Hello. Not long ago here, I asked you to send in suggestions for blog posts that were in no way about current politics and many of you did. You will begin seeing posts based on those suggestions shortly.
A lot of you reminded me that when Steve Ditko passed away, I said I would at some point write a long piece about him. I have decided that I will but not for quite a while and I've also decided that I'm not going to tell you why I'm not doing it now.
I've also decided that I'm not going to talk about my own career more than I already do, which I think is the right amount of attention to give to that kind of thing. And I've already said here that I have nothing to say at this time about the Viacom company acquiring Garfield…which since they've merged with CBS means The Cat is controlled by an even larger corporation.
But we have plenty of other good topics, some of which will yield long, hopefully-interesting essays here and some of which can be handled with short answers. For instance, Kevin Juaire wrote to ask…
I was wondering if you ever came close to applying for a "normal job." Since you wrote for television many times and those jobs probably often ended abruptly with little notice, did you ever find yourself with an extended period of unemployment which had you contemplating employment other than writing to fill the gap?
Nope. See how easy that was?
Also, a lot of you asked what comics I read these days or what I think of certain current books. The answer is that I don't read many, just as I don't go to a lot of movies. (I do have tix for a Midnight show this weekend of the new Tarantino film so I'll probably be writing about that shortly, assuming I think of anything that seems worth sharing.)
I also find it somehow unbecoming for a person who writes comic books to speak ill of the work of another person who writes comic books. I've never seen anyone else do it and not look petty and jealous and I don't expect I could be the first. It's even awkward to write about what you do like because if I praise Friend A's current comic, Friend B gets some part of his face outta joint at the non-recommendation of his book.
This is going to sound odd to some…and yes, there are times when I get enthused over something and want to throw what little clout I have behind it. But for the most part, I don't think the world needs every one of my opinions.
Recently, I read a collection of some Batman stories that were critically-acclaimed by…well, someone. They left me absolutely cold, especially in their interpretation of the title character. I love Batman as done by some people…but nothing I love about Batman was present in this particular work by this particular writer and this particular artist.
Some folks I guess loved it, which is fine. We are now seeing so many interpretations and "takes" on Batman that I'm sure everyone stares at some of them and wonders what the hell their makers thought they were doing. My inclination when I'm disappointed as a reader is to move on, rather than spend more time thinking about the comic, which is what I'd have to do to write about it with any clarity and value. I'd probably run into the writer of this particular Batman series at some convention and based on my past experiences with him, my sense is that would not have been a pleasant encounter.
It's not that I'm scared. I just don't care enough about this comic to want to fight about it. "A bad Batman comic? My God, we need to do something about it. There's never been a bad Batman comic before!!!"
Once in a while, I think the discussion may be worthwhile but in some cases — make that most) cases — I think not. In the next day or two, I'll be tackling some of the topics you folks asked for that prompted me to say, "Oh, I should come up with something worthwhile to say about that." Hope you'll agree.
