This is gonna be another one of those "state of my union" pieces, and it will be brief because I got up late and have things to do, including cutting the grass, always a fun thing in the Kentucky humidity.
Picked up eight new comics yesterday, and of course I will review them eventually. In my stack were
BATGIRL YEAR ONE #9
FABLES #16
THE FILTH #12
GOTHAM CENTRAL #10
HERO #7
JLA #84
JSA #51
POWERS #33
Out of these, I suppose half of them could be considered Spandex superhero comics, and I suppose Central and Powers would be as well even though superheroism is de-emphasized in those titles. I don't know how to categorize the uncategorizable Filth. Under "mindfuck", I suppose. Anyway, I note this because I've been reading a lot of thoughtful pieces dealing with "outgrowing" superheroes and the comics that feature them over at !Journalista!, Sean Collins', and Eve-Tushnet's comparison of comics to opera over at her place. Of course, I always accepted it as a given that Kirby comics, for example, always operated at a implied Wagnerian level, but it's a good piece nonetheless. I have, for a long time now, thought myself bored by most conventional superhero-type offerings from the Big Three or Four, but the evidence above kinda brings my conviction into question. Still, a generous portion of my monthly purchases, I believe, while not as indiecentric as they could be, is still definitely not that of a typical comics fan these days- whatever that may be. I'd like to write a long post about my thoughts on this, but I am finding it difficult, at best, these days to organize my thoughts on most matters so I guess it will have to wait. It's an interesting discussion, though, and I wanted to point it out to you all.
Also, lest we forget, I opined a little on the Jesus Castillo debacle, but it was buried in one of my longwinded rambling-type posts so go here to read what I said again, which pretty much echoes 75% of most people who are inclined to care about that sort of thing. Third paragraph. However, there are many who don't agree, and Ampersand has a clearly thought out "con" position. Go here to read it. Me, I still maintain that while the letter of the law might have been upheld, justice was not done.
Finally, you may or may not have noticed that I have made my small contribution to the "fair and balanced" madness, in the header above.
Hopefully, more later. If not, sayonara, kiddies, see you tomorrow. Pax et justitia!
