Holy crap, comics!

Rich Watson teases me again, but this time it isn't SPX related:

"Finally, for everyone at SPX and elsewhere who have been asking me when I’m gonna get back into making comics, well – I’ll have an announcement to make on that front very soon. It’s nothing major – it’s not even my characters – but it does involve a creator and a book that I’ve heavily supported for many years and that I feel honored to work on. This will be the first actual published comics work I’ve done in a few years, and yes, it will be solicited in Previews so you know I’m gonna remind you to pre-order it. Keep reading."

When I first started talking to Rich, I had no idea he had done any comics work at all. Needless to say, I was presently surprised to find a copy of Rat: A Love Story during one of my semi-regular trips to Jim Hanley's Universe in NYC. However, part of me was afraid - I don't have that thing in me that prevents me from telling a friend that something he did sucks. So, with some trepidation, I cracked my copy of Rat open, and was happy to learn that I didn't, in fact, have to tell Rich his book sucked.

I can't wait to hear what Rich is going to announce. Lately - if it wasn't entirely obvious by the recent lack of comics-related posting - I've become disenchanted by comics on many levels, from the actual product to the discourse surrounding it. I don't know what's causing it, but I know Steven Grant summed it up better than I could:

"Thing is: I'm bored. From my perspective, nothing much is going on. I couldn't care less which old girlfriend slept with what supervillain, or what physical changes they're putting Spider-Man through, or which character has HIV or is getting raped and murdered because they know a superhero, or how many weird variant covers are going on what comic. Even though I was a huge fan of the character as a kid, why would it matter to me that Hal Jordan is coming back (and back to life!) as the "real" Green Lantern? (Unless Gil Kane and John Broome came back as well; that'd get me, and many scientists and religions, interested.) I'm surprised anyone even reacts to this stuff anymore. Isn't it all business as usual now?"

I'm hoping I find something in the stack this week to cheer me up. If my latest Comics Journal is actually in with my pull list (for whatever reason, it often shows up late), that might be enough to do it. It's not a perfect periodical by any stretch, but it blows all the others I've read out of the water. Plus, there should be a new Plastic Man waiting for me, and, judging by Mike Sterling's reaction to it, I should be pleased to find it.