The Joy of the NFL Draft

The NFL draft is now a fixture on TV. ESPN has been presenting it for years now from start to finish as a two day event on the last weekend in April. Purely as a television event it ranks up there with the International Silly Putty Championship but I love it.

The draft starts Saturday at noon and runs until ten at night for just the first three rounds. They do it all over again on Sunday for rounds four through seven. On Saturday, in the first round, each team has 15 minutes to make a pick. There are 32 teams and this can take a long time. I think last year's draft set a record for the first round at five hours and change. The shortest first round was three hours and change. The draft runs way too long to ever pay attention to the whole thing but you don't have to.

ESPN has lots of commentators and experts to fill the waiting time with information and blather about the players being drafted. It is one of those jobs that is great because it doesn't matter if you are wrong. One guy says a player is a great pick and the next guy says he's a bum. On Monday no one even cares who said what because it can take years to tell if a player is good or bad and no one goes back and checks who said what on draft day.

Players take years to develop. That is what makes the draft such a unique event. It is important because you have to draft good young talent but you really can't judge the success of a draft until three to five years down the road. A successful draft is when, four years down the road, two of the seven players you have drafted are starting for your team. It is all a crap shoot but no on can tell if their team is rolling sevens or snake eyes. You can only guess and listen to the "experts".

The reason for the draft being such a fun event is that football has such a short season compared to all other professional sports. It lasts from opening day in September to the Super Bowl in January (the first weekend in February recently). Five months of football a year is all we get. Other sports have seasons seven or eight months long but with football the off-season is longer than the season itself. Just one game a week too. So the NFL draft is an oasis of football in the middle of a long off season. A reason to gather friends together.

For years now a handful of friends have gathered at my house for the NFL draft. We turn on the TV and mostly ignore it until our team, the New York Giants picks. We munch on some snacks, talk some football, order some pizza and hit the back yard to play some Trac Ball. There is a Wham-O flashback game for you. A good time is had by all. I'm for any reason to gather together with friends.

There are some great football moments in the draft too. A highlight is waiting for the New York Jets to make their pick. The Jets haven't been a very good team for a long time and as a consequence they often have a high draft pick (the worst team gets to pick first and the Super Bowl winner picks last). Since the draft is now a TV event it is held in a theatre (Radio City this year) and fans can attend. Plenty of Jets fans attend because it is held in NYC. And they boo. I can't blame them. The Jets have a history of picking the wrong guy on draft day. Sure any team can pick the wrong guy. Sure fire can't miss prospects miss all of the time. Like I said, the draft is a crap shoot, but the Jets have a way of passing over the sure fire can't miss guy in favor of the "why the hell would they ever pick him?" guy. So the Jets fans boo and wring their hands in despair. Not every year but enough years for ESPN to have a highlight clip of Jets fans moaning in pain and pounding the table in frustration. I feel their pain but it's funny if you are not a Jets fan. This year the Jets made some good picks and the fans were satisfied so my friends and I were robbed of our amusement. Oh, well.

Four more months until the season starts.

Comics I got this week 4/27/06

Another week at the comic shop and I came away with only two comics. Usagi Yojimbo 93 and Savage Dragon 125. The Dragon is 64 pages so it is really like getting three comics. All for the price of 4.99. Now that's a bargain.

The new comic I bought last week, the Black Coat #1 was pretty good. It is a pretty straight forward story of The Black Coat who is a spy for the colonials during the American Revolution. Ben Franklin makes an appearance and though there is some swashbuckling action and cold war like spying it is kept fairly realistic. It is good enough for me to pick up the next three issues in the mini series.

More About Time

Time and how we measure it is a tricky thing. I often ask myself, "When did such and such happen?" and I almost always think, "A few years ago". No matter how long ago the event actually was that is usually my first thought. At least for things from the last 10 years or so.

The standard associations for remembering time are easier in our youth. They are our grade levels. I can remember when things happened by what grade I was in when they happened. Grade level is a constant measurement of time that we all experience and makes for an easy reference point. All the way up through college I can figure out when things happened by remembering if I was a sophomore or a senior. Easy system.

After school things get a little more shapeless. Time takes on a new meaning that isn't broken down into semesters or quarters. "One long endless summer job" I overheard a student say as he expressed his fear of what life would be like after graduation.

