Mary Louise Eklund

Tag: comic books

Comic Comments: Goodbye Chinatown

This starts a whole new saga in the Wolverine series. The story covers Wolverine Volume 4, Issues 17-19. The kick off saga made up of multiple arcs came to a close in the last issue. This arc sets the stage to kick off the Wolverine and the X-Men title where he becomes headmaster reopening Xavier’s school in Westchester.

As always it takes a village to make a comic and I want to give them credit for it. Here’s this team: Jason Aaron, Writer; Ron Garney, Art; Jason Keith, Color Art; Ron Garney with Jason Keith, Cover Art; VC’s Cory Petit, Letterer; Jared K. Fletcher, Designer; Jody Leheup, Assistant Editor; Jeanine Schaefer, Editor; Nick Low, Group Editor; Axel Alonso, Editor In Chief; Joe Quesada, Chief Creative Officer; Dan Buckley, Publisher; and Alan Fine, Executive Producer.

All images are the property of their owners I reproduce them here under the Fair Use Doctrine of the copyright law for commentary and critique. No more than three pages total from any one issue is reproduced.

This story violates my ‘jump-the-shark’ rule for MY X-Men. No aliens, no magic, no supernatural stuff are allowed in my favorite X-Men stories. You might like that stuff in YOUR X-MEN and more power to you, glad there are arcs for both of us. I can take these things in other titles where they fit but they don’t fit in my X-Men or for that matter when I read Batman. This story brings me so many violations I had to put it away for months and talk myself up to reading it. The pretty art helped lure me to tolerate it. Also I decided to take it laughingly – NOT seriously.

That said, the only thing that was value to me in this arc was James’s announcement of his new purpose – to start a school and not lose any more kids. He’s out to get all the money he’s stashed all around the world over his years of wandering to put into this dream. He’ll reopen it in Westchester NY where Xavier’s school was. In doing this James also saves one of his favorite bars, Harry’s Hideaway, from bankruptcy with his tab alone.

What I don’t like is the meat of the whole arc between that takes place between those events. For those who did, GREAT! I’m happy for you. But I found it just too fantastical. James gets Indiana Jones’s boy companion from the Temple of Doom. He also acquires a talking gorilla private investigator partner while physically going underground in San Francisco to battle the opium drug trade to get his money back. You see, there are HUGE (the size of Australia) opium fields under the earth manned by slaves who have real dragons as beasts of burden. Lost you too huh? Wait until you see them get the talkative Sumo wrestler and all three men get swallowed by dragons to go undercover in da bellies!

The fun part of this whole thing was the banter between James, Gorilla, and Sumo. The battle was boring and stupid because of where it was and it involved magic. I didn’t care beyond James getting his money. I was like Porter in Payback just get the money and it’ll be over. I did enjoy how Melita managed to make the move to New York to be with her man. That was just a side framing story to the whole nonsense in the underground opium fields. In the end – good wins and surfaces (again literally) in Westchester in time to save Harry’s Hideaway from closure. James is all set to start his school. So anything that saves a bar, a relationship, and a school can’t be a total waste of three issues can it?

As for the art I have praise. I think the covers are pretty. It’s a whole new team since the big saga has wrapped. I really like the formatting of them. The elements are put together to catch the eye. The first one is the start of a big journey from rogue lone wolf team member to headmaster of a school with real adult worries like financing the school and such. Dragon one is interesting and I laughed at turning the title character on his head for his cover. All in all they are what I want in a cover – reflects the story while catching the eye.

The interior art is also pretty. I enjoyed it and wished it was there to tell me a more serious story. At times it’s a bit too sketchy for me but that’s being really nit-picky. Even nit-pickier is when that damn underbite shows up for James. Other than that I’d put this up as art I’d like to see again.

Next arc is a war between Japanese crime families in the arc of two titles and five books, And Then There Was a War/Back In Japan, Wolverine Vol. 4 Issues 20, 300-303. Yeah we’ll chat about that whole issue numbering thing later, really WTF Marvel? Along with why can’t the dead just stay dead?

Until then enjoy the spoilery panels/pages comments after the jump.

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August 3, 2012
Comic Comments: Wolverine No More/Wolverine Forever

Though not numbered as an arc these two stories fit together and close the huge arc that’s been developing since volume 4 started. It is told in Wolverine Vol. 4 Issues 15 and 16.

