With the encouragement of my friends, I have finally given into the impulse to become a public menace and share my comics opinions and ridiculously detailed deep dives on niche details on a public platform! I may also occasionally liveblog comics, and I love answering questions and exploring what-ifs. I primarily read DC comics, with particularly detailed knowledge in the Flash and Teen Titans titles, and like any respectable comics fan (a joke; I promise) I’m very familiar with Batman and have Strong Opinions. I’m also familiar with particular characters and weird pockets of canon across many eras!
Just because I can’t claim any particular expertise on Marvel comics, don’t think I will claim ignorance either! I love having opinions and will almost certainly end up making very confident under-informed statements, but I’m almost always open to reading things, though I make no promise on reading speed.
I can’t promise consistent tagging, though I will do my best to organize things I also have ADHD and am very forgetful.
All that said: Welcome! I hope you enjoy your visit! Please feel free to ask me questions, make suggestions of comics to read or liveblog, or encourage a rant or ramble!
Hi sorry this post has been niggling at me for the last half hour. Because it annoyed me, in a loving way. I laughed and said so true and went to move on with my day, and then I got hit with a wave of “hang on a minute….”
It’s an unfortunate attitude I run into a lot and if someone said “the worst part about reading comics is reading comics” on my post expressing the ways the fandom telephone about the comics causes problems in my fandom engagement because now I see how much is just collectively made up I would go red lantern.
Now is this fair of me? Probably not. I myself have made jokes about how reading comics can be unpleasant or intimidating sometimes. But after the first “oh so true” I turned around to “WAIT HANG ON. DON’T JUST AGREE TO THAT WHEN IT CAN BE TAKEN OUT OF CONTEXT BY NON-COMICS READERS!”
It just bugs me because… does it make sense to you, oh reader getting flashbanged by a wall of text, if I say I wish people would stop acting like a specific branch of source material you want to engage with is a fun tax or a chore you have to do to play with the characters? Like the medium of comics itself is somehow especially egregious to deal with.
On one level it frustrates me because of the imprecision, because comics as a medium are so much bigger than Marvel and DC superhero comics. And I myself am guilty of conflating them as if they’re the whole thing, but they aren’t. Webcomics are comics! Maus and Persepolis are comics! There are Power Rangers comics and Transformers comics and romance comics! It’s so much more than just DC and Marvel’s Superhero Stories!
On the second, wordier level… If someone likes the characters of a specific IP and the genre of superheroes but not the medium of comics, that’s fine. There’s hundreds of adaptations into other mediums that give you other versions of the toys to play with! Movies, video games, cartoons, literal novels sometimes, podcasts, radio shows… if you don’t like the comics you don’t HAVE to read them if you want to understand the characters!!
Like… a lot of the times when I say “reading comics is the worst part of reading comics”, I typically mean I’m on some kind of 7 title odyssey hunting down the various titles and issues for an event, or I’m reading something that’s especially frustratingly written or egregiously sexist or racist (even when calibrated for the almost 100-year publication span.) But I’m generally still having fun! Because I like reading comics!
The disconnect comes up I think because the comics and the superheroes are so closely tied in people’s minds. I’m perfectly fine with it if you like Batman or Spider-Man or the X-Men or Superman and you’ve never read a single comic in your life outside newspaper strips! Have fun, make all the fan content and headcanons and everything you could ever want because you just loved the guy in the movie and cartoon. My frustration, personally, comes in when it’s treated as if the comics are a medium you can understand without engaging with them directly, and in fact there’s no need for you to read them yourself to form opinions on them. They’re inconsistent and bad and poorly written and the only good thing they provided was The Character.
I’m just saying. Maybe try them out and see if you like them before you write them off.
On July 2, 1863, Colonel Joshua Chamberlain lead his men of the 20th Maine on a bayonet charge down the slopes of little round top, during the battle of Gettysburg. He would later be awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions that day.
This clip, from the movie Gettysburg, depicts the epic moment in history. It's one of the best, if not the best scene in the movie.
As a born Maine I am now required by state law to tell the story in full.
Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain (always referred to by all 3 names) was born in 1828 in Maine.
He taught himself Greek to get into Bowdoin College, the great love of his life. He'd teach at Bowdoin till the outbreak of the Civil War, unlike many at the college he was an enthusiastic supporter of the Union cause and itched to enter the war, asking the President of Bowdoin for a leave from his job. "I fear, this war, so costly of blood and treasure, will not cease until men of the North are willing to leave good positions, and sacrifice the dearest personal interests, to rescue our country from desolation, and defend the national existence against treachery."
He didn't tell his family he enlisted, to the outrage of his wife who never really forgave him. He was offered the colonelcy of the 20th Maine, as a college educated man, but he turned it down feeling he was not experienced enough, becoming its lieutenant colonel instead.
Chamberlain was promoted to Colonel in June 1863, just before the battle of Gettysburg.
