make another blog post on the Rowling issue and see if people are right about her and I just defending her because I have up until now adored her and Harry Potter, or if they are wrong. People can be wrong about opinions of others, and my initial investigation shows me that JK Rowling's heart is in the right place.


It's different with OSC. His freedom of religion dictates that he oppose gay marriage. I think this is wrong, but it is his right. Maybe some day we live in a world in which people cannot justify bigotry and discrimination as freedom of religious expression but not yet. We are not yet in that world.
Hypocrisy Limits Your Ability to Lead - Dave Anderson
And the Internet is always on fire. After a while, it becomes nauseating and tiresome EVEN IF I agree with the sentiments on fire.

That said, I am just all about defending my choices not to burn all my OSC, Ellis, and Harry Potter books. I get it. And probably, I am a hypocrite. Because really, we all are. We are all hypocritical about some thing and some times, many things. I used to shop at Sam's Club for fuck's sake just to save money on video tapes, Same, and granola bars. So, fuck it. I do not believe it is possible to lead a totally ethical life.

I may not be a card-carrying, practicing Christian, but some of the stuff Christ is attributed with saying, the love and forgiveness stuff, resonates today more than ever. "Let those without sin cast for the stone" could be my stock response to about 90% of the wild fires on Twitter.

I mean, I get it. With both pandemic and the George Floyd murder, I started publicly performing my self-righteous outrage and my morally-superior attitude of being better than the MAGA masses.

I mean, I just posted this:


I believe in the fight.

I believe women who speak out.

What Tha?! Part 3: Hypocrisy VS Sinners Saved By Grace ...I don't always believe what I see on Twitter unless I can corroborate it effectively.

I am going to start examining my own self-righteous rage and bitter spite and temper down my moral superiority because I am not flawless. I have made mistakes. I have done things that are wrong, even illegal. I suspect that many of these morally superior fuckfaces on the Internet making a public display of their own social justice warriorhoodness are also totally full of shit, flawed, and have their own skeletons in their own closets.

Not that such things absolve Warren Ellis and others.

But we need perspective right now.

It's not on me to forgive Warren, nor is it on me to urge anyone else to forgive him, especially those whom he has abused.

But we need perspective.

So, moving on.

Some cool comic book stuff in this post.

Let's dive in.

I am reminded of some cool comic posts I have done that I have open on my second screen right now.




Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #1150 - How Eerie Magazine changed everything with updates on Creepy



A Sense of Doubt blog post #1847 - "It's up to you to be a Super-Hero" mix - Musical Monday for 2003.09


A Sense of Doubt blog post #1439 - "Comics Are Going Downhill" - NOT!

 Lots of great posts to generate more interest in comics. Dig in to the good stuff.


A TON O' TWITTER






































 VARIOUS AND SUNDRY ON COMICS



http://www.cunningcatvincent.com/2015/09/19/doktor-sleepless-5-the-authenticity-rant/


DOKTOR SLEEPLESS #5: The Authenticity Rant

Posted here for reference, one of the most important things I ever read in a comic book: the rant on the nature of ‘authenticity’ in music, personality and life from 2007’s Doktor Sleepless issue 5, “Your Imaginary Friend”.
I gave a spoken-word performance of this piece in 2014 at Treadwells as part of my talk ‘Cthulhu, Fiction and Real Magic‘.
(Worth noting that an earlier issue also contains the retelling of Alexandra David-Néel’s tulpa experience, which I discuss in my recent academic paper The Tulpa In The West.)
I was also recently delighted to discover one of the ur-texts for this piece: Faking It: The Quest for Authenticity in Popular Music by Hugh Barker and Yuval Taylor  (ISBN: 9780571226597, which has the Big Bill Broonzy information and a treasury of other tales in this fascinating area. A must-read if any of this interests you.
All rights to this piece remain with writer Warren Ellis, artist Ivan Rodriguez and Avatar Press.