Jobs are another way people mark time but they aren't as reliable. Some people have many jobs and some few. I think the fewer jobs one has the harder it is to mark time by them. After five or ten years at a job it all blurs together. If you change jobs every few years that may offer a better stick to measure against but jobs suffer from another problem. People generally don't like them. Maybe people who have great jobs that are fulfilling and pay well remember every moment of them but most people I know don't want to think about their job when they are not there. Often the last thing a person wants to think about is their job; therefore making a lousy marker for time.

I think it is children who give people back their standard associations with time. After someone has kids their thinking about their lives usually breaks down into two parts: before they had kids and after they had kids. This is not only because having children is a huge change in one's life and a parent has a whole new person to be responsible for but because a parent gets his or her time markers back. Gone is the amorphous relationship of, "When did that take place?" and back is the relationship of "That happened when little Timmy was two". A child's age and then grade level are the new markers.

Grade levels change at the same time for all children and this is why I think they eventually take over as time markers from a child's age. The first think I think is, "My senior year of High School" and the second is 1983-1984. All children are the same "age" as someone in the same grade despite being six months older or younger.

What brought this whole time thing up was that I went back and read some old comics. They were from the series "Mage: The Hero Discovered". I remember when I first bought the series back in 1988 or so because I was in my senior year of college. Then, many years later, its sequel "Mage: The Hero Defined" came out. I wondered to myself, "When did the second Mage series come out?" and then I thought, "A few years ago". So I looked it up. It was published from 1998-1999. Seven years ago? Where did time go? I was fine with the first volume being seventeen years ago because I had a marker for it and understood its place in time. Since I have no time marker for the sequel it disturbs me that seven years ago and three years ago mean about the same thing to me.

Comic books seem to emphasize my lack of time markers. Movies don't. If I look up what year some movie came out, lets say Jurassic Park 2 (1997 I just looked it up), it never disturbs me when I see the date. TV shows can get me a little nostalgic, maybe because style on TV changes so often, but it never disturbs me when I look up what year a show came out.

The periodic nature of comic books could be an answer. They come out on a regular schedule; usually monthly or bi-monthly (there is Planetary time, a joke for all the comic book fans out there). They also come out all year round unlike a TV show which has a season with reruns thrown in too. Comics can be steady like a ticking clock.

Comics are also objects. They are dated and you can grab every issue of Spider-Man from 1977-1978 and watch time go by as you handle each issue. A comic from 1953 existed in 1953 and is older than a lot of us. Time is an integral part of comic books and whenever I look at one to see when it came out I hold time in my hand. That's a tricky thing.

Comics I bought 4/21/06

Another trip to the comic shop this week and I got four new comics. Conan #27, Red Sonja #9, Ex Machina Special #1, and The Black Coat #1. The first three are regulars and the fourth is something new to try. It looks like a spy/pirate/Zorro book that takes place during the American Revolution (1775). I'll let you know how it is.

Last week's trade that I tried, "Ring of Roses" gets a thumbs up but with a asterisk. It took place in an alternate world where the Church of England never broke away from Rome and England is still Catholic. The Pope is going to visit London (it's 1990 or so) and all sorts of murder and political intrigue happens around his visit. The asterisk is because of the four comics which make up the trade only the last two are really good. Bad storytelling mars the first two issues mainly because the writer has the annoying habit of writing narrative that is different then the scene that is actually being drawn. It took me half a page of reading after a scene change to figure out who was talking. This was cleared up in the last two issues and things were fine. So if you can put up with the initial bad storytelling it is a good read.

Genetic Tiredness

Do you know what I am tired of? Genetic engineering. At least in fiction that is. I don't have any exposure to real genetic engineering. At least I don't think I do. Is it in all of our food yet? It's the plot device of genetic engineering that I have had enough of.

In the 50s and 60s it was radioactivity that made all of the monsters. Godzilla and all those giant beasts were made, or at least woken up, by radioactivity. In the movies radioactivity made every mundane creature grow to extra large proportions. From ants and spiders to lizards and apes if it got just the right amount of radiation it was gettin' large and going on a rampage. And that forty foot woman too. Be afraid; the atomic age is here and running wild.

Radiation made a lot of the super-heroes who were born in the 60's. Spider-Man was bitten by that radioactive spider, the Hulk was pelted by gamma rays, and the Fantastic Four were bombarded by cosmic rays. There are plenty more where they came from. A bar of radioactive whatever blinded Daredevil right in the middle of a Manhattan street and then rolled into the sewer and created the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (but that was twenty years later). Radiation could mutate for good as well as make giant monsters.