All images are the property of their owners I reproduce them here under the Fair Use Doctrine of the copyright law for commentary and critique. No more than three pages total from any one issue is reproduced.
The credits are as follows: Jason Aaron, Writer; Goran Sudzuka, Art; Matthew Wilson, Color Art; Jae Lee with June Chung, Cover Art; VC’S Cory Petit, Letterer; Jared K. Fletcher, Designer; Jody Leheup, Assistant Editor; Jeanine Schaefer, Editor; Nick Lowe, Group Editor; Axel Alonso, Editor In Chief; Joe Quesada, Chief Creative Officer; Dan Buckley, Publisher; Alan Fine, Executive Producer. It takes a village to make a comic.

I’ll start with the art. Again the same cover team as the other issues in this volume. There things I love and things I hate about both these covers. First off the wolves, wolves don’t look like that. They don’t have coats like that. They don’t have musculature like that. Wolves just don’t look like that. I will say the posture of the one in silhouette is good but if as artists you are going do so well with anatomy of the human body use that talent with the anatomy of animal bodies too!

Second I have an issue with James having an underbite on both covers. He’s never had an underbite. Aaron and I each had one but braces fixed it for us. This dental hygienist’s daughter can’t take bad teeth. I can take the slightly oversized upper and lower canines on him. That’s been done so much to suggest the animalistic aspect of his nature. A visual reminder of his always struggling against his beast nature. However, I can’t stand by and watch bad orthodonture be depicted. My up-bringing won’t let me.

That said let me say I like the face and format of issue 16. It’s excellent and interesting. The red is very eye-catching and the off-center half face shot grabs you. The claws on display unite the elements. It’s an excellent cover. I even like the position of his fingers there, unique and eye catching.

Interior art is fine. At times it’s very pretty, at other times it’s off for me. I’m not sure how, it just is. I don’t dislike but something, too something at times. At times seems to me to be a very talented novice that’s not found their voice yet. That’s how I would describe it if it were a written piece. Too studied, too following the formula, now owned and expressed by the artist’s individuality. It’s a hard line to walk in comics to hold to the tropes and be original. It takes talent and experience to do it. Same goes for genre writers – hold to the required tropes but express your own voice. Only comes with the confidence, insight, and comfort that experience can give.

In the story James is dealing with the heartbreak of learning the last five people he killed, the Marauders, were his children. No, he didn’t know they existed but once he got into the Red Right Hand’s inner sanctum to find them all dead (think Masada) there was the proof he’d just killed his own children. His revenge hurt him deeply, he joined the Red Right Hand whose membership requires death of family caused by Wolverine. He can’t blame mind possession this time – he was in full control of himself. He did it willingly and against the advice of his BFF, who is now an angel.

In issue 15 we see him wallow in that pain. Of course he runs to the Canadian wilderness to go wildman at some point in this wallow. He does all he can to numb himself against it, almost killing himself over and over, drinking to drunken hallucinations but always his healing factor brings him back. To say he hits rock bottom isn’t going too far. In issue 16 he finds himself. Partly because he saves a group of children and returns them to his family and partly because Melita is once again strong enough to fight for her man.

I was disappointed with the final pages of issue 16. It was a stupid over the top ending to what was a character changing emotional issue. There are funny pages of various superheroes telling Melita who Wolverine is to them. The big two page spread of ‘here’s your friends’ was so sappy and so dopey. It annoyed me so much I physically dropped the issue. I felt it was a grand disservice to the more moving mature aspects of what James was going through this time as he comes out of the emotional fire with a purpose to help kids like the ones he never knew he had. (Had to happen with his man-whore ways, condoms James use them). Instead we get this ending that seems to have come from the mind of a 5-year-old – “And then, and then, ALL his SUPER HERO friends show up to stand together for him!” pfft stupid.

Which I guess is it’s okay to have a hokey ending since we are set up now to enter a really hokey three book arc, Goodbye Chinatown. Did not like it as it violated my ‘no magic or aliens’ in my X-Men rule way too much. Even with my fingers in my ears shouting LA-LA-LA I couldn’t ignore it.

The good things to come out of Wolverine No More/Wolverine Forever are major. James realize he is a hero by nature and can do a world of good. He took on the mission of helping kid be kids and protecting them. I feel he did this to honor his kids that are gone, the ones he killed and buried with his own hands. He also realized these revenge marches have consequences beyond no more bad guys. I think that’s a lot of character growth bought at a very bitter price. If Marvel has the guts to keep that growth as part of him and build on it then this whole going to hell and Red Right Hand was one of the best Wolverine arcs ever. If they don’t it falls to just another mind controlled/revenge arc for Wolverine. We have too many of them as it is.

