COMMENTS AND QUESTIONS

Pursuit of Collectibles
By Alex Ness
February 26, 2023

To Read, Listen, Play or Collect?

I was asked what I think of comic book releases with multiple covers. Since I buy it to read it, I might like all the covers offered, but I buy one. I am not a collector in the sense of buying to add to my museum of perfect grade complete set of bagged boarded and graded comics. I do collect things I like, such as books, but even there, it is to have and read what I have, not to complete a collection.  For those wondering, Robert E. Howard books, which I mostly have, Lord Dunsany books, which I have most that have come out since the 1950s (that is, editions released after that, not new works that a dead guy couldn't have written)... H.P. Lovecraft, Brian Lumley, Anne Rice, Alan Dean Foster and tons more... But I've read each edition I've bought.

If it wasn't evident prior to this edition, I do not write for the collector. I read, play or listen to whatever I buy. My point here is to offer great stuff (in my opinion), and suggest whether an item for discussion is worth the money. If you pursue collecting, rather than use of such an item, you won't find my words of value, if you were ever to do so. I opened toys, I read the books, I read the comics, and listen to the music, so if you were to find me selling an item that was sealed, I either was given it as a gift, or sent more than one and reviewed the opened one.

I'd suggest having things and liking them can be and likely is different than collecting things. I would be an idiot to buy a book by an author I hate to simply have the book for the purposes of having it. Or a CD or record album. Or comic book. Or movie. But, I understand these people exist, and if they like doing that, then they should keep doing it, enjoying it, and raise their young to do the same. I think people should follow their own path, and enjoy what they enjoy. I've always considered reviewing works to be less reviewing and more of presenting it for others to see for themselves if they wish to also read or "collect" such a thing.

RECENT EVENTS

I now have a newish computer, so I plan to download all my blog poetry and will use it to release an enormous book of thousands of poems. No one will read it or buy it, but in 50 years people will say, Holy Shit that guy was mentally disturbed. Perhaps they'd be correct. 

Q&A

COMICS

Q1) Who are your favorite unknown comic book artists, or comic artists who aren't yet famous, not even in the world of comics, or differently aimed, what comic artist do you like a lot that some find less enjoyable?

A -1) 

I think artist Jason Copland is highly underrated. I think that Alex Sheikman is brilliant but his work is rare since he has a far better paying day job, so his work comes out slowly if at all. Josh Howard has a devoted fan base, but I think if more people read his work they'd understand how well constructed it is, fun to read, and consistent from issue to issue. For the life of me, I can't understand why publishers and other artists aren't begging Barbara Schulz to be their inking for every freaking project there is. Her inks are pure beauty and are perfection by definition.

Regarding art that I like but others not, I don't think I can answer this question well because if the artist has work on the shelves it means someone liked them enough to pay him or her to do their art.  I am not in any way saying everyone published is GREAT, but the term, good enough to get into print would be fair.  I had aspirations to write and draw my own comic. I could do watercolors rather well, and pen and ink them, but that would never work on comics, and while I did have some art courses where work of mine was displayed, that was a long time ago and arthritis has made me crippled regarding my hand coordination. So I tend to respect anyone who got published, and more than once.

I'd say Keith Giffin often adapted styles, went hog wild with it, and then moved on. I liked most all of that but was told by dozens of people, they hated that time of Giffen's art career. Other people seemed to dislike Ted McKeever's work for similar reasons, that, it was not photo/real in outlook, so it was more symbolic and less perfect in form. But McKeever is near perfect for me when he writes and illustrates.

I think there are tons of really great artists who haven't the following that lesser artists end up with. Whether they are better on social media, in person, or just draw people in by their personality, or genre worked in, some artists are just more socially able. An example of this might be John Byrne, who, while he still has a following for his work, has lost clout and popularity due to his big mouth.  I think he is still talented, but at its worst point, it seemed he was trying to shake the tree and see if any loose nuts or branches my fall.  Those who have remained loyal have obviously no interest in his opinions on certain things, and like his work, as he has not lost much over time in his abilities.

Q2) Not recently but a couple years back I really thought someone in an interview you performed gave a bullshit even malicious answer to a question you asked. You did well adjusting, but why would someone want an interview and then give assholish responses to your questions?

A-2) I have a few answers for this one.

A.) Often I was the person who asked the creative person for the interview, and they might be annoyed at answering a question that they'd rather not. Also, in that, since I utilize emails for the exchange, they might think, how long is this going to take answering that typing it on a computer?

B.) I might have asked a question that would be considered unfair or something that they have answered 890 million times already.

C.) I don't think this is usually the case, but some people are very sensitive about a variety of subjects.  One time a interview subject threatened me with bodily harm for a question that I'd read a possible answer to, and he wanted people to never ask.  He was assuming I'd not done my research and didn't realize someone didn't think he was answering the original question honestly.

