Agent of Change

06 Jul 2015

Stupid people make me…

I have noticed an uptick in the “I am tired of stupid people” memes and complaints on the internet. Usually it’s a supposedly funny “Stupid people make me angry” with a cartoon of a Minion or Warner Brothers character, or some cute animal with “You can’t fix stupid” on it.

All it shows me is that the person posting it either lacks empathy deficit or they are just a bit too full of themselves.

Life is pretty damn hard, and you have no idea in the world what that person has been dealing with when you came into contact with them. Maybe their mind isn’t on what they are doing because they have something more serious on their mind. Maybe the task you are asking them to complete is something they aren’t trained for, maybe they have gotten some terrible news…the list goes on and on.

was a single dad for most of my 20’s and early 30’s, working two jobs to keep the lights on. There are huge gaps of what I remember from that time because there are lots of things that wouldn’t make it from the short term memory to the long term memory. I would forget something while shopping and have to run back and get it, or forget my wallet in the car, or blank on my ATM pin number or any number of things.

When I would train people to work in juvenile corrections, I would remind them that the people they worked with had an entire history before they came into contact with staff, not just for their life, but maybe even that day. So, if someone blows up at you, keep in mind they may have spilled their breakfast, gotten bad news from their mom, had a dream that brought back something traumatic, etc… and their anger isn’t directed at the staff or even the situation. Same with when I trained people in call centers.

But I also bring that into my personal life. Maybe the person in front of me in line is trying to get through the day and just can’t quite do it that day. Maybe they got crushing news. Maybe they are in a job and were told their company is merging and they don’t know where the money will be coming from if they lose the job. Maybe they are just struggling with making it through the day. We all have moments where we don’t measure up, and wouldn’t it be nice if someone didn’t take that moment to mock us or kick us when we are down?

Posted in Writing

04 Jun 2015

Trigger warning.

If I want to start an argument on the internet right now, I really only have to type those words. There are some people I know and respect who are disgusted by the idea of giving trigger warnings and others who I also know and respect who talk quite passionately about the with PTSD who have had issues with works of art that contain themes and accounts that cause them a lot of mental anguish.

First off, while I am a huge Free Speech advocate, I am also someone who thinks that a parental warning or a rating is a good idea for comics, TV shows, movies, etc… Yes, formatting, presentation and other cues can help, but if a parent is watching Ultimate Spider-Man with their 9 year old (which the show is aimed at) goes to a comic shop and picks up the trade paperback of “The Other” (a Spider-man story from about a decade ago) and sees Spider-Man eat someone’s head, or the Future Spider-Man story where Mary Jane dies of cancer from Peter’s radioactive sperm, it’s not a Good Thing.

Does this mean that stories involving traumatic things should be eliminated? No. Art examines all aspects of life, good and bad, and to wall off a section of life and state art can’t deal with it goes against what I believe. Art has to explore everything, that’s why we do it. For every piece of crap that exploits a horrific incident, there is probably a piece of art that does it in a thoughtful manner that illuminates or enhances.

I keep hearing that the problem is that “kids today can’t handle the rough stuff” in fiction, art, etc… But, how much of that is that we have abdicated our role in introducing people to the idea that art CAN be disturbing? That art challenges and pushes boundaries. That sometimes it will fail when doing so, but in doing that it pushes us further as people. When we decide to shy away from talking with harsh realities with children, and only have them consume bland entertainment and art that passes time rather than helps them understand the world they live in and how people explore it through creative venues, we rob them of the ability to be ready for art that challenges and stretches them.

Was “All Quiet On The Western Front” wrong to dig deeper in the depiction of war and the horrors within? Was “Clockwork Orange” wrong to illuminate both the fear of human violence and the idea that in fighting it, we may obliterate freedom and individuality? No, but if these are handed to people without setting the stage about what they will be reading or seeing (or both), they may not be ready for what lies within.

There are a LOT of novels I read that stir up unpleasant feelings. The Travis McGee novel I am reading now has depictions of death, meditations on mortality, sex, torture and other things that can stir up the sediment on the bottom of my mind, bringing back unpleasant memories. Art affects us, and it can do it better if we understand that and know it going in.

So, I ask, what is wrong with saying something contains depictions of graphic violence, sexual violence or other elements that may be upsetting?

