The Reading Material
This week I’ve been getting some reading done. Not any novels. Usually I read those during the semester when I commute into NYC. I usually have about an hour to sit on the train and read. An hour each way two days a week so that’s a bit of reading time.
Another thing that I read on my commute is magazines. I have two long time subscriptions that I’ve had since sometime in the early 1990s. One is a literary magazine called “The Sun” and the other is a history magazine called “Archeology.” It’s about archeology of course. I also just subscribed to “Smithsonian” magazine. I had a sub to that many years ago but I only resubscribed to it this year.
For some weird reason as my semester ends (in May) I stop reading my magazines. It’s July 30 as I write this and I had June and July’s “The Sun” plus July/August’s (it’s bi-monthly) “Archeology” lying around unread until this week. I just couldn’t seem to muster up the interest to read them. That is until this week.
I think I started reading them on Monday and it’s now Thursday and I have the two issues other The Sun read and the issue of Archeology started. All week whenever I’ve need a break I’ve just picked them up and read a page or two instead of scrolling on the internet and apps. I did a little scrolling too but also got some reading done.
Last week I made it a point to sit down and spend some more time reading and so pulled out some comics that I’ve been meaning to read. I had to make it a point because I was working too much. In my younger days I could work on my art from eight in the morning until eight at night. Sometimes even a couple of hours longer. These days it’s more like eight in the morning until six at night. Sometimes four or five. That was until I started learning book binding.
Book binding is a different task than making art. It takes a different type of energy and a less intense form of energy. As a consequence I ended up working longer hours than usual. I’d work on art from 8AM until about 2 or 3 and then do some book binding until 8 or 9PM. Not always that late but sometimes.
Since book binding felt like it took less energy I was okay with it. Then a month passed and I started getting tired. Run down and if I didn’t stop and rest I’d get sick and tired. That was last week. So I decided it was time to do some reading.
As you can see from my “Comics I Bought This Week” posts I buy comic books every week. Lately it’s been a lot of comics. Almost ten a week. I read them all each week. Twice. It’s my habit to read each comic that I get on Wednesday before Friday so that I can talk about them on my Friday night YouTube show. Then I read them again before the following Wednesday. I find that I get more out of them by reading them twice. But that’s twenty comics a week on the regular.
This past winter I bought a lot of “Firefly” comics published by Boom Studios. I’m a fan of the TV show but I never bought any of the comics that came out from 2018 to 2024 or so. I barely even noticed them. But last winter I was looking at some other comics online and stumbled onto the “Firefly” ones and liked a lot of the covers that I saw.
I often find comics based on TV or movie properties disappointing. I heard of a phenomenon described as “You want more of the TV show when reading the comic but it’s never more of the TV show.” It’s a different thing and usually disappointing. That’s because it’s not what you really want. The comic often doesn’t capture the feeling or allure of the TV show or movie.
In looking (online) at some of the many covers of the “Firefly” comic I thought they were really nice. They caught the spirit of the show pretty well. So I decided to buy some of them. There are thirty six issues of the main title plus another twelve or so one shots and spin offs.
I bought in lots on eBay and they were fairly cheap. I think I payed about $2 a piece for them on average. With so many covers that I liked I ended up with duplicate issues with different covers. I think I bought about ninety “Firefly” comics in total over a few months. Then they just sat there.
I may have been a little bit afraid to read them for fear of being disappointed but last week, when I was tired, I decided to make the time to read them. So far I’ve read the first twelve in the series and I’m liking them. Maybe it’s because the show was over so long ago (and I haven’t watched it in a decade) but I’m not expecting it to be like the show and I’m enjoying it as a comic. Comic books are my favorite medium after all.
One final source of reading material in the last few weeks has been the library. I haven’t been there in years but last month decided to start going back again. I like to take out collected editions of comic books that I wouldn’t want to buy but want to check out. I have the omnibus of Steven King’s “the Dark Tower” out right now and I’ve read a few issues in it. It’s pretty good so far.
During the commuting part of my year I also take books out on the library app “Hoopla.” I don’t have anything out right now (besides an audiobook) but that’s one of the ways I read on the train. With comic books I prefer physical media but with novels and such I like digital. I have so many comics that I don’t have room for other books.