T-shirt #301 - Iron Men

T-shirt #301 - Iron Men

Wax and wane. Wax and wane. Like the moon, which was full the other night. Have you been waiting for the content my pretties? It seems a Herculean task sometimes to just stay caught up let alone ahead on the blog. But then, often it's my own expectations for my content. I could just write a short note and be done with it. I doubt anyone would complain if the blog was SHORT. After all, the main complaint I get (granted, just from my wife) is that the blog entries are too long.

My other dilemma is that content builds up, like the ice in my driveway. Started with a thin sheet, then snow and rain and freeze, then thaw, then freeze, and so on, until we have an uneven bed of ice that even a bit of salt will not dispense.

Same with the blog.

I have stacks of comic books to review, a folder full of links, several ideas about other content, and then these damn expectations of mine.


After all, I have really only written about Iron Man, at least as the main shirt subject, once, in T-shirt #260. Did I cover the subject adequately?

Want to learn some weird synchronicity? When I wrote T-shirt #260, I used Clark Gregg's introduction from Avengers: Endless Wartime (by Ellis/McKone) as a springboard. Clark Gregg plays Agent Coulson in the TV show Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. I had not watched an episode since the second one, which I watched in Hawaii. I watched one today (and by today I mean Friday, which is the day I am writing this sentence, even though this blog entry was published on Thursday). Okay, I think that's an interesting coincidence since I had quite forgotten about my little rant in T-shirt #260 until I looked at it again.

IRON MAN 

Today's post is about Iron Man since my shirt is taken from the classic cover to Iron Man volume one #174, drawn by Luke McDonnell and inked by Sam De La Rosa in 1983. Th is is also significant to me personally because this issue was published a little over a year from when I worked at Marvel, and I got to watch the colorist, Bob Sharen, work his magic on Iron Man comics when I was there. He had a set of colors in small bottles and talked to me about the process as he marked areas of the pages with four color codes for CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Key/Black).

Despite my personal connection to that time period in Iron Man's history, the shirt also appealed to me because I like the idea of Iron Men, plural. It makes sense that if Tony Stark could make one suit. He could make two. Still, it was years before anyone but Tony Stark wore any of these suits. But Tony Stark could fund and equip a whole army of Iron Men. It was during this time that Tony's friend James Rhodes wore the suit and carried on as Iron Man. These stories were written by Denny O'Neil, who had Tony relapse into alcoholism (a story line started by David Micheline five years previously) after losing his family's company to Obadiah Stane (who was used as the main villain in the first Iron Man movie).  These issues may be my favorite run of Iron Man issues in volume one.

Dumping the armor in the ocean to be found Atlanteans was brilliant (see cover to the right). Also, taking Tony out of the suit for TWO YEARS was brilliant. It's these kinds of shake ups that re-vitalize comic books that might otherwise tread water. Interesting story-telling does not result from the same old, same old.

Dennis "Denny" O'Neil was one of the best writers in comics for many years. From the 1960s through the 1990s, he wrote some of the best comics for both DC and Marvel, including great runs on Batman and the classic Green Arrow/Green Lantern comics all drawn by Neal Adams.

At Marvel, around the time he did these Iron Man issues, he also wrote Daredevil as well as some strong issues for Amazing Spider-Man.

Iron Man is my favorite of Marvel's Franchise heroes since I cannot select the Fantastic Four as a hero. But I like Iron Man better than Spider-Man, Thor, Wolverine, the Hulk, or Captain America. If Daredevil is a a Franchise hero, then he edges out Iron Man.

Yesterday in Fanfare, I was recapping my recent Darth Vader vs. Batman post (T-shirt #294), and I was making the argument that people do not aspire to be Darth Vader, meeting with some opposition by my friend Jeffery. I argued that people aspire to be Batman not Darth Vader. The new guy, Carmen, chimed in that people aspire to be Iron Man, which is true. I added Green Lantern as an aspiration, which is the subject of the next (tomorrow's T-shirt). NOTE: Tomorrow's shirt is actually TODAY'S shirt as I write this. I am falling behind again. Do you get tired of this saga?

It's funny because I wrote the above text yesterday and it's now the next day (Saturday), and I am still not done with this posting.

Still, Carmen had a point. Iron Man is cool because he is a billionaire, a playboy, attractive, and gets chicks. His "super power" is a suit that he can put on and take off (or "don" as says in this classic cover to the left.
But those things are not what make Iron Man a cool character.

