Because Of Course I Have

Over in the Archie Comics corner of the comics universe, a story is underway in which they will be – sort of – killing off the eternal teenager who serves as the publisher’s namesake.
I say “sort of” because it’s happening in just one of the comics they publish, a series entitled Life With Archie, which, inasmuch as there’s any real continuity in Archie comics, is an out of continuity comic.  That’s my understanding, at least: I occasionally read things about Archie Comics, but I don’t actually read any of the comics themselves, and haven’t done so for decades.  The closest I’ve come is reading the utterly fantastic Criminal:  The Last of the Innocent, which, deservedly so, was on all sorts of “best of” lists a few years back.
(Archie tends to be in the news – at least the comics news – frequently, as they’ve done a lot of interesting things lately, such as introducing an enormously popular openly-gay character, launched a horror comic called Afterlife With Archie, with a complementary horror-centric Sabrina the Teenage Witch comic on the way, and apparently* they tagged Girls creator Lena Dunham to write a comic.)
In any case, the upcoming issue featuring the final fate of young Mr. Andrews is going to feature a lot of variant covers by different artists, including this fantastic cover by AH! himself, Adam Hughes.
Earlier today I shot the link above to Scott, which prompted the inevitable question:  Betty or Veronica?
I replied that for years my default answer, without even really thinking about it, was Betty.  Granted, Veronica is rich, and, in theory more physically attractive than Betty (in practice, owing to the general artistic style of Archie Comics, they tend to look the same, just with different hair), and I do tend to prefer dark-haired women to blondes, but Betty wins out largely due to her personality.  She’s more good-natured, less high-strung, and not nearly so high-maintenance.
However, in recent years I’ve found myself drifting a little more towards Team Veronica.  Ultimately, my answer hasn’t changed – it’s still Betty.  However, it’s not as reflexive a response as it once was.
After explaining all of this, I said, “And yes, I have thought about this a lot.”
Because of course I have.
So what has changed over the years to make me less steadfast in my choice?  (By the way, in a perfect world, my answer to the question “Betty or Veronica?” would be “Yes.  And also Midge.  And Josie.  And the Pussycats.  And Sabrina.”)
Scott asked if I’d become a gold digger.  It’s not that, though sure, the money would be appealing.  If anything, it’s just that I’ve become more shallow.
But no, it’s not really that, either.  Despite the fact that I’ve thought about it a lot, I’m not really sure that I know the answer, other than that when I was younger, I was more drawn to the tomboy, girl next door type, but as I’ve gotten older I’ve developed more of an appreciation for the more, for want of a better term, girly types.  At the very least, I can appreciate someone who is very well put-together.
(And yes, this is all horribly objectifying, but we are talking about actual objects, given that neither Betty nor Veronica is a real woman, and to the extent that this is at all applicable to real women, it’s more to do with general archetypes than anything else.  Or something.  And of course it should go without saying that the assumption is that we’re talking about adult versions of Betty and Veronica.)
The other questions that this discussion raised was, beyond the obvious “Because of course I have” response, why have I given this a lot of thought?
As mentioned, I don’t actually read any of the comics, so what brings it to mind?  Well, Betty and Veronica’s floating heads adorn one of the signs on my spinner rack, so that’s probably part of it, but really it’s just a matter of spending a lot of time thinking about all sorts of comic book women.
Comics do, after all, play a big role in who I am, and my interest in them is something of a defining characteristic.  It’s only natural, then, that comic book women have an impact on my thoughts about and interactions with actual women.  I’ve mentioned in other posts about how certain women in comics have had an influence on the kind of women I’m attracted to.
And the fact is that I spend more time thinking about women like Lois Lane, Jinal, Zatanna, Kitty Pryde, and a host of others, but Betty and Veronica find their way into the mix as well.
One of these days I might get around to actually writing up a post exploring just what impact the fictional women listed above have had on my feelings about actual women – at least in terms of what qualities I find attractive – but this isn’t that post.
Mostly I just wanted to get you all to look at that awesome AH! cover, and also share my amusement at my own statement about thinking about this a lot.

*That’s a sarcastic “apparently.”  I’ve got a news app on my phone that, amongst other things, is set to find me articles about comics.  At the time that the Dunhman-penned story was announced, there was a period of several days in which the only results I got – mostly from non-comics news sources – were about Lena Dunham writing an Archie story.

