what the bloggery

Down and down and down. Into the abyss, as I like to think. Further and further into the pit. The narrow stairs are crumbling and cracked in some places, brown and algae-slick in others. It’s very windy, and the air is so cold. The first stretch of stairs takes me through the overgrown brush; through patches of blackberry bushes, branches overgrown, leaves glistening gold in scant light, thorny vines crawling wild and bold. The second stairs take me to the bridge, where in the distance I can see the city, and the city is made of light. It burns in the dark.

The last staircase is silent. The brush is wild and dense all around yet I cannot see it, not anymore. I can feel the wind and I can see stars retreating very far away, and for one moment, that’s all. Me alone with the sky and the steps under my feet, the wind and the thorns, and my heart is full. I ache for nothing.

 -

This is the kind of shit I think about when I’m on my way to work. I haven’t done any concrete writing in months. I sit around and I do some thinking. An awful lot of thinking. Mostly I miss writing fanfiction, because fanfic fucking rules, even if it makes you kind of a lamer to admit to doing it. I mean, who feels the warm surge of pride when they tell all their new friends, “Yeah, I spend most of my free time writing erotica about some guy from a Japanese cartoon blowing Johnny Depp”?

(For the record, I may have pulled that example out of my ass, but I’ll bet you it exists somewhere.)

Lately, though, as hard as I may try to focus on my own characters, my mind wanders and I end up thinking about characters like, say, Deadpool and Nightwing and Iron Man and Batman and Captain America and Hulkling and Blue Beetle and ASSGUARDIAN—er, Wiccan—and oh yeah, Tim Drake!Robin. My point is this: I REALLY LIKE COMICS. I love Marvel and I love DC and I have spent way too much of my income the last few months at The Dreaming….Yet, somehow, not enough. My shelf o’ comics is nothing in comparison to Nat-attack’s. I can’t wait for ECCC (alternatively: ECx3 or the Easy Three), because last year there were at least four booths that did nothing but sell discount trades and older single issues. At the time, I glanced through some boxes, but I did not know what I was looking for. Now I do. Next year is going to fuckin’ rock.

Now let’s see, what am I reading lately…Ah, BLUE BEETLE.

I have not yet read the fourth trade, but 1-3 were un-fucking-believable. This series is fucking hilarious. It’s just fun to read, the way comics should be, and yet I have a Nightwing trade that makes me want to gut myself in a mall food court, it’s so goddamn terrible. I can barely read Blue Beetle when I’m around other people because I get the unbearable urge to share the love with anyone who might be nearby. “Hey you! Yeah, hobo dude. No, I don’t want to be your hobo bride, I want to tell you how much Jaime Reyes is awesome. See! Look! See how amazingly awesome he is? How clever and bright and adorable he is? You know, you’re right, Jaime would make an excellent hobo bride. Now go away, you smell like feet.”

People’s Exhibit A (for why the series is awesome):

And that’s not even the part of the series where Albuquerque is drawing! I fucking love Albuquerque. He draws these way-too-detailed mouths that are slightly creepy and deeply hilarious.

I kind of love those creepy little teeth. (p.s. that is probably my favorite picture of Robin)

I do not yet own Blue Beetle (it’s on loan from Natterrific) —but it’s going to be the next series I buy once I finish acquiring 52. Which is awesome, yes, but not the point right now. JAIME is. Oh, how I love him. Is he legal yet? Do I care? I want to squish him. I even want to read the new Teen Titans run (which I hear is God-awful) just for more Jaime. Also because maybe I want Jaime and Tim to sit around and hold hands. Don’t judge me >:(

More evidence of Jaime’s awesomeness:

This series is so fantastic. I can’t even remember where I was going. Let’s see, art: check, writing: check. Plot: hmm, nothing life-altering. It’s pretty great, but sometimes it’d get a little hard to follow, and I’d wind up just drooling at the art and laughing when Paco and Jaime were hilarious, meanwhile I wouldn’t even know what they’re investigating or why. Something about the scarab, probably.

I will say this: I really do appreciate the concept of science so advanced it looks like magic. I love it. I think this run has the most believable retcon because it holds onto all of the old events that have transpired around the blue beetle scarab without really rewriting anything, just making up new shit to fill in the gaps. Instead of saying, “Uh yeah, [event] never happened”, it’s more like, “[event] still happened, but the characters didn’t know any better”.

I’m just babbling at this point. I should probably get back to work. I meant to talk about all the comics I’ve been reading, but I guess I’ll save it for next time. Maybe…Arkham Asylum??

Here’s two for the road:

 

 

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 21st, 2008 at 23:59 and is filed under comics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.