Though the current project started as a series of posts charting my grief journey after the death of my mother, I am no longer actively grieving. Now, the blog charts a conversation in living, mainly whatever I want it to be. This is an activity that goes well with the theme of this blog (updated 2018). The Sense of Doubt blog is dedicated to my motto: EMBRACE UNCERTAINTY. I promote questioning everything because just when I think I know something is concrete, I find out that it’s not.
Hey, Mom! The Explanation.
Here's the permanent dedicated link to my first Hey, Mom! post and the explanation of the feature it contains.
A Sense of Doubt blog post #3864 - Talking Conversations - Reprint of Hey Mom #380 from 2016
One thing that I don't actually do when I reprint is check to make sure I have not reprinted the post before.
It would have helped if I had marked in the original when I reprint the post, so when I go to reprint it again, I see that note.
But I can check my category. And this time, I will.
Okay, as best as I can determine, I have NOT reprinted this one.
I think it's a good one.
It's still true.
FUN FACT: This original HEY MOM post was published 382 days after Mom died. Today marks 383 days since Dad died. Pretty much the same. Had yesterday not been Music Monday, I would have published on Day #382 since Dad's death.
These synchronicities are meaningful to me, and I pay attention to them.
Thanks for tuning in.
The link to the original post that I am reprinting below:
Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #380 - Talking conversations - Throwback Thursday
Hi Mom,
I have missed our conversations in the last 382 days (and a few more since you were not so conversant near the end), and I have gotten away from the purpose for this blog, which is continuing those conversations.
So, today, on the Throwback Thursday, here's the news that is news. Here's what's going on and coming up.
The photo above will be 20 years old next year; next month, you would have celebrated your 58th wedding anniversary (August 16th), which is the same day as I acknowledge my cancer surgery.
So these assorted things that are happening are in no apparent order, much like our conversations.
Liesel and I went out to dinner last night and after trying to get in two different places we ended up at the Texas Corners Brewing Company and had a terrible meal, which is a shame because last summer it was one of our new favorite restaurants.
Liesel took a lamp to work for her desk, and I have to bring her a new bulb this morning.
It may be interesting to note that there are things I would share with you on the phone that I will not put in writing and publish to my blog. But I still tell you those things in my head, through my spirit.
The chickens need a new ramp for their coop, so we're getting one made. Paul Abueva should be over some time soon to measure. We're still waiting on our new awning, which I was hoping would get installed this week. The gas line for the new grill gets put in next Thursday.
I checked out two books on grief from the library last year around this time. I have to take them back today as they are due and I cannot renew them. I have never read them, but they look good. I skimmed the tables of contents. Maybe when I return them, I will check out new ones. There are other books on grief.
For record keeping or in case I want to go back and get them again, they are as follows
Grief and its Challenges by Neil Thompson. 2012 - BF 575 .G7 T49
The Truth About Grief - The Myth of Its Five Stages and the New Science of Loss by Ruth Davis Konigsberg - 2011 - BF 575 .G7 K638
The second book seems interesting as it argues against the five stages of grief. I like the term "disbelief" better than "denial" because it's not like I denied that you are dead, Mom, but it's more like I struggled to believe it, and I did not want it to be true. Likewise, bargaining was more like negotiating, which I see as somewhat different but those words are probably close enough. And I think "acceptance" as magical goal is over-rated. I still have not "accepted" it. I still don't want it to be true, your death, you gone. But I know it is true, and I go on. Maybe one of the stages should be functioning, going on, survival. something like that.
On to other subjects.
After weeks of putting off a Meijer trip, one is imminent. Possibly tomorrow. The list is quite huge. I am not sure I can afford it all. I may suggest to Liesel that we go to the night market tonight. It's a Farmer's Market event!
I just noticed that my phone's ringer has been off since Tuesday night when I silenced it for the musical I was reviewing.
