Follow my train of thought on this one, if you will...

1. "Hey, here are some pictures online from people's Halloween parties this year."
2. "I see there're several of them that seem to be superhero themed."
3. "I've never been big on costume parties and such, but that might be kind of fun to go to a superhero themed party once."
4. "If I did, it'd probably have to be as Green Arrow. I think I could actually pull off a reasonable GA costume."
5. "Wouldn't that be really neat if I had a girlfriend who could go as Black Canary?"

Man, I must be having a rough week already. Not only am I thinking of "couples costuming", but I go right to the fishnet motif on top of it? I'm not even that much of a fishnet-appreciating type of guy!

Don't get me wrong! I do enjoy the old-school Black Canary costume, and especially when a woman can fill it out even reasonably well. And I don't know that I'd embarrass myself if Green Arrow get-up either. But that is so NOT who I am, and I'm not really sure how my brain went down that path so quickly today.

I was talking with Mom last night, and she brought up the Charles Schulz biography from a week ago. She'd always liked Peanuts in part because she grew up with it. She remembered when it first began running in the local paper, and how wildly different it was from everything else she'd seen. So Mom was interested to see some of the things that went into the production of the strip.

But her one complaint was that now she knows too much. She still reads Peanuts every day, but for the past week since viewing the documentary, she's had difficulty reading the strip at face value. She can't help but see Sparky's first wife in Lucy now, and begins wondering at what must have been going on in his life when he wrote any given strip. Plok was thinking along these same lines last week as well.

For me, though, I'm quite interested in this type of thing. I realized back in college that if I have more knowledge about the actual creation of a piece of art, the more I can appreciate it. I've always been a big fan of the classic Warner Brothers cartoons, for example. But I enjoy them more after having spent some years digging through music archives to find the original songs modified and used throughout many of the toons. (In the case of Warner Brothers, in particular, I in fact became quite fond of Tchaikovsky after listening to his 1812 Overture in full.) Likewise, with comics, the more I understand what went into their creation, the more appreciation I have of them.

The trick, it seems to me, is in being able to distinguish from the creator(s), the creative process, and the final creation. It's easy to see when that does NOT occur in somebody's thought process; how many message boards are littered with blatantly derogatory comments aimed at creators whom the message writer has never met? How many people have sworn off John Byrne or Dave Sim because of some of their comments unrelated to their work? The work, regardless of the opinions of the individuals behind it, should stand on its own merits (or lack thereof). Whether or not Leonardo da Vinci was a homosexual -- regardless of your beliefs of the homosexuality in general -- has no real bearing on the artistic mastery with which he painted The Last Supper or Mona Lisa.

That said, though, studying da Vinci's life and/or his painting techniques can put his work into better focus. It might seem like something of a contradiction, but it goes back to separating the creator from the creation. As I sit down and read Peanuts (or any comparable work), I mentally go through the strip twice. First, I go through and read strictly on the basis of its own merits. Then I read through it again to appreciate the context in which it was created. While this may sound like double the work for a single comic strip, I've found that the second "reading" is in fact just replaying the strip in my head rather than a formalized and actual second reading.

In effect, the two readings provide two decidedly different types responses. One is more intuitive and emotional, and the other is more academic and intellectual. While they are not mutually exclusive, they do generally require some level of distinction. This lack of distinction winds up being a significant reason "flame wars" occur: when one party is not able to separate their emotional and intellectual responses. I saw this played out last night in a documentary on 9/11 -- where conspiracy theorists were trying to persuade relatives of the 9/11 victims to believe in the veracity of their conspiracy claims. Whether or not the conspiracy theorists were/are right on any accounts, the events of 9/11 are so emotionally charged, especially for relatives of the victims, that there's almost no chance they can listen to ANY argument on a strictly rationale level.

So, do I have a secret for making the distinction and/or separation needed for this type of thinking? Not at all. I think it just happens to be the way my mind is hardwired. I've always been able good at compartmentalizing information pretty readily. (Indeed, sometimes I'm too good at it, and it's gotten me into trouble from time to time!) I wouldn't necessarily advocate trying to readjust your whole mindset to think along those lines, but it might be an interesting experiment if you gave it a shot with something simple and familiar, like Peanuts. You never know; maybe you'll find that you get a deeper appreciation for something.

