🚆🚆🔷🚪

I was talking to a guy who's a bit older than me...by about ten years...and who seems like a decent fellow--although I don't really know him all that well. He has a daughter who is mentally handicapped, and he is her primary caregiver. And as we were talking, he told me that he had stopped by to visit the place he used to work, and that he found out that the person who had replaced him was a transgender woman. He then proceeded to tell me that this woman had spent the majority of her life as a man, had competed in athletic events as a man, had ("even!") fathered children, and had worked as a coach for a college team, then had decided to become a woman. Although this guy didn't actually say anything nasty about this woman, the sneer on his face said it all. When he stopped his diatribe for a breath, I said, "Wow, that must be really hard for her. To make that kind of decision after so long would take a lot of courage. And there are a lot of people who give transgender folks a hard time." He looked at me as if he thought I must not have understood his story, but then he moved on to another topic.

The thing is, though, that this guy isn't a bad guy, really. You'd probably get along fine with him if you met him. (Unless you were transgender.) And he takes very good care of his daughter. And you'd think that a man who has the care of a handicapped daughter would have seen enough unfair shit come down his (and her) way that he'd be the last person to condemn someone else because they weren't a part of the Herd.

But no.

This (and Last) Week's Comics: October 22nd and 29th, 2021

 

Not much of a haul considering that I didn't make it to The Great Escape last week, but all three were at least pretty good.

Checkmate #5 was showing signs of Bendisitis, especially with respect to the dialogue. The man has no ear for how real adult people speak. Although I have to admit that he captures pre-adolescent banner to a T. It's just disconcerting to have our grown up super-heroes talking that way. And the art...which so enchanted me at first ...just looks stiff now. Not to mention murky. I was surprised to see that Dave Stewart was doing the colors, as I have admired his work in the past, but maybe he's under orders to make the artwork look kind of shitty for this book. Anyway, despite all of my disdain, there were parts of this book that I did still enjoy. For instance, when the Checkmate team transports to the basement of the Hall of Justice, then just kind of hangs out there bickering because they don't want to tip off the bad guys as to their location. That was a nice little plot twist. So I am kind of looking forward to issue #6, but I'm also glad that that will be the end of it. This isn't the Checkmate I was looking for. Guess I'll have to go back and read The Janus Directive again if I want to get that. 

Fantastic Four #37 Yes, I did come back for more after all. Thought that the Nico Leon art was kind of shit, I'm sorry to say. And the Halloween cover was just sad. But Dan Slott's story was actually pretty good. It was also nice to see Spider-Man pop up to chat with Johnny Storm...who is now wearing a containment suit because he can't flame off, but still manages to melt the arm off of the Statue of Liberty. Since I've been out of it with respect to the Fantastic Four for some time, I still don't really know where we are with the characters, but if I stick with this title (a possibility) for a few more issues, I think I'll get the hang of it. 

Usagi Yojimbo #23 I've bemoaned the repetitive nature of Usagi stories in the past, and that's no less true here, but still...in the context of the above mentioned (and not bad bad) comics here, I really appreciated Stan Sakai's book. The dialogue was natural and suited to the characters. The art was lovely. The colors were bright and pleasing to mine eyes. Definitely the book of the week. Or of the two weeks, actually.

Next Week's Comics:

Dark Knights of Steel #1looks interesting. Short version: Batman is a knight. Not a Dark Knight, but a knight knight. And I'm guessing that  our man Superman will be in there somewhere as well, right? At any rate...it's a Tom Taylor production, so there's a high probability that it will be well-written. 

Static: Season One #4 No need to say more than: Great book, sorry that it will be ending soon, glad to hear that it will be coming back for a Second Season.

Icon and Rocket: Season One #4 Yes, two Milestones in the same week (if the previews is speaking truth), which makes it a good week, for sure, but I wish that they were spread out a bit more so I'd get one per week (more or less). 

I would be interested in Airboy #52 (written by Chuck Dixon, who always brings home the bacon), but this 40 page comic book sells for $6.99, which is just ridiculous. Here's hoping Hoopla adds this title at some point. (Right now they only have the four issue James Robinson / Greg Hinkle version, and that wasn't really my cup of tea.

4 Days To Go!

Heather Bond's Kickstarter campaign (HERE) ends in just four days... and right now she's only 70% of the way to her goal. If you'd like to help a young singer/songwriter and capture some hella good music in the bargain, now is the time!

Bond. Heather Bond.

