Dave's Fanboy Sermon

I know. I know.
I am behind on posting a sermon.

I have no excuses, so of course, here are my excuses.
Nothing to write about. Which is totally wrong. I have lots of topics to write about. The comic industry has seen more controversy in the past six months than any time that I can remember. There has to be at least a sermon or two in Marvels handling of Origin #1, with still another in how the comic buying public fell for it. You did, people. For one thing, this is not the first time that we have been promised an "origin" of Wolverine. It's been done before, only to have it yanked away with a "Maybe this is what happened, or maybe its' implanted memories." But at the last minute, just like a well trained animal or a jilted lover you forgot all the times that Marvel toyed with you and said "Got to have it. GOT TO HAVE IT!" Now you're on e-bay once again going nuts on a book that is only a couple of months old. I have had copies for $15.00 on my wall (That's me... ol' hypocrite Dave!) and no one has blinked an eye at the price. Now I'm finding that no one will even sell them to me at $15.00. Oh, maybe it's a good thing. People are getting excited again about a book. All that fervor driving the price up is bound to bring the comic industry back from the dead. Now people will start caring again about comics.

Yeah. Right.

I could write about the resurgence of comic properties in other entertainment mediums. The Spider-Man movie is due next year. Smallville is on TV now. The JLA cartoon. Why do so many want to see comic related movies and TV programs when so few actually buy comics? Oh, and don't even get me started about all the other comic related movies that are slated to go into production next year. I've heard it so many times before that I don't even pay attention until the film is playing at the local cinema. I really don't understand why we care so much. It is as if we are convinced that if people see the X-Men movie they will understand why we are comic fans. I have news for you. they still don't. Watching a movie and reading a book or comic are two completely different experiences. Do you really think that all of those people who bought the X-Men movie on DVD are now reading comics? Not a chance. It would be nice if they were, of course. Unfortunately, we live in a culture that simply doesn't place any value on non passive forms of art. We like are entertainment preprocessed, prefabricated and preregurgitated. Well...everybody else that is. Not us comic fans. We like to be challenged with something like... oh I don't know... the latest origin of Wolverine!

I'm sure by now that you have the impression that I hate Wolverine or think that Origin is a bad series. Not at all. I'm not the worlds biggest Wolverine fan by a long shot, but there is a tremendous fan base for the character and I respect that. Origin is probably just giving that fan base what it wants. Paul Jenkins is a solid writer (although I'm not sure that he is the best writer for a Wolverine series). If this is what comic fans want, so be it. I'm just searching for something to fill this sermon because... well... I'm awfully late on posting one and I just haven't spent the time to come up with anything better.

Which brings me to excuse number two: I don't have enough time.
This one is a little more plausible. I have a full time job (Even if it is a cushy job like running a comic store). I have a family that wants me to show up for meals occasionally. I spend a lot of time doing updates to the site that probably go unnoticed. I write and ink my own amateur comic book (another story in itself) that seems to take way longer than it has any right to. All in all, I am not wanting for extra things to fill up my time. This really doesn't hold up, however. Anyone can find the time to do things if they place any sort of priority on it. I do so many more things today than I used to be able to do. It's all in making use of your time. there's all sorts of things that I have on my list to do for this site. I am going to add an Anime section. Graphic Novel reviews. A game news section. I'll get to it. Soon.

So anyway, bottom line is you're right. I really should get back to writing. And I will. I am going to stop procrastinating and start being more productive. I am going to set the comic world on fire with my insightful views on ... stuff.
I am make it up to each one of you who visit this site and take the time to check and see if anything new is posted. From now on, no more excuses. I am going to start writing on a regular basis!

Starting Tomorrow.

Illustration by Gerald Kelley