Social Media

Social Media is an amazing and strange thing, especially to this forty-sumthin' non-digital native.

Ironically, my nickname in high school was "Unsociable Nerd." (Luisa G. used to tease me about this almost daily, noting how I never attended parties or went to sporting events after school.) As a true-blue introvert by nature, just being sociable at all takes a whole helluvalot of energy.

Don't get me wrong. I like people. I like them a lot. My occasional misanthropic tendencies come straight from my idealized notions of what humanity is capable. It is only those of us who see "what a piece of a work is a man" who become jaded when we (humanity) fail to employ our "apprehension... like a god" to IRL problems like poverty and climate change.

So how did this introverted misanthrope get mixed up in all this social media? I now stalk artists -- professional and amateur -- on DeviantArt and post their works on my Tumblr page, which I can then embed here on my blog. And that post, subsequently, I will no doubt share on FB and Twitter to make sure it gets seen.

I'm even propagating myself in social media. SOCIAL media...

Weird.

And, it hardly takes any energy at all.

Nice.

http://haffpint.tumblr.com/post/117807217682/mr-j-by-danielgrzeszkiewicz

The above is Daniel Grzezkiewicz's latest: Mr. J. (Joker from the Batman universe). It is a disturbing take on the latest rendition of the Joker in the Batman comics by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo.

(I even get all my comics electronically

now through comiXology--

who needs to get out of the house to be social?)

Intellectual Property

Here is an interesting read from Gerry Conway on his Tumblr.page. While I love me some free access to great comic book imagery through the interwebs, I still believe credit is due where credit is due.

It may not compensate for the economic equity creators like Siegel and Shuster deserve but did not receive, at least they get their creator credit for Superman. I think Conway and his ilk deserve at least that as well.

http://gerryconway.tumblr.com/post/117619743363/who-created-caitlin-snow-on-theflash-according

Daredevil Horns

I bet you didn't know that the horns on Daredevil's red outfit had a practical purpose. I surely didn't.

Last two panels from page 7 of Daredevil Vol. 1, Issue #8 (June 1965)

Color

I have been reading the first several issues of the 1964 Daredevil comic after Netflixing/binge-watching the entire first series of the TV show on Netflix. (Yes, I watched all 13 eps within 24 hours of their 10 April 2015 release date -- addix is a part of this blog's title after all).

Since I am a nerd of the highest caliber, I have created a database in which I keep track of all the comics in my collection. This has enabled me to better associate authors and artists with their works. Besides the comics themselves, I use online sources to help me fill in some of the missing details (like release dates if available and variant issues, etc.).

The two primary sites I use to dig up this data are www.comiXology.com and www.mycomicshop.com. Sometimes I cross-reference the information between them, but the release dates can get kinda dicey with the older stuff -- month and year, at best.

Nowadays people have access to better, more specific data online. That said, one of the issues I have with these sources, especially in regards to older issues, is that they often do not provide the colorist for the mags.

They will list authors, pencils, inks, letters, editors, practically everyone and the kitchen sink, but they fail to list the colorists. I don't get this as one of my favorite things is the beauty and depth coloring can add to an image. Coloring is like the soundtrack for the story -- it enhances the emotional layers we feel in a way we aren't always cognizant of.

Mike Deodato, Jr.'s Joker

Fábio Di Castro's 3-D Model 
of Deodato's Drawing

Here is an example to illustrate my point (pun's impossible to avoid here). Mike Deodato, Jr. is a terrific artist, and I have collected several of his comics and images of his work online. On his blog, he shared this Joker piece along with Fábio Di Castro's 3-D model based on Deodato's original drawing.

The art is top-notch creepy in the black & white ink drawing; there is clear menace and madness in the Joker's eyes. But, then, when you add color--- the Joker simply pops off the page and becomes a whole different kind of creepy. The lighting effects shift subtly, and now there's a sense of room around him, like he actually exists in space with you.

The point is that they are both beautiful and effective, but they are different pieces because of the choices made with the color palette. Those choices are a part of the art of comics, and the colorists should get credit for their good work, even in those books from the early days of publishing when coloring options were more limited.

