Doppelgänger

Saw another Alterna Comics title that looked kind of interesting: Doppelgänger. I have to admit that it first caught my eye because I thought the silhouette on the cover pictures looked kind of like Donald Trump, and I was hoping for some political jibes. 

Nope. But I did find an interesting plot, some good enough art, and a well-written story. And although the basic premise is pretty time worn, I thought that writer Jordan Hart and artist Emmanuel Xerx Javier (both of whom seem to be pretty new at this comic book stuff) put some original twists to it. Also, 23 + 23 + 22 + 22 ( = 90) pages for 99¢ x 4 ( = $3.96) is a pretty sweet deal. And by the way, at least one of these guys is a true master of the cliffhanger last panel. Even in that last issue. 

So I'd definitely give this title two thumbs up and suggest you spend the $4 you'd normally spend on one 22 page comic book on this series instead. Help out the little guy, y'know? I'm sorry to say that it looks like they could use the help. I wasn't able to find sales figures on the first issue, but here's what I did find:

And if that's not depressing enough, I found this:

So apparently (1) there was a collected edition and (2) it didn't fly off of the shelves. I'd also point out that the single issues sold for $1.50 each--and the Comixology version is selling for 99¢ each, as previously noted, so while $9.95 isn't a bad price for a 90 page "Graphic Novel" in and of itself, it's kind of a rip when you compare it to the other ways to get the story. But hey, it was worth a shot.

So once again I've been pleased by an Alterna Comics production, brahs and tahs. And I am not easily pleased these days, let me tell you. My Holds box at The Great Escape is pretty much empty these days...except for Previews. Which is kind of ironic, ennit? But I've dropped most of my paper comics these days, I'm sorry to say. (Did buy the first Kelly Sue DeConnick Aquaman. Can't imagine I'll still be buying it three months from now, though.) So, yeah. If you have any love left in you for comic books, give Alterna a shot. Maybe two shots.

Game of Trumps Part Deux

"...but he would see this country burn if he could be the King of Ashes."

Game of Thrones

Season 3, Episode 4

And Now His Watch Is Ended 

written by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss

Moreover...

There's a megalomaniacal king who does whatever he damned well pleases, regardless of what his advisers tell him is the best thing to do.

There's endless backstabbing, betrayal, and insouciant fucking.

Including the fucking of relatives.

The kingdom is spending money it doesn't actually have.

There's a Wall at the border.

And on the other side of the wall are the demonical beings who want to destroy the kingdom.

This can't be coincidence, can it?

A Tale of Two Churches

Funny, just last night I was talking to my #1son about my 2018 Louisville Catholic Church Tour, and I mentioned that there were several Black Catholic churches that I hadn't gotten around to yet, in part because it was kind of intimidating to be The White Guy. Not so intimidating that I didn't plan on doing it. But intimidating enough that I hadn't done it yet...and that I was hoping to convince somebody to go along with me when I did get around to it.

This morning I had planned on going to Saint Raphael...for one thing because I'd gotten as far as its parking lot twice only to see that I was a few minutes late...and I don't walk into a church late unless there's a seriously good reason to do that. Like if it was my funeral or wedding, maybe. Neither of which I plan on having any more of, by the way.

But St. Raphael had service at 8:30 and 10:30, and since I couldn't make it to the 8:30 because of Dad Duties, I thought I would aim for the 10:30. And since I was pretty sure I could make it to a 9:00 service and still get to the 10:30 at St. Raphael, I decided to see what was happening at 9:00 that I hadn't yet been to see. 

There were 12 services available. I'd been to 10 of them. So I chose the first one that I hadn't been to yet--Immaculate Heart of Mary--and checked the distance via MapQuest. It would be tight, but I could make it. So as soon as my Dad Duties ended, I got in my car and set out for The Other Side of Town. 

