Errant words of wisdom from your humble correspondent.
Wasteland Forever!
Those of you who are regular denizens of this etherspace are well-familiar with the Heather Ross’s documentary about our little Wasteland comic book, For Madmen Only – The Stories of Del Close. This magnificent puppy features Del and (to name but a few) Kim Howard Johnson, Adam McKay, Tim Meadows, Susan Messing, Alan Meyerson, Bob Odenkirk, John Ostrander, Patton Oswalt, Jason Sudekis, Dave Thomas, James Urbaniak, Michaela Watkins, George Wendt, and your aforementioned humble correspondent. Indeed, I’m in it a lot – as myself, and I’m played by Matt Walsh in the flashback scenes. I can appreciate any consternation regarding my appearances, but Matt is fantastic and I want to be just like him if I grow up.
It’s been streaming for several weeks on several services, and now you lucky devils can buy your own copy on DVD/Blu-Ray so that you can continue to appreciate the film when that horrible day comes when For Madmen Only is no longer streaming. Seriously.
I’m very proud of being involved in this, and I’m very proud of you for buying it.
More Than Just Sports and Poe
Speaking of those of you who are regular denizens of this etherspace – get a life, folks – you may recall that my favorite of the larger long-form comic book conventions is the Baltimore Comic-Con, not just because it’s well-run, great fun, and features a lot of my friends, but because it is one of the very few larger long-form comic book conventions that actually is about “comic books.” Go know, right?
Well, after skipping last year’s show due to the plague and those virulent death-seekers who refuse to take precautions, the 2021 Baltimore Comic-Con resumed last weekend and it was typically terrific. Our pal and Pop Culture Squad comrade Bob Harrison hosted a bunch of panels, Gene Ha copped the Hero Initiative’s Humanitarian of the Year award, cosplay was more varied, and the living was easy.
But something happened to me on my way into the show on Sunday. A couple very nice people accosted me and stuck a needle in my arm. Yup, I got my official Fuck Covid booster shot – with my permission, although those without a vax card couldn’t get in in the first place. That is the best thing that ever happened to me at a comic book show, at least with my clothes on, and I thank promoter Marc Nathan and his crew and the Maryland Department of Benevolent Jabbing for making me a less infectious person.
Paper Pearls
I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t end on the dark side. Among all of the other global shortages, we are now in the midst of a paper famine. What little paper is available to publishers is now even more expensive. Newspapers and magazines, already on the ropes due to the perfect storm of distribution challenges, a dearth of advertising, and the frightening idea that people would rather get misinformation from dubious and even blatantly lying right-wing internet sites is going to exacerbate the publication failure rate.
If you’re like me – always a mistake – you might be asking yourself “How does this affect me?” Well, my corresponding fanboys and fangirls, you might have noticed that comic books are printed on this “paper” stuff. And our friendly neighborhood comic book shops are largely dependent upon people buying this paper. Not a good thing.
Plus, we’re running out of blue ink. The legendary comic book production canard “color will save it” might become still another buggy whip.
