Blake’s Universal Rule of the Universe #73
73. People who flip out over the first announcement of many are probably the same ones that quit reading books after the first chapter if they don’t already know every damn detail.
Read the rest of the Universal Rules of the Universe right here!
With summer upon us, I hope to get more time to read than I do in the school year (despite the pretty substantial to-do list that I’ve compiled for myself), and today I knocked out my first book of the season. I’ve heard a lot of people talking about Suzanne Collins‘ The Hunger Games, mostly going back and forth over how great it was, but very little information about the actual plot. Finally, on the recommendation of Erin and a couple of other friends, I took the plunge into the first volume of the trilogy.
Set in a war-torn future where control of the North American continent has fallen to a single, oppressive “Panem” government, this novel tells of a young woman forced to compete in the deadliest competition in her world. As punishment for a long-ago uprising against the Capitol, each year the 12 districts of Panem select two “tributes” — a teenage boy and a teenage girl — to send into the Hunger Games, a brutal tournament of hunting and death, from which only one person a year can return alive. Katniss Everdeen, our heroine, is the tribute from District 12, the poorest and most put-upon of the nation’s twelve districts. Although an accomplished hunter, Katniss will have to face people who have spent their lives preparing for the Games, for whom bringing home the glory of victory is their own purpose in life, as well as a set of clever and cunning Gamemakers intent on changing the games whenever necessary to keep it interesting.
The whole idea of being forced into a competition to the death isn’t new at all. We can go back at least to the gladiator days of ancient Rome for that one (probably longer) and we see popular examples as recently as 1999’s Battle Royale. What really sets this book apart, I think, is Collins’ remarkable skill at not only constructing an interesting world, but then using that world as an active participant in the story, not just a backdrop. The way Katniss enters the games, for example, defies any sort of stereotype or cliche you would expect in a story of this nature.
Once inside the arena, Katniss is constantly aware that everything she does is being filmed and broadcast to the rest of Panem. That becomes important when you consider that wealthy sponsors on the outside are allowed to buy and send the participants gifts like food, medicine, and supplies, and if they don’t like what they’re seeing, the gifts don’t come. Because of this Katniss is never entirely sure about the motivations of her allies inside the games, and neither are the readers. We know when Katniss is being honest and when she’s just playing it up for the cameras, but what about Peeta? What about Rue? The constant uncertainty makes the plot infinitely more compelling than a standard story of this type, where you’d just have those kids out to kill each other against those hoping to defy the system that forced them into the Game. (There is still a degree of that, it’s unavoidable, but it’s not nearly as prevalent as in Battle Royale, to stick with that example.)
In truth, I find I’m actually very sorry that I didn’t try this series until the third and final book has already been published. In other series I’ve followed — Harry Potter being the best example — half the fun of being a fan comes after you read each new installment, talking with other fans and speculating about what’s coming up next for our heroes. Sadly, I’ve already missed all that and must simply attempt to remain spoiler-free until I read the other two books in the series. But rest assured, I’m going to do that soon, because the story is incredibly well-told, I really have no idea where Collins can take this story in the second two books, and I’m very excited to find out.
Our talks from the panel room of the Nola Comic-con continue! This week, it’s time to talk to comic book artist Andy Kuhn, co-creator of the Image Comic and Cartoon Network original movie Firebreather! Andy talks about creating the character, the transition to film, and some plans for the future of Firebreather in this Showcase special. In the picks, Blake recommends Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #10! Contact us with comments, suggestions, or anything else at Showcase@CXPulp.com!
Music provided by Music Alley from Mevio.
Episode 223: Andy Kuhn and Firebreather
Since I’ve become a virtual evangelist for eBooks, whenever I’m seen reading a book printed on actual paper, people act shocked. “Why are you reading that?” they say. “Don’t you have a Kindle? Aren’t you against paper now? Don’t you hate trees, Blake? Don’t you?”
And the simple answer is the true one: not every book is available as an eBook yet. Some publishers haven’t embraced the technology, some books are tied up in rights issues, and some writers simply don’t like it. Eventually, I think, everything new that gets published will have an eBook edition, and eventually everything anybody remembers that has already been published will be available that way, although may not happen until the individual rights holders have been dead long enough for the books to lapse into public domain.