So far as I know...and I have no inside information on this...two songs are available from the forthcoming Heather Bond album, The Mess We Created.

Here, have a look & listen.

Nice, huh? I really like the stripped down sound...and Viktor Krauss's bass is quite a band in and of itself, isn't it? He's played with lots of cool folks...li'l sister Alison, Bill Frisell,  Lyle Lovett, Dolly Parton, Michael McDonald, Sam Bush, The Chieftains, Mary Chapin Carpenter, John Fogerty, Steve Forbert (one of my personal favorites), Randy Travis, J. D. Souther, Harry Connick Jr., Kenny Rogers,  and others (!!!), but his work here with Heather Bond just seems free and happy and soulful. And said bass is a perfect compliment to Heather's sweet, soaring vocal lines. Yep. This is going to be a superb album.

Which is why you should go to KICKSTARTER Right Now and throw down some bucks: $7 for a digital download, $15 for a CD, or $30 for some sweet, smooth vinyl. There are only 10 days remaining to his Kickstarter campaign and there's a way to go yet, so don't delay.

Foundation: A Tale of Two Women

After watching Episode 5 of Foundation, "Upon Awakening," I had a come to Asimov moment, and based upon that decided that I wanted to re-watch Episodes 1 through 5 with my new perspective so that I could then watch Episodes 6 through 10 with a different point of view in place. I didn't actually think I'd be able to do it, since (1) I'd watched Episode 5 on a Saturday, which meant that I'd have less than a week before Episode 6 dropped, and (2) those first five episodes had a collective running time of 4 1/2 hours, and that's a lot of tv time for me. But I hadn't factored in my COVID booster shot. I got Pfizer #3 Saturday afternoon, and when I woke up on Sunday, I was not doing well at all. In fact, I didn't even feel well enough to turn the television on, and I spent almost the entire day sleeping. Monday morning I felt slightly better, but still not good enough to do much of anything. But I did manage to turn on the television, and I didn't get up until I had finished re-watching Episode 1. After a couple of minutes of this and that I went back to the sofa and watched Episode 2. That put me halfway through the total running time of the first five episodes, and after a little of this and that I was back on the sofa again and finished off Episode 3. I was back up and functioning Tuesday morning, but still had time to squeeze in Episode 4, and today, Wednesday, I finished off Episode 5. So here I am...a day ahead of schedule and ready for Episode 6. 

And quite anxious to see it, really. Because I have a completely different perspective on this show now.

Asimov's Foundation was about a bunch of white guys struggling for power. He tried to change it up a little bit in his two prequel novels and his two postquel novels...adding in a woman or two, adding in a robot or two...but it didn't substantially change anything. 

But Apple TV+'s Foundation is quite a different story.

It is a tale of two women.

The first (chronologically speaking) is Gaal Dornick, who is, in both versions of Foundation, a brilliant mathematician from a planet called Synnax...a planet which in neither case is a haven for intellectual brilliance. (Though the Apple TV+  Synnax is definitely on the more extreme end of that insult, and, in fact, serves as a stand-in--and David Goyer said this pretty straight-forwardly on the Foundation Podcast--for climate change deniers in our world.) But in the Asimov novel, Gaal is a white man whose main actions are in the bureaucratic sphere. In the tv show, Gaal is a young black woman  who has lots of sex with her boyfriend and swims in the pool onboard the exile ship carrying the Foundation people to Terminus. And I have the feeling that big things are going to happen to her in Episode 6, so stay tuned for more on this.

The second (cs) woman is Salvor Hardin. Yes, Salvor Hardin--as in a mere v, a, and e away from Harri Seldon. I've often wondered what was up with that. But that's beside the point. In both versions of Foundation, Salvor is a person who is in charge of things on Terminus, and who successfully leads the citizens of the little planet through the First Crisis. (Well...I think that's what will happen in the tv show, anyway.) But, once again, the Asimov novel version of Salvor is a white guy bureaucrat, while the TV series Salvor is a black woman who is a very competent warrior...and who has some other as yet not designated abilities which seem to be extra-sensory in nature.

And once you realize that this is the story of these two women, things are much clearer. I did begin to realize this whilst watching Episode 5, but when I went back and re-watched Episodes 1 through 5 with this perspective in my mind, I enjoyed the series much, much, more. And I am sincerely anxious to see Episode 6 now, whereas before my epiphany I was getting a little tired of the show, and actually beginning to wonder if I wanted to spend any more time with it.

Also, I really wish that I had known this (🚺🚺) before I watched the first episode of the show. It would have made a big difference to me.

