Posters That Never Were
This was made for a thing, kind of; it was really me playing around with someone else’s design brief as a way of trying some techniques in Pixelmator I was curious about, but I really like how it turned out, so I’m saving it here.
Not unrelated: I really miss doing graphics for the THR newsletter every Friday.
Goodnight, Summer
Spoilers: You Can’t
I didn’t actually realize what was going on until it had been going on for awhile, unfortunately; I was talking to someone at work about the fact that all of us seemed to be operating under less than optimal circumstances lately and I wrote something like, “we all just seemed a little burned out,” at which point my brain went, oh, that’s it. You’re burned out. That’s what this is.
I had, to this point, been operating for a few weeks wondering why I was failing to have the same joie de vivre (which I have likely misspelled) that I normally had; I’d been feeling sluggish both in terms of feeling physically tired, but also emotionally under the weather, with everything feeling that little bit less exciting or even interesting than it usually did. I’d been ascribing a lot of this to the fact that, just weeks earlier, I’d had COVID and it takes time to get over that — something that is still true, it should be noted — but, nonetheless, had also been wondering why I’d failed to spring back as quickly as I had the first time I’d had the virus. Was this a stronger case? Was it just that I’m four years older?
The truth is, I realized when talking to my work colleague, I was burned out — a state that, in my mild defense, I’d practically trained myself out of recognizing back when I was a freelancer. It’s not that freelancers can’t get burned out — they do, and often — but that being burned out didn’t help when it came to meeting deadlines and paying bills. At some point relatively early in my freelance career, I convinced myself that because it didn’t “matter” on some practical level if I was burned out, then I simply wouldn’t accept that I could be burned out. There’s that entirely-healthy attitude I had back then.
Looking back on it with older, fresher eyes: of course I was burned out. I’d moved through three separate highly stressful work periods without a break, during which time I’d also attended San Diego Comic-Con and had COVID for a week. in addition to navigating whatever home life had been throwing at me at any given moment. (That list included the kid coming back from his summer away, and getting him ready for school, in addition to pet nonsense and other stuff.) How could anyone not be burned out, after all that?
The realization was something that allowed me to feel smug, for all of… a minute or so? After that, there was the inevitable follow-up question: how are you supposed to recover from being burned out when you have no less than two separate conventions to attend and report on for work in a two week period?
After Months Away, How We Missed Each Other
You Just Can’t Stop
Eating chips — they’re crisps, still, but I’ve been living in the US for more than two decades by this point; it’s the same as calling trousers “pants,” but still cringing a little inside as I do so — while traveling to a convention recently, I found myself having a particularly unexpected and strong sense memory. It’s not that I was immediately transported to another point in my life where I was eating crisps, although that’s not not the case. Instead, I found myself remembering with shocking clarity what it was like to eat lunch in art school.
I don’t mean the food, because if I’m being honest, I really don’t remember the food from the art school. (I think there was a canteen-style meal every day? Maybe? But I genuinely can’t recall.) Instead, I’m talking about the way it felt to sit there in that room, eating whatever we were eating while gossiping with friends and crushes and whoever else happened to be there at the time.
The canteen area — should I call it a “dining room”? That feels so much more grandiose than the reality, which was a medium-size room with really great, massive windows and a couple vending machines at the back that kept us going on more than one late night session — was an escape from the rest of the school in some way, despite being a pretty high traffic area for the school as a whole (obviously). We didn’t have to perform in any official capacity there; there weren’t projects to work on or presentations to give. The only arguments we made we did by choice, and we enjoyed them as a result. It was a haven, and one we retreated to often, especially in the rare occasions that it was mostly empty and you could have relatively private conversations in a building where that felt otherwise impossible.
The large windows were an important part of the appeal, although I didn’t realize at the time; when the weather was good (not that often; it was, after all, the North of Scotland), the entire room felt luminous and magical, in its way: A glowing example of the friendship, community, and small secluded society we’d all found in that building by intention or accident in our time at the school.
All of this rushed back into my head three decades after I’d first arrived at the school — I graduated from my Masters 25 years ago this year! — and all because of crisps. It’s strange, the way our minds work.
