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

 

Mo' Mutants, Mo' Problems

The New Mutants Marathon … continues

I ran the 400m in High School, the quarter mile. If I had any sort of strategy it was to work the corners like a 'crafty' veteran pitcher or a hooker.  The third corner is a bear and the last corner breaks most runners and then it's an all out sprint. I'm about to turn the fourth corner on my New Mutants writing project and I can feel my body dig for the extra gear I'll need on that last straightaway.

This week my essay on The New Mutants #25 was posted to Comics Bulletin. It wraps up a tasty narrative pretzel about Rahne and Bobby inheriting the powers of Cloak & Dagger. Tandy and Tyrone, unburdened and ready to leave the life behind, decide to do the 'noble' thing again take up the … err … cloak and dagger.

There are two B-stories in this arc that involve Selene and the Hellfire Club and Magneto and Aleytys "Lee" Forrester that are plain kooky. To be honest, the one about Selene, The New Mutants #23, is kinky and as I write in the piece an eye-opener for me at the time. The other plot thread with Magneto and 'Lee' takes place on an island somewhere in the Bermuda triangle. As Magneto and Forrester approach this Cthulhu-inspired getaway, Sienkiewicz scrawls 'Cockrum' into the cracks along the sea wall. The man is not without a sense of humor or history.

 

I don't know if anyone has coined the term 'the Sienkiewicz face,' if not, you may want to register that domain name or tumbler tout de suite. The New Mutants #24 makes a case for the face. This being the New Mutants the faces are often in anguish or some kind of distress. My favorite is one of Magik (natch) as she and her teammates figure out what to do with Rahne and Bobby. She's got this enigmatic smile that says discomfort and hints at barely contained roiling rage.

Next up, is the arrival of David Charles Haller a/k/a Legion, perhaps the most powerful mutant ever imagined and therefore problematic in every way.

The other piece that came out this week at Comics Bulletin is the January edition of 2 for #1. Jamil Scalese and I along with this month's mystery date, editor extraordinaire, Danny Djeljosevic take on The Black Beetle #1, Adventure Time with Fiona and Cake #1 and Young Avengers #1.

Ensconced as I am in Marvel's merry mutants, I find myself more and more drawn to the Marvel universe. Marvel NOW! is marketing bullshit and yet I keep thinking if I was thirty years younger, Young Avengers would have been my jam like The New Mutants was back in the day except Sam and Bobby never shared an open-mouth kiss like Wiccan and Hulkling.

According to Blogger, this marks my forty-ninth post to Interested in Sophisticated Fun?. It's only fitting as I near the tape on my one year anniversary that I try to make it an even fifty, which (almost) averages to one post per week, my goal when I began this new universe.

Time is irrelevant when it comes to writing. What we write lives after us (we hope) and when it comes to the act itself, writing ain't no sprint, it's a damn marathon.