So it could well have been all my fault, and I think it usually is. But there was a case where someone's pr person begged me to interview the creative talent. I adored that talent's work, but, I wrote up 30 questions because they asked me to cover the talent's entire career. My text of questions had about 700 or more words to it.  The answers returned were a total of 50 words at most, and included 3 times of the talent saying, oh go fuck yourself. The pr person wrote and said, well, ______ doesn't like emails or written questions, so he had a hard time.  That response was a load of weapon grade dog crap.

Q3) Why, do you think, message boards have mostly died? Were you a frequent poster on any, and which sites, if you don't mind sharing? 

A-3) The very easy answer is that social media devoured them. The lack of social graces, the ability to attack others, vulgar shock posts, all meant message boards required a lot of watchers and sentries to prevent outbreaks of assholism.  I am a bit embarrassed to say one message board, Comicon.com was likened to a pit of vipers by more than a couple comic professionals I know.  But one very great board was that of Tony Isabella. He assigned people to keep everyone in line as far as politeness, posts that violated the age groups possibly reading and participating, and to prevent misinformation.  It was a bit to the left of center, but that isn't all on the guy with the board (Tony) who, for my money, is a class act.  But that is fine too.  The Steve Niles message board was fun, but there were a lot of dark unhappy people there, so quite easy to offend, piss off, be misinterpreted and more. Still, I met some awesome people there. Joe Hilliard, Nichole Porter and Michael May come to mind. 

Q4) I like the works of a certain creative person, and you seem to agree and you seem to also like them as well. But I have absolutely heard rumors that they go to comic book shows to pick up really young chicks and to do things with them that are at least speaking in re: statutes, would be illegal. If you are an interviewer wouldn't that be a good question to ask?

A-4) I think that asking such a question is better left to the police if it is an illegal activity. And if it is one of those, they couldn't answer honestly without violating their 5th amendment right to not self incriminate one's self. I've written about the person you are talking about, and I guaranfrickingtee you that they never did such a thing. I realize it is juicy gossip and rumors are always fun to make the world muddy and ugly, but false accusations are hard to recover from, and I know of one fellow who was known to have been falsely accused, but then was accused again, and the authorities looked at his previous accusation as smoke if not fire, and who would be accused twice of the same thing, if it wasn't true? You might think I am defending the person, I am not. I am saying without going through the authorities and being proven, it is just gossip, and whoever it is aimed at, it is unfair.

Q5) What five comics oriented talents (or fantasy artists or writers) treated you the best? Who were the biggest assholes?  

A-5) The list of the best is relatively easy. Mike Grell hands down the very best of the best.  Mike Baron is/was generous with his time and efforts to teach me the magic of writing comics. Timothy Truman has a heart of gold and I love him, his work is amazing, writing and art alike. Jamie Delano was a mentor, a thinker, and person who could be described as miles wide and miles deep, he has a vast imagination, great talent, and deep down in, he is a kind soul. David Hine was someone who more than once renewed my belief in myself by answering questions and discussing matters without talking down to me and engaging my thoughts with more of his own.  He has a hungry mind, curious and wants to explore the rest of the world outside of himself. I like Erik Larsen a great deal, and there are many others I also like very much. I'd say, I like far more than even mildly dislike.

From the post When Kickstarters kicked my ass, in 2019

These are the professionals in comics who helped me with interviews, reviews, were kind, mentored me, or were just friends. These are not in any kind of order outside of Grell as numero uno.

Top row:

Mike Grell, Timothy Truman, Jamie Delano, Chuck Dixon, Josh Howard, David Hine, Norm Breyfogle

Bottom row:

Ashley Wood, Tim Bradstreet, Mike Baron, Grant Morrison, Moebius, Mike Carey, Erik Larsen

But regarding the naughty list... well if you've been reading my articles for any amount of time even if someone treats me poorly, I tend to avoid saying anything regarding it. I will say, my worst experiences were with creators who thought they were deserving of far more fame and success than they were getting.

One creative person, in the span of 10 minutes, went from telling me I probably whack off to half naked girls on comic pages of Archie or Betty and Veronica, to then asking me, wait you do interviews?  Have you seen my work? I am local I could answer whatever you need. I politely said, I'll let you know when I have a schedule opening.

Another creative talent noticed me at his convention table, said, if you aren't going to buy anything go away.  Then he noticed I had a press badge (SDCC 2003) and he said, oh I am sorry, I find lookers and people lingering around my table to be annoying. I smirked and left. He started to follow but realized, I'd seen him in action.

One interview subject disliked a question, and threatened to have his many family or fans do something painful to me. I suspect I could beat the living shit out of him, even with my cancer and broken bones. He was a tiny big mouthed asshole.  No, again, sorry, no names.

GAMES

Q6) Why do you never review video games, or so rarely do so?

