Here we go!
:: I would have thought that the price of a comic book increasing over 1000% over the past thirty years, or short-sighted decisions allowing comics to lose 99% of their retail outlets over that same time, or the increased emphasis on violence and gore, or bizarre editorial mandates to continually reboot their product might have had a heck of a lot more to do with downward sales. Nope, it’s actually the fault of fans who care about the stories they’re told. Mea culpa. (Interesting thoughts on the DC Comics reboot. I like that he mentions the “dream season” of Dallas. I was a fan of the show at the time, and boy, did it feel cheap. The worst aspect of it was that in the last four or five episodes of the “Dream Season”, the writers had started a storyline that they’d intended to continue in the next season — involving an old ranch hand coming to work at Southfork who may or may not have actually been Jock Ewing with a different face — but since the season had been rendered a dream, that storyline was cut off. But the writers really really really liked that idea, so what did they do in the new, non-dream season? They started that same storyline over again, to the point of using the exact same actor as the old ranch hand who may or may not have been Jock Ewing with a new face. All they did was change the name of the character!)
:: But I find I do remember that melancholy little scene fairly often, usually when it’s late at night — as it is now — and I starting thinking about the open road, with all the promises and disappointments it embodies. The American mythology, Kerouac’s seductive road, along which you might reinvent yourself or find your true self. Or you might find nothing more than a lonely young man and a stray cat each hoping for a little company beneath the unearthly glare of a florescent light… (Posts like this are why I hope blogging never dies out completely.)
More next week!
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