Go figure the first post I make in 2015 will deal about books—namely comic books. I’ll try to make this post about Jenny, too. About how I wish she were sitting next to me at the moment, playing with my hair as I type these words.
I started a journal for Jenny. Handwritten, of course. I bought a pack of recycled-paper journals at Barnes the day after Christmas for the sole reason of filling one up for her. This plus my personal journal has kept me busy these last few days. I just hope I’m finished with hers in time to send it as a Valentine’s present. The only thing I fear is that I’ll become redundant on the page. What better way than to scare a girl away than showing her how banal you are? It doesn’t matter. She’s already professed that she loves me. Banality and all.
She doesn’t mind my nerdism, either. Which is a great feat because most ladies will roll their eyes at me when I get overly passionate about my hobbies. Not to mention their bemused expressions when I talk about how Batman is a better character that Spider-Man.
Which brings me to Deep State, a comic series from Boom! Studios. In December’s shipment from Heavy Ink, the first two issues arrived. My motivation for subscribing to a new title came from unsubscribing from titles I lost interest in. (Most are Marvel and Marvel Now titles. Marvel knows how to make a movie, I’ll give them that. Their titles lately are less than appealing these days.) Because my childhood love for superhero tales are limited to DC Comics, I thought a break from that realm would do me some justice. Especially when it comes to creating worlds of my own.
Deep State is reminiscent of The X-Files. In the altered history, the Soviets made to the Moon first. What was thought as a barren rock turned out to hold life. The Soviets never broadcast their moon landing, and they made sure they destroyed most of the evidence. However, the landing craft that went missing crash lands in present-day America. And the secrets thought long ago buried begins to infect a small town. Now it’s up to Harrow and Branch to keep this alien life force from spreading.
There are a few titles I’m looking forward to this year. Graveyard Shift, S.H.I.E.L.D., They’re Not Like Us, Silk, and Spider Gwen for starters. The last issues of Batman Eternal are approaching. I’m months behind on that weekly title. I have a few months to play catch up before that happens. I’m thinking about dropping Inhumans because the series is failing to keep my attention. I need to start an early spring cleaning before flushing money down the proverbial toilet.
I mentioned earlier that I use Heavy Ink to handle my subscriptions. Outside of their founder’s ultra-conservative stance, I never had a problem with them. That is until late last month when I took a gander at this month’s order. The price for the shipment hit $136. Pure insanity because several of the titles on the list were part of my December shipment. Because I don’t want duplicate—because if they’re not variant covers, why bother?—I canceled several orders. I’m just curious if anyone has ever had this problem with the company.
So to recap: Heavy Ink? Not so awesome. Deep State? Pretty awesome. Jenny? Fucking awesome. Well, that’s all for now. Keep on huntin’.
Chapin City Blues 