I am reading "Normal" by Warren Ellis. He's serializing this novella in weekly e-book installments for four weeks. It's about an asylum for burnt-out futurists. I also started The Avenue of Mysteries by John Irving. And there's the usual comic books. I was reading off my Kindle for a while but I tired of that. I much prefer actual paper bound books, so the Irving is a hard cover.
I have been working. I am a bit behind on the Whirlpool job, but I have been catching up on grading. I have more to do today and tomorrow, but I am in good shape to take a 20-mile morning ride tomorrow, which I have decided is a weekly thing.
A thunderstorm just passed through. I think the serious part is over. More rain, which means no watering the garden!
I want an ice cream cone. I bought a package of drumsticks with nuts.
I am cooking a pork loin in the crock pot and have to do the dishes, which I will do as I listen to more of The Fuller Memorandum by Charles Stross, which is my current audio book.
I need to do laundry.
Liesel needed light bulbs and her phone charger brought to her at work.
I know, exciting stuff, right? But such were our conversations. This is a pretty good facsimile minus some of the more personal stuff.
Reflect and connect. Have someone give you a kiss, and tell you that I love you. I miss you so very much, Mom. Talk to you tomorrow, Mom.
- Days ago = 382 days ago - Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1607.21 - 10:10
NOTE on time: When I post late, I had been posting at 7:10 a.m. because Google is on Pacific Time, and so this is really 10:10 EDT. However, it still shows up on the blog in Pacific time. So, I am going to start posting at 10:10 a.m. Pacific time, intending this to be 10:10 Eastern time. I know this only matters to me, and to you, Mom. But I am not going back and changing all the 7:10 a.m. times. But I will run this note for a while. Mom, you know that I am posting at 10:10 a.m. often because this is the time of your death.
- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2509.16 - 10:10
- Days ago: MOM = 3729 days ago & DAD = 383 days ago
- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I post Hey Mom blog entries on special occasions. I post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day, and now I have a second count for Days since my Dad died on August 28, 2024. I am now in the same time zone as Google! So, when I post at 10:10 a.m. PDT to coincide with the time of Mom's death, I am now actually posting late, so it's really 1:10 p.m. EDT. But I will continue to use the time stamp of 10:10 a.m. to remember the time of her death and sometimes 13:40 EDT for the time of Dad's death. 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.
A Sense of Doubt blog post #3605 - Post-Christmas Gifts and Reflection and REPRINT of #2874 from 2022
Hi Reader, Welcome to the ULTIMATE blog entry of 2024.
Just a reminder if you are a semi-regular or regular and even for first-timers, my blog is more for me than for you. It's, as I have posted, MY STUDY not MY TEACHING.
If you enjoy this post, let me know.
I am writing to an imagined reader, obviously, not just to myself.
But I do not always spend a great deal of time composing and revising these posts (though sometimes), and I rarely check or track if I am writing something that I have not written before.
I am in the moment, the present here on this digital page.
That said, I like what I have here, and I hope you find some value in it.
I never used it as a topper photo, but I decided to do so this year as now both parents are gone. Other than my wife and kids and sister, I was closest to my parents.
The topper picture is my mother's chair and cushion not long after she died and her body was taken away by the funeral home.
Dad had a similar chair and cushion. I took the cushion, and it's in my office at school. The last thing he sat on.
The empty chair seems very appropriate this year.
Typically, people don't know how to handle other people's grief. There's no real place for grief in our culture. People are supposed to experience grief right after the death of the loved one, for a short time, and then get over it. This is common belief.
Grief does not work that way and getting over it is not something that people do.
We all experience grief differently, though.
Because of the expectation to "get over it," many people will repress their feelings, lock them away, mask, or "gaslight" themselves: I am okay, I am fine, I am over this now, it's not affecting me anymore. I have cried all I need to cry. I have moved on. I am living my life. I am fine.
But most of us are not fine, and the healthier people are those who acknowledge that truth, THEIR truth.