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August 2, 2012
Comic Comments: Get Mystique Final Repose

This is a one issue story that links the Wolverine Versus The X-Men arc with the following five book Wolverine’s Revenge! arc.

The credits for the issue are as follows: Jason Aaron writer, Daniel Acuña artist, Jae Lee with June Chung cover art, VC’s Cory Petit Letterer, Jared K. Fletcher designer, Jody Leheup asst. editor, Jeanine Schaefer editor, Nick Lowe group editor, Axel Alonso editor in chief, Joe Quesada chief creative officer, Dan Buckley publisher, and Alan Fine executive producer.

All images are the property of their owners I reproduce them here under the Fair Use Doctrine of the copyright law for commentary and critique. No more than three pages total from any one issue is reproduced.

This title refers to the Get Mystique arc that appeared in Wolverine Volume 3 Issues 62-65. Basically it’s the same story as that arc. Logan is out to kill Raven after he almost died because of her helping someone. There’s a chase. This one is just in San Francisco the other was all over the world. The arc was interrupted by flashbacks showing Raven and Logan’s relationship through the decades. This one isn’t we just get to the chase and fights. I’d hoped this story would put an end to all of this but the zinger at the end hints not. Like all things Marvel we may again end up chasing our tail doing the same tired story line over and over except in San Francisco and without flashbacks.

I want to point out that Raven and Logan have always had an odd relationship. Her son is his BFF. She has a thing for him and they have sex occasionally. Either it’s spite sex or he doesn’t know it’s her or it’s House of M and he’s forgotten he dislikes her. Either way since Raven’s relationship with Irene (aka Destiny) ended she’s been trying to get in Logan’s pants. As I said she has succeeded a few times. In this issue he tells her he’s had enough of her. Has he had a enough that he’ll now kill his BFF’s mom since Kurt isn’t alive to see it?

As for the art, let’s start with the cover. Again lovely anatomy, great coloring, but Mystique’s face? I guess running from Wolverine gives you bags under your eyes. Overall I like it best from this cover team so far. Still it’s too romancy for me and what goes on in the book. Trust me he doesn’t want to be that nice when he gets close to her no matter what he holds behind his back. Then again when did the cover of a comic ever accurately portray the contents? Another pet peeve of mine, also have it with movie posters.

The interior art is better than the last arc. Both were by Daniel Acuña. I have to admit there are a lot more panels here I like. Some are really nice, really nice. I’ll highlight just a few after the jump. Not so many panels with characters looking like cutouts pasted into an incompatible background. Though unfortunately there are some in this book the number is greatly reduced. Some panels still have the odd piss yellow outlining though other times it has given over to other colors. I still don’t like it and stop reading to think “why the heck did they outline that in that color?!?” So it throws me out of the story.

In the end I consider this a light weight issue. Just a bit of fluff fighting between old enemies before Logan goes after those who wronged him. I didn’t care if he got her or not. I’d done all of this before over more issues. I just wanted him to get on with going after the Red Right Hand so we could learn more about them. In the end it was much-to-do about nothing and he’s off for his revenge.

Now I’m off to a few panels with comments. Didn’t have many in this issue I cared to say anything about one way or the other. There are two scans after the jump.

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July 31, 2012
Comic Comments: Wolverine Versus the X-Men

This arc is a three issue arc taking Wolverine volume 4 issues 6-8. It follows up on the Wolverine Goes To Hell story picking up where issue 5 ended.

Here’s the credits for this arc: Writer: Jason Aaron, Artist: Daniel Acuña, Cover Art: Jae Lee with June Chung, Letterer: VC’s Cory Petit, Designer: Jared K. Fletcher, Asst. Editor: Jody Leheup, Editor Jeanine Schaefer, Group Editor: Nick Lowe, Editor in Chief: Axel Alonso, Chief Creative Officer: Joe Quesada, Publisher: Dan Buckley, Executive Producer: Alan Fine.

All images are the property of their owners I reproduce them here under the Fair Use Doctrine of the copyright law for commentary and critique. No more than three pages total from any one issue is reproduced.

Logan’s soul comes back to his body after the spiritual abduction but the demons possessing the flesh haven’t left. The problem is there are too many occupants in his head. They are battling for control inside and out.

