Back In The Daze

Sorry no posts this weekend. I've been locked in an inward spiral and having a bit of difficulty finding the exit.

While i'm down here, i figured i could get back to things by raiding my own past. For a while, i did a webcomic called experiMental Theatre. The first arc was entitled TIM or This Is Me. I did very bad things with a cyber-voodoo doll, but we'll get to that later. Today, let's just look at the opening strips to get an idea of what sort of weird world it was. (I'd say 'to get an idea of what was going on' but that's probably misleading)

The strip was done fast and loose - minimal pencils and speed inking for a frantic brush style. And strictly black and white - no greys. So lots of hatching and odd line work for textures, with a fun additional challenge of getting psychedelic without colour (later in the series).

So, go ahead and dive in - you can claim you were pushed. I won't say a word...

At this point, we get the first nudity (of which there was a fair bit, along with other things like Language, Violence and eventually Sex), and so this strip is only visible in our back room for adult content. Later, we'll have to continue this discussion back there in the Other Voice of ODD!. Here's a direct link to the uncut version of this post. For the moment, let us summarize - 

Our protagonist ran full tilt into a thick tree branch and knocked himself unconscious. A naked girl comes along, pokes him with a stick, and then gleefully punts him over the treeline and off a cliff...

Next:
things start to get a little weird

stuff by -3- (2010, 2011)

Freedom! Think You Can Keep It?

50 years ago, give or take a couple of months, a full century after the end of the Civil War, Denny O'Neil stood up and asked a question that was LONG overdue...

It might seem odd to focus on a white man on Juneteenth, but it's not without reason. Denny died last week - another timely reminder and warning. 

Meanwhile, another white...  well, no - i can't lie and call that weak child a 'Man'. Our fake pres has clearly established he's anything but, and far to weak to Ever man up. So -

Meanwhile, our fake president is leading primitives who would gladly see slavery re-established. (No, modern corporations aren't working to bring back slavery - they know serfdom is much cheaper, and easier to apply to all 'races' ... Equality!) All part of his push to make America great again by taking it back to the days of a Mad King, before Americans died to free themselves from the whims of one deranged individual.

We've reached a point where we're not moving forward, and evil, greedy addicts are working desperately to drag us back and shove us down. They're already selling the notion that the "Middle Class" was a fleeting accident that shouldn't really have happened, not the result of Americans fighting for their fair share and being gunned down in the streets by government troops working for the corporate owners. 

Of course, since we give power over to Addicts and Sociopaths, it's no surprise that they take everything they can grab as well.

Black Americans are on the forefront. They experience the Boot every day and know how terrible it can be. And worse, they're viewed as disposable - as are we all to varying degrees.

We're at one of those tipping points where things could actually get better, but you can be damned sure that the money junkies are going to do everything in their considerable power to make it worse instead.

All Lives Matter.

You may have heard that from some who are trying to deflect from Black Lives Matter. The statement is true - but it means that all of us - Black, Brown, Red, Yellow, White, Green, Blue - All Of Us have an obligation to defend and protect All Lives.
Otherwise, none are safe and all of us are diminished.

And, dude - if you think your white ass is safe and secure... Where's your weekend?
The simple concept of "Working For The Weekend" has already been taken away. In most cases these days, the company now owns you around the clock, seven days a week.

As the junkies keeping sucking up an ever increasing share to fill that need fore MORE, the lines between black & white flat out disappear. 

Don't be a fucking idiot.

Protect and support your black sisters and brothers - or nobody's going to be left to support and protect You.

panel art by Neal Adams from Green Lantern #76 (1970)

Harlequin Humour

Just a quick check while i'm trying to scrape the gum off my brain...

I know i've mentioned it before but, you folks have been watching Harley Quinn, if nothing else for the odd take on the DC Universe, right...?

Welcome to ...
 

...and they know how to milk a joke...
 

Thank you for that, Sarah!

(This all makes much more sense within the DC Universe than one might at first suspect)

screens from Harley Quinn S02E09 (2020)

Why Ya Cryin', Lion?

You know, there are times when i'm actually glad that the Big Guys stopped publishing comics for Readers (instead focusing on Collectors and FanBoys - with at times predictably horrific results) along with embracing the notion that they could never do as well as what came before, so might as well just trash all that and mine it for recycled goods. (Hmm... gonna shut up before this paragraph becomes the entire post)

It's because the pushed me away from modern comics that i've spent most of the last couple decades reading back into the past instead. With most of a century's worth of comics piled up, there're more than i can read in the time left to me on this plane. 

Yes, i'm rambling semi-aimlessly here. I don't have some amazing treasure from the hidden past to present to you today. Just some odd fun. We're going to stick with a single issue of one title and flip through the stories contained within. Most of them.

Let's start with one from the middle, just because it's a different kind of Odd, right from the start. You see - despite the title, his name is actually Groucho Gremlin. They couldn't even spell the protagonist's name correctly in the header. That is Odd -

The gremlins have changed a lot since arriving on our shores in WW2. (My fave is still the Cast A Deadly Spell version). 

Meanwhile(?), eons earlier...

Forget Prairie Dog - the name that tickles me here is Senorita Swoona. That one amuses me enough that i'm not even going to ask "What is Super Cow-Punching?" -
 

While i tend to avoid too-clever name mash-ups these days (they've too often in recent times been the only thing the creators seemed to think needed inspiration and have become a sign of low quality for me - sorry Batman Who Laughs. You came with LOSER tattooed on your forehead, just like Leto's Joker*, even if we can't see it under the mask)

That said, i do like the name Cock Robinhood...

We skipped Grease Monkey. It was just too cringe-worthy for my mood today. We're living in times that will be mocked and referred to with disgust in future days. It's just a little too close to home to be on the other side just now.
 

So - where did these folks appear? It's in the title, of course. It was the second issue (of 3) of this guy's book - Cryin' Lion -
 

Yeah.
I could do some popcorn...

page art by Art Moore, Rojo, and ??? from Cryin' Lion #2 (1944)

===
*(He may have used the letters b-r-o-k-e-n or whatever to spell it, but unless Batman held him down and tattooed it on his forehead, it said "LOSER" - as it would say about anyone who felt the emo need to advertise like that on his face)