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Spent part of yesterday drawing a four-panel comic strip and having the time of my life, side of left palmmeats smeared in graphite, eight-year old inside thrilled to no end with his aging, decrepit 42-year old vessel. About fucking time, he said, more than once, About fucking time. Trying to get into the practice of drawing from a basic notion/idea, sans script: the thing took on a new (and far more interesting) life from what I had intended in writing; might as well roll with it. If nothing else, I finally found a use for all those old backer boards. Next up: figure out a workflow for inking, shrinking, and pubbing; eventually: a regular schedule.

meanwhile…

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The Super Powers Hall of Justice, complete in (beautiful) box, is mine once again. Many memories of hours of adventures with my long-gone original set in the days of yore. Second pic is its current home in The Collection. Couldn’t resist putting it alongside NEW YORK WORLD’S FAIR COMICS 1940, the first time Superman, Batman, and Robin shared a cover.

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Among the many things I failed to remember when I agreed to do the volunteer thing I said I would but had to bow out of because I feel like hell was the three day weekend: if K doesn't have school on Monday, Tuesday becomes my Monday, and if, as is the case today, an "unspecified threat" closes the school on Tuesday, Wednesday becomes my Tuesday which became my Monday, my shut-in/recharge day: not that I don't love having her home (and away from anything involving threat), but the reclusive ornamental hermit introvert in me can't stand being around other people for at least a day after two or more in the company of others, no matter how much I may enjoy said company; I usually don't schedule any social interactions on Mondays or Fridays, comfortable bookends of solitude to weekends of coupledom. It's better for everyone involved and the population at large.

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Hardest thing to overcome in these workchunks is my impatience and frustration with my methods, my fragmentary processes not unusually spread across three separate projects on a single (34") screen plus the reMarkable and whatever else I can get my hands on: a conflict with two sides of myself, the creative one who embraces uncertainty and questions and the recovering OCD/shoulda/haveta/must neurotic non-embracer of the un–. That being said: if I stick with those processes and methods long enough – if I can maintain the smallest bit of trust in them and a balance with myself – and don't let the frustration win out, it (usually) comes out right in the end.

SUPERMAN: SPACE AGE (Russell / Allred(s); DC, 2022-23)

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(*****+ / *****) Thought I'd spend the next couple of days with SPACE AGE and ended up binging the thing this afternoon: easily in my top three Superman stories of all time (WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE MAN OF TOMORROW and ALL STAR being in first and (now) third place, respectively), this is one of the most beautiful and profound superhero series to come out in (at least) the last 20 years. Love the retelling and reimagining of the first Crisis; the formation of the Justice League (bored Flash is brilliant); the first (and last) confrontation between a version of Batman and The Joker that I wanted to see so much more of (almost a mixture of Pattinson's THE BATMAN and Robert Downey Jr.'s IRON MAN); a spot-on portrayal of Superman that deftly mixes the outsider with the beacon of light (that I hope James Gunn has paid attention to); and a pitch-perfect version of the greatest love story in comics. Everything comics could be and then some; a triumph.

“something more ‘inward’…”

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Pleasant Monday surprise: something I wrote appearing elsewhere (that elsewhere being Kevin Hodgson’s always-excellent Kevin's Meandering Mind blog) along with a super-cool graphic version of same and generous linkage to the newsletter! Super-cool graphic version:

And I loved Kevin’s rumination on it (a sentiment I wholeheartedly echo) about blogs now being an inward space:

Tyler’s piece had me thinking (yet again) of this blogging space, and how my view of it has changed over time. It used to be more of a space that I imagined as “outward” facing — sharing with other bloggers, and being connected into larger blogging networks — but now I see it more as a reflective space, something more “inward” where I am curating my writing and thinking. My audience may be smaller (I may be my only audience) but I still keep the door open for others (you, perhaps?) to peek in and see what I’m up to.

Also happy to find myself sharing space with James Shelley's excellent piece, What's the fun in writing on the internet anymore? Many thanks, my friend.