It’s 1991. Richey Manic is carving something into his arm because Steve Lamacq has suggested that The Manic Street Preachers lack an essential authenticity. What’s echoing in the backstage room is the voice of Ian Brown, still saying “Cos it’s 1989.Time to to get real.” In 1999 Godspeed You! Black Emperor start releasing CD’s sleeved in untreated cardboard. Intended or not, it denotes authenticity. Keeping it real. Like brown paper bags from Muji, founded 1980: Full name Mujirushi Ryohin, which means “No Brand, Quality Goods.”

Godspeed You! Black Emperor didn’t play the media game. Half of them were anarchists, and all of them hated the music industry. But of course they had a brand. You can’t help but notice that Naomi’s Klein’s book “No Logo” had a fucking logo on the front. Godspeed’s brand was authenticity. That’s what they had to sell. And if they didn’t sell records and gig tickets, then they were just 12 guys in Montreal eating ramen until they died. Richey Edwards couldn’t be Richey Manic, THAT RICHEY, unless he sold you on the concept that he was 4 real. Ian Brown and the Stone Roses couldn’t be that band, the band of the moment with the authentic voice that turned out to be the band in the right place at the right time and raised everyone up – unless they were more real than you.

Around the turn of the century Justin Timberlake began to carry around with him a group of black vocalists, whose job it apparently was, in live performances, to declare how “real” Justin Timberlake was before he began to sing. In 1938, sharp-dressed bluesman Big Bill Broonzy who’d been tearing up Chicago, played New York for the first time. But a blues guitarist in a good suit brewing up the primal muck of rock n’ roll with drummers and bassmen didn’t seem authentic enough to the Carnegie. So the concert programme described him as a poverty-stricken farmer who “had been prevailed upon to leave his mule and make his very first trek to the big city.” And they had him do acoustic guitar blues on his own. From there to his death twenty years later, he booked pretty much nothing but solo acoustic gigs. Because fake Big Bill Broonzy was deemed the authentic version.

No matter that he pioneered electric instruments in the blues, and was also recording with people like Pete Seeger, who wanted to take an axe to the cables when Dylan went electric in 1965. He changed his story in later years, but he was clearly offended by Dylan’s sudden inauthenticity, that maybe he’d been championing a fake all along. Because no one ever knew, or every one pretended to not know, that Bob Dylan was a fictional person. His authenticity was entirely constructed. Bob Dylan and Superman are the two greatest American myths created in the last century.

Who the hell wants to be real?

In 2006, Bob Dylan’s playing ” The Levee’s Gonna Break” Except the song’s called ” When the Levee Breaks” and it’s by Memphis Minnie. And she’s playing it in 1929, a few years before she moves to Chicago to tear up the town with Bill Broonzy. Who’s Memphis Minnie? One of the other great electric blues pioneers. And her name is actually Lizzie Douglas. And she’s not from Memphis either.

Authenticity? Authenticity is bullshit. Never more so than today. We can be anyone we can imagine being. We can be someone new every day.

You know why Grinders never got any respect in this town?
See if any of these comments are familiar:
‘You should be happy with who you are.’
‘Be yourself’.
‘That stuff is just fake.’
‘Don’t get any ideas above your station.’
‘Take that shit off.’
‘Dress Properly.’
‘Why can’t you be like everyone else?’

Yeah?

We are not real enough. We are not authentic to our society. Free speech does not extend to our own bodies.

But you know what? Back in the days before the internet, a kid called Robert Zimmerman said, “Fuck that, I’m going to be the man I dream of being. I’m going to be someone completely new and write about the end of the world because it’s the only thing worth talking about.” And that was one guy in Minnesota, in the same decade the telecommunications satellite was invented. Imagine what all of us, living here in the future, can achieve.

Be authentic to your dream, be authentic to your own ideas about yourself. Grind away at your own minds and bodies and become your own invention. BE MAD SCIENTISTS.

Here at the end of the world, it’s the only thing worth doing.”

 Radar

Restricted Radar:
That is all for this week. Be well.








