What I am thinking about today, 4/14/2022
Every so often, I remember that the only person left from the original EC comics crew is Angelo Torres. The comics EC put out between 1950 and 1955 were the best drawn comics line in history. I love Kirby and Ditko, but the lineup they had was incredible:
Wally Wood
Jack David
Graham Ingles
Jack Kamen
Harvey Kurtzman
Bill Elder
Al Feldstein
Johnny Craig
Basil Wolverton
Al Williamson
Bernie Krigstein
Joe Orlando
And that’s just off the top of my head without looking. Angelo recently had a series of stories in the Dark Horse revival of Creepy and Eerie that were as good as his work on the Warren mags in the 60’s and 70’s.
There is a Russian professional cosplayer I follow on the internets. At first, it was because “Hey, she’s pretty when she’s dressed like Gwen Stacy”, and she also did a lot of shoots with anime and video game characters. She sells photos at conventions, have professional photo shoots and the like. Yes, I like looking at pretty women. About a year or so ago, she posted a bunch of videos and pics from a protest in Moscow she had attended. She does videos on Twitch and Instagram where she talked about what was going on in Russia, and I must admit I am a person who loves that sort of content so that I can see what people’s lives are like all over the world.
About two months ago she had to leave Russia quickly. No details, but lots of apologies that there wasn’t new content, and stuff about supporting Ukraine. Now that she is in Istanbul, she has gone pack to posting pictures of herself in costume and being at conventions in Europe, but she also posts about how most of her team is still in Russia, how to help people in Ukraine, and how sad she is that she can’t be home any more.
There are three things I think about this:
1) How gut wrenching it is that these sorts of things can happen so quickly.
2) Here is a young woman who makes a living being pretty and dressing up in costumes who is trying to help people by using her influence to push people to do something. THIS IS WHY CELEBRITIES TAKE UP CAUSES.
3) How, when used right, social media can bring us into other people’s lives and connect to help people we otherwise would know nothing about. To most people, the conflict in Ukraine is something in a country far away that we see on the news, but seeing the actual toll on the people affected makes it more tragic and compels us to take action more readily.
I have internet friends all over the world. Here on Facebook, many of the people I am “friends” with are comics fans or wrestling fans. But through that connection, I get the see into the lives of people all over the world so that I can understand their lives better. Through those connections, I can embrace our differences in culture, language, and thoughts. In doing so, I grow and learn. Thank you to ALL of my friends outside the US.
Be kind, be courageous and be cool.
Much love to friends old and new.
