Reblogging: Why Joining the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund Matters

Alex Cox lays it all out:

The fact is that in 2012 we are still fighting for Free Speech in comics. The consequences for obscenity charges range from fines to public outrage and character assassination to jail time here in the U.S. and even in a foreign country. This is terrifying. This should not be a problem that anyone has to face just because they buy, sell, own, create, or distribute comics. This art form does not enjoy the same freedoms of expression as film, music, or prose, and this should infuriate everyone who loves comics.

I'm a member. Why aren't you?

Grandpa Emil

Several years back, I wrote a piece about my late paternal grandfather, Grandpa Martin, to help a friend deal with the loss of his own grandfather. I may have posted it here, I'm not sure. Anyway, writing it helped me come to terms with Grandpa Martin's death, something I hadn't really done fully, even though it had been a few years. I was seventeen when Grandpa Martin died, and your world's a smaller, more selfish place when you're seventeen. It wasn't until I was able to fully appreciate the man he was that I was able to fully mourn him, if that makes any sense.

Well, now I'm thirty, and my other grandfather, Grandpa Emil, died this morning. And I don't have to wait this time to be mature enough to understand how much I'll miss him.

My Favorite Comics of 2011

I'm eschewing the list, now and for always, because I realized, lying awake one cold and lonely night, that I don't really want to spend time compiling a list, writing, scratching and rewriting names, second-guessing myself and wondering how the selections and omissions reflect on me as a person. God, I'm getting tedium-hives just contemplating it. Want I really want to do is gush about the comics that awesomed me this year.

And comics certainly had plenty of opportunities to do so. I know I said this last year, but it's still true: No matter who you are or what you like, there was a comic this year for you. Marvel and DC both put out some stellar work (although you wouldn't know it if you only followed the big event crossovers, but when has that ever not been true?), in their regular lines and their more niche-focused material. (Although their regular lines are also pretty niche-focused, if you step outside the direct market. But again, we already knew that.) And, obviously, they weren't alone; a full list of companies and creators putting out comics of varying levels of awesome would break the post character limit, assuming blogspot has one. So let's just go ahead and say that anyone who's not Mark Millar or Rob Liefeld did a great job this year on something, even the people who also turned in terrible work on something else that may have gotten more press.

As always, there are great books from the year that I won't be mentioning simply because I haven't read them (yet). I'm only one guy, and I didn't really have what you could call a disposable income until July. That being said, I think the stuff I do have to talk to you about is pretty darn special.

Quick Capsule Review of Thunderbolts 167 (& An Open Letter to Jeff Parker)

I don't think reframing the Ripper murders as "The women were man-hating monsters who had to die" was the way to go.

Happy Birthday, Mark Twain!

So Google tells me (through a wonderful drawing that you should really check out) that the official teller of tales for these great United States (if you believe Neil Gaiman, anyway, and why shouldn't you?) is 176 years old today. I'd bake him a cake, but he went out with the comet a while back, so it'd be kind of pointless. (Also, I can't bake a cake.)

Ernest Hemingway said once that Huckleberry Finn is the greatest American novel, and he may still be right. It's certainly one of my favorites; the scene where Huck decides he'd rather go to Hell than see Jim sent back to a life of slavery had a profound effect on me. Since then, I've gone through many of Twain's other works (but not all; I need to pick up The Innocents Abroad one of these days), and he's never failed to delight. Like all great authors, he had a keen awareness of human nature, and like all great humorists, he had an even keener awareness of human failings. Minds like his come along only once in a century (the 20th century's was Kurt Vonnegut), and America is richer for having had him.

One of my favorite quotes of his, incidentally, is "The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who does not read them." With that in mind, I exhort my readers to give themselves an advantage and read one of his books at the nearest opportunity. It will be an experience well worth the having.

99% of Punks Harass 1% of Superheroes

Occupy Yancy Street.

Read A Peter David Short Story For Free

A few months ago, Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine ran a story by one of my favorite authors, Peter David. It's called "Bronsky's Dates With Death," and it is, in a paraphrasing of David's own words, about an old Jewish man who staves off the Reaper by distracting him with his endless droning about the subject. That's the plot, anyway; the meat of the story is about death and the different ways people deal with it, in the abstract and the concrete. It's also about putting up with your family's crap, which might as well have been the third of Ben Franklin's absolutes.

Anyway, the website Suvudu has a .pdf of the story available, for free, here. It's all above board, done by association with the magazine, so you won't have to worry about DMCA lawyers kicking down your door. And the low, low price of "Free" literally cannot be beat.

So check it out, and if you like it, consider heading on over to Crazy 8 Press and giving a look at David's latest novel, "The Camelot Papers," the untold true story of King Arthur's rise to power (and related events). It's not free, but there is a free preview, so you can try before you buy. It's also nothing like "Bronsky," but it is a heckuva good read.

What are you still doing here? Go!