I'm watching every episode of Thundarr the Barbarian for my next "Incidental Iconography" column. The series as a whole, for those who don't know, was set in a post-natural-disaster Earth and there were frequently references to late 20th century culture, as the protagonists walked amid the rubble. In the episode I just watched, entitled "Last Train to Doomsday", the character Ookla stumbles across the remains of a comic book shop...
... where he picks up a comic and falls to the ground laughing hysterically...
The comic in question is one from Marble Comics Group called Slimeboy...
... an obvious parody of the "Marvel Comics Group" banner that ran across those titles at the time.
Another issue, later in the show, provides the idea for how the characters might escape the villain's trap...
Interesting to note the fifty cent price tag on that one, as comics were (generally) only priced there for a little over a year around 1981. Also curious about that second issue is that the title appears incomplete. It's presented as "Slimeboy in" presumably not unlike "Superman in Action Comics" but there's no room for an actual title here. Also curious is that both covers sport giant, walking robots that appear to be inspired by War of the Worlds and seem to have little obvious correlation with a character called "Slimeboy."
Anyway, just an interesting little aside that's wholly unrelated to the focus of my article so I thought I'd post it here.
I'll be in the Baltimore/Washington D.C. area over Labor Day weekend to attend a wedding. Which is, naturally, the week after Baltimore Comic-Con. So in lieu of totally missing that opportunity, I thought I'd throw out the question of whether or not there's any comic-related goings-on during Labor Day weekend in that area? Or, for that matter, any really awesome comic shops that I should make a point of visiting? Any suggestions welcome!
Just wanted to drop a quick note to alert people that the first motion comic episodes of Astonishing X-Men: Gift and Spider-Woman: Agent of SWORD are currently available on iTunes as free downloads. Personally, I've downloaded but not watched either so I can't comment on their quality, but, hey, you can't argue with free!
Over at the TwoMorrows website, you can download free copies of some of their regular magazines. They've recently updated their offerings, so you can sample more recent issues. All of their mags are really excellent (Alter Ego is up for a Harvey Award right now) but I make a point of calling out Jack Kirby Collector since that's the mag I write for. In #54 -- the free issue that's available -- I analyze how Jack depicted none other than Stan Lee himself in the comic pages. (Naturally, there's some discussion of Funky Flashman as well!) If you haven't read my work there, here's your chance to check it out free of charge!
As you've no doubt heard by now, Harvey Pekar died early this morning. You've probably also seen plenty of tributes and various forms of obituaries, to which I don't have anything meaningful to add. I'm familiar with his work, but I've never really studied it or him very extensively other than to say I generally appreciated it.
But something that strikes me about Pekar is that, despite an inordinate amount of critical success, he just wasn't all that popular and didn't make all that much money. Despite doing what he loved and doing it very well, that didn't translate into real financial rewards. Not that I think he was necessarily looking for that per se, but certainly towards the end of his life, it was the extra income from that covered living expenses that ran beyond his pension and retirement.
And that's something to consider carefully. I love comics. I would love to get paid to research and write about about whatever comic book related stuff strikes me. But I know that's not commercially viable. Heck, there are plenty of things I write here that I think are really great, but they don't even get linked to. Maybe it's utter crap but I suspect it has more to do with my just covering topics that don't interest anyone. So I keep a day job that I'm reasonably good at, and brings in enough money to pay all my bills.
When I had first graduated college, I could look out and see older people who were a lot more successful than I was with regard to job prospects and income and whatnot. And that was okay because, well, they were more experienced and had been out there longer. I'm old enough now that see people my age or younger climbing the corporate ziggurat lickety-split, and I can see that I'm not going to get to that level of "success." Which is still okay, because that's not really what I want to do with my life.
See, the thing is that every person has to have their own priorities and goals. While mine do include living more comfortably (financially speaking) than someone like Pekar, I also want to live for myself before my career or my bank account. So I go into the office and do good work -- derived more from personal pride than corporate ambitions -- but I also make sure than I'm working to live, not living to work. I want to come home in the evening and kill some time reading a biography of Jackie Ormes or researching old Thundarr cartoons or banging out another (ultimately) fruitless blog post.