Here are a few books that aren’t available as eBooks (yet) that I wish I could get on my Kindle.
1. The Harry Potter series. Amazingly, one of the best-selling series of books in the history of language has not been made available yet as an eBook, reportedly under the instruction of one J.K. Rowling herself. I can understand loving paper books, as I’ve said before, but refusing to make the books available seems silly to me. Fans who want replacement copies of their books would like it — in fact, I think it’s safe to say that most diehard fans who own an eReader would get the entire series in short order, whether their books are still in readable condition or not. Potential new readers are growing up every day, buy more and more we’re learning the younger generation prefers their content digitally. Not making the books available in this format is an obstacle to gaining new readers. Look, it’s not like Rowling needs the money or anything, but releasing these books electronically would basically be a license to print cash for her and Scholastic Publishing. I’m really surprised these haven’t made it to the eReader market yet.
2. George R.R. Martin’s Wild Cards series. If you know Martin but haven’t heard of Wild Cards it’s probably because of his fantasy series, A Song of Fire and Ice, the first book of which inspired the HBO hit series A Game of Thrones. Wild Cards is a very different series, a set of “mosaic novels” tracing the alternate history of a universe where an alien virus struck Earth in the years shortly after World War II, creating a class of mutated individuals and superpowered would-be heroes. The books I’ve read are great, but the middle books in the series (which is in the teens now) are notoriously difficult to find, so I’ve never read the whole thing. If you go to Amazon’s Kindle store, you’ll find that the newer books (and an upcoming book) are available, as is book one. And five. And seven! So where are two, three, four, six… you get the picture. The only reason I can think of for such a sporadic release of the volumes is because Martin isn’t the sole writer of the series. The way these “mosaic novels” work, several writers each compose a story about their own character, usually surrounding one central theme or event that they all share, and the editor (Martin) pieces their segments together into a single narrative. It’s a lot of fun, but if any of the writers in an individual volume (which began in the 80s, long before eBooks) doesn’t want to issue the rights to releasing an eBook, that would stop the whole book from being available. Lunacy.
3. E.E. “Doc” Edwards’ Lensmen series. Here’s a case of “I’ve never read it but I wanna.” Edwards’ classic sci-fi saga, Lensmen, has often been cited as being the inspiration for the Green Lantern Corps. As Green Lantern is one of my favorite comics, I very much would like to read this series. At the moment, though, only the first book in the series Triplanetary, is currently available as an eBook. And I’m pretty sure the only reason that is available is because of the vagaries of magazine copyright law in the 1930s. Triplanetary is now public domain, the rest of the series is not. And as Triplanetary originally wasn’t even part of the series (Edwards apparently did some fancy rewriting after Lensmen became popular to make it function as a prequel), I’m not even that excited to read it if I can’t find the others.
So those are my current requests for books that should be available for my Kindle. Any other suggestions?
I know that the song in the following YouTube video was written for the kids, but I think it behooves us to make this our anthem for the next two months as well. Whenever somebody asks me what I’m doing this summer, I don’t even know where to start answering… ’cause I got plans. Lots of work, but potentially, lots of reward.
But most of all, as each day comes around, I’m going to try my best to make sure that in every single possible way, today is gonna be a great day.
The students are out.
The teachers have one more day.
Two months off from my job.
But the hard work begins Saturday.
Wish me luck.
This week, my friends, I’m celebrating a milestone. It’s the big, big 400th edition of Everything But Imaginary, my weekly comic book column at CXPulp.com! I’m highly excited about it, and decided to take this opportunity to explain, once and for all, just why I read comic books. I’ll give you a hint. It’s got a lot to do with potential.
Everything But Imaginary #400: Why Do I Read Comics
And as part of the celebration, in this week’s Classic EBI, I’m stepping out of order a little bit. Column #93 was scheduled to be next, but since I’m celebrating this milestone, I thought it would be nice to go back and celebrate the column’s very first milestone, EBI #100, from February 2, 2005. Let’s go, shall we?