I recently saw a political commentator on CNN (okay, it was Scott Jennings) scoff at the idea that someone has a personal truth, "my truth," speaking "their truth." He said, there's not your truth and my truth, there's just THE TRUTH. Does he really believe that? Really have such a narrow view of the world?
Because we all have our own truth and all these truths are different.
But we will all experience grief, even though the reasons for the grief will vary from person to person and the tragedy will be different.
Losing my Dad, who was 89, and I am 62, knowing he was dying, in hospice, is not the same as a sudden death, especially of a child, someone with their whole life ahead of them, or even someone who has just started adult life only to suffer a sudden illness, a sudden accident, something that snatches away a person too soon and without warning or the time to say goodbye.
It's not the same grief as losing your spouse within the first year of marriage. It's not the same as losing a child from sudden infant death syndrome. It's not the same as watching someone die in a freak accident and have no time or way to help them, to save them. Or to have a loved one commit suicide without warning, without an explanation.
All these griefs are different. I would never claim that the pain I feel losing my parents compares to any of those deaths I just described and so many more that I did not describe. Like learning that your loved one was run over by a maniac in the French Quarter before the Sugar Bowl, or shot and killed while at school, a first grader, a ninth grader, a volunteer teacher's aide. Not at all like learning that Hamas tortured and then killed your child who was a hostage or that Israel slaughtered your entire family with their wanton attacks, and now you're alone and five-years-old.
Some of these griefs I struggle to even imagine.
My mother lost her mother to cancer when she was 19. Not a protracted battle and in a time when treatments were few and far between. My mother never "got over" that grief. She experienced it again and again throughout my life, and I watched her struggle. Though other sudden and very tragic deaths are awful, all loss and the grief it causes affects us in ways that are difficult to work through in a culture that does not have respect for that grieving process.
And surely, there are people who rate the tragedy and judge the grieving, hurt and having a healthy sob, even though their loss is not nearly as tragic as another: why should she sob over the loss of her parent decades ago (as my mother did throughout her life) when my son was shot and killed by three good ole white boys in a truck?
Sure, some deaths are more tragic than others and harder to make sense of. The unexpected and sudden deaths are especially tragic and nonsensical.
And yet, no grief is wrong. No grief is not worth expressing. No grief is more worthy of our sympathy, our empathy, our compassion, and our kindness than another.
Sure, I am 62-years-old and trying to cope with the loss of my parents, who died nine years apart, and my Dad who died 125 days ago whereas my mother died 3469 days ago.
But I am still feeling a bit lost at sea, sometimes more lost than others, in a world that does not contain my parents.
And there's all the firsts.
First Christmas without parents. No gifts from parents. No hugs with parents. No food with parents. No carols sung with parents. No family Christmas with parents.
Which brings me to the core of my post.
Presents were a very big deal in my family.
My mother and father LOVED giving presents, more so my mother.
And there were many special presents and traditions upheld. Stockings were filled with all kinds of special treats, small gifts, fun little things my mother found in her weeks and weeks of shopping. Some of the items may have been bought almost an entire year before. And always a huge apple and a huge orange in the stocking.
Then special gifts.
I have written about the box of comics every Christmas Eve:
But there was also a miscellaneous box of school supplies, stationery, bookmarks, stamps, and whatnot. Every Christmas. A whole box of new things.
And we made lists. And we starred or ranked items on the list. And mostly, our parents got the things most desired on the lists. But often, my mother would gift things she found or thought we should have, more so for my sister who liked the things my mother liked. But often clothing items my mom thought were gift worthy. A stuffed toy that she liked and wanted to share. Games, toys, decorations. Later in our years, at least one Christmas ornament every year, which is why I have so many ornaments because I rarely buy any myself.
And then, there would be pictures of us with our gifts (I will share a few below) and putting away what was in our stockings, as seen here:
We had to wait to enter the living room on Christmas morning. Santa had visited and left unwrapped gifts in front of the tree and filled our stockings. My Dad had to get set up with the flood light and the camera. We would come in and be filmed reacting to our gifts. As seen in the above photo, this was the year we got a PONG seen behind me. We had emptied stockings, and my mother had brought in bowls to contain all the candy, fruit, and nuts. See the big orange and apple I mentioned previously. See before me two littler stockings from when I was a very small child, the big one, emptied, is behind the green bowl between my mother and me.
