Author: Elayne Riggs

ELAYNE RIGGS: World Enough and Time

ELAYNE RIGGS: World Enough and Time

  • News
  • August 8, 2007

Everyone around my age seems to have a Twilight Zone episode that sticks with them the most.  For me, it’s the Burgess Meredith-starring "Time Enough At Last," which title I always misremember as World Enough and Time.  (Just my luck I’m about to become even more confused as that’s also the title of the new George Takei-starring Star Trek: New Frontiers episode debuting in two weeks.)  It’s about an obsessive reader who’s delighted he finally has time to pursue his favorite hobby after improbably escaping a bomb that wipes out the rest of the populace, only to have his glasses fall off his face and break, fade to black.

It was one of those episodes for which I refused to suspend disbelief because I kept thinking of all the ways Meredith’s character could remedy his fate.  What was preventing him from looking for new glasses?  If the NYPL building was still standing I’ll bet some optometry places were still around.  And after all, he had to go food-gathering to stay alive, he’d undoubtedly (and likely literally) bump into something.  And bombs tend to fuse things into lenses anyway.  All that aside, I refused to believe he totally couldn’t read without his glasses; my prescription is pretty strong and I’m to the point in life where, if I didn’t have bifocals, I’d have to remove my glasses to read.  And eyesight has been known to improve without the use of glasses, by means of various exercises and–

Well anyway, my point is, I went over all these machinations in my head for years because I could see a lot of myself in that character.  I love to read, always have.  Got it from my mom (hi Mom!); Dad wasn’t big on reading, but she’s always taken to it, as have her sister and brother, from whom I learned to like all sorts of genre stuff from the Happy Hollisters mystery series to fantasy and science fiction to fairy tales to the very occasional non-fiction foray.  Reading actively engages my mind like little else.  Reading has always been the way I found out about life, about myself.  Reading is dreaming using words (and pictures, if you’re talking about comics).

I’m never as happy as when I have time to catch up on my reading.  This week, for instance, I’m on "enforced" vacation — meaning that, because I don’t get to use up my allotted vacation time when I want to (due to my boss requiring me to be at my post whenever he’s in the country), I wind up accumulating too many days to carry over into my next service year and must "use or lose" them before my anniversary (next Monday).  As of the time I wrote this column I had no idea what I was going to do during this week other than read, read, and read some more.

And even then, there’s never time enough.

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Fity-seven channels and nothing’s on…

Fity-seven channels and nothing’s on…

  • News
  • August 5, 2007

Yesterday was a very special day for lots of folks.  In the baseball world a couple of home run records were set, in the political world attendees at the progressive blogosphere’s Nerd Prom (yes, they have one too) schmoozed with the Democratic presidential candidates, and we at ComicMix celebrated head honcho Mike Gold’s 57th go-round in life.  All the incriminating photos my camera could muster can be found here.  And here’s our review of what we columnist types have been up to this past week:

I finally got to meet all of Mellifluous Mike Raub‘s many M-named sons, and the one with the "S" name.  He’s been busy as usual with the newest Big ComicMix Broadcasts:

I’m on vacation from my day job this coming week, so who knows, you might even see my byline again on something other than my column and this wrap-up…

ELAYNE RIGGS: The Prodigal Child

ELAYNE RIGGS: The Prodigal Child

  • News
  • August 1, 2007

White Rabbits!  (Sorry, that supersition is how I start every month.)

So Robin and I were watching Godspell on TV the other day.  Yeah, every now and then I like to revel in the best of ’70s kitsch.  Godspell reminds me a lot of Finian’s Rainbow.  They’re both earnest, so very very earnest, in their attempted appeal to perceived hippie consciousness, and there are sections of each that I love to bits… but my gosh, they’re so charmingly dated, bless their hearts.

And I was remembering how cool I thought the songs were when I was a kid, and how silly all the wide shots panning out over NYC look — and gasping when I suddenly realized the ending of one number was shot on top of the then-newly-built World Trade Center, and the title of the number was "All For The Best" — and Robin was comparing it to the version he’d seen on stage in England, and they came to the bit where that cast member who looks disturbingly like Ron Jeremy and a few other cast members were acting out the story of The Prodigal Son.

And I’m kinda caught up in the film despite myself, because I’ve always been fascinated by allegorical fiction, which is what most New Testament stories are, and all at once something just didn’t seem correct to me.  It’s the same kind of "wait a second…" I did when I first realized the second most common interpretation of the moral of the Garden of Eden story was "always submit to authority rather than seeking to understand things for yourself" (the most common being "all dames are trash").  It made absolutely no sense to me that the prodigal son, who had sinned mightily and returned to his father’s fold, deserved the fatted calf more than the son who had dutifully loved his father and seen to his work and was a genuinely good person the entire time and who needed no prodding to be good.  It didn’t work for me as fiction, it just wasn’t a satisfying resolution, because it rested on the assertion that it’s okay, even preferable, to cheat.  And because so many people need an excuse to justify actions that in their gut they must know they shouldn’t do, that message is incredibly appealing to a wide segment of people.