So I thought I'd put this out there. If you've held off watching Foundation because you heard that it fiddled with Asimov's story, then I hear you, and I feel you. I went into this expecting it to be a visualization of Asimov's wonderful novels. But if you can let go of that and see this more as a paean to Asimov...and as a Tale of Two Women...I think you're really going to enjoy this show.

For one thing, it looks great. Seriously, it's one of the best looking science fiction shows I've ever seen...and I've seen thousands of them.

More news as it happens.

DC Fandome 2021: Milestone News!

I tuned in to DC FanDome to see what I could see, thinking it would just be a little bit of background music with occasional moments of interest, when lo and behold, there was a big segment on Milestone, featuring Reggie Hudlin and Denys Cowan!

And there were some Big Announcements. To wit...a Blood Syndicate comic book is on its way in 2022...an animated feature is in the works...and there are plans for Season Two books, which is quite a relief to me as the end of Season One is looming large on the horizon at this point.

And, of course, there's Milestone Compendium One coming out in February 2022. Very exciting.

You can view the Milestone segment by going HERE, then advancing to 3:21:50. 

No, no, no, thank YOU.

This Week's Comics: October 15th, 2021

Just two books this week, but good ones:

It seems like forever since Hardware #1. In fact, Issue #1 came out August 10th, 2021 so it HAS been quite awhile. That's a shame, as I don't think anything kills a comic book faster than an irregular printing schedule. But the good news is that this issue was much, much better than Issue #1, which was essentially a new version of the first #1 (1993). This time around things start to widen out a bit, and there are some references to Static which pleased me greatly. Also most pleasing is that Denys Cowan and Bill Sienkiewicz are still on the art chores, and they are doing a great job of it. Early on in this issue there's a panel showing a close up of Curtis Metcalf (Hardware)'s face which was just stunning. It actually made me stop and just study it for a few minutes. Which is not exactly what you want comic book art to do on a regular basis, but in this case, I found it quite a pleasing scent in my nostrils.

Speaking of pleasing scents...Mamo #4 was just pure, comic book reading joy. The story of the relationship between the two witches continues to develop, the relationship between the talking crows and the witches goes to shit, and You-Know-Who finally appears. The only thing I dislike about this book is that there's only one more issue, and I am definitely not ready for the story to end. Hopefully Sas Milledge has some other stories up her sleeve. And hopefully enough people are buying Mamo to make it worth Boom! Box's time to have another round set up for us. Speaking of, let's just ask our friends at COMICHRON how Mamo is doing.

Hmmm.

Issue 1 came in at 150 of 450, and sold 17,560 copies. Not bad. Unfortunately, however, Issue 2  came in at 236 of 460,  and only sold 7,022 copies. September sales haven't been posted yet, but I'm sorry to say that I'm pretty sure that I know how this goes. I'd guess that #3 was at 5,000 copies, and #4 down to 3,500 or so. I could be wrong, of course. I hope that I am. And I don't know how many copies a book has to sell these days in order to break even. But I'd guess that 5,000 is not a sustainable level of sales. 

So here's your chance, kids! If it helps to encourage you, not only does Mamo give you great story and art, it's also a much better deal than you get from other books: this time around there are 27 story pages and two sketch pages for just $3.99. 

Next Week's Comics: 

Fantastic Four #37 I think I said I was through with this book after reading #36 and feeling cheated...but that was then, this is now.

Suicide Squad #8 With more Ambush Bug. Hmm. Wasn't this issue supposed to have come out several weeks ago? I'm getting that deja vu feeling. 

King Spawn #3 I actually have zero interest in this title, but the cover sure looks like Todd McFarlane is baiting Dave Sim, so I might have to have a look at that. See?

And speaking of covers...the cover to Hyperthick #2 really caught my eye:

Never heard of this book...or even of the publisher, for that matter... but I really must have a look at it if it comes in to TGE. 

And oh...I just Googled Floating World Comics and found out that they are based in Portland, Oregon, whence cometh so many good things. And that Mr. Alan Moore had this to say about the first issue of Hyperthick: “With Hyperthick, Steve Aylett has blundered like a confused and angry bear into a new dimension of poetic genius.” So, yes, I would like to have a look at that.