Briefly Noted

In the grand tradition of the medium to which it's dedicated, Comics Alliance has followed in the footsteps of such notable characters as Superman, Barry Allen, Jean Grey, Green Arrow, Hal Jordan, Bucky, Jason Todd, Batman, and Wonder Woman and has returned to life!

RIP, Comics Alliance…

….or better yet, pull a comic book cliché and come back to life.
AOL pulls plug on ComicsAlliance

It’s A Sin

Earlier today on Facebook I shared a link to this Comics Alliance post about a goddamn* Frank Miller Gucci commercial.
Setting aside the totally bizarre notion of Frank Miller directing a Gucci commercial in the first place, it’s actually not a bad commercial, as far as commercials go.  It’s sleek, stylish, and sexy, and is, naturally, reminiscent of the movie adaptation of Miller’s Sin City.
Longtime readers (AKA Scott) may recall that several years ago that movie was one of the things I was looking forward to most in life, and that I was not disappointed.
Since then I’ve been waiting for the sequels, which seemed inevitable at the time, but which have failed to materialize in nearly a decade.
All of that will be changing in October when Miller and Rodriguez finally reunite to make a new Sin City movie, one which will feature adaptations of two of the stories from the comics, and will feature one entirely new story written specifically for the movie.
One of the adapted stories, which will serve as the sort of centerpiece of the movie, is A Dame to Kill For, which is probably my favorite of all of the stories set in Basin City.
Seeing that story adapted is the thing I’ve most wanted to have happen in a sequel.
For much of the time that I’ve been waiting for that to be adapted it’s been my fervent hope that  Scarlett Johansson would be cast for the role of Ava Lake, the story’s titular – Settle down, Beavis; it just means she’s mentioned in the title – dame.
I had hoped that even if it meant that she proved to be unwilling – which seemed likely – to appear sans clothes in the story’s many, many (many) nude scenes, though I had also hoped that she would be willing to do so because, well, because Scarlett Johansson.  Duh.
Given that she worked with Miller in The Spirit, a movie I refuse to dislike regardless of what anyone says about it – so seriously, don’t bother saying anything about it – I had hoped that my hopes were hopefully more hopeful.
More recently, I had come around to thinking that Christina Hendricks would also be a good choice (all of my comments above about the nude scenes, naturally, are just as applicable).
Back when the first movie was in the planning stages, they had considered adapting Dame, and had talked about casting actress Maria Bello in the role.  That was kind of a head-scratcher for me.  Don’t get me wrong; she’s a perfectly attractive woman and a fine actress, but she was, in my less-than humble opinion, not exactly right for the part of Ava.
The same goes for Rachel Weisz, whose name was thrown around a lot after the first movie was made.
Angelina Jolie was also considered a viable option for a time, and while I think she’s more suited for the part of Ava than Bello or Weisz, it just seemed kind of…obvious.
Unfortunately, recent casting announcements have not only dashed my hopes, they’ve taken them out back and shot them in the head, execution-style, as the role of Ava is being played by Eva Green.
…
So I hate to be shallow here, and I don’t want to be mean, but…I just don’t find her to be especially attractive.  Certainly not Ava Lord levels of attractive.  And given that I’ve seen The Dreamers, even if I did find her attractive, the potential for her to be nude onscreen as often as Ava was in the pages of the comic wouldn’t hold that much appeal.
I’m still looking forward to the movie, of course, but I have to admit that it seems pretty likely that I’ll be sitting there thinking, “Really, Dwight?  This is the woman you spent so much time mooning over, and are now willing to throw your life away for?  This is the woman that can completely manipulate every man she meets?”
You can argue that James Bond seemed to be rather fond of her, but I don't know if that's a ringing endorsement, given his obvious sex addiction.
So, yeah.
Still, I will at least be able to see if the new story serves as an example of Miller’s frenzied descent further and further into batshit insane self-parody continuing unabated, because that’s always kind of entertaining to watch, or at least it proves fascinating in a train wreck sort of way.

*Speaking of Miller’s descent into self-parody, this classic (“classic”) panel, from All Star Batman and Robin, serves as the reason I refer to the commercial as a goddamn Frank Miller Gucci commercial:

And this is the goddamn Batmobile and I'm taking you to the goddamn Batcave.