Hullo.
Stephanie is celebrating her birthday today, so send her your wishes.
Comics
Links
Byyyyeeee!!!
****
Out this week is the return of my two big comics. DIE and Once & Future return.
DIE 11 launches our third arc, THE GREAT GAME, which is kind of our emotionally messy War of the Ring. It involves maps, so people can get how all this merges together. Compared to the second arc’s character-portraits as a portal in a moment in time, this is much more driven, dovetailing between these two main arcs. It’s emotionally grueling as ever, and re-reading this morning I’m shocked by how much it goes for it, in every way. It’s a weird book, DIE, but I’m proud what Stephanie and Clayton create here, and happy – or as happy as DIE gets – that we’re back.
Oh – we also change up the essays, moving to interviewing some interesting figures. This time it’s Alex Roberts, whose For The Queen was probably my RPG of last year and whose BackStory podcast was a crucial survey in the modern form.
You can buy it digitally, or from your local shop. There likely is a preview over on the Image site soon – it’s normally if you just click the cover.
Once & Future 8 picks up after 7, in the second part of the second arc, OLD ENGLISH. After the expansion of the universe in last issue, this is where we dig in and start building some more tension and getting a little more world building. It doesn’t show you everything – it is only the early days, right? – but the scope of the mythology certainly starts to come into play. Dan, Tamra and Ed are basically doing state of the art action comics, and this is a joy to do, and hugely freeing to write.
Preview here, and available digitally and also from your local shop.
Oh – and Ludocrats 2 apparently hits the UK this week too.
****
****
It’s normally an update of work. Since last writing, I’ve written a handful of pages on Thursday but otherwise barely managed plate spinning, and otherwise been swallowed by all that’s happening, and the conversations it’s prompted.
Kelly Sue’s Instagram responses to the news about Warren here and here is a rawness I recognise, as well as her trying to put it into a direction forward. I was asked about Warren specifically over on tumblr, and I’m really still not able to go further than what I said there and implied here last week: believe women, examine your complicity in these systems, think of how one can avoid propagating them any further. I’m reading around and thinking. For a sample of things, here’s Harris about the WEF culture and his own response, a lot which I recognise from being around there. Here’s Cheryl Lynn Eaton on the problems with the well meaning but emptiness of pledges, which is useful. There’s a lot and I’m trying to take it in and see what to do with it.
I also am aware that if I did want to say more right now, I couldn’t do it when writing at the end of a day when my brain is chewed up . I want to say useful things, I want to center the people targeted and their desires and generally think what next?
That’s all I’ve got. I’m sorry.
Speak soon.
Kieron Gillen
London.
24.6.2020







