Women in comics - Round Table

Hasdrubal · Posted: Wed Apr 05, 2006 4:24 pm Post subject: Re: Women in comics - Round Table

Lec, I might have guessed you had been influenced by Quakers. They're usually outspoken in their views.

The awareness of the "Strenuous Life" doesn't always kick in until middle age. After forty people become more conscious of death and their own mortality. Aging has the same effect on a man's body as being magically turned into a lawn gnome with arthritis and rigor mortis. It's best to seek adventures before your body begins to betray you. Of course you don't always have to strain yourself or travel far to find an adventure.

If you know where to look, you can find dinosaur fossils near New York City that millions of people are unaware of.

lectatege · Forum Member Joined: Mar 14, 2006 Posts: 203

A garden gnome with arthritis and rigor mortis, what a lovely mental image of you I have now !

Yes, many people feel the need to 'up the ante' once forty is on the horizon, this can be achieved by buying a pair of leather trousers and a motorbike, or by something a bit more full on, like my psycholgist friend who decided to work exclusively with violent psychotics.

Whatever. As they say 'if you don't use it you lose it'.
If I could remember where I put it, it would be a start.

Dinosaur fossils in New York? In situ or in a museum? In either case I don't remember stumbling accross them on my (admittedly brief) visit there many, many,many, moons ago.

Or were you being metaphorical again?

Hasdrubal · Posted: Sat Apr 08, 2006 4:07 pm Post subject: Re: Women in comics - Round Table

No, I was being literal. The dino fossils are in the ground and undisturbed. My New York trip in August 2001, is also memorable for an argument I had with a friend. We were staring at the Trade Towers bickering over whether terrorists were capable of destroying them. Sadly, I won the argument a few weeks later. It only proves there are things happening all the time we are unaware of by accident and sometimes choice. (The argument actually occurred, and isn't metaphorical.)

It's amusing that not even the psychologists are immune to the horrendous strains of the male "mid-life crisis". It can be a force of creation and destruction in the same man. It drives both the creation and reader demand for comics and more respected literature because it caters to the myth surrounding the drive "to follow one's star". Guys can harness it to build a civilized empire like Napoleon, or run the world off a cliff like Napoleon simultaneously.

One of the best stories about male "mid-life" is Arthur Miller's "The Misfits". Although the movie wasn't a commercial success, it's a fantastic example of life and art imitating each other on and off screen. In the movie Clark Gable's character tries to summon up his last bit of manhood by capturing the last wild horses in the west so he can sell them to a dog food company. The movie ends with the character giving up his quest, winning Marilyn Monroe's unstable love, and driving off in his truck to follow his star. Days after the film was completed Gable died of a heart attack, and the divorce between Arthur Miller and Marilyn Monroe became final.

lectatege · Forum Member Joined: Mar 14, 2006 Posts: 203

Dear me Hasdrubal, you were alarmingly prescient were you not?
You were lucky not to have been picked up for questioning.

I thought Watchmen was an interesting take on, among other things, the male mid-life crisis - what did you think of it.

Btw I've been meaning to ask - why Hasdrubal - you're not Carthaginian are you?
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A broken stereotype is a beautiful thing

Hasdrubal · Posted: Sun Apr 09, 2006 1:48 pm Post subject: Re: Women in comics - Round Table

I've heard good things about the Watchmen, but I've never read the series. My budget is such that I can only afford the new Green Lantern, and Ms. Marvel series. Most of the comics I buy are oldies. I have a lot of missing issue story gaps in my collection from when I was a kid. The bulk of my collecting ended when the cover price went up to an outrageous sum of 60 cents. (IT WAS AN OUTRAGE I TELL YOU!!!)

Being a Carthaginian is rough. I can't tell you how much I'm tired of cleaning up after my brother's mercenary barbarian friends, and his elephants. Things in Carthage just haven't been the same since the Romans sowed the soil with salt.

lectatege · Forum Member Joined: Mar 14, 2006 Posts: 203

Watchmen is great. I was lucky enough to get a bound copy of all the stories for Christmas.

I have myself written and illustrated a short story about the male mid life crisis - if you'd like me to e- mail you a low res copy I'd be interested in your views.

Btw elephant dung is supposed to be just the thing to put on rhubarb (although I prefer custard on mine)
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A broken stereotype is a beautiful thing

Hasdrubal

Lec, check your Animotions mail.