As I went further and further West, it occurred to me that (1) this was the same general area in which Good Shepherd was located-- 3.2 miles due south, I saw when I checked later--so it would probably be one of the poorer churches and (2) I started to wonder if this was another Black Church (I had known that there were 3, but thought that that was it)...which hadn't occurred to me before for some reason.

I hasten to say that despite the fact that I've said that it was intimidating to me to be The White Guy, I have been in that spot before. When I was growing up our family lived on The Last White Street in Arbutus, Baltimore, Maryland, and when I played basketball in the summer I was often the only White Guy on the court. I never thought anything about it, and I don't think anybody else did, either. (And I could play some ball back in those days, lemme tell ya. Just sayin'.) And my mom volunteered at a G.E.D. program held at the Baltimore County Public Library Arbutus Branch (you know, where DAVID BYRNE got his library books...during the same years when I lived there!), and she'd have the entire class over at our house at the end of the "school year," so she and I would be the only white people there (the rest of the family having fled the area for various reasons, only one of them due to bigotry). And when I was a teacher at Ballard High School, the kids in the Minority Teacher Recruitment Program lost their teacher mentor and they came to ask me to do it. So I did. And there were several times when I was The White Guy. Ha ha. People would even come up to me and say, "Hey, I just wanted to meet The White Guy." I thought that was great: that kind of honesty is not something you get much of in this world, y'know? So it's not that I even mind being The White Guy. But it does take some energy, you know? For one thing, because I'm kind of shy by nature, and there is no blending into the background when you're The White Guy.

Well. I parked my car and was greeted by a (Black) man who was just getting out of his car. And as I got to the front door I was greeted by another (Black) guy who was just getting there himself. And I went into the church...let's just cut to the chase and say that there were only four other white people in the church, and two of them were the officiating priests. 

You know, I've found that Catholic churches do a really bad job of recognizing visitors. Much worse than their Protestant counterparts. But that was not true for Immaculate Heart of Mary, for sure. I was greeted again when I entered the church...at least a couple of times...and then one man took me by the arm and said, "Let me introduce you to our Priest," and he walked me over and had me shake hands with the Priest. Who tried not to act surprised to see me, but I could see the burner flames dancing in his eyes. I went into the sanctuary and sat towards the back and at the end of the row (chairs, not pews), because (1) I'm shy, didn't I tell you that? and (2) I didn't want to get in the way of people when they went up for communion, since I can't partake (not being Catholic), and it's easier to not be in the way if you're at the end of the row and can just stand up and take a step backwards. But people kept coming up and welcoming me and shaking my hand until the service began. My memory has already begun to blur, but I am sure that there were at least a dozen people who stopped by to shake hands and welcome me.

That's never happened to me in a church before. Not in ANY church, much less a Catholic one.

The service itself, in brief: 

The sanctuary was pretty barren. It was basically a cinderblock building with a stained glass window at one end and Stations of the Cross bas-reliefs hung on the walls. There was a nice (and rather big) cross shaped baptismal font, though. Looked big enough to do an immersion, knowhati'msayin'? 

The music was provided via piano...but there was a sizable choir. Wearing blue robes, mmm-hmmm. I think this was the first choir I've seen in robes. I like that. Choirs should be robed, I think. And yes, I will say it: the music was Blacked Up. Made me feel happy, too. I particularly remember the choir singing a Welcome to Our Church song and a kids choir coming up and doing a pretty fantastic little Cuban rhythm thing. It was goooood. And not just repetitive or screamy the way that kind of music sometimes gets. The only thing I felt was missing was that there wasn't really any room for the congregation to do anything but some incidental singing. And no hymnals, no songs in the booklet either. I still sang along, though. Had to do it.

During The Lord's Prayer, the woman standing next to me just reached out for my hand, and we held hands as we recited the prayer. Not only hasn't that ever happened to me in church before, I'm pretty sure it never will again unless I return to this church...or, possibly, at St. Martin de Porres, St. Augustine, or Christ the King. (Those are the other Black Catholic Churches, in case you missed that.) And it was really sweet.

