THINGS THAT MADE ME HAPPY IN MAY

My May is best described as a mostly melancholy month, alleviated by some really great times. It seems like no May day passed without the Dumpster or his fellow gangsters doing or saying something so incredibly horrible it felt like the United States Constitution was my nut sack and I’d just been kicked in it.

Professionally, it was my worst month in years. Right now, outside of my weekly “Tony’s Tips” column at Tales of Wonder, I haven’t a single paying gig on my desk. A couple of back-end things, but no other writing assignments. One would think having a hit TV series and a critically-acclaimed comic-book mini-series would have made me more employable and even sought after. Sigh.

While thinking about what I wanted to write here today, I found a May 18 thread I posted on Twitter. It was a sad reminder of how far I am from my goals.

Can't sleep, so I ponder what I want out of life. To write Black  Lightning until the day I die. To write other things in between writing Black Lightning. To make enough money from this so that my wife can retire early. To be able to afford to donate to worthy causes. 12:54 AM - 18 May 2018

To reduce my Vast Accumulation of Stuff so that we can eventually  move to a smaller place in a less Republican and less white neck of the woods. To see sanity restored to my country, something that won't happen if my fellow Americans keeping electing racist Republicans. 12:54 AM - 18 May 2018

To visit dear friends I don't see often enough. To lose weight. To  dance like there's nobody watching, but I'm pretty sure that would cause undue distress to anyone who was watching. To move to Nevada  (Carson City or Reno). 12:56 AM - 18 May 2018

To take my wife on a cruise and not get eaten by a sea monster; this pretty much has to be a package deal. To spend a month in Japan. To spend a month in Italy. To spend a month in Great  Britain with a side trip to Ireland. 12:57 AM - 18 May 2018

As I’ve mentioned before, I suffer from depression. It has been a part of my life since I was young and I fight it every single day of my life. One of my battle techniques is to remind myself every single day of my life of the things that make me happy. Here’s my list of those things from the month of May...
                                                                          

May 1: The fierce and funny Michelle Wolf speaking truth to power and the impotent media at the White House Correspondents Dinner. I winced once or twice, but, right on, woman! Bless you for saying what needed to be said.

May 2: Not gaining weight after a convention.

May 3: Both Sainted Wife Barb and myself had letters in our local newspaper supporting Grant Goodrich for U.S. Representative in our 16th District. Barb’s was better. [Sadly, though Goodrich was far and away the best candidate in the Democratic primary, he came in second to someone who will get trounced in the November election.]

May 4: Getting a note like this: “I don’t send messages like this very often, but man, you were hands down the nicest person I’ve ever met at a convention. I really hope you come back to East Coast Comicon again so I can speak with you. Once more I’d like to tell you congratulations on all of the success you’ve gotten with Black Lightning. It’s well earned, sir.”

May 5: Skye P. Marshall’s can’t-take-your-eyes-off-her performance as a homeless veteran on NCIS. The actress, who plays Kara Fowdy on Black Lightning, is herself an United States Air Force veteran.

May 6: Celebrating Cinco de Mayo with Barb, Eddie, Kelly, “other daughter” Giselle (back from NYC for a few days), Greg, Sheri and Lauren...and especially Sheri’s peach margaritas.

May 7: Stormy Daniels on Saturday Night Live and elsewhere. She’s funny and tough. If she ran for office, I’d vote for her over any Republican and a bunch of Democrats.

May 8: Saturday Night Live’s Kate McKinnon. Her chameleon comedy is almost supernatural as she effortlessly parodies so many different characters.

May 9: The Jim Jefferies Show knocked it out of the park on May 8. Great bit on the mistreatment of NFL cheerleaders. Great interview with Carol Burnett. Great bit on the refugees trying to enter the U.S. legally. Well done, sir.
                                                                              

May 10: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver presents A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo by Marlon Bundo with Jill Twiss, illustrated by EG Keller. A beautiful book that I would not hesitate to read to my grandchildren if I had any.

May 11: Stormwatch Comics in New Jersey sent me over 50 Free Comic Book Day comic books. Last year, I read and reviewed all of them. I’m going for a repeat this year.

May 12: My son Ed got the keys to his new house. I’m very proud of him and delighted he’s still living in Medina.
                                                                                

May 13: The Sheldon and Amy wedding episode of The Big Bang Theory. Brilliantly written and performed.