Yes, fiction writers thought radiation and its power to rearrange atoms would change the human race and offer us all sorts of options for the future. And give us super powers to boot. Who doesn't want super powers?

In short: if you ever needed to create a hero or villain you didn't need a whole back story filled with events and motivations. You needed some radiation. It explained everything.

Now we look back at those times and the notion of radiation doing everything as quaint. Those silly writers in the past. Didn't they know that radioactivity mostly kills you? Super powers, c'mon.

We are so much smarter. After all, now we have genetic engineering.

Some time in the 90s, I'm not sure exactly when, almost every new monster and super-hero was born of genetic engineering. I'm watching season two episodes of the X-Files (1993-4) and there is a lot of genetic engineering but still some radiation monsters too. Radiation was almost dead at that point but genetic engineering was just getting started. Nowadays almost every new super hero dreamed up has the same origin. The are all born of a secret government project. It doesn't matter what government, sometimes it's a corporation, sometimes it's on another planet but it is always a genetic engineering project.

As tiresome as that is what I find most amazing is people. I've mentioned I'm bored of genetic engineering before and compared it to radiation and somebody always says, "but the difference is that genetic engineering is real and they will be able to do all of those things one day". That is what was thought about radiation! No one is ever going to grow wings and shoot blasts out of their eyes because of genetic engineering! Nope, no way, not gonna happen. Sure our food might be more resistant to climate and disease and we might live longer and healthier but super strength, flight and hanging out in the vacuum of space?

Years from now when the next all purpose plot device comes along we will be looked on as the quaint ones who thought genetic engineering could do anything. Anything the plot called for that is.

Comics I bought 4/14/06

A really slim week. I only bought one comic. Strangers in Paradise #81. It is one of my regular books but it is being ended at issue #90. I looked around the shop and found a TPB to buy because I couldn't leave with just one comic. I bought "Ring of Roses" by Petrou, Watkiss and McLester. It was originaly a four issue mini from Dark Horse printed in the early 90s but the TPB was published by Image in 04. It is categorized as Horror/Fantasy and I'll let you know how it is.

One Last Teen Titan Thing

I just finished reading the Silver Age Teen Titans archive. The final story was moving along with the usual goofy abandon when this extra goofy part of the story happened. The Titans were chasing down the bad guys with the help of some local teens when part of the chase hit the water. Chases always hit the water in this book (just like Night Boat in the Simpsons) so they can give Aqualad something to do. But they don't have him swim this time. He is rowed out on the lake by a bunch of kids and then he hits the bad guys with a giant ball attached to a long pole. Where the hell did that come from? I haven't read many Aqualad stories but never have I seen him carrying the proverbial ten foot pole. Did he just find it on shore and say to himself, "Damn, I'd love to hit those guys with this" and then the kid shouted, "Get in the boat and we'll row you out there and you can bash him". I guess swimming out and overturning the boat was to pedestrian for a guy who lives in the ocean.

I Thought I Had It

I thought that I had a topic earlier in the week to write about but now I have forgotten. I should have written it down. Imagine how much information was lost because someone didn't write it down. It is no wonder that "Civilization" (yeah, I just hadda use quotes around that I'm feeling cynical) kicked into high gear when people learned to write things down.

Writing is a magic thing. When you don't know how to read letters are just marks on paper. But to those in the loop the letters' meaning is clear without even thinking.

I often use fake writing in my artwork. I use real writing too because I like the space words and pictures create when they are next to each other but sometimes I don't want words. I just want the idea of writing or symbols. So I make up some letter forms. They vaguely remind me of Middle Eastern lettering because there are lots of curves and swoops but they are really just based on the motion of my hand. What is important is not that they mean anything literal but that they could be a vessel for holding meaning. Just like writing is. Sometimes the cup is more important than what is inside the cup.

I'm still trying to remember that topic but my remembery (a word I stole from the Family Circus) isn't working. It had something to do with something. That much I am sure about.

One thing I do remember is that I like my devil to be the Prince of Lies. I watched a movie the other night and the devil showed up in it. I don't like it when most movies or comics use the devil as a character because he usually lets me down. He gets messed up by because they humanize him and give him some vague sense of honor. In the movie the devil has the hero's soul and then lets him go for no good reason. The devil is supposed to be deceitful and trick you out of your soul. You are supposed to think that you have won but then the twist comes and you have lost and when he has you he has you for good. That is what makes him the devil. I know that in the movies the hero has to win but the devil shouldn't just let him win. Out of character.