After stockings and Santa gifts, then wrapped gifts.
Later, posing with the gifts, as in this photo from 1967:
ABOVE: Lori is three. Take note of the fish tank. This was the year my Dad made Lori a crib and a diaper table for her dolls. That's Baby Dreams she's holding, what would be her favorite for years.
ABOVE: I am ten. I think that's a BB gun in the corner. I got a microphone and toy amp. See the geology set, the comics, the toy car garage, the GI Joe Headquarters! And barely visible in the lower left by Lori's feet is a Batman hand puppet. It's hard to make out everything in the photos.
ALSO MORE UNWRAPPING THAT YEAR
I am a bit surprised to see myself in New York Jets pajamas, but I think they were because I loved Joe Namath.
We made quite a mess with wrapping.
Note the open box in front of my is a Burger King stuffed doll.
My mother wrapped everything in a box with tissue. She would stuff the box so the gift would not make much noise when shook. She camouflaged gifts. And she tried to have the gifts wrapped at least a week if not weeks before Christmas. We were only allowed limited opportunities to shake the gifts and some that she feared were breakable were not to be shaken, as we were vigorous shakers.
After the posing, which was often up to a week later, we had to write down every gift we received from everyone. When we were very young, Mom wrote these lists, and then when we got older, we wrote them. I have all the lists somewhere. I will surely present them on the blog in the future.
Here's the thing. I am still doing it. 62 years of lists. I HAVE TO DO IT. I also have to photo document my gifts. MUST.
So that's what is here. This year's photos of gifts and both this year and last year's lists, which must be handwritten, so I took pictures of them.
Many traditions have passed away, like my Mom's stationery box.
This year, I did manage to finish trimming the tree and we did not do stockings because of our trip to Michigan from Dec. 16th to the 23rd.
And traditions we have are not always well maintained, like we were going to annually have ginger pie and oat straw tea. Our annual trip to Powell's in Portland and dinner at Jake's may happen but has not happened yet.
I wish I had not missed out on when the kids were very young. But maybe there will be grand kids. :-)
I know I am blessed and extremely privileged. I was spoiled and sheltered. I was shielded and maybe given unrealistic expectations about the world and my place in it. Surely, I have never experienced the kinds of hardship many people in the world or even my own country experience.
I am grateful for everything that my parents did for me and my sister.
That's what makes missing them all the more of stinging loss.
I feel like there was not enough to compile all of their memories, to thank them enough for what they did for us.
But then, there is never enough time.
Below some commentary on this year's presents and a New Year's reprint.
ABOVE: a video of the tree and the presents. Below photos of the same.
ABOVE: This is my second mug with this text. This mug is not a new gift. I have had it for like 12+ years.
ABOVE: Gift to my wife by my artist friend Julie peck. First pic is the temporary placement after unwrapping, and pic two is likely its permanent home. LOVE IT!!
ABOVE: My presents were all games, books, and music. I have been a regular at Board Game Lunch. Two of those games I played there. I won at Keys to the Castle (more luck than skill). I hope to play COMIC HUNTERS some time this year, though I doubt the Board Game Lunch crew would be into it.
ABOVE: Why did no one tell me that Nicholas Meyer started editing lost manuscripts by John Watson about Sherlock Holmes? Nightbitch cam recommended by one of our visiting writers. Of course, Alan Moore. I still need to read Jerusalem. And there was a sale on Marvel Omnibus books. Favorite 1970s stuff. I had ordered the Micronauts and then "unordered" it. Now I need volume two.
BELOW: Not sure if it was in a comic store or an ad or someone's blog or what, but DECEASED hit my radar and I realized that I needed to read it. LOVE Tom Taylor. And look, a handy box set!