Again we have a two aspect story. The battle for Logan’s soul inside him and the battle to keep his physical being from doing harm. Just like when the Hand controlled him back in the Enemy of the State he’s battling his own X-Men. Yes, a worn-out plot line that I hope to never see again but gee – lookie at the Avengers Vs X-Men line going on now, or schism, or well the list get longer every year.

For this arc I was again bored with what was going on in the outside world. Sure Scott has a Danger Room program to help the team practice killing Wolverine. They all fret with the ‘oh noes’ but we’ll do what we have to do.

The new spin on the old tattered plot of what goes on in Wolvie’s head is this time he’s battling demons literally. He calls up all aspects of himself to do battle. We see Patch, Weapon X, Department H, Death, and many other personas he has taken over his long life. The lead Logan starts out nude (again) and dons Samurai’s armor to lead the battle. The team do what Logan claims his the best at doing, fight the enemy.

The X-Women decide they have to give him a chance by going in there to help in the fight. Emma leads the brain invasion and Melita insists on going along to help her man.

Once in Logan’s head we are treated to touch moments and silly ones. At one point there are guideposts labeled The One That Got Away, What To Do About Daken, Things I Should Te.., Beer Garden, Memories of Mariko, and Things That Bug Me About Scott. There are labeled doors as the women investigate his mind and the doors are entitled Reasons To Hate Myself (that one has Dr. Rot’s graffiti tag, if you’ve not read that arc GET IT. It is awesome story and interor art! Insane In The Brain arc in Wolverine Weapon X TBP), Secrets of Weapon X, X-Men I’ve Had Sex With, How I Cheat At Cards, Hopes and Dreams, Sexual Fantasies, Football, Faith, and Self-Loathing. We don’t always see what’s behind the doors but the woman’s reaction to looking into some of the room often tells us what’s there. I’ll leave it to you to read the story to see what is there, as the contents don’t effect the story.

Eventually as the fortress that’s Logan’s heart begins to fall to the demon horde he throws the women from his mind. They are back to the boring reality of ‘oh noes do we kill him?’ But in his mind he still has two allies, one is Kurt who suggests he’s not an aspect of Logan’s mind but something more. The other is Jean as the Phoenix (need I point out this is another WAY over used plot device?).

I don’t think I’ll spoil anything for anyone who hasn’t read it to say in the end Logan is victorious over the demons. I mean it’s not a possessed Logan that’s running the school and once again battling the X-Men today. So you know he makes it through. How he does addresses the torch he’s carried for Jean for so long. Also his given good advice by Kurt but does he take it?

How do you know when Logan is no longer possessed? He wakes up and asks for a drink and hugs his woman. Ahhh, sweet. Good thing Scott waffles so much giving Logan time to wake up. Once again it’s close but they scuffle as class 4 mutants do and as they did yet again Schism.

I do not like the interior art. It has many of the issues discussed in DarXide’s article Photoshop of Horrors article. I found it distracting. Remember the coloring books where the outline of each part was a heavy line? Yeah that’s what this looked like, like characters were cut out and stuck on the felt board background. I don’t like it but I’ve seen much worse.

The cover art again suffers from pinched faces. Everyone looks down their nose at Logan in the first cover. In the second cover Wolvie has a dowager’s hump and has lost a lot of weight. The third one has Scott straining way too much. But all of them do have great anatomy and beautiful coloring. So it’s a give and take situation.

The story is a single issue entitled Get Mystique The Final Repose. It sets us up for the five book arc of Wolverine’s Revenge. Stay tuned after the cut for spoilery scans with my comments. If not until next friends!

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July 30, 2012
Comic Comments – Happy

This is something new to me in comic numbering. It’s Wolverine Volume 4 Issue 5.1. Yeah that’s a point one on the issue number it came out between 5 and 6 but the story doesn’t fit there. Really this is a one-off put out as a stand-alone interruption of the whole title’s over arching story line. Why it was done like this only the secret Star Chamber of Marvel knows.

Any way, the issue title is Happy and here’s the credits: Writer: Jason Aaron, Art: Jefte Palo, Colors: Nathan Fairbairn, Cover: Palo Rivera, Letters: VC’s Cory Petit, Asst. Editor: Jody Leheup, Editor: Jeanine Schaefer, Group Editor: Axel Alonso, Editor in Chief: Joe Quesada, Publisher: Dan Buckley, Executive Producer: Alan Fine.

