Oh Boy, The Holy Grail

As I was working today I had on the TV as I often do. I was listening to a program on the Holy Grail. As "In Search Of" type shows go the Holy Grail is not one of the topics that I find very interesting. The cup from the last supper wasn't even thought about until 1000 years after it was supposedly used so the "history" of it is relatively new. There is no real history there except the history of people getting interested in the Holy Grail. Then a funny thing happened. As I was listening to the TV they said the passage from the bible that mentions the cup.

King James Version Luke 22:21: "In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you."

The handy old internet found me that quote because my ability to quote the Bible is limited. You gotta dig the internet.

That quote is part of the Catholic mass so I heard it every week for the first eighteen years of my life but hearing it in the context of this Holy Grail show put a new thought into my head. The thought was, "Man, those Holy Grail seekers are crazy".

I know faith can do funny things to people and has a dark side that is rarely mentioned i.e a lot of people throughout history have been willing to lie, cheat, steal and kill in order to "prove" their faith to themselves and others but I perceived a different type of craziness.

The last supper scene in the Bible is really the ultimate scene. The "new covenant" that Jesus mentions is the whole point of the New Testament. The crucifixion is great theatre and the part that gets all the play but it was really just the price to be paid for the new covenant. Without the new covenant the crucifixion is pointless. The old deal of "No one gets into heaven because Adam and Eve screwed everything up" was over and the new deal of "Follow my lead and you can get into heaven" was born. That is the overall message of Jesus which he delivers at the last supper and what do some people want? The cup.

Why not the chair Jesus sat on? Or his plate? Or his napkin? I'm sure Jesus didn't just use his sleeve; so find me that napkin! Is it because a cup was actually mentioned that it caught people's attention? Somebody tell them that the cup is a metaphor. It is no more important than Jesus's spoon.

I just don't get it. Jesus gets up and delivers the ultimate speech of his career letting everybody in on the point of his story and all some people can say is, "Ain't that a nice piece of silver he's holding". Or maybe they are just out to prove their faith. At least they're not killing anyone to do it.

Comics I bought May 26 2006

I only bought one regular comic this week: Strangers in Paradise 82. Only 8 issues left until the end of the series.

I also picked up two first issues: Death Comes to Dillinger 1, which looks like a horror western and Wyrms 1, another Orson Scott Card novel adaptation which looks like a fantasy comic.

Additionally I bought Following Cerebus 8. Being a Cerebus fan I picked up Following Cerebus 1 a year so ago. It was all text and had essays and general writing about Cerebus and I didn't find it very interesting. I picked number 8 of of the shelf and it has a few pages of comics and the rest is essays but it looks more interesting. The topics seem to be comics in general rather than just Cerebus. I'll let you know how the new ones are.

I liked Fell 5 from last week and will be picking up some more issues. It is good Warren Ellis.

Who Doesn't Like a Nap?

I may be a grown-up but I am no stranger to taking naps. Some days I'm just tired and need to lay myself down on the couch for a little while. I've taken many a nap on the bus ride into NYC both before and after a work day.

A normal nap for me is half an hour to forty five minutes and I usually have the TV on while I nap. Yet I never have the TV on or play music when I go to sleep for the night. Naps and a night's sleep are just two different things.

I usually wake up refreshed and ready to go when I get up from a nap. But today I had one of those naps that sneaks up on a person. The kind it is tough to get up from. The kind where I didn't even know I was so tired.

I had finished eating lunch and was getting back to working on a drawing when I felt like lying down for a bit. I channel surfed and found something to sleep to then lay my head down. An hour went by in an instant and I woke in a total fog of barely perceived reality. I crashed on the couch for another hour dozing in and out of consciousness. I just couldn't get up. I was a lot more tired than I ever thought I was. It was a true power nap though it was the nap that had the power.

