Number 1019
What is your fate?
I wonder if Harvey Comics' Man In Black, which I read new as a '50s pre-teen, helped shape my view of fate as an unseen force over which we have little or no control. Or maybe it's just me who thinks our lives are some sort of cosmic joke. What decisions over the decades led to where I am now, and what I do...sitting at a computer scanning old comic books and posting them on a blog. It's fate, I tell ya! At the age of 10, poring over Bob Powell's great artwork and the intriguing premise of Man In Black I could not have foreseen my future, but I remember reading the comic, wondering what fate held in store for me.
I showed you Man in Black #1 in Pappy's #822.
From Man in Black #2, 1957:
10 comments:
There's been another fubar, and I lost a comment from reader, Jim. Sorry, Jim. Please send another if you want.
Pappy: I have to say, I'm loving the new feature from Blogger - it is a feature (a sequential image reader) that seems perfect for comic bloggers. In fact, I've been looking for a plug in that would accomplish the same thing. I've discovered that if you want to see a particular graphic in full view, just right click the "view in seperate tab" choice.
I am terribly sorry about your lost stuff. That is a real bummer, and it is something I hope blogger deals with soon. losing some of your earlier posts would be a drying shame (in fact, using the new feature, I was going back in your archive a couple of days ago and said to myself "oh, shit"). But, I really feel we (comic book bloggers) need to hang tough. This new feature allows a comic book story to be read much more smoothly - much more like reading the original comic - than the clumsy "open and close" method previously.
Pappy, your posts continue to blow me away. Just when I think I've seen all the best of old comics, you pull out more and blow my mind. Powell could draw anything and make it exciting, huh! The mechanic carrying the wheel rim on the fourth page, second panel even looks believable and engaging. Powell's women are pretty too. The high point for me in this issue is the Von Mecklin story from the Weaver. Big biplane and WWI thrills, oh yeah! The planes look so good. Also, thanks for providing a link to your Man in Black #1 post.
Oh, regarding the new viewer. I could take it or leave it. I usually open all images in separate tabs and view them in that fashion. It is nice to see the complete post in a slideshow-ish fashion, but the feature does indeed have some loading bugs...or something.
Dammit, I didn't get to be so stubborn and mulish fer nothin', you smart-alecky young'uns, you! I tried the separate tabbing and it works, but I'd have to get used to it, and why try something new when it's much more fun to just bitch about changes, huh? Answer me that!
Pappy: I hear you. Nothing satisfies like pitching a bitch about new stuff, whatever it is. My first, knee-jerk reaction to this new feature was "Oh bullshit, what now?" After a bit, though, I realized I loved it.
Don't forget the F11 button while your scrolling though the slideshow. That makes things fullscreen. On my computer screen (17 inch) the page images are almost exactly the same size as a comic. That's pretty cool, once you get passed the bitching part.
By the way, have you tried the Kindle for reading books yet?
Mykal, thanks for yet another tip with F11. I'll keep you in mind the next time I have a question about this stuff. I'm self-taught, which means I'm still ignorant about a lot of functions I haven't tried.
I have not tried a Kindle, Nook, etc., and have seen them only in pictures. With a house full of books it would be tempting to cut down on the library by keeping everything in a memory, but then I wouldn't have the tactile pleasure I get every time I touch a book.
Reading comics online--and I'm including my own blog--is a poor substitute for reading them in printed form. But considering the prices, it's at least a chance to see them without having to buy them.
One more tip I've discovered poking around. For those posts that won't open (some of my older posts load as a slideshow, but just appear as a row of grey boxes), you will find the link appearing for each page next to the row of the slideshow. See the link changes as you highlight different pages? You can just click on that link to open. Once you get the hang of it, it is pretty sweet. I have a wheel mouse, so for me, I can scroll through the pages with my cursor over the link, clicking as I go. I hope this makes sense.
I bought a Kindle and love it. Being a librarian by trade, I'm hating myself right now and risk being lynched when I go to work.
Mykal, I'm still working on my hatred of this scrolling viewer system. It's great when it works, but frustrating when I go back into my archives and encounter those gray boxes. I have a roller ball mouse, and so far have not mastered the technique you describe.
Why does the viewer not work on those older postings? So far I've heard nothing from Blogger about this new viewer, and especially why it only works on newer posts.
For anyone curious, you can see a picture of the very distinguished Mykal here on the Delray Beach Public Library web site. And don't worry, Mykal, I won't turn you in to your fellow librarians for being a Kindle fan. If I rejected new technology totally I'd still be printing my fanzines on a spirit duplicator as I did in 1961.
Pappy: "Very Distinguished" That's like old, right? ;-)
Thanks for not snitching about the Kindle.
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