Toniiiiiight I’m A
I feel that I am letting myself, and everyone else around me, down by not having more of a response to the news last week that Oasis is getting back together after… what, a decade or so…? Given the reaction that has been seen from the British media, and seemingly a fanbase that is shockingly devoted considering it’s been so long since the band were last together — and even longer since they were a meaningful force in pop culture in any real sense, let’s be honest — this is clearly A Pop Culture Moment, and yet, the most that I can honestly muster is, “Well, it was probably going to happen at some point, so sure.”
It really was an inevitability, after all; their Britpop contemporaries have all reunited at some point or another for varying degrees of lucrative nostalgia and/or creative impulses needing fulfilled. (Blur have done so twice, and had accompanying documentaries both times — as well as brand new albums, both of which were worthwhile endeavors and enjoyable, to boot.) Even the Stone Roses, that strange Mancunian north star that shone high above Oasis’s collective head for so much of their career, got back together for an ill-fated attempt a decade or so back. The idea that Oasis were really never going to do it always felt unrealistic. How could they not, when both Liam and Noel are so devoted to re-enacting rock history?
Maybe this is what the world needs to re-examine Oasis as a band, as opposed to… I don’t know: a cultural icon, or a bunch of sometimes funny, constantly mouthy dicks that occasionally put out some records. The common wisdom is that they were spectacular before burning out similarly spectacularly around their third album, and never recovering, but… that’s not really true on either end. There’s a story to be told where they were an okay band with some great songs, perpetually uneven, even when familiarity felt like a sign of quality… although whether or not that’ll be one told when a bunch of old men are on-stage failing to live up to everyone’s memory is anyone’s guess.
I was a fan, back in the day, and to some degree or another, I stayed one — or, at least, an interested bystander — all the way up until their split. They were never my band, but I was close enough to their epicenter to care all the way through the end. And now, maybe I’m the one missing out by not caring anymore. We’ll see what happens when (if?) the reunion gigs actually take place; perhaps I just need to spend some time in the soon-shee-iiiiiine again.
The Movies of August 2024
Is this late? Listen, bud: he’s got radioactive bl — wait, what I mean it, “Yes, it is; basically, the combination of being in Seattle for PAX West 2024 and then having a down day after returning yesterday kicked my scheduling ass and I only got to this four hours or so after posts normally go live.” What can I say, besides sorry?
Anyway; I watched a lot of movies in August, and that includes some genuinely bad ones — I’m looking at you, Slumber Party Massacre and Hospital Massacre (which, notably, I watched under its alternate title, X-Ray) — however, there were also some new favorite mixed into things, too: Wicked Little Letters, The Apple, and Omen are all destined to be rewatched multiple times, I suspect, for entirely different reasons. Notably, perhaps, only one of the movies on this list was seen in the theater, and maybe that’s something I’d like to change for September… but we’ll see how that works out with everything else that’s coming up over the next few weeks. Intention doesn’t always equal planning, after all…
Anyway, here’s what I watched in August 2024:
The Comics of August 2024
Another month where I was convinced I’d been reading significantly less than usual, only for the final tally to surprise me. This month, we can especially appreciate what in both cases started as accidental, and then very purposeful, dives into the DC back catalogs of both Geoff Johns (Doomsday Clock and afterwards, specifically) and Tom Taylor, starting with Nightwing and moving forward. As you’ll also see for the end of the month, I got very, very into revisiting The Flash in multiple different incarnations, to the point where I have crude operating theories about the differences between Barry, Wally, and so on. Sometimes, I worry about my brain.