On the second day of Gettysburg Chamberlain and the 20th Maine were assigned to the far left of the Union lines for the battle that would make them famous.
If Union troops could not hold the hill called Little Round Top, rebel forces would encircle and destroy the Army of the Potomac, Washington DC would lay open to Lee's forces, the Union would lose the war.
The Mainers were placed at the far left edge of the line, they were the end of the Union line, if the Confederates could turn them, push them back so the line bent, Little Round Top would fall, the line would fall, the Union would fall.
in the brutal July heat the 20th Maine led by Chamberlain faced a Confederate force twice their size. Time and time again the rebel troops of the 15th Alabama came roaring up the hill, and time and again The Maine threw them back. It's not now known what the famous "Rebel Yell" actually sounded like, though everyone agreed it sounded utterly inhuman. I can only imagine looking down the hill through the trees and hearing it knowing yet another charge from an overwhelming enemy was coming.
The Maine was outmanned, its line a single line of men, and it was running out of ammo. Chamberlain had desperately requested more reinforcements and ammunition. None was coming he was told to hold the line.
The fate of the Union, of freedom over slavery, hung on what a bookish but brave college professor from Maine decided to do next. Out of bullets with the 15th Alabama massing below them for yet another charge that would have surely broken the 20th Maine if they'd stood and fought. He ordered "fix bayonets" and charged down the Hill
can you imagine looking up the hill and seeing the wrath of god coming charging down at you? The Alabamians still outnumbered the Mainers, and they had bullets but the sheer terror of the charging Maine caused them to break and run. Chamberlain was injured in the charge which he did lead from the front, a rebel officer tried to shoot him with a revolver but Chamberlain put his sword to the man's neck and took his pistol which is still in the Maine State Museum to this day.
Chamberlain more than earned a place in history but he wasn't done. Almost a year after Gettysburg at the Battle of Petersburg he was hideously injured. Shot through the right hip and out from the left Chamberlain true to form drew his sword and stabbed into the dirt to hold himself upright in the middle of the battle to rally his men. He held himself up this way till be passed out from blood loss.
He was not expected to live, the papers in Maine wrongly reported his death, General Grant gave him a battlefield promotion to brigadier general. But Chamberlain showed his iron will and did not die on the field at Petersburg, and returned to command. However he never really recovered from the injury.
He returned to active duty by the end of 1864, and it is Chamberlain who meets the Confederates under a white flag outside of Appomattox and learns that General Lee wished to surrender the Army of Northern Virginia. And to Chamberlain General Grant gives the honor to receive the surrender of the Confederate arms
Chamberlain after the war was elected Maine's governor 4 times (though each term was only a year long, what a pain). In 1880 violence broke out over who had been elected governor in the state and group of armed men took over the state capital. Chamberlain, retired from the governorship for over 10 years was summoned and quickly sent the men packing. Both sides of the dispute tried to bribe Chamberlain into declaring them the winner, he refused, and when a mob came to the state capital threatening to kill him, he came out to meet them, unafraid as always. His refusal to support either side over the law was the end of his political life in Maine.
His injury from the war caused him pain for the rest of his life, if you visit his home you'll see nearly every room is fitted with brass rails for him to hang onto when he felt unwell, which was often. Despite his worsening health in old age Chamberlain threw himself into the Grand Army of the Republic, the Civil War veteran's association, he was given the Medal of Honor 30 years after Little Round Top for his "Daring heroism and great tenacity"
In 1914, 50 years after being shot at Petersburg, and years of ill health at the age of 85, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain died in Portland Maine. One of the doctors at his side had been his doctor at Petersburg. Chamberlain it was declared died of the bullet wound he received at Petersburg, 50 years earlier, making him, 49 years after the war ended, the last combat casualty of the Civil War.
I collected comics from 2014-2021 or so, and I'm now looking to sell off most of my collection. While I'm not going to sell everything, I'm selling off about 80%-90% of what I've got, and that's looking like over 1000 comics.
I'm posting these to eBay (along with, most likely, some other items I decide to sell off from my closet or bookshelf), and while I could wait for the comics collectors of eBay to find those organically, I figured I could jumpstart a bit by letting tumblr know as well.
Here's my new eBay store
The biggest portions of the collection to be sold are Iron Man, Ms Marvel (Kamala), Spider-Man (Miles), and Jane!Thor titles, but there are various others, some of which have already been listed. The vast majority is Marvel, but I do have some Image, Dark Horse, DC, and Aftershock in there.
I'm listing pretty slowly, as I'm not even done cataloguing it all yet, but I've started with a couple of the shorter series so far. Most of it is in very fine condition and sold at or just below original cover price, but there's a few gems in there too.
