Understanding Those @?#$%! Comics

. . and me in the process.

Understanding Those @?#$%! Comics

er

Comix

"I got this camera click click clickin in my head . . " from the song I'm Not Angry by Elvis Costello 1977

I'm still angry.

But hey then, just as now

I had comics. And this was a way I could blow off some steam, observe new or hidden worlds, fall captive to strange sexy beings and most of all . .

become completely enchanted by New Art.

Bold Art

Brave Art

Absurd Art

Weird Art

Hm. Especially the weird art. Cuz what more could a lil LA artist kid, born in Santa Monica mostly as an only child to a mostly single parent mom, growing up in Palms/West LA/Culver City/Mar Vista/Venice/U Name It, ask for?

Well. He could ask for A LOT more and or want more AND need more, hence the angry part.

But there were comics. And they were fun, weird, strange, perplexing, elegant, sophisticated, brutal, vexing, hilarious, dumb and bursting with might, muscles, brains, hot bodies, sexual tension and sexual tension.

the visceral sensual tension of the possibility of New Worlds. New Forms. New Space and Relatedness. Relatingness.

Beingness.

Oh there was horror too. And humour. And violence. And tenderness. And freakiness. And otherness. And . .

resolution

some kind of resolution or solution or an answer to some problem or conflict, some happy (for now) ending to be continued same Bat Time, same Bat Whatever and at 25¢ 35¢ 50¢ 60¢ 75¢ $1 $1.25 Prestige limited series format $2.99 $4.99 uh Only! . .

resolution came a callin'

burstin off the pages in full flamin colour!

and I listened. and read. and bought. and stole (for a spell, sorry 7-11)

then I reread. then collected. then organized. then reorganized. then fussed over some more. then discovered my favorite artists. then obsessed. then fanboy'd. then geeked out. then felt a secret thrill over my secret thrills cuz really this has got to be the best secret thrill among secret thrills, tho I wouldn't really know that unless we actually shared our secret thrills, which would completely cancel out the secret part then where would I be?

no secret thrill.

no resolution.

just me.

So hey. Here I am in 2025, joined at the cell, er, my cell (prison allusion noted. em, shouldn't we all be angry?) and now joining a Book Club (first time!), online and #indieweb as it is.

Here^, and uh since I don't know how to do this, I'll jus do jus by doing this, bookclubbing it, as it were, and plan on not having a plan and jus wing it with a miscellany-ai of thots, feelings, reflections, digressions, regressions, aggressions, art, comics, comix, curious detours n détournement as I read thee indieweb book clubbers' book Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud 1993.

All messy intuitive artful n raw, and aww heck, as livebloggy as I care to be.

impressionistic

comixfuzzztastic

oh and hey! it occured to me while writing this that I'm sharing some things with our bookclubby thing (and whoever happens to read this). deep things. silly things. personal things.

I'm sharing some of my secret thrills.

which may mean that over the years and through whatever personal work I've done, whatever inner work, light dark n medium hued . . may have healed me a little. may have escorted me beyond or through an intense need for resolution. which is good.

and I'm reminded of how my art practice and writing and curatorial work n interdisciplinary work have all been central and key sites and actions to explore and process a lot of unresolved stuff. my art, my joy and attraction to other's art, such as the ones we're exploring n sharing with the bookclub group and beyond, have all been there for me. for fun . . and for healing.

so yeah. I'm reading about the origins of comics in this fun n bold book and feelin thinkin about my origins with comics and the origins of me.

those @?#$%! comics!

^Here on my tulips dot pckt dot blog, I'll share my #indieweb book club sshtuff with the comix tag. AND on my lilindie64 dot neocities dot org I'll share mostly the same written stuff but with some variable artworks and perhaps some additional notes thots whatever as the mood strikes. Check'm both out!

Big Howdy! to our comics curious #indieweb Book Club and passersby. I'm excited to read your shares.

Page 17 and it's an awesome book!

See ya soon!