This post is to ‘reawaken’ my blog here and keep it going in to the new year.
If all goes well, I’ll be starting up a regular blog that will be at least weekly in 2025.
It will start in January when I’ll be doing a series of eight to ten blog posts for a Toastmasters assignment. The focus of this first series of blogs will be on Comic Books and my relationship to them as a Reader, Writer, and Artist. I began reading comics at a young age, they actually helped me to learn to read better. Comics would go on to influence my life in many ways, and be the beginning of my career. So, I’ll have different blog posts about comics, their influences on me, and my own comics career. I hope not to insult any of my creative friends who have worked on the comics I’ll be mentioning.
If you don’t know, Toastmasters is an International nonprofit educational organization that builds confidence and teaches public speaking through its clubs. It has recently added electronic communications, like meetings in Zoom and media to the presentations, and assignments like Blogs and Podcasts.
Once my Blog assignment is complete, and I plan to continue the blogs from there, I plan to also start a regular Podcast, and hopefully streaming.
Nearly forty years ago I went to my first comic book convention.
It was fun, and quite small.
Next I would attend a Robotech convention, it was fun, and even smaller.
A few years later I went to my very first San Diego Comic-Con.
At the time it was held in the old San Diego Convention Center downtown, I’m not old enough to have attended in the hotel where it first began. But that year, it was quite an amazing experience for the kid who had his hopes set on becoming a comic book artist.
Two things stand out in my memories of my first Comic-Con. Getting inking lessons from Dick Giordano, (especially how to create ‘Kirby Dots’) and hoping to meet one of my favorite writers. Unfortunately, he missed his panel, afterwards a few of us attempted to have him paged, but he never showed.
Many years later I spotted him across the lobby of one of the San Diego Comic-Con hotels and I rushed across to talk with him. I told him how much his comics, his writing, his research, influenced the young boy that I was and the man I am. That was probably one of the best experiences of all my Comic-Con visits.
The year of my first San Diego Comic-Con the attendance was 5,000.
That sounded like a massive amount of people at the time, but it is nothing compared to the 120,000 to 160,000 that have attended each year over the last decade or so. Many more who hang out in the Gaslamp District.
In over 30 years I only missed San Diego one time.
I’ve always been a loner geek, and in a massive con crowd even more so. I’d have to find someone to go with me.
With in weeks of when the woman who would become my wife moved to Southern California, I took to her to her first convention. To the San Diego Comic-Con. She’d later say I should have started her off small, but she enjoyed it all the same, and has gone with me every year since. Both of us with Pro-Badges now.
This year things are different, for all of us. Convention season hasn’t been canceled; it has gone virtual. The Convention Center, Exhibit Hall, The Masquerade, the Panels, they all exist in The Cloud right now. On YouTube, Twitch, Twitter, and more. For San Diego Comic-Con they are now Comic-Con@Home. Wednesday, July 22nd. to Sunday, July 26.
The 2020 Comic-Con souvenir book. Click on the image to download a PDF copy.
It’s disappointing, but it’s not gone.
As for the future, no one really knows yet. Conventions will probably never be that large again, but maybe that’s a good thing. Maybe it’s time that our love for comics, movies, video games, science fiction, and fantasy returns to being more intimate. Where a small group of fans can enjoy their shared love for a comic book, or good naturedly argue over how a movie didn’t quite get their favorite character just right, and not be crowded out and have to shout over one another. Where Disney Princesses and Transformers don’t have to worry about thousands of feet tramping on their costumes.
The Cons are about us, the fans, and our love of stories that exist in four-color comics, books, celluloid film, digital pixels, computer screens, smart phones, and much more.
Speaking of that love, and of our fandoms, I’d like to recommend something:
ONCE UPON A CON
As I write this blog I am finishing reading a book for the third time. It seemed to be the right book to read in the midst of this Con Season.
