The Year Of Living Enthusiastically!

Another year looms for the Dojo, a rock-solid dozen years now and many more than I anticipated when I cobbled together this little Blogger venture so long ago. And I spend my time mostly looking backwards at films, books, and entertainments which thrilled or moved me and which have enriched my existence on this little globe of ours. Given the hard truths of the pandemic and the woeful response inside these United States to that challenge I have watched the world this past year from a distance. I am a lucky chap in that I am just retired from decades of teaching and have the luxury of being able to stay at home and hibernate while the disease makes its presence felt, both in body and mind across the land. Sadly I anticipate yet most of another another year of sitting inside isolated from the larger world. Maybe with luck and some prudent but difficult choices by his summer some semblance of normality can be achieved. It's not such a challenge for me as I'm cut out for repose, but it will strain the lifestyles and the very lives of others. This is a threat which has been mismanaged and underappreciated and will continue to be a source of strife. But perhaps with clear-headed leadership and a sadly unavoidable recognition of the dangers the response will at long last be commensurate with the threat itself. I hope so at least.  

I am not a man of great means by most if any financial measure (save perhaps global and then we all pretty much are). But I've been gathering weighty tomes about comics for decades now. Some were consumed immediately, but most were used periodically as  reference texts of a sort and were checked out when the time was appropriate, or sadly boxed up and mostly forgotten. I have plenty  and before I go adding to my stacks, I need to visit my own library and check our a few books by the likes of Steranko, Feiffer, Kurtzman, and a gaggle by Goulart among several others. Many of these offer histories and insights into how comics came into this world of ours and how that made us at times happier for it. I want to at long long last dig them out and give a proper read and then hopefully report at least some of my findings here. In the first few months of this new year I plan to focus on the works of Bill Schelly, a fine editor and writer who did a lot with his Hamster Press to reinvigorate my enthusiasm for comics with his adoration of the fan writings and art of the 60's. Schelly passed away last year, but his books on and early comics fandom and publications like the original Alter Ego  remain and deserved a thorough reading. 

And speaking of Alter Ego and its sister publications Back Issue, Comic Book Artist and a few others I've been avidly gathering Twomorrows publications for decades, getting every Jack Kirby Collector I have been diligent with Alter Ego too. I've missed a few of the latter over time. I've never been as dedicated to Back Issue, but rather contented myself with getting stuff that looked appealing at the time. I regret missing some issues, but you just cannot get everything and if you did when would you read it. For me the answer to that last question is now. I'm planning to begin at the beginning and plum these magazines, fully stocked with interviews, reviews, and whatnot and check out again what I've forgotten and encounter for the first time that which I ignored. 

I have a host of other notions for this coming year. To get a glimpse of what I'm thinking about see the covers below. I make no promises alas as my mind wanders constantly.  One of these in particular will be dominating the works here in January and is a shout out to the earliest years of the blog. 

Too much of what passes today for "enthusiasm" is in actuality merely hype, a fake bravado meant to encourage well-meaning folks to buy in. Comics is overcome with this particular problem, but still and all beneath it is a genuine feeling for the characters, times and places. I want to spend this year focusing on that true enthusiasm, the real fun found in countless pop culture genres and formats. I look forward to sharing that genuine enthusiasm with the Dojo faithful. 

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