SO! It's July, which is disability pride month here in the United States where I live! I figured it would be appropriate to kick things off by talking about a character who has a mixed reputation, to say the least: Guy Gardner, Green Lantern. He's been around since the Silver Age of comics, and his characterization has been through some serious ups and downs over the years! But what if I told you that it's not inconsistent writing? What if I told you there is a lens with which to view his shifting behavioral patterns and at times abrasive and offensive personality that makes it all come into focus and make perfect sense, and it's all already there on the page? I'm here to give you that lens, and it's viewing Guy Gardner as a man who has suffered multiple traumatic brain injuries and managed to heal over time. Buckle up, this is probably going to be a long one, and it's pretty image heavy as I try to back up as much as I am claiming that I can.
So the first thing I will start with is establishing Guy's former baseline. This is not the post where I will go incredibly in-depth on Guy's full family history and his education, I'll save that for another time.
Here, I simply aim to sum up.
Guy Gardner met Hal Jordan for the first time in the 1991 title Green Lantern: Emerald Dawn, a volume that served as an updated backstory for the Silver Age hero after Crisis on Infinite Earths. Hal was in prison to serve a 90 day sentence for drunk driving. Guy Gardner was Hal Jordan's caseworker.
"What? Huh? That's Guy Gardner?" You, the hypothetical reader ask. What happened to him?!
A lot. A lot happened to him, and it took him from a man who gave the advice to "Use your rage! Don't let it use you!" to a man who is known as the rude angry ginger lantern.
First off, he got hit by a bus. No, I'm not being metaphorical or making a joke. See, he quit his job as a prison case worker because he didn't like how the job made him feel, especially after he was caught up in a prison riot and threatened with death at the hands of a prisoner there. So he put his second degree to use and he became a teacher. Specifically, he became a physical education teacher for disabled children.And then there was an earthquake, and he was hit by a bus while attempting to rescue one of the students on a field trip he was running, nearly dying in the process.
Now, I will say: he got better. This time. See, no sooner had he recovered from this incident, as he was filling in for Hal as Green Lantern he was exploded in the line of duty and sent to a parallel dimension. In that parallel dimension he was tortured, and Sinestro used a dangerous and severe form of mind control that, when it was finally broken, left Guy... well, the comics call him comatose, but he is conscious, he is just not responsive to the environment around him or able to care for himself.
For years, he remained in this state, with his care at a top-notch hospital paid for by fellow superheros. And then, during the Crisis on Infinite Earths event, a miracle happened. Guy regained consciousness.
But the Guy who came out of that vegetative state wasn't the same man who fell into it. Or at least, not exactly. He was angrier. His fuse was shorter. Perhaps most upsetting of all, one of the first actions he took upon regaining consciousness was attempted grave robbery.
"Gelpens, what the fuck," you ask me. I know. It's a lot. Bear with me here. See, he didn't wake up on his own. The Guardians of Oa woke him up, using their tremendous cosmic powers to attempt to heal his brain damage so they could deploy him to help during the Crisis.
Sure, Guy got his strength back. He was able to function as a Green Lantern. But he still wasn't the same as he was before his coma. He stayed angry, and confrontational, and was frequently known to make inappropriate comments that failed to fit the setting he was in or the bounds of good taste. He had a constant chip on his shoulder, very different from the man who was concerned about controlling his anger so it couldn't use him.
This all came to a head in a series of events that is frankly infamous in comics circles. Almost every fan I know of who knows Guy Gardner knows about the time Batman got fed up with his confrontational rude attitude and laid him out with a single punch to the face.
The thing people don't remember about that punch is that, seeing as it was the 90s, and comics writers had learned a few things about the brain, they decided to use it to make... let's call it a running joke. See, after Guy regained consciousness, he was much more like the guy he was before all that head trauma. He was polite, cared about being a team player and not trying to prove himself, he didn't go for lethal force!
Of course, this didn't last. No, the whole 'joke' here was that Batman punched him hard enough to rattle his brain, and he would occasionally jump from being a sweet, friendly team player to, in the words of the narration box the first time he got hit on the head again, his new old "thoroughly rotten" self (I know).
Slowly but surely though, Guy did get better, and start to stay better. His mood stabilized, he gained more self-control, he started making better plans and he was much less angry as a default. And it's kept going! This train keeps chugging along! He isn't so angry anymore! He has it under control!
And honestly? This moment, right here? This is the crowning jewel in my thesis, I think.
Guy has a Red Lantern ring and a Star Sapphire ring. For those of you less familiar with the extended Green Lantern lore, the Red Lanterns run off rage. The Star Sapphires are powered by love. Outside of willpower, the emotions that are the most powerful within him are his rage and anger, and his love for his friends. And what does he fuel them with, when it comes down to the wire? When willpower alone isn't enough?
The thing he hates most is being filled with rage. The thing he loves the most is his friends.
So. I don't think Guy was ever just an angry, sexist, rude asshole at his core. Is he the same as he was before the injury, before all that happened to him? Of course not. Nobody goes through life completely unchanged by what happens to them.
I think he injured his brain and lost his ability to regulate his emotions and impulses for a while. The road to recovery was far from smooth. It just took him some time to heal and be in a place to act like the man he wanted to be all along. But in my opinion? I think he's there now.