WHY IRON MAN IS COOL

As I discussed in the post for Daredevil (T-shirt #287), Stan Lee (and the artists with whom he worked many of whom are mainly responsible for the creations) worked with tragedy. All the early Marvel heroes had angst from tragedy. Some of this text bears repeating:

Starting with Spider-Man (atoning for the guilt of not preventing his uncle's death), Stan Lee gave almost every hero in those early years a tragic origin. The Thing was trapped in a hideous body while Mister Fantastic lived with the guilt of how his hubris damaged his friend. Doctor Strange found magic and became a sorcerer after searching the world to find a way to heal nerve damage that would allow him to continue his career as a surgeon. Iron Man could only keep a piece of shrapnel from his heart by wearing his armor. The Hulk makes Bruce Banner's life a living Hell of blackouts, rage, and destruction, much like an alcoholic's existence (thinking of the movie Flight here, which I just watched). The mutants of the X-Men are hated and feared by the world and often must hide frightening elements of their mutation which bring their own handicaps, such as Cyclops' optic blasts and special glasses. Captain America is a man out of time, awakened in a modern world in which he does not feel he belongs. Silver Surfer is trapped on Earth for defying Galactus. Thor is being taught a lesson by his father Odin by sharing his existence with a handicapped mortal.

And Daredevil the blind man with the super radar sense, who has had more tragedy heaped on him than any other Marvel hero.

But as I wrote above, the original concept for Iron Man kept him in his armor to keep him alive, to keep the shrapnel from his heart. He must wear the armor breastplate at all times, which really hinders his playboy activities. This trope of how Tony Stark must suffer, in a sense, trapped in his armor fit the original concept of the character and the art by Gene Colan in the early issues in the late 1960s. But when Stark later has an artificial heart transplanted in his chest, his angst and suffering is mitigated. To continue to make him an interesting character, the alcoholism disease is introduced for added pathos. But once he licks the alcholism demons, then what? What angst is there to propel him?

Warren Ellis introduced the Extremis enhancile, a techno-organic virus, to save Stark's life. The resulting stories (Volumes four through the current issues) have bred the most fertile and captivating stories of Iron Man's long career.

But it's the tragedy, the long suffering hero, that Marvel creators have often forgotten in today's comics. Though Tony Stark suffered again for a time, he is back at the top of his game, and though the stories are interesting, the character needs more work.

This is why I find the volume one stuff among the most compelling and memorable as seen in many of the classic covers that I share in my cover gallery.

IRON MAN  - COMIC BOOK ISSUES

Iron Man Vol. 1 is Iron Man's first ongoing solo series. The series was launched following the success of the Iron Man stories in Tales of Suspense and continues from the one shot Iron Man and Sub-Mariner which picks up the story arc from Tales of Suspense #99. Many of the classic story lines and characters that are part of comic history today originate from this volume. The series started in 1968 and lasted all the way to 1996.

Continues in Iron Man Vol.2. Created by writers Stan Lee and Larry Lieber and artists Don Heck and Jack Kirby, Iron Man's first appearance was in Tales of Suspense #39 (COMIC VINE).

My comments on volumes: I am restricting myself in this blog to Iron Man volume one. I sharing a cover gallery from volume one. I love the other volumes (not all of them), but I have to limit the scope of this Iron Man entry or I will never finish, especially since I behind already as I type this.

I loved Warren Ellis' run, which lead off volume four, and Matt Fraction's run that comprised volume five. Kieron Gillen's also doing a bang up job in the current set of issues. I am less thrilled with volume three, and I would rather not even discuss volume two.

So, just volume one today folks. Sorry.

IRON MAN RESOURCES

IRON MAN VOLUME ONE

VOLUME TWO

VOLUME THREE

VOLUME FOUR

VOLUME FIVE

VOLUME SIX

IRON MAN COMIC VINE

IRON MAN WIKIPEDIA

IRON MAN MARVEL WIKI


WEEKLY COMICS LIST

It's a shame. I have meant to review Batgirl #26 for a month, and now, issue #27 is out. As of this writing. I am up through the Spider-Man issue. I was disappointed in the wrap-up to the Fantastic Four story. Notice that Velvet has jumped to the top of the stack, beating often top ranked Fantastic Four. It's that good. I will have more to say in forthcoming reviews. I promise to catch up!! Also, I am planning a big reading day tomorrow for my birthday (which is Sunday January 19th but I am behind in completing these entires as this is Thursday's entry), and I may just skip ahead and read all the Astro City. It's long overdue, and I do like the book a lot.