Talking About Andrew Bird & Ted Lasso

I'd been extolling the virtues of Ted Lasso to anyone willing to listen to me, one of whom, my #1🌞, got down to business and polished off both seasons lickety split (while I'm still working my way through season two; I'm not much of a binger). And I mentioned to said 🌞 that one of the episodes featured a song by none other than Andrew Bird, who (1) I love dearly and (2) I saw in concert with #1 some years back, when we still did things like going to live concerts. * A few minutes after making this pronouncement, I got into my car and headed for home. I decided to listen to NPR for the 15 minute journey...which isn't something I normally do at night, by the way. And a story about an Ethiopian musician (Meklit Hadero) was on, and was interesting, so I gave it a listen. (You can give it a listen to, if you want to, by going HERE.) They played some of Meklit's music, and I was interested enough to remember the name of her latest album and Google it when I got home. When I did, I saw that /bandcamp was listed as one of the places that this album was available. Well. They had me at /bandcamp, for sure. So I clicked on that link and here's what appeared:

Uh, Mister DeMille?

Yep. 

Weird fuckin' world, ennit?

ANYway...

The Meklit album is fabulous. Give it a free listen or two, then buy it from /bandcamp HERE. 

And all this talk of Mr. Bird has whetted my appetite so that I pulled out his albums and have been spinning them. My goodness, he is SO good. And yes, now that you mention it, he does have quite a few albums available on /bandcamp. HERE you go for that. 

Ah, /bandcamp. Is there anything they can't do?

* I have since come to doubt my veracity on this, as I have searched and not been able to verify the presence of an Andrew Bird song in Ted Lasso. It is possible that I was mistaken or that I hallucinated this, but that's not the point of this story, thus...a footnote.

Again, Evil

A mere six weeks ago I was writing to extol the virtues of Evil Seasons One and Two. And now, 6 episodes later, I have to say...never mind.

Yep, they drove this show straight over a cliff so far as I'm concerned. 

And it's mostly about tension.

The primary tension was that which existed between the reality of evil (as in demons, the devil, etcetera) and a rational, scientific explanation for what was going on. The show did a masterful job of maintaining that tension in the first season. In the first part of the second season it started tipping over towards the Nope, Evil Is Real side, but in ways that I found acceptable. But now? The tension is gone. Evil is loose in the world, demons cavort around trees in the middle of the night, and Satan wants to suck your soul out of your body through your nostrils. In other words, it's just another stupid horror movie. So to speak.

And the secondary tension...the obvious sexual attraction between priest-to-be David and trollop-to-be Kristin? That's all gone, too. 

There are other things, too, but I don't want to talk about it. I just wanted to say if you followed my recommendation and watched this show, then I apologize. Or better yet, if you followed my recommendation and watched the show up until Episode 20, "S Is for Silence," then take some even better advice and Stop Now! The last six episodes of season two are only going to ruin the good buzz you've gotten from the first season and a half.

This Week's Comics: October 8th, 2021

Yep, just one comic book this week. And not even one I was aware was coming out. 

Human Remains #1. From Vault Comics. It's been a long time since I bought a Vault Comics comic book. I was pretty fond of them way back when...especially when they were doing those super-de-dooper cool homage covers. But that was...two years ago, believe it or not. I wasn't actually interested in picking up this one when I saw the cover, but I noticed that it was a #1, and I try to at least take a little taste of anything new, just to give it a chance, and when I did, I saw that it was written by none other than Peter Milligan (whose Skreemer made a huge impression on me way back in 1989), so I decided to buy it. To be honest, if anything else had been out I probably wouldn't have done so, but Suicide Squad #8, which I'd been expecting, was nowhere to be seen (and is now listed as coming out October 19th--I swear it's not me, these publishers keep shifting the dates underneath me). And I did pick up Jennifer Blood #1 to have a look, but (1) the art was really ugly and (2) I caught a glimpse of a scene where someone's intestines had been yanked out of their body, and that's all I needed to know about that book. 

So I picked up Human Remains #1. And I just finished reading it. And? Well...I haven't seen A Quiet Place (or AQP2, for that matter)...but if I'm correct in thinking that the gist of it is that you have to be very quiet all of the time or nasty creatures will eat you, then I think I can safely say that Human Remains is a rip-off of that movie. Or movie series. In this comic book, the only twist is that the creatures are attracted to emotions which are proclaimed loudly, which I suppose is almost a slightly different thing, but not quite. A ripped-off and / or stupid concept isn't necessarily a deal breaker when it comes to comic book love (alas that it should be so and alas alas that it should be uttered), but there's more not to my liking here. For one thing, there was a lot of blood and guts. More than the glimpse I had in Jennifer Blood #1, actually. For another thing, there was a lot of death in this issue, but not a single character had been developed at all, so it really was hard to care very much that this was happening. Stephen King would have given us about a hundred and thirty pages of character development before he mutilated a character. Also, as I recall Vault Comics gave pretty good bang for the buck back in the day, but that day seems to have passed. This comic was 20 pages and done. And as if all of that weren't enough, the art was pretty sub-standard, I'm sorry to say. So nope, I won't be back for issue #2. Sorry, Mr. Milligan. 