Abhimanyu Das, a veteran culture reporter from India and student in MIT's graduate Comparative Media Studies Program, wrote this semi-recent account of the work being done by the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. (Link via Henry Jenkins.)

Jef Mallett does the comic strip Frazz on a daily basis. It is, in my opinion, one of the funnier strips on the comics' page today. But what has struck me about Mallett in particular is that he's often willing to play with the sequential art format within the confines of his strip. Here's today's example...
The balloon that is launched in "panel" 3 flies backwards through "panels" 1 and 2 before landing in "panel" 4. The flight path breaks the invisible boundaries we, the readers, have placed within the illustration. If we were to follow the artwork in a more literal/traditional sense, we would be forced to believe that either a) the balloon's path takes it back in time or b) there are in fact four identical sets of characters standing next to one another. Yet the "obvious" reading of this strip really suggests neither of those. We merely see the balloon take an extremely erratic flight after having been blown up and let go by a single character. It's a clever use of the space, and plays against the norms of the Sunday strips.

I've seen references, not made by the creators, that Frazz is an adult Calvin from Bill Watterson's Calvin and Hobbes. This was highlighted in a series of strips in which Frazz played a variation of the classic "Calvin-ball." But people often point to a similar illustration style in the characters. Whether and/or how much influence Watterson had on Mallett, I don't know, but I think what is the greater honor is that Mallett has tried to push the boundaries of comic strip storytelling in much the same way that Watterson did. (See The Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book for Watterson's account of how he tried to push the artistry in the funny pages.)

Good on you, Jef, for playing with comic strip format. Always a pleasure to see something besides the standard panel layouts!

I've got something of an open-ended question today: is it possible/advisable to seek romance within the comic book community?

Comics, as you've probably figured out, are a BIG part of my life. And, although my soon-to-be-ex-wife has denied that they had anything to do with her leaving, I can't help but figure that there was some negative impact on our relationship because of them. If nothing else, it was a big part of my life that she actively did not want to share. (To be fair, though, she made quite an effort. And even though she enjoyed some of what she read -- heck, I'm the guy who turned her on to Neil Gaiman in the first place -- she never really "got" the medium on the whole.) I think it stands to reason that, in any healthy relationship, the two people involved are not going to completely agree on everything. Take that as a given. But it makes sense that there ought to be some overlap, at least on the most significant aspects of your life. It's not infrequently cited that significant differences in religious beliefs often are the cause of marital problems -- in large part because those beliefs generally form the very core of a person's identity.

So for someone like myself, who really, really enjoys comic books, I have to wonder if my "soul-mate" can really only be someone who's relatively passionate about the medium as well. Or would it be sufficient to be with someone who at least appreciates what comics have to offer, and regularly read a handful of titles?

I'm aware of a handful of folks who met and/or fell in love through their comic book connections. Harvey Pekar met his wife Joyce while she was hunting down a copy of American Splendor #6. I believe Kurt Busiek and Roger Stern met their respective wives at comic book conventions. The owners of my LCS are a husband and wife team. And my buddy Dave is dating a woman he met at a convention -- I also happen to know their first date was at a showing of Ghost Rider.

That being said, though, I'm obviously only aware of a small portion of those relationships. I'm certain that my own marriage looked perfectly happy to any outsiders before she left. But it seems that comic books can at least provide something of an anchor for those couples to help prevent them from drifting apart. So maybe part of what I need to do is simply keep a more attuned eye out on the convention circuit. Someone attending a comic book convention is likely to have more than a passing interest in comics, right?

The downside, of course, is that comic book conventions aren't exactly prime hangouts for the fairer sex. The industry on the whole tends to cater to a Y-chromosome crowd, which makes for a significant initial gender disparity. Then, of course, you've got to figure there's a percentage of women who are unavailable -- either because they're in an existing relationship and/or they simply aren't interested in pursuing one with a man. And that doesn't even begin to speak to other issues of compatibility!