I am usually uncomfortable during the giving of the sign of peace. Except when I'm with my kids, because then I have a built in go-to. Fortunately, in most Catholic churches the sign of peace thing takes about twenty seconds, so there's not much time to wonder how outgoing I should be. But at Immaculate Heart of Mary? Whoa. I must have gotten at least a dozen...and possibly two dozen...possibly even more than that, come to think of it...Peaces. And it was like a five minute activity. You could tell that these people were really glad to great each other...and me, too. It was very sweet, very sincere. It felt like family.

At the end of the service, a woman went to the pulpit and asked that any visitors stand and introduce themselves. Two people did. The lady next to me looked over at me. I ducked down. The lady at the pulpit then said, "And if there are visitors here who don't want to introduce themselves, that's okay. We just want you to know we're glad that you're here."

As I was leaving the church at the end of the service a guy came up to me and gave me a calendar. Then he said, "Why didn't you introduce yourself?" I said, "I'm sorry, I'm just really shy." He looked a little puzzled, but he let me off the hook and said something about he hoped to see me again.

The calendar, by the way, is fantastic. Lots of Black Jesus pictures. 

I might could be going back for more of this, I'd say.

The service didn't run too long...just a little over an hour...but it was so far away that I knew I didn't have a chance of making it to St. Raphael, so I looked for a church I hadn't yet visited with an 11:00 service. There were a few, but I decided to hit up Saint John Paul II.

Oh, my, what a difference those fifteen and a half miles made. I went from being one of four white people in a Black Church to being one of three black people in a White Church. That's a joke, son. But not about the whiteness of this church. There were literally only two black people in this church...which was small, but very full. It was a nice looking church, too, and I would have guessed that it was pretty well-to-do. I'd have been wrong, though, as you'll see if you stick around.

I was kind of sort of greeted when I came into the sanctuary by a guy standing near the door, but to be honest it was so mumbly and vague that he could just as well have been telling me that the rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain. Let's just say it wasn't a full throated greeting. But it was all that I got.

The service itself, in brief:

The music was provided by piano, guitar, and chorus. They sounded pretty good, but I am more than a little bit prejudiced against the use of a guitar in a church service. Sorry, I'm just an old school kind of guy.

The sermon...well, let's just say that it wouldn't be fair to judge the priest on this one, at least not completely. He was reporting to the congregation that a decision had been made to shut down the parish in 2019 and move all of the services to their other location on Goldsmith Lane, due to the fact that membership and money were on the decline. Which is most definitely a valid thing for a priest to tell his congregation. It didn't do much for me as a visitor, though, and I have to say that he went way deep into the details, reading three different letters and reporting on every aspect of the closure. Not only did it feel like he was beating around the bush, it almost felt like he was playing it out a bit. It took at least fifteen minutes before he actually said that the parish would be closing. Everything before that was What We Have Been Talking About, What So And So Said, etc. I actually thought he was going to say, "And our parish has been saved!" at two different points. So that felt kind of wrong.

So on the one hand I don't want to judge St. John Paul II too harshly, given that circumstance...but I have to say, the contrast between these two churches was so gigantic that I wouldn't even have recognized them as being of the same faith if it hadn't been on MapQuest that way. Even before the Sermon of Death, St. John Paul II was just so lifeless, so joyless, so devoid of human warmth and feeling.... It really felt like everything that is wrong with organized religion in condensed form. 

Even if they were going to remain in their pretty little space...and it was kind of pretty, actually...I wouldn't even think about going back to this church.

More Black Church for me, please.

FOXy

I tune in to FOX news pretty much every day. I'm trying to keep my mind as open as I possibly can, trying to listen to The Other Side. I'll have to confess that there are times when I can only stand it for about a minute before I feel disgust rush through my soul and flip back to CNN or MSNBC. But there are other times...most of them featuring Neil Cavuto or Shepard Smith, both of whom I actually respect as much as any news anchor currently inhabiting the airwaves. (Waitaminute, I guess they're not airwaves any more, are they?) 

