Inauguration Day 2017: My View

I attended my third inauguration Friday. The day was warm, for January, but overcast and a light rain fell off and on throughout the day, though mostly off. It did notably rain just as President Trump began to speak. The crowd was not large, and I saw many protesters, which I document here. The protesters slowed the attendees from entering the gates. Whether or not you agree with the attendees or the protesters it is great to see people active in democracy, even if that activity is as small as bearing witness to the swearing in of a new President. Most of these pics are from Third & D St NW around the Blue Gate.

Internet Sensation Sikh Captain America

The Captain with the PG version of their sign

As noted elsewhere I love Captain America, so no surprise that I found two Caps in the crowd. Sikh Captain America has been a mainstay at large political events this election cycle. I saw him in Cleveland at the RNC and he has made the rounds at other events too. I also found this more anarchist leaning Captian. Who modeled his costume off of the briefly worn design when Captain America was replaced by a mentally unstable but easily manipulated stooge, appropriate.



The highlight of my news gathering was somewhat accidental. While taking a break from shooting near a group of rather vocal jeering protesters, a Trump supporter started verbally mixing it up. Out of growing frustration he threw his Trump signature red "Make America Great Again" hat at the protesting group. Around this time I figured I should stop resting and get back to shooting, so I rolled camera on the protesters in time to see them light the hat on fire. It went up pretty quickly.

There was lots of chanting and good activism. I had left before the black bloc took to the streets across town. In all not a terrible day, though it was lackluster compared to the two Obama inaugurations. The speech was a particular let down. It was not at all about unity and painted a ridiculously bleak picture of the country. I found it insulting really, from the anti-Washington nonsense to the grime portrait of America as a whole. It was not forward looking or optimistic, and feeds directly into the same tired narrative that things are horribly wrong. To quote our new president, "Sad."

Firing everyone including no longer relevant for twenty years Rosie O'Donnell 

Inauguration Day 2017: Making Everything Great

Today is the big day. President Elect Donald Trump become our 45th President, at our 58th Presidential Inauguration. Personally I'm still a little shocked that it is happening, but it is happening and we will have at least four years of President Trump. For the sake of my country, I wish him the best. He has a singular mandate to produce working and middle class jobs that offer upward mobility for Americans, but beyond that I 'm not sure what he should do. 

Certainly a Republican controlled House, Senate, Executive, and Court (in theory) will make some drastic changes to taxes for the wealthy, reducing most regulations on industry, and scale back on federal government spending. The hole produced by less federal money will be given to lowest bidder, lowest quality, least accountability private companies. 

I'll always be an American, I'll always love the idea of America as embodied by my favorite comic hero, Captain America. While I want my country to do well, it doesn't mean I have to like the president so here is what I think my hero would do to the man who has no heroes, and a great Bronze age What If cover. 

Golden Showers

Now more appropriate than ever. Thanks Mutant  Thanks Atomic Books

Marvel Hates How I Read Comics

Marvel Comics announced they will be ending their same issue digital redemption program beginning in February, or at least I am pretty sure they have. Their press release, which has made the rounds since January 6th is fairly obtuse, and doesn't outright say they are ending the current system, but it sure seems that way.

Bleeding Cool is more convinced that the "buy physical get digital" program is at an end. I'm unhappy about this and so are others apparently.

Up until February I was able to buy a comic at the store and get a free digital version of the same purchased issue as well. Marvel initially indicated that this two-fer was compensation of their $4 price compared to DC's $3.00 price. It was also an attempt to lure older readers into the digital format. It has done that in some degree for me. I now re-read my marvel books digitally, although there are limits to that system, as well but that is for another post.

The motivation behind Marvel's strategy is directly related to me and how I read comics. By cutting off my digital supply of current issues I will be forced to re-read my hard copies, which is a pain as they are bagged and stores, or buy the trades of those issues.

I will never like the idea of buying digital only, although I am forced to in some formats, like video games and software. I am especially opposed to digital only in comic books, since one of my underlying motivations in buying is the amassing of a library of comics. While factually not true I still think the comics will be valuable someday, and they will as long as I can pass them to my great-great-great-grandchild. Digital comics will never have value.

Meanwhile I am at a collecting impasse. Marvel already provided me with a great jumping-off point at Everything Ends/Secret Wars, and I now fully regret not taking it. With the February end to my digital back-issue catalog, I will deeply scale back my Marvel pulls.

Marvel did succeed in their initial goal of getting me into digital comics, although my reluctance to buy digital only and the loss of a steady stream of digital books in my Comixology collection will probably stop me from continuing down the digital path.

Adventure Under the Sea

Beneath the ocean waves lies Earth's final frontier, or so comic books would have us believe. The mystery of the deep dark waters can be explored by a few Atlanteans or mer-folk, but for the rest of us air breathers we need a vehicle that can provide air and protection from the icy cold, and intense pressures of the watery abyss. To this end man has developed the mighty submarine. Since as far back as Alexander the Great's Greece men have submerged themselves in a vessel of some type. Primarily used for military purposes in real life, comics lets the submarine explore the depths in the name of science and adventure.

Kids Say the Darndest Things

Who doesn't feel this way from time to time?

In the 80's First Lady Nancy Reagan launched a drug awareness and abuse prevention program called by most "Just Say No." In an effort to reach out The Kids, she and her corporate sponsors commissioned some comic books, because The Kids love comics.

The book was a success, using the enormously popular Teen Titans to reach out to other kids worked, so two more issues were commissioned. To keep things consistent, Robin who had been reskinned as The Protector was used again in each issue. He had been struck from the first issue because the issues sponsor, Keebler, did not want to conflict with Nabisco's use of Robin in one of their products. Weird, but hey comics.

The current Titans team of Marv Wolfman and George Perez wrote and drew the series. They aren't terrible for educational books, and the Perez art is always so crisp and clean that it stands out against other comics of the type that might skimp on the art duties they enlist.

Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn.

The books were meant to be distributed to kids in school and other education programs so they feature some activity pages. Naturally if you give kids a blank space to fill in as they choose you'll get some odd answers.

I picked up this copy of the drug issue in a dollar bin in a Milwaukee, WI store. It wasn't a book I was searching after or anything, just a random buy. Turns out it was a worthwhile choice if for this page alone.

The issue didn't mention the use of silucnate or mosgniro specifically, but clearly they are not the appropriate drugs to use when you are gronnige. I'm pretty sure that last panel is a prayer to a great old one.

Feel free to download the image and white out the balloons and fill in your own answers.

Icons: Amazing Fantasy 15

The iconic cover of Amazing Fantasy 15  has been reworked time and again. It doesn't take an art major to see the sweeping lines that draw the viewer away and back to Spider-Man on the cover again and again as his body forms a classic "X" pose in the center. The image is so important to comics it feels funny that I bother to explain it is the first published image of Spider-Man ever.

 I've ripped off waaaaay too many artists and their images, but let me say I own none of these images. Yeah I'm a crappy blogger, I know it.