The next hurdle, it seems to me, is the nature of conventions themselves. What percentage of people at any given convention do you suppose are going to take time away from the convention-ing to do something else? For the women who dress themselves up in skimpy Wonder Woman or slave Leia costumes, they're going to be in a state of perpetual defense to ward off the inevitable gawking fanboys. Then most of the rest of them are going to focus their attentions on the back issue bins or the creator signings or the industry panels or whatever it is that interests them. The convention, by its nature, has a finite time limit and forces people to budget their time.

The next problem I'm sure is not unique to me, but it's not one that necessarily is universal: striking up a conversation. Me? I'm absolutely abysmal at starting conversations out of the blue. Or, for that matter, engaging in an existing conversation with more than one or two people. I'm not even talking about chat-up lines here. ("I've got a Giant-Size Man-Thing in my pocket...") Anything beyond "Hi" and I'm pretty much at a loss. I suppose I could carry on a conversation in a more informational sense ("Do you know where the Warren Ellis panel is?") but unless I was the one answering questions, it'd sound forced. Because I'd already know the answer to any question like that.

That all being said, I'm not discounting all hope! Stranger things have happened. (Hell, I got married in the first place, and I was sure that was never going to happen!) But the reason I'm bringing all this up, mainly, is to solicit stories from you folks. If you and your significant other met somehow through comics, how did that come about? Are comic books necessarily a part of your continuing relationship? Am I just way over-thinking this whole subject?

Thoughts, stories and anecdotes would be appreciated.

Quick note via TwoMorrows: they're running a 50% off sale on all of their back issue magazines throughout the whole month of November. All of their titles are excellent, to be sure, but I might particularly suggest picking up (if you don't have them already) the last four years' worth of Jack Kirby Collector as those issues happen to feature the work of a writer/researcher of extraordinary talent. Namely, yours truly.

In all seriousness, the TwoMorrows crew has put together some absolutely incredible books across the board. I highly recommend any and all of their titles.

Ah, the first day of November! You know what that means, don't you?

Me neither.

November is mostly just a post-Halloween/pre-Christmas* time period. You've given out a bunch of comics to the young'uns in costumes and now you need to load up on all the cool comics-are-a-legitimate-art-form comics to give out for Christmas.

What? You mean you don't give out comics as presents? What the heck kind of comic book fan are you? There are hundreds of comic-related gift ideas for everybody, regardless of whether or not the recipient is a regular comic reader. Granted, some of the better ideas might take a little time to track down, but that's why you start looking in November instead of waiting until December 20.

Setting aside just really well-done graphic novels, there's tons of books out there related to almost any interest. For the kid who loves dinosaurs and archeology, how about Jim Ottaviani's Bone Sharps, Cowboys, and Thunder Lizards? For your resident rock-n-roller, how about several issues of Rock 'N' Roll Comics from the late 1980s/early 1990s? Lost Girls for the family porn-addict (and I'm not really joking with that suggestion). Some of the collected Sin City books for those who really liked the movie. There's PLENTY of adaptations of prose classics, from the recent Treasure Island from marvel and Alice in Wonderland from Zenescope to the older Treasure Island from Classics Illustrated and Alice in Wonderland from Gold Key. You don't have to wait for IDW to start reprinting the old Dr. Who stories; those're collected in various volumes already (although many only in Great Britain, so order early). There's Kingdom Hearts and Pirates of the Caribbean and Star Trek and Labyrinth manga.

And, hey, that doesn't even begin to get into the relatively recent hardbound and/or slipcased collections of The Far Side, Peanuts, Calvin and Hobbes and the works of Don Martin!

Let me tell you, there is CRUDLOADS of material out there for anyone, whether or not they're an active comic fan. Honestly, I don't think it even takes that much thought. If you can't think of something appropriate off the top of your head, do a couple of quick searches on Comics.org or ComicBookDB.com and I'm sure you'll turn up more than a few items of interest.

* Christmas, as it is generally celebrated, is a secular holiday so don't give me any grief about not mentioning Kwanza or Chanukah or whatever. That whole Santa/fir tree/Frosty schtick has about bupkis to do with the birth of Jesus, as was ultimately decided legally by the U.S. Supreme Court. I'm not knocking folks who do use Christmas to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, but 96% of Americans celebrate Christmas while over 20% of Americans consider themselves decidedly non-Christians (i.e. Jewish, Muslim, Atheist).