This book is a love song to comic and science fiction conventions, to comics and science fiction television, to fans and fandom, to just plain being a geek no matter who you are. Are you an actor, a writer, an artist, a blogger, or just a good old fan of an old TV series, you exist inside the impossible universe of Geekeralla.
While not being able to go to a con and need something to pull on your convention heartstrings, this book will do it.
Silly comic book thoughts (not based on any ‘announcement’ or image released today).
If the modern day Batman was became Ra’s Al Ghul in a similar way to whats happening in the ARROW tv series; he would move the entire League of Assassins to Gotham. They would become Batman Inc. and he’d put at least one member on every street corner.
A week later the Joker would have killed half of them with Joker gas.
Thinking about DC Comics having now moved from New York to Burbank.
Having wanting to work for DC since childhood, I only got to visit their New York offices (666 5th Ave) once.
While on a family vacation we were touring the city, and thought it would be neat to drop off a fan letter directly to the offices. (It was for the first Annual of BATMAN AND THE OUTSIDERS.)
While touring the city we picked up lemonades from one of the street vendors. Unfortunately, I hadn’t finished mine when we arrived.
“I can’t take my drink into an office building,” and reached out my arm just as I entered. My arm got caught in the revolving door, and my watch was flung across the lobby. (I have no memory of what happened to the lemonade.)
Thank God my wrist wasn’t broken, but it did hurt for days.
Even with that happening, we still went on up to the DC Comics offices. Being my shy self, and distracted by what had happened to my arm, I was slowly and quietly approached the reception desk. I told them that I had a letter to drop off.
I sat on the lobby couch next to the worlds famous Clark Kent (as many others have mentioned this past week), with the glass table filled with comics in front of me, and eventually got to talk with someone and give in my letter. I didn’t get a tour or see art work, but it was still a really great time.
Since that time I have gotten to many of the artists and writers who were working for DC at the time.
Now that DC Comics has moved to Burbank, and I’ll be living only a few miles away starting this summer, maybe there is a greater chance for me to work for them. I promise not to bring lemonade into the office or get hurt while I’m there.
It has just been announced that DC Comics will be moving and joining the rest of the DC Entertainment and Warner Bros. Burbank, CA. (Read the CBR news story here.)
My #Mission818 passion is excited about this news
It also reminds me of when I got to visit the DC Comics offices in New York City when I was a kid.
The family was visiting New York before heading on with the rest of our travels.
Not only was I looking forward to visiting the offices of DC Comics, the publisher of my favorite super heroes, (actually, at that time I was only reading DC,) I also had a fan letter to drop off. It was for Mike W. Barr and the crew of BATMAN AND THE OUTSIDERS Annual #1. My one and only letter I’ve ever written to a comic.
Long before that time, I knew I wanted to work in comics, so the chance to visit their offices was a dream come true.
We had purchased lemonades from one of the stands at Rockefeller Plaza, and my drink wasn’t finished when we arrived at 666 5th Avenue. I was hesitant about entering the building with the drink. That hesitation caused my arm to get caught in revolving door. Not only did I spill the lemonade (which is what I was worried about happening,) the door yanked my watch completely off my wrist.
My wrist, though not broken, did hurt for days in to the rest of our trip; it didn’t matter a few minutes later when I was sitting next to Clark Kent in the lobby of the DC Comics offices.
Yes, I did deliver my letter (thought it wasn’t published), but that was nothing compared to being inside the company I dreamed of working for someday.
That dream is still alive.
Now, all these years later, DC Comics is moving to be near me. (That has to be the reason, right?) I trust their drawing, writing, and editing hands don’t caught in any doors when they arrive.
As stated many times before in this blog, I have had a passion for DC Comics all my life, and an ever-increasing desire to work for them.
Now that the company is coming to me, I hope my chances are improving.
I won’t bring a drink to the office this time. Promise.
Anyone who has followed Batman knows his parents were killed when he was only a child. Eventually the writers at DC Comics gave the killer a name… Joe Chill.
