Dude, Where's My Update

Dude, Where's My Update? #20

Some days, you just feel like a owl out in the daylight.

Been toying around with the idea of doing two posts a week: one my usual “feature” and the other a more casual, links driven, stream-of-consciousness newsletter. Releasing these as a “bonus” during the week would free them from feeling like I’m “delaying” something more timely between when I release it to paid subscribers (hint hint, nudge nudge) and when it’s free for all to read. It also might get me back onto a schedule where I’m not stressing about writing one, two, three thousand words a week.

I’m craving some simplicity in my life, is what I’m trying to say.

On a more personal note, I’ve been feeling somewhat melancholy of late. September has started to do this to me, as it is now a month of loss in many ways. It is also a busy month, with holidays, and, usually, a trip to Maryland for SPX. So I’ve been listening to my sad boy playlist, trying not to feel too overwhelmed, and writing this newsletter. Or more accurately writing two sentences of it each week before barrelling through the rest the night before hitting publish.

If you’re looking for a nice song of the season, might I recommend TOMOO’s “Sonare.”

The theme to this year’s Journal with Witch, it and the show it accompanies hit me with the ferocity of bear. Highly recommended if you don’t mind something slow and emotionally taxing. I promise it’s worth it and not in the least overwrought or manipulative.

Death, Our Constant Companion

When I first started working on some of the sections for this edition, Dave Lanphear had just passed away. I was really caught off guard by this announcement. It got me, which isn’t to say others haven’t but it’s the first one in a while I’d audibly gasped at when I saw the obit. He lettered quite a lot of comics that I’ve covered on “Make Mine Multiversity” and was a name I came to look forward to seeing in the credits.

Lanphear was a staple of the lettering world and he will be sorely missed.

Then just two days later, Tim Curry died.

And then Peter “Autobots… Roll Out” Cullen

And then Squirrel Girl co-creator Will Murray.

Jump back a couple days before Dave and we can add Roger McKenzie, whose work on “Daredevil” I’d literally just started to read the day before, to the list.

All within a week and change of each other. Jump forward one more week and Gloria Steinem has also passed.

Personally, Curry was the hardest of the bunch. Not to diminish any of these losses but his presence in film and TV, voice and live action, loomed large in my psyche for as long as I can remember. (For the curious: I was never a Transformers kid, though Cullen’s work stretched way beyond his iconic performance.)

If that wasn’t all bad enough, September capped off with two more deaths, each sudden and shocking: Andy Fish and Joshua Cassara.

I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Andy (by email, to be fair) in pre-COVID 2020 for the release of “Blackwood: The Mourning After” alongside his wife Veronica and series writer Evan Dorkin. His answers were funny and thoughtful and I found out he was a big horror manga fan. I wish now I had the opportunity to pick his brain about that. The interview will be going live again on Wednesday.

"Blackwood" and “Sabrina the Teenage Witch” with Kelly Thompson are two of my favorite series of that time, in large part because of his and Veronica's work. Anytime I saw his name on a book, I knew I had to read it, even if I had no clue what it was about (looking at you, adaptations of “Hide” and “Mister Miracle.”)

Cassara was a bright spot in the Krakoa era “X-Force.” Without his guiding hand and gorgeously dense art, it would have been a lesser series. He shaped what that book felt like, and all the ones he worked on.

They’ll both be missed. They’ll all be missed.

This was written prior to the passing of Sir Patrick Stewart and Walter Koenig, and I'll likely do those in one of the mid-week articles I promised.

Now, because switching tones wildly is my second favorite pastime…

Did You Know I’m On The Beat Now?

It’s true! I pitched a review and their reviews editor (hi Zack!) said “hell yeah.” So I got an excuse to review a chunk of “Animal Man” I’d never read before. It took me…so much longer than I thought to finish this beast. Turns out trying to distill 25 some-odd issues into a short review is like overfilling a calzone.

Give it a read. I thought it came out quite nicely. (And I am very happy with my silly little title.)

What am I working on?

Thank you Roger McKenzie and Carmine Infantino.

That’s for me to know and you to find out. And by that I mean, it’s 12:30 am. I am tired. And I’m already 300 words over what I promised myself I’d stop at. I’m sure I’ll drop a shorter piece about it next time.