COMICS FOR 1401.15

Velvet #3

Fantastic Four #016

Daredevil #035

Amazing X-Men #003

All New X-Men #021

Uncanny X-Men #016

The Superior Spider-Man #025

Superman/Wonder Woman #4

Justice League of America #11

Alex + Ada  #3


Thor God of Thunder #017

God is Dead #5 (of 6)

Batgirl #27

World's Finest: Huntress and Power Girl #19

Nightwing #27

Thunderbolts #020.Now

Nova #012

Secret Avengers #014

Miracleman #1

Suicide Squad #27

Inhumanity: Superior Spider-
Man #001

Cataclysm: Ultimate Comics: The Ultimates #003

BACK LOG

Astro City #8

FREE COMIC - Deadpool : The Gauntlet

SPECIAL PURCHASE

Locus #636 Vol. 72 #1

COVER GALLERY

These are all my favorite volume one covers not counting ones I shared in T-shirt #260. I shared the first issue of Iron Man volume one in T-shirt #260. I clearly remember that the week that Iron Man #1 came out so did Sub-Mariner #1. There must have been some other issue that was an automatic (probably Fantastic Four) because I had to choose between Iron Man #1 and Sub-Mariner #1. Despite this post being about Iron Man, I chose Sub-Mariner, whom I liked much better at the time for some reason. I was fond of shouting "IMPERIUS REX!" just like Sub-Mariner. I did this once in third grade, flinging both arms behind me as Namor did in the comic to smash two pillars. But I did not know that Tammy Nash was behind me and quite knocked the wind out of her. I felt terrible.

In any case, Iron Man #9 was my first issue of Iron Man.

Gene Colan - my first issue
of the Iron Man comic vol.1

Sal Buscema

Gil Kane!

Gil Kane!

George Tuska

George Tuska

George Tuska

Bob Layton

Bob Layton

John Romita Jr

Luke McDonnell

Luke McDonnell

Luke McDonnell

Luke McDonnell

Luke McDonnell

Barry Windsor Smith

John Romita Jr.

COUNTDOWN TO END OF THE BLOG YEAR - 64 shirts remaining

- chris tower - first publication - 1401.16 - 19:32
- final publication - 1401.18 - 21:24

Does this look too much
like a pacifier?

T-shirt #300 - Cocteau Twins

T-shirt #300 - Cocteau Twins 

300 shirts so far, and I still have not counted how many remain in my closet (or in a box of new shirts). I am pretty certain that I have at least 65 left if not more. However, I may take another hiatus with minimal posts for a week or more so as to be able to finish some bigger posts. Stay tuned. I think the end of this blog's year will be exciting like the end of a novel, or at least as exciting as something this narcissistic can be.

But 300 is a milestone, and so I wanted something "milestoney."

I had wanted to make the post for T-shirt #300 something truly special and significant. I have two or three posts that I have been doodling for months. But with my work load, I knew I would not be able to finish any of them in time and do justice to the subject matter. This shirt has been lingering in the place in my closet in which I have grouped T-shirts that are soon to be featured, but I have also been putting it off featuring it because it WAS my only Cocteau Twins shirt, and I want to do a proper job with the one and only love letter to one of my favorite bands.

But nothing spurs me to action more than knowing I have other shirts (or at least one other) to be able to write extended and loving content to a band that I adore. So, seeing that one of my longer essays or special features would not be completed in time (or at least not completed to my standards) for T-shirt #300, I decided to share this shirt and some thoughts on a band that would win, hands down, the award for the band I have most listened to over the years.

In fact, looking back on my post for T-shirt #97 - Kraftwerk, in which I listed the albums I have listened to most, the largest number of times, in my life, you will not see the Cocteau Twins in the top ten. I am starting to think this is an oversight. I may have over estimated the number of times I have listened to some of those albums in my top ten. Though there were times in my life when I listened to some of those albums daily or nearly daily, some are newer, and I have listened to various Cocteau Twins albums over and over since my discovery of them in the mid-1980s. I am not inclined to go back and change those lists too much because I would have to place ALL the Cocteau Twins albums somewhere in the lists. When I made that list, I was trying for some variety rather than listing five of the Cocteau Twins albums in the top ten most listened to albums as they probably deserve. I do think that list needs some adjustment as a Cocteau Twins album belongs in the top ten. So if you want to check out my list again on T-shirt #97 - Kraftwerk, go ahead. I will probably also post my revision to Facebook if you catch me there.

Okay, list updated.

Hey... it's always fun to find things on Amazon with a simple search like "Cocteau Twins Book."

FIRST TIME I HEARD COCTEAU TWINS BOOK

Today's shirt comes from my one and only time to see the Cocteau Twins in concert as in the ticket stub to the right. Once again memory fails. I was between relationships in March of 1991. It's times like this that I would like a time machine as I have no idea with whom I went to that concert, but it was surely NOT my recent ex-girlfriend. I don't remember much about the concert other than I loved it as I love the Cocteau Twins.