Joe Chill is the unseen presence that was the goal for Batman. A name for that haunting desire for revenge that kept the Dark Knight forever vigilant on protecting Gotham City. Yes, there would be far worse villains than the weasel face little man; the Joker has killed hundreds of people, but Chill holds more power over the hero than super villain.
Over the years there have been stories where Batman came close to capturing Joe Chill, and in some Chill has been captured, or killed. But all the same he remains the cancer created the Batman. The death of his parents always there when he’s hunting down killers
I bring this up because of a television show I’ve been enjoying for the last few years called THE MENTALIST.
In the show, a serial killer murdered the wife and daughter of our lead character Patrick Jane years earlier. He has been working with the police (The CBI, California Bureau of Investigation. They didn’t want to use the FBI,) helping them solve crimes, but his real desire is to hunt down the killer Red John.
Red John is Joe Chill for The Mentalist.
Last season every episode was building to Patrick confronting or possibly killing Red John. And so that is what happened.
After watching the season ender I was certain the next season would take the series in a new direction. Patrick will have finally solved the case that has been his life for so many years. To me the new season would be: What does The Mentalist do now?
If Batman captures or kills Joe Chill the purpose of his very existence comes to an end. Can Bruce Wayne move on with his life? Can he put the cowl away and lock up the batcave? Or does he keep going because he knows that the mission continues… (forget the fact that many of the super villain exist because Batman exists.)
The Mentalist’s new season began this past week (I’ll try to keep the SPOILERS to a minimum) with him going to jail for the murder at the end of last season. Through out the episode his sanity is questioned, but his team sticks with him to the end.
So once he’s released from jail he should be able to move on with his life, which is what I wanted to see. To see how he can continue help the police (CBI) when he no longer has the obsession. It would be interesting to see the change and development of his character.
But (and here’s the SPOILER), the episode ends on Patrick telling his partner that the man he killed wasn’t his nemesis, and that Red John is still out there.
It was a rather disappointing way to start the new season.
There are two ways that I believe the series will go from here: 1) Red John is alive and manipulated the whole thing, and will show up every so often through the season (usually one of his followers will get involved and not himself.) Been there, done that. 2) The other way is that Patrick Jane’s psychosis won’t allow himself to admit the villain is gone; otherwise he has nothing left to live for.
This second direction is the way I am hoping the show goes will. Because I really want to see Patrick get on with his life, find out that there are more important things in his life than an archenemy. Maybe he might discover things already close by.
There is one more direction his character might take, but I’m pretty certain that a light detective show like The Mentalist would never go, and that would be to reveal that Patrick Jane is Red John. That would be a real depressing way to end the series.
What I really want to see is what happens to Batman when Joe Chill is no longer out there.
In THE MENTALIST what I really want to see is what happens to Batman when he’s finally solved his parent’s murder and Joe Chill is no more.
Kevin Paul Shaw Broden
Four Names of Professional Creativity.
Less then 24 hours from now the universe will be starting over. Rather, the DC Comics Universe of super heroes will be starting over, with the release of JUSTICE LEAGUE #1.
I’ve been thinking about what to put into this blog for several days since I picked up my last batch of comics.
Last week’s comics represented the end of the old DC universe in a way, and I’m not talking about the end of Flashpoint. But that end bothered me in a way.
Two books had wonderful sunset endings, and one did not. Let me explain.
ACTION COMICS ended with Clark Kent and Lois Lane walking off into the evening twilight, all his problems resolved and finding happiness with her and Metropolis. The End. In WONDER WOMAN; her grand journey, and alternate reality, came to its end happy to find Paradise Island and the rest of the world the way it should be and she sores in the warmth of the sun. The End.