I heard years ago that one of the keys to a life well lived is to take your two deepest passions, make your second-favorite your job and make the other your hobby. If you make your deepest passion your job, you'll get caught up in the bullshit that inevitably crops up and you won't be able to see it in the same untainted light. If you reserve that for your second-favorite passion, you can always keep whatever it is that really excites you alive and fresh and energizing.
That's why I've never aggressively pursued a career in comics. That's why I haven't worked very hard in trying to monetize my writing about comics. (If someone just hands me a lot of money to write about them, I'm not going to turn it down, of course! But I'm not sending out scripts or trying to sell ad space here or anything.)
I think Pekar did something similar. I don't think anyone would claim he was that deeply passionate about being a file clerk; that was just how he paid the bills. Even comics were a secondary passion for him, following behind jazz. Robert Crumb is the same way. Both of them have expressed annoyance and frustration and dismay when talking about comics, but they never seemed to be that way about jazz. They could put on an old jazz album, and be completely absorbed by the music.
They key is recognizing which is a hobby and which is going to make you a living. I don't claim to have all the answers, and whatever answers I might have are just what works for me. But I like to think I've got my act relatively together. I'm happy with who I am and what I'm doing. And I can sit down and read a good comic book, and just enjoy the fact that I'm enjoying a good comic. I don't have "how do I turn this in money for groceries" floating in the back of my head the whole time. I don't have "DEADLINE!!!" screaming at me from within the pages of Amazing Spider-Man. I could drop off the comicdom's radar entirely, and just sit at home quietly reading Tozo, The Public Servant by myself with no outside interaction at all, and I'd still be able to cover all my bills just fine, thankyouverymuch. F.I.J.A.G.H.
I got my copy of The Unauthorized San Diego Comic-Con Survival Guide by Doug Kline in the mail yesterday. I was impressed from the get-go since I didn't order it until Thursday afternoon. So definitely a good start.
But let me get a couple caveats out of the way. I have never been to California, much less attended Comic-Con International. I have no intentions of going any time soon. Which means that I can't verify anything Kline presents in the book; I have to take him at his word on anything specific to this particular convention. I bought the book primarily as part of my ongoing research into fandom.
For as small of a book as it is physically, Kline covers a lot of material. Everything from buying tickets and finding accommodations to when to line up outside the infamous Hall H. It's logically organized, and follows along the path of how most people would experience the convention from start to finish. It can be read straight through the whole book, or you can pick and choose topics to jump to via the Table of Contents. The writing is casual, and Kline seems to take a real-world approach to the show; he explains how some of the "rules" might get overlooked or side-stepped. He does make it clear where his preferences lie with regard to things like parking and dining, but recognizes and expands on other options as well.
Some of the material is (or at least should be considered) common sense. Some of it is applicable to most, if not all, conventions. Much of it is specific to CCI. Kline not only points out specific locations for drug stores, restaurants and the post office but he provides "on the ground" directions for most of them too. ("... exit the convention center on the back side of the building. Face the bay and turn right...") Obviously, having been written in advance of this year's convention, he doesn't get into the specifics of which panels occur when or what guests to look for, but that also means it will remain a valid guidebook for the next several years.
There are couple of things I might recommend to Kline, if he does a follow-up or a second printing. Nothing that seriously detracts from this book, but would make, I think, a next edition better. There were a couple of minor typos I found. Nothing huge, but just enough to pull me out of things a bit. (And I can't fault him too much there, as my own book has its own share of typos as well.) There were also no maps or graphics of any kind. Not that the book was so text heavy that it needed to be broken up with some imagery, but I think at least a few maps pointing out particular locations he references would have been useful. Maybe a couple of explanatory photos ("If you're standing at this point in the line for Hall H, you won't get in.") Kline does seem to do a fair job in his verbal explanations along those lines, but some people are just more visual and would get some of his points more definitively if he provided something a little more graphic.
Never having been to Comic-Con International before, I definitely picked up some ideas that I'm pretty sure would not have occurred to me until/unless I was actually in the thick of things. And if I do ever get the opportunity to go, I will definitely be pulling this book back out as a reference both before and during the show. If this is your first year to the show, I highlight suggest ordering your copy now so you still have a little time to get it before you leave. It's available for $7 plus shipping here.