May 14: Mother’s Day with Barb, Eddie, Kelly and Simba. We all had a terrific time. Simba saved her allowance to buy Barb a nice card and a Bob Evans gift card.

May 15: Receiving a nice note from one of the biggest names and best creators in comics. There are so many good people in comics. I need to find ways to work with them in the future.

May 16: The Lucifer season finale was brilliant! Satisfying endings to several stories and a hell of a last scene punch! #SaveLucifer #PickUpLucifer

May 17: The Joel McHale Show with Joel McHale. I was a big fan of McHale’s The Soup on E! This is pretty much the same except better. Thank you, Netflix!
                                                                                   

May 18: Batman Nightwalker by Marie Lu. A great young adult novel by the New York Times bestselling author. Puts the Gotham TV show to shame.

May 19: ECBACC 2018. The East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention in Philadelphia is always a joy. It’s a community that supports my work and has become family to me.

May 20: Don “Mister Fun” McGregor. There’s a reason Don’s writing is still vibrant today. Because, in his life and in his writing, he is always his own timeless self.
                                                                            

May 21: Alex Simmons. A friend and the one of the most accomplished and important comics creators and educators you’ve never heard of. There’s not a publisher on the planet that wouldn’t be fortunate to have him on their team.

May 22: Saturday Night Live’s star-studded season finale. Even when a sketch didn’t quite hit the mark, it was fun seeing so many cool performers.

May 23: Comedian Jim Jeffries twice registered a half-ton camel as his “emotional service animal” to show how ridiculous that process is. Hilarious comedy that serves the public good. Human up, people, and reserve the “service animal” stuff for those who truly need it.
                                                                                     

May 24: I love The Bridge: How the Roeblings Connected Brooklyn to New York by Peter J. Tomasi and artist Sara Duvall. By the way, on this date in 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge was opened.

May 25: The Traverse City Resort in Michigan. A beautiful complex surrounded by natural beauty. The view from our room was absolutely spectacular.

May 26: The Cherry Capital Comic Con. One of the best-run events I have ever attended. The show took wonderful care of Barb and I, the other guests and, of course, the fans.

May 27: Don’s Drive-in and Moomer’s Ice Cream. Just two more great reasons to attend the Cherry Capital Comic Con.

May 28: Northern Michigan’s CW32. They sponsored my appearance and had great Black Lightning swag for the fans.
                                                                             

May 29: Writing a word balloon for Gene Ha’s great Black Lightning sketch, done for a charity auction. Our first collaboration and I hope there’s more to come.

May 30: Having several great conversations with Jim Steranko, one of the first comics professionals to encourage me when I still in my teens.

May 31: Actor Brian O’Halloran. A friendly, talented gentleman who offered me some very kind encouragement as I plan the next chapters of my career.

June has arrived. I’m hoping to turn things around in this bright shiny new month. I’ll be back soon with more stuff.

© 2018 Tony Isabella

ARROW TOMORROW

The Mary Sue has reported season seven of the CW’s Arrow will have a mostly female writing staff. I’m excited about this because, to be honest, Arrow isn’t exactly must-watch TV for me. I skipped over a dozen episodes after the annual crossover event - I did read very detailed recaps of those episodes - to watch the season finale. I will warn you there are

SPOILERS AHEAD
SPOILERS AHEAD
SPOILERS AHEAD
SPOILERS AHEAD
SPOILERS AHEAD
SPOILERS AHEAD

The sixth season ended with Oliver Queen in prison serving a life sentence. His identity as Green Arrow is now known to the world. To save his city from the malevolent Ricardo Diaz aka Dragon, Oliver cut a deal with the FBI. If they would help him take down Diaz, he would confess to being the vigilante and accept the life sentence. Though the identities of Diaz’s army of corrupt police officers and public officials were exposed and said individuals arrested, this victory came at a high cost.

Diaz is probably not dead because they didn’t find the body after the Black Siren sonic-screamed him off a building and into the dark waters below. He had threatened to destroy everything Oliver cares about, so all Oliver’s loved ones remain in jeopardy.

Acting mayor Quentin Lance was shot by Diaz. He died in surgery. There was a moving shot of his daughter Sara and his daughter-from-an-alternate-world Laurel standing over his body. Keep in mind that Laurel is the Black Siren, who is herself a murderer and was an ally of Diaz until a few episodes earlier.