- Superman/Wonder Woman: Whom Gods Destroy #s 1-2
- Cobra Commander #s 1-5
- Superman/Wonder Woman: Whom Gods Destroy #s 3-4
- Superman: True Brit OGN
- Superman/Batman (2003) #26
- Sovereign Seven #3
- Superman: The Secret Years #1
- Detective Comics (1937) #s 501-502
- Showcase ‘95 #12
- Teen Titans: Year One #s 1-6
- World’s Finest: Teen Titans #1
- Classic X-Men #s 10-13
- Uncanny X-Men (1963) #106
- Infinite Frontier #0
- Infinite Frontier Secret Files #s 1-6
- Future State: Justice League #s 1-2
- Classic X-Men #s 14-15
- Wolverine (1988) #88
- Wolverine ‘95 #1
- Deadpool (1997) #27
- Wolverine ‘99 Annual #1
- Wolverine (1988) #154-155
- Cable & Deadpool #s 43-44
- Wolverine: Origins #s 21-25
- Classic X-Men #16
- Uncanny X-Men (1963) #110
- Classic X-Men #17
- Universal Monsters: Dracula #1
- The Immortal Thor #10
- The Incredible Hulk (2023) #12
- X-Men: From the Ashes Infinity Comic #9
- Uncle Scrooge and the Infinity Dime #1
- Armageddon 2001 #s 1-2
- Avengers (2023) #17
- Doctor Strange (2023) #18
- The Incredible Hulk (2023) #15
- Uncanny X-Men (2024) #1
- Wolverine: Deep Cuts #2
- Venom War #1
- Spider-Man: Reign 2 #2
- Blood Hunters v2 #1
- Daredevil (2023) #12
- Marvel’s What If Donald Duck was Wolverine? #1
- Spider-Man: Black Suit and Blood #1
- Spectacular Spider-Men #6
- Lazarus Planet: Alpha #1
- Lazarus Planet: Assault on Krypton #1
- Lazarus Planet: We Once We Gods #1
- Lazarus Planet: Legends Reborn #1
- Lazarus Planet: Next Evolution #1
- Lazarus Planet: Dark Fate #1
- Lazarus Planet: Omega #1
- Catwoman (2018) #1
- Firestorm (1978) #s 1-2
- Venom (2021) #18
- Firestorm (1978) #3
- Venom (2021) #19
- Firestorm (1978) #s 4-6 (#6 originally unpublished, available on DCUI)
- DC Comics Presents (1978) #s 17, 45
- The Brave and the Bold (1955) #172
- The Fury of Firestorm (1982) #1
- The Fury of Firestorm: The Nuclear Men #s 1-4
- The Fury of Firestorm: The Nuclear Men #s 5-12, 0
- The Fury of Firestorm: The Nuclear Man #13 (Yes, a very mild name change)
- Legends of Tomorrow: Firestorm #1
- Venom (2021) #s 20-25
- Uncanny X-Men (1963) #s 111-113
- Zero Hour 30th Anniversary Special #1
- Absolute Power: Task Force VII #5
- Absolute Power: Origins #2
- The Flash (2023) #12
- Green Arrow (2023) #15
- The Fury of Firestorm: The Nuclear Man #14
- Captain Atom (2011) #s 1-4
- The Fall and Rise of Captain Atom #s 1-3
- Batman (1989 movie adaptation)
- Batman Returns (1992 movie adaptation)
- The Fall and Rise of Captain Atom #s 4-6
- Captain Atom (2011) #s 4-12, 0
- The Fury of Firestorm: The Nuclear Man #s 15-20
- Venom (2021) #s 26-32
- Savage Wolverine Infinity Comic #s 1-2
- Dogpool Infinity Comic #s 2-3
- Legends of Tomorrow: Firestorm #s 2-4
- Legion Lost (2011) #s 1-16, 0
- Venom (2021) #33
- Fantastic Four (2022) #20
- The Amazing Spider-Man (2022) #49
- Giant-Size X-Men (2024) #1
- X-Men: From the Ashes Infinity Comic #10
- Wolverine (1982) #s 1-4
- Marvel Comics Presents (1988) #s 1-10 (Wolverine stories only)
- Wolverine (1988) #1
- X-Factor (2024) #1
- X-Men (2024) #2
- The Amazing Spider-Man (2022) #55
- Fantastic Four (2022) #23
- Venom (2021) #36
- Venom War: Spider-Man #1
- Vengeance of the Moon Knight #8
- Doctor Strange (2023) #15
- Blood Hunters (Vol 1) #1
- Captain America (2023) #9
- Avengers (2023) #14
- Daredevil (2023) #9
- The Nice House by the Sea #2
- DC vs Vampires: World War V #1
- Gotham City Sirens (2024) #s 1-4