All images are the property of their owners I reproduce them here under the Fair Use Doctrine of the copyright law for commentary and critique. No more than three pages total from any one issue is reproduced.

This is a a really simple sweet story. Melita throws Logan a surprise birthday party and invites all of his friends. However, Logan is distracted by saving a truck driver from cannibals on his way to meet her (can’t tell you how many times that’s happened to me). We see Melita learning the Marvel superhero crowd. To me the stand out stars of this are Jessica and Luke Cage. Very good couple interaction there and funny side comments.

Second we get some growth from Logan. Instead of following his instinct and dispatching the cannibals he turns them over to the law. That’s improvement, he’s doing what a Howlett would do not what a Logan would do. However the result might not be what he intended, read the issue to see what happened.

As for the art I’m of mixed feelings. First off I don’t dig the cover, that’s a fanboy cover right there for a sweet story of girlfriend throws a party and meets his friends. Fangurl cover would have Logan in his civvies like he is in the story, maybe a bit dirty from the fight.

The internal art runs from good to awful depending on the panel. So over all it left me blase about it. I’ll point out the good, the bad, and the ugly in the spoiler panels after the jump. I’ll whine again that I miss Sean Chen. I know, I know, it’s been years since he’s done Wolverine but he’s my favorite it was pretty, pretty art.

In the end I liked the story it gives us more reason to adore Logan and Melita together. She’s so good for him. We learn more about James Howlett that even Logan had forgotten despite having recovered memories. All is well that ends well and this one ends well for the couple. So PTI (Pardon the interruption) of the point one issue and we’ll return to the over arching story arc that follows the story line of what happened after Wolverine Goes to Hell. It’s told in a three issue arc entitled Wolverine Versus the X-Men.

NOW FOR THE SPOILERY BITS

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July 29, 2012
Comic Comments – Wolverine Goes To Hell

This starts Volume 4 of the Wolverine comic. I’m not sure why they started a new volume with new number just until they got to what would be the 300th issue then went back to Volume 1 numbering but kept Volume 4 designation. They didn’t consult or explain this to me. Any way, the arc takes the first five issues of the volume.

Here’s the credits for the arc: Writer: Jason Aaron, Pencils: Renato Guedes, Inks: Jose Wilson Magalhaes, Colors: Matt Wilson, Covers: Jae Lee with Jun Chung, Letters: VC’s Cory Petit, Asst. Editor: Jody Leheup, Editor: Jeanine Schaefer, Group Editor: Axel Alonso, Editor In Chief: Joe Quesada, Publisher: Dan Buckley, Exec. Producer: Alan Fine.

A bit of the legal disclaimer – All images are the property of their owners I reproduce them here under the Fair Use Doctrine of the copyright law for commentary and critique.

Let’s start with the art. The covers are pretty but honestly they don’t do it for me. There’s something about the faces I don’t like, covers 3 and 5 especially. Also the hair doesn’t do it for me either. Yet I appreciate the anatomy and colors of the pieces. Over all I can say they are great art. Yet I still have to say they aren’t to my liking either. I appreciate the talent but don’t enjoy the image as a fan.

As for the interior art. I like it. I’d rate it as some of the best. It’s not cracked into ‘OMG this is awesome’ but unlike the first issues of Wolverine and the X-Men I don’t cringe and force myself to read the comic either. I enjoyed this art, it did what comic book art does – support and tell the story. It did distract with unpleasant art or unique art techniques. It supported and made itself part of the story telling experience which is what I’m looking for when I pick up a comic.

I have to admit when I learned about the basic premise of this arc I wasn’t thrilled. I was left very cold. I don’t like aliens, magic, supernatural stuff in my X-Men. I love it in my Dresden Files, Fables, Grimm’s Fairy Tales, Star Trek, Star Wars, etc. but I don’t like it in my X-Men. Often I reimagine it to a more mundane explanation – they aren’t aliens they are other mutants, it’s not magic it’s a mutation, etc. Nothing wrong with making a story to my liking. Given that take I went into this arc reluctantly.

