Highway 62

it’s all so unfair, isn’t it? What could more gloriously illustrate, in graphic detail, the fundamental inequities of life on this planet? I get to be a loudmouth and influence the opinions of hundreds, yeah, thousands on a weekly basis while others languish in obscurity, undiscovered and unloved.

I’m going to let you in on a little secret. Writing isn’t glamorous, particularly writing a weekly column. Fun, perhaps. An excuse to reference particularly obscure bits of pop culture, certainly. Swaying the minds of the masses and good for gathering up a base of power from which to take over the world? Not really. Truth is, over the last year of writing Full Bleed, I’ve received a couple handfuls of comments (and most of them coming on the columns board over here at BF, very infrequently anywhere else. Oh sure, there were a couple of nods on Journalista! (a moment of silence for the departed, please, but again be cheered in that Mr. Deppey has indeed found pastures of verdant grandeur beyond the blogosphere.) And yes, some mentions on other weblogs, but far from a regular occurrence. (A quick aside to all those folks who’ve done so: thanks. It’s nice to have another voice in my head from time to time, contrary to what my analyst says.)

I know. You’re all sobbing into your screens as you read of this, my plight. That or you’re laughing. Laughing would be better, wouldn’t it?

The truth is, writing (as the cliché goes) is a lonely profession. You spend a lot of time in your own headspace (or doing research, which thanks to Google means even MORE time in front of the computer) or trying to shoehorn stuff from the outside world into your headspace. Have I mentioned the prerequisite solipsism? You better like the sound of your own voice and find yourself an easy person to get along with, or you’ll end up chewing your own arm off in frustration.

This is even more the case when you’re writing strictly about a field as small as comics. I was talking with a favorite creator of mine at Wondercon this year and we both noted the ferocity over which subjects in comicdom (particularly, though not limited to, superhero serial comics) are discussed/debated/fought over. To use a simile I used with a friend recently, it’s like watching a pack of pitbulls tussling over the body of a rat. Yes, that’s a loaded view, I admit. But that doesn’t change the truth of it.

At any rate, we came to some agreement that this was due to the contracting nature of the comics business (whether real or simply perceived). The more scarce a resource becomes, the harder people who require/consume the resource will fight to dispose of it in their chosen manner. Kinda like academics, where the biggest battles aren’t fought over giant, over-arching theories, but rather over the most microscopic, microcosmic theories (and this, I believe, is true primarily because of the orientation of most Ph.D. studies on proving a tiny little new theory instead of reassimilation of older works.)

Of course, this, like most other ideas I’ve put forth from this platform, is my opinion. It may or may not be yours. What’s more, differing views are no more or less correct than one another (though certainly, the opinions that you hold are more likely to be “right” than “wrong.”) And to let you in on another secret, anyone who has anything to say about comics (or any aesthetic endeavour) is only relaying their opinion. No matter how loud they shout, if you don’t agree with ‘em, then that’s your prerogative. Granted, you may hold some nutty opinions (like fer instance that bringing back Hal Jordan is base pandering to a vocal minority, or that Batman: Year One is twenty times a better story than Dark Knight Returns) but they’re yours. Don’t let some comics wonk try to tell you otherwise.

Sure, have an open mind. In fact, I deeply encourage it. It’d circumvent a bunch of the hot air that gets blown around on a daily basis.

But back to the first point (and that’s being very generous) of today’s column. What makes me a good candidate to write a column as opposed to say, nearly anybody else out there (particularly some of the insightful folks who blog on a regular basis.)

I can offer some observations, and maybe even some…opinions.

Firstly, I’m writing comics. No, not right this second, since I’ve got to get this column done while my daughter sleeps and gives me a little break. I’ve been writing for some time (too long, now that I think about it, without having gotten really serious about it. But there’s always excuses not to be serious about it…). Like I’ve mentioned numerous times, though, I’m planning on having Strangeways out this year (assuming it’ll be self-published; later if someone else publishes it, due to the vicissitudes of the industry.) So yeah, I’m actually doing it. True, I’m a self-publisher (which in traditional fiction markets means “wannabe”, go figure) but I’m actually doing it (as I exhorted folks to way back when, in my first pre-Full Bleed outing here at BF.)

Secondly, I’ve got a unique perspective on things. True, anyone who writes a column has a unique perspective on things. Of course I’m going to say that. Hell, I’ll do one better and say that when I actually bother, I’m a relatively insightful guy (if not more than a little muddled, okay a lot muddled). I’ve worked with all kinds of people, from physicists who worked on the Manhattan Project to animators (during my tenure at Netter Digital, home of Babylon 5 and the abortion of a remake of Dan Dare, but that’s a subject for another column), to musicians, both famous and not so very much so. Boasting? Not really. Just a fact of the weird path my life has taken over the last twenty or so years.

Thirdly, because I stepped up and gave it a shot. True, the first time I queried Frederik Hautain (BF’s head honcho) about writing a column, I was politely turned down. However, after writing a fill-in for a columnist here (bonus points to anyone who can name who without Googling it), I was given an opportunity to write a regular column. That was a little over a year ago. Like a couple weeks, I think, maybe not even that much.

Yes, there are times it’s a headache. And more than once, I thought it wasn’t actually worth the time and effort and nearly hung it up. I’ll also be the first to admit that there plenty of times that I didn’t deliver 100%. I’m not on all the time, and there’s a few weeks that I should be ashamed of. But I didn’t bail. I’ve got plenty of other things to throw my time and energy at (try chasing a three-year-old all day long). Cthulhu willing, I’ll continue to have time and energy to do some good work here.

See you next week.