I Feel So Good, But I Feel So Bad (But I'm Getting Better)

I meant to post this much sooner but I've been sick and working and shut up! I got some good news involving me, who is apparently awesome.

1. I will now be teaching two students each Saturday: an 11th grade student who needs help with his English class and a 7th grade student who needs help with English in general. Sure, both seem to speak fluent English, but so does Aden and just look at his spelling. So I got that going for me.

2. I will be writing comic reviews for a webzine called PopMatters, which I'm looking forward to since it brings me just a little closer to legitimacy. The e-mail I got from them said that they liked my reviews and I just have to send at least one comic review every 2 weeks and that they may send me free books. The only problem is they said they like my reviews of Infinite Crisis and Loveless... neither of which I have never read, let alone reviewed. Then they sent me a letter of apology for that mistake and said all the other information still stands. Yay me.

3. My comic book radio show (Four Color Sound, which airs every Saturday morning at 11 a.m. and Mondays at 6 a.m.) had its first interview with Gibson Twist, a local writer whose work has appeared in 24 Hour Comics Day Highlights 2005. 24 Hour Comics Day is an event started by Scott McCloud in which comic creators from all over the world must complete a 24 page comic within 24 hours. Crazy! Gibson only got 10 pages in, but the story actually feels pretty complete, and the comic was actually good enough to merit one his comic being put into the Highlights book. Gibson turned out to be a really nice guy and a catchy pen name and really enjoyed doing the interview. he had done Morningside earlier in the month, but that was only about 5 minutes. We gave him a full forty, plus co-hosting duties. Sweet. That broadcast will also be the first one we PodCast. It's probably best to start with a big name. Well, a name anyway. Shut up, I think he's cool.

So lots of nice things happening lately. But I've also been sick and feeling like crap. The sickness comes in ebbs and flows but now I'm feeling mostly better and not shitty. Lets just see how long that lasts.

Thing I'm obsessed with at the moment:

All-Star Superman: This is easily the best Superman comic to come out since "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?" (though if you want to debate it go ahead). The only thing that comes close is Superman: Secret Identity, but to be fair, that was a Superman comic without Superman in it. Sort of. It's complicated.

Anyway, All-Star Superman is a new series designed to tell stories featuring "classic" Superman, who isn't married, hasn't died and isn't bogged down in continuity. The only Super-knowledge you need to know the common knowledge sort of stuff: Superman good and can do anything. Lex Luthor is bad. Lois Lane is a spunky journalist. She puts up with Clark and loves Superman. Who is Clark. Nice and simple.

With the first issue, writer Grant Morrison and artist Frank Quitely make Superman better than he's been in years. They now making a good Superman story is now to try and make Superman "cool," but rather having him being an epic, awe-inspiring but gentle figure who can tear the Earth in two but just wants to help people. They know how to make Lex Luthor into a brilliant villain who is so smart that he knows how to take care of the man who can do anything. And Lois... Well, as long as you remember to make her feisty, just and turned off by naivete without being a bitch then you've got her right.

The book begins with Superman saving a spacecraft that is trying to "steal fire from the sun" in order to study it. Unfortunately Lex Luthor has sabotaged the mission with a human bomb and Superman has to stop it. Superman does (cause he's Superman) with the help of new superpowers he acquired from the sun (Superman's powers stem from the radiation of Earth's sun on his alien biology). Unfortunately the benevolent scientist named Quintam (who planned the mission to the sun) tells Superman that he has sucked in so much solar energy that his cells are bursting that the seems and he only has a short time to live. Now Superman faces his final mission: saying goodbye to the world he once protected and doing everything that needs to be done.

Awesome book! Luthor has never been more nasty. For example: Luthor, being taken away by the police after tricking Superman into flying into the sun and causing his inevitable death says "Yes, take me away boys. I know it's for my own good. Take me away... before I do something really terrible to Superman." Man, that guy is fucking EVIL!