A random series of events brought me to this blog, and reminded me that I have not posted on it in five years. The last post marked the 15th anniversary of Comic Book Galaxy, one of the earliest comic book websites, in the first dozen or so, I believe, maybe half dozen. And now it's just over two months until the 20th anniversary. Not that many remember. But I do.
Of course the world has changed for most people reading this over the course of the last five years. First the rise of fascism fueled by white supremacy in Los Estados Unidos with the 2016 election and all the horrors Individual 1 has delivered unto us since then, and most recently with the novel coronavirus, the lockdowns, the supply chain disruptions, and the untold economic catastrophe bubbling under the surface of everything. And that's not even mentioning climate change, or that we lost Tom Spurgeon, or that sexual predators like disgraced former CBLDF figurehead Charles Brownstein or former Stalin Warren Ellis or Dark Horse editor Scott Allie have all, finally, been revealed publicly to be what many of us knew they were for a very long time. Good. Fuck 'em.
When last I wrote on this blog, I was in an interregnum between the year I spent assisting a hugely successful financial planner and the job that came after that, which I still have, editing for one of the largest media companies on the planet (nowhere near as glamorous as it sounds, but it looks good on a resume?). If you read the previous few posts just under this one, you'll see I was already struggling to find more than a handful of comics to be interested in, and these days I am reading exactly zero monthly comics, and not much more in any format really. My interests pivoted to the related hobby of action figures not long after my last post five years ago, and most of my disposable income goes to that these days.
I collect Marvel Legends primarily, with some Mezco One:12 Collective and Marvel Select thrown in when a particular figure appeals to me. I like to take pictures of them, which I post on my Facebook and Instagram. I don't much expect anyone to read this, but if you do, chances are you know where to find me on social media, so no further discussion of that seems necessary.
My main point is that, having been turned on to comics at the tender age of six back in the early 1970s, having been a regular patron of comic book stores since just a few years after that, and lately having loved most of the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies and being totally immersed in my action figure collecting, particularly since the pandemic sent me home seemingly for good, I am definitely still at least peripherally on the fringe of the comics world. I still am interested in the subject, even if I have not written much about it in half a decade. I still know people in and around comics, and I still try to support my local comic shops as best I can. I picked up some Marvel Legends not long ago at Excellent Adventures in Ballston Spa, New York; last weekend I grabbed the first Immortal Hulk hardcover collection (Marvel's best title in decades) from Freakopolis Geekery in Whitehall, New York. Both these shops recently reopened with new coronavirus precautions in place, and I felt safe shopping in both. But mostly my wife and I try to stay home, because the virus is spiking seemingly everywhere again because everyone quit wanting to live on Memorial Day, it seems to me. The fact is it's going to get worse than it ever was before before it gets any better at all, so for the most part we're staying on lockdown at my house, and masking up everywhere we go, to protect mostly other people, but also ourselves to some extent.
So mainly when it comes to my collecting these days, I thank whatever gods there be for the US Postal Service, eBay , Walgreen's and the Marvel Legends Community on Facebook, without all of which I would be unable to get any more additions to my Marvel Legends collection, the existence of which has made this past four months bearable and given me something to focus on other than work and constantly worrying about whether my family is going to be touched by the horrors of Covid-19.
I hope you're staying safe and well during this pandemic, masking up and washing your hands frequently, and staying at least six feet from any other human being you're not living with. The world has taken a turn for the worse this past half-decade, especially the past four months, but it is possible to reduce your risks and even still enjoy your life.
Given the overall trends, I urge you to do so to the best of your ability while you still have the time and resources to do so. I don't know where we'll all be in another four months or another five years, but I hope we'll remember, whatever happens, to live by the words of the great Kurt Vonnegut, asked what advice he would give to newborn babies:
Welcome to Earth, babies. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. On the outside, you've got a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of, babies -- God damn it, you've got to be kind.
And so it goes.
Alan David Doane, Whitehall, New York. 26 June 2020
