May Highlights

Finally Fishing Some Things...

Looks like May was the month where I managed to finish what I’ve been putting off. Whether that’s finish reading things I’ve got hoarded away, making posts about some of them, wondering if some of those were worth the wait, and finding some things worth spending time on.

Comics Need Reading

What I mean is, there some things that are easier to get through than others. I found out that while I like to imagine a couple of scenarios I don’t think I’m the biggest fan of Sandman Mystery Theatre. Not because I don’t think the stories aren’t good. Because I find myself with a better appreciation for Wesley Dodds, the most atypical Golden Age DC character. As well as his girlfriend and complex character since those days Dian Belmont. But I may not be the biggest fan of Noir mysteries unless I’m interacting with them.

Same with Danger Street. I can relate to characters feeling helpless with how small they feel in a world of practical gods. But when dialogue gets clunky and the pacing crawls, it might’ve helped if I actually try to solve a case.

Unlike say The Big Book of Barry Ween: Boy Genius, featuring uh… if Rick Sanchez was ten years old. Full of weird over-the-top science!, imaginative scenarios with gadgets, and enough laymen to make sure the foul mouthed genius stays humble. Laymen’s terms, while Barry’s the smartest person in the room, he’s never the most dominant and learns from his missteps. Plus the pacing, no clunky dialogue or narrations.

Which is why finishing The Red Star is so important to me. I’ve managed to get through both of IDW’s big albums and the narrations never felt out of place. Maybe it was the prose writing that keeps most of the narrations from becoming unbearable. Reading something that looks like war poetry about the complexities of being a soldier can do that. Meanwhile watching a walkthrough of the PS2 game gives me a good look at one character who I didn’t see enough of.

Heck the post I wrote got the attention of that franchise’s creator

Christian Gossett Vilá

. Who confirms that the only obstacle the Red Star has to finishing its story is money and a dedicated production team. Much like with

JL Johnson Jr.

, he’s doing prose writing in the meantime. …Makes me wonder if these two would be interested in Storiaverse.

Starting to see why Barry Ween’s creator Judd Winick and Gossett go into TV. More people to answer to, but at least the money and work’s steady. When it is. Making stories that a lot of people enjoy are great and all, but it’s not worth the mental exhaustion and burnout from doing it on a constant.

Managed to finally get around to reading something on my other Comixology borrows too. Grant Morrision’s JLA, or at least its first arc. It’s funny how Morrison sets up the foundational elements for the Justice League show, the seven main heroes, the Watchtower, and Batman being more of a consultant. But it all starts not with some big cosmic threat on the globe, it’s through an important question: when does intervention become domination? Hence why you can’t have superheroes try to solve every world problem. Anybody who would is either acting, trying to offset a delicate infrastructure, or just trying to profit off the discourse.

Incidentally, that’s what serves as the crux of the second omnibus of Kamen America. But what I really love about this series is how it focuses on the characters that drive everything forward. There is plenty of social and political commentary, but they don’t say everybody else is the bad guy or go into lectures or monologues. Because that stuff is really… really… boring. I’ve basically been trained by how most media default into reasons you suck speeches. But those offset the pace and… I’m doing that right now. I’ll just put my thoughts on this in another post.

The point is, I’ve found a few ways of looking at stories that can give me the feeling of being immersed in them. But they’re not often inside the book. It’s how my body doesn’t often force itself to find stimulus. Like when I’m sitting in a desk chair and feel my neck stiffening, impatiently waiting for the hours I need to prepare a meal, or my default option of reading lying down flat without raising my head to high to avoid needing as much stimuli. I read somewhere that’s trying to feel anything when you feel bored or helpless.

That last bit is hard to do when most of my reading material is on a desktop. I got lucky when the rest of Scott Pilgrim vs The World managed to avoid all of this thanks to GlobalComix and its guided panel feature. Less room to move my eyes all around to keep them from getting tired. Not to mention a lack of clunky dialogue.