Napping on the bus is a totally different story. It is the most unrefreshing nap there is. A lot of times it is a total necessity because I have to get up early to catch the bus and there is never enough time to sleep on those days. Coming home I have boarded the bus at the Port Authority bus station and have been asleep before it even leaves the terminal. The problem with bus naps is that most of the time I will wake up feeling more tired than before. It can be a deep sleep but not a very restful one. Of course not sleeping can be even worse. The morning bus nap is usually better than the evening bus nap but not always. It can be especially weird when waking up briefly in the middle of a bus nap and not knowing if I am coming or going. Scary stuff if you think your day is ending and it is really just beginning but a relief the other way around. Busses can just be evil and that is all there is to it. We need more trains. I find them more comfortable. Well, maybe not the NYC subway.

The most disorienting kind of nap is the winter evening kind. Those are the ones where I go to sleep when is light out and awake in the dark. I wake up and don't even know if it is 7 PM or 3 AM. It totally messes with my body clock and I won't be able to fall asleep at any reasonable hour after that. I haven't experienced one of those naps in a long time because I refuse to take a late evening nap anymore. Even in the summer. If I am so tired that I can't get anything done I'll just sit there and wait for bedtime. At least the next day I'll wake up refreshed. Sometimes you have to sacrifice today for tomorrow's sake.

When I nap I lie down on the couch and have the TV on. Most often I choose the History Channel or some such station that shows documentaries. Docs have an even tone and no loud music or explosions to wake me up. Preferably it is also a program that I have seen before so I won't be too interested in it. But sometimes I need something special. A few weeks ago I came home in the afternoon absolutely tired. I needed a nap but I was a little wired and couldn't settle down. Being tired and wired sucks but that is an observation for a future blog. Anyway, the usual TV shows were no help because I couldn't concentrate enough to settle down and the commercials were just winding me up. I find commercials annoying and couldn't focus enough to ignore them. So I had to put a movie on. I don't usually nap to movies because my brain will try to follow the story instead of sleeping but with certain movies napping is a necessary defense mechanism. I put on Aeon Flux with Charlize Theron. It worked perfectly. Try to stay awake during that one. I dare you. The story isn't worth following even when alert so I was able to settle down and take a nice nap. So you see, bad movies are good for something.

Comics I Bought This Week May 19, 2006

A pretty good week for me at the comic shop. I bought five comics, Jack Staff 10, Conan 28, Rex Mundi 18, Fear Agent 4, and Fell 5. The first three are regulars and I have read one other issue of Fear Agent. Fell is new to me but I have heard good things about it. It is a Warren Ellis book and I find he runs hot and cold so I'll let you know what I think.

Strange Girl from two weeks a go gets a reluctant thumbs down from me. I bought issues seven and eight. Seven was a fill in story and I liked it. The art was good and the story okay. Issue eight was the third part of a continuing story and, once again, the art was good (a different artist than seven) but the story left me cold. Strange Girl was in the middle of a big battle and not a very interesting one at that. Next issue the original artist of the series (not either of the ones who drew seven or eight) comes back and I'm not fond of his work so I won't be buying anymore Strange Girl. Neither issue was bad so I am reluctant to give it a bad review.

Magician: Apprentice 1 from last week also gets a thumbs down. It also wasn't really bad but magician's apprentice stuff has been done to death and the first issue had nothing in it to make it stand out to me.

No Such Luck

I still have not joined the Illuminati. Can you believe it? I'm beginning to despair that I ever will. These world dominating secret societies are a hard nut to crack especially if you don't know where they hang out. It could be anywhere but according to some it is Bohemian Grove in California. At least they have a party there once a year. I figure if there are internet sites devoted to it they are not the real Illuminati. The real Illuminati are way to clever for that. I bet they have their meeting in the house of a guy who is trying to sneak into Bohemian Grove. The crasher sneaks off to California and the Illuminati raid his fridge, dip his toothbrush in the toilet and have a good laugh at the crasher's expense. That's how I'd do it.