Next Weeks Comics:

Mazebook #2--still at $5.99, and I'm pretty sure that I'll be passing on that one, since I bought issue #1 and wasn't impressed with it.

Static: Season One #4--which I'm hoping actually appears, because I love this book. Probably my favorite comic going right now.

Hardware: Season One #3--same here, just slightly less good, but still great.

Mamo #4--Didn't realize this was coming out, and I am really excited about it. This is such a superb book. Good job, Boom!

Also, I saw several titles listed which were from Second Sight Publishing...of which I'd never heard anything before. So maybe that's a good sign, that a new company is testing the water in a pretty big way. Have to say none of the titles looked interesting to me, but hey, there's room for all kinds of folks out there, right?

Yevtushenko's Reader

 

Some time ago...when I was reading Stalingrad by Vasily Semyonovich Grossman / Васи́лий Семёнович Гро́ссман...I decided to have a look at a book I'd bought some time before, Bratsk Station and Other New Poems by Yevgeny Yevtushenko. I'm not completely sure why I picked this book up from the wire-stand spinner rack at Half-Price Books...although it's easy for me to guess that the idea of poems about a power station alone would have been enough for me. I had never heard of Yevtushenko before. I have had a bit of a crush on Russia for some time, and I'm sure that that also played into it. At any rate, I had not done more than glance at the book for years until Stalingrad excited my hunger for more Russian things. 

When I read it, I found it interesting, but also found it to be more than a little bit clumsy. There were many times when I thought, "This is not very good poetry." Now, of course, that could be the fault of the translator, I'd have no way of knowing anything about that. But I guessed that that was not the case, because there were other times...sometimes just a line or two in a poem, sometimes a whole poem... wherein I was really touched or blown away by what Yevtushenko had written. I finished the book, and did not do what I normally do when I finish reading something which has affected me deeply: I did not seek out any more works by Yevtushenko. Which suggests to me that my Yevtushenko stomach was full, and that I was moving on, moving on. (Yes, thinking of Yoko Ono there.)

But then a few weeks ago as I was going through that self-same wire spinner rack at Half-Price Books...and I will confess that it is my favorite part of the bookstore, because you never know what you're going to find there, and the books are never very expensive...I spotted something called Yevtushenko's Reader. I fondled it for a bit, not even sure that this was the same guy I'd read before (that's how dim my memory of the poet was)...got out my phone and Googled, affirming that this was, indeed, the guy who had written Bratsk Station...and then I ended up putting the book back on the rack. However...as often happens...after I got home I started thinking that I should have bought that book. So the next day...maybe a couple of days later...I went back, and lo and behold, the book was still there. (It usually doesn't work out that way when I pass on a book.) So I took that as a sign and bought it. And much to my surprise, I began to read it almost immediately.

And it only took a page or two before the second piece, "A Precocious Autobiography," caught me up. (I don't know why I'd skipped the first piece, which was only a half-dozen pages long, but this second piece formed the majority of the book--142 of the 180 text pages, almost 80%, so maybe I was just anxious to get to the main course.)

But the short version is that I read this book in just a few days, deeply loved it, and am now seeking out more Yevtushenko, beginning with The Collected Poems, 1952-1990,  which should be arriving at my branch of the library pretty much any minute now. To be honest, there aren't that many books of poetry that I've read cover to cover...and most of the ones that I did were written by Charles Bukowski...but I am hoping that after experiencing the wonders of Yevtushenko's prose, his poetry may sing a different tune for me now.

Details as they happen. 

Here are just two things from "A Precocious Autobiography" which I found particularly striking:

"Poetry, if it is genuine, is not a racing car rushing senselessly around and around a closed track; it is an ambulance rushing to save someone." (Semyon Isaakovich Kirsanov / Семён Исаакович Кирсанов to Yevgeny Aleksándrovich Yevtushenko / Евге́ний Алекса́ндрович Евтуше́нко).

"...the wicked usually hang together even when they hate each other. This is their strength. Good people, however, are more scattered and this is their weakness."

And doesn't that pretty much sum up the current state of politics in the U.S. of A.?

