Month: November 2021

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Remember Remember

Fireworks Night in the UK was always supposed to be a thing, but I struggle to remember any from my childhood that ever came close to living up to the hype. Sure, we all know the rhyme about “Remember, Remember, the Fifth of November,” but I genuinely can’t think of any Fifths of November that were worth remembering.

One of the problems is the time of year. Let me tell you something about the beginning of November in Scotland, at least when I was a kid: they were wet and cold, and the very opposite of the conditions that would be optimum for starting a bonfire, or hanging around outside to watch fireworks. Many were the Bonfire Nights that I gamely went outside hoping for the best, and just stood there, shivering and damp, wondering if things were ever going to get exciting or even worth being outside in the first place. (Spoilers: they didn’t.)

I couldn’t tell you if every Fifth of November failed for me because I have no real interest or excitement surrounding fireworks, or if I have no real interest or excitement surround fireworks because every Fifth of November failed for me; it’s a snake eating its own tail made of disappointment and a frustrated belief that, for real you guys, isn’t this meant to be fun? It’s something that’s followed me to the U.S., though, where Bonfire Night isn’t really a thing — the Fifth of November here is mostly a day for V for Vendetta fetishists, from what I can tell — but the Fourth of July is, and I can (un)happily report that, even in the summer, there’s not that much to see that’s worth standing around with your neck craned in case some explosions are more colorful than others.

All of this, I know, marks me as some terrible killjoy, but the reality of the situation is… I am. Stay inside, and watch something good on television, instead. Catch up on Doom Patrol; this season’s been really something.

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My Back (Issue) Pages

For reasons that escape me, I’ve been reading extended runs of comics lately — running through collected editions of writers’ stays on titles (and, occasionally, artists’ stays as well, if the industry allows) that span years in just a couple of evenings. It’s not something that I necessarily intended to do, per se, as much as something that just happened — a re-read of one comic led to another, then another, then another.

It’s a surprisingly satisfying approach to late-night reading, I’ve found; in theory, I guess it’s “binging,” but it’s really just an attempt to recreate the experience of reading a prose novel, I suspect — reading a story that has a beginning, middle, and end and isn’t indefinitely continued until an undetermined point in the future. There’s a comfort in knowing where you are, in terms of the story — I’m on collected edition six, and there’s ten overall, so I’m basically at the halfway point — and also no small amount of comfort in being able to appreciate (and recognize) the recurring themes and intent behind the stories being told more easily, because I’m not waiting roughly four weeks between chapters.

(Of course, many mainstream comics don’t really have intentional recurring themes or an intent beyond Make Comic Get Paid, but that’s another story.)

The upshot of all of this, beyond something as base as “Immortal Hulk is good, but it dips in the middle and I’m not sure it lands the ending properly,” or “Man, the Five Years Later era of Legion of Super-Heroes is an utter mess, I can’t believe someone didn’t step in to tighten it up earlier,” is this: sitting down to invest the time and attention into an extended run on one set of characters and story has proven to be so rewarding as to feel as if I’ve managed to start reading for pleasure again, as opposed to work research or simply trying to keep on top of everything that’s out there because I’m supposed to.

Enjoying a leisure activity before I fall asleep at night! Will wonders never cease.

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Things In Front Of Our Faces

I’ve been thinking about explanatory journalism lately, for a number of reasons — in part, the one remaining Mystery Project I would mention, obliquely, in the first half of this year (something that remains unresolved but which, I worry, has gone the way of so many promising moments from 2021 that ended up vanishing into the ether before too long), and in part because of something else ongoing right now that may or may not turn into A Thing further down the line.

(Given my experience so far this year, I’m leaning towards “may not,” but I’m willing to be proven wrong on this particular subject.)

It’s also a subject that has been in my head because of the Washington Post massive story on what happened January 6, which goes substantially in-depth and breaks down the story into three sections: before the coup attempt, during it, and afterwards. It’s an impressive piece of work, and somewhat immersive to read due to the amount of research and reporting that clearly went into it, and it’s had me thinking: is this something that I could be doing? Or, really: what are the other ways I can present the stories that I’m working on, to make them more interesting to the reader?

It’s funny; I feel as if I’m dealing with these theoretical issues even though I have no outlet to experiment with right now. (True story: at the start of the year, I fully intended to start my own comics site. And then real life took over, and I had no time to do that. I even bought the domain and hosting!) And yet, I keep thinking about it — finding a way to present massive amounts of information to newcomers without it feeling too mechanical or un-personal, and making it interesting and understandable at the same time.

I’ve been watching For All Mankind lately, and there’s a line in an early episode where one of the engineers says that math is like music — sometimes, that’s how I feel about writing. As if there’s a song I just need to properly remember and then I’ll have the key to whatever problem I’m dealing with.

Not that this was a lead-in for a “key” pun, I hasten to add.