I Am That Heartless Monster

In the most recent installment of the “Ask Chris?” segment, Comics Alliance writer Chris Sims tackles the question of Supergirl.
It’s an interesting piece – if you’re interested in that sort of thing – and I find that it expresses a lot of the same conflicted feelings I have about Kara Zor-El.
In fact, it aligns pretty well with my feelings about a lot of comic book characters, such as Dick Grayson and Tim Drake – though not Jason Todd, because seriously, fuck that guy – and sidekicks in general.
After all, as individual characters, I like both of Batman’s junior partners, and one of my favorite comic book series of all-time – New Teen Titans – wouldn’t have existed without Robin, or any of the other kid sidekicks whose existences, conceptually, I find objectionable.
I may – or may not – address some of those objections at some point in the future, but for now I want to get back to my conflicted feelings about Kara.
This excerpt from the piece by Sims kind of gets at the heart of why I find Kara problematic:

Even if it's just the two of them, Superman is no longer alone. He no longer has to carry that burden alone, which means it's no longer shaping his actions as strongly as it had before. It certainly doesn't take away Superman's desire to protect Earth and its people, but still, it affects that side of his personality, drawing the focus back to Krypton.

Of course, my objection is a little more straightforward – I simply prefer the idea of Superman being the only survivor, without even bothering to get any deeper into what that means for the character.
Kara takes that aspect away, and that bothers me.  (It gets even worse when you add in the citizens of Kandor, the rest of Argo City, the Phantom Zone villains…)
However, as mentioned, in some of her various incarnations, I like Kara herself, even if I don’t like the fact of her existence.
In fact, Kara is at the very center of one of the most heartbreaking scenes in comic book history, and it’s one that gets me every.  Damn.  Time.

From Threshold

But that’s the thing – Kara had her run, and it came to an end.  I don’t feel as much affection for any of the later incarnations of the character that I felt for the one who died in order to make sure that Superman, once again, survived.  Every appearance she made after that – except in the DC Animated Universe, where she wasn't really Kara Zor-El anyway – has taken a little bit away from that ultimate moment.
(I will say that I was entertained by a recent scene in the current Superman series in which Supergirl shows up unannounced at Clark’s door, and a visiting Lois jumps to the mistaken conclusion that Clark is dating some mixed-up young cosplayer.)
It’s worth noting that I have no such objections or mixed feelings about her alternate universe version, Kara Zor-L, AKA Power Girl, because alternate universe, duh.  (Also:  Boobs)
In closing, I want to include one other excerpt from the article by Sims, which provides the title of this post (emphasis mine):

[…](you show me someone who doesn't like Krypto and I will show you a heartless monster)[…]

Jon And I Don’t Get Along Part 9,567

(Getting ready for work the other morning, I decided I should bring the power cord and docking station for the tablet with me to work.)
Me:  I should buy another docking station so that I can have one at home and one at work.
Also Me:  Then fucking do it, tough guy.
Me:  Maybe I will.
Also Me:  Maybe you should.
Me:  Maybe you should kiss my ass.
Also Me:  Maybe I will…after I kick it.

****

(E-mail exchange with the boss)
Boss:  Remember that your weekly accomplishments are due by COB today.
Me:  They were due by COB yesterday, and I already provided mine.
Boss:  Shut up.
Me:  You should set up an Outlook Rule that automatically replies to every e-mail from me with a message telling me to shut up, or calling me an idiot, or both.
Boss:  Good idea.
Me:  Of course, I would actually have to set it up for you.
Boss:  True.

****

I’ve got three weeks of the “Captain America Workout” out of the way, with one more to go.
I don’t think I’ll be beating up any Nazis or taking on Ultron anytime soon, but I have made some substantial, noticeable gains in terms of muscle mass.  My shoulders and chest are visibly larger and more defined, and the scale tells me that I’ve gained nine pounds.
Of course, the scale also tells me that I’ve experienced a 4% increase in body fat, as if to say, “Who are you going to believe?  Me, or your lying eyes?”
Given that losing 45 pounds only represented a 6% decrease in body fat (per the same scale), it seems unlikely that I’ve gone up by almost that much by putting on a fifth of that.  I mean, even if it were nine pounds of fat, which, given the way I look and feel (and the way my clothes fit), it’s clear that it isn’t fat, I can’t see how I could possibly have jumped up that much.