Hullo.
This will be relatively brief.
Ludo2s
Links
D&Dy
Sparta
Byyyyeeee!!!
****
Ludocrats 2 is out, in shops both temporal and digital. First reviews are verykind (and we seem to be infecting the critics with our nonsense, as planned). It’s been a journey.
I don’t just mean the coronavirus delay, but this is the longest a script I’ve written has gone between being written and being drawn. I only realised this when doing some research for an intro. I’d convinced myself that, logically speaking, the Ludocrats demo script probably only dated from the early 2010s, but going back to my original mails, I discovered that Jim and I had compiled the script in the winter of 2007. 2007.
I suppose this makes sense – I recall walking Bath graveyards, thinking about Multimedium (my other didn’t-happen project of the time) and running scenes of Otto and Hades’ during the end sequence of issue 5, to the soundtrack of the Klaxons’ Gravity Rainbow. We were talking to the amazing Lee O’Connor about doing it then, but the project drifted away in the chaos of 2008 (I only now realise that it’s likely one of the books which didn’t get pushed into reality due to the time I committed to launching Rock Paper Shotgun.) Some stuff just peters out, and there’s some of Lee’s early work on a VERY different take on Ludocrats over on his blog.
So, if you’re keeping track at home, issue 1 was written in 2014, issue 2 was written in 2007 and issue 3 was written in 2019. Nobody ever said it was gonna be easy.
In truth, the script has been reworked to be a considerably different, and more easily understandable beast. The story still flips over itself like the guts of the beast the story is set inside, but there’s much more space given to guide us through it – plus snipping the extraneous parts and characters to mean there’s less distractions. I write that, and I suspect people will be wondering how on earth it could possibly be more berserk.
Anyway – glad that this is finally with you and I hope you enjoy it. Links to buy it digitally compiled over at Image, which also has a preview. Yes, more Otto flesh. I swear, the next issue doesn’t start like this.
***
  • It’s been another week where people have bravely spoken out about predatory behaviour from pros. It’s bullshit that this happens and I believe the statements. Jules Scheele posted a comic they’d done a while ago (CW: Sexual Assault) about The Guy At The Pub. As with all of Jules’ work, it was really good, and while I’d seen it before, seeing it yesterday reminded me that I was in the pub that’s in the comic, and this specific stuff happens all around us. It makes me think what (if I was in a pub today) I would be more actively looking for and what I’d do if I saw it (friends and peers explicitly calling out behaviour isn’t a complete solution, but is required). Better is a direction, and we should try to head there. This means being aware and fucking doing something.
  • My old friend Merritt K and my new friend Eric Thurm had me as their first guest on Watch Anime, where Eric makes Merritt watch some Anime, and in this case, made me watch it too. This time Puella Magi Madoka Magica, which I was glad to finally watch some of and speak some of my words. Go listen.
****
Mink Ette is the main person I talk about RPG stuff with IRL (she’s my game design coach for the DIE RPG, being a fancy designer) and having heard it all come together, I’m excited to see her new project drop. It’s basically a whodunnit-cum-reality TV show where famous people (see above) are – I quote – “are vying for survival avoiding a murderous cultist in their midst - they need your help to solve the mysteries and tell them via 'magical scrying crystals'.”
I went “magical scrying crystals?”
She says “Instagram.”
Basically there’s a $10 donation to Red Nose Day to get access to the puzzle content and play, but all the videos are free to see on Instagram or the DnD Youtube channel if you like a more traditional relationship to your medium.
****
I get sent a mail this morning, and goes like this…
SPARTA LIVE! event: Sparta in Graphic Novels with writer Kieron Gillen (Thursday 18 June, 5-6pm UK time)
This week’s Sparta Live! event will bring to you ‘Sparta in Graphic Novels’ and in particular the graphic novel THREE that explores Spartan history and culture a century after the Battle of Thermopylae. The event will be hosted by Dr Lynn Fotheringham and will bring together writer Kieron Gillen, historical consultant Professor Stephen Hodkinson, and publisher of the Greek translation Lefteris Stavrianos, to discuss Spartan women, helots and balancing research with story-telling. The Centre for Spartan & Peloponnesian Studies is grateful to the University of Nottingham’s Faculty of Arts for the generous sponsorship of the Greek translation of THREE.
All welcome! Join us via the CSPS website or using the MS Teams public event link
If you've read or are interested in reading THREE, Dr Lynn Fotheringham is also looking for audience-research participants - more info: www.nottingham.ac.uk/go/three-audiences
 … this sounds like something worth sharing. See some folks tomorrow.
***
DIE 11 comps arrived yesterday. Out next week. It seems oddly ancient to me, with the various delays, but I’m glad it’s going to be with you soon.
***
Back at work properly. The week off wasn’t, but I attacked the week pretty hard, breaking the core of the third arc of Once & Future. The timeline is going to be tricky, but it hits some big Arthurian stuff I haven’t touched properly yet, brings certain characters more towards the spotlight and generally takes it where I want to go next. I even have a title.
There’s also a lot of other things outside work, meaning I’m busy, time is filled, and I’m rushing from one thing to the next. I also finished off the quasi-holiday by running my Come-Dine-With-Me-inspired RPG in a playtest, which went worryingly well (i.e. it worked and was very funny, while also immediately highlighting areas I need to fix, which we mostly did on the fly).
I need to go for a walk.
Speak soon.
Kieron Gillen
London.
17.6.2020
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  • On another Charity which is really worthwhile, this bundle at itch.io of indie games with all funds split 50:50 between the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and Community Bail Fund. When I backed it, it had about 700 games in the pack. Now it’s got over 1400, and as well as a lot of digital games, it includes some of my favourite pen and paper RPGs.
  • The Artist vs Writer thing kicked off again, but I did write a thread about various ways monies can be divided. TL;DR: Make sure the fucking artist gets paid.
  • All of which side-steps colourists, which were highlighted in the latest Art Cred project, where a bunch of colourists approached the same page. Go look at the results here.
  • Just finally got around to reading Isabelle Greenberg’s Glass Town Graphic novel, which I strongly recommend to anyone, and especially those who want a different angle on the Bronte material I was mining for DIE. Lovely stuff.
  • More on this down the line, but myself and Rachael Stott are doing a story for TALES FROM THE QUARANTINE, a forthcoming comic with 140 creators aboard, 100% for charity. More details as it comes.
  • Also, while I’m talking, I’m told the Insider Art anthology goes live today. PDF comic, female and non-binary creators in aid of female and non-binary owned comic shops. What I’ve seen looks very beautiful. I’ll mention it properly next week, but a nod to get you ahead of the curve.
  • Oh – old collaborator Andy Bloor’s new book with Vincent Hunt is out.  MI666, whose title gives you the tone. I look forward to reading this.