Do you know that you can't buy a good french curve anymore? They are all crappy with burrs on their curves. I think computers killed the french curve market. Maybe they still make them in France. Have you noticed that France is the only country you are allowed to be bigoted about? Turn on the TV and you will hear every bad thing said about the French that would never be said about any other ethnic group. How did that happen?

My favorite quote I have discovered recently is by René Magritte the Surrealist painter. I read it in a magazine called "The Sun" which I have subscribed to for years and has a section of quotes on its last page. It goes, "The mind loves the unknown. It loves images whose meaning is unknown, since the meaning of the mind itself is unknown". I love images of the unknown and I make images of the unknown so how could I not like that quote. The mind looks for meaning and will try to find it if it is there or not.

And that's my story for tonight.

Comics I got this week 4/7/06

Another week and another batch of comics. Jonah Hex #6, Planetary #25, Ex Machina #19, and The Winter Men #4 are this week's haul. The first three are regulars and The Winter Men is a mini from Wildstorm by Bret Lewis and John Paul Leon. It is a story about law enforcement starring a Russian cop and it is filled with mobsters, feds, ex KGB guys and every other cold war left over. I've been enjoying it. This is the first issue in a while so let's see if it gets finished. I hope so.
I also like last week's "Red Prophet" comic. It takes place in North America around the early 1800s (I think) but is an alternate history where the European settlers don't dominate as much as our world. They are a strong presence and I don't know what the world is all about yet but I added it to my pull list. Good show.

The Secret of What?

Do you know what my greatest fantasy is? To learn the secret of life. I know there really is no secret to life but I still want to learn it. I'm dedicated alright.

I have to think the best place to learn the secret of life is in books. There are plenty of books that claim to have the secret of life such as religious and self help books but these don't interest me. It is a secret, after all, so why would it be in a book that millions of people have read? No, it has to be in an obscure book tucked away in some dusty old room. This is why I like the movie "The Ninth Gate". No one else I know likes it but the movie is about Johnny Depp searching through rare books for the secret of life. Johhny's secret of life involves proving the devil exists which really doesn't interest me but the search does. He just keeps looking and looking...

Mostly I read books on history and biography. I think that if the secret of life exists these are the type of books it would be in. Maybe some person in the past discovered it and the secret can be gleaned from the story of his life. Or it might be found in some great past event that if looked at in just the right light would reveal everything. Usually the events and people are interesting enough on their own to make good subjects for books but in the back of my mind I'm always on the lookout for that secret.

The other good place to try and find the secret of life is in documentaries. I had one on as I was drawing today about Nixon and Watergate. No secret of life was revealed to me but somewhere in that scandalous mess it might be hiding. HBO and PBS usually have good docs about life in this old world of ours and somewhere in all of those millions of feet of film there must be some peek at life's secret. There has to be. The odds say so. A million monkeys and all.

The other type of documentary is the cable TV "In Search Of" type. I hesitate to call them documentaries because they really don't document anything other than speculations about if aliens are among us and such but I don't think there is another name for them. I don't really care for the alien ones but the history based ones can be entertaining. Henry Lincoln's "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" docs from the BBC come to mind. They are from the 70's and cover a lot of the ground that "The DaVinci Code" walks on. The Knights Templar, secret societies, lost royal blood lines, secret treasures and all that fun stuff are in Lincoln's three docs. The only reason to have a secret society is to guard secrets so it is a natural place to look.

All of these pseudo-docs claim to have a lot of "hidden truths". So one of them could have the secret of life. Right? Because if Nikola Tesla didn't have it than who did? Rasputin maybe? Unfortunately none of these shows actually reveal any secrets. Though they do make up plenty of stuff that the next show can quote.

Anything about Atlantis is cool too. Those Atlanteans knew all kinds of stuff. It makes me wonder why Aquaman is so damn boring.

Paintings can help in the search. I'm sure there is something in van Gogh's work that I just have to nail down. Just look at it. He saw the world in a way that no one else did. I also think I can almost see the secret of life when I look at an Ad Reinhardt composition in black.

Whenever I dream of learning the secret of life I am inevitably drawn to a Tom T. Hall song that I heard in my childhood. In it the singer is asking an old man about the secret of life.

"I knew I had to ask him about the mysteries of life he spit between his boots and he replied:
It’s faster horses, younger women, older whiskey, and more money" -Tom T Hall "Faster Horses"