I know what I need. Some positive visualization. When I close my eyes I have to picture myself as a member of the Illuminati. I see myself at a country estate, no, scratch that, I'm in a sky scraper somewhere in Manhattan. I'm in a large room with no windows because we don't want anyone looking in. The room is furnished with a bunch of antiques and no modern equipment because this is the room where my fellow Illuminati members and I decide the fate of millions and we do it old school. No phones, no faxes and no pesky listening devices to blow our cover. I bet we even have an EMP generator to foil all electronics. I think there would be secret entrances and exits to the building so no one would be able to tell who we are. Not just dark tinted limos but secret tunnels.

Only men would be in the room because who has ever heard of a coed secret society? Someone would shoot their mouth of if there was a divorce. I can hear it now, "What do you mean you get to keep the secret society? I went way more often so I get to keep it". That would only end with one party spilling the beans out of spite, "Now neither of us has a secret society. So there." The only kind of coed secret society has to be a sex club á la "Eyes Wide Shut". I'm sure as a member of the Illuminati I wouldn't need to join a sex club because I could just snap my fingers and have women sent up to my hotel room. The Illuminati must spend a lot of time in fancy hotels. I'm not sure why but I think ruling the world involves a fair bit of traveling. Only one or two Illuminati would stay home all the time and rule from home base. I'd be hands on. You have to travel the world to rule it. I'd stay in only the best hotels where only the best concierges would tend to my every want. I wouldn't really trust them, of course. We Illuminati know the difference between insiders and outsiders.

If I joined the Illuminati, pardon me, when I join the Illuminati (positive visualization) I'll probably learn to smoke cigars too. A real secret society atmosphere is created by cigar smoke. If I entered some random room and it smelled of cigars, the good kind not the stinky kind, I'd wonder what kind of meeting went on in there. Of course no stranger would wander by our meeting room ever because it would be reserved just for our meetings. So you will never know that I learned to smoke cigars.

I'm sure that ruling the world through a secret society won't be easy. All of us world rulers have massive egos and maybe some competing interests so there will be arguments and passions should run high. But we would have to settle things peacefully because we can't afford unwanted attention. Ruling the world is tricky business. Hmmm, it sound kind of like organized crime. But we would be above the law and technically not criminals. Nice.

I don't know if any of the Illuminati would ever read this because I don't imagine any of them ever go onto the internet. Why would they? They are all super rich and have their every need handled by a staff of hundreds. I wouldn't go on the internet. I'd just nod my head and things would happen. I wouldn't have to look anything up because I would know everything: who shot JFK, where the aliens landed, what happened to the perpetual motion machine and why the New York Jets always lose.

There would have to be a sense of history among the Illuminati. A sense of, "we've done this before and we'll be doing this forever". Elders would pass down information to the younger guys they are mentoring keeping alive the old victories to inspire new ones. It would all seem so congenial and comforting emphasizing that we all belong to something bigger. Well, not you all, just me and my Illuminati buddies. You all would just be puppets dancing on our strings. If we payed attention to you at all. Bwwa-ha-ha-ha-ha.

Comics I Bought May 12, 2006

Just back from the comic shop and I bought four comics this week.

Jonah Hex #7: This series has been a lot of fun with good art and some nice writing. They have all been one issue stories and that is fine with me because there has been more story than in six issues of most comics.

Ex-Machina #20: A solid series but sometimes the art is distracting. I think it is because the artist uses photo reference for everything. That isn't bad in and of itself but there seems to be a lot of ham acting by his models going on. The characters are constantly making broad gestures with their hands, arms and faces. The series is about an ex-super-hero mayor of NYC so it is mostly about running the city and there is a lot of talking. That means there is barely a panel without a character waving his hands wildly. Someone is going to lose an eye. It is a good series otherwise.

Red Prophet #2: I liked #1 so I bought #2.

Magician: Apprentice #1: By the same company that publishes Red Prophet so I thought I would give it a try. It is adapted from the book by Raymond Feist which I have never read.

Question of the Day #5

Why does life have to seem so long one day and so short the next? Can't time get its act together? I'm tired of this "time is relative" crap. I need some consistency in my universe! If there are no rules at all people will start eating ice cream for breakfast. Madness will ensue.