    • logo
    Hi Chris
    Hi, friends. Here's the latest from Books with Pictures--

    LONGER HOURS! PLEASE WEAR MASKS!

    Books with Pictures's retail location at 1401 SE Division St. has extended our hours--our doors are now open every day from noon to 6 for pickups and for our small browsing space. Masks are, of course, required. (If you don't have a mask of your own, we have some donated by Sarah Carman. Sarah tells us she's a better realtor than seamstress, but she's a pretty good seamstress, too.)

    NEW IN THE STORE!

    Check out what we've got on the new-release shelves this week! Some of the things we're most excited about include:

    - Lumberjanes, vol. 14: X Marks the Spot (the scouts go on a treasure hunt!)
    - Once & Future #8 (New story arc: Kieron Gillen and Dan Mora flip Arthurian mythology inside out)
    - Wicked Things #2 (John Allison brings back Lottie from Giant Days)
    - Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #11 (includes the return of the least useful Legionnaire of them all, Arm-Fall-Off Boy)
    - My Little Pony: Feats of Friendship, vol. 1 (we are reliably informed that friendship is "magic")
    - Sleeping Beauties #1 (adapted from the Stephen King/Owen King novel; Alison Sampson is an amazing artist)
    - Ascender, vol. 2 (Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen's sci-fi series about a machineless world just got optioned for TV)
    - Dead Body Road: Bad Blood #1 (a new start for Justin Jordan and Benjamin Tiesma's revenge thriller)
    - Die #11 (a new arc of this series about RPGs and resonant trauma; the backmatter this time is a feature on the brilliant game designer Alex Roberts)
    - Sex Criminals #29 (two issues to go, and our jaws dropped several times; the triple-X alternate cover this time is by Jen Bartel)
    - That Texas Blood #1 (a Western that's also a ghost story)
    - Empyre: Avengers #0 (Al Ewing and Pepe Larraz's prologue to the new Marvel event)
    - Primer (a middle-grade graphic novel about DC's new superheroine: a 13-year-old foster kid who gets her powers from a set of colorful body paints!)

    And so much more! If you're curious to know more about anything you see here, drop us a line at bookswpictures@gmail.com , or give us a call during business hours at 503-841-6276.

    You can also order anything you like for pickup, delivery or mail-order via our home page, https://bookswithpictures.com --and, if you're not sure what you're looking for, we do personal shopping, too.

    LAST WEEKEND'S FUNDRAISER!

    Thank you to everyone who supported our Juneteenth celebration for the Black Resilience Fund last weekend! $393 was donated to the fund, thanks to your purchases.

    VIRTUAL BOOK CLUB JULY 8!

    In our last newsletter, we were waxing enthusiastic about the print edition of Ari North's "Always Human," and on July 8, the Quick Reads and Tea Graphic Novel Book Club will be discussing it in a Google meetup. You can register for the discussion at https://www.meetup.com/Quick-Reads-and-Tea-Graphic-Novel-Book-Club/events/271495377/ ... and if you're interested in a copy of the book, we've got it in stock.

    AN EXPERIMENT: BACK ISSUE OMAKASE!