One of my most often played mixes is a Cocteau Twins mix which I named after one of their songs: "Ella Megalast Burls Forever."

If you have never heard the Cocteau Twins start with the next video.
There is no further proof needed of why Cocteau Twins have made some of the most beautiful music in the modern era.

COCTEAU TWINS - MUSIC

The music of Cocteau Twins is difficult to describe. Live stuff is different than studio. The studio stuff features multiple layered sonic landscapes achieved with a variety of technological devices.

In many ways, Cocteau Twins defined the British 4AD label: COCTEAU TWINS AT 4AD. Their work evolved from an earlier, raw, bass heavy sounds on Garlands, their first LP, to the eventual more "pop" sound of Heaven or Las Vegas.

Here's the WIKIPEDIA description, which is not bad, though it hardly defines the band that I love so much.

Cocteau Twins were a Scottish rock band active from 1979 to 1997, known for innovative instrumentation and atmospheric, non-lyrical vocals. The original members were Elizabeth Fraser (vocals), Robin Guthrie (guitar, drum machine) and Will Heggie (bass guitar), who was replaced by multi-instrumentalist Simon Raymonde early in the band's career.

While the entire band earned much critical praise, Elizabeth Fraser's distinctive soprano vocals received the most attention. At times barely decipherable, Fraser seemed to veer into glossolalia and mouth music. Allmusic reviewer Ned Raggett writes that "part of her appeal is how she can make hard-to-interpret lyrics so emotionally gripping."

Much has been written about Liz's lyrics and her "vocalizations." Ultimately, I don't care what she's singing. Part of loving the Cocteau Twins has to do with giving up knowing the lyrics. It's music. You dig into the music and experience the sounds, the sonic journey through the tunnel of palpable sound.

Really the best introduction to Cocteau Twins is to listen to their music. I may "wax and wane" more about their music in a future post as I am getting a Cocteau Twins shirt for my birthday. But here's some tracks via video to whet your appetite if you take the time to listen or listen again if you are already acquainted.

I find it almost impossible to describe the beauty of that song. "Carolyn's Fingers" from the 1988 album Blue Bell Knoll  is definitely my favorite Cocteau Twins song, and I think it's a good place to start if you have never heard of or heard the band. The next two songs are much more accessible. 

Cocteau Twins - Carolyn's Fingers (Official Video)

Of all their work, the 1990 album Heaven or Las Vegas was the biggest "hit," especially in America. Some recognizable words are identifiable in this song, but it's certainly one of the more "accessible" tracks by the band, if such a word even needs to be applied.

Cocteau Twins - Heaven Or Las Vegas (Official Video)

"Bluebeard" was the first single from the 1993 album Four Calendar Café. It is even more of a pop song than "Heaven of Las Vegas" and more lyrics are recognizable as words in the English language, but the experience is still a floaty, atmospheric, dazzling, glimmer of jangling instruments and Liz's pure, sweet voice poured through it all like honey. My wife and I often argue that the last two albums (this one plus 1996's Milk and Kisses) are no good. She does not like them. Though neither are my favorite Cocteau Twins' albums, I love both of them very much. I did not embrace Milk and Kisses right away but over the  years it has grown on me, especially some of the remixes.

Cocteau Twins - Bluebeard

I am tempted to include the entire Victorialand (1986) album, but that's a bit much. It's on YouTube if you want to give it a go. It's a beautiful album and by far my favorite. "Lazy Calm," the first track from Victorialand almost seems like it instrumental because of the long instrumental opening, but Liz's hushed vocals come in during the six minute track.

Cocteau Twins - Lazy Calm

There's an extensive history of the band written by RIP Leesa Beales (1969 - 2010), who died of cancer in 2010. Her history, available on the Cocteau Twins main site was meant to be a book, but I don't think that plan saw fruition due to her death. Beales also ran the Cocteau Fests for years. The history is extensive and interesting. I am only pulling this one bit for your reading pleasure (if you are interested).

From the history of the band: LINKED HERE.

"An LP always seems like an important statement, the next step, blah blah...It's not. This is just something we've been casually doing this year in our studio." — Robin Guthrie

---

If there's one lesson anybody will learn from listening to Cocteau Twins, it's that one can never know what to expect next. This lesson becomes rather evident with the companion EP's Tiny Dynamine and Echoes In A Shallow Bay. Just as the listener feels s/he has figured it all out, the Cocteau Twins come along and take you completely by surprise.