But in another JUSTICE SOCIETY, the ending wasn’t so glorious, no proper curtain down. The final issue felt like the story was rushed so that it would be over before the new universe took over. The Per Degaton story never quite went anywhere, Jessie Quick’s part of his story felt rewritten. And Alan Scott, Green Lantern (the true Green Lantern in my eyes, as I’ve written before), in a really bad looking costume, dies battling a monster/god that hardly had time to know a few buildings down.
The story ends in the cemetery with the question, what now? The answer by Jay Garrick is; we go one as we always have. And The End comes with everyone feeling at a loss.
The Justice Society and all the ‘Golden Age’ characters have always been my favorites, and they haven’t always been given their do.
Jay Garrick stands there and I realize he’s the last remaining member of the original Justice Society. Spectre is someone else, Dr. Fate has been replaced, Hourman’s son takes his place, Sandman gone, Johnny Thunder long gone. Even Hawkman man their great leader died and died again. Only The Flash, Jay Garrick stands alone out of that team; the first super hero team.
It really hurts to see all those characters go out that way. It’s almost as bad as when twenty odd years ago they ‘died’ and were trapped for ‘eternity’ in the Norse Ragnarok.
I grew up reading about these characters, whether it was in the ALL STAR SQUADRON, following their children in INFINITY INC, or collecting any back issues or reprints I could find (and afford). I read them more than any other characters.
A couple of years ago the JUSTICE SOCIETY ANNUAL gave us a glimpse of the ‘new Earth 2’ with a team that was almost the team I remember before the CRISIS took it away. Not quite, but close, especially since it focused on Helena Wayne, the true HUNTRESS.
It was a great thrill to see the original team worked into the continuity of SMALLVILLE.
Now the universe is starting over, and what of my beloved team?
I had no answer for that question three hours ago, and now I have at least a glimmer of hope.
There would be a new Earth 2 on which the Justice Society of America still exists.
James Robinsons will be writing. He’s handled the team quite well in the past, and did fantastic job on Starman. So I am really looking forward to this book, and hope that it will have that same joy of adventure I remember.
So in a few hours (and apparently some people already have the new Justice League in their hands), a new universe is born. (I have to stop thinking of Marvel’s New Universe).
I am glad to know that some old friends will be there, even if they are slightly different.
As mentioned in a previous blog, I will hold judgment of these books until I read them. However I will say this:
I’ll know how well all the books did once DC announces next years summer Event story line.
Kevin Paul Shaw Broden
Four Names of Professional Creativity
I can’t believe that’s its practically nine months since my last blog. I so intended to write more on a regular basis, but sometimes it doesn’t feel like there is much to write about.
The year started off extremely positively, and it looked like I was going to have a job soon after. But that wasn’t meant to be I guess.
It did remain positive, though I had moments of frustration and disappointment, I was not going to give up on my faith that God has a great plan for me this year.
I did get to speak with, at least in e-mail form, several comic book professionals, as well as television producers. Even got to meet a comic writer/editor that I greatly admire, and if God has things set right there I might be doing some writing for him, but we can never be sure until it happens. I remain faithful.
I also met with a television producer who liked my writing quite a bit, and even sent samples around to people he knows. At the moment nothing is happening there either, but I don’t give up.
This year’s visit to the San Diego Comic Convention was perhaps my best when it comes to meeting with people and networking. I’m rather shy, but this year I was able to push though that and talk with people more.
Since then I’ve gotten to talk with others, and another comic book company is showing interesting in my writing as well.
One thing that I can mention here is that though I don’t have a lot to say at times, and sometimes it sounds like I’m complaining. I have discovered that facebook and mostly Twitter has become an excellent way to network and get to know people. If it wasn’t for Twitter I wouldn’t have gotten to talk with several of the professionals who are talking with me now about work. Thanks Twitter and everyone who follows me there.
So even if I don’t have a lot to say here in a blog, and I haven’t yet been employed whether it be creatively or in an office doing filing, this has still been a very good year. God has blessed me well.
Maybe I’ll blog more, or maybe you’ll find 140 characters on Twitter.