    Our resident back-issue nerd Douglas writes:

    "If you've been wondering how to take advantage of BwP's curated back-issue selection without having to leave the house, or if you're just looking for some fun, weird and wonderful old comics to read, we're trying something new this week: Back Issue Omakase. I've put together five special sets of 20 back issues. What's in them? I'm not telling! It'll be a surprise! But I can tell you this about them:

    - They contain only comics that I think are good or interesting or both.
    - They contain only complete or as-complete-as-they're-gonna-get stories: one-offs, miniseries and complete story arcs (no more than four issues of any one title).
    - Each one includes comics from at least three different decades and at least three different publishers--some superhero stuff, some non-cape stuff.
    - Some of the comics in them are in nice shape, some of them have obviously been read and loved extensively, but they all have something to recommend about them, and they are guaranteed not to include random copies of, like, Brigade #3.

    Want one? Let Books with Pictures know; each Back Issue Omakase pack of 20 issues is $50 (plus shipping, if you're out of town)."

    ICE CREAM!
    Ever get soft serve at the zoo? That cart, Zed's Real Fruit Ice Cream, is now operating in our back parking lot. Vegan & dairy-based, made to order, fresh fruit! You should probably take a walk and pick up some ice cream, if you live in the neighborhood. https://www.instagram.com/zedsicecream/









    The Studio
    The Studio was published in 1979. Mike Kaluta, Barry Windsor-Smith, Jeff Jones (now known as Jeffrey Catherine Jones) and Berni Wrightson worked together in a New York City wonderland where they created an environment that made one dream of the day you'd be working as a cartoonist in the big city in a super cool place with super cool artists. Peacock feathers would hang on the wall and everyone around you would be a creative genius.

    I read this book until my copy fell apart in my hands, and I developed an enormous crush on Berni Wrightson. 

    I believe The Studio is long out of print, but if you want to have a look, here it is.  You can also find it on ebay, occasionally.

    It set me on my aesthetic path.

    And it is where I saw a photo of Berni that inspired me to draw fan art of Berni.


    I am not sure if the date on this picture is correct. I often didn't sign or date art until I intended to show it to other people. Whatever.

    Allan Harvey, restoration specialist who is working on the A Distant Soil books as well as doing the top quality work bringing other old comics to light, pointed me to the above video which is of a 1980's era panel featuring the men from The Studio. It is poor quality and hard to hear, but it is gold.
    Years ago, I was really broke and going through a phase where I was telling myself all the old things I liked didn't matter so much anymore, probably because I was having to sell them to stay in my house. I sold my Barry Windsor Smith books. It hurt a bit.

    Today I was able to find one of them selling for half what I got for it 20 years ago. I bought it back.
    Some of the masters of comic art are being forgotten by fans already, but those of us who were there when the lightning bolt zapped down from Mount Olympus, we remember the gods and tremble.
    And had big crushes.



    First Juneteenth, Next The World

    How you holdin' up, fam? Here's all the good and bad you missed in the world of entertainment, along with recommendations for keeping up to date.
    Cover of Woke Baby
    The teacher in me will ALWAYS recommend books to support honest conversation. Our favorite books to engage children and adults in justice discourse. Read The Revolution.
    Image of Black People Hugging from Betty
    Our playlist of TV shows and movies to honor and inspire. Black and Queer entertainment when we all need it most. What to Watch In A Time of Unrest.
    Go to BlackNerdProblems.com
    DC and Diamond split

    Breaking Down the DC/Diamond Split

    Diamond’s relationship with North American comic book distribution is a monopoly. Why this Break Up is important.
    Director Rick Famuyiwa with Mando

    Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian

    A revealing awe-inspiring series on Disney+, Gallery: The Mandalorian  looks at the elements that made this show so good. Behind the Scenes with The Mando.
    Go to BlackNerdProblems.com

    New Podcast Alert!

    The grand reveal of #PS5 comes with much (Miles) to discuss. Destiny 2 shows what might be the future of the games-as-service model. Also, what the DC and Diamond breakup means for comics, and what you need to know. This Week In Nerd News.

