Roger Brand Memorial Article

Remembering Roger Brand

The Comics Journal 

by Kim Deith

October 12, 2011

https://www.tcj.com/a-lousy-week-for-woods-remembering-roger-brand/

Comics Broke You, too, eh?

So, we have a viral protest going on in the social media world. It's hashtag is #comicsbrokeme. 

I'm amazed at how many people have horror stories about Comics, but moreso at how many people revived their love of the media by finding a niche to thrive within. 

Comics is a labor intensive media. It does not matter if it is physical or digital. No amount of automation, machine learning or artifical intelligence gets involved. From developing a theme, plot outline, rough visual design through the finished product requires passion, vision and persistence to produce a work that deals with static images and words to tell a story. 

The quick money mentality of mass media consumption producers who fly along pandering to the latest trend works to break down the production aspects of the media of comics. From the solitary cartoonist doing both the writing and drawing, production houses have broken down comics into a plethora of aspects that include, but are not limited to plotting, writing, editing, illustration layouts, preliminary art, finished art, pencillers, inkers, colorists, lettered, page designers, sound effect design, and packaging design. 

None of these micromanagement generated jobs and commensurate titles have allowed comics to be produced at lightning fast turnaround time to satisfy people seeking to financially profit from a cultural bubble. It is the same production issue that animation has dealt with since the 1960s. The human effort required to produce a "story product" is great enough that it blunts the impact of being able to immediately stuff something in front of you and require you to consume it. 

If comics breaks a person, it simply is a matter of rigid thinking about what the impact of their "story product" should be. It is a gross divergence in the actual reaction not being what they want or need. Comics won't ever fully validate you even though you feel called to pour every morsel of your being into it. Comics can be a beacon to attract people like you to you, it just doesn't come with the guarantee that you feel you need to thrive. 

NFL Predictions 2022 - NFC North

NFL Draft 2022 is over. 

The final Division standings for the NFC North in 2022. 

 

Green Bay Packers (11-6)

Detroit Lions  (10-7)

Chicago Bears  (9-8)

Minnesota Vikings  (7-10))

Points in time

The problem I encounter with recorded events or history is that all I get is a fragment of what happened. I get a point or, if lucky, series of points in time. 

Time will have a distorting effect on those points in time. However it won't fully transform those points in time. They will still be what they are. 

The danger with recorded events is that I overlay my personal experience on them. If I are not aware of my own filters then I  personalize them like they are happening to me right now, at this very instant. I allow myself to lie to me. Trauma magnifies this behavior tens, hundreds or thousands-fold and that is how strong of a trap it is. 

Every person should be aware of their filters, so they can avoid manipulation from outside or within. 

The Return of the Return of the Blog

Is a blog supposed to be a personal journal from a singular perspective or a well researched publication on the internet? 

Why do people take one person's opinion as their own? Why is self-reflection so difficult? 

Does the self, or the ego, have to take the highest position in your life or can you submit to the needs, not merely wants, of others? 

If the purpose of government to settle grievances between two people, or groups of people, shouldn't it be done in the most compassionate and objective way possible? 

These are just some of the questions I have had and pondered without blogging about them. Maybe I should have. Maybe I should have not had fear of manifesting those ideas. Even the awkward, unpopular, previously covered, or retread ideas need to be clarified for some individuals, because they may be encountering them for the first time. 

Just because the majority have an understanding of the why there is no justification to answer the question again with fear and derision. That is how we get conflict and confrontation. That is how we get the push and shove politics of disrespect. 

I don't have any further answers, but maybe posing this idea will help someone else take it further. 

Adventures in Coloring

Doctor Strange by Ben Dunn, colors by Paul Ewert.

Adventures In Coloring

Brother Power the Geek by Chas Truog