This morning flipped over to FOX for three reasons: (1) I wanted to see how they were spinning the We're Getting Out of Syria story, (2) CNN and MSNBC were repeating and rerepeating the same old shit, and (3) Ainsley Earhardt is hotter than the griddle I just made pancakes on this morning.

I was surprised to see that Ainsley, Steve Doocy, and Brian Kilmeade were talking to Sarah Huckabee Sanders. ShS was being her usual belligerent self, and defending Trump's asinine idea to withdraw American troops from Syria. Much to my surprise, Brian Kilmeade...who was nothing more than a cipher to me before this moment, told Sarah that what Trump was doing was helping ISIS. Say what? Of course ShS shook her head and tried to shoot him down, but he didn't back off of it.

Wow. I was impressed.

I left FOX on just in case something else came up. Of course it didn't hurt that Ainsley Earhardt was sitting on the couch and looking good in a purple dress.

More Songs About (Alterna, Comics), & Comixology-ous Things

So...The XII #3, right? It's one of the six Alterna Comics comics I bought when I went back to Books-a-Million. And I just finished reading it...and the two issues which preceded it. Which I'll get to in a mo, but first, let's just look at this issue #3. 

Cover price: $1.50. I got it for $1, and you can, too, since it's up on Comixology right now for 99¢. It's 32 pages long. Story and art, that is. There are another 9 ad pages...none of them obnoxious. And it's in color. -ish. It's black and white and orange all over. Which is actually kind of cool, and fits the story quite well. As I mentioned previously...maybe, I can't remember if that post made it to Publish or not...well, just in case it didn't...the art reminds me of Michael Avon Oeming. A lot. And that's a high compliment, because I love Michael Avon Oeming's work. And the story...well, let's just say this: I didn't find issue #4 on the stands when I bought issues 1 through 3, but I'm not going to wait: I'm going to buy it and #5 from Comixology as soon as I get finished here. Because I actually want to know what happens next. I actually care about the characters in this story. And the story.

But here's the thing. I did a little poking around on Comichron, and according to it, this third issue of The XII sold a grand total of 995 copies. That is not a typo. 995 fuckin' copies. For a good comic book. A very good comic book. A comic book that gives you 90% more story than most of The Big Boys...and at less than 40% of the price. For fuck's sake.

Okay. Now that I've got that off of my chest, here's the rest of the story so far.

Comichron Says:

The XII #1  03/07/18 Alterna 1,943 (29 pages)
The XII #2  04/25/18 Alterna 1,062 (25 pages)
The XII #3  07/11/18 Alterna     995 (32 pages)
The XII #4  09/12/18 Alterna     919 (? pages)
The XII #5 Sir Not Appearing In This Film

So those first three issues gave me 86 pages of story for $3 ($4.50 cover price, $2.97 Comixology price). And I have to say it again: this was a really good story, with top-notch art. (By Luis Suarez, about whom I can find no information whatsoever...though there is quite a bit about a fellow with the same name who plays soccer. I found a little bit more information about the writer, Patrick Trahey, but it looks like The XII is his first comic book work. Sorry to say that I found out that I just missed the window for his Kickstarter campaign to fund a collection of this series. I would definitely have laid down some $ for that. ANYway....)

But take a look at those Comichron sales figures, man. Those are some very bad numbers. I was once penpals with a comic book writer whose most excellent book sold around 3,000 copies an issue. He told me that he had never made a dime from the book. So imagine what The XII does for its creators. 

So far as I can tell, the 5th issue of The XII hasn't seen physical print yet, so I will be on the look out for it and for #4 as well. And even though I'm about to go buy both of them in e-form...and probably 1 - 3 as well...I'm still going to buy the physical copies if I can find them. And the graphic novel, too.

I really think these boys deserve some support.

Try it. You'll like it.