EBI #100 SUPER-SIZED SPECTACULAR: WHAT COMICS DO I LOVE?
As comic fans, 100 is a huge number for us. It’s rare, especially these days, for something to last 100 installments, so when it happens it’s cause for celebration. How, then, do I commemorate EBI 100?
Part of my mission statement here, folks, is to talk about what makes good comics good. And that’s my favorite part of this job: turning people on to new comics, explaining why I think something is great or talking about how to make it better. So how better to handle this column than to talk about the greatest comic book properties I’ve ever read?
Then I hit another problem, because when I made my top 10 list, almost all of them were superhero properties, and comic books are so much more than that, and I didn’t want to focus just on superheroes.
Then I thought: “Duh. It’s my 100th issue, and I can make it super-sized if I want to.”
So that’s what you’re getting, friends — my 10 favorite superhero properties and my 10 favorite other comic properties. There won’t be any big surprises on this list. You’ve been reading for 100 columns now, you know what I like and I don’t like. The important thing here, the thing I hope you take away from this… is the why.
My 10 Favorite Non-Superhero Comics
10. G.I. Joe: Yeah, I’m a big kid and I know it. But that’s why this property is so great to me. Every little boy wants to play Army Man — well, G.I. Joe takes that concept to the extreme. And the greatest Joe tales ever were told in the comics — first in Larry Hama’s legendary run at Marvel, then with Josh Blaylock and Brandon Jerwa at Devil’s Due. What’s more, this is the property that jumpstarted the 80s nostalgia craze, and is one of the few survivors. Because it’s still really, really good. This property has grown and matured along with its audience. Guys my age fell in love with this comic book as kids. It’s amazing that, even as adults, it’s one of the best comics on the market.
9. PVP: Man, what’s left to say about Scott Kurtz and PVP? Birthed as a webtoon, turned into a successful comic, this title lampoons video games, office politics, pop culture, television, movies and everything else. It’s what Dilbert would be with a giant blue troll and actual punchlines. For me, to be actually funny, something has to be smart too, and PVP scores that in spades. I read it every day on PVP Online and I still geek out every time an issue arrives at the comic shop.
8. Strangers in Paradise: Terry Moore’s labor of love was one of the first serious, non-superhero comics I ever got into. It’s basically a love story about Francine Peters and Katchoo, but sometimes it’s a triangle with David or a quadrangle with Casey or a pentagon with Freddie. Sometimes it’s a mob drama. Sometimes it’s a sitcom. Sometimes it’s a romance. This is a title that can reinvent itself not just from story to story, but within the same issue. Moore’s work is unceasingly experimental and consistently interesting, and I love that.
7. Sandman. Neil Gaiman’s masterpiece, Sandman was the flagship title of DC’s Vertigo line, and is still a top seller in bookstores. Using bits and pieces of DC’s existing superhero universe, Gaiman instead crafted a haunting fantasy tale about the king of the Dreaming and his Endless siblings. Sandman is the only comic book ever to win a World Fantasy Award (and is likely to remain so, because the members of the Award federation were so incensed that a lowly comic book won that they changed the rules so they are no longer eligible). It’s a truly literary work, and it’s a book with a lot of crossover appeal as well, drawing in people who ordinarily wouldn’t read comics and showing them how much potential the art form has.
6. Fables: This is by far the youngest property on either of these lists, and it is a testament to how good it is that I’m mentioning it in this column at all. The brainchild of Bill Willingham, Fables takes all those fairy tale and storybook characters we read about as a child and casts them together in a bold new epic — alternately a drama and a comedy, it’s fast, smart, clever and engaging. Five years ago I never would have believed I’d be pulling for a reconciliation between Snow White and the Big Bad Wolf or reading stories about Cinderella pulling a Mata Hari routine on Ichabod Crane, but I’m reading them now. And I run — run — every month to see if it’s in my advance pack of reviews, because if there’s anything I like more than Fables, it’s telling people how good it is.
