Old Mutants, New Ideas: the Omnibus

The Whole Megillah (and I'm not even Jewish)

When a fellow writer notices you haven't updated your blog in a while … it's probably time to, you know, update your blog. Never let it be said I don't listen to advice or fold like an origami swan when it comes to peer pressure.

 

I promised I would use Interested in Sophisticated Fun? as a catchall -- I remember saying something as pretentious as the library of Alexandria (shiver) -- for my writing, it was a 'blog promise,' but still … I wrapped 'Old Mutants, New Ideas: Bill Sienkiewicz's New Mutants' about a month ago. I surprised myself when I found I still had something to say about Sienkiewicz, mutants, Claremont and all the rest when I hit 'send' on the last post. The best kind of writing is when you surprise yourself. I never try to dwell on anything the 'guy's in the basement,' as Stephen King says, send something up, don't marvel meat, just write.

One of the surprises in my final post, New Mutants #31, was how I was somehow able to work in the ad for Robert Bell. I sent away for the 'Marvel Comics Price List' and pored over the pages when it arrived in the mail. It was a catalog, nothing more, nothing less. It was talismanic somehow, containing secrets, comics I couldn't find in my friendly neighborhood comic shop. I probably only ordered from the catalog once, maybe twice -- I think I bought an oversized collection, a Marvel Treasurey Edition (?), of the first five or six issues of Thor, after it switched over from Journey into Mystery. Those Kirby pages are magic. Magic that came from Coral Springs, FLA. Who knew.

So, here is the whole megillah, the kit and the caboodle, all in one place. Thanks to everyone who commented, sent tweets and retweets, etc. Special thanks to Jason Sacks at Comics Bulletin and the always reliable Danny Djeljosevic who kept me on schedule. And a tip of the cap to Bill Sienkiewicz -- if we ever meet the first, sir, the first round is on me. Here, as they say, is the 'Full Run':  

New Mutants 18, New Mutants 19, New Mutants 20, New Mutants 21, New Mutants 22, New Mutants 23, New Mutants 24,

 

New Mutants 25, New Mutants 26, New Mutants 27 New Mutants 28, New Mutants 29, New Mutants 30, New Mutants 31

 

New Mutants, Old Aardvarks

You Didn't Hit Your Demon Hard Enough!

If I've learned anything from this New Mutants project going on at Comics Bulletin it's that Bill Sienkiewicz and Chris Claremont were as potent an '80's duo as Murtaugh and Riggs, Walsh and Mardukas or, dare I say it, Neal Page and Del Griffith.

I pick these fictional duos because they were the epitome of mismatched 1980's buddy teams, lab-grown to achieve maximum effect. I don't know what Sienkiewicz and Claremont had in common other than chemistry. There isn't anything Claremont can imagine that Sienkiewicz can't draw. And for all the darkness and brooding, these two are a couple of comedians. Sometimes its indirect -- Magik telling Sunspot he didn't hit his demon hard enough -- and sometimes it's as plain as the dragon on your head. Sly humor has always been a part of theX-Men. That's got to be all Claremont, right?  Chris Claremont, ladies and gentleman, try the prime rib.

The other thing that I'm noodling through is how continuity mattered 'back in the day' and yet how it never distracted from the story at hand. It was O.K. if you didn't have The New Mutants # whatever because you got the gist of what happened through context; or you didn't and you moved on. We don't do that anymore, why? Continuity has readers in a stranglehold. A comic book series is looked at in the same way as a TV series like 'Lost' or 'Breaking Bad' or every HBO series ever. Why? What's the obsession with knowing what happened in every infinitesimal detail? Sometimes not knowing is O.K., isn't it?

A new installment goes up each Tuesday (or Wednesday).Here's what's been published so far:

NewMutants #18, NewMutants #19, NewMutants #20, NewMutants #21, NewMutants #22

The other piece that I'm proud of is an interview I did with Comics Bulletin publisher Jason Sacks about his love of Cerebus. The New Mutants and Cerebus, what am I twelve-years-old. Maybe It's not such a bad place to be, I guess.

How and why I came to talk to Jason for almost two hours over Skype about a comic book I haven't cared about for over twenty-five years gets covered in the piece. I think time will (eventually) be kind to Cerebus and Dave Sim, time is eternal,after all.

Fandom can easily/quickly become a solipsistic pursuit. WhatI learned about myself (yes, I'm being ironic) from talking with Jason was what it means when fandom bites back. What happens when your hobby, that the thing you do to relax, that thing that enriches your life to some extent doesn't  pass you by so much as confuse the hell out of you? What do you do when it ain't 'so it ain't so,' but 'what the hell am I supposed to do with this? Oh, and it all begins with a stuffed aardvark. Isn't it always the way?

 

Obsessions,Hard Truths and a Plush Aardvark: