Signal Reads: The Damsel (1967) by Richard Stark

At the conclusion of the Parker novel The Handle, Parker and Alan Grofield have landed in Mexico City with Grofield licking his wounds and Parker leaving him there so he can get on with it.

Richard Stark (aka: Donald Westlake) spun off Grofield into his own sub-set from the Parker novels with The Damsel (1967), giving Parker's occasional co-worker with the head full of flights of fancy room to pursue his own adventures.

Structurally, it feels a bit like a Parker novel, but tonally, The Damsel is a lot lighter on its feet and a bit wackier in scope.  While Stark narrates both books from a third-person perspective, the attitude of the protagonists infiltrates the worldview of the book.  Parker's methodical, systematic, almost obsessive-compulsive perspective is ditched for Grofield's devil-may-care approach, and talent for improvisation and theatricality giving the adventure more of... an adventurous air.

Vote-a-Geddon is Upon Us!!!!

If you are an American of voting age and registered, and you have not yet voted, I implore you - exercise your right to do so!

But not if you're undecided..?  Seriously.  You've had plenty of time to get informed.  If you still don't know, sit this one out and try again in four years.

Well, so I'm back in Austin (for a bit)

I don't know how I did this to myself this fall, but my schedule somehow got filled up right up til Christmas.  Not totally full, but it sure feels like it's going to be jam-packed.

Friday I fly out for a family reunion of sorts in Florida.  I return Sunday night and then next Tuesday (the 13th) will be flying out to Lubbock, returning Thursday the 15th.  And then Thanksgiving.  And then December 1 we're having our Holiday party (you, yes YOU, are invited!).  We'll follow that with me cheerleading a wedding in mid-December, and then we're pretty much in Christmas.

Christmas, people.

Some interesting stuff in Action Comics #14 on Wednesday!

Quick Superman related notes...

I wasn't off the plane yet and was checking email, and got a note from CanadianSimon about this week's release of Action Comics #14.  Apparently - it guest stars my favorite media-savvy scientist, Neil DeGrasse Tyson!  

NDG pops up in a lot of documentaries, is the host of Nova Science Now! and his podcast, StarTalk.  He also attended UT for a while, but did not feel it suited him and left.

Here he is rolling up his sleeves to go to work, side-by-side with Superman!

Man, someone really talented flatted that page

Oh, by the way, local artist and colorist, Jordan Gibson, did some work on that story!  He is the "flatter" on the art, which means he did some coloring work on this back-up feature.  Jordan is a huge Superman nut, and I'm totally thrilled he's getting an opportunity to see his work in Action Comics.

Get Out the Vote!

Hey, Americans!

It's DEMOCRACY TIME!

I've already early voted (thanks, local grocery store, for hosting), but if you haven't voted yet, get out there and have your say!

No matter who wins this election, let us hope that our president somehow doesn't have to just spend four years as the chewtoy for people who make their living making us hate each other rather than, you know, helping.

And try not to get into unnecessary, unwinnable arguments with people who matter.

By late Tuesday night we'll (probably) know the results, so take a breath, remain calm, and be glad that your government is not being dictated at swordpoint as it pretty much was everywhere on Earth for most of humanity's history.

How great is it that we don't just shrug and get along with our lot in lives, but expect ideas can be represented in a person and in a government?  That the extremism that took over our country was the idea that the people should get to have a voice?

I am a deeply cynical voter, but that's because my dream of a Mr. Smith going to Washington is dead and buried - and I've come to accept that no matter how smart or clever, a person is really just a person, and reality catches up with all of us sooner or later.  But I believe in the process, and I hope for the best with every vote I cast.

Also, locally, vote Prop 3.  Prop 4 doesn't make any sense.

An Excursion to Mile High Comics in Denver, CO

I wasn't terribly excited to have to get on a plane and head to Denver Saturday morning.  It's been a busy couple of weeks at work, and I wrapped up major meetings Thursday and Friday.  But off to Denver I went, asked to present at a conference that was aimed at my industry, but not so much directly at me and what I do.