Tiny Dynamine and Echoes In A Shallow Bay—impossible to discuss separately—marks the beginning of another phase in their music history, one which clears more territory in the abstract reaches of the metaphysical, textural, and impressionistic elements to which they unassumingly, unwittingly, and perhaps unintentionally lay claim. Everything is starting to float around and separate—space out—and slow down somewhat. The production quality is highly polished and full-bodied and is clearly the best production the band had done up to that point. The arrangements are well organized and exhibit rather mature songwriting.

Naturally, however, the Cocteaus—at least Robin—had a slightly different approach to the situation: "This is pure flop material we're releasing [laugh]. People think we're being awkward, but it's the only way we could possibly put these songs out. An LP always seems like an important statement, the next step, blah blah...It's not. This is just something we've been casually doing this year in our studio."

"It wasn't even meant to be a record to start off with. It's almost experimental, but that's the wrong word. We recorded it at our studio just to see if the place was good enough to make records. It is."

"We were half-way through it, when we realised that it was alright so we decided to pursue it further, do something with it."

"It's the best sounding record we've ever made, technically and everything. If you play it, it sounds good. We're learning to make records that sound better when you put them on. It sounds better than any Trevor Horn production [laughs again]. These records make me happy." [Jamming Magazine, 1985].

Listening to these two records can be like swimming inside a lava lamp or looking skywards from the bottom of a pool. The momentum is strikingly different when compared with previous material, except perhaps for "Quisquose," from Aikea-Guinea, which shows much similarity with the work on Tiny Dynamite and Echoes In A Shallow Bay.

The timing signatures are complex and the tempo is often erratic and difficult to grasp. Liz's vocal instrument is increasingly acrobatic and dynamic, indicating a true gift for vocal arrangement and composition (I cite "Great Spangled Fritillary" as a prime example). The overall underlying theme may simply be that this isn't to be grasped—but instead to be imprinted upon the imagination and absorbed into the unconscious.

The song titles certainly inspire visual images and textures: "Pink Orange Red," "Ribbed and Veined," "Pale Clouded White," "Eggs and Their Shells," "Plain Tiger," etc. It is generally accepted that the two bodies of work were largely inspired by nature—particularly butterflies. Both "Great Spangled Fritillary," "Plain Tiger," and "Pale Clouded White" are common names of butterfly species; the "lyrics" to "Melonella" (itself a word for "swarm") are the Latin names for various butterfly species; and other titles, such as "Pink Orange Red" and "Ribbed and Veined" further contribute to such a perception. The title "Sultitan Itan," incidentally, is a borrowed lyric from "Pink Orange Red," in keeping with Liz's practice of reusing words and phrases throughout the work.

The rather perversely titled "Ribbed and Veined" is a complex instrumental piece, and a testament to the band's ability to write solid compositions—although, according to Simon, it happens unwittingly:

"I don't really think of us as songwriters. In the traditional sense, they're not songs at all. Songwriters, to me, mean people who sit down with an acoustic guitar and piano, methodically working out the right chords, what words go with these chords, fitting it all in. We don't work like that. It's usually, turn the tape recorder on and hopefully, in ten minutes, we have something. Then Liz will come down, listen and sing. It's not like song writing, it's music." [Jamming Magazine, December, 1985]

"Great Spangled Fritillary" is like witnessing an elaborate Tibetan ritual, repleat with gongs; and "Sultitan Itan" and "Melonella" are excursions into Jazz, with "Melonella"'s odd-sounding Latin lyrics—something only the Cocteaus' could express so well—while "Eggs and Their Shells" makes use of sparse echoed piano and astral guitar.

The most addictive track of the eight featured here is clearly "Pink Orange Red," for which the band recorded a live television video. This song has also been regularly performed live since 1985, and is one of the band's most popular live selections. "Plain Tiger" and "Pale Clouded White" also appeared in live performances in 1985 and 1986.

A more subdued "Pink Orange Red" was recorded in 1995 for the mostly-acoustic EP Twinlights. When asked why they chose that particular tune to rearrange acoustically, they stated simply that it was one of the few that "worked."

"Pink Orange Red" and "Pale Clouded White" were also selected to appear on the 2000 4AD retrospective compilation, Stars and Topsoil.

Tiny Dynamine and Echoes In A Shallow Bay we re-released as a double-EP in CD format in late 1985. Both were clearly overtures, at least in the abstract sense, to Victorialand and The Moon and the Melodies, which both appeared the following year and further and more fully explored this aspect of Cocteau Twins' music.