    June Is Here

    Fam, we know IRL is hard for many of us right now, for a hundred reasons big and small. That's why we're still here, reviewing and commenting on the best and worst that media has to offer. Because when you take a break and sit down with your kids, your bae, or your lonesome you want to know what's worth reading, watching, and binging.  Trust that once the jokes are said and the comics are sorted, we're out there with you, working and protesting and trying to find somewhere to deliver decent fried fish. We'll keep doing our thing, so all of us can stay recharged. Stay well, y'all, and keep laughing.
    Hollywood on Netflix review

    Hollywood: What If Folks Just Did Right?

    Ryan Murphy’s Hollywood takes the real life stories of screen legends and corrects the wrongs that marred their lives and careers.
    This Netflix alternative history show explores the possibilities of art when we truly treat people equally. Read the review and get ready to watch.
    Hollywood: What If Folks Just Did Right?
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    The trailer has dropped and we are already hooked. You’d be hard pressed to find someone more excited to see fictional people punch each other in the face. New from Crunchyroll.

    Return of the Lion: How Have I Not Read This?

    Vixen is one of the characters that I have read very little of. Her mini-series Return of the Lion is a perfect five issue hero arc. Read the review.
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    Tuca and Bertie are resurrected after being originally canceled by Netflix. Keith and Mikkel talk Christopher Nolan's Tenet and Spike Lee's Da 5 Bloods. Also, the Snyder Cut is here for better or worse, but most likely worse. Is fan outrage the new normal? All that and more, This Week In Nerd News.

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    One day at a time

      So what will be the next soul-searching crisis to upend our routines?

    I'm beginning to think that this is just the Apocalypse in an unexpected form. I know a lot of the US (and the world) is opening up from COVID quarantine, but a lot of us are still wearing masks, still wiping our groceries, and still feeling panic when we go near other people.

    The comics world got roiled by its own reckoning this week with revelations of alleged sexual misconduct by some of the industry's most prominent creators. And it can never be said enough.

    Believe women.

    Believe victims.

    No industry can be a truly safe space...but they can be safer spaces. And it's up to everyone in the community to be aware of the abuses of power that can take place...and to use our own privilege and power to protect those with less privilege and power.

    Meanwhile, the previous crisis over systemic racism rages on. And sometimes the biggest things are easier to solve than the smaller ones.

    I feel like in our quarantined brains, with the flat hum of social media buzzing second by second, it's hard to see priorities. I see among the many calls for change there are some that are obvious — goodbye and good riddance, Aunt Jemima! — and some a little more oblique, like the outcry over Disney's Splash Mountain ride. The ride is based on Song of the South, a movie so racist that even Disney knows they should not try to make money off it. Is the ride itself racist? I'm not as sure, as it's more about Brer Rabbit as the target of rabbit-hungry foxes and bears, but that's not my call.

    Still, I personally think a wiser use of resources and energy (we all have only a finite amount of energy for all of this) is indicated by a recent issue of The Ankler, an entertainment business newsletter that I subscribe to. In a feature called "Class Photos", Ankler chief  Richard Rushfield analyzed the executive suite photos of major studios, networks and agencies. Well, he didn't really analyze them. He just presented them. Like this snapshot of the Disney hierarchy.

    Page after page it goes on, ranging from lily white to sparkling white. There are a smattering of black women, even fewer black men, South Asian executives....and very few Asians.

    Whenever I hear that whining about white men being powerless, I would just like to wave these photos around. The truth is the entertainment industry is run overwhelmingly by white men (with more white women coming on board). You can't expect voices to be heard when there ARE no voices to be heard.

    The entertainment industry won't solve its racism problems until there are more than token nods to diversity, and black executives are put in decision-making positions.  Having people from different backgrounds in the rooms where decisions are made — having them listened to — means there won't be a Splash Mountain next time.

    I'm sorry to say that photos of the major comics companies wouldn't look much better than Disney or CAA.

    And that is a problem.

    We have a lot of problems — solving them won't be easy. But we can start today. I know it's exhausting, but what choice do we have?

     -- Heidi MacDonald

    PS: I know it's been a long time since we had a newsletter. Apologies for that. There have been other, more pressing, matters but we'll be back on schedule. 

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    - Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2006.28 - 10:10

    - Days ago = 1822 days ago

    - New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.
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