The basic concept is an unknown group has spiritually kidnapped Logan’s soul sending it literally to Hell. Since his body is vacant it is taken over by demons from the pit. In the tradition of the Enemy of State arc. Yeah basicly the same plot premise rewarmed with demons and a shadowy group in control instead of HYDRA and The Hand, or Weapon X, or his beserker rage, or what ever mind/body control flavor of the month. Been there done that got so many t-shirts I don’t want one that says “Possessed Wolverine Attacked Friends.” I was so bored with this part of the story I found myself flipping forward to the scenes back in Hell. I’d seen this type of story too much to care about what happened.

While he’s in Hell Logan must face his past. Yes like so many arcs where we see inside his head while he’s healing from being almost dead. Except this time he’s not in his head he’s in Hell. Again I declined the t-shirt as we visited an overused plot device.

I have to say that after reading the arc I came out with mixed feelings. Thinking about it I told Aaron what I thought and he summed it up best “bad premise good execution.” Yeah, not something you see often really. However I’m reading the arc with the knowledge of how it plays out many issues later. This is a growth for the character of Logan, something he’s been needing for some time. He’s been treading water in regrets and pining for Mariko for years. It’s also been years that he’s had his memories. He need to put to rest his daddy issues of Thomas Logan, biological father, versus John Howlett, father figure that raised him. All these agonies were moving at first but like the friend that won’t get over being dumped eventually you want to shout at him “DEAL WITH IT ALREADY.” This arc provides the answers for Logan to those things very well. He literally faces and defeats his demons. A very heavy handed way of turning a metaphor literal. That’s another thing I don’t like about it. I like finesse in writing but I admit it’s done effectively.

Let’s face it Logan’s 130 years old. It’s about time he grew up and dealt. He’s in a stable relationship with a good woman. Melita fights for him in this arc. He’s got a good moral compass and he has more experience that any other mutant on his various teams. So it stands to reason this well trained warrior take on leadership despite being some what of a lone wolf in aspects of his personality. What endears him to me is that he is the romantic that despite this hard life he has he still aspires to love, to goodness, to right winning even if that doesn’t mean he gets those things. He’s willing to make the most noble sacrifices of all, self sacrifice. He’ll do anything for a friend and that is what’s used as a turning point in this story. Which is what sells it to me. That and the fact that to reach all of Logan you gotta beat the answer into him, and trust me the Devil is the one to do that. He’ll enjoy beating bitter lessons into a reluctant hero.

The final selling point for me was I knew going into reading this arc that what happened here and followed made major life changes for James Howlett. I hope we don’t ever have to endure another possession arc (Yeah I know Dr. Rott is out there and in the current arc) or another confronting demons in alternate reality (be it in his head or in Hell). That is what would make this arc more powerful. It ended all that and opened a new era for the character. Did it? Well only time will tell.

Now for the fun part – individual pages or panels from the issues with my comments. WARNING THESE ARE SPOILERY

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July 27, 2012
Watch This Space for Comic Comments Coming Soon

This is going to be a move of sorts for me. I’ve been into comics for years. I’ve purchased them on and off all my life. However, I got back into them when Aaron was young and wanted the Ultimate Spiderman issues regularly. I dropped them three or so years ago when we moved to Tampa for a year. Moving back to Kenosha I went to start up again at the local comic store only to learn it had burned. Sometime later I found midtowncomics.com who has a good pull-list service. I set up to get my two favorite comics Fables and Wolverine for sure and a few others that change as I see what interests me.

Once I again started getting comics regularly I posted my thoughts about them over at my Google+ account (+Mary Louise Eklund circle me there and say hi!) with scans of the covers and panels or pages I had specific comments about. Still this was frustrating because I couldn’t put the scan next to where I was commenting about the panel. In Google+ all scans go in a slide show for the post. After much debate within myself about ‘crossing the streams’ (Ghostbusters fans will get that) of my more thought-out blog here and my off the cuff stuff there – I decided to move my Comic Comments here where I can put the image with the comments.

If you aren’t into comics and are still reading, good for you! But you can skip these posts and wait for what interest you, rest assured my feelings won’t be hurt.

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July 26, 2012
Did You Know I…
I often see people do a list of “10 Things You Don’t Know About Me.” I always find at least one thing I have in common with them that I didn’t know about. Since I’ve not been posting for a while (health issues, improving thanks!) I thought a good post to get back into this would be a 10 Things list. So here is my 10 Things You May Not Know About Me.