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When San Diego is too far away…

When San Diego is too far away…

  • News
  • July 29, 2007

Yeah, I guess I’m missing San Diego, in more ways than one.  But then again, they’re missing the Del Close improv marathon here in NYC, so that makes us even.  Not.  Ah well, on to this past week’s ComicMix columns:

I haven’t even begun to keep track of all Mellifluous Mike Raub‘s Big ComicMix Broadcasts, so why don’t you do it for me?:

Tomorrow’s probably going to be a slow day while my colleagues travel and sleep, so it’s a good time to get all caught up!

ELAYNE RIGGS: Left Behind

ELAYNE RIGGS: Left Behind

  • News
  • July 25, 2007

It’s the day before the biggest convention in an American comic fan’s year — the San Diego Comic-Con International.  Just about every one of my ComicMix colleagues is heading out there.  (Don’t ask me how they got hotel rooms, it’s still a mystery to me.)  I’m not.  My boss told me a long time ago that I can’t go on vacation when he’s in the country (yes I know, but it’s still better than being unemployed and sans health insurance), and even if I could I just don’t think I could work up the enthusiasm any more for something so expensive and exhausting.  The closer I get to pushing 50, the more 50 pushes back harder.

I vaguely remember when I used to have the energy for Events.  When I was in college I enthusiastically queued up for a couple hours to see The Empire Strikes Back and was severely disappointed because I was expecting a movie, complete with a resolution, not a chapter.  (When Robin expressed much the same sentiment years later on Usenet, I responded with "Marry me," and the rest is history, sort of.)  I get the idea of wanting to be a part of a phenomenon bigger that one’s self, wanting "bragging rights" to fill your anecdotage.  (I wish I could say I coined that word, but I didn’t, I got it from a Fred Astaire movie and goodness knows where the movie’s writer picked it up.)  When it’s organic and unexpected, the Event phenomenon can be quite fun.  But what’s really organic today?

San Diego grew out of comic fans’ love for their medium and the people who toiled therein.  And then it just grew, and grew, and grew.  It’s nigh unto unwieldy now.  Before Wizard took over the Chicago Comicon, it too was centered around the comics artform; now it’s just another notch on the WizardWorld bedpost.  The more cons grow, the more the fans can convince themselves of the comic industry’s health — but the growth ain’t about comics, it’s about product.

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Once you’ve finished That Book…

Once you’ve finished That Book…

  • News
  • July 22, 2007

Nerds, geeks and thinking people everywhere are settling down to read J.K. Rowling’s latest and last adventure of Harry Potter prior to packing for sunny southern California.  At least that’s what they tell me; I’ll wait for the easier-to-heft paperback, thanks.  But there are no queues at all to read ComicMix columnist contributions from this past week:

If you see Mellifluous Mike Raub at San Diego, speak loudly and clearly into the mic!  Here are his contributions as he hits the Big Seven-Oh:

Have a safe flight of fancy, everyone!

Baseball and comics go together

  • News
  • July 21, 2007

Want to excite that baseball fan whom you’d like to drag along to the Comic-Con International in San Diego next week?  Tell her or him that Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling will be there, or at least his company will.

On his blog 38 Pitches, Schilling links to a Businesswire story about his 38 Studios corporation having a San Diego presence.  It should come as no shock that one of the company’s executives is noted baseball fanatic and Spawn creator Todd McFarlane, but it may surprise some folks to see fantasy author R.A. Salvatore’s name in the mix as well.

McFarlane and Salvatore will be a the 38 Studios booth in Hall C, Booth #2601.  Don’t miss your chance to ask Todd about those valuable baseballs he owns, and whether he’ll be looking to purchase the ball from Barry Bonds’ #756, which may well be a reality by this time next week.

ELAYNE RIGGS: Nothing common about it

ELAYNE RIGGS: Nothing common about it

  • News
  • July 18, 2007

The older I get, the more Einsteinian I become in my concept of time. It’s like I’m watching a vehicle moving at light-speed, Dopplering like crazy, when it’s all I can do sometimes to make it from point A to point B. I’m just a 20th century gal in a 21st century world.