A-6) I don't like to lie to my readers, so, if I talk about video games, it will be because I played a game and have something to say. If I started to pod race again, I'd never be seen again in these pages.  I love that game a ton and would likely play it until my eyeballs rolled out of my head and I lost consciousness permanently. 

STUFF WITHOUT LABELS

Q7) You have four college degrees, taught in college, and seem to have interests in every kind of subject. How the hell aren't you teaching, and why do you write poetry and not prose novels and text books?  Also, just to boost your ego, since I think you need some of that, you are f@#king smart, why do you denigrate yourself all the time?

A-7) I confess, I thought about not including this question. The cynical readers will think I'm giving myself a big blow job by answering it. The people who already dislike me, or think that I am mentally deficient will think the one asking is mentally troubled. And those people who know me will realize, either I don't have an issue with the question but about how others with perceive it, will send me advice how I SHOULD have answered, or that it isn't necessary to answer since we all come upon our path in a fashion perhaps appropriate for our quest.

To answer your question then... I did indeed try teaching, and I began doing so as a Teaching Assistant Grad, I taught classes on my own and under a great professor who maybe wasn't an easy grader, but he taught extraordinarily well. But, that was a different beast than on my own, and as an independent teacher teaching my own classes.  I spread my wings as a TA at NDSU, and part of that came from an understanding of the course and of the curriculum. But it came mostly from wanting my students to also fly high, and to for the first time in my life, I would become worth the years of effort, the money in money education, and to be viewed as someone able to help and guide others.

When I taught outside of university, I taught high school students and middle school students in home school or mentoring courses. In all cases, these kids were bright. But not in each case, were they motivated or cared about the subject matter.  I tried a hell of a lot harder in this situation and for far less financial reward, it was rather difficult. I still enjoyed it, but, it wasn't easy.

My last run at teaching was in a community college, where I was expected to replace for a semester a teacher, and was told to use his texts so the students taking each portion of the course wouldn't have to change over texts. I was also told, it might be a good thought to try to touch on the main points the sabbatical taking teacher would have used. Well 1, the old professor came in and "accidentally" took the course books, so for 4 weeks I was trying to teach from his syllabus without the books to use.  I did get them, but having just had my son December 31 and the course began January 5, not having a text was bound to handicap me. Also, 2,  there was a great deal of apathy in this school compared to the one I thrived at (NDSU). It wasn't the fault of the school, but of my perceptions going from a four year 100 year plus old university of quality, to a two year school that was building and growing, and with far fewer years of development. 

Number 3, I also was asked to teach something, again from the other texts, from a course I wasn't well educated myself so that I might teach. So for 3 weeks in that, I tap danced by teaching it as an intro, and gave short lectures aimed to break down the academia aspect of the course, and use basic constructs and ideas to inform the students. It was rather brutal, and defeating. But at the end of each course I had more than one student say my methods led them to learn in ways they'd never done before about subjects they used to hate and now, were going to major in. So, whatever the result for me, some of it worked. And for once my family said, see, we knew he could succeed, probably while crossing their fingers.

Since that time, I'd found that the older I became and more able to focus and self study, the smarter I became. I do think some of my difficulties in school came from perfectionist parents teaching me that I'd fail whatever I tried to do. I love them, but it is a very hard set of mental paradigms to have to overcome. Being on my own, reading hundreds of books a year, and having the internet, changed my life. I could teach now, I think rather well. I don't have failure and fears of failure hanging over my shoulder.

I write poetry however, because it and my fiction allow me to teach. What? You see, I began to realize that some people teach by logical processes of explanation. Some people learn by being lectured or  having information or an idea explained to them directly. But I teach by showing what happened, not by judging who or what happened, or by judging the event as being evil or good. I teach by giving examples of an event, and showing the consequences of such. Letting people see what happened, and forming their own opinions. Also, I think I am a creative, and not a logical, my mind considers many possibilities instead of trying to use logic to determine what happens or happened, and why.

I self denigrate because humor is disarming. Also, it is true many times, if I don't know the answer, I find it self defeating to act as though I do. Sometimes being honest seems like self denigrating, but we live in a society where saying I don't know, or that's too technical for me, sounds like you are saying you are stupid, when all you are saying is, that question or circumstance falls outside of the training or knowledge I've compiled or experienced.  But I will say this, if I am amazed in life that people think I am smart, or have a higher than normal IQ, I've met and spoken to two very very smart Nobel prize winner smart people.  I don't kid myself about what is smart.  Those people, are smart.

BOOKS 

Q8) Could we please see more coverage of science fiction within all the subjects you talk about, like games or books or comics?

A-8) If I get to read for pleasure I read weird fiction (often a combination of horror and space fantasy), fantasy, horror and history books. I also read science fiction but I'd argue I read them more for the concept than the finished product, except for Alan Dean Foster. I find his work to be just the right amount of science fact and questions, great dialogue, and always a great reason to be written. He writes for audiences who don't need the exact formula for the planet killer virus about to destroy earth.  He just needs to make it sound real.