Because it's mentioned in the above history, here's "Pink Orange Red." This is a live version from The Tube in 1985. Wow... I just noticed something. For years, I thought this song came from the 1985 Tiny Dynamite but in running spell check, I have learned that the album is actually called Tiny Dynamine just as its spelled in the above quoted history. My mind always corrected the spelling for my eyeballs. Crazy.

Cocteau Twins - Pink Orange Red

The Moon and the Melodies seen here (above) is not technically a Cocteau Twins album, but a collaboration between the band members and ambient pioneer Harold Budd . The first track is below. It's one of my favorite albums.

Cocteau Twins & Harold Budd-Sea Swallow Me

From The Moon and the Melodies

Stay tuned for more Cocteau Twins in a future blog post. If you are newly introduced to the band because of my blog, let me know what you think. If you know the band and found something of interest, please let me know, too.

  COUNTDOWN TO END OF THE BLOG YEAR - 65 shirts remaining - chris tower -
first published - 1401.15 - 21:56
final publication - 1401.16 - 10:30

T-shirt #299 - Grendel and the Broken Phone

T-shirt #299 - Grendel and the Broken Phone

Today's entry has more to do with the broken phone shown in the picture than in the actual content of the
comic book portrayed. Grendel is a comic book character created by Matt Wagner, named, obviously, for the "monster" from Beowulf.

I will get to the Grendel content later. But first I went to delve into a subject recently addressed by one of my favorite authors: Warren Ellis.

I have been saving this picture for just such an occasion as when I might have a subject that would relate to a broken phone. The two photos of me with my shattered phone, my HTC Evo, come from 2012.

And now to the content...

WARREN ELLIS AND SILENCE

I have written about the author Warren Ellis enough times that he has his own category in my list.

For those who want their links here for easy clicking. T-shirt #22 featured his excellent Internet comic FreakAngels.  T-shirt #75 featured his ongoing "hobby" podcast called Spektrmodule. Ellis just posted his first Spektrmodule since August HERE. It's good, though one of the drone tracks is a bit difficult to abide, at least I found it so last night and had to shut it off. Usually the podcasts are golden. I updated T-shirt #75 just for you, dear reader. Check it out.

I shared Warren Ellis' Twitter "lecture" (rant? tirade?) about whisky and whiskey via (fittingly) a t-shirt about Cerebus the Dictator in T-shirt #82. I did not reprint the whisky lecture in my post for the DOCTOR WHISKY T-shirt #284, mainly because I like to try to increase readership of previous posts in my sneaky, link-referencing way, much like I am doing here.

Also, (and I just caught and corrected this oversight), I reviewed Ellis' novel Gun Machine in the post for T-shirt #138, which I have now added to the Ellis category.

Have I mentioned that Warren Ellis would be at my Dinner Party? See the Dinner Party category. One of these days I am going to have to make the guest list and keep it updated, but not today. Also, one of these days, I am going to have to reference Judy Chicago's Dinner Party, which surely influenced my writing about this fantasy Dinner Party populated by the people I would most like to talk with and would like to observe talking with each other. And so I just did reference Judy Chicago. Linked and referenced.

I am very grateful for Warren Ellis. Planetary is one of the best things I have ever read ever in comics in fiction in anything.

I shared Warren's photo (seen here) about coffee in T-shirt #286, which I have added to the Warren Ellis category, but I think the photo deserves another go here. I am nothing if not repetitious to make sure all that needs to be seen, gets seen. So, there you go (above and left).

Warren Ellis has started a newsletter. I am going to present nearly the ENTIRE contents of the most recent one on my blog today. I am hoping Warren will be okay with this if he happens to find out. I am giving him full credit for the following text, so I don't see pasting his newsletter to my blog as much different than sharing it on Facebook as a link. Warren maintained an email newsletter recently to promote his book Gun Machine, but it died when there was some dust up with the publisher. He had some other newsletters deeper in Net history and has actually published many of these ramblings as small books or spine bound "comic" books (text books by comic publishers in comic-sized formats). I like to keep up with what Warren is on about as it fuels my own imagination and my own quests to be going on and daydreaming about my own things.

Warren's most recent email missive struck me as a subject worth more exploration. I would say that when Warren is in full-band broadcast mode from his sea fort in England, he lives more in what he calls "the flow" than I do. I am often stepping back from the flow of media to get work done. In fact, as I type this, I am taking a one hour break from work to make some progress in the blog while also checking email and Facebook, and then I will shut back down to barrel through work.