****

So it turns out that I was correct when I said that it would not be Superman (or Batman) that DC outed as its most prominent gay character, but I was also incorrect when I speculated that it would be Wonder Woman.
I was closer to the mark when I used Jay Garrick as an example of a prominent (to comic fans) character, as it turns out that newly-outed gay character is Alan Scott, the original Green Lantern.  (Not the one portrayed by Ryan Reynolds in the recent GL movie)
To be fair, while I didn’t mention him, I had actually considered the possibility.
To be even more fair, at the time of my speculation, I wasn’t aware that DC had explicitly stated that 1. It was a male character and 2. It was a character who had not yet made an appearance in any of the New 52 titles.
Had I known those things, my suspicion that it would be Alan Scott would have been worth mentioning.
As it is, I never got back to the subject, as I was distracted by other things, and, really, my speculation as to how it could be Superman (kinda-sorta) after all, turns out to be irrelevant anyway, though ultimately, had DC gone that route, the net effect would have been the same (alternate universe, basically).
You can read more about Alan, and the outing here.  I have to say that, within the context of the New 52, the rationale for choosing Alan makes a fair amount of sense.
I have, as noted, no objection to making Alan (or any character, really) gay, but while I understand that comics are a business, I’m a little annoyed (though not surprised) by the “stunt” aspect of it.
Further, while I think that adding characters who represent the diversity of real life is a good thing, ultimately, this isn’t really a net gain, given that a pre-existing gay character has been lost.
So overall, it’s kind of a push.

The Short And Long Of “Marvel’s The Avengers”

As part of the Ultimate Marvel Marathon – about which, more later – in fact, the ultimate part of the marathon, Scott and I caught the midnight premiere of Marvel’s The Avengers.
At a little after 2:30 AM, when the movie let out, and I was thinking about how I would just be getting home at a time when, on a normal Friday, I’d be getting up to start my day, I posted a quick, two word review of the movie to Facebook:

Holy. Shit.

Here I will expand on that with my mostly spoiler-free thoughts on the movie.
I will admit that, going into the movie, I had rather high expectations, based on the general quality and entertainment value of the Marvel movies that preceded and informed it, and the fact that the movie was helmed by Joss Whedon.
In recent years, few people have contributed more to geek culture than Whedon.  His body of work includes such notable efforts as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, Dollhouse, and work in the actual comic book medium in which the Avengers were first assembled, and seemed to me to be reason enough to expect him to do well with the task of bring the Avengers to the big screen.
Having read much of his work in comics, and knowing that he is, himself a comic book geek didn’t hurt my expectations either.
Additionally, the notion of Robert Downey, Jr. as Tony Stark delivering the snappy and snarky dialogue that is a Whedon trademark seemed to be very much a Peanut Butter plus Chocolate situation.
Despite my already high expectations, however, Avengers managed to completely exceed what I was expecting by a very wide margin.
Which isn’t to say I had no complaints at all – I did, and will list them shortly – but the generally fantastic execution more than made up for them.
As an aside, the movie has sparked a lot of controversy within the comic fan community due to the mistreatment of the legendary Jack Kirby, co-creator of the Avengers comic and of most of the characters appearing in the movie, at the hands of Marvel – and, more largely, the mistreatment of creators by the comic book industry as a whole – and I certainly understand those fans and pros who find the movie troubling at best.  However, personally, and you can make your own decisions as to what this says about me as a fan and a human being, while I agree wholeheartedly that the behavior of Marvel (and DC) in this regard (and with far too many examples to count) has been nothing less than execrable, it just wasn’t enough to keep me away or to sully my enjoyment of the movie.
In any case, among the key elements that made the movie such a success, aside from the phenomenal effects, fight choreography, and strong performances, was the fact that it tied together elements from the five standalone movies that preceded it – with Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, and Clark Gregg as Agent Phil Coulson as the unifying threads – so capably and that, relatedly, despite the many divergences from the multitude of source material in the comics themselves, it actually felt like an Avengers comic that was translated directly from comic to screen in a way that even X-Men and X2, despite their own strengths as comic book movies, just never managed.
Watching the movie unfold, I could imagine this story being told in individual four-color panels over the course of several issues of an Avengers comic.
This is where Whedon’s own history as a comic geek paid off.  He knows the medium.  He knows the storytelling flow.  He knows the tropes, and while he often subverted them and put his own twist on them – as any talented comic book writer would do – he demonstrated the utmost respect for them, and in many cases delivered them just exactly as they are, with neither spin nor commentary, and demonstrated why they have become tropes.
The most notable example of this was the standard, “When super heroes meet for the first time, they always end up fighting each other.”
Did that happen?  Of course.  Was it everything that any fanboy or fangirl could ever hope for?  Oh yes.  Holy shit, yes.
Beyond that, however, what really sold it as a comic book story – and, more specifically, a super hero team comic book story – were the scenes in which the individual members were pulled into the larger narrative.
As much as I’ve been known to rail against Chris Claremont on this space, mocking his stilted, unnaturally idiosyncratic dialogue and his continual trips back to the same dried-up well, I freely admit that the man is a master of comic book storytelling and would never deny that he’s earned his status as a legendary figure in comics (Hello?  The Dark Phoenix Saga, anyone?), and one of his greatest strengths over the years has been to seamlessly tie in events from other parts of whatever comic book universe he’s working in and present nice little scenes that could easily appear in another writer’s book as a means of pulling the required characters into the story at hand.
So it was in that context, as I watched the little scene of domestic bliss between Tony Stark and Pepper Potts – which could have easily been part of an Iron Man sequel – early in the movie, I thought, in the best way possible, “My god, this is positively Claremontian.”
It was that approach to telling the story that helped to keep the movie from becoming a confused mess the way that some movies featuring a large cast so often do.
The other obvious comic book influence, of course, was the King himself, as the story burst forth with all of the dynamism and cosmic scale of a Kirby story.  Interestingly enough, it had more than a little of the flavor of Kirby’s Fourth World work for Marvel’s Dynamic Competition.
I was also pleased to see that while Whedon clearly cribbed from Marvel’s Ultimate line – a line of comics featuring alternate reality versions of Marvel characters – as have all of the movies that are components of Avengers, he avoided some of the more over-the-top and extreme scenes favored by Mark Millar, because I have to say that I’m just as glad that we didn’t have to see the Hulk eating people* as I was that we weren’t treated to the original Avengers story that featured the Hulk hiding out in a circus disguised as an elephant-juggling robot clown.
I really want to avoid spoilers, so I’ll start wrapping things up here and say that one of the things that has made the post-X-Men comic movies that have been part of what I call the Comic Geek’s Cinematic Golden Age so satisfying to the fans has been the fact that despite frequently straying very far from the source material, the most successful and well-received movies have managed to keep a certain level of respect for the material – and for the fans – at the forefront.  With Avengers, Whedon takes it to another level, with respect not only for the stories and the characters, but also for the techniques used in telling those stories and developing those characters.