So imagine my surprise when I read a zom-com called Zack The Zombie Exterminator. It’s about some redneck metalheads trying to improve their family’s living conditions by going into live-streamed zombie pest control. Aside from commentary about show business and high life, all of the characters are memorable in their own way. Quirky but layered, including my favorite in that one-shot Zane, the lead character’s Luigi. Not to mention the pacing is just right.

From the same company is Hellwitch, a more recent bad girl that isn’t just debauchery indulgence. Much like her creator’s earlier creation, it’s not just rage at unfairness but desperation to rise above her lot in life. Combine that with good pacing and an arc that justifies her embrace of darkness, she’s one character to follow.

Worth Isn’t Always Valuable

As for a certain post, I wonder if waiting for Danger Street Volume 2’s release for a promised post was worth it. I’ll definitely say that it is, but I can’t say I enjoyed it. Don’t get me wrong, the structure was fine and the characters are memorable with me being able to remember the Dingbats of Danger Street especially Non-Fat and Krunch with their loyalty and quirks. They weren’t even the focus-

Sorry, got sidetracked. In any case, the second volume definitely definitely got the point of DC’s Neglected Heroes across. No matter how obscure, even the least popular characters can become more. But these days, it’s a lot easier to make commentary about that than putting in the effort for the best story. Because no casual comics fan reads DC, Marvel, Image, or Dark Horse comics that don’t go viral.

This isn’t exclusive to just writing comics either, but writing about comics as well.

Yeti Sightings

has stopped taking review requests to focus on what their volunteers actually want to do.

That’s an attitude I’ve been leaning into recently. Partly because some of the requests I’ve gotten have been kind of unexciting. Most of them come from my most regular drop offs at Mad Cave. Galaxy of Madness was good with its angle, plus I’m an Oeming and Soma fan. But others are starting to just feel like work to review for. Of Her Own Design started out good, but then it started to lose steam and the writer admitted it.

Meanwhile Gatchaman’s request came at the worst time! Just before a much needed Memorial Day weekend! When you have a dream saying you need to get to work on a long weekend, work is the last thing you need. I wasn’t even that engaged with the issue and its Free Comic Book Day prequel. I just couldn’t work up the effort for something like this, especially since I wasn’t getting paid for it. At least Frank Silva was okay with it when I told him about it, especially since I left a link to Amazon pre-orders.

The other reviews like Anticucho and Scourge of the Skull Digger were definitely worth the time. Sure the latter was flawed, but at least it was entertaining with its presentation. While Anticucho was a nice way to reconnect with Gustaffo Vargas. Same with Ben Humeniuk and Band of Bards with A Last Goodbye. With that company becoming a co-op, I’m hoping for some good changes to the comic book landscape.

I just really wanna cover things that I planned and now that I’ve done a couple, only a few got more reader attention. It’s like you gotta anticipate trends before they happen. Hence why my Kamen America post had the highest growth out of hundreds of other posts. Hopefully a followup post can do as good, maybe that Fatgirl post I wanna do by Hyperverse and Antarctic Press too.

Coming Posts

All that I know is that when I do posts, it’s going to be things I want. But also follow any posts that people visit Gutternaut for. Although other country’s comics are still gonna have to wait. I’ve got a lot of other things I wanna do first. Including the Dead Boy Detectives. Late to the party, but I found a few ideas reading the entire maxi. Maybe even the Umbrella Academy…very late to that party but screw it, when the show tried to make the characters mundane, I’m going to say stuff.

But if people want me to drop what I’m doing to focus on something else, I’m going to start charging! I don’t leave links to my Ko-Fi just to look official. It’s only $2!

And I am definitely going to say things from the bulk of comics I have stored on my Desktop’s hard drive. I might even just start with Hellboy.

But first… Batman: The Court of the Owls, New Teen Titans, I Was Reincarnated as a Villainous in a- blah-blah, Predator vs. Wolverine, the first collected Phantom strips, and Avengers Inc. Or maybe practice tests…and then Breath of the Wild.