5. Archie: That’s right. America’s Favorite Teenager is making my Top 10 list. And you know why? Because it’s sweet. And innocent. And wholesome. And it’s something that each and every one of us can relate to at some point in our lives. I’d wager that at least 75 percent of comic book fans, at some point or another, have read an Archie comic. You have the love triangles, the goofy buddies, the brainiacs, the bullies, the jocks, the nerds, and it’s all wrapped up in a package that is perfect to hand to kids and entice them into reading comic books. If I ever have kids, when the time comes for them to learn how to read, you can bet that Archie is going to be part of the curriculum.
4. Uncle Scrooge: I love Uncle Scrooge for many of the same reasons I love Archie — it’s wholesome and great for kids and something we’ve all read, but Scrooge has even more going in its favor. A great Uncle Scrooge story is never dated, never too low for adults to read, never too highbrow for kids. And while Archie is primarily suited for slapstick comedy, Scrooge does it all. Want high adventure? Let’s go on a treasure hunt. Want romance? Weave the tale of Scrooge’s lost love, Glittering Goldie. Sci-fi? Fantasy? Monsters? Pirates? Cowboys? Mythology? Politics? Corporate scandal? With Scrooge and his nephews, you can tell just about any kind of story you can imagine.
3. The Spirit: The most famous work of Will Eisner is a borderline superhero comic (he does wear a mask and fight crime, after all), but it’s more than that. It’s a crime drama at its heart, but Eisner did some fantastic things with it. He delved into fantasy, comedy and horror — as many genres as Scrooge does, in fact, but he did it for a more adult audience and revolutionized comics while he was at it. There’s still one Spirit story by its creator left unpublished, a crossover with Michael Chabon’s Escapist, and I cannot wait for that book to see print.
2. Bone: This is one of those rare comic books to crop up in the last ten to fifteen years that will almost certainly become a classic. Written and drawn by Jeff Smith, this epic fantasy followed the three Bone cousins after they were driven out of their home and into a valley filled with strange and terrifying creatures. Smith tricked us all by playing up the first dozen issues or so of the comic as a lighthearted comedy before delving straight into hardcore, full-out Tolkien levels of fantasy. (Tolkien played the same trick with The Lord of the Rings, if you look at the early lighthearted chapters of the first book.) If you like fantasy, you have to read this comic, and you’ve got plenty of options to do so. You can hunt down the nine volumes of the series. You can put out a chunk of change for the ginormous one-volume edition. Or you can even get the new digest-sized reprints that Scholastic is now printing… in full color.
1. Peanuts: If you did not see this coming, go back and reread the last 99 EBIs. Charles M. Schulz was, quite simply, the wisest man who ever lived. A genius, a philosopher, a teacher, a friend. And he did all of his great work through a round-headed kid, a crazy dog, a kid who couldn’t let go of his blanket and a loudmouthed fussbudget. People don’t give him enough credit for the brilliance of Charlie Brown — when you’re reading that strip, he is you. His face is deliberately blank and featureless that anybody can project themself into his situation. We’ve all fallen for the little red-haired girl or lost the big baseball game. We’ve all gone to friends for advice only to be mocked. We’ve all fallen. We’ve all hurt. We’ve all cried. We’ve all laughed. And we do it all through the Peanuts gang. To read his comic, it would be easy to argue that Schulz thought the secret of life was, no matter what, to never stop trying to kick that football. It would be far harder to argue that he was wrong.
And now for the moment that far too many of you probably skipped down to read when I explained how this week’s column was going to work…
My 10 Favorite Superhero Comics
10. Batman: Some of you are probably stunned that he’s so low on this list, others may be stunned he’s on here at all. But remember, this is my list and I can do it however I want. Batman is a modern-day fable, something that all of us can look to and wonder. What we have, basically, is a normal human who had everything that mattered taken away from him, but instead of falling prey to the night, he conquered it and elevated himself to the status of the gods. His prime motivator is guilt — he believes, on some subconscious level, that he can bring his parents back and atone for the sin of surviving by spending his entire life fighting criminals. He’s probably the deepest, most complex superhero there is.