The Transformation of the Comic Book Cover

For decades the comic book cover held a special place in our society. More of a place than even the comic books themselves I contend. To collectors of original comic book art they are always the most valuable pieces. They still generally are but I think the comic book cover has lost its grip on the imagination of society at large.
A good comic book cover has to have three elements: good drawing, good design and it must tell a story. That third element, the story, is what sets it apart from book covers, movie posters and other bits of illustration to be found in our world. A comic book cover is supposed to catch your eye, intrigue you with the story it tells and make you buy the comic.
The storytelling aspects fit in nicely with art history and harken back to a time when paintings told stories, mainly religious and historical in nature, to a public that was generally illiterate. I think this is why comic book covers always had an impact on society at large even if people never read the comics themselves. People like being told a story by a picture because it has been happening since the days of cave paintings.
Roy Lichtenstein's famous paintings made great use of this because even though he was copying panels from inside of comics he was choosing one image that told a story much like a cover only easier to copy. All of the pop culture stuff, such as greeting cards and TV commercials, that are derived from Lichtenstein's work also copy this element of the picture telling a story. There is usually a woman crying over something since Roy copied a lot of romance comics but it is the storytelling that is essential.
Of the three elements: good drawing, good design and it must tell a story, storytelling is now rarer to find. The reason is that the function of the comic book cover has changed. Back in the day before magazines about comics, before internet sites about comics, and before there were comic shops that got a big publication called Previews from which the customer could order comics in advance, the first time a person saw a comic was on the stands. The cover was there to entice you to buy it. That was its purpose. Not any more.
Now a cover art is "pick up art". Pick up art is when a piece of art is needed for a catalogue or an ad. It doesn't really matter what the art is as long as it is what the ad is selling. So if an ad for a Spider-Man comic is needed you have to get a picture of Spidey. May as well make it the cover of the issue because no one is going to get paid to make a new piece of art just for a catalogue or ad. Comic book covers are now sent out to web sites, magazines and Previews (for comic shops to see) months before the comic is published. Schedules and deadlines being what they are sometimes stories don't come out the exact time they are supposed to. Gradually it was found better to have the cover not reflective of the story inside. Covers became "iconic" which meant that the hero or heros were usually just standing looking "cool". Being that "icon" means "picture" I was always confused by that bit of double talk but the covers could now be more easily used as pick up art for a variety of purposes. There was no story to get in the way.
Covers still matter to some extent. Put an Alex Ross (the premiere cover artist) cover on your comic and you will sell a few more issues but most covers now all look the same and look like afterthought. After all the art has already been used multiple times so it is generally not new to the customer, he has seen it on web sites and the Previews catalogue. The cover doesn't tell a story because that job is now done by hype long before the comic exists.
The artists have also embraced this new paradigm because it is a lot easier to draw a guy just standing there than to draw multiple figures and tell a story. The worst are the guys who have embraced the licensed book cover way of doing things, guys standing there with floating heads around them. Gives me the shakes.
A few genuine craftsmen are still out there plying their trade, Brian Bolland comes to mind, but mostly its dull and lifeless covers. This way of thinking about covers has made it easier for comic book companies to market their comics and keep up with the demand for preview material in our modern information age but the price was to lose the special caché that they once had in our society. Show a non-comics reader a cover from the 60' or 70s and they'll go "ooohh...". Show them on from today and watch the disinterest.

Comics I bought 5/5/06

Another slow week for me at the comic shop (I'm getting tired of writing that). I only got one of my regulars this week: Love and Rockets #16. In an attempt to find a new book to read I purchased two issues of "Strange Girl". Numbers seven and eight and it is published by image. I'll let you know how they are.

Lyric of the Day

Just a brief stop over for my Tom Waits lyric of the day. Sometimes a scrap of lyric gets stuck in my head and I just have to hear the song. This one is from his song "Time".
"Well things are pretty lousy for a calendar girl
The boys just dive right off the cars and splash into the street
And when they're on a roll she pulls a razor from her boot
And a thousand pigeons fall around her feet"