Which isn’t always a bad thing. I retain a viewpoint that I honestly think is foreign to many around me, one that relies greatly on the ideas of common sense and common courtesy. Don’t spend more on your credit card than you have money to pay it off. When you’re out to dinner, stack your plates in a way that makes them easier for the server to handle. If you’re responsible for someone who can’t care for themselves, their needs supercede yours. Behind the wheel, do everything you can to facilitate traffic flow, don’t do anything that distracts you from driving, and always let aggressive drivers pass you so you’re well rid of them. Don’t do anything in public that will cause discomfort to others around you, unless they’re more politically powerful and intending you physical harm. Listening is more important than talking. (Okay, I don’t have that last one down quite yet, but I’m working on it!)

Two of my conclusions after almost fifty years on this planet come down to "sex is private" and "violence is abhorrent." I don’t know why people who wish to regulate media keep pairing the two, as the former affirms life while the latter negates it. And to tell you the truth, while I’m not that big on regulation myself, sometimes I think it may just be needed in certain circumstances. Because, once again, I see so few people around me any more exercising common sense and common courtesy.

While it’s true that societal mores, like language, are an ever-evolving phenomenon, it’s not that difficult to suss out what might discomfit the majority those around them — if they cared to. But selfishness often wins out over courtesy. So while a kiss on the lips may be quite continental, no matter who’s kissing whom, when that public kiss turns into major gropage or heavy petting it’s time for the participants to think about getting a room. As my mom is fond if saying regarding the romance novels she reads, "I prefer the ones that stop at the bedroom door."

Or the bathroom door, for that matter. Bodily functions are nothing of which to be ashamed; neither are they anything to show off. If you’re planning to go beyond a simple exchange of saliva, do consider a more intimate and less public venue, one with doors between you and the general public. That goes for feeding your baby straight from the source as well. But hey, maybe that’s just me. I see enough fluids around me as it is, I don’t really want to deal with other people’s. It’s beautiful, it’s natural… it’s private, mmmkay?

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A midsummer’s weekly reading

A midsummer’s weekly reading

  • News
  • July 15, 2007

Another glorious summery weekend here in the New York metro area, so with the necessary errands all done (why is it that most of them seem to involve spending money?), it’s time to catch you up on what ComicMix columnists have written this past week:

Hey, Mellifluous Mike Raub has reached a milestone with his big ComicMix Broadcast #65 and beyond; does that make him eligible for senior citizen privileges?

Lastly on a personal note, a huge thanks once again to Andrew Wheeler for all his comics link posts during my extended day-job swampitude! I hope to be back here full time before y’all know it (but not before Sandy Eggo)…

ELAYNE RIGGS: Baseball, comics and all that jazz

ELAYNE RIGGS: Baseball, comics and all that jazz

  • News
  • July 11, 2007

It’s said that there are only a few established art and entertainment forms that America can truly call its own — baseball, jazz music and comic books.  It’s a bit of a hubristic statement, not surprising coming from a country as relatively young yet as vast as our own.  It almost sounds as if we’re trying to convince ourselves of our own cultural relevance — even more so because we realize that each of these things has its roots elsewhere.  But hey, so do most of us.  And just as this "nation of immigrants" has brought disparate peoples into a "melting pot" atmosphere wherein their contributions have mixed to form a melange all its own, so have jazz, comics and baseball taken previously existing elements and turned them into something new and unique.

Now, I don’t know much about jazz, so I leave that topic for someone more savvy than me to tackle. But speaking of tackling, George Carlin has a famous monologue where he contrasts the essential natures of baseball and (American) football, so I thought it would be interesting to compare baseball to "mainstream" (i.e., primarily "Big Two") comics. I believe the two have more things in common than many people may realize. Both are team efforts in which individuals can excel and stand out, but which have the best outcome when everyone involved is working toward the same goal (in baseball, winning the game; in comics, telling the story). Both have bullpens and wacky nicknames (as Stan Lee well knew), and both have equally enthusiastic fan bases. And while the split between baseball fans and comics fans has always been presented as a "jocks versus nerds" scenario, both of those stereotypes have been pretty well dismantled in recent years. Despite American baseball still not being gender integrated (but hey, it only took a century from its inception to integrate the game racially) it boasts male and female aficionados of a wide age range. Despite American mainstream comics being largely created by and targeted to straight white post-adolescent males, they too have drawn in male and female readers and admirers of all ages.

There’s something quintessentially welcoming about the game, and the literature, of amazing visual possibilities and poetry – something that can’t be squelched by all the talk about contracts and exclusives and all the business stuff that’s extraneous to spectators, that’s beside the point of what happens between the white lines or the black borders. We all know it’s there, and admit it has its place, but that it’s more the realm of the voracious media who need their daily dose of sensationalist copy and crave the breaking story even when it’s a non-story. Mountains are made from minutiae – is this pitcher healthy? What about that book’s lateness? Did he really sign a 2-year contract for that much money, and will it include his creator-owned work? Was he on steroids when he drew that or what?

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