I am not a natural multi-tasker. What Warren refers to as the silence is in disconnecting from the social media flow, the techno-flow, the churn of the machine. I find that I have been more adrift in the flow this year as I have devoted myself daily to blog content and to just enough social media attention to feel like a participant. But I find that I cannot easily split my attention forty ways. Often Twitter is too much. I control in a miserly way the number (a small number) of messages that I allow through to my phone. I have disabled the phone's squawk when a message comes over the prow. I often ignore Facebook, and I do not even delve daily into the vast wilderness that is the Twitter feed let alone Tumblr or Instagram as I would be lost. This blog alone is enough of a sink hole for my attention and effort.

And yet, when I mu blog year is over, I will cease daily operational capacity. What T-shirts remain will be parceled out at a slower pace or at least that is what I say to myself now. And though I cannot claim that I am showered with daily feedback from readers, I do receive enough feedback that stepping back from the transmission and reception cycle may prove as jarring as breaking one's phone and being unreachable by the portable device until a new one is procured. (Did you wonder how I was going to bring this back to the broken phone thing?) And I am not even as much of a phone junkie as others. I rely on it mostly for communication and as a way to pass time when I am not in my office. I especially like the ability to read and archive email while waiting in line for a prescription or at the grocery checkout.

I am hatching my plans for when I enter the silence and stop the daily broadcasts. I plan to transition to fiction work, which I plan to transmit, though not on a daily basis. However, the satisfaction of just a little attention from the blog cycle may compel me to try some kind of daily updating. As I wrote, I am hatching my plans. The plans are not fully hatched yet.

And yet, I envy the true "silence" that Warren writes about in stepping out of the world and into a cocoon as he has done and as Gaiman is reportedly doing in order to write. Ellis has THOUSANDS of readers. I was searching for the number as I could swear he reported it in an Orbital Operations, and I want to say it was 10,000, but I am not sure. With Twitter and other social media outlets, authors and various artists can broadcast daily and build a following in new and ever more powerful ways. To "go dark," as Warren calls it, must be difficult and require great self-control and yet it must be very necessary for creation and productivity, as he explains in the following.

I am still "unpacking" this idea (as Warren likes to say). After all, it was Eco (who Warren quotes) that said that all cultural phenomena can be studied as communication. And so I am contemplating my own upcoming silence and how it will serve as a transition for new broadcasts and new information.

I hope you enjoy reading Warren Ellis' writing that follows. It's all set apart in a white box, so it is all clearly marked as his. If you are inspired to subscribe to his newsletter, then please use the link that follows. If by some completely CRAZY coincidence and a rare treat YOU ARE WARREN ELLIS, I hope it's okay that I re-transmitted your transmission.

ORBITAL OPERATIONS SUBSCRIBE LINK

++ ORBITAL OPERATIONS (BY Warren Ellis)

“I would say that one of the ethical problems we face today is how to return to silence. And one of the semiotic problems we might consider is the closer study of the function of silence in various aspects of communication, to examine a semiotics of silence: it may be a semiotics of reticence, a semiotics of silence in theater, a semiotics of silence in politics, a semiotics of silence in political debate—in other words, the long pause, silence as creation of suspense, silence as threat, silence as agreement, silence as denial, silence in music.”

This is from Umberto Eco’s INVENTING THE ENEMY, which I finally started reading on a plane a couple of months ago. The quote is found in a lecture he gave some years ago, but it seems to speak directly to some of the talk about internet and social media over the last year. And while some of that talk has been sourced in privilege and an intent (conscious or otherwise) to assert social-media silence as a new badge of exclusivity (remember the business cards that didn’t have phone numbers on them, because if you didn’t know how to contact the bearer of the card then you weren’t worth their time?)...

...well, I’ve gone internet-dark for extended periods over the last couple of years. Silence is restorative. Neil Gaiman’s off to write for six months, because his process requires quiet. Silence, frankly, has cultural utility. Remember how everyone thought David Bowie had gone away?

And silence on social media -- particularly performative social media --

Warren Ellis @warrenellis

I have just seen someone use the phrase "bad doge syntax" and I am therefore now on the side of the NSA and drone strikes

8:45AM 23 Dec 2013 Reply Favorite

-- reserves keystrokes and “thoughts” for pursuits perhaps more productive.

(If you’re minded to, you can see the majority of social media use amongst the creative clade as performance, process/transparency, community-building and curation.)

I myself am looking forward to shutting down social media for four or five weeks after I get to LA. Not ORBITAL OPERATIONS, though. ORBITAL OPERATIONS continue regardless of location because I am orbiting you constantly like a satellite of love.

I still skim some things when I’m on silent running, because I have Twitter tuned as a news feed -- I personally still believe that the realtime news stream is what made Twitter great -- and because Instagram is pretty.