Complaints:
I have no particular feelings** about Hank Pym, who was one of the founding members of the Avengers in the comics, and I recognize that a character whose primary ability, in his Ant-Man persona, is to shrink to the size of an ant and communicate with ants would make him an easy target for ridicule, and someone who wouldn’t fit in well in the Marvel Movieverse, but as a founding member, I would have liked to have seen him included.  Honestly, if they had focused on one of his other costumed identities, Giant-Man, whose name speaks to his abilities, he would have fit in just fine. (Hank changed things up a lot.  Sometimes he’d go the Ant-Man route, sometimes the Giant-Man route.  And he was also Yellowjacket.  And Goliath.  And…well, just read this.)
Similarly, Janet Van Dyne, the winsome Wasp, a woman who can shrink down to the size of an insect, grow wings, and zap people with a bioelectric sting, would seem kind of silly in the movies, but she, too, was a founding member, and is a character who has, in my estimation, been treated rather shabbily in the comics.  (See footnote on Hank Pym as just one example, and the linked article above for more.)  It was a shame to see that shabby treatment continue; one of my favorite eras of the Avengers comics was when Wasp was in charge.
Just as comic books have their tropes and clichés, so too do comic book movies.  Most notably the fact that no comic book movie super hero can keep his or her mask on for more than five minutes.  Avengers was no exception.
Speaking of masks, and, more generally, costumes, I really did not like the redesign of Captain America’s costume in this movie.  At all.  I was less bothered by the changes to Thor’s costume, but I didn’t care for those changes, either.

Stray Thoughts:
I don’t know if I should pleased with Whedon or angry with him, but he actually made me kind of like Hawkeye.
It’s a shame that DC will never be able to get its movie strategy lined up well enough to give us a Justice League movie.  Even if they started developing a strategy right now, it would still be years before we saw the end result.
Biggest surprise for me?  I actually liked Mark Ruffalo as Brue Banner.
I think I can safely say that Scarlett Johannson is somewhat attractive.
There were a lot of Easter Eggs for the fans, which is always appreciated.
I tend to hate “comic relief,” but one of the strengths of the Marvel movies (setting aside Kat Dennings in Thor, who didn’t bother me as much as I thought she would) has been that they find a way to insert the right amount of humor without making it seem inorganic or restricting one two character to merely filling the role of comic relief, and not only does it not detract from the emotional resonance of the story, it adds to it.  Whedon, of course, is a master of this.

