Sleepy-time Reads

Reading comics on my iPad is addicting.  Load them up and they just sit there all in a row, waiting for you to knock them all out.  Ever since I was a wee lad, I've liked reading something before bed.  Now that I can do so on a back-lit screen, comics has become the #1 solution.

When I read a normal, mainstream title like the Avengers or Spider-Man, reading one or two comics is enough to get my eyes sufficiently droopy and start to drop the curtain down on my brain.

This blog post will serve as a personal warning to myself: do not read series like Locke & Key, Secret Warriors or The Walking Dead before bedtime.  These series are mixes of captivating and surprising, fulfilling and nuanced, or depressing and melancholy and they all get my brain racing.

Sleep: negative.  Or at least I should uninterrupted sleep will be a shock to me.  Some of creepiest dreams have come after reading a few issues of Walking Dead a bit too close to putting my head to pillow.

On the other side of the coin, Marvel comics are exactly what the doctor ordered.  They are exciting reads and I love all the titles I follow, but it's more like a favorite TV show that I know all the main characters will be fine until the next episode.  That safety goes a long way to letting me begin to analyze artists or writers more than those by other publishers.

Comic nerd begone now! If you stuck through to the end of this, you clearly are near and dear to me.

Punch it, Chewie!

I Am Jack's Drive

The first rule of Might Club is.... in progress. We haven't really gotten around to finishing it yet.  I'd check back in a few weeks and it should be done.  Maybe.

To dig a little deeper into my cranial pan, tonight's comic is more a reaction to a personal fear I've held for a number of years.

We can go back and forth in a heated debate for hours as to the quality of my ideas, but I do find myself having quite a few in any given week.  Where the real hitch comes in is the 'doing something about it' bit.  Following through on something beyond the initial idea is something that has constantly plagued me.  The rapid-fire nature of this blog is immune to this due to the immediate reward for my efforts.  Doodle, post, ramble, repeat.

All of this being said, I have a number of open projects that I've not been able to devote nearly as much time as I'd like.  I loathe the idea of a New Year's resolution because it implies you only need to pick one thing to work on, and only at the end/beginning of the year.  To completely negate my own last thought, something that has been coming up again and again while out on dog walks lately is that I need to be more intentional with the work I do on my own, even if they turn out to be just hobbies.

Long story short, tonight's comic is about indifference and how I'm growing tired of it hanging around me.

Punch it, Chewie!

Puppy Love: Now With Teeth!

What are all these cobwebs in here? You'd think that someone abandoned this blog for almost an entire month or something.

It's good to be back, and tonight's comic should hopefully go along with my apologies to convey why there was such a large gap between posts.  After an impulsive decision to go check out a local animal shelter, we got a puppy.

He's a delightful little ball of energy, but with a few downsides.  When his own energy reserves start to ebb, like the vampires of old, he sucks the energy right out of us.  This is accomplished by chewing or barking at anything he decides to fixate on.  It is a bummer to lose the ability to hit the 'snooze' button in the mornings, but I think it will be worth the trade-off eventually.  Already, the little furball has been good for morale in some respects.  I'm getting more fresh air, though it's occasionally tinged with noxious puppy gas and plenty of walks outside around our neighborhood.

Also, I'm back to playing League of Legends! I had taken several months off as I was just getting tired of the repetition.  I'm glad to say that I just needed a break, because I'm all in again.  My skills in the game, however, are not so fast to return.  Oh well, I guess that's something more for my team to deal with in the end.

It finally feels like I'm starting a new year, turning a new page, getting back to old rhythms and it is good.  Enjoy your week, hopefully we'll all be outside in warmer weather and puppy teething will end soon.

Punch it, Chewie!

Graphical Comfort

I could quit my job today and get a government grant to prove my data-less hypothesis depicted in tonight's comic.  It's science, just without all the actual trials, information and insight to link factors together!

Also I should probably point out that I didn't really have a stressful day, thus making me wear sweatpants after work.  In fact, I'm disproving my own theory since changing into the cotton wonder was the first thing I did but my day wasn't really all that bad.  To be fair though, writing a comic about how I came home and put on comfy clothes because I didn't have any errands to run tonight really wouldn't interest too many people.

Tomorrow a character I've been following off and on for basically my entire "career" collecting and reading comics comes back in his own self-titled series.  Cable and the X-Force is hitting shelves tomorrow and I'm excited to be able to support it with my dollars.  Cable is an interesting character that Marvel has had a hard time dealing with since he has such a complicated, convoluted back-story. Oh, and that he's a time-traveler that could, if they wrote it as such, really complicate the entire Marvel Universe.  He's a truly gritty character, not in the Punisher way where loss drove him to blatant and unapologetic murder, but in the way that his entire story is always dealing with loss and continuing on in the face of it.  If the man has a super power, a friend, a favorite weapon or even a timeline that he's beginning to settle into, trust the comic overlords to yank it out from under his feet.  When I write it like that, I'm surprised I don't get tired of those kinds of stories.

Just a few days and weeks away from holiday relaxation makes this week sure to feel as if it's passing more slowly than those carefree summer days that don't have the same longevity.  I wonder if I could just build a pillow fort in my cubicle and read until the break comes.

Punch it, Chewie!

No More Gutter Birdies

It's amazing that I haven't been scooped up by some clandestine government think-tank to sit in their plush underground bunkers and just churn out world-altering inventions.  The reality-shaking game of Tetherminton would be just one example, sure to sweep any nation with casual and highly competitive play.

A major running theme in my entertainment and thus thoughts lately has been the idea of large machinations.  I'm speaking almost exclusively about government and spy agencies, with almost always a science fiction twist to them.  Even some ideas for projects I've been mulling over the past few months have had to do with concepts of story and interactions as pieces of a larger device.

Trying to understand why these elements put together would appeal to me so much, I think I hit upon a few points.  Science fiction is a no-brainer; attempting to identify with the fantastical injects mystery and excitement into my life which almost exclusively (by design, right or wrong) lacks the risks of adventure.

Also involved are always clear plans, even if these may not be revealed until working through the problems.  Having the rigidity of an intended outcome brings me some kind of comfort, that all the work being put in and  risks taken are calculated and have a goal in mind.  For me, this ties into the hole that organized religions much more often than not can't fill.  This isn't a failing on their part but my own inability to look at the theater of it and not question the motives.

It's clear though what would involve adventure with a clear outcome in mind: Tetherminton!  Yikes, did I just black out through a therapy session or something?  Luckily there's nothing too dark in there so I'll just leave it as is, until next we meet.

Punch it, Chewie!