Can it go too far? Of course, everything can go too far. We still have religious colleges that ban dancing by students and on the other hand have colleges that don’t allow works by “old white men”. But if we spend all of our time worrying about the extremes and raging against them, we aren’t have a dialogue and are instead looking for things to feed our rage. And the thing about rage is, it doesn’t get any better the more you feed it, and eventually, you are no different than the nuts on the street corner screaming at women that their skirts are too short and that accepting gay people has allowed terrorists to get through “God’s protective shield.”

“Lighten up, Francis.” – Sgt Hulka, Stripes

Posted in Writing

27 Jan 2015

A few quick thoughts on Sarah Palin

I’ve been watching the utter meltdown of Sarah Palin over the weekend with fascination. And, before people jump on me about it, I’m not reading ANYTHING about the speech from the left. The right has had enough, and her speech at Steve King’s fundraiser/rally weekend seems to have finally gotten the mainstream right to quit fearing her.

There is a lot of anger about how she worked in 2012 to derail Romney with her “bus tour”, her fundraising that never seems to go to candidates, her backing of Tea Party candidates who force more mainstream candidates to tack much further right than they would like and other stunts she pulls when she wants attention. One person I know who is about a Republican as you can be said, “If she’d just get a reality show, she would just leave us alone.”

So, I fully expect to start hearing stories about her fundraising not going anywhere but a bank, her husband’s business deals and some of the other more unsavory things…not on Liberal websites and such, but more of the right-leaning and Big Business backed sites. They see her incoherent speech before an audience who looked for confused than adoring as a chance to put her away before they have to try and win the Big One in 2016.

Then again, never count her out. Her fans are as devoted as a 14 year old girl at the height of Beatlemania.

Posted in Politics

02 Sep 2012

Personal thoughts on Kirby’s work today

One of the phrases I’ve heard a lot lately is that “Nostalgia is a longing for the past, almost a form of melancholy.”

I am the first to admit that I find myself in melancholy more often than not. The last 5 or so years have been pretty hard, and they aren’t getting much easier.

However, as I am reading older comics on my overnights, I’m feeling nostalgia, and I don’t think it’s a bad thing. For example, I’m reading Jack Kirby’s late 70’s series of 2001: A Space Odyssey. When I read it as a kid, all I thought was “COOL! New Kirby Comics at Marvel!!!” and now when I read it, all I can think is “Who in the flaming blue hell thought they could get a comic book series out of that movie?”

One of my overnight co-workers talked about how he watched the movie in his early teens and then went on a quest to try to understand what the movie was about and what happened in it. I had the same reaction when I watched it…what did the opening sequence have to do with the outer space stuff? What was the monolith? Why did HAL go crazy? What the hell happened in the ending?

Like him, I read the novel, but then I was able to read Kirby’s comics, and Kirby had definite ideas about all of it. At the time That Was What It Meant, but now I see that Kirby had brought in his own innate belief that humanity would triumph over its baser urges and become like until the mythic gods of old. Now, I see it as an alien intelligence that was looking to plant seeds in a primitive creature and then came back to see if those seeds had borne fruit.

Kirby and I have diverged. He grew up in the depression and while things got bad, they got better. I grew up in the recession of the 70’s and saw things get progressively worse. The rich have figured out how to hollow out the middle class and turn the whole of the US into a company store, like the robber barons had done in old factory towns. The workers who united and worked together in Kirby’s day can’t wait to sell each other out for a slight chance of maybe making it one step up and getting a few more months of security.

He saw humanity getting better and joining the forces that sent the monolith. I see humanity as a toy for the monolith.

Different worldviews.

Different times.

Back to the comics, Kirby’s art is still amazing, and when I look at it next to the comics that were more popular and “relevant” at the time…let’s just say I can still read and enjoy Kirby’s stories of cavemen learning to use tools, men fighting against their darker instincts and the big themes and ideas being poured onto the pages, while the more “cool” comics of the time read like bad pulp fiction, filled with purple prose and endless formula.

Kirby drew BIG. He drew BIG double page spreads. He drew BIG characters who did larger than life things. He showed how the wheel was invented, the first tools and spacestatiosn that were pounded to oblivion by massive meteor showers. All of it done in a way that you can’t turn the page fast enough to get to the rest of the story.