Oliver’s son William is now without his father. Felicity, who wed Oliver at the end of the crossover event, is the only family that the young man has left.

Let’s not forget Star City is effectively without leadership. I’m guessing some sort of martial law has been put into effect by the federal government until those corrupt police officers and public officials can be replaced, but this leaves the city vulnerable to the inevitable return of Diaz. Also in jeopardy: anyone who enjoys good acting. Kirk Acevedo was mind-boggingly terrible in the role of Diaz. 

My problems with Arrow started long before this season finale. The writer's mantra of “bad choices make good stories” was put to the test as virtually every character made bad choice after bad choice. In short, the show failed that test.

The morality of killing/not killing was a ridiculous ongoing part of the show. Oliver, who has the second highest body count on the series, said he wouldn’t kill anymore, but seemed perfectly okay as his allies killed people. By not killing some bad folks when doing so would have clearly been self-defense, Oliver allowed those bad folks to kill innocent people. If he had put an arrow in Diaz’s eye socket when he had the chance, his loved ones would not still be in danger from that murderous lunatic.

As I finished watching the season finale, I started thinking about what I would do if I were suddenly running the show next season. I did this before I learned about the new configuration of the Arrow writing staff. I mean no offense to that staff with what follows. It is simply a creative test I set for myself.

Here’s what I came up with:

Oliver is a model prisoner and then some. The warden and the guards respect him because they know he saved the lives of countless cops over the years. He trains the guards in physical combat and teaches inmates skills to help them return to productive lives once out of prison. But the government thinks they have a better use for his abilities, offering him eventual release in exchange for him going on missions for them. He would remain in the prison when not on the job for them.

Oliver accepts, but with the condition he not become a government assassin. He knows killing might come with the job, but he insists that he gets to make that call in the field. His partner in these missions? The Black Siren, trying to be worthy of Quentin Lance’s sacrificing his life for her. The partnership will be rocky. She’s used to expediency over morality...and maybe, just maybe, she has started to develop romantic feelings towards Oliver.

Oliver and Laurel’s missions will take them all over the country, not unlike the classic O'Neil/Adams run on Green Lantern/Green Arrow. Along the way, they could meet new heroes, some of whom would play roles is future story lines.

Back in Star City, a new government is coming into place. The new mayor is “Glorious” Godfrey Weisinger. Despite the name, he is not a bad guy. He’s a nigh-evangelic leader determined to create a new Star City based on his moral principals. He’s conservative, but he is not unaware of the dangers facing the city. He won’t be a fan of vigilantes, but recognizes the need for extraordinary individuals to inspect and inspire the people.

The mayor recruits Dinah (Black Canary) Drake to put together such a team. Unfortunately, she will have to start from scratch in that regard. Because of the possible threat of Diaz, almost the entirety of Team Arrow is unavailable for this new team. Felicity, William, Rene and his daughter are in the witness protection program. Diggle is now working with ARGUS. Mr. Terrific is on board, but there is tension between him and the mayor because of Curtis being gay. Thea and Roy haven't responded to Dinah’s reaching out to them. This lack of team members is another opportunity to add new heroes to the Arrowverse.

Star City is seen as vulnerable by rapacious businessmen, powerful political forces and outright criminals and super-villains. Dinah and her team will be thrown into the deep end of the pool.

A new figure will emerge as a seeming ally. The big reveal will be that this man is Ricardo Diaz with a new face, thus eliminating the horrible acting of Kirk Acevedo. Oliver’s friends and family, not to mention Star City, will once again be placed in the most dire of situations. Who can save the city this time?

Yep. This is where we get the band back together. Oliver and Laurel return to Star City to marshal the forces of good in this time of need. Their eventual victory over Diaz will be spectacular and it will be final. For Diaz, that is.

In the aftermath...

Oliver and Laurel get presidential pardons. Oliver is reunited with his family and friends. Laurel, still feeling she has much to atone for, will join ARGUS, thus permitting her character to appear here and in other DC/CW series.

This could be a series finale, but it also be the start of a fresh take on Arrow. Maybe a series about super-heroes working with cops on an official basis. Maybe something else.

For example...

What if a busload of Star City elementary school students were on a field trip to Central City when a certain particle accelerator malfunctioned?