(My favourite thing is actually Instagram.)

I’m not good with the quiet. I need to feel the flow of the world. But I find that, to a large extent, going dark allows me to go back to books. I’ve gotten terrible at sustained reading, and it’s entirely possible that living with my head in the flow for a couple of decades has done something to (some aspect of) my attention span. I am not going to subject you to the unread-books list on my Kindle. Which I make worse for myself by using the Send To Kindle extension for Chrome, which turns Kindle into my Instapaper. I’ve got to tell you, Send To Kindle has buried itself in my workflow now. I mean, sure, death to the Stacks and all that, but that extension is genuinely bloody useful.

“The Stacks” is a Sterlingism. 

HERE'S GOOD COVERAGE OF WHERE IT CAME FROM.

The Stacks are Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Facebook. Or, it did in 2012. You can probably add Twitter to that, though I understand that to be arguable. And The Stacks are part of the reason that people are considering going dark. Things like Send To Kindle are becoming the exception. Interoperability is not what it used to be. Functionality is not what it used to be. People have been talking about IndieWeb again, pulling back to personal websites from company-owned streams, but some of those same companies own your web browser, and shit could get weird, and, yes, I’m completely aware that I’ve been talking just a paragraph ago about two of those Stacks collaborating to my benefit. WHICH IS HOW THEY GET YOU (PARANOID GLITTER IN EYES, TAKES OFF CLOTHES, PRODUCES KNIFE FROM BEARD)

FOLLOW UP ON ELLIS BY ME

Okay, back to me. Isn't it interesting how Ellis relates Eco's comments to his own work process and I did the same thing? Maybe not interesting. I read Warren's newsletter before writing my own comments. But whereas a writer can step back to get the silence she needs to produce work, Eco is also ruminating on the ethical dilemma of silence by political leaders in the 24-hour news cycle, which is quite a different animal.

When Warren Ellis is in full broadcast mode, he transmits multiple messages, and up to five hit his web page on average in a normal day when he's had enough coffee, whiskey, and bull semen. Others I follow, such as John Scalzi and Cory Doctorow manage at least one post a day in their own feed (Cory is more active on average than Scalzi but then Cory helps run Boing Boing!). They have audiences. People rely on them for a constant stream of entertainment. But writing books is a thing that for many of us (I must be in the same boat with Gaiman and Ellis) requires SILENCE. I am on Day 299 of my blog (tomorrow is the big 300), and I have mental time for my fiction but not much typing time. What I have learned is that I can find the time to produce LARGE VOLUMES of text for this blog, so, ipso facto, one would assume I could convert that time to fiction at the end of the blog year. Somehow I do not think it will be that easy, but I am keen to try.

On another note, I have no idea how Cory Doctorow does all that he does. I think he has Cory robots to help him.

SIDENOTE: I love that Google has started remembering my recent searches, so when I search again, I hit "Grendel Comic" first. Brilliant. Thanks again Google. It's a little creepy, but it's bloody useful (as Warren says).
SIDESIDENOTE: I am very afraid of the "send to Kindle" thing that Warren was on about. not sure I am ready to load that app in the browser. Damn. I am still transferring links via email and assembling them in text files that I will probably never look at again. Besides my Kindle is an early gen unit and not so handy with web stuff.

GRENDEL CONTENT

Oh yeah, so today's actual shirt subject is the Grendel comic book character created by Matt Wagner. The original Grendel, Hunter Rose, as depicted on the shirt, ran as back up stories in the earliest Mage comics as published by Comico. I have featured Mage three times, but I am not inclined to paste the links. You will find them all in the comic books category, but then there around 90 posts in the comic book category.

I have a Grendel mask, but I am not sure where it is. If it resurfaces, I may add to this item. I also own the pin seen on the Grendel Cycle cover below. I own several of the comics shown, such as Devil by the Deed, but I could not find them.

The story of Grendel is well told via the following links, especially HUNTER ROSE - COMIC VINE for the character as depicted on the shirt. But the books I am seen reading in the photos concern other characters who are "possessed" (and possessed may not be the right word) of the Grendel spirit.

USEFUL LINKS

GRENDEL WIKI

GRENDEL COMIC VINE - CHARACTER

GRENDEL COMIC VINE - VOLUME

HUNTER ROSE - COMIC VINE

MATT WAGNER SITE

For kicks, today's cover gallery will follow the sign off. Cheers!

COUNTDOWN TO END OF THE BLOG YEAR - 66 shirts remaining

- chris tower - 1401.14 - 19:28

GRENDEL art and COVER GALLERY