Nostalgia. Comics that rocked my brain when I was 13, and still hold ideas that keep me thinking when I’m in my 40’s.

Not all nostalgia is melancholy. Some of it is there to remind you that you can still reset yourself and go back to thinking that may have escaped your for a while.

Posted in Kirby Comics

31 Aug 2012

Kirby Comics: 2001 1 – 4

I have recently read the first four issues of Kirby’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, and am really impressed with what Kirby was doing with the book. Let’s face it, after Kirby adapted the movie in a Treasury edition, the idea of a comic book series based on the movie seems like a REALLY odd choice. However, Kirby dived in, and as he did it, it played into his ideas about space gods, as well as humanity growing beyond its violent and destructive roots.

The first issue sets the tone as he mirrors the structure of the movie (in a 17 page comic!). We first meet a caveman who is a small step above his bestial companions, and in meeting the monolith, learns to create the first edged weapon. We switch to the future where his supposed descendent is trapped on the moon… Issue two follows the same structure with a female protagonist. The highlight of these two issues is getting a Kirby story of ancient man, and then followed up by Kirby’s version of the Kubrich future. His art is powerful, and while I’m not the biggest fan of Royer’s inks (I feel he followed Kirby’s pencils a little TOO slavishly, rather than bringing his own influence to them like a Joe Sinnott or Joe Simon did), Kirby’s art is strong, filled with action and does an incredible job of leading the reader from panel to panel.

Issues three and four are a leap forward as he leaves behind the format’s structure and tells the story of Barak who uses the knowledge from the monolith to create the world’s first army. Kirby is at a peak here with some incredible two page battle sequences, wonderful end of page reveals and excellent pacing. We also go from fearing Barak’s barbarianism to understanding his shift from brutal leader to a man who is bringing humanity forward in his own drive for both conquest and love. It shows that Kirby really enjoyed the fantasy/prehistoric style adventure he did in Kamandi, and his…well…quirky dialogue works perfectly in this type of story (as it did in The New Gods).

It was not a huge hit at the time, and I see it as some of Kirby’s most under-rated work.

Posted in Kirby Comics

17 May 2012

Trio by John Byrne – Comic Book Review

I picked this up really wanting to like it. Byrne CAN do work I enjoy and it’s been a while since he did something I liked.

This was NOT it.

The characters don’t have super-hero names…OK, not clear ones. They are called One, Two and Three as well as Rock, Paper and Scissors by different groups making it very confusing to follow. We start in the middle of a fight, which is a nice way to get things off to a big start, but we don’t know much about the group other than they all know each other, have known each other for a while and work as a team.

Is this a world where there are a lot of super-heroes? Only a few? Only these three? Is this a normal occurrence?

Paper/Two is injured in the fight and the team doesn’t know if she is dead, so she is whisked off to a high tech headquarters, and MORE confusion ensues…is this a HQ they they own, or if they don’t who has all the high tech equipment? Rock/One doesn’t go the HQ and instead turns into human form, without any clothing (but has a big wad of money to pay for a cab making me wonder where he stashes the money if he can’t stash clothes….) is dropped off at home and greets his family where we get a revelation as to who Rock/One is when he isn’t smashing stuff.

Rock is pretty much The Thing with a different personality, Scissors may well be the goofiest looking character outside of a fanzine and Paper seems utterly worthless in a super-hero sense.

Byrne’s art looked better than it has in a long time, but the character designs of both Paper and Scissor was a mess, just amateurish and I don’t think anyone could make Scissors look good.

So…how did it work as a first issue?

DAMN this book needed an editor. I can understand a first issue having a “teaser” aspect to it, but this felt like an idea, not a story. There is a way to do the “you are in a new world” as a first issue that entices you. Think about the first issue of Transmetropolitan or the pilot episode of Lost and you’ll see how to use this technique.

Too many things just happen without any explanation, and there is NOTHING here that interested me enough to come back to get some answers next issue.

It’s a damn shame, since I am more than ready to follow a new John Byrne comic.

Posted in Comic Book Review

17 May 2012

Hello world!

Sadly, I had to delete the previous blog due to a virus. The good thing is that it will make me think about using this damn thing.

Posted in Housekeeping.

Agent of Change

A Blog by Cory!! Strode, who really should write something interesting here.