This ends my speculations.

On the other hand...

Since I'm not writing Black Lightning stories at the moment, I would likely be available to spend some time in the writers room of Arrow or any other super-hero series. I think I might have a few more good decades in me.

E-mail me. We’ll talk.

I’ll be back tomorrow with more stuff.

© 2018 Tony Isabella

GARAGE SALES AND OTHER STUFF

My first Vast Accumulation of Stuff garage sale of the summer will be on Friday, June 15, and Saturday, June 16 at Casa Isabella, 840 Damon Drive in Medina, Ohio. My usual garage sale hours are 9 am to noon on each day. However, I’m considering expanding those hours to accommodate as many hopefully eager shoppers as possible.

As I write these words - and directing you to the photo that leads today’s bloggy thing - my garage is far from ready for the garage sales. The floor, which had been cleaned, now needs to be cleaned again because of a contractor using the garage to cut tile for our master bedroom bathroom.

Scattered about the garage are items that will be moved to my son Ed’s new house in the next few days. Then it’s simply a matter of cleaning tables, adding more tables, adding some standing displays and begin stocking the tables with wonderful sales items.

Right now, I can’t tell you exactly what I’ll be selling at these garage sales. I know I’ll have lots of boxes of very recent comics priced at a dollar apiece. These are far from the 1990s and 2000s overstock you see dealers blowing out at comics conventions. These are recent comics including Donald Duck, Star Wars, Squirrel Girl and many others. These are comics I buy and read, but that I don’t keep because I’m trying to downsize.

The mystery boxes and the quarter comics boxes will be very few in number initially. As the sales progress, I’ll be adding more of both to them. It’s possible the price of the mystery boxes, which I’ve been selling at $5, will go up because the demand for them is a lot greater than the supply. The price of the quarter comics will stay the same, but there will be no five-for-a-dollar option.

Here’s something you won’t see at too many garage sales in America: Beano and Commando. The former is a kids comics weekly from England. The latter is a series of digest-sized war comics. I’ll have lots of each on sale for fifty cents each.

I’ll have DC, Marvel and Stan Lee collector boxes on sale at great discounts. I love these things, but they take up a lot of space. I'm thinking this is an expense I should cut from my comics buying.

Remember the collectible Monopoly games I was selling last year at my garage sales? I won’t be selling them this year because they’ll be on the “free stuff” table I plan to have at every one of 2018's garage sale. One per person while the supply lasts.

Thus year’s garage sales will be unveiled piecemeal throughout the summer. Here are the June dates:

Friday, June 15
Saturday, June 16
Friday, June 22
Saturday, June 23
Friday, June 29
Saturday, June 30

I’ve never done back-to-back-to-back garage sales before. I really hope they work out.

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I may be in need of some help for a few days leading up to my first garage sale. I twisted my ankle this morning and hit the pavement with resounding smacks. My knees are bruised, my hands are bruised and my left foot is hurting bad. I’m not going to be 100% for the next several days.

I’m not hiring anyone today. But if you’d like such a really part-time and temporary job, e-mail me with your information, how you know me and any references you have. Down the road, I may also have hours for a computer-and-online savvy person to help me spruce up my Internet Kung Fu.

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I’ve got all sorts of bloggy things in the works. I should be back to daily postings this week...with the usual exception of not being able to post on days when I wake up somewhere other than my Medina home. On my Facebook page, I’ve resumed posting birthdays, historical notes and remembrances, as well as links to comic strips I love. Feel free to follow me there.

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Unless someone invites me to a truly exceptional convention - and is willing to meet my conditions for attending these show - my June schedule is locked. I’ll keep my July schedule open until June 18. If you’re a promoter who wants to bring me to your event as a guest, e-mail me for those conditions.

That’s all for today. I’ll be back tomorrow with more stuff.

© 2018 Tony Isabella

TONY'S TIPS #259

This week in TONY'S TIPS at Tales of Wonder: The Bridge: How the Roeblings Connected Brooklyn to New York by Peter J. Tomasi with art by Sara Duvall; Batman: Nightwalker by New York Times bestselling author Marie Lu; and Ahiho Higashimura’s Princess Jellyfish Volume 8.

