First, an announcement for Cincinnati readers. I will be the guest of Loch Norse Magazine on Friday evening at 6:30 at the Bowtie Cafe in Mt. Adams and will be reading from my forth coming collection, “In Love, In Water and Other Stories.” Loch Norse’s open mic will follow.

On Saturday I went to the Cincinnati Comic Expo. I also took my German exchange student along for the “cultural experience.” 🙂 We both had a good time. It’s always interesting to see the people in costume. (Though I still believe some people should probably not wear spandex in public. I would be one of them, and no, I didn’t.) I also liked the variety of booths and merchants there. I wound up buying a Minion Aquaman. (It is so cute!), a Space Ghost glass, and the Cincinnati Pops CD of last year’s Superhero concert. I also bought some small press graphic novels and prints to go with them. I stopped by the booth of the amazingly talented artist/author David Mack (Kabuki, Daredevil, Dexter, and too many others to mention) to say hi. I stopped by the booth for my local comic book supplier, Rockin Rooster Comics. And I stopped by the booth of Post Portem Press. I look forward to being on the other side of their table there next year selling copies of my new collection of short stories.

There were plenty of guest celebrities as well. I won’t mention the names, since I really found it a little problematic. Many of these were actors from fan favorite shows and most still have active acting careers. I understand they are giving up their time to come to the convention. However, $30-$40 for an autograph? Seriously? I bought the DVDs and I watch the Netflix episodes. You’re getting money from my watching, so $40 for an autograph? I can see charging something but that seemed a little, well, greedy. Needless to say, I didn’t get any autographs, except for David’s, who will sign your comics, prints etc.

In the evening I went to Chilicon, the annual party thrown my friends from The Cincinnati Fantasy Group. The food was great and the company superb. If you are in the greater Cincinnati area, look us up.

Hope you all had great weekends as well!

Heroes, Hardships, and Happiness

When I was reading comics in my teen years in the 80’s, I was reading back issues from the 60’s and buying the current issues of X-Men monthly. I always preferred Marvel comics since they were more “realistic” and well, more interesting. Writers and editors at Marvel gave characters lives outside of being a hero and problems that “real life” people face, like paying the bill as well as joys like dates and marriages. DC comics, with the new 52, has taken that idea on more than in the past.  They seem to want to get as far away from the idea of the “Super Friends” as they can. But the dark and gritty can go too far.

DC recently refused to let the lesbian character of Batwoman marry her girlfriend in the pages of the comic. (Disclosure, I don’t currently read Batwoman.) The reason, according to publisher Dan DiDio, is that heroes can’t be happy. “Heroes shouldn’t have happy personal lives. They are committed to being that person and committed to defending others at the sacrifice of their own personal interests.” Yeah, right.

I like conflict in a story. I like seeing characters have to think and yes, fight, their way out of tough situations. But I don’t need my heroes to be tortured day and night by their past/present/lack of future.  In serial work, this just leads to melodrama and burnout for the readers. Give the character a break and you give the reader a break.  I can speak from experience that when a show/comic/series gets too depressing, too melodramatic, I just stop watching/reading.

If DC wants to emulate Marvel more, perhaps they should look at the Northstar’s wedding. Not only did he marry his boyfriend in the pages of the Astonishing X-Men, Marvel sent postcards out to comic book stores asking readers to save the date. Good story telling for serial fiction needs to have a little happiness in it.

I wanted to start out this week with some good news. My short story collection “In Love, In Water and Other Stories” has been accepted for publication by Post Mortem Press. Believe me, you will be hearing a lot more about this when it gets closer to the publication date next year. The funny thing about the acceptance was the timing. Last Tuesday, I received an email in the afternoon informing me of the winners of a contest/open reading period in which I had entered a mixed genre chapbook. I was not on the list. I am very used to rejections but I still felt a little depressed that my work didn’t make it. The fiction piece had been published already and the lyric essay had gotten much positive feedback. But, hey, that’s the writing life. A little after midnight that night, I received the email from Eric Beebe of Post Mortem Press informing me that my collection was going to be part of the 2014 catalog. I was giddy. My collection was going to be published! I found it a little hard to believe, a little too good to be true. And that too is the writing life.