Oh, P.S. The contents of this book: 

The Spirit of Elbe (To My American Readers) 

A Precocious Autobiography                                

Epilogue                                                       

Poems 
New York Elegy                                                                                              
Gentleness                                                                
Babii Yar

Fears

Talk

Birthday

Colors

Zima Junction

Bombs for Balalaikas

Dwarf Birches

Belly Dance

Waiting

Thanks

Some of the poems were discussed at some length in "A Precocious Autobiography," so it's cool that they're included here. Other poems that were discussed in the text...such as Yevtushenko's first published poem...are not included, which is a bit frustrating. And other poems which were not mentioned in the text are included, which is puzzling. It seems like there was an idea here which wasn't allowed to come to fruition, but hey, what do I know. I enjoyed the book immensely, and recommend it to you unreservedly.

Bull Shirt

Back in the days of Arbutus Junior High School, Bobby (future Governor of Maryland) and Gary (sorry to say I lost contact with him) and I were pals. We sat together in chorus, and would make up ribald lyrics to songs. (Or maybe that was just Gary.) I remember that in Spanish there was a comic strip in a magazine that we read in class called Gregorio el Gordo...Gregory the Fat...and because of the similarity between "Gregorio" and Gary's last name, we began to call him Gordo, and eventually that became Gord  (He was tall and slim, if that makes it any better.) And our pièce de résistance...or perhaps I should say our plato fuerte (thanks, Google Translate)...was when one of us coined the term Toro Camisa. Bull shirt.

That was a big favorite amongst us, for sure. As in put to use multiple times every day.

And many years later...about thirty of them...I told my to be second wife about it...and she found it amusing enough that when she went to Spain for a visit, she bought me a red, short sleeved T-shirt with a bull on it. My very own toro camisa.

Well, I wore the hell out of that shirt. At some point I decided to make it into a muscle shirt and cut off the sleeves. And I continued to wear the hell out of it.

It lasted a lot longer than my second (also known as my final) marriage. And at one point it was a key part in me breaking up with the second to the last woman I dated. (Long story, not to be told here.)

But I looked at it the other day...the picture and the writing almost faded out of existence...the holes ripped in it by my cat, Jet...

...and I had to admit that it was time to put the old bull out to pasture.

I have a hard time letting go of things...especially when they are saturated with memories of love and loss...and junior high school Spanish class with my pals. 

But I'm at the age where I either have to start letting go of things or know that before too many more years have passed there will be a dumpster in my driveway, and that someone I love will be shoveling the detritus of my life into that dumpster and wondering, "Why in hell did he keep this?" And it will probably make him (or possibly her, but probably him) love me a little less. 

And I certainly don't want that.

This Week's Comics: October 1st, 2021

Icon and Rocket Season One #3 This is my least favorite of the three Milestone comics, but even so, it is getting better and more interesting with each successive issue. This time around there was a reference to an alien super being who is hired by the U.S. government to eliminate problems...one of which was an alien baby who landed in Kansas in 1939. Mmm-hmm. And the alien super being kills the baby in the cradle, before its powers can fully develop. (Interesting that the date given is 1939, since Action Comics #1 was published April 18, 1938. Was that a "plausible deniability" thing? Or just having some fun? I don't know. Anyway...the primary focus of this issue was Icon and Rocket's war on drugs...and the global economic catastrophe that their actions trigger. (Hence the alien super being being brought in to solve the problem Icon and Rocket have created.) The art is a bit hard to follow at times...kind of along the lines of (forgive me) Gene Colan. You know, that fluidity which sometimes makes it difficult to discern details. But all in all this was a pretty good issue. Now bring me some more Hardware and Static, please. Especially Static. 

Checkmate #4 Guest starring...speak of the devil...Superman. This was better than issue #3, which just seemed to churn in place, but I'm already losing interest in this series, I'm sorry to say, and I'm not really sure that I need the final two issues in the series. There were some good moments, though...like Green Arrow and Manhunter showing up to foil the bad guys who have invaded the Justice League satellite. I'm beginning to notice that Alex Maleev's art...which I have loved in the past...isn't quite working for me these days. His figures seem very stiff, and I don't think it measures up to the stuff he did on, for instance, Daredevil back in the day. 

And from the back issue bin...