BLACK LIGHTNING CORE VALUES

My most important job today is preparing for Saintly Wife Barbara’s and my trip to northern Michigan and the Cherry Capital Comic Con, Friday, May 25, through Sunday, May 27 at the scenic Grand Traverse Resort, 100 Grand Traverse Village Blvd, Acme, Michigan. However, since I won’t be posting new bloggy things until we return/recover  from that event, I wanted to leave you with something special for the weekend.

A few years back, when DC Comics President & Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns reached out to me to begin the process of resolving the long-standing differences between the company and myself, he told me of his desire to do a Black Lightning TV series. It didn’t take long for DC and myself to realize that we would be working together again. It took a while to hammer out an agreement that both DC and I could live with, but that was never an adversarial process. Nor would DC and I wait for the final agreement to be signed before we began working together.

One of the first things Geoff asked me to do was share my thoughts on Black Lightning’s core values. I wrote the following about three years ago. It was never meant to be carved in stone. Indeed, my own thinking has changed somewhat since I wrote it. Still, it was the starting point for both the TV series and my critically-acclaimed Black Lightning: Cold Dead Hands.

Here’s what I wrote...

If I had to choose the two most important elements that make Black Lightning and Jefferson Pierce, they would be:

He is a role model.

He is a teacher.

I wanted him to be a positive character. He could have his flaws, but they wouldn’t be melodramatic flaws. He might beat himself up a little when he failed to accomplish something or failed to save someone. In the later case, he never forgets anyone he has failed to save. His memories of them stay with him. He’s the kind of man who inspires people, something I tried to show in both of my runs on the series.

I wanted him to be a teacher because I wanted him to be familiar to every reader, young and old, who read his comics. Everyone has had teachers. The lucky ones have had teachers who inspired them to go beyond what they might have thought were their limits.

Those two core values necessitate that Black Lightning be an adult. A younger Black Lightning, even a college student Black Lightning, won’t have the life-experience to be these two things: role model and teacher. If I were rebooting the character, I’d make him 30 or so. Young enough to not seem ancient, old enough to know what he’s talking about.

Other traits:

Jefferson Pierce is a reluctant hero. He would rather not disguise his identity and fight crime in such a garish manner. But he knows he must use his power for the benefit of his community and, if it comes to it, the world. The street-level stories are where my heart has always been, but I recognize we may have to go to a more vast canvas to drive the character to greater success.

 

Jefferson Pierce is an orphan. His mother died shortly before Black Lightning #1 (1977). He has no living relatives. But, what he does have, is an intense desire to have a family. He will build families around himself wherever he goes. He did it as a teacher in Suicide Slum. He did it when he was a member of the Outsiders. He even did it in the Brick City, which was a neighborhood in Cleveland...which is where his second series took place even if I never called it by name. He is a family man.

Sidebar. The one regret I have about how I portrayed Jeff Pierce in the original series is that I made him a divorced man. I could’ve shown a strong black marriage, something that was almost unheard of in the comics of the 1970s. I know there’s an editorial theory that super-heroes can’t be married. But I also know that Black Lightning has often challenged the norms and that’s something that should be part of whatever is done with him.

Sidebar. By the way, I disagree with the whole non-married super-heroes thing. Portraying marriages adds a reality to the fantastic, which I think is necessary to telling super-hero stories to which readers can relate. I also think readers actually like to see the heroes happy from time to time. If we’ve done our jobs right, they love these heroes as much as we do.

Had I remained on the second Black Lightning series, I would have had Jeff and Lynn remarry and start a family. There is solid drama to be found in such relationships and that makes super-hero stories more than glorified video games.

Jefferson Pierce is a man of faith. I used to call him a Northern liberal Baptist. All of the faith, none of the bigotry. In a world where there are Kryptonians and Martians, element men and detective chimps, no rational human being would get bent out of shape because someone was gay or transgender or anything else. Jeff judges people on the content of their character and, because he’s a man of faith, he gives even bad people a chance to redeem themselves.

Sidebar. Religion is something comic books shy away from. I thought it was important to show Jeff going to church. Because religion is part of the lives of many of our readers and viewers. I might not be a church-goer, though I am the founder and pastor of the First Church of Godzilla on Facebook, but I recognize religion’s place, for good or otherwise, in our society. Just as characters of color like Black Lightning gave readers someone to relate to, religious characters can serve the same purpose.

So where could Black Lightning go?