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1. I love comic books. I always have and always will. **Let the Geek Flag Fly** Actually I have a pull list mailed to me monthly. For those of you not into comic lingo a pull list is a list of comic book titles to which you subscribe. The big companies DC and Marvel aren’t great at managing subscriptions nor do they offer all titles for subscription. The small companies like Dynamite don’t offer subscriptions nor do Indies like Zenotrope. So if you have a local comic shop you go there fill out a pull list and they make a mailbox for you pulling those titles as they come in. Our local comic shop burned so I use Midtown comics for my pull list and they mail them to me monthly. If you want to read my comic book reviews I post them over on my Google+ account.
2. As a rule I don’t like chick flicks. I’ve never liked goody-goody sappy things. I hated Little House on the Prairie and the Waltons. I did like Hot L Baltimore and All In The Family. Just an example from my early days of not liking the sappy movies.
1. I didn’t like My Big Fat Greek Wedding. This doesn’t mean I don’t like love stories or happy endings, I do. I just like a story with meat and realism to it. I find these movies shallow and insulting to women.
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2. I worked in radioactive waste processing. Yep, I was a Regulatory Compliance Specialist. I helped with NRC rules, RCRA rules, EPA rules, OSHA rules, and so on. I taught courses on RCRA compliance. What heck did I just say? Well I worked doing internal inspections of the various processing of radioactive waste for the alphabet soup of laws that applied. Just so you know I went into that job supporting the use of nuclear energy. I left years later thinking until we know what to do with waste beyond make it smaller and leave it sitting in the desert to watch it for thousands of years – we shouldn’t be making radioactive waste for anything except lifesaving medical reasons.
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3. I love the paranormal and fringe stuff. Now I don’t buy all of it nor do I discount all of it. I find it fun to read or listen to radio shows. This is a pretty wide topic to me it can be anything from ghosts, aliens, crypto creatures, time travel, conspiracies, and anything weird. Some of it astounds me people actually believe that stuff. Some of it makes me think about what DO I believe and why. Some of it makes me wonder just how much do we know about physics and such. All of it helps me come up with story ideas.
  Licensed image from Printshop
4. I don’t like chocolate or sweets in general. Honestly I’d rather have mashed potatoes & gravy, a good au gratin potato or more steak than dessert any day. I don’t like ice cream and for my birthday want to impress me take me out to a Mexican or Sushi place. You won’t see me posing with a cake. I’m all into savory and my aversion to sweet goes as far as not caring for most fruits. Ruby red grapefruit is my favorite with salt is my favorite!
5. I’m sodium deficient most of the time. Yep I salt heavily but when it comes time for my routine blood test I’m deficient. It has to with adrenal malfunction – my body doesn’t absorb salt very well.If you eat dinner with me and see me salting don’t fret my blood pressure when I checked in for surgery last week was 118/62 and I was stressed for surgery but had taken no medication yet. So my heart can take it and my body needs it to avoid pains in my legs and general body pain due to malfunctioning nerves that don’t have enough sodium.
  Image licensed from PrintShop
6. I love true crime/missing person stories. I find nothing fascinating that a good mystery and the best ones come from life. Sure it’s great to learn the end but the others fascinate me too. I’ve read all the books by John E Douglas a famous criminal profiler. My most frequently recorded channel is Investigation Discovery.
  My favorite channel. Image reproduced under the Fair use doctrine for commentary and criticism under US Copyright law
  
