Thought Catalog: A Status Update

Is this thing still on?

I am not sure how many of you are still paying attention to us. I know it’s only been a bit over a month since we posted anything here, but it feels much longer than that. Maybe that’s because the last time we posted an episode was about three months ago, outside of this appearance on Media Junkyard from a couple of weeks ago.

It always seems that Fall has a habit of just derailing anything Dane and I try to do podcast wise. It happened to us a little bit last year, but it has been bad this year. More on that later.

So. How do you start back into the process of running a website and a podcast after you’ve had the year I’ve had? Short answer? I’m not quite sure. For now, I just have all these random thoughts in my head related to comics, music and other general things (however, I’ll just stick to comics this time around). I haven’t had the time or the venue to really sit down and talk them out. I found myself with some free time this evening and decided it would be best to write it all it, if not for anyone but myself.

Here’s some context on where I’ve been, what I’ve been doing and what’s next.

You’re still here? Okay. Here we go.

I’ve been reading a lot of 4th Letter recently. Gavok, David Brothers, and the rest of the fine folks at the site have inspired me to consider my writing style and how I approaching the running and maintaining of this site. I’m not going to transform the site in any major way, but depending on how this post is received may determine the future of some content I have been thinking about. I’m tired of copy and paste ‘journalism.’ I think that’s part of the reason I’ve been reluctant to come back and write. I started Between the Panels to do comics differently. I never had plans to be the Lester Bangs of comics, I’m not that talented enough to do that, but I did want to bring something unique to how we covered the industry.

And I feel I’ve failed in that aspect. And yet I don’t know how I would go about fixing that. But I’m not going to let that stop me.

Rick Remender‘s Uncanny X-Force is quietly having one of the best story arcs of the year. After reading a bunch of issues of X-Force for a X-Men related episode that was supposed to happen over the summer, I found myself incredibly interested in what Remender was building and jumped into the Dark Angel arc. I never expected Archangel to be such a compelling villain, but he is. Using the Age of Apocalypse world as backdrop has created some truly compelling storytelling that is creating a true sense of consequence.  I never expected to find myself so compelled by the relationship of Fantomex and Psylocke, but I’m constantly rooting for them. The arc is coming to a close soon, so grab the issues if you can still find them and check it out. Also, Jerome Opeña‘s art is darkly beautiful and fits the tone perfectly.

Over the past couple of months, I find that I keep coming back to two books over and over again. I’ve tried getting into Starman several times, but the first three omnibi sit on my shelf and taunt me. I’ve heard so many amazing things about the series that I wanted to put it away until I could give it the proper time it deserves, but life continues to get in the way. I sat down a couple of weeks ago and read through the first couple of issues and was completely drawn in. I think what I love the most about the series is how James Robinson turned Opal City into a living, breathing city. Growing up in South Carolina, I’ve never had the knowledge of what it’s like to live in a big, sprawling city like Opal and thus held this notion that my surroundings weren’t good enough. This lead into an idea that I had to leave where I was from in order to attain this ‘big city’ desire. A large portion of that has gone away with age and maturity, but I’d like to think that these first issues of Starman had a role in play in that as well. Opal isn’t Gotham or even Metropolis, but it isn’t trying to be. Opal is Opal. The people that live in that city love it and would, in the case of Ted Knight, die to defend it.

The other book is Casanova. We’ve talked a bit about Casanova on the show, but Matt Fraction‘s work on Avaritia, the third arc in the series, has impacted me in a unexpected way. Again, David Brothers has an excellent analysis on just what in the first issue works so well, but here’s a quick outline of the first two issues:

Casanova is having to go around extinguishing complete timelines in order to correct the mistakes of Newman Xeno. Since there’s no good way to find him, it’s just easier to destroy the entire timeline in order to save everyone. That works until Cass discovers the true identity of Xeno, and then is dropped in to kill him at which point it becomes personal. And here’s where Avaritia becomes personal to me:

Cornelius Quinn is dying. Of cancer.

Just a little over a month ago, my father passed way. Of cancer.

Towards the end of Avaritia I, Cass begins to truly  process and understand what’s going on around him. There’s this amazing panel were Cornelius and the rest of E.M.P.I.R.E. are discussing what to do next. The word balloons are there, but are totally empty. People are talking but Cass isn’t listening. He pulls out Sasa Lisi’s domino mask and looks at it. It’s a reminder that he’s not alone.

And that’s what I connected with. That’s the part that killed me. That’s why keep coming back to this issue. Sometimes it does feel like I’m alone, that no one has a true handle how I’m feeling, but that’s not the case. And sometimes it’s the little momentos and moments that remind me of that.

To wrap this up and bring it back to Between the Panels, Dane and I had a conversation last night about what we want Between the Panels to be. We feel that recently we’ve been playing to what the people want and not producing a podcast we want to listen to. Over the past year I’ve realized that if I’m going to do something creativity, it needs to be on my terms. Anytime a project begins to play to the masses, it historically hasn’t ended well.

Where do we go from here? Again, I don’t know, but I do know I want it to be something that I’m interested and engaged in doing. Some people may stop listening. Some people may start listening.

But at the end of the day, I know Dane and I will be making something we’re interested in doing. And frankly, that’s all that matters.