As I’ve said, the street-level stories are where my heart is with this character, but that doesn’t mean and should never mean that’s all we do with the character. I think what we do with Jeff Pierce depends on the venue...though I think Lightning’s connection to the real world and his commentary on the real world should always be a part of his adventures.

In comic books, Black Lightning can be involved in different kinds of adventures. He should not be subservient to Batman, Superman or any other character. He should be able to inspire even members of the metahuman community, as he did with the Tattooed Man in a one-shot written by Grant Morrison a few years back. I could see him as a mentor to younger heroes.

In comic books and other media, there’s an opportunity to address the issues of inequality and injustice that exist in our own land. In the context of exciting stories.

If Black Lightning were to be, say, a Netflix series, you could go more street and more social relevance than you could in a different venue. Maybe even get a super-hero series some of the respect they deserve. I’m frustrated that the fine acting and writing on shows like The Flash and Arrow and Agent Carter and S.H.I.E.L.D. do not receive the recognition they are surely due.

If Black Lightning were to be a CW series, you would probably want to be a bit less heavy than in a Netflix series. I always tried to include supporting characters that could provide humor while also being effective allies of Jeff Pierce.

If Black Lightning were to be a movie, you would need to go bigger. But I think it would still be essential to make the real stuff as real as possible to make the fantastic stuff more believable. Ant-Man works because so much of it is real: the plight of an ex-con, the distrust of evil CEOs, the grief over lost love, the challenge of raising a child of divorce.

I am fully aware that comic books are different from TV shows are different from movies. I don’t expect such versions of my creation to be exactly as I envision them. But nothing I’ve ever done with Black Lightning was not thought out. Maybe I’m being immodest, but I think my work is an essential starting point for anything anyone does with the character.

I’m not mired in the past. I wrote Black Lightning in the 1970s. I didn’t him write him that way in the 1990s. I wouldn’t write him in 2015 the same way I wrote him in those decades. But I think Black Lightning and most heroes can remain fresh without sacrificing the core ideas and values which were part of their original concepts.

From the start, my dream has always been to see Black Lightning as the fourth member of a DC Big Four, alongside Superman and Batman and Wonder Woman. Whether that is attainable or not, that should be the goal.

I hope this is useful to you, Geoff. I’m going to copy Dan on it as well. Please feel free to call on me if I can be of further service in these areas.

That’s what I wrote in 2015. I leave it to you to judge how close the TV series and my recent comic-book work follow the core values I set down in the above.

Enjoy your weekend. I’ll be back soon with more stuff.

© 2018 Tony Isabella

BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS

When it comes to prose books, most of what I read falls into these categories: mystery/police novels set in Cleveland or other parts of Ohio; non-fiction books on subjects that interest me or that I’m reading for research; comics history; novels featuring comic-book characters; novels by favorite authors like Max Allen Collins and Stephen King; and books that do not easily fit into any category. Like the first of the books I’m written about today.

A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo by Marlon Bundo with Jill Twist and illustrated by EG Keller [Chronicle Books; $18.99] is a well-deserved kick in the nuts to homophobic Vice-President Mike Pence. Produced by Last Week Tonight’s John Oliver, it tells how Pence’s pet rabbit - Marlon - met the love of his life, another bunny named Wesley. It’s a charming tale with some bite to it in the form of a parody of Pence himself.

This book is a response to Marlon Bundo's A Day in the Life of the Vice President, a children’s book created by Pence and his family. Pence promoted the book at Focus on the Family, an anti-LGTB hate group. Because even though his book didn’t concern homosexuality at all, Pence lays down with bigots and racists at every opportunity. It’s in the job description as any one in the Dumpster President’s White House.

This is not a book everyone will want to share with their children. Myself, I would have no trouble reading it to my grandkids if I had any. With Pence and other pseudo-Christians promoting bigotry at a matter of course, it’s important to offer children a more tolerant view of the world. They are a hope for a better world. Unlike that sought by Pence and his ilk.

I love the book and will probably buy a few more copies to give out as gifts. And, yes, of course, it outsold the Pence book by a lot. Because it’s a better Bundo.