The Many Deaths of Laila Starr #1 Cover B David Mack Death Foil I've actually read all of this five issue series (courtesy of Hoopla), but I found this lovely foil cover...and I really, really love David Mack (if you haven't read his Kabuki series...especially the later color ones...then you're missing out on some of the best comic books ever. There's a very nice omnibus series which you can get from Kindle or ComiXology for about $10 a pop...four volumes, each running to over 350 pages). So I bought it. This was an interesting series. The writing wasn't quite what I wanted it to be, but it wasn't bad. And the art. Well. If you're a Paul Pope fan, I think you'll be pleased with what Filipe Andrade has done here. (And if you're not a Paul Pope fan, well, then...prepare to fall in love.)

I picked up and looked at Deathstroke Inc. #1 & Batman Vs. Bigby! a Wolf in Gotham #1, and ended up putting both of them back because of the artwork. Same for Detective Comics #1043. And I'd really wanted to check in on DC, too. 

And I almost bought Groo Meets Tarzan #3...and then just couldn't do it. I am full up on Groo for now.

Next Week's Comics:

Suicide Squad #8 Part 2 (of how many? I don't know) of the Ambush Bug arc. Yeah, I actually am looking forward to that.

Jennifer Blood #1 I don't think I'm actually going to buy this...but I did read quite a few Jennifer Blood issues back in the day, so I might have to have a little look at it. It's going to be written by Fred Van Lente...and I've liked some of his stuff before. I'm also thinking this might be the first time that Garth Ennis wasn't the writer? Certainly would be the first I've read that wasn't written by him, anyway. So who knows. It could be fun.

Alas, looks like there will be no Milestone comics next week. Come on, now.

Lazz Low Krazz Now Hoor Kay

 

I didn't buy The World Goes On when it came out in December of 2017. Not for lack of love--oh, no. For lack of space (in a house filled with books) and for lack of money (in a time devoid of paid work), yes. But the Louisville Free Public Library had a copy, so I checked it out right away. Started it. Renewed it. Renewed it. Renewed it. Returned it. Got it again, this time for my Kindle. Didn't even open it after I'd downloaded it. Let's add lack of time, lack of energy, and lack of dedication to that list above.

But I love László *, and I've read every other one of his books which have been translated into English, so I always meant to come back to it.

After I finished reading Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming, I was on a 

László high, so I checked The World Goes On out from the library again. Hard copy version.

Had to renew it.

But then I had to take Jacqueline to choir practice, and since I knew I'd be trapped in the church for an hour and a half, I took László with me and got down to it.

The first dozen pages or so were pretty rough. (NOTE: They always are, but esPECially with László.) Then I started feeling myself sink into the narrative. By the end of choir practice I'd made a thirty page dent in the book--hey, you try to read with an organ thundering over your head--and I was really feeling the desire to read on. 

But I know how it goes. And I have so many other books sitting on my table calling to me Right Now. Black Superheroes, Milestone Comics, and Their Fans. John Porcellino's Perfect Example. Event Leviathan. Lady in the Lake. The Water Margin: Outlaws of the Marsh. Thy Kingdom Come: 19 Short Stories by 11 Hungarian Authors. Moebius Dick. Not to mention the Helen Tracy Lowe-Porter translation of The Magic Mountain. 

So I said to myself, "Self...maybe you could do TWO Daily Devotional Reading books at the same time. Just this once."

Hmmm. 

I had already read a bit more in The World Goes On today, so I took a look. I was on page 50. Which meant that I had 311 - 50 = 261 pages to go. If I could read 20 pages a day, I'd be finished in less than two weeks.

Worth a shot, right?

Oh, by the way...in my reading today, there was a bit which went back to Werckmeister Harmonies / The Melancholy of Resistance (= Az ellenállás melankóliája). I loved the book, and Werckmeister Harmonies is one of my all time favorite movies, so yes, that was very nice. 

There was also this:

"Wherever and whenever I notice this moment, when in some musical composition the major suddenly shifts to minor, say, an A after a C, that music instantly rends my heart, I take it personally, as if it had happened expressly for me, my face becomes distorted by a grimace, as if by a painful pleasure; in a word, I plunge into melancholy and I sit there, listening, thinking, ah, the beauty - when it was only melancholy."

Oh, I just noticed the melancholy thread. Sorry, didn't sleep much last night and the brain is not out of first gear.

Anyway...we're off, you know.

Some time later...

It wasn't always easy to stick to 20 pages a day...but it wasn't always hard, either. I am definitely of the opinion that Mr. Krasznahorkai's style lends itself more to an extended narrative, but there were some more than a little bit interesting stories in this collection. In fact, the third story from the end..."Journey in a Place Without Blessings"... was quite stunning, actually.