BELOW: Not that I need more superhero-themed glasses, but I did NEED this Mister Miracle glass.
Probably my favorite thing Kirby did at DC.
ABOVE: I adore Charles Burns and had not read this one. Didn't even know it had come out until Amazon told me as it knew I would be interested. Though it did come out just a few months ago. I have been wanting to read Babel for at least a year. It was ordered for me last year and then the order was screwed up, and there was no reorder. And I read ALL the Year in the Country books. Adore this stuff! Thank you Stephen Prince.
ABOVE: Another Sherlock Holmes book. This is fitting as I visited his "house" earlier this year in London. Plus, I LOVED Meyers' Seven-Percent Solution and The West End Horror. IBEYI is one of my new favorite music groups found in 2024, and the subject of a blog post scheduled to be posted possibly as soon as Monday. I missed some Laurie Anderson albums, so this is the most recent. And lately, I have been writing a poem, which may become multiple poems. A friend has raved about Ocean Vuong, so it's time to read those.
ABOVE: My sister gave me a gift (pictured below) as well as a box of cookies. The gift was in this bag with this tag.
BELOW: A WHOLE BUNCH OF T-SHIRTS.
As you may know, I wrote an entire year about T-shirts, one a day, on my t-shirts blog:
And I wear t-shirts nearly all the time, as much as possible, and so I feel it's fitting to get more as gifts this year.
So here they are, one-by-one:
ABOVE: A comic nerd can never have too many Spider-Man shirts, and I don't have a red one. See post all the way at the top of this entry about wearing red at this time of you. You're welcome, Dad.
ABOVE: I love t-shirts made from comic book covers. Avengers #100 from June of 1972. Art by Barry Windsor-Smith and writing by Roy Thomas. Right after the classic Neal Adams run.
ABOVE: So I found this album cover web site that produces stickers and t-shirts. I had to have several. This album above is among my very favorites. Featured on the blog here:
ABOVE: Favorite Cocteau Twins album. Part of the most frequent shower music. One of my top five all time favorite albums and most listened to albums. I have never featured this album alone in a post, and should fix that. Here's the Cocteau Twins mix post (the reprint) and the Shower Music post:
BELOW: Because I could not just get one COCTEAU TWINS shirt. I love all of their albums, but I really love this album cover art.
ABOVE: Thinking ahead for summer when I mostly wear white shirts with this one. Not my favorite Everything But The Girl (EBTG), but a good image and a great cover!
ABOVE: I thought I had reprinted my top albums list from the t-shirts blog here on Sense of Doubt, but I guess not. This album did not make the lists, but it should have, which makes me think a re-do of those lists is in order. Some day.
Originally published on my Dad's birthday. Two years before my Mom died.
These points in my life will always remain fixed and all things will be re-assessed around them.
I featured a lot of music from this album (above) in two mixes on this blog, the second published after Robbie Robertson died of prostate cancer, ten years after I had it.
His memoir is sitting in my stack of to re-do soon books. I suspect I get to it soon.
ABOVE: This album did make that album list and was in the second ten, so top twenty. It was one of five albums in m five-CD changer (which is currently broken and I need a new one) for years: Morph the Cat by Donald Fagen, Out of the Woods by Tracey Thorn, Another Day on Earth by Brian Eno, Love Deluxe by Sade, and then the fifth one that varied: The Seduction of Claude Debussy by Art of Noise,
the previously mentioned Hello Waveforms by William Orbit, Another Sade - Lovers Rock or Love is Stronger Than Paradise and among many others Gone to Earth - disc two - By David Sylvian and Robert Fripp.
However, Another Day on Earth by Brian Eno is definitely my favorite non-ambient Eno album.
BELOW: The two handwritten lists, this year and last:
A Sense of Doubt blog post #2874 - New Year's Eve - Reprint of SoD #2509 from 2021
I am dressed exactly this way today (except with the Michigan shorts because of the Michigan game). I wanted to try to replicate this picture. Doing stuff on the computer. My Tomb of Dracula t-shirt.