ISBN 978-1-4521-7380-1
 

                                                                           

A Perfect Shot by Robin Yocum [Seventh Street Books; $15.95] is a crime novel set in the smallish Eastern Ohio steel town of Mingo Junction. It’s small enough that the town hero is Duke Ducheski, a steel worker who won a high school basketball championship and got his then-girlfriend, now-shrewish wife pregnant before he could go to college. It’s large enough to be profitable for the mobsters who run the town. One of the mobsters is Duke’s brother-in-law.

Duke has been saving money to open his own bar. He’s been trying to divorce his wife so he can marry his single-mom girlfriend. He is intensely loyal to his friends and they to him. When one of those friends does something stupid, Duke tries to help him, which sets in motion a series of violent events.

Yocum’s characters are solid creations and he writes well. Though there are times in the novel when people make really bad decisions that they should have known better than to make - an increasingly common and cheap plot device - I got hooked by the novel early on. It gets my recommendation.

Yocum has been an Edgar Awards finalist. After reading this book, I plan to check out his other novels. They are also set in my home state of Ohio, which is added incentive.

ISBN 978-1-63388-417-5

                                                                                  

Set in the small Ohio town of Yellow Springs, Not That I Could Tell by Jessica Strawser [St. Martin's Press; $26.99] is a mystery novel that reminds me of TV’s Desperate Housewives. One night, a group of neighborhood women enjoy an evening of conversation, revelations, drinking and more drinking sitting around a backyard fire put. The next day, one of the women and her two children have gone missing. The game is afoot.

Suspicion immediately falls upon missing mom Kristin’s soon-to-be-ex-husband. Paul married her after her first husband and the father of her twins died. But he never adopted the twins and is suspected of having abused Kristin. When the police release the maybe/maybe not crime scene, Paul moves back into their house.

Happily-married Clara finds herself drawn into the investigation. A former editor, Clara is advising a neighbor’s child who wants to publish a neighborhood newsletter. When the kid wants to publish a conversation she overheard, one that casts further suspicion on Paul, Clara rules against it. The girl publishes it anyway and, all of a sudden, Clara is in the middle of the investigation as well. She and her children are also forced to take a “time out” from the  private school the kids had been attending.

Never-married Izzy, who produces a radio talk show and is a rather new arrival to the hood, finds herself getting involved with Paul. Izzy fled to Yellow Springs after her sister married the man Izzy was secretly in love with.

Police investigating a crime that might not have happened. Gossip steering the investigation and the lives entwined in it. The creepy soon-to-be-ex-husband. All these elements mix with the fascinating women characters and a keen understanding of "neighborhood politics" to deliver a slow but always intriguing story with several endings to satisfy its readers. I enjoyed this book and have already put in a request with my library for Strawser’s first novel.

ISBN 978-1-250-10788-6

                                                                             

In the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History by Mitch Landrieu [Viking; $25] is a memoir by the New Orleans mayor who removed the Confederate statues from his city. It’s a poignant look at the long-ingrained racism that has been given new life by our racist President and his vile fellows and supporters.

Born in a part of our nation where racism has always been more out in the open, Landrieu writes about history and his relationship to that history. It’s the history that is just now beginning to become better known, a history that reveals that Confederate statues were not erected to honor Confederate leaders, but as a warning to black citizens to mind their places.

These monuments to traitors, no matter how finely made, were never meant to be art. They were meant to terrorize blacks and force them to comply with the wishes of white supremacists. Whites who did not hold with those anti-American views could easily ignore the statues they passed every day. Blacks could not ignore them and should not have had to ignore them.

I knew these stories, including a Republican president’s shocking lack of concern for the people left most vulnerable in the wake of Katrina, before I read Landrieu’s book. Yeah, George Walker Bush may have risen to the rank of just our second worst President ever, but I still consider him to have been an incompetent president and war criminal whose policies hurt and destroyed the lives of American citizens and the innocents caught in the middle of his bloody wars of choice. He gets no pass from me. That said, Landrieu offers us a more honest view of our sometimes shameful history and brings his readers to a moral clarity presented without the loud histrionics of commentators like, well, yours truly.

In the Shadow of Statues is a praiseworthy book and one I recommend strongly. It’s my hope Landrieu will become a much greater force on our national stage. He’s the kind of leader we need.

ISBN 978-0-525-55944-3

                  
That’s all for today, my bloggy readers. Remember that I will be a guest at the Cherry Capital Comics Con in northern Michigan Friday through Sunday. I hope to see you there.

I’ll be back tomorrow with more stuff.

