My Life, My Comics and Art
By Alex Ness
February 12, 2023
NEWS
There comes in every life, sorrow, pain, and fear. But if we endeavor, rigorously fight for what is righteous, and we might hope to find victory. I have been diagnosed with cancer, in my lymph nodes and kidneys. I will fight it with my family's help, with the support of my friends but I don't have false hopes. I do not have the same chance to fight and win that I did in 2013 when I had lymphoma. But I don't worry, I am grateful actually. After a long extended period, I knew what I was dealing with was worse than broken bones or arthritis. Life is good, I'm awash in love, happiness, and having had 20 years of interviewing, reviewing, I've had the best life anyone as assbackwards as my life has gone has experienced.
MY CHILDHOOD
I grew up liking comics, monster movies (King Kong, Godzilla and Ultraman especially), reading and writing poetry like Beowulf, King Arthur and stories of knights, and a toys like Major Matt Mason, Lego, and1/72 scale Airfix plastic soldiers. I had a model train that I rarely used, but it made for a wonderful battle field with all my stuff. I'd build towers and there'd be hostages held by terrorists, and my Airfix British Commandos would land on the roof by Lego helicopters and kill the bad guys and save the good guys.
I lived in a fantasy world of sorts, because while school was fine, that is where the bullies were. And I got beaten up quite often. My father was a bully when young, so he didn't have much sympathy, and my mother, who I loved quite deeply, had to tell herself it wasn't that bad, or didn't happen, or she'd get worried and have to deal with it. My now passed away brother did help me when he could, and Bob Greene who has also passed from here, was a bully to some, but called me his friend, and liked me, so more than once he saw what was happening and the bullies dispersed, well, all but the one he'd catch and punch until the other bully cried and would never hurt me again.
I mention all this because my childhood wasn't idyllic or easy. To call me or my brother spoiled would ignore the perfectionist and demanding parents we'd had, who were as strict as they were perfectionist in view. I loved my parents, but my father saw me as gay for not being into fishing or hunting, or other manly pursuits and while my teachers seemed very interested in my early drawing and poetry writing, he took that as another clue that I wasn't normal. The only place we met on that scale was watching football, but even then, he was a MN Vikings fan, and from 1968 I liked the Jets and Packers. I began to switch when the Vikings picked up Chuck Foreman, and being from Minnesota and living in Wisconsin at the time, invited people to be assholes and assume I loved the Vikings, when actually I didn't until much later.
But as life goes, and I am only human, and I had to find a place to escape. That place was bookshelf, my aforementioned Lego and plastic soldiers, and writing and drawing. The first comic I loved was Turok Son of Stone. But the Legion of Superheroes was totally awesome, especially with artists Dave Cockrum and Mike Grell. (Grell was from Wisconsin).
Here are the six comic book series that I loved the most growing up, presented in no order of preference, and just an image representing the various series involved.
Kamandi, DC Comics
By Jack Kirby and Mike Royer
Superboy and The Legion of Superheroes, DC Comics
By Cary Bates, Paul Levitz, Mike Grell and Dave Cockrum
Turok Son of Stone by Gold Key
By Paul S. Newman, Angelo Todaro
The X-Men
By Roy Thomas, Ross Andru
The New X-Men
By Chris Claremont, Dave Cockrum
The Defenders
David Anthony Kraft, Keith Giffen
GREAT FANTASY ARTISTS
Art has made my life better, in many respects. Here is a list of great people who have a presence on the net, or others do so. All are copyright © the artist or their estate, and images here are not used for my profit but as fair use to share with others so that you might find the interest to pursue more knowledge and appreciation of them. Every image used is copyright © the artist or respective owner, and is not used in any other fashion than fair use and for news purposes. Copyright is reserved for the creative talents or owners of such image.
I will be asked, inevitably if I know any of them, and I did know and considered Jeffrey Catherine Jones a friend, and someone I loved the soul and talents of. She was quite amazing.
PETER ANDREW JONES
MICHAEL WHELAN
GERALD BROM
JEFFREY CATHERINE JONES
CHRIS ACHILLEOS
KEN KELLY
RODNEY MATTHEWS
TIM WHITE
KEITH PARKINSON
JANET AULISIO
YOSHITAKA AMANO
JOHN JUDE PALENCAR
IAN MILLER
ALAN LEE
ROBERT GOULD
CLYDE CALDWELL
LARRY ELMORE
About Getting Reviews from Me
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 Creative Blogs:
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
Support: Poplitiko.Blogspot.Com/2022/06/for-sale.html
All images are copyright © their respective owners, use is simply as fair use and no ownership rights asserted.
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