- Starman (1994) #s 0, 1
- Starman (1988) #1
- 1st Issue Special #12
- Adventure Comics (1938) #467
- Punchline Special #1
- Starman (1994) #s 2-3
- The Immortal Thor #14
- Star Wars: Doctor Aphra (2016) #s 26-31
- Absolute Power #3
- Batman (2016) #152
- Plastic Man No More! #1
- Birds of Prey (2023) #13
- The Penguin #12
- Justice Society of America (2022) #11
- Absolute Power #s 1-2
- Doomsday Clock #s 1-4
- Doomsday Clock #s 5-12
- Dark Crisis: Big Bang #1
- Birds of Prey (2023) #s 7-12
- Nightwing (2016) #s 94-98
- The Transformers: The Movie (1986) #s 1-3
- Spider-Boy #s 4-6
- Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths #7
- Nightwing Annual 2022 #1
- Nightwing (2016) #s 99-104
- Dark Horse Comics #s 15-19 (Aliens stories only)
- Aliens: Music of the Spears #s 1-4
- Aliens: Stronghold #s 1-4
- Captain Atom (1965) #s 83-84
- Captain Atom (1986) #s 1-3
- The L.A.W. #1
- Captain Atom: Armageddon #s 1, 9
- Extreme Justice #18
- Superman/Batman (2003) #s 1-6
- Superman/Batman (2003) #s 7-25
- Iron Fist 50th Anniversary Special #1
- Petrol Head #s 1-5
- Sensational She-Hulk (2023) #10
- Ultraman/Avengers #1
- Justice League (1987) #s 1-3
- Nightwing (2016) #s 105-109
- Titans (2023) #s 1-5
- Titans: Beast World #s 1-6
- Titans (2023) #s 6-14
- Nightwing (2016) #s 110-117
- Nightwing Annual 2024 #1
- Doom (2024) #1
- The Amazing Spider-Man: Blood Hunt #1
- Batman: The Detective #1
- Superman: Son of Kal-El #s 1-6
- Superman: Son of Kal-El Annual 2022 #1
- Superman: Son of Kal-El #s 7-13
- X-Men: From The Ashes Infinity Comic #11
- Star Wars: Doctor Aphra (2016) #s 32-36
- The Moon is Following Us #1
- Superman: Son of Kal-El #s 14-18
- Jughead (2015) #2
- Adventures of Superman: Jon Kent #s 1-6
- Injustice: Year Zero #s 1-8
- Savage Wolverine Infinity Comic #4
- Star Wars: Doctor Aphra (2016) #s 37-40
- Giant-Size Thor (2024) #1
- Miles Morales: Spider-Man Annual (2024) #1
- Spider-Woman (2023) #10
- Phoenix (2024) #2
- Namor (2024) #2
- Predator vs. Black Panther #1
- Scarlet Witch (2024) #3
- Star Wars (2020) #49
- Ultimate Spider-Man (2024) #8
- Wolverine: Revenge #1
- Injustice: Year Zero #s 9-14
- Injustice 2 Annual #2
- Batman: The Detective #s 2-6
- The Green Lantern #1
- Jughead (2015) #s 3-5
- Batman: Dark Age #1
- Batman: Dark Age #s 2-5
- Superman: Space Age #s 1-3
- Harley Quinn: Make ‘Em Laugh #s 1-3
- Superman & Bugs Bunny #1
- Jughead (2015) #6
- Judge Dredd: Machine Law
- Dreadnoughts: Nothing to Fear
- Rogue Trooper: Souther Belle
- Rogue Trooper: Recon
- Absolute Power: Task Force VII #6
- Green Lantern (2023) #15
- Batman & Robin (2023) #13
- DC vs Vampires: World War V #2
- Superman & Bugs Bunny #s 2-4
- Dan Dare (2018) #s 1-4
- James Bond: 007 (2023) #s 1-3
- Ultimate Invasion #s 1-4
- Ultimate Universe (2023) #1
- Ultimates (2024) #s 1-2
- Ultimate Black Panther #s 1-3
- Ultimate Spider-Man (2024) #s 1-4
- FCBD Ultimate Universe/Spider-Man 2024 #1
- The Spirit Artisan Edition
- Rok of the Reds #1
- Alien: The Illustrated Story OGN
- The Green Lantern Corps (1986) #202
- Tales of the Green Lantern Corps Annual #s 1-2
- Green Lantern Corps: Edge of Oblivion #1
- The Green Lantern #s 2-8
- Justice League (1987) #s 4-6
- Justice League International (1987) #7
- John Constantine, Hellblazer: Dead in America #s 1-4
- The Amazing Spider-Man (2022) #50
- The Immortal Thor #11
- Ultimate Black Panther #4