© 2018 Tony Isabella

CONVENTIONAL THINKING

My next convention appearance is the Cherry Capital Comic Con this weekend (Friday through Sunday) at the Grand Traverse Resort, 100 Grand Traverse Village Blvd, Acme, Michigan. For more information on this event, check out yesterday’s bloggy thing.

This week is turning out to be more hectic than I would like. I’ve been nominated for an arts prize and preparing my submission will take most of a day. I have an afterword to write and three or four bloggy things and columns. Not to mention getting ready for Cherry Capital Comic Con. Sheesh!

I’ll be doing several other conventions this year and also holding a great many garage sales at Casa Isabella in Medina, Ohio. I had hoped to start the garage sales next weekend, but, while I was at the East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention, Saintly Wife Barbara hired a contractor to complete the work on our long-delayed master bedroom bathroom.

He set up his tile-cutting machinery in the garage. Which now looks like ground zero of a dust-bomb explosion. Which means I’ll need to spend a few days cleaning the garage before I can set up my display tables and fill them with wonderful items at incredibly low prices. That work will begin in earnest on my return from Michigan.

Here’s my appearances and garage sales schedule for the rest of the year. It’s possible I’ll be adding an appearance of two before the end of the year. Unfortunately, I had to cancel my eagerly-awaited (by me) August appearance at Connecticut’s Terrificon. With family, household and work stuff, I just couldn’t make the timing work for this year. Hopefully, I can attend next year.

Friday, June 8: Fingerlakes Comic Con

Saturday, June 9: Fingerlakes Comic Con

Sunday, June 10: Fingerlakes Comic Con

Friday, June 15: VAOS garage sale

Saturday, June 16: VAOS garage sale

Friday, June 22: VAOS garage sale

Saturday, June 23: VAOS garage sale

Friday, June 29: VAOS garage sale

Saturday, June 30: VAOS garage sale

Friday, July 6: VAOS garage sale

Saturday, July 7: VAOS garage sale

Friday, July 13: VAOS garage sale

Saturday, July 14: VAOS garage sale

Friday, July 20: VAOS garage sale

Saturday, July 21: VAOS garage sale

Friday, July 27: VAOS garage sale

Saturday, July 28: VAOS garage sale

Friday, August 3: VAOS garage sale

Saturday, August 4: VAOS garage sale

Friday, August 10: VAOS garage sale

Saturday, August 11: VAOS garage sale

Sunday, August 19: NEO Comic Con (North Olmsted)

Friday, August 24: VAOS garage sale

Saturday, August 25: VAOS garage sale

Friday, August 31: VAOS garage sale

Saturday, September 1: VAOS garage sale

Saturday, September 8: Hall of Heroes Museum

Sunday, September 9: Hall of Heroes Museum

Friday, September 28: Baltimore Comic Con

Saturday, September 29: Baltimore Comic Con

Sunday, September 30: Baltimore Comic Con

Saturday, November 3: Akron Comicon

Sunday, November 4: Akron Comicon

Friday, November 9: Grand Rapids Comic Con

Saturday, November 10: Grand Rapids Comic Con

Sunday, November 11: Grand Rapids Comic Con

Saturday, November 17: Great American Comic Convention (Las Vegas)

Sunday, November 18: Great American Comic Convention (Las Vegas)

Some additional notes:

All of the above are subject to change if my work requires me to be someplace other than Medina in the coming months. Such work is a long shot, but not outside the realm of possibility.

I’m scheduling so many garage sales because I’m determined to get rid of my three storage units by the end of the summer. That would save me just over $200 a month. So there will be many new items at each and every garage sale.

Depending on the always mercurial Ohio weather, these garage sales could be extended through September. In the same vein, should the weather turn against us on the already scheduled dates, I’ll cancel dates rather than risk injury to my customers. Always check my social media for updates.

The garage sales will be advertised in these bloggy things of mine, and also on Craig’s List, Facebook and Twitter. When you see those announcements, please share them with your friends.

In the past, I’ve advertised in the Medina Gazette. I’ll probably do that initially, but I may not do that for every garage sale. I may experiment with advertising in the Akron or Cleveland papers as well. Maybe even on our local cable provider. It kind of depends on how much money the garage sales bring in.

That’s all for now. I’ll be back soon with more stuff.
        
© 2018 Tony Isabella