When I was first getting into comics and believed I only really needed Batman, X-Men, Teen Titans and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in my life, I came to find out that a couple years before I learned what an X-Man or Teen Titan was, there has been a crossover between the Big Two, and an Uncanny X-Men/ Teen-Titans comic had actually been printed.  It blew my mind.  I never saw the cover of the comic, or who had worked on it.  It existed as a line-item in ads for a place on Denver called Mile High Comics as a title and price point.*

Eventually I saved up some money rather than taking whatever I had and riding immediately to Piggly Wiggly on my bike to look at the spinner rack.  My mom wrote a check and in some amount of time, the comic arrive in the mail.  It was like magic.  And the cover to the comic was pretty awesome, even if the story set the tone for how poorly I've always felt crossovers worked.

Over the years of following comics, I'd always heard legends of the store itself - a massive space that dwarfed the imagination (this was back when Austin Books was about 1500 square feet and half of that was dedicated to sci-fi books) and had an amazing selection.

Eventually, I even bought a couple of issues from them online before deciding the fun of collecting comics is in the hunt, not just ordering something off the internet.

I had just crawled into bed Friday night when I realized:  hey, I'm in Denver with time to kill.  I could jump in a cab and...

So Saturday afternoon I stepped outside my hotel, negotiated a return trip with a cab driver and off I went to the Mile High Comics Superstore.  And a Superstore it is, indeed.

this represents about 1/2 of what you can actually see inside the door...

Rocky Mountain Hi!

I'm in Denver from tomorrow afternoon until Monday afternoon for work. Attending and participating in a conference.

I've never been to The Mile High City, but I certainly hope to join this club they have that I keep hearing is pretty great. Everything I know about Denver can be summed up this way:

That Elway Fellow is like Football Elvis

My buddy Matt hails from Denver

It seems to be home to the grossest family of beers I can think of

This dude is really named "Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr." and went to Texas Tech University

I won't actually learn anything else about Denver as I foresee a lot of the Westin convention center, cab rides, air ports and airplanes in my future.

Movie Watch: Sleepwalk With Me (2012)

I listen to as many or more podcasts and audiobooks on my commute and driving around the state for work as I listen to music.  Over the years, one of the podcasts I've listened to regularly is This American Life from NPR, which occasionally features work by comedian Mike Birbiglia.  Birbigilia's stuff always feels very honest, a sort of milquetoasty Louis CK with a painful level of self-awareness.

Birbiglia has delivered his monologues on air/ podcast before regarding his issues with sleepwalking, so when I heard he was doing a movie on the topic, I more or less figured I knew what it was going to be.  So, yeah, lo and behold that was pretty much exactly right.

Novemberama! Joan Crawford!

Joan really looks like she knows her way around a sharp, deadly knife...

No.  Just, absolutely, no.  We are not doing this.

Happy Turkey Month, everybuddy!

Halloween Close-Out

Well, that was a whole lot of Halloween on this blog.  I hope you kids enjoyed it.

I figured I might as well do a real Halloween blowout here once, so, that was it.  I like me some Holidays, for sure, but Halloween and it's focus on lightweight scares, costumes and candy has always been a favorite.

In days of yore I might have tried to make more of Halloween night itself, but these days I'm pretty happy just to spend the evening in the driveway and get the chance to see the kids come up in their costumes.  And this year we had a heard of turtles.  Man, there were a lot of kids.

Some great costumes from Adventure Time characters to Kermit the Frog to Witches and Werewolves to somebody named "Minecraft Steve", who was the kid across the street with a box on his head.  And, because memes never really die, we had The Honey Badger.

Jason and Amy came by, so we had some company as we handed stuff out to the trick-or-treaters.  It's always more fun with company.

Anyway, it is a weird Halloween partially because the next several days are going to be nuts.  I have serious meetings at work followed by a work trip to Denver that will last all of 36 hours and end on Monday.

Hope your Halloween was fun!

If what I saw at CVS when I popped in this evening was any indication, we are now officially in the Christmas season.