  My heart breaks for the victims and their families. Still I can’t help but be fascinated with how cases are investigated not just the forensic side but all aspects. I’m always intrigued about why someone does such crimes. Why does A react to the situation with crime while B in the same situation doesn’t? Also good plot twists are based on things that can really happen. The plot turns I want to write are inspired by the real twists of life.
7. No animal creeps me out, none. Mike doesn’t like big bears (Kodiak, Grizzly, etc.). Aaron thinks orangutans are creepy. Sara finds Aaron etymology collection gross and creepy. I can’t say any of those things bother me. Sure I respect big bears and hope to never meet one face to face. I find Orangs fascinating as they are one of our closest genetic relatives. Bugs – heck you’re reading the writing of a girl who used to love to play with bugs, especially those roly-poly ones you find under damp rocks or in rotting trees. So no I don’t find rats, bats, snakes, bears, big cats or anything creepy. I do have respect for wild beasts and venomous critters but don’t find them any creepier than people. Actually I find people creepy occasionally.
8. I can read ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. I took classes for two years to get the basics of reading it. Why? I figured if it was so important to them to write all over everything the least I could do is read a bit of it to see what’s going on. I’m a writer the biggest thrill for me is to be read I don’t see that being any different 4,000 years ago. I studied Middle Kingdom glyphs and can muddle through the basics of an idea that’s written, stumble through Old or New Kingdom stuff. I love history and I love the beauty of ancient Egyptian designs even their writing was beautiful art. So I satisfied my curiosity about the very lean basics of how to read their hieroglyphs.
9. I enjoy solitude. I think I need more alone time than most people. Not that I’m not a social person, I am, I can be. Yet I love quiet days alone with my thoughts. I think that’s the root of my love of reading, photography, and writing. Those are all things you do alone, just you and your thoughts. I’m not a hermit by any means but for me to travel alone, have dinner out alone, to stay home alone, isn’t a bad thing to me. I just like time to myself to process and create things. I just always enjoyed going my way. Maybe that comes from being an only child raised in area where I didn’t have playmates except in school hours. Maybe it’s just my personality. Either way my good friends concur that I do need more alone time than most people. Too much interaction time makes me grumpy, I feel overwhelmed and become annoyed. I guess it goes without saying I don’t like being in crowds…
So there you go. Did ya learn something about me? Do we have more in common that you knew? Am I an odd bird as they say down South? As always I appreciate you reading and any stars, shares, and/or comment are greatly appreciated. Until next time!
May 10, 2012
Why Superman Isn’t My Hero

Giant Superman by J. Stephen Conn on Flickr. Image used under Creative Commons 2.0 Attribution Non-Commercial License.

I’ve never liked goody-goody heroes. I don’t find it interesting to see a perfect person do perfect things saving schmoes like me from the problems and troubles we find ourselves.

I prefer my heroes to be relatable. I want them to have dents, bangs and scratches from real life. I want them to be tempted to do what’s easy, to go for revenge, or to be self-serving. Sometimes I want a hero to act not necessarily from noble motivation but do what’s expedient. C’mon the rest of us do that would a hero at least be tempted? at least dismiss those thoughts?

I’m a fan of the reluctant hero. The one that rises to the occasion because there is no one else to do so. The one that doesn’t want to be there and if Superman or Captain America swooped in to take over my hero would gladly let them. Yet since the goody-goodies aren’t there and my hero is, they do the best they can to do the right thing even if they regret it the whole time. The old “why did I get involved” or in Die Hard John McClane’s “come to the west coast…” line.

I can relate to a hero like that. I can’t relate to a hero that doesn’t have a devil on their shoulder. One that isn’t always doing the right thing. I guess that’s why I loved Batman first. Yep my first word in this life was Batman. Tell me I wasn’t destined for the darker heroes and to read comics. I still like Bruce Wayne but I’ve fallen hard for James “Logan” Howlett aka Wolverine. Heck I like Josey Wales, ” I ain’t got nothin’ better to do.”

As a writer I know good characters aren’t one dimensional but multidimensional. I strive to make my villains be antagonists not purely evil but the one my lead character is struggling against. I want the reader to sympathize with both characters but their loyalties ultimately fall with my lead character, the hero, the protagonist. Now my lead won’t always do the right thing he’ll have flaws because those are challenges to his growth in the piece as is the confrontation with the antagonist. He has to deal with himself to deal with his opponent and that to me is not only interesting but more realistic. In the end neither my protagonist or antagonist are the same people they were at the beginning. If they were confronted with the same situation again they’d act differently because of the experiences in my story. To me those are good characters, they grow, they change. A story is getting a big change in their lives but if I read another story later down the timeline I can see they are changed from their experiences. That keeps me reading. Goody-goodies don’t change they just go about doing good for good sake.

Perfection bores me. I won’t read it very long. It’s predictable. It’s something I’ll never be. BUT I’d like to think if I was forced into the right situation despite my wishes to be rescued I’d do the right thing until someone more qualified or better at it came along. Then like John McClane I’d kiss their dalmatian for saving me. I can relate to having to rise to the circumstances, or doing what’s right despite the desire not to do it. I’m just human and that’s what I want my heroes to be at heart- human.

You are going to get tired of reading this but as always I’d love to chat with you. Tell me what you think and you are welcome to disagree (politely). You can comment here, it’ll show up when I get it. You can reach out to me on Google+, Flickr, or Twitter (@marylouiseklund). You can e-mail me at marylouiseelund @ (with two e’s unlike Twitter) gmail.com or yahoo.com.

Until next time!

January 27, 2012