Now you are saying, that bastich didn't answer the question. I don't read, play or watch enough of science fiction to commit to a regular feature about said genre. I wish I had more time to read, and more to write.

Q9) I noticed you have a lot of science fantasy on your favorite movie list. Have you considered writing a script for such a movie, or making the whole work yourself? I'd sure pay to see it.

A-9) Thank you but no. I love many such movies, as you point out.  But I have a dislike for writing sequential prose, like movies or comics.

Q10) Will you ever do an alternative history book, and if so, would you open it up to others, or would you tackle it all on your own? Might you please give us another potential future changing time edit that would have huge butterfly effect result?

A-10) I am definitely going to either begin a Alternative history blog project, or a book. And depending on the subject it could go either way.  I am not a great historian in the realm of politicians and their choices.  But military history, if not for a non elite audience, I think I could give 20-30 examples of decidedly import near misses, lost chances.  I'll give two, one long form, the other, very short.  Both are important.

One event that could have changed our present, was the near death of Alexander the Great in the first battle of the Persian campaign, at Granicus river. In the midst of combat Alexander, as typical of his nature, rode to far ahead than his bodyguards (called The Companion cavalry) and others in his army.  He was surrounded, along with two Persian horsemen who were in a position to kill Alexander. He took one blow to his helmet, as the Persian horseman drew close to finish him, rose his arm to strike, and Cleitus the Black chopped off the arm of the swordsman. There are arguments that the Alexandrian Empire was not truly as important as some historians of the past have said. But the if the second swordsman had struck, we would know in the present. Why?

The Persians were more conservative than the Greeks and Macedonians. If they'd have survived far longer, their citizenry would have begun to establish an identity of what being Persian would mean.  Rather than a collection of conquered people, they'd aspire to a new version of themselves, being Persian would mean that they were part of a powerful empire with a vast mosaic of races, ethnic groups, and miles and miles of territory. Religiously, while the Persians were generally tolerant of other faiths, as the native religion/pantheon of good gods and evil gods, the greatest of which was Ahura Mazdā and his prophet was Zoroaster.  If the empire had stayed alive, the official religion would also offer a means to assimilate the different peoples of the empire.

Therefore, when the newly energized and religiously motivated Islamic Arabs of the Arabian desert wanted to share the religion of Islam as developed by the Prophet Muhammad, they'd encountered a powerful foe in the first great battle near Ctesiphon. In the actual battle the Persians lost but it was a close call. Only arrival of veterans who'd fought elephants before, had information to turn the tide. But if the Persian army members had fought because they loved the empire that they served, perhaps having the advantage of elephants, chariots and heavily armored cavalry they might instead have overrun the less powerful and less numerous Arab armies before the reinforcements arrived. Source for the battle of Al-Qadisiyyah

The event happened upon a site of a river near the border two nations at war. Not Manchuria, that the Japanese occupied and refered to as Manchukuo. Nor Mongolia, controlled by the Soviet Union. The Nomonhan Incident or The battle of Khalkhin Gol was a battle in an undeclared war, between the Japanese and the Soviet Union. While they had fewer numbers, the Japanese saw themselves as militarily superior and believed the Soviets would crumble. Due to the Red Army officer purges and their attention consumed by Nazi Germany and The Winter War with Finland, the Soviets were distracted and likely to be poorly led. But the Soviets were led by future hero of the Soviet Union General Georgy Zhukov, he was one who avoided the officer purges, and with superior strategy he won the battle. The reason why this was pivotal was it changed the future plans of Japan. Had the Soviets lost, the Japanese would have aimed their war aims towards the USSR and remained aimed at mainland China, but since the Soviets won, the Japanese chose to attack the other powers of the Pacific, the US, Australia, and the colonial Empire of the United Kingdom.

REVIEWS:
I can be found on Facebook, Twitter or through email Alexanderness63@gmail.com. I accept hard copies, so when you inquire at any of these places, I'll follow through by telling you my street address.If you send hard copies for review I will always review them, but if you prefer to send pdf or ebooks to my email, I will review these at my discretion. I don't share my pdf/ebooks, so you can avoid worry that I'd dispense them for free to others.

My 5000 poem Blog AlexNessPoetry.Blogspot.Com
 
Cthulhu Alien Horrors CthulhuDarkness.Blogspot.Com

Atlantis & Lost Worlds AlexNessLostWorlds.Blogspot.Com
My Published Work  AlexNessPoetry.Blogspot.Com/2007/01/My-Work.html

My Amazon Author Page Amazon.com/author/AlexNess


All images are copyright © their respective owners, use is simply as fair use and no ownership rights asserted.