A Tumblr Addiction...

tumblr logo

I have a terrible tumblr addiction. I cannot remember when or how I learned of the site, but I spend more time on it by far than any other social media site. I follow numerous comic book artists and writers as well as various fans of all things geek and pretty.

I have discovered many an amateur and professional artist through fans' posts on tumblr. For example, today Jim Madsen's art was on my dash. Here is one of the many pics of his work that I was introduced to today.

Jim Madsen's I.F. Spark

Because of that posting on tumblr, I looked him up online and found out that he has a blog at www.jimmadsen.blogspot.com/. I highly recommend you check out his work. He provides lovely descriptions to explain elements that informed each of his pieces. I found the following story on his blog for this picture.

The mixture of art and story truly is one of my favorite things.

LEGO Fixation

LEGO Agent Venom

I must confess that I find some "cutsie" imagery entertaining. I don't do situational comedies and I like my ultra-realistic comics and TV, but I also enjoy the animated LEGO videogames and movies.

(I have even tried my hand at building some of the MARVEL & DC Comics LEGO Superheroes kits, but these hands of mine no longer like activities that require fine motor skills and coordination.)

Skottie Young's Variant Cover

For example, I cannot explain why Skottie Young's "kid" Daredevil cover...

Alexandre Salles' Daredevil
from DeviantArt.com

and Alexandre Salles' "gritty" Daredevil cover both appeal to me, but they do.














I wonder what that says about me...

Angry at... Stuff

Skottie Young: Daily Sketch

One of my favorite bloggers goes by the moniker Wheelchair Kamikaze. He is suffering from progressive multiple sclerosis. His latest post is entitled "A Stranger in Strange Lands." I like him  [Mark] because his writing is honest and thoughtful. I also find insights on his blog that often help me.

My mother and I suffer from chronic illnesses. We both suffer from multiple chronic illnesses: she with arthritis (both rheumatoid and osteo) and fibromyalgia; I with fibromyalgia since 1997, Crohn's since 2003, degenerative disk disease since 2004, and an as of yet un-diagnosed neurological ailment since 2011.

Needless to say, our lives are a bit messy.

We also have lost our formerly finely honed skills related to patience and communication. We suffer from a lot of frustration and anger-- over our physical limitations, over our lives feeling cut short because our aspirations extend farther than our bodies will allow, and over the loss of control we seemed to have over our fate.

I'm a little more chill than she, but I've had a little bit more practice with the growing limitations my body has seen fit to challenge my spirit with.

My advice to my mother today was to reserve her energy for herself instead of wasting it by getting angry. Stated a bit over-simplistically in the car, my advice was really about letting go of that constant anger that comes with our loss, from the grief of dying to our formerly healthy selves, and coming to a better acceptance of our limited selves.

It'a a daily thing this. Trying to accept and be at peace with who we are.

Danger Room Level Ragnarok

Ariela Kristantina, Sonia Oback

Day Two of Blogging: We're going to tackle basic design elements for mom's blog today and maybe hook her up with some business cards so she can advertise her online venture.

My mom is a planner. She has researched blogging and has several blog posts already planned out. I'm a "seat-of-my-pants" kind of blogger. I open a second tab and browse for pics and ideas (and look up spelling) while I've got my editor open.

Her blog will definitely be more coherent than my own. My unifying theme is comics, but I reserve the right to go off point... often... and substantially.

Welcome to Comix Addix

I blog because my mother blogs. She's a writer and a photographer and an eccentric old bat, but I wanted to help her learn the interface here at Blogger by using it myself. She wants to get all her great works (and my father's) out here on the web for the world to enjoy.

I have no such aspirations for myself. I am a synthesizer, not a creator. I consume great art and fiction through media of all sorts, but I do not burn with the desire to generate it. I like to mash things up and reflect on the state of our world through the creations of others who are trying to make sense of this existence.

I am not a reality "shipper." I find great beauty in exploring humanity through our imaginations in part because I get mired down in the systemic injustices I cannot rectify in "real" life. I love humanity's potential but find myself antagonized by our seemingly endless capacity to mess up and thereby fail to live up to that potential.

Matthew Ferguson Art