9. Captain Marvel: And I mean the real Captain Marvel — not Mar-Vell, not Genis, not Monica Rambeaux. I mean Billy Batson, a poor orphaned boy who was led down a dark tunnel to a wizard who, upon saying the magic word Shazam!, transforms into the world’s mightiest mortal. As deep and complex as Batman is, Captain Marvel is the opposite — simple and innocent. He is a good-hearted child given the ability to do great things. Heck during the Underworld Unleashed storyline, when the demon Neron was questing for the purest soul in existence, everyone automatically assumed he wanted Superman. When he made his move for Cap, they were proven wrong. Is it any wonder that, in his heyday, he was the most popular superhero there was? More than Batman, Superman or Captain America, kids of the 1940s dreamed of being Captain Marvel. And there’s something beautiful about that.
8. Justice Society of America/Justice League of America/Teen Titans: Am I cheating by lumping these three properties together? I don’t think so, because I think of them as being different stages of the same thing: a legacy of heroism. The JSA was the first team of superheroes in any medium. They are the old guard. The elder statesmen. They’ve done it all and seen it all, and usually did it better than you. They are everything you want to be. The JLA is the pinnacle of the modern heroes. They are the first line of defense. The strongest, the bravest, the fastest, the truest. If your world needs saving, these are the guys you call to do it. The Teen Titans are the future. They’re the heroes-in-training. They look at the JSA and JLA and know that this is what they have to live up to, that the world will some day need them to become that. And they don’t back down from that crushing responsibility — because they’re already heroes.
7. Captain America: Forget politics for a moment. I don’t care who you voted for in the last election or where you live in the world or if you’re from a red state, a blue state or a marzipan state. Think about what Captain America symbolizes. A scrawny little boy who so loved his country, so loved the ideals of freedom and democracy, that he served himself up as an experiment to save the world from evil — and in doing so became the greatest soldier of all time. Someone who fights nearly 70 years later for those same ideals. Someone who is not blind to the problems of the world but who has faith in the goodness of the human spirit to rise above those faults and build something grand. You can’t tell me there’s not something awe-inspiring about that.
6. Spider-Man: Possibly Stan Lee’s greatest creation, Spider-Man is amazing (pun intended) for many of the same reasons as Captain Marvel. It’s the story of a boy given incredible power to go out and do good… but he’s given more complexity because, like Batman, he is driven by guilt. He squandered his gift, used it selfishly, and as a result lost the only father he ever knew. He was the first really relatable superhero — having problems with women, problems with school, problems with money. He’s been called the everyman superhero. That’s definitely one of the things that has made him so great.
5. Green Lantern: I don’t care which Green Lantern is your favorite. Pick one. Alan Scott. Hal Jordan. Kyle Rayner. John Stewart. Guy Gardner. Kilowog. Arisia. Ch’p. Tomar-Re. Relax, gang, I could be going this way for a long time. Green Lantern, at least to the readers, started with one man — Alan Scott. It spread out to become an intergalactic peacekeeping force like none other. Heroes across the entire universe, all brothers and sisters of the ring. When one Green Lantern falls, another takes his place. The Corps will never be gone forever. And no Green Lantern ever fights alone.
4. The Flash: First it was Jay Garrick. Then Barry Allen. Then Wally West. But it wasn’t until Mark Waid really delved into the characters in the late 80s and early 90s that the Flash became what it truly is now — the greatest legacy in comic books. He’s not just a guy with super-speed. The Flash is an ideal. A mantle. A banner that will be worn for a time and then passed down. Bart Allen is next in line after Wally. And after him, there will be more to come, an unbroken line, stretching at least to the 853rd century, for that is as far as we’ve seen. But there will be even more after that, we know. You cannot kill the Flash. You can only kill the person in that mask today.
This, as a brief aside, is the reason that Green Lantern and the Flash compliment each other so well, and why each generation of these characters have formed a true bond. One is the symbol of Justice Universal. The other is the symbol of Justice Eternal.
3. The Legion of Super-Heroes: This is one of the first superhero comics I ever read, thanks to my Uncle Todd, and it remains one of my favorite. The concept has been rebooted and revamped several times over the years, but the core remains the same: a thousand years from now, a group of teenagers bands together, in the spirit of the heroes of old, to protect the universe from evil. It’s as simple as that. It’s also got some of the most diverse, most interesting characters in comics. The group has a fantastic history and, even more, looks to its own history as inspiration. Much like the legacy of the Flash, the Legion of Super-Heroes is about a promise… that even 1,000 years into the future, there will still be heroes, still be people ready to stand against the night, still be people willing to fight, to bleed, to die… to save the world.
2. Fantastic Four: I’ve tricked you by putting this here, you know. Because unlike the last eight items, the Fantastic Four aren’t really superheroes. They are superpowered beings who Reed Richards has cast as superheroes, to make them famous, to atone for his original mistake that stole their normal lives in the first place. No, the FF is much grander than a superhero. The Fantastic Four are explorers. Of what? Anything. Outer space. Inner space. Microspace. Cyberspace. The Negative Zone. The depths of the Amazon. The cold surface of the moon. The burning depths of the human heart. The Fantastic Four are a family, dedicated to plunging the boundaries of knowledge, to seeking out what’s out there beyond the realm of imagination. They are considered the first characters of the “Marvel Age” of comics, but age is not a factor for them. When the stories are written properly, the Fantastic Four is always, always about finding something new, something grand… something fantastic.
1. Superman: He was the first. He remains the greatest. Superman is an incredible tale on many levels. He’s an immigrant. He’s an orphan. He’s an endangered species. He’s an exile. And yet he still found a way to become the greatest hero in the world. I get riled when I hear people call Superman perfect, because that doesn’t sound like they really understand the character, that they’ve only seen the work of poor writers. He struggles against being alone, against his urge to use his power for his own ends, against the ability to become a conqueror and shape the world as he sees fit. His true power comes not from the distant Krypton, but from the heart of America, from Kansas. By raising the most powerful child in the world, Jonathan and Martha Kent are heroes in their own right, giving the world a protector who very easily could have become a despot. The “super” part of his name is not the important part. Far more importantly, he is a man, a man with a good heart and a gentle soul, an iron will and an endless reservoir of courage. He is the most human of us all. He is the human we all wish we could be.
So there you have it. Not just one, not just ten, but twenty of the greatest concepts ever put forth in comics. Not necessarily the most famous or the most popular, but the ones that speak to me more than any other, the ones I love even through the lean years — the Superman Red/Superman Blue fiascos, the spider-clones, the “Ninja Force” nonsense and even in the face of those Bad Writers Who Shall Not Be Named. Because even when these concepts are mishandled, there’s no writer on Earth bad enough to destroy what makes their core work. Even in the bad times, it is only a matter of time until a good writer (I’m looking at you, Gail Simone) finds that core, polishes it, returns it to the light and makes their stories great again.
FAVORITE OF THE WEEK: January 26, 2005
Two months in and Mark Waid and Barry Kitson’s new Legion of Super-Heroes has twice won my “favorite of the week” honor. In issue #2 Brainiac 5 leads a team of Legionnaires to Dream Girl’s homeworld of Naltor, where the youths of the planet have lost their ability to sleep and, with that, their precognitive abilities. It’s part sci-fi mystery, part superhero romp and part political drama. It’s great. Waid has frequently won “Favorite of the Week” for his Fantastic Four work – with that ending, it looks like he’s going to keep that distinction on a regular basis here with Legion.
Blake M. Petit is the author of the superhero comedy novel, Other People’s Heroes, the suspense novel The Beginner and the Christmas-themed eBook A Long November. He’s also the co-host, with whoever the hell is available that week, of the 2 in 1 Showcase Podcast and the weekly audio fiction podcast Blake M. Petit’s Evercast. E-mail him at BlakeMPetit@gmail.com and visit him on the web at Evertime Realms. Read past columns at the Everything But Imaginary Archive Page, and check out his new experiment in serial fiction at Tales of the Curtain.