I am writing this from the next morning, 2023, so I can give report.
Michigan lost a heart breaker, badly in the CFP semi-finals.
We watched the movies The Blackcoat's Daughter and Ex Machina.
We opened our Christmas presents! My wife got me a VITAMIX for better creation of smoothies.
I tried to get some work done but could only do bills and other this and that.
I took the dogs for a walk.
I eased into the day and finished reading the Influencing Machine for class and started Maus (also for class). I even made some more progress in the extra back matter bonus material in the 50th anniversary edition of Slaughterhouse Five (also, for class).
Pot roast and potatoes for dinner.
It was a good day.
There were disappointments and problems in the year but also wonderful things, so it was a good year. I am happy with it, despite missing out on a job I wanted, getting robbed, my Dad has cancer, and I had two trips canceled.
But we moved to a beautiful house. My dogs are perfect. I am doing some of the best work of my life as a teacher. I saw Sigur Rós, Patti Smith, and Michael Pollan. And though I am not writing fiction as much as I wish to, I made some good forward progress in multiple projects and hope to bear down better in 2023.
What I need to do is better health -- working out, yoga, tai chi.
Eat better (hence the VITAMIX for smoothies).
Teach better and set up systems for the future to make the prep easier.
And continue to be loving and kind; be this:
I have collected here many NYE posts or near NYE posts from several years, starting with last year.
A Sense of Doubt blog post #2509 - New Year's Eve 2021
Hello and welcome to my New Year's Eve post for 2021. This one's a retrospective, collecting NYE posts and related content from the history of my blogging, all the past years.
I have ceased any big plans for NYE years ago. I don’t think I have been to any kind of NYE party in 30 years. Maybe longer. Time tends to dilate.
Putting the cover to this issue of New Year’s Evil here even though I haven’t read it yet.
My NYE posts from past years have a lot of variety. I am also reprinting some things that were not published on NYE but seem worth sharing.
I love the picture of me with Satchel from NYE in 2016 that you will find below. But then, there are lots of great pictures and content in this post.
I am also very proud of the “It’s About Family” post from 2018 that I share below with the picture of the Fantastic Four at Thanksgiving, because they are the number one family in comics.
And who knew that there was a movie called New Year’s Evil, too?
Happy New Year.
Stay home, stay safe, stay well, wear masks, do not infect others, care about other people.
December 31st, 2020 was a reprint of the WINTER IS COMING t-shirt post:
There's actually twenty-one entries here because I had to include the first one, but it doesn't count towards the top twenty. I tried to avoid listing so many posts that deal with grieving, but a fair share of them deal with it because its been a constant issue for half a year now. I wanted to include one of the dreams posts and the second one is probably the best of three, despite Liesel's dream as feature of the third part. Post #83 may not be the best in terms of writing, but I love the picture from the post and have included it above. I tried to be choosy, and so I included only one post from the Memorial Service, and probably, my favorite story. But I did not include any posts from other series' I wrote, such as the seven songs sequence and the Traverse City trip group of posts. Early posts were all especially poignant, such as #s two, three, and fourteen. I like the pair #25 and #50 make between counting days and disbelief. But then, the majority of the posts in the second ten are about other subjects than my grief and the loss you, Mom, at least, that is, until Christmas. Still, this is a good list, and this post could serve as a good introduction to what I am doing. I am especially proud of the blog as a whole, but I am especially proud of these twenty entries.
This cool t-shirt from the Hawaiian Force has the phrase in Hawaiian that reads "How you care for the land, is how the land cares for you."
There were also lots of pictures. Like this amazing tree.
There are no other posts from previous years published on New Year's Eve.
I did not make this post on NYE, but this photo of me in my Tomb of Dracula shirt with Satchel was taken on NYE in 2016. Please note the fence around the Christmas tree due to the brand new puppy ELLORY, and her puppy wild tendency for destruction.
