Montezuma's Revenge

 

Life had gotten rather off-kilter before last month's vacation. So this time, I resolved to give myself a total break, and not to do any blogging. Once or twice I almost backslid, but the focus seeped out of me before I could compose a post.

My wife and I enjoyed exploring places like Montezuma's Castle on our vacation. Arizona may not be England, but it has its historic sites to inspire. As I walked around this national monument, I wondered about the lives of those long-ago cliff dwellers. So many questions arose.

Did they live there all the time, or just part of the year?

Did they farm the land below, or was the nearby Green River much closer to the cliffs?

What were their everyday activities? What were their trials and challenges?

Historians may have pieced together clues to address all those questions. Still, I suspect there's much left to ponder. So many stories about their lives yet to be told. 

 

 

I returned home less with fixed plans than with ideas and resolutions. Yet Montezuma insisted upon wreaking his revenge. We also returned to our California home with a automobile gremlin which ultimately the dealership would need to sort out. Exhaustion played its role, as did unexpectedly high gas prices ($3 per gallon higher than in Arizona). All this delayed my return to my local comic shop, to pick up the new stories I hungered to read.

Of the five I expected, my local comic shop only received three. As has become a theme since 2020, the other two were delayed. One I'm beginning to wonder if it will ever arrive. The new-to-me Star Wars #27 I picked up, as I'm trying out the series. Also, after reading several old DC comics I picked up during our vacation--and enjoying them--I picked up a copy of their preview magazine, to survey their contemporary titles.

I'll always have plenty of old stories to discover. I'll always have plenty of old stories to reread. Yet I wonder: was the reason my life felt so off-kilter before our vacation because I wasn't seeking out and discovering enough new stories?

Dragon Dave

 

New Journeys of Discovery

 

Recently, I've been ordering fewer new comics at my local comic shop. Even though I read comics regularly, some of this may reflect a reluctance to invest myself (my time, thoughts, and emotions) in new comics. Still, I think mostly this is due to publishers ending series I enjoy, producing fewer titles, and releasing issues less frequently. 

I must also admit that, with the prices of new comics rising, costs all across the board increasing, and retirement looming, I'm questioning how much I ought to be spending on new books. 

Still, I love new comics. Old comics are great. Like old novels: they're always fun to read. But new comics are just...awesome. There's nothing quite like the thrill of perusing the comic shop each week, and checking out the new arrivals. What stories might I discover? What adventures might I embark upon?

If I had the financial means, and the time, I might just read them all! But then, I wouldn't have time to read my older comics. 

(Sigh).

Lately, I've been feeling the desire to embark on new journeys of discovery. While I've read most of Brian Michael Bendis' run on Ultimate Spider-Man, I've never followed Marvel's premier series about webhead Peter Parker. I'm not nearly as familiar with Frank Miller's work as (perhaps) I should be. I read the first few issues when Star Wars returned to Marvel, but nothing since. As for Daredevil...

Can you believe that I've never read a single issue about the blind superhero? (Until now, that is).

There may come a day when the arrival of each week's new titles no longer interests me. There will likely come a day when I cannot purchase and read new comics. But until that day comes, I'll keep on the lookout for new stories that transport me to strange and wondrous places.

Dragon Dave