On a different note, earlier today I saw that Science Fiction Grand Master Fred Pohl has died. You can read an obituary here. I met Pohl once, at the Science Fiction Research Association meeting in Oxford, OH in either 1989 or 1990. He seemed full of life and probably a lot of fun to know. Later, when I started teaching composition, I often used The Space Merchants as a text in class. It was a great book for them to read and write about. If you’ve never read it, find a copy and do so. I can’t say that Pohl was an influence on me as a writer, but there is no doubt of his influence on the field.

So Ben Affleck has been cast as the new Batman opposite Henry Cavill’s Superman and the internet erupted with demands he be removed. I personally have no strong feelings about this. My favorite role of Ben Affleck was his video with Jimmy Kimmel.  But I also remember thinking “what were they thinking?” when Michael Keaton was cast for the role. Beetlejuice as Batman? Seriously? But of that series of Batman movies, Keaton was the best Batman of the lot. But who else could they have cast?

Mark Wahlberg: One of my students suggested this actor. He certainly has come along way from the those underwear ads. However, perhaps producers were already anticipating the Saturday Night Live skit, “The Boogie Dark Nights Return.”

Jeremy Renner: Already taken.

Bradley Cooper: Perhaps, but maybe Hangover part Pi has already started.

Ryan Reynolds: Why not? He has yet to be in a successful super-hero movie.

Daniel Radcliffe: Too young? Too short? Too Harry Potter?

Tom Cruise: Too old? Too short? Too Tom Cruise?

Jack Black: Well, maybe if they were casting for Bat-Mite.

Robert Downey Jr.: Hey, he’s already scored as playboy billionaire philanthropist in a fancy suit. Perhaps he wants to stretch.

Johnny Depp: Who wouldn’t want to see Batman portrayed as Captain Jack Sparrow?

Benedict Cumberbatch: He proved he could be badass in Star Trek and he’s already one of the world’s greatest detectives. Could work.

Tobey McGuire: He’s too old now for Spider-Man, but maybe he wants to get back into the tights. Spider-Bat anyone?

Tom Welling and Brandon Routh: They’ve already played Superman/Clark Kent. Let’s give them a chance at the Bat.

How about the first openly gay actor playing Batman? I mean we’ve all heard the rumors about Bats.

Wentworth Miller: Kudos for recently coming out and taking a stand against Russia’s anti-LGBT laws. Besides, residuals from Prison Break are probably starting to dwindle.

Matt Bomer: He’s already done the voice for Superman in Superman: Unbound and has shown he can do suave and sophisticated in White Collar. He would certainly look good in tights and . . .  I better stop now.

So who would you pick?

Kick-Ass 2 (spoiler alert)

Let me start off by saying I enjoyed the first Kick-Ass movie. In fact, last summer when I taught my Literature and Film course on graphic novel adaptations, I used Kick-um as a text. I thought the first movie was funny and while violent, it was so over-the-top as to not be believable. Second, I thought there was a definite theme in the movie about voyeurism and the need to watch violence. When Kick-Ass asks someone to call 911, he instead starts filming for Youtube. Likewise, near the climax of the movie, all of Dave’s friends rush to watch the violence being done to Kick-Ass and Big Daddy even when the networks take it off the air. We get this even as we, the audience, are watching this fake violence acted out before us. Dave becomes Kick-Ass because he thinks people don’t do enough to help people, that they instead just watch what happens without acting. The movie asks that question of the audience as well.

Then there is Kick-Ass 2. (And I have not yet read the graphic novel sequel) It’s a movie filled with excessive violence that seems to have no point. Perhaps there is the point that being a super-hero (or vigilante) has consequences, but that seems pretty much a given. Instead, it struck me as a movie that wanted to outdo the violence from the first and see more blood and cruel ways to kill people. It has an attempted rape scene played for humor (see Mike Ryan’s review at Huffington Post) that isn’t funny. Overall, Kick-Ass 2 was a serious disappointment.

Let me know what you think!

Hello all,

Welcome to my website. I’m currently preparing a short story collection and just realized I’ve published in 4 different decades. (Eek!) So, I guess it’s about time to launch a webpage! With the help of Kevin Douglas Web Designs, I am now ready to go.

Please stop by for musings (and amusings) on writing, publishing, cats, gardening, comic books, superheroes, fantasy and science fiction, current movies, current events and whatever else happens to hit my fancy for the week.

I plan to start blogging regularly in a month, when the academic year starts. In the meantime, please feel free to look around, read some of my publications, visit my friends, and send me a message.

Thanks!

Andy