Welcome to the Tomb of Dracula tribute page. In 1972 Marvel Comics introduced its fans to a familar figure but with a much different spin then they'd seen before thanks in part to the Comics Code Authority relaxing its rules on the depiction of vampires in comics and terrific writing and art by the team of Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan. The Tomb of Dracula lasted throughout the 1970s and earned numerous accolades from fans and critics alike. Join me now as we take a look at the color comic book series from the 1970s.
Marvel Comics Tomb of Dracula was more than just your average vampire tale. The comics weaved an ongoing saga plotting its title's vampire count against a group of vampire hunters. Gene Colan's pencils, inked by Tom Palmer, added a vivid dimension to Marv Wolfman's dramatic storytelling. The result was a gothic atmosphere which harked back at the classic vampire stories while at the same time adding new momentum to the theme.
BTW, I am working on a TOMB OF DRACULA post or a couple of posts that display all the comic book covers and material about each issue. Project for 2022!!
The following reprinted post was not from New Year's Eve, but I think it is very much worth republishing. Thank you.
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1391 - It's About Family: If extraordinary, add the ordinary: POP!
In reading an article on Incredible 2 in Entertainment Weekly, I was struck (Eureka! An Epiphany!) by a quote by Samuel L. Jackson.
"Ordinariness of who you really are is as interesting as this super thing you can do," Jackson insists. "These are movies about a real family with real family problems. Being a superhero doesn't put food on the table. You have to do something else to be part of real life."
Suddenly, I realized that all my favorite comics, my truly favorite comics, are about families. Sure I like loners like Daredevil and Batman, but I like them even better when they have established their own families.
But the comics for which I have enduring love are all families: Fantastic Four, Teen Titans, the Legion of Superheroes, the Avengers, The Uncanny X-men.
And it's that Chris Claremont rule that Marvel often forgets. After the X-Men have been romping out in space fighting the Brood for six issues, then show them at a picnic playing Baseball. They need R&R and we need a break from the cosmic diaspora.
The best comics do both at the same time. They build the family stuff and the relationships while keeping the action high, during the epics, and then showing down time in between.
The extraordinary fits itself around the edges of the ordinary. Because Reed Richards has to (or at least wants to) bathe and shave. But who knew the Thing needed to scrub his rocky hide? Well, we did as of this splash page by Stan Lee and the GREAT John Buscema for Silver Surfer #5 published back in 1969.
In fact, for many fans (all fans?) it may be the ordinary activities that we can relate to best. I have not fought the Brood in space and faced down the planet-eating majesty of Galactus, but I shower every day and I have played a few games of backyard Baseball.
Besides, fans like to endlessly debate things like who hits a home run father the Hulk or the Thing?
How different would a game of Baseball be by the X-Men with some or all of them using their powers?
And here, thanks to Samuel L. Jackson (Thanks, man, you're a mensch), I have hit on the thing that had me stymied for a series of books that I am writing called POP!
For this task I am drawing inspiration from Terry Pratchett's DISCWORLD novels (of which I have read about 20) and various comedies and parodies that I like, holding myself to be a bit less silly than Monty Python or Mad Magazine and yet both parody the superhero genre and the world around us in terms of politics, culture, consumerism, and mass media.
And yet, I have not made much progress in the years since I conceived the idea. Partly, the slow progress is due to time: work, career change plans, going to school, married and family life, and more have not always lent me the time I want for writing. Even this blog, which was supposed to galvanize my fiction writing -- so much so that I years ago thought about releasing Pop! in monthly or even weekly episodes on this blog -- has become more of a main activity, one that I enjoy immensely and need for self-care, but one which does not always allow me the time to produce very much (or any) original content.
And yet, when I did spend time on Pop! I felt like my process was not yet yielding the results I wanted. I had chosen a comic to use a basis for parody -- THE LAST GALACTUS STORY -- and my process was to rewrite it with an eye on satire and then once I had a core plot banged out, I would dress it up with tinsel and garlands, trick it out with a subwoofer and some chrome hub caps to make it less like the original more of my thing.