And now that I've finished it off, so far as I can tell there are only three short stories of LK translated into English which I have not yet read: 

"The Bogdanovich Story" ("El Bogdanovichtól"). Trans. Eszter Molnár

&

"The Last Boat" ("Az utolsó hajó"). Trans. Eszter Molnár

both of which appear in Thy Kingdom Come: 19 Short Stories by 11 Hungarian Authors

and

"Dumb to the Deaf" ("Néma a süketnek"). Trans. Eszter Molnár, which appears in The Hungarian Quarterly, Summer 2000 (pp. 49-55).

As previously noted, I have (at some expense) obtained a copy of Thy Kingdom Come, but I've been unsuccessful in locating The Hungarian Quarterly Summer 2000. So if anybody out there has a hook up to that issue of The Hungarian Quarterly, 🤙.

* And he loves me. We're as happy as two can be. 

Foundation Episode 3

"The Mathematician's Ghost" 

This was the first episode to air wherein David Goyer didn't take part in the writing. (Olivia Purnell did the honors here. She's also written for American Gods and Y: The Last Man...neither of which I've managed to watch yet.) And Mr. Goyer won't be back as writer until the final episode of this first season (#10). Since he has been my main conduit through this series (courtesy of the most excellent Foundation podcast), it's hard not to feel a bit of regret at that. Though I'd have to admit that this episode zipped along quite smoothly, and I found it interesting. Certainly interesting enough to bring me back next week for Episode 4.

However...

I find it puzzling that in the 49 minutes running time, not a single second was actually devoted to the plot of Asimov's Foundation plot. There were a few references to Hari Seldon...though he did not actually appear...and the Prime Radiant popped out for a moment. Otherwise, it was mostly about The Cleons and Salvor Hardin and her Terminus folks. There was a little bit of judiciously presented sex, a little bit of threatened violence. But we didn't even get a glimpse of Raych and / or Gaal...which was the big cliffhanger from Episode 2. That seems like a bad idea to me. To malign Chekhov a bit, If someone picks up a loaded gun from a table at the end of episode 2, somebody better get shot at the start of episode 3.

As for The Podcast (Episode 2)...

David Goyer clarifies that The Vault we've seen in the TV+ series is analogous to the Time Vault from the books. Which certainly implies that we will be seeing Hari Seldon pop out of the thing at some point in the near future (so holographic, oh my Hari Seldon 15), doesn't it? (Or at least--keeping the lack of Raych and / or Gaal in this episode--at SOME point in the next seven episodes.)

DG also talks about the time jumps (which can be a bit extreme, and, to be honest, confusing), and he says that "...people just gotta suck it up and embrace it."  Which I guess could be seen as admirable: an artist who is committed to his vision and is not willing to compromise that vision in order to make things more accessible to his audience. It's certainly the same attitude that James Joyce had when he wrote Finnegans Wake. And there are many people who claim that Finnegans Wake is one of the greatest novels ever written. But you know...I've read Finnegans Wake. And I am a moderately intelligent, educated human being. But I got almost nothing out of the experience. So I'm wondering if a more reasonable approach might be to do what you can to make your art (or "art," if you so desire) accessible to an audience. Which doesn't mean dumbing things down or pandering...but it does mean that you shouldn't expect your audience to "suck it up and embrace it." I'd think that would be especially true in a mass media genre like television. Of course, it doesn't really matter in the long run, because if the audience can't suck it up, then they will find something else to watch, and that will be the end of that show. I'm sorry to say that I already see signs of this being the fate of Foundation. Rotten Tomatoes currently rates the series at  75% on the TOMATOMETER with 63 Critic Ratings & 64% on AUDIENCE SCORE with 233 User Ratings. There was also a review in The New York Times entitled "The Math of ‘Foundation’ Doesn’t Add Up"...nuff said? And I've read some pretty damning viewer reviews on IMdB. Speaking of which...IMDb gives Foundation a RATING of 7.6/10 which seems to be based on 8.2K reviews. Also, Metacritic gave the show a weighted average score of 63 out of 100. Put them all together and they do not spell Mother, do they?

Not much else of interest to me in this podcast, I'm sorry to say. 

But as I said, I'll be back for episode 4 next week. More than that, I'll be anxious to see it. And lest I neglect to say it, I'll echo what most reviewers...even those who really didn't like the show...have said: it looks great. In fact, I really couldn't tell if they were using green screens pretty much all the time or if they actually had some sets. So there's that.