Are there any modern runs (since 2000, let’s say) that jump out as a possibility to discuss with Jeff on the podcast in depth/issue-by-issue/story-by-story?
That’s a really difficult question – my immediate impulse was to say no, not only because I can’t think of any runs (That’s not true, my first impulse was actually to suggest Planetary for some reason), but also because I’m not sure if there’s been enough distance since release, and amount of material released to be worth it.
But the more I think about it, the more I could see us doing it about some manga, down the line? Like, I haven’t even finished 20th Century Boys/21st Century Boys, but perhaps that, or Pluto…?
March 31
The detail I remember from my dream last night was a small, but to me hilarious, one; a criminal, or super villain or something similar, making it clear via the Internet that while they’re all about greed and destruction and the like, they’re very much against bigotry and language that supports social repression. I can’t remember the details, exactly, but it was as if I was reading some statement this unnamed enemy of humanity had released along the lines of “Even I, the great [Insert Name Here], think that the casual cruelty unleashed by thoughtlessness has had a negative impact on society…”
Quite why my dreams have been overtaken by “Social Justice Warriors,” I don’t know, but I’m not complaining. First the subconsciousness, then the world.
Any Secret Wars series or tie-ins you are looking forward to reading?
Jeff and I talk about this a little in the Wait, What? that should go up today or tomorrow, but the sad answer is “Not really…?” The one’s the caught my attention the most is Captain Britain and the Mighty Defenders because Al Ewing (Today’s Siege by Kieron Gillen and Filipe Andrande is pretty high up there, too), but I’m neither enough of a Marvel fan nor excited enough about the whole Secret Wars concept to buy into them – or, to put it another way, I’m into the idea of some of the series, but not enough to overcome my utter disinterest in the larger event they’re tying into.
On Sunday, while speaking to veteran journalist Jeff Greenfield, Sullivan said that the ‘crushing’ workload was only part of what made his job so overwhelming. The experience, Sullivan said, was often dehumanizing.
‘Here’s what I would say: I spent a decade of my life, spending around seven hours a day in intimate conversation with around 70,000 to 100,000 people every day, ’ Sullivan said. ‘And inevitably, for those seven hours or more, I was not spending time with any actual human being, with a face and a body and a mind and a soul.’
Sullivan said the job resulted in lost friendships and minimal contact with his family.
Ask Me Another. And Then Another.
March 30
It’s always a good sign, he lies, when your week starts with a bout of early morning insomnia. I woke up around 4:30 and couldn’t go back to sleep, so ended up reading British news reports about the election over there. I’m not quite sure when I became a politics wonk — I wasn’t like this about politics while I lived in the UK, although I took an interest. Part of me wonders if it’s something I’ve become fascinated by because I have easier access to the information now, thanks to the Internet and everyone having opinions/ideas that it’s so easy to scan through and feel well informed, even though the very opposite might be the case.
Occasionally, I wonder whether the Internet has made it easier to fake interest and knowledge in subjects, instead of actually making it easier to be educated/educate. Sure, there’s enough information out there to actually be able to learn things for real, but it’s far easier to… kind of learn things, and then let that information flow out of your mind minutes after you’re finished with it. (Spoilers: I might be describing my working practices.) As a result, I feel both more interested and aware in the world around me, and yet perpetually worried that I know less about anything and everything than I did years ago, when I actually had to work at things.
March 29
In the end, I was at the convention long enough; that’s not true in the sense that I didn’t get to see everyone that I’d hoped to run into, but is true in the sense of my being ready to leave when I did. Unless I’m working a show, there’s a weird limit to how long I can be there without thinking, yup, I’m done. I can’t explain it, but I was fascinated to talk to another comics journalist yesterday and have him say the essentially the same thing: that if he wasn’t working, he would only stick around for a handful of hours to say hello to friends and then bail. The bloom is off the rose, it seems.