Day 156

Aka Thursday 6 July 2017.

Still feeling unwell and panicy-attacky when I go out, so I started taking my betahistine prescription again. Maybe how I was feeling before wasn’t due to the betahistine, but was due to something else and it just coincided with when I was taking my prescription. We’ll see in a few days’ time.

But it’s given me time to read:

The Amazing Adventures Of Phoenix Jones – I finished Jon Ronson’s story/reportage of real life superheroes (who operate in the US). Jon Ronson is really good at revealing people’s humanity/emotional core and describing odd/bizarre situations without making fun of people, which would be very easy with real life superheroes (although he does poke gentle fun at himself).

Giant Days #28 – Giant Day’s is probably my favourite comic currently being published (defo in my top five).  

John Allison, Max Sarin, Liz Fleming, Whitney Cogar and Jim Campbell are at the top of their game, producing issue after issue of delightful stories, with lots of heart, pathos, fun and jokes:

This issue is mostly set late at night and the art does an excellent job of showing the woozyish feeling of being awake, but overly tired:

In summary, Giant Days is very highly recommended.

Rock Candy Mountain #4 – is probably my favourite comic currently being published (defo in my top five) and this is the conclusion of the first story arc. Kyle Starks and Chris Schweizer have produced a great story that, like Giant Days, packs in fun, jokes, one-liners, heart and pathos:

After Jackson fights an entire prison (!!!!!), this arc ends with our heroes left shaken and separated, setting us up nicely for the next arc, I think my favourite part of this issue is the ad for the next issue, as excellent as this issue was issue 5 looks like it’s going to be action and emotion packed:

Like Giant Days, Rock Candy Mountain is very highly recommended.

Jupiter’s Legacy 2 #5 – is the “series climax of epic superhero saga”, but given that the first issue was published in April 2013, it’s a bit hard to remember what happened in previous issues and who everyone is. I’m sure it’ll read fine when read as one collection, but as a single issue it felt weak and empty. While there’s plenty of one liners setting out the “epicness” of the story, it feels like a five-page epilogue/coda, which had been stretched out into a whole issue. Also, some of the art feels a bit rushed and unfinished and a part of me was left feeling like “I waited months and months and paid good money for very few roses” (roses is a reference to nineties, when artist would explain way delays as they were "growing roses", which takes time).

Snotgirl #6 – Bryan Lee O’Malley, Leslie Hung and Rachael Cohen have created an enjoyable and relatable story about fashion bloggers, which (I think) at its heart is about difference between how we feel inside and how we present ourselves to the outside world. This issue is the start of a new arc and is a good jumping on point, as the story sums up where we have been, lays seeds for future stories/mystery and has plenty of jokes/one-liners. I also really the transition between Lottie waking up and ready to go out (the “god…damn” transition), so simple, but full of meaning and character.

Batman/The Shadow #3 – does a good job of explaining the motivations of the characters and setting up the big conclusion/boss-battle ending, while dropping little titbits, e.g. The Batman is an (unknowing) apprentice of The Shadow, which nod toward the real world history of the characters and how The Shadow is a forerunner of The Batman. 

Redline #5 – this concludes the story and although the story is set in the future on Mars, it does feel like one of the great noir stories, like Chinatown or The Big Sleep (or any Raymond Chandler story) or The Maltese Falcon, where just because the hero solves the mystery, it doesn’t mean that he gets a happy ending. I particularly like the sequence where Coyle solves the mystery, is shocked by it and resolves to do something about, even though it most likely will leave him worse off.

I also watched some more Hawaii 5-O (which is making me nostalgic for Lost, in part because it features actors who were in Lost, e.g. Daniel Dae Kim and Jorge Garcia, and the landscape, every time they go into the jungle I expect them to bump into Jack, Locke, Kate and the others!), an old Robert Newman set (Resistance is Fertile) and, because I’ve been reading the Psychocandy biography, Upside Down: The Creation Records Story, a great documentary about Creation Records. If you were young or young at heart during the eighties and nineties Creation Records made your life better (or gave you a target to vent at!), by championing and promoting bands and music (and a lifestyle/attitude) that would have been ignored by the mainstream record companies. They showed that if you had faith in people/bands with an artistic version, they would produce work that mattered and they gave a voice to lots of people who, normally, wouldn’t have had one.