- The Green Lantern #s 9-12
- Green Lantern: Blackstars #s 1-3
- Star Wars (2020) #46
- X-Men: From the Ashes Infinity Comic #12
- Predator: The Last Hunt #4
- Sensational She-Hulk (2023) #8
- Dogpool Infinity Comic #5
- John Constantine, Hellblazer: Dead in America #s 5-8
- Aliens vs Avengers #1
- Marvel 85th Anniversary Special #1
- Deadpool Team-Up (2024) #1
- X-Men (2024) #3
- X-Force (2024) #2
- Incredible Hulk Annual 2024 #1
- Amazing Spider-Man (2022) #56
- Venom War: Zombiotes #1
- Phases of the Moon Knight #1
- NYX (2024) #2
- Fantastic Four (2022) #24
- The Flash (1959) #s 340-344
- Flashpoint Beyond #s 0, 6
- Legion of Super-Heroes (2011) #23
- The Flash (1959) #s 345-347
- The Flash (1959) #s 348-350
- The Flash (2010) #8
- The Flash (1987) #197
- Final Crisis: Rogues Revenge #1
- Secret Origins (1986) #41
- The Flash (2023) #s 1-8
- The Flash Annual 2024 #1
- The Flash (2023) #s 9-12
- The Flash (1959) #s 275, 277-278, 280-284
- Savage Wolverine Infinity Comic #5
- House of Harkness Infinity Comic #1
- The New Golden Age #1
- Justice Society of America (2022) #s 1-6
- The Flash (1987) #s 62-65
- The Flash (1987) #s 66-75
- Justice Society of America (2022) #s 7-10
Too Early, Too Much
I have, it feels like, lost the ability to get a good night’s sleep.
This is a problem, of course, but it’s one I’m not entirely sure how I’m supposed to fix. I am doing the right things, in terms of going to bed at a reasonable time and trying to decompress my head by reading a little before turning out the light and settling in for the night. It’s not as if I even have trouble falling asleep, because even that I feel as if I’d be able to address in some form or another. Instead, I fall asleep almost immediately, and I don’t wake up until the next morning. It’s just that… I don’t feel particularly well-rested.
Again, the problem isn’t that I’m not getting enough sleep, although I could almost certainly go for more. I’m getting maybe… seven hours or so a night? Maybe closer to eight on some nights. That doesn’t feel like I’m running at a deficit, especially compared with my historical averages. (When I was a kid and entirely invincible, as kids are, I could manage on four or five and still feel fine the next day. Ah, those were the days…) It’s simply that I do not, for whatever reason, feel as if I’ve actually slept when I wake up in the morning.
The reasonable answer about what’s happening is probably connected with the amount of stress I’m feeling lately — the job is filled with things to utterly dominate my mind and refuse to let go, unfortunately, and that’s been the case since the beginning of June; that’s an entire quarter of a year, almost! — but, despite what G.I. Joe once told us, knowing isn’t half the battle. It doesn’t really do anything for the sense of exhaustion I’ve taken to permanently wearing around my shoulders, like the fur of a shittily-designed fantasy warrior.
Instead, I find myself yawning by the time it’s 5pm, and my eyes feel heavy around 8. I’m in trouble by the time fall will arrive, if this hasn’t sorted itself out; I’ll hide from the inevitable chill in the air and the darkness outside in the evenings, and fall asleep by accident in front of the television, lulled into unconsciousness by the drone of the latest episode of a reality show and unable to properly relax for the same sound quietly nagging in my ears.