Profanity-Laden Stray Thoughts:
Fucking Quinjets!
The motherfucking Helicarrier! (Fortunately/unfortunately, Nick Fury didn’t say, “I have had it with these motherfucking super villains on this motherfucking helicarrier!”)
Holy shitballs, the motherfucking post-credits scene!

*I will admit that within the context of The Ultimates, the idea was kind of entertaining.  Betty Ross being turned on by it, however, was disturbing in any context.

**Except for the part about beating his wife.  That I do have strong feelings about, or more specifically, against.  Not that I’m opposed to it being a topic for exploration in a storyline, but if one considers it a defining characteristic of the character – and I do – it naturally leads to strong negative feelings about the character.  Even before the first presentation of physical abuse in the comics, Hank was a sexist, controlling, patriarchal jerkwad, which is, surprisingly, pretty much the only super hero name he never went by.  In any case, my point is that, conceptually, I don’t have a problem with the idea of Hank Pym as a character (that is, a character who has the power to change his size).

I’m, Like, Large? I Contain, Like, Multitudes And Stuff.

So tomorrow is my birthday. (39, before you ask.)

I don’t really care about my birthday. For the most part, it’s just another day, albeit one that, when it falls on a weekday, gives me an excuse to take a day off – or, as with this year, two days off – from work.

But honestly, what is there to care about? I am, as the ever-increasing number that corresponds with each birthday can attest, no longer a child. I’m not likely to get anything really cool in the way of presents, or at least, nothing that’s going to excite me in quite the same way as the presents I received as a child did. That’s not intended as any sort of slight against whatever presents I do receive, or the people who give them to me, it’s just the reality, for me, of getting older.

Beyond the simple loss of childish enthusiasm that inevitably happens as one progresses further and further away from childhood, my birthday tends not to mean much to me because I refuse to allow it to mean much to me.

Birthdays can, especially as you approach significant milestones, be a time of self-reflection, of taking stock and seeing what you’ve accomplished, what you’ve yet to accomplish.

Fuck. That. Shit.

Or really, more to the point, what the hell else do you think I spend my time doing the other 364 days of the year? Who needs to set aside a day to something you do all of the time anyway?

Especially when you consider how depressing the results of taking stock can be…

And that’s the other ting; I’ve had a history of becoming rather maudlin and depressed, sometimes for weeks on end, during the period preceding and following my birthday, and, as I said before, Fuck. That. Shit.

It’s exhausting. I’m tired of being depressed just because I’ve managed to stick around for another year.

So, as much as I can, I try to strip the date of its significance.

And yet, despite the fact that my birthday means so little to me, and is just another day (to whatever extent it can be – I’m human, after all, so significant dates can’t help but hold at least some amount of, well, significance), I’ve noticed that I feel the need to draw attention to the date in conversation with other people.

As my birthday approaches, I’m quick to point out that my birthday is approaching.

Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)

-Walt Whitman, “Song of Myself”

“Tomorrow is my birthday,” I will say, unprompted.

Being incapable of totally avoiding the whole self-reflection and taking stock thing, I can’t help but wonder why that is. Am I an attention whore? Am I eager to hear people say, “Oh, well, happy birthday!” or to try to fish for compliments? (“39? You look so young!”)

I don’t think that’s it. I suspect that it has more to do with just owning the day, and feeling that it beats the alternative of saying nothing and then, after the fact, bemoaning the fact that no one knew or remembered that it was my birthday. That is, while it doesn’t mean that much to me, and I wouldn’t be terribly hurt if people didn’t know about or acknowledge my birthday (though, again, human, so it would sting a little), it’s not something I can completely ignore, so if it has to happen, it should happen on my terms.

Or something. What the hell do I know? For as much time as I spend in self-reflection and taking stock, I don’t know that I’ve ever gotten any good at it….

Anyway, speaking of birthdays, today is (utterly awesome) artist Amanda Conner's birthday. Check out this sweet birthday tribute at Comics Alliance.