It's a strong foundation, and I have a lot good ideas and some good stuff written, but something has been missing.
What's missing is a focus on the ordinary, which is also a staple of the Discworld books.
And then Samuel L. Jackson reminded me of how important the ordinary is when juxtaposed with the extraordinary.
In the 1990s, I made a major push (major for me) to start publishing comic books with an idea that I called Night People, an idea from my friend Steve Curl about people who come just at night, which to me seemed to be about the UNDEAD and the classic movie monsters that I love so much.
Since Seinfeld was big at the time, my idea was to do a comic about class monsters "doing nothing," much like Seinfeld promoted itself as a show "about nothing." I wrote a first issue script and a Bible for the series. I worked with an artist, and we started the thing, hit some conventions, generated some interest, collected some emails and postal addresses for a mailing list (this is 1994-1995 after all), but the work fizzled. My teaching work ramped up as I took on extra classes while my freelance writing career really took off and I was writing for reference books, newspapers, and magazines.
But I liked the idea, I still do. Not to ape Seinfeld note for note, I would mix up the formula, but the dialogue rich discussion of the little things of life with snappy comebacks and amusing anecdotes intrigued me. It's definitely something to think about with POP!
And then there's the problem that superheroes are already so chimerical and surreal that they are almost parodies of themselves anyway and in fact sometimes the comics ARE parodies of themselves. But that's a conundrum for another time.
For now, I renew my support for what I love best about comics: the sense of FAMILY.
And along with the bonus content imagery, here's some bonus content thoughts on this book series from my journals in which I free-write ideas. SOME POP! NOTES
I think of POP! As a kitchen sink kind of thing. I want to pack in as much as I can and amp it all up for comic effect, which is why using THE LAST GALACTUS STORY as a basis for the first POP! Series is a great idea.
I was reminded of this last night as I was reading Charles Stross’ Accelerando: (bottom of page 227): “...the phones on the front desk are already ringing with inquiries from attorneys, fast-food vendors, and a particularly on-the-ball celebrity magazine...” And this reminded me that the media machine’s gears spin and churn all the time. There’s no pause for the system that never sleeps. This is the world of POP! It’s total immersion in AMUSING OURSELVES TO DEATH. It’s a boiling pot of everything and the kitchen sink, which is what is perfect about use of the Galactus story as a spoof. I need to tour the entire POP! Universe.
In reading my new book from the Church of the Subgenius, Revelation X, The Bob Apocryphon, I came across a list on page 116 that intrigued me. It’s a list of near-future prophecies, some of which are just silly, like “As a backlash against animal rights fanatics, Cruelty Plus^tm products introduced.” And though that’s funny, it has no ring of truth. But others caught my eye, especially “Definite link between eating disorders and F-Rays (TV) established. Legislation passed requiring video viewing permit for all citizens over twenty.”
It was the “video viewing permit” that caught my attention. What would the world be like that required a permit to be entertained, to watch TV?
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm......
Legion of Super-Heroes celebrating Christmas. Art by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ - Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1812.12 - 10:10 - Days ago = 1257 days ago and
- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2112.31 - 10:10 - Days ago = 2373 days ago and
- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2212.31 - 10:10
- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2412.31 - 10:10
- Days ago: MOM = 3469 days ago & DAD = 125 days ago
- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I post Hey Mom blog entries on special occasions. I post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day, and now I have a second count for Days since my Dad died on August 28, 2024. I am now in the same time zone as Google! So, when I post at 10:10 a.m. PDT to coincide with the time of Mom's death, I am now actually posting late, so it's really 1:10 p.m. EDT. But I will continue to use the time stamp of 10:10 a.m. to remember the time of her death and sometimes 13:40 EDT for the time of Dad's death. 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.
So these assorted things that are happening are in no apparent order, much like our conversations.
So these assorted things that are happening are in no apparent order, much like our conversations.
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