After a four-year hiatus, Captain Jack Sparrow is back on the high seas. Will the newest entry in Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean francise sail to new heights, or will it sink to the bottom of Davy Jones’s locker? And how many bad pirate puns can Blake cram into this little blurb? Find out in this bonus mini-episode of the 2 in 1 Showcase podcast! Contact us with comments, suggestions, or anything else at Showcase@CXPulp.com!
Music provided by Music Alley from Mevio.
And if you’d rather just read my thoughts instead of listen to them, check out my CX Pulp review, where I make basically the same points.
As so many of our high school students head out into the real world (or college) this month, I thought I might take a few minutes to offer just a tiny bit of advice. It’s actually a pretty simple concept, but one that seems to have escaped many (not all, but many) of our young people.
Get ready, because those of you who don’t know it already are about to learn that the world is not about you.
A lot of you have had it pretty easy, and that’s okay. You’ve been kids. Your parents were there to take care of you, your teachers had a personal investment in watching you succeed. And while I hope your parents will always be there for you, the rest of it is about to change.
Those of you going to college — you’re going to enter an environment where teachers have so many students to consider that the attention you got in high school is going to seem downright personal by comparison. You’ll also find that they don’t have as much sympathy as you’re used to either. They’re not going to remind you daily when the next test is, when your next paper is due, or how many chapters will be on the next quiz. If you get study guides at all, do not expect them to be verbatim copies of the questions you will see on the test, and don’t expect the questions on the test to even be phrased the same way. And heaven forbid if you think you’re going to get those questions in the same order. Your teachers will give you a syllabus on the first day with the test schedule already there. If they mention it in class after that, it’ll either be a cursory reminder or to tell you the schedule has changed. Studying and preparing is now 100 percent on you. And don’t expect the university to be so forgiving of someone who’s mysteriously sick on every test day.
Those of you going into the job market — some of you have had your hands held for 12 years. You’re used to teachers who will bend over backwards, beg and plead with you to get your work done, to push yourself, to do your best. That’s because the teacher’s job is to make you as good as you can be. But when you get your own job, the boss doesn’t care about that. The boss cares about whether or not you can benefit his company, and if you can’t, his job isn’t to reshape you (assuming you will even allow yourself to be reshaped). Those of you who habitually turn in half-finished tests because you didn’t feel like doing the rest of it, who miss school for days at a time and expect someone to catch you up on everything you missed while you were out, who don’t pay attention, don’t take notes, and don’t care what your performance scores are? There is a word for people with that attitude in the workplace: unemployed.
And finally, for all of you, a last word. You’re all about to experience things you have never gone through before, and some of them will be difficult. But don’t make the mistake of thinking no one has ever gone through them before. I promise you, unless there’s going to be a disease named after you there is no problem you can name that somebody out there — probably someone you know — hasn’t already gone through at some point or another. Money, grades, relationships, co-workers you don’t get along with, insurance woes, that mysterious spot on the carpet… all of it. Any time you or one of your friends has said the phrase “Nobody understands,” you have been flat-out wrong. You are NOT a special little snowflake. Somebody has been there before.
But don’t think of that as a bad thing. The fact that someone has been through it means that someone, somewhere, knows what you’re going through. And if you can find them (they’re probably closer than you think) and ask them the right way, they may even be able to help.
And if you think I’m full of crap, that I don’t know what I’m talking about, that’s okay too. Because I was your age once and I remember thinking people giving me advice were full of crap. And then I went out and made a bunch of stupid mistakes because I was 18 and knew everything in the world, just like you. I just hope that someday, when you’re older and have a little perspective, you’ll be able to look back on this and say, simply, “Yep. I get it now.”
It’s a Showcase first! Last week at Nola Comic-Con, the boys were lucky enough to host a few panel discussions, and we’re bringing the audio to you. This week, we talk with DC superstar artist Francis Manapul about getting started, his evolving art style, his work on Flash, his appearances on the TV show Beast Legends, and a hint about who’s going to be writing his next project. In the picks, Blake recommends Rocketeer Adventures #1! Contact us with comments, suggestions, or anything else at Showcase@CXPulp.com!
Music provided